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 fiancйe 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:

All “free man” protection of his officials

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.

“Summing up the events of the late 12th century and the early 13th century historians describe as “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 forming Parliament. The 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. In England there began grammar schools. But all of them taught Latin. In the end of the 12th century in England appeared two schools of higher learning - Oxford and Cambridge. By 1220 this universities became the intellectual leaders of the century.”(13)

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.