This is the second in a series of essays that will detail the entire history of the kings of England, starting with William the Conqueror and ending with Liz 2. Off we go.
In the year 1215, King Louis, a French king, had just been crowned the ruler of England. All of the bishops had been excommunicated thanks to the previous king, John, so he had no coronation. Louis proceeded to give the control over the land to his French friends, much to the chagrin of the barons who had put him on the throne in the first place. They immediately began to look for better options. John had a nine year old son Henry, but England had never had a child king before. However, the barons liked the idea of a child as king because he could be easily controlled. A haphazard coronation was planned for the young boy. His mother's gold necklace was used as a crown and the Bishop of Winchester had to perform the ceremony, but the deed was done.
The boy was crowned King Henry III, and a baron, William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, acted as his regent. Louis was beaten, then went back to France and renounced his claim to the throne at all. Marshall reissued Magna Carta and the French were, for the first time, considered foreigners. Marshall died in 1219 and Henry was given a real coronation, with a crown and everything. Even though Henry III got older, he never really got out from under the thumb of the barons, because he was raised not to. That is until, at age 29, he married a strong willed 19 year old named Eleanor. Immediately, one of her uncles practically looted the treasury, and another uncle was made Archbishop of Canterbury. She funneled funds to fund her brother's war in France and generally made herself hated by Englishmen everywhere. In 1263, London rose up to attack bankers and the Queen. At the time, she was in the Tower of London. As she escaped, she was chased back by an angry mob, and so had to stay in the Tower. England was on the brink of revolution, and the man who facilitated the tipping point was a Frenchman named Simon D'Montfort. Simon had been exiled from France because he was considered to be a danger to the crown. Before long, he had married Henry III's sister and became the Earl of Leicester. Simon became more and more supportive of complete revolution. There was a civil war and both Henry and his son Edward became Simon's prisoners. In 1265, he held basically the first Parliament meeting, and the country was run in a very similar fashion to the way that England is run now. Prince Edward reached 25 years old, and escaped his imprisonment to overthrow Simon. Simon was chopped up into pieces, Henry was on the throne, but Edward was the man running the show. Edward was called Longshanks, and he spoke English, which was almost unheard of for a royal. Henry III die in 1272, leaving the crown to Edward, who was on crusade at the time.
Edward and his wife Eleanor (again) were crowned in 1273, and they already had six kids. In the end, they would have 16 children in total. In a show of British nationalism, they had some bones that were supposedly that of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in the main Church. In doing this, they were presenting their rule as a new Camelot. He needed loyalty from his subjects because he planned to capture Wales. He was successful and would become the first English king to totally conquer Wales. Both of the princes of Wales were killed in a fantastically gruesome fashion, which demonstrated the strength of King Edward I's rule. He funded his wars by putting a custom tax on wool, which was supremely unpopular and led to some unrest. Edward then began to use his newly gained tax money to decree that the Jews were a threat to the country, restricted their actions, made them wear a yellow star patch on their clothes, arrested the heads of their households, and executed them. Does any of this sound familiar? It should. The Nazis would adopt this exact plan later. In 1290, all the remaining Jews were banished. Rather than cause a public outcry, this behavior caused a sudden uprise in English nationalism. Edward conquered Scotland in 1296 and imprisoned the Scottish king, which also helped the country's morale. Unfortunately, the increase in nationalism wen a bit too far. As a result, William Wallace was able to lead a popular Scottish resistance group against the king. Most of Scotland was freed before his defeat and subsequent death. A couple rebellions followed and Edward I was too old to put them down. Edward I died and his son, Edward II was put on the throne.
Edward II had always been somewhat of a weak character. He liked music and parties, but had no taste for war or sports. Edward I had tried to change this about him by assigning him a squire who was fond of those things, Piers Gaveston. Unfortunately for Edward I, they shortly fell in love. Piers had been banished, but once Edward II was on the throne, he returned quickly. He was charismatic and handsome and loved showing his power over Edward, which angered the nobles. Edward married Isabella of France. At their wedding, Piers carried the crown and wore the royal purple and pearls. The barons were furious at this blatant display of power. Eventually, the barons chased Isabella, Piers and Edward out of the castle and all around the country before killing Piers Gaveston. Meanwhile, the Scots had taken back Edinburgh. Edward hoped to regain popularity, as his father had, by taking Scotland. However, the Scots (if you'll excuse the colloquialism) whooped him. In addition to that, the climate began to kill crops and livestock, and the barons blamed Edward's lack of direction and took over. The Earl of Lancaster acted as king, now, and ruled Edward's life. Edward turned to Hugh Despencer and his son, the only nobles who had supported Gaveston. With their help, Edward took back power. But the bad harvests continued and the Despencers made it quite clear that they were looking for more money, land, and power, which Edward gave to then. This move was resented by everyone, especially Queen Isabella. She took their oldest son to France and refused to come back until the Despencers were dealt with. While she was there, she fell in love with an ally of Lancaster's, Roger Mortimer. Together, they gathered an army, invaded England, and killed both of the Despencers. Edward was deposed in a ceremony where he handed the crown over to his oldest son, Edward III. Edward II was then kept in a prison of sorts and was encouraged to die. When he failed to do this, he was murdered quietly. Rumor has it that he died by having a red hot poker stuck up his bum. A rather undignified end for a king, if I do say so myself.
Edward III, though king in name, was truly under the thumb of his mother and Mortimer. He broke free at 18 when he sent a group of guards to capture the couple. Mortimer was hanged and Isabella was shut away in a castle, so Edward III's rule could truly begin. He was handsome, young, and strong. He spoke about three languages fluently and was a chivalrous knight. He quickly declared himself the true heir to the throne of France, which he wasn't. He did this because the French were supporting the Scottish rebellion and because Philip of France had stopped allowing French traders to buy English goods, which threatened the economy. Thus began the Hundred Years War. This changed the way that the king ruled. Previously, the deal had been that knights would lead the army on behalf of the king while he led the kingdom and gave them lands and wealth and status. However, wars overseas were a different matter altogether because they would be spending a lot of time far away from their families. Under Edward III's rule, knights could pay a tax called scutage which meant that they would not have to fight. Edward also began to hire archers from the lower classes to increase distance fighting. Sure enough, his new way of thinking began to work and he slowly conquered France and its old fashioned armies. When Calais fell, Edward thought that they should be punished so he was going to hang six city officials. However, when the time came, the queen, Philippa, fell on her knees to beg for their lives, which Edward granted. This entire show was planned to make Edward look like a strong, but just and merciful king and it worked. Unfortunately, in 1346, more than a third of the country was killed by the Black Plague that was sweeping through Europe. During this, the French war raged on and the nobility grew even grander. The thing was that now, the war could not be stopped. The kings population was almost gone so all of his income came from money that he got from the war. Edward III died in 1377 at the age of 65, and by then the people of England were no linger as entranced by the war as they had been.
The next in line would have been Edward's son, the Black Prince, but he was already dead so the crown went to the Black Prince's ten year old son Richard. However, Richard II was not the power player here. His uncle, John of Gaunt, would affect history for generations to come (a bit of foreshadowing for you there). At this point, England was getting its butt kicked by the French and the peasants demanded to be paid for their work on the land, but the crown had limited funds. Gaunt's government needed money so they implemented a poll tax. But the population was far smaller than before and they failed to raise enough money, so they tried to do it again and a third time. Now, the people of England were furious. It all culminated in the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. In Smithfield, the rebel leader was talking to King Richard when he was killed. The rebels immediately readied themselves to attack, but King Richard, now age 14, rode out to talk to them. He was able to talk them down and the crisis was averted. The rebel leaders were quickly hunted down and hanged, which was considered a rather underhanded move on Richard's part. He then married Anne of Bohemia, another unpopular move. They had no children and she died in 1394. Richard was fond of parties, dancing, music, tournaments, and feasts, not war, so he abandoned the French War. His friends were unpopular with the barons. People began to compare him with Edward II (yeesh), and there was a council made to ask that the king's advisors be taken away. They did so and pretty much stole Richard's throne from him. He was able to regain power, but in doing so, he exiled Henry Bolingbroke. Richard had no support anywhere. Bolingbroke returned, captured Richard, locked him away in a castle somewhere and had him murdered. This is where it gets complicated. Richard had no children to take over the throne when he died and no brothers or sisters. This meant that the next in line for the throne was an eight year old boy named Edmund, who was living in Ireland. Richard had been the son of Edward III's first son, and Edmund was the grandson of Edward III's second son. Henry was John of Gaunt's son. John of Gaunt was the third son, so Henry was not the real heir, but he took the throne anyway.
However, Henry Bolingbroke was not in Ireland and he was also not eight years old, so Parliament proclaimed him the rightful king and he became King Henry IV, the first king from the Lancaster branch of the Plantagenets (if you don't know what that is, don't worry. It's not important yet). Edmund would be a prisoner for the rest of his life, but don't worry. He was treated well. Henry was also the first king to speak English as his native tongue. However, since Henry had taken the throne rather than inherited it, there would always be people who would question his right to rule. As a result, Henry's reign became more and more oppressive and paranoid. It was under his rule that the Church began burning heretics. His paranoia eventually made him ill and unfit to rule, so the task of actually ruling the country came to his son, Prince Henry. In 1413, at age 45, King Henry IV died, leaving the throne to his 26 year old son.
King Henry V's reign is marked by battles. He properly buried Richard II, and then invaded France. France was then ruled by Charles VI, who was slowly devolving into madness. There was one point where he even believed that he was made of glass (now known as the glass delusion). His delusions made the country weak, so Henry took advantage. He controlled Paris after the famous Battle of Agincourt and Charles not only named Henry as the heir to the French throne, but let him marry his sister, Katherine de Valois. However, although Henry's reign was popular and glorious, he was still a man and all men die. He died of dysentery in 1422 in his early 30s.
Henry V's son became King Henry VI. Six weeks later, Charles VI died, so he was king of France as well. What a great gig, right? Wrong. King Henry VI, at the time, was about 10 months old. Duke of Bedford ruled France and the Duke of Gloucester ruled England. The people of England were absolutely wrecking France and the people were fed up. In enters Joan of Arc. She believed that she was on a divine mission to restore France to the rightful ruler, the Dauphin. She led the army and the Dauphin was soon crowned King of France. Quickly after, Henry was crowned King of England and they crowned him King of France in a rushed ceremony. He grew into a quiet young man who disliked battles and war. England lost all of France except for Calais and the Hundred Years War was finally over. Even more unfortunately for Henry, the taxes used to fight the war were making the people unhappy and hey began to question his claim to the throne. Ok. Here is where it gets complicated. Henrys VI, V, and IV were all descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. However, John of Gaunt had an older brother, Lionel. His line should have inherited the throne. The one in line would be Richard, Duke of York. Now that a weaker king had come to the throne, Richard of York decided to make his claim. The south supported him, but the north was not sure. Fortunately for Richard, the king went suddenly mad in 1453, probably from an inherited disease. His wife had a son, but Henry had no idea what was going on. Richard seized his moment and the Wars of the Roses (or the Cousin's War, seeing as Shakespeare invented the roses) began. Since Henry could not fight back, his wife, Margaret of Anjou, decided to do it for him. She and Richard fought at the Battle of Wakefield and Richard was killed. His son, Edward of York then stepped up with great success and in 1461 was crowned King Edward IV.
The weird thing was that Henry was not dead. He and Margaret were driven out of the country to Scotland. He was captured shortly after and was kept as a prisoner in the Tower of London. In 1471, King Louis of France backed a rebellion that put Henry back on the throne. Katherine de Valois had, after Henry V's death, an affair with Sir Owen Tudor, resulting in a son, Edmund Tudor. He married the 12 year old Margaret Beaufort and she had her only son, Henry Tudor, when she was just 13. Henry Tudor had been in prison, but now that King Henry was back, he was free and was somewhere in the line of succession. Edward IV took back the throne the next year at the Battle of Tewksbury and mad old King Henry was killed in the Tower shortly after. Henry Tudor was now heir to the House of Lancaster, while Edward IV led the House of York. Henry was driven out of the country. The rest of this tale will have to wait until the next essay. See you then!
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