Angevin # 7: King Henry Part 4: Last Hurrah

When last we left the Angevins, King Henry was truly distraught over the death of his friend, now recognized martyred saint, Thomas Becket; a death Henry himself was not totally blameless and could have caused a religiously inspired revolt to his rule. But our wily king, even in the midst of being visibly shaken and grief stricken, still manged to find a way to turn the political situation to his advantage and gain more popularity among the peasantry of England than ever before. But unbeknownst to him, this would be the height of his success. Twin storms of discontent and dis-function within his own family and resentment from his age old enemies the kings of France, Louie and then his son and heir Phillip, would merge into conflict that will define the later part of his reign. But at the time it would be hard to see trouble coming as during and proceeding the whole Becket controversy Henry manged two more feats of land acquisition, in southern France and the nation of Ireland, using his now signature mixture of strategic military placement and diplomatic trickery.

By this point King Henry II already controlled a vast empire. Besides rule of England, the Welsh Princes and Scottish King were subservient to him as well and were allowed semi-autonomous status as long as they continued sending taxes to London and provided troops when ever Henry called. England was well managed at this time by the not yet ordained and still chancellor, Thomas Becket, so Henry could concentrate on his French ambitions. The Angevin/Norman French realm was massive and monstrously rich, and was beginning to dwarf that of actual France proper. Each of the duchies was manged by a seneschal who reported only to Henry in his French capital of Chinon. And like the rulers of Scotland and Wales were allowed free reign as long as taxes and troops kept flowing to their overlord. Henry also had the allegiance of the Count of Blois, Theobald and a non-aggression alliance with the counts of Flanders (modern day Belgium). Couple that with his control of the strategic Vexin that connected Normandy to the Seine river basin, he was well secure from any machinations of his supposed lord and rival the King of France, Louie VII. But for reasons unknown Henry was adamant that his French lands be connected to the Mediterranean; the three prevailing theories on his motivations are to either increase trade revenue by cutting out the French Kings' tariffs, a desire to open up a crusader port and thus again cut France and/or Italy out of the costs of sending soldiers to the holy land, or a port to help launch his own efforts in the Reconquista for the purpose of gaining his own piece of Spain from its Muslim occupiers. No matter what his reason, to do this he would need the Duchy of Toulouse. 

Duchy of Toulouse

The position of Duke of Toulouse was currently unoccupied, but one of the Duchy's minor lords, Count Raymond V was making a claim for the entire region. Henry, again, tried to play for a puppet ruler, supporting a cousin of Queen Eleanor's, Raymond Berenguer's claim to the Duchy. However he lost interest soon after and set off for Spain were he would, for his deeds against the Muslims, be made Count of Barcelona. So in 1159, Henry threatened invasion, under the pretext that Raymond V was usurping the Duchy from his wife Eleanor. Henry and Eleanor claimed that she had familial ties all over northern and western Toulouse and so with hers being the greater family, had a stronger claim than that of Raymond. But the ambitious count would receive a bit of propping up from an unlikely source, the French King. Even though Raymond was from a lesser noble family, Louie offered his sister Constance for marriage to Raymond. It seems the French king was not going to let yet another region go so easily to Henry as he had done in Brittany and Blois. Henry immediately called for a meeting with Louie, where at, Louie made reassurances that he was not dismissing Eleanor's claim and that he as King would stay a neutral arbitrator in these competing claims. He also claimed that the marriage was merely trying to preserve Raymond's title and lands for if Henry does invade and takes the rest of the Duchy; helping to preserve the ancestral rights of a loyal vassal as a good liege lord should. Henry left satisfied and began his preparations for an invasion. It all turned out to be a big lie; Henry, for the first time had been played. He arrived with his forces and a force of Scotsmen lead by King Malcolm IV, outside the Duchy's capital, the city of Toulouse, to find Raymond and King Louise already there, as Louie gave the city to Raymond as a belated wedding gift. Louise again claimed that he was not naming Raymond as Duke, just giving control of the capital and its surrounding territories revenues to his new brother-in-law. Henry was livid, he could not attack Raymond for a gift received by the French King, nor could he attack the French King as he would be labeled as a traitor by the church since technically all his French lands were part of France, if in just name only. Henry took out his frustrations on the northern half of the Duchy, destroying nearly all the castles near Toulouse's border with Aquitaine and even taking the entire county of Quercy and several towns and villages in the surrounding counties. For his part, Malcolm finally earned what he always wanted, a knighting by Henry. Louie knew he had pushed Henry into the famed rage of the Plantagenets of Anjou.  With the Scottish king in thrall and awe of his new status and his admiration of Henry, willing to follow him into whatever bloody deed, Henry and Malcolm's troops could ravage the entire duchy into ash and who knows how far this English, Scottish, Norman horde would go if Henry was not calmed. He offered peace terms with Henry: firstly, he could keep the County of Quercy as a permanent part of Aquitaine; next, Raymond would not be named Duke of Toulouse, instead Raymond would hold Toulouse in the name of the French King until his death, when Louie will decide who is the rightful ruler (whom he hinted would be Eleanor), but Raymond's heirs would still hold ancestral titles of counts of the city of Toulouse and the city of Lombers under whomever would be named Duke or Duchess; and lastly, the arranged marriage between Henry's son Henry and the French princess Margaret was reaffirmed and Margaret given to Eleanor to care for as a daughter. This last part was the clincher, Henry would essentially have a royal hostage and the dowry of the all important Vexin was guaranteed. And so a peace treaty was signed in 1160.

Princess Maragret and Prince Phillip of France

 But again it was more French trickery; a delaying tactic for Louie's plan to contain the Angevin expansion. When the English and Scottish went back home, troops loyal to the French king poured into Toulouse along the northern border with Aquitaine. Meanwhile the now widowed Louie married the sister of Count Theobald of Blois, shifting his allegiance away from Henry. Louie had weighed losing the Vexin, his gateway to Normandy, in favor of the ability to threaten southern Aquitaine, the richest and most prosperous of Henry's realms and through Theobald, threatened the eastern border of the Plantagenet homeland, the County of Anjou. Henry immediately responded by a extremely controversial move even by those times standards, he bullied the papal legates to marry his five year old Henry with three year old Margaret. He now could potentially make a legal claim for a just war against Louie, without fear of condemnation from the church of being named a traitor, all in the name of pressing his sons new claim to French throne. It was now just a matter of who would blink first, who would trigger a massive war that could see all of France in engulfed in the flames of war. It would be Count Theobald who flinched, he moved his troops to the south west corner of his county of Blois, its borders meet Anjou and Aquitaine, but he miscalculated where his border ends and Anjou's begin and camped his troops just inside Anjou. Henry immediately claimed his rightful territory was being invaded and launched of Norman, Anjou, and Brittany surprise attack on the Blois capital of Chaumont, taking Theobald's castle and household. Wider war seemed inevitable as Henry sent messengers back to England to call up English, Scottish, and Welsh troops and Louie called upon his loyal vassals, the powerful dukes of Burgundy and Champagne, as well as negotiating a price for Italian mercenaries. It is at this point Pope Alexander III stepped in and called Henry and Louie to peace talkes in the forest of Freteval, in Anjou. The 1162 peace arbitrated directly by the Pope saw the Vexin and Blois legally bound to Henry, meanwhile Eleanor was forced to abandon all claim to Toulouse, which would now be in the direct hands of King Louie. Eleanor was furious, not only did she lose what she felt was rightfully her county of Toulouse and the ability to hold southern ports over her husband, but also her beloved ancestral home of Aquitaine would be forever threatened at its southern border. Henry on the other hand was more than pleased, he now had rightful and church recognized ownership of counties that gave him a permanent staging ground to threaten Paris from the North and the West.

Henry's good mood would be shot down a few pegs upon his return to Chinon at the news from messengers of the disturbing activities of his friend Becket, whom he recently appointed archbishop of Canterbury. He returned to London to sort things out, meanwhile, Eleanor returned to her beloved Aquitaine. Unbeknownst to Henry this was the beginning of the end for his relationship with the increasingly bitter Eleanor, as will come to see. But for now, having spent so much time in France it was time for the King to put things in order in the northern half of his domain, England. While he was concerned about his friends new found piety and what it was doing to the realm, the timing of his return could not have been more fortuitous. The little island next-store, the realm of the last remnants of Celtic self rule was in dynastic turmoil and with turmoil and chaos comes opportunity.

Ireland at the time was composed of dozens of kingdoms, each with their own king. They in turn were lorded over by the four Over-Kingdoms of Munster, Leinster, Connaught, and Ulster. Title of these kingdoms was hereditary, but to keep the peace between all these royal lines, a ultimate arbitrator, known as the High King, was appointed to be the final authority in all disputes. All the kings would gather and vote on which one would be high king, the over kings votes counting more than the lesser kings. It was a lifetime appointment, but not hereditary and so when the high king died the kings would vote again. It was system that had been in place since 1022 when the Ui Neill (O'Neill) dynasty, who dominated Ireland for 100s of years as High-Kings by blood, lost the right for the title to be hereditary under the controversial rule of Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, a member of the O'Neill through is mother. He lost the throne and was only allowed to reclaim it if the clan adhered to the new power sharing system. Members of the O'Neill clan would find themselves to be voted High-King on a couple of occasions since. But for where our story is at, in 1166, the current high king is Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (Rory O'Connor), of clan Ui Briuin (O'Brian). High King Rory conspired with a couple of the minor kings of Leinster to oust the Lienster Over-King Diarmait Mac Murchada (Dermot MacMurragh). Dermot was seen as the next choice for high king after Rory's death, and so the high king fearful that Dermot might someday try to have him assassinated and also to try and steer who would be his successor, instigated a revolt seeking Dermot to step down as over-king and resign himself to being just king of Uí Ceinnselaig (modern day County of Wexford). Instead Dermot fled Ireland to seek help from the Welsh, long seen as cousins of the south eastern Irish. But upon arriving in Wales he learned of the Welsh nobles subservience to the English, in particularly to the powerful and militant Marcher lords. Dermot knew just a few of these battle hardened families could help him turn the tide and retake his crown.

Dermot MacMurragh pleads with Henry

So in 1167 Dermot appeared before King Henry and asked his permission to recruit some of the Marcher and Welsh lords to help his just pursuit. He applied to Henry's sense of justice, that he had never plotted against his liege lord High King O'Connor, and that this was all being done in the name of an irrational paranoia and hatred from a man he never offended. Dermot knew better than to ask Henry for direct help, as it would be seen as betraying his country to foreign invaders and would look treasonous to not only his people but again to that almighty arbitrator, the church. Thus why he was only asking to recruit his lords as mercenaries. But unbeknownst to Dermot he was in over his head dealing with such a man as Henry. Henry agreed to allow his men, those that chose to be recruited, to go to Ireland and help the deposed Over-king. He asked for no payment for himself, just that his men be generously compensated for their efforts. This should have been Dermots first clue that he was leading his people into a trap; that there was a reason people claimed the Plantagenets where "born of the devil". What sort of king renders aid with no price? Why a king that had long made plans with his lords and the church to bring the Celts and there wayward church to heel. The Catholic church, for decades, have had no luck in trying to exert control over the Irish clergy and to bring Irish Christianity more in line with the wider Latin community. Henry, being the insistently informed of all goings on in western Europe was well aware of what was happening and so made a secret deal with the church: that in exchange for funds under the table and for the church's assurance that no ecclesiastical legal objections get thrown his way in how he accomplishes Ireland's compliance, he in turn would open up positions within the Irish church to be filled with Rome sympathizers and appointees. So when Dermot landed in Wales, naturally the clergy pointed in Henry's direction as the man Dermont should talk to for the manpower he needed.

With Henry's blessing and "recommendations" of who he should look to recruit, Dermot obtained the support of four prominent marcher lords and their armies: Maurice de Prendergast, Maurice Fitzgerald, Robert Fitzstephen, and the leader of the bunch and most powerful of them all Richard "Strongbow" de Clare. They all swore there swords to Dermots cause, but together had a secret agenda on Henry's behalf, to establish a strong Norman position and presence within Ireland. They landed in May of 1169 in Bannow Bay and immediately made themselves indispensable to Dermot, out preforming any of his Irish commanders and gaining more and more of an influence. The swift results the Normans were making for him even enchanted Dermot to offer his daughter in marriage to Strongbow. This shocked and worried all the Irish on both sides of the conflict, worried about Norman's receiving land rights in Ireland and so compelled High King O'Connor to make peace with Dermot and end the war before more Normans arrived. O'Conner offered Dermot re-installment as Over-King of Leinster as long as he sent his Norman mercenaries home. While Dermot was about to accept the offer, Maurice Fitzgerald landed more men outside of Dublin where he claims he was under constant attack. Fearing how Henry would react if one of his nobles was killed by those he was currently making peace with, Dermot marched on Dublin to find out what was going on as the High-King's allies claimed no knowledge of such attacks. Seeing the arrival of Dermots army spooked Dublin's militia, barred the city, and attacked as if trying to deter an invader. Dermot, shocked and angered by his own peoples reaction to him linked up with Fitzgerald's men and raided the surrounding countryside. At news of this the High-King rescinded his peace offer and hostilities restarterd. As for Fitzgerald's claim of being under attack, who knows if it was ever true. Strongbow arrived in the spring of 1170 with an overwhelming force to take the city of Dublin by force and scare any of the High-Kings armies in the area into full retreat further into Ireland. As a reward Dermot finalazed Strongbow's marriage to his daughter Aife. Things moved at an accelerated pace form there on in, and out of the control of Dermot, who looked in confusion as the Normans, with speed and determination (and per-planning) took over the reconstruction of Dublin, building improved, massive fortifications. He did not know that the money, material, and plans, for this new stronghold had secretly come from Rome through Henry to Strongbow. The Normans now had their foothold. An combined army of several Irish Kings attacked the newly erected fortress city of Dublin and were not only repulsed but chased out of Leinster all together. For the next year the Normans took more and more control of Dermot's war out of his and his Irish commanders hands; more Norman fortifications where erected throughout the coast of Leinster. Dermot had began to see the consequences of his deal with the devils of Anjou. He mysteriously died in May of 1171 and Richard "Strongbow" de Clare declared himself King of Leinster by way of his marriage to Dermot's daughter Aife. Richard even said he would pay homage to O'Connor as his High-King, but the Irish would have none of it, demanding the Normans all leave Ireland and that Dermot's younger brother Murchad was the rightful Over-King. The full might of Ireland pushed the Normans to their coastal strongholds of Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford. Again, Strongbow sued for peace, but all High-King O'Connor would offer was rule of the small city Waterford only, not even his wife ancestral home of Wexford. The final peace of the long trap had been sprung, and Ireland's fate would be sealed.

Henry arrived at Waterford with the might of England. He proclaimed he was there to render aid to a vassal in danger, Richard de Clare and to protect the hereditary rights of de Clare's wife Aife. The clergy that Henry brought with him agreed, that by the recognized laws of western Christendom Richard and Aife were the rightful rulers of Wexford, and that the High-King of Ireland was guilty of unjustified usurpation after Richard had promised to recognize O'Connor as his liege lord in Ireland. Henry's forces swept through Leinster, with many of the Irish Kings of Leinster paying homage to Henry and making marriage alliances with Norman lords. Others Irish lords who did not submit found themselves quickly deposed and a Norman made a count of baron of the area in their place. Strongbow was made Duke of Leinster, holding the former kingdom in Henry's name. The Normans and the Irish collabrators drove the High King and any of his supporters completly out of Leinster and even created and held buffer areas in the other three over kingdoms. But the biggest piece of the conquest was Latin clergy's conversion of the Irish clerics to Rome's way of thinking. The church proclaimed in a document called Laudabiliter were they named Henry as savior of the Irish Church and gave him dominion to call and oversee the Synod of Cashel, where Irish and English clergy met to bring Irish Christians more in line with Rome's teaching and authority. Surprisingly the clergy liked what their English counterparts had to say and saw it as a great opportunity to bring more stability in their parishes and drive out more of the remaining pagan influences throughout all of Ireland. One Irish chronicler had even gone so far as to say "Henry has completed what St. Patrick had started."

It would be the reformed clergy that would apply the political pressure to bring High King O'Connor to the negotiating table. Henry Plantagenet and Rory O'Connor met and signed the Treaty of Windsor on October 6, 1175. Leinster was to stay under the control of English, the High-King would remain in control of the other three over-kingdoms but like Scotland and Wales was to pay homage and yearly tribute to Henry, effectivly making Ireland a client state. Ireland had been added to the Angevin Empire. Though there would be continuing and everlasting border disputes between the Norman and Irish lords as long as tribute and man power came to London when Henry called he did not care who was abusing the terms of the treaty. Just like the Welsh Princes and the Marcher Lords it would be a chaotic mess for years to come, but in the end there was no doubt who the final say rested with in disputes all over Ireland, and it never from the seat of a High-King ever again.