History of France Flashcards

Question

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Answer 1

1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204 was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages and a member of the Ramnulfid dynasty of rulers in southwestern France. She became Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right while she was still a child, then later Queen consort of France (1137–1152) and of England (1154–1189). She was the patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. Eleanor's succession to the duchy of Aquitaine in 1137 made her the most eligible bride in Europe. Three months after she became duchess, she married King Louis VII of France, son of her guardian, King Louis VI. As Queen of France, she participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon after, Eleanor sought an annulment of her marriage,[1] but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III.[2] However, after the birth of her second daughter Alix, Louis agreed to an annulment in consideration of her failure to bear a son after fifteen years of marriage.[3] The marriage was annulled on 11 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate and custody was awarded to Louis, while Eleanor's lands were restored to her. As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to Henry, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, who became King Henry II of England in 1154. Henry was her third cousin (cousin of the third degree), and nine years younger. The couple married on 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after the annulment of Eleanor's first marriage, in a cathedral in Poitiers, France. Over the next thirteen years, she bore Henry eight children: five sons, three of whom would become kings; and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting her son Henry's revolt against her husband, and she was not released until 6 July 1189 when Henry died, and their son ascended the English throne as Richard I.

Answer 2

5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189 also known as Henry Curtmantle (French: Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, ruled as Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Nantes, King of England (1154–89) and Lord of Ireland; at various times, he also controlled Wales, Scotland and Brittany. Henry was the son of Geoffrey of Anjou and Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England. He became actively involved by the age of 14 in his mother's efforts to claim the throne of England, then occupied by Stephen of Blois, and was made Duke of Normandy at 17. He inherited Anjou in 1151 and shortly afterwards married Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Louis VII of France had recently been annulled.

Answer 3

Junior king 1179–1180, senior king 1180–1223 His reign marked an important step in the history of French monarchy. His reign saw the French royal domain and influence greatly expanded. He set the context for the rise of power to much more powerful monarchs like Saint Louis and Philip the Fair. He spent an important part of his reign fighting the so-called Angevin Empire, which was probably the greatest threat to the King of France since the rise of the Capetian dynasty. During the first part of his reign he tried using Henry II of England's son against him. He allied himself with the Duke of Aquitaine and son of Henry II — Richard Lionheart — and together they launched a decisive attack on Henry's castle and home of Chinon and removed him from power.

Answer 4

1189–1192 also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin.. The campaign was largely successful, capturing the important cities of Acre and Jaffa, and reversing most of Saladin's conquests, but it failed to capture Jerusalem, the emotional and spiritual motivation of the Crusade.

Answer 5

A modern term describing the collection of states once ruled by the Angevins of the House of Plantagenet. The Plantagenets ruled over an area stretching from the Pyrenees to Ireland during the 12th and early 13th centuries, located north of the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon. This "empire", originally established by Henry II of England, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, extended over roughly half of medieval France, all of England, and some of Ireland.

Answer 6

A family originally from the former French county of Anjou, whose members held the English throne from the accession of Henry II in 1154 to the death of Richard III in 1485. Within that period, some historians identify four distinct royal houses: Angevins, Plantagenet, Lancaster, and York. In the 10 years from 1144, two successive French counts of Anjou won control of a vast assemblage of lands that would last for 80 years and would retrospectively be referred to as the Angevin Empire. The first of these counts—Geoffrey—became duke of Normandy in 1144 and his successor—Henry—added Aquitaine by virtue of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 and became king of England in 1154 by successfully pursuing a claim derived from his maternal grandfather, Henry I of England. From Henry’s fourth son—John—the dynasty produced a long line of 14 English kings. The name of Plantagenet, which historians use for the entire dynasty, dates from the 15th century and comes from a 12th-century nickname of Geoffrey.

Answer 7

A series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 between the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, for control of the latter kingdom. Each side drew many allies into the war.

Answer 8

One of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–53. Although there were several competing theories as to the etiology of the Black Death, analysis of DNA from victims in northern and southern Europe published in 2010 and 2011 indicates that the pathogen responsible was the Yersinia pestis bacterium, probably causing several forms of plague.

Answer 9

An agreement that Henry V of England and his heirs would inherit the throne of France upon the death of King Charles VI of France. It was signed in the French city of Troyes on 21 May 1420 in the aftermath of Henry's successful military campaign in France. It forms a part of the backdrop of the latter phase of the Hundred Years' War, in which various English kings tried to establish their claims to the French throne.

Answer 10

Fought between the English and a Franco-Scots army on 22 March 1421. France, east of Angers, was a major defeat for the English in the Hundred Years' War. The English army was led by the king's brother Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, while the Franco-Scots were led by both John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Buchan, and Gilbert de Lafayette, the Constable of France. English strength was 4,000 men, although only 1,500 deployed, against 5,000 Scots.

Answer 11

1412–1431. She was considered a heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. She was born to a peasant family at Domrémy in north-east France.She said she received visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission.

Answer 12

A European royal house of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. They first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of this dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Spain and Luxembourg currently have monarchs from this house.

Answer 13

Was the monarchic, aristocratic, social and political system established in the Kingdom of France from approximately the 15th century until the later 18th century ("early modern France") under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. More generally, the term can also be used to refer to the feudal social and political order, which typified the French Ancien Régime, elsewhere Europe.