Henry the Young King, 1155-1183

by Matthew Strickland

  Had he outlived his father, moreover, young Henry would have inherited a highly efficient governmental structure, at least in England and Normandy, as well as the cadre of talented officials who ran it and who were already familiar to him. In the cultural sphere, his retention in his household of highly educated clerks such as Ralph Niger and Gervase of Tilbury points to his varied intellectual interests, and though, just as for Henry II and Eleanor’s courts, firm evidence of his literary patronage is all too slight, it is very likely that the Young King’s wealth and position made his court an attractive one for other writers and poets. Indeed, in this respect there may even have been a more positive rivalry between the courts of father and son.123 On the death of the Old King, men such as Walter Map and Roger of Howden would, it might be thought, have been able to make the transition to the service of the Young King with little difficulty.

  Between 1170 and 1183 all in the Angevin empire lived with the assumption that young Henry would one day succeed to sole rule of England, Normandy and greater Anjou. Henry’s charm and winning personality, combined with his open-handed giving, would have made him a very different ruler from his father. He was, noted Bertran de Born, ‘generous and well spoken, a good horseman, handsome and humble in conferring great honours’.124 In leading teams of knights from across the lands under Plantagenet rule, the Young King provided a strong unifying influence, and from the evidence of those he recruited into his great tourneying retinues, his patronage would have reached well beyond those Anglo-Normans on whom his father’s favour seems to have been primarily focused. There was a truth beyond the mere topos of a troubadour planh in Bertran’s reflection that on news of young Henry’s death: ‘Bretons and Irishmen, Englishmen and Normans, Aquitainians and Gascons, should be sad and still for your sake … And Poitou suffers, and Maine, and Tours’.125 A king among counts and knights in the dynamic military, social and cultural milieu of the tournament circuit of northern France, young Henry had forged a new image of chivalric kingship in a manner that was not to find an equivalent among monarchs of England until Edward III. His prominent participation in tourneying, combined with a largesse that amazed observers, created strong bonds between him and the aristocracy both in and beyond the Angevin lands as well as projecting Plantagenet power and wealth. It is hard to form an accurate assessment of young Henry’s skill as a warrior and commander beyond the tournament field, but contemporaries were united in their praise for his martial skill and reputation. If the all too laconic record of his campaigns implies that he lacked the outstanding generalship of Henry II and Richard, the military and fiscal resources of the lion’s share of the Angevin empire and his ability to field large groups of elite knights closely bound to him by ties of loyalty nevertheless made the armies he led formidable.126

  What the fortunes of the Angevin empire might have been under his sole rule is impossible to know. His enmity with Richard suggests that Aquitaine would have become detached from it, as had been envisioned by Louis at the settlement of Montmirail, but dissident elements of its nobility could still have looked to the Young King either for support for insurrection within the duchy or patronage beyond it. Given his marriage to Margaret, there was less reason for the issue of the Vexin to become a source of friction with her brother King Philip than was the case under Henry II and Richard. Yet even if Philip had pursued a more hostile policy towards his brother-in-law, young Henry’s support and popularity with the Norman aristocracy would have made the loss of Normandy, as well as the Angevin heartlands, which occurred in the debacle of 1202–4 under King John, most improbable. What is more certain is that on the death of the Young King in 1183 many believed they had lost a great king. ‘Let each one model himself on the young English king,’ ran one lament, ‘who, in the whole world, was the most valiant of the worthy. Now is his noble, lovely person gone, whence there is grief, and dismay and sorrow.’127 Bertran de Born gave powerful and poignant voice to the sentiments of the Young King’s knightly companions in war and the tournament:

  Lord, in you there was nothing to change: the whole world had chosen you for the best king who bore a shield, the bravest one and the best knight in a tourney. Since the time of Roland, and even before, no one ever saw so excellent a king or one so skilled in war, or one whose fame so spread through the world and gave it new life, or one who sought fame from the Nile to the setting sun, looking for it everywhere.128

  The overwhelming sense of loss and dashed expectation is captured just as powerfully by Gervase of Tilbury. Remembering his former lord with admiration and affection, he remarked of young Henry: ‘As he was a solace to the world while he lived, so it was a blow to all chivalry (universe milicie) when he died in the very glow of youth … When Henry died, heaven was hungry, so all the world went begging.’129

  Notes

  Preface

  1.Jordan Fantosme’s Chronicle, ed. and trans. R. C. Johnston (Oxford, 1981), ll. 21–2.

  2.The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes of the Time of Richard the First, ed. J. T. Appleby (1963), 2–3.

  A Note on Terms and Currency

  1.D. Broun, ‘Britain and the Beginnings of Scotland’, Journal of the British Academy, 3 (2015), 107–37, at 117, n. 66, noting Ralph’s attestation in a number of charters as de Disci or de Disei. In references to the Rolls Series edition, Opera Historica: The Historical Works of Master Ralph de Diceto, Dean of London, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols (London, 1876), the Latin form Diceto has been retained.

  2.For further details, see B. J. Cook, ‘En Monnaie Aiant Cours: The Monetary System of the Angevin Empire’, Coins and History in the North Sea World, c.500–c.1250: Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald, ed. B. J. Cook and G. Williams (Leiden, 2006), 617–86; and for England, M. Allen, ‘Henry II and the English Coinage’, Henry II. New Interpretations, ed. C. Harper-Bill and N. Vincent (Woodbridge, 2007), 257–77.

  Chapter 1: A Forgotten King?

  1.The Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born (Padern), ed. W. D. Padern, T. Sankovitch and P. Stablein (Berkeley, 1986), no. 15; L’Amour et la guerre. L’oeuvre de Bertran de Born (Gouiran), ed. G. Gouiran, 2 vols (Aix-en-Provence, 1985), no. 12, ll. 15–28.

  2.For contemporary use of the title ‘Rex Henricus tertius’ see, for example, Gesta regis Henrici secundi Benedicti abbatis: The Chronicle of the Reigns of Henry II and Richard I, AD 1169–1192 (GH), ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols (London, Rolls Series, 1867), I, 301; Peter of Blois, Epistolae, nos 33, 47 (Patrologia Latina (PL), CCVII, cols 109–10, 137); Expugnatio Hibernica: The Conquest of Ireland, by Giraldus Cambrensis (Expugnatio), ed. and trans. A. B. Scott and F. X. Martin (Dublin, 1978), 224; Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum (Coggeshall), ed. J. Stevenson (London, Rolls Series, 1875), 15; De principis instructione liber (De principis), ed. G. Warner, in Giraldi Cambrensis Opera (Gerald, Opera), ed. J. S. Brewer, F. Dimock and G. Warner, 8 vols (London, Rolls Series, 1861–1891), VIII, 173, 219; De vita Gaufridi, ed. J. S. Brewer, Gerald, Opera IV, 363; William of Newburgh, Historia rerum Anglicarum (WN), in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols (Rolls Series, London, 1884–1889), I, 233.

  3.Geoffrey of Vigeois, Chronica (Vigeois), ed. P. Labbe, Novae Bibliothecae manuscriptorum et librorum rerum Aquitanicarum, 2 vols (Paris, 1657), II, 336, calls him ‘rex puer’. In Roger of Howden’s Gesta Henrici, he is often styled rex filius regis as well as rex junior, styles also adopted in official records such as the Pipe Rolls (see, for example, Pipe Roll (PR) 18 Henry II, 94, 144).

  4.For Fontevraud and the Angevin tomb effigies, T. S. R. Boase, ‘Fontevrault and the Plantagenets’, Journal of the British Archaeological Society, 3rd series, 34 (1971), 1–10; E. Hallam, ‘Royal Burial and the Cult of Kingship in France and England, 1060–1330’, JMH, 8 (1982), 339–80; K. Nolan, ‘The Queen’s Choice: Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Tombs at Fontevraud’, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Lord and Lady, ed. B. Wheeler and J. C. Parsons (New York, 2003), 377–405; and C. T. Wood, ‘Fontevraud, Dynasticism and Eleanor of Aquitain
e’, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Lord and Lady, ed. J. C. Parsons and B. Wheeler (Basingstoke, 2002), 407–22.

  5.For the Young King’s effigy, see M. Schlicht, La Cathédrale de Rouen vers 1300 (Caen, 2005), 347–55, and below, 313 and n. 65.

  6.Of these, the most significant remains the depiction of young Henry at his coronation in 1170 and the ensuing banquet from an illustrated early thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman verse, Life of Thomas Becket (London, British Library, Loan MS 88, f. 3r, reproduced in J. Backhouse and C. De Hamel, The Becket Leaves (London, 1988), f. 3r). For the Candes sculptures, S. Lutan, ‘L’Iconographie royale de Saint-Martin de Candes’, Alienor d’Aquitaine ed. M. Aurell (303: Arts, recherché et créations, Nantes, 2004), 108–17. If the well-known but enigmatic wall painting at the chapel of Sainte-Radegonde at Chinon does indeed portray Eleanor of Aquitaine and elements of her family, young Henry may perhaps be one of the two young noblemen, the other being Richard, depicted riding behind the queen, one of whom reaches out to either give or receive a bird of prey in a scene held to refer to her captivity (as, for example, by N. Keenan-Kedar, ‘Alienor d’Aquitaine conduite en captivité. Les peintures murales commémoratives de Sainte Radegonde de Chinon’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale (CCM) 41 (1998), 317–30; and J. Flori, Aliénor d’Aquitaine. La reine insoumise (Paris, 2004), translated by O. Classe as Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Rebel (Edinburgh, 2007), 115–17. The scene’s interpretation, however, remains much debated; see C. Voyer, ‘Les Plantagenêts et la chapelle de Sainte-Radegonde de Chinon: en débat’, Alienor d’Aquitaine, ed. Aurell, 187–93; and the discussion of the wall painting and its historical context by N. Keenan-Kedar, D. Kleinmann, Y. Cloulas and U. Nilgen in Cinquante années d’études médiévales: à la confluence de nos disciplines. Actes du Colloque organisé à l’occasion du cinquantenaire du CESCM, Poitiers, 1–14 septembre 2003, ed. C. Arrignon, M.-H. Debiès and E. Palazzo (Turnhout, 2005), at 43–9, 51–8, 59–60, and 61–7 respectively.

  7.On the nature of the Angevin empire, see J. Le Patourel, ‘The Plantagenet Dominions’, and idem, ‘Angevin Successions and the Angevin Empire’, in J. Le Patourel, Feudal Empires: Norman and Plantagenet (London, 1984), 289–308, 1–17; R.-H. Bautier, ‘“Empire Plantagenêt” ou “Espace Plantagenêt”. Y eut-il une civilisation du monde Plantagenêt?’, CCM, 29 (1986), 139–47; J. Gillingham, The Angevin Empire (2nd edn, London, 2001); idem, ‘Problems of Integration within the Lands Ruled by the Norman and Angevin Kings of England’, Fragen der Politischen Integration im Mittelalterlichen Europa, ed. W. Maleczek (Ostfildern, 2005), 85–135; and M. Aurell, L’Empire des Plantagenêt, 1154–1254 (Paris, 2003), translated by D. Crouch as The Plantagenet Empire (Harlow, 2007).

  8.Gervase of Tilbury, Otia imperialia, ed. and trans. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns (Oxford, 2002), 486–7.

  9.‘Mon chan fenis ab dol et ab maltraire’ (Padern, no. 15, Gouiran, no. 12), ll. 18, 45–56.

  10.‘Si tuit li doil e-il plor e-il marrimen’ (Gouiran, no. 14), ll. 6, 30, 14; Anthology of Troubadour Lyric Poetry, ed. and trans. A. R. Press (Edinburgh, 1971), 168–71.

  11.History of William Marshal (HWM), ed. A. J. Holden, with English translation by S. Gregory and historical notes by D. Crouch, 3 vols (Anglo-Norman Text Society, London, 2002–2006), ll. 6874–8. Paul Meyer’s earlier edition, with a modern French précis of the text, remains valuable for its extensive notes: L’Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, comte de Striguil et de Pembroke, régent d’Angleterre de 1216 à 1219: poème français (HGM), ed. P. Meyer, 3 vols (Société de l’Histoire de France, Paris, 1891–1901). On its composition see D. Crouch, ‘Writing a Biography in the Thirteenth Century: The Construction and Composition of the History of William Marshal’, Writing Medieval Biography, 750–1250: Essays in Honour of Professor Frank Barlow, ed. D. Bates, J. Crick and S. Hamilton (Woodbridge, 2006), 221–35; and idem, ‘Biography as Propaganda in the History of William Marshal’, Convaincre et persuader: communication et propagande aux XII et XIIIe siècles, ed. M. Aurell (Poitiers, 2007), 503–12.

  12.For Latin verses probably composed on the death of the Young King, see Planctus in mortem cuiusdam nobilissimi Regis Henrici, printed in C. L. Kingsford, ‘Some Political Poems of the Twelfth Century’, EHR, 5 (1890), 311–26, at 315–16.

  13.The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni (Torigni), in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard, ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols (London, Rolls Series, 1884–1889), IV, 305. It may not be coincidental that Robert presented the first recension of his chronicle to Henry II soon afterwards, in 1184.

  14.Annales de Saint-Aubin, in Recueil d’Annales Angevins et Vendômoises, ed. L. Halphen (Paris, 1903), 21, ‘Obiit Henricus rex Junior, mortem cujus fere universus orbis lamentatur’; Annales de Waverleia, in Annales monastici, ed. H. R. Luard, 4 vols (London, Rolls Series, 1864–1869), II, 243, ‘Obiit vir illustris et mirae indolis Henricus tertius rex, filius Henrici secundi regis Anglorum’.

  15.British Library, Royal MS 14 C VII, f. 9r; S. Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (Berkeley, 1987), plate VII. In the same text, however, Matthew refers to the coronation of ‘Henricus III Junioris’ in 1170 (Matthaei Parisiensis, monachi Sancti Albani, historia Anglorum (Paris, Historia Anglorum), ed. F. Maddern, 3 vols (London, Rolls Series, 1866–1869), I, 352).

  16.Annales de Bermundeseia, in Annales monastici (AM), ed. H. R. Luard, 5 vols (Rolls Series, London, 1864–1869), III, 445, though it nevertheless noted the thirteen-year reign of ‘Henricus rex tertius’. Hostility to the ‘most hateful’ coronation as prejudicial to St Thomas, however, was already well developed in Paris’ Historia Anglorum (I, 352–3).

  17.The majority of contemporaries who refer to the Young King as ‘Henricus tertius’, including in his obits, were writing before the birth of John’s son Henry on 1 October 1207 (or in the case of the later recension of Gerald of Wales’ De principis instructione, reworking texts begun before then), but exactly when and why this transference occurred remains unclear. The Annals of Margam note the coronation in 1216 of ‘Henricus tertius’ (AM, I, 33), while on Henry III’s new coinage introduced from 1247 he appears first as ‘Henricus tercius’, then ‘Henricus III’. I am most grateful to David Carpenter for these points. It is notable that the rubric attached to Matthew Paris’ depiction of Henry III reads simply ‘Henricus rex octavus’ [i.e. post-Conquest] and that the Roman numeral III has been squeezed in above, as if as an afterthought, whereas by contrast that for Henry II reads ‘Henricus Secundus rex quintus’. That the Young King could still be counted as Henry III and his later namesake as Henry IV into the early fourteenth century is reflected in testimony given during the canonization process of Thomas Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford, where a witness referred to Thomas’ father as ‘William de Cantilupe knight and baron who was a powerful man and of great authority and seneschal to the lord King Henry the fourth of the English (dominus Henricus quartus rex Anglorum)’ (MS Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Lat. 4015, fol. 92v). My thanks to Rob Bartlett for kindly supplying this reference.

  18.Bern, Burgerbibliothek MS 113, f. 143v, noting that Henry II ‘avoit. iii. fix. Li ainsnés avoit a non li jovenes rois Henris ke on nouma lion qui giest a Martiaus qui fuu li plus larges cuers de prince né de roi qui onques fust puis le tans Judas Macabeu s’il eust vescu, mais il fu mors ains que ses peres. Li autres oy a non Richars et estoit quens de Poitiers. Li tiers avoit a non Jehans sans Terre’. While other versions of the Chronique d’Ernoul, composed in its final form in the 1230s, speak only of Richard and John as the sons of Henry II, the interpolator of the Bern ms has deliberately sought to rectify this by the addition of the sentence on young Henry. I am most grateful to Peter Edbury, who is currently preparing a new edition of the Chronique d’Ernoul, for this reference. For the growth of Richard’s legendary reputation see: B. B. Broughton, The Legends of King Richard I Coeur de Lion (The Hague and Paris, 1966); J. Gillingham, ‘Some Legends of Richard the Lionheart: Their Development and Influence’,
Riccardo Cuor di Leone nella storia e nella leggenda, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, problemi attuali di scienza e di cultura, 253 (1981), 35–50, and reprinted in J. Gillingham, Richard Coeur de Lion: Kingship, Chivalry and War in the Twelfth Century (London, 1994), 181–92; idem, ‘Stupor mundi: 1204 et un obituaire de Richard Coeur de Lion depuis longtemps tombé dans l’oubli’, Plantagenêts et Capétiens: confrontations et héritages, ed. M. Aurell and N.-Y. Tonnerre (Turnhout, 2006), 397–412.

  19.Récits d’un ménestrel de Reims au treizième siècle, ed. N. de Wailly (Société de l’histoire de France, Paris, 1876), 7 (ch. 12), 9–10 (chs 17–19), ‘Henriz au Court Mantel’. For his treatment by the Minstrel, see O. H. Moore, The Young King Henry Plantagenet 1155–1183 in History, Literature and Tradition (Columbus, Ohio, 1925), 29–34. In this extraordinary romance (which has Queen Eleanor attempt to elope with Saladin during the Second Crusade), Young Henry’s wife Margaret is conflated with her sister Alice, and the prince dies of grief on learning that his father has seduced her. The Minstrel also has Henry II, not his son, being buried in Rouen. Henry II’s nickname ‘Shortcloak’ is recorded by both Gerald of Wales, De principis, 304, and the Histoire des ducs de Normandie, which speaks of ‘li rois Henris au Court-Mantiel, li peres le jouene roi Henri’ (Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d’Angleterre, ed. F. Michel, Paris, 1840, 82). Ironically, in the town of Martel itself, the plaque marking the house in which the Young King supposedly died repeats this same error of calling him ‘Curtmantle’.