1. The House of Plantagenet
A. General characteristic of the house of Plantagenet - the House of Plantagenet was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The name Plantagenet is used by modern historians to identify four distinct royal houses – the Angevins who were also Counts of Anjou, the main body of the Plantagenets following the loss of Anjou, and the houses of Lancaster and York, the Plantagenets' two cadet branches. The family held the English throne from 1154, with the accession of Henry II, until 1485, when Richard III died.
Under the
Plantagenets, England was transformed, although this was only partly
intentional. The Plantagenet kings were often forced to negotiate compromises
such as Magna
Carta. These constrained royal power in return for financial and military
support. The king was no longer just the most powerful man in the nation,
holding the prerogative of judgement, feudal tribute and warfare. He now had
defined duties to the realm, underpinned by a sophisticated justice system. A
distinct national identity was shaped by conflict with the French, Scots, Welsh
and Irish, and the establishment of English as the primary language.
In the 15th
century, the Plantagenets were defeated in the Hundred Years' War and
beset with social, political and economic problems. Popular revolts were
commonplace, triggered by the denial of numerous freedoms. English nobles
raised private armies, engaged in private feuds and openly defied Henry VI.
The rivalry
between the House of Plantagenet's two cadet branches of York and Lancaster
brought about the Wars of the Roses, a
decades-long fight for the English succession, culminating in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485,
when the reign of the Plantagenets and the English Middle Ages both met
their end with the death of King Richard III. Henry VII, a
Lancastrian, became king of England; two years later, he married Elizabeth
of York, thus ending the Wars of the Roses, and giving rise to the Tudor dynasty. The Tudors
worked to centralise English royal power, which allowed them to avoid some of
the problems that had plagued the last Plantagenet rulers. The resulting
stability allowed for the English Renaissance, and the
advent of early modern Britain.
B. Main representatives of the dynasty to Hundred Years' War (1154-1337)
William II, Rufus (1087-1100) - despite the cohesion and order brought to England by the Duke of Normandy, the new administrative system outlived him by less than fifty years. Though William respected the elective nature of the English monarch, perfunctorily recognised at his own coronation, on his deathbed in Normandy he handed over the crown to William Rufus, his favourite son, and sent him to England to Archbishop Lanfranc. He reluctantly granted the Duchy of Normandy to Robert, his eldest, and bequeathed a modest sum to Henry Beauclerk, his youngest. There were bound to be problems.
William II, Rufus (1087-1100) - despite the cohesion and order brought to England by the Duke of Normandy, the new administrative system outlived him by less than fifty years. Though William respected the elective nature of the English monarch, perfunctorily recognised at his own coronation, on his deathbed in Normandy he handed over the crown to William Rufus, his favourite son, and sent him to England to Archbishop Lanfranc. He reluctantly granted the Duchy of Normandy to Robert, his eldest, and bequeathed a modest sum to Henry Beauclerk, his youngest. There were bound to be problems.
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| The second Norman king of England, William II, King Rufus, who was killed in August 1100 |
The
dominions ruled by William lI, Rufus, were closely knit together by the family.
The King of England and the Duke of Normandy had rival claims upon the
allegiance of every great land-holder from the Scottish borders to Anjou. And
these great land-holders, the Barons and Earls made it their business to
provoke and protract quarrels of every kind between their rulers. It was a
rotten state of affairs that could only be settled through the English
acquisition of Normandy. In addition, Norman lands were surrounded by enemies
eager to re-conquer lost territories. One of these foes was the Church of Rome
itself, rapidly increasing in power and prestige at the expense of the feudal
monarchies. Both William Rufus and his successor Henry I had to deal with problems
that eventually lay beyond their capabilities to solve.
The
leading Barons acquiesced in the coronation of William Rufus by Lanfranc in
September of 1087, taking their lead from the archbishop but also demonstrating
the immense power that was accruing to the Church in England. The new king was
an illiterate, avaricious, impetuous man, not the sort of ruler the country
needed at this or at any other time. According to William of Malmesbury, he had
already sunk below the possibility of greatness or moral reformation. It seems
that the only profession he honoured was that of war; his court became a Mecca
for those practiced in its arts; his retainers lived lavishly off the land and
took what they wished from whom they wished. To entertain his retinue, the king
had a huge banqueting hall built in Westminster.
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| Death of William Rufus in a hunting accident |
Despite
the faults of William ll, England was governed well compared to Normandy, where
a constant state of anarchy prevailed and where Duke Robert was unable to
control his barons who waged private wars, built castles without license and
acted as petty, independent sovereigns.
Henry
I (1100-1135) - of the three sons of the Conqueror, Henry was the
most able. A competent administrator at home, he succeeded in the conquest of
Normandy.
Also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from
1100 to his death. Henry was the fourth son of William
the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's
death in 1087, Henry's elder brothers Robert Curthose and William
Rufus inherited Normandy and
England, respectively, but Henry was left landless. Henry purchased the County of Cotentin in
western Normandy from Robert, but William and Robert deposed him in 1091. Henry
gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin and allied himself with
William against Robert. Henry was present when William died in a hunting
accident in 1100, and he seized the English throne, promising at his coronation
to correct many of William's less popular policies. Henry married Matilda
of Scotland but continued to have a large number of mistresses, by whom he had
many illegitimate children.
Robert, who
invaded in 1101, disputed Henry's control of England; this military campaign
ended in a negotiated settlement that confirmed Henry as king. The peace was
short-lived, and Henry invaded the Duchy of Normandy in 1105 and 1106, finally
defeating Robert at the Battle
of Tinchebray.
Henry kept Robert imprisoned for the rest of his
life. Henry's control of Normandy was challenged by Louis VI of France, Baldwin
of Flanders and Fulk
of Anjou, who promoted the rival claims of Robert's son, William Clito, and supported
a major rebellion in the Duchy between 1116 and 1119. Following Henry's victory
at the Battle
of Brémule, a favourable peace settlement was agreed with Louis in 1120.
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| Late medieval picture from the 15th century of the Battle of Tinchebray |
Considered by
contemporaries to be a harsh but effective ruler, Henry skilfully manipulated
the barons in England and Normandy. In England, he drew on the existing Anglo-Saxon system
of justice, local government and taxation, but also strengthened it with
additional institutions, including the royal exchequer and
itinerant justices. Normandy was
also governed through a growing system of justices and an exchequer. Many of
the officials who ran Henry's system were "new men" of obscure
backgrounds rather than from families of high status, who rose through the
ranks as administrators. Henry encouraged ecclesiastical reform, but became embroiled in a serious dispute in 1101 with Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, which was resolved through a compromise solution in 1105. He supported the Cluniac order and played a major role in the selection of the senior clergy in England and Normandy.
Henry's only
legitimate son and heir, William Adelin, drowned in
the White Ship disaster
of 1120, throwing the royal succession into doubt. Henry took a second
wife, Adeliza, in the hope
of having another son, but their marriage was childless. In response to this,
Henry declared his daughter, Matilda, his heir and
married her to Geoffrey of Anjou. The
relationship between Henry and the couple became strained, and fighting broke
out along the border with Anjou. Henry died on 1 December 1135 after a week of
illness. Despite his plans for Matilda, the King was succeeded by his
nephew, Stephen
of Blois, resulting in a period of civil war known as the
Anarchy.
Henry
II (1154-1189) - Henry had become Duke of Normandy in 1150 and Count
of Anjou after his father's death in 1151. When he married Eleanor of Aquitaine
in 1152, he ruled her duchy as well, thus becoming more powerful than his lord,
King Louis of France. Eleanor had been divorced from Louis VII after her spell
of adultery with her Uncle Raymond of Antioch, notwithstanding the efforts of
the Pope to keep the marriage whole. She was several years older than Henry,
but she was determined on the union and made all the initial overtures. The
turbulent marriage of the able, headstrong, ambitious Henry to an older woman,
equally ambitious and proud, was famous for its political results.
Henry
II
King
Louis, fearful of his loss of influence in France, made war on the couple,
joined by Henry's younger brother Geoffrey who claimed the inheritance of
Anjou. Their feeble opposition, however, was easily overcome and Henry acquired
a vast swathe of territory in France from Normandy through Anjou to Aquitaine.
The stage was set for the greatest period in Plantagenet history.
Henry
II was one of the most powerful rulers in Europe. His boundless energy was the
wonder of his chroniclers; his court had to rush like mad to keep up with his
constant travels and hunting expeditions. But he was also a scholar and
Churchman, founding and endowing many religious houses, though he was castigated
for keeping many bishoprics vacant to enjoy their revenues for himself. To
posterity, he left a legacy of shrewd decisions in the effective legal,
administrative and financial developments of his thirty-five year reign.
Upon
his succession, Henry immediately took steps to reduce the power of the barons,
who had built up their estates and consolidated their positions during the
anarchy under Stephen. He refused to recognize any land grants made by his
predecessor and ruled as if Stephen had not even existed. Any attempts at
opposition were suppressed so that by 1158, four years into his reign, he ruled
supreme in England.
Henry
then turned his attention to the Church, shrewdly relying on his close ally
Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury to carry out his religious policies. England
began to prosper under its able administrators closely watched and guided by
their king. Particularly noticeable were the growth of boroughs, the new towns
that were to transform the landscape of the nation during the century and that
were ultimately to play such a strong part in its political and economic life.
Henry's
continental holdings in 1154
The
growth of towns, the new trading centres, was greatly aided by the stimulation
of the First Crusade that revived the commerce of Europe by increased contact
with the Mediterranean and especially through the growth of Venice.
Improvements in agriculture included the introduction of the wheeled plough and
the horse collar, both of which were to have enormous influence on farming
methods and transportation. For one thing, the horse collar made it possible to
efficiently transport the heavy blocks of stone for the building of the great
cathedrals. The drift into towns meant a weakening of serfdom and the Lord's
hold upon his demesne; serfs left the land to become traders, peddlers and
artisans.
Great
changes in Europe also had their effects on the English political system.
Motivated by hatred and fear of the Muslems, and stimulated by the Crusades,
the Italian city-states grew in influence and prosperity. Sicily had been
conquered by the Normans by 1090, opening up the Western Mediterranean to
trade. This in turn stimulated the growth of the towns, which soon led to
demands for more say in their own government and the inevitable clash with the
Church, ever anxious to protect its own areas of interest and those of the
merchant classes and rapidly forming guilds.
The continuing clash between Church and King was another matter altogether. There seem to have been three main factors in the quarrel between Archbishop Becket and King Henry: their differing personalities, political implications and the intolerance of the age. As chancellor for eight years from 1154, Becket was a firm friend of the king with whom he had been a boyhood companion. He was energetic, methodical and trustworthy, supporting his king in relations with the Church. There was hardly any indication that the relationship of Church and State would be completely changed upon Becket's appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury upon Theodore's death in 1161, a position in which he now displayed the same enthusiasm and energy as before, but now sworn to uphold ecclesiastical prestige against any royal encroachments. Resigning the chancellorship, he began in earnest to work solely in the interests of the Church, opposing the king even on insignificant, trivial matters, but especially over Henry's proposal that people in holy orders found guilty of criminal offences should be handed over to the secular authorities for punishment.
The continuing clash between Church and King was another matter altogether. There seem to have been three main factors in the quarrel between Archbishop Becket and King Henry: their differing personalities, political implications and the intolerance of the age. As chancellor for eight years from 1154, Becket was a firm friend of the king with whom he had been a boyhood companion. He was energetic, methodical and trustworthy, supporting his king in relations with the Church. There was hardly any indication that the relationship of Church and State would be completely changed upon Becket's appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury upon Theodore's death in 1161, a position in which he now displayed the same enthusiasm and energy as before, but now sworn to uphold ecclesiastical prestige against any royal encroachments. Resigning the chancellorship, he began in earnest to work solely in the interests of the Church, opposing the king even on insignificant, trivial matters, but especially over Henry's proposal that people in holy orders found guilty of criminal offences should be handed over to the secular authorities for punishment.
The
king was determined to turn unwritten custom into written, thus making Becket
liable for punishment, but Henry's insistence that it was illegal for Churchmen
to appeal to Rome gave the quarrel a much wider significance. After Henry had
presented his proposals at Clarendon in January 1164, Becket refused to submit
and his angry confrontation with the king was only defused with his escape to
exile in France to wage a war of words. He found very little support from the
English bishops who owed their appointments to royal favour and who were
heavily involved on the Crown's behalf in legal and administrative matters.
They were not willing to give up their powers by supporting the Archbishop,
whose intransigence made him, in their eyes, a fool. After six years in exile,
however, a compromise was reached and Becket returned to England.
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| Murdering of Thomas Becket |
Showing
not a sign of his willingness to honour the compromise, Becket immediately
excommunicated the Archbishop of York and the other bishops who had assisted at
the coronation of Henry's oldest son. When the news reached Henry in Normandy,
his anger was uncontrollable and the four knights who sped to Canterbury to
murder Becket in his own cathedral thought that this was an act desired by the
King. Instead, the whole of Europe was outraged.
The
dead archbishop was immensely more powerful than the live one, and more than
Henry's abject penance made the murdered Becket the most influential martyr in
the history of the English Church. The triangle of Pope, King and Archbishop was
broken. Canon law was introduced fully into England, and an important phase in
the struggle between Church and State had been won. Henry was forced to give
way all along the line; as a way out, he busied himself in Ireland, sending his
son John as "Lord of Ireland" to conduct a campaign that was a
complete fiasco.
Taking
advantage of their father's weakness, his sons now broke out in open rebellion,
aided by the Queen, though their lack of cooperation and trust in each other
led to Henry eventually being able to defeat them one at a time. For her part,
Eleanor was imprisoned for the remainder of the king's life. During her
husband's many absences, she had acted as regent of England. Her particular
ally against Henry was Richard, heir to the duchy of Aquitaine. During the last
three years of Henry's life, his imprisoned queen once more began to plot
against him, and upon his death in 1189, she assumed far greater powers than
she had enjoyed as his queen.
Under
pressure from resistance in Britanny and Aquitaine, and possible rebellion from
his sons, aided by their ambitious, scheming mother, Henry had worked out a
scheme for the future division of his kingdoms. Henry was to inherit England,
Normandy and Anjou;
Richard
was to gain Poitou and Britanny was to go to Geoffrey. John was to get nothing,
but later was promised Chinon, Loudon and Mirebeau as part of a proposed
marriage settlement. This decision was strongly contested by Prince Henry and
was a leading factor in the warfare that ensued between the King and his sons.
It was in Normandy that Henry fell ill; he died after being forced to accept
humiliating terms from Philip of France and his son Richard, who succeeded him
as King of England in 1189.
Richard
l (1189-1199) - showing
but some of his father's administrative capacity, Richard I, the Lionheart,
preferred to demonstrate his talents in battle. His ferocious pursuit of the
arts of war squandered his vast wealth and devastated the economy of his
dominions. On a Crusade to the Holy Land in 1191-2, he was captured while
returning to England and ransomed in prison in Austria. But upon his release,
he went back to fighting, this time against Philip II of France. In a minor
skirmish in Aquitaine, he was killed. That almost sums up his reign, but not
quite.
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| Richard I |
King
Richard spent all of six months in England. To raise the funds for his
adventures overseas, however, he appointed able administrators who carried out
his plans to sell just about everything he owned: offices, lordships, earldoms,
sheriffdoms, castles, towns, and lands. Even his Chancellor William Longchamps,
Bishop of Ely, had to pay an enormous sum for his chancellorship. William also
taxed the people heavily in the service of his master, making himself extremely
unpopular and being removed by a rebellion of the Barons in 1191.
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| The Near East in 1190 (Cyprus in purple) |
One
favourable legacy that Richard left behind was his patronage of the
troubadours, the composers of lyric poetry that were bringing a civilized tone
to savage times and whose influence charted the future course that literature
in Europe was to take. A sad note is that Richard's preparations for the Third
Crusade against the Muslims provoked popular hostility in England towards its
Jewish inhabitants (who had been formerly encouraged to come from Normandy). A
massacre of the Jewish inhabitants of York took place in March, 1190, and
Richard's successor, John placed heavy fines which led to many Jews fleeing
back to the continent, a process that continued into the reign of Edward I,
when they were expelled from England.
King John (1199-1216) - there are quite a number of
ironies connected with the reign of John, for during his reign all the vast
Plantagenet possessions in France except Gascony were lost. From now on, the House
of Anjou was separated from its links with its homeland, and the Crown of
England eventually could concern itself solely with running its own affairs
free from Continental intrigue. But that was later.
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| The Angevin continental empire (orange shades) in the late 12th century |
In
the meantime, John's mishandling of his responsibilities at home led to
increased baronial resistance and to the great concessions of the Magna Carta,
hailed as one of the greatest developments in human rights in history and the
precursor of the United States Bill of Rights. It was also in John's reign that
the first income tax was levied in England. To try to recover his lost lands in
France, John introduced his tax of one thirteenth on income from rents and
moveable property, to be collected by the sheriffs.
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| King John |
To
be fair to the unfortunate John, his English kingdom had been drained of its
wealth for Richard's wars in France and the Crusade as well as the exorbitant
ransom. His own resources were insufficient to overcome the problems he thus
inherited. He also lacked the military abilities of his brother. It has been
said that John could win a battle in a sudden display of energy, but then
fritter away any advantage gained in a spell of indolence. It is more than one
historian who wrote of John as having the mental abilities of a great king, but
the inclinations of a petty tyrant.
Innocent,
Pope from 1198 to 1216 was the first to style himself "Vicar of
Christ." He proved to be a formidable adversary to the English King. Their
major dispute came over the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury at
the death of Hubert Walter in 1205. John refused to accept Stephen Langton, an
Englishman active in the papal court at Rome. He was punished by the Interdict
of 1208, and for the next five years, English priests were forbidden from
administering the sacraments, even from burying the dead. Most of the bishops
left the country.
For
posterity, however, the two most important clauses were 39, which states that
no one should be imprisoned without trial and 40, which states that no one
could buy or deny justice.
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| A romanticised 19th-century recreation of King John signing the Magna Carta |
Edward
I (1272-1307) - seen by many historians as the ideal medieval king,
Edward l enjoyed warfare and statecraft equally. Known as Edward Longshanks, he
was a man whose immense strength and steely resolve had been ably shown on the
crusade he undertook to the Holy Land in 1270.
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| Operations during the Crusade of Edward I |
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| Edward I |
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| Reconstruction of Conwy Castle and town walls at the end of the 13th century |
The
stubborn Welsh were a thorn in the side of Edward whose ambition was to rule
the whole of Britain. They were a proud people, considering themselves the true
Britons. Geoffrey of Monmouth (1090-1155) had claimed that they had come to the
island of Britain from Troy under their leader Brutus. He also praised their
history, written in the British tongue (Welsh). Another Norman-Welsh author,
Giraldus Cambrensis (1146-1243) had this to say about his fellow countrymen:
The
English fight for power: the Welsh for liberty; the one to procure, gain, the
other to avoid loss. The English hirelings for money; the Welsh patriots for
their country. When the English nation forged some kind of national identity
under Alfred of Wessex, the Welsh put aside their constant infighting to create
something of a nation themselves under a succession of strong leaders beginning
with Rhodri Mawr (Rhodri the Great) who ruled the greater part of Wales by the
time of his death in 877. Rhodri's work of unification was then continued by
his grandson, Hywel Dda (Howell the Good 904-50), whose codification of Welsh
law has been described as among the most splendid creations of the culture of
the Welsh.
Under
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Wales was forged into a single political unit. In 1204,
Llywelyn married King John's daughter Joan and was recognised by Henry III as
preeminent in his territories. At his death, however, in 1240, fighting between
his sons Dafydd and Gruffudd just about destroyed all their father had
accomplished, and in 1254, Henry's son Edward was given control of all the
Crown lands in Wales that had been ceded at the Treaty of Woodstock in 1247.
The
situation was restored by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, recognised as Prince of Wales
by Henry in 1267 and ruler of a kingdom set to conduct its own affairs free
from English influence. The tide of affairs then undertook a complete reversal
with the accession of Edward I to the throne of England in 1272.
Edward's
armies were defeated when they first crossed Offas's Dyke into Wales. The
English king's determination to crush his opposition, his enormous expenditure
on troops and supplies and resistance to Llywelyn from minor Welsh princes who
were jealous of his rule, soon meant that the small Welsh forces were forced
into their mountain strongholds. At the Treaty of Aberconwy of 1287, Llywelyn
was forced to concede much of his territories east of the River Conwy. Edward
then began his castle-building campaign, beginning with Flint right on the
English border and extending to Builth in mid-Wales.
At
the Statute of Rhuddlan, 1284, Wales was divided up into English counties; the
English court pattern set firmly in place, and for all intents and purposes,
Wales ceased to exist as a political unit. The situation seemed permanent when
Edward followed up his castle building program by his completion of Caernarfon,
Conwy and Harlech. In 1300, Edward made his son (born at Caernarfon castle, in
that mighty fortress overlooking the Menai Straits in Gwynedd) "Prince of
Wales." The powerful king could now turn his attention to those other
troublemakers, the Scots.
Wales
after the Treaty of Montgomery 1267
The Scots' Road to Independence
1. Effects
of Viking Conquest: at roughly the same time that the people of Wales were
separated from the invading Saxons by the artificial boundary of Offa's Dyke,
MacAlpin had been creating a kingdom of Scotland. His successes in part were
due to the threat coming from the raids of the Vikings, many
of whom became settlers. The seizure of control over all Norway in 872 by
Harald Fairhair caused many of the previously independent Jarls to look for new
lands to establish themselves. One result of the coming of the Norsemen and
Danes with their command of the sea, was that Scotland became surrounded and
isolated. The old link with Ireland was broken and the country was now cut off
from southern England and the Continent, thus the kingdom of Alba established
by MacAlpin was thrown in upon itself and united against a common foe.
2. Interaction
with the Normans: it was under the rule of David l, the ninth son of Malcom
III, that Norman influence began to percolate through much of southern
Scotland. David, King of Scotland, was also Prince of Cumbria, and through
marriage, Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon. Brother-in-law to the King of
England, he was raised and educated in England by Normans who "polished
his manners from the rust of Scottish barbarity." In Scotland, he
distributed large estates to his Anglo-Norman cronies who also took over
important positions in the Church. In the Scottish Lowlands he introduced a
feudal system of land ownership, founded on a new, French-speaking Anglo-Norman
aristocracy that remained aloof from the majority of the Gaelic-speaking Celtic
population.
3. Territorial
Expansion and Conflicts with Henry II: At David's death in 1153, the
kingdom of Scotland had been extended to include the Modern English counties of
Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmoreland, territories that were in future to
be held by the kings of Scotland. Alas, the accession of Henry II to the
English throne in 1154 had changed everything.
David
had been succeeded by his grandson, Malcolm IV an eleven-year old boy. He was
no match for the powerful new King of England. At the Treaty of Chester, 1157
Henry's strength, "the authority of his might," forced Malcolm to
give up the northern counties solely in return for the confirmation of his
rights as Earl of Huntingdon. The Scottish border was considerably shifted
northwards. And there it remained until the rash adventures of William,
Malcolm’s brother and successor, got him captured at Alnwich, imprisoned at
Falaise in Normandy, and forced to acknowledge Henry's feudal superiority over
himself and his Scottish kingdom. In addition, to add insult to injury, the
strategic castles of Edinburgh, Stirling, Roxburgh, Jedburgh and Berwick were
to be held by England with English garrisons at Scottish expense.
4. More
Conflicts with Edward I: Edward was ready. He went north to receive homage
from a great number of Scottish nobles as their feudal lord, among them none
other than Robert Bruce, who owned estates in England. Balliol immediately
punished this treachery by seizing Bruce's lands in Scotland and giving them to
his own brother-in-law, John Comyn. Yet within a few months, the Scottish king
was to disappear from the scene. His army was defeated by Edward at Dunbar in
April 1296. Soon after at Brechin, on 10 July, he surrendered his Scottish
throne to the English king, who took into his possession the stone of Scone,
"the coronation stone" of the Scottish kings. At a parliament which
he summoned at Berwick, the English king received homage and the oath of fealty
from over two thousand Scots. He seemed secure in Scotland.
Flushed
with this success, Edward had gone too far. The rising tide of nationalist
fervour in the face of the arrival of the English armies north
of the border created the need for new Scottish leaders. With the killing of an
English sheriff following a brawl with English soldiers in the marketplace at
Lanark, a young Scottish knight, William Wallace found himself at the head of a
fast-spreading movement of national resistance. At Stirling Bridge, a Scottish
force led by Wallace, won an astonishing victory when it completely annihilated
a large, lavishly-equipped English army under the command of Surrey, Edward’s
viceroy.
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| The battle at Stirling Bridge |
5. Robert
Bruce It was time for Robert Bruce to free himself from his fealty to
Edward and lead the fight for Scotland. At a meeting between the two surviving
claimants for the Scottish throne in Greyfriar's Kirk at Dumfries, Robert Bruce
murdered John Comyn, thus earning the enmity of the many powerful supporters of
the Comyn family, but also excommunication from the Church. His answer was to
strike out boldly, raising the Royal Standard at Scone and, on March 27, 1306,
declaring himself King of Scots. Edward's reply was predictable; he sent a
large army north, defeated Bruce at the battle of Methven, executed many of his
supporters and forced the Scottish king to become a hunted outlaw.
The
indefatigable Scottish leader bided his time. After a year of demoralization
and widespread English terror let loose in Scotland, during which two of his
brothers were killed, Bruce came out of hiding. Aided mightily by his Chief
Lieutenant, Sir James Douglas, "the Black Douglas," he won his first
victory on Palm Sunday, 1307. From all over Scotland, the clans answered the
call and Bruce's forces gathered in strength to fight the English invaders,
winning many encounters against cavalry with his spearmen.
The
aging Edward, the so-called "hammer of the Scots," marched north at
the head of a large army to punish the Scots' impudence; but the now weak and
sick king was ineffectual as a military leader. He could only wish that after
his death his bones would be carried at the head of his army until Scotland had
been crushed. It was left to his son Edward to try to carry out his father's
dying wish. He was no man for the task. Edward II was crowned King of England
in 1307. Faced by too many problems at home and completely lacking the ruthlessness
and resourcefulness of his father, the young king had no wish to get embroiled
in the affairs of Scotland. Bruce was left alone to consolidate his gains and
to punish those who opposed him. In 1311 he drove out the English garrisons in
all their Scottish strongholds except Stirling and invaded northern England.
King Edward finally, begrudgingly, bestirred himself from his dalliances at
Court to respond and took a large army north.
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| Bruce reviewing troops before the Battle of Bannockburn |
On
Mid-Summer's Day, the 24th of June, 1314 occurred one of the most momentous
battles in British history. The armies of Robert Bruce, heavily outnumbered by
their English rivals, but employing tactics that prevented the English army
from effectively employing its strength, won a decisive victory at Bannockburn.
Scotland was wrenched from English control, its armies free to invade and
harass northern England. Such was Bruce's military successes that he was able
to invade Ireland, where his brother Edward had been crowned King by the
exuberant Irish. A second expedition carried out by Edward II north of the
border was driven back and the English king was forced to seek for peace.
 |
| Battle of Bannockburn 1314 |
The
Declaration of Arboath of 1320 stated that since ancient times the Scots had
been free to choose their own kings, a freedom that was a gift from God. If
Robert Bruce were to prove weak enough to acknowledge Edward as overlord, then
he would be dismissed in favour of someone else. Though English kings still
continued to call themselves rulers of Scotland, just as they called themselves
rulers of France for centuries after being booted out of the continent,
Scotland remained fully independent until 1603 (when James Stuart succeeded
Elizabeth I).
Richard
II (1377-1399) - in Edward III's dotage John of
Gaunt (Ghent, in modern Belgium) was virtual ruler of England. He continued as
regent when Richard II, aged 10, came to the throne in 1377.
Four years later a
poll tax was declared to finance the continuing war with France. Every person
over the age of 15 had to pay one shilling, a large sum in those days. There
was tremendous uproar amongst the peasantry. This, combined with continuing
efforts by land owners to re-introduce servility of the working classes on the
land, led to the Peasant's Revolt. The leaders of the peasants were John Ball,
an itinerant priest, Jack Straw, and Wat Tyler. The revolt is sometimes called
Wat Tyler's Rebellion. They led a mob of up to 100,000 people to London, where
the crowd went on a rampage of destruction, murdered the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and burned John of Gaunt's Savoy Palace.
 |
| Richard II |
Richard
II watches Wat Tyler's
death and addresses the peasants in the background
The End of the Revolt. Eventually
they forced a meeting with the young king in a field near Mile End. Things
began amicably enough, but Wat Tyler grew abusive and the Lord Mayor of London
drew his sword and killed him.
At
this point Richard, then only 14, showed great courage, shouting to the
peasants to follow him. He led them off, calmed them down with promises of
reforms, and convinced them to disperse to their homes. His promises were
immediately revoked by his council of advisors, and the leaders of the revolt
were hanged.
Henry IV (1399-1413) - In
1399 Henry Bolingbroke, exiled son of John of Gaunt, landed with an invasion
force while Richard was in Ireland. He defeated Richard in battle, took him
prisoner, and probably had him murdered.
Henry's claim to the throne was poor.
His right to rule was usurpation approved by Parliament and public opinion
Henry IV had a reign notable mainly for a series of rebellions and
invasions in Wales, Scotland, France, and northern England. He was followed by
his son
Henry V (1413-22) - whose short reign was enlivened by attacks on the Lollard heresy which drove it underground at last. He also resurrected claims to the throne of France itself. After spectacular success at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), Henry married Katherine, daughter of the mad Charles VI of France. Henry died young, leaving the nine month old Henry VI (1422-61) to inherit the throne.
.jpg) |
| Henry IV |
Henry V (1413-22) - whose short reign was enlivened by attacks on the Lollard heresy which drove it underground at last. He also resurrected claims to the throne of France itself. After spectacular success at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), Henry married Katherine, daughter of the mad Charles VI of France. Henry died young, leaving the nine month old Henry VI (1422-61) to inherit the throne.
 |
| Crowned King Henry the V |
Henry VI (1422-61) - The
Wars of the Roses and the Princes in the Tower.
Henry
VI was troubled all his life by recurring bouts of madness, during which the
country was ruled by regents. The regents didn't do any better for England than
Henry did, and the long Hundred Years War with France sputtered to an end with
England losing all her possessions in France except for Calais. In England
itself anarchy reigned. Nobles gathered their own private armies and fought for
local supremacy.
 |
| Henry VI of England |
John
Ball preaching The Wars of the Roses. The struggle to rule on behalf of an
unfit king was one of the surface reasons for the outbreak of thirty years of
warfare that we now call the Wars of the Roses, fought between the Houses of
York (white rose) and Lancaster (red rose). In reality these squabbles were an
indication of the lawlessness that ran rampant in the land. More squalid than
romantic, the Wars of the Roses decimated both houses in an interminably long,
bloody struggle for the throne. The rose symbols that we name the wars after
were not in general use during the conflict. The House of Lancaster did not
even adopt the red rose as its official symbol until the next century. Henry VI was eventually forced to abdicate in 1461 and died ten years later
in prison, possibly murdered.
Edward IV (1461-1483) - of the house of York who managed to get his dubious claim to the throne legitimized by Parliament.
Edward was the first king to address the House of Commons, but his reign is
notable mostly for the continuing saga of the wars with the House of Lancaster
and unsuccessful wars in France.
Edward V (9 April 1483 until 26 June of the same year) - when Edward died in 1483, his son, Edward V, aged twelve, succeeded him.
In light of his youth, Edward's uncle Richard, Duke
of Gloucester, acted as regent.
The Princes in the Tower. Traditional history, written by later Tudor historians seeking to legitimize their masters' past, has painted Richard as the archetypal wicked uncle. The truth may not be so clear cut. Some things are known, or assumed, to be true. Edward and his younger brother were put in the Tower of London, ostensibly for their own protection.
Richard had the "Princes in the Tower" declared
illegitimate, which may possibly have been true. He then got himself declared
king. He may have been in the right, and certainly England needed a strong and
able king. But he was undone when the princes disappeared and were rumoured to
have been murdered by his orders. In the 17th century workmen repairing a
stairwell at the Tower found the bones of two boys of about the right ages.
Were these the Princes in the Tower, and were they killed by their wicked
uncle? We will probably never know. The person with the most to gain by killing
the princes was not Richard, however, but Henry, Earl of Richmond. Henry also
claimed the throne, seeking "legitimacy" through descent from John of
Gaunt and his mistress.
Richard III (1483–1485) - was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485, at the age of 32, in the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the subject of the historical play Richard III by William Shakespeare.
Edward IV (1461-1483) - of the house of York who managed to get his dubious claim to the throne legitimized by Parliament.
 |
| Edward IV |
Edward V (9 April 1483 until 26 June of the same year) - when Edward died in 1483, his son, Edward V, aged twelve, succeeded him.
 |
| Edward V |
The Princes in the Tower. Traditional history, written by later Tudor historians seeking to legitimize their masters' past, has painted Richard as the archetypal wicked uncle. The truth may not be so clear cut. Some things are known, or assumed, to be true. Edward and his younger brother were put in the Tower of London, ostensibly for their own protection.
 |
| King Edward V and the Duke of York in the Tower of London by Paul Delaroche. |
Richard III (1483–1485) - was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485, at the age of 32, in the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the subject of the historical play Richard III by William Shakespeare.
 |
| Late 16th century portrait, housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. |
When his
brother King Edward IV died
in April 1483, Richard was named Lord Protector of
the realm for Edward's son and successor, the 12-year-old Edward V. As the young king travelled to London from Ludlow, Richard met and
escorted him to lodgings in the Tower of London,
where Edward V's own brother Richard of Shrewsbury joined him shortly afterwards. Arrangements were made for Edward's
coronation on 22 June 1483; but, before the young king could be crowned, his
father's marriage to his mother Elizabeth Woodville was declared invalid, making their
children illegitimate and ineligible for the throne. On 25 June, an assembly of
Lords and commoners endorsed the claims. The following day, Richard III began
his reign, and he was crowned on 6 July 1483. The young princes were not seen
in public after August, and accusations circulated that the boys had been
murdered on Richard's orders, giving rise to the legend of the Princes in the Tower.
Of the two major
rebellions against Richard, the first, in October 1483, was led by staunch
allies of Edward IV and Richard's former ally, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of
Buckingham; but the
revolt collapsed. In August 1485, Henry Tudor and his uncle, Jasper Tudor,
led a second rebellion against Richard. Henry Tudor landed in southern Wales with a small
contingent of French troops and marched through his birthplace, Pembrokeshire,
recruiting soldiers. Henry's force engaged Richard's army and defeated it at
the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire.
Richard was struck down in the conflict, making him the last English king to
die in battle on home soil and the first since Harold II was
killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
After the
battle Richard's corpse was taken to Leicester and
buried without pomp. His original
tomb monument is believed to have been removed during the Reformation,
and his remains were lost for more than five centuries, believed to have been thrown
into the River Soar. In 2012, an archaeological
excavation was commissioned by the Richard III Society on a city council car park on
the site once occupied by Greyfriars Priory Church. The University of Leicester identified the skeleton found in
the excavation as that of Richard III as a result of radiocarbon dating,
comparison with contemporary reports of his appearance, and comparison of his mitochondrial DNA with
that of two matrilineal descendants of Richard III's eldest sister, Anne of York. Richard's remains were reburied in Leicester Cathedral on
26 March 2015.
The Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry VII defeated and killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), claiming the crown which was found hanging upon a bush, and placing it upon his own head. Bosworth marked the end of the Wars of the Roses. There was no one else left to fight. It also marked the end of the feudal period of English history. With the death of Richard III the crown passed from the Plantagenet line to the new House of Tudor, and a new era of history began.
The Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry VII defeated and killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), claiming the crown which was found hanging upon a bush, and placing it upon his own head. Bosworth marked the end of the Wars of the Roses. There was no one else left to fight. It also marked the end of the feudal period of English history. With the death of Richard III the crown passed from the Plantagenet line to the new House of Tudor, and a new era of history began.
 |
| The Battle of Bosworth Field 1485 |
B. The
Hundred Years War (1336-1453) - in 1337 began the conflict with France known as The
Hundred Years War. Actually, it lasted, on and off, for 116 years, and
despite early successes at Crecy and Poitiers, it was to end with the loss of
virtually all English possessions on the mainland.
The Hundred Years' War was a series
of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of
the Kingdom of France, for control
of the latter kingdom. Each side drew many allies into the war. It was one of
the most notable conflicts of the Middle Ages, in which five generations of
kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of the largest kingdom in
Western Europe. The war marked both the height of chivalry and its
subsequent decline, and the development of strong national identities in both
countries.
After
the Norman
Conquest, the kings of England were vassals of the kings of France for their possessions in
France. The French kings had endeavored, over the centuries, to reduce these
possessions, to the effect that only Gascony was left
to the English. The confiscation or threat of confiscating this duchy had been
part of French policy to check the growth of English power, particularly
whenever the English were at war with the Kingdom of Scotland, an ally of France.
Through his
mother, Isabella
of France, Edward
III of England was the grandson of Philip IV of France and nephew of Charles
IV of France, the last king of the senior line of the House of Capet. In 1316, a principle was
established denying women succession to the French throne. When Charles IV died
in 1328, Isabella, unable to claim the French throne for herself, claimed it
for her son. The French rejected the claim, maintaining that Isabella could not
transmit a right that she did not possess. For about nine years (1328–1337),
the English had accepted the Valois succession to the French throne. But the
interference of the French king, Philip VI, in Edward III's war against
Scotland led Edward III to reassert his claim to the French throne. Several
overwhelming English victories in the war—especially at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt—raised the
prospects of an ultimate English triumph. However, the greater resources of the
French monarchy precluded a complete conquest. Starting in 1429, decisive
French victories at Patay, Formigny, and Castillon concluded
the war in favor of France, with England permanently losing most of its major
possessions on the continent.
Historians
commonly divide the war into three phases separated by truces:
1. the Edwardian Era War (1337–1360);
2. the Caroline War (1369–1389); and
3. the Lancastrian War (1415–1453).
Contemporary conflicts in neighbouring areas, which were directly related to this conflict, included the War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364), the Castilian Civil War (1366–1369), the War of the Two Peters (1356–1375) in Aragon, and the 1383–85 Crisis in Portugal. Later historians invented the term "Hundred Years' War" as a periodization to encompass all of these events, thus constructing the longest military conflict in history.
1. the Edwardian Era War (1337–1360);
2. the Caroline War (1369–1389); and
3. the Lancastrian War (1415–1453).
Contemporary conflicts in neighbouring areas, which were directly related to this conflict, included the War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364), the Castilian Civil War (1366–1369), the War of the Two Peters (1356–1375) in Aragon, and the 1383–85 Crisis in Portugal. Later historians invented the term "Hundred Years' War" as a periodization to encompass all of these events, thus constructing the longest military conflict in history.
The war owes
its historical significance to multiple factors. By its end, feudal armies had
been largely replaced by professional troops, and aristocratic dominance had
yielded to a democratisation of the manpower and weapons of armies. Although
primarily a dynastic conflict, the war gave impetus to ideas of French and English
nationalism. The wider introduction of weapons and tactics supplanted the
feudal armies where heavy cavalry had dominated.
The war precipitated the creation of the first standing
armies in Western Europe since the time of the Western
Roman Empire, composed largely of commoners and thus helping to
change their role in warfare. With respect to the belligerents, English
political forces over time came to oppose the costly venture. The
dissatisfaction of English nobles, resulting from the loss of their continental
landholdings, became a factor leading to the civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487).
In France, civil wars, deadly epidemics, famines, and bandit free-companies of mercenaries reduced
the population drastically. Shorn of its continental possessions, England was
left with the sense of being an island nation, which profoundly affected its
outlook and development for more than 500 years
Clockwise,
from top left: The Battle of La Rochelle, The Battle of Agincourt, The Battle
of Patay, Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans
Parliament's
Power. As is usual in times of war, Parliament grew in power, forcing royal
concessions in return for grants of money. In the early 14th c. the custom
evolved of separate sittings for the Commons (burgesses and knights) and a
Great Council of prelates and magnates. The system of Justices of the Peace,
chosen from among the local nobility, also dates from this time. They became a
sort of amateur body carrying on local administration and government for the
next 500 years.
CAUSES
The Battle for Flanders - Flanders
had grown to be the industrial center of northern Europe and had become
extremely wealthy through its cloth manufacture. It could not produce enough
wool to satisfy its market and imported fine fleece from England. England
depended upon this trade for its foreign exchange. During the 1200's, the
upper-class English had adopted Norman fashions and switched from beer to wine.
The
problem was that England could not grow grapes to produce the wine that many of
the English now favored and had to import it. A triangular trade arose in which
English fleece was exchanged for Flemish cloth, which was then taken to
southern France and exchanged for wine, which was then shipped into England and
Ireland, primarily through the ports of Dublin, Bristol, and London.
But
the counts of Flanders had been vassals of the king of France, and the French
tried to regain control of the region in order to control its wealth. The
English could not permit this, since it would mean that the French monarch would
control their main source of foreign exchange. A civil war soon broke out in
Flanders, with the English supporting the manufacturing middle class and the
French supporting the land-owning nobility.
The Struggle for Control of France - the
English king controlled much of France, particularly in the fertile South.
These lands had come under control of the English when Eleanor of Aquitaine,
heiress to the region, had married Henry II of England in the mid-12th century.
There was constant bickering along the French-English frontier, and the French
kings always had to fear an English invasion from the South. Between Flanders
in the North and the English in the South, they were caught in a
"nutcracker".
The
"Auld Alliance" - the French responded by creating their own
"nutcracker." They allied with the Scots in an arrangement that
persisted well into the 18th century. Thus the English faced the French from
the south and the Scots from the north.
The
Battle for the Channel and North Sea - The French nutcracker would only work if
the French could invade England across the English Channel. (The French call it
"La Manche".) Besides, England could support their Flemish allies
only if they could send aid across the North Sea, and, moreover, English trade
was dependent upon the free flow of naval traffic through the Channel.
Consequently, the French continually tried to gain the upper hand at sea, and
the English constantly resisted them. Both sides commissioned what would have
been pirates if they had not been operating with royal permission to prey upon
each other's shipping, and there were frequent naval clashes in those
constricted waters.
The Dynastic Conflict - the last son of King Philip IV (The
Fair) died in 1328, and the direct male line of the Capetians finally ended
after almost 350 years. Philip had had a daughter, however. This daughter,
Isabelle, had married King Edward II of England, and King Edward III was their
son. He was therefore Philip's grandson and successor in a direct line through
Philip's daughter. The French could not tolerate the idea that Edward might
become King of France, and French lawyers brought up some old Frankish laws,
the so-called Salic Law, which stated that property (including the throne)
could not descend through a female. The French then gave the crown to Philip of
Valois, a nephew of Philip IV. Nevertheless, Edward III had a valid claim to
the throne of France if he wished to pursue it.
An
Aggressive Spirit in England Although France was the most populous country in
Western Europe (20 million inhabitants to England's 4-5 million) and also the
wealthiest, England had a strong central government, many veterans of hard
fighting on England's Welsh and Scottish borders (as well as in Ireland), a
thriving economy, and a popular king. Edward was disposed to fight France, and
his subjects were more than ready to support their young (only 18 years old at
the time) king.
THE
COURSE OF THE WAR - war
broke out in earnest in 1340. The French had assembled a great fleet to support
an army with which they intended to crush all resistance in Flanders. When the
ships had anchored in a dense pack at Sluys in modern Netherlands, the English
attacked and destroyed it with fire ships and victory in a battle fought across
the anchored ships, almost like a land battle on a wooden battlefield. The
English now had control of the Channel and North Sea. They were safe from
French invasion, could attack France at will, and could expect that the war
would be fought on French soil and thus at French expense.
Edward
invaded northern France in 1345. The Black Death had arrived, and his army was
weakened by sickness. As the English force tried to make its way safely to
fortified Channel port, the French attempted to force them into a battle. The
English were finally pinned against the coast by a much superior French army at
a place called Crecy. Edward's army was a combined force: archers, pikemen,
light infantry, and cavalry; the French, by contrast, clung to their
old-fashioned feudal cavalry. The English had archers using the longbow, a weapon
with great penetrating power that could sometimes kill armoured knights, and
often the horses on which they rode. The battle was a disaster for the French.
The English took up position on the crest of a hill, and the French cavalry
tried to ride up the slope to get at their opponents. The long climb up soggy
ground tired and slowed the French horses, giving the English archers and foot
soldiers ample opportunity to wreak havoc in the French ranks. Those few French
who reached the crest of the hill found themselves faced with rude, but
effective, barriers, and, as they tried to withdraw, they were attacked by the
small but fresh English force of mounted knights. Nevertheless, facing much the
same battlefield situation some ten years later, the French employed the same
tactics they had used at Crecy, with the same dismal result, at the battle of
Poiters (1356). The French king and many nobles were captured, and many, many
others were killed. Old fashioned feudal warfare, in which knights fought for
glory, was ended. The first phase of the war ended with a treaty in 1360, but
France continued to suffer. The English had employed mercenaries who, once they
were no longer paid, lived off the country by theft and plunder. Most French
peasants would have found it difficult to distinguish between war and this sort
of peace.
END
OF THE CONFLICT - as
the war dragged on, the English were slowly forced back. They had less French
land to support their war effort as they did so, and the war became more
expensive for them. This caused conflicts at home, such as the Peasants' Revolt
of 1381 and the beginning of civil wars.
Western
Europe in 1382 Nevertheless, in the reign of Henry V, the English took the
offensive once again. At Agincourt, not far from Crecy, the French relapsed
into their old tactics of feudal warfare once again, and were again
disasterously defeated (1415). The English recovered much of the ground they
had lost, and a new peace was based upon Henry's marriage to the French
princess Katherine. These events furnish the plot for Shakespeare's play, Henry
V. With Henry's death in 1422, the war resumed.
In
the following years, the French developed a sense of national identity, as
illustrated by Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who led the French armies to victory
over the English until she was captured and burned by the English as a witch.
The French now had a greater unity, and the French king was able to field
massive armies on much the same model as the British. In addition, however, the
French government began to appreciate the "modern" style of warfare,
and new military commanders began to use guerilla and "small war"
tactics of fighting. The war dragged on for many years. In fact, it was not
until 1565 that the English were forced out of Calais, their last foothold in
continental France, and they still hold the Channel Islands, the last remnant
of England's medieval empire in France.
THE
RESULTS - this
war marked the end of English attempts to control continental territory and the
beginning of its emphasis upon maritime supremacy. By Henry V's marriage into
the House of Valois, an hereditary strain of mental disorder was introduced
into the English royal family. There were great advances in military technology
and science during the period, and the military value of the feudal knight was
thoroughly discredited. The order of knighthood went down fighting, however, in
a wave of civil wars that racked the countries of Western Europe. The European
countries began to establish professional standing armies and to develop the modern
state necessary to maintain such forces.
From
the point of view of the 14th century, however, the most significant result is
that the nobility and secular leaders were busy fighting each other at a time
when the people of Western Europe desperately needed leadership.
House
of Lancaster and Hundred Years' War
(1415–1453)
Henry married
his Plantagenet cousin Mary de Bohun, who was paternally
descended from Edward I and maternally from Edmund Crouchback. They had seven children:
- Edward (1453–1471)
- Thomas (1387–1421)—killed
at the Battle
of Baugé. His marriage to Margaret Holland proved childless; he had an illegitimate son
named John, also known as the Bastard of Clarence.
- John (1389–1435)—had
two childless marriages: to Anne of Burgundy, daughter
of John
the Fearless, and Jacquetta
of Luxembourg. John had an illegitimate son and daughter, named
Richard and Mary, respectively.
- Humphrey (1390–1447)—died
under suspicious circumstances while imprisoned for treason against Henry VI;
his death may have been the result of a stroke.
Parchment Miniature of Henry V's victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, from Enguerrand de
Monstrelet's Chronique de France circa 1495
Henry went to
convoluted legal means to justify his succession. Many Lancastrians asserted
that his mother had had legitimate rights through her descent from Edmund Crouchback, who it was
claimed was the elder son of Henry III of England, set aside due to deformity. As the grandson of Lionel
of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, was the heir
presumptive to Richard II and Henry used multiple rationales stressing his
Plantagenet descent, divine grace, powerful friends, and the Richard's
misgovernment. In fact Mortimer never showed interest in the throne. The
later marriage of his granddaughter Anne to Richard's
son consolidated his descendants' claim to the throne with that of the
more junior House of York. Henry
planned to resume war with France, but was plagued with financial problems,
declining health and frequent rebellions. He defeated a Scottish invasion, a serious rebellion by Henry
Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland in the North and Owain Glyndŵr's rebellion
in Wales. Many saw it as
a punishment from God when Henry was later struck down with unknown but chronic
illnesses.
Henry IV died
in 1413. His son and successor, Henry V of England, aware
that Charles
VI of France's mental illness had caused instability in France,
invaded to assert the Plantagenet claims and won a near total victory over the
French at the Battle
of Agincourt. In
subsequent years Henry recaptured much of Normandy and secured marriage
to Catherine
of Valois. The resulting Treaty of Troyes stated
that Henry's heirs would inherit the throne of France, but conflict continued
with the
Dauphin. When Henry died in 1422, his nine-month-old son succeeded him as Henry
VI of England. During the minority of Henry VI the war caused
political division among his Plantagenet uncles, Bedford, Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, and Cardinal Beaufort. Humphrey's
wife was accused of treasonable necromancy after
two astrologers in her employ unwisely, if honestly, predicted a serious
illness would endanger Henry VI's life, and Humphrey was later arrested and
died in prison.
Depopulation
stemming from the Black Death led to increased wages, static food costs and a
resulting improvement in the standard of living for the peasantry. However,
under Henry misgovernment and harvest failures depressed the English economy to
a pitiful state known as the Great
Slump. The economy was in ruins by 1450, a consequence of the loss of France,
piracy in the channel and poor trading relations with the Hanseatic League. The economic slowdown began in the 1430s in the
north of the country, spreading south in the 1440s, with the economy not
recovering until the 1480s. It was
also driven by multiple harvest failures in the 1430s and disease amongst
livestock, which drove up the price of food and damaged the wider economy. Certain groups were particularly badly affected:
cloth exports fell by 35 per cent in just four years at the end of the 1440s,
collapsing by up to 90 per cent in some parts of the South-West. The Crown's debts reached £372,000, Henry's
deficit was £20,000 per annum, and tax revenues were half those of his father.
House
of York - Edward III
made his fourth son Edmund the first duke of York in 1385.
Edmund was married to Isabella, a daughter of King Peter of Castile and María
de Padilla and the sister of Constance of Castile, who was the second wife of
Edmund's brother John of Gaunt. Both of Edmund's sons were killed in
1415. Richard became involved in the Southampton Plot, a conspiracy
to depose Henry V in favour of Richard's brother-in-law Edmund Mortimer. When
Mortimer revealed the plot to the king, Richard was executed for treason.
Richard's childless older brother Edward was
killed at the Battle of Agincourt later the same year. Constance of York was Edmund's only daughter and was an ancestor
of Queen Anne Neville. The
increasingly interwoven Plantagenet relationships were demonstrated by Edmund's
second marriage to Joan Holland. Her
sister Alianore
Holland was mother to Richard's wife, Anne Mortimer. Margaret Holland, another of
Joan's sisters, married John
of Gaunt's son. She later married Thomas of Lancaster, John of Gaunt's grandson by
King Henry IV. A third sister, Eleanor
Holland, was mother-in-law to Richard
Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury—John's grandson by his daughter Joan
Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. These sisters were all granddaughters of Joan of
Kent, the mother of Richard II, and therefore Plantagenet descendants of Edward
I.
Edmund's son
Richard was married to Anne Mortimer, the daughter of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March and Eleanor
Holland and great-granddaughter of Edward III's second surviving son Lionel.
Anne died giving birth to their only son in September 1411. Richard's execution four years later left two
orphans: Isabel, who married
into the Bourchier family, and a son who was also called Richard. Although his
earldom was forfeited, Richard (the father) was not attainted, and the
four-year-old orphan Richard was his heir. Within months of his father's death,
Richard's childless uncle, Edward Duke of York, was killed at Agincourt.
Richard was allowed to inherit the title of Duke of York in 1426. In 1432 he
acquired the earldoms of March and Ulster on the death of his maternal uncle
Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, who had died campaigning with Henry V in
France, and the earldom of Cambridge which had belonged to his father. Being
descended from Edward III in both the maternal and the paternal line gave
Richard a significant claim to the throne if the Lancastrian line should fail,
and by cognatic
primogeniture arguably a superior claim. He emphasised the point by being the first to
assume the Plantagenet surname in 1448. Having inherited the March and Ulster
titles, he became the wealthiest and most powerful noble in England, second
only to the king himself. Richard married Cecily Neville, a
granddaughter of John of Gaunt, and had thirteen or possibly fifteen children:
The Battle of Tewkesbury
When Henry VI
had a mental breakdown, Richard was named regent, but the birth of a male heir
resolved the question of succession. When
Henry's sanity returned, the court party reasserted its authority, but Richard
of York and the Nevilles defeated them at a skirmish called the First
Battle of St Albans. The ruling class was deeply shocked and reconciliation
was attempted. York and
the Nevilles fled abroad, but the Nevilles returned to win the Battle
of Northampton, where they captured Henry. When Richard of York joined them he surprised Parliament by claiming
the throne and forcing through the Act
of Accord, which stated that Henry would remain as king for his lifetime, but would
be succeeded by York. Margaret found this disregard for her son's claims
unacceptable, and so the conflict continued. York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield and his head set on display
at Micklegate
Bar along with those of Edmund,
Earl of Rutland, and Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, who had been
captured and beheaded. The
Scottish queen Mary of Guelders provided
Margaret with support but London welcomed York's son Edward,
Earl of March and Parliament confirmed that Edward should be
made king. He was crowned after consolidating his position with victory at
the Battle
of Towton.
Edward's
preferment of the former Lancastrian-supporting Woodville family, following his
marriage to Elizabeth
Woodville, led Warwick and Clarence to help Margaret depose Edward and return Henry
to the throne. Edward and Richard,
Duke of Gloucester, fled, but on their return, Clarence switched sides
at the Battle
of Barnet, leading to the death of the Neville brothers. The subsequent Battle
of Tewkesbury brought the demise of the last of the male line
of the Beauforts. The battlefield execution of Edward
of Westminster, Prince of Wales, and the later probable murder of Henry VI
extinguished the House of Lancaster
Medieval
Schools & Universities
Education. There were
many different kinds of schools in medieval England, though few children
received their sometimes dubious benefit. There were small, informal schools
held in the parish church, song schools at cathedrals, almonry schools attached
to monasteries, chantry schools, guild schools, preparatory grammar schools,
and full grammar schools. The curriculum of theses schools was limited to
basics such as learning the alphabet, psalters, and religious rites and lessons
such as the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins. The grammar schools
added to this Latin grammar, composition, and translation.
Schools.
In addition to the schools listed above there were also privately endowed
schools like Winchester and Eton. The most famous public school, Eton, was
founded by Henry VI in 1440. The
term "public school" can be misleading. It refers to the fact that
the school drew its students from all over the country rather than just the
local area. In reality "public schools" are anything but public. They
were, and still are, elite boarding schools for the rich or ambitious.
School Life. Most schools
had no books and the students were taught by rote and the skill of individual
masters. Most masters were minor clergy, who themselves were often
indifferently educated. Classes at some of the larger schools could be as large
as 100 or more boys (no girls, though they were accepted at some of the small
local schools), and the school day lasted as long as 13 hours with breaks for
meals. And to top it off students could expect to be beaten regularly with a
birch rod.
Oxford University. Legend has it that Oxford University was founded by King Alfred in 872. A more likely scenario is that it grew out of efforts begun by Alfred to encourage education and establish schools throughout his territory. There may have been a grammar school there in the 9th century. A grammar school was exactly what it sounds like; a place for teaching Latin grammar. The University as we know it actually began in the 12th century (1163) as gatherings of students around popular masters. The university consisted of people, not buildings. The buildings came later as a recognition of something that already existed. In a way, Oxford was never founded; it grew. Cambridge University was founded in 1209 by students fleeing from Oxford after one of the many episodes of violence between the university and the town of Oxford.
Oxford University. Legend has it that Oxford University was founded by King Alfred in 872. A more likely scenario is that it grew out of efforts begun by Alfred to encourage education and establish schools throughout his territory. There may have been a grammar school there in the 9th century. A grammar school was exactly what it sounds like; a place for teaching Latin grammar. The University as we know it actually began in the 12th century (1163) as gatherings of students around popular masters. The university consisted of people, not buildings. The buildings came later as a recognition of something that already existed. In a way, Oxford was never founded; it grew. Cambridge University was founded in 1209 by students fleeing from Oxford after one of the many episodes of violence between the university and the town of Oxford.
Scottish
universities: St. Andrews (1411) and Glasgow (1451) Students. University
students chose their own course of studies, hired their own professors, and
picked their own hours of study. They were free to leave one professor if they
tired of him, and join another, A Norman school about 1130 attending several
lectures before deciding whether to pay him or not. The only books were the
professors, and students wrote notes on parchment or, more commonly, on wax
table
Insecurity of Life in the Middle Ages - the Black Death in England 1348-1350 - in 1347 a Genoese ship from Caffa, on the Black Sea, came ashore at Messina, Sicily. The crew of the ship, what few were left alive, carried with them a deadly cargo, a disease so virulent that it could kill in a matter of hours. It is thought that the disease originated in the Far East, and was spread along major trade routes to Caffa, where Genoa had an established trading post. When it became clear that ships from the East carried the plague, Messina closed its port. The ships were forced to seek safe harbour elsewhere around the Mediterranean, and the disease was able to spread quickly.
Insecurity of Life in the Middle Ages - the Black Death in England 1348-1350 - in 1347 a Genoese ship from Caffa, on the Black Sea, came ashore at Messina, Sicily. The crew of the ship, what few were left alive, carried with them a deadly cargo, a disease so virulent that it could kill in a matter of hours. It is thought that the disease originated in the Far East, and was spread along major trade routes to Caffa, where Genoa had an established trading post. When it became clear that ships from the East carried the plague, Messina closed its port. The ships were forced to seek safe harbour elsewhere around the Mediterranean, and the disease was able to spread quickly.
During the Medieval period the plague went by several names, the most common being "the Pestilence" and "The Great Mortality ". Theories about the cause of the disease were numerous, ranging from a punishment from God to planetary alignment to evil stares. Not surprisingly, many people believed that the horrors of the Black Death signaled the Apocalypse, or end of time. Others believed that the disease was a plot by Jews to poison all of the Christian world, and many Jews were killed by panicked mobs.
The truth. The Black Death is a bacteria-born disease; the bacteria in question being Yersinia pestis, which were carried in the blood of wild black rats and the fleas that lived off the rats. Normally there is no contact between these fleas and human beings, but when their rat hosts die, these fleas are forced to seek alternatives - including humans!
The spread of the Black Death (with modern borders)
The symptoms. The plague produces several different symptoms in its victims. Bubonic, the most common form of the plague, produces fist-sized swellings, called bulboes, at the site of flea bites - usually in the groin, armpits, or neck. The swellings are intensely painful, and the victims die in 2-6 days. The buboes are red at first, but later turn a dark purple, or black. This black colouring gives the "Black Death" its name. Pneumonic plague occurs when the infection enters the lungs, causing the victim to vomit blood. Infected pneumonic people can spread the disease through the air by coughing, sneezing, or just breathing! In Septicemic plague the bacteria enter the person's bloodstream, causing death within a day.
The speed with which the disease could kill was terrifying to inhabitants of the medieval world. The Italian author Boccaccio claimed that the plague victims "ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."
The Black Death reaches England. The summer of 1348 was abnormally wet. Grain lay rotting in the fields due to the nearly constant rains. With the harvest so adversely affected it seemed certain that there would be food shortages. But a far worse enemy was set to appear.
It isn't clear exactly when or where the Black Death reached England. Some reports at the time pointed to Bristol, others to Dorset. The disease may have appeared as early as late June or as late as August 4. We do know that in mid-summer the Channel Islands were reeling under an outbreak of the plague. From this simple beginning the disease spread throughout England with dizzying speed and fatal consequences.
The effect was at its worst in cities, where overcrowding and primitive sanitation aided its spread. On November 1 the plague reached London, and up to 30,000 of the city's population of 70,000 inhabitants succumbed.
Over the next 2 years the disease killed between 30-40% of the entire population. Given that the pre-plague population of England was in the range of 5-6 million people, fatalities may have reached as high as 2 million dead.
One of the worst aspects of the disease to the medieval Christian mind is that people died without last rites and without having a chance to confess their sins. Pope Clement VI was forced to grant remission of sins to all who died of the plague because so many perished without benefit of clergy. People were allowed to confess their sins to one another, or "even to a woman".
The death rate was exceptionally high in isolated populations like prisons and monasteries. It has been estimated that up to two-thirds of the clergy of England died within a single year.
Peasants fled their fields. Livestock were left to fend for themselves, and crops left to rot. The monk Henry of Knighton declared, "Many villages and hamlets have now become quite desolate. No one is left in the houses, for the people are dead that once inhabited them."
The Border Scots saw the pestilence in England as a punishment of God on their enemies. An army gathered near Stirling to strike while England lay defenceless. But before the Scots could march, the plague decimated their ranks. Pursued by English troops, the Scots fled north, spreading the plague deep into their homeland.
In an effort to assuage the wrath of God, many people turned to public acts of penitence. Processions lasting as long as three days were authorized by the Pope to mollify God, but the only real effect of these public acts was to spread the disease further.
By the end of 1350 the Black Death had subsided, but it never really died out in England for the next several hundred years. There were further outbreaks in 1361-62, 1369, 1379-83, 1389-93, and throughout the first half of the 15th century. It was not until the late 17th century that England became largely free of serious plague epidemics.
Consequences. It is impossible to overstate the terrible effects of the Black Death on England. With the population so low, there were not enough workers to work the land. As a result, wages and prices rose. The Ordinances of Labourers (1349) tried to legislate a return to pre-plague wage levels, but the overwhelming shortage of labourers meant that wages continued to rise. Landowners offered extras such as food, drink, and extra benefits to lure labourers. The standard of living for labourers rose accordingly.
The nature of the economy changed to meet the changing social conditions. Land that had once been farmed was now given over to pasturing, which was much less labour-intensive. This helped boost the cloth and woollen industry. With the fall in population most landowners were not getting the rental income they needed, and were forced to lease their land.
Peasants benefited through increased employment options and higher wages. Society became more mobile, as peasants moved to accept work where they could command a good wage. In some cases market towns disappeared, or suffered a decline despite the economic boom in rural areas.
It has been estimated that 40% of England's priests died in the epidemic. This left a large gap, which was hastily filled with underqualified and poorly trained applicants, accelerating the decline in church power and influence that culminated in the English Reformation. Many survivors of the plague were also disillusioned by the church's inability to explain or deal with the outbreak.
2. Ireland in the “High” Middle Ages
Gaelic
resurgence, Norman decline 1254–1536 - Hiberno-Norman
Ireland was deeply shaken by three events of the 14th century. The first was
the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce of Scotland who, in 1315, rallied many
of the Irish lords against the English presence in Ireland. Although Bruce was
eventually defeated in Ireland at the Battle of Faughart, near Dundalk, his
troops caused a great deal of destruction, especially in the densely settled
area around Dublin. In this chaotic situation, local Irish lords won back large
amounts of land that their families had lost since the conquest and held them
after the war was over.
The
second was the murder of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster, in June
1333. This resulted in his lands being split in three among his relations, with
the ones in Connacht swiftly rebelling against the Crown and openly siding with
the Irish. This meant that virtually all of Ireland west of the Shannon was
lost to the Hiberno-Normans. It would be well over two hundred years before the
Burkes, as they were now called, were again allied with the Dublin
administration.
The
Black Death rapidly spread along the major European sea and land trade routes.
It reached Ireland in 1348 and decimated the Hiberno-Norman urban settlements.
The third calamity for the medieval English presence in Ireland was the Black
Death, which arrived in Ireland in 1348. Because most of the English and Norman
inhabitants of Ireland lived in towns and villages, the plague hit them far
harder than it did the native Irish, who lived in more dispersed rural
settlements. A celebrated account from a monastery in Kilkenny chronicles the
plague as the beginning of the extinction of humanity and the end of the world.
The plague was a catastrophe for the English inhabitations around the country
and, after it had passed, Gaelic Irish language and customs came to dominate
the country again. The English-controlled area shrunk back to the Pale, a
fortified area around Dublin.
Additional
causes of the Gaelic revival were political and personal grievances against the
Hiberno-Normans, but especially impatience with procrastination and the very
real horrors that successive famines had brought. Pushed away from the fertile
areas, the Irish were forced to eke out a subsistence living on marginal lands,
which left them with no safety net during bad harvest years (such as 1271 and
1277) or in a year of famine (virtually the entire period of 1311–1319).
Outside
the Pale, the Hiberno-Norman lords adopted the Irish language and customs,
becoming known as the Old English, and in the words of a contemporary English
commentator, became "more Irish than the Irish themselves." Over the
following centuries they sided with the indigenous Irish in political and
military conflicts with England and generally stayed Catholic after the
Reformation. The authorities in the Pale grew so worried about the
"Gaelicisation" of Ireland that, in 1367 at a parliament in Kilkenny,
they passed special legislation (known as the Statutes of Kilkenny) banning
those of English descent from speaking the Irish language, wearing Irish
clothes or inter-marrying with the Irish. Since the government in Dublin had
little real authority, however, the Statutes did not have much effect.
Throughout
the 15th century, these trends proceeded apace and central government authority
steadily diminished. The monarchy of England was itself thrown into turmoil
during the Wars of the Roses, and as a result English involvement in Ireland
was greatly reduced. Successive kings of England delegated their constitutional
authority over the lordship to the powerful Fitzgerald earls of Kildare, who
held the balance of power by means of military force and widespread alliances
with lords and clans. This in effect made the English Crown even more remote to
the realities of Irish politics. At the same time, local Gaelic and Gaelicised
lords expanded their powers at the expense of the central government in Dublin,
creating a polity quite alien to English ways and which was not overthrown
until the successful conclusion of the Tudor reconquest.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE PERIOD
1155 - Henry II appoints the Archdeacon of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, as Chancellor
1159 - Henry II levies scutage, payment in cash instead of military service
1162 - Becket is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and at once quarrels with Henry II over the Church's rights
1164 - Constitutions of Clarendon; restatement of laws governing trial of ecclesiastics in England; Becket is forced to flee to France
1170 - Becket is reconciled with Henry II, returns to Canterbury; is murdered by four knights after Henry's hasty words against him
1173 - Rebellion of Henry's eldest sons, Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey, supported by their mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine; Thomas Becket canonized
1189 - Richard I, Coeur de Lion, eldest surviving son of Henry II, King of England (to 1199)
1191 - The bodies of King Arthur and Guinevere were reported to have been exhumed from a grave at Glastonbury Abbey; Richard I conquers Cyprus and captures the city of Acre
1192 - Richard I captures Jaffa, makes peace with Saladin; on the way home he is captured by his enemy, Duke Leopold of Austria
1193 - Leopold hands Richard over to Emperor Henry VI, who demands ransom
1194 - Richard is ransomed and returned to England
1199 - John Lackland, youngest son of Henry II, King of England (to 1216)
1203 - John of England orders the murder of his nephew Arthur, Duke of Brittany
1207 - Pope Innocent III appoints Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury (Langton is the man who divided the books of the Bible into chapters); John refuses to let him take office
1208 - Innocent III lays England under interdict
1209 - Cambridge University is founded in England; Innocent III excommunicates John for attacks on Church property
1213 - Innocent III declares John deposed; John resigns his kingship to the pope and receives it back as a holding from the Roman legate, thereby ending the interdict.
1215 - Signing of Magna Carta; English barons force John to agree to a statement of their rights
1216 - Henry III becomes king of England at age nine (to 1272)
1227 - Henry III begins personal rule in England
1256 - Prince Llewellyn sweeps English from Wales
1264 - Simon de Montfort and other English barons defeat Henry III at battle of Lewes
1265 - De Montfort's Parliament: burgesses from major towns summoned to Parliament for the first time; Henry III's son Edward defeats and kills Simon de Montfort at battle of Evesham
1269 - Rebuilding of Westminster Abbey begun by Henry III.
1272 - Edward I, King of England (to 1307)
1283 - Edward I defeats and kills Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, and executes Llewellyn's brother David; conquest of Wales complete
1290 - Edward I expells all Jews from England
1291 - Scots acknowledge Edward I of England as suzerain; he arbitrates in succession dispute
1295 - Model Parliament of Edward I: knights and burgesses from English shires and towns summoned. First representative parliament
1296 - Edward I of England deposes John Balliol from Scottish throne
1297 - Battle of Cambuskenneth: Scottish patriot William Wallace defeats English army
1298 - Edward I defeats Wallace at battle of Falkirk and reconquers Scotland
1301 - Edward I of England invests his baby son Edward as Prince of Wales
1305 - The English capture and execute William Wallace
1306 - New Scottish rebellion against English rule led by Robert Bruce. Robert I, the Bruce crowned King of Scotland (to 1329) at Scone
1307 - Edward I dies on march north to crush Robert Bruce. Edward II, King of England (to 1327)
1310 - English barons appoint 21 peers, the Lords Ordainers, to manage Edward II's household
1312 - Order of Knights Templar abolished
1314 - Battle of Bannockburn: Robert Bruce defeats Edward II and makes Scotland independent
1326 - Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer sail from France with an army to rebel against Edward II of England
1327 - Parliament declares Edward II deposed, and his son accedes to the throne as Edward III. Edward II is hideously murdered, nine months later
1328 - Charles IV dies, ending the Capetian dynasty. Philip of Valois succeeds him as Philip VI.
1329 - Edward III of England does simple homage for Aquitaine (Guienne), but refuses to do liege homage.
1333 - Edward III invades Scotland on Balliol's behalf and defeats the Scots at battle of Halidon Hill
1336 - Edward places an embargo on English exports of wool to Flanders.
1337 - Philip declares Edward's fiefs forfeit and begins harassing the frontiers of Aquitaine; Edward III, provoked by these attacks on his territories in France, declares himself king of France; "The Hundred Years' War " begins (ends 1453)
1338 - Treaty of Koblenz: alliance between England and the Holy Roman Empire; Edward III formally claims the French crown.
1340 - Naval victory at Sluys gives England the command of the English Channel; English Parliament passes four statues providing that taxation shall be imposed only by Parliament
1346 - Edward III of England invades France with a large army and defeats an even bigger army under Philip VI at the Battle of Crecy
1347 - The English capture Calais
1348 - Edward III establishes the Order of the Garter; Black Death (bubonic plague) reaches England
1351 - The English remove the Pope's power to give English benefices to foreigners
1353 - Statue of Praemunire: English Parliament forbids appeals to Pope
1356 - Edward the Black Prince, son of Edward III, defeats the French at the battle of Poitiers, capturing King John II
1358 - The Jacquerie
1360 - Peace of Bretigny ends the first stage of the Hundred Years' War. Edward III gives up claim to French throne
1369 - Second stage of war between England and France begins
1370 - French troops commanded by Bertrand du Guesclin; Edward, the Black Prince, sacks Limoges
1372 - French troops recapture Poitou and Brittany; Naval battle of La Rochelle: French regain control of English Channel
1373 - John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III, leads new English invasion of France
1374 - John of Gaunt returns to England and takes charge of the government; Edward III in his dotage, the Black Prince is ill
1375 - Truce of Bruges ends hostilities between England and France
1376 - The Good Parliament in England, called by Edward the Black Prince, introduces many reforms of government; Death of Edward the Black Prince, aged 45; The Civil Dominion of John Wyclif, an Oxford don, calling for Church reforms
1377 - Richard II, son of the Black Prince, King of England (to 1399)
1381 - Peasants' Revolt in England; John Wyclif, an Oxford theologian, publishes his "Confession", denying that the "substance" of bread and wine are miraculously changed during the Eucharist.
1382 - John Wyclif is expelled from Oxford because of his opposition to certain Church doctrines
1386 - John of Gaunt leads an expedition to Castile, which he claims in his wife's name; fails 1388
1387 - Geoffrey Chaucer begins work on The Canterbury Tales
1389 - Richard II, aged 22, assumes power
1394 - Richard II leads expedition to subdue Ireland; returns to England 1395
1396 - Richard II marries the seven-year old Princess Isabella of France
1399 - Death of John of Gaunt; Gaunt's eldest son, Henry of Bolingbroke, lands in Yorkshire with 40 followers, and soon has 60,000 supporters: Richard II is deposed; Bolingbroke becomes Henry IV, King of England (to 1413)
1400 - Richard II murdered at Pontefract Castle; Owen Glendower proclaims himself Prince of Wales and begins rebellion
1401 - Persecution of Lollards for revolting against clergy.
1402 - Henry IV enters Wales in pursuit of Glendower
1403 - Battle of Shrewsbury; rebellion by the Percy family: Henry IV defeats and kills Harry "Hotspur" Percy
1406 - Henry, Prince of Wales, defeats Welsh
1413 - Henry V, King of England (to 1422)
1415 - Henry V invades France, and defeats the French at Agincourt
1416 - Death of Owen Glendower
1420 - Treaty of Troyes
1422 - Deaths of Henry V of England and Charles VI of France; Henry VI, King of England (to 1461)
1424 - John, Duke of Bedford, regent for Henry VI of England, defeats the French at Cravant
1428 - Henry VI begins siege of Orleans
1429 - A French force, led by military commander Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc), relieves the siege of Orleans; Charles VII crowned king of France at Rheims
1430 - Burgundians capture Jeanne d'Arc and hand her over to the English
1431 - Jeanne d'Arc burned as a witch at Rouen; Henry VI of England crowned king of France in Paris
1453 - Bordeaux falls to the French, Hundred Years' War ends; England's only French possession is Calais; In England, Henry VI becomes insane
1454 - Richard, Duke of York, is regent of England while Henry VI is insane; Printing with movable type is perfected in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg
1455 - Henry VI recovers. Richard of York is replaced by Somerset and excluded from the Royal Council; War of the Roses - civil wars in England between royal houses of York and Lancaster (until 1485); Battle of St. Albans. Somerset defeated and killed
1460 - Battle of Wakefield. Richard of York is defeated and killed; Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker) captures London for the Yorkists; Battle of Northampton: Henry VI is captured by Yorkists
1461 - Battles of Mortimer's Cross and Towton: Richard's son, Edward of York, defeats Lancastrians and becomes king; Edward IV, King of England (to 1483)
1465 - Henry VI imprisoned by Edward IV
1466 - Warwick's quarrels with Edward IV begin; forms alliance with Louis XI
1470 - Warwick turns Lancastrian: he defeats Edward IV and restores Henry VI
1471 - Battle of Barnet. Edward IV defeats and kills Warwick; Henry VI dies, probably murdered in the Tower of London
1475 - Edward IV invades France; Peace of Piequigny between England and France
1476 - William Caxton sets up printing press at Westminster
1483 - Death of Edward IV; Edward V, King of England; he is deposed by his uncle, Richard Duke of Gloucester; Richard III, King of England (to 1485); Edward V and his brother are murdered in the Tower of London
1484 - Caxton prints Morte D'Arthur, the poetic collection of legends about King Arthur compiled by Sir Thomas Malory
1485 - Battle of Bosworth Field: Henry Tudor, with men, money and arms provided by Charles VIII of France, defeats and kills Richard III in the decisive (but not final) battle of the Wars of the Roses.
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