The Medieval Period

1154-1485

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 Main royal dynasties

◼ Norman and Plantagenets (1066-1327)

– Greater Continental (French) influence

◼ Lancaster and York (1327-1485)

– Established the bases for an English (British) nation.
– Dynastic wars dramatized in Shakespeare’s History
Plays: Richard III, Henry IV (parts 1,2) , Henry V,
Henry VI (parts 1,2,3,)

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 Plantagenet dynasty
◼ By 1154 Henry II Plantagenet
becomes king of England.
◼ His reign is important in terms of
territorial expansion and
supremacy of State over the
Church:
– Thomas Beckett’s murder
(1170) sets Canterbury as
pilgrimage site.
◼ Henry II (1154-1189) annexes
by marriage (Eleanor of
Aquitaine) many continental
territories: Normandy, Anjou,
Maine, Aquitaine, Gascony.

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 12th century

◼ Richard I, Lionheart (1189-1199) starts crusades

against the Muslims, and sells state and church
property to raise funds for the Third Crusade.
◼ A central bureaucracy and administration are
well-established:
The Exchequer (ministry of finance) and
permanent royal courts are created (English
Common Law)

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 13th century
◼ John Lackland (1199-1216)
loses French dominions:
Normandy, Turene, Anjou,
Bretagne and Poitou (1204).
◼ The king signs the Magna
Carta (1215) agreeing to
balance his supreme power
with that of the barons.
◼ The Magna Carta is the first
attempt to curb the power of
the monarchy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PQ-Q-wZ71lw

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 ◼ Edward I, Longshanks
◼ Henry III (1216-72): the (1272-1307)
Royal Council (24 ◼ By 1283 Wales is
members appointed by annexed to England.
king and barons) acquires Since then the royal heir
great power by the to the throne is appointed
Provisions of Oxford “Prince of Wales”.
(1258) anticipating the ◼ Edward I also seeks to
creation of Parliament. conquer Scotland. He
eventually fails.
◼ The first Parliament is ◼ 1290: Edward I expels
summoned in 1264 by the Jews from England.
Simon de Montfort, a ◼ Edward I lays the
rebel baron. It was a foundations for a
predecessor of the House representative political
of Commons. system with the “Model
Parliament” (1295) 6
 14th century: period of crisis
◼ Edward II (1307-27) is a weak ◼ Geoffrey Chaucer: landmark
king. Dethroned, imprisoned of English Literature (Middle
and assassinated in Wales. English) 1370-1400
(Shakespeare’s History play)
◼ Edward III (1327-77) rules
England and Wales for 50
years.

◼ 1332. Parliament is divided

into two houses: Lords and
Commons.

◼ 1342: English becomes the

official language in Parliament
and the law courts.
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 Internal colonization

◼ English monarchs try to conquer or control Wales,

Scotland and Ireland to increase their power and
become stronger against overseas nations.
◼ Internal colonization and political unification starts by
12th c. and last for several centuries.

WALES
◼ Edward I’s reign (1272-1307).
◼ Wales is under England’s direct rule by 1282-85 after
several attempts at conquest.
◼ Wales is joined to England by Acts of Union in 1536-42.

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 Scotland
◼ Since the 6th c. Scotland is
inhabited by Picts, Scots (W),
Britons (SW) and Angles (SE).
They form a single kingdom
under Kenneth I MacAlpin in the
9th c.
◼ Feudalism spreads in the
Lowlands, but in the highlands,
the clan system remains.
◼ Temporarily annexed to England
(1292-1314). Edward I imposes
a vassal king. Scotland is Braveheart (1995)
annexed in 1296.
◼ The Scottish regain
independence after
Bannockburn (1314) and the
Northampton Agreement
(1328). Robert I (Bruce)
becomes king of Scotland.
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 Scotland (2)

◼ Scotland keeps an alliance with France for almost 200

years and is under Stuart rule to avoid English control.

◼ In 1603 James VI of Scotland joins the English and

Scottish crowns: dynastic union. The Jacobean period.
◼ 1649: Conquest and repression by Oliver Cromwell.

◼ Act of Union of 1707. Scotland finally becomes part of

Great Britain : political union.

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 Ireland

◼ It is invaded by Henry II in 1169.

◼ By the late 13th c. a large part of Ireland is controlled by
Anglo-Norman lords. The King of England only has direct
rule over Dublin and The Pale.
◼ Protestant settlers from Scotland and England arrive in
Ireland in the 16th-17th c. to impose Anglicanism.
◼ 1651: Repression by Oliver Cromwell.
◼ The Anglo-Irish Protestants, a minority, become stronger
and Irish-Catholics will be discriminated against
economically and politically. Religious, economic and
colonial issues.
◼ 1801. Ireland becomes part of the United Kingdom.
◼ The Irish Free State is born in 1921.
◼ Northern Ireland remains British.
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 14-15th centuries: a period of crisis
◼ The bubonic plague or “Black Death” starts spreading
throughout Europe (1348) Estimated death toll in
England: 25% to 40% of a population of around 6
million.
◼ Shortage of labour led to a rise in wages. The
landowners and the king reacted with coercion to bring
wages down. Unrest led to the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381.
Serfdom was virtually extinct by 1400.
◼ The Hundred Years War (1337-1453).
◼ The War of the Roses (1455-1487).

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 The Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
◼ It was a series of wars between France and England. The war was
mainly brought about by English claims over the French throne.
◼ The French victory marked the end of a long period of instability
that had been seeded with the Norman Conquest (1066), when
William the Conqueror added "King of England" to his titles,
becoming both the vassal to (as Duke of Normandy) and the equal
of (as king of England) the king of France.
◼ England lost its possessions in the Continent.
◼ National feeling that emerged from the war unified both France and
England further.
◼ The political and financial troubles which emerged from the defeat
were a major cause of the War of the Roses (1455–1487)

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15th Century: The War of the Roses (1455-1487)

◼ Dynastic quarrels between House of York and House of

Lancaster (rival branches of the House of Plantagenet).
◼ Richard II (York), nephew to John of Gaunt
◼ Henry IV (Lancaster), John Gaunt’s son
◼ Henry V
◼ Henry VI
◼ Edward IV (York)
◼ Edward V (never crowned)
◼ Richard III (York)
◼ Henry VII (Lancaster) + Elizabeth of York: end of
war and creation of the House of Tudor

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