Henry the Young King, 1155-1183

by Matthew Strickland

  The immediate diplomatic crisis provoked by Margaret’s flight, however, was ended by a personal tragedy. In Paris, around 19 June, Margaret gave birth to a boy who was baptized William, but the infant, who may have been premature, survived only three days.205 Little William’s death helps to explain why Henry II did not press home his military plans against Louis but instead allowed himself ‘to be talked rather easily into drawing up a non-aggression pact with Louis’.206 Louis, moreover, had neatly turned the tables on Henry II’s demands concerning his daughters’ dowries by appealing to the papal legate in France, Peter, cardinal bishop of Saint Chrysogonus and formerly bishop of Meaux, over the fact that the marriage of Alice and Richard had, in contravention of their agreement, been repeatedly delayed, even though the girl had long been in Angevin custody. Unless the marriage was now ratified, the legate threatened to place all Henry’s lands on both sides of the Channel under interdict. Henry responded by an appeal to the pope, but though he did indeed transport his great army to Normandy he did not turn it against Louis, but sent part of it with his son Geoffrey to quell insurgents in Brittany.207 The Young King joined his father at Rouen on 11 September, where they received the legate Peter, still bent on carrying out his threatened interdict, but he was persuaded to desist until talks could be held with Louis.208 Accordingly on 21 September, the three kings held a summit between Nonancourt and the great Norman border fortress of Ivry. Here, Henry II concluded a general peace with King Louis, and agreed that Richard would marry Alice, while he and Louis also pledged to take the cross.209

  Soon after these negotiations, however, tragedy struck the Angevin court when a ship carrying Geoffrey of Beverley, the Young King’s chancellor, sank in severe storms off St Valéry on 27 September as it crossed from England to Normandy.210 Roger of Howden also noted the loss of Robert, master of the York schools, but though the names of no others on board are known, it is likely that young Henry also lost further members of his household and those close to him among the 300 souls who perished in the wreck. Nevertheless, the Young King was soon engaged in leading an army into Berry at his father’s command to put down their enemies, while Richard was sent into Poitou to suppress further rebellion there.211 Little is recorded about young Henry’s campaign, though it seems to have been unsuccessful; hearing of his lack of progress, or so Howden believed, Henry II invaded Berry himself with a large force, took Châteauroux and moved to besiege La Châtre where the Déols heiress was being held. Faced with such overwhelming force, the castellan made peace with Henry II and surrendered Denise, who was sent to Chinon to be guarded.212 Henry II then turned against those nobles in the Limousin who had supported his sons against him in the war of 1173–74, and imposed heavy fines on them.213 His success was completed in December when at Grandmont he managed to purchase La Marche from its count, Adalbert, for 15,000 livres angevins, a coup that markedly strengthened Angevin power in Aquitaine.214 The Young King, Richard and Geoffrey all attended Henry II’s magnificent Christmas court of 1177 at Angers, where the Old King celebrated a triumphal year. Robert of Torigni could not remember another occasion, even at Henry II’s coronation or that of the Young King, when the king had so many knights with him.215 It was the conclusion of a period of pacification and restoration of power, at times halting and uncertain, that had begun in September 1174; only now was Henry II secure, even if relations with his eldest son were still unsettled. For young Henry, however, the year equally marked an important turning point. Whether through a genuine rapprochement or merely resignation to his inability to alter his position vis-à-vis his father, the Young King entered into a period of more stable and peaceful relations with Henry II that would last until 1182.

  CHAPTER 11

  Apogee

  KING OF THE TOURNAMENT, 1177–1182

  The Young King, a worthy, fine and courtly man later in his life performed such high exploits that he revived the notion of chivalry which, at that time, was close to extinction. He was the gate, the way and the door through which chivalry returned, and he was her standard bearer …

  – History of William Marshal1

  DESPITE THE RENEWED tensions of 1176–77, the next five years would witness a period of comparative stability in relations between the Young King and his father. This peace was in no small measure due to the close involvement of the Young King in the tournament circuit of northern France. It was in these years that he gained a glittering reputation as a roi chevalier, admired not only for feats of arms, but for the size of his retinues, his open-handed generosity, and his embodiment of the chivalric virtues, which the tournament itself helped to disseminate.2 His participation in the tournaments of the later 1170s and early 1180s, moreover, is among the best-recorded aspects of his life, thanks largely to the invaluable record of the History itself. Almost a third of this long poem is devoted to descriptions of William Marshal’s tourneying exploits before 1183, many of which were undertaken while in the service of, and often in company with, the Young King.

  By the 1170s the tournament was already well developed, with northern France as its epicentre.3 Tournaments frequently took place in border areas, notably those between Normandy and the Île-de-France, or further to the north-east where the Capetian lands marched with those of the counts of Flanders. A number of favoured sites had emerged, such as between Anet and Sorel-Moussel on the river Eure, or between Gournay-sur-Aronde and Ressons-sur-Matz, while a tournament season had been established, running between Lent and Whitsuntide. Indeed, so frequent had tournaments become that in the season there might be as many as one every two weeks.4 With its opportunities for training in cavalry warfare, for the winning of a martial reputation through feats of arms and profit through ransoms, and for conspicuous display and noble conviviality, the tournament had rapidly become an integral aspect of aristocratic culture. Its allurements were neatly summed up in the late twelfth-century German romance Lanzelet, in which a herald proclaims:

  At these jousts are to be won fame and honour: there one can thrust and slash at will; all the celebrities will participate; and there one can meet distinguished knights and ladies. To stay away were a disgrace. All that can delight the knightly soul is there to be had: fighting, horse racing, jumping, running, fencing, wrestling, play at tables and at bowls, the music of the rote, the fiddle and the harp; and besides these, the opportunity of buying things from all over the world.5

  It was into this world that the Young King threw himself, armed with youthful enthusiasm and a seemingly limitless supply of his father’s money.

  Although its origins are obscure, the tournament’s growth was inextricably linked to increasing stability within the territorial principalities of northern France and the concomitant curbing of small-scale but endemic warfare among the nobility. Galbert of Bruges had directly equated the frequent participation of Count Charles the Good of Flanders (d. 1127) in tournaments to the firm peace he had established in his own lands, and to absence of war on his frontiers. With no other fighting to be done, he ‘undertook chivalric exploits for the honour of his land and the training of his knights in the lands of the princes of Normandy or France, sometimes even beyond the kingdom of France; and there with two hundred knights on horseback he engaged in tourneys, in this way enhancing his own fame and the power and glory of his country’.6 Similarly, John of Marmoutier noted how Count Geoffrey le Bel of Anjou, ‘stoking up his own reputation and keen for further contests, began to engage in tournaments within the borders of Flanders and even further afield’.7 If Charles appears to have been precocious as a count in participating in a sport initially regarded more as the preserve of mere knights, by the 1160s and 1170s many greater magnates and the territorial princes of northern France were doing likewise, and for very much the same reasons.8 Count Baldwin V of Hainault, for example, is recorded as having participated in at least thirteen tournaments between 1168 and 1184, while there was nothing exceptional in finding Duke Hugh of Burgundy and the counts of Clermont, Beaumont and Blois attending a
great tournament at Pleurs, c.1178.9 Count Philip of Flanders and Count Henry ‘the Liberal’ of Champagne had become especially renowned as great patrons of the tournament. The close correlation between the holding of tournaments and major fairs, such as those of Champagne, stimulated regional economies and yielded revenue through tolls and entry charges.10 Yet still more important for these princes, such patronage – both through sponsorship and through personal participation in combat – brought martial prestige and served as a means of extending political and cultural influence. The honour and reputation gained by feats of arms in the tournament was a crucial factor in explaining its lasting importance. ‘The fact is’, noted the messengers bringing William Marshal the prize at a tournament at Pleurs in 1178, ‘that high deeds are witnessed by many men when one is in such a situation.’11 Such was the allure of tournaments that King William the Lion of Scotland and some of his leading nobles, such as Peter de Valognes, had crossed from Scotland to France in 1166 to engage in them.12

  Before the Young King, kings of England had not patronized or personally participated in the tournament. Henry II permitted tournaments to be held on the borders of Normandy, but had strictly prohibited them in England, fearing they would be a source of potential disorder and rebellion. In doing so, he was re-establishing a similar ban imposed by Henry I, which had lapsed during the troubles of Stephen’s reign.13 Henry II, like his grandfather, was a brave and seasoned warrior, but considerations of status and regal dignity, as much as concerns for personal safety, kept him aloof from tourneying himself.14 Henry II’s reticence was shared by the kings of France. Louis VII was not a martial king, but neither Philip Augustus nor his son Louis VIII would participate in tournaments despite much campaigning in actual warfare. A century later the French herald Sarrazin commented with evident disapproval that ‘No king of France has ever participated in a tournament from the time when Noah entered the ark, and no-one knows if a king ever did more than come to one’.15 Young Henry’s leading role in the tournament stood in marked contrast. In a revealing passage, Ralph of Diss noted under the year 1179 that:

  Young King Henry, the king’s son, left England and passed three years in tournaments, spending a lot of money. While he was rushing all over France he put aside the royal majesty and was transformed from a king into a knight, carrying off victory in various meetings. His popularity made him famous; the old king was happier counting up and admiring his victories, and although the Young King was still under age his father restored in full his possessions which he had taken away.16

  Far from disapproving of his son’s involvement, Henry II took paternal pride in his high-profile sporting achievements and was more than willing to bankroll the Young King’s tourneying activities. For he realized that the tournament provided young Henry and his companions with a vital safety valve through which to exercise their martial aggression, as well as a means for his son to enhance his status and reputation. Thus preoccupied, the Young King might be less minded to press his father for direct rule of any part of the Angevin dominions. Equally, just as he had readily appreciated the political value of Becket’s extravagant display of his king’s wealth, so Henry II fully recognized that the Young King’s lavish patronage of an international body of knights reflected the wealth of the Angevin empire and augmented its prestige. The Young King’s leadership in the tournament projected a strong and vigorous image of Plantagenet rulership. Indeed, young Henry began a new trend by which English kingship took on a self-consciously chivalric dimension, and employed royal participation in the tournament as a crucial means of forging bonds between the king and his aristocracy: after a hiatus under John and Henry III, this would be developed by Edward I and reach its apogee with the enthusiastic tourneying of Edward III and the Black Prince.17

  A winning combination of young Henry’s personal charisma and great wealth, moreover, served to draw to him otherwise disparate sections of the nobility of the Angevin empire. In the tournament, two main teams fought each other, each team often comprising contingents with distinctive regional identities. At a tournament in 1166 near Le Mans, for example, knights from Anjou, Maine, Poitou and Brittany opposed those from England, France and Normandy.18 More usually, however, teams reflected political alignments: thus at one tournament in the late 1170s a French team fought one led by the Young King comprising Norman and English knights, who, noted the History of William Marshal, vied with each other to be the best.19 Such rivalry doubtless arose between other constituent regions of the Angevin empire, yet the leadership of the Young King brought knights together from these diverse areas in a common purpose and shared identity. If one of the great weaknesses of Henry II’s rule was the all too evident monopoly by Anglo-Normans of patronage and influence at court and the exclusion of members of other regional aristocracies, the composition of the Young King’s tourneying teams was far more inclusive. At the tournament held between Anet and Sorel, probably in the spring of 1178, Normans, Bretons, English, ‘men from Le Mans and Anjou, along with the men from Poitou, with their lord, the Young King’ fought as a team against one drawn from France, Flanders, Brie and Champagne.20 Similarly at the great tournament at Lagny in November 1179, the Young King’s team included English, Norman and Angevin knights, but also some from France and Flanders.21 The composition of this team at Lagny, which is recorded in unusual detail by the History, indicates how participation in the tournament also served as an invaluable mechanism for reintegrating a divided aristocracy in the wake of the civil war of 1173–74, bringing together men who had fought on opposing sides, such as Robert de Stuteville, who had played such a key role in holding northern England for Henry II, and Earl David of Huntingdon, one of the leading rebels in the Midlands.22 Ralph of Diss clearly regarded the Young King’s great success in the tournament between 1176 and 1179 as a means of his political rehabilitation in the eyes of his father.23

  The Young King’s leadership and patronage, however, extended well beyond the nobility of the Angevin lands to embrace knights from all over France and the Low Countries. At Lagny, for example, he retained Robert count of Dreux and famous French knights, including William des Barres and his son of the same name, as well as leading Flemish knights such as Baldwin de Béthune, William de Cayeux and Baldwin le Caron.24 As the History noted, he

  gathered so many worthy men around him that no emperor, king or count ever had such an experienced company, nor would such have been found at any time, for there is no doubt that he had the pick of the bravest young knights (les buens bacheliers) of France, Flanders and Champagne. He did not haggle with them, but he acted in such a way that all the worthy men (tuit li buen) came and joined him.25

  One such knight was the Fleming Roger de Jouy, for ‘there was no man between Dieppe and Baugé more successful at winning booty or more valorous’, and William Marshal was himself to exploit Roger’s talents for gain by entering into a very profitable business partnership with him for taking ransoms in the tournament.26 At a tournament at Eu, in either 1178 or 1179, the Young King had a force of over 100 knights, ‘the best that could be found’, but at the exceptionally grand tournament at Lagny in 1179, held to celebrate the coronation of Philip Augustus, young Henry fielded a great retinue of over 200 knights, including nineteen counts and fifteen knights banneret.27 An emerging rank within the aristocracy, bannerets were lords of greater wealth and status, who were capable of retaining a number of other knights in their service. By the 1170s they were coming to distinguish themselves by bearing distinctive square or rectangular banners, in contrast to the smaller pennon, usually with a forked tail, borne by lesser knights, who now formed the lowest tier of the nobility.28 Beyond the wages paid to his own knights, each of the fifteen bannerets retained by the Young King at Lagny received 20 shillings a day for every knight in his unit, ‘whether they were on the move or in lodgings, from the moment they left their own lands’.29 The daily expense of well over £200 that this represented was a staggering sum.30 ‘It was a source of wonder where thi
s wealth was to be found,’ mused the History, ‘and one can only say that God had shared out to him the wealth placed at his disposal.’31 Not infrequently, however, the Young King’s spending outstripped his access to ready money and he was forced to rely on credit:

  It is true that the Young King, in castle and town, led such a lavish life that, when it came to the end of his stay, he would have no idea how to take his leave. When it came to the last day, creditors would appear, men who had supplied him with horses, garments and victuals. ‘This man is owed three hundred pounds; this one a hundred and that one two hundred,’ the household clerks would say … ‘My lord has no ready money with him, but you shall have it within a month.’32

  His creditors could at least comfort themselves that the ultimate source of young Henry’s money, and if need be their own redress, was the royal coffers of Henry II himself.

  Entry into the Young King’s retinue was not automatic. Though the History does not record the reason for young Henry’s repeated refusal to take on Sir Reginald de Nevers, a younger son of Count William III of Nevers, such a rebuff clearly rankled and made Reginald an implacable opponent when fighting against the Young King’s team.33 For even temporary service in the tourneying retinues of the great magnates enhanced a man’s standing and provided a valuable source of employment for the ‘bachelors’ – young or landless knights. They thereby gained not only wages but opportunities for advancement and the patronage of influential lords. Those knights who served with the Young King, moreover, gained kudos that might aid their subsequent careers. Though he does not name him, Lambert of Ardres relates how one Flemish knight, ‘a man vigorous in arms, who had previously been a fellow knight and associate of Henry the Young King of England’, was made ‘teacher and instructor in arms’ to the young Arnold, lord of Ardres, in a role closely analogous to that of William Marshal. Unlike the Marshal, however, he was swiftly rewarded by Arnold with a fief: that of Verlinghem near Licques.34