The Plantagenet Dynasty in the History of Great Britain
ИНСТИТУТ ИНОСТРАННЫХ ЯЗЫКОВ
ФАКУЛЬТЕТ “ЯЗЫКИ И КУЛЬТУРЫ”
КУРСОВАЯ РАБОТА
НА ТЕМУ:
“Династия Плантагенетов в истории Англии”
Студент 301 а/и группы
Петрова Ю.А.
Научный
руководитель
Фролова И.Г.
МОСКВА-2002
Institute of foreign Languages
Faculty “ Languages and Cultures”
COURSE PAPER
«The Plantagenet Dynasty in the History
of Great Britain”
Student 301 a/i group
Petrova J.
Scientific supervisor
Frolova I.G.
Moscow-2002
Contents
Introduction 4-5
Part I. The early
Plantagenets ( Angeving kings) 6-16
1. Henry
II 7-11
2. Richard
I Coeur de Lion 12-13
3. John
Lackland 14-16
Part II. The last
Plantagenets 17-30
1. Henry
III 17-18
2. Edward
I 19-20
3. Edward
II 21-22
4. Edward
III 23-24
5. Richard
II 25-30
Conclusion 31-33
Bibliography 34-35
References 36-38
INTRODUCTION
The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a monarchy, now
Parliamentary and once an absolute one. That’s why the history of the country
closely connected with the history of Royal dynasties.
Speaking
about royal dynasties in England we should take in mind the fact, that the
first one appeared in the country with the Norman invasion in 1066. In the
ancient time after Anglo-Saxon invasion the country consisted of small kingdoms
each ruled by its own king. Their representatives (Chieftains of the kingdoms)–
the Witan – chose king of England (for example Edward the Confessor). It was
William the Conqueror, who began the first dynasty – House of Normandy. William
I the Conqueror –Duke of Normandy (1035-1087) invaded England, defeated and
killed his rival Harold at the Battle of Hastings and became King of England.
With the coronation of William the new period in history of England began.
England turned into a centralizes , strong feudal monarchy. The period of small
kingdoms ended and started the Era of Absolute Monarchy. William was Duke of
Normandy and at the same time the King of England. He controlled two large
areas: Normandy – inherited from his father and England – he won it. Both
areas were his personal possession. To William the only difference was that in
France he had a King above him and he had to serve him. In England he had
nobody above him. Nobody could say who he was – an Englishman or a Frenchman.
The Norman Conquest of England was completed by 1072 aided by the establishment
of feudalism under which his followers were granted land in return for pledges
of service and loyalty. As King William was noted for his efficient harsh
rule. His administration relied upon Norman and other foreign personnel
especially Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1085 started Domesday Book. In
this book there was the reflection of what happened to England.
The
next kings were kings of Plantagenet’s dynasty.
I
have chosen the history of this dynasty as a subject for my course paper
because, on the one hand, being a student of the English language I can’t but
be interested in the history of this country, and, on the other hand, not so
much is written about the Plantagenet’s kings, among which there were such
world-known persons as Richard-the-Lion Heart and John Lackland.
Part I. The early Plantagenets (Angeving kings)
House
of Plantagenet.
“The Plantagenet dynasty took its name
form the “planta Genesta” (Latine), or broom, traditionally an emblem of the
counts of Anjou. Geoffrey is the only true Plantagenet so-called, because he
wore a spring of broom-genet in his cap. It was a personal nickname, such as
Henry’s “Curt-manted”. Soon this nick-name habit was to die, to be replaced by
names taken from one’s birthplace. Members of this dynasty ruled over England
from 1154 till 1399. However, in conventional historical usage , Henry II (son
of Count Geoffrey of Anjou) and his sons Richard I and John are Normandy termed
the Angeving kings, and their successors, up to Richard II, the Plantagenets.
The term Plantagenet was not used until about 1450, when Richard, Duke of York,
called himself by it in order to emphasize his royal descent from Edward III’s
fifth son, Edmund of Langley.”(1)
Henry II (1154-1189 AD)
“Henry II, the first Plantagenet, born
in 1133, was the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count Of Anjou, and Matilda, the
daughter of Henry I. Henry II, the first and the greatest of three Angevin
kings of England, succeeded Stephen in 1154. Aged 21, he already possessed a
reputation for restless energy and decisive actions. He was to inherit vast
lands. As their heir to his mother and his father he held Anjou (hence Angevin)
, Maine, and Touraine; as the heir to his brother Geoffrey he obtained
Brittany; as the husband of Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII of France,
he held Aquitaine, the major part of southwestern France. Altogether his
holdings in France were far larger than those of the French king. They have
become known as the Angevin empire, although Henry II never in fact claimed any
imperial rights or used the title of the emperor.” (2) From the beginning Henry
showed himself determined to assert and maintain his rights in all his lands.
In
the first decade of his reign Henry II was largely concerned with continental
affairs, though he made sure that the forged castles in England were
destroyed. Many of the earldoms created in the anarchy of Stephen’s reign were
allowed to lapse. Major change in England began in the mid 1160s. The Assize of
Clarendon of 1166. , and that Northampton 10 years later, promoted public
order. Juries were used to provide evidence of what crimes had been committed
and to bring accusations. New forms of legal actions were introduced , notably
the so-called prossessory assizes, which determined who had the right to
immediate possession of land, not who had the best fundamental right. That
could be decided by the grand assize, by means of which a jury of 12 knights
would decide the case. The use of standardized forms of edict greatly
simplified judicial administration. “Returnable” edicts, which had to be sent
back by the head to the central administration, enabled the crown to check that
its instruction were obeyed. An increasing number of cases came before royal
court rather than private feudal courts. Henry I’s practice of sending out
itinerant justices was extended and systematized. In 1170 a major inquiry into
local administration, the Inquest of Sheriffs, was held, and many sheriffs were
dismissed.
There
were important changes to the military system. In 1166 the tenants in chief
commandment to disclose the number of knights enfeoffed on their lands so that
Henry could take proper financial advantage of changes that had taken place
since his grandfather’s days. Scutage (tax which dismissed of military service)
was an important source of funds, and Henry preferred scutage to service
because mercenaries were more efficient than feudal contingents. In the Assize
of Arms of 1181 Henry determined the arms and equipment appropriate to every
free man, based on his income from land. This measure, which could be seen as a
revival of the principles of the Anglo-Saxon fyrd, was intended to provide for
a local militia, which could be used against invasion, rebellion, or for
peacekeeping.
“Henry
attempted to restore the close relationship between Church and State that had
existed under the Norman kings. His first move was the appointment in 1162 of
Thomas Becket as archbishop of Canterbury. Henry assumed that Becket, who had
served efficiently as chancellor since 1155 and been a close companion to him,
would continue to do so as archbishop. Becket, however, disappointed him. Once
appointed archbishop, he became a militant defender of Church against royal
encroachment and a champion of the papal ideology of ecclesiastical supremacy
over the lay world. The struggle between Henry and Becket reached a crisis at
the Council of Clarendon in 1164. In the constitution of Clarendon Henry tried
to set down in writing the ancient customs of the land. The most controversial
issue proved to be that of jurisdiction over “criminous clerks” (clerics who
had committed crimes); the king demanded that such men should , after trial in
church courts, be sent for punishment in royal courts.” (3)
“Becket
initially accepted the Constitution but would not set his seal to it. Shortly
thereafter, however, he suspended himself from office for the sin of yielding
to the royal will in the matter. Although he failed to obtain full papal
support at this stage, Alexander III ultimately came to his aid over the
Constitutions. Later in 1164 Becket was charged with peculation of royal funds
when chancellor. After Becket had taken flight for France, the king confiscated
the revenues of his province, exiled his friends, and confiscated their
revenues. In 1170 Henry had his eldest son crowned king by the archbishop of
York, not Canterbury, as was traditional. Becket, in exile, appealed to Rome
and excommunicated the clergy who had taken part in the ceremony. A
reconciliation between Becket and Henry at the end of the same year settled
none of the points at issue.” (4) When Becket returned to England, he took
further measures against the clergy who had taken part in the coronation. In
Normandy the enraged king, hearing the news, burst out with the fateful words
that incited four of his knights to take ship for England and murder the
archbishop of Canterbury Cathedral.
Almost
overnight the martyred Thomas became a saint in the eyes of the people. Henry
repudiated responsibility for the murder and reconciled himself with the
church. But despite various royal promises to abolish customs injurious to the
church, royal control of the church was little affected. Henceforth criminous
clerks were to be tried in church courts, save for offenses against the forest
laws. Disputes over ecclesiastical patronage and church lands that were held on
the same terms as lay estates were, however, to come under royal jurisdiction.
Finally Henry did penance at Canterbury, allowing the monks to scourge him. But
with Becket out of the way, it proved possible to negotiate most of the points
at issue between church and state. The martyred archbishop, however, was to
prove a potent example for future prelates.
Rebellion
of Henry’s sons and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Henry’s
sons, urged on by their mother and by a coalition of Henry’s enemies, raised a
rebellion throughout his domains in 1173. King William I the Lion of Scotland
joined the rebel coalition and invaded the north of England. Lack of
cooperation among the rebels, however, enabled Henry to defeat them one at a
time with a mercenary army. The Scottish king was taken prisoner at Alnwick.
Queen Eleanor was retired to polite imprisonment for the rest of Henry’s life.
The king’s sons and the baronial rebels were treated with leniency, but many
baronial castles were destroyed following the rising. “A brief period of amity
between Henry and Louis of France followed, and the years between 1175 and 1182
marked the zenith of Henry’s prestige and power.” (5) In 1183 the younger
Henry again tried to organize opposition to his father, but he died in June of
the year. Henry spent the last years of his life locked in combat with the new
French king, Philip II Augustus, with whom his son Richard had entered into an
alliance. Even his youngest son, John, deserted him in the end. In 1189 Henry
died a broken man, disappointed and defeated by his sons and by the French
king.
RICHARD I, COEUR de LION (1189-99 AD)
Henry II was succeeded by his son
Richard I, nicknamed the Lion Heart. Richard was born in 1157, and spent much
of his youth in his mother’s court at Poitiers. “Richard, a renowned and
skillful warrior, was manly interested in the Crusade to recover Jerusalem and
in the struggle to maintain his French holdings against Philip Augustus.” (6)
He spent only about six mouths in England during his reign. “During his
frequent absences he left a committee in charge of the realm. The chancellor
William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, dominated the early part of the reign until
forced into exile by baronial rebellion in 1191. Walter of Coutances,
archbishop of Rouen, succeeded Longchamp, but the most important and abled of
Richard’s ministers was Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, justicial from
1193 to 1198, and chancellor from 1199 to 1205. With the king's mother ,
Eleanor, he put down a revolt by Richard’s brother John in 1193 with strong and
effective measures. But when Richard returned from abroad, he forgave John and
promised him the succession.” (7)
“This
reign saw some important innovations in taxation and military organization.
Warfare was expensive, and in addition Richard was captured on his return from
the Crusade by Leopold V of Austria and held for a high ransom of 150 000
marks. Various methods of raising money were tried: an aid or scutage; tax on
plow lands; a general tax of a fourth of revenues and chattels (this was a
development of the so-called Saladin Tithe raised earlier for the Crusade); and
a seizure of the wool crop of Cistercian and Gilbertine houses. The ransom,
although never paid in full, caused Richard’s government to become highly
unpopular.” (8) Richard also faced some unwillingness on the part of his
English subjects to serve in France. A plan to raise a force of 300 knights who
would serve for a whole year met with opposition led by the bishops of Lincoln
and Salisbury. Richard was, however, remarkably successful in mastering the
resources, financial and human, of his kingdom in support of his wars. It can
also be argued that his demands on England weakened that realm unduly and that
Richard left his successor a very difficult legacy.
John Lackland (1199-1216 AD)
Richard,
mortally wounded at a siege in France in 1199, was succeeded by his brother
John, one of the most detested of English kings. John was born on Christmas Eve
1167, Henry II’s youngest son. John’s reign was characterized by failure. Yet,
while he must bear a heavy responsibility for his misfortunes, it is only fair
to recognize that he inherited the resentment that had built up against his
brother and father. Also while his reign ended in disaster, some of his
financial and military measures anticipated positive development in Edward I’s
reign.
Loss of French possessions.
“John
had nothing like the military ability or reputation of his brother. He could
win a battle in a fit of energy, only to lose his advantage in a spell of
indolence. After repudiating his first wife, Isabella of Gloucestor, John
married the fiancée of Hugh IX the Brown of the Lusignan family, one of
his vassals in Poitou. For this offense he was summoned to answer to Philip II
, his feudal ovelord for his holdings in France. When John refused to attend ,
his land in France were declared forfeit.” (9) In the subsequent war he
succeeded in capturing his nephew Arthur of Brittany, whom many in Anjou and
elsewhere regarded as Richard I’s rightful heir. Arthur died under mysterious
and suspicious circumstances. But once the great castle of Chateau Gaillard,
Richard I’s pride and joy, had fallen in March 1204, the collapse of Normandy
followed swiftly. “By 1206 all that was left of the inheritance of the Norman
kings was the Channel Islands. John, however, was determined to recover his
losses.”(10)
Revolt
of the barons and Magna Carta.
For
200 years of ruling of Norman kings the country was ruled over on such
principles: King took money from barons, especially for wars. Those who refused
to pay were arrested and kept in prison and they could not defend themselves.
Their children or their relatives had to pay for them. The end of such
situation came at reign of John Lackland. He was very unpopular with his
barons. In 1215 John called on for his barons to fight for him in the war
against Normandy and pay money for it. The barons, no longer trusting John
refused to pay and there began a revolt. Barons gazed much to London and were
joined by London merchants.
“On
June 15, 1215 the rebellion barons met John at Rennemede on the Themes. The
King was presented with a document known as the Articles of the Barons, on the
basis of which Magna Carta was drawn up. Magna Carta became the symbol of
political freedom. It promised two main things:
1.
All
“free man” protection of his officials
2.
The
right to afair and legal trial
It
was the first official document when this principle was written down. It was
very important for England. Magna Carta was always used by barons to protect
themselves from a powerful king.” (11)
But
we should say that Magna Carta gave no real freedom to the majority of people
in England (only 1/3 of population were free men). Nobles did not allow John
and his successors to forget this charter. Every king had to recognize
the Magna Carta. This document was the beginning of limiting the
prerogatives of crown and on the other hand by limiting king’s power Magna
Carta restricted arbitrary action of barons towards the knights. Magna Carta
marked a clear stage in the collapse of the English feudalism.
“After
king’s signing the document barons established a committee of 24 barons to make
sure that John kept his promise. This committee was a beginning of English
Parliament.”(12)
From
the very beginning Magna Carta was a failure, for it was no more than a stage
in ineffective negotiations to prevent civil war. John was released by the pope
from his obligations under it. The document was, however, reissued with some
changes under John’s son, with papal approval. John himself died in October
1216, with the civil war still at an inconclusive stage.
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. It began in
1338-1453. The war was carried during the reign of 5 English kings. Edward III
and Edward Baliol defeated David II of Scotland, and drove him into exile in
1333. The French cooperation with the Scots, French aggression in Gascony, and Edward’s
claim to the throne of France (through his mother Isabella, who was the sister
of the king; the Capetiance failed to produce a mail heir) led to the outbreak
of War. “The sea battle of Sluys (1340) gave England control of the Channel,
and battle at Crecy (1346), Calais (1347), and Poitiers (1356) demonstrated
English supremacy on the land. Edward, the Black Prince and eldest son of
Edward III, excelled during this first phase of the war.”(24)
Throughout
1348-1350 the epidemic of a plague so called “The Black Death” swept across
England and northern Europe, removing as much as half the population. This
plague reached every part of England. Few than one of ten who caught the plague
could survive it. If in Europe 1/3 of population died within a century , in
England 1/3 of population died during two years. The whole villages
disappeared. This plague continued till it died out itself. English military
strength weakened considerably after the plague, gradually lost so much ground
that by 1375, Edward agreed to the Treaty of Bruges, which only left England
Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne.
Domestically,
England saw many changes during Edward’s reign. Parliament was divided into two
Houses – Lords and Commons – and met regularly to finance the war. Treason was
defined by statute for the first time (1352). In 1361 the office of Justice of
the Peace was created. Philippa died in 1369 and the last years of Edward’s
reign mirrored the first; he was once again dominated by a woman, his mistress,
Alice Perrers. Alice preferred one of Edward’s other sons, John of Gaunt, over
the Black Prince, which caused political conflict in Edward’s last years.
Edward
the Black Prince died one year before his father. Rafael Holinshed intimated
that Edward spent his last year in grief and remorse, believing the death of
his son was a punishment for usurping his father’s crown. In Chronicles of
England, Holinshed wrote: “But finally the thing that most grieved him, was the
loss of that most noble gentleman, his dear son Prince Edward…. But this and
other mishaps that chanced to him now in his old years, might seem to come to
pass for a revenge of his disobedience showed to his in usurping against him….”
(25)
There
is one more point about Edward’s reign, concerning the English language. Edward
had forbidden speaking French in his army, and by the end of the 14th
century English once again began being used instead of French by ruling
literate class.
Richard II (1377-99)
Richard
II’s reign was fraught with crisis – economic , social, political, and
constitutional. He was 10 years old when his grandfather died, and the first
problem the country faced was having to deal with his monitoring. A
“constitutional council” was set up to “govern the king and his kingdom”.
Although John of Gaunt was still the dominant figure in the royal family,
neither he no his brothers were included.
The
peasant’s revolt.
“(1381)
Financing the increasingly expensive and unsuccessful war with France was a
major preoccupation. At the end of Edward III’s reign a new device, a poll tax
of four pence a head, had been introduced. A similar but graduated tax followed
in 1379, and in 1380 another set at one shilling a head was granted. It proved
inequitable and impractical, and when the government tried to speed up
collection in the spring of 1381 a popular rebellion – the Peasants’ Revolt –
ensued. Although the pool tax was the spark that set it off, there were also
deeper causes related to changes in the economy and to political
developments.”(26) The government in practical, engendered hostility to the
legal system by its policies of expanding the power of the justices of the
peace at the expense of local and monorail courts. In addition, popular poor
preachers spread subversive ideas with slogans such as : “When Adam delved and
Eve span/ Who was then the gentleman?” (27) The Peasants’ revolt began in Essex
and Kent. Widespread outbreaks occurred the southeast of England, taking the
form of assault on tax collectors, attacks on landlords and their manor houses,
destruction of documentary evidence of villein status, and attacks on lawyers.
Attacks on religious houses, such as that at St. Albans, were particularly
severe, perhaps because they had been among the most conservative of landlords
in commuting labour services.
The
men of Essex and Kent moved to London to attack the king’s councilors. Admitted
to the city by sympathizers, they attacked John of Gaunt’s place of the Savoy
as well as the Fleet prison. On June 14 the young king made them various
promises at Mile End; on the same day they broke into the Tower and killed
Sudbury, the chancellor, Hales, the treasure and other officials. On the next
day Richard met the rebels again at Smithfield, and their main leader, Wat
Tyler, presented their demands. But during the negotiations Tyler was attacked
and slain by the mayor of London. The young king rode forward and reassured the
rebels, asking them to follow him to Clerkenwell. This proved to be a turning
point, and the rebels, their suppliers exhausted, began to make their way home.
“Richard went back on his promises he had made saying, “Villeins you are and
villeins you shall remain.”(28) In October Parliament confirmed the king’s
revocation of charters but demanded amnesty save for a few special offenders.
“The
events of the Peasants’ Revolt may have given Richard an exalted idea of his
own powers and prerogative as a result of his success at Smithfield, but for
the rebels the gains of the rising amounted to no more than the abolition of
the poll taxes.”(29) Improvement in the social position of the peasantry did
occur, but not so mach as a consequence of the revolt as of changes in the
economy that would have occurred anyhow.
John
Wycliffe.
“Religious
unrest was another subversive factor under Richard II. England had been
virtually free from heresy until John Wycliffe, a priest and an Oxford scholar,
began his career as a religious reformer with two treaties in 1375 – 76. He
argued that the exercise of lordship depended on grace and that therefore, a
sinful man had no right to authority. Priest had even the pope himself ,
Wycliffe went on to argue, might not necessarily be in state of grace and thus
would lack authority. Such doctrines appealed to anticlerical sentiments and
brought Wycliffe into direct conflict with the church hierarchy, although he
received protection from John of Gaunt. The beginning of the Great Schism in
1378 gave Wycliffe fresh opportunities to attack the papacy, and in a treaties
of 1379 on the Eucharist he openly denied the doctrine of transubstantiation.
He was ordered before the church court at Lambeth in 1378. In 1380 his views
were condemned by a commission of theologians at Oxford, and he was forced to
leave the university. At Lutterworth he continued to write voluminously until
his death.”(30)
Political
struggles and Richard’s desposition.
Soon
after putting down the Peasants’ Revolt, Richard began to build up a court
party, partly in opposition to Gaunt. A crisis was precipitated in 1386 when
the king asked Parliament for a grant to meet the French treat. Parliament
responded by demanding the dismissal of the king’s favorites, but Richard
insisted that he would not dismiss so much as a scullion in the kitchen at the
request of Parliament. In the end he was forced by the impeachment of the
chancellor, Michel de la Pole, to agree to the appointment of a reforming
commission. Richard withdrew from London and went on a “gyration” of the
country. He called his judges before him at Shrewsbury and asked them to
pronounce the actions of Parliament illegal. An engagement at Radcot Bridge,
at which Richard’s favorite, Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford was
defeated settled the matter of ascendancy. In the Merciless Parliament of 1388
five lords accused the king’s friends of treason under an expansive definition
of the crime.
“Richard
was chastened, but he began to recover his authority as early as the autumn of
1388 at the Cambridge Parliament. Declaring himself to be of age in 1389,
Richard anounced that he was taking over the government. He pardoned the Lords
Appellant and ruled with some moderation until 1394, when his queen Ann of
Bohemia, died.”(31) After putting down a rebellion in Ireland, he was , for a
time, almost popular. He began to implement his personal policy once more and
rebuilt a royal party with the help of a group of young nobles. He made a 28-
years truce with France and married the French king’s seven-year-old daughter.
He built up a household of faithful servants, including the notorious Sir John
Bushy, Sir William Bagot, and Sir Henry Green. “He enlisted household troops
and built a wide network of “king’s knight” in the counties, distributing to
them his personal budge, the White Hart.”(32)
The
first sign of renewed crisis emerged in January 1397, when complaints were put
forward in Parliament and their author, Thomas Haxey, was adjudged a traitor.
“Richard’s rule, based on fear rather then consent, became increasingly
tyrannical.”(33) Three of the Lords Appellant of 1388 were arrested in July and
tried in Parliament. The Earl of Arundel was executed and Warwick exiled.
Gloucester, whose death was reported to Parliament, had probably been murdered.
The act of the 1388 Parliament was repealed. Richard was granted the customs of
revenues for life, and the power of parliament was delegated to a committee
after the assembly was dissolved. Richard also built up a power base in
Cheshire.
Events
leading to Richard’s downfall followed quickly. The Duke of Norfolk and Henry
Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt’s son, accused each other of treason and were
banished, the former for life, the latter for 10 years. Hen Gaunt himself died
early in 1399, Richard confiscated his estates instead of allowing his son to
claim them. Richard seemingly secure, went off to Ireland. Henry, however
landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire to claim, as he said, his father’s estate and
the hereditary stewardship. The Percys, the chief lord of the north, welcomed
him. Popular support was widespread, and when Richard returned from Ireland his
cause was lost.
“The
precise course of events is hard to reconstruct., in view of subsequent
alteration to the records. A Parliament was called in Richard’s name, but
before it was fully assembled at the end of September, its members were
presented with Richard’s alleged abdication and Henry’s claim to the throne as
legitimate descendant of Henry III as well as by right of conquest.”(34)
Thirty-tree articles of deposition were set forth against Richard, and his
abdication and deposition were duly accepted. Richard died at Pontefract
Castle, either of self-starvation or by smothering. Thus ended the last attempt
of a medieval king to exercise arbitrary power. “Whether or not Richard had
been motivated by new theories about the nature of monarchy, as some have
claimed, he had failed in the practical measures necessary to sustain his
power. He had tried to rule through fear and mistrust in his final years, but
he had neither gained sufficient support among the magnates by means of
patronage nor created a popular basis of support in the shires and in 1399
Richard was disposed and he abdicated to theу
favour of Henry Lancaster and so the dynasty of Plantagenets ended.”(35)
CONCLUSION.
Summing
up the events of Plantagenets rule and their role in the history of England, we
should mark the following.
11th
- 12th centuries (the first Plantagenets) were the years of
constitutional progress and territorial expansion.
“The
13th century is described as a “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 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, foundation of universities,
the development of the Common Law and the Parliament, and emergence of English
as the language of the nation.”(36)
The
14th century brought the disasters of the Hundred Years' War (1337
-–1453), the Peasants’ revolt (1381), the extermination of the population by
the Black Death (1348 – 1349). Although the outbreak of the Black Death in 1348
dominated the economy of the 14th century, a member of adversities
had already occurred in the preceding decades. Severe rains in 1315 and 1316
caused famine, which lead to the spread of disease. Animal epidemic in
succeeding of currency in the 1330s. Economic expansion, which had been
characteristic of the 13th century, had slowed to a halt. The Black
Death, possibly a combination of bubonic and pneumonic plagues, carried off
from one-third to one half of the population. In some respects it took time for
its effects to become detrimental to the economy, but with subsequent
outbreaks, as in 1361 and 1369, the population declined further, causing a
severe labor shortage. By the 1370 wages had risen dramatically and prices of
foodstuffs fallen. Hired laborers, being fewer, asked for higher wages and
better food, and peasant tenants, also fewer, asked for better conditions of
tenure when they took up land. Some landlords responded by trying to reassert
labor services where they had been commuted. “ The Ordinance(1349) and Statute
(1351) of Laborers tried to set maximum wages at the levels of the pre-Black
Death years, but strict enforcement proved impossible. The Peasants’ Revolt of
1381 was one result of the social tension caused by the adjustment needed after
the epidemic. Great landlords saw their revenues fall as a result of the Black
Death, although probably by only about 10 percent, whereas for the lower orders
of society real wages rose sharply by the last quarter of the 14th
century because of low grain prices and high wages.”(37)
Edward
III ruined the major Italian banking companies in England by failing to repay
loans early in the Hundred Years’ War. This provided opening for English
Merchants, who were given monopolies of wool exports by the crown in return
for their support. The most notable was William de la Pole of Hull, whose
family rose to noble status. Heavy taxation of wool exports was one reason for
the growth of the cloth industry and cloth exports in the 14th
century. The wine trade from Gascony was also important. In contrast to the 13th
century, no new towns were founded, but London is particular continued to
prosper despite the ravage of plague.
“In
cultural terms, a striking change in the 14th century was the
increasing use of English. Although an attempt to make the use of English
mandatory in the law courts failed because lawyers claimed that they could not
plead accurately in the language, the vernacular began to creep into public
documents and records. Henry of Lancaster even used English when he claimed the
throne in 1399. Chaucer wrote in both French and English, but his important
poetry is in the latter. The early 14th century was an impressive
age for manuscript illumination in England, with the so-called East Anglian
school, of which the celebrated Luttrell Psalter represents a late example. In
ecclesiastical architecture the development of the Perpendicular style, largely
in the second half of the 14th century, was particularly
notable.”(38)
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