Plantagenet Kings Flashcards
Henry (of Anjou) II
House of Angevin
1154 - 1189
Son of Matilda, successor to Stephen of Blois, and father of Richard (Lionheart) I and John (Lackland) I.
A warrior king and a chivalric hero, he extended his French lands until he ruled most of France.
He laid the foundation of the English Jury System and raised new taxes (scutage) from the landholders to pay for a militia force.
He is mostly remembered for his quarrel with Thomas a Becket, and Becket’s subsequent murder in Canterbury Cathedral on 29th December 1170.
His sons turned against him, even his favourite John.
Richard I (The Lionheart)
House of Angevin
1189 - 1199
Third son and successor to Henry II.
He was the leading Christian commander during the Third Crusade.
Although crowned King of England, he spent all but 6 months of his reign abroad, preferring to use the taxes from his kingdom to fund his various armies and military ventures.
On his way back from Palestine, he was captured in Vienna and held for ransom. The amount paid for his safe return almost bankrupted the country.
He died from an arrow-wound, childless and far from the kingdom that he so rarely visited.
John (Lackland) I
House of Angevin
1199-1216
Fifth son of Henry II l, successor to his own brother Richard I, and father of Henry III.
Short and fat, he was jealous of his dashing brother Richard I whom he succeeded.
He was cruel and selfish, and the raising of punitive taxes united many against him. The Pope excommunicated him.
On 15th June 1215 at Runnymede the barons compelled him to sign Magna Carta, the Great Charter, which reinstated the rights of all his subjects.
He died - from over-eating - a fugitive from all his enemies. He has been termed “the worst English king”.
Henry III
House of Plantagenet
1216 - 1272
Son of and successor to John I, and father of Edward (Longshanks) I.
Crowned when only 9 years old, he became devoted to church, art and learning while being brought up by priests.
He was a weak man, dominated by churchmen and easily influenced by his wife’s French relations.
In 1264 he was captured during the rebellion of barons led by Simon de Montfort and was forced to set up a ‘Parlement’ at Westminster, the start of the House of Commons.
He was the greatest of all patrons of medieval architecture and ordered the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey in the Gothic style.
He died of old age after a 56 years-long reign.
Edward II
House of Plantagenet
1307 - deposed 1327
Son of and successor to Edward I, and father to Edward III.
A weak and incompetent king.
He had many male ‘favourites’, the most notorious being Piers Gaveston.
His invasion of Scotland in 1314 to suppress revolt resulted in defeat at Bannockburn.
He was then deposed by his wife and her lover Roger de Mortimer and held captive in Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. By their orders he was murdered in Berkeley Castle - as legend has it, by having a red-hot poker thrust up his backside.
Edward III
House of Plantagenet
1327 - 1377
Son of and successor to Edward II, and grandfather of Richard II.
His ambition to conquer Scotland and France plunged England into the Hundred Years War, beginning in 1338.
The two great victories at Crecy and Poitiers made him and his son, Edward of Woodstock (the Black Prince), the most renowned warriors in Europe.
An inspiring leader, his Order of the Garter was a chivalric club designed to bind his military nobility to him, and was widely imitated.
Under his reign, the outbreak of bubonic plague, the ‘Black Death’ in 1348-1350 killed half the population of England.
He died of a stroke aged 64, one year after his son the Black Prince.
Richard II
House of Plantagenet
1377 - deposed 1399
Son of the Black Prince and successor to Edward III.
Extravagant, unjust and faithless, he ascended the throne at age 10.
In 1381 he squashed the Peasants Revolt, led by Wat Tyler as a reaction to the 1380 Poll Tax, with great severity.
His extravagance and his acts of revenge and tyranny soon turned his subjects against him.
In 1399 he was deposed by his cousin Henry Bolinbroke of Lancaster, later elected King Henry IV.
He died of starvation, in Pontefract Castle in 1400.
Edward (Longshanks) I
House of Plantagenet
1272 - 1307
Son of and successor to Henry III, and father to Edward II.
A statesman, lawyer and soldier, he was known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’ for his victories in Scotland, although the Scots under Sir William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fiercely resisted actual conquest.
Aiming at a united Britain, he defeated the Welsh chieftains and created his eldest son Prince of Wales.
He formed the Model Parliament in 1295, bringing the knights, clergy and nobility, as well as the Lords and Commons together for the first time.
When his first wife Eleanor died, he escorted her body from Grantham to Westminster, setting up Eleanor Crosses at every resting place.
He died on the way to fight Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland.
