Alianor Of ENGLAND

Notes:

Name:
Alianor of England 'la Brett' (the Damsel of Brittany), only sister of the whole blood and heiress, born 1184, imprisoned by King John, remained in prison under King Henry III, died 10 Aug 1241, unmarried, probably in Corfe Castle, buried, eventually at the convent of Amesbury, co. Wiltshire.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Count of Brittany
• Fact: Earl Of Richmond
• Fact: Between 1171 and 1186, Duke of Brittany

Notes:

Also known as Count of Brittany, Duke of Brittany 1171-1186, Earl of Richmond. Geoffrey was a killed in a jousting tournament in Paris. Arthur Of Brittany, son of Geoffrey and Constance, is believed to have been murdered by his uncle, John, King of England. Their daughter, Eleaor, was kept by John in honourable confinement until her death.

Geoffrey married Constance Of BRITTANY in Jul 1181. Constance (daughter of Conan IV and Margaret Of HUNTINGDON) was born about 1162; died on 4 Sep 1201 in Nantes; was buried on 24 Nov 1225 in Villeneuve. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Constancede Bretagne

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 Eleanor Of AQUITAINE on 18 May 1152 in Bordeaux, France. Eleanor (daughter of William X Duke Of AQUITAINE and Eleanor DE CHATELLERAULT) was born about 1122 in Chateau De Belin, Bordeaux, Aquitaine; died on 31 Mar 1204 in Poiters, Poitou, Aquitaine; was buried in Abbeye De Fontevrault, Fontevrault, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Eleanor Of Aquitaine
• Name: Eleanor Aquatine
• Crowned: Between 17 and 19 Dec 1154, Queen of England at Westminster Abbey
• Crowned: 25 Dec 1137, Queen of France at Bourges

Notes:

Eleanor was crowned with her husband on December 19, 1154 at Westminster Abbey.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Earl of Richmond Duke Of Brittany
• Fact: Conan IV the Little

Conan married Margaret Of HUNTINGDON between 1159 and 1160. Margaret (daughter of Henry Of HUNTINGDON and Ada DE WARENNE) was born in Northumberland, England; died in 1201; was buried in Sawtrey Abbey, Hunts.. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Margaret De Huntingdon

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: 1129, Comte d'Anjou
• Fact: 1144, Duke of Normandy

Notes:

He was called Geoffrey Plantagenet because of the sprig of broom or planta genista which he was said to have worn in his hat. His son, Henry II, became the first of the Plantagenet kings.
He was also known as Count of Anjou and Maine and Touraine, Duke of Normandy.

Name:
On Henry's death in 1135, he claimed the duchy of Normandie, conquering it in 1144. He held the duchy, with that of Anjou, until granting them to his son Henry.

Geoffrey married Maud 'the Empress Maud' Of ENGLAND on 22 May 1127 in Le Mans. Maud (daughter of Henry I "Beauclerc" King Of ENGLAND and Matilda Of SCOTLAND) was born on 7 Feb 1102 in Winchester, England; died on 10 Sep 1167 in Notre Dame, France; was buried in Abbey Of Bec. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Matilda and Henry V had no issues.
• Fact: Empress of Germany
• Crowned: 07 Jan 1114

Notes:

Excerpt from Blood Royal: Her remains were reinterred in 1282 before the high altar; during the revolution, her grave was detroyed. According to the "Dictionary of National Biography", the church and tomb were destroyed by fire in 1263; when it was restored in 1282, her remains were found, 'wrapped in an ox-hide." Her new tomb was stripped of its decorations by the English in 1421; a brass plate marking her grave in 1684 was lost in 1793; and the church was demolished in 1841. In 1846, her lead coffin was rediscovered and moved to the cathedral church of Rouen.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: William VIII of Poitou
• Fact: 1126-1137, Count of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou

William married Eleanor DE CHATELLERAULT in 1121. Eleanor (daughter of Aimeri I Viscount Of CHATELLERAULT and Dangereuse De L'Isle BOUCHARD) was born about 1105 in Chatellerault, Poitou, Aquitaine; died after Mar 1130. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Earl of Richmond

Alan married Bertha Of BRITTANY about 1137. Bertha (daughter of Conan III and Maud Of ENGLAND) was born about 1120 in Bretagne, Indre, France; died in 1158/1164. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland
• Fact: Between 23 Apr 1124 and 1153, Prince of Scotland

Notes:

Henry is also known as Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland.

Henry married Ada DE WARENNE in 1139 in England. Ada (daughter of William II DE WARENNE and Isabel DE VERMANDOIS) was born about 1120 in Surrey, England; died in 1178. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]