William I, 1066-1087
William I (William Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror)
1066-1087
In person, William I was said to be a man of great stature with
the thundering voice one might expect from one of historys
most remarkable figures. William became Duke of Normandy when he
was just 7 years old, and by age 24 he was the mightiest feudal
lord in France.
In 1066 William seized the English crown at the momentous Battle
of Hastings. During his reign, William established a social order
that would endure for centuries, and would become known as the
feudal system. Although never popular with the English Saxon
population, Williams iron rule brought order and stability.
William ordered the creation of the Domesday Book an
exhaustive census of all of Englands people and property.
William died in 1087 while warring with Philip I in France.
William II (William Rufus) 1087-1100
During his rule from 1087 to 1100, William II, called Rufus (Red)
because of his ruddy complexion, was not a popular man. One Anglo
Saxon chronicle says that he was hated by almost all his
people, and abhorred by God. He every morning got up a worse man
than he lay down, and every evening lay down a worse man than he
got up.
From his father, William Rufus received the English crown while
his brother Robert was given Normandy.
Throughout his reign, Rufus was known for selling off church
offices or keeping them unoccupied so that he could collect their
revenue for himself. While hunting in the royal forest, Rufus was
killed, probably accidentally, by an arrow through the head. He
was succeeded by his brother, Henry I.
Henry (Henry Beauclerc) 1100-1135
Henry I was present when his brother, William Rufus, was killed,
and he immediately claimed the throne. Henrys rule is
remembered primarily as one of peace and order, although in 1125
he found 94 of his 97 moneyers guilty of debasing the
coinage, and ordered a hand chopped off of each one, and
nailed to the owners office door.
During his reign, Henry declared a law that no baron could
fortify his dwelling without a royal decree, a move that reveals
the crowns fear of revolt as well as the growing importance
of castles.
In 1106, Henry defeated Duke Robert of Normandy, thus
establishing his own authority on both sides of the English
Channel. In 1120, his son William drowned and, according to
legend, the King never smiled again.
Stephen 1135-1154
King Stephen, grandson of William the Conqueror, came to the
throne in controversy. Before Henry I died, he had named his
daughter Matilda to be his successor. But Matilda was across the
Channel in Anjou when her father died, and Stephen claimed the
crown. Twice was Stephens rule challenged by Matilda and
her followers, who nearly succeeded in driving him out in 1141.
Stephen was never a strong ruler. Throughout his reign, lawless
barons fought private wars in an effort to expand their powers.
When Stephen died in 1154, the people were ready for a king who
would assert his power and bring order to a troubled land.
While Stephen and Matilda quarreled almost non stop, Stephen
relaxed the grip on the feudal barons that Henry I had held so
carefully. The barons ran wild, building thousands of stone
castles at an enormous rate. Thus secured behind their stone
walls, the barons ignored royal decrees, made alliances with each
other, and conducted private wars to the great detriment of the
land and the peasants who lived there. One form of economic
warfare was to slaughter all an enemys serfs, depriving him
of the income from his fields, while leaving the fields
themselves unharmed.
Henry II, 1154-1189
After the chaos of Stephens reign, the people of England
needed a strong leader, and they found one in Henry II. The son
of Henry Is daughter Matilda, Henry II was called
Plantagenet, because of his habit of wearing in his
hat a sprig of broom plant, or planta genista. After him the
Plantagenet line of kings would rule England for 245 years.
Henrys greatest achievement was the reform of the law
courts. He standardized the courts by sending out specially
trained justices to sit in the county courts. The legal
principles these circuit justices helped to promote became known
as the common law.
One unfortunate effect of this effort was the conflict with
Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, over the question of
whether church officials should fall under the jurisdiction of
the Kings Court, or Curia Regis. Becket was murdered by the
Kings men, and subsequently became a martyr and a saint.
Henry IIs last years were embittered by the rebellion of
his sons, in conjunction with the King of France. He died, old
and sick, in 1189, muttering, shame, shame on a conquered
king.
Henry reasserted the former monarchic power over the barons by
systematically razing the countrys castles. As his
grandfather before him, Henry II realized that a proliferation of
castles insulated ambitious barons from the authority of their
king.
Richard I 1189-1199
The life of Richard the Lion Hearted is the stuff of legend.
Tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed, a brave warrior as well as a lover
of poetry and song, Richard won the hearts of his countrymen
despite the fact that he spent only a few months of his ten-year
reign in England.
At age 15, he helped his brothers in their unsuccessful revolt
against their father Henry II. But Richard was more fighter than
governor. Shortly after his coronation he set out to help
recapture the Holy Land, and became a chief leader of the Third
Crusade. After several years Richard began to make his way home.
He traveled for some time in disguise through Germany, but was
captured by his enemy the Duke of Austria and held prisoner for
many months. His ransom paid, Richard again went to war, this
time defending his royal holdings in France. There he died in
1199, struck in the neck by a crossbow bolt.
Despite his absence, England fared well during Richards
reign thanks to skilled and dedicated administrators like Hubert
Walter, who helped to put down an attempted coup by
Richards brother John in 1193.
John 1199-1216
History remembers John as one of Englands worst kings. He
is described as vicious, cruel, cold, greedy, and given to
frenzied fits of rage. Ironically, his reign produced the
momentous Magna Carta, a pivotal document that limited even the
role of a king and guaranteed the basic rights of his subjects.
In pursuit of the crown John plotted against his father, King
Henry II, and later against his brother Richard. He became king
in 1199 and began immediately to push the bounds of his royal
power to their limits. In one characteristic maneuver, John
conspired to eliminate his young nephew Arthur, who many felt had
a legitimate claim to the throne. Arthur ultimately disappeared,
and no one is sure what became of him One account said that John
ordered his men to capture and castrate Arthur, who subsequently
died from the shock.
Johns greed and cruelty served to unite feudal nobles,
churchmen, and townspeople. In 1215, a group of nobles forced
John to sign the Magna Carta, which spelled out various laws,
rights, and official limits. The Magna Cartas great
importance lay in its assumption that certain universal laws
superseded even the power of the king.
Henry III, 1216-1272
Henry IIIs long reign saw many changes to Englands
political landscape, most centered upon the longstanding power
struggle between the king and the feudal barons. Henry was
crowned in 1216 at age 9, but took effective control over his
realm only upon coming of age in 1227.
The pious Henry angered his barons by waging a costly and
unproductive war in France, as well as by favoring the interests
of the church over those of the landed aristocracy. Such tensions
exploded in 1264, when a group of the most
powerful nobles revolted under the leadership of Simon de
Montfort, Earl of Leicester. The Earl managed to overwhelm
the kings forces and imprison both Henry and his son
Edward, for a time becoming the effective ruler of England.
Edward ultimately escaped and rallied sufficient support to put
down Simons revolt. The conflict did, however, achieve some
lasting reforms, most notably the expansion of the English
Parliament.
The monarchy restored , Edwards strong presence
overshadowed that of his weak and aging father. In 1272, Henry
died, and the throne passed officially into Edwards hands.
Edward I, 1272-1307
Edward I, called Longshanks because of his unusual
height, was a strong and decisive king who solidified royal power
even as he expanded the role the English Parliament.
Edwards greatest challenge was his effort to bring Wales
and Scotland under his rule, and among his greatest legacies are
the great castles he build to further this effort.
With the end of the Crusades and loss of most English holdings in
France, Edward soon turned his eye toward the territories of
Scotland and Wales. Edwards incursions into Wales began in
1277, when he challenged the rule of Welsh Prince Llewelyn ap
Gruffudd of Gwynedd. A vital part of Edwards Welsh campaign
was to build a series a great stone castles along the Northern
coast to secure his forces and quell local rebellion. Many of
these still stand today, a monument to Edward Longshanks
vision of a unified English Island.
Partly because of the kings coffer-depleting castle program
in Wales, Edward had less success subduing the Scots. The
expansive and rugged terrain of Scotland, coupled with the likes
of rebels like William Wallace and Robert Bruce, made the job
difficult for a monarch with dwindling resources.
At home, Edward brought many progressive reforms, such as the
expansion of the Parliament. He died in 1307 at the ripe age of
68.
Edward II, 1307-1327
Edward II 1307-1327
Despite careful training by his father, the feeble and cowardly
Edward II bore no resemblance to his father in the field of
leadership. Edward thought to quiet mounting discontent at home
by securing the Scottish territory that had eluded his capable
father. The result was one the most humiliating military defeats
of English history. More than 25,000 English troops, including
some 3,000 armored knights were slaughtered by a hardened band of
10,000 Scottish spearmen under the brilliant command of Robert
Bruce.
In 1326 the Kings enemies, aided by his wife Isabella
staged a revolt. The King was captured, and his young son Edward
III was crowned in his stead. Several months later, the deposed
King was brutally murdered. It is said that his screams carried
outside prison walls as his bowels were burned by red-hot irons
as they passed into his body.