Capetian–Plantagenet rivalry
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The Capetian–Plantagenet rivalry was a series of conflicts and disputes that covered a period of 100 years (1159–1259) during which the House of Capet, rulers of the Kingdom of France, fought the House of Plantagenet (also known as the House of Anjou), rulers of the Kingdom of England, over the Plantagenet-held Angevin Empire which at its peak covered around half of the territory within France. Some historians refer to this series of events as the "First Hundred Years' War".[1]
During the rivalry, the continental possessions of the
The rivalry between the two dynasties and the many wars that came with it led to the gradual "reconquest" by the Capetians of most of their own kingdom, and later, the Plantagenet's attempts at retaking what they believed to be their rightful claims in western France. After the conflict ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1259, the English kings, in regards to their few remaining possessions on the continent, would remain vassals to the French kings. The Capetians were also able to consolidate their power, making the kingdom of France the wealthiest and most powerful state in medieval Western Europe.
The rise of the Angevin Empire under Henry II
In 1150, Henry II received the Duchy of Normandy from his father Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, and when he died in 1151, he became Count of Anjou and Maine.
On 18 May 1152 he became Duke of Aquitaine in right of his wife by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine in Poitiers after her first marriage with the King of France Louis VII the Younger was annulled at the Council of Beaugency. Several children were born of this marriage.
On 6 November 1153, by the Treaty of Wallingford (or Treaty of Winchester), he was recognized as the successor of King Stephen of England (Stephen of Blois before his accession to the throne). When the latter died on 25 October 1154, he ascended the throne of England under the name of Henry II. On Sunday, December 19, he was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
Henry introduced some religious and legislative reforms. In 1155, he appointed Thomas Becket chancellor.
In 1156, he seized the viscounty of Thouars, thereby controlling communications between the northwest and south-west France.
In 1159, continuing his expansionist policy, he besieged Toulouse with the help of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and prince of Aragon. Louis VII came to the aid of his brother-in-law Raymond V, Count of Toulouse. Henry II withdrew, annexing part of Quercy and Cahors.
Throughout the early 1160s, Henry II steadily increased his influence in the Duchy of Brittany until he forced Duke Conan IV to abdicate in favor of his daughter Constance, Duchess of Brittany whom Henry promptly married to his own son Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, placing the duchy firmly within the Angevin sphere of control. Henry II would rule Brittany until the children came of age and thereafter, indirectly, via subordinates.
Although Henry II wielded much stronger authority within his lands and commanded far greater resources than his Capetian rivals, there was a considerable division in his territories between his sons. Eager to inherit, his three eldest sons
Despite the fact that the infamous murder of Archbishop
Philip II's first attempt at conquest
When
Returning early from the crusade in December 1191,
Richard the Lionheart continued the crusade after the departure of Philip: he retook the main Palestinian ports up to Jaffa, and restored the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem although the city itself eluded him. He eventually negotiated a five-year truce with Saladin and sailed back in October 1192. Winter storms overtook him. Forced to stay at Corfu, he was captured by Duke Leopold V of Austria, who put him in the hands of the German Emperor Henry VI, his enemy. For the release of Richard, the emperor asked for a ransom of 100,000 marks, plus 50,000 marks to help him conquer Sicily.[2]
Richard was finally released on 2 February 1194. His mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, paid two-thirds of the ransom, one hundred thousand marks, the balance to be paid later.[2] His reaction was immediate. In the Battle of Fréteval, Richard was able to push back Philip. As a result, Philip gave up most of his recent conquests in the first treaty in January 1196. Then the fighting resumed in 1197, again to the advantage of Richard who invaded the Vexin, resulting in an English victory at the Battle of Gisors in which the saying and future motto of the United Kingdom "Dieu et mon droit" was supposedly uttered by king Richard, and has been used as a battle cry ever since. The two kings looked for support, while the new Pope Innocent III, who wanted to set up a new crusade, pushed them to negotiate. The situation ended abruptly. During the siege of the castle of Châlus (Limousin) in 1199, Richard was hit by a crossbow bolt. He succumbed to his injuries a few days later, on April 6, forty-one years old and at the height of his glory.
Philip II's conquest of the Angevin Empire
John Lackland succeeded his brother Richard. The succession was not unopposed: facing John was his nephew, the young
However, the hostilities did not cease. Philip again took the cause of Arthur, and summoned John his vassal under the Treaty of Le Goulet for his actions in Aquitaine and Tours. John, naturally, did not present himself, and the court of France pronounced the confiscation of his fiefs.
In the spring of 1202 Philip attacked Normandy while Arthur attacked Poitou, but the young duke was surprised by King John in the Battle of Mirebeau, and taken prisoner with his troops as well as his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany. Arthur of Brittany disappeared in the following months, probably murdered in early 1203. Philip then provided support to vassals of Arthur and resumed his actions in Normandy in spring 1203. Philip ordered Eleanor be released, which John eventually refused. Philip dismantled the system of Norman castles, took Le Vaudreuil, and began the Siege of Chateau Gaillard in September 1203. Meanwhile, John made the mistake of leaving Normandy to go to England in December 1203. Chateau Gaillard fell 6 March 1204.
Normandy was now open for the taking. Philip pressed his advantage;
Philip then turned to the
From 1206 to 1212, Philip Augustus strove to strengthen his territorial conquests. Capetian domination was accepted in
Consolidation of Philip II's conquests
The incredible success of
At the same time, the first operations of the
In February 1214, John finally arrived on the continent, in
The final confrontation between the armies of Philip and the coalition led by Otto, was now inevitable, after several weeks of approach and avoidance. On Sunday 27 July 1214 the army of Philip, pursued by the coalition, arrived at Bouvines to cross the bridge over the Marque. At that Sunday, the prohibition to fight is absolute for Christians, but Otto decides to go on with the offensive, hoping to surprise the enemy while crossing the bridge. Philip's army was greatly surprised from the rear, but he quickly reorganized his troops before they could be engaged on the bridge. They quickly turned against the coalition. The French right wing fought against the Flemish knights, led by Ferdinand. At the center where fiercest of the fighting occurred, Philip and Otto fought in person. In the cavalry melee, Philip was unseated, and he fell, but his knights protected him, offered him a fresh horse, and the king resumed the assault until Otto ordered a retreat. Finally, on the left, the supporters of Philip ended the career of Renaud de Dammartin who was leading the knights from Brabant, as well as William Longespée who led the English knights, both of whom were captured by the French after a long resistance. Fate had turned in favor of Philip, despite the numerical inferiority of his troops.[3] The victory was decisive: the Emperor fled, Philip's men captured 130 prisoners, including five counts, including the reviled traitor, Renaud of Dammartin, and the Count of Flanders, Ferdinand.
The coalition was dissolved after its defeat. On 18 September 1214, in Chinon, Philip signed a truce for five years. The English king returned to England in 1214. By the Treaty of Chinon, John Lackland abandoned all his possessions to the north of the Loire: Berry, Touraine, Maine and Anjou returned to the royal domain, which then covered a third of France, greatly enlarged and free from external threat.
John acknowledged Alix as duchess of Brittany and gave up the claim of Eleanor, who would end up in prison in 1241.
French intervention in the First Barons' War
The victory was complete on the continent, but Philip's ambitions did not stop there. Indeed,
The attitude of Philip Augustus towards this expedition was ambiguous; he did not officially support it and even criticized his son's strategy for the conquest of England, but it is unlikely that he had not given his consent to it, at least privately.
After Bouvines, military operations took place in England or the southern France. The royal domain and the vast area north of the Loire enjoyed repose under the terms of the truce concluded in Chinon in 1215; originally for five years and then extended in 1220 with the guarantee of Louis, an association which marked the beginning of Philip's transition to his son and heir.
If the conquests by arms ceased, Philip nevertheless extended his influence by taking advantage of problematic cases of inheritance. This was the case in Champagne on the accession of
The prosperity of the kingdom at the end of the reign of Philip Augustus is an established fact. It is estimated the annual surplus of the treasury was 25,210 livres in November 1221. On that date, the Treasury had in its coffers 157,036 livres, more than 80% of the total ordinary annual income of the monarchy. The testament of
While he was in Pacy, Philip decided to attend an ecclesiastical assembly in Paris to prepare for a new crusade against the advice of his doctors. He did not survive the fatigue of travel and died on 14 July 1223 at
Further conquests of Louis VIII in France
Nicknamed the "Lion", it was during the reign of his father that Louis won his fame by winning over John Lackland the victory of La Roche-aux-Moines in 1214. During his expedition across the Channel, Louis VIII was defeated at Lincoln in May 1217, and renounced his claims to the throne of England by the Treaty of Lambeth on 11 September 1217, while getting in return a large sum of money.
Louis VIII later claimed that the English court had not fulfilled all the conditions of the treaty of 1217. Taking advantage of the minority of Henry III, he decided to seize the last English possessions in France.
Aquitaine was taken, the cities of the region falling one after the other: Poitou, Saintonge, Périgord, Angoumois, and part of Bordeaux. Louis VIII seized all territory as far as the Garonne, in a quick campaign. To control the trade of the region, the French laid siege to the strategic port city of La Rochelle in 1224, and after a few military confrontations between the English garrison and Louis' forces, the city surrendered within a month. The remaining possessions held by the English king were Bordeaux and Gascony.
Henry III's attempts at reestablishing the Angevin Empire
In 1230 the King Henry III of England led an expedition to France to reclaim the Plantagenet heritage but was repelled and forced to re-embark for his kingdom the following year. In 1242, Henry was again at war with the King of France Louis IX as he took advantage of the inheritance dispute in the County of Poitou. However, he was defeated in two battles that were fought within 2 days of each other, the Battle of Taillebourg at Taillebourg and a more decisive battle near Saintes, just south of the original battle.[7][8] Louis pressed his advantage and laid siege to the city of Saintes. Though it is unclear that any armed conflict happened in the siege, it brought an end to the Saintonge war.
As a result of Henry's military failures in France and the constant demand to finance his wars, the barons of England sought to reassert the authority of the
Final settlement under Philip the Fair
The first Hundred Years' War ended definitively with the Treaty of Montreuil-sur-Mer, ratified on 19 June 1299 by Philip IV the Fair and Edward I of England. It restored Guyenne to the King of England but provided for the double marriage of Margaret, Philip's sister, to Edward, and Isabella, Philip's daughter, to Edward's son, also named Edward. On 20 May 1303 France and England signed the Treaty of Paris (1303), which confirmed the provisions of the Treaty of Montreuil.
Ironically, Edward III, the son of Isabella and Edward II of England, would use his position as grandson of Philip the Fair to claim the Kingdom of France. Therefore, the marriage settlement that sealed the end of the "first" Hundred Years' War would lead to the casus belli that was employed to declare the "Second" Hundred Years' War. The War of Saint-Sardos, the first major conflict between the two major kingdoms in half a century, would act as foreshadowing for the bigger war to come.
Bibliography
- Anne-Marie Flambard Héricher and Véronique Gazeau, 1204, La Normandie entre Plantagenêts et Capétiens, Caen, CRAHM, 2007 ISBN 9782902685356
See also
Notes and references
- ^ "A Summary of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) [archive] (In French)". Mount Holyoke College. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- ^ a b Jean Flori Philippe Auguste, p.68
- ^ John Baldwin, Philippe Auguste, p. 283
- ^ John Baldwin, Philippe Auguste, p. 421
- ^ John Baldwin, Philippe Auguste, p. 445
- ^ Philippe Mouskès, Chronique rimée, éd. Reiffenberg, t.II, p. 431-432
- ISBN 9781783107797.
- ^ Lingard, John (1825). A history of England from the first invasion by the Romans. J Mawman. pp. 131–132.