Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.
Angevin Empire
Angevin Empire Empire Plantagenêt[a] | |
|---|---|
| 1154–1214 | |
 Royal banner
(first used after 1198) | |
 The Angevin Empire in 1190 | |
| Status | Composite monarchy[3] |
| Capital | No official capital. Court was generally held at Angers and Chinon. |
| Official languages | Old French[4] • Medieval Latin[b] |
| Regional languages | |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism (official) |
| Government | Feudal monarchy |
| King, Duke, Count and Lord | |
• 1154–1189 | Henry II |
• 1189–1199 | Richard I |
• 1154–1204 (Aquitaine only) | Eleanor of Aquitaine |
• 1199–1214 | John |
| Historical era | Middle Ages |
• Henry II inherits the Kingdom of England | 25 October 1154 |
| 1169–1177 | |
| 1202–1204 | |
| 28 September 1214 | |
| Currency | French livre, silver penny, gold penny |
| Today part of | |
The term Angevin Empire (/ˈændʒɪvɪn/; French: Empire Plantagenêt) describes the possessions held by the House of Plantagenet during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they ruled over an area covering roughly all of present-day England, half of France, and parts of Ireland and Wales, and had further influence over much of the remaining British Isles. It may be described as an early example of a composite monarchy.[5] The empire was established by Henry II of England, who succeeded his father Geoffrey as Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou (from the latter of which the term Angevin is derived). Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, acquiring the Duchy of Aquitaine, and inherited his mother Empress Matilda's claim to the English throne, succeeding his rival Stephen in 1154. Although their title of highest rank came from the Kingdom of England, the Plantagenets held court primarily on the continent at Angers in Anjou, and at Chinon in Touraine.
The influence and power of the Angevin kings of England brought them into conflict with the kings of France of the House of Capet, to whom they also owed feudal homage for their French possessions, bringing in a period of rivalry between the dynasties. Despite the extent of Angevin rule, Henry's son John was defeated in the Anglo-French War (1213–1214) by Philip II of France following the Battle of Bouvines. John lost control of most of his continental possessions, apart from Guyenne and Gascony in southern Aquitaine. This defeat set the scene for further conflicts between England and France, leading up to the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), in which the Plantagenet, for a time, would re-establish dominion over much of western, central and northern France, before losing their possessions again, this time permanently.
- ^ Holt, James Clarke (1975). The End of the Anglo-Norman Realm. Oxford University Press. p. 229. ISBN 9780197257302.
- ^ Aurell, Martin (2003). L'Empire des Plantagenêt, 1154–1242. Perrin. p. 1. ISBN 9782262019853.
- ^ John H. Elliott (2018). Scots and Catalans: Union and Disunion. Yale University Press. p. 31. ISBN 9780300240719.
- ^ Wood, Michael. "William the Conqueror: A Thorough Revolutionary". BBC History. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
Robert of Gloucester: 'The Normans could then speak nothing but their own language, and spoke French as they did at home and also taught their children. So that the upper class of the country that is descended from them stick to the language they got from home, therefore unless a person knows French he is little thought of. But the lower class stick to English and their own language even now.'
- ^ Elliott (2018), p. 10: "Another such composite monarchy was that inherited by James VI of Scotland from Elizabeth I in 1603, although, until James succeeded to the English throne, this was a composite monarchy made up of conquered rather than inherited lands. Twelfth-century England itself formed part of a composite state, straddling the British Isles and France, that was later to be known as the Angevin Empire, but the French connection did not prevent Henry II (r.1154–89) from asserting, or more correctly reasserting, the claims of his predecessors to English overlordship over all of Britain".
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
Previous Page Next Page
