Coral’s family history · Chapter 20

The Angevin Dynasty

The Angevines are descendants of the tenth century Count of Anjou who founded the Angevin Dynasty in Anjou France. He became Henry the II of England.

Henry was born in March 1133 to the Empress Matilda and her second husband Geoffrey the Fair, Count of Anjou. He grew up in Anjou, France.

He was known as Henry of Anjou or Henry Plantagenet. Henry II acquired the reputation as one of England’s greatest medieval kings. He established the Angevin Empire in the 1150’s when he took control of Normandy, Anjou and Maine.

He married Eleanor of Aquitaine on 18 May 1152, who inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine.

When Eleanor was fifteen she married the heir to the French Throne, Louis VII. A month later they became King and Queen with the death of King Louis VI. As the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers, Eleanor had inherited a vast domain. As Queen, Eleanor became famous for her beauty and her wit. She was also a very strong willed individual.

She coaxed Louis into undertaking a crusade and accompanied him to the Holy Land, where she was rumored to have an affair with her uncle, Raymond of Poitiers.

A few years after returning from the second crusade, the marriage of the couple was annulled and Eleanor regained control of her lands. A month later Eleanor married Henry, grandson of Henry I of England. In 1144 Henry became King Henry the II of England. Eleanor’s holdings helped make Henry’s lands in France greater than that of the French King.

Eleanor became noted for being the most powerful woman in twelfth century Europe. Her court at Poitiers became a center for culture, fostering the poetry of the troubadours. She was an active participant in affairs of state in both England and France and was particularly involved in administrating Aquitaine and Poitiers.

After Henry became king, he extended the Angevin holdings from Scotland to the Pyrenees. As with many of his predecessors, Henry spent much of his time fighting abroad. He invaded England and in settlement of the war, King Steven named Henry his heir. After Steven died, Henry extended his holdings in Northern England and Western France, strengthened royal administration and reformed the court system.

He attempted to assert royal authority at the expense of the church which caused strained relations with his close friend Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Although his rantings about Becket were well documented over the years, this time when he shouted “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” four of his knights took him literally. They traveled to England immediately to assassinate Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in Dec of 1170.

Henry was devastated over what they had done. He was excommunicated but obtained rehabilitation and was obliged to make a pilgrimage in sack cloth to Becket’s tomb. He was flogged in public naked before the Cathedral at Avanches which was his capitol city in Normandy.

In 1170 Henry and Eleanor’s fifteen year old son was crowned king but he never ruled and is not counted in the list of Monarchs of England. He became known as Henry the young King. He died in 1183. Of Henry and Eleanor’s sons that were left, Geoffrey II died in 1186 when he was trampled by a horse.

They had three daughters who married into Royal Houses. Henry wanted his next son John to succeed him but Eleanor wanted Richard. His third son Richard the Lionheart, with the help of Phillip II of France, attacked and defeated Henry on 4 July 1189. He died at his Castle of Chinon two days later. He is entombed at Fontevrault in Anjou.

In 1173 Eleanor had supported her sons, Richard and John in a revolt against their father, which failed. Henry had her imprisoned for sixteen years and she wasn’t released until after Henry’s death and Richard became king.

She played a significant role in keeping England intact while Richard the Lionheart spent years crusading. He spent all but about six months of his ten year reign away fighting. On his way home from the Holy Land in 1192, Richard was shipwrecked, captured and held for ransom. A large portion of the ransom was raised by heavy taxation of the people. Richard had nearly depleted the treasury left by his father to fund his crusades. He was killed when besieging the Castle of Chalus over a recently discovered hoard of gold.

The crown passed to his brother John. John was called John Lackland as during his reign he lost most of his lands. With virtually all of his French lands gone he was forced to stay in England where his prestige had dropped due to the loss of his lands.

In a time when a man’s integrity was of the utmost importance, his contemporaries viewed him as untrustworthy. He is suspected of murdering his nephew Arthur and he undoubtedly starved the wife of the recalcitrant Marcher baron, along with her son in a royal prison.

After John became king Eleanor saved Anjou and Aquataine for him against French threats. Then she retired to the monastery at Fountevrault. She died there in April of 1204 at the age of 82. She is entombed at Fountevrault.

John’s better qualities, and he had some, cannot outweigh his treachery in the eyes of many and his reputation as a bad king still exists. John died in 1216.

English claims to French territory led to the Hundred Years War and by 1558 the English had lost all of their former French lands.

There are Angevin Castles today in France where one can tour and sample Angevin bread and sip Angevin Wine.

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