The Demon's Brood

by Desmond Seward

  In the first half of the twentieth century, before the temporary decline of the historical novel, Conan Doyle and Alfred Duggan wrote stirring romances in which Plantagenet monarchs sometimes played a prominent role. But the authors who really kept their memory green during this period were ‘patriotic historians’ such as Sir Winston Churchill and Arthur Bryant, whose exuberantly written books enjoyed a vast readership, Churchill praising ‘this strong race of warrior and statesman kings’. There were also Laurence Olivier’s hugely successful film versions of Shakespeare’s Henry V and Richard III.

  Today, we are less aware of them. A multicultural world is embarrassed by patriotic history, which it dismisses as ‘celebratory’ or politically incorrect, and despite the revival of the historical novel and although Shakespeare’s plays still work their magic, the Plantagenets have faded from people’s memory. Henry II is known as Eleanor of Aquitaine’s husband and for Thomas Becket’s death, Richard I is recalled for his ‘homosexuality’, John for Magna Carta, Edward I for persecuting William Wallace and Edward II for the gruesome way in which he was murdered. Richard II, Henry V, Henry VI and Richard III are more familiar because they were fleshed out by Shakespeare.

  Yet the Plantagenet kings can recapture popular imagination, now that the Tudors have been almost – if not quite – worked to death. One straw in the wind is the success of Philippa Gregory’s historical romances, one of which became a TV ‘soap’. They offer a new field for dramatists. Richard III, already a cult, is attracting increased attention since the discovery of his skeleton. We can expect more new novels and soaps about him, which might revive interest in the entire dynasty.

  Only a handful of medieval English men and women can be glimpsed, on a tomb or a monumental brass, in an illuminated manuscript – but even then it is stylized representation. Save for one or two rare exceptions, they have not left revealing letters or journals. In contrast, from John’s time effigies or portraits provide a vivid impression of the Plantagenet kings, while chroniclers make a point of describing them, in depth. They can be seen as human beings, so that their personalities offer unique windows on to their age.

  Some of them were among the greatest Englishmen who ever lived. Presiding over the fusion of French-speaking colonists and Anglo-Saxon natives into a nation, giving us the Common Law and parliamentary government, they hammered out a kingdom that became Great Britain.

  Notes

  Introduction: The Demon and Her Heirs

  1 Lord Macaulay, The History of England, 4 vols (London, 1849), vol. 1, p. 13.

  2 O. Guillot, Le Comte d’Anjou et son entourage aux XIme siècle (Paris, 1972), p. 25.

  3 Gerald of Wales, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, 8 vols, ed. J. S. Brewer et al., Rolls Series (London, 1861–9), viii, p. 301.

  4 Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium: Courtiers’ Trifles, ed. and trans. M. R. James, revised C. N. L. Brooke and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1983), p. 346.

  5 Gerald of Wales, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, viii, p. 301.

  6 J. Buchan, The Path of the King (London, 1921), p. 10.

  1. The First Plantagenets

  1. J. R. Green, History of the English People, 4 vols (London, 1877), i, p. 148.

  2. Chroniques des Comtes d’Anjou et des Comtes d’Amboise, ed. L. Halphen and R. Poupardin (Paris, 1913).

  3. W. Stubbs, Select Charters (Oxford, 1900), p. 84.

  4. William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella: The Contemporary History, ed. E. King, trans. K. R. Potter, Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford, 1998), pp. 32–3.

  5. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, trans. and ed. G. N. Garmonsway (London and New York, 1954), p. 263.

  6. Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum: The History of the English People, Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford, 1996), p. 724.

  7. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 263.

  8. Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, p. 734.

  9. Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, p. 720.

  10. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 264–5.

  2. The Eagle – Henry II

  1. Gerald of Wales, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, viii, p. 295.

  2. William FitzStephen, Vita Sanctae Thomae, in J. C. Robertson, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Rolls Series, 3 vols (London, 1877) vol. iii p. 65.

  3. E. King, King Stephen (New Haven and London, 2010), pp. 262–4.

  4. Gesta Stephani, ed. and trans. K. R. Potter, with new intro and notes by R. H. C. Davis (Oxford, 1976), p. 261.

  5. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 267.

  6. Richard of Devizes, quoted in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, Rolls Series, 4 vols (London, 1884–90), iii, p. 402.

  7. Chronicle of Robert de Torigni in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen etc., iv, pp. 165–6.

  8. William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella, i, pp. 277–8.

  9. J. Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century (Woodbridge, 2000), p. 140.

  10. William of Newburgh, The History of English Affairs: Book II, ed. G. H. Walsh and M. J. Kennedy, Aris & Phillips Classical Texts (Oxford, 2007), p. 15.

  11. N. Barratt, ‘Finance and Economy in the Reign of Henry II’, in C. Harper-Bill and N. Vincent (eds), Henry II: New Interpretations (Woodbridge, 2007).

  12. R. Barber, Henry Plantagenet (Woodbridge, 2001).

  13. Gerald of Wales, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, viii, p. 316.

  14. William FitzStephen, Vita Sanctae Thomae, iii, pp. 103–6.

  15. Adam of Eynsham, Magna Vita Sancti Hugonis, ed. D. L. Douie and H. Farmer, 2 vols (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1985), vol. 1, p. 117.

  16. Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, pp. 476–86.

  17. Chronicon Monasterii de Bello, ed. J. S. Brewer (London, 1846), pp. 105–9 (cit. W. L. Warren, Henry II (London, 1973), p. 327).

  18. Warren, Henry II, p. 132.

  19. N. Vincent, ‘The Court of Henry II’, in Henry II: New Interpretations, pp. 306–8.

  20. J. Southworth, Fools and Jesters at the English Court (Stroud, 1998), p. 339.

  21. Warren, Henry II, p. 630.

  22. J. Gillingham, The Angevin Empire (Arnold: London, 2001), p. 230.

  23. Gerald of Wales, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, viii, p. 159.

  24. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey, ed. and trans. E. Searle (Oxford, 1980), p. 186.

  25. A. J. Duggan, ‘Henry II, the English Church and the Papacy’, in Henry II: New Interpretations, p. 168.

  26. William FitzStephen, Vita Sanctae Thomae, iii, p. 45.

  27. William FitzStephen, Vita Sanctae Thomae, iii, p. 430.

  28. R. Barber, Thomas Becket (London, 1986), p. 273.

  29. Ralph de Diceto, Historical Works, ed. W. Stubbs, Rolls Series, 2 vols (London, 1876), i, p. 33.

  30. Roger of Howden, Gesta Henrici II et Riccardi I, ed. W. Stubbs, Rolls Series, 2 vols (London, 1867), i, p. 292.

  31. Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, p. 282.

  32. K. Norgate, England and the Angevin Empire, 2 vols (London, 1889), ii, p. 231.

  33. Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, ed. P. Meyer, 3 vols (Paris, 1891–1901), i, lines 8831–50.

  34. Gerald of Wales, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, viii, p. 296.

  3. The Lionheart – Richard I

  1. Poetria Nova of Geoffrey de Vinsauf, trans. M. F. Nims (Toronto, 1967), pp. 28–31; quoted by J. Gillingham, Richard I (New Haven and London, 1998).

  2. William of Newburgh, The History of English Affairs: Book IV.

  3. Howden, Gesta Henrici II, ii, pp. 146–7.

  4. Gillingham, Richard I, p. 263.

  5. Eynsham, Magna Vita, ii, p. 105.

  6. Beha ed-Din, What Befell Sultan Yusuf, trans. C. W. Wilson, Palestine Pilgrims; Text Society, 13 vols (London, 1897), xiii, pp. 375–6.

  7. Beha ed-Din, What Befell Sultan Yusuf, xiii, pp. 375–6.

  8. Howden, Gesta Henrici II, iii, p. 216.

  9. Howden, Gesta Henrici II, iii, p. 142.

  10. Howden, Gesta Henrici II, ii, p. 245.

  11. History of W
illiam Marshal, ed. A. J. Holden and trans. S. Gregory (Anglo-Norman Text Society: London, 2002–6), ii, lines 110409– 110411.

  12. K. Norgate, Richard the Lion Heart (London, 1924), p. 322.

  13. Howden, Gesta Henrici II, iv, pp. 58–9.

  14. Howden, Gesta Henrici II, iv, pp. 82–3.

  15. Eynsham, Magna Vita, ii, p. 136.

  16. Howden, Gesta Henrici II, iv, p. 84.

  17. History of William Marshal, ii, line 11766.

  18. J. France, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1100–1300 (London, 1999), p. 142.

  4. The Madman – John

  1. Macaulay, History of England, i, p. 15.

  2. Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard, 7 vols, Rolls Series (London, 1872), ii, p. 669.

  3. J. Gillingham, ‘Historians without Hindsight: Coggeshall, Diceto and Howden on the Early Years of John’s Reign’, in King John: New Interpretations, ed. S. D. Church (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 1999), pp. 1–26.

  4. History of William Marshal, ed. A. J. Holden, trans. S. Gregory, 3 vols (Anglo-Norman Text Society: London, 2004–6), ii, lines 11904–7.

  5. Annals of Barnwell Priory, in Memoriale Walteri de Coventeria, ed. W. Stubbs, Rolls Series (London, 1872–3), ii, p. 196.

  6. The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. W. Stubbs, Rolls Series, 2 vols (London, 1879–90), ii, pp. 92–3.

  7. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover liber qui dicitur Flores Historiarum, ed. H. G. Hewlett, 3 vols, Rolls Series (London, 1886–9), ii, pp. 48–9.

  8. D. Power, ‘King John and the Norman Aristocracy’, in King John: New Interpretations, pp. 135–6.

  9. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover, i, pp. 316–17.

  10. Radulphi de Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, ed. J. Stevenson, Rolls Series (London, 1875), p. 144.

  11. Gervase of Canterbury, ii, pp. 97–8.

  12. W. L. Warren, King John (Eyre & Spottiswoode: London, 1961), p. 125.

  13. Gillingham, The Angevin Empire, p. 85.

  14. Howden, Gesta Henrici II, iii, p. 198.

  15. Gervase of Canterbury, ii, p. lix.

  16. S. Painter, The Reign of King John (Johns Hopkins Press: Baltimore, 1949), pp. 231–2.

  17. Chronica Majora, ii, pp. 560–3.

  18. N. Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, in King John: New Interpretations, p. 166.

  19. Adam of Eynsham, Magna Vita, ii, pp. 143–4.

  20. Adam of Eynsham, Magna Vita, ii, p. 141.

  21. Adam of Eynsham, Magna Vita, ii, p. 185.

  22. C. Harper-Bill, ‘John and the Church of Rome’, in King John: New Interpretations, p. 306.

  23. R. V. Turner, ‘John and Justice’, in S. D. Church (ed.), King John: New Interpretations, p. 319.

  24. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover, ii, p. 50.

  25. S. Duffy, ‘John and Ireland, the Origin of England’s Irish Problem’, in King John: New Approaches, p. 242.

  26. Annals of Barnwell Priory, ii, p. 203.

  27. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover, ii, p. 248.

  28. Painter, The Reign of King John, pp. 249–50.

  29. Warren, King John, p. 191.

  30. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover, ii, p. 263.

  31. Holt, Magna Carta, quoted by Turner in King John: New Interpretations, p. 320.

  32. Harper-Bill, ‘King John and the Church of Rome’, in King John: New Interpretations, p. 310.

  33. Chronica Majora, ii, p. 559.

  34. N. Vincent, Peter des Roches: An Alien in English Politics 1205– 1238 (Cambridge, 1996).

  35. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover, ii, p. 155.

  36. Ralph of Coggeshall, [Radulphi of Coggeshall] Chronicon Anglia-canum, ed. J. Stevenson, Rolls Series (London, 1875), i, p. 172.

  37. Chronica Majora, ii, p. 611.

  38. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover, iii, pp. 320, 321.

  39. Chronica Majora, ii, pp. 641–2.

  40. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover, iii, p. 384.

  5. The Aesthete – Henry III

  1. F. W. Maitland, The Constitutional History of England (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1908), p. 70.

  2. Histoire de Guillaume le Maréschal, ii, lines 1891–1901.

  3. Stubbs, Select Charters, ii, pp. 102–3.

  4. M. Powicke, The Thirteenth Century, 1216–1307 (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1963), p. 19.

  5. Chronica Rogeri de Wendover, iv, p. 263.

  6. Chronica Majora, iii, p. 272.

  7. D. A. Carpenter, ‘King, Magnates and Society: The Personal Rule of Henry III’, in The Reign of Henry III (Hambledon Press: London and Rio Grande, 1996), pp. 75–106.

  8. Chronica Majora, ii, p. 334.

  9. P. Binski, Westminster Abbey and the Plantagenets (Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 1995), p. 45.

  10. D. A. Carpenter, ‘Matthew Paris and Henry III’s Speech at the Exchequer in October 1256’, in The Reign of Henry III, pp. 137–50.

  11. Chronica Majora, iv, pp. 181–4.

  12. N. Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême: John’s Jezebel’, in King John: New Interpretations, p. 210.

  13. Chronica Majora, iv, pp. 209–12.

  14. Henry III: letter to Emperor Frederick II, September 1242, Close Rolls, 1237–1242, pp. 530–2.

  15. D. A. Carpenter, ‘What Happened in 1258?’, in The Reign of Henry III, p. 183.

  16. Chronica Majora, v, p. 601.

  17. Annals of Barton, p. 399.

  18. Chronica Majora, v, p. 457.

  19. Carpenter, ‘What Happened in 1258?’, p. 183.

  20. Annals of Tewkesbury in Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 5 vols (London, 1864–9), i, pp. 163–4.

  21. Chronica Majora, v, p. 696.

  22. Annals of Barton, p. 429.

  23. Annals of Tewkesbury, i, p. 164.

  24. Stubbs, Select Charters, ii, p. 103.

  25. Chronica Majora, v, p. 706.

  26. The Chronicle of William de Rishanger of the Barons’ War, ed. J. Halliwell (Camden Society: London, 1840), pp. 32–34.

  27. Chronica de Mailros, ed. J. Stevenson (Bannatyne Club: Edinburgh, 1835), p. 200.

  28. Narratio de Bellis, p. 6.

  29. Annals of Osney, in Annales Monastici, iv, p. 160.

  30. Stubbs, Select Charters, iv, p. 160.

  31. J. S. Hamilton, The Plantagenets, History of a Dynasty (Continuum: London and New York, 2010), p. 22.

  32. Powicke, The Thirteenth Century, p. 19.

  6. The Hammer – Edward I

  1. Powicke, The Thirteenth Century, p. 228.

  2. The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, ed. T. Wright, 2 vols (London, 1868), ii, p. 354.

  3. H. G. Robinson and G. Sayes, ‘The Scottish Parliaments of Edward I’, Scottish Historical Review, 25, pp. 311–16.

  4. T. F. Tout, Edward I (London, 1896), p. 88.

  5. Maitland, Constitutional History, p. 19.

  6. Stubbs, Select Charters, ii, p. 104.

  7. Nicolai Triveti Annales, ed. T. Hogg (London, 1845), p. 282.

  8. M. Prestwich, Edward I (London, 1988), p. 123.

  9. Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, ed. H. Rothwell (London, 1957), p. 216.

  10. J. E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (Oxford, 1901), pp. 110–48.

  11. Langtoft, ii, p. 169.

  12. Langtoft, ii, p. 177.

  13. M. Prestwich, Plantagenet England 1225–1361 (Oxford, 2005), p. 163.

  14. Maitland, Constitutional History, p. 69.

  15. ‘Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle’, trans. Robert Mannyng, in The Works of Thomas Hearne (London, 1810), iv, p. 252.

  16. Langtoft, ii, p. 199.

  17. Langtoft, ii, p. 316.

  18. Chaplais, ‘Some Private Letters of Edward I’, English Historical Review, 77 (1962), p. 85.

  19. Langtoft, ii, p. 289.

  20. Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, pp. 289–90.

  21. Stubbs, Select Charters, ii, p. 141.

  22. Prestwich, Edward I, p. 257.

  23. Langtoft, ii, pp. 266–7.

/>   24. Chronicon de Lanercost 1272–1346, ed. Sir H. Maxwell (Glasgow, 1913), p. 190.

  25 Powicke, The Thirteenth Century, p. 229.

  26. G. W. S. Barrow, Robert the Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (London, 1965), pp. 181–2.

  27. Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, pp. 382–3.

  28. Langtoft, ii, p. 326.

  29. Prestwich, Edward I, p. 156.

  30. T. F. Tout, The Place of Edward II in History (Manchester, 1936), pp. 33–4.

  7. The Changeling – Edward II

  1. T. F. Tout, ‘The Captivity and Death of Edward of Caernarvon’, in Collected Papers of Thomas Frederick Tout (Manchester, 1934), iii, p. 146.

  2. Sir Thomas Gray, Scalachronica, trans. Sir H. Maxwell (Glasgow, 1907), p. 69.

  3. Chronicon de Lanercost, pp. 247–8.

  4. Stubbs, Select Charters, ii, p. 328.

  5. Tout, The Place of Edward II, p. 11.

  6. R. M. Haines, King Edward II (Montreal and Kingston, 2003), p. x.

  7. Vita Secundi, the life of Edward the Second, ed. W. R. Childs (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 2005).

  8. Annales Paulini, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols (London, 1882), i, p. 262.

  9. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden monachi Cestrensis, 9 vols, Rolls Series (London, 1864–6), vii, pp. 299–301.

  10. H. Johnstone, ‘The Eccentricities of Edward II’, English Historical Review, 48 (1933), p. 265.

  11. Prestwich, Plantagenet England, p. 181.