Category Archives: British Royals

King William II Rufus of England

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Credit – Wikipedia

King William II Rufus of England was born in Normandy (now in France) between 1056 and 1060. He was the third of the four sons of King William I of England (the Conqueror) and Matilda of Flanders.  At the time of William Rufus’ birth, his father was the Duke of Normandy.

William Rufus had at least nine siblings. The birth order of the boys is clear, but that of the girls is not. The list below is not in birth order.  It lists William’s brothers first in their birth order and then his sisters in their probable birth order.

William Rufus had red hair and a ruddy complexion which earned him the nickname Rufus, by which he was known. He was educated with his brothers by Lanfranc, then the abbot of the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen, later Archbishop of Canterbury. As the third son of the Duke of Normandy, William Rufus was destined to enter Holy Orders. However, the death of Richard, the second son, between 1069 and 1075, changed the situation. William Rufus was knighted and then served with his father in preparation for eventually being the heir to a portion of his father’s land. Chroniclers of the time described William Rufus as a good boy and respectful, loyal, and faithful to his father.

In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy invaded England and defeated the last Anglo-Saxon King, Harold II Godwinson, King of England at the Battle of Hastings. The Duke of Normandy was now also King William I of England. Even before the division of land occurred, William Rufus and his brothers had a strained relationship. The contemporary chronicler Orderic Vitalis, wrote about an incident that occurred at L’Aigle in Normandy in 1077. William Rufus and Henry grew bored with playing dice and decided to make mischief by emptying a chamber pot on their brother Robert from an upper gallery. Robert was infuriated, a brawl broke out and their father had to intercede to restore order. Angered because his father did not punish his brothers, Robert and his followers then attempted to siege the castle at Rouen (Normandy) but were forced to flee when the Duke of Normandy attacked their camp. This led to a three-year estrangement between Robert and his family which only ended through the efforts of Robert’s mother.

In 1087, King William I divided his lands between his two eldest surviving sons. Robert Curthose was to receive the Duchy of Normandy and William Rufus was to receive the Kingdom of England. Henry was to receive 5,000 pounds of silver and his mother’s English estates. King William I of England (the Conqueror) died on September 9, 1087. Robert Curthose became Robert II Curthouse, Duke of Normandy, and William Rufus became King William II Rufus of England. Henry received the money, but no land. William Rufus never married and had no children.

William Rufus and Robert Curthose continued having a strained relationship. William Rufus alternated between supporting Robert against the King of France and opposing him for the control of Normandy. Henry was constantly being forced to choose between his two brothers and whichever brother he picked, he was likely to annoy the other. After William I died and his lands were divided, nobles who had land in both Normandy and England found it impossible to serve two lords. If they supported William, then Robert might deprive them of their Norman land. If they supported Robert, then they were in danger of losing their English land.

The only solution the nobles saw was to reunite Normandy and England, and this led them to revolt against William in favor of Robert in the Rebellion of 1088, under the leadership of the Bishop Odo of Bayeux, the half-brother of William the Conqueror. The rebellion was unsuccessful partly because Robert never showed up to support the English rebels.

In 1096, Robert left for the Holy Land on the First Crusade. In order to raise money for the crusade, he mortgaged the Duchy of Normandy to his brother King William II Rufus. The two older brothers made a pact stating that if one of them died without heirs, both Normandy and England would be reunited under the surviving brother. William then ruled Normandy as regent in Robert’s absence. Robert did not return until September 1100, one month after William’s death.

Probably the most famous part of William Rufus’ life was his death. On August 2, 1100, King William II Rufus rode out from Winchester Castle on a hunting expedition to the New Forest, accompanied by his brother Henry and several nobles. His elder brother Richard, in circa 1070, and his nephew Richard, the illegitimate son of his brother Robert, in May 1100, had both been killed in hunting accidents in the New Forest.

According to most contemporary accounts, William Rufus was chasing after a stag followed by Walter Tirel, a noble.  William Rufus shot an arrow but missed the stag. He then called out to Walter to shoot, which he did, but the arrow hit the king in his chest, puncturing his lungs, and killing him. Walter Tirel jumped on his horse and fled to France.

The next day, William Rufus’ body was found by a group of local farmers. The nobles had fled to their Norman and English lands to secure their possessions and ensure law and order following the death of the king. The farmers loaded the king’s body on a cart and brought it to Winchester Cathedral where he was buried under a plain flat marble stone below the tower with little ceremony.

William Rufus’ elder brother, Robert Curthose, was still on Crusade, so Henry was able to seize the crown of England for himself. Henry hurried to Winchester to secure the royal treasury. The day after William’s funeral at Winchester, the nobles elected Henry king. Henry then left for London where he was crowned three days after William’s death by Maurice, Bishop of London because there was no Archbishop of Canterbury at that time.

Was there a conspiracy to assassinate William Rufus? Walter Tirel was an excellent archer, but he badly missed his shot. William’s brother Henry was among the hunting party that day and would have benefited directly from William’s death. Some modern historians find the assassination theory credible. Others say that hunting accidents were common (William’s brother and nephew did die in hunting accidents) and there is not enough hard evidence to prove murder. In the New Forest, a memorial stone, known as the Rufus Stone, claims to marks the spot where William Rufus died.

Rufus Stone; Photo Credit – By Adem Djemil, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56115617

In 1107, the tower at Winchester Cathedral near William Rufus’ grave collapsed and the superstition at that time said that the presence of William Rufus’ remains was the cause. Around 1525, the royal remains in Winchester Cathedral were rearranged. William Rufus’ remains were transferred to one of the mortuary chests next to the mortuary chest of King Cnut the Great atop the stone wall around the high altar.

Mortuary Chest on Presbytery Screen

King Cnut the Great’s mortuary chest atop the wall; Photo Credit – http://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/

In 1642, Winchester Cathedral was sacked by Parliamentary Troops during the English Civil War. The remains in the mortuary chests were scattered around the cathedral. Later the remains were returned to the mortuary chests in no particular order. On February 3, 2015, this press release was published: “The Dean and Chapter of Winchester has announced that, as part of an initial assessment of the Cathedral’s Renaissance Mortuary Chests and an inventory of their contents, a project to record and analyze the contents has begun. The Chests are thought to contain the mortal remains of some of the early Royal Families of Wessex and of England, and three bishops, amongst other artifacts and mortal remains.” All the mortuary chests were brought to the Lady Chapel at Winchester Cathedral where a laboratory was set up. The chests are to be restored and conserved and modern technology will attempt to identify the remains. In 2012, an examination of the remains in the chests began and the project is still ongoing. The examination included DNA testing, reassembly of the skeletons, and analysis to determine the sex, age, and other characteristics of the remains. The six mortuary chests were found to hold the remains of at least 23 individuals, more than the 12 – 15 remains originally thought.

Mortuary Chests in Lady Chapel

Mortuary Chests in the Lady Chapel at Winchester Cathedral; Photo Credit – http://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/

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England: House of Normandy Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Matilda of Flanders, Queen of England

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Statue of Matilda of Flanders in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, France; Credit – Wikipedia

Matilda of Flanders, wife of King William I of England (the Conqueror), was born around 1031 in the County of Flanders.  Today the lands of the County of Flanders include parts of Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Matilda was the middle child and the only daughter of the three children of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders and Adela of France, the daughter of King Robert II of France.

Matilda had one older brother and one younger brother:

Matilda was a direct descendant of the famous Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great, King of Wessex. Alfred’s youngest child Ælfthryth married Baldwin II, Count of Flanders. This line of ancestry from Alfred the Great through the Counts of Flanders to Matilda was appealing to William II, Duke of Normandy since he was eight years old. William’s childless first cousin once removed, Edward the Confessor, sat upon the throne of England. In 1151, William visited Edward the Confessor, King of England (also a direct descendant of Alfred the Great) and apparently Edward named William as his successor. Despite there being other claimants to the English throne, William was now ambitious to be the heir, and marrying Matilda could only help his cause.

In 1051 or 1052, William married Matilda of Flanders, without the approval of the Pope. Finally, in 1059 papal approval was received, but both William and Matilda were required to found an abbey in Caen as penance: the Abbaye-aux-Hommes (St. Stephen’s) and the Abbaye-aux-Dames (Holy Trinity). William and Matilda were devoted to each other and there is no evidence that William had any illegitimate children.

William and Matilda had four sons and at least five daughters. Despite her royal duties, Matilda oversaw the upbringing of her children, and all were known for being well educated. Her daughters were educated and taught to read Latin at the Abbaye-aux-Dames (Holy Trinity) in Caen. For her sons, she secured Lanfranc, later Archbishop of Canterbury as their teacher.

William and Matilda had four sons and at least six daughters.  The birth order of the boys is clear, but that of the girls is not. The list below is not in birth order.  It lists the sons first in their birth order and then his daughters in their probable birth order.

In January of 1066, Edward the Confessor died and Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, the most powerful person in England after the king, was named King of England by the Witan, the king’s council. When William heard that Harold Godwinson had been crowned King of England, he began careful preparations for an invasion of England. During the summer of 1066, he assembled an army and an invasion fleet. When William was preparing to invade England, Matilda outfitted a ship out of her own funds and gave it to him. This ship, the Mora, became William’s flagship. William and his fleet left Normandy for England on September 27, 1066. Matilda was appointed regent of Normandy in William’s absence, and a position she often held when William was in England after he became king.

The Bayeux Tapestry’s depiction of the Norman invasion fleet, with the Mora in front, marked by the papal banner on the masthead; Credit – Wikipedia

Harold Godwinson, King Harold II of England, was defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. On Christmas Day 1066, William was crowned King William I of England at Westminster Abbey. In March 1067, William returned to Normandy and remained there until early December of 1067. It was during William’s last days in December that Matilda and William’s last child, the future King Henry I of England, must have been conceived. The pregnant Matilda left Normandy for England in the spring of 1068. She was crowned queen on May 11, 1068, at Westminster Abbey.

Later in 1068, Matilda accompanied William while he was on a military campaign to subdue unrest in northern England. Her only child to be born in England, the future King Henry I, was born probably in September 1068 in Selby, Yorkshire, England. Most of Matilda’s time was spent in Normandy where she took care of affairs of the duchy and the abbeys she had founded. In 1080, she was the godmother of Edith of Scotland, the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret of Scotland. The infant Edith pulled at Matilda’s headdress, which was seen as an omen that she would be a queen one day. Years later, with her name changed from the Anglo-Saxon Edith to the Norman Matilda upon her marriage, that infant became the first wife of Queen Matilda’s son King Henry I of England.

In 1083, Matilda became ill. William rushed from England to Normandy to be at her bedside. She died in Caen, Normandy on November 2, 1083, at the age of about 52. Matilda was buried at the Abbaye-aux-Dames (Holy Trinity) in Caen founded by Matilda and William at the time of their marriage. Her grave is at the back of the church under the original black stone inscribed with her epitaph.

Tomb of Matilda of Flanders; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

England: House of Normandy Resources at Unofficial Royalty

King William I of England (the Conqueror)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

William the Conqueror, Bayeux Tapestry; Credit – Wikipedia

King William I of England, also known as William the Conqueror, the only son of Robert I the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, was born circa 1027-1028 at the Château de Falaise in Falaise, Duchy of Normandy (now in France). William was illegitimate as his mother Herleva of Falaise was his father’s mistress, and for that reason, he is sometimes called William the Bastard.

Normandy was a French fiefdom originally created as the County of Rouen in 911 by King Charles III “the Simple” of France for Rollo, a Viking leader whose original name may have been Hrólfr. After participating in many Viking raids along the Seine, culminating in the Siege of Paris in 886, Rollo was finally defeated by King Charles III. Rollo swore fealty to the French King and converted to Christianity. Charles then granted Rollo territories around Rouen, which came to be called Normandy after the Northmen/Norsemen, another name for Vikings. Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror. Through William, he is an ancestor of the British Royal Family, all current European monarchs, and a great many claimants to abolished European thrones.

Counts/Dukes of Normandy before William:

Counts (Earls or Jarls) of Normandy

Dukes of Normandy

The three sons of Herleva of Falaise: William, Duke of Normandy, in the centre, Odo, the bishop of Bayeux, on the left and Robert, Count of Mortain, on the right (from the Bayeux Tapestry Scene 44; Credit – Wikipedia

William had several half-siblings:

From his mother Herleva ‘s marriage to Herluin de Conteville

Both of William’s half-brothers, Odo and Robert, were prominent during William’s reign as King of England. Odo was likely the one who commissioned the famous Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England and ending in the Battle of Hastings. As there are no contemporary portraits of William, the Bayeux Tapestry contains the only pictorial representations of him. The scenes of the Bayeux Tapestry and the English translation of the Latin captions can be seen at Wikipedia: Bayeux Tapestry tituli.

William had a sibling from his father Robert I the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy and his mother Herleva or possibly another concubine:

William’s great-aunt, Emma of Normandy, daughter of Richard I the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, was a queen consort of England, Denmark, and Norway through her marriages to Æthelred II the Unready, King of England and Cnut the Great, King of England, Denmark, and Norway. Emma was the mother of two kings, Harthacnut, King of Denmark and King of England and Edward the Confessor, King of England.

In 1034, William’s father, Robert I, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem despite protests from some of his nobles. Before he left, Robert had his nobles swear fealty to William as his heir. Robert died in Nicaea (now in Turkey) in July 1035 as he was returning to Normandy. William was only seven or eight years old when he became William II, Duke of Normandy. Young William grew up under the protection of Alan III, Duke of Brittany, Gilbert, 2nd Count of Brionne, and Osbern the Seneschal.  All three guardians were assassinated. The sons of Gilbert, 2nd Count of Brionne accompanied William to England and their descendants would become some of the most powerful families in England: English house of de Clare, the Barons FitzWalter, the Earls of Gloucester, and the Earls of Hertford. In 1047, William’s cousin Guy of Burgundy led a revolt for the control of Normandy which William successfully defeated.

In 1051 or 1052, William married Matilda of Flanders, daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders and Adèle of France, daughter of King Robert II of France.  The couple married without the approval of the Pope. Finally, in 1059 papal approval was received, but William and Matilda each had to found an abbey in Caen, Duchy of Normandy, now in France, as penance: the Abbaye-aux-Hommes (St. Stephen’s) and the Abbaye-aux-Dames (Holy Trinity). William and Matilda were devoted to each other and there is no evidence that William had any illegitimate children.

William and Matilda had four sons and at least six daughters.  The birth order of the boys is clear, but that of the girls is not. The list below is not in birth order.  It lists the sons first in their birth order and then his daughters in their probable birth order.

Bayeux Tapestry – Scene 1: King Edward the Confessor and Harold Godwinson at Winchester; Credit – Wikipedia

In England, Edward the Confessor, William’s first cousin once removed was King of England. Edward had married Edith of Wessex, the daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the most powerful earl in England. Edward and Edith’s marriage was childless and there was concern over the succession. At that time, succession to the throne was not entirely based upon primogeniture. The Anglo-Saxons had a king’s council called the Witan and one of the Witan’s jobs was to elect the king. There were several potential candidates to succeed Edward the Confessor.

1) Edward the Exile (1016 – 1057) also called Edward Ætheling was the son of King Edmund Ironside (King Edmund II). Edmund Ironside was the half-brother of Edward the Confessor from Æthelred II the Unready’s first marriage, so Edward the Exile was Edward the Confessor’s nephew. Edmund Ironside had succeeded his father Æthelred II (the Unready) as King of England in 1016. Edmund’s reign was short-lived. During his seven-month reign, Edmund battled against the Danish Cnut the Great for control of England. After a victory for the Danes at the Battle of Assandun on October 18, 1016, Edmund was forced to sign a treaty with Cnut which stated that all of England except Wessex would be controlled by Cnut. When one of the kings died, the other would take all of England, that king’s son being the heir to the throne. Edmund Ironside died on November 30, 1016, and Cnut became king of all England. King Cnut sent Edward the Exile to King Olaf Skötkonung of Sweden to be murdered, but instead, the king sent him to Kiev where his daughter was the queen. There he grew up in exile. Edward the Exile had the best hereditary claim to the English throne.

2) Edgar the Ætheling (c. 1051 – c. 1126) was the son of Edward the Exile. After his father’s death, Edgar had the best hereditary claim to the English throne.

3) Harald III Hardrada, King of Norway (c. 1015 – 1066) was named the heir to the childless nephew King Magnus I of Norway.  Magnus and King Harthacnut of England and Denmark, Edward the Confessor’s half-brother and his predecessor, made a political agreement that the first of them to die would be succeeded by the other. As Magnus’ heir, Harald Hardrada, thought he had a claim to the English throne.

4) Harold Godwinson (c. 1022 – 1066) was the son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the most powerful earl in England and the brother of Edward the Confessor’s wife. Harold succeeded his father as Earl of Wessex in 1053 and he then became the most powerful person in England after Edward the Confessor, King of England.

5) William II, Duke of Normandy was the first cousin once removed of Edward the Confessor. Edward the Confessor’s mother Emma of Normandy was the sister of William’s grandfather Richard II the Good, Duke of Normandy.

Family relationships of the claimants to the English throne in 1066, and others involved in the struggle. Kings of England are shown in bold; Credit – Wikipedia

William’s marriage to Matilda of Flanders may have been motivated by his growing desire to become King of England. Matilda was a direct descendant of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex. In 1051, William visited his first cousin once removed, Edward the Confessor, King of England, and apparently Edward named William as his successor.

In 1057, Edward the Confessor discovered that his nephew Edward the Exile was still alive and summoned him to England as a potential successor. However, Edward died within two days of his arrival in England and the cause of his death has never been determined. Murder is a possibility, as he had many powerful enemies. His three children Edgar the Ætheling, Margaret, and Cristina were then raised in the court of Edward the Confessor. Margaret, known as Saint Margaret of Scotland, married King Malcolm III of Scotland and their daughter Edith married King Henry I of England, son of William.

In 1064, Harold Godwinson, the Earl of Wessex, was shipwrecked on the shores of Ponthieu and was captured by Guy I, Count of Ponthieu as the Bayeux Tapestry relates. William demanded the release of Harold, and after being paid a ransom for him, Guy delivered Harold Godwinson to William. Harold was not released from Normandy until he had sworn on holy relics to be William’s vassal and to support his claim to the throne of England.

Guy capturing Harold, scene 7 of the Bayeux Tapestry; Credit – Wikipedia

Harold swearing the oath, scene 23 of the Bayeux Tapestry; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1065, it is possible that Edward the Confessor had a series of strokes. He was too ill to attend the dedication of his greatest achievement, the church at Westminster, now called Westminster Abbey, on December 28, 1065. Edward the Confessor died several days later, on January 5, 1066. According to the Vita Ædwardi Regis, before Edward died he briefly regained consciousness and named Harold Godwinson as his heir. The Witan met the next day and selected Harold Godwinson to succeed Edward as King Harold II. It is probable that Harold was immediately crowned in Westminster Abbey.

Harold meeting Edward shortly before his death, depicted in scene 25 of the Bayeux Tapestry; Credit – Wikipedia

When William heard that Harold Godwinson had been crowned King of England, he began careful preparations for an invasion of England. During the summer of 1066, he assembled an army and an invasion fleet. Meanwhile, in England, Harold Godwinson was forced to march to Northumbria in September of 1066 to deal with an invasion by his brother Tostig Godwinson and Harald III Hardrada, King of Norway. Harold Godwinson defeated the invaders and killed Tostig Godwinson and Harold Hardrada on September 25, 1066, at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. The Norman invasion fleet sailed two days later and landed in England on September 28, 1066, at Pevensey Bay.

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry showing Normans preparing for the invasion of England; Credit – Wikipedia

While William waited for Harald III Hardrada to march south with his armies, he ordered the first of his many fortifications to be built, Pevensey Castle at the place he landed and Hastings Castle about 15 miles east along the coast. William’s army met Harold Godwinson’s army about six miles northwest of Hastings on October 14, 1066. The exact strength of the two armies is unknown, but modern estimates are around 10,000 for William and about 7,000 for Harold. The English army was composed almost entirely of infantry and some archers. The Norman army was infantry, with the rest split equally between cavalry and archers.  Harold appears to have tried to surprise William, but Norman scouts found his army and reported its arrival to William, who marched from Hastings to the battlefield to confront Harold. The battle lasted from about 9 AM to dusk. Early efforts of the Normans to break the English battle lines had little effect. In response, the Normans adopted the tactic of pretending to flee in panic and then turning on their pursuers. Harold’s death, probably near the end of the battle, led to the retreat and defeat of most of his army.

The Battle of Hastings, Bayeux Tapestry Scene 52a; Credit – Wikipedia

Harold is slain, Bayeux Tapestry Scene 57; Credit – Wikipedia

Following Harold’s death in battle, the Witan elected the teenaged Edgar the Ætheling, the last of the House of Wessex, King of England. As William’s position grew stronger, it became evident to those in power that King Edgar should be abandoned and that they should submit to William. On Christmas Day 1066, William was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. The south and east of England quickly submitted to William’s rule, but there were risings in parts of England for the next five years. The Normans lived like an army of occupation, building castles, keeps, and mottes throughout England from which they could dominate the population.

White Tower

The White Tower at the Tower of London was begun by William in 1066; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

Anglo-Saxon lords were superseded by Norman and French lords and continental feudalism was introduced. Likewise, Anglo-Saxon bishops were replaced with Norman and French bishops, and Lanfranc of Pavia, who had served William in Normandy, became Archbishop of Canterbury and reorganized the Anglo-Saxon Church in the style of the Norman and French Churches.

Statue of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, from the exterior of Canterbury Cathedral; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1071, William felt England was secure enough and he could then consider the situation in Normandy which was more vulnerable to attacks from the King of France and the Count of Anjou. At Christmas 1085, William ordered the compilation of a survey of the landholdings held by himself and by his vassals throughout the kingdom, organized by counties, now known as the Domesday Book.  The Domesday Book is an invaluable primary source for historians, both professional and amateur. No survey of landholdings approaching the scope and extent of Domesday Book was attempted again until 1873. The original Domesday Book is stored at The National Archives at Kew, London. In 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript available online. See OPEN DOMESDAY – The first free online copy of Domesday Book

Towards the end of 1086, William returned to Normandy where the marriage of his daughter Constance was celebrated. In 1087, the French garrison at Mantes made a raid into Normandy. William retaliated by sacking the town. While he was urging on his soldiers. William’s horse stumbled and he was violently flung against his saddle pommel. He received serious internal injuries, most likely a ruptured bladder. William was taken to Priory of St. Gervais in Rouen where peritonitis developed. As he knew he was dying, William composed a letter to Lefranc, Archbishop of Canterbury stating that Normandy should go to his eldest son Robert, England should go to his second son William Rufus, and his youngest son Henry should receive money. The youngest son later became King Henry I of England. King William I the Conqueror died on September 9, 1087, aged about 59.

William was buried at the abbey he built at the time of his wedding, the Abbaye-aux-Hommes (St. Stephen’s) in Caen, Normandy (now in France). His grave was disturbed several times. In 1522, it was opened on orders of the Pope. French Huguenots desecrated the grave in 1562, leaving only William’s left thigh bone. This was thought to have been destroyed during the French Revolution, but was later found and reburied under a new grave marker in 1987.

Tomb of King William I the Conqueror of England; Credit – Wikipedia

Stone marking the grave; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

England: House of Normandy Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Isabella of Angoulême, Countess of Angoulême, Queen of England

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Isabella of Angoulême’s effigy; Credit – Wikipedia

Isabella, Countess of Angoulême (in her own right) and Queen of England (wife of King John) was born around 1188, probably in the County of Angoulême, today in southwest France. She was the only child of Aymer III, Count of Angoulême and Alice of Courtenay, a French noblewoman of the House of Courtenay and a granddaughter of King Louis VI of France.

When Isabella was 12 years old, she was betrothed to Hugh de Lusignan, the heir of Hugh IX de Lusignan, Count of La Marche. This marriage would have joined La Marche and Angoulême, and the de Lusignan family would then control a vast, rich, and strategic territory between the two Plantagenet strongholds, Bordeaux and Poitier. To prevent this threat, King John of England decided to marry Isabella himself.  John had become king upon the death of his brother King Richard I in 1199. The same year, John had his ten-year childless marriage to Isabella, Countess of Gloucester (in her own right) annulled. Isabella of Angoulême’s parents had no objection to the marriage with the 34-year-old John.  After all, he was a king and their daughter would be a queen. Isabella and John were married on August 24, 1200, and then Isabella was crowned Queen of England on October 8, 1200, at Westminster Abbey.

Isabella and John had five children:

A 13th-century depiction of John and his children, (l to r) Henry, Richard, Isabella, Eleanor, and Joan; Credit – Wikipedia

King John of England; Credit – Wikipedia

Isabella’s father died in 1202, and she succeeded him as Countess of Angoulême in her own right. However, her title was largely empty because John denied Isabella control of her inheritance. John appointed a governor, Bartholomew de Le Puy who conducted most of the administrative affairs of Angoulême until John’s death in 1216.

King John died on October 18, 1216, leaving his eldest son Henry, a nine-year-old, to inherit his throne in the midst of the First Barons’ War (1215–17), in which a group of rebellious barons supported by a French army, made war on King John because of his refusal to accept and abide by the Magna Carta. Because a large part of eastern England was under the control of the rebellious barons and the French, it was thought that Henry should be crowned as soon as possible to reinforce his claim to the throne. Therefore, Henry was crowned on October 28, 1216, at Gloucester Cathedral with a golden circlet belonging to Isabella as the royal crown had recently been lost in The Wash, along with the rest of King John’s treasure.

In July of 1217, Isabella left her son, King Henry III of England, in the care of his regent, William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and returned to France to assume control of her inheritance, the County of Angoulême. There, she once again met her jilted fiancé Hugh de Lusignan, now the 10th Count of La Marche. He had never married, and previously a betrothal between him and Isabella’s 10-year-old daughter Joan had been arranged. Upon seeing Isabella once again, he decided that he preferred Joan’s still beautiful mother. Isabella and Hugh married on May 10, 1220, and they had nine children.

In 1242, Isabella and Hugh were implicated in a plot against the life of King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis), and they were both called before the court of inquiry. Isabella remained on her horse at the door of the court, and when she heard that matters were likely to go against her, she left in a terrible rage. Before she could be taken into custody, she sought refuge at the Fontevrault Abbey in Anjou, which was associated with King John’s family, and remained there for the rest of her life. Her husband and a son were able to take care of the legal issues with King Louis IX.

Isabella died on May 31, 1246, at Fontevrault Abbey and, at her request, was initially buried in the common graveyard there. In 1254, her son King Henry III visited Fontevrault and he personally supervised the reburial of his mother’s remains in the abbey church next to the tombs of his grandparents King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Her remains at Fontevrault Abbey are believed to have been scattered by Huguenots in 1562 when they sacked and pillaged the Abbey. However, her effigy, a wooden sculpture of a reclining figure, can still be seen in the abbey church.

Effigy of Isabella of Angoulême at Fontevrault Abbey; Credit – Wikipedia

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King John of England

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Credit – Wikipedia

Born at Beaumont Palace in Oxford, England on December 24, 1167, King John of England was the fourth surviving son and the youngest of the eight children of King Henry II of England and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right. His mother was around 44 years old at the time of his birth.

John had seven siblings:

13th-century depiction of Henry and his legitimate children: (l to r) William, Young Henry, Richard, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan, and John; Credit – Wikipedia

John also had two half-sisters from his mother’s first (annulled) marriage to King Louis VII of France:

As a very young child, John was sent to Fontevrault Abbey in his father’s possession of Anjou. Later, he was brought up in the household of his eldest brother Henry the Young King, who was crowned king during his father’s reign as was customary in the French monarchy. His teacher was Ranulf de Glanville, a legal scholar who was later the Chief Justiciar of England.  As a young child, John received the nickname Lackland from his father because it appeared he would not inherit substantial land like his three elder brothers. Henry the Young King would be King of England and also receive his father’s Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou. Richard was to receive his mother’s possessions, the Duchy of Aquitaine and the County of Poitou. Geoffrey was to become Duke of Brittany through his marriage.

As Henry’s children grew up, tensions over the future inheritance of the empire began to emerge, encouraged by King Louis VII of France and then his son King Philippe II of France. In 1173, Henry the Young King rebelled in protest and was joined by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey, and by their mother Eleanor. France, Scotland, Flanders, and Boulogne allied themselves with the rebels. Henry II eventually defeated the revolt and had Eleanor imprisoned for the next sixteen years for her part in inciting their sons.

John’s parents, Henry II and Eleanor, holding court; Credit – Wikipedia

After the revolt of his sons, Henry II promised John an annuity of 1,000 pounds from England and 1,000 livres from Normandy and Anjou. Little by little, Henry II began to find land for John, usually at his nobles’ expense. When Reginald de Dunstanville, 1st Earl of Cornwall died in 1175 without surviving legitimate male offspring, Henry II gave the estates to John.

In 1176, Henry betrothed John to Isabella of Gloucester, the daughter of William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester. The 2nd Earl was a cousin of King Henry II as his father was the illegitimate son of King Henry I, Robert Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Gloucester and Henry II’s mother Empress Matilda was the legitimate daughter of King Henry I. Robert was Matilda’s chief military support during her long civil war with their cousin Stephen of Blois (King Stephen of England) for the English throne. Isabella stood to inherit part of her father’s estate along with her two elder sisters because their only brother had died. However, Henry disinherited Isabella’s elder sisters so that John would eventually receive the whole Gloucester estate. As Isabella was only three and John was only nine, the marriage had to be delayed.

In 1185, Henry II sent 18-year-old John to Ireland as Lord of Ireland to complete the Norman conquest of Ireland.  John arrived in Ireland in April of 1185 and by December of 1185, he was back in England, most likely due to the lack of money and the rude nature with which he treated the Irish leaders.

Henry the Young King; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1182–83, Henry the Young King had a falling out with his brother Richard when Richard refused to pay homage to him on the orders of King Henry II. As he was preparing to fight Richard, Henry the Young King became ill with dysentery (also called the bloody flux), the scourge of armies for centuries, and died. In 1186, Henry II’s third son Geoffrey was trampled to death during a jousting tournament in Paris, leaving a posthumous son Arthur I, Duke of Brittany and a daughter Eleanor.

By the time Henry II turned age 56 in 1189, he was prematurely aged. Two sons were left: Richard, the second son, Eleanor’s favorite and the heir since his elder brother’s death, and John, the youngest child and Henry’s favorite. King Philip II of France successfully played upon Richard’s fears that Henry would make John King, and a final rebellion broke out in 1189. Decisively defeated by Philip and Richard and suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry retreated to his favorite residence, the Château de Chinon in Anjou. There he was told that John had publicly sided with Richard in the rebellion, and this broke his heart. Only his illegitimate son Geoffrey, Archbishop of York was at his father’s deathbed when King Henry II died on July 6, 1189.

King Henry II of England; Credit – Wikipedia

Upon hearing of his father’s death, Richard set out for England, stopping at Rouen, the capital of the Duchy of Normandy, where he was invested as Duke of Normandy on July 20, 1189. He was crowned King Richard I of England at Westminster Abbey on September 3, 1189. A few days earlier, on August 29, 1189, John and Isabella of Gloucester were married at Marlborough Castle in Wiltshire, and John assumed the Earldom of Gloucester in her right. However, the Archbishop of Canterbury declared the marriage null by reason of consanguinity (John and Isabella were second cousins), but he was overruled by the Pope. The couple was not a good match and they had no children.

King Richard I of England; Credit – Wikipedia

Richard spent very little time in England, perhaps as little as six months, during his ten-year reign. Most of his reign was spent on Crusade, in captivity, or in actively defending his lands in France. Richard was back in Normandy by Christmas of 1189, preparing to leave on the Third Crusades. Later, when Richard was captured in Germany on his way home from the crusades, Eleanor personally negotiated his ransom by going to Germany.  At the same time,  John and King Philip II of France, offered Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor 80,000 marks to hold Richard prisoner until September of 1194, but the offer was rejected. Finally, with the ransom in the emperor’s possession, Richard was released on February 4, 1194. Philippe II of France warned Richard’s brother John, “Look to yourself. The devil is loose.”

When Richard arrived in England in March of 1194, he found that John had been depleting the treasury and was planning to overthrow him. However, when Richard and John met in person, Richard forgave John and named him as his heir in place of their nephew, Arthur, Duke of Brittany. Arthur was the posthumous son of Richard’s younger brother, but John’s older brother Geoffrey, and had a better primogeniture claim to the English throne than John. During Richard’s long absence, his French possessions had been threatened by his enemies, including King Philippe II of France. Richard found it necessary to spend most of his time regaining lost territory and strengthening his hold over his French possessions. In late March of 1199, when Richard was dying of gangrene from an arrow wound, his mother Eleanor made her way to his deathbed. Richard died in his mother’s arms on April 6, 1199, and the last son John became King of England.

On April 25, 1199, John was invested as Duke of Normandy in Rouen, the capital. He then left for England and his coronation was held at Westminster Abbey on May 27, 1199. John’s next order of business was to have his marriage to Isabella of Gloucester annulled. Isabella had not been acknowledged as queen and the marriage was easily annulled using the grounds of consanguinity. John kept Isabella’s lands and Isabella did not contest the annulment. Isabella married two more times:

  1. Geoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex in January 1214: King John charged Geoffrey 20,000 marks to buy her in marriage and to obtain her title, Jure uxoris, a Latin term that means “by right of his wife.” The marriage had no issue and Geoffrey died in 1216.
  2. Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent in September 1217: Within a few weeks, on October 14, 1217, Isabella died at age 43 and was buried at Canterbury Cathedral. Isabella’s nephew Gilbert de Clare, the son of her sister, Amice and Richard de Clare, became the 5th Earl of Gloucester.

Isabella of Angoulême; Credit – Wikipedia

It came to John’s attention that 12-year-old Isabella of Angoulême, the only child of Aymer III, Count of Angoulême and therefore destined to be Countess of Angoulême in her own right, had become betrothed to Hugh de Lusignan, the heir of Hugh IX de Lusignan, Count of La Marche. This marriage would have joined La Marche and Angoulême, and the de Lusignan family would then control a vast, rich and strategic territory between the two Plantagenet strongholds, Bordeaux and Poitier. To prevent this threat, King John of England decided to marry Isabella himself. Isabella of Angoulême’s parents had no objection to the marriage with the 34-year-old John. After all, he was a king and their daughter would be a queen. Isabella and John were married on August 24, 1200, and then Isabella was crowned Queen of England on October 8, 1200, at Westminster Abbey. Isabella’s father died in 1202, and she succeeded him as Countess of Angoulême in her own right. However, her title was largely empty because John denied the control of her inheritance. John appointed a governor, Bartholomew de Le Puy, who conducted most of the administrative affairs of Angoulême until John’s death in 1216.

John and Isabella had five children:

13th-century depiction of John and his children, (l to r) Henry, Richard, Isabella, Eleanor, and Joan; Credit – Wikipedia

John had many illegitimate children. His most noteworthy one was a daughter, Joan (or Joanna) In 1205, Joan married Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great), Prince of Gwynedd and Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn.  In 1216, Llewellyn received the fealty of other Welsh lords and although he never used the title, was the de facto Prince of Wales. Llywelyn dominated Wales for 45 years, and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called “the Great.” Joan, Llywelyn, and their family are among the characters in Sharon Penman‘s historical fiction trilogy, The Welsh Trilogy.

When John became King, the succession had bypassed the children of his deceased elder brother Geoffrey, both of whom had better claims to the throne based upon the laws of primogeniture. In 1166, as part of an 1166 agreement by Henry II to end his attacks on Conan IV, Duke of Brittany, Geoffrey had been betrothed to Conan’s daughter and heir Constance. The couple married in 1181 and had two surviving children, Arthur, who became Duke of Brittany upon his father’s death in 1186, and Eleanor, known as the Fair Maid of Brittany.

Arthur I, Duke of Brittany paying homage to King Philip II of France; Credit – Wikipedia

Many members of the French nobility refused to recognize John upon his accession to the English throne and his French lands. They believed that Arthur had a better claim because his father was an older brother of John. In 1202, 15-year-old Arthur started a campaign against his uncle John in Normandy with the support of King Philip II of France. John’s territory of Poitou revolted in support of Arthur. Arthur besieged his grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, John’s mother, in the Château de Mirebeau in Poitou.   John marched on Mirebeau, taking Arthur by surprise on July 31, 1202. Arthur was captured and imprisoned in the Château de Falaise in Falaise, Normandy. By 1203, Arthur had disappeared. His fate is unknown, but presumably, he was murdered on the orders of his uncle John.

Eleanor of Brittany; Credit – Wikipedia

Arthur’s sister Eleanor was also King John’s prisoner because she and any children she had could pose a threat to John’s throne. She remained imprisoned for her entire life, into the reign of John’s son King Henry III of England, dying in 1241 at the age of 57 or 59. Her imprisonment in England made it impossible for her to claim her inheritance as Duchess of Brittany. During her 39 year imprisonment, Eleanor, who was apparently innocent of any crime, was never tried or sentenced. She was considered a state prisoner, was forbidden to marry, and guarded closely even after her childbearing years. Arthur was succeeded by his half-sister, Alix of Thouars, the daughter of his mother Constance and her third husband Guy of Thouars.

Angevin Empire around 1172, solid yellow shows Angevin possessions, checked yellow shows areas where there was Angevin influence; By Cartedaos (talk) 01:46, 14 September 2008 (UTC) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4781085

At the time of John’s accession to the English throne, his territories, the Angevin Empire, formed by his paternal grandparents, Geoffrey V of Anjou and Empress Matilda, his parents King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and preserved and protected by his brother King Richard I of England, were basically what appears on the map above. The apparent murder of Arthur, Duke of Brittany on the orders of John, outraged King Philip II of France. Philip, and as the overlord of both the Duchy of Brittany and John’s possession, the Duchy of Normandy, declared Normandy forfeit and began an invasion. Château Gaillard, which had been built to defend Normandy by John’s brother King Richard I, fell to Philip in March of 1204. In June of 1204, the French king entered Rouen, the capital city of Normandy. Philip’s war against John eventually cost John his territories of Normandy, Maine, Touraine, Anjou, and Poitou, all ancestral territories of his Norman or Angevin ancestors.

King John and King Philip II of France making peace with a kiss; Credit – Wikipedia

While John was trying to save his French territories, his discontented English barons led by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, were protesting John’s continued misgovernment of England. The result of this discontent was the best-known event of John’s reign, the Magna Carta, the “great charter” of English liberties, forced from King John by the English barons and sealed at Runnymede near Windsor Castle on June 15, 1215. Among the liberties were the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown. The Magna Carta is still an important symbol of liberty and is held in great respect by the British and American legal communities. Four versions of the original 1215 charter remain in existence. Two are held by the British Library and one each is at Lincoln Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral.

One of the remaining four versions of the original Magna Carta; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Infuriated by being forced to agree to the Magna Carta, John turned to his Pope Innocent III, who declared the Magna Carta null and void and the rebel barons excommunicated. Now the conflict between John and the barons was transformed into an open civil war, the First Barons’ War (1215-1217). The rebels appealed to the French king and offered his son, the future King Louis VIII, the English crown. The war continued after John’s death, but William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, slowly managed to get most barons to switch sides from Louis to the new King Henry III and attack Louis. The Magna Carta was reissued in King Henry III’s name with some of the clauses omitted and was sealed by the nine-year-old king’s regent William Marshal.

King John of England in battle with the Franks (left), Louis VIII of France on the march (right); Credit – Wikipedia

In the midst of the First Barons’ War, John was traveling through East Anglia, from Spalding in Lincolnshire to Bishop’s Lynn, in Norfolk, became ill with dysentery, and decided to turn back, taking the longer road route. However, he sent his baggage train, including his crown jewels, through The Wash, the large indentation in the coastline of Eastern England that separates the curved coast of East Anglia from Lincolnshire. This route, flat, low-lying, and often marshy, was usable only at low tide. The horse-drawn wagons moved too slowly for the incoming tide, and many were lost.

John managed to ride to Swineshead Abbey where he spent the night. The next day, he was taken by a litter to Newark Castle where he died on October 19, 1216, at the age of 49. At his request, King John was buried in Worcester Cathedral as close to the shrine of St. Wulfstan as possible. A new tomb was made in 1232, during the reign of his son and heir King Henry III.

In 1217, John’s widow Isabella of Angoulême left her young son, King Henry III of England, in the care of his regent, William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and returned to France to assume control of her inheritance, the County of Angoulême. There, she once again met her jilted fiancé Hugh de Lusignan, now the 10th Count of La Marche, who had never married. Isabella and Hugh married on May 10, 1220, and they had nine children. Isabella died on May 31, 1246, at Fontevrault Abbey and was initially buried in the common graveyard there at her request. In 1254, her son King Henry III visited Fontevrault and he personally supervised the reburial of his mother’s remains in the abbey church next to the tombs of his grandparents King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

King John’s Tomb; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

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Berengaria of Navarre, Queen of England

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Effigy of Berengaria of Navarre; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Berengaria of Navarre was the only English queen never to set foot in the country. Her husband King Richard I of England spent about only six months of his ten-year reign in England. There is evidence that she may have visited England in the years following his death when she was Queen Dowager. Berengaria was the fourth of the seven children of King Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Castile, daughter of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and his first wife Berengaria of Barcelona. The Kingdom of Navarre, originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a Basque-based kingdom that occupied lands on either side of the western Pyrenees Mountains, alongside the Atlantic Ocean between present-day Spain and France.

Navarre (light green) in 1190; Credit – Wikipedia

Berengaria was born around 1163 in Pamplona, the capital of Navarre. She had six siblings:

  • King Sancho VII of Navarre (1154 – 1234), married (1) Constance of Toulouse, no issue, marriage annulled (2) identity of the second wife is disputed
  • Ferdinand of Navarre (died circa 1207)
  • Ramiro of Navarre, Bishop of Pamplona (died circa 1228)
  • Constance of Navarre (died circa 1205)
  • Blanche of Navarre, Countess of Champagne, Regent of Champagne, Regent of Navarre (died 1229), married Theobald III, Count of Champagne, had issue; Blanche acted as Regent of Champagne for her son, and as Regent of Navarre for her brother King Sancho VII of Navarre when he retired due to illness
  • Theresa (died young)

Berengaria had met her future husband King Richard I of England years before their marriage at a tournament in Pamplona. When Richard became king in 1189, he was urged to marry and his thoughts turned to Berengaria. In the summer of 1190, Richard left to participate in the Third Crusade and asked his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, to go to Navarre and arrange his marriage with Berengaria, and then escort her to whatever point he reached on his way to the Crusades. In 1190, Eleanor met King Sancho VII in Pamplona and where he hosted a banquet in the Palacio Real de Olite in her honor. Richard had been betrothed for many years to Alys of France, sister of King Philippe II of France, so his betrothal to Berengaria could not be celebrated until he terminated his betrothal to Alys, which he did when he arrived in Messina, Sicily. Eleanor escorted Berengaria as far as Messina where she handed her over to her recently widowed daughter Joan, Queen of Sicily.

Richard and Berengaria were to have married in Sicily, but  Richard postponed the wedding and set off for the Holy Land along with Berengaria and Joan who were on a separate ship.  Two days after setting sail, Richard’s fleet was hit by a strong storm. Several ships were lost and others were way off course.  Richard landed safely in Crete, but the ship Berengaria and Joan were on was marooned near Cyprus.  Berengaria and Joan were about to be captured by the ruler of Cyprus when Richard’s ships appeared to rescue them.  On May 12, 1191, King Richard I of England married Berengaria of Navarre at the Chapel of St George in Limassol, Cyprus, and then his fleet, along with Berengaria and Joan, traveled to the Holy Land. Berengaria and Richard’s marriage was childless.

Richard and Berengaria on the way from Cyprus to the Holy Land; Credit – Wikipedia

Berengaria and Joan accompanied Richard throughout the Crusade. Richard treated Berengaria courteously, but it is unknown if the marriage was ever consummated. The two women returned from the Holy Land before Richard, landed at Naples, and then proceeded to Rome where they had to stay for a year until the Pope gave them safe conduct to travel to Marseilles. Upon his return to Europe, Richard was held captive for two years by Leopold V, Duke of Austria and Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor for an enormous ransom estimated to be worth around £2 billion at today’s prices. Berengaria remained in Europe, based at Beaufort-en-Vallée, in the County of Maine (now in France) attempting to raise money for his ransom. Eventually, Richard’s mother Eleanor arrived to arrange Richard’s release. After his release in 1194, Richard returned to England and was not joined by his wife.

In 1195, Richard returned to his French lands but made no attempt to rejoin Berengaria until a monk persuaded Richard that he should once again reunite with his wife. Richard and Berengaria spent Christmas of 1196 together in Poitiers. In March of 1199, Richard was suppressing a revolt by besieging a castle, the Château de Châlus-Chabrol in Châlus in the present-day Limousin region in western France. On the evening of March 25, 1199, Richard was walking the perimeter of the castle observing the trenches that were being dug. Not wearing his chainmail, Richard was hit by an arrow from a crossbow shot by a soldier on the castle battlements. Richard unsuccessfully tried to pull out the arrow and a doctor did a less than adequate job of treating the injury which became infected with gangrene. Richard’s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, arrived before Richard’s death. He died in his mother’s arms on April 6, 1199, at the age of 41.

After Richard’s death, Berengaria received the revenues of the tin mines in Devon and Cornwall in England, and the city of Le Mans, the capital of the County of Maine, was settled on her as dower, the provision accorded by law, but traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support in the event that she should survive her husband. In 1228, Berengaria founded the Cistercian Abbey of L’Epau near Le Mans and retired there. She died at the Abbey of L’Epau in Le Mans, County of Maine, now in France; on December 23, 1230, and was buried there in a magnificent tomb.

Tomb of Berengaria of Navarre at the Abbey of l’Epau; Credit – Wikipedia

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King Richard I of England (the Lionheart)

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Effigy of King Richard I; By Adam Bishop – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17048652

King Richard I of England was born on September 8, 1157, at Beaumont Palace in Oxford, England, the third son and the fourth of eight children of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Richard had seven siblings:

13th-century depiction of Henry and his legitimate children: (l to r) William, Young Henry, Richard, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan, and John; Credit – Wikipedia

Richard also had two half-sisters from his mother’s first (annulled) marriage to King Louis VII of France:

Richard probably spent his childhood in England. His first recorded visit to the European mainland was in May 1165, when his mother took him to Normandy. Little is known about Richard’s education. Although he was born in Oxford and it appears he was brought up in England until the year he turned eight, it is not known to what extent he used or understood English. Richard was an educated man who composed poetry and wrote in his mother’s Occitan language and also in French. A contemporary Latin prose narrative of the Third Crusade said of Richard: “He was tall, of elegant build; the color of his hair was between red and gold; his limbs were supple and straight. He had long arms suited to wielding a sword. His long legs matched the rest of his body.” From an early age, Richard showed significant political and military ability.

During the reign of Richard’s father, the Angevin Empire was vast and consisted of an area covering half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and Wales. The last part of Henry II’s reign was taken up by disputes with and between his sons, often encouraged by their mother Eleanor. As Henry and Eleanor’s children grew up, tensions over the future inheritance of the empire began to emerge, encouraged by King Louis VII of France and then his son King Philippe II of France. In 1173, Henry the Young King rebelled in protest and was joined by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey and by their mother, Eleanor. France, Scotland, Flanders, and Boulogne allied themselves with the rebels. Henry eventually defeated the revolt and had Eleanor imprisoned for the next sixteen years for her part in inciting their sons. In 1182–83, Henry the Young King had a falling out with his brother Richard when Richard refused to pay homage to him on the orders of King Henry II. As he was preparing to fight Richard, Henry the Young King became ill with dysentery (also called the bloody flux), the scourge of armies for centuries, and died. In 1186, Henry II’s third son Geoffrey was trampled to death during a jousting tournament in Paris.

Angevin Empire around 1172, solid yellow shows Angevin possessions, checked yellow shows areas where there was Angevin influence; By Cartedaos (talk) 01:46, 14 September 2008 (UTC) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4781085

By the time King Henry II turned age 56 in 1189, he was prematurely aged. Two sons were left: Richard, the second son, Eleanor’s favorite and the heir since his elder brother’s death, and John, the youngest child and Henry’s favorite. King Philippe II of France successfully played upon Richard’s fears that Henry would make John King, and a final rebellion broke out in 1189. Decisively defeated by Philippe and Richard and suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry retreated to his favorite residence, the Château de Chinon in Anjou. There he was told that John had publicly sided with Richard in the rebellion, and this broke his heart. Only his illegitimate son Geoffrey, Archbishop of York was at Henry II’s deathbed when he died on July 6, 1189.

Upon hearing of his father’s death, Richard set out for England, stopping at Rouen, the capital of the Duchy of Normandy, where he was invested as Duke of Normandy on July 20, 1189. He was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on September 3, 1189. However, Richard spent very little time in England, perhaps as little as six months, during his ten-year reign. Rather than regarding the Kingdom of England as a responsibility requiring his presence as the king, Richard saw England as a source of revenue to support his armies. Most of his reign was spent on Crusade, in captivity, or in actively defending his lands in France. Richard was back in Normandy by Christmas of 1189, preparing to leave on the Third Crusades.

Richard I being anointed during his coronation in Westminster Abbey, from a 13th-century chronicle; Credit – Wikipedia

Richard had met his future wife Berengaria of Navarre years before their marriage at a tournament in Pamplona, the capital of the Kingdom of Navarre.  Berengaria was the fourth of the seven children of King Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Castile, daughter of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and his first wife Berengaria of Barcelona. When Richard became king in 1189, he was urged to marry and his thoughts turned to Berengaria.

In the summer of 1190, Richard left to participate in the Third Crusade and asked his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, to go to Navarre and arrange his marriage with Berengaria, and then escort her to whatever point he reached on his way to the Crusades. In 1190, Eleanor met Berengaria’s brother King Sancho VII in Pamplona and where hosted a banquet in the Palacio Real de Olite in her honor. Richard had been betrothed to Alys of France, sister of King Philippe II of France for many years, so his betrothal to Berengaria could not be celebrated until he terminated his betrothal to Alys, which he did when he arrived in Messina, Sicily. Eleanor escorted Berengaria as far as Messina where she handed her over to her recently widowed daughter Joan, Queen of Sicily.

Richard and Berengaria were to have married in Sicily, but  Richard postponed the wedding and set off for the Holy Land along with Berengaria and Joan who were on a separate ship.  Two days after setting sail, Richard’s fleet was hit by a strong storm. Several ships were lost and others were way off course.  Richard landed safely in Crete, but the ship Berengaria and Joan were on was marooned near Cyprus.  Berengaria and Joan were about to be captured by the ruler of Cyprus when Richard’s ships appeared to rescue them.  On May 12, 1191, King Richard I of England married Berengaria of Navarre at the Chapel of St George in Limassol, Cyprus, and then his fleet, along with Berengaria and Joan, traveled to the Holy Land. Berengaria and Richard’s marriage was childless.

Richard and Berengaria on the way from Cyprus to the Holy Land; Credit – Wikipedia

The Third Crusade also known as The Kings’ Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to wrest the Holy Land from Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and the Muslim military leader. However, the Third Crusade failed to capture Jerusalem and the only significant achievement was the capture of Acre in 1191. A truce was concluded with Saladin, against Richard’s wishes, and the Crusaders left for their homes.

Richard and Philip II of France at Acre; Credit – Wikipedia

On his way home from the Crusades, Richard was shipwrecked, forcing him to take a dangerous land route through central Europe. On his way to the territory of his brother-in-law Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, Richard was arrested near Vienna in December of 1192 by Leopold V, Duke of Austria, who had also participated in the Third Crusades and suspected Richard of murdering his cousin Conrad of Montferrat in Acre.  Leopold had also been offended by Richard throwing down his standard from the walls of Acre.

In March 1193, Richard was transferred to the custody of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who demanded that a ransom of 150,000 marks (100,000 pounds of silver) be delivered to him before he would release Richard. This was an enormous amount, equal to two to three times the annual income for the English Crown at that time. Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard’s mother, worked to raise the ransom. At the same time, Richard’s brother John and King Philip II of France, Richard’s offered the emperor 80,000 marks to hold Richard prisoner until September 1194, but the offer was rejected. Finally, with the ransom in the emperor’s possession, Richard was released on February 4, 1194. Philippe II of France warned Richard’s brother John, “Look to yourself. The devil is loose.”

Depiction of Richard being pardoned by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, circa 1196; Credit – Wikipedia

When Richard arrived in England in March 1194, he found that his brother John had been depleting the treasury and was planning to overthrow him. However, when Richard and John met in person, Richard forgave John and named him as his heir in place of their nephew, Arthur, Duke of Brittany.  Arthur was the posthumous son of Richard’s younger brother, but John’s older brother Geoffrey, and had a better primogeniture claim to the English throne than John.

During Richard’s long absence, his French possessions had been threatened by his enemies, including King Philippe II of France. Richard found it necessary to spend most of his time regaining lost territory and strengthening his hold over his French possessions. Richard had the great fortress in Normandy, the Château Gaillard built and it is possible that he may have been the architect. The purpose of the Château Gaillard was to guard the border between Normandy and France.

Ruins of the Château Gaillard; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

In March 1199, Richard was suppressing a revolt by Aimar V, Viscount of Limoges by besieging a castle, the Château de Châlus-Chabrol in Châlus in the present-day Limousin region in western France. On the evening of March 25, 1199, Richard was walking the perimeter of the castle observing the trenches that were being dug. Not wearing his chainmail, Richard was hit by an arrow from a crossbow shot by a soldier on the castle battlements. Richard unsuccessfully tried to pull out the arrow and a doctor did a less than adequate job of treating the injury which became infected with gangrene. Knowing he was dying, Richard forgave the man who shot the arrow and asked him to be set free. Richard’s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, arrived before Richard’s death. He died in his mother’s arms on April 6, 1199, at the age of 41. After Richard’s death, the forgiven crossbowman was flayed alive and hanged by one of Richard’s mercenary captains, Mercadier.

Richard’s heart was buried at Rouen Cathedral in Normandy, his entrails in the chapel at Châlus where he died, and the rest of his body was buried at Fontevrault Abbey in Anjou. All the remains at Fontevrault Abbey are believed to have been scattered by Huguenots in 1562 when they sacked and pillaged the abbey, although the effigies remain. A search in 1794 by French Revolutionaries of the vaults found no remains. Richard’s heart monument survived both the Huguenots and the French Revolution and his entrails remain in Châlus. Richard’s youngest brother John succeeded him as king.

Richard I’s effigy at Fontevrault Abbey near Chinon, France; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

England: House of Angevin Resources at Unofficial Royalty

UPDATED: Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster has died

Prince+Charles+Duke+Westminster+Prince+Wales+v-ki8OEb-mGl

The Prince of Wales and the 6th Duke of Westminster; Photo Credit – zimbio.com

Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster died suddenly at the age of 64 on August 9, 2016.  The Duke was a close friend of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.  He was a Knight of the Order of the Garter.  His daughter Lady Edwina was a godchild of Diana, Princess of Wales. His son 25 year old son Hugh Grosvenor, who is one of the godparents of Prince George of Cambridge, succeeds his father as the 7th Duke of Westminster.

BBC: Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor died aged 64
Telegraph: Billionaire landowner and close friend of Prince Charles the Duke of Westminster dies aged 64 after sudden illness
Telegraph: Who is new Duke of Westminster? Hugh Grosvenor is 25-year-old godfather to Prince George
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UPDATED August 11, 2016

Telegraph: Duke of Westminster died of heart attack, coroner’s office confirms

 

Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, Queen of England

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Detail of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s effigy; By Adam Bishop – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17048657

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, Queen of France (the first wife of King Louis VII of France, marriage annulled after 15 years) and Queen of England (wife of King Henry II of England) survived her first husband, her second husband, and eight of her ten children. She was the longest-lived British Queen Consort until the death of Queen Mary, wife of King George V, 749 years later.  Currently, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother holds the record the longest-lived British Queen Consort.

Through some historical detective work, historians have deduced that Eleanor was most likely born in 1122 in either Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l’Autis, all cities in her father’s lands, all now in France. She was the eldest of the three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Aenor de Châtellerault.  Eleanor is said to have been named after her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the Latin alia Aenor, which means “the other Aenor.” It became Eléanor in the French and Eleanor in English.

Eleanor had two siblings:

Eleanor received an education as befitted a noblewoman of her time at the court of Aquitaine, one of the finest courts of the twelfth century, which saw the birth of courtly love and the influence of Occitan language at the various residences of the Dukes of Aquitaine. Eleanor learned Latin, music, and literature, and also riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor’s grandfather William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, a lyric poet in the Occitan language, was the earliest troubadour whose work has survived. In 1127, Eleanor’s grandfather died and her father became Duke of Aquitaine. Both Eleanor’s brother and mother died in 1130, and the eight-year Eleanor became her father’s heir.

However, the reign of Eleanor’s father was short. In 1137, William decided to make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in order to atone for his sins. Before leaving, he made his vassals swear to respect the rights of his heir Eleanor. At the same time, he put both his daughters under the protection of his lord, King Louis VI of France. Eleanor and Petronilla accompanied their father to Bordeaux, where he left them in the care of the archbishop. William then continued on his journey to the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, William never arrived at his destination because he died on Good Friday, April 9, 1137. 15-year-old Eleanor became the Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, and therefore, the most eligible potential bride in Europe.

King Louis VI of France was not in good health. The heir to the French throne was his second son Louis.  The devout Louis had been destined for the priesthood, but this changed when his elder brother Philip was killed in a horrible accident six years earlier. When the ailing Louis VI heard that his vassal William X, Duke of Aquitaine had died leaving a wealthy female heir, he saw an opportunity and declared that his son Louis would marry Eleanor. In this way, Louis VI would add the large territory of the Aquitaine to his family’s holdings in France. Eleanor and Louis were married on July 25, 1137, in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple was enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. However, Aquitaine would remain independent of France until Louis and Eleanor’s oldest son became both King of France and Duke of Aquitaine. Therefore, Eleanor’s holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding gift, Eleanor gave Louis a rock crystal vase that her grandfather William IX, Duke of Aquitaine had given her, and Louis subsequently gave the vase to the Abbey of Saint-Denis, the traditional burial place of the French kings and consorts. The vase is on display at the Louvre and is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.

The rock crystal vase on display at the Louvre; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

At left, a 14th-century representation of the wedding of Louis and Eleanor; at right, Louis leaving on Crusade; Credit – Wikipedia

Eleanor and Louis VII had two children, both daughters:

A week after Eleanor and Louis’s wedding, King Louis VI died, and Eleanor’s husband was King Louis VII of France and Eleanor was Queen of France. Eleanor and Louis were very incompatible. Eleanor was high-spirited and Louis led a life that was strongly influenced by his monastic youth. In 1147, Louis VI and Eleanor left France to participate in the unsuccessful Second Crusade.  The expedition to the Holy Land came at a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor that led to the annulment of their marriage. Perhaps the marriage to Eleanor might have continued if the royal couple had produced a male heir, but this had not occurred. While in the Holy Land, Eleanor and Louis visited her paternal uncle

Perhaps the marriage to Eleanor might have continued if the royal couple had produced a male heir, but this had not occurred. While in the Holy Land, Eleanor and Louis visited her paternal uncle Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch.  Louis became suspicious of the attention Raymond gave Eleanor, and the long conversations they enjoyed. Raymond was only seven years older than Eleanor and they had been close during childhood, however, an affair between uncle and niece was suspected by many. Raymond and Eleanor also differed with Louis on the tactics of the Second Crusade. Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, but the situation now had worsened and Louis and Eleanor left the Holy Land on separate ships due to their disagreements.

Both the ships of Eleanor and Louis were attacked and both ships were also besieged by storms. Neither was heard of for over two months and they were given up for dead. Eventually, both Eleanor and Louis turned up in Calabria and they decided to go to the Pope hoping for an annulment. However, Pope Eugene III did not grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. The Pope arranged events so that Eleanor had no choice but to sleep with Louis in a bed specially prepared by the pope. Their second child was conceived, but it was another daughter.

When they returned to France, Louis knew he had no choice but to end the marriage. He had no heir, Eleanor wanted an end to the marriage, and she would be supported by her vassals. On March 21, 1152, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Eleanor was Louis’ third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were declared legitimate.

Eleanor then set out for her own land in Poitiers, but two would-be suitors for a wealthy heiress, Theobald V, Count of Blois, (the future husband of Eleanor’s daughter Alix of France) and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes (the brother of Eleanor’s 2nd husband, the future King Henry II, of England) tried to kidnap her with the intention of marrying her to claim her lands. As soon as she reached Poitiers, Eleanor contacted the young Henry, Duke of Normandy, the future King Henry II of England, who had been fighting for the English throne, asking him to marry her at once. Henry knew it was a good deal because of Eleanor’s land. Despite the fact that Henry was more closely related to Eleanor than Louis, 19-year-old Henry married 30-year-old Eleanor eight weeks after the annulment, on May 18, 1152, in Bordeaux in Eleanor’s Duchy of Aquitaine.

Eleanor and Henry had eight children and were the grandparents of many sovereigns and queen consorts.

13th-century depiction of Henry and his legitimate children: (l to r) William, Young Henry, Richard, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan, and John; Credit – Wikipedia 

Eleanor’s second husband Henry, Duke of Normandy was born on March 5, 1133, in Le Mans, the capital of the County of Maine, now in France. He was the eldest of the three sons of Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine and Empress Matilda (sometimes called Maud). Henry’s mother was the widow of Heinrich V, Holy Roman Emperor and she used her style and title from her first marriage for the rest of her life. More importantly, Matilda was the only surviving, legitimate child of King Henry I of England and Duke of Normandy.

Matilda’s only sibling and her father’s heir had drowned when his ship sank, leaving Matilda as the heir to the throne of England. On Christmas Day of 1226, King Henry I of England gathered his nobles at Westminster where they swore to recognize Matilda and any future legitimate heir she might have as his successors. That plan did not work out. Upon hearing of Henry I’s death in 1135, Stephen of Blois, one of Henry I’s nephews, quickly crossed the English Channel from France, seized power, and was crowned King of England on December 22, 1135. This started the terrible civil war between Stephen and Matilda known as The Anarchy. The future Henry II was two years old when this civil war started and it was to affect his childhood as England did not see peace for 18 years.

The civil war between first cousins Empress Matilda and Stephen of Blois, King of England since 1135 had dragged on for many years. Stephen unsuccessfully attempted to have his son Eustace, recognized by the Church as the next King of England. By the early 1150s, most of the barons and the Church wanted long-term peace. Ironically, Stephen’s son Eustace died on the same day that Eleanor and Henry’s eldest son William was born. Although William died when he was three years old, the irony of the birth and the death must have been noticed at the time.

When Henry re-invaded England in 1153, neither side’s forces were eager to fight. After limited campaigning and the siege of Wallingford, Stephen and Henry agreed upon a negotiated peace, the Treaty of Winchester, in which Stephen recognized Henry as his heir. Stephen died on October 25, 1154, and Henry ascended the throne as King Henry II, the first Angevin King of England. Henry was crowned at Westminster Abbey on December 19, 1154. His wife Eleanor was crowned with him.

12th-century depiction of Henry and Eleanor holding court; Credit – Wikipedia

Eleanor and Henry’s marriage was reputedly tumultuous and argumentative. Henry was not faithful and Eleanor was somewhat ambivalent towards his affairs as evidenced by her raising one of Henry’s illegitimate sons Geoffrey (the future Archbishop of York) in her household. By late 1166, Henry’s notorious affair with Rosamund de Clifford had become known, and Eleanor’s marriage to Henry appears to have become permanently strained. As their children grew up, the couple grew further apart and Eleanor seemed to take delight in backing one son and then another against Henry.

Henry and Eleanor; Credit – Wikipedia

During the reign of Henry, the lands of the Angevin Empire were vast and consisted of an area covering half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and Wales.

Angevin Empire around 1172, solid yellow shows Angevin possessions, checked yellow shows areas where there was Angevin influence; By Cartedaos (talk) 01:46, 14 September 2008 (UTC) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4781085

The last part of Henry’s reign was taken up by disputes with and between his sons, often encouraged by Eleanor. As Henry’s children grew up, tensions over the future inheritance of the empire began to emerge, encouraged by King Louis VII of France and then his son King Philippe II of France. In 1173, Henry the Young King rebelled in protest and was joined by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey and Eleanor. France, Scotland, Flanders, and Boulogne allied themselves with the rebels. Henry eventually defeated the revolt and had Eleanor imprisoned for the next sixteen years for her part in inciting their sons. In 1182–83, Henry the Young King had a falling out with his brother Richard when Richard refused to pay homage to him on the orders of King Henry II. As he was preparing to fight Richard, Henry the Young King became ill with dysentery (also called the bloody flux), the scourge of armies for centuries, and died. In 1186, Eleanor and Henry’s third son Geoffrey was trampled to death during a jousting tournament in Paris.

By the time Henry turned age 56 in 1189, he was prematurely aged. Two sons were left: Richard, the second son, Eleanor’s favorite and the heir since his elder brother’s death, and John, the youngest child and Henry’s favorite. King Philip II of France successfully played upon Richard’s fears that Henry would make John King, and a final rebellion broke out in 1189. Decisively defeated by Philip and Richard and suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry retreated to his favorite residence, the Château de Chinon in Anjou. There he was told that John had publicly sided with Richard in the rebellion, and this broke his heart. Only his illegitimate son Geoffrey, Archbishop of York was at his father’s deathbed and it moved Henry to observe that his illegitimate son had proved more loyal than his legitimate sons: “Baseborn indeed have my other children shown themselves. This alone is my true son.” King Henry II of England died at the Château de Chinon on July 6, 1189, at the age of 56, and was succeeded by his son Richard.

Richard was not in England when his father died. One of Richard’s first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from her imprisonment, but when Marshal arrived, he found that she had already been released. Eleanor traveled to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from lords and bishops on behalf of Richard. She ruled England in Richard’s name until his arrival in August of 1189, signing herself “Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England”. However, Richard spent very little time in England, perhaps as little as six months, during his ten-year reign. Most of his reign was spent on Crusade, in captivity, or in actively defending his lands in France.

Eleanor escorted Richard’s bride Berengaria of Navarre on part of her journey to Cyprus where he was preparing for the Third Crusade and where the couple married. Eleanor ruled England as regent while Richard was on the Third Crusade. Later, when Richard was captured in Germany on his way home from the crusades, Eleanor personally negotiated his ransom by going to Germany. In late March of 1199, when Richard was dying of gangrene from an arrow wound, Eleanor made her way to his deathbed. Richard died in his mother’s arms on April 6, 1199, and the last son John became king.

Eleanor died at Fontevrault Abbey on April 1, 1204, at the age of 82. The abbey church was pillaged and looted by the Huguenots in 1562. There are stories that the royal remains were thrown into a nearby river and also that the monks reburied them in a secret location. However, Eleanor’s effigy, showing her reading a Bible, survived and can still be seen.

Eleanor’s effigy next to Henry’s effigy; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

YouTube: The Face of Eleanor of Aquitaine (Photoshop Reconstruction)

In popular culture, Eleanor, Henry II, and their family are the subject of plays, films, and historical fiction. Eleanor, Henry, and their sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John are characters in James Goldman‘s 1966 play The Lion in Winter and in the 1968 film adaption of the play with Peter O’Toole playing Henry and Katharine Hepburn in an Academy Award-winning role as Eleanor.

The late American historical fiction author Sharon Kay Penman‘s excellently researched and highly recommended Plantagenet Series deals with Eleanor, Henry II, and their family.

  • When Christ and His Saints Slept (1995) introduces the beginnings of the Plantagenet dynasty as Empress Matilda (Penman uses Maude) fights to secure her claim to the English throne.
  • Time and Chance (2002) continues the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and focuses on the rift between Henry II and Thomas Becket.
  • Devil’s Brood (2008) opens with the conflict between Henry II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their four sons, which escalates into a decade of warfare and rebellion pitting the sons against the father and the brothers against each other while Eleanor spends the period imprisoned by Henry.
  • Lionheart (2011) focuses on Richard the Lionheart’s Crusades in the Holy Land and on what happened to Eleanor when she was finally released after spending sixteen years in confinement that was ordered and enforced by her husband.
  • A King’s Ransom (2014) is about the second half of Richard’s life, during and following his imprisonment, ransom, and life afterward.

Penman also wrote a series of mysteries set in the reigns of her sons Richard and John in which the fictional “detective” Justin de Quincy works for Eleanor of Aquitaine in the later years of her life.

  • The Queen’s Man (1996)
  • Cruel as the Grave (1998)
  • Dragon’s Lair New York (2003)
  • Prince of Darkness New York (2005)

British historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick has written a series of three novels about Eleanor’s life. Chadwick uses Eleanor’s original name, Alienor, and her research, like Penman’s, is impeccable.

  • The Summer Queen (2013) deals with Eleanor’s early life and her time as Queen of France.
  • The Winter Crown (2014) deals with Eleanor’s marriage to Henry II of England, their children, and the family rebellion.
  • The Autumn Throne (2016) deals with Eleanor’s imprisonment after the family rebellion and her later life.

England: House of Angevin Resources at Unofficial Royalty

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

King Henry II of England

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

King Henry II of England; Credit – Wikipedia

King Henry II of England was born on March 5, 1133, in Le Mans, the capital of the County of Maine, now in France. He was the eldest of the three sons of Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine, and Empress Matilda (sometimes called Maud or Maude). Henry’s mother was the widow of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor and she used her style and title from her first marriage for the rest of her life. More importantly, Matilda was the only surviving, legitimate child of King Henry I of England and Duke of Normandy.

Empress Matilda; Credit – Wikipedia

Geoffrey V of Anjou; Credit – Wikipedia

On November 25, 1120, William Ætheling, Henry I’s only legitimate son, was returning to England from Normandy when his ship hit a submerged rock, capsized, and sank. William Ætheling and many others drowned. See Unofficial Royalty: The Sinking of the White Ship and How It Affected the English Succession. King Henry I holds the record for the British monarch with the most illegitimate children, 25 or so illegitimate children, but the tragedy of the White Ship left him with only one legitimate child, his daughter Matilda. Henry I’s nephews were the closest male heirs. In January of 1121, Henry I married Adeliza of Louvain, hoping for sons, but the marriage remained childless. On Christmas Day of 1226, King Henry I of England gathered his nobles at Westminster where they swore to recognize Matilda and any future legitimate heir she might have as his successors. That plan did not work out.

Henry I died on December 1, 1135. He had fallen ill after eating a number of lampreys against his doctor’s advice. It is possible the cause of death was ptomaine poisoning. Upon hearing of Henry I’s death, Stephen of Blois, one of Henry I’s nephews, quickly crossed the English Channel from France, seized power, and was crowned King of England on December 22, 1135. This started the terrible civil war between Stephen and Matilda known as The Anarchy.  Henry II was two years old when this civil war started and it was to affect his childhood as England did not see peace for 18 years.

Henry had two younger brothers, but both died in their 20s and were unmarried.

Henry’s father, Geoffrey of Anjou, had a few illegitimate children. One of them, Hamelin, was a prominent person at Henry’s court and the courts of Henry’s sons King Richard I and King John. Henry arranged for Hamelin to marry one of the wealthiest heiresses in England, Isabel de Warenne, 4th Countess of Surrey and Hamelin took the style of her name and title, Hamelin de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. Hamelin and Isabel had one son and four daughters.

During much of Henry’s early life, his mother was away in England fighting her cousin Stephen for the crown of England. Geoffrey of Anjou took no direct part in the conflict in England, leaving it to his wife Matilda, the oldest illegitimate son of her father Henry I, Robert Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Gloucester and her uncle King David I of Scotland.  Instead, Geoffrey took advantage of the confusion the conflict caused and attacked the Duchy of Normandy. By 1144, he had taken control of all of Normandy and assumed the title Duke of Normandy. Geoffrey held the duchy until 1150 when he and Matilda together ceded the Duchy of Normandy to their son Henry.

Henry’s received his early education in Anjou from Peter of Saintes, a well-known classical scholar. In 1142, Geoffrey decided to send nine-year-old Henry to Bristol, England, which was the center of the Angevin opposition to Stephen. While in England, Henry lived in the household of his uncle Robert of Gloucester and was tutored along with Roger of Worcester, one of Robert’s sons. The canons of St Augustine’s in Bristol also helped in Henry’s education. Henry returned to Anjou in either 1143 or 1144, resuming his education under William of Conches, another famous academic.  Henry spoke French and Latin and understood Provençal, Italian, and English. The young Henry made two unsuccessful military expeditions to England in 1147 and 1149.

Geoffrey died in September 1151, and Henry was now Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, and Count of Nantes. He postponed his plans to return to England, as he first needed to ensure that his succession in both Normandy and his father’s lands was secure. At around this time, Henry was also probably secretly planning his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, then still the wife of King Louis VII of France. Eleanor, eleven years older than Henry, was the Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, and marriage to her would greatly increase Henry’s lands. Eleanor had failed to give Louis any sons and Louis had the marriage annulled. 19-year-old Henry married 30-year-old Eleanor eight weeks later, on May 18, 1152, in Bordeaux in Eleanor’s Duchy of Aquitaine.

Henry and Eleanor had eight children and were the grandparents of many sovereigns and queen consorts.

13th-century depiction of Henry and his legitimate children: (l to r) William, Young Henry, Richard, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan, and John; Credit – Wikipedia

Henry acknowledged two illegitimate sons::

  • Geoffrey, Archbishop of York (c. 1152 – 1212), sometimes called Geoffrey Plantagenet, FitzPlantagenet, or FitzRoy, mother uncertain, she may have been named Ykenai and there is speculation that she could have been a prostitute, the daughter of a knight, a Welsh hostage, a servant, or a daughter of one of the royal servants
  • William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (c. 1176 – 1226), his mother was probably Ida de Tosny, married Ela of Salisbury, 3rd Countess of Salisbury, had issue

The civil war between first cousins Empress Matilda and Stephen of Blois, King of England since 1135 had dragged on for many years. Contemporary chroniclers described the period “when Christ and his saints slept” and Victorian historians called the conflict “the Anarchy” because of the chaos, although modern historians have questioned the accuracy of the term and some contemporary accounts. Despite this modern hindsight, the 18-year civil war must have been a difficult period for many.

Stephen unsuccessfully attempted to have his son Eustace, recognized by the Church as the next King of England. By the early 1150s, most of the barons and the Church wanted long-term peace. Ironically, Stephen’s son Eustace died on the same day that Henry’s eldest son William was born. Although William died when he was three years old, the irony of the birth and the death must have been noticed at the time.

When Henry re-invaded England in 1153, neither side’s forces were eager to fight. After limited campaigning and the siege of Wallingford, Stephen and Henry agreed upon a negotiated peace, the Treaty of Winchester, in which Stephen recognized Henry as his heir. Stephen died on October 25, 1154, and Henry ascended the throne as King Henry II, the first Angevin King of England. Henry was crowned at Westminster Abbey In London, England on December 19, 1154. Eleanor was not crowned with Henry. At that time, she was late in her pregnancy with her second son Henry the Young King, who was born on February 28, 1155. Eleanor also had children in 1156, 1157, and 1158 and her coronation was eventually held at Worcester Cathedral on December 25, 1158.

12th-century depiction of Henry and Eleanor holding court; Credit – Wikipedia

The early years of Henry’s reign were spent restoring law and order and recovering the Crown land that King Stephen had bestowed on his supporters. Henry was assisted by the Church and Thomas Becket, a clerk in the household of Theobold of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket’s indispensability caused Henry to appoint Becket as Lord Chancellor in January of 1155. During the reign of Henry, the lands of the Angevin Empire were vast and consisted of an area covering half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and Wales.

Angevin Empire around 1172, solid yellow shows Angevin possessions, checked yellow shows areas where there was Angevin influence; By Cartedaos (talk) 01:46, 14 September 2008 (UTC) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4781085

Henry’s plans to invade Ireland in 1155 fell through, but Malcolm IV, King of Scots was forced to restore to England the land that had been ceded to his grandfather David I, King of Scots. An invasion of Wales occurred in 1157 and then two years later, there was an unsuccessful campaign in France to assert Eleanor’s claim to the County of Toulouse. Henry concluded an uneasy peace with Eleanor’s first husband King Louis VII of France. In 1160, Louis’ two-year-old daughter Marguerite by his second wife was married to Henry and Eleanor’s five-year-old eldest surviving son Henry. The reason for the early marriage was political. Marguerite’s dowry included the disputed territory of the Vexin and King Henry II wanted to possess it.

After taking care of his issues in France, Henry returned to England in 1163 and immediately began a conflict with the Church that would occupy the next several years of his reign. In 1162, Henry named his Chancellor Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury following the death of the previous Archbishop, Theobold of Bec. Henry hoped that by appointing Becket the royal supremacy over the English Church would return to what it had been in the days of Henry’s grandfather, King Henry I. However, Becket wanted to prove that he was no mouthpiece for Henry. An argument developed between the two men over the issue of whether clergy who had committed secular crimes should be tried in secular courts or church courts. Even those men who took minor orders were considered clergy, the quarrel potentially covered up to 20% of the male population of England at the time.

Early 14th-century representation of Henry and Thomas Becket; Credit – Wikipedia

On June 14, 1170, Henry II’s eldest surviving son, Henry the Young King, was crowned junior King of England while Henry II was still alive, adopting the practice of the French monarchy. Roger de Pont L’Évêque, Archbishop of York, Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London, and Josceline de Bohon, Bishop of Salisbury all participated in the crowning. This infringed on the right of Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury to crown English monarchs and drove Pope Alexander III to allow Becket to lay an interdict on England as punishment, which would forbid the public celebration of sacred rites. This threat forced Henry back to negotiations and terms were agreed to finally in July 1170.

Becket returned to England in early December 1170. Just when the dispute with Henry II seemed resolved, Becket excommunicated the three bishops who had participated in the crowning of Henry the Young King. Henry’s anger at the timing of the excommunications led him to supposedly ask the question: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” This inspired four knights to set off from Henry’s court in Normandy to Canterbury, where on December 29, 1170, they murdered Becket while he was at prayers in Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England. Henry performed a public act of penance on July 12, 1174, at Canterbury Cathedral, when he publicly confessed his sins, then allowed each bishop present to give him five hits with a rod, and then each of the 80 monks of Canterbury Cathedral gave him three hits with a rod. Finally, Henry offered gifts to Becket’s shrine and spent a vigil at Becket’s tomb.

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Memorial at the site of Becket’s murder in Canterbury Cathedral; Credit – Susan Flantzer

The last part of Henry’s reign was taken up by disputes with and between his sons, often encouraged by Eleanor. As Henry’s children grew up, tensions over the future inheritance of the empire began to emerge, encouraged by King Louis VII of France and then his son King Philip II of France. In 1173, Henry the Young King rebelled in protest and was joined by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey, and by their mother Eleanor. France, Scotland, Flanders, and Boulogne allied themselves with the rebels. Henry eventually defeated the revolt and had Eleanor imprisoned for the next sixteen years for her part in inciting their sons. In 1182–83, Henry the Young King had a falling out with his brother Richard when Richard refused to pay homage to him on the orders of King Henry II. As he was preparing to fight Richard, Henry the Young King became ill with dysentery (also called the bloody flux), the scourge of armies for centuries, and died. In 1186, Henry II’s third son Geoffrey was trampled to death during a jousting tournament in Paris.

By the time Henry turned age 56 in 1189, he was prematurely aged. Two sons were left: Richard, the second son, Eleanor’s favorite and the heir since his elder brother’s death, and John, the youngest child and Henry’s favorite. King Philip II of France successfully played upon Richard’s fears that Henry would make John King, and a final rebellion broke out in 1189. Decisively defeated by Philip and Richard and suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry retreated to his favorite residence, the Château de Chinon in Anjou. There he was told that John had publicly sided with Richard in the rebellion, and this broke his heart. Only his illegitimate son Geoffrey,  was at his father’s deathbed and it moved Henry to observe that his illegitimate son had proved more loyal than his legitimate sons: “Baseborn indeed have my other children shown themselves. This alone is my true son.” King Henry II of England died at the Château de Chinon on July 6, 1189, at the age of 56, and was succeeded by his son Richard. Henry was buried at Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou, France. The abbey church was pillaged and looted by the Huguenots in 1562. There are stories that the royal remains were thrown into a nearby river and also that the monks reburied them in a secret location. However, the beautiful effigies were not damaged and can still be seen today.

Effigies of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Using today’s technology, there is a video that does a facial reconstruction using Henry’s effigy.
YouTube: The Face of Henry II (Photoshop Reconstruction)

In popular culture, Henry II and his family are the subjects of plays, films, and historical fiction. There have been two plays specifically about the Thomas Becket controversy, T.S. Eliot‘s 1935 play Murder in the Cathedral and Jean Anouilh‘s 1959 play Becket. Becket was adapted as a film in 1964 with Peter O’Toole as Henry and Richard Burton as Thomas Becket. Henry, Eleanor, and their sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John are characters in James Goldman‘s 1966 play The Lion in Winter and in the 1968 film adaption of the play with Peter O’Toole once again playing Henry and Katharine Hepburn in an Academy Award-winning role as Eleanor.

The late historical fiction author Sharon Kay Penman‘s excellently researched and highly recommended Plantagenet Series deals Henry II and his family.

  • When Christ and His Saints Slept (1995) introduces the beginnings of the Plantagenet dynasty as Empress Matilda (Penman uses Maude) fights to secure her claim to the English throne.
  • Time and Chance (2002) continues the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and focuses on the rift between Henry II and Thomas Becket.
  • Devil’s Brood (2008) opens with the conflict between Henry II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their four sons, which escalates into a decade of warfare and rebellion pitting the sons against the father and the brothers against each other while Eleanor spends the period imprisoned by Henry.
  • Lionheart (2011) focuses on Richard the Lionheart’s Crusades in the Holy Land and on what happened to Eleanor when she was finally released after spending sixteen years in confinement that was ordered and enforced by her husband.
  • A King’s Ransom (2014) is about the second half of Richard’s life, during and following his imprisonment, ransom, and life afterward.

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