This is, hopefully, going to be the first in a series of essays that details the entire history of the Kings of England up until today. We'll see how far we get. Anyway...
The year 1066 is when King Harold II, the last pureblood Englishman to ever take the throne was usurped by William the Conqueror. This is where the British monarchy ends, but it is much more difficult to say when it begins. Harold's story is told in the Bayeux tapestry. Harold helped William in a battle at Mon San Michelle and was then supposed to support William in his ascension to the throne, in return for being able to return home. Instead, Harold had himself elected king. In this moment of uncertainty in the kingdom, the Norwegian king, who also had a small claim to the throne, decided to invade the country. Now, both William and King Hardrada, were invading from opposite sides. King Harold was able to completely defeat Norway's army, but he was no match for William, and he died in the battle of Hastings.
Thus began the reign of William the Conqueror, or King William I. Kings back then were elected, so when the crowd outside of William's coronation began shouting their approval, the Normans, mistaking it for rebellion, burned London and changed the way that England would be ruled forever. William took all of the lands and redistributed it to the nobles, with tenants living and working on the land. The people in the north of England were not really a part of it, the way that they are today. Their loyalties were bound to Scandinavia, rather than Normandy, so to get them to submit, he destroyed their crops and animals. It took decades for them to get back on their feet again. He also made the Church more French. However, he did not crush the Anglo Saxon way of live altogether because he knew that he needed the English to continue to function under him. When William died, the question became, who would succeed him? Who would receive all of the lands that belonged to him? William decided to give his Norman lands to his oldest son Robert, that his middle son William Rufus would become king of England, and that his youngest son Henry would get 5,000 pounds.
William Rufus became King William II, and none of the brothers were happy with this arrangement. William tried to take Robert's lands and Robert tried to take the kingdom of England, while Henry just waited in the wings, orchestrating these events. Robert was the first to give in after many long years of fighting his brothers. William II was now a secure king, and Henry claimed to be his most ardent supporter. However, William had no children or wife and was rumored to be gay. This pops up a lot throughout history, just warning you. This also made it easier for Henry to quietly stir up resentment against his brother. In 1100, William and Henry were in the forest, hunting separately, when William was shot by a mystery arrow and was killed. Henry flew to the royal treasury and demanded the keys, and killed the guards that claimed that Robert was the rightful king.
Henry was elected King of England a few days later. Henry was given a coronation to legitimize his claim to the throne. Throughout English history, there is this mindset of "if we give it a fancy ceremony, then it really happened!" Henry now claimed that his ascension to the throne was guided by the hand of God, and that he had a divine right to rule. There was also a legend that the king's touch could cure scrofula. This legend would hold for the next 700 years. Henry invaded Normandy in 1106 and imprisoned Robert, taking his lands. He married an English woman named Edith and encouraged other Normans to marry Englishwomen as well, which irritated his barons. Henry started to appoint men of power from the Church instead of the barons and moved his court from place to place, to watch over his lands. Henry's daughter Matilda married the Holy Roman Emperor, and named his son William as his heir. William was very popular and went on a voyage in a ship to show himself off to the kingdom. The party on the ship soon became rowdy and William was killed in a longboat that crashed on the rocks. Henry, surprisingly, then named Matilda as his next heir. Her first husband was dead, but she had remarried the Count of Anjou. Henry died after eating some bad fish at the age of 65, in 1135.
Matilda was in Anjou, but Henry's sister's son Stephen rushed to take the crown. His brother was the bishop of Winchester, who had the keys to the treasury. Stephen was thought to be easily controlled and was popular, so he was crowned King Stephen I. Stephen's good nature quickly turned against him and his barons took advantage of him, practically starting a civil war. This gave Matilda the opening that she needed. Stephen was captured by Matilda's forces in a battle at Lincoln. It was declared that he was no longer the king favored by God, and Matilda was recognized as queen. Unfortunately for her, her idea of sovereignty had been developed in Germany, which already had an established monarchy, not one that was based on forcing your will on a rebellious nation. Matilda refused her coronation, and she refused to pledge her fealty to the people. Matilda was chased from Westminster by an angry mob and Stephen was back in power. Matilda eventually gave up, but her son, Henry, was far from passive. In 1153, Stephen's son and wife died and Stephen finally named Henry as his heir.
Henry took over the government at that point, even though Stephen was still technically king. In 1154, Henry II was crowned king and, interestingly, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine was also crowned, but as queen consort. The combination of his lands and his wife's meant that he now owned over half of France as well. King Henry II used his boundless energy to get the kingdom on its feet again. He began to allow the people to run their own country, which was immensely popular, and had his best friend, Thomas Beckett, become a position not unlike Prime Minister. He reduced the power of the Church and he installed Thomas Beckett as the Archbishop of Canterbury, which Matilda and Eleanor were fervently against. Henry did not listen to either of these women in his life and Beckett became fanatically committed to the Church. He excommunicated all of the other bishops in London and fired the Archbishop of York, making himself more powerful. I urge you to look him up. He was really nuts. Henry was heard to mutter "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?", and his knights took that as an actual order. Thomas had the top of his head cut off in his cathedral. Henry was quick to distance himself from this event, and Beckett was made a martyr. Henry did a very public form of penance to keep his kingdom from being overrun. Meanwhile, Eleanor had been raising her sons in Aquitaine to overtake her husband. Their youngest son, John was the only one who remained loyal, but their oldest son Richard was the one who eventually defeated him.
In 1189, Henry recognized Richard as his heir and died. Richard was crowned King Richard I that same year. It was Richard's intention for Eleanor to rule England for him while he went on crusade. She knew how to rule since, when she was younger, she had been the queen of France. The Saracens had reconquered Jerusalem. Richard the Lionheart had been raised by his mother as a romantic. He saw himself as a great hero, fighting for justice and chivalry. He saw himself as a modern King Arthur. Richard, at the end of the third crusade, decided to travel home alone and in disguise. He was captured by King Leopold of Austria. His ransom of 100,00 pounds nearly broke the kingdom, and his foolishness would be his downfall. He was sieging some random city, forgot to put on armor, was shot by a crossbow, and died of the infected wound in 1199. Richard named his brother John as his heir. Richard only spent six months of his reign in England at all.
Several long avoided problems would come to a head during the reign of King John. The first problem was one of succession and how it should work. After all, Richard other brother Geoffrey had died leaving behind a son named Arthur. Was he the rightful heir, or was John? John went to war, captured the 13 year old Arthur and the boy was never again mentioned in the records. Rumors said that John drowned him, and this gave John a reputation as a cold hearted tyrant. The King of France kept the war going until John had to give up most of his French lands. There was also the matter of the balance of power between the king and the pope. Pope Innocent III was an exceptionally fervent and militant pope. He thought that the pope should have ultimate control over the king. John refused the Pope's appointment for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope excommunicated all of England in 1209. John then sent a delegation to Morocco, offering to turn England into an Islamic country in return for an alliance. Morocco refused and the Church conquered. In 1213, Stephen Langton, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, pretty much ruled over England. He demanded that the Magna Carta be created to limit the power of the king. Thankfully, Langton was an Englishman, so it was meant to simply spell out what it meant to be king. Pope Innocent hated it, because he saw himself as the feudal lord of England and thought that it was limiting his power, so he excommunicated anyone who tried to stand by Magna Carta. Langton was sacked and recalled to Rome, and John used a foreign army to crush the rebellious barons, who then went to France and promoted a new king, Louis, the son of the king of France.
This was the second French invasion of the English monarchy. John was gathering an army when the ties washed away his treasure and the crown jewels, so he stopped at a nearby abbey and died of dysentery from drinking bad wine. Louis story will continue in the next essay.
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