Children of Henry II

Ascension of Richard I
 Plan: divide land b/w 4 sons
o Henry the Young King died 1183; Geoffrey died 1186
o Richard rebels – victorious
 Recognized as sole heir at time of Henry II’s death (July 6, 1189)
 Richard I (r.1189-1199): only 6 months of 10 years spent in England
o 4 of those were in 1189 immediately after ascending
 Crusader: sold honors, offices to raise $
o Sold overlordship of Scotland Henry had won
 Purchased by King of Scotland for 10,000 marks
o 1 of 3 kings in 3rd Crusade
 Pope Clement III (r.1187-1191) after Saladin’s conquest of Christian states

Richard on the Third Crusade

 Sailed to Sicily
 1191: Treaty of Messina (Philip II Augustus)
o Concedes to Philip overlordship of Richard’s French territories
 June 1191: lands at Acre via Cyprus
o Takes command of French crusaders besieging Acre, takes city
 Marched to Jaffa en route to Jerusalem
o Good order: supplies along sea, knights in center, w/ infantry (spears, crossbows) inland
o Battle of Arsuf (Sept 7, 1191): Saladin attacks w/ bugger army
 Crossbows pick off Muslims
 Richard orders charge during confusing following retreat
 Saladin’s 1st serious defeat
 Fails to capture Jerusalem
o Bad weather + Turkish reinforcements
 Tenaciously defends Jaffa despite being outnumbered
o Sept 1192: peace treaty – Christian pilgrims allowed access to Jerusalem

Richard the Captive

 Returning to England
o Learns that John conspiring w/ Augustus and Count of Toulouse to ambush him
 Redirects from France to Adriatic
 Shipwreck near Venice: on to Vienna by Dec 1192
o Few companions
 Seized by Leopold V, Duke of Austria
o Feb 1193: Handed to Emperor Henry VI for piece of ransom
o Demands 150,000 silver marks & acknowledgement of feudal overlordship
 English crown annual revenues 50-75,000 marks
 Story of troubadour Blondel de Nesle finding him by singing verse to castle walls and
Richard responding w/ second verse
 Doesn’t appear until 1260s
 o Released Feb 1194
Retaliation
 John, Augustus seized many of Richard’s lands while he was imprisoned
o March 1194: Richard returned to England
o Forgave John, made him his heir
o In England for 2 months
 Dismisses John’s supporters from power
 Sails to Normandy
 1194-8: War w/ Augustus
o Decisive English victories Freteval (1194), Courcelles (1198)
o 1199: 5-year truce w/ Richard in strong position
 Richard moves on to reclaim other of his lost territories
o Revolt by French Viscount – Richard to small castle, Chalus-Chabrol
o Hit in shoulder by crossbow  gangrene  died 10 days later, April 6, 1199
 Highly capable soldier
o Personal gains – no institutions to preserve
o Administrative advances – BECAUSE he was gone
 Bureaucracy, record-keeping advances
o Political problems and succession still a problem

King John
 Succeeds at 32 to England, Normandy, Aquitaine
 August 1200: has 1st marriage annulled, marries Isabella of Angouleme (renowned beauty)
o Isabella betrothed to Hugh, Count of La Marche
o Hugh complains – John invades
 John’s older brother Geoffrey dead, but leaves 12-year old son Arthur of Brittany
o Brittany, Anjou, Tourraine, Maine all support Arthur’s claim to throne
 1202: Philip Augustus joins war as Hugh’s overlord
o Declares John’s French lands forfeit
 Personally seizes Normandy – rest to Arthur
o Hugh & Arthur march on Mirabeau (Tourraine), defense led by aged Eleanor Aquitaine (80)
 John’s forces surprise Hugh, Arthur
 Arthur captured – disappears (killed)
 Younger sister Eleanor captured – imprisoned for rest of life
 John no longer trusted with hostages after this
 1203-4: Philip conquers Normandy: in 1204-5 takes Anjou
o Eleanor Aquitaine d. 1204 – many of her barons defect to Philip
o John launches failed expedition in 1206 to try to retake Normandy
o Poitou captured 1224
 Only small remnant of Aquitaine (Gascony) remains of Henry IIs holdings
 Norman lords willingly join w/ Philip
o John disliked, distrusted
o Normans more French than English
 Risked losing English lands
o John’s English supporters risked losing their French estates
 Beginning of increasingly different outlooks b/w France and England
John and the Church
 A-bish Canterbury d. 1205: monks there secretly elect one of them as successor
o John, bishops refuse to accept
 Select John’s favorite (John de Gray) as A-Bish
o 1207: Pope Innocent III refused both – arranges his friend as 3rd- Stephen Langton (1150-
1228)
 He’s the one who added chapters to Bible
 John furious
o Expels monks of Canterbury
o Refused to allow Langton into England
 1208: Interdict (suspension of Christian services, sacraments)
o No baptism, confession, last rites, Christian burial
o John tried to bully clergy to ignore (fines, imprisonment)
 Innocent excommunicates him (deprived of all Christian rights)
 1212: Innocent deposed him, absolved subjects of allegiance
 May 13, 1213: John capitulates, acknowledges pope as overlord
o 1214: interdict lifted

John’s Administration
 Continued Henry II’s reforms
o Improved bureaucracy, tax collection
o Hubert Walter led efforts 1199-1205
 Appointed by Richard I
o 1205: recoinage
 Stabilizes currency, encourages trade and urban development
 Barons displeased
o Efficient supervision of lands, income costs them
o Loss of Normandy = John remains in England to personally supervise, reinforce
administration
 Consolidates control over outlying regions
o 1) Scotland
 1209: rumors that William the Lion supporting Northern nobles’ conspiracy
 Marches army north to demand submission
 66-year old William backs down (heir, Alexander, only 11)
 Pays 15,000 mark fine
 Surrenders 2 daughters as hostages
 1214: Alexander II succeeds (now 16)
 John in difficult position
 Alexander claims Northern counties
o 2) Ireland
 1210: John asserts his control over Norman barons in Ireland
 Gained submission of Irish kings
 Native Irish nobility brought into feudal structure
 By recognizing Irish nobles, John prevented complete Anglo-Norman
conquest of Ireland
  Partial control in South
 North and West virtually independent
o 3) Wales
 1211: attempts suppression of Welsh rebellion from father’s days
 Llywelyn ap Iorworth (‘the Great’ r. prince of Gwynned 1195-1240)
o John invades, but Welsh burn castles, retreat to mountains
 John returns w/ supplies and burns land until Welsh agree to terms

John’s Character
 Suspicious by nature, desirous of security, secrecy (bordering on paranoia)
o Trusted foreign servants more than barons
o Barons resent attitude
 Vindictive: rumor that he wanted nephew Arthur blinded and castrated probably false, but that he
personally killed him while in drunkern rage might be true
o Matilda, wife of William de Briouze, blamed John for the murder
o John responded by imprisoning her and her son, and starving them t odeath
 Lusty: 5 bastards and pursued wife of Eustace de Vesci
 “… [John] had almost as many enemies as barons.” – Roger of Wendover, Flores historiarum
 Extravagant spending with greedy taxation

War and Taxation

 John renews effort against Philip Augustus in 1212
o Allies w/ Otto of Brunswick (HRE as Otto IV in 1209)
 Compelled to do so b/c John’s barons refuse to help him in France
 Also an enemy of Philip Augustus
o 1210: Otto excommunicated by Innocent
 Battle of Bouvines (July 27, 1214)
o John, Otto try to divide French forces so that their Flemish allies could advance against Paris
unawares
o French knights defeat Anglo-German knights
 Outflank and slaughter allied infantry
o Otto flees the field and deposed as HRE in 1215
o John loses last chance to regain Normandy
 Expensive failure
o John had raised taxes on land, movable property in 1203 and 1207
o 1215: demanded “scutage” from barons who hadn’t gone to France
 3 marks (40 shillings) per shield
 Tradition: 1 mark (13s,4p) per shield
 Richard I had never demanded more than 20s
 Added fines to those who wouldn’t pay
o $ needed to pay mercs
 Wages rising in general age of inflation
o Barons believe demands were excessive
o 1214: since John in France, barons refuse to pay
 1215: barons appeal to Pope (“lord of England”) against John
o Violation of traditional liberties
o Innocent ordered barons to obey king
  Doesn’t want to alienate new vassal John
 Spring 1215: barons assemble w/ arms at Stamford
o Leaders: Eustace de Vesci and Robert Fitz Walter
o Renounce allegiance to John
 March South
 John stalls for time, agrees to consider demands
o A-bish Langton to broker compromise
o June 15, 1215: at Runnymede, Magna Carta
 Neither side trusted other side to keep peace
 John sought help from pop
o Innocent invalidates Magna Carta
o Excommunicates barons
 Fortifies castles for war
 Winter 1215-Spring 1216: John defeats Northern noble strongholds
o Barons gain assistance from Philip Augustus
 Spring 1216: dauphin Louis w/ army sent to London
o John marches south to engage rebels
 Oct 18, 1216: John dies of dysentery

Magna Carta
 Didn’t settle John’s conflict, but came to be regarded as cornerstone of English constitutional law
 3 centuries after 1215, repeatedly reissued and reconfirmed
o Used in 17th c. by Parliament to justify resistance to royal absolutism
o Founding Fathers regarded it as landmark towards limited gov’t
 Principles embedded in masses of detail, unlike Petition of Right (1628) and Declaration of
Independence (1776)
 Clearest principles on due process of law (clauses 39 and 40)
o 39: “No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, or outlawed or exiled, or in
any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the
lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.’
o 40: “To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice.”
o Never a single process for all England
 Varied in accordance with local custom and the status of accused
 Jury trial just beginning to replace ordeals
 Clauses 2, 3: John agreed to limit fines paid on land inheritance (relief)
o Clauses 12, 14: won’t levy scutage w/o barons’ consent
o Origin of limits on arbitrary taxation
 Clauses 13, 41: rights of merchants and boroughs – importance of trade to English economy
o “commune of the realm”, “common counsel of the kingdom” – shows beginnings of England
as a political community independent of (superior to?) the king
 Did nothing for villeins, who were majority of population
o Not just a treaty b/w barons and king like many other documents ending feudal squabbles
o Embedded comprehensive principles in protection of specific rights
 Formed basis for development of constitutional safeguards of individual from gov’t