The accession and coronation of Henry II took place on the same day. He was not only king of England, but also ruled over most of Wales, Normandy, Anjou, Gascony and other parts of France (acquired through his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine). Henry, son of Empress Matilda, established stability after civil war between his mother and her rival Stephen. He asserted his authority over the barons and enforced law and governance. Regular financial rolls of government began in his reign.
The accession and coronation of Henry II took place on the same day. He was not only king of England, but also ruled over most of Wales, Normandy, Anjou, Gascony and other parts of France (acquired through his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine). Henry, son of Empress Matilda, established stability after civil war between his mother and her rival Stephen. He asserted his authority over the barons and enforced law and governance. Regular financial rolls of government began in his reign.
Thomas Becket had been Henry's close friend and his chancellor. But when Henry appointed him archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, Becket began to take the side of the Church against the king, and the two quarrelled. Responding to an outburst of frustration by the king against Becket, four knights murdered Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Within a few years of his death, Becket was canonised and Canterbury became a site of pilgrimage.
Unable to help Diarmait Mac Murchada, the exiled king of Leinster, regain his kingdom, Henry directed him towards Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, known as ‘Strongbow’. In 1169-1170, Strongbow and his followers took Wexford, Waterford and Dublin. He then married Mac Murchada’s daughter, allowing Strongbow to claimed the throne of Leinster when the king died. Henry decided to visit Ireland himself to assert his overlordship. Nearly all the kings of Ireland came to submit to him.
Four years after Thomas Becket's murder, Canterbury Cathedral was ravaged by fire and the eastern end had to be rebuilt. The first master of works was a Frenchman, William of Sens, who planned a structure in the new Gothic style. After an accident on site, Sens was replaced by William the Englishman, who added the Trinity Chapel for the shrine housing Becket's relics. It was a turning point in English cathedral architecture and provided the basis for the greatest shrine in medieval Britain.
Lord Rhys ap Gruffyd held a winter court at which contests were held between top entertainers of the period. The winner of the 'eisteddfod', or 'session', was to be seated in the bardic chair. Bards, poets, harpists and other music makers engaged in contests in pursuit of the seat of honour.
Henry II and his wife Eleanor had five sons, who squabbled among themselves and with their parents about who would inherit which part of Henry's kingdom. When Henry died it was Richard (later nicknamed 'Lionheart' for his bravery in battle) the oldest surviving son, who became king of England. The crusades and the state of his French territories preoccupied Richard, such that he spent less than a year of his 10-year reign in England.
Shortly after his accession, Richard left England to join the Third Crusade. He raised taxes, sold assets and emptied the treasury to raise funds for his army. He took Cyprus and the town of Acre, but was stopped short of his ultimate goal of Jerusalem after Philip Augustus of France withdrew from the crusade. On his return in 1192, he was captured and held prisoner by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. A massive ransom was paid, securing his release in early 1194.
The fifth son of Henry II, John, stayed in England during Richard's crusading absences, where he schemed against his brother. Despite this, Richard forgave him and named John as his successor. John’s young nephew Arthur, who some regarded as the rightful heir, disappeared.
In 1209, a group of scholars migrated from the established centre of learning at Oxford to Cambridge, where they set up a new university. Social tensions and riots between townspeople and scholars were probably the key motivation for the move.
The death of Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, in July 1205 initiated a dispute between the king and the monks of Canterbury over who should name his successor. The pope intervened and overruled John, sparking a series of tit-for-tat exchanges that resulted in John's excommunication in 1209. He later declared his kingdom a papal fief and was readmitted to the favour of the papacy.
John's alliance with Otto IV of Germany and Count Ferrand of Flanders against Philip Augustus of France culminated in the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. Philip's victory was complete and allowed him to seize Normandy, Anjou and Brittany, among other possessions. John was forced to return to England to face the nobles whose lands he had lost. He also suffered the indignity of nicknames like 'lack land' and 'soft sword'.
A rebellion by northern barons led to a meeting between John and their leaders at Runnymede on the River Thames. At the meeting, the Magna Carta or 'Great Charter' was signed. It was essentially a list of baronial grievances relating to the king’s exploitation of taxation and privileges. More significantly, it represents the first time that defined limitations to royal rights were established in written law.
The Magna Carta of 1215 did not prevent fighting between rebel barons and John. The French king, Philip Augustus, sent his son, Louis, to assist the English rebels. Initially the French force was very successful, but when John suddenly died in October 1216 and his nine-year-old son was hastily crowned Henry III, the barons reconsidered. The French withdrew in 1217.
Henry came to the throne aged nine. At the time, a French force had invaded with the intention of unseating his father, John. With John dead, the rebellious barons who had encouraged French aid, saw the young king as the safer option. Many rejoined the royal cause and eventually the French were defeated at Lincoln in 1217. They withdrew with a large financial payment.
The Dominican order of friars had arrived in England in 1224. Just over five years later they began their ministry in Scotland. The Franciscan order could be found at Dunblane and Dumfries, while the Dominicans settled in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and Stirling. They later became associated with Scottish university towns.
The Treaty of York, signed between Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland, fixed the Anglo-Scottish border. It has remained unaltered ever since, with the exception of the disputed town of Berwick. Berwick alternated between English and Scottish control before its final capture by the English in 1482.
The first abbey at Westminster was built by Edward the Confessor in the 1040s in the Romanesque style. Henry III ordered the rebuilding of the abbey in a Gothic style, with a central shrine to honour Edward the Confessor. Henry was himself very religious, and focusing on a saintly predecessor sanctified his own kingship. Henry was eventually buried in Westminster Abbey.
Henry III had made himself unpopular with the barons, who objected to the cost of his military campaigns and the influence of his foreign relatives and favourites. One of these rebels was Simon de Montfort, who had married Henry’s sister. In 1258, de Montfort was one of a group of barons who imposed the Provisions of Oxford on the king. These created a council, selected by the barons, to advise Henry. In 1261, Henry obtained a papal dispensation to extricate himself from the Provisions.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, Henry III broadly agreed with to give up claims to lands his father John had lost in northern France. Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Poitou were given up in return for keeping control the Channel Islands and Gascony in the south west. In exchange, Louis IX of France gave up his support for rebellious English barons.
Alexander III of Scotland defeated Haakon IV Haakonsson, King of Norway, at the Battle of Largs, in North Ayrshire. The victory ended Haakon’s attempt to overrun the Hebrides. In 1266, Haakon's successor, Magnus, signed the Treaty of Perth which surrendered sovereignty of the Western Isles off Scotland to the Scottish crown.
Frustrated by the poor counsel afforded to Henry III, Simon de Montfort (the king's brother-in-law) led a rebellion. In May 1264, he captured Henry and his son Edward at the Battle of Lewes. Now in control of England, de Montfort summoned an assembly, including two knights from each county and two elected representatives of each borough - a precursor to parliament. Later in 1265, de Montfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham by the forces of Prince Edward, and royal authority was restored.
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, a prince of Gwynedd, had defeated his brothers Owain and Dafydd in the 1250s and completed the expansion begun by his grandfather, Llywelyn the Great. Under the terms of the Treaty of Montgomery, Henry III recognised Llywelyn's status as overlord of Wales and acknowledged his title of 'prince of Wales'.
Since defeating and killing Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, Edward had been a powerful influence on his father. In 1270, he left to fight in the crusades, but on hearing of his father's death he immediately returned to England. He was crowned in August 1274.
Edward I's Statute of Mortmain exemplifies the struggles of church and state during the Middle Ages. The church owned a great deal of land, and the statute prevented it from acquiring more. Immortal institutions with their 'dead hand', or 'mortmain', did not pass on their estates and thus could not be taxed by the government.
Relations between the Welsh and the English crown had deteriorated. In 1277, Edward I invaded Wales and forced Llywelyn ap Gruffyd, Prince of Wales, to pay homage. In 1282, Llywelyn and his brother Dafydd rebelled against Edward, who defeated and killed them both. Edward built a network of castles in Wales to emphasise his power and authority. In 1301, he made his eldest son, also Edward, prince of Wales, a title the eldest son of the English monarch continues to take to this day.
The bulk of the Jewish community in England had arrived from France in the 11th century and acted as bankers to the ruling and business classes. In an atmosphere of growing anti-semitism, Edward I turned against the Jews. In 1275, he prohibited Jewish traders from lending on interest, depriving them of their primary means of earning a living. In 1287, he imprisoned and ransomed 3,000 Jewish people. The ransom was paid, but in 1290 an edict was issued expelling all Jews from England.
This parliament, summoned by Edward I, has been compared to that of Simon de Montfort 30 years earlier. It included a broader range of members than was usual, extending beyond senior clergy and aristocracy to lower clergy, knights of the shire and representatives of towns. Its main aim, for Edward, was to raise money for his wars against France, Scotland and Wales.
In 1292, a disputed succession to the Scottish throne allowed Edward I to force the Scots to accept his sovereignty as 'lord paramount' of Scotland. He then nominated John Balliol as king. The Scots objected to these terms and in 1295 turned to the French for help - the earliest documentary evidence of the 'Auld Alliance'. A Scottish army was raised, but it was defeated by Edward, who deposed Balliol and removed the Stone of Scone on which Scottish monarchs were crowned.
William Wallace organised resistance to the English in Scotland in the late 1290s, defeating them at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in September 1297. He was himself defeated in July of the following year at Falkirk. He continued a guerrilla campaign for a further seven years, but was eventually betrayed, taken to London and executed.
In 1306, Robert the Bruce was crowned king of Scotland in defiance of Edward I, who died while on his way north to reassert his authority. Edward II was very different from his father, more interested in entertainment than warfare and dependent upon favourites like Piers Gaveston. Two years after Edward's accession, he married Isabella, daughter of the French king.
Since the death of Edward I, Robert the Bruce had consolidated his hold on Scotland and reclaimed lost territory. The English governor of Stirling was besieged. Edward II led a 20,000-strong relief force, but it was heavily defeated at nearby Bannockburn by a Scottish force half its size. The victory ensured Scotland's survival as an independent country, with Bruce as its king.
The famine was the product of a cooler and damper climate, coupled with the medieval inability to dry and store grain effectively. Colder winters and wet summers severely affected the harvest. Millions died of starvation. Cannibalism was widely reported from Poland to Ireland and many were trampled to death in bread queues in London.
At the height of the Great European Famine, Edward Bruce, Robert the Bruce's brother, led an expedition in Ireland to discomfort English interests and to raise a grand 'Celtic' alliance. His timing was unfortunate. The alliance came to nothing and the expedition only succeeded in making the effects of the famine still worse.
In the Declaration of Arbroath, a letter to Pope John XXII, Scottish barons complained of English invasions and praised their king, Robert the Bruce, but threatened to depose him if he ever subjected Scotland to the English. The declaration can be seen as the founding document of the Scottish nation, or as a clever diplomatic move to explain why Scotland was still fighting its Christian neighbour at the time of the crusades. The pope was unmoved and Scotland remained excommunicated.
Edward II's wife, Isabella, had left England for France in 1325 on the pretext of helping to settle a dispute over territory. But she had been badly treated by Edward's favourites, the Despensers, and declined to return. Instead, she remained in Paris, where she found a lover, Roger Mortimer. In 1326, she returned to England with a large force, whereupon the king's supporters deserted him. Edward was captured, as were the Despensers who were executed in the autumn of the same year.
Following the invasion led by his wife, Isabella, Edward II abdicated in favour of his son. He was later murdered at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire on the orders of Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer. They ruled the country in the name of Edward II and Isabella's son, now Edward III, who was 14.
Edward III was just 14 when he became king. His father, Edward II, was forced to abdicate by his mother, Isabella, and her lover Roger Mortimer. In 1330, Edward seized control, executing Mortimer and forcing Isabella to retire. He would go on to rule for 50 years.
The 'Hundred Years' War' is the name historians have given to a series of related conflicts fought over the course of more than a century between England and France. The causes were complex and varied, but included English territorial and dynastic ambitions in France. The war began with Philip VI's confiscation of Gascony, which led Edward III of England to declare himself the rightful heir to the French throne.
A crusading fleet assembled in the Mediterranean became redundant after cancellation of the crusade in 1336. The Franco-Castilian elements of the fleet moved to threaten England after the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War in 1337. A much smaller English fleet took advantage of a brisk wind to attack the French-led force in port at Sluys (modern Vlissingen) off Flanders. The French fleet was largely destroyed, and the ensuing war was fought on French and not English soil.
In July 1346, Edward III invaded Normandy. He marched north, but was unable to outmanoeuvre a large force under Philip VI of France. The two armies met near Crécy. The much larger French force failed to make its numbers count and its piecemeal attacks were repelled with heavy losses by the English and Welsh archers. Crécy was the first great English victory of the Hundred Years' War, the others being Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415).
The disease later known as the 'Black Death' arrived in Europe in 1347. After the first chronicled outbreak on British soil at Melcombe Regis in Dorset, the plague appeared at various points along England's south coast in the summer of 1348, spreading inland. On average, between 30% and 45% of the general populace died, but in some villages 80-90% of the population succumbed. The plague recurred regularly, if less severely, through the second half of the 14th century and into the 15th century.
Edward the 'Black Prince' (Edward III's son) invaded France from Gascony in 1356. French and English forces met at Poitiers. Although the French had vastly superior forces, they were humiliatingly defeated by superior English tactics and by the failure of all sections of their army to engage. The French king, John II, was captured. Poitiers was the second of the three great English victories of the Hundred Years' War, the others being Crécy (1346) and Agincourt (1415).
Edward III's eldest son, Edward the 'Black Prince', had died in 1376, so the succession passed to Edward's grandson, Richard II, who was only 10 years old. His uncle, John of Gaunt, was the most powerful noble during his minority, but the English nobility was by no means united and was riven by internal factions.
In the aftermath of the catastrophic Black Death, agricultural workers were in demand but landlords were reluctant to pay higher wages or allow migration for work. Coupled with heavy taxation and an unpopular government, it caused an uprising. The rebels converged on London. The Tower of London was stormed and prominent individuals were executed. After rebel leader Wat Tyler was killed, Richard II successfully defused the situation by promising concessions. Reprisals followed instead.
William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester and chancellor of England, had conceived the idea of establishing a school and university college under the same foundation so scholars could pass easily from one to the other. The aim was to provide an educated clergy to replace the large numbers lost to plague. New College, Oxford, was founded in 1379, and Winchester College three years later.
John Wyclif believed the bible was the only true religious authority and encouraged its translation into English at a time when only Latin was permitted. He was condemned as a heretic by Pope Urban VI and an English church council. After his death, his books were burned and his body was removed from consecrated ground by order of Pope Martin V. Increasing persecution of the Lollards (as his followers were known) nonetheless showed that his ideas continued to spread in a popular form.
Geoffrey Chaucer was the first great poet of the English language. Before him, most writers used either French or Latin in preference to the more plebeian English. His best-known work is the unfinished ‘Canterbury Tales’ in which a diverse group of people recount stories to pass the time on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
Richard II was the first reigning monarch to visit Ireland since John. He defeated the Irish chieftains in the south east and eighty were forced to pay homage. Richard attempted to create a new alliance between the English crown and the Gaelic Irish by recognising their grievances against absentee Anglo-Irish landowners. He left in 1395. He returned four years later, but this expedition was cut short by a revolt in England, leaving long-term issues of English rule in Ireland unresolved.
In the late 1380s, Richard II clashed with a group of nobles known as the Lords Appellant, which included his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke. They forced concessions from him, but after several years of moderation Richard took his revenge. He exiled Bolingbroke and seized his vast estates. During Richard’s absence in Ireland in 1399, Bolingbroke returned and took the throne, supported by other nobles fearful of Richard's increasingly autocratic ways. Imprisoned in Pontefract Castle, he died in 1400.
Owain Glyn Dwr had served in Richard II's army in the 1380s and it may even have been loyalty to the deposed king that encouraged him to lead a revolt against Henry IV. In 1404 he received French support and presided over the first Welsh parliament. As Henry consolidated control over England, his son Henry (the future Henry V) led the campaigning in Wales. By 1409, the revolt was broken. Glyn Dwr turned to guerrilla warfare until his death in around 1416.
St Andrews University was founded in 1413, followed by Glasgow University in 1451 and King's College Aberdeen in 1495.
Henry IV’s reign was brief and troubled. He faced internal rebellion after his usurpation and murder of Richard II, including the Percy family's rebellion in 1403. There were Scottish incursions across the border, Wales revolted under Owain Glyn Dwr and the Hundred Years' War with France continued. Henry also had an uneasy relationship with his son and successor, Henry V, who he had discharged from his council in 1411 over political differences.
After informal toleration under Richard II, Henry IV increased the persecution of Lollards, followers of the 'heretic' church reformer John Wyclif who had died in 1384. The 1414 rebellion of Lollard knights, led by Sir John Oldcastle, was easily suppressed by Henry V. Oldcastle remained at large until he was captured, tried and executed in 1417. Lollardy went underground, and though it continued to make converts, Lollards always remained a religious minority.
The Council of Constance proclaimed the superiority of councils over popes. It operated as a convention of 'nations' - English, French, German and Italian, with one vote each in decisions. John Wyclif's status as a heretic was reaffirmed. By 1417, when the Council closed, three concurrent popes had been deposed. Another pope, Martin V, was elected.
The Southampton Plot was intended to overthrow Henry V as he disembarked for France and replace him with Edmund Mortimer, heir to Richard II. Upon learning of the plot, Mortimer immediately told Henry and the conspirators - Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Sir Thomas Grey and Henry, Baron Scrope of Masham - were tried and executed as traitors. Henry's firmness and swiftness of action secured his position.
In 1414, Henry V renewed England's claims to the French throne while France was vulnerable, ruled as it was by the sick and unstable Charles VI. In 1415, Henry landed in Normandy and besieged the port of Harfleur. The length of the siege allowed the French to summon a significant force to oppose him. The two armies met at Agincourt where the English inflicted a humiliating defeat on the much larger French force. As at Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), English archery was key to victory.
In the centuries of Anglo-French conflict which followed 1066, Troyes marked the high point of English success. Charles VI of France suffered bouts of insanity that rendered him ineffectual, and victorious Henry V now controlled the whole of Normandy. Under the Treaty of Troyes, Henry V was to become regent of France and marry Charles's daughter Catherine. Their heir (Henry VI) would become joint ruler of England and France. At the same time, England allied with Burgundy.
In 1422, Henry V died suddenly, leaving his son Henry, who was less than a year old and now king of England and France under the terms of the Treaty of Troyes (1420). England was ruled by a Regency Council. In France, the king's uncle, John, Duke of Bedford, gradually extended English control. Henry VI of England was crowned king of France in Paris in December 1431. The traditional site of French coronations, Rheims, had been recaptured by Joan of Arc the previous year.
The Treaty of Arras reconciled a long-standing dispute between Charles VII of France and Philip, Duke of Burgundy. It also broke the Anglo-Burgundian alliance that had existed since 1420 and allowed the king of France to consolidate his position against English claims to his throne. England was left isolated and its French territories were lost piecemeal. By 1451, the last part of Henry V's legacy, Normandy, had been retaken.
Henry VI, who had acceded to the throne before his first birthday, was now considered old enough to rule for himself. But he was not interested in government, preferring to concentrate on founding Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge. In 1444, he married Margaret of Anjou, the niece of Charles VII of France, as part of a short-lived peace deal. Henry’s court became divided through neglect and as English possessions in France shrank, the king lost prestige and authority.
In 1450, a rebellion broke out in protest at war taxation. It was led by a man called Jack Cade, who commanded an armed force recruited in Kent and Sussex. Cade marched on London, arriving on 3 July, but his rabble army was forced back at London Bridge and dispersed before it had achieved anything of note. Cade was hunted down and killed on 12 July.
In the autumn of 1452, an English force under John Talbot landed in Bordeaux in an attempt to recapture the province from the French. The following July, Talbot was defeated and killed at the Battle of Castillon with the French using cannon to great effect. This was the last major encounter of the Hundred Years' War. With the English driven out of Bordeaux, their territories in France were reduced to one town - Calais. A fortnight later, Henry VI suffered his first mental breakdown.
By the 1450s, many considered Henry VI's bouts of insanity to have rendered him incapable of rule. In 1453, Richard, Duke of York, was appointed Lord Protector until Henry briefly recovered. York was then driven out by Henry VI's wife, Margaret. York marched on London and defeated Henry's supporters (the Lancastrians) at St Albans. This relatively small battle marks the beginning of a civil war between two branches of the royal family - York and Lancaster - that lasted intermittently until 1485.
In six years of civil war, power had shifted backwards and forwards between Yorkists and Lancastrians. Early in 1461, while in control of London, the Yorkists proclaimed Edward (son of the Richard, Duke of York, who had been killed in December 1460) as Edward IV. Edward IV marched north and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Lancastrians at Towton in Yorkshire, the biggest battle thus far in the Wars of the Roses. Henry VI and Margaret fled to Scotland, and Edward was crowned in June 1461.
Henry VI's wife Margaret was determined to win back the throne for her husband and her son. With assistance from Louis XI of France, she formed an alliance with Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (known as the 'Kingmaker'), formerly an ally of Edward IV. He defeated the Yorkists and restored Henry to the throne, although Warwick remained the real power. Henry VI's second reign is known as the 'Readeption'.
Following the resumption of the throne by Henry VI, Edward IV returned from exile in Burgundy and defeated Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, at the Battle of Barnet. He then routed a Lancastrian force at Tewkesbury. Among the casualties was Edward, Prince of Wales and heir of Henry VI. Henry VI himself survived little more than a fortnight after the battle. He was murdered, probably in the Tower of London, on 21 May 1471. Edward IV was king of England again.
William Caxton, a former head of the merchant adventurers in Flanders, published the first printed book in England: 'Dictes of Sayengs of the Philosophres'. He had established his press at Westminster after returning from Bruges in 1476. He subsequently printed some works of the 14th century poets Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, and chivalric literature including his contemporary Sir Thomas Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur'.
Edward IV died suddenly in 1483 and his 12-year-old son was proclaimed Edward V. Edward’s uncle, his father’s brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was named protector. Gloucester met the new king on his journey to London and when they reached the capital, lodged him in the Tower of London with his younger brother, also called Richard. In June the boys were declared illegitimate. It was alleged that their father's marriage to their mother, Elizabeth Woodville, had been invalid.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had himself crowned Richard III in July 1483 after having his nephew, Edward V, declared illegitimate the previous month. Both his nephews, the 12-year-old Edward V and his brother, were not seen alive after this time. They had been imprisoned in the Tower of London and were presumed murdered, although it is not clear who was responsible.
After the disappearance of the 'Princes in the Tower' and a failed rebellion by Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, in 1483, opposition to Richard III now focused on the best available Lancastrian claimant, Henry Tudor. In 1485, Tudor raised an army in Wales. The opposing armies of York and Lancaster met for the final time at Bosworth, where Richard III was killed. In January 1486, Tudor married Elizabeth of York, uniting the two houses and ending the Wars of the Roses.
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