Angevin # 8: The Great Revolt a/k/a Eleanor's Revolt

"There is a legend of a King called Lear, whom I have a lot in common. Both of us have kingdoms and multiple children we adore, and both of us are old, but there it ends. He cuts his kingdom into bits. I cannot do that. I've built an empire and I must know that it is going to last. All of the British Isles, half of France; I am the greatest power in a 1000 years, greater even than Charlemagne...." - Peter O'Toole as King Henry II in "A Lion in Winter"

"Well what family doesn't have its ups and downs" - Kathrine Hepburn as Queen Eleanor in "A Lion in Winter"

By the end of 1172, 39 year old Henry Plantagenet, militarily and diplomatically, was arguably the most powerful man in western Europe save the Pope in Rome. But his recent missteps in the Toulouse conflict and the tragedy that was the Becket controversy, though both situations salvaged, had made him realize his own mortality and concerned him of his legacy staying intact after he was gone. He had controversially crowned his eldest child, 17 year old Henry, as junior king of England, Duke of Normandy, and Count of Anjou; his next eldest, 16 year old Matilda was part of a marriage alliance with one of the most powerful men in the German Holy Roman Empire, Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria; Henry convinced Queen Eleanor to abdicate her ducal title of Aquitaine to their 15 year old son, Richard; Geoffrey, 14, was betrothed to Constance of Brittany, making him the future Duke of that Celtic-French province; and young Eleanor, 10, was betrothed to the crown prince of the Spanish realm of Castile. All of this planning and assigning of roles was to insure the Angevin Empire stayed unified and House Plantagenet remains a dominate powerhouse after he was gone, all under the overlord ship of his eldest and favorite son Henry. And even with all that he still had 7 year old Joan, 6 year old John, known as "Lackland" since he was the only brother without title waiting for him, and a bevy of bastards to use as place holders or marriage pawns.

Rosemund de Clifford

It all seemed so perfect and the Plantagenets looked to be thee most solidly unified royal family of all of Europe. But something rotten was brewing within the family, and her name was Eleanor. She had been Henry's partner since the beginning with the understanding they would be co-rulers in the empire they had schemed together to build. But she had been cut out little by little. First it was Becket, whom Henry lavished favor and power on. Eleanor saw him as a third wheel and when Becket turned on Henry, she did what she could to prevent any meaningful reconciliation. Then there was control of her beloved homeland of Aquitaine: she understood Henry's appointment of a seneschal as she could not be there most of the time, she would need to be seen at Henry's side at court; but then he had convinced her to give the region up completely to their son Richard. She begrudgingly accepted since the artistic and poetic Richard was her favorite of their children, but it was still a bitter act. Then there was Toulouse, a region her family had been coveting for generations; she thought it was finally within her grasp with Henry obsessing over gaining a Mediterranean port. But then it was gone, given up by Henry in favor of his ambitions against Paris. Henry's Irish campaign was another project she and those loyal to her were cut out of. Henry used his ever loyal Marcher lords to do his dirty work; not one of her southern French nobles that were with them in their mobile court was even considered to be a part the scheme. But what hurt her the most was Henry's love affair with the 19 year old daughter of the Marcher lord Walter de Clifford, Rosamund. Henry met her when she was 14, during the end of his Welsh campaigns, and had become fascinated by her. Said to be extremely mature and intelligent for her age, the half Norman, half Welsh Rosamund was educated and dressed in a mix of both her heritages. For the next four years he kept in touch with the Clifford family, showing them favor at court, showering them with gifts and privileges. And then when she was 18, Rosamund was invited to be a royal courtier. Everyone one knew, and it was an open secret what Henry's intentions were, but no one objected. Even Lord Clifford knew and accepted it as customary for the time. Kings and great magnates of the realm often had "official" mistresses from the lower nobility and he saw it has having a huge advantage to have his daughter in the king's bed ...ah, I mean ear; besides, he had many other children to use for purpose of marriage allegiance. Wives of nobles, like Eleanor, were use to their lord husbands having mistresses and she knew of Henry's many, despite Becket's attempts to hid them; it was part and parcel to noble life. But there was something different about Rosamund. Henry's love for her was well beyond his carnal dalliances with other woman. Worse yet for Eleanor was the comparisons; Rosamund was Eleanor's intellectual equal and was as skilled in manipulating the court as she was: some think it was Rosamund that lead Henry to using only Marcher lords in the Irish campaign as the men picked were all allies of her father. And she was beautiful, having many of the same revered features Eleanor once had when she and Henry first met. Obviously, Henry had a type, and Eleanor could see Rosamund as nothing more than a younger version of herself and a possible replacement. Curiously though, Rosamund drops out of history after that, nothing more is written about her in actual historical documents or relayed by chroniclers; and her family became just another of long list of obscure minor nobles. Many poems, songs, and plays are written about the enchanting Rosamund, some even contemporary of the time. All of them seem to suggest or some flat out implicate that Queen Eleanor had her killed. The most popular of tales tell of Eleanor using a labyrinth of secret passages to enter Rosamund's room at night and having cornered the girl gave her the choice of a dagger or poison; the beautiful maiden choosing the later. Whatever the case may be, Henry, already withdrawn since the death of Becket, now extended his cold shoulder to his wife as well, clearly blaming her for the absence of Rosamund in his life. But this would not be the end of it, Eleanor had only just begun her campaign of misery against her husband. She was determined to squeeze the will to live from him by turning his sons against him, beginning with his first born and favorite, Henry, and threatening the old lion's cherished legacy.

Henry the Younger

Henry, the boy king, was the golden child of European Christendom. The now 18 year old scion of House Plantagenet was a paragon: a tall, blond, handsome young man of impeccable manners and courtesy. A royal clerk named Walter Map wrote of young Henry, "lovable, eloquent, handsome, gallant, every way attractive, a little lower than the angels." There was also his marriage to princess Margaret of France, all eyes turned to the young couple as the future of Europe for when they bore a child, it would bring together the twin powers, Plantagenet and Capetian, England and France united into a new super power the world had not known since the imperial families of ancient Rome. Everyone was in awe of what the future could hold. As if that wasn't enough Henry added an earned an awe-inspiring and celebrity reputation on the tournament circuits throughout France, England, Northern Italy, and western Germany. He was part of a team of knights, all young sons of noble houses, the next generation of Norman leadership, lead by the famed tourney champion Sir William Marshal; and together they won accolade after accolade on the game fields. Befriended and personally trained by the great Marshal himself, young Henry had the horsemanship and melee skill to rival any opponent. To give this sports team a modern day equivalent, Marshal and his team were Belichek and the New England Patriots, and Henry was their Brady. But with the fame came an expected level of grandiose; Henry traveled with a large retinue, equipped and clothed his fellows in only the best and finest, and was generous to a fault. It was a lifestyle that he struggled to maintain, even with the large purses won at tourney. But how could that be, he was the crown prince and held titles in northern France? Well, even though his father had bequeathed him those titles, it was in name only; practical control and use of revenues still rested with his father. Young Henry was given a stipend and given free reign in use of whatever castles or estates in Normandy and Anjou for housing and hosting events, but he had no source of income as his own and his stipend was not cutting it any more. He argued with his father that he was not just throwing money away, that this was all part of developing and nurturing relationships with his future lords and a reputation, an aura, of largess and magnanimity that would pay off in spades of loyalty when he is king. But King Henry wouldn't hear of it, claiming he had ruled through the sword and by being smarter than his opponents, and his son should do the same; that rule through luxury smacked too much of the french courts and look were that has got them. The crown prince's best friend and mentor, William Marshal, pleaded with him to drop it, that he and his men would remain loyal to him no matter what, but in the end it would be his mother's poisonous words that would drive a wedge between father and son.

Geoffrey of Brittany

Henry the younger knew that his father planned on naming is little brother John as castellen of 3 castles in his duchy of Normandy as a way to make the 7 year old more attractive for a proposed marriage between prince John and the daughter of the Count of Maurienne. But Eleanor lied to her young Henry and told him it is not just three castles his father planes on naming to John, that it was the start of a process to split off a chunk of Normandy into a separate county for John. Couple this with playing on her sons money issues with his father and the boy's resentment toward the king for Becket's death who he loved as a father more than the king and she had sold him on the idea of rebellion against his father. She had her other two sons, Richard and Geoffrey, come to Poitier and meet with her and Henry. Geoffrey was easy to convince, he had been frustrated in his position as almost duke of Brittany, he wanted the title, power and revenues now and did not see the point in waiting for when his future wife Constance was old enough to marry. At 15 Geoffrey had developed a reputation of ambition, deviousness, cunning, and an intelligence that bordered on scary. He developed his parents love of scheming and honed it to a fine art and in the words of his own mother she saw within him, "a great capacity for hate." It was these qualities that had made King Henry suspicious of his own son and why he was making him wait; he knew Geoffrey was more than capable to run his own realm, smarter than any of his other offspring. But he was frightened of what the boy might do without control and did not want to give him the power until he could find a way to keep him in check.

Richard of Aquitaine

It would be a bit more difficult to connive Richard to betray their father. The future lion-heart grew up on the great epic tales and poems of chivalric military figures like noble King Arthur and the mighty Roland. So enthralled with the image of the idealize valorous knight that he himself wrote songs and poems on the subject and dedicated himself to the art of war, gaining and displaying enough skill and bravery at tournaments that he earned his own knighthood at 12, one of the youngest to ever earn the title. He to wanted to utilize the vast revenues that should be his as Duke of Aquitaine, as he wanted to create a retinue of knights of his own and go on the tournament circuits, to live out his dreams of being a world renowned knight like his older brother. Except he and young Henry did not see eye to eye on what it all meant: Henry saw knighthood in the eyes of politics, and fraternity; Richard, saw it through the eyes of a warrior, to test oneself and hone oneself into a better man. The two had never gotten along because of this ideological divide. Richard more than once accusing Henry of debasing the title of knight and the code of chivalry; Henry in turn mocked his younger brother's seriousness, excusing Richard of sucking the joy out of life.  It would have to be Eleanor who would bring Richard around. In the end his mother got to him too, though no one knows exactly how. Rumors, accusations, and speculation surround Richard to this day of his reasons. There are two persistent claims, the ones that there seems to be at least a shred of evidence that they might be true. The first is that his mother seduced him into an incestuous affair which she then lorded over him. There was no denying that Richard, throughout his entire life was Eleanor's favorite child  and that Richard seemed to have a very odd bi-polar relationship with her, were as at some points he was closer to her than anyone else, and at other points would do everything he can to avoid her and not speak of her. The other accusation, though not mutually exclusive from the other, is that Eleanor had found out about Richard's bisexual nature and pushed him into a relationship with Prince Phillip of France, who in turn helped Eleanor in convincing Richard into betrayal. Either way the conspiracy was set and the three started making contacts and allegiances with those they thought would help.

King Louie VII; Prince Phillip, Count of Flanders; Theobald V, Count of Blois; and Matthew of Alsace, Count of Boulogne

A grand alliance was made with Eleanor and her three eldest sons gaining the support of King Louie of France and his his son Prince Phillip who was now also the Count of Flanders; newly crowned King William I of Scotland who succeeded his brother, the King Henry sycophant, Malcolm IV who had died of a degenerate bone disease; the counts of Blois and Bouloge; and a handful of English lords who believed young Henry would be a more inclusive ruler than his iron-fisted father. But as secret plans were being made second thoughts started to creep into young Henry's mind, probably instigated by his good friend Sir William Marshal. Eleanor had to act fast if her plot to overthrow her husband and rule through manipulating her sons was going to work; the alliance was dependent on Henry's charisma and leadership and so needed him committed. She lied to two of her son's top advisers, Richard Barre and William Blund, and his personal chaplain, that they had all made a great mistake and now she could not convince Henry to abandon his plans for revolt; that only King Henry could de-escalate the situation. While the three men rode from Poitier to Chinon to tell the king what was transpiring, Eleanor told her sons that the three men were betraying them all, that there was no going back now and they had to act quickly. When King Henry heard the news he immediately set out for Poitier hoping to stop the madness before it could begin, but he was too late. Young Henry had already made for Paris to connect his forces with Louie and Phillip, Richard rode to Aquitaine to rally the southern French lords to his mothers cause, and Geoffrey rode to Brittany to use his influence to convince the lords there to revolt as well. Only Queen Eleanor was captured; King Henry's men caught her trying to sneak out of the area disguised as a male merchant, making for Aquitaine. By April 1173 the Great Revolt had started and King Henry was forced mobilized his forces against his own sons. The loyal noble houses of his father's Anjou rode north into Normandy and combined their forces with the counts of Argentan and Avranches to protect Henry's rear from Geoffrey and the Brittians, meanwhile Henry consolidated the might of the Normans around what he perceived to be the mostly likely target of his traitorous family, the great cathedral city of Rouen; the spiritual center of all Normans in Europe since the days of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy and where William the Conqueror had built one of the greatest cathedrals in all of Christendom in 1063. If Rouen fell it would be a crushing moral defeat for the famed viking descended Normans. Henry needed to defend it long enough for his English lords to deploy their forces across the channel.

King William I; Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester; and Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk

Socttish Invasion and Rebellion of Norfolk and Leicester

But his loyal lords in England would not be able to come, for the Scottish King, William I had begun an invasion of the northern English region known as North Umberia, and  the rebellious English lords of Leichester, Robert de Beaumont, and Norfolk, Hugh Bigod, started seizing all the castles around the great cities of York and Chester. Henry's realm was invaded on all sides: by the Scottish and rebel English lords in the north; Geoffrey and the Brittians in the West; Richard's and Theobald V's forces in the South; the French crown prince Phillip and the Count of Boulogne to the east; and his heir Henry, with the King of France, like a dagger to his heart were thrusting up the ever prominent Vexin, toward the very heart of Normandy, Rouen. All looked dire for Henry and his advisors all called for a retreat to southern England, to take the fight to the Scottish and the rebel lords first before retaking Normandy and Rouen. Henry would hear none of it. He sent riders to his forces in western Normandy, who had taken up defensive positions west of Argentan, and told them to proceed with an all out attack against the youngest of his traitorous sons, Geoffrey. Though it was a small force, Henry banked on Geoffrey's inexperience; the boy may have been a master political tactician but did his vaunted intelligence apply to military thinking and leadership as well? Turns out Geoffrey was not prepared for such an assault. He had geared himself for a siege campaign against Argentan, his plan to take the city and hold it as a distraction to draw some of his fathers forces away from the more offensive forces of the eastern front of his brother Henry. But now faced with an army coming straight at him he did not have the were-with-all to form an on field impromptu defensive line. His Brittany forces broke apart before the the Anjou/Norman force even reached him. Geoffrey was taken into custody to Chinon to await his father's justice. At the same time, up in England, Richard de Lucy, the sheriff of Essex, had organized a swift mobile hit and run army, attacking supply lines, baggage trains, and foraging parties of both the rebel English lords and the Scottish armies. The chaos of trying to catch him prevented the two armies from ever linking up, giving the loyal English lords time to bolster their defenses and start a campaign of starving out the twin armies, never letting them gain enough stability and preparedness to enact a serious attack or siege of anymore major towns or castles. The rebel Earl of Norfolk, Hugh Bigod, was completely cut off by loyalist forces and was cornered in his own territory. Frustrated, not able to combined with his ally Hugh, rebel lord Robert de Beaumont rode north to try and get the Scottish to break Bigod out  only to find his way blocked by a force of loyalist lead by de Lucy, who has been given the title of Chief Justicar for his earlier efforts, at the bridge in Fornham. At the Battle of Fornham, Beaumont tried to fight his way across the bridge but de Lucy held and forced Beaumont to try and find a long way around, costing him valuable time.

The cathedral of Rouen, consecrated 1063

News of Geoffrey's defeat and of the rebel's bogged down northern England campaign reached King Henry and Young Henry around the same time. It was a race against time now. How fast could the old king consolidate his forces and bolster the defense of Rouen verse how fast can his son and his allies get there to take it and win a victory that could call into question the loyalty of Henry's Norman lords. But the old dog still had a few tricks, he divided his forces in half, leaving one half to hold Rouen from the coming besieging force of the Count of Blois and Richard, who were only two or three days away. He secretly lead his other half north and then east coming up behind Prince Phillip's Flemish force. Totally surprised and not yet at full strength for having not linked up with the Count of Boulogne's forces, Phillip was routed and retreated back to Flanders. Keeping the momentum and hoping to catch Boulogne before he heard the news, Henry rode hard south and again caught the force marching for Rouen by suprise, hitting it in the flank. Again, a complete route and the Count of Boulogne would retreat and abandon the war completely. Henry's small garrisons in the Vexin were delaying young Henry and King Louie's forces enough that King Henry could make it back to Rouen before they arrived. Expectedly, the Count of Blois, the old turn coat, Theobald V, and his son Richard were already there laying siege to the city. A parley was called and Henry got Blois to agree to a truce were Blois could retreat a days march back and wait join up with the forces making their way up the Vexin; but more importantly Richard was reconciled back to his father's side. Richard's men of Aquitaine merged with the defense of Rouen and Richard swore to never again raise arms against his father. All he asked for in exchange was that his mother be shown leniency, imprisonment instead of execution for treason. Henry made no grantees to any of their fates, except to welcome his son back, promising to not to see any harm come to him. April of 1174, Richard was left in charge of the defense of Rouen, against the forces of his older brother and the French King, while his father made haste for England to organize a counter attack against Scotland and the rebel lords.

Henry came back to find things well in hand for the most part. He kept up pressure, squeezing Norfolk's domain tighter and tighter until he was forced to surrender. Henry was gracious and let his family keep their original earldom, but Hugh himself set off on pilgrimage and self imposed exile to the holy land for penance. He would die in bed in Palestine in 1177, having never seen his home or family again. De Lucy finally caught up with Beaumont and captured him. Again Henry showed mercy, allowing his family to keep their original lands while the rebel lord himself would find himself as a personal retainer and household knight of his son Richard, whom he would stay by the side of for the rest of his life. As for the king of Scotland, his role in the Great Revolt would come to an end on July 13, 1174, at the battle of Alnwick. King William had met with great success so for, in his bid to conquer North Umbria, having not come across a force that could match his own since the majority of loyalist forces had been dealing with Bigod and Beaumont south of him. But the fact that he was not able to utilize supplies from their lands, which was part of the original plan, he had started to run out of provisions and so made a beeline to get back to Scotland and resupply to continue to consolidate his hold over territory won. A patrolling warband of about 100 English knights lead by Sir Ranulf de Glanville came upon the Scottish forces camp at dawn and immediately attacked the waking Scotsmen. Less than half of King William's men were able to get into armor before the English knights were upon them. William himself having been able to armor up and get on his horse in time was himself soon captured after his horse was killed out from under him in the first 15 minutes of battle. King William was brought before Henry who forced the Scottish King to sign the Treaty of Falaise which stipulated Scotland pay England 40,000 marks of silver (approximately $18 million, give or take a million), a reaffirmation of English dominance of Scotland, and the right of the English king to make several clergy appointment in the Scottish church. Henry also took what was left of the Scottish invasion force down to France with him as part of his final face off with his son Henry and King Louie.

So on September 30, 1174, two massive armies glared at each other across the fields outside Normandy's spiritual heart, the city of Rouen. One one side was King Henry and his Norman and Anjou knights, Richard's Aquitaine force, and the subservient William I's Scottish force. On the other was King Louie and young Henry's eastern French forces, Theobald V of Blois' forces, and what Prince Phillip could regain of his Flemish forces since their flight. Now, with the prospect and very real possibility of 1000s dying including dozens of the great men of western Europe and the magnificent cathedral city going up in flames, both sides agreed to talks, known as the Truce of Gisors. Theobald V of Blois walked away with nothing, a point of irritation between him and prince Phillip in the years to come. Geoffrey would be confirmed as Duke of Brittany, but its revenues were to be split between him and his father and only Henry could call the Brittians to arms. Richard was reaffirmed Duke of Aquitaine with all the rights, privileges, and revenues that went with it. He was also betrothed to King Louie's 14 year old daughter Alys and the Vexin given as an advancement on her dowry. King Louie was promised by King Henry that no more regions of France would be plotted for Plantagenet control; that Angevin expansion was now over in France. Young Henry was reaffirmed as count of Anjou, his father's ancestral home, with all the rights and privileges therein, except again the majority of the county's produced revenue would go to Henry's treasury in Chinon. But the prize that the young Henry had fought these 18 months for, the great Duchy of Normandy, would remain out of his grasp; to remain his in name only and the ambition for greater revenue reduced to a small increase in his stipend from his father. As for Queen Eleanor, she was to be held captive for the next 16 years and moved around from castle to castle under house arrest. Moved often across the empire so as not to be able to sink her claws in any one place too deep. While in captivity see was still treated well and still maintained a semi-luxurious lifestyle, but Henry and their sons rarely saw her, only when state occasions and holidays called for Henry to have his Queen at his side. King Henry had done it, he had staved off the greatest threat his empire and known to date; at 41 he had been attacked on all sides from without and within and he had come out on top. But Eleanor was not done yet getting revenge and so from her towers and house arrests she plotted her next move.........