The Angevin # 2: Anarchy's Aftermath

Rollo, 1st Duke of Normandy

The Road to Anarchy

Before we dive into the age of the Angevin lets give a little background on the series of events that led to the intertwining of the fates of England and France and the eventual coronation of the first of the Plantagenet dynasty. I am going to gloss over some of the most famous events in British and French history here so please forgive me as I am trying to get us to the Angevin founder, Henry II, in one post. So away we go.....

Our story begins well beforehand in the early 900s, in northern France, which is under constant attack by viking raiding parties. The kings of France seem helpless to the continuing pillaging, plundering, and burning. The best they can do is temporarily drive off the invaders, rebuild, and wait for it to start up all over again. Enter Rollo, a viking chieftain so brazen and whose band is so effective they made their way well into the interior of the country and laid siege to the city of Paris itself. BTW, despite what the History Channel show Vikings would have you believe, there seems to be no evidence that Rollo is directly related to or knew Ragnar Lothbrok. Anyway, the French King, Charles the Simple came up with what he thought was a brilliant plan, he would ennoble Rollo's vikings to use them as a shield against other barbarian hordes and at the same time force these new "noble" savages to play by the rules of court intrigue and politics instead of the sword, giving him and the traditional French nobles an upper hand. It would be a grave miscalculation that would have repercussions throughout the whole of Europe and the Middle East for centuries to come. So in 911 the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte was negotiated by the Archbishop of Reims between Rollo and King Charles.

Baptism of Rollo as stipulated by the treaty

In exchange for land and title with rights of inheritance for him and his men, Rollo and his warriors were to swear fealty to Charles, being his vanguard against any future viking incursions, and be baptized as Christians, denouncing their pagan faith. Rollo agreed and the lands they would be given would be called Normandy (land of the North Men) with Rollo being named as Duke of Normandy. Surprisingly the vikings took to their new roles as nobles and Christians with great speed and devotion. They embraced Christianity with much gusto and became its fiercest advocates against their former pagan allies. And as for being nobles, to the horror of Charles, they adapted to French culture and the game of politics with lighting speed, making strategic partnerships and marriage alliances across large parts of northern and western France. What was suppose to be Charles' puppet barbarian army became a not so controllable new breed of Frankish noble.

William The Conqueror

Lets fast forward a couple generations to around 1066. By this point this new breed of noble had spread its bloodline in nearly every county and duchy in northern France, creating a people known as the Normans, whose culture was a hybrid of French and Nordic traditions: staunchly Christian but more robust and battle ready and less refined and artistic than the rest of the french nobility. And while Normandy was their home, through marriage and politics, they found their way in many noble houses, in about a third of France. So far they, with the exception of spreading their influence, were loyal retainers and vassals of the French King, and had more than kept up with their ancestors end of the treaty to protect France from viking raiders. The current de facto leader of the Normans is William II, Duke of Normandy, and he, like his father Robert the Magnificent (great great grandson of Rollo), has become entangled in the bitter dynastic struggles of the Saxon Kings of England. First born sons were not automatically heirs to title in Saxon England, the King could chose which ever relative he please to succeed him, this has lead to many disputes over the years between claimants of the throne including those blood related in Denmark and Normandy. So when childless King Edward the Confessor died it was rumored he had named William as his heir as William was the grandson of Edward's uncle, Richard II of Normandy. This rumor was repudiated by the powerful Godwin family whose current head was married to Edwards daughter. He was seen by many of the Saxon nobility as the natural heir even if Edward had a on again off again falling out and that no matter how angry Edward would have been with Godwin, he would not name a non Saxon as his heir.

Through all this confusion Edward did not seem to care about his potential claim, he was currently focused on his rivalry with the Count of Anjou (remember Anjou, its important. Hint: Its all in the name) for control of a portion of central France. However, a series of diplomatic blunders, broken promises, and insults to his person by Harold Godwinson, William shifted his focus from Anjou to the Kingdom of England. Without seeking the French King's advise or permission William rallied the Norman lords and launched a war of conquest on England to press his claim for the throne. And after the historically monumental Battle of Hastings, the Normans, without the aid of their French overlords, seized England, expelling or killing all but a hand full of Saxon lords and crowning William as King of England. Now the Normans were lords of both French and English lands, and their leader William while still a subject a the French King while in France, was now a King in his own right in England. This put the Normans in a very unique and complicated position that worked to their advantage, allowing them to shake loose some of the control of the French king, as they now had the power and money to rival France itself. Thus France and England will be intertwined for the next couple of centuries as the Normans would juggle their power between their English and French holdings. I know, I know, I am really bum rushing one of western histories most import events, the Norman invasion, but as I stated before we are trying to get to a specific point. At some point in time I will go back sink my teeth into the whole Saxon, Danish, Norman kerfuffle that resulted in such a shift in power, but for now we have goals people. Focus! 

Empress Matilda, King Henry II, and King Stephen

Anarchy and the Crowning of Henry II

We now zip forward in time again, to 1135. William the Conqueror's son, Henry I, King of England and Duke of Normandy, the leader of the Norman people has died. His son and heir Prince William had died 15 years earlier in a tragic boating accident in the English Channel, leaving Henry with no clear successor. On his death bed he tried to convince his nobles that his widowed daughter, Empress Matilda, returned from Germany after the death of her husband the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, now married to the French Count of Anjou, should be crowned as Queen of England. Though she was allowed to keep the honorific of "Empress" she was not allowed to inherit her husbands thrown. But this did not stop many of the Norman lords as seeing her as an outsider and foreigner, having lived so long in Germany and now married to yet another non Norman, and were also unsure of a woman being able to be an effective military leader. Many opted for the king's nephew, Stephen of Bois and before the matter could be settled Stephen seized the thrown. A nearly 20 year civil war broke out with both sides making and losing ground, even capturing one another, at varies points. Actually Matilda turned out to be quite the military leader in spit of the lords earlier assumption; she too will eventually have a Badass Women of History Post at some point. But where Matilda was strategic in arms, Stephen was cunning in diplomacy and intrigue. And so the war dragged on, for the most part it was a stalemate with King Stephen holding the support of the English Normans and Matilda holding onto the French lands in no small part due to the efforts of her husband Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou (can you see where this is going, told you Anjou would be important). Again, a lot happens in this period and I am giving you a bare bones walk through to get to a certain point. And her it is. Come now Henry Fitzempress Plantagenet onto the scene, son of Empress Matlida and Geoffrey Plantagenet. At a young age he would grow up in the Anjou and receive an education in politics in various French courts, but by 14 his parents decided it was time for him to take up the families cause and sent him with his uncle, Robert of Gloucester, to Bristol, one of the last strongholds of Matilda supports in England. Their he lead an unsuccessful raid on the city of Wiltshire, which left him penniless and stranded in England away from any support of his parents. Help come from the last place anyone would have expected, King Stephen, his 2nd cousin and the man his parents were at war with, who took pity on the boy and gave him enough money required to get him home to Anjou. But instead of going home he used the money to travel to Scotland. There he successfully negotiated an alliance with Scotland's King David, to have the Scottish attack the English northern borders to relieve some of the pressure on his uncles forces in Bristol. Though the Scottish intervention was defeated and shut down at the Battle of the Standards it had the desired effect of giving Robert of Gloucester room to maneuver in the south. When all was said and done every one on both sides was more than impressed with young Henry's brilliant diplomatic, political and militarily tactical mind. Near the end of the war it was Henry who had taken a front seat in the war effort on behalf of his parents and uncle. But the stalemate was growing to much for the soldiers on both sides so Henry negotiated a peace with King Stephen. In 1154 the Treaty of Winchester was signed ending all hostilities, the deal was Stephen would remain King for the rest of his days, but upon his death Henry was named his heir to not only the Kingship of England, but also Duke of Normandy and Count of Bois and Boulogne, in France. King Stephen would die a few months later from an unknown stomach disorder in October of 1154 and in December Henry was crowned king. And being a Plantagenet from Anjou was dubbed the first Angevin King of the Plantagenet dynasty. 

Phew....We did it we got to the starting line. Again I apologize for severely, almost criminally glossing over the Anarchy but I could be here forever trying to get to my goal without doing so. I really do want to do an article about the Anarchy, put if you cannot wait there is a terrific book and TV mini series (starring Rufus Sewell, Donald Sutherland, and one of my personal favorite actors Ian Shane) called Pillars of the Earth that does a decent job fictionalizing it, though I do not agree with the harsh light they portray to King Stephan.....but that's for another time. Instead next time we will look at Tywin Lannister....ah I mean King Henry II, and how he used every trick in the book to amass a huge amount o territory, consolidate his power, and very effectively and efficiently administer such a wide realm. We may even get some bleed over into my promised Badass Women post as we look at his strategic marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine.

The Angevine Empire #1 (1154-1216): Overview

An Empire Forged and Preserved By Force of Will and Personality

From the epic of Ivanhoe, the tales of Robin Hood, and the iconic Third Crusade, a vast amount of our collective ideas and stories about medieval times is inspired by the less than 100 year time of the vast Angevin Realm; a time that was one of the markers for the end of the medieval era and into the Middle ages. Out of the fires of the horrific English civil war known as The Anarchy was forged a multinational British realm which many see as the prototype of the much later British Empire. The Norman kings of England, who still held titles and lands in France from the days of their ancestor William the Conqueror, would themselves conquer south Wales and the eastern half of Ireland; they would make the rest of Ireland and Wales, and the whole of Scotland client states, subordinating their kings to the Angevin crown. Even the mighty kings of France would not be able to enact any meaningful sovereignty over those lands controlled by the Angevins though the Norman lords of those lands were technical his vassals. 

Twin Capitals of Angers and Chinon

 From their fortresses in Angers and Chinon, France, the Plantagenet family ruled a multifaceted realm with strength and intrigue, fending off many outside challengers while trying to find ways to dethrone each other. And although the halls of power are a den of vipers, the outside world, to some extant, lives up to it's romanticized image: it is the age of the knight and the beginning of the ideals of chivalry, of deep christian devotion were the idea of making the 100s of mile journey to the holy land to fight the "heathen" Muslim hordes was a noble and valid way to cleanse ones sins; an age of troubadours and poets chronicling the deeds of great men. At least that's how the peasants liked to view it; as it was a welcomed low in the times of pillaging and burning commoners lands. The nobles, for a time, seemed content on attacking each other directly, besieging and counter sieging each others castles. And there was even room and opportunity for lowest of freeman to make some coin and have adventures of their own, if they were willing to "take the cross" and brave the journey to one of the christian strongholds of Outremer (small christian countries in the middle east that had popped up due to the events of the 1st Crusade).

Eleanor and Henry: Thee power couple of the age

The next couple of articles we will explore the events that shaped this realm, from its rise at the coronation of King Henry II to its disintegration under the inept rule of the villainous and incompetent King John; the constant on again off again wars with France; The aforementioned Third Crusade, also known as the Crusade of Kings, and the frenemy relationship between a Christian King and a Sultan of Islam; the scandalous murder of a revered clergyman; the start of the knightly pastime of tourneys; the beginnings of England's tumultuous relationship with Ireland; and the signing of one of the most important documents in western civilization, the Magna Carta.

We will also look at the great figures of the age, from the ruling dysfunctional Plantagenet family to their most trusted allies and bitterest rivals, though the two categories sometimes interchanged. Some of the personalities we will get to know are King Henry II, the skilled power broker and cunning founder who is one of the inspiration for the character of Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones (top left); the legendary (and oft misunderstood) warrior King Richard the Lionheart (top right); the man historians have dubbed "The Greatest Knight" and the "Paragon of Chivalry", William Marshal 1st Earl of Pembroke (middle left); Saladin, the warlord that united the Muslim world (center); Saint Thomas Becket, once friend than political rival of the King, who was murdered in his own chapel (middle right), to name just a few. We will even cross over into our Badass Women of History Series as we look at the life of one of the most powerful and Machiavellian women in European history, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who played the game so well she could give Cersi Lannister a run for her money.

It is also an era of great debate among historians as views and interpretations of the people and events have shifted back and forth over the years. Was King Henry II complicit in Becket's murder? Does King Richard deserve his vaunted reputation and reverence? Was Saladin a pious and righteous defender of Islam or just a opportunistic warlord? Could the great rivalry between England and France, that lasted for centuries and sparked numerous wars, been prevented, and if so who is at fault the Plantagenet's or the Augustus' (French Royal family)? Was Magna Carta inevitable or just the reaction to the policy's of one bad King? How incompetent of a ruler was King John, does he truly deserve the scorn he receives to this day? Was Robin Hood a real historical figure or a fictional folk hero? Did Ireland and Scotland themselves pave the way for England's dominance over them, or was it pure English aggression? Welcome to the end times of the medieval that would shape the coming High Middle Age, and spawn a singular identity for England; just as the Saxons had done by shaking off their Nordic and Germanic connections, so to will the Norman English break its connections with France.