The expansion of the dominion of Henry II with the foreseen breakup of that dominion through family feud. Acquisition of Ireland and homage of Wales and Scotland.

1. The Angevin
‘Empire’

2. Language of the Court
• Written decisions, charters – Latin
Later with French translation
• Oral arguments, decisions – French
• Informal exchanges – English

3. Legal French
• Retention of Anglo-Norman terms
• French word order
– Attorney general, heir apparent, court
martial, body politic
– Fee simple, sum certain

4. Military Reform
• 1166 Baronial Charters
• 1181 Assize of Arms
– Categories of freemen and their
requirements to supply arms
– Ready reserve
– Prohibitions on export

5. 1181 Assize of Arms
1. Knights shall have a shirt of mail, a
helmet, a shield, and a lance;
2. Free layman who possesses chattels
or rents to the value of 16m. shall have
a shirt of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a
lance;
3. Item, all burgesses and the whole
community of freemen shall have a
gambeson, an iron cap, and a lance

6. Knight
Also Layman with > 16
marks
• shirt of mail-hauberk
• helmet
• shield
• lance

7. Layman > 10 marks
• hauberk
• iron cap
• lance

8. Every Freeman
• quilted coat
• iron cap
• lance

9. Assize of Arms
8. Item, no one shall carry arms out of
England except by the command of the lord
king: no one is to sell arms to another to
carry out of England; nor shall a merchant or
any other man carry them out of England.
12 . . . no one, as he loves his life and all
that he has, shall buy or sell any ship to be
taken away from England, and that no one
shall carry any timber or cause it to be
carried out of England.

10. Assize of Arms
6. Any burgess who has more arms than he
ought to have by this assize shall sell
them, or give them away . . . And none of
them shall keep more arms than he ought to
have by this assize.
7. Item, no Jew shall keep in his possession
a shirt of mail or a hauberk, but he shall sell
it or give it away or alienate it in some other
way, so that it shall remain in the king's
service.

11. Legal Citations
1. Rudolf B. Lamy “The Influence of History
Upon a Plain Text Reading of the Second
Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States” 49 Am. J. Legal Hist. 217, 2007
2. David I. Caplan “The Right of the Individual
to Bear Arms: A Recent Judicial Trend”
Detroit College of Law Review
1982, Winter, Issue 4

12. Alfred the Great (?) and Arms
It is the great natural law of self
preservation, which, as we have
seen, cannot be repealed, or superseded, or
suspended by any human institution. This
law, however, is expressly recognised in the
constitution of Pennsylvania. "The right of
the citizens to bear arms in the defence of
themselves shall not be questioned." This is
one of our many renewals of the Saxon
regulations.
James Wilson, Lectures on Law

13. The Family of Henry II

15. Dynastic
Succession
Henry the Younger
Richard
(Aquitaine)
Geoffrey

16. Angevin Empire- Relationships

17. Video
• Henry vs. Becket
• Henry vs. his family

18. The Other Woman
Dante Gabreil Rossetti
Arthur Hughes

19. The Other Woman
Mary Lizzie Macomber

20. Rebellion in the Family - 1173
• Marriage alliance for 5 year old John
marred by Henry the Younger
• Eleanor and her sons go to Paris
• Henry offers arbitration

21. Peter of Blois to Eleanor
Marriage is a firm and indissoluble union. …From the
beginning biblical truth has verified that marriage once
entered into cannot be separated. Truth cannot
deceive: it says, "What God has joined let us not put
asunder [Matt 19]."
So the woman is at fault who leaves her husband and
fails to keep the trust of this social bond. …We know
that unless you return to your husband, you will be the
cause of widespread disaster.

22. Rebellion in the Family - 1173
• Eleanor captured?
Richard Henry Eleanor Joan Henry II
Wall painting from the chapel in Chinon. interpreted to represent the departure of Eleanor of
Aquitaine into captivity

23. Rebellion in England
• Many barons declare for Henry the
Younger
– William the Lion of Scotland
– William captured at Alnwick
• Vassalage
• Henry II – castles and cathedrals

24. Geography of Rebellion
William the Lion
Earl of
Leicester
and
Flemish

25. William surprised at
Alnwick
Results
Defeat in the
Fens

26. Reconciliation
• Henry the Younger given castles and
money
• Richard given half income of Poitou
• Geoffrey given half of Brittany
• Eleanor comfortable captivity

27. Angevin Empire- Relationships

28. The Angevin Empire
• Wales
– initially large scale
– restore law and order
– 1157 Owain of Gwynedd
– 1164 Gwynedd, Deheubarth and Powys
revolt

29. Wales

30. The Angevin Empire
• Scotland
– Social elite heavily influenced by Normans
– No border but rather overlapping authority
– 1173 William the Lion captured
– Treaty of Falaise

31. Scotland

32. The Angevin Empire
• Ireland
– Irish laws different from Anglo-Saxon and
Norman
– 1167 Irish King Dermot asks Henry for
support against Connacht
– 1171 Invasion as show of force
– 1175 Treaty of Windsor

33. Ireland

34. Vassalage
• King of France
– Henry the Younger
(betrothed in 1157, married in 1160 to Margaret of
France)
Basis of claim by Philip of France to parts of
Normandy
• Geoffrey
– Richard
(offer of marriage to Alice of France in 1169)

35. Henry II - Patronage
• Penance for murder of Thomas a
Becket
– Waltham – reform as Augustinian
monastery
– Ambresbury – replacement w. nuns from
Fontevraud
– Witham – Carthusian monastery
– Promise to join Crusade

36. Bigod’s Castle – Bungay, 1163-73

37. Orford Castle
1165-73

38. Orford Castle

39. Orford Castle – Upper Hall

40. Orford Castle – 1660

41. Last Days of Henry II
• 1182 Makes his will
• 1183 Henry the Younger again in
rebellion
– seeks to be sole heir
• Henry the Younger dies of dysentery
• Henry comes to favor John
• Rebuilding cathedrals

42. Lincoln

43. Peterborough, 1193

44. Last Days of Henry II
• 1184 Assize of the Forest (Woodstock)
• Philip of France incites Richard vs.
Henry
– Truce
• Movement for new Crusade
• An ill Henry submits to a treaty with
Philip
• Henry dies at Chinon

45. Chinon

46. Reunited - Fontevraud