William II (Rufus) Henry I (Beauclerc) Stephen (of Blois) Henry II (of Anjou)

1087-1100 1100-1135 1135-1154 1154-1189

Relevant William the Conqueror named
details William the Second as his
successor to the throne of
England.
William was known as Rufus
because of his red face.
Personality: William ll inherited
some of his father’s ability.
He was equally violent towards
anyone who opposed his will.
He was in constant need for
money and was utterly
unscrupulous as his methods of
raising it. His chief interest in
Succeeded his older brother
Rufus after he was killed by an
arrow while hunting.
He was called Beauclerc because
he was better educated than
most people, he could read and
write.
His rule, particularly when seen in
retrospect, was characterized by
peace, order, and justice.
Personality: Less rude and violent
than Rufus, but equally selfish
and greedy. A vigorous and
Matilda was the heir to the throne.
She had married Emperor Henry V
and was usually spoken of as The
Empress; but her first husband had
died, and she had recently married
Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.
When it came to the point, the nobles
felt that it was beneath their dignity
to do homage to a woman, so they
brought over Stephen, Count of Blois
A man of fifty, he had a great
reputation as a gallant knight, and the
fact that he owned his throne to the
barons would make him more
favourable to their claims to
• Frenchman by birth and speech.
•King of England for 35 years,
although he only spent only 3 years
there.
• Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou
and suzerain of all the lands west of
the Rhone.
Personality: He was a vigorous,
energetic young man of twenty-one,
active of mind and body, genial,
imperious and quick-tempered.
Enjoyed being a king because of the
power, but despised soft living and
courtly ceremonial.
government was collecting funds. capable ruler. independence than the first three •One of the most powerful
Norman kings had been. sovereigns in Europe.
He had no respect for religion,
and he was an immoral and
He was wily and unscrupulous,
blasphemous atheist, except
but kept the outward appearance •He was interested in problems of
when in fear of death when he
of decent behaviour, unlike his law and government.
was sick. William had no
brothers.
principles at all. •He had served a valuable
apprenticeship to the business of
kingship in his dominions:
His hobby was efficient
William Rufus was killed by an Normandy, Anjou and Maine
government.
arrow while hunting in the New (inherited by his father) and
Forest. Aquitaine (acquired through
marriage).

• Quarrel with Thomas Becket: His

friend and chancellor, Thomas
Becket, was in charge of politics
affairs during his absences. In 1161,
Henry appointed him to Archbishop
of Cantenbury, in order to have him
by his side but after assuming,
Becket changed and began to uphold
the interests to the Church and
refused to accept the royal authority
upon the church. Their relationship
got to a point of no return and after
Henry was overheard complaining
about him, four knights decided to
kill Becket.

• Quarrel with his family: His wife

Eleanor of Aquitaine and his sons
turned against him soons after
Becket’s death. Henry’s sons

House of Normandy
Father: William the Conqueror.
Brothers: Robert was the eldest
and Henry was the youngest.
Rufus had no children.
Family
groups
Politics His chief minister Ralf Flambard,
devised various dishonest
schemes for the purpose of
raising money.
House of Normandy
Important brothers: Robert and
William II.
Father: William the Conqueror.
Mother: Matilda of Flanders.
First wife: (Edith) Matilda of
Scotland.
Second wife: Adeliza of Louvain.
Legitimate children (with his first
wife): William Adelin, Empress
Matilda.
He increased the power of the
sheriffs, insisting that all
important cases should be
brought before them in the shire-
courts.
House of Normandy
Father: Stephen, Count of Blois.
Mother: Adela of Normandy.
Brother: Theobald IV.
Uncle: Henry I.
The weakness of Stephen’s position
soon brought trouble. Geoffrey of
Anjou began a series of attacks in
Normandy, and conquered it
piecemeal, while King David of
opposed their father’s intention to
split his lands equally amongst them.
The eldest son, known as Henry the
Young King did not want his
inheritance broken apart, therefore,
he led a revolt with their mother’s
support.
House of Plantagenet
Grandfather: Herny I.
Father & Mother: Geoffrey of Anjou
and Matilda.
Wife: Eleanor of Aquitaine (had eight
children).
Children: Richard I, John, Geoffrey V,
Henry the young King. (+ 3
daughters).
• Assize of Clarendon: He cancelled
all the grants of land made by
Stephen and Matilda and compelled
nobles to pull down the castles that
they had built and compelled them

He extorted the last penny of
Danegeld, and took every
opportunity of demanding feudal
dues from the royal tenants.
Scotland demanded the cession of to allow his justices to preside in
Northumberland, and invaded their courts.
He developed the Curia Regis, or
England to secure it.
King’s Court. The old Anglo-Saxon
Witan had been transformed into
• System of Scutage: he induced the
the Great Council (nobles and
The Scots were defeated at the Battle Barons to give him money instead of
prelates).
of the Standard (1138), fought near military service and therefore, these
Northallerton, but in the negotiations could not rebel against him.
which followed he allowed David to
Henry formed a little group of
gain nearly, all that he had sought.
specialists in the various
• Assize of Arms: he kept alive the
departments of government, who
idea that all freemen ought to fight
usually travelled with him, and
After about 1148 there was a lull. The for the King when called upon.
could carry out his policy in a
Second Crusade (1147–1149) drew off
regular and systematic way. The
some of the knights and nobles; and
chief of these officers were the
Matilda's husband, having by this • Law reforms: He made two
Chancellor, the Justiciar, and the
time conquered Normandy, she went important reforms in the
Treasurer.
there to live with him and their son administration of jury: trial by jury
Henry. and itinerant judges.
The Courts of Justice and the
Court of Exchequer grew out of
But some years later this son came
the Great Council.
back to renew the conflict. Stephen
was now growing old, his only son
had recently died, and he had no
heart to go on fighting. So, he made
an agreement (the Treaty of
Wallingford, 1153), by which he was
to be left unmolested for the rest of
his life but was to be succeeded by
the young Henry of Anjou.
In the following year he died.

Society
Foreign During the first Crusade,
Affairs Jerusalem was captured and
made the centre of a feudal state.
The connection of England in this
Crusade was by Duke Robert of
Normandy pawned his duchy to
William Rufus to raise money for
the expedition. England and
Normandy were, again, under the
When a quarrel broke out
between Robert and Henry I,
most people preferred to have as
a king an easy-going, good-
natured fighting-man like Robert,
rather than a keen, strong ruler
like Henry, and most of them took
the side of the former.
Henry had the support of the
native English people. He
defeated Robert at the Battle of
Tinchebrai (1106).
Most layman could not read and
write.
The feudal system was still
applied.
Winning the battle at Tinchebray
gave Henry control of the whole
of Normandy.
Success in Normandy was
followed by wars against Louis VI
of France, but by 1120 Henry was
very successful, in both diplomacy
In 1139 the Empress came over to
make good her claims to the throne,
and a terrible civil war ensued. At the
very beginning of it she fell into
Stephen's hands, but he was too
chivalrous to take advantage of a
lady's misfortune and let her go to
join her partisans in the west of
England.
Each of the claimants tried to buy the
support of the nobles by granting
them lands and allowing them to set
up as semi-independent princes-just
what the earlier Norman kings had
been so careful to prevent.
The nobles took advantage of the
situation to build castles by forced
labour, and to extort money by
torture. On the pretext of fighting for
Stephen and Matilda, they marched
about destroying villages and crops,
until in some districts the wretched
peasantry ceased to till their fields.
•Was the first king to aim to have the
whole British Isles under his rule.
•Ireland & Scotland: He gave Richard
Clare, Earl of Pembroke, permission
to conquer Ireland and a few months
later Pembroke had mastered the
eastern half of the island. Fearing the
creation of a separate Norman
power to the west, Henry travelled
 same ruler.
Religion The most profitable device was to
leave bishoprics and abbacies
vacant, and have revenues paid
into the Treasury.
On the death of Lanfrane no new
Archbishop of Canterbury was
appointed for four years.
When Rufus recovered from an
illness, he named Anselm as the
new archbishop.
The power that the Church had
over man's mind in the Middle
Ages:
All western Europe was under the
spiritual power of the Pope, and
and war. to Dublin to establish English
presence on the territory they had
won. Shortly after, he got the
Henry had arranged a marriage overlordship of Scotland.
for his son, William, to Matilda,
daughter of Fulk of Anjou, and
had received Fulk’s homage for
Maine. Pope Calixtus II gave him
full support for his control of
Normandy on condition that his
son William should do homage to
the French king.
Henry inherited from his Stephen scored several military He wanted to abolish the privileges
predecessor a quarrel with triumphs, but he lost the support of that the Church had of trying in their
Anselm. This became part of a big the church when he arrested Bishop own court (Christian court) imposed
dispute between Popes and Roger of Salisbury and his relatives. by his grandfather. This Benefit of
Emperors. the Clergy not only benefited priests
but also servants of Curia Regis.
The great dispute was called The
Investiture Contest. It lasted six
years. The king was to give up his
claim to invest but the bishops
were to do homage to him for
their estates.
the clergy used the same ritual in
the same language everywhere.

Some examples of its power were

the right of Sanctuary (where
fugitives were safe in the church),
the religious ceremony which a
young warrior went through when
he became a knight, and the
Truce of God, which the church
protected priest and women from
ill-treatment, and forbade all acts
of violence between Thursdays
and Sundays.

The most striking example of the

power of religion was the
Crusades.