The Plantagenets (83 page)

Finally, Plantagenet England now
sounded
English. When Henry II first landed on the wintry coasts of England as a young man in the chilly 1140s, he would have had the most basic, rudimentary understanding of the native language. Certainly he would not have regarded it as a very useful tongue for important conversation. No one of any worth or merit would have spoken English to the king. The languages of Henry II’s court were Norman French and perhaps the
langue d’oc
spoken by Eleanor of Aquitaine and her southern French attendants. The language of official record was Latin.

This state of linguistic affairs continued until relatively late in the Plantagenet years, and in some senses, beyond: for French remained the most sophisticated courtly language, best-suited to the mouths of aristocrats, and Latin an important language of record for courts and government departments. But by the fourteenth century English was rallying. Edward III’s Statute of Pleading, given in celebration of his fiftieth birthday in 1362, at a parliament that marked the highest
point of English medieval kingship during the whole of our period, had made English the language of proceedings in royal courts and parliaments. The stock of the rude native tongue had risen accordingly. By Richard II’s reign, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, William Langland and the
Gawain
poet (among others) were transforming English from a language for dolts and serfs into a language fit for poetry and scholarship. In time, English would become not only a language of princes and kings, but the pre-eminent language in the world.

When Richard II’s body was carried from Pontefract to London, then, it marked both the dismal end of a dynasty and the beginning of a new and troubled century in English history. Richard’s deposition and his agonizing death had truncated the direct line of kings that had begun with Henry II, and it had brought shame upon his realm. Yet it also marked the end-point of a period of transformation, development and growth: a time during which England had emerged as a vibrant and confident nation. During 246 years of turbulent rule, the Plantagenets had forged England in their own image. They had changed a lightly governed, brittle and easily fractured realm into one of the most powerful and sophisticated of the age and, what is more, they had stamped their mark for ever on the English imagination.

FURTHER READING

This note offers a starting point for readers who wish to know more about some of the more important themes and characters discussed in this book.

Anyone wishing to research the lives of English kings – or of any key figure in British history – should begin with the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, now available online for a subscription fee at oxforddnb.com. (Many libraries and institutions provide free access.)

Another useful online source is
British History Online
(britishhistory.ac.uk) – a hub that gives access to many valuable primary and secondary sources and government records. Again, many libraries will have free access. Particularly useful here are the Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (also accessible at sd-editions.com/PROME/home. html).

For readers wishing to sample the primary sources of the period, a very useful starting place is
English Historical Documents
, general editor David C. Douglas, particularly volumes 2, 3 and 4, which between them cover the period 1042–1485. A detailed guide to the building works of the period can be found in
The History of the King’s Works
by H. M. Colvin (2 vols, 1963).

PART I – AGE OF SHIPWRECK (1120–1154)

A useful general study to the early period is
England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings
, by Robert Bartlett (2000). For Henry I the standard biography is C. Warren Hollister’s
Henry I
(2001).

The best recent discussion of Matilda’s life is to be found in
She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth
, by Helen Castor (2010). The last full biography is Marjorie Chibnall’s
The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English
(1993). Also worth consulting on Matilda and every other English queen in the period is
Queens Consort: England’s Medieval Queens
, by Lisa Hilton (2008). For the other side, see David Crouch,
The Reign of King Stephen
(2000) and Edmund King,
The Anarchy of Stephen’s Reign
(1994).

Revealing chronicles are
The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitali
, ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall (1968–90), William of Malmesbury’s
Historia Novella
, trans. K. R. Potter, ed. Edmund King (1998), and the
Gesta Stephani
, ed. and trans. K. R. Potter (1976).

PART II – AGE OF EMPIRE (1154–1204)

As a complete portrait of the Plantagenet founder,
Henry II
by W. L. Warren (1973) remains to be surpassed, although it is best read with an eye on
Henry II: New Interpretations
, ed. Nicholas Vincent and Christopher Harper-Bill (2007).
Eleanor of Aquitaine
by Ralph V. Turner (2009) is the latest biographical study of the first Plantagenet queen consort. Also see
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady
, ed. Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi Parsons (2003). The latest biography of Henry’s troublesome archbishop is
Thomas Becket
, by John Guy (2012). For sources on Becket’s life and death see
The Lives of Thomas Becket
, ed. and trans. Michael Staunton (2001). For Henry’s legal reforms a useful account appears in
A History of English Law Before the Time of Edward
, by Frederick Pollock and F. W. Maitland (1968).

Richard I
by John Gillingham (1999) is the standard biography of the Lionheart. Richard’s adventures in Outremer are summarized and contextualized in
The Crusades
, by Thomas Asbridge (2010). A comparative biography,
Lionheart and Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest
, by Frank McLynn (2006), is strong on Richard’s wars with Philip II.
King John
by W. L. Warren (2nd ed., 1978), tries to balance John’s flaws with his administrative
achievements. Older, more damning biographies include
John Lackland
by Kate Norgate (1902) and
John, King of England
by J. T. Appleby (1959). All should be read alongside
King John: New Interpretations
, ed. S. D. Church (1999). For a broader overview of the Plantagenet wars in Britain and Ireland,
The Struggle For Mastery: Britain 1066–1284
, by David Carpenter (2003), is essential. For the significance of the loss of Normandy, see Daniel Power,
The Norman Frontier in the Twelfth and early Thirteenth Centuries
(2004). The most recent biography of John’s French nemesis is
Philip Augustus: King of France 1180–1223
by Jim Bradbury (1998).

English Historical Documents
vols 2 and 3 contain lengthy extracts from chroniclers including William of Newburgh, Walter Map and Gerald of Wales.
The History of William the Marshal
, ed. A. J. Holding, trans. S. Gregory, historical notes by David Crouch (3 vols 2002–2006), is a tub-thumper worth reading at length. Roger of Howden’s chronicle is in English translation as
The Annals of Roger de Hoveden
, ed. H. T. Riley (1853). An insight into government and administration is Richard FitzNigel’s Dialogue of the Exchequer, published as
Dialogus de Scaccario and Constitutio Domus Regis
, ed. and trans. Emilie Amt and S. D. Church (2007).

PART III – AGE OF OPPOSITION (1204–1263)

The classic study of the revolt against John is
The Northerners: a study in the reign of King John
by J. C. Holt (1961).
Magna Carta
by the same author (2nd ed, 1992) is a brilliant technical study of the charter and contains full texts from 1215 and 1225. John’s role in justice is examined in
The King and His Courts: the role of John and Henry III in the administration of justice, 1199–1240
, by Ralph V. Turner (1968). John’s mistreatment of the English Jews is dealt with in
The English Jewry Under Angevin Kings
, by H. J. Richardson (1960), and put in historical context in
Trials of the Diaspora
by Anthony Julius (2010).

Henry III is one of the few English monarchs lacking a modern biography in the Yale series. Readers should use
Henry III and the Lord Edward: The Community of the Realm in the Thirteenth Century
by F.
M. Powicke (1947),
The Minority of Henry III
by D. A. Carpenter (1990), and the collection of essays in
The Reign of Henry III
by the same author (1996). Henry’s obsession with his royal ancestors is discussed in ‘King Henry III and Saint Edward The Confessor: the Origins of the Cult’, by D. A. Carpenter, in
English Historical Review
122 (2007). Also important is
Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester 1205–38: An Alien in English Politics
, by Nicholas Vincent (1996). For the wars of the 1250s and 1260s, see
Simon de Montfort
, by J. R. Maddicott (1994). The Lord Edward’s early involvement in political crisis is narrated very well in Marc Morris,
A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain
(2008); for Edward’s political education before his accession, see ‘Edward I and the Lessons of Baronial Reform’ in
Thirteenth Century England
, i (1986).

Roger of Wendover’s Flowers of History
, trans. J. A. Giles (1849), is valuable on John’s struggles with the barons. Matthew Paris, who continued Wendover’s chronicle, was close to Henry III’s court – his writing is published in Latin as
Matthaei Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora
, ed. H. R. Luard (7 vols, 1872–3). Correspondence of Henry’s court is collected in
Royal and Other Historical Letters Illustrative of the Reign of King Henry III
, ed. W. W. Shirley (2 vols, 1862–1886). Papers relating to the war with de Montfort are collected in
Documents of the Baronial Movement of Reform and Rebellion 1258–1267
, ed. R. F. Treharne and I. J. Sanders (1973). Contemporary poems and sources from the age of opposition are collected in
Thomas Wright’s Political Songs of England
, ed. P. Cross (1996).

PART IV – AGE OF ARTHUR (1264–1307)

See
Edward I
, by Michael Prestwich (1988), and
Edward I
, by E. L. G. Stones (1968) for comprehensive biographies. Edward I’s obsession with King Arthur looms large in
A Great and Terrible King
, by Marc Morris (2008), and is considered in detail in ‘Edward I: Arthurian Enthusiast’ by R. S. Loomis in
Speculum
28 (1953). For Edward’s castles, see ‘Master James of St George’ by A. J. Taylor in
English Historical Review
65 (1950) and
Castle: A History of the Buildings That Shaped Medieval Britain
, by Marc Morris (2003). For individual castles, see
The History of the King’s Works
by H. M. Colvin (ed.) (2 vols, 1963).

For Edward I and Wales, see
The Age of Conquest: Wales 1063–1415
by R. R. Davies (2000) and the same author’s
Domination and Conquest
(1990). On Scotland, see
The Kingship of the Scots, 842–1292
by A. A. M. Duncan (2002) and
Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland 1286–1306
, by F. Watson (1998). The process of English lawmaking by statute, which also developed in Edward I’s reign, is important to the long-term processes described in
From Memory to Written Record
by M. T. Clanchy (2nd ed. 1993). For Edward’s most difficult year, see
Baronial Opposition to Edward I: the earls and the crisis of 1297
, by Michael J. Hodder (1976).

The original architect of Arthuriana can still be read:
Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain
, ed. L Thorpe (1966). The laws of Edward’s reign are collected in vol. I of
The Statutes of the Realm
, ed. A. Luders, T. E. Tomlins, J. France, W. E. Taunton and J. Raithby (1810). Papers relating to the Great Cause are collected in
Edward I and the Throne of Scotland 1290–1296: An Edition of the Record Sources for the Great Cause
, ed. E. L. G. Stones and G. G. Simpson (2 vols, 1977). For sources concerning Edward’s government under attack, see
Documents Illustrating the Crisis of 1297–98 in England
, ed. M. Prestwich (1980). A non-contemporary but valuable Scottish chronicle perspective on Edward’s wars is
Scalacronica by Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, Knight
, ed. J. Stevenson (1836).

PART V – AGE OF VIOLENCE (1307–1330)

Edward II
by Seymour Phillips (2010) is the new standard biography, which complements
King Edward II
by Roy Martin Haines (2003). Additional aspects are considered in
The Reign of Edward II: New Perspectives
, ed. Gwilym Dodd and Anthony Musson (2006). The end of the reign is discussed in
The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II 1321– 1326
by Natalie Fryde (1979). The king’s folly and his nemesis are
considered respectively in
Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall
by J. S. Hamilton (1988) and
Thomas of Lancaster
by J. R. Maddicott (1970). On his later favourites see ‘The Charges Against The Despensers, 1321’, by Michael Prestwich in
Bulletins of the Institute of Historical Research
48 (1985).

Context is given to Edward’s reign in
The Fourteenth Century
by M. McKisack (1959) and
Plantagenet England, 1225–1360
by Michael Prestwich (2005). For biographical information on Edward’s wife, see ‘Isabella, the She-Wolf of France’, by H. Johnstone in
History
, new series 21 (1936–7). For theories of Edward’s survival see
The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, Ruler of England 1327–1330
by Ian Mortimer (2003) and ‘The Death of Edward II in Berkeley Castle’, by the same author in
English Historical Review
120 (2005).