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The Generation Gap of 1173-74: the War between the Two Henrys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

Thomas M. Jones
Thomas M. Jones*
Affiliation:
Lincoln University, Pennsylvania
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Extract

Revolts against English monarchs, varying in scope and intensity, marked every reign from 1100 to 1272. After that, if we consider what happened to Edward II and Richard II, and the Wars of the Roses and the troubles of the first Tudor, we see pattern emerging in the shape of constitutional change induced through revolt. Even in the context of that centuries-long pattern, there was something special in the revolt of 1173-4, when three sons of Henry II united with an array of anti Plantagenet barons and continental neighbors to try to unseat the powerful king of England, who also held Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and the feudal conglomeration that comprised Aquitaine.

For reasons that I shall attempt to develop, the complex events of those two years constituted a watershed for mediaeval England, separating an age of feudal institutions from an age of royal bureaucracy that bore hints and suggestions of the modern era. The generational gap between sons and father added drama to the conflict, and psychological forces were inextricably bound to political forces as the revolt developed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 5 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Violence and Social Control , Spring 1973 , pp. 24 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1973

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References

1 Some of the nineteenth century works, written nearly a hundred years ago, cover the revolt more fully than do the more recent volumes. Norgate, Kate, England under the Angevin Kings, 2 vols. (London, 1887), II:120-68Google Scholar, has fairly complete coverage of the events of the revolt on both sides of the channel; SirRamsay, James H., The Angevin Empire (New York, 1903), p. 160 ff.Google Scholar, also provides genera] coverage. Of the recent accounts, Beeler, John, Warfare in England 1066-1199 (Ithaca, 1966), pp. 166-86Google Scholar is the most complete, but it is limited by definition to Kngland itself. The modern biographers of Henry II, such as Appleby, John T., Henry II, the Vanquished King (London, 1962)Google Scholar, and Barber, Richard W., Henry Planlagenel (London, 1964)Google Scholar, while offering useful summaries of the revolt, add little of substance either in viewpoint or evidence to earlier accounts. Eleanor's biographer, Kelly, Amy, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings (Cambridge, 1950), pp. 213-38Google Scholar, is somewhat fresher in her rendition. This paper is part of a monograph through which the writer hopes to present a complete analysis of the revolt in its twelfth century setting

2 Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, eds., James C. Robertson and J. B. Sheppard, Rolls Series, 7 vols. (London, 1875-85), VII:26 (hereafter cited as Materials).

3 Ralph of Diceto, Opera Historica, ed., William Stubhs, Rolls Series, 2 vols. (London, 1876), 1:395.

4 Materials. VII:310, 389.

5 Materials. III:120.

6 Walter Map. De Nugis Curialium, ed. and trans., Frederick Tuppcr and Marbury B. Ogle (London, 1924). p. 262.

7 Painter, Sidney, William Marshal (Baltimore, 1933), title pageGoogle Scholar.

8 Painter, Sidney, “Magna Carta,” American Historical Review 53 (1947):42-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; reprinted in a collection entitled Feudalism and Liberty, Articles and Addresses of Sidney Painter, ed., Fred A. Cazel, Jr. (Baltimore, 1961). pp. 244-53. See especially: “I believe, hut I cannot prove, that the clauses expressing [the conservatism of the barons] were forged by the most powerful of all the English barons, William Marshal, earl of Pembroke….I am convinced that in the process he shaped the charter.” p. 251.

9 L'histoire de Guillaume le Marechal, ed., Meyer, Paul (Paris, 1901)Google Scholar, is an imaginative rhymed chronicle which affirms, particularly in lines 2471 through 2692, though elsewhere as well, the prowess of its hero in feats of arms.

10 Painter, William Marshal, p. 31.

11 Roger of Hoveden. Chronica, eel., William Stubbs, Rolls Series, 2 vols. (London, 1869), II:25-8.

12 Materials VII, 412; Gervase of Canterbury, Historical Works, ed., William Stubbs, Rolls Series (London, 1879), p. 223.

13 Painter, William Marshal, p. 31; Eyton, R. W., Court, Household, and Itinerary of Henry II (London, 1878), p. 151 Google Scholar.

14 Roger of Hoveden, II:46.

15 Painter, William Marshal, pp. 32-3.

16 “II [young Henry] tut reputé le plus beau entre tous les princes chrétiens ou paiens,” Guillaume le Marechal, p. 29 (line 1956).

17 William of Canterbury, Materials, 1:368, tells the story, often re-told, of young Henry's retort to his father when the latter served him after the 1170 coronation. Someone at the table remarked that it was unusual to see a king serving a prince. The youth replied: “It is no disgrace for the son of a mere duke to serve the son of a king.”

18 Such allies as the king of Scotland, Earl David of Huntingdon, the counts of Boulogne and of Flanders, were not perpetual rebels and trouble-makers. They seem to have had genuine confidence in young Henry's cause, as did also William Marshal, at least at the beginning.

19 Agnellus, Thomas, De Morte et Sepultura Henrici Regis Angliae Junioris, ed., Stephenson, Joseph, Rolls Series (London, 1875), pp. 266-7Google Scholar.

20 There is no adequate biography of young Henry. Two brief monographs deal with his career: Hodgson, C. E., Jung Heinrich, Konig von England (Jena, 1906)Google Scholar; and Moore, Olin, The Young King, Henry Plantugenet (1155-1183) in Literature, History, and Tradition (Columbus, 1925)Google Scholar, but both are very sketchy in their treatment of this important period of the young Henry's career from the end of 1170 to the return of his father from Ireland.

21 Guillaume Marechal, pp. 83-4 (lines 7156-71); see also Thomas Agnellus, pp. 268-9.

22 Robert of Torigni, Chronicle, ed., Richard Howlett, Rolls Series (London, 1889), p. 208.

23 Ibid.

24 Robert of Torigni, p. 245.

25 Delisle, Leopold, Recueil ties Acles de Henri II, 2 vols. (Paris, 1909-16), 1:453 Google Scholar.

26 Robert of Torigni, p. 253.

27 The Great Roll of the Pipe for the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of King Henry II (London, 1894), p. 212.

28 Pipe Roll Henry II 18, p. 46.

29 Pipe Roll Henry II 18, p. 48

30 Walter Map, p. 285.

31 See N. Geraud, “Les routiers au xiie siecle,” Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des chartes, t. III (1841-2): 125-47.

32 Jacques Boussard, “Les mercenaires au xiie siecle,” Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des chartes, t. CVI (1945-6):7. See also Jacques Boussard, Le Gouvernement d'Henri II Plantegenet (Paris, 1956), p. 476.

33 See especially Turner, Hilary, Town Defenses in England and Wales (Hamden, Connecticut, 1971)Google Scholar.