UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA
School of History
Main Series UG Examination 2012-13
THE DEVIL’S BROOD: THE ANGEVIN KINGS OF ENGLAND (1154-1225)
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Time allowed: THREE hours
Answer THREE questions, ONE from SECTION A and TWO from SECTION
B.
Do not use the same material in the same way in more than one answer
in this paper.
Notes are not permitted in this examination.
Do not turn over until you are told to do so by the Invigilator.
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Copyright of the University of East Anglia
Module Contact: Dr J Barrau, HIS
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SECTION A
1. Comment on TWO of the following extracts or illustrations.
(a) Here begins the Assize of Clarendon made by King Henry II, with
the assent of archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and barons of all
England.
i. In the first place the said King Henry ordained on the advice
of all his barons, for preserving peace and maintaining justice, that
inquiry be made through the several counties and through the several
hundreds by twelve more lawful men of the hundred and by four more
lawful men of each vill, upon oath that they will tell the truth, whether in
their hundred or in their vill there is any man cited or charged as
himself being a robber or murderer or thief or anyone who has been a
receiver of robbers or murderers or thieves since the lord king was
king. And let the justices inquire this before themselves and the sheriffs
before themselves.
Assize of Clarendon, 1166
(b) In order… to show that the origin of king Henry's family was corrupt:
it is known that the emperor Henry, whom Matilda, the daughter of the
first, and the mother of the second Henry, king of England, had
married… relinquished his empire, and seeking the desert towards
Chester, in the most western part of Britain, he there, even to his death,
conscientiously and religiously lived a life of penance. But when she
returned, Geoffrey, earl of Anjou, married the empress, by the consent
of her father, and whilst her husband was living... Also Geoffrey, earl of
Anjou, when seneschal of France, had carnally known queen Eleanor;
of which, as it is said, he frequently forewarned his son Henry,
cautioning and forbidding him in any wise to touch her, both because
she was the wife of his lord, and because she had been known by his
own father. As it were to crown all these enormities, which were
already too enormous, king Henry, as common report declared, dared
by an adulterous intercourse to defile this so-called queen of France,
and so took her away from her own husband, and actually married her
himself. How then, I ask, from such an union could a fortunate race be
born?
Gerald of Wales, On the instruction of a prince c.1216
(c) Henry, king of the English, duke of the Normans and of the men of
Aquitaine, count of Anjou, to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls,
barons, justiciars, sheriffs, servants, and to his liegemen, French,
English and Irish, of all his land, greeting. Know that I have given and
granted to my men of Bristol my city of Dublin to inhabit. Wherefore I
will, and firmly order, that they should inhabit and hold it from me and
from my heirs, freely and quietly, fully and wholly, and honourably, with
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all the liberties and free customs which the men of Bristol have at
Bristol and throughout my land. Witness: William of Briouze; Reginald
de Courtenay; Hugh de "Gundvilla"; William, son of Aldhelm; Rannulf
de Glanville; Hugh de Cressy; Reginald de Paulli. At Dublin.
Charter of Henry II to Dublin, 1171-1172.
(d) In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 1183, which was the thirtieth of
the reign of Henry II, king of England, "Henry III", the younger king of
England, met an untimely death, untimely that is to say, in respect of
his age, but too late by consideration of his acts. For he had sullied his
early years by an indelible stain... as has been related earlier. On his
coming to manhood he would not change his youthful conduct and, as
he first violated nature, so now he also violated his solemn compacts
and rebelled against his father a second time.
William of Newburgh, The History of England, about the year 1183
(e) One part of [Richard’s crusading] fleet… set sail for Lisbon… on the
Holy Day of the Ascension of our Lord, at the third hour of the day, a
mighty and dreadful tempest overtook them, and in the twinkling of an
eye they were separated from each other. While the storm was raging,
and in their affliction were calling upon the Lord, the blessed Thomas,
the archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr, appeared at three different
times to three different persons, who were on board a London ship…
saying “be not afraid, for I, Thomas, the archbishop of Canterbury, and
the blessed Edmund the Martyr, and the blessed Nicholas, the
Confessor, have been appointed by the Lord guardians of this fleet of
the king of England.
Roger of Howden describes the fleet that travels to the holy land by
sea, 1190.
(f) In the same year as above, a quarrel arose between the most
Christian king Phillip and king Henry of England. King Phillip sought
from Henry's son Richard, count of Poitou, personal homage for the
whole county, and Richard under instructions from his father kept
putting off doing this from day to day. Secondly, the same king Phillip
sought from the king of England a castle called Gisors, and another
castle close by which his own father, king Louis, had handed over as
dowry for Margaret his [Phillip's] sister, at the time when he joined her
in matrimony to the illustrious king Henry, the older Henry's son. That
dowry was granted to king Henry to possess during his lifetime on
condition that it should devolve after his death to any offspring that
came from the union. But if he did not receive an heir from Margaret,
the dowry would revert without any argument to the king of France on
[the young king] Henry's death. The king of England had frequently
Please turn over
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been summoned (formally to his court) by king Phillip concerning these
matters, but had always raised false delays and put off standing to
judgement of the king's court. When the most Christian king Phillip saw
the cunning tricks and dodges of the English king and shrewdly
realized how damaging delay would be to him and his people, he
decided to enter the lands of the king of England with an armed
multitude.
Rigord, Deeds of Phillip Augustus, for the year 1186
(g) King John left for Poitou before Candlemas. There was a battle in
Flanders near Bouvines, on a Sunday, between the King of France and
the great men of the King of England, in the course of which were
taken the Counts of Flanders and of Boulogne, and William, Count of
Salisbury, from the King of England's party. Emperor Otto who was
nearby took flight upon seeing the development of the battle. The
general interdict was lifted from England on the sixth day of July, by
order of the Lord Pope Innocent; it had lasted six years, fourteen
weeks, and three days.
Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds, for the year 1214.
(h) And for obtaining the common counsel of the realm for the
assessing of an aid (except in the three cases aforesaid) or the
assessing of a scutage, we shall summon archbishops, bishops,
abbots, earls, and greater barons individually by our letters; and
furthermore we shall also have summoned generally through our
sheriffs and bailiffs all those who hold from us in chief for a fixed date,
namely at least forty days after the summons has been given, and at a
fixed place; and in all letters of summons we will state the reason for
the summons. And when the summons has thus been made, the
business shall go forward on the day arranged according to the
counsel of those present, even if not all those summoned have come.
Magna Carta 1215, clause 14.
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Section B
2.
What were the consequences for the aristocracy in Aquitaine and
Anjou of living under the rule of the king of England?
3.
How innovative was Henry II's rule over England?
4.
Why did John refuse to receive Stephen Langton as his archbishop of
Canterbury?
5.
Was the relationship of the English kings to their insular neighbours
anything other than predatory?
6.
What did the Becket affair reveal about the relationship between King
and Church?
7.
Why did the idea of crusade attract Richard but not Henry II?
8.
Was Normandy conquered by Philip Augustus, or did it defect to the
Capetian king?
9.
What were the duties of the knight in the government of Henry II’s
England?
10.
To what extent was a king required to take counsel?
11.
Does rebellion become meaningless when it is endemic?
12.
How French were the Angevin kings?
END OF PAPER
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