Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part I Common Themes
- Part II The Church in the Thirteenth Century
- Part III The Western Kingdoms
- 11 The Capetians from the death of Philip II to Philip IV
- 12 The Plantagenet kings
- 13 The kingdom of Burgundy, the lands of the house of Savoy and adjacent territories
- 14 Germany and Flanders
- Part IV Italy
- Part V The Mediterranean Frontiers
- Part VI The Northern and Eastern Frontiers
- Appendix Genealogical tables
- Primary sources and secondary works arranged by chapter
- Index
- Plate section
- Map 1 Europe in the thirteenth century
- Map 3 France, c. 1260
- Map 5 Germany and the western empire
- Map 6 Genoa, Venice and the Mediterranean
- Map 8 The Latin empire of Constantinople and its neighbours
- Map 10 Aragon and Anjouin the Mediterranean">
- References
12 - The Plantagenet kings
from Part III - The Western Kingdoms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part I Common Themes
- Part II The Church in the Thirteenth Century
- Part III The Western Kingdoms
- 11 The Capetians from the death of Philip II to Philip IV
- 12 The Plantagenet kings
- 13 The kingdom of Burgundy, the lands of the house of Savoy and adjacent territories
- 14 Germany and Flanders
- Part IV Italy
- Part V The Mediterranean Frontiers
- Part VI The Northern and Eastern Frontiers
- Appendix Genealogical tables
- Primary sources and secondary works arranged by chapter
- Index
- Plate section
- Map 1 Europe in the thirteenth century
- Map 3 France, c. 1260
- Map 5 Germany and the western empire
- Map 6 Genoa, Venice and the Mediterranean
- Map 8 The Latin empire of Constantinople and its neighbours
- Map 10 Aragon and Anjouin the Mediterranean">
- References
Summary
KING Richard I died outside the castle of Chalus-Chabrol in the Limousin on 7 April 1199. There were two candidates for the succession: his younger brother, John, and his nephew Arthur of Brittany. Arthur, however, was only twelve years old and was the protégé of Philip Augustus, the Capetian king of France. John, on the other hand, was in his early thirties, had played a fractious part in Angevin politics since the 1180s and was thus, for the English and Norman barons, a known if questionable quantity. On 25 April he was invested as duke of Normandy; on 27 May he was crowned King of England. A year later King Philip himself, under the Treaty of Le Goulet, accepted his succession to Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine, the dominions which the Plantagenets held as fiefs from the crown of France.
John was proud of his power and showed it. Richard I had styled himself ‘king of England, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and count of Anjou’. John added dominus Hiberniae to these titles, having been given the lordship of Ireland by his father, Henry II. He thus proclaimed himself mightier than all his forebears. Indeed, with a realm stretching from Dublin to the Pyrenees, he might seem the mightiest ruler in the known world. Yet, within a few years, the Capetians had brought this whole edifice crashing to the ground, thus transforming both the political structure of western Europe and the nature of England’s polity.
John’s trail of defeat began with his quarrel with the Lusignans, one of the great noble families of Poitou. They appealed for justice to Philip Augustus and in April 1202 John was sentenced to forfeit all his French fiefs as a contumacious vassal. Initially the sentence seemed purely nominal. At Mirebeau (July 1202) John captured the Lusignans and Arthur as well. But he then alienated his Angevin supporters and by April 1203 had lost virtually the whole of Anjou. Ugly rumours about Arthur’s fate likewise made him enemies in Brittany. Meanwhile King Philip had invaded Normandy.
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- Information
- The New Cambridge Medieval History , pp. 314 - 357Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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