Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Editor's Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Henry II and the Historians
- The Accession of Henry II
- Henry II and Louis VII
- Doing Homage to the King of France
- Henry, Duke of the Normans (1149/50–1189)
- Henry II and England's Insular Neighbours
- Henry II, the English Church and the Papacy, 1154–76
- On the Instruction of a Prince: The Upbringing of Henry, the Young King
- Henry II and the Creation of the English Common Law
- Finance and the Economy in the Reign of Henry II
- Henry II and the English Coinage
- The Court of Henry II
- Literary Culture at the Court of Henry II
- Henry II and Arthurian Legend
- Index
Henry, Duke of the Normans (1149/50–1189)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Editor's Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Henry II and the Historians
- The Accession of Henry II
- Henry II and Louis VII
- Doing Homage to the King of France
- Henry, Duke of the Normans (1149/50–1189)
- Henry II and England's Insular Neighbours
- Henry II, the English Church and the Papacy, 1154–76
- On the Instruction of a Prince: The Upbringing of Henry, the Young King
- Henry II and the Creation of the English Common Law
- Finance and the Economy in the Reign of Henry II
- Henry II and the English Coinage
- The Court of Henry II
- Literary Culture at the Court of Henry II
- Henry II and Arthurian Legend
- Index
Summary
Geoffrey, count of the Angevins, and his son Henry — who subsequently gained the kingdom of the English — came to King Louis, and complained to him about Stephen, king of the English, showing that he was unjustly robbing them of their rights, namely the kingdom of England and the duchy of Normandy. And so, since the king wished justly and reasonably to maintain and keep each person in his rights, as befitted his royal majesty, he entered Normandy with a great army and seized it with a mighty arm, restored it to Henry, the son of the count of the Angevins, and received him as his liege man for that land.
Historians of the ‘Anglo-Norman realm’ might be forgiven for not recognising the Angevin conquest of Normandy from this passage of the Historia gloriosi regis Ludovici, for the more familiar Anglo-Norman sources depict the Capetian kings as relatively minor players in the great crises of the Anglo-Norman realm that followed the death of Henry I. What the quoted passage does show is the centrality of Normandy to Henry's political career from its inception. The province gave Henry his first title and landed base; it was the geographical and (to some extent, at least) the political fulcrum of his territories; but it was also here that he faced the gravest threat to his power in the great up-risings of 1173–4.
- Type
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- Information
- Henry IINew Interpretations, pp. 85 - 128Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007