BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS

who noted 'now in England, now in Normandy, he must fly rather than travel

by horse or ship'. By 1158, Henry had restored to the Crown some of the

lands and royal power lost by Stephen; Malcom IV of Scotland was compelled

to return the northern counties. Locally chosen sheriffs were changed into

royally appointed agents charged with enforcing the law and collecting

taxes in the counties. Personally interested in government and law, Henry

made use of juries and re-introduced the sending of justices (judges) on

regular tours of the country to try cases for the Crown. His legal reforms

have led him to be seen as the founder of English Common Law. Henry's

disagreements with the Archbishop of Canterbury (the king's former chief

adviser), Thomas а Becket, over Church-State relations ended in Becket's

murder in 1170 and a papal interdict on England. Family disputes over

territorial ambitions almost wrecked the king's achievements. Henry died in

France in 1189, at war with his son Richard, who had joined forces with

King Philip of France to attack Normandy.

RICHARD I COEUR DE LION ('THE LIONHEART') (1189-1199)

Henry's elder son, Richard I (reigned 1189-99), fulfilled his main

ambition by going on crusade in 1190, leaving the ruling of England to

others. After his victories over Saladin at the siege of Acre and the

battles of Arsuf and Jaffa, concluded by the treaty of Jaffa (1192),

Richard was returning from the Holy Land when he was captured in Austria.

In early 1193, Richard was transferred to Emperor Henry VI's custody. In

Richard's absence, King Philip of France failed to obtain Richard's French

possessions through invasion or negotiation. In England, Richard's brother

John occupied Windsor Castle and prepared an invasion of England by Flemish

mercenaries, accompanied by armed uprisings. Their mother, Queen Eleanor,

took firm action against John by strengthening garrisons and again exacting

oaths of allegiance to the king. John's subversive activities were ended by

the payment of a crushing ransom of 150,000 marks of silver to the emperor,

for Richard's release in 1194. Warned by Philip's famous message 'look to

yourself, the devil is loosed', John fled to the French court. On his

return to England, Richard was recrowned at Winchester in 1194. Five years

later he died in France during a minor siege against a rebellious baron. By

the time of his death, Richard had recovered all his lands. His success was

short-lived. In 1199 his brother John became king and Philip successfully

invaded Normandy. By 1203, John had retreated to England, losing his French

lands of Normandy and Anjou by 1205.

JOHN (1199-1216)

John was an able administrator interested in law and government but he

neither trusted others nor was trusted by them. Heavy taxation, disputes

with the Church (John was excommunicated by the Pope in 1209) and

unsuccessful attempts to recover his French possessions made him unpopular.

Many of his barons rebelled and in June 1215 they forced the King to sign a

peace treaty accepting their reforms. This treaty, later known as Magna

Carta, limited royal powers, defined feudal obligations between the King

and the barons, and guaranteed a number of rights. The most influential

clauses concerned the freedom of the Church; the redress of grievances of

owners and tenants of land; the need to consult the Great Council of the

Realm so as to prevent unjust taxation; mercantile and trading

relationships; regulation of the machinery of justice so that justice be

denied to no one; and the requirement to control the behaviour of royal

officials. The most important clauses established the basis of habeas

corpus ('you have the body'), i.e. that no one shall be imprisoned except

by due process of law, and that 'to no one will we sell, to no one will we

refuse or delay right or justice'. The Charter also established a council

of barons who were to ensure that the Sovereign observed the Charter, with

the right to wage war on him if he did not. Magna Carta was the first

formal document insisting that the Sovereign was as much under the rule of

law as his people, and that the rights of individuals were to be upheld

even against the wishes of the sovereign. As a source of fundamental

constitutional principles, Magna Carta came to be seen as an important

definition of aspects of English law, and in later centuries as the basis

of the liberties of the English people. As a peace treaty Magna Carta was

a failure and the rebels invited Louis of France to become their king. When

John died in 1216 England was in the grip of civil war.

THE PLANTAGENETS

The Plantagenet period was dominated by three major conflicts at home

and abroad. Edward I attempted to create a British empire dominated by

England, conquering Wales and pronouncing his eldest son Prince of Wales,

and then attacking Scotland. Scotland was to remain elusive and retain its

independence until late in the reign of the Stuart kings. In the reign

of Edward III the Hundred Years War began, a struggle between England and

France. At the end of the Plantagenet period, the reign of Richard II saw

the beginning of the long period of civil feuding known as the War of the

Roses. For the next century, the crown would be disputed by two conflicting

family strands, the Lancastrians and the Yorkists.

The period also saw the development of new social institutions and a

distinctive English culture. Parliament emerged and grew. The judicial

reforms begun in the reign of Henry II were continued and completed by

Edward I. Culture began to flourish. Three Plantagenet kings were patrons

of Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry. During the early part of

the period, the architectural style of the Normans gave way to the Gothic,

in which style Salisbury Cathedral was built. Westminster Abbey was rebuilt

and the majority of English cathedrals remodelled. Franciscan and Dominican

orders began to be established in England, while the universities of Oxford

and Cambridge had their origins in this period.

Amidst the order of learning and art, however, were disturbing new

phenomena. The outbreak of Bubonic plague or the 'Black Death' served to

undermine military campaigns and cause huge social turbulence, killing half

the country's population. The price rises and labour shortage

which resulted led to social unrest, culminating in the Peasants' Revolt in

1381.

THE PLANTAGENET DYNASTIES

1216 - 1485

HENRY III

= Eleanor, dau. of Count of Provence

(1216–1272)

Eleanor, =

EDWARD I

dau. of

(1272–1307)

FERDINAND III,

King of Castile

and Leon

EDWARD

II = Isabella, dau.

(1307–1327) of PHILIP IV,

King of France

EDWARD III = Philippa, dau. of Count

(1327–1377) of Hainault and Holland

Edward, Prince = Joan, dau. of Earl Lionel, Duke = Elizabeth

Blanche of = John, Duke = Katharine Swynford,

of Wales, of Kent (son of Clarence de

Burgh Lancaster of Lancaster dau. of Sir

Roet

The Black Prince of EDWARD I)

of Guienne

RICHARD II Edmund, = Philippa

Mary = HENRY IV John Beaufort,

(1377–1399) Earl of March

Bohun (1399–1413)

Roger, Earl = Eleanor HENRY V

(1) = Katherine, dau. John Beaufort,

of March Holland

(1413–1422) of CHARLES VI, Duke of Somerset

King of France

Richard, Earl = Anne

HENRY VI Margaret Beaufort =

Edmund Tudor,

of Cambridge Mortimer

(1422–1461,

Earl of Richmond

1470–1471)

Richard, Duke = Cecily

Elizabeth of York, = HENRY

VII

of York Neville

dau. of EDWARD IV

(1485–1509)

EDWARD IV = Elizabeth, dau.

RICHARD III

(1461–1470, of Sir Richard

(1483–1485)

1471–1483) Woodville

EDWARD V

Elizabeth = HENRY VII

(1483)

(1485–1509)

HENRY III (1216-1272)

Henry III, King John's son, was only nine when he became King. By 1227,

when he assumed power from his regent, order had been restored, based on

his acceptance of Magna Carta. However, the King's failed campaigns in

France (1230 and 1242), his choice of friends and advisers, together with

the cost of his scheme to make one of his younger sons King of Sicily and

help the Pope against the Holy Roman Emperor, led to further disputes with

the barons and united opposition in Church and State. Although Henry was

extravagant and his tax demands were resented, the King's accounts show a

list of many charitable donations and payments for building works

(including the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey which began in 1245). The

Provisions of Oxford (1258) and the Provisions of Westminster (1259) were

attempts by the nobles to define common law in the spirit of Magna Carta,

control appointments and set up an aristocratic council. Henry tried to

defeat them by obtaining papal absolution from his oaths, and enlisting

King Louis XI's help. Henry renounced the Provisions in 1262 and war broke

out. The barons, under their leader, Simon de Montfort, were initially

successful and even captured Henry. However, Henry escaped, joined forces

with the lords of the Marches (on the Welsh border), and Henry finally

defeated and killed de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Royal

authority was restored by the Statute of Marlborough (1267), in which the

King also promised to uphold Magna Carta and some of the Provisions of

Westminster.

EDWARD I (1272-1307)

Born in June 1239 at Westminster, Edward was named by his father Henry

III after the last Anglo Saxon king (and his father's favourite saint),

Edward the Confessor. Edward's parents were renowned for their patronage of

the arts (his mother, Eleanor of Provence, encouraged Henry III to spend

money on the arts, which included the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey and a

still-extant magnificent shrine to house the body of Edward the Confessor),

and Edward received a disciplined education - reading and writing in Latin

and French, with training in the arts, sciences and music. In 1254, Edward

travelled to Spain for an arranged marriage at the age of 15 to 9-year-old

Eleanor of Castile. Just before Edward's marriage, Henry III gave him the

duchy of Gascony, one of the few remnants of the once vast French

possessions of the English Angevin kings. Gascony was part of a package

which included parts of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the King's lands

in Wales to provide an income for Edward. Edward then spent a year in

Gascony, studying its administration. Edward spent his young adulthood

learning harsh lessons from Henry III's failures as a king, culminating in

a civil war in which he fought to defend his father. Henry's ill-judged and

expensive intervention in Sicilian affairs (lured by the Pope's offer of

the Sicilian crown to Henry's younger son) failed, and aroused the anger of

powerful barons including Henry's brother-in-law Simon de Montfort.

Bankrupt and threatened with excommunication, Henry was forced to agree to

the Provisions of Oxford in 1258, under which his debts were paid in

exchange for substantial reforms; a Great Council of 24, partly nominated

by the barons, assumed the functions of the King's Council. Henry

repudiated the Provisions in 1261 and sought the help of the French king

Louis IX (later known as St Louis for his piety and other qualities). This

was the only time Edward was tempted to side with his charismatic and

politically ruthless godfather Simon de Montfort - he supported holding a

Parliament in his father's absence. However, by the time Louis IX decided

to side with Henry in the dispute and civil war broke out in England in

1263, Edward had returned to his father's side and became de Montfort's

greatest enemy. After winning the battle of Lewes in 1264 (after which

Edward became a hostage to ensure his father abided by the terms of the

peace), de Montfort summoned the Great Parliament in 1265 - this was the

first time cities and burghs sent representatives to the parliament.

(Historians differ as to whether de Montfort was an enlightened liberal

reformer or an unscrupulous opportunist using any means to advance

himself.) In May 1265, Edward escaped from tight supervision whilst

hunting. On 4 August, Edward and his allies outmanoeuvred de Montfort in a

savage battle at Evesham; de Montfort predicted his own defeat and death

'let us commend our souls to God, because our bodies are theirs ... they

are approaching wisely, they learned this from me.' With the ending of the

civil war, Edward worked hard at social and political reconciliation

between his father and the rebels, and by 1267 the realm had been pacified.

In April 1270 Parliament agreed an unprecedented levy of one-twentieth of

every citizen's goods and possessions to finance Edward's Crusade to the

Holy Lands. Edward left England in August 1270 to join the highly respected

French king Louis IX on Crusade. At a time when popes were using the

crusading ideal to further their own political ends in Italy and elsewhere,

Edward and King Louis were the last crusaders in the medieval tradition of

aiming to recover the Holy Lands. Louis died of the plague in Tunis before

Edward's arrival, and the French forces were bought off from pursuing their

campaign. Edward decided to continue regardless: 'by the blood of God,

though all my fellow soldiers and countrymen desert me, I will enter Acre

... and I will keep my word and my oath to the death'. Edward arrived in

Acre in May 1271 with 1,000 knights; his crusade was to prove an

anticlimax. Edward's small force limited him to the relief of Acre and a

handful of raids, and divisions amongst the international force of

Christian Crusaders led to Edward's compromise truce with the Baibars. In

June 1272, Edward survived a murder attempt by an Assassin (an order of

Shi'ite Muslims) and left for Sicily later in the year. He was never to

return on crusade. Meanwhile, Henry III died on 16 November 1272. Edward

succeeded to the throne without opposition - given his track record in

military ability and his proven determination to give peace to the country,

enhanced by his magnified exploits on crusade. In Edward's absence, a

proclamation in his name delcared that he had succeeded by hereditary right

and the barons swore allegeiance to him. Edward finally arrived in London

in August 1274 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Aged 35, he was a

veteran warrior ('the best lance in all the world', according to

contemporaries), a leader with energy and vision, and with a formidable

temper. Edward was determined to enforce English kings' claims to primacy

in the British Isles. The first part of his reign was dominated by Wales.

At that time, Wales consisted of a number of disunited small Welsh

princedoms; the South Welsh princes were in uneasy alliance with the

Marcher lords (feudal earldoms and baronies set up by the Norman kings to

protect the English border against Welsh raids) against the Northern Welsh

based in the rocky wilds of Gwynedd, under the strong leadership of

Llywelyn ap Gruffyd, Prince of Gwynedd. In 1247, under the Treaty of

Woodstock, Llywelyn had agreed that he held North Wales in fee to the

English king. By 1272, Llywelyn had taken advantage of the English civil

wars to consolidate his position, and the Peace of Montgomery (1267) had

confirmed his title as Prince of Wales and recognised his conquests.

However, Llywelyn maintained that the rights of his principality were

'entirely separate from the rights' of England; he did not attend Edward's

coronation and refused to do homage. Finally, in 1277 Edward decided to

fight Llywelyn 'as a rebel and disturber of the peace', and quickly

defeated him. War broke out again in 1282 when Llywelyn joined his brother

David in rebellion. Edward's determination, military experience and skilful

use of ships brought from England for deployment along the North Welsh

coast, drove Llywelyn back into the mountains of North Wales. The death of

Llywelyn in a chance battle in 1282 and the subsequent execution of his

brother David effectively ended attempts at Welsh independence. Under the

Statute of Wales of 1284, Wales was brought into the English legal

framework and the shire system was extended. In the same year, a son was

born in Wales to Edward and Queen Eleanor (also named Edward, this future

king was proclaimed the first English Prince of Wales in 1301). The Welsh

campaign had produced one of the largest armies ever assembled by an

English king - some 15,000 infantry (including 9,000 Welsh and a Gascon

contingent); the army was a formidable combination of heavy Anglo-Norman

cavalry and Welsh archers, whose longbow skills laid the foundations of

later military victories in France such as that at Agincourt. As symbols of

his military strength and political authority, Edward spent some Ј80,000 on

a network of castles and lesser strongholds in North Wales, employing a

work-force of up to 3,500 men drawn from all over England. (Some castles,

such as Conway and Caernarvon, remain in their ruined layouts today, as

examples of fortresses integrated with fortified towns.) Edward's campaign

in Wales was based on his determination to ensure peace and extend royal

authority, and it had broad support in England. Edward saw the need to

widen support among lesser landowners and the merchants and traders of the

towns. The campaigns in Wales, France and Scotland left Edward deeply in

debt, and the taxation required to meet those debts meant enrolling

national support for his policies. To raise money, Edward summoned

Parliament - up to 1286 he summoned Parliaments twice a year. (The word

'Parliament' came from the 'parley' or talks which the King had with larger

groups of advisers.) In 1295, when money was needed to wage war against

Philip of France (who had confiscated the duchy of Gascony), Edward

summoned the most comprehensive assembly ever summoned in England. This

became known as the Model Parliament, for it represented various estates:

barons, clergy, and knights and townspeople. By the end of Edward's reign,

Parliament usually contained representatives of all these estates. Edward

used his royal authority to establish the rights of the Crown at the

expense of traditional feudal privileges, to promote the uniform

administration of justice, to raise income to meet the costs of war and

government, and to codify the legal system. In doing so, his methods

emphasised the role of Parliament and the common law. With the able help of

his Chancellor, Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Edward introduced

much new legislation. He began by commissioning a thorough survey of local

government (with the results entered into documents known as the Hundred

Rolls), which not only defined royal rights and possessions but also

revealed administrative abuses. The First Statute of Westminster (1275)

codified 51 existing laws - many originating from Magna Carta - covering

areas ranging from extortion by royal officers, lawyers and bailiffs,

methods of procedure in civil and criminal cases to freedom of elections.

Edward's first Parliament also enacted legislation on wool, England's most

important export at the time. At the request of the merchants, Edward was

given a customs grant on wool and hides which amounted to nearly Ј10,000 a

year. Edward also obtained income from the licence fees imposed by the

Statute of Mortmain (1279), under which gifts of land to the Church (often

made to evade death duties) had to have a royal licence. The Statutes of

Gloucester (1278) and Quo Warranto (1290) attempted to define and regulate

feudal jurisdictions, which were an obstacle to royal authority and to a

uniform system of justice for all; the Statute of Winchester (1285)

codified the policing system for preserving public order. Other statutes

had a long-term effect on land law and on the feudal framework in England.

The Second Statute of Westminster (1285) restricted the alienation of land

and kept entailed estates within families: tenants were only tenants for

life and not able to sell the property to others. The Third Statute of

Westminster or Quia Emptores (1290) stopped subinfeudation (in which

tenants of land belonging to the King or to barons subcontracted their

properties and related feudal services). Edward's assertion that the King

of Scotland owed feudal allegiance to him, and the embittered Anglo-

Scottish relations leading to war which followed, were to overshadow the

rest of Edward's reign in what was to become known as the 'Great Cause'.

Under a treaty of 1174, William the Lion of Scotland had become the vassal

to Henry II, but in 1189 Richard I had absolved William from his

allegiance. Intermarriage between the English and Scottish royal houses

promoted peace between the two countries until the premature death of

Alexander III in 1286. In 1290, his granddaughter and heiress, Margaret the

'Maid of Norway' (daughter of the King of Norway, she was pledged to be

married to Edward's then only surviving son, Edward of Caernarvon), also

died. For Edward, this dynastic blow was made worse by the death in the

same year of his much-loved wife Eleanor (her body was ceremonially carried

from Lincoln to Westminster for burial, and a memorial cross erected at

every one of the twelve resting places, including what became known as

Charing Cross in London). In the absence of an obvious heir to the

Scottish throne, the disunited Scottish magnates invited Edward to

determine the dispute. In order to gain acceptance of his authority in

reaching a verdict, Edward sought and obtained recognition from the rival

claimants that he had the 'sovereign lordship of Scotland and the right to

determine our several pretensions'. In November 1292, Edward and his 104

assessors gave the whole kingdom to John Balliol or Baliol as the claimant

closest to the royal line; Balliol duly swore loyalty to Edward and was

crowned at Scone. John Balliol's position proved difficult. Edward

insisted that Scotland was not independent and he, as sovereign lord, had

the right to hear in England appeals against Balliol's judgements in

Scotland. In 1294, Balliol lost authority amongst Scottish magnates by

going to Westminster after receiving a summons from Edward; the magnates

decided to seek allies in France and concluded the 'Auld Alliance' with

France (then at war with England over the duchy of Gascony) - an alliance

which was to influence Scottish history for the next 300 years. In March

1296, having failed to negotiate a settlement, the English led by Edward

sacked the city of Berwick near the River Tweed. Balliol formally renounced

his homage to Edward in April 1296, speaking of 'grievous and intolerable

injuries ... for instance by summoning us outside our realm ... as your own

whim dictated ... and so ... we renounce the fealty and homage which we

have done to you'. Pausing to design and start the rebuilding of Berwick as

the financial capital of the country, Edward's forces overran remaining

Scottish resistance. Scots leaders were taken hostage, and Edinburgh

Castle, amongst others, was seized. Balliol surrendered his realm and spent

the rest of his life in exile in England and Normandy. Having humiliated

Balliol, Edward's insensitive policies in Scotland continued: he appointed

a trio of Englishmen to run the country. Edward had the Stone of Scone -

also known as the Stone of Destiny - on which Scottish sovereigns had been

crowned removed to London and subsequently placed in the Coronation Chair

in Westminster Abbey (where it remained until it was returned to Scotland

in 1996). Edward never built stone castles on strategic sites in Scotland,

as he had done so successfully in Wales - possibly because he did not have

the funds for another ambitious castle-building programme. By 1297, Edward

was facing the biggest crisis in his reign, and his commitments outweighed

his resources. Chronic debts were being incurred by wars against France, in

Flanders, Gascony and Wales as well as Scotland; the clergy were refusing

to pay their share of the costs, with the Archbishop of Canterbury

threatening excommunication; Parliament was reluctant to contribute to

Edward's expensive and unsuccessful military policies; the Earls of

Hereford and Norfolk refused to serve in Gascony, and the barons presented

a formal statement of their grievances. In the end, Edward was forced to

reconfirm the Charters (including Magna Carta) to obtain the money he

required; the Archbishop was eventually suspended in 1306 by the new Gascon

Pope Clement V; a truce was declared with France in 1297, followed by a

peace treaty in 1303 under which the French king restored the duchy of

Gascony to Edward. In Scotland, Edward pursued a series of campaigns from

1298 onwards. William Wallace had risen in Balliol's name and recovered

most of Scotland, before being defeated by Edward at the battle of Falkirk

in 1298. (Wallace escaped, only to be captured in 1305, allegedly by the

treachery of a fellow Scot and taken to London, where he was executed.) In

1304, Edward summoned a full Parliament (which elected Scottish

representatives also attended), in which arrangements for the settlement of

Scotland were made. The new government in Scotland featured a Council,

which included Robert the Bruce. Bruce unexpectedly rebelled in 1306 by

killing a fellow counsellor and was crowned king of Scotland at Scone.

Despite his failing health, Edward was carried north to pursue another

campaign, but he died en route at Burgh on Sands on 7 July 1307 aged 68.

According to chroniclers, Edward requested that his bones should be carried

on Scottish campaigns and that his heart be taken to the Holy Land.

However, Edward was buried at Westminster Abbey in a plain black marble

tomb, which in later years was painted with the words Scottorum malleus

(Hammer of the Scots) and Pactum serva (Keep troth). Throughout the

fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Exchequer paid to keep candles

burning 'round the body of the Lord Edward, formerly King of England, of

famous memory'.

EDWARD II (1307-1327)

Edward II had few of the qualities that made a successful medieval king.

Edward surrounded himself with favourites (the best known being a Gascon,

Piers Gaveston), and the barons, feeling excluded from power, rebelled.

Throughout his reign, different baronial groups struggled to gain power and

control the King. The nobles' ordinances of 1311, which attempted to limit

royal control of finance and appointments, were counteracted by Edward.

Large debts (many inherited) and the Scots' victory at Bannockburn by

Robert the Bruce in 1314 made Edward more unpopular. Edward's victory in a

civil war (1321-2) and such measures as the 1326 ordinance (a protectionist

measure which set up compulsory markets or staples in 14 English, Welsh and

Irish towns for the wool trade) did not lead to any compromise between the

King and the nobles. Finally, in 1326, Edward's wife, Isabella of France,

led an invasion against her husband. In 1327 Edward was made to renounce

the throne in favour of his son Edward (the first time that an anointed

king of England had been dethroned since Ethelred in 1013). Edward II was

later murdered at Berkeley Castle.

EDWARD III (1327-77)

Edward III was 14 when he was crowned King and assumed government in his

own right in 1330. In 1337, Edward created the Duchy of Cornwall to provide

the heir to the throne with an income independent of the sovereign or the

state. An able soldier, and an inspiring leader, Edward founded the Order

of the Garter in 1348. At the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1337,

actual campaigning started when the King invaded France in 1339 and laid

claim to the throne of France. Following a sea victory at Sluys in 1340,

Edward overran Brittany in 1342 and in 1346 he landed in Normandy,

defeating the French King, Philip IV, at the Battle of Crйcy and his son

Edward (the Black Prince) repeated his success at Poitiers (1356). By 1360

Edward controlled over a quarter of France. His successes consolidated the

support of the nobles, lessened criticism of the taxes, and improved

relations with Parliament. However, under the 1375 Treaty of Bruges the

French King, Charles V, reversed most of the English conquests; Calais and

a coastal strip near Bordeaux were Edward's only lasting gain. Failure

abroad provoked criticism at home. The Black Death plague outbreaks of 1348-

9, 1361-2 and 1369 inflicted severe social dislocation (the King lost a

daughter to the plague) and caused deflation; severe laws were introduced

to attempt to fix wages and prices. In 1376, the 'Good Parliament' (which

saw the election of the first Speaker to represent the Commons) attacked

the high taxes and criticised the King's advisers. The ageing King withdrew

to Windsor for the rest of his reign, eventually dying at Sheen Palace,

Surrey.

RICHARD II (1377-99)

Edward III's son, the Black Prince, died in 1376. The King's grandson,

Richard II, succeeded to the throne aged 10, on Edward's death. In 1381 the

Peasants' Revolt broke out and Richard, aged 14, bravely rode out to meet

the rebels at Smithfield, London. Wat Tyler, the principal leader of the

peasants, was killed and the uprisings in the rest of the country were

crushed over the next few weeks (Richard was later forced by his Council's

advice to rescind the pardons he had given). Highly cultured, Richard was

one of the greatest royal patrons of the arts; patron of Chaucer, it was

Richard who ordered the technically innovative transformation of the Norman

Westminster Hall to what it is today. (Built between 1097 and 1099 by

William II, the Hall was the ceremonial and administrative centre of the

kingdom; it also housed the Courts of Justice until 1882.) Richard's

authoritarian approach upset vested interests, and his increasing

dependence on favourites provoked resentment. In 1388 the 'Merciless

Parliament' led by a group of lords hostile to Richard (headed by the

King's uncle, Gloucester) sentenced many of the King's favourites to death

and forced Richard to renew his coronation oath. The death of his first

queen, Anne of Bohemia, in 1394 further isolated Richard, and his

subsequent arbitrary behaviour alienated people further. Richard took his

revenge in 1397, arresting or banishing many of his opponents; his cousin,

Henry of Bolingbroke, was also subsequently banished. On the death of

Henry's father, John of Gaunt (a younger son of Edward III), Richard

confiscated the vast properties of his Duchy of Lancaster (which amounted

to a state within a state) and divided them among his supporters. Richard

pursued policies of peace with France (his second wife was Isabella of

Valois); Richard still called himself king of France and refused to give up

Calais, but his reign was concurrent with a 28 year truce in the Hundred

Years War. His expeditions to Ireland failed to reconcile the Anglo-Irish

lords with the Gaels. In 1399, whilst Richard was in Ireland, Henry of

Bolingbroke returned to claim his father's inheritance. Supported by some

of the leading baronial families (including Richard's former Archbishop of

Canterbury), Henry captured and deposed Richard. Bolingbroke was crowned

King as Henry IV. Risings in support of Richard led to his murder in

Pontefract Castle; Henry V subsequently had his body buried in Westminster

Abbey.

THE LANCASTRIANS

The accession of Henry IV sowed the seeds for a period of unrest which

ultimately broke out in civil war. Fraught by rebellion and instability

after his usurpation of Richard II, Henry IV found it difficult to enforce

his rule. His son, Henry V, fared better, defeating France in the famous

Battle of Agincourt (1415) and staking a powerful claim to the French

throne. Success was short-lived with his early death.

By the reign of the relatively weak Henry VI, civil war broke out between

rival claimants to the throne, dating back to the sons of Edward III. The

Lancastrian dynasty descended from John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III,

whose son Henry deposed the unpopular Richard II. Yorkist claimants such

as the Duke of York asserted their legitimate claim to the throne through

Edward III's second surviving son, but through a female line. The Wars of

the Roses therefore tested whether the succession should keep to the male

line or could pass through females.

Captured and briefly restored, Henry VI was captured and put to death,

and the Yorkist faction led by Edward IV gained the throne.

HENRY IV (1399-1413)

Henry IV was born at Bolingbroke in 1367 to John of Gaunt and Blanche of

Lancaster. He married Mary Bohun in 1380, who bore him seven children

before her death in 1394. In 1402, Henry remarried, taking as his bride

Joan of Navarre. Henry had an on-again, off-again relationship with his

cousin, Richard II. He was one of the Lords Appellant, who, in 1388,

persecuted many of Richard's advisor-favorites, but his excellence as a

soldier gained the king's favor - Henry was created Duke of Hereford in

1397. In 1398, however, the increasingly suspicious Richard banished him

for ten years. John of Gaunt's death in 1399 prompted Richard to confiscate

the vast Lancastrian estates; Henry invaded England while Richard was on

campaign in Ireland, usurping the throne from the king. The very nature of

Henry's usurpation dictated the circumstances of his reign - incessant

rebellion became the order of the day. Richard's supporters immediately

revolted upon his deposition in 1400. In Wales, Owen Glendower led a

national uprising that lasted until 1408; the Scots waged continual warfare

throughout the reign; the powerful families of Percy and Mortimer (the

latter possessing a stronger claim to the throne than Henry) revolted from

1403 to 1408; and Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, proclaimed his

opposition to the Lancastrian claim in 1405. Two political blunders in the

latter years of his reign diminished Henry's support. His marriage to Joan

of Navarre (of whom it was rumored practiced necromancy) was highly

unpopular - she was, in fact, convicted of witchcraft in 1419. Scrope and

Thomas Mawbray were executed in 1405 after conspiring against Henry; the

Archbishop's execution alarmed the English people, adding to his

unpopularity. He developed a nasty skin disorder and epilepsy, persuading

many that God was punishing the king for executing an archbishop. Crushing

the myriad of rebellions was costly, which involved calling Parliament to

fund such activities. The House of Commons used the opportunity to expand

its powers in 1401, securing recognition of freedom of debate and freedom

from arrest for dissenting opinions. Lollardy, the Protestant movement

founded by John Wycliffe during the reign of Edward III, gained momentum

and frightened both secular and clerical landowners, inspiring the first

anti-heresy statute, De Heritico Comburendo, to become law in 1401. Henry,

ailing from leprosy and epilepsy, watched as Prince Henry controlled the

government for the last two years of his reign. In 1413, Henry died in the

Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey. Rafael Holinshed explained his

unpopularity in Chronicles of England: "... by punishing such as moved with

disdain to see him usurp the crown, did at sundry times rebel against him,

he won(himself more hatred, than in all his life time ... had been possible

for him to have weeded out and removed." Unlikely as it may seem (due to

the amount of rebellion in his reign); Henry left his eldest son an

undisputed succession.

HENRY V (1413-1422)

Henry V, the eldest son of Henry IV and Mary Bohun, was born in 1387. As

per arrangement by the Treaty of Troyes, he married Catherine, daughter of

the French King Charles VI, in June 1420. His only child, the future Henry

VI, was born in 1421.

Henry was an accomplished soldier: at age fourteen he fought the Welsh

forces of Owen ap Glendower; at age sixteen he commanded his father's

forces at the battle of Shrewsbury; and shortly after his accession he put

down a major Lollard uprising and an assassination plot by nobles still

loyal to Richard II . He proposed to marry Catherine in 1415, demanding the

old Plantagenet lands of Normandy and Anjou as his dowry. Charles VI

refused and Henry declared war, opening yet another chapter in the Hundred

Years' War. The French war served two purposes - to gain lands lost in

previous battles and to focus attention away from any of his cousins' royal

ambitions. Henry, possessed a masterful military mind and defeated the

French at the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415, and by 1419 had captured

Normandy, Picardy and much of the Capetian stronghold of the Ile-de-France.

By the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, Charles VI not only accepted Henry as

his son-in-law, but passed over his own son to name Henry as heir to the

French crown. Had Henry lived a mere two months longer, he would have been

king of both England and France.

Henry had prematurely aged due to living the hard life of a soldier. He

became seriously ill and died after returning from yet another French

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