The Angevin Empire This page intentionally left blank The Angevin Empire Second Edition JOHN GILLINGHAM Emeritus Professor of History, London School of Economics and Political Science AARNOLD A member of the Hodder Headline Group LONDON Co-published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press Inc., New York First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Arnold, a member of the Hodder Headline Group, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH http://www.arnoldpublishers.com Co-published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY10016 © 2001 John Gillingham All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without either prior permission in writing from the publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the United Kingdom such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency: 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the author nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0340 74114 7 (hb) ISBN 0340 741155 (pb) 123456789 10 Production Editor: James Rabson Production Controller: Martin Kerans Cover Design: Terry Griffiths Typeset in 11 on 13 pt Sabon by Cambrian Typesetters, Frimley, Surrey Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall What do you think about this book? Or any other Arnold title? Please send your comments to [email protected] In memory of Tom Keefe This page intentionally left blank Contents List of maps ix Genealogical table x Preface to the Second Edition xi 1 Introduction 1 The empire with no name 2 2 The making of the Angevin Empire 6 France and England in 1150 6 The counts of Anjou 7 1128: the marriage of Geoffrey and Matilda 8 The war of Norman succession 12 The crises of 1151-53 17 3 Aggression and expansion, 1156-72 22 France 23 Flanders 24 Brittany 25 Scotland 26 Wales 26 Ireland 27 Toulouse 29 The end of the Angevin-Capetian accord 30 The king's children 32 4 Holding on, 1173-99 34 The rebellion of 1173-74 and its aftermath 34 Philip II Augustus 36 The Old King and Richard 36 Richard I: going on Crusade 40 The king in captivity 43 Recovery: administration, diplomacy and war 46 viii Contents 5 The geography of the empire 50 Mapping the Angevin Empire 50 Charters, law courts and justice 55 English royal revenues 1130-1220 57 Other revenues 59 The Angevin trading zone 61 6 Government 67 King and household 67 Central administration 69 The itinerant household 72 Provincial administration 75 Patronage 78 Royal and provincial custom 79 Cohesion? 82 7 The crisis of the Angevin Empire, 1199-1206 86 The war of Angevin succession 86 The revolt of the Lusignans, 1201-2 89 Defeat on all fronts, 1202-4 92 Holding the line, 1205-6 94 The causes of defeat 95 8 The end of the empire 103 The failure of grand strategy, 1214 103 The Capetian invasion of England, 1215-17 107 Government without cash: the minority of Henry III 108 The loss of La Rochelle 110 9 Conclusion 116 A Plantagenet culture? History, myth and architecture 117 Dynastic structure 119 Further reading 126 Index 139 List of maps Map 1 Royal castles in England, Wales and Ireland 52 Map 2 Angevin dominions on the continent, c.1200 53 Map 3 John's itinerary, 1199-1202 74 NORMAN ANGEVIN William I © © I 1 Eremburga m. Fulk V m. Melisende I I of Maine CofAnjou; i of Jerusalem Robert William II Henry I K. of Jerusalem Curthose (1087-1100) (1100-35) 1131-43 I i ©i © i r~King^ s of Jerusalei m i William William Emperor m. Matilda m. Geoffrey Elie Matilda m. Sibylla m. Thierry Stephen Clito theAtheling Henry V CofAnjou William the I C. of Flanders King of England 1128-51 Atheling I I D of Normandy i 1 ( 1 CAPETIAN 1144-51 I II I Philip C. of Matthew m. Mary Eustace Louis VI Flanders I I I © I © I I 1 Robert Constance m. Louis VII m. Eleanor of m. Henry II Geoffrey William ofDreux ofCastille (1137-80) Aquitaine (1154-89) m.<5) Adela of , . , , , , Champagne | | | I © © I I © © Alice Margaret m. Henry Matilde m. Henry Richard I m. Berengaria Geoffrey m. Constance m. Guy of Eleanor m. Alfonso VIII Joan m.Raymond VI John m. Isobella ofm.Hugh of D. of (1189-99) of Navarre I of Brittany Thouars of Castile of Toulouse (1199-1216) Angouleme I Lusignan Saxony Isabella of m. Philip II I Hainault Augustus I I I (1180-1223) Emoeror ' ' I t Otto IV Arthur Eleanor Alice m. Peter Blanche Raymond VII I I Lusignans ofDreux m- of Toulouse u m Louis VIII Henry'" Richard of Louis VIII m. Blanche (1216-72) Cornwall (1223-6) ofCastille Edward I Louis IX 1226-70) NB Children are not always shown in the order of their birth Preface to the Second Edition This is a revised and expanded edition of a book first published in 1984 in the Edward Arnold series 'Foundations of Medieval History' (General editor, Michael Clanchy). The purpose of that series was to 'provide concise and authoritative introductions' which would 'enable students both to master the basic facts about a topic and to form their own point of view'. I hope that this second edition, although in all about 25 per cent longer than the first edition, does at least remain concise. In one respect, indeed, it is shorter. The words 'feudal' and 'vassal' appear slightly less often than in the first edition. This new edition is in part a result of the anniversary factor -1999 being the 800th anniversary of the death of Richard I and accession of King John. Three conferences, one on King John at Norwich, two on Richard I at Caen and Thouars, acted as a consid- erable stimulus to further reflection. During the intervening years I have owed much to the congenial atmosphere at the meetings of the Battle Conference founded by R. Allen Brown, and to its proceedings, published annually as Anglo- Norman Studies - recently described by Frank Barlow as 'a golden treasury'. Battle's American equivalent, the Haskins Society, has performed a similarly valuable role; its newsletter, 'The Anglo- Norman Anonymous', published three times a year, being a useful and often entertaining way of keeping abreast of work in progress. Since 1984 the study of royal government in England - a tradi- tional strength of English historical writing - has gone on apace, but it is a particular pleasure here to note how much work is now being done on the French side of Plantagenet history by younger English scholars, several of them thanks to the encouragement and support given by Sir James Holt. I have in mind Judith Everard, Vincent Moss, Daniel Power, Kathleen Thompson and Nicholas Vincent. In this revision I have owed much to their scholarship. I have also had a great deal of help from Jane Martindale, and have benefited from Alban Gautier's kindness in supplying me with a copy of his unpub- lished memoire de maitrise: 'L'empire angevin: une invention des historiens?' No doubt about it. xii Preface to the Second Edition There is a certain nostalgic pleasure in being able to hold Christopher Wheeler, Director of Humanities Publishing at Arnold, responsible for this new edition, since it was he who, nearly twenty years ago now, commissioned its first edition. I am grateful to him for never quite giving up on the attempt to persuade me to produce an expanded version. My thanks also to all those who have helped to see this book through the press: Susan Dunsmore, Emma Heyworth-Dunn and James Rabson. September 2000 1 Introduction By the Angevin Empire I mean the assemblage of lands held by the family of the counts of Anjou (the Angevins) in the 80 or so years after 1144. In 1144 the count of Anjou, Geoffrey Plantagenet, became duke of Normandy; in 1152 his successor, Henry, acquired Aquitaine (by virtue of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine); in 1154 Henry also became king of England. He was, in the words of several contempo- raries, 'in extent of his dominions a greater king than any of his prede- cessors'. For the next 50 years, within more or less stable boundaries, this vast accumulation of territories, stretching from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees, was ruled by a series of princes who could claim to be the most powerful rulers in Western Europe: Henry II, Richard I, John. Then in 1202-4 John lost Anjou, Normandy and much of Poitou (the northern part of the duchy of Aquitaine) to Philip Augustus, the most successful of the Capetian kings of France; in the 1220s the Capetians completed their conquest of Poitou. Thereafter, although the Plantagenets continued to rule both England and Gascony, as well as some other territories - Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands - the structure of their lands was very different from what it had been in the second half of the twelfth century. Then the political centre of gravity had been in France; the Angevins were French princes who numbered England amongst their possessions.