Ten Minute English and British History #10 - The Angevin Empire and Richard the Lionheart

1154 and Henry II has become King of England. Unlike most of his predecessors, his succession didn't lead to a prolonged civil war, which was a nice change of pace. Henry II was not just the King of England, he was also the Duke of Normandy, the Count of Anjou and the Duke of Aquitaine. This meant that alongside all of those titles, he ruled all of this territory, making him the most powerful ruler in all of Europe. The large domains which he held were both a strength and a weakness. Henry was unsurprisingly extremely wealthy, since he was able to tax the export of goods made in his French holdings, such as wine and salt, and also had the largest taxable population in Europe. The weakness of all this territory was that he made enemies with the King of France and the other French nobles, who felt that Henry was far too powerful. To put this into perspective, these were the borders of medieval France, and these were the parts of said kingdom which swore their allegiance to Henry and not the French King Louis VII. Shockingly, this arrangement was not popular with Louis. Henry attempted to stabilise the English kingdom after the turmoil of the civil war during his predecessor's reign. He first managed to intimidate Scotland's seized. Throughout the next decade, Henry found himself involved much more in the squabbles of his French neighbours. In fact, Henry spent the majority of his reign in his French holdings, which were centred at Chinon, here. This is important in highlighting that the Plantagenet should not be seen as English kings with French holdings, but as French nobles who were also the kings of England. Henry managed to expand his territory to this, with the most notable gain being the Duchy of Britain in 1166. Henry also managed to force the submission of Toulouse in the following decade, but it didn't last. Henry's relationship with the rest of France did not improve, and in 1167 he banned English monks from learning at the University of Paris, which led to the rapid growth of Oxford as a major site of learning. So Henry had three major issues moving forward. The first was the relationship between the crown and the church, the second was the conquest of Ireland, and the third was by far his greatest problem, the succession. Henry's issues with the church revolved mostly around one man, Thomas Becket, whom Henry was close friends with and had made the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. Henry had hoped that by appointing a friend, his issues with the church would be glossed over. Unfortunately for Henry, Thomas was a principled man and almost immediately began berating the king for his violations of church rights. One of the main issues was surrounding ecclesiastical courts, which were courts the church used to judge the clergy, since according to church doctrine, secular courts were not fit to judge holy men. This annoyed Henry, since 1. there were criminals in his kingdom who didn't have to answer to him, and 2. secular courts would often punish people by seizing property, thus giving the king more revenue, which he liked. Becket defied the king's wish to try men of the church, and in 1164 Henry put Becket on trial for trumped up charges, which were essentially, you don't like the king, so you have to go. Becket was found guilty and fled to the continent, leaving the king to do whatever he wanted. In 1169, Henry turned his attention to the conquest of Ireland. Henry had been considering this since 1155, when he received permission to do so from Pope Hadrian IV, the only English pope ever. The authenticity of this permission is disputed, and some believe Henry made it up as a convenient excuse to conquer. Irrespective of the authenticity of this permission, Henry got to conquering. The first people to go to Ireland were mercenaries who were helping a deposed Irish king, though in 1170 some of Henry's nobles went over, most notably Richard the Clare, and managed to swiftly conquer this area. Henry at this point was also dealing with his third problem, what to do about the succession. In 1169, his eldest son, also called Henry, was coronated as king alongside his father. Henry the Young King, as he's known, did not hold any real power, it simply made it clear that he was the undisputed heir. Thomas Beckett, still in exile, was unhappy that the Archbishop of Canterbury's right to crown kings had been sidestepped. It was, however, negotiated by the pope that Beckett could return, which he did, and he quickly went back to annoying the king. By 1170, Henry was frankly fed up with Beckett, and in a rage he said something along the lines of, Will nobody rid me of this meddlesome priest? This was understood by some knights as a request to murder him. These knights travelled to England, and on December 29th, 1170, Beckett was stabbed to death inside Canterbury Cathedral. This murder shocked the Christian world, and pretty much ruined Henry's reputation, since murdering archbishops is mostly frowned upon. Beckett was swiftly declared a saint, but from a practical perspective, this did make Henry's job a lot easier. So, allegedly, Henry was concerned that Richard the Clare was about to declare himself the king of an independent Irish kingdom, and so in 1171, he landed there with a large force to keep things in check. By the time Henry left Ireland the next year, his hold over it looked like this, with those that ruled the remainder having pledged loyalty to him. This marks the beginning of sustained English and later British intervention in Ireland, which still continues to this day. This meant that Henry's domain, at its height, looked like this, with these areas, from Scotland to Toulouse, pledging their loyalty to him. These lands are often collectively referred to as the Angervin Empire. Side note on the name, the word Angervin comes from Andrew, the duchy the Plantagenets originally held. The word empire is more difficult, since it is a modern term, and was not used at the time to describe the Angervin lands. Henry II, despite being the wealthiest and most powerful monarch in Europe at the time, did not and would not have referred to himself as emperor. The reasons for this are clad in complex theology, but there could only be one real emperor, and that was the Holy Roman Emperor. So, the conquest of Ireland fed into the continuing problems surrounding the succession. The problem with being a king is that your sons often can't wait for you to die, so they can take your stuff, and Henry's sons were no different. Henry's domain simply wouldn't pass from father to eldest son, but was supposed to be portioned out between them to stop them from fighting. Henry the Young King was to get Andrew, Normandy and England. Henry's second son, Richard, was to get Aquitaine. Geoffrey was to get Brittany, and Henry's youngest, John, was to get Ireland. Unsurprisingly, literally none of his sons were happy about this, except John, who was only eight. Henry's restless sons found help from the King of France, who was more than happy to do anything that would undermine Angervin power. In 1173, Henry's sons would enter open rebellion against him. Henry the Young King was sick of not having any real power, and wanted more money. Richard and Geoffrey wanted more land than Henry had promised, and John was still busy being eight. The three sons teamed up with the King of France, the King of Scotland, the Count of Flanders, and also Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor, in invading the Angervin territories. They all launched invasions at roughly the same time, and all of them were defeated. Rebellions and civil war continued into the next year, but none were even remotely successful, and Henry's sons all surrendered. A series of deaths in the 1180s changed Henry's situation dramatically. In 1180, King Louis VII of France died, and was succeeded by Philip Augustus, who was obsessed with retaking French lands. In 1183, Henry the Young King died, and in 1186, the third son, Geoffrey, died as well, leaving only Richard and John as heirs. Richard was concerned that his previous rebellions would give his father an excuse to pick John instead, and so did the only thing he could think of, rebel again. He did this in 1189 with the help of Philip Augustus, who together invaded and quickly pushed back the armies of the now-dying Henry II. Henry surrendered to both Richard and Philip, and died shortly afterwards in Anjou. After his father's death, Richard took up his French titles and went to England, and on the 3rd of September, he was crowned King Richard I. So Richard's reign is famous for one thing above all, his crusade, which is where he earned his epithet, Richard the Lionheart. So Richard had already agreed to go on a crusade in 1187, which was called in response to the fall of Jerusalem. King Philip Augustus of France had also agreed to go on this crusade, and it's important to know that those who went crusading were under special protection by the Pope. If a person took the cross, the term used for those who went on a crusade, their lands were supposed to be left alone, and it was illegal, in theory, to capture or harm those on their way to or from the Holy Lands. As will become evident, this did not always happen. Richard raised taxes, ransomed the King of Scotland, and sold titles and positions in government, called offices, to raise revenue for his crusader army. In 1190, he departed for the Holy Land, stopping off at Sicily on the way, where he found his sister, Joan, imprisoned. There was some fighting and pillaging, but after being paid off, Richard freed his sister and moved on. Before his fleet could get to the Holy Land, it was dispersed by a storm, and Richard ended up at Cyprus. There was some conflict with its ruler, a Byzantine prince called Isaac Komnenos, and Richard peacefully negotiated a settlement. Just kidding, instead he conquered the island and threw Isaac into prison. Later that year, Richard arrived in Acre, here, and soon after sold Cyprus to the Knights Templar because money. Whilst they were there, Richard and Philip Augustus fell out, and Philip returned to France. Richard was unable to retake Jerusalem, but he won some major victories against his famous rival, Saladin. In the end, Richard signed a treaty with Saladin, which secured the remaining crusader states of Antioch and Tripoli, and importantly, granted safe passage to the Christians in the Holy Land. So back in Richard's domains, there had been several revolts, the most notable being by his brother, John. Nothing came of these rebellions, due mostly to the good leadership of the men Richard had entrusted with his kingdom, namely William the Longshamp and Hugh de Pucey. These men were appointed as joint justiciars, which essentially meant that they acted with the king's authority whilst he was away. This does not mean that there were no issues in England during Richard's time crusading. In 1190, there was a massacre of Jews throughout the country, notably at York, and it was later declared that Jews could not make any transactions without it being documented by the crown. Richard began his journey back from the Holy Land in 1192. On the way, he was captured near Vienna and was imprisoned by the Duke of Austria, Leopold V, who was swiftly excommunicated, that is, expelled from the Christian faith by the Pope for this. Richard was handed over to the Holy Roman Emperor and was ransomed in early 1194. Richard's time in prison proved costly, first in terms of money, since his ransom was cripplingly expensive, being the equivalent of over two years' worth of taxes raised in England. The other way it was costly was instability for his kingdom. During his imprisonment, John kept rebelling and Philippe Augustus of France made military incursions, but he made little gains. Richard returned to England, forgave his brother for his rebellions and made him his heir, since Richard had no sons. Richard would then spend the next five years of his reign retaking the lost territories. Richard also took the motto, Dieu est mon droit, which means God and my right. Richard also appointed a man called Hubert Walter as Archbishop of Canterbury, who ruled England effectively in Richard's name. Walter was able to raise the massive taxes needed for Richard's ransom, as well as those needed for his war against Philippe. Walter also managed to suppress rebellions and negotiate with the neighbouring kings to prevent invasions. In 1199, whilst he was suppressing a revolt, Richard was injured by a loose crossbow bolt and soon after died of his wounds, thus leaving the way open for John, one of the most notorious kings in English history. Ultimately, Richard's legacy is a complex one. He is often seen as a paragon of Christian chivalry, but it's important to remember that whilst he was the embodiment of a holy crusader, he was also a rebel and one whose kingdom was in many respects little more than a revenue pot for his warring. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching. 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