by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

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:

• William IX, Count of Poitiers (1153 – 1156), died in childhood
• Henry the Young King (1155 – 1183), married Marguerite of France, no children
• Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony and Bavaria (1156 – 1189), married Heinrich the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had five children, including Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor
• King Richard I of England (1157 – 1199), married Berengaria of Navarre, no children
• Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (1158 – 1186), married Constance, Duchess of Brittany, had three children
• Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (1162 – 1214), married King Alfonso VIII of Castile, had twelve children including King Enrique I of Castile; Berengaria, Queen Regnant of Castile and Queen of León; Urraca, Queen of Portugal; Blanche, Queen of France, and Eleanor, Queen of Aragon
• Joan of England, Queen of Sicily (1165 – 1199), married (1) King William II of Sicily, no surviving children (2) Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, had two children, Joan died in childbirth with her third child who also died

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

• • Marie of France (1145 – 1198), married Henry I, Count of Champagne, had issue
  • Alix of France (1151 – 1197/1198), married Theobald V, Count of Blois, had issue

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

• King Henry III of England (1207 – 1272), married Eleanor of Provence, had five children including King Edward I of England
• Richard, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans (1209 – 1272), married (1) Isabel Marshal, had three sons and a daughter, only one son survived childhood, Isabel died in childbirth (2) Sanchia of Provence, had two sons, only one son survived childhood (3) Beatrice of Falkenburg, no children
• Joan of England (1210 – 1238), married Alexander II, King of Scots, no children
• Isabella of England (1214 – 1241), married Friedrich II, Holy Roman Emperor, had at least four children
• Eleanor of England (1215 – 1275), married (1) William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, no children (2) Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, had seven children

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
• House of Angevin Index
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
• House of Angevin Burial Sites
• Norman and Plantagenet Weddings

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

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.

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.

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.

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

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
• House of Angevin Index
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
• House of Angevin Burial Sites
• Norman and Plantagenet Weddings

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016

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:

• William IX, Count of Poitiers (1153 – 1156), died in childhood
• Henry the Young King (1155 – 1183), married Marguerite of France, no children
• Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony and Bavaria (1156 – 1189), married Heinrich the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had five children, including Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor
• Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (1158 – 1186), married Constance, Duchess of Brittany, had three children
• Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (1162 – 1214), married King Alfonso VIII of Castile, had twelve children including King Enrique I of Castile; Berengaria, Queen Regnant of Castile and Queen of León; Urraca, Queen of Portugal; Blanche, Queen of France, and Eleanor, Queen of Aragon
• Joan of England, Queen of Sicily (1165 – 1199), married (1) King William II of Sicily, no surviving children (2) Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, had two children, Joan died in childbirth with her third child who also died
• King John of England (1166 – 1216), married 1) Isabella, 3rd Countess of Gloucester, marriage annulled, no children (2) Isabella, Countess of Angoulême; had five children, including King Henry III of England; Joan of England, Queen of Scots, and Isabella of England, Holy Roman Empress

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

• Marie of France (1145 – 1198), married Henry I, Count of Champagne, had issue
• Alix of France (1151 – 1197/1198), married Theobald V, Count of Blois, had issue

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 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 King Henry II turned 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 defending his lands in France. Richard was back in Normandy by Christmas of 1189, preparing to leave on the Third Crusades.

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 Berengaria and Joan’s ship 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.

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.

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 of 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 Philippe 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.”

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 Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, King Henry II’s second eldest surviving son, and so Arthur had a better primogeniture claim to the English throne than John.

During Richard’s long absence, his French possessions were 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.

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, now in France, 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 but 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.

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.

• BBC: Richard the Lionheart’s mummified heart analysed
• Nature – Scientific Reports: The embalmed heart of Richard the Lionheart (1199 A.D.): a biological and anthropological analysis
• YouTube: The Face of Richard I (Photoshop Reconstruction)

England: House of Angevin Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
• House of Angevin Index
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
• House of Angevin Burial Sites
• Norman and Plantagenet Weddings

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016

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:

• Petronilla of Aquitaine (c. 1125 – 1193), married Raoul I, Count of Vermandois, had issue
• William Aigret (1126 – 1130), died young around the same time as his mother

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, now a basilica, 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.

Eleanor and Louis VII had two children, both daughters:

• Marie of France (1145 – 1198), married Henry I, Count of Champagne, had issue
• Alix of France (1151 – 1197/1198), married Theobald V, Count of Blois, had issue

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 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.

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, 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.

• William IX, Count of Poitiers (1153 – 1156), died in childhood
• Henry the Young King (1155 – 1183), married Marguerite of France, no children
• Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony and Bavaria (1156 – 1189), married Heinrich the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had five children, including Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor
• King Richard I of England (1157 – 1199), married Berengaria of Navarre, no children
• Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (1158 – 1186), married Constance, Duchess of Brittany, had three children
• Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (1162 – 1214), married King Alfonso VIII of Castile, had twelve children including King Enrique I of Castile; Berengaria, Queen Regnant of Castile and Queen of León; Urraca, Queen of Portugal; Blanche, Queen of France, and Eleanor, Queen of Aragon
• Joan of England, Queen of Sicily (1165 – 1199), married (1) King William II of Sicily, no surviving children (2) Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, had two children, Joan died in childbirth with her third child who also died
• King John of England (1166 – 1216), married 1) Isabella, 3rd Countess of Gloucester, marriage annulled, no children (2) Isabella, Countess of Angoulême; had five children, including King Henry III of England; Joan of England, Queen of Scots, and Isabella of England, Holy Roman Empress

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.

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.

During Henry II’s reign, 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.

The last part of Henry’s reign was taken up by disputes with and between his sons, often encouraged by Eleanor. As Henry II’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 Eleanor and his brothers Richard and Geoffrey. 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. 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 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, 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.

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 wrote 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

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
• House of Angevin Index
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
• House of Angevin Burial Sites
• Norman and Plantagenet Weddings

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.

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

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.

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.

• Geoffrey, Count of Nantes (1134 – 1158), unmarried
• William, Viscount of Dieppe (1136–1164), 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.

• William IX, Count of Poitiers (1153 – 1156), died in childhood
• Henry the Young King (1155 – 1183), married Marguerite of France, no children
• Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony and Bavaria (1156 – 1189), married Heinrich the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had five children, including Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor
• King Richard I of England (1157 – 1199), married Berengaria of Navarre, no children
• Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (1158 – 1186), married Constance, Duchess of Brittany, had three children
• Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (1162 – 1214), married King Alfonso VIII of Castile, had twelve children including King Enrique I of Castile; Berengaria, Queen Regnant of Castile and Queen of León; Urraca, Queen of Portugal; Blanche, Queen of France, and Eleanor, Queen of Aragon
• Joan of England, Queen of Sicily (1165 – 1199), married (1) King William II of Sicily, no surviving children (2) Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, had two children, Joan died in childbirth with her third child who also died
• King John of England (1166 – 1216), married 1) Isabella, 3rd Countess of Gloucester, marriage annulled, no children (2) Isabella, Countess of Angoulême; had five children, including King Henry III of England; Joan of England, Queen of Scots, and Isabella of England, Holy Roman Empress

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
• House of Angevin Index
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
• House of Angevin Burial Sites
• Norman and Plantagenet Weddings

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

King Richard II of England was born in the Archbishop’s Palace in Bordeaux, then in the English-held Duchy of Aquitaine (now in France) on January 6, 1367. Because of his birthplace, he was known as Richard of Bordeaux. Richard was the second son and second child of Edward, Prince of Wales (known as the Black Prince), eldest son and heir of King Edward III of England, and Joan of Kent, 4th Countess of Kent in her own right. Joan was a grandchild of King Edward I of England. Her father was Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, a son of Edward I’s second marriage. Richard had one elder sibling, Edward of Angoulême (1365 – 1370), who died young of the plague. After his elder brother’s death, Richard became the second in the line of succession to the throne after his father.

Richard had five half-siblings from his mother’s first marriage to Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, 2nd Baron Holland

• Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent (1350  – 1397), married Lady Alice FitzAlan; had issue
• John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter (circa 1352 – 1400), married Elizabeth of Lancaster, a daughter of John of Gaunt; had issue
• Edmund Holland (c. 1354), died young
• Lady Joan Holland (1356–1384), married John IV, Duke of Brittany; no issue
• Lady Maud Holland (1359–1391), married (1) Hugh Courtenay, no issue; (2) Waleran III of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny, had issue

Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), Richard’s father, was King Edward III’s representative in Aquitaine, and the king had created Edward and his wife Joan Prince and Princess of Aquitaine. Richard had been born in Aquitaine, but his family returned to England in 1371, shortly after his brother’s death. When in England, the chief residences of Edward’s family were at Wallingford Castle in Berkshire (since 1974 in Oxfordshire), and at Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire. The Black Prince was an exceptional military leader, and his victories over the French at the Battle of Crécy and the Battle of Poitiers made him very popular during his lifetime. In 1348, he became the first Knight of the Garter and was one of the order’s 25 founders.

Richard’s father entrusted his son’s education to his boyhood friend Sir Simon de Burley, who instilled in Richard a love of literature and music as well as a sense of the importance of his royal office. Richard was the first English monarch who was fluent in English as well as the traditional Norman French of his ancestors. While in the midst of his childhood, nine-year-old Richard’s life changed when his father died at the age of 45 on June 8, 1376. Richard was now the heir to his grandfather’s throne. Because it was feared that Richard’s uncle John of Gaunt might usurp his place in the succession, Richard was quickly given his father’s titles: Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester. On June 21, 1377, King Edward III died and his ten-year-old grandson was then King Richard II.

Richard’s coronation took place on July 16, 1377, at Westminster Abbey, just eleven days after his grandfather’s funeral. The quickness with which all this happened was certainly affected by the controversial succession of a child king whose father had not been the king. Some believed that one of King Edward III’s younger sons (there were three still alive: John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester) should be king. Parliament, which was in a dispute with John of Gaunt at that time, supported Richard’s accession to the throne. John of Gaunt and his two brothers were excluded from councils that ruled during Richard’s minority, but as the uncles of the king, they still held great informal influence over the business of government. By 1380, the councils were abolished because Parliament distrusted Richard’s friends and councilors, particularly his tutor Sir Simon de Burley and Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, Marquess of Dublin, and 9th Earl of Oxford.  The uncertainty in the matter of Richard II’s succession laid the groundwork for the Wars of the Roses when the House of York and the House of Lancaster battled for the English throne.

In 1381, the Peasants’ Revolt led by Wat Tyler occurred over a poll tax of a shilling on all people over the age of 15. The revolt had started in Kent and Essex but ultimately came to London where John of Gaunt’s Savoy Palace was burned down and the Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Sudbury, who was also Lord Chancellor, and the Lord High Treasurer Robert Hales were both killed by the rebels. 14-year-old Richard rode out to Mile End in London to meet the rebels. Addressing the rebels in English, Richard agreed to their demands. This did not pacify the rebels and they continued the burning, looting, and killing. The next day, Richard met the rebel leader Wat Tyler at Smithfield in London and again agreed to meet their demands. However, the rebels were not convinced, the king’s men grew uneasy, and an altercation occurred in which Wat Tyler was pulled off his horse and killed. Richard, acting calmly, led the rebel mob away from the scene, granted clemency, and allowed the rebels to disperse and return to their homes. When disturbances occurred in other parts of England, Richard revoked his agreement and the clemency and went to Essex to personally defeat the last rebels. At a young age, Richard did show courage and determination in ending the rebellion. However, he saw the danger of his subjects’ disobedience which threatened his authority and this helped shape his ideas of absolute monarchy which would later prove literally fatal.

When Richard was 15, a bride was sought for him, and Anne of Bohemia, the eldest child of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, and his fourth wife, Elizabeth of Pomerania, seemed a logical choice as Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire were seen as potential allies against France in the ongoing Hundred Years’ War. However, the potential marriage was unpopular with the nobility and members of Parliament because Anne brought no dowry. Richard’s tutor and his father’s close friend Sir Simon de Burley was sent to negotiate the marriage contract and then escort the 15-year-old bride-to-be to England. After Anne arrived in Dover, England, a huge wave wrecked the ship in which she had sailed, and this was seen as a bad omen. The young couple was married at Westminster Abbey in London on January 22, 1382, the fifth royal wedding at the Abbey. It was not until the wedding of Princess Patricia of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and Alexander Ramsay in 1919, 537 years later, that another royal wedding was held at Westminster Abbey. Richard and Anne had no children.

Since 1337, England had been fighting France in the Hundred Years’ War, and the English had been consistently losing territory to the French since 1369. Richard wanted to negotiate peace with France, but much of the nobility wanted to continue the war. In 1386, Parliament blamed Richard’s advisers for the military failures and accused them of misusing funds intended for the war. Parliament authorized a commission of nobles known as the Lords Appellant to take over the management of the kingdom and act as Richard’s regents. There were originally three Lords Appellant: Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III and Richard’s uncle; Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel; and Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick. Later, Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby (son of John of Gaunt, Richard’s first cousin and the future King Henry IV), and Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk also became Lords Appellant. Richard did not recognize the authority of the Lords Appellant and started an unsuccessful military attempt to overthrow the Lords Appellant and negotiate peace with France. In 1387, the Lords Appellant launched an armed rebellion against King Richard and defeated an army under Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford at the Battle of Radcot Bridge, outside Oxford. They maintained Richard as a figurehead with little real power. Parliament convicted almost all of Richard’s advisers of treason. Most of Richard’s advisers were executed and a few were exiled.

Richard’s uncle John of Gaunt had left England in 1386 to seek the throne of Castile, claimed by the right of his second wife, Constance of Castile, whom he had married in 1371. Because of the crisis in England, in 1389, Richard’s uncle and now his supporter, John of Gaunt, returned from Castile and Richard was able to rebuild his power gradually until 1397, when he reasserted his authority and destroyed the principal three among the Lords Appellant.

Richard never forgave the Lords Appellant. His uncle Thomas, Duke Gloucester was murdered in captivity in Calais, probably on Richard’s orders. Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel was beheaded. Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick lost his title and his lands and was imprisoned on the Isle of Man until Richard was overthrown by Henry Bolingbroke. Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby and Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk were both exiled in 1399 and Richard revoked the permission he had given them to sue for any inheritance which fell due, as it did in relation to Mowbray’s grandmother and, more significantly, of Bolingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt. The actions Richard took against his first cousin would ultimately result in his downfall.

In June of 1394, Queen Anne became ill with the plague while at Sheen Palace with her husband. She died three days later on June 7, 1394, at the age of 28. King Richard II was so devastated by Anne’s death that he ordered Sheen Palace to be destroyed. For almost 20 years it lay in ruins until King Henry V started a rebuilding project in 1414. With Richard being childless, the heir presumptive to the throne was Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March who was the grandson of Richard’s deceased uncle Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence. Lionel of Antwerp was the second son of King Edward III so his heirs had a superior genealogical claim to the throne over that of Edward III’s third son John of Gaunt. Despite the fact that Richard officially recognized the claim of Roger Mortimer, the claim was unlikely to remain uncontested.

Soon after the death of Anne of Bohemia in 1394, the childless King Richard II began a search for a new wife. He turned to France seeking an alliance, and after negotiations, a marriage was arranged between Isabella of Valois and Richard who was 22 years older than his bride. Isabella was the daughter of King Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. This marriage had many opponents, especially Louis I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of the French king and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest uncle of the English king. Nevertheless, on November 1, 1396, at the Church of St. Nicholas in Calais, seven-year-old Isabella married 29-year-old Richard. Richard and Isabella left for England a few days later and on November 23, 1396, she made her state entry into London. The couple had no children due to Isabella’s young age. After Richard’s death, Isabella returned to France and married her cousin Charles of Orléans. At the age of 19, she died on September 14, 1409, in Blois, France a few hours after giving birth to her only child.

In 1398, Henry Bolingbroke, first cousin of King Richard II and the eldest child of King Edward III’s third son John of Gaunt, quarreled with Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, who accused him of treason. The two men planned to duel, but instead, King Richard II banished them from England, and Henry went to France.  John of Gaunt died on February 3, 1399, and Richard confiscated the estates of his uncle and stipulated that Henry would have to ask him to restore the estates. Henry returned to England while his cousin Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland and began a military campaign of his own, confiscating the land of those who had opposed him. King Richard II eventually was abandoned by his supporters and was forced by Parliament on September 29, 1399, to abdicate the crown to his cousin Henry. King Henry IV, the first king of the House of Lancaster, was crowned in Westminster Abbey on October 13, 1399. Richard was imprisoned at Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire where he died on or around February 14, 1400. The exact cause of his death, thought to have been starvation, is unknown.

• Unofficial Royalty: Death of Richard II, King of England

Richard’s body was taken south from Pontefract Castle and displayed in Old St Paul’s Cathedral in London on February 17, 1400, before burial in Kings Langley Church on March 6, 1400.

In 1413, King Henry V of England, son of King Henry IV, to atone for his father’s act of murder and to silence the rumors of Richard’s survival, had Richard’s remains moved to Westminster Abbey where they were placed in an elaborate tomb Richard had constructed for his first wife Anne of Bohemia.

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 Plantagenet Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
• House of Plantagenet Index (1216 – 1399)
• British Royal Births, Marriages, Deaths, and Other Important Events
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
• History and Traditions: Norman and Plantagenet Weddings
• House of Plantagenet Burial Sites

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

King Edward II of England was born on April 25, 1284, at Caernarfon Castle in Gwynedd, Wales. Known as Edward of Caernarfon, he was the fourth son and the youngest of the 14-16 children of King Edward I of England and his first wife Eleanor of Castile.  Only six of their children survived childhood.

• Daughter (stillborn in May 1255)
• Katherine of England (before 1264 – 1264)
• Joan of England (born and died 1265)
• John of England (1266 – 1271)
• Henry of England (1268 – 1274)
• Eleanor of England (1269 – 1298), married Henri III, Count of Bar, had issue
• Daughter (born and died 1271)
• Joan of Acre (1272 – 1307), married (1) in 1290 Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, had issue  (2) in 1297 Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer, had issue
• Alfonso, Earl of Chester (1273 – 1284)
• Margaret of England (1275 – after 1333), married John II, Duke of Brabant, had issue
• Berengaria (1276 – 1278)
• Daughter (born and died 1278)
• Mary of Woodstock (1279 – 1332), a Benedictine nun in Amesbury, Wiltshire
• Son (born in 1280 or 1281 who died very shortly after birth)
• Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (1282 – 1316), married (1) in 1297 John I, Count of Holland, no issue (2) in 1302 Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, 3rd Earl of Essex, had issue

Edward was born less than a year after his father King Edward I had taken complete control of Wales. At the time of his birth, Edward had only one surviving elder brother, Alphonso, Earl of Chester. However, ten-year-old Alphonso died four months after Edward’s birth, leaving his baby brother as heir to the throne. The tradition of conferring the title Prince of Wales on the heir apparent of the monarch is usually considered to have begun in 1301 when King Edward I of England invested his son Edward of Caernarfon with the title at a Parliament held in Lincoln. Since then, the title has been granted (with a few exceptions) to the heir apparent of the English or British monarch.

In 1290, Edward’s mother Eleanor of Castile died at the age of 49. When Eleanor died, only six children, five daughters and one son, Edward, were still living. Edward was the youngest child and only six years old. King Edward I had to be worried about the succession, and a second marriage with sons would ensure the succession. On September 10, 1299, in Canterbury, England 60-year-old King Edward I and 17-year-old Margaret of France were married.  Edward also had three half-siblings from his father’s second marriage to Margaret of France:

• Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk (1300 – 1338), married (1) Alice de Hales, had issue (2) Mary de Brewes, no surviving issue
• Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (1301 – 1330), married Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell, had issue including Joan of Kent (The Fair Maid of Kent) who married King Edward III‘s eldest son Edward, Prince of Wales (The Black Prince) and was the mother of King Richard II of England
• Eleanor of England (1306 – 1311), died young

Because his father was often away on military campaigns and was accompanied by his mother, Edward had seen little of his parents and lacked parental guidance for most of his childhood. He had no living brothers and four of his five surviving sisters (all were older than him) were married and the other sister was a nun. His half-siblings were not born until after he was 16 years old. Therefore, Edward did not grow up surrounded by siblings. Edward did have an official household since he was an infant and staff that took care of his personal needs and education.

It is probable that Edward grew up as a lonely boy, longing for male companions of his own age, but his choices of favorites caused him many problems. His first favorite was Piers Gaveston from a family from Gascony (now in France). Gaveston had impressed King Edward I so he was assigned to Edward of Caernarfon’s household and he and Edward became inseparable companions. Gaveston became involved in conflicts between King Edward I and his son. The situation got so bad that shortly before his death, King Edward I banished Gaveston.

King Edward I died on a military campaign on July 7, 1307. As a child, Edward was betrothed to Isabella of France, daughter of King Philippe IV of France and Joan I, Queen of Navarre in her own right, with the intention to resolve the conflicts between France and England over England’s possession of Gascony and claims to Anjou, Normandy, and Aquitaine.  However, King Edward I attempted to break the betrothal several times and the marriage did not occur until after his death.  Isabella and King Edward II were married on January 25, 1308, at Boulogne Cathedral in France.  The couple’s coronation was held at Westminster Abbey on February 25, 1308.  Isabella and Edward had four children.

• King Edward III of England (1312 – 1377), married Philippa of Hainault, had issue
• John of Eltham, 1st Earl of Cornwall (1316 – 1336), unmarried
• Eleanor of Woodstock (1318 – 1355), married Reinoud II of Guelders, had issue
• Joan of The Tower (1321 – 1362), married King David II of Scotland, no issue

One of King Edward II’s first acts as king was to recall to court his favorite Piers Gaveston.  From the start of her marriage, Isabella was confronted with the close relationship between her husband and Gaveston, described as “an arrogant, ostentatious soldier, with a reckless and headstrong personality.”  The true nature of their relationship is not known and there is no contemporary evidence that comments directly on Edward’s sexual orientation.  Gaveston was created Earl of Cornwall, a title usually given to the sons of the king, and Edward arranged for Gaveston to marry his niece Margaret de Clare which greatly displeased the English nobility.

Eventually, with the influence of Isabella’s father, Dowager Queen Margaret who was Isabella’s aunt, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward agreed to exile Gaveston to Ireland.  However, in a move that angered the barons, Edward made Gaveston Regent of Ireland.  When Gaveston returned to England in 1312, he was hunted down and executed by a group of barons led by Edward’s uncle Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster and Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick.

In 1314, King Edward II took up arms in an attempt to complete his father’s campaign in Scotland. This resulted in a decisive Scottish victory at the Battle of Bannockburn by a smaller army led by Robert the Bruce, King of Scots.

From 1312 – 1321, there is no evidence that Edward and Isabelle had a discordant marriage or that Isabella was not loyal to her husband.  Isabella took a role in the reconciliation between Edward and the barons, who were responsible for the execution of Gaveston. However, during this period, Hugh Despenser the Elder became part of Edward’s inner circle, marking the beginning of the Despensers’ increased prominence at Edward’s court.  His son, Hugh Despenser the Younger, became a favorite of Edward II.  Edward was willing to let the Despensers do as they pleased, and they grew rich from their administration and corruption.

It is thought that Edward’s wife Isabella first met and fell in love with Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London, which was both a royal palace and a prison at that time.  Isabella arranged for Mortimer’s death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.  In 1323, Isabella helped arrange Mortimer’s escape from the Tower and his subsequent flight to France.  During the next year, Isabella had had enough of the Despensers and left Edward, who made an unwise decision to send Isabella and their 12-year-old son Edward on a mission to France.  Not surprisingly, Isabella met Mortimer in France where they planned to depose Edward II.  Isabella gathered an army and set sail for England, landing at Harwich on September 25, 1326.  With their mercenary army, Isabella and Mortimer quickly seized power. The Despensers were both executed and Edward II was forced to abdicate. Isabella’s son was crowned King Edward III, and Isabella and Mortimer served as regents for the teenage king.

King Edward II was sent to Berkeley Castle where castle records indicate he was well treated. The circumstances of what happened to him are uncertain.  One theory is that he died at Berkeley Castle on September 21, 1327, murdered on the orders of Isabella and Mortimer.  His body was then embalmed at Berkeley Castle, was shown to local town leaders, and was buried at St. Peter’s Abbey in Gloucester. The abbey was dissolved in 1540 by King Henry VIII and became Gloucester Cathedral in 1541. Certainly, King Edward III arranged for a tomb for his father to be constructed with an alabaster effigy, a tomb chest, and a canopy made of oolite and Purbeck stone. King Edward II’s tomb, restored in 2007-2008, can still be seen in Gloucester Cathedral.  However, there are other theories about his death including one that says he did not die in1327 but escaped Berkeley Castle with the help of a servant.

In 1330, the 18-year-old King Edward III conducted a coup d’état at Nottingham Castle where Mortimer and Isabella were staying.  Mortimer was arrested and then executed on fourteen charges of treason, including the murder of Edward II. After the coup, Isabella was first taken to Berkhamsted Castle and then held under house arrest at Windsor Castle. In 1332, Isabella was moved to her own Castle Rising in Norfolk where she was confined for the rest of her life, enjoying a regal lifestyle, until her death at the age of 63 in 1358.

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 Plantagenet Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
• House of Plantagenet Index (1216 – 1399)
• British Royal Births, Marriages, Deaths, and Other Important Events
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
• History and Traditions: Norman and Plantagenet Weddings
• House of Plantagenet Burial Sites