Clanchy - England and its Rulers: 1066-1307

Table of Contents

Wiley Blackwell Classic Histories of England

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This edition first published 2014

2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Edition history: Blackwell Publishing Ltd (3e 2006, 2e 1998), Fontana Paperbacks (1e 1983)

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clanchy, M. T.

England and its rulers, 10661307 / M.T. Clanchy. Fourth edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-73623-4 (pbk.)

1. Great BritainHistoryMedieval period, 1066-1485. 2. Great BritainHistoryNorman period, 1066-1154. 3. Great BritainHistoryAngevin period, 1154-1216. 4. Great BritainHistoryHenry III, 1216-1272. 5. Great BritainKings and rulers. I. Title.

DA175.C57 2014

942.02dc23

2014002671

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Detail of illuminated initial E, from Bishop Puiset's Bible, c.117080. Durham Cathedral Library, A.II.1, vol. 3, fo. 131v. Reproduced by permission of the Dean and Chapter of Durham.

Preface to the Fourth Edition

In this edition I have added one new chapter, on Family and Gender. I have also updated the Suggestions for Further Reading and made other minor corrections. This edition is dedicated to the memory of Sir Rees Davies (19382005), who did so much to clarify medieval ideas of lordship and nationhood which are the framework of this book.

M. T. Clanchy

Institute of Historical Research

University of London

List of Abbreviations

Map 1 England and France

Map 2 England and the Mediterranean

Map 3 Edward I's kingdom in Britain in 1305

England's Place in Medieval Europe

This book concerns the rulers of England and their aspirations in the period between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the death of Edward I in 1307. During these two and a half centuries England was dominated by men from overseas. This trend had begun before 1066 with the rule of the Danish king Cnut (101635) and of the half-Norman Edward the Confessor (104266), and it lingered on after 1272 in the French-speaking court of Edward I (12721307) and his successors. Nevertheless the most significant period of overseas domination of political and cultural life in the English kingdom followed the Norman Conquest and continued into the twelfth century and beyond. When the Norman dynasty failed in the male line with the death of Henry I in 1135, England became the battleground between two of William the Conqueror's grandchildren, Stephen and the Empress Matilda. On Stephen's death the kingdom was inherited by Henry II (115489), who was count of Anjou in his own right and duke of Aquitaine by marriage. The area of the king of England's political concern had therefore widened beyond William the Conqueror's Normandy to include Anjou and the huge lands of Aquitaine and Poitou south of the Loire. This extension of power is described by historians though never by contemporaries as the Angevin Empire, implying an overlordship by the dynasty of Anjou over England and half of modern France. According to Gerald of Wales, Henry hoped to extend his rule beyond France to Rome and the empire of Frederick Barbarossa.

In leading Christendom in the crusade against Saladin, Richard I (118999) was following in the footsteps of the Angevin kings of Jerusalem as well as fulfilling promises made by Henry II. His death in the struggle with Philip Augustus of France and King John's subsequent loss of Normandy to Philip did not bring an end either to overseas influence in England or to the ambitions of its kings, as John hoped to regain Normandy from his base in Poitou and Aquitaine. He established the strategy, which was vigorously pursued by his successor Henry III (121672), of using Poitevins as administrators and war captains in England. Through them and the support of the papacy Henry hoped to construct a system of alliances which would win his family the huge inheritance in Italy and Germany of the greatest of the medieval emperors, Frederick II, and thus surpass the achievements of Henry II and Richard I. We wish, wrote Pope Alexander IV in 1255, to exalt the royal family of England, which we view with special affection, above the other kings and princes of the world.