Royal: Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, 1341-1402

The two warring factions of the Plantagenets, the Houses of York and Lancaster, would spring from two sons of Edward III and his wife, Philippa of Hainault.  Though Edmund of Langley was a staunch supporter of his older brother, John of Gaunt, the ancestor of the Lancastrians, Edmund's descendants would become the Yorkist side of the family.

As his name implies, Edmund was born at Langley Palace in Hertfordshire.  His godfather had been the Earl of Surrey, and on his death, Edmund inherited his estate, becoming a wealthy young man at an early age.  He saw his first service in France under his father at the age of 18 in 1359 and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1361.  Throughout the 1370's, he was part of several military campaigns in France, and also joined his brother John of Gaunt in Gaunt's attempts to claim the Castilian throne in light of his 2nd wife, Constance of Castile.  By this time, Edmund was married to Constance's sister, Isabella of Castile, by whom Edmund had 3 children.  As things turned out, Gaunt agreed to marry one of his daughters to another claimant of the Castilian throne, Henry III of Castile, and give up his Castilian ambitions. 

Edmund enjoyed the confidence of his young nephew, Richard II, who made him Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle.  Edmund also served as keeper of the realm when Richard was on campaign in Ireland, and later when Richard II was courting his 2nd wife, Isabella of Valois.  Edmund was created Duke of York in 1385..  Richard II considered making Edmund's son, Edward, his heir in the event he had no children.  Later, in 1399, while Richard was again away in Ireland, an army led by John of Gaunt's son, Henry Bolingbroke invaded England, intent of seizing the crown.  Edmund initially rallied an army to oppose Henry, but later threw in his lot with him against Richard.  Edmund's defection was a factor in Richard's decision to surrender to the usurpers rather than fight any longer.  Richard would die in captivity in 1400.  Edmund would retire from public life and die in 1402.  His first wife Isabella had died and he had married again, a distant cousin with Plantagenet descent, Joan Holland.  The couple had no children. 

It is from Edmund's third son, Richard of Conisborough, that the York side of the dynasty descends.  Thus, through Richard, Edmund is an ancestor of every English king from Edward IV to the present time.  Edmund is also a character, as Duke of York, in Shakespeare's play, Richard II.   

Place: Corfe Castle, Dorset, England

The various Houses on Game of Thrones aren't the only ones who can dish out vicious punishment on anyone who crosses them up.  House Plantagenet was no joke when it came to anyone who refused to pay their debts or keep their little whispers to themselves.

Corfe Castle sets on the Isle of Purbeck, which is actually a peninsula in Dorset, England.  The castle guards a gap in the Purbeck Hills, hence the name ceorfan, in Old English.  William the Conqueror realized the strategic value of this castle right away, since he insured that, like the White Tower in London, it was built mostly of stone.  Henry I also spent time and money fortifying the castle, which held out against King Stephen during the Anarchy.  The first three Plantagenet monarchs, Henry II, Richard I and John didn't do much refurbishing but John in particular used it as a prison.  His niece, Eleanor of Brittany was imprisoned there by John and Henry III until her death in 1222.  At least she was maintained alive.  Two other members of a prominent family that aroused King John's wrath weren't quite so lucky.

The Braose family were Marcher lords, guardians of vast territory on the Welsh Marches, or borders of England.  They had been loyal to the Plantagenet dynasty.  William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, was a personal friend of John's, which probably accounts for John's loan of 5,000 marks to de Braose.  Perhaps because of the loan, the King began to suspect that de Braose might be wavering in his loyalty.  He demanded that de Braose hand over his oldest son, also William, as a hostage for his continued loyal behavior.  De Braose refused and he was backed up in his refusal by his wife Maud.  Maud was a redoubtable woman who often had to defend her husband's castles against Welsh sieges, and administer his estates, including ordering renovations on their properties, such as Hay Castle, when need be.  The legend that she was over six feet tall and wore armor is probably an exaggeration, but befits the woman.  She prepared her castles for war and, when John sent an army to take William, Jr., fled with him to Trim Castle in County Meath, Ireland.  William, Sr., meanwhile had dressed himself as a beggar and fled to the Continent, hoping to seek asylum in France.

Maud and her son were tracked to Ireland, where Maud is said to have remarked in the hearing of several people that she and her son weren't about to surrender to a King who killed his own nephew.  This in reference to Eleanor of Brittany's older brother Arthur, Duke of Brittany, who died in about 1203 of circumstances unknown.  One thing the Plantagenets did not tolerate was anyone nosing into their business or calling their family drama into question.  Maud and her son were captured by an Irish earl loyal to John and turned over to him.  He had them imprisoned in Corfe Caslte where, unlike Eleanr, they simply disappeared.  Most likely, they were allowed to starve.  Situations such as this, where the King imprisoned without trial nobles or their families may have indirectly led to Magna Carta, one of whose provisions was that "no man should be taken, imprisoned or outlawed...except by judgment of his peers or the law of the land."

Corfe Castle remained in royal hands until Elizabeth I sold it to her favorite, Christopher Hatton.  It withstood two Parliamentary sieges during the English Civil War, both commanded by the then lady of the Castle, Lady Mary Banks, wife of Charles I's Attorney General.  She ultimately had to surrender during the second siege in 1645, at which time the castle was slighted, or partially destroyed.

The Prince of Wales Feathers

The three gathered plumes of the Prince of Wales Feathers is a well-known motif, probably because of the famous pieces of jewelry featuring the design and owned by Wallis, Duchess of Windsor and later Elizabeth Taylor, as well as Diana, Princess of Wales and now Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.  The emblem and its motto are one of the oldest associated with the British Royal Family that are still in use, along with the three lions rampant of the Plantagenet family itself.

A feather emblem is associated with the first English Prince of Wales, Edward, the Black Prince, 1330-1376.  Edward used a shield of three silver feathers on a black field as his peace shield or tournament shield, as opposed to the royal arms, which would have been used in combat or for other purposes.  There are various legends for how he came by the design for his peace shield, one being that he defeated King John of Bohemia in a joust and took over the King's feathered helmet along with his motto of "Ich Dien".  In fact, King John used vultures wings as his personal emblem and the Ich Dien phrase may have come from an earlier association with Wales.  Ich dien, German for I Serve, sounds a lot like Eich Dyn, meanng Your Man.  According to another, more believable legend, Edward III had presented his son, who is also known as Edward of Caernarvon, from being born at Caernarvon Castle, to the Welsh people with the phrase, "your man" or some equivalent.  Over time, Eich Dyn became Ich Dien, probably during the 17th century, and stayed that way.

The feather emblem itself may have had associations with Edward's mother's family, Philippa of Hainault.  Feathers as a heraldic symbol first appeared at the wedding of Philippa and Edward III.  The Counts of Luxembourg, through whom Philippa was descended, also used a feather emblem.  From there, many members of the English royal family adopted various forms of the feather, including the Black Prince's brother, John of Gaunt, Edward's biological son Roger de Clarendon, as well as the future King Richard II.  Henry IV adopted the badge with the motto Ma Sovereign, meaning basically I am the Sovereign.  Henry V and his brothers including John, Duke of Bedford, Thomas, Duke of Clarence and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester also used feather emblems.

Three feathers gathered into a plume was first used as a badge by Arthur, the son of Henry VII Tudor and a Plantagenet on his mother's side.  Prince Edward, the son of Henry VIII also used the 3-feathered emblem, as did Elizabeth 1.  It wasn't until the 17th century when the three feathers and the motto became exclusively associated with the Prince of Wales.  Today, the feathers are often used by Regiments which have an association with Wales or the Prince of Wales.  During World War I, there was some though of reverting Ich Dien to Eich Dyn to get rid of the German origin of the phrase, but that was never carried out and the motto remains Ich Dien to this day.  Perhaps in a bout of wishful thinking on behalf of her husband, Wallis, Duchess of Windsor had a design of the Prince of Wales Feathers made into a brooch, which was auctioned at her death and bought by Elizabeth Taylor, current whereabouts of the jewel are unknown.  Princess Diana owned a necklace with a diamond encrusted Prince of Wales Feathers emblem and a jeweled drop.  Camilla sometimes wears the piece, along with a diamond-encrusted feather brooch of her own.

The Avignon Papacy

A running theme throughout the Medieval world was the constant struggle between the Popes and various Kings, the Church versus royal authority.  The Medieval Papacy was a feudal institution and it was a wealthy one.  In addition to his spiritual authority as head of the Church, the Pope wielded secular authority over the Papal States, a swath of land in central Italy, as well as other properties throughout Europe.  Peter's Pence was collected throughout Europe and church officials, who often themselves presided over manors and other lucrative property, had to acknowledge both a secular overlord, the local king or duke, as well as a spiritual overlord in the Pope.  This dual authority gave Popes wide latitude in dictating policy to various kings.  While the Pope could be an effective intermediary or diplomat, he could also throw the weight of the Papacy behind one ruler or another in a dispute, using as well the weapons of excommunication and interdict to enforce his will.

For centuries, since the fall of the Roman empire, the Papacy had revolved among leading Italian families, Colonnas, Orsinis and others.  Foreign Popes happened, but they were rare.  Rome's families tended to treat the Papacy and the man who held the current title as their own private preserve, feeling free to depose Popes who didn't suit their will.  In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII, a Caetani by birth, issued a bull called Unam Sanctam, in which he claimed that it was necessary for salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Papacy.  Thus, every person in Europe, from Kings to commoners, owed fealty to the Pope as their secular overlord.  Phillip IV of France, no one to be trifled with, responded that, "your venerable conceitedness may know that we are nobody's vassal in temporal matters."  Stung, Boniface put France under general excommunication and interdict, deposing any clergy not loyal to the Papacy over the King.  Phillip arranged with Italian allies of France to have men break into the Papal Palace and severely beat Boniface, who died shortly thereafter.

Nicholas Boccasini was elected as Pope Benedict IX.  He absolved Phillip IV and his powerful allies of any sin for the attack on Boniface, though the actual perpetrators were ordered to appear before a pontifical tribunal.  Then Benedict XI died and an eleven month conclave ensued before finally Bertrand de Got, a personal friend of Phillip's, took office as Pope Clement V.  Rome was furious that a Roman hadn't been elected Pope, making it highly dangerous for the new Pope to go to Rome.  Instead, and probably with Phillip's pressure behind the scenes, Clement V decided to stay in France, or at least territory conveniently close thereto.  They eventually settled in a Palace located at Avignon, then part of an independent Kingdom of Arles but technically under French purview, and officially moved the Papal Curia there.  Avignon and some territory surrounding it were added to the Papal States and remained so until the French Revolution, when it reverted back to France.  From 1305 through 1377, the Papacy functioned from Avignon and all the Popes and and/or anti-Popes who served from that time period were French.  It wasn't until a Frenchman, Gregory IX finally decided a few years after his accession that it was time to return to Rome.

This period of time was known in Church history as the Babylonian Captivity, referring to the Biblical period of captivity of the Israelites in Babylon.  But there were other reasons for the reference.  Southern France, which included places such as Aquitaine, was always known for its more liberal culture.  The nobility lived well, adorned themselves and their palaces with the finest in fabrics and jewels, listened to the music of troubadours and poems and stories of love and its many dramas.  They saw nothing wrong with affairs, as long as they were discreet, and celibacy wasn't strictly enforced.  This attitude soon prevailed among the Papal courtiers, assuring in decades of decadence, nepotism and excess.  While Reformers raged against the debauchery of the Papal Court, nobody could do anything about it and strong kings, such as England's Edward III, could pull their kingdoms away from the orbit the Church, ruling more as they saw fit without the in-put of the Pope.

Queen: Margaret of France, c 1279-1318

Love wasn't expected to be a part of royal or noble marriages.  People of high rank married for dynastic or diplomatic purposes.  If the two partners treated each other well and grew to respect and trust one another, great.  If not, men, and sometimes women sought their consolation elsewhere.  That which we know today as romantic love was considered silly, if not some type of mental or physical illness.  That's not saying that some royal marriages didn't turn into genuine love matches.  Lightening stuck in the same place twice for Edward I of England.

Margaret, or Marguerite, c 1279-1318, was the daughter of Phillip III of France and his wife Maria of Brabant.  Her father died when she was 3, so Margaret was brought up by her mother and by Jeanne of Navarre, the wife of her older half-brother Phillip IV.  Meanwhile in England, Edward and his wife Eleanor of Castile had forged a bond of union that saw them through the deaths of several of their children, the Plague, a Crusade, and a few other ups and downs in between.  Then Eleanor died in 1290, when Edward was 49 years old.  Royal business stopped for several days as the King grieved his wife, and planned a unique tribute, 12 stone crosses tracing the route of her funeral procession to London.  Edward's heart didn't want to take another chance, but his mind knew he had only one son.  Eventually, he would have to marry again for the sake of the realm.

He set his sights on France in an effort to play off the larger kingdom on the Continent against the Scots in his backyard.  He betrothed his son, the future Edward II to Blanche, Margaret's sister.  However, Edward became aware that Blanche was considered a great beauty and decided to take Blanche as his own wife.  The French king agreed, also agreeing to give up Gascony to the English.  Edward sent his brother, Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, to bring Blanche across the Channel for her wedding.  The only problem was that Blanche was already betrothed to Rudolph, the oldest son and heir of the King of Germany.  Phillip offered Margaret instead.  Edward called off any weddings and declared war on France.  Five years later, with the Pope's mediation, a truce was agreed.  It provided that Edward would marry Margaret and his son would marry Phillip's daughter Isabella.  The English would retain Guyenne, as well as Eleanor of Castile's dower lands in Ponthieu and Montreuil as the dower for Margaret and later Isabella.

Edward was 60 and Margaret was about 20 when they married in Canterbury Cathedral in 1299.  She was invested with the crown of England, or given the right to wear it as queen consort, but not formally crowned.  Edward soon had to hurry off to Scotland and, to his delight, Margaret chose to follow.  Their son, Thomas of Brotherton was born in 1300, with a brother Edmund, born in 1301, they would also have a daughter.  Like her husband, Margaret was fond of chess and minstrels.  She was a patroness of charities, including the Franciscan order.  She and her stepson, the future Edward II, got along well and whenever Edward Senior and Junior got into an altercation, Margaret could smooth things over.  Edward I wasn't a man to be trifled with and wasn't above ordering anyone who crossed him up to be put to death.  He was also a strict enforcer of English law.  Many reprieves from the period attest that the pardon was granted due to the intercession of Margaret.  Unfortunately for her, Edward died in 1207, leaving her a 26-year-old widow with three children all dependent on the now Edward II for their survival.

Margaret could have married again, but stated that, "after Edward, all men are dead to me."  She became more pious and more involved with the Franciscan Order in England.  Friction developed between her and Edward II when he gave his favorite, Piers Gaveston, the Earldom of Cornwall, which Edward I had intended for their son Thomas.  Gaveston also helped himself to some of Margaret's dower properties in England.  But Margaret had remained in touch with her brother Phillip IV and her niece Isabella, Edward's wife.  Margaret threw her support and a generous monetary donation behind the barons' efforts to unseat Gaveston, which eventually led to his exile and enabled her to reclaim her property.  She was present at the birth of the future Edward III in 1312.

Margaret died at Marlborough and was buried in the habit of the Franciscan Order at Christ Church Greyfriars, in London.  Her tomb was destroyed in the Reformation.

Treaty: Le Goulet, 1200

The Capetians and the Plantagenets were in an almost constant state of war during the time of the Angevin Empire of 1154-1214, and of course the issue was land.  While the Plantagenet kings held dominion over almost half of what makes up modern day France, they were in theory under the Capets as their overlords.  Try telling that to Henry II, Richard I or John, who didn't believe they were beholden to anybody.  The various English and French kings involved during this period made several treaties, and just as soon broke them.  The treaty between John and Phillip II Augustus of France in 1200 was just another piece of paper.

The treaty's name comes from Gueleton Island in the Seine River near Vernon, Normandy.  It called on Phillip to recognize John as King of England, even though John's teenage nephew, Arthur Duke of Brittany had the more senior claim as the son of Geoffrey, the brother between John and Richard in birth order.  John had to recognize Phillip as his overlord for all the Plantagenet holdings on the Continent including most of Normandy, and recognize that Phillip, not John, was the overlord of the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders.  John also agreed not to support any rebellion undertaken by the two counts aforementioned.  Phillip demanded 20,000 marks of silver to allow John to keep suzerainty of Brittany, and thus Arthur, and to keep the Plantagenet family's home province of Anjou under his own domain. 

Because Eleanor of Aquitaine was still alive and neither King wanted to cross her up, Aquitaine and Poitou were left out of the equation.  John's niece Blanche of Castile, from his sister Eleanor, was married to Phillip's son Louis to seal the treaty.  Despite the marriage, the treaty blew up within two years.  In 1202, John refused to answer a summons to appear before Phillip to answer charges that John was once again intriguing with some of Phillip's vassals for rebellion.  Phillip declared John dispossessed of his ancestral lands and invaded Normandy.  John rallied an army to deal with the threat, the first of many costly endeavors which would see England lose Normandy, Anjou, Maine and Touraine by 1214.  So much for treaties.

 

Rival: Phillip II Augustus of France, 1165-1223

There's one in every family, an annoying in-law who has to butt in to every bit of family drama, and has to prove that he's a cut above everybody else.  Phillip II of France, 1165-1223, was a pain in the behind of four Plantagenet Kings, from Henry II to Henry III.  And the feeling was mutual.  But Phillip often gets a bad rap.  Against rambunctious Henry II and heroic Richard I, Phillip comes across as a weasel, a bumbler, or even a nelly if the plotline in Lion in Winter is to be believed.  In reality, he was a capable ruler who was able to strip the Plantagenets of over half their territory in France, among other accomplishments.  He was called Augustus in his own time because of his many accomplishments, including consolidating much of what is now French territory.

Like all family feuds, there was serious backstory to this one.  Phillip's father was Louis VII.  Louis' first wife had been Eleanor of Aquitaine.  The marriage was annulled by mutual consent of both parties when Eleanor managed to produce only two daughters.  It didn't help that when she married the newly-crown Henry II of England that she bore him no less than 5 sons, four of whom lived to adulthood.  Louis VII and Henry II were two grumpy old men, bickering over land and who owed homage to whom for what piece of it.  Henry's growing brood reminded Louis that, after two wives, he had no heir.  The Plantagenets would have loved to scoop up more Capetian territory in the even of a default in the succession.  Then, in 1165, with his third wife, Adele of Champagne, Louis' luck changed.  She gave birth to a boy, Phillip, who was known in France as le dieudonne, or the God-Given.  Phillip received the standard education for royal males, learning how to fight, hunt and rule a kingdom.  One day, at the age of 13, he became lost of a hunt in the Forest of Compeigne, and caught a dangerous fever.  Louis VII stepped foot into Henry II's realm to make a pilgrimage to the new shrine of St. Thomas Becket for his son's recovery, and it worked.

Louis VII wasted no time having Phillip crowned as a junior king, much as Henry II had done with his own surviving son, Henry.  Henry II attended the coronation.  He and Louis hand long since done some matchmaking of their own.  Phillip older half-sister Marguerite was married to Henry the Young King.  An even older half-sister Alys was betrothed to the next in line, Richard.  Only that marriage was never consummated and it was rumored that Alys was in fact Henry II's mistress.  Meanwhile, Phillip married as his first wife an Isabella of Hainault (there were several women with this name and designation) and began to take over the kingdom as Louis VII slipped into senility.  He became King on Louis' death in 1180.  Phillip lost no time consolidating his lands, becoming the first king to style himself King of France rather than King of the Franks.  He would engage in several costly wars with powerful vassals and rivals, including the Plantagenets.  Technically, Henry II owed Phillip homage for Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine.  Henry wasn't about to bend the knee.  Then in 1183 Young Henry died and Marguerite was left a widow.  Henry II wasn't about to return her dower lands, either.

Marguerite was married off to King Bela of Hungary and Henry II had to return her dowry.  Then Geoffrey Plantagenet died in 1186 and Henry II insisted on remaining guardian of Geoffrey's heir, who was also an heir to England, Arthur of Brittany.  As Arthur's overlord, it was Phillip's right to be Arthur's guardian.  The question of when Richard would either marry Alys or return her and her dowry kept coming up and coming up.  Phillip aligned himself with Henry's two surviving sons, Richard and John, who were in rebellion against the old man.  They were on the verge of victory when Henry II died in 1189 and Phillip had a new King of England, and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine to deal with, Richard.  In real life, they weren't lovers.  They could barely stand to be in the same room together.  In 1189 crusade fever was sweeping Europe and both Richard and Phillip were too busy putting together their respective national contingents of knights and men-at-arms to do more than snipe at one another.  No sooner had Philip reached the Holy Land than he realized that Richard not only wasn't marrying Alys, he'd married Berengaria of Navarre and wasn't returning Alys and her dower.

The two armies wintered in Messina and later arrived in time for the Siege of Acre, which fell in 1191.  During the final battles, the Count of Flanders, another important vassal died and Phillip had to leave the Holy Land to settle the inheritance as Flanders' overlord.  Richard made a cute comment about, "it is a shame and disgrace on my lord if he goes away without having finished the business that brought him thither.  But still, if he finds himself in bad health or is afraid to die here, his will be done."  Richard wasn't only busy impressing Saladin, he was also making serious enemies.  The remark got back to Phillip.  He was also aware that John, Richard's brother, was gaining strength in England and on the verge of ousting Richard's justiciar, William Longchamp.  Phillip was only too happy to lend his support to John.  He also began attacking Richard's lands in Normandy, though he was still under the Crusader's vow not to make war on a fellow king away on God's business.  When word reached Phillip that Richard had been captured in 1193, Phillip invaded the Vexin, ironically part of Alys' dowry.  Richard's councilors came to a deal to allow Phillip to keep some of this property, provided he cease any further aggressive activity.  Then, everyone knowing what Richard's reaction would be, tried to bribe Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI to keep Richard.

Henry had his money coming, so wasn't interested.  He released Richard, who hurried back to England, collected a fleet of ships and returned to Normandy, bent on war with Phillip.  The two men sparred back and forth for the next few years of Richard's life.  At one point, Phillip had Arthur of Brittany under his control and he received back Alys and her dowry.  Richard soon began gaining on Phillip, winning back most of the Vexin and Normandy.  They had agreed to further mediation when Richard was killed putting down a rebellion in Normandy in 1199.  On to Plantagenet King number 3, John Lackland.  Phillip and John initially signed the Treaty of Le Goulet in 1200, agreeing that John was Phillip's vassal for Normany, Anjou, Maine and Touraine.  John agreed to pay Phillip 2,000 marks.  Phillip agreed to accept John as King of Normandy, throwing Arthur under a bus (or a cart).  No sooner had the ink dried on this treaty than the two old frenemies, John and Phillip, were once more at war with one another.

By 1204, most of the Angevin empire, including much of Aquitaine and Normandy had fallen into Phillip's hands.  John would launch one campaign after another in an attempt to get it all back, costing much money, men and materiel in the process and further angering his own barons.  In 1214, at the Battle of Bouvines, the Plantagenets lost the core of their Continental empire for good and John was out of options.  By 1215, his own barons had forced him to agree to the Magna Carta, and John was embroiled in a war for his own throne during which he would die of dysentery in 1216.  By this time, Phillip's son and heir Louis had marched to England with an army and was in possession of London as a pseudo-king.  It would take all of William Marshal's military skill to eject Louis and drive the French back across the Channel.  Phillip was, by this time, too busy to bother with a 9-year-old King of a distant kingdom when he was sitting on so much Plantagenet family real estate.  He turned his attention to other conflicts and died in 1223.  He's buried in the Basilica S. Denis in Paris.

Royal: Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, 1300-1338

King Edward I had many children by his two successive wives, but like most parents, he suffered a great deal of bereavement.  Several of his children by his first wife, Eleanor of Castile died either of infant mortality or even of plague.  Years after Eleanor's death, Edward married again, Margaret of France, having two sons and a daughter to comfort his old age.  Thomas of Brotherton was the first of these boys, the younger half-brothers of Edward II.

Thomas, 1300-1338, as his name suggests, was born in Brotherton, Yorkshire.  Margaret had intended to have her baby at Cawood, but went into labor early in Brotherton, after following a hunt.  Even in those days, women rode along with the men as they hunted.  The delivery was hard and Margaret attributed her and the child's survival to St. Thomas Becket and honored him with the baby's name.  Edward I was overjoyed that he'd had another son.  His only son by Eleanor to survive was the future Edward II, with whom the King often didn't get along.  Edward was a careful father to Thomas and Edmund, the little brother who came a year after.  Their education consisted of learning how to be men in the Plantagenet family, which meant learning early the skills leading to knighthood and later combat.  Edward died in 1307 and Thomas was heir presumptive to his older brother until the birth of Edward II's son, Edward III in 1312.  Edward II intended to give his younger brother the Earldom of Cornwall, then as now often a perk of a royal heir.  However, he decided to give this earldom to his favorite, Piers Gaveston.  Roger Bigod, the last of the Bigod Earls of Norfolk had recently passed without heirs, so his earldom reverted to the Crown.  Edward gave Thomas the Earldom instead, in 1312.

The young Earl of Norfolk was given an additional honor in 1316, that of Earl Marshal.  This title made him the premier earl of England.  The Earl Marshal was one of the Great Officers of State, historically in charge of the King's horses and bodyguard, as well as ceremonial events like coronations, weddings and funerals.  While Edward II was away in Scotland, Thomas was made Keeper of the Realm, but his own fiery lion's temper got the better of him.  He was soon at odds with both the Despenser family and Queen Isabella.  However, he sided with Isabella and Mortimer when they invaded England and overthrew Edward II in 1327.  Thomas presided over the trials of the Despensers, and was young Edward III's most trusted advisor.  Thomas commanded the English right wing at Halidon Hill, 1333.

Thomas married twice, but had only one daughter, Margaret.  After his death at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, he was buried in Bury St. Edmunds.  Margaret was made Countess of Norfolk and later Duchess of Norfolk for life, but as a woman couldn't transmit her title to her own children.  The title passed to the Mowbray family and later to the Howards, who are both Dukes of Norfolk, the Premier Duke of England, and Earls of Arundel, the Premier Earl of England, as well as being Earl Marshal. 

  

What Is: a Schiltron

Since time immemorial, at least as long as horse cavalry has had to contest the same ground as infantry, there have been various means adopted to keep the foot soldiers from being trampled and overrun by the horses (or sometimes even elephants, though that's not our era here).  From Greek and Roman phalanxes to shield walls used by many Barbaric tribes including Anglo-Saxons, and similar round formations of massed Viking fighters, the basic principles have always been tightly packed infantrymen wielding pikes or spears in a vicious porcupine that could take the bellies out of horses and cause riders to be crushed under their mounts and successive layers of comrades meeting the same fate.

The Scottish version of this, famous from everyone who's ever watched Braveheart umpteen times, is the schiltron.  The word itself is an Old English term meaning troop shield and the concept may have come from the Anglo-Saxon shield wall, or the Vikings circular formation, which could sometimes include impromptu palisades of poles tied together as well as shields or spears.  The Scots, who often had to improvise for weapons, put their own spins on the technique.  The first row of spearmen would kneel, with the butt of their weapons stuck in the ground to give leverage, while successive rows of comrades aimed their spears over the heads of the men in the danger zone.  Schiltrons were meant to be mobile, with the upper ranks of spears being able to turn in close formation to meet any threat.  Though most horses would steer clear of bristling rows of pikes, as a cavalry charge piled up in front of the spear points, horses could easily become impaled, riders trampled, and down in the middle of all of it were the lowest ranks of men keeping a sharp underbelly on the porcupine.

The first mention of a schiltron formation was at Falkirk in 1298.  That doesn't mean it was the first time it was used, long before the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, Pictish spearmen were also feared by Roman legions and one wonders if it wasn't for nasty tricks like this.  William Wallace gathered his men into circular schiltrons at Falkirk in 1298.  The stable formation on the field took withering fire from Welsh and English bowmen and crumbled.  Robert Bruce recognized the usefulness of the formation, but also knew that his men needed to be trained to hold formation, and be able to move or turn to deal with threats as they came up.  Other formations were meant to be mobile.  Mobile groups of spearmen, able to march or pivot to any threat were known at Glen Trool, 1307, Bannockburn, 1314, Myton, 1319, Dupplin Muir, 1332, Culblean, 1335, Halidon Hill, 1333, Neville's Cross, 1346, and Otterburn, 1388.  English commanders also picked up the idea and may have used it in other battles against the Scots.

Places: Palace of Poitier, Poitiers, France

Few buildings survive from the early Plantagenet era, the Angevin period of roughly 1154-1215, when the family lost much of its holdings in France.  Those that survive are altered or in ruins.  Few are being used for their original purposes.  One lucky building is the Palais de Justice in Poitiers, France, which still functions as a court of the French legal system.

The Dukes of Aquitaine were also Counts of Poitou, with its capital in Poitiers in west-central France.  Eleanor of Aquitaine inherited both titles in 1137.  Just as her second husband Henry II loved the Castle of Chinon, and considered it a palace worthy of his kingship, Eleanor felt the same way about the Palace of Poitiers.  A palace was first built on the site by one of the sons of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious in the 9th century.  It became the seat of the later Counts of Poitiers.  The original fortress was burned in 1018 and rebuilt by later Counts, who were also Dukes of Aquitaine.  In 1104, Duke William IX, Eleanor's grandfather, built a large keep or donjon that towers over the town to this day.  Eleanor resided in the Palace from 1191-1204, the final years of her life.  She had a large dining hall constructed, known as the Salle des Pas Perdus, the Hall of Lost Footsteps.  The floor space 50 meters/164 feet in length and 17 meters/55 feet in width was the largest in Europe at the time, so large that the footfalls of a person walking across the hall would become lost or silent as the person traversed the entire length of the hall. 

The Palace of Poitiers originally fell under French control and was remodeled by Jean I, Due de Berry.  His architects reworked much of what Eleanor would have seen when she stayed at the Palace.  When the County of Poitou was absorbed into the royal French domain, the local parlement or legislature met in the Salle.  Other areas of the Palace were becoming both a law court and a prison, a common use for old fortresses in many countries.  For this reason, the Palace survived the Revolution in 1789-1795.  The outlines of Eleanor's hall can be seen today, though the beam-work dates from the 19th century and the stonework of the walls is actually plaster.  Still, the overall grandeur of this room, where the Mother of Lions once held court, is easily discernable. 

Queen: Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile, 1373-1418

Royal and noble women in Medieval times had more to do than have babies and preside over courts.  They also had to have keen survival skills to protect themselves and their offspring, and to take charge of their husband's or son's domains when the occasion demanded.  Catherine of Lancaster, 1373-1418, the daughter of John of Gaunt by his second wife, Constance of Castile was more than a match for whatever life threw her way.

Catherine was born at Hertford Castle, one of her father's many splendid residences throughout England.  Her mother, Constance, was a Castilian princess, the daughter of King Peter of Castile.  Pedro has come down in history as either the Cruel or the Just, depending on who tells the story.  A brilliant man with more than a touch of crazy, it didn't help to get on Peter's bad side.  He was eventually assassinated by Constance's half-brother Henry II, and a war for the Crown of Castile ensued, John of Gaunt even claiming the title for himself at one point.  In 1385, King John I of Portugal defeated King John I of Castile, the successor of Henry II.  This victory encouraged John of Gaunt and Constance to press her claim to the Castilian throne.  Another of their daughters, Philippa, would marry John 1 of Portugal and then Portugal and England would join in alliance against Castile.  Catherine accompanied her parents on the campaign to Castile.

Years before Napoleon, John of Gaunt learned how hard it was to rule in Spain.  He conquered Santiago de Compostela, Vigo and Pontevedre, then turned to the neighboring Kingdom of Leon.  At that point, he and Constance decided that it would be better to keep her birthright safe through the marriage of her daughter, Catherine, to the heir of John I of Spain.  Then, Constance herself would renounce her rights to the Castilian throne to Catherine.  A treaty drawn up in Bayonne, Gascony sealed this deal, bringing an end to Spanish intervention in the Hundred Years War.  At the age of about 15, Catherine agreed that she entered into the treaty and marriage voluntarily and was given a dower of several Castilian cities.  She and Henry married in Palencia Cathedral.  Henry succeeded his father as Henry III in 1390 and was declared of age in 1393.  Catherine and Henry had 2 surviving daughters and a son, John II of Castile. 

In 1406, Henry III died, leaving his year-old son John II as his heir.  Henry's will specified that Catherine would share regency with the King of Aragon (another Ferdinand) and give custody of her son to two high-ranking nobles.  Catherine drew the line at this.  Plantagenet mothers of lions raise their own cubs and Catherine barricaded herself in the Alcazar of Segovia, prepared to withstand a siege before she would give up her baby to anybody.  The regency council relented and allowed Catherine to keep physical custody of the young King.  There were constant tension between Catherine and the King of Aragon.  With her sister Philippa in Portugal and her family's backing in England, she was able to maintain her hold on the regency.  The King of Aragon died in 1416 and what should have been Catherine's chance at a bid for power came to naught in tragedy.  She suffered a stroke and was forced to relinquish custody of her son and allow the regency council to do most of the ruling.  She died in Valladolid in 1418 of another stroke.  She was buried in the Chapel Royal in Toledo, Spain.

Her son, John II, would go on to have a daughter, Isabella I, whose own daughter, Catherine, would return to England first as Princess of Wales and King of England, coming down in history as the tragic but determined Katherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII.

Descendants: the Wives of Henry VIII

Just as many Scots claim and can sometimes prove, a descent from Robert the Bruce, many people in England or former English-owned countries can also trace their descent from the various Kings of England between 1154-1485.  That's because most of these kings had several children who did manage to survive childhood, grow up and have children of their own, who married into the great families of the realm.  Plantagenet descendants spread throughout Europe, and down the social scale.  One of the odd results of this phenomenon was that all of King Henry VIII's famed 6 wives, including two foreign princesses and four women often described as commoners had royal blood and were in fact distantly related to him.

Katherine of Aragon.  The English and Castilian royal families formed several alliances over the years the Plantagenets ruled England.  Long before Henry VIII's Mary Rose, English kings were interested in shipping and sea power and contracted alliance with like-minded countries, which Castile was.  Eleanor of Castile was the first wife of Edward I.  John of Gaunt married as his second wife a Castilian princess, Constance.  In return, the English sent Eleanor of England, daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and Catherine of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt and his wife Constance.  The result of the Lancastrian connection was that Catherine of Aragon, who was named for her great-grandmother, was twice descended of John of Gaunt. 

Anne Boleyn.  One of the slights thrown at Anne was her family's obscure and common birth.  While she may not have been royalty like Catherine of Aragon, Anne had no less than 5 ties to Edward I.  Her father's mother had Anglo-Irish connections to the Butler Earls of Ormond, an earldom Thomas Boleyn tried unsuccessfully, even during his daughter's reign, to clinch as his own.  The Butlers of Ormond descended twice over from one of Edward's daughter, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan.  Anne also had another important English family, the Montacute Earls of Salisbury, who descended from another of Edward's daughters, Joan of Acre.  The Howard family gave Anne two more points of Plantagenet connection, to Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, again and Thomas of Brotherton, an early holder of the Duchy of Norfolk. 

Jane Seymour.  The Seymours were an old Wiltshire family but it was Lady Margaret, wife of Sir John Seymour, who brought the royal genes to her daughter Jane and grandson Edward VI.  She carried descent from the Cliffords, who also descended from Edward I's daughter Joan of Acre.  There was also a Percy connection which led to Lionel of Antwerp, son of Edward III and brother of John of Gaunt.

Anne of Cleves.  How did a German princess from the middle of nowhere wind up with Plantagenet heritage?  Edward I and Eleanor of Castile had a daughter Margaret, who became Duchess Consort of Brabant, now part of Belgium.  Her great-granddaughter Margaret de Dampierre, Countess of Flanders, was the great granddaughter of both of Anne's parents, John III of Cleves and Marie von Julich, both from very old German princely families.

Katherine Howard carried the same ancestry on her father's side as did Anne Boleyn, which meant that she could hark back to Elizabeth of Rhuddlan and Thomas of Brotherton, Duke of Norfolk.  But her mother, Joyce or Jocasta Culpepper also had a drop of lion's blood.  Again, Princess Joan of Acre via the de Clare family.

Katherine Parr.  This lady had so much Plantagenet blood it's a wonder she didn't end up in the Tower with Margaret of Salisbury.  She had a descent from John of Gaunt and his third wife Katherine Swynford via the Neville family, a grandmother was a sister of Warwick the Kingmaker himself.  Katherine's Paternal grandmother was a Montacute, leading back to Joan of Acre and Edmund of Woodstock, a son of Edward I by his second wife Marguerite of France.  A maternal grandmother had descent once from Elizabeth of Rhuddlan and twice from Joan of Acre.

Royal: Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter, 1439-1476

Little would Richard III have guessed that, more than 500 years after his death, he would have his big sister to thank for rescuing him from oblivion and giving him the King's burial that he deserved.  Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter, 1439-1476 was the eldest of the many children born to Richard, 3rd Duke of York and his formidable wife, Cecily Neville.  Richard, born in 1452, was the baby of the family.  Their siblings including two kings, Edward IV and Richard III, a duke, George of Clarence, an earl, Edmund of Rutland, who died in battle while still a teenager, Margaret, Duchess Consort of Burgundy, and another Elizabeth of York, aunt of the famous Queen of that name.

Anne was born at Fotheringhay Castle, now famous as the site of the execution of a Plantagenet descendant, Mary of Scotland.  The castle no longer exists today.  At around 8 years old, Anne was married to Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter.  The marriage lasted long enough for Anne to grow into the duties of a wife and bear her husband at least one daughter, also named Anne.  Then, Exeter did the unthinkable and sided with the Lancastrians against his wife's own Yorkist family.  No Plantagenet ever put up with disloyalty.  After Edward IV was acclaimed King in 1461, he attainted Exeter or confiscated his estates, and gave them to Anne, with remainder to their daughter.  Exeter remained steadfast in his loyalty to Henry VI and the Lancastrian cause.  He and Anne separated in 1472.  Meanwhile, she had drama with other men in her life.  Her brother George had also jumped the family ship, throwing in his lot with Henry VI in 1471.  Anne went directly to Clarence and persuaded him to return to family loyalty.  Her intervention tipped the balance against Henry's forces and allowed Edward to reclaim his throne.

Anne married again in 1474 to Thomas St. Leger.  He remained loyal to Edward but, after Richard took the throne in 1483, participated in a rebellion led by the Duke of Buckingham.  St. Leger was captured and executed, but Anne was confirmed in possession of her late first husband Exeter's property.  She died in 1476 while giving birth to another little girl, also called Anne.  Little Anne would grow up and marry into the Manners family and it was her line of descent that confirmed that a skeleton in a parking lot at Leicester was indeed long lost Uncle Richard III.

The Mortimer Connection

Among the Queen's Beasts, meant to display the various noble families and royal dynasties from whom the modern monarchy descends, is a White Lion, the heraldic badge of the Mortimer family.  Sometimes, though not always, the lion holds on its chest a sun in splendor emblem, which was used by several generations of Yorkist kings, including both Edward IV and Richard III.  So how did this powerful family of Marcher lords become so deeply entwined with the Plantagenets that they're still remembered today?


Roger Mortimer, 1287-1330, 1st Earl of March, came from a family with connections along the Welsh Marches, or the borderland between Wales and England.  They owned a great deal of land and several castles and were instrumental in keeping the lawless border badlands in check.  Roger married Joan, 2nd Baroness Geneville, a wealthy heiress, and the two had many children.  The Mortimers rose in rebellion against King Edward II and Roger found himself in exile in France.  Queen Isabella, Edward's wife, also traveled to France, seeking a respite from her marriage and perhaps funding or backing from her family for a revolt that would put her young son on the throne.  She and Roger became lovers and co-conspirators.  After their successful invasion of England and deposition of Edward II, Edward III created his mother's lover 1st Earl of March.  Unfortunately, Mortimer didn't last long in his new role.  His behavior towards other nobles and members of the royal family soon backfired and he was accused of treason, tried and hanged at Tyburn.  All his titles were forfeit.

Roger's son Edmund, 1303-1331, set about trying to recoup the family fortune.  Despite his loyalty to the Crown, he wasn't permitted to resume his father's title of Earl of March.  That fell to his son Roger, 1328-1360, who distinguished himself during the early phases of the Hundred Years War.  He married Philippa de Montagu, daughter of the Earl of Salisbury and his wife Katherine Grandison, a reputed mistress of Edward III.  Their son Edmund, 1352-1381, became 3rd Earl of March.  Edmund married Philippa of Clarence, a Plantagenet and daughter of Lionel of Antwerp, a son of Edward III..  Their son Roger, 1374-1398, had a daughter Anne, who married yet another Plantagenet, Richard of Cambridge.

Richard was executed for plotting rebellion against King Henry V and his titles were forfeit.  His son, Richard, 1411-1460, became 3rd Duke of York and married wealthy heiress Cecily Neville.  Among their children were two Plantagenet Kings, Edward IV and Richard III.   Incidentally, before he became King Edward IV, Edward bore the title of 7th Earl of March, inherited from his Mortimer forbears.  Edward's daughter, Elizabeth of York married Henry VII Tudor, carrying her Mortimer and Plantagenet blood to her children.  Thus, though he probably wouldn't have guessed it while on the gallows at Tyburn, old Roger Mortimer is a descendant of every King or Queen of England from Edward IV on to the present day.

Chancellor: William de Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, d 1197

Bishops and other ranking clergymen were often appointed to positions of government during the Medieval era, but the practice was not without controversy.  Members of the royal family and leading barons often believed that they had the right to positions of importance.  Further, churchmen in high offices were not only cloaked with royal authority, but also the authority of the church and never let anyone forget that fact.  It was common knowledge that some of these men had bought their way to power or used family connections to get where they were, adding to the resentment.  William de Longchamps, Chancellor and Justiciar under Richard I would experience all of the above.

William's family originated near Argenten in Normandy.  His father was a wealthy knight who owned land in both Normandy and England, as was common at the time.  William's mother was a member of the de Lacy family, which further aided her son's climb up the social ladder.  William was initially in service to Geoffrey, later Duke of York and biological son of Henry II before coming into the service of Henry II in his chancery office.  The chancery was in charge of copying and disseminating official documents and decrees.  Eventually, William transferred into the service of Henry II's son Richard, who was Duke of Aquitaine.  Richard named William Chancellor of Aquitaine.  In 1189, as Henry was dying with his surviving sons in revolt once more, William served as Richard's representative, negotiating with William Marshal who was acting on behalf of Henry.  By this time, William was one of Richard's closest advisors.

Richard became King of England in 1189 and William was able to by the office of Chancellor for 3,000 pounds.  The chancery charged a fee for the use of the Great Seal on public documents, which enabled William to recoup the money and accumulate his own nest egg.  Richard also made William Bishop of Ely.  Bishoprics often came with their own reward of manor lands, which provided further lucrative income.  In 1189, as Richard left for the Third Crusade, he named both William de Longchamp and Hugh de Puiset, Bishop of Durham jointly as Chief Justiciars of the kingdom.  This move alienated many barons and it definitely upset John, Richard's brother, who felt he had the right to be regent of the kingdom while Richard was away.  William did his best to enforce the laws, sending justices on regular rounds throughout the kingdom, but he and Hugh were unable to work together.  Richard made Hugh of Durham responsible for dispensing justice north of the River Humber and William oversaw matters to the south of the river.  William was eventually able to elbow Hugh out of power altogether and received powers as Papal Legate, or official papal representative in England.  Richard most likely paid Pope Clement III for the legateship on behalf of William, further raising hackles at home.

William made himself at home in his new authority.  He gave the City of London the right to elect their own sheriffs, and remit their yearly levies directly to the Exchequer.  He held Legatine counsels at Leicester and Westminster, and restored order in York, which had seen continued unrest due to the massacre of the Jewish population in 1190.  When William traveled, he did so with a large entourage of clerics and servants.  He also began the practice of the royal we in England.  Monarchs often used the third person, as did Popes and ranking clergy.  As the Pope's representative, William felt he had a right to use the we, but he was only inflaming jealousy with John and other barons.  It didn't help that William was perceived as a foreigner who was ignorant and unaccepting of English customs.  William was aware of John's resentment and began replacing the custodians of castles with people loyal to him.  Friction flared into open rebellion, as some of John's retainers refused to surrender their holdings.  Richard had to send the Archbishop of Rouen to negotiate a peace between John and William, who agreed to acclaim John as Richard's successor in the event of Richard's death.

Matters came to a head when William sent men to arrest Geoffrey, Richard's half-brother, who had been appointed Archbishop of York.  The forcible arrest of Geoffrey was too close to home for people who remembered Thomas Becket's martyrdom and turned public opinion against William de Longchamps.  Fed up, several other English prelates convened a trial on London Bridge on October 5, 1191, and ordered William to appear.  He refused and holed up in the Tower of London.  He was deposed as justiciar and excommunicated.  Longchamps fled London and tried to seek escape in Dover, but couldn't speak English so was unable to engage a ship to take him to the Continent.  He finally left on October 29, 1191.  William fled to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI, the overlord of Leopold of Austria, who was holding Richard captive in Durnstein Castle.  William put his negotiating skills to work and brokered a deal to release Richard with a hefty ransom. 

When Richard returned to England in 1195, he rewarded William de Longchamps with the Sheriffdoms of Essex and Hertfordshire, but William was soon back at odds with Geoffrey of York and followed Richard to the Continent.  Richard used William on a series of diplomatic missions, but Geoffrey was becoming the senior diplomat and Hubert Walter was Chancellor.  William trailed Richard around Europe until his own death in 1197 at Poitier.   He was not missed by anyone except maybe for Richard.  Chroniclers and colleagues were acid in their critique.  He was described as a monster and a person with little virtue and a quest for fame.  Later historians have found the critique unfair, praising William as a capable administrator whose career was dominated by his ultimate failure.  In his spare time, William drew up a treatise on the laws of the Angevin portion of the Plantagenet empire that may have had some basis for Magna Carta.

The Duchy lf Lancaster

As if being King or Queen of a country isn't enough, many monarchs have lesser titles that only appear in a full list of their official designation.  Thus, Elizabeth the II, by the Grace of God Queen of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland...and of all her other realms and territories queen, is also Duke of Lancaster.  Not Duchess.  Duke.  The Queen holds the estates pertaining to the Duchy of Lancaster as separate from the Crown Estates and they provide a substantial portion of her income.

So, how did this happen?  During the Anarchy, 1135-1154, the Norman family which held what would become Lancaster Castle and its attendant properties was loyal to King Stephen and remained so even after it was decided that Matilda's son Henry would succeed Stephen as king.  Soon after he began ruling as King, Henry II confiscated Lancaster Castle and its vast estates as royal property.  Rather than slighting the castle by destroying it, he remodeled it and later gave his younger son John the rights to the property to keep John pacified.  Richard also confirmed the rights to the property to John, but he wasn't named Duke of Lancaster.  The Duchy remained part of the crown estates in general and several Plantagenet princes were named Earl of Lancaster.  However, in 1351, Edward III made the last Plantagenet Earl of Lancaster, Henry of Grossmont, Duke of Lancaster, granting him also the estates of the Duchy.  Henry also received several other lesser titles.

Henry died and his only heir was a daughter, Blanche of Lancaster, the first wife of John of Gaunt.  John was Edward III's son and so the old man stepped in again in 1362 and created his son Duke of Lancaster.  It's from John of Gaunt's tenure as Duke of Lancaster that the designation for the red rose faction of the Wars of the Roses, the Lancastrians, takes its name.  John's son, Henry of Bolingbroke, inherited the title but didn't use it.  He had a grander title as Henry IV, King of England.  Once again the Lancastrian estates had merged with the crown.  Henry recreated the dukedom a third time in 1399 for his son and heir, the future Henry V, who was Prince of Wales and Duke of Lancaster until he succeeded to the throne.  Then, Henry did something different with the inheritance to the Duchy of Lancaster.  He recreated it as the Honor of Lancaster and designated it as a property held by the sovereign as Duke of Lancaster in addition to the rest of the crown estates.  Why he did this isn't clear, but it did allow for the incomes of the Duchy to be at the sovereign's personal disposal, rather than voted through Parliament or raised through extra taxation. 

Thus, every monarch of England since Henry V has been, in addition to King or Queen of England, Ireland, etc., also Duke of Lancaster.  The use of the male title Duke indicates that the sovereign holds the title in his or her own right, not married to or as heir of a previous duke.  In Lancashire, the Queen is more commonly referred to as the Duke of Lancaster.  The appropriate toast at parties is, the Queen, the Duke of Lancaster.  Lancaster Castle functions today as a crown court, having been closed as a prison.  The incomes from its vast estate provide much of the monarch's personal wealth and disposable income.

What is: An Adulterine Castle

Castle in Medieval times were thought of in the feminine gender.  A castle that had never been taken by siege was a maiden castle.  Castles taken by siege could be taken or ravaged, words that strongly suggested physical assault (rape).  Likewise, a castle could be an adulteress, though not quite in the Biblical sense. 

Perhaps this vivid imagery in relation to castles illustrates their importance in Medieval life.  A castle was not only an important defense asset, it was also a status symbol.  To have a castle marked a wealthy baron or nobleman as on a par with the king, and able to hold his own if the king was displeased with him.  During periods of unrest, castle building was apt to increase.  Castles which were built without royal permission were said to be adulterine, just as an adulterous woman or her child might be labeled.  In other words, they were built without official royal permission and off the record, just as an adulterous affair was one unsanctioned by the Church even if the couple felt they had gone through some type of wedding ceremony.  Adultery was dangerous, because it threatened the succession of royal and noble houses.  Unauthorized castle construction was dangerous, as it allowed an over-mighty subject to defy his king.

During the period of unrest known as the Anarchy, 1135-1153, the forces of Empress Matilda and King Stephen battled for the English throne and numerous nobles built castles.  When Henry II finally emerged from the chaos as King of England, he had a stern rebuke for all those unauthorized castles.  They were demolished, torn down or damaged, in a word slighted or humiliated, just as an adulterous woman might be.  Slighting a castle meant to demolish it or damage it so that it could no longer be used for defense.  Some of the castles from the Anarchy period are so badly slighted that only the mottes or hills on which they were built are visible today.  Slighting castles was a visible means of a monarch asserted their power and other castles were slighted following various rebellions in the Plantagenet era, such as the Barons' Wars.  During the English Civil War, Royalist and Roundhead forces often slighted castles to prevent the other side from using them.

In-Law: Eleanor Cobham, c 1400-1452

Marriage into the Plantagenet family could be a dangerous proposition.  Family connections, particularly wives and children, can often be seen as weak links to exploit during family frictions.  Eleanor Cobham, c 1400-1452, 2nd wife of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, found herself in the middle of a family squabble for power during the Wars of the Roses and ended up with a witchcraft conviction and a life sentence.

Eleanor was born around 1400 in Sterborough Castle, Kent.  Though some novels portray her as coming from an obscure background, she was the daughter of Reginald Cobham, 3rd Baron Sterborough and Cobham and had gentry connections through her mother's side.  Although common, in the sense of not being royal, her family was still minor aristocracy and good enough that Eleanor became a lady in waiting to Jacqueline of Hainault, first wife of Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, an uncle of King Henry VI.  Humphrey was the guardian of his minor nephew, Henry VI and leader of the royal council.  At some point, he departed to France to secure control of Jacqueline's estates in what is now Belgium and, on returning to England, he caught sight of Eleanor.  Eleanor was described as beautiful, intelligent and ambitious.  Just the type to appeal to Humphrey, who was an intelligent, ambitious and powerful man in his own right.  He and Eleanor began an affair, but it wasn't enough for Humphrey.  In 1428, he had his marriage to Jacqueline annulled and married Eleanor, causing a great deal of scandal and diminishing his own prestige at court.

Humphrey and Eleanor worked their way back into society by becoming an it couple, holding a flamboyant court at Humphrey's palace of La Pleasaunce, later Greenwich Palace.  By 1436, Eleanor was granted the title Duchess of Gloucester and allowed precedence at court in time for that year's Garter ceremony.  Humphrey placed his estate in jointure with her, allowing her to keep his entire property at his death.  Then, Humphrey's brother John, Duke of Bedford died and Humphrey was heir presumptive to the throne after his young nephew.  He claimed the right to be Regent of the Kingdom, but the council opposed his plans.  Whispers began that Humphrey had treasonous ambitious to take the crown for himself.  It was noted that Eleanor was quite popular with the young king.

Though witchcraft and magic of any sort were strictly forbidden in England, astrology and other forms of magic are as old as the hills.  Eleanor, like many wealthy people, kept the services of an astrologer, Roger Bolingbroke, who with a colleague Thomas Southwell, predicted the death of the King in 1441 from a sudden illness.  In those days, even talking about the possible death of the king, let alone predicting it, was considered a lesser form of treason and punishable by death.  The two men were arrested and Bolingbroke implicated Eleanor, suggesting that she had contacted him to discern her and Humphrey's future.  Eleanor was arrested and denied everything, but stated that she had sought the services of one Margery Jourdemayne, the so-called Witch of Eye, to buy potions for help in conception.  This was a common occurrence among women with disposable income.  The pressure for multiple male heirs was high and Eleanor had only had one son by Humphrey, Arthur, who died young.  This admission was enough to accuse both Eleanor and through her Humphrey of having treasonous designs on the King's life.  Southwell and Bolingbroke were hanged, drawn and quartered.  Jourdemayne was burnt at the stake.  Eleanor was forced to divorce Humphrey and renounce all royal title and position, as well as claim to his property.  She performed public penance in London and was imprisoned in a succession of castles further and further away from London, Chester, then Kenilworth, the Isle of Man, and finally Beaumaris Castle, where she died in 1452.

Queen: Joanna of Navarre, Queen of England, 1370-1437

Navarre is the region along the border of France and Spain facing the western coast, along the Bay of Biscay.  It is composed largely of the Pyrenees Mountains that cut the Iberian Peninsula off from the rest of Europe.  It's home to the Basque people and a tourist haven for both France and Spain.  One of the most famous cities in the Navarre region is Pamplona, where the Feast of San Fermin is celebrated each year with the running of the bulls.  Centuries before that dangerous tradition got started, Navarre was its own independent kingdom and Navarrese princesses married into the royal houses of both England and France. 

One of these princesses was Joanna, daughter of Charles II of Navarre and his wife, Jeanne of Valois (one of the many French princesses with that name and designation).  Joanna was born in Pamplona in 1370 and had the traditional upbringing of a princess of that era, learning how to preside over a royal court once she'd been married.  In 1386, when she was about 15-16, she was married to John IV, Duke of Brittany.  She was his third wife and the only one of his wives to bear him children.  They had 9 in all.  At least 2 daughters died in infancy, but the rest of the brood lived to adulthood and most had children of her own.  Tragedy struck in 1399 when John IV died and was succeeded by his young son John V.  Joanna became Regent of Brittany for her son and continued to bring up her children. 

Enter Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV of England, who was in exile at the Breton court during the reign of his cousin, Richard II in the opening stages of the Wars of the Roses.  Henry was also a widower.  His first wife, Mary de Bohun, had died, leaving him with 6 children.  Henry needed a wife who would bring him better connections on the Continent and Joanna knew that, sooner or later, in a man's world, her rule over her son's duchy would be challenged.  But there was more to it between Henry and Joanna.  At some point during his stay at the Breton court he fell in love with the widowed Duchess and the feeling was mutual.  In 1400, after he claimed the English throne as King of England, Henry formally proposed to Joanna and she accepted.  Joanna arranged for the Duke of Burgundy, an English ally, to become guardian of her children and Regent of Brittany and departed for England with her daughters, marrying Henry at Winchester Cathedral in 1403.

Her reception among her new subjects was mixed.  She was described as beautiful and personally charming, but also greedy and stingy.  She preferred the companionship of her Breton courtiers over the English.  Eventually, Parliament ordered the Bretons to leave the country, an order which even Henry IV felt he could not oppose.  Joanna got along with her stepchildren, particularly her eldest stepson, the future Henry V.  She became attached to Henry's children, which was a good thing since, 3 years after her arrival in England, her son in Brittany ordered his sisters back home to begin the marriage proposal process that all princesses endured back in those days. 

Then, tragedy struck again in 1413, when Henry IV died.  Henry V trusted Joanna enough that, in 1415, he made her Regent of England while he was away at Agincourt, but it wasn't a popular move among his barons.  Upon his return, Henry brought back young Arthur of Brittany, Joanna's younger son by her first marriage, as a prisoner.  Joanna tried to have him released, but this caused friction between her and Henry V.  In 1419, their relationship was eroded so much that when she was accused of witchcraft in an attempt to poison or kill the King, he believed it.  He ordered her estate stripped and Joanna herself confined to Pevensey Castle.  She was released only on Henry V's deathbed in France in 1422.  Her property was returned and she had enough to live a comfortable life in retirement.  She held her own court at Nottingham Castle and survived into the reign of young Henry VI.  She died at Havering-atte-Bower in Essex and was buried next to Henry IV in Canterbury Cathedral.

Treaty of Jaffa, 1192

Richard the Lionheart may not have been a stellar King of England, but he was one of the best military commanders of his time.  His arrival before the walls of Acre in the Holy Land in 1191 turned the tide for the Third Crusade and it would take all of Saladin's men and resources to avoid outright defeat.  In Richard, Saladin had met his match.  Both men knew it and, after the Battle of Jaffa in 1192, Saladin realized that it would be better to negotiate with Richard than keep fighting him.

Richard will get a full post in due course but a word about An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub, 1137-1193, the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty.  A Sunni of Kurdish extraction, his domain would include Syria, Egypt, Palestine, the Hejaz or Red Sea Coast of what is now Saudi Arabia and Yemen, as well as portions of Northern Africa.  Saladin, as he was known to his opponents then and to history ever since, was a devout man who sincerely believed that his God was guiding him and that it was his mission to conquer as much territory for his dynasty and his faith as possible.  In particular, it was imperative that his forces guard Jerusalem, considered one of the holiest sites in Islam after Mecca and Medina.  Saladin was not only a learned and intelligent man, he was the leader of a core of competent commanders, many of them his own relatives.  They wielded an army of several different tribes and ethnicities into a lethal fighting force.  Saladin is still revered in the Arabic world to this day.

But in Richard, Saladin had met his match.  In battle after battle, the King of England held off his enemy or defeated him entirely.  Richard dominated not only by rank, he was the only king who remained in Palestine, but also force of personality.  Even when other noble Crusaders refused to cooperate or join the fight, even when he was ill for weeks and his crusade seem to be on the verge of collapse.  Even when he advanced on Jerusalem and inexplicably turned back at the last moment, within site of the Holy City, Richard snatched victory and survival from the jaws of defeat and disaster time and again.  The two leaders had conducted sporadic negotiations with each other over the course of the Crusade, but after Richard's victory at Jaffa, negotiations began in earnest.

The Treaty of Jaffa specified a truce of 3 years from any further crusading efforts.  Jerusalem remained in Muslim hands.  The Crusader States were restored to their various rulers and their existence recognized by both sides.  Last but not least, the security of unarmed pilgrims traveling to Holy Sites in the Levant was guaranteed.  The military orders of the Templars and Hospitalers were allowed to continue their work.  With that, Richard prepared to return to England and Saladin turned to other conquests.  One of the more spectacular of the many Crusades was over.

Rival: Leopold V of Austria, 1157-1194

The Third Crusade wasn't called the Kings' Crusade for nothing.  The roster of commanders included not only many kings and lesser, but also some of the foremost military men of the time.  Among them was Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, King Richard I the Lionheart of England, Phillip II of France, Guy of Lusignan and Conrad of Montferrat, among others.  Naturally, with this collection of egos, there was bound to be drama and beef.  And, also as naturally, it would involve Richard and Phillip and a B-list commander named Leopold of Austria. 

Germany sent a large contingent to the Crusades, led by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the Red Beard.  He was a mountain of a man who inspired as much by personal example as by rank.  Early in the Crusade, Frederick drowned while crossing a river.  While legend has it that he was weighed down by his armor, he may also have had a heart attack in the process.  His men promptly pickled his body in a cask of vinegar and shipped him home.  His son, Frederick VI of Swabia and Prince Geza of Hungary took shared command of the German contingent.  The entire Crusader army became embroiled in the siege of Acre, 1189-1191, which was going nowhere until Phillip II and Richard arrived with more money, men and better siege equipment.  Meanwhile, in January, 1191, Frederick of Swabia was also killed, leaving the German contingent in disarray under its various commanders.

Enter Leopold.  He was born the son of Henry II of Austria, of the House of Babenburg.  His mother was a Byzantine princess.  Leopold was an experienced commander who'd also undertaken a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  Europe at that time was a collection of various kingdoms, principalities, duchies and the like, all of which were at war with each other at any given time.  Leopold succeeded his father as Duke of Austria in 1177 and like most German princes, had his eye on the Crown of Charlemagne someday.  When the Crusade began in 1189, Leopold was embroiled in a border dispute with Bela III of Hungary.  When word reached Leopold of Frederick Barbarossa's death in the Holy Land, Leopold put his dispute with Hungary on hold and went to Palestine, arriving just as Frederick of Swabia had died.  He quickly took charge of the German contingent.  During one encounter with Saladin's forces, Leopold's tunic became soaked with blood.  When he removed his belt, a white strip was visible.  He later on took the colors of red and white as his personal banner, which later became part of the flag of Austria.

Acre finally capitulated in June, 1191 and the banners of the victorious leaders were hung above the city walls.  As the de facto leader of the German contingent, Leopold demanded that his banner have equal status with that of Richard of England and Phillip of France.  Richard objected and, when Leopold nevertheless persisted, Richard had Leopold's banner taken down.  Richard didn't think Leopold's anger at this slight worth his while.  Leopold returned home to Austria, followed by Phillip returning to France.  Richard pressed on to Jerusalem, but stopped short, making a peace with Saladin instead that gave the Muslims charge of the Holy City with the rights of Christians living within it and Christian pilgrims protected.  Richard then departed the Holy land, heading for the lands of his brother-in-law Henry IV, Duke of Saxony.  Henry had been dispossessed of his duchy by Barbarossa before he died and Richard was of a mind to help his sister Matilda's husband take back his own.

But, before Richard left, there was more drama in the Crusader ranks.  In April, 1192, Conrad of Montferrat, a cousin to Leopold and to the new Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, who had personally raised Leopold's standard over Acre and dared to get in Richard's face about removing it, was killed by Assassins after being elected King of Jerusalem.  Likely, the Assassins were acting on orders of their own superiors, but Leopold and Henry blamed Richard.  Phillip II Augustus also had his own gripes with Richard over Richard's lands in France and the status of Phillip's sister Alys, who had been betrothed to Richard but that's another story entirely.  Phillip, Henry and Leopold assumed Richard would be returning to England and would have to cross hostile territory at some point to get to Normandy and across to England.  Capturing him would net someone a great deal of money and time for Phillip to make his move on the Plantagenet territories in France.  Never mind that these were all sworn crusaders violating the obligatory Peace of God by warring against another crusader.

Richard found all French ports closed and landed in Italy.  He would have to cross Austria to reach Saxony.  He planned to travel incognito but, in reality, Phillip, Henry and Leopold had spies tracking his every move.  Richard was captured in an inn near Vienna and brought to Henry VI Trifels Castle, accused of Conrad's murder.  One ruler didn't have authority to try and convict another ruler, so Henry instead demanded a ransom and turned Richard over to Leopold.  Leopold imprisoned Richard in Durnstein Castle, knowing that England would turn itself inside out to raise 150,000 marks, over 100,000 lbs of silver, a literal king's ransom.  Richard's mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, knew that her youngest son John was colluding with Phillip of France to take over the throne of England.  Along with barons loyal to Richard, Eleanor traveled throughout England and in her own domains, raising most of the money.  Hostages from among the noble families in England were also sent to Austria as living promissory notes for the remainder.  Many of these youngsters never saw home again. 

Leopold was unwilling to accept anything less than payment in full, but excommunication promptly changed his mind.  He put his share of the loot to good use, beginning the royal mint in Austria and improving the city walls of Vienna.  Leopold had also become Duke of Styria in 1192 and founded the towns of Weiner Neustadt and Friedburg.  But, he had to work off his excommunication and began planning another crusade. But in 1194, while in Graz, karma caught up to Leopold in a different way.  He was participating in a tournament when his horse fell under him, crushing his foot.  His surgeons recommended amputation and finally resorted to an ax as the quickest way.  It took three strokes.  Gangrene set in anyway and Leopold died.  Gangrene is a slow, pitiful and painful way to go.  Leopold was buried in Hellingenkrauz Abbey in the Vienna Woods.

Royal: Isabella of England, Holy Roman Empress, 1214-1241

It was rare that a member of the Plantagenet family found their match in the larger-than-life category.  Isabella, 1214-1241, great-granddaughter of Matilda, a Holy Roman Empress, granddaughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, niece of Richard the Lionheart and daughter of John and Isabella of Angouleme, who had a family history of her own, found the wonder of the world-literally. 

Isabella was the fourth child and second daughter of John and Isabella of Angouleme.  Unlike many women of her era and class, she was rather late to the altar at the ripe old age of 21.  She was reported to be very beautiful, but the man she was about to marry had seen more than his fair share of beautiful women.  Frederick II, 1194-1250 of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was Holy Roman Emperor, and King of Germany and Sicily.  A veteran of two crusades, a man who took his own navy to Arabia and almost sacked Mecca and Medina, he was the scourge of Muslims.  A learned man in his own right who patronized the arts and sciences and manage to balance his crusading with wars against various popes as well as French kings, Frederick was known in Latin as Stupor Mundi, the Wonder of the World.  And he knew how wonderful he was and made sure everyone else knew it, too.  He was a free-thinker who dabbled in Islam, Greek Philosophy and Paganism as well as mystic Christianity, leading at least one Pope to suggest Frederick was the Biblical Anti-Christ.

He was 40 years old when Pope Gregory IX, one of the few men of that era who could take him on intellectually, suggest that the twice-widowed Frederick marry as his third wife Isabella.  Gregory reasoned that a match with Henry III of England would counterbalance French influence on the Continent, which would give Frederick an advantage in his wars with France, and perhaps give Gregory a break from Frederick.  Frederick took the suggestion, but demanded 30,000 marks as Isabella's dowry.  Henry had to impose an unpopular tax of 2 silver marks per person in England to raise the sum.  While the English were more than happy to see Isabella gone, the women of Cologne, Germany thought her very beautiful.  She and Frederick were married in July 1235 at Worms Cathedral, where she was also crowned Holy Roman Empress, a title her great-grandmother Matilda had, as well as Queen Consort of Germany and Sicily.

However, if she thought she would be the only woman in her husband's life, she was sadly mistaken.  Kings of the day did take mistresses but Frederick had brought back from his travels several Arab and African women, who were guarded by black eunuchs in the manner of a harem.  Frederick also sent most of her English attendants back home.  Isabella retired to her estates at Noventa Padovana, where Frederick visited her and they had at least four children.  Only one, Margaret, survived to adulthood and became Landgravine of Thuringia.  Isabella's brother, Richard of Cornwall, who attempted to succeed Frederick as Holy Roman Emperor years later, visited her on one occasion, but in the harem tradition, Isabella was not allowed to participate in any official welcome ceremony for him.  In 1241, while Federick and Isabella were at Foggia, she died from the effects of childbirth and was buried in Andria Cathedral, near Frederick's second wife, another Isabella, Queen of Jerusalem.