William Of LUNEBURG

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: William Of Winchester
• Residence: William Of Winchester

William married Helen Of DENMARK between 1200 and 1202. Helen (daughter of Valdemar I King Of DENMARK and Sophia Of POLOTSK) died in 1233. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Otho The PUER was born in 1204; died on 09 Jun 1252.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Henry V the Lion of Saxony
• Residence: Henry the Lion
• Residence: Between 1142 and 1180, Duke of Saxony
• Residence: Between 1156 and 1180, Duke of Bavaria

Notes:

Henry V was Duke of Saxony 1142-1180 and Bavaria 1156-1180. He was son of Henry the Proud. Henry's first marriage was dissolved in 1162. There was a son who died young and "probable 2 daughters": Gertrude m.(1) Frederick IV (d. 1167, Rome) of Swabia/Rothenburg, son of Conrad III; married (2) Knut VI (d. 1202), King of Denmark ( no issue): and a daughter who died young, "whose name is not certain but may have been Richenza" and who was betrothed to Knut, son of Valdemar of Denmark. Henry the Lion also had an illegitimate daughter, Matilda (b. abt 1155-1156; d. bef 1219), who married after 1167 Henry Borwin I of Mecklenburg, eldest son of Pribislav.

Henry married Matilda Of ENGLAND on 01 Feb 1168 in Cathedral Chruch in Minden. Matilda (daughter of Henry II 'Curtmantle' King Of ENGLAND and Eleanor Of AQUITAINE) was born in 1156 in London, Middlesex, England; died on 28 Jun 1189 in Brunswick, Germany; was buried in St. Blasius, Braunschweig, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Matilda died 8 days before the death of her father; buried aata cathedral church of S. Flasius, Brunswick, of which she had been co-founder, eldest daughter, third child, and ancetor of the house of Burnswick. She was betrothed in 1165.

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:

• 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]