Henry the Young King, 1155-1183

by Matthew Strickland

  58.GH, I, 47 ‘sine aliqua difficultate’; WN, I, 173; Diceto, I, 373, ‘which I am unable to report without much shame’. Howden lists Ralph and Gilbert de Aumale among those who sided with the Young King at the outbreak of the revolt (GH, I, 46).

  59.Torigni, 257. Howden, however, lists Count Henry as among the initial rebels declaring for the Young King after his flight to France (GH, I, 45).

  60.GH, I, 47. The great importance of Aumale to the defence of Normandy was reinforced when in 1180 Henry II gave William de Mandeville, earl of Essex and one of the king’s closest friends, the hand of Hawise, countess of Aumale, precisely to prevent a recurrence of the events of 1173 (Diceto, II, 3; and cf. Foundation of Walden, 60–1).

  61.GH, I, 49; Diceto, I, 373; Torigni, 258.

  62.GH, I, 49; Diceto, I, 373; Torigni, 258.

  63.B. Kemp, ‘The Miracles of the Hand of St James’, Berkshire Archaeological Journal, 65 (1970), 1–19, at 17 (Miracle no. 25); and for context, D. Bethell, ‘The Making of a Twelfth-Century Relic Collection’, Popular Belief and Practice, ed. G. J. Cumming and D. Baker (Studies in Church History, 8, Cambridge, 1972), 61–71. One of the very few among the miracle collection not to involve healing, this story presumably reached Reading through the narration of one of the Young King’s followers or even young Henry himself, perhaps during his vist to Reading at Pentecost, 1 June 1175 (GH, I, 91).

  64.Above, 64. Eyton, 61–2; N. Vincent, ‘The Pilgrimages of the Angevin Kings of England’, Pilgrimage. The English Experience from Becket to Bunyon, ed. C. Morris and P. Roberts (Cambridge, 2010), 20–28, at 24.

  65.Vitae B. Petri Abricensis et B. Hamonis monachorum coenobii Saviniacensis, ed. E. P. Sauvage, Analecta Bollandiana, II (1883), 523–4; Swietek, ‘Henry II and Savigny’, 20–21.

  66.Kemp, ‘The Miracles of the Hand of St James’, 17.

  67.Ibid., 17; Diceto, I, 373; GH, I, 49; JF, ll. 87–90, 91–8.

  68.Diceto, I, 373, who confirms the date of 25 July, but mistakenly places the siege of Drincourt before the surrender of Aumale.

  69.Torigni, 258. It was probably at this time that the Young King, in a charter issued at Drincourt, confirmed the commune of Eu at the request of Count Henry of Eu (Livre rouge d’Eu, ed. A. Legris (Société de l’Histoire de Normandie, Rouen et Paris, 1911), 17–18; Recueil, Introduction, 255–6; Smith, ‘Acta’, no. 18; Power, The Norman Frontier, 400, n. 68). It was witnessed, among others, by William of Tancarville and, significantly, William of Saint Maure, whose kinsman Hugh was regarded as one of the principal fomentors of the rebellion (Chronicon Turonense magnum, 128).

  70.GH, I, 49; Gilbert of Mons, ch. 73, 76; Count Philip bestowed on him the lordships of Lillers and Saint-Venant, and in 1174 or 1175 he married Matilde, widow of Count Guy of Nevers. The union produced no sons, but a daughter, Sibylle, who married Robert I of Wavrin, steward of Flanders (Gilbert of Mons, ch. 47; trans. Napran, 47, notes 204 and 205).

  71.Howden, II, 49.

  72.The Red Book of the Exchequer, I, ccxiv, calls this campaign ‘the Leicester War’ (Guerra Leicestriae).

  73.GH, I, 58; Diceto, I, 376; and for de Lucy, see E. Amt, ‘Richard de Lucy, Henry II’s Justiciar’, Medieval Prosopography, 9 (1988), 61–87. It is possible that in late June Henry II had made a lightning visit to England, during which he inspected the strategically crucial fortress of Northampton, and perhaps conferred with de Lucy about plans to attack Leicester, before returning to Normandy via Winchester (Norgate, Angevin Kings, II, 143 and n. 4, where the Pipe Roll evidence is set out, and for the suggestion of a date of June, earlier than that proposed by Eyton, 173). The visit is accepted by Warren, Henry II, 127 and n. 2, but the failure to note this visit by both Torigni and Howden, otherwise scrupulous in recording the king’s Channel crossings, has led John Gillingham to doubt if the visit did in fact take place (‘Writing the Biography of Roger of Howden’, 212 and n. 32).

  74.GH, I, 48; King, Castellarum anglicanum (2 vols, London, 1983), I, 252–5, and 253 for the suggestion that the large ringwork castle of Hinckley may have been one of Earl Robert’s castles, destroyed after 1174. For a plan of Groby, The Victoria History of the County of Leicester, I, ed. W. Page (1907), 259.

  75.WN, I, 177.William of Newburgh believed that Earl Robert had been first to take up arms against Henry II.

  76.GH, I, 48.

  77.GH, I. 73; Recueil, Introduction, 258–9, 259–60; HWM, III, note to line 4701.

  78.D. Cathcart King, Castellarium Anglicanum, 2 vols (London, 1983), I, 256–7. For a map of the medieval town and its surroundings, M. Bateson et al., Records of the Borough of Leicester, vol. 1 (London, 1899), lxviii–1; L. Fox, Leicester Castle (Leicester, 1944); A. E. Brown, ‘Roman Leicester’, and L. Fox, ‘Leicester Castle’, in The Growth of Leicester, ed. A. E. Brown (Leicester, 1970), and especially 21 and 30 for maps of the castle and town.

  79.PR 19 Henry II, 107–8, 156, 163, 173, 178; Beeler, Warfare in England, 175. For a valuable analysis of the Pipe Roll evidence for the garrisoning of royal castles and Henry II’s war effort in England, see P. Latimer, ‘How to Supress a Rebellion: England, 1173–74’, Rulership and Rebellion in the Anglo-Norman World, c. 1066-c. 1216. Essays in Honour of Professor Edmund King, ed. P. Dalton and D. Luscombe (Farnham, 2015), 163–77, which appeared as this book was going to press.

  80.Matthew Paris believed that some were given refuge in the towns of St Albans and Bury St Edmunds, ‘as if to a protecting bosom, because these martyrs were at that time held in such great reverence that the inhabitants of those places afforded an asylum and safe protection from their enemies to all refugees’. He also adds a marginal illustration of the town’s defences (Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris), 67–8 and fig. 30).

  81.Diceto, I, 376.

  82.For the date, Annals of the Reigns of Malcolm IV and William, Kings of Scotland, AD 1153–1214, ed. A. C. Lawrie (Glasgow, 1910), 132–3; RRS, II, 96.

  83.JF, ll. 417–20, A. Stevenson, ‘The Flemish Dimension of the Auld Alliance’, Scotland and the Low Countries, 1124–1994, ed. G. Simpson (East Linton, 1996), 28–42.

  84.Some £380 was spent on Wark between 1158 and 1161, probably including the construction of a polygonal stone keep on the motte: History of the King’s Works, II, 852–3; Brown, ‘Royal Castle-Building in England’, 45, 58; R. A. Brown, Castles from the Air (Cambridge, 1989), 221–2.

  85.JF, ll. 491–519. He also pledged not to strengthen his defences during the time of truce.

  86.WN, I, 177; and for the alleged atrocities of the Scots and Galwegians, M. J. Strickland, War and Chivalry. The Conduct and Perception of War in England and Normandy, 1066–1217 (Cambridge, 1996), 291–329.

  87.Reginaldi monachi Dunelmensis Libellus de Admirandis Beati Cuthberti, ed. J. Raine (Surtees Society, 1835), 275.

  88.JF, ll. 591–6. For the wider context, J. Green, ‘Aristocratic Loyalties on the Northern Frontier of England, circa 1100–1174’, England in the Twelfth Century: Proceedings of the 1988 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. D. Williams (Woodbridge, 1990), 83–100, at 99.

  89.PR 4 Henry II, 177, 179. Odinel d’Umfraville, for example, witnesses a charter of William the Lion granting part of the vill at Haughton to Reginald Prat of Tyndale, possibly dating to 1173 before the outbreak of war (RRS, II, no. 143).

  90.JF, ll. 275, 304, 330–3, and 1386–92.

  91.JF, ll. 743–5, and cf. ll. 254–70. As Jordan has King William say, ‘I too shall hold it from my liege lord the king, the son of that father who granted me the right to it’.

  92.JF, ll. 545–68.

  93.JF, ll. 581–2.

  94.JF, ll. 609–10. The great keep at Carlisle may have been begun by Henry I and completed by David I, who made the city one of his principal centres where he kept an archive and treasury (M. R. McCarthy, H. R. T. Summerson and R. G. Annis, Carlisle Castle. A Survey and Documentary History (Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, London, 1990), 121–2).

  95.Ibid., 211–12.

  96.Ibid., 211–12, 123.


  97.WN, I, 177.

  98.JF, ll. 681–2, ll. 683–8; and RRS, II, no. 144 for the charter of protection to Furness abbey, issued at Carlisle, probably in 1173.

  99.JF, ll. 705–58.

  100.JF, ll. 759–62.

  101.GH, I, 61; Diceto, I, 376.

  102.GH, I, 49, has the siege begin around 6 July; Torigni, 257, after June 24; and Diceto, I, 374, on 15 July.

  103.Torigni, 257.

  104.GH, I, 50; Chronicle of Saint-Aubin.

  105.Map, 450–1. Some indication of the disparity is suggested by the fact that Philip’s conquest of Normandy in 1204 increased French royal revenues by around 70 per cent: J. Baldwin, ‘Qu’est-ce les Capétiens ont appris des Plantegenêts?’, CCM, 29 (1986), 3–8.

  106.Diceto, I, 372, refers to the levy as a ‘descriptio generalis’. It was perhaps similar to the levy of serjeants and baggage wagons raised from all towns and abbeys in the royal demesne by Philip Augustus in 1194, or a tax paid in commutation of this obligation (Baldwin, Government of Philip Augustus, 171–4).

  107.Torigni, 170; GH, I, 50, who notes the town had three boroughs, but Diceto, I, 372, speaks of seven. For Verneuil, F. Salet, ‘Verneuil-sur-Avre’, Congrès d’Archéologie de France, 1953, 407–58; A. Lemoine-Descourtieux, ‘Les Pouvoirs sur la frontière de l’Avre (XIe–XIIIe siècle), Eure, du pouvoir seigneurial au pouvoir ducal, puis à l’autonomie urbaine’, Les Lieux de pouvoir au Moyen ge en Normandie et sur ses marges, ed. M.-M. Flambard-Héricher (Tables Rondes du CRAHM, 2. Caen, 2006), 101–18; and idem, La Frontière normande de l’Avre. Significant sections of the town’s outer water-filled ditches are still visible, though the great cylindrical donjon, known as the Tour Gris, is most probably the work of Philip Augustus following his conquest of Normandy.

  108.Torigni, 257–8; Ordinances des roys de France de la troisième race, 21 vols (Paris, 1723, reprinted Farnborough, 1967–1968), IV, 638, 643.

  109.Diceto, I, 374.

  110.GH, I, 50; Diceto, I, 374. Howden, II, 49, explicitly adds the Young King’s name to the list of those pledging the return of the hostages and the freedom of the burghers if they surrendered on these terms if not relieved.

  111.Diceto, I, 374, notes explicitly that Louis believed such relief to be impossible. On such conventions, Strickland, War and Chivalry, 204–29.

  112.Diceto, I, 374.

  113.WN, I, 172, ‘Bribantionum copias quas Rutas vocant’; JF, l. 66; GH, I, 51; and Howden, II, 47, where the number has risen to 20,000. For these routiers, see H. Grundmann, ‘Rotten und Brabazonen. Söldner-heere in 12. Jahrhundert’, Deutsches Archiv für die Erforschung des Mittelalters, 5 (1942), 419–92; H. Géraud, ‘Les Routiers au XIIe siècle’, Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, 3 (1841–42), 125–47; idem., ‘Mercadier: Les Routiers au XIIIe siècle’, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes, 3 (1841–1842), 417–43; and J. Boussard, ‘Les Mercenaires aux XIIe siècle. Henri II Plantagenêt et les origines de l’armée de métier’, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes, 106 (1945–1946), 189–224; J. Schlight, Monarchs and Mercenaries (New York, 1968); and below, 287–9.

  114.Howden, II, 47.

  115.PR 19 Henry II, 54–5, detailing four crossings of the esnecca with treasure before September 1173; WN, I, 172; trans. Kennedy and Walsh, 120–1.

  116.PR 20 Henry II, 134–5; Eyton, 175.

  117.GH, I, 51; Torigni, 259, ‘magno exercitu tam equitum quam peditum’.

  118.Diceto, I, 375.

  119.WN, I, 174; trans. Kennedy and Walsh, II, 123.

  120.Above, 28. Similarly, Henry II had not attacked Louis in 1161 when both their armies had faced each other, and a truce was arranged (Torigni, 210–11).

  121.Diceto, I, 374, believed that Henry intended to give battle (praelium inire) ‘if he found the king of the Franks within the boundaries of Normandy’.

  122.M. J. Strickland, ‘Henry I and the Battle of the Two Kings: Brémule, 1119’, in Normandy and its Neighbours, 900–1250: Essays for David Bates, ed. D. Crouch and K. Thompson (Brepols, 2011), 77–116.

  123.JW, III, 30–3; Aird, Robert Curthose, 87–8.

  124.GH, I, 53; WN, I, 174.

  125.GH, I, 53–4.

  126.GH, I, 54; Diceto, I, 375. Torigni, 259; WN, I, 175.

  127.GH, I, 54.

  128.GH, I, 55.

  129.Torigni, 259; WN, I, 175.

  130.GH, I, 55; WN, I, 175.

  131.For a valuable analysis, focusing primarily on the period post 1300, see D. Whetham, Just Wars and Moral Victories: Surprise, Deception and the Normative Framework of European War in the Later Middle Ages (Leiden, 2009).

  132.Sassier, Louis VII, 453, ‘une vilaine manoeuvre qui jette une ombre trouble sur la personalité du roi’.

  133.GH, I, 55; Warren, Henry II, 128.

  134.Torigni, 226. Robert of Torigny recorded how, in 1165, he had commissioned a new arm reliquary of gold and silver for an arm bone and other smaller bones of St Laurence.

  135.Compare, for example, Jordan’s mockery of William the Lion’s precipitous flight ‘in arrant cowardice’ from de Lucy’s army, which incurs ‘vilanie’ (JF, ll. 699–758).

  136.WN, I, 175; trans. Kennedy and Walsh, II, 125. He notes, however, that they ‘remained armed and in formation, so as not to give the appearance of flight’.

  137.GH, I, 56; Diceto, I, 371; F. M. Powicke, The Loss of Normandy, 1189–1204 (2nd edn, Manchester, 1961), 71; Power, The Norman Frontier, 353. The removal of Tillières from his family and the installation of a royal constable appears to have been Gilbert’s principal grievance against Henry II.

  138.Torigni, 259; Diceto, I, 273.

  139.The History of William Marshal demonstrated his sympathies when in describing 1173 he referred to Eudo of Porhoët as the count of Nantes and duke of Brittany, ‘who performed many a fine exploit’ (HWM, ll. 2151–92).

  140.GH, I, 56, notes that immediately on his return to Rouen from the relief of Verneuil, Henry II had dispatched some units of his Brabançons against the Breton rebels.

  141.Torigni, 259–60.

  142.JF, ll.145–8, and ll. 164–70; Torigni, 260. Torigni noted that rumours of Henry’s advance had forced Ralph to flee, and to order his men to bring their arms, possessions and cattle into the safety of the forest, but many of them were cut off and seized by Henry’s forces. This may well refer to the arrival of du Hommet’s advanced contingent, but Torigni’s narrative of the war in Brittany is incoherent and the chronology uncertain.

  143.Torigni, 260; GH, I, 56.

  144.As suggested by JF, ll. 186–7.

  145.Torigni, 260, ‘quasi in momento dispersi’; JF, ll. 188–94.

  146.Diceto, I, 378, ‘electam Regis filii regis militiam’.

  147.Torigni, 260; GH, I, 56–7.

  148.WN, I, 176.

  149.Torigni, 260; JF, ll. 188–203.

  150.Torigni, 260, says he left Rouen at first light the next day.

  151.Diceto, I, 351; WN, I, 176; Peter of Blois, Epistolae, no. 66 (PL, CCVII, col. 197). Wace’s Roman de Rou, ll. 70–1, vividly remembered Henry’s exploit: ‘Then you would have seen Henry racing through the border country, dashing from one area to another and doing three days’ journey or more in a single day; his men thought he must be flying.’ Little is known about the provision of staging posts in the Angevin empire, but Henry must have had access to considerable numbers of fresh horses to have covered such a distance at this speed.

  152.GH, I, 57–8, lists the knights and serjeants taken at Dol. For the connections of some of these men to Juhel de Mayenne and the lordships of Fougères and Dol, Power, The Norman Frontier, 399, n. 65.

  153.GH, I, 57–8, and 57, n. 19; Diceto, I, 273, 378; WN, I, 176.

  154.GH, I, 57–8. Thus, for example, as well as Robert and Engeram Patrick, the sons of William Patrick, the list provided by Howden includes two brothers of Hasculf de Saint-Hilaire, Henry and Philip, Juel, son of Ralph de Fougères, and William de Fougères, whom Torigni also lists as his son.

  155.
Torigni, 261; JF, ll. 228–31. According to Torigni, however, Ralph of Fougères fled to the forest, while similarly he names Ralph de Haye, who must have been released after his capture at Dol, among those who continued to fight on in a guerrilla war against Henry II. Ralph was probably the younger brother of the important Anglo-Norman lord Richard de la Haye, but also held lands in both England and Normandy. My thanks to Dan Power for this identification.

  156.John, the constable of Chester, moreover, is listed by Howden as among the leading magnates to remain loyal to Henry II (GH, I, 51, n. 4).

  157.Torigni, 261; Chronicle of Saint-Aubin, I, 279–80, which notes that, after Dol, Henry ‘completely destroyed the castles of those who were fomenting the war’; Boussard, ‘Les Mercenaires’, 207.

  158.Torigni, 261. These included the Angevin knight nicknamed the Bon Abbé de Rougé, Geoffrey de Poencé, and others ‘disinherited’ from the district of La Meé, in the diocese of Nantes (Torigni, ed. Delisle, II, 45–6, and 46, n. 1). The Bon Abbé de Rougé is mentioned by the History of William Marshal as attending a tournament in Maine in 1166 in the company of John de Subligny, who may later have been one of the Young King’s household knights, and who held lands in the Avranchin and Bessin. Rougé (Maine-et-Loire, cant. Seiches, comms. Jarzé, Echeminé and Char) was a forest in Anjou (HWM, III, 65, note to line 1465).

  159.GH, I, 59.

  160.Röhricht, Regesta regni Hierosolymitani, nos 497, 498; RHF, XVI, 198–9; Smail, ‘Latin Syria’, 16.

  161.‘Non sine gravi dolore’, PL, CC, cols 927–8, no. 1047. Smail, ‘Latin Syria’, 17, also suggests a date of 1173–74 for ‘Ingemiscimus et dolemus’ (Papsturkunden für Kirchen im Heiligen Lande, ed. R. Hiestand (Göttingen, 1985), no. 109; Guilielmi Neubrigensis historia … libris quinque, ed. T. Hearne, III, Oxford, 1719, 664).