March 21, 1152: Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of the Franks and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

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Annulment, Île-de-France, Conrad III of Germany, Duke William IX of Aquitaine, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry Curtmantle, King Géza II of Hungary, King Henry II of England, King Louis VII of France, King of the Romans, King Philippe II Auguste of France, Third Crusade

Louis VII (1120 – September 18, 1180), called the Younger, or the Young was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI (hence the epithet “the Young”) and married Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe. The marriage temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees.

Louis was born in 1120, the second son of Louis VI of the Franks and Adelaide of Maurienne. The early education of the young Louis anticipated an ecclesiastical career. As a result, he became well learned and exceptionally devout, but his life course changed decisively after the accidental death of his older brother Philippe in 1131, when Louis unexpectedly became the heir to the throne of the Franks.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, or Aliénor, the future wife of the future King of the Franks, was the daughter of Guillaume X, Duke of Aquitaine, and Aénor de Châtellerault.

Eleanor’s year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor’s fourteenth birthday in 1136.

King Louis VII of the Franks

This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l’Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.

Following the death of Duke Guillaume X of Aquitaine, Louis VI moved quickly to have his son married to Eleanor of Aquitaine (who had inherited Guillaume’s territory) on July 25, 1137. In this way, Louis VI sought to add the large, sprawling territory of the duchy of Aquitaine to his family’s holdings in France.

On August 1, 1137, shortly after the marriage, King Louis VI died, and Louis became Louis VII, King of the Franks. The pairing of the monkish Louis and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she reportedly once declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she had married a monk.

There was a marked difference between the frosty, reserved culture of the northern court in the Île-de-France, where King Louis VII had been raised, and the rich, free-wheeling court life of the Aquitaine with which Eleanor was familiar. King Louis VII and Eleanor had two daughters, Marie and Alix.

In June 1147, in fulfillment of his vow to mount the Second Crusade, Louis VII and his Queen Eleanor set out from the Basilica of Saint-Denis, first stopping in Metz on the overland route to Syria.

Soon they arrived in the Kingdom of Hungary, where they were welcomed by King Géza II of Hungary, who was already waiting with Conrad III, King of the Romans (Conrad was never crowned emperor and continued to style himself “King of the Romans” until his death).

Due to his good relationships with Louis VII, Géza II asked the French king to be his son Stephen’s baptism godfather. Relations between the kingdoms of France and Hungary remained cordial long after this time: decades later, Louis’s daughter Margaret was taken as wife by Géza’s son King Béla III of Hungary.

Eleanor, Queen of the Franks, Queen of the English, Duchess of Aquitaine

Louis VII and his army finally reached the Holy Land in 1148. His queen Eleanor supported her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis VII’s interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret.

He united with Conrad III, King of the Romans and King Baldwin III of Jerusalem to lay siege to Damascus; this ended in disaster and the project was abandoned. Louis VII decided to leave the Holy Land, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wanted to help her doomed uncle Raymond. Louis VII and the French army returned home in 1149.

The expedition to the Holy Land came at a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor that led to the annulment of their marriage. Perhaps the marriage to Eleanor might have continued if the royal couple had produced a male heir, but this had not occurred.

The Council of Beaugency found an exit clause, declaring that Louis VII and Eleanor were too closely related for their marriage to be legal, thus the marriage was annulled on March 21, 1152.

The pretext of kinship was the basis for annulment, but in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between Louis and Eleanor, with a decreasing likelihood that their marriage would produce a male heir to the throne of France. On May 18, 1152, Eleanor married the Henry Curtmantle, Count of Anjou, the future King Henry II of the English. She gave Henry the Duchy of Aquitaine and bore him three daughters and five sons.

In 1154, Louis VII married Infanta Constance of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and Berengaria of Barcelona. She also failed to supply him with a son and heir, bearing only two daughters, Margaret and Alys.

The official reason for her husband’s annulment from Eleanor of Aquitaine had been that he was too close a relative of Eleanor for the marriage to be legal by Church standards; however, he was even more closely related to Constance. Constance died giving birth to her second child.

Louis VII was devastated when Constance died in childbirth on October 4, 1160. As he was desperate for a son, he married Adela of Champagne just 5 weeks later. Adela of Champagne was the third child and first daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia, and had nine brothers and sisters. Adela’s coronation was held the same day.

King Philippe II Augusté of France

The new Queen Adela went on to give birth to two children; Louis VII’s only male heir, Philippe and Agnes, a Byzantine Empress by marriage to Alexios II Komnenos and Andronikos I Komnenos.

Louis had his son crowned at Reims in 1179, in the Capetian tradition (Philippe would in fact be the last king so crowned). Already stricken with paralysis, Louis himself could not be present at the ceremony.

King Louis VII died on September 18, 1180 in Paris and was buried the next day at Barbeau Abbey, which he had founded. His remains were moved to the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1817.

His son became King Philippe II of the Franks. I try to use correct titles on this blog and for his predecessors I use the title Kings of the Franks, (King of West Francia when appropriate) but from 1190 onward, Philippe II became the first French monarch to style himself “King of France” (Latin: Rex Francie).

King Philippe II was originally nicknamed Dieudonné (God-given)…the same as Louis XIV… because he was a first son and born late in his father’s life. Philippe was given the epithet “Augusté” by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the crown lands of France so remarkably.

March 11, 1198: Death of Princess Marie of the Franks, Countess of Champagne

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Count Henri I of Champagne, Count Henri II of Champagne, Countess of Champagne, Crusades, Eleanor of Aquitaine, King Henry II of England, King John of England, King Louis VII of France, King Philippe II Auguste of France, Marie of the Franks, Regent

Marie of the Franks (1145 – March 11, 1198) was a Frankish princess who became Countess of Champagne by marriage to Henri I, Count of Champagne. She was regent of the county of Champagne three times: during the absence of her spouse between 1179 and 1181; during the minority of her son Henry II, Count of Champagne in 1181–1187; and finally during the absence of her son between 1190 and 1197.

Marie’s birth was hailed as a “miracle” by Bernard of Clairvaux, an answer to his prayer to bless the marriage between her mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and her father, King Louis VII of the Franks. She was just two years old when her parents led the Second Crusade to the Holy Land. Not long after their return in 1152, when Marie was seven, her parents’ marriage was annulled. Custody of Marie and her younger sister, Alix, was awarded to their father, since they were at that time the only heirs to the hrone.

Both Louis and Eleanor remarried quickly. Eleanor married King Henry II of the English and became Queen of the English. King Louis VII remarried first Constance of Castile (d. 1160) and then Adele of Champagne on 13 November 13, 1160. Marie had numerous half-siblings on both her mother’s and father’s side, including the eventual kings Philippe II Augusté of France and John and Richard I of England.

Her half brother, King John, changed the English Royal title to King of England and her half brother King Philippe II Augusté changed the Frankish Royal title to King of France.

Marriage

In 1153, Marie was betrothed to Count Henri of Champagne by her father King Louis VII. These betrothals were arranged based on the intervention of Bernard of Clairvaux, as reported in the contemporary chronicle of Radulfus Niger. After her betrothal, Marie was sent to live with the Viscountess Elizabeth of Mareuil-sy-Aÿ and then to the abbey of Avenay in Champagne for her Latin-based education. In 1159, Marie married Henri I, Count of Champagne.

Henri I, Count of Champagne was the eldest son of Count Theobald II of Champagne, who was also count of Blois, and his wife, Matilda of Carinthia.

Regencies

Marie became regent for Champagne when her husband Henri I went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 1179 until 1181. While her husband was away, Marie’s father died and her half-brother, King Philippe II Augusté, became King of France. He confiscated his mother’s dower lands and married Isabelle of Hainaut, who was previously betrothed to Marie’s eldest son. This prompted Marie to join a party of disgruntled nobles—including the queen mother Adela of Champagne and the archbishop of Reims—in plotting unsuccessfully against Philippe II Augustus. Eventually, relations between Marie and her royal brother improved. Marie’s husband died soon after his return from the Holy Land in 1181, leaving her again as regent for her young son Count Henri of Champagne.

Marie, who had retired to the nunnery of Château de Fontaines-les-Nonnes near Meaux (1187–1190), served again as regent for Champagne as her son Henry II joined the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1197. He remained in the Levant, marrying Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem in 1192. Over the course of her regencies, Champagne was transformed from a patchwork of territories into a significant principality.

Death

Marie died on March 11, 1198, not long after hearing the news of her son’s death. She was buried in Meaux Cathedral.

Were They A Usurper? King John. Part II.

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Château de Falaise, Duke Arthur I of Brittany, Eleanor of Aquitaine, King John of England and Lord of Ireland, King Philippe II Auguste of France, King Richard I of England, Male Preferred Primogeniture, Treaty of Le Goulet, Usurper

Conquest of Cyprus

In April 1191 Richard left Messina for Acre, but a storm dispersed his large fleet. After some searching, it was discovered that the ship carrying his sister Joan and his new fiancée, Berengaria of Navarre, was anchored on the south coast of Cyprus, along with the wrecks of several other vessels, including the treasure ship. Survivors of the wrecks had been taken prisoner by the island’s ruler, Isaac Komnenos.

Before leaving Cyprus on crusade, Richard married Berengaria, the first-born daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre. Richard first grew close to her at a tournament held in her native Navarre. The wedding was held in Limassol on May 12, 1191 at the Chapel of St George and was attended by Richard’s sister Joan, whom he had brought from Sicily. The marriage was celebrated with great pomp and splendour, many feasts and entertainments, and public parades and celebrations followed commemorating the event.

When Richard married Berengaria he was still officially betrothed to Alys, and he pushed for the match in order to obtain the Kingdom of Navarre as a fief, as Aquitaine had been for his father. Further, Eleanor championed the match, as Navarre bordered Aquitaine, thereby securing the southern border of her ancestral lands.

Richard took his new wife on crusade with him briefly, though they returned separately. Berengaria had almost as much difficulty in making the journey home as her husband did, and she did not see England until after his death. After his release from German captivity, Richard showed some regret for his earlier conduct, but he was not reunited with his wife. The marriage remained childless.

Death of the King

In March 1199, Richard was in Limousin suppressing a revolt by Viscount Aimar V of Limoges. Although it was Lent, he “devastated the Viscount’s land with fire and sword”. He besieged the tiny, virtually unarmed castle of Châlus-Chabrol. Some chroniclers claimed that this was because a local peasant had uncovered a treasure trove of Roman gold.

On March 26, 1199, Richard was hit in the shoulder by a crossbow bolt, and the wound turned gangrenous. Richard asked to have the crossbowman brought before him; called alternatively Pierre (or Peter) Basile, John Sabroz, Dudo, and Bertrand de Gourdon (from the town of Gourdon) by chroniclers, the man turned out (according to some sources, but not all) to be a boy.

He said Richard had killed his father and two brothers, and that he had killed Richard in revenge. He expected to be executed, but as a final act of mercy Richard forgave him, saying “Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day”, before he ordered the boy to be freed and sent away with 100 shillings.

Richard died on April 6, 1199 in the arms of his mother, and thus “ended his earthly day.” Because of the nature of Richard’s death, it was later referred to as “the Lion by the Ant was slain”. According to one chronicler, Richard’s last act of chivalry proved fruitless when the infamous mercenary captain Mercadier had the boy flayed alive and hanged as soon as Richard died.

Richard produced no legitimate heirs and acknowledged only one illegitimate son, Philip of Cognac. His French territories, with the exception of Rouen, initially rejected John as a successor, preferring his nephew Arthur. The lack of any direct heirs from Richard was the first step in the dissolution of the Angevin Empire.

A Game of Thrones

After Richard’s death on April 6, 1199 there were two potential claimants to the Angevin throne: John, whose claim rested on being the sole surviving son of Henry II, and young Arthur I of Brittany, who held a claim as the son of John’s elder brother Geoffrey.

Richard appears to have started to recognise John as his heir presumptive in the final years before his death, but the matter was not clear-cut and medieval law gave little guidance as to how the competing claims should be decided.

With Norman law favouring John as the only surviving son of Henry II and Angevin law favouring Arthur as the only son of Henry’s elder son, the matter rapidly became an open conflict.

John immediately claimed the throne of England, but much of the French nobility were resentful at recognising him as their overlord. They preferred Arthur, who declared himself vassal of Philippe II Auguste of France.

John was supported by the bulk of the English and Norman nobility and was crowned at Westminster Abbey, backed by his mother, Eleanor. Arthur was supported by the majority of the Breton, Maine and Anjou nobles and received the support of Philippe II Auguste, who remained committed to breaking up the Angevin territories on the continent.

With Arthur’s army pressing up the Loire Valley towards Angers and Philip’s forces moving down the valley towards Tours, John’s continental empire was in danger of being cut in two.

Philippe II Auguste recognised Arthur’s right to Anjou, Maine, and Poitou. From April 8, Arthur he styled himself as Duke of Brittany, Count of Anjou and Earl of Richmond.

Treaty of Le Goulet

The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed by the kings John of England and Philippe II Auguste of France in May 1200 and meant to settle once and for all the claims the Norman kings of England had as Norman dukes on French lands, including, at least for a time, Brittany.

Under the terms of the treaty, Philippe II Auguste recognised John as King of England as heir of his brother Richard I and thus formally abandoned any support for Arthur. John, meanwhile, recognised Philippe II Auguste as the suzerain of continental possessions of the Angevin Empire.

After the signing of the Treaty of Le Goulet, and feeling offended by Philippe II Auguste, Arthur fled to John, his uncle, and was treated kindly, at least initially. However, he later became suspicious of John and fled back to Angers. Some unidentified source said that in April 1202, Arthur was again betrothed, this time to Marie of France, a daughter of Philippe II Auguste and Agnes of Andechs-Merania.

After his return to France, and with the support of Philippe II Auguste, Arthur embarked on a campaign in Normandy against John in 1202. Poitou revolted in support of Arthur. Arthur, Duke of Brittany besieged his grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, John’s mother, in the Château de Mirebeau.

John marched on Mirebeau, taking Arthur by surprise on July 31, 1202. Arthur was captured by John’s barons on August 1, and imprisoned in the Château de Falaise in Falaise, Normandy.

Imprisonment and disappearance

Arthur was guarded by Hubert de Burgh at the Chateau de Falaise. According to contemporaneous chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall, John ordered two of his servants to blind and castrate the duke. De Burgh could not bring himself to let Arthur be mutilated.

Fearful of John, de Burgh leaked news that Arthur had died of natural causes. This news infuriated Brittany, who suspected that Arthur had been murdered. The following year Arthur was transferred to Rouen, under the charge of William de Braose. Arthur vanished in April 1203, in the background of several military victories by Philippe II Auguste of France against King John.

Arthur’s disappearance gave rise to various stories. One account was that Arthur’s gaolers feared to harm him, and so he was murdered by John directly and his body dumped in the Seine.

William de Braose is also rumoured to have murdered Arthur. After the young man’s disappearance, he rose high in John’s favour receiving new lands and titles in the Welsh Marches. Many years after Arthur’s disappearance, and just prior to a conflict with King John, de Braose’s wife Maud de Braose accused the king of murdering Arthur.

Not only the Bretons, but even Philippe II Auguste were ignorant of what actually happened, and whether Arthur was alive or dead. Whatever his fate, Arthur left no known issue. William promised to direct the attack of Mirebeau on condition he was consulted on the fate of Arthur, but John broke the promise, causing him to leave John along with Aimeri of Thouars and siege Angers.

Nothing is recorded of Arthur after his incarceration in Rouen Castle in 1203, and while his precise fate is unknown, it is generally believed he was killed by John.

Assessment: I do not consider King John a usurper. Male preferred primogeniture was still developing and the fact is the monarch did have the power to name thier successor. King Richard I did at one point proclaim his nephew Arthur as his heir but in later years he changed his mind and supported his brother John as his heir. With Richard naming his brother as his heir John did become the legal King of England upon the death of his brother.

April 12, 1256: Death of Marguerite de Bourbon, Queen of Navarre and Countess of Champagne

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Countess of Champagne, Eleanor of Aquitaine, John of England, King Sancho VII of Navarre, King Theobald I of Navarre, King Theobald II of Navarre, Louis VII of France, Marguerite de Bourbon, Philippe II of France, Queen of Navarre, Regent, Richard I of England

Marguerite de Bourbon (c. 1217 – April 12, 1256) was Queen of Navarre and Countess of Champagne from 1234 until 1253 as the third wife of King Theobald I of Navarre. After her husband’s death, she ruled both the kingdom and the county as regent for three years in the name of their son, King Theobald II of Navarre.

Marguerite was born into the House of Dampierre, the eldest daughter of Archambaud VIII, Lord of Bourbon. Her mother was her father’s first wife, Alice of Forez, daughter of Guigues III, Count of Forez. Archambaud was the constable of Count Theobald IV of Champagne.

Queen

Marguerite was 15 years old when, on September 12, 1232, she became the third wife of the 32-year-old recently widowed Count Theobald. His first wife, Gertrude of Dagsburg, had been repudiated and already deceased, while the second, Agnes of Beaujeu, died leaving only a daughter, Blanche.

Their marriage was one of only two unions of the counts of Champagne with a significant age disparity between spouses, the other one being the marriage of Henri I of Champagne (1127 – 1181) and Marie of France (1145 – 1198) with Henri being eighteen years older than his wife.

Marie of France was a French the elder daughter of King Louis VII of France and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. Marie had numerous half-siblings on both her mother’s and father’s side, including the eventual kings Philippe II of France and Richard I and John of England.

Marguerite brought a large dowry, but an unusual clause in her marriage contract stipulated that only a prorated part of it would be returned to her father in case of her death without issue within the first nine years of the marriage and nothing if she died after nine years had passed. Only if the union ended in annulment, as her parents’ and Theobald’s first marriage had, was the entire sum to be returned.

Regency

Marguerite’s marriage lasted twenty years, during which she delivered seven children. In 1234, she became Queen of Navarre when Theobald inherited the kingdom from his maternal uncle, Sancho VII. Little is known about Margaret’s life as queen consort, which appears to have been spent in relative obscurity.

Her husband’s death in 1253, however, brought her to spotlight: their son, Theobald II of Navarre, was 14, while the laws of the realm required the king to be 21 to take control of his inheritance.

She immediately had to deal with a succession crisis in the kingdom. Although her husband, also Count of Champagne, had resided in Navarre much of the time after his accession to the royal throne, the nobility of the kingdom were unwilling to accept his son as their king.

Marguerite prevented the outbreak of an open rebellion by travelling with Theobald to the capital, Pamplona, and by allying with the neighbouring Kingdom of Aragon. She also inherited her husband’s long-standing dispute with the Knights Templar, who had bought much feudal property in Champagne despite his disapproval. Marguerite resolutely prohibited them from acquiring any more land within the county.

In 1254, Marguerite was persuaded by her son to arrange a marriage for him with Isabella, daughter of King Louis IX of France. King Theobald II reached the age of majority in 1256. No longer regent, Queen Marguerite retired to her large dower lands, consisting of seven castellanies (as much as a third of the comital revenues), where she spent the rest of her life. She died in Provins and was buried at the Saint Joseph de Clairval Abbey in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain.

Issue

Eleanor, died young
Theobald II of Navarre
Peter (died in 1265)
Margaret, who in 1255 married Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine and bore him Theobald II of Lorraine
Beatrice of Navarre, Duchess of Burgundy married Hugh IV Duke of Burgundy
Henry I of Navarre married Blanche of Artois

April 6, 1199: Death of Richard I the Lionheart, King of England

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and Count of Poitiers, and Nantes, and overlord of Brittany, Anjou, Aquitaine and Gascony, Berengaria of Navarre, Duke of Normandy, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, King of England, Lord of Cyprus, Maine, Richard I, the Lionheart

Richard I (September 8, 1157 – April 6, 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period.

Richard was born, probably at Beaumont Palace, in Oxford, England, son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. As a younger son of King Henry II, he was not expected to ascend the throne.

Henry II and Eleanor’s eldest son William IX, Count of Poitiers, died before Richard’s birth. He was a younger brother of Henry the Young King and Matilda, Duchess of Saxony. He was also an elder brother of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany; Queen Eleanor of Castile; Queen Joan of Sicily; and John, Count of Mortain, who succeeded him as king.

Richard was the younger maternal half-brother of Marie of France, Countess of Champagne, and Alix, Countess of Blois. Richard is often depicted as having been the favourite son of his mother. His father was Angevin-Norman and great-grandson of William I the Conqueror, King of England and Duke of Normandy.

Richard is known as Richard Cœur de Lion (Norman French: Le quor de lion) or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior. The troubadour Bertran de Born also called him Richard Oc-e-Non (Occitan for Yes and No), possibly from a reputation for terseness.

Richard I, the Lionheart, King of England, Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and overlord of Brittany.

By the age of 16, Richard had taken command of his own army, putting down rebellions in Poitou against his father. Richard was an important Christian commander during the Third Crusade, leading the campaign after the departure of Philippe II of France and achieving considerable victories against his Muslim counterpart, Saladin, although he finalised a peace treaty and ended the campaign without retaking Jerusalem.

Richard probably spoke both French and Occitan. He was born in England, where he spent his childhood; before becoming king, however, he lived most of his adult life in the Duchy of Aquitaine, in the southwest of France.

Early in the 1160s there had been suggestions Richard should marry Alys, Countess of the Vexin, fourth daughter of Louis VII of France and Constance of Castile. The Marriage was meant to sooth the rivalry between the kings of England and France.

Louis VII obstructed the marriage. A peace treaty was secured in January 1169 and Richard’s betrothal to Alys was confirmed.

Following his accession, he spent very little time, perhaps as little as six months, in England. Most of his life as king was spent on Crusade, in captivity, or actively defending his lands in France. Rather than regarding his kingdom as a responsibility requiring his presence as ruler, he has been perceived as preferring to use it merely as a source of revenue to support his armies. Nevertheless, he was seen as a pious hero by his subjects.

Before leaving Cyprus on crusade, Richard married Berengaria of Navarre, Richard first grew close to her at a tournament held in her native Navarre.

Berengaria was the eldest daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Castile. As is the case with many of the medieval English queens, relatively little is known of her life.

Traditionally known as “the only English queen never to set foot in the country”, she may in fact have visited England after her husband’s death, but did not do so before, nor did she see much of Richard during her marriage.

The wedding was held in Limassol on May 12, 1191 at the Chapel of St George and was attended by Richard’s sister Joan, whom he had brought from Sicily. The marriage was celebrated with great pomp and splendour, many feasts and entertainments, and public parades and celebrations followed commemorating the event.

Berengaria of Navarre from History Reimagined

When Richard married Berengaria he was still officially betrothed to Alys, and he pushed for the match in order to obtain the Kingdom of Navarre as a fief, as Aquitaine had been for his father.

Further, Richard’s mother, Eleanor, championed the match, as Navarre bordered Aquitaine, thereby securing the southern border of her ancestral lands.

Richard took his new wife on crusade with him briefly, though they returned separately. Berengaria had almost as much difficulty in making the journey home as her husband did.

After his release from German captivity, he had been imprisoned by Leopold of Austria, Richard showed some regret for his earlier conduct, but he was not reunited with his wife. The marriage remained childless.

In March 1199, Richard was in Limousin suppressing a revolt by Viscount Aimar V of Limoges. Although it was Lent, he “devastated the Viscount’s land with fire and sword”. He besieged the tiny, virtually unarmed castle of Châlus-Chabrol. Some chroniclers claimed that this was because a local peasant had uncovered a treasure trove of Roman gold.

On March 26, 1199, Richard was hit in the shoulder by a crossbow bolt, and the wound turned gangrenous. Richard asked to have the crossbowman brought before him; called alternatively Pierre (or Peter) Basile, John Sabroz, Dudo, and Bertrand de Gourdon (from the town of Gourdon) by chroniclers, the man turned out (according to some sources, but not all) to be a boy.

He said Richard had killed his father and two brothers, and that he had killed Richard in revenge. He expected to be executed, but as a final act of mercy Richard forgave him, saying “Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day”, before he ordered the boy to be freed and sent away with 100 shillings.

Richard died on April 6, 1199 in the arms of his mother, and thus “ended his earthly day.” Because of the nature of Richard’s death, it was later referred to as “the Lion by the Ant was slain”. According to one chronicler, Richard’s last act of chivalry proved fruitless when the infamous mercenary captain Mercadier had the boy who shot the king flayed alive and hanged as soon as Richard died.

Richard’s heart was buried at Rouen in Normandy, his entrails in Châlus (where he died), and the rest of his body at the feet of his father at Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou.

In 2012, scientists analysed the remains of Richard’s heart and found that it had been embalmed with various substances, including frankincense, a symbolically important substance because it had been present both at the birth and embalming of the Christ.

Henry Sandford, Bishop of Rochester (1226–1235), announced that he had seen a vision of Richard ascending to Heaven in March 1232 (along with Stephen Langton, the former archbishop of Canterbury), the King having presumably spent 33 years in purgatory as expiation for his sins.

Richard produced no legitimate heirs and acknowledged only one illegitimate son, Philip of Cognac. He was succeeded by his brother John as King of England and Duke of Normandy.

His French territories, with the exception of Rouen, initially rejected John as a successor, preferring his nephew Arthur. The lack of any direct heirs from Richard was the first step in the dissolution of the Angevin Empire.

King Richard I remains one of the few kings of England remembered more commonly by his epithet, Cœur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart, than his regnal number, and is an enduring iconic figure both in England and in France.

King Richard I was known as a valiant, competent military leader and individual fighter who was courageous and generous. At the same time, he was considered prone to the sins of lust, pride, greed and, above all, excessive cruelty. Ralph of Coggeshall, summarising Richard’s career, deplores that the King was one of “the immense cohort of sinners.”

April 1, 1204: Death of Eleanor of Aquitaine

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Angevin Empire, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, Louis VII of France, Pope Eugene III, The Third Crusade, William IX of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1122 – 1 April 1204)

Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l’Isle Bouchard, who was William IX’s longtime mistress as well as Eleanor’s maternal grandmother. Her parents’ marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather William IX. Her father was renowned in early 12th-century Europe for having a glittering ducal court.

A romanticized portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor’s year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124.

On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor’s fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth.

Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l’Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.

As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was also known to have led armies several times in her life and was a key leading figure of the unsuccessful Second Crusade.

She became Duchess of Aquitaine upon her father’s death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Prince Louis became the French king, Louis VII of France.

King Louis VII of France

Eleanor and Louis had two daughters, Marie and Alix. As Queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III.

Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as 15 years of marriage had not produced a son. The marriage was annulled on March 21, 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor’s lands were restored to her.

As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, May 18, 1152. In 1154 Henry became King Henry II of England and Eleanor became Queen of England as his Consort. Because of Jure uxoris (a Latin phrase meaning “by right of (his) wife”) Henry II became Duke of Aquitaine and ruler of all his wife’s lands. Joining these lands with England and Normandy to create the vast Angevin Empire.

King Henry II of England

Eleanor and Henry II had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry II and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry the Young King, against him.

Eleanor was not released until July 6, 1189, when her husband died and their third son ascended the throne as King Richard I the Lionheart.

As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John of England, Lord of Ireland.

April 6, 1199: Death of King Richard I of England

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Angevin Empire, Berengaria of Navarre, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, House of Plantagenet, Richard I of England, The Lion Heart

Richard I (September 8, 1157 – April 6, 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death. He was the second king of the House of Plantagenet. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period. He was the third of five sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine and seemed unlikely to become king, but all of his brothers except the youngest, John, predeceased their father. Richard is known as Richard Cœur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior.

Richard was born on September 8, 1157, probably at Beaumont Palace, in Oxford, England, son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was a younger brother of Henry the Young King and Matilda, Duchess of Saxony. As a younger son of King Henry II, he was not expected to ascend the throne. He was also an elder brother of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany; Queen Eleanor of Castile; Queen Joan of Sicily; and John, Count of Mortain, who succeeded him as king.

By the age of 16, Richard had taken command of his own army, putting down rebellions in Poitou against his father. Richard was a central Christian commander during the Third Crusade, leading the campaign after the departure of Philippe II of France and achieving considerable victories against his Muslim counterpart, Saladin, although he did not retake Jerusalem from Saladin.

Richard probably spoke both French and Occitan. He was born in England, where he spent his childhood; before becoming king, however, he lived most of his adult life in the Duchy of Aquitaine, in the southwest of France. Following his accession, he spent very little time, perhaps as little as six months, in England.

Most of his life as king was spent on Crusade, in captivity, or actively defending his lands in France. Rather than regarding his kingdom as a responsibility requiring his presence as ruler, he has been perceived as preferring to use it merely as a source of revenue to support his armies. Nevertheless, he was seen as a pious hero by his subjects. He remains one of the few kings of England remembered more commonly by his epithet than his regnal number, and is an enduring iconic figure both in England and in France.

Marriage

Before leaving Cyprus on crusade, Richard married Berengaria of Navarre the first-born daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VII, King of León and Castile and his wife Berengaria of Barcelona.

Richard first grew close to her at a tournament held in her native Navarre. The wedding was held in Limassol on May 12, 1191 at the Chapel of St George and was attended by Richard’s sister Joan, whom he had brought from Sicily. The marriage was celebrated with great pomp and splendour, many feasts and entertainments, and public parades and celebrations followed commemorating the event. Richard took his new wife on crusade with him briefly, though they returned separately. Berengaria had almost as much difficulty in making the journey home as her husband did, and she did not see England until after his death. After his release from German captivity, Richard showed some regret for his earlier conduct, but he was not reunited with his wife. The marriage remained childless.

Death

In March of 1199, Richard was in Limousin suppressing a revolt by Viscount Aimar V of Limoges. Although it was Lent, he “devastated the Viscount’s land with fire and sword”. He besieged the puny, virtually unarmed castle of Châlus-Chabrol. Some chroniclers claimed that this was because a local peasant had uncovered a treasure trove of Roman gold.

On March 25, 1199, Richard was hit in the shoulder by a crossbow, and the wound turned gangrenous. Richard asked to have the crossbowman brought before him; called alternatively Pierre (or Peter) Basile, John Sabroz, Dudo, and Bertrand de Gourdon (from the town of Gourdon) by chroniclers, the man turned out (according to some sources, but not all) to be a boy.

He said Richard had killed his father and two brothers, and that he had killed Richard in revenge. He expected to be executed, but as a final act of mercy Richard forgave him, saying “Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day”, before he ordered the boy to be freed and sent away with 100 shillings. It is unclear whether the pardon was upheld following his death. According to one chronicler, Richard’s last act of chivalry proved fruitless when the infamous mercenary captain Mercadier had the crossbowman flayed alive and hanged as soon as Richard died.

Richard died on April 6, 1199 in the arms of his mother, and thus “ended his earthly day”. Because of the nature of Richard’s death, it was later referred to as “the Lion by the Ant was slain”. Richard produced no legitimate heirs and acknowledged only one illegitimate son, Philip of Cognac. As a result, he was succeeded by his brother John as king. However, his French territories initially rejected John as a successor, preferring his nephew Arthur, whose claim was by modern standards better than John’s. The lack of any direct heirs from Richard was the first step in the dissolution of the Angevin Empire.

September 23, 1158: Birth of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany.

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Conan IV of Brittany, Constance of Brittany, Duke of Brittany, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Geoffrey II of Brittany, Geoffrey of Anjou, King Henry II of England, Louis VII of France, Philip II of France

Geoffrey II (September 23, 1158 – August 19, 1186) was Duke of Brittany and 3rd Earl of Richmond between 1181 and 1186, through his marriage with the heiress Constance. Geoffrey was the fourth of five sons of Henry II, King of England and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine.

Life

In the 1160s, Henry II began to alter his policy of indirect rule in Brittany and to exert more direct control. Henry had been at war with Conan IV, Duke of Brittany. Local Breton nobles rebelled against Conan, so Conan sought Henry II’s help. In 1164, Henry intervened to seize lands along the border of Brittany and Normandy and, in 1166, he invaded Brittany to punish the local barons.

Henry then forced Conan to abdicate as duke and to give Brittany to his five-year-old daughter, Constance, who was handed over and betrothed to Henry’s son Geoffrey. This arrangement was quite unusual in terms of medieval law, as Conan might have had sons who could have legitimately inherited the duchy. Geoffrey and Constance eventually married, in July 1181.

Growing tensions between Henry II and Louis VII, King of the Franks, finally spilled over into open war in 1167, triggered by a trivial argument over how money destined for the Crusader states of the Levant should be collected. Louis VII allied himself with the Welsh, Scots and Bretons and attacked Normandy.

Henry II responded by attacking Chaumont-sur-Epte, where Louis VII kept his main military arsenal, burning the town to the ground and forcing Louis to abandon his allies and make a private truce. Henry was then free to move against the rebel barons in Brittany, where feelings about his seizure of the duchy were still running high.

Geoffrey was fifteen years old when he joined the first revolt against his father. He later reconciled to Henry in 1174 when he participated in the truce at Gisors. Geoffrey prominently figured in the second revolt of 1183, fighting against Richard, on behalf of Henry the Young King.

Geoffrey was a good friend of Louis VII’s son Philippe, and the two men were frequently in alliance against King Henry. Geoffrey spent much time at Philippe’s court in Paris, and Philippe made him his seneschal. There is evidence to suggest that Geoffrey was planning another rebellion with Philippe help during his final period in Paris in the summer of 1186. As a participant in so many rebellions against his father, Geoffrey acquired a reputation for treachery.

Gerald of Wales wrote the following of him: “He has more aloes than honey in him; his tongue is smoother than oil; his sweet and persuasive eloquence has enabled him to dissolve the firmest alliances and by his powers of language able to corrupt two kingdoms; of tireless endeavour, a hypocrite in everything, a deceiver and a dissembler.”

Geoffrey also was known to attack monasteries and churches in order to raise funds for his campaigns. This lack of reverence for religion earned him the displeasure of the Church and, as a consequence, of the majority of chroniclers who wrote about his life.

Family

Geoffrey and Constance had three children, one born after Geoffrey’s death:

• Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany (1184–1241)
• Maud/Matilda of Brittany (1185–before May 1189)
• Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (1187–1203?)

Death

Geoffrey died on August 19, 1186, at the age of 27, in Paris. There is also evidence that supports a death date of August 21, 1186. There are two alternative accounts of his death. The more common first version holds that he was trampled to death in a jousting tournament. At his funeral, a grief-stricken King Philippe II of the Franks is said to have tried to jump into the coffin. Roger of Hoveden’s chronicle is the source of this version; the detail of Philippe II’s hysterical grief is from Gerald of Wales.

In the second version, in the chronicle of the French royal clerk Rigord, Geoffrey died of sudden acute chest pain, which reportedly struck immediately after his speech to Philippe II boasting his intention to lay Normandy to waste. Possibly, this version was an invention of its chronicler, sudden illness being God’s judgment of an ungrateful son plotting rebellion against his father, and for his irreligiosity.

Alternatively, the tournament story may be an invention of Philippe II’s to prevent Henry II’s discovery of a plot; inventing a social reason, a tournament, for Geoffrey’s being in Paris, Philippe II obscured their meeting’s true purpose.

Marie of Champagne, with whom Geoffrey was on good terms, was present at the requiem for her half-brother and established a mass chantry for the repose of his soul.

Geoffrey was buried in the choir of Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, but his tombstone was destroyed in the 18th century before the French revolution. His body was exhumed in 1797 and measured at 5 ft 6.5 in (1.69 m).

Succession

After Geoffrey’s death, Henry II arranged for Constance, Geoffrey’s widow, to marry Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester. Ranulf would become Duke of Brittany, jure uxoris, for a short time before this marriage was annulled.

June 11, 1183: Death of Henry the Young King. Part II.

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Angevin, Anglo-Norman, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry the Young King, House of Anjou, House of Plantagenet, King Henry II of England, Norman, Philippe II of France, Poitevin and Breton, William I of Scotland, William Marshal

Part I

Young Henry fell out with his father in 1173. Contemporary chroniclers allege that this was owing to the young man’s frustration that his father had given him no realm to rule, and his feeling starved of funds. The rebellion seems, however, to have drawn strength from much deeper discontent with his father’s rule, and a formidable party of Anglo-Norman, Norman, Angevin, Poitevin and Breton magnates joined him.

The revolt of 1173–1174 came close to toppling the king; he was narrowly saved by the loyalty of a party of nobles with holdings on the English side of the Channel, and by the defeat and capture of William I, the King of Scotland. Young Henry sought a reconciliation after the capture of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the failure of the rebellion. His funds were much increased by the terms of the settlement, and he apparently devoted most of the next seven years to the amusement of the tournament.

In November 1179, he represented his father at the coronation of Philippe II Auguste as associate king of France at Reims. He acted as Steward of France and carried the crown in the coronation procession. Later, he played a leading role in the celebratory tournament held at Lagny-sur-Marne, to which he brought a retinue of over 500 knights at huge expense. The Young Henry’s affairs took a turn for the worse in 1182.

Henry fell out with William Marshal, the leader of his tournament mesnée. The unknown author of L’Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal suggests that Marshal’s disgrace was because he had indulged in a clandestine affair with Queen Margaret. David Crouch, one of the Marshal’s principal modern biographers, argues that the charge against William was actually one of lèse majesté, brought on by Marshal’s own arrogance and greed. By this account, the charge of adultery was only introduced in the Life of William Marshal as a distraction from the real charges, of which he was most probably guilty.

Though the Young King sent his wife early in 1183 to the French court, it was done most likely to keep her safe in the impending war with his brother, Richard, rather than because she was in disgrace.

The only child of Henry and Margaret was William, who was born prematurely on June 19, 1177 and died three days later. This difficult delivery may have left her infertile, for she had no further children.

Death and burial

Henry the Young King died, aged 28, in the summer of 1183, during the course of a campaign in Limousin against his father and his brother Richard the Lionheart. He had just finished pillaging local monasteries to raise money to pay his mercenaries. He contracted dysentery at the beginning of June. Weakening fast, he was taken to Martel, near Limoges. It was clear to his household that he was dying on June 7, when he was confessed and received the last rites.

As a token of his penitence for his war against his father, he prostrated himself naked on the floor before a crucifix. He made a testament and, since he had taken a crusader’s vow, he gave his cloak to his friend William Marshal, with the plea that he should take the cloak (presumably with the crusader’s cross stitched to it) to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. On his deathbed, he reportedly asked to be reconciled to his father, but King Henry, fearing a trick, refused to see him.

He died on June 11, clasping a ring his father had sent instead as a sign of his forgiveness. After his death, his father is said to have exclaimed: “He cost me much, but I wish he had lived to cost me more.”

After Henry’s death, there was an attempt by his mother and a faction of his friends to promote his sainthood. Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, published a sermon not long afterward detailing miraculous events attending the cortège that took his body north to Normandy. Henry had left orders that his entrails and other body parts should be buried at the abbey of Charroux, but the rest of his body should rest in Rouen Cathedral.

However, during the funeral procession, a member of Henry’s household was seized by his mercenary captains for debts the late king had owed them. The knights accompanying his corpse were so penniless they had to be fed by charity at the monastery of Vigeois.

There were large and emotional gatherings wherever his body rested. At Le Mans, the local bishop halted the procession and ordered the body buried in his cathedral, perhaps to help defuse the civil unrest Henry’s death had caused. The dean of Rouen recovered the body from the chapter of Le Mans a month later by a lawsuit, so that the Young Henry could be buried in Normandy as he had desired in his testament.

June 11, 1183: Death of Henry the Young King. Part I.

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Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry the Young King, House of Anjou, House of Plantagenet, King Henry II of England, King Louis VII of France, Margaret of France

Henry the Young King Part I.

Henry the Young King (February 28, 1155 – June 11, 1183) was the eldest surviving son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Beginning in 1170, he was titular King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Maine. Henry the Young King is the only King of England since the Norman Conquest to be crowned during his father’s reign, but was frustrated by his father’s refusal to grant him meaningful autonomous power. He died aged 28, six years before his father, leaving his brother Richard to become the next king.

Coronation of Henry the Young King

Little is known of the young Prince Henry before the events associated with his marriage and coronation. His mother’s children by her first marriage to Louis VII of France were Marie of France, Countess of Champagne and Alix of France. Henry had one elder brother, William IX, Count of Poitiers (d. 1156), and his younger siblings included Matilda; Richard; Geoffrey; Eleanor; Joan; and John.

In June 1170, the fifteen-year-old Henry was crowned king during his father’s lifetime, something originally practised by the French Capetian dynasty and adopted by the English kings Stephen and Henry II. The physical appearance of Henry at his coronation in 1170 is given in a contemporary court poem written in Latin, where the fifteen-year-old prince is described as being very handsome, “tall but well proportioned, broad-shouldered with a long and elegant neck, pale and freckled skin, bright and wide blue eyes, and a thick mop of the reddish-gold hair”.

He was known in his own lifetime as “Henry the Young King” to distinguish him from his father. Because he was not a reigning king, he is not counted in the numerical succession of the Kings of England. According to one of Thomas Becket’s correspondents, Henry was knighted by his father before the coronation, but the biographer of William Marshal asserts that the king was knighted by William in the course of the rebellion of 1173 (Georges Duby, Guillaume le Maréchal. Le meilleur chevalier du monde. 1984).

The young Henry played an important part in the politics of his father’s reign. On November 2, 1160, he was betrothed to Margaret of France, daughter of King Louis VII of France and his second wife, Constance of Castile, when he was 5 years of age and she was at least 2. The marriage was an attempt to finally settle the struggle between the counts of Anjou and the French kings over possession of the frontier district of the Norman Vexin, which Louis VII had acquired from Henry’s grandfather, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, in around 1144.

By the terms of the settlement, Margaret would bring the castles of the Norman Vexin to her new husband. However, the marriage was pushed through by Henry II when Young Henry and Margaret were small children so that he could seize the castles. A bitter border war followed between the kings.

They were formally married on August 24, 1172 at Winchester Cathedral, when Henry, aged seventeen, was crowned King of England a second time, this time together with Margaret, by Rotrou, the Archbishop of Rouen.