inconclusive stage.
“Summing up the events of the late 12th century and the early 13th
century historians describe as “Plantagenet spring after a grim Norman
winter”. The symbol of this spring is the century of new Gothic Style. One
of the best example of Gothic architecture is Salisbury Cathedral. Also it
is a century of forming Parliament. The century of growing literacy which
is closely connected with 12th century cultural movement, which is called
Renaissance. In England Renaissance was a revolution in thoughts, ideas and
learning. In England there began grammar schools. But all of them taught
Latin. In the end of the 12th century in England appeared two schools of
higher learning – Oxford and Cambridge. By 1220 this universities became
the intellectual leaders of the century.”(13)
Part II. The last Plantagenets
HENRY III (1216-1272 AD)
“Henry III was the first son of John and Isabella of Angouleme. Was born in
1207. At the age of nine when he was crowned, Henry’s early reign featured
two regents: William the Marshall governed until his death in 1219, and
Hugh de Burgh until Henry came to the throne in 1232. His education was
provided by Peter des Roche, Bishop of Winchester. Henry III married
Eleanor of Province in 1236, who bore him four sons and two daughters.”
(14)
“Henry inherited a troubled kingdom: London and most of the southeast
was in the hands of the French Dauphin Louis and the northern regions were
under control of rebellious barons – only the midland and southwest were
loyal to the boy king. The barons, however, soon sided with Henry (their
quarrel was with his father, not him), and the old Marshall expelled the
French Dauphin from English soil by 1217.” (15)
“Henry was a cultivated man, but a lousy politician. His court was
inundated by Frenchmen and Italians who came at the behest of Eleanor,
whose relations were handed important Church and state position. His father
and uncle left him an impoverished kingdom. Henry financed costly fruitless
wars with extortionate taxation. Inept diplomacy and failed war led Henry
to sell his hereditary claims to all the Angevin possessions in France, but
to save Gascony (which was held as a fief of the French crown) and
Calais.”(16) “Henry’s failures incited hostilities among a group of barons
led by his brother in law , Simon de Montfort. Henry was forced to agree to
a wide ranging plan of reforms, the so called “Provisions of Oxford”. His
later papal absolution from adhering to the Provisions prompted a baronial
revolt in 1263, and Henry was summoned to the first Parliament, in 1265 –
Parliament (from the French word “parleman” – meeting for discussion) was
summoned with “Commons” represented in it – two knights from a shire and
two merchants of a town and it turned out to have been a real beginning of
the English parlamentarism.”(17) Here we should note, the main peculiarity
of English Parliament, distinguishing it from most others: it was created
as a means of opposition. Not to help the king, but to limit his power and
control him.
Parliament insisted that a council be imposed on the king to advise on
policy decisions. He was prone to the infamous Plantagenet temper, but
could also be sensitive and quite pious – ecclesiastical architecture
reached its apex in Henry’s reign.
The old king, after an extremely long reign of fifty-six years, died
in 1272. He found no success in war, but opened up English culture to the
cosmopolitanism of the continent. Although viewed as a failure as a
politician, his reign defined the English monarchical position until the
end of the fifteenth century: kingship limited by law – the repercussions
of which influenced the English Civil War in the reign of Charles I, and
extended into the nineteenth century queenship of Victoria.
Edward I, Longshanks (1272-1307)
Edward I, the oldest surviving son of Henry II and Eleanor of
Provence, was born in 1239. He was nicknamed Longshanks due to his great
height and stature. Edward married Eleanor of Castille in 1254, who bore
him sixteen children ( seven of whom survived into adulthood) before her
death in 1290. Edward reached a peace settlement with Philip IV of France
that resulted in his marriage to the French king’s daughter Margaret, who
bore him three more children.
“Edward I was a capable statesman, adding much to the institution
initiated by Henry II. It 1295, his “Model Parliament” brought together
representatives from the nobility, clergy, knights of the shires, and
burgesses of the cities – the first gathering of Lords and Commons. Feudal
revenues proved inadequate in financing the burgeoning royal courts and
administrative institutions. Summoning national Parliament became the
accepted forum of gaining revenue and conducting public business. Judicial
reform included the expansion of such courts as the King’s Bench, Common
Pleas, Exchequer and the Chancery Court was established to give redress in
circumstances where other courts provided on solution. Edward was pious,
but resisted any increase of papal authority in England. Conservators of
the Peace, the forerunners of Justices of the Peace, were also established
as an institution.”(18)
Foreign policy, namely the unification of the island’s other nations,
occupied much of Edward’s time. A major campaign to control Llywelyn ap
Gruffydd of Wales began in 1277, and lasted until Liywelyn’s death in 1282.
In 1301, the king’s eldest son was created Prince of Wales, a title still
held by all mail heirs to the crown. Margaret, Maid of Norway and
legitimate heir to the Scottish crown, died in 1290, leaving a disputed
succession in Scotland. Edward was asked to arbitrate between thirteen
different claimants. John Baliol, Edward’s first choice, was unpopular, his
next choice, William Wallace, rebelled against England until his capture
and execution in 1305. Robert Bruce seized the Scottish throne in 1306,
later to become a source of consternation to Edward II.
Edward died en rout to yet another Scottish campaign in 1307. His
character found accurate evaluation by Sir Richard Baker, in A Chronicle of
the kings of England: “He had in him the two wisdoms, not often found in
any, single. Both together, seldom or never: an ability of judgement in
himself, and a readiness to hear the judgment of others. He was not easily
provoked into passion, but once in passion , not easily appeared, as was
seen by his dealing with the Scots; towards whom he showed at first
patience, and at last severity. If he was censured for his many taxations,
he may be justified by his well bestowing them; for never prince laid out
his money to more honour of himself , or good of his kingdom.” (19)
Edward II (1307-1327 AD)
Edward II the son of Eleanor of Castille and Edward I, was born in
1284. He married Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France, in 1308.
Eleanor bore him two sons and two daughters.
“Edward was as much of a failure as a king as his father was a
success. He loved money and other rewards upon his mail favourites, raising
the ire of the nobility. The most notable was Piers Gaveston, his
homosexual lover. On the day of Edward’s marriageу to Isabella, Edward
preferred the couch of Gaveston to that of his new wife. Gaveston was
exiled and eventually murdered by Edward’s father for his licentious
conduct with the king. Edward’s means of maintaining power was based on the
noose and the block – 28 knights and barons were executed for rebelling
against the decadent king.” (20)
Edward faired no better as a solder. The rebellions of the barons
opened the way for Robert Bruce to grasp much of Scotland. Bruce’s victory
over English forces at the battle of Bannockburn, in 1314, ensured Scottish
independence until the union of England and Scotland in 1707.
In 1324 the war broke out with France, prompting Edward to sent
Isabella and their son Edward (later became Edward III) to negotiate with
her brother and French king, Charles IV. “Isabella fell into an open
romance with Roger Mortimer, one of the Edward’s disaffected barons. The
rebellious couple invaded England in 1327, capturing and imprisoning
Edward. The king was deposed, replaced by his son, Edward III.”(21)
Edward II was murdered in September 1327 at Berkley castle, by a red-
hot iron inserted through his sphincter into his bowels. Comparison of
Edward I and Edward II was beautifully described by Sir Richard Baker, in
reference to Edward I in A Chronicle of the Kings of England “His great
unfortunate was in his greatest blessing, for four of his sons which he
had by his Queen Eleanor, three of them died in his own lifetime, who were
worthy to have outlived him, and the fourth outlived him, who was worthy
never to have been born.” ( 22 ) A strong indictment of a weak king.” (23)
Edward III (1327-1377)
Edward III, the eldest son of Edward II and Isabella of France, was
born in 1312. His youth was spent in his mother’s court , until he was
crowned at the age of 14, in 1327. Edward was dominated by his mother and
her lover, Roger Mortimer, until 1330, wen Mortimer was executed and
Isabella was exiled from court. Philippa of Hainault married Edward in 1328
and bore him many children.
The Hundred Years’ War occupied the largest part of Edward’s reign.
