Peter Ackroyd. The History of England Volume I: Foundation.

What is history? E. H. Carr famously described it as the choices made by historians, and in that sense Ackroyd’s history of England is a story of the kings who (mis)ruled it. To be fair to him though, Ackroyd does alternate his chapters chronicling the rise and fall of the Plantagent dynasty with shorter thematic pieces (“The house”, “The road”, “The names” and so on), and through such interludes he attempts to offer something more than another volume on dead kings and queens.

But then I did buy this book precisely because I wanted a sweeping overview of England’s warring elites — there were a lot of gaps in my knowledge. So, rather than offer up another earnest piece decrying Ackroyd’s populist appeal or his under-representation of whatever minority happens to be the flavour of the month, I thought instead I’d list a few points about each of the kings from William the Conqueror to Henry VII — at the very least, these snippets might encourage you to track down this book for more of the same if it interests you. My notes became more detailed the more I read the book.

• William I: invaded England in 1066, defeating Harold Godwinson and crowned the new king.
• William II: the Rufus Stone in New Forest marks the place where he fell while hunting on 2 August 1100.

The Rufus Stone in New Forest (courtesy of Flickr user Supermac1961)

• William II’s younger brother Henry, who succeeded him, built Reading abbey as a memorial to his son William, who drowned at sea on the White Ship.
• Henry I’s daughter Matilda was his only legitimate heir following William’s death at sea. The throne was usurped by her cousin Stephen in 1135. Stephen and Matilda warred for 16 years.
• Matilda’s son Henry succeeded his uncle Stephen in 1154. He is mostly remembered for the murder of Thomas Beckett, slain by the king’s knights in December 1170.
• Of Henry II’s four sons, two were romanticised in the 19th century as Richard the Lionheart and Evil King John. Richard was crowned in 1189.
• Richard was captured while travelling back from the Third Crusade, and his brother John usurped the throne after declaring him dead. Richard eventually returned and reclaimed the throne, but John did succeed him following his death in 1199.

Magna Carter memorial in Runnymede (courtesy of Flickr user mtgf93)

• There is a yew tree growing at the site in Runnymede where Magna Carter was drawn up between John and the barons in 1215 which existed even then.
• John’s 9-year-old son Henry succeeded him in 1216. His 56-year rule is generally considered to have been ineffectual.
• Simon de Montfort was summoned by the restless English barons to oppose Henry III’s rule. He defeated the king in battle at Lewes, Sussex, in 1264. Royal forces led by Henry’s son Edward later defeated and killed de Montford in the Battle of Evesham in 1265.
• Henry III died of old age in 1272, and his battle-hardened son was crowned Edward I. The new king conquered Wales after 1275 and erected massive castles there as a show of his power. Caernarfon Castle is one of many that still stands today.
• In 1307, at the age of 68, Edward marched north with the aim of subduing Robert Bruce’s royal ambitions, but the old king died en route at Burgh-by-Sands. His son was crowned Edward II.

The shrine of Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral (courtesy of Flickr user Art History Images (Holly Hayes))

• Edward II reigned as a tyrant until 1326, when his wife Isabella returned from France with her 14-year-old son (also Edward) and armed supporters. The king was driven out of London and fled as far as Caerphilly, where he was captured. He was coerced into stepping aside in favour of his son, and subsequently imprisoned at Berkeley Castle — where he was brutally slain. His shrine can be seen today in Gloucester Cathedral.
• The start of what became known as The Hundred Years’ War began when Edward III declared war against France in 1337. This was after he subdued Scotland following Robert Bruce’s death in 1329. Edward’s son, known as the Black Prince, ravaged the French countryside with his band of mercenaries, but he died in 1376 and his father followed him to the grave a year later.
• Richard II, son of the Black Prince, was 10 years old when crowned in 1377. Four years later violent revolts broke out against the poll tax, led by John Ball and Wat Tyler. Richard eventually suppressed them.
• Richard’s wife died childless in 1394. Five years later, having alienated most of his supporters and the country, he sailed to Ireland and the exiled Henry Bolingbroke (whose father was the third son of Edward I) returned in his absence with the support of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland. Bolingbroke deposed the king and was crowned Henry IV.

‘Prince Hal’ (Henry V) at the Gower Memorial in Stratford-Upon-Avon (courtesy of Flickr user Ben Garrett)

• Percy and his son Hotspur joined forces with a Welsh prince, Owen Glendower, and rebelled against the king’s rule. In a battle at Shrewsbury the rebels were defeated by Henry’s forces, with Hotspur among the dead. The king died in 1412, and his son was crowned Henry V.
• Henry V revived the One Hundred Years’ War when he invaded France twice — in 1415 and 1417. He subdued the country and married Katherine of France (Charles VI’s daughter) in 1421. A year later he became gravely ill and died. His infant heir was cared for by his uncles the duke of Gloucester and the duke of Bedford, and the bishop of Winchester Henry Beaufort, before being formally crowned Henry VI in 1429.
• In 1445 Henry married Margaret of Anjou, a niece of the French king. She wielded great influence over her pious and peaceful husband, effectively in command of the royal forces even before Henry’s rule was threatened by the duke of York and his allies — the Earl of Salisbury and his son the Earl of Warwick. Margaret’s forces defeated York and Salisbury in December 1460, but before his death York had come to an agreement with the Lords that his son Edward of March would inherit the throne.

A statue of Marguerite d’Anjou in Paris (courtesy of Flickr user wallyg)

• After a series of victories against the Lancastrians, Edward of March was crowned Edward IV on 4 March 1461, compelling Margaret and her forces to flee into Scotland. In May 1464 Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, a widowed Englishwoman whose ascendancy at court came at the expense of the Earl of Warwick. Warwick arranged for his daughter’s marriage to the duke of Clarence, Edward’s younger brother, before defeating the king’s forces and imprisoning him in Warwick Castle. Lacking authority, he was later forced to release him and fled to France, where he reconciled with Margaret of Anjou and betrothed another of his daughters to Margaret’s son Edward.
• Warwick marched with a 30,000-strong force to Coventry, and Edward IV fled to Holland. Henry IV was restored to the throne on 3 October 1470, but in the spring of the following year Edward returned, and with the help of his brother the duke of Clarence (who now turned against his father-in-law Warwick) reclaimed the throne. Edward later defeated Warwick’s forces north of London, and the Earl himself was killed in the subsequent rout. Unaware of these events, Margaret returned to England with her son Prince Edward, and they were captured near Tewkesbury. Prince Edward was killed and she was confined to the Tower with her husband. Henry himself was killed there weeks later.
• Edward IV’s two younger brothers — George, duke of Clarence, and Richard, duke of Gloucester — were now set against the king’s two infant sons. In 1478 Clarence was accused of treason and taken to the Tower, where he was murdered days later. Gloucester, meanwhile, married Lady Ann Neville — previously betrothed to the slain Prince Edward. When Edward IV died in the spring of 1483, Gloucester confined the late king’s sons Edward and Richard to the Tower. Gloucester was crowned Richard III on 6 July 1483, and the two young princes died shortly thereafter in explained circumstances. The following year Richard’s only child died, as did his wife.
• Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV’s widow, arranged with Margaret Beaufort for her daughter to marry Margaret’s son Henry Tudor. Beaufort’s father was a great grandson of Edward III through his third-surviving son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster — thus the marriage between Elizabeth’s daughter and Margaret’s son would unite the houses of Lancaster and York.
• On 22 August 1485 Henry defeated Richard’s III’s forces on Bosworth Field, during which the king himself was killed. The young Tudor was crowned Henry VII, thus ending the dynastic war.
• The greatest threat to Henry’s rule came from an unlikely source — Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be the younger of the two princes Richard III had locked in the Tower. Warbeck was eventually captured and killed by the king. Henry himself died on 21 April 1509, seven years following the death of his eldest son Arthur. His second son Henry instead inherited the throne.

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related

Tags: history, war

Originally published at treiglad.wordpress.com on April 6, 2013.