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The Plantagenets, 1154-1399
The period of Plantagenet rule
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Headlines are in brown.
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
Geographical context is in green.
There is an In Our Time podcast on Shakespeare and the
Plantagenet plays.
Henry II, 1154-1189
1154
At the end of the period known as the
Anarchy, eventually Matilda’s son, Henry was recognised as Matilda’s future
heir.
This saw the end of Norman rule, and the
start of a period of rule in England by the House of Anjou, generally referred
to as the Angevins or more usually, the Plantagenets.
Henry II was married to the powerful
Eleanor, heiress of the Duchy of Aquitaine. It was this marriage which brought
England into the Angevin empire.
There is an In Our Time podcast on Eleanor of Aquitaine
(c1122-1204), who was a ruler in her own right as well as married to the king
of France and then to the king of England
At this point, England’s history might
have become more integrated with European history.
1155
The weavers were granted a royal
charter, the oldest livery company in London.
1156
Henry II did homage to Louis VII of
France, for his holding of Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine.
1161
The abolition of the Danegeld tax, first
raised in 991 to pay off Viking raiders.
1170
London’s population was about 30,000.
By 1170, the still modestly powered
Capetian monarchy in France started to undermine Aquitaine and a rivalry began
which would last for another three hundred years or so. Philip II Augustus of
France became less friendly and symbolically felled the elm tree where French
Kings and Norman Dukes had met for centuries.
Henry II’s son Henry, the “Young King” was
associated with his farther in running the Kingdom from about 1170. He may have
controlled lands in Pickering Vale.
Henry’s troubles were compounded by
sporadic rebellions by Henry’s sons, encouraged by Eleanor.
In consequence, Henry II started to
reassert the authority of the English crown.
This in turn led to heavy taxation of
the English population.
Henry
the Young King allied himself with the King of Scotland in 1172 and rebelled.
Some of the sokemen of Pickering were fined for their involvement.
Bernard
de Balliol and Robert de
Stuteville
captured the Scottish King at Alnwick and imprisoned him at Richmond Castle.
Roger
Mowbray of Thirsk joined the rebels and he was
attacked by royal forces. He was defeated on two occasions around
Northallerton.
There
was peace by 1175, when Robert de
Stuteville
supervised the building of castles in Edinburgh and Scarborough.
The
rising Stuteville family recovered much of the old estate
forfeited by their ancestors, including Kirkbymoorside.
1173
The murder of Thomas Becket.
There is an In Our Time podcast on Thomas Becket (c1118 to
1173).
1185
Henry II’s enquiry into assets and
status of widows and wards, Rotuli de Dominabus et Pueris et Puellis de XII Comitatibus.
The Templars’ enquiries into land
holdings, Rotuli de Dominabus.
There is an In Our Time podcast on The Knight’s
Templar and the growth and great military and financial strength of the
famous order whose knights had a mission to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land.
The earliest recorded windmill built at Weedley in Yorkshire.
1187
The Feet of Fines, judgements pertaining
to land ownership, began.
1188
Saladin Tithe levied in England to fund
the Third Crusade.
Richard I (The Lionheart), 1189-1199
Richard is remembered for his zealous
crusading which took him away from England for all but 6 months of huis decade long reign.
The Third Crusade.
There is an In
Our Time podcast on the
Third Crusade, from death of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa,
to the famous encounter between Richard I and Saladin
He is remembered for his encounters with
Saladin and his capture of Acre in 1191.
However he was captured by the Austrian Duke
Leopold on his return and ransomed for £100,000 which drew a heavy tax toll on
the English population.
Carlisle came under English rule in
1192.
King John, 1199-1216
John started his reign by continuing the
rivalries with Philip Augustus of France. Strictly still a vassal to France for
his continental lands, he refused to do homage and had all his lands taken from
him by an exercise of feudal law. The French conquered Normandy and soon only
the Channel Islands remained. John then became obsessed with retaking Normandy.
Charter Rolls began recording royal
grants issued by the Chancery.
1200
Manorial records include administrative
details of estates.
Population reaches about 3.5 million.
1201
King John stayed overnight at William de Stuteville’s Cottingham Castle in 1201 and William
de Stuteville bought the office of sheriff of Yorkshire.
1202 to 1204
The Fourth Crusade
1202
The Patent
Rolls, provide a record of royal correspondence and helps to trace
individuals in the Middle Ages.
1204
Close
Rolls recorded grants made by the monarch to individuals or groups.
1213 to 1221
The Fifth Crusade.
1209
John’s conflict with Rome led to his
excommunication in 1209 and his Kingdom was placed under interdict.
The papacy continued to administer parts
of the clergy and to take revenues. This system was attacked by Sir Robert de Thwenge of Kilton in
1232.
His
German and Flemish allies were defeated at the Battle of Bouvines
on 27 July 1214.
Some
of the Yorkshire barons held no continental lands, and
had little interest in Johnm’s overseas interests. William de Mowbray and Peter de Brus refused to join the overseas adventure
to Poitou or to pay war taxes in 1214.
These
barons were prominent amongst the northern barons who forced the Magna Carta on
John in 1215.
1215
John’s
unpopular methods of raising taxation came to a head by the barons
insistence that King John signed Magna Carta at Runnymede in June 1215.
It included a resolution of countless grievances of the day, but it also
embraced some fundamental legal principles which have passed through to
contemporary legal doctrine, including that No Freeman shall be taken, or
imprisoned … but by lawful judgment of his peers.
·
Imposed
restraints on monarchy;
·
Might
be taken as the first example of a written constitution, which was unusual
across Europe at that time;
·
Represented
a contract between monarchy and the community of the realm, which started to
emerge as a distinct legal entity.
William de Mowbray was on the council of 25 barons set up under Magna Carta.
There is an In
Our Time podcast on Magna Carta.
1216
John in desperation declared the Pope
the feudal overlord of England and asked him to annul Magna Carta.
In October he lost his treasures in the
Wash and died soon afterwards of dysentery.
Henry III, 1216-1272
Henry II reigned for 56 years.
1217
There is an In Our Time podcast on the Battle of Lincoln,
fought on 20 May 1217 between the forces of the boy king Henry III, led by
William Marshal, and supporters of Louis of France.
1225
Henry III reaffirmed Magna Carta and
agreed to an amended form which included forest rights, he later started to
develop a form of absolute monarchy.
1228 to 1229
The Sixth Crusade.
1232
On coming of age
Henry II was forced to seize the administration of the kingdom from those who
had been governing during his minority.
Henry increasingly imposed an absolute
form of monarchy.
He built the Palace of Westminster.
His European Policy became problematic.
He struggled in his relations with the papacy after John had declared England a
Papal Fief. He had battles for Sicily and lands in France and he faced
challenges from the Welsh and the Scots.
1236
The Commons Act allowed manorial lords
to enclose common land for their own use.
1240
The earliest Inquisitions Post Mortem (“IPM”) (escheats) recorded information
regarding property, family descents and allienaces,
especially between 1270 and 1350.
1242
Gunpowder introduced into Europe.
1250
First map of the British Isles by
Matthew Paris.
1255
The Rotuli
Hundredorum (“the Hundred Rolls”) recorded the
rights of the Crown over land and property.
1258
The rise of Simon de Montfort as the
uncrowned King of England.
The barons were insistent upon their
right to advise the King, and there crystalised some early ideas of communal
rights and more radical ideas. By 1258, the barons were growing impatient again
with royal authority. In 1258, seven barons led by Simon de
Montfort, Earl of Leicester, took an oath to bring the king under control.
Henry declared of
Montfort: “I fear thunder and lightning, but by God’s head I fear you more
…”
The Barons
Simon de Montfort’s Idea was to make the
Parliament more Representative by inviting one or two vergers, or vergesses, to come from every parish, this causing the only
Good Parliament in History. Simon de Montfort, though only a Frenchman, was
thus a Good Thing, and is very notable for being the only good Baron in
history. The other barons were, of course, all wicked barons. They had,
however, many important duties under the Baronial System. These were (1) To be
armed to the teeth; (2) To extract from the Villein (medieval term for agricultural
labourer, usually suffering from scurvy, Black Death etc), Saccage
or Soccage, tollage and tallage,
pullage and ullage, and in extreme cases, all other banorial amenities such as umbrage and porage
(These may be collectively defined as the banorial
rites of carnage and wreckage); (3) to hasten the King’s death, deposition,
insanity etc and make quite sure there were always at least three false claimants
to the throne; (4) to resent the attitude of the Church (the Barons were
secretly jealous of the Church which they accused of encroaching their rites);
and (5) to keep up the Middle Ages.
(1066 and all that, Walter Sellar and Robert Yeatman, 1930).
1259
Normandy surrendered to France.
1263
Civil armed conflict began.
1264
Henry was taken prisoner at the Battle
of Lewes on 14 May 1264.
There is an In Our Time podcast on the Second Baron’s War
(1264 to 1267) and Simon de Montfort's seizure of power from Henry III and his
family while supporting new, broader parliaments.
1265
Henry’s son, Edward defeated the rebel
army at the Battle of Evesham
on 4 August 1265. Simon de Montfort was killed.
Although the rebellion was eventually
crushed, the barons wars of this period started to
give more force to ideas of a parlement. There
was an early hint of a commun de Engleterre,
and of the idea of a Commons.
1267 to 1272
The Eighth Crusade.
1271
Marco Polo arrived in China.
1271 to 1272
The Ninth Crusade.
Edward I, 1272-1307
The Fine Rolls recorded payments to the
Crown for grants and privileges.
Long before Henry III had died (of a
surfeit of Barons etc) Edward I had taken advantage of the general confusion
and the death of Simon de Montfort (probably of a surfeit of Vergers) to become
King before his reign had begun. Edward I was thus a strong King and one of the
first things he did was to make strong arrangements about the Law Courts.
Hitherto there had been a number of Benches there, on
all of which a confused official called the Justinian had tried to sit. Edward
had them all amalgamated into one large Bench called the King’s Bench, and sat on it himself (1066 and
all that, Walter Sellar and Robert Yeatman, 1930).
1279
The Statute of Mortmain prevented land
being given to the Church without royal licence.
1285
The Statute of Westminster formalised
the system of entail (primogeniture). An entail was a legal device to ensure
that property would be handed down in a way that suited the ancestor, normally
to a male heir, thus keeping the family estate intact.
The Statute of Winchester led to Parish
Constables organised to question strangers and patrol towns to maintain the
peace.
1288
Piepowder Courts set up to try offenders
at fairs and markets.
The Taxatio
Ecclesiastica listed 8,500 churches and chapels
across the country.
1290
A growing population and wealth gave an
opportunity for overseas interests.
In 1290, there was an attempt to take
control of Scotland.
Lay Subsidy Rolls began to record
taxes imposed on the laity (commoners).
1295
The first legally elected legislature,
the Model Parliament.
1296
The French raised in Kent, and Edward I
demanded assistance from his Scottish vassals, but
instead they made an alliance (“the Auld Alliance”) with France.
The Scots crossed the Tweed and started
the “Scottish Wars of Independence”, a precursor to the Hundred Years War with
France. There was forty years of border instability from 1296 to 1346. During
this period manor houses and granges often built moats.
Edward II, 1307-1327
1300
Population reached about 5 million.
Social mobility increased in England with
a growth of a mercantile, middle class.
1306
Rober de Brus was
crowned King of Scotland.
1314
The English army under Edward II was
smashed at Bannockburn on 24 June 1314, which would become an end to English
ambitions in Scotland. Scots raiders were free to sweep deep into Yorkshire.
There is an In Our Time podcast on the Battle of Bannockburn
of 1314, an important victory for Scotland in its fight to win independence
from England.
The fact
that the English were defeated has so confused Historians that many false
theories are prevalent …What actually happened is quite
clear from the sketch map shown above. The causes of the English defeat were
all unfair and were (1) the Pits;… (2) Superior
numbers of the English … (3) Foul riding by the Scottish knights … (From 1066
and all that, Walter Sellar and Robert Yeatman, 1930).
1315 to 1316
The north of England was relatively
defenceless and faced raids from Scotland and destruction of crops and seizing
of animals.
Edward’s military failures against
France and Scotland marked his unhappy reign.
There was discontent, which focused on
his close relationship with Piers Gaveston, a Gascon
knight, who he made Earl of Cornwall.
Edward II had a wave of favourites or
hangers on at Court, of whom the worst were the Suspenders and Peers Gaveston. There were two memorable Suspenders, the Old
Suspender and the Young Suspender
(1066 and all that, Walter Sellar and Robert
Yeatman, 1930).
The Great Famine following bad weather
and poor harvests. Widespread unrest and crime and infanticide.
1316
Nomina Villarum recorded names and lordship in every
town under royal jurisdiction.
1322
Rober Bruce rode through Yarm and nearly
captured Edward III at Byland Abbey. Rievaulx
abbey was damaged.
1327
A long parliament of 71 days ended in
Edward II being deposed. He was murdered soon afterwards.
Edward III, 1327-1377
1337 to 1453
The Hundred Years War
against France
1337
War with France became more open by
1337. Edward renounced his feudal allegiances to France and raised a new royal
standard with the lions of England. This was the start of the Hundred
Years War, which stretched from Scotland to the Pyrenees.
1340
The English destroyed the French fleet
at Sluys
in Flanders on 24 June 1340.
War with France saw huge burdens in
taxation.
1341
Nonarum Inquisitiones recorded a valuation for taxation
purposes.
1345
The long wars with the
Scots, involving the people of Yorkshire, ended with an invasion by David
II of Scotland in 1346, encouraged by the French. He reached York,
but failed to take the city.
Archbishop de la Zouche rallied
Yorkshiremen to resist the invasion and a crushing defeat was inflicted at
Neville's Cross. David was imprisoned.
1346
Edward defeated the French at Crecy
on 26
August 1346, the first battle in Europe where guns were used.
There
is an In Our Time podcast on Crecy.
This decisive victory … naturally ended
in a complete victory for the All Black Prince, who
very romantically ‘won his spurs’ by slaughtering one third of the French nobility (1066 and
all that, Walter Sellar and Robert Yeatman, 1930).
A Scottish invasion was defeated at Neville’s
Cross near Durham on 17 October 1346.
The Hundred Year War saw an increased
feeling of English identity, reinforced by centralised royal administration,
The general population lived in
dangerous and difficult times, though they did enjoy relative safety.
1348 to 1349
The Black
Death.
The Order of the Garter was
created in 1348 after Crecy.
Edward III had very good manners. One
day at a royal dance he noticed some men about court mocking a lady whose
garter had come off, whereupon he put her at her ease and he stopped the dance
and made the memorable epitaph Honi soie qui mal y pense (“Honey, your silk garter’s hanging down”) and having
replaced the garter with a romantic gesture gave the ill
mannered courtiers the Order of the Bath (this was an extreme form of
torture in the Middle Ages
(1066 and all that, Walter Sellar and Robert
Yeatman, 1930).
Following the Black Death, Edward III
took steps to keep society running as it had before the plague. Edicts were
issued requiring folk to maintain their obligations.
1349
The Statute of Labourers in 1349 and Statute of Artificers fixed
princes at pre plague levels, required people to work at those levels and
forbad employers to pay more. Serfs were not to leave their manors. Even the
wearing of clothes was regulated so that ordinary folk would know their
station.
New Commissioners of Labourers and the
Peace launched the justice of the peace system.
Moral writers such as William Langland
(1330 to 1386), author of Piers Ploughman, wrote of society becoming unruly and
materialistic.
However the population had been reduced from 6M
in 1300 to 2.5M in 1350 due to the famines and then the Black Death.
1351
The earliest surviving churchwarden
accounts including for Ripon and Hedon in Yorkshire.
1355
Expeditions and deep raids continued the
war with France.
1356
The English defeated the French at the Battle
of Poitiers on 19 September 1356, led by the Prince of Wales, the
‘Black Prince’.
1359
English armies marched on Reims
1360
The Treaty
of Bretigny was agreed on 8 May 1360. With
rejoicing in England, the ‘Great Peace’ was declared. However
it didn’t last.
The Gough Map, the oldest surviving road
map of Great Britain.
1369
In 1369 the French invaded Gascony.
Famine in England.
1370
The emergence of peasant farmers (yeoman
class) with up to 100 acres.
The
Good Parliament protested as a Commons about the costs of the French Wars and
elected a new office, the Speaker.
1377
William
Langdale’s poem, Piers Plowman provides significant description of
medieval farming practices.
Earliest
records from the Court of Common Pleas.
The Army
Before the Hundred Years War, warfare
was rooted to the principles of chivalry, with which commoners were not
participants. By the 1320s experienced soldiers fought on foot alongside
commoners. Ideas of feudal service were replaced by professional soldiers, who
undertook operations contrary to the chivalric code including ambush, siege,
raids, looting, burning, rape. The archers were the prime example of new commoners forces, firing arrows which could easily penetrate
knights’ armour. The commoners were given opportunities to accumulate
significant wealth through war booty, and ransoms, as well as their pay.
There is an In
Our Time podcast on medieval
chivalry.
Richard II, 1377-1399
Richard II, the
Boy King, was crowned in 1377. Richard II was the son of the Black Prince and
Joan the Fair Maid of Kent, daughter of Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of
Liddell. and of descent of the House Stuteville,
the landowning family of Kirkbymoorside, and therefore of Farndale.
The reign of Richard II was generally
regarded as disastrous. He sought disengagement from the French Wars. He focused
his attention on the arts and architecture.
·
He
came into conflict with the nobility who aspired to military ambitions in
France.
·
He
came into conflict with the Commons who despaired a peacetime
taxes at wartime levels to fund his domestic aspirations.
Richard II was only a boy king at his
accession … being told he was unbalanced, he got off the throne again in despair,
exclaiming gloomily “For God’s sake let me sit on the ground and tell bad stories
about cabbages and things”. Whereupon his cousin Lancaster (spelt Bolingbroke)
quickly mounted the throne and said he was Henry IV Part I (1066 and all that, Walter Sellar and Robert Yeatman, 1930).
1377, 1379, 1381
A Poll Tax levied on almost every
individual except paupers.
1381
The Peasants Revolt
led by Wat Tyler arose from tensions from high taxes and fixed incomes
following the Black Death. (see also Law
and Administration).
There is an In Our Time podcast on the Peasants’ Revolt,
1381.
On 30 May 1381, John Bampton imposed a
poll tax in Brentwood, Essex and a significant uprising was triggered,
insisting on reductions in taxation, the end of serfdom, and the removal of
some senior officials and law courts.
John Ball, Jack Straw and Wat Tyler led the rebels to London and they met
Richard II at Mile End where charters were conceded freeing them from all
bondage. However there was a further meeting between
the rebels at Smithfield. Violence broke out. Tyler was stabbed and killed by
the mayor of London.
The rebellion was eventually quashed. However the germs had been sewn for greater rights for the
general population.
The fall in population during the
fourteenth century over time
1386
The Wonderful
Parliament remined the king, then 18, of his responsibilities. The Commons
forced Richard II to dismiss his Lord Chancellor, whom it then impeached as
well.
1387
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
1396
Richard II reacted to the pressures of
the past decade or so against him. He signed a 28 year
truce with France. He banned acts to restrain royal power, effectively
renouncing the principles of Magna Carta. He started to imagine a golden age of
peace and prosperity.
1398
Richard II banished Henry Bolingbroke,
Early of Derby and later Duke of Lancaster (son of John of Gaunt). He then went
to Ireland.
1399
Henry Bolingbroke landed with a small
force at Spurn near Humber in 1399 and marched to his Pickering Castle. Supporters rallied
including the Nevilles from Sheriff Hutton and Kirkbymoorside.
Royal support soon collapsed
and Richard was forced to surrender the Crown.
The
House of York and the House of Lancaster