Ida LONGESPEE

Family/Spouse: Sir Walter FITZ ROBERT. Walter (son of Robert FITZ WALTER and Rohese) died in bef. 10 Apr 1285. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Ela FITZ WALTER died about 1312.
2. Sir Robert FITZ WALTER was born in 1247; died on 18 Jan 1325/6.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Earl of Salisbury

Notes:

William was a Crusader fighting at Mansura on the Nile; later buried in Acre

William married Idonea DE CAMVILLE in 1226. Idonea (daughter of Richard DE CAMVILLE and Eustachia BASSET) was born about 1209 in Brattleby, Lincolnshire, England; died between 01 Jan 1251 and Sep 1252. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Earl of Salisbury

Notes:

William was the illegitimate sone of Henry II, King of England.
According to the Dictionary of National Biography edited by Stephen and Lee: there is no positive evidence in favour of William being the son of Rosamond.

William married Ela Countess Of SALISBURY in 1198. Ela (daughter of William FITZ PATRICK and Eleanor DE VITRE) was born about 1187 in Amesbury, England; died on 24 Aug 1261 in Lacock, Wiltshire, England; was buried in Lacock Abbey, Lacock, Wiltshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Ela Fitzpatrick
• Birth: Abt 1191

Notes:

Ela was buried in the monastery that she built for nuns at Lacock, Wiltshire.

Richard married Eustachia BASSET. Eustachia (daughter of Gilbert BASSETT and Egelina DE COURTENAY) was born about 1176 in Bicester, England; died in 1215. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Henry II Curt mantel Plantagenet
• Fact: Count of Maine and Anjou
• Fact: Reigned until 1189
• Name: Henry Of Anjou
• Name: II Henry
• Birth: 25 Mar 1133
• Fact: Between 1154 and 1189, King of England
• Crowned: 19 Dec 1154, Westminster Abbey

Notes:

Henry was crowned December 19, 1154 at Westminster Abbey. He was called Curtmantle because of the short capes he preferred over the stylish longer capes.

Name:
He became Duc de Normandie et du Maine, and Comte d'Anjou by inheritance from his mother and father. By his marriage to Eleanore of Aquitaine, Henry acquired the duchy of Aquitaine together with Gascony, Poitou and Auvergne. By the Treaty of Winchester in 1153 Henry was recognised as King Stephen's heir. He reached England on 8 Dec 1154, and crowned King of England on 19 Dec 1154, with direct rule over England and southern Wales, and a claim to the overlordship of northern Wales. His domain of England, Wales, and the French lands acquired from inheritance and marriage (ruled as separate components), was termed the 'Angevin empire' (as his father was Cote d'Anjou). The overlord of his French lands, the king of France, had directed control of a much smaller domain than henry himself. In 1171 Henry annexed Ireland though controlling the eastern part only. He had little difficulty in curbing the disorder of Stephen's reign and restoring the royal authority. He encouraged the development of juries of presentment of local men in the investigation of crimes, and trial of those accused by royal justices. His writs to sheriffs improved the disposition of claims over possession of property and benefices thereby discouraging local self-help violent ejection and usurpation. By relying on financial and legal experts and a permanent court at Westminster he fostered the establishment of those two professions and the replacement of Roman law by English common law. Henry's reassertion of the king's rights over the church, in particular that clerics were subject to his courts and not solely to ecclesiastical courts, led to the quarrel with his former chancellor Thomas Becket, who, as Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his cathedral at Henry's instigation in 1170. Henry spent much of his reign in France, upholding his authority in his numerous lordships and attempting to extend his rule. There he encountered the hostility of the French kings, who encouraged the grievances of his quarrelsome sons. Henry II of England, King of England, died at Chinon in Normandy on 8 July 1189 in the midst of a rebellion by his sons. They were buried at Fontevralt Abbey in Anjou, where their tomb effigies may be seen.

The Plantagenets
1154-1399

The surname of this remarkable family derives from the nickname borne of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, between 1129 and 1251. Geoffrey, the father of Henry II, wore a spring of flowering broom (Planta genista) as his personal badge.

The first Plantagenet king of England was Henry II, and he is generally regarded as the greatest of them. Thirteen more kings followed him in a dynasty that ruled for 331 years, although for the last 86 years, rival families within the dynasty struggling to seize the crown took the names of Lancaster and York, even though all were Plantagenets. for much of this long period, the kings were involved in costly and largely unproductive wars with France and Scotland, and in power struggles with the over-mighty barons at home. As a dynasty, the Plantagenets made their greatest contribution in the development of English law, especially the unique Common Law, and by sponsoring a splendid architectural heritage.

Henry's succession in 1154 made him lord of a vast empire, and he was equipped with all the intellectual and physical qualities to rule it well. Henry began by destroying the castles built by rebellious barons during Stephen's reign, and then set about regulating the power of the Church. Although the latter years of his reign were plagues by family revolts, his vast empire was still intact when he died in 1189.

When Henry I became King of England in 1154 he was already Count of Anjou and of Touraine, andDuke of Normandy and of Aquitaine. As such, he was lord of an empire that stretched from the Cheviot Hills down to the Pyrenees, his territories in France exceeding even those of the French king. Known as the Angevin Empire (because the country of Anjou lay at its heart), this vast domain was held together by diplomacy and force of arms, and remained intact up to the death of Richard I in 1199.

In 1164 Henry se out various Church reforms in the Constitutions of Clarendon. These included the proposal that the clergy or others associated with the Church, if charged with a criminal offence, should be tried in the civil courts, and tat no appeal could be made to rome without the Kings consent. Despite fierce opposition from the Church, these reforms were adopted. The King quarreled with Thomas a Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, over the new laws and, although the two men were reconciled, they again quarreled in 1170. In exasperation, henry cried out: 'Will not someone rid me of this turbulent priest?' Four of Henry's knights responded to the King's outburst and set off for Canterbury, where they pursued the archbishop into his cathedral and murdered him in front of the altar.

Henry married Rosamond DE CLIFFORD. Rosamond (daughter of Walter DE CLIFFORD and Margaret DE TONI) was born about 1136 in Clifford Castle, Cliford, Herefordshire, England; died about 1176 in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England; was buried in Godstow Nunnery, Wolvercote, Oxfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Earl of Wiltshire, Earl Of Salisbury

William married Eleanor DE VITRE about 1190. Eleanor (daughter of Robert III DE VITRE and ? UNKNOWN) died in 1232/3. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Dau. of Robert III de Vitre

Gerald married Nichola HAYE. Nichola (daughter of Richard HAYE and Maud VERNON) was born about 1151 in Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gilbert married Egelina DE COURTENAY. Egelina was born about 1155 in Colston, Nottinghamshire, England; died about 1214. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]