Chapter 7

Plantagenet Power Struggles

In This Chapter

_ Recovering from civil war

_ Ruling a huge European empire

_ Taking steps to limit royal power

_ Developing the system of common law

In 1154, King Stephen died with England still scarred by a lengthy civil war.

The country needed a period of stronger, more decisive rule to recover

from the war, and strong rule was exactly what the kings of the Plantagenet

dynasty aimed for. Henry II, the first of these rulers, displayed his strength by

successfully asserting his own power and developing a better legal system.

But ruling England became more and more complicated during the 12th and

13th centuries, because the country was part of a much larger empire that

also included an enormous chunk of France. More than ever, kings were on the

move across their domains, defending their borders. And more than ever, these

borders were under threat. There were enemies within, too – nobles who

resented having to fight or pay excessive taxes to the king and wanted to limit

royal power. The period saw a number of attempts to put legal brakes on the

king. The most famous, the document called Magna Carta, is still quoted today.

Succession Sorted: Henry II

After decades of civil war and the unsteady rule of King Stephen, the

country needed firmer control and more just rule. Under the new king,

Henry II, England got these qualities in spades. Henry was one of the

most outstanding and able monarchs ever to rule in Britain.

From the start, Henry had luck on his side. Henry was born not with a silver

spoon in his mouth, but with an umpteen-carat, extra-heavy, solid gold

spoon. He had been named and accepted as king of England; through his

mother, the empress Matilda, he had a legal claim to Normandy; through

his father, Geoffrey of Anjou, he inherited a further large chunk of France,

notably Anjou (the area around Angers) and Touraine (the bit around Tours).

What was more, Henry was intelligent and able. Unlike many previous kings,

he was well educated, and not only could read and write, but actually enjoyed

reading. He had a voracious appetite for learning, picking up new developments

In law and philosophy, and keeping his mind alert enough to stay one

step ahead of most of his rivals.

But Henry wasn’t a mere intellectual. He was a man of action, famous for travelling

restlessly around his domains to see what things were like first hand.

People said his strong but bowed legs were the result of spending hours on

end in the saddle, and this observation was probably true.

Unlike some of his Norman predecessors, Henry wasn’t interested in fine

clothes or showy possessions; he just wanted to get things done. And when

things didn’t get done the way he wanted them, he had a fearsome temper.

According to one story, when things got really tough he would fall to the

ground and bite the rushes that covered the floor in a rage. Fiery? Volcanic!

Marrying well: Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine

Even before he became king of England, Henry held huge power as Duke of

Normandy and Count of Anjou and Touraine. But in 1152, Henry increased

his territory still further, by marrying the most powerful woman in Europe,

Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor had inherited a vast chunk of France, stretching

from Poitou in the middle of the country down to Gascony in the south.

Eleanor was just as strong a character as her husband – a powerful ruler, a

great patron of literature, and a woman of passion who would bear her husband

eight children. Her temper was as hot as Henry’s, and the couple argued

a lot. But in political terms, Henry could not have done better. Even before he

came to the English throne, Henry had more French land than the king of

France himself.

Enter the Plantagenets

The royal dynasty that Henry built on these foundations is sometimes called

the Angevin Dynasty, because of Henry’s inheritance in Anjou. It’s a useful

label, because it reminds everyone that the family had vital connections in

France and that, in Henry’s time at least, England was part of a major empire.

But Henry’s sons could not hold on to these large possessions, and the

Angevin label later fell out of use.

So another family name, Plantagenet, was coined. This mouthful was a name

that was adopted in the 15th century and has been widely used for the family

ever since. It comes from the Latin name for the flowering broom plant,

Planta genista, and refers to the broom badge that Geoffrey of Anjou used to

wear. Apparently, Geoffrey first wore the broom after his hat fell off when he

was hunting – when he scooped it up, some of the flowers were stuck to it. So

Plantagenet is a rather accidental name, but it will do.

Demolition job

The first Plantagenet, Henry was 21 years old when he came to the throne in

1154 – Old enough to see that his kingdom needed sorting out after the civil

war and young enough to get on quickly and do something about it. He began

with a dramatic action to show who was boss. In the Middle Ages, you had to

ask the king if you wanted to build a castle, but during the war, more than a

thousand illegal castles had sprung up across the country. These so-called

adulterine castles were a big threat to royal power, so Henry embarked on a

massive demolition job, pulling down all the illegal castles. While he was at it,

the king also sent packing the various bands of mercenaries that Stephen had

employed in the war (see Chapter 6). No way was he going to let his barons

hire them and launch an attack on his power.

Border business

Then Henry turned to England’s borders with Wales and Scotland. If his kingdom

was to be secure, Henry had to make sure that the Welsh would not

invade while his back was turned when he was looking after his possessions

in France. Henry strengthened the Welsh frontier by bringing English lords

back to the border regions. He soon had many of the Welsh lords indicating

that they would stay friendly by paying homage to him. Even the bishops in

Wales agreed that they would come under the control of the archbishop of

Canterbury. Henry also received homage from King Malcolm IV of Scotland.

Turbulent times

In 1162, Henry’s troubled relationship with the church came to a head.

Henry’s able chancellor was a churchman called Thomas Becket. Thomas

was one of those intelligent, worldly clergymen who often did well in government

service during the Middle Ages. He looked every inch the part, and

people said Thomas was more ostentatious that the king. According to one

story, the pair were together one day when they met a beggar who stood

shivering without a coat. The king got Thomas to admit that the poor man

needed some warm clothes, but couldn’t persuade Thomas to give up his

own fine fur-lined cloak. Finally, the king pulled the cloak from Thomas’s

back and threw it to the thankful beggar.

Thomas had already helped the king gain extra power over the church by

insisting that royal taxes were payable on church lands. Henry, who wanted

to extend his power over the church still further, decided to appoint Thomas

as archbishop of Canterbury. With ‘his’ man in the top church job, Henry

thought, he’d have the church under his thumb.

Thomas saw it differently, though. Thomas warned Henry that if he took the

post of archbishop, his first responsibility would be to God; Henry would

have to come second. But Henry ignored the warnings, and Thomas became

archbishop.

In the 12th century, the church had its own law courts, and churchmen who

committed crimes were tried there. Many lay people resented these courts

because they thought the church looked after its own and did not punish

wrongdoers properly. What was more, the church courts also tried cases

involving people with some slight connection to the church. All kinds of criminals

could claim a church connection and escape proper punishment. This

setup was a sore point with Henry II, and with anyone who wanted to see the

legal system on a level playing field.

The trouble between the king and the archbishop started with these church

trials. Henry wanted to reform church law so that clergy who committed

crimes were tried not only in church courts, but also in the royal courts.

Thomas dug in his heels: It was wrong for a criminal to be tried twice, and the

church should be allowed to punish its own as it saw fit. And Henry was soon

adding other restrictions on church power to his wish list. Here are some

examples of his demands:

_ Convicted churchmen should be tried in royal courts.

_ Priests must have the king’s permission to travel outside England.

_ Church land disputes and debt cases were to be settled in royal courts.

_ Appeals to the Pope could only be made with Henry’s permission.

Although the English bishops eventually agreed to these demands, Becket

refused, and the more Henry tried to bully him into submission, the deeper

he dug in his heels. Eventually, Thomas left for Rome in disgust and stayed

out of the country for six years. When he returned, relations between king

and archbishop got even worse when Thomas excommunicated everyone

involved in an important royal ceremony, the crowning of Henry’s eldest son,

another Henry, as king to be.