England under the Angevin Kings, Volumes I and II

HENRY AND FRANCE. 1156–1161.

Henry’s accession transformed England from an isolated realm into the core of Christendom’s largest empire, comparable only to Cnut’s, with continental territories surrounding the French crown on two sides. He held five fiefs from King Louis VII: Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Eleanor’s duchy of Aquitaine, with complex feudal ties. His chief continental advisor was his retired mother, the Empress Matilda; Eleanor’s sharp wit was less useful at this stage.

In spring 1156, Henry went to Normandy, where Louis met him on the border to receive his repeated homage for all French fiefs including Aquitaine. The only rival claimant (save Aquitaine and Normandy) was his brother Geoffrey, who on his deathbed at Château-du-Loir made barons promise not to bury him till Henry swore to cede Anjou, Touraine, and Maine, plus the castles of Chinon, Loudun, and Mirebeau, to his younger brother. Henry swore tearfully, then secured papal absolution from the extorted oath when Geoffrey used the three castles to rebel, refusing to cede the lands. The brothers met at Rouen but failed to agree; Henry besieged the three castles with mercenaries paid via English scutage, taking all by July 1156, when Geoffrey surrendered for cash. Eleanor joined Henry, toured Aquitaine for homage and hostages, and they kept Christmas at Bordeaux; all continental territories were secured before Henry returned to England in spring 1157.

The couple had three children: William, born in London February 28 1155; daughter Matilda; and Richard, born at Oxford September 8 1157. In 1158, Henry sought to betroth William to infant Margaret, Louis’s daughter by his second wife Constance of Castile, and sent Thomas Becket to negotiate. Becket led the most lavish embassy seen in western Europe since Haroun al-Raschid: 200 household members, 24 changes of fine raiment, silks, furs, gold and silver vessels, coursing dogs, hawks, eight chariots drawn by five horses and topped by a monkey, twelve sumpter horses, a packhorse bearing his chapel’s vessels, in a procession ending with Becket last. French towns marvelled: “if this is the chancellor, what must his master be?” The embassy succeeded, and Louis agreed to the betrothal.

A second goal was expanding Angevin power in Brittany: Duke Conan III’s 1148 deathbed disavowal of his son Hoel had split the duchy, and the people of Nantes had offered the county to Geoffrey Plantagenet, who ruled it undisputed for two years until his July 26 1158 death. Henry claimed Nantes as Geoffrey’s heir and secured Louis’s approval via Thomas to arbitrate the Brittany succession as French grand seneschal. Conan submitted at an Avranches Michaelmas assembly, receiving confirmation as duke for Nantes; Henry took formal possession, besieged Thouars, then met Louis at Le Mans for a triumphal tour of Normandy. Nantes was strategically vital, commanding the Loire mouth, giving Henry a foothold in Brittany, and the arbitration privilege paved the way for further Angevin intervention. The kings even planned a joint crusade against the Moors in Spain.

But the counts of Poitou claimed theoretical overlordship of all territory between the Loire, Pyrenees, Rhône, and ocean, rivaled by the powerful counts of Toulouse. Raymond V of Toulouse had married Constance, widow of Eustace of Blois and Louis’s sister, allying France and Toulouse against Henry. In early 1159, Henry summoned Raymond to cede his lands; he refused. A failed Tours conference led Henry to muster his Aquitaine barons at Poitiers for a Midsummer campaign. He could not demand military service from Norman or English knights, so expanded the scutage system: every knight’s fee paid a cash sum, the Great Scutage, assessed on all Crown-held and Church lands regardless of tenure. This broke the old exemption of hauberk fiefs from cash taxation and was popular with English knights eager to avoid overseas service; the scheme, actively supported by Thomas, raised roughly 180,000 pounds for mercenaries, creating a lasting tax precedent. The clergy were outraged, blaming Thomas; John of Salisbury called the 1159 scutage the start of Henry’s crimes against the Church, the fatal sin the future primate would have to expiate.

The Poitiers muster included Thomas with 700 personal knights, and King Malcolm of Scotland, seeking the spurs Henry had refused him the prior year. Allies included Raymond Trencavel of Béziers and Carcassonne, William of Montpellier, and Raymond-Berengar of Barcelona and Aragon, who agreed to ally on condition his daughter married Henry’s son Richard and Aquitaine passed to the couple. At Périgueux Henry knighted Malcolm, who knighted 30 noble youths in return. The campaign took Cahors, overran the surrounding territory, and Henry advanced on Toulouse, only to find Louis had entered alone. Henry’s barons insisted on postponing the siege out of respect for Louis as fellow king and overlord, despite Thomas’s protests that Louis had forfeited his rights by entering the city. Henry retreated just as French reinforcements arrived, having only conquered most of the county. Thomas and Henry of Essex held the conquests. Thomas ruled Cahors harshly, suppressing uprisings, storming towns, and capturing three supposedly impregnable castles in full armour, then defended the Norman frontier for 40 days at his own expense with 1200 horsemen and 4000 foot, even defeating French knight Engelram of Trie in single combat. Henry stormed Gerberoi in the Beauvaisis, gained Count Simon of Montfort as an ally, and cut off Louis from his southern lands, forcing a truce. A May 1160 peace treaty, negotiated by Thomas, restored all Poitou rights to Henry except Toulouse, with a one-year truce. The campaign was a failure: Henry had fallen into Louis’s trap and gained a costly quarrel with his overlord for minimal gain.