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In the medieval period, most kings of England are succeeded by their first-born sons, a custom called primogeniture, although there are exceptions to this rule. As well as being kings of England, most monarchs have extensive lands in France, and some seek to conquer Wales and Scotland. Known as 'the Conqueror' because, as duke of Normandy, he leads the successful invasion of England in 1066, the illegitimate William is the second cousin, once removed, of Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor. Before setting his sights on England, he fashions Normandy into a formidable state. On his deathbed, he allegedly confesses that he has brought 'cruel famine' and 'barbarous murder' on the people. He manages to create a stink even after death: when his overweight body is placed in its tomb in Caen, in Normandy, it bursts. The short, fat second son of William I, he is known as William 'Rufus' because of his ruddy looks – rufus is Latin for red-haired. He is regarded as a good soldier but quarrels with the Church, not least because he milks it for money by selling off bishoprics, and also because of the extravagance of his court. Long hair and 'effeminacy' are fashionable. He is killed by a stray arrow while hunting, possibly not by accident, and leaves no children. The thrifty younger brother of William II, Henry secures the border with Scotland by marrying King Edgar's sister. Apart from some bother fighting his brother Robert over Normandy, his reign is largely peaceful. Chronicler Henry of Huntingdon says of him: 'Each of his triumphs only made him worry lest he lose what he had gained.' But he has a hearty appetite for life, fathering 20 illegitimate children – his one legitimate male heir is drowned – and allegedly eating himself into the grave. The nephew of William II and Henry I, Stephen begins as a popular king, admired as brave and generous. Unfortunately, he is also indecisive and over-chivalrous towards his rival Matilda (see 'Other notables' below), characteristics which mark him out as a soft touch to any noble hungry for power. As well as briefly losing his throne to Matilda, he loses Normandy to Geoffrey of Anjou in 1144. The son of Matilda, the energetic Henry is both sporty and bookish. Unlike many other monarchs, he is informal, untidy and not given to shows of regal splendour. At the age of 18, he marries 30-year-old Eleanor of Aquitaine, thus giving him control of the vast Angevin empire when he becomes king. He is England's first Plantagenet monarch, so called after the Latin name – planta genista – for the sprig of yellow broom which featured on the Anjou emblem. Apart from fighting to maintain his lands and expanding his influence in Scotland and Ireland, he is credited with creating the common law in England. Despite his achievements, feuds with his family, the nobility and the Church (particularly over Thomas Becket) mean his death is met with a sigh of relief. Brought up in Poitiers, Richard is the blond, blue-eyed second son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Known as Richard the Lionheart (Coeur de Lion), he spends only five months of his 12-year reign in England, preferring to fight in the Crusades, taking with him a sword said to be King Arthur's Excalibur. During the siege of Acre in 1191, his army kills about 2,700 hostages, but Richard himself is widely admired as a brilliant soldier. He is captured in Austria on his return from the Third Crusade. On his release, he goes to fight the French for lands stolen in his absence. He dies from a gangrenous crossbow wound. The insecure younger brother of Richard I, John is dubbed 'Lackland' because Richard is favoured by their parents. In 1185, his father makes him lord of Ireland but he is unpopular there. On Richard's accession, John is given control of six counties and Mortain in Normandy. He sets up a rival court while Richard is away on the Crusades, and when he becomes king, he is typically ruthless. Already accused of murdering a rival, his nephew Arthur of Brittany, he later executes 28 sons of Welsh princes and noblemen in his efforts to bring Wales to heel. During his reign, John bleeds the barons and the Church for money, which leads to civil war and the Magna Carta. He also manages to lose the provinces of Normandy and Anjou. Following his accession at the age of 10, Henry, the son of John, leaves the running of the country to others for much of his reign, even after he comes of age in 1227. He is obsessed with the pious and peace-loving reputation of Edward the Confessor. For inspiration, he has a mural of Edward painted in his bedchamber, and he wears similarly simple clothes. Henry, who is afflicted with a droopy eyelid and is regarded as an incompetent ruler, is more interested in architecture than warfare, and spends the final years of his reign on the construction of a Gothic abbey at Westminster, in which he is later buried. The war-mongering son of Henry III, Edward is the first king since 1066 to speak English as his first language. Brought up on stories of King Arthur, he is driven to exert English influence over Scotland and Wales. Being 1.85 metres (6 feet 2 inches) tall, he acquires the nickname 'Longshanks'. As prince during Simon de Montfort's rebellion, he switches sides several times. A redeeming feature is the genuine affection he holds for his wife, Eleanor of Castile: when she dies in 1290, he is stricken with grief. He is also fond of his children in a bad-tempered kind of way: on one occasion, he throws his daughter's coronet in the fire and has to pay for its repair. He asks for his bones to be boiled away from his body on his death so they can be carried into battle. His sarcophagus is inscribed: 'Here lies the hammer of the Scots' – words added in the 16th century. The son of Edward I, Edward is just as tall and fiery tempered as his father, but differs in his fondness for fancy clothes, amateur dramatics and racehorses. He provokes civil war by heaping riches and titles on his favourites, particularly Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser. In January 1327, his estranged wife Isabella persuades him to abdicate in favour of their son. He is murdered in Berkeley Castle, possibly with a red-hot poker up the rectum – an allusion to his supposed homosexuality. The son of Edward II, Edward is easy-going, chivalrous and presides over what is regarded as a 'golden age': stability at home and triumphs – in the Hundred Years War – abroad. It is during his reign that Parliament comes into its own, as the king agrees to consult on matters of taxation and war. He rates himself as a healer and allegedly uses magic to cure thousands of scrofula sufferers. Senility mars the end of his rule. His mistress, Alice Perrers, and his courtiers take the reins – much to the annoyance of Parliament. He dies of a stroke. The grandson of Edward III and nephew of John of Gaunt, Richard is prone to mood swings and generates suspicion by his fondness for bath-houses, cookery and eating with a spoon (as opposed to his fingers). Tall with long blond hair, he seems obsessed by his royal status, demanding to be addressed as 'majesty' and 'highness'. He begins his reign courageously as a teenager facing up to the Peasants' Revolt, but provokes antagonism by seeing traitors all around him. After his forced abdication by supporters of Henry Bolingbroke, later Henry IV, he is probably starved to death in Pontefract Castle. The cousin of Richard II and son of John of Gaunt, Henry is known as Bolingbroke after his birthplace in Lincolnshire. He is exiled in 1398 after a spat with the duke of Norfolk led to accusations of treason. In his absence, his inheritance is seized by Richard II after the death of his father. He returns to claim back the duchy of Lancaster the following year and, with Henry Percy's backing, he takes the throne. The manner of his accession – Richard's deposition – leaves him insecure and he suffers from ill health for the last five years of his reign. The son of Henry IV, Henry (Prince Hal) is said to keep unsuitable company in his youth but turns out to be a religious monarch. He is one of the first people to use written English in letters. He believes he has divine backing for his cause in France and becomes a national hero and is hailed as a disciplined, determined leader after winning the battle of Agincourt in 1415. Following his marriage in 1420, he military campaign. He dies at the age of 35 from dysentery following the six-month siege of Meaux. The peaceable, devout son of Henry V, Henry's mess of a reign is characterised by inertia and mental instability from 1437. He loses all lands in France except Calais, and suffers a breakdown at the age of 32. His wife, Margaret of Anjou, takes charge during the Wars of the Roses, while Henry is used as a political pawn, first being deposed, then reinstated, then killed. The son of Richard, duke of York, Edward claims the throne after winning the battle of Towton against Henry VI. He is fond of women and the high life, is generous to friends and doesn't bear grudges against enemies – except one. His feuding brother, Clarence, is murdered, possibly by being drowned in a barrel of wine. Edward marries Elizabeth Woodville, whose extensive and powerful family is at loggerheads with Edward's younger brother, Richard, duke of Gloucester, later to become Richard III. Edward's death is sudden and blamed on his extravagant lifestyle. The younger brother of Edward IV, Richard, duke of Gloucester, is loyal during Edward's reign, ruling much of the north of England firmly and fairly. But, after his brother's death in 1483, Richard proclaims himself king after imprisoning the rightful monarch Edward V and his brother in the Tower of London and possibly having them murdered. A god-fearing man, Richard loses his only legitimate son and his wife within a year, and is not the evil, deformed monster later portrayed in Tudor propaganda. The daughter and only surviving legitimate heir of Henry I, she is brought up in Germany from the age of eight. She marries first the German Holy Roman emperor, Henry V, and thereafter insists on being addressed as 'empress'. Next she marries Geoffrey of Anjou – he is 15, she is 26. In 1139, she wages war against Stephen for the English throne and is briefly queen, but in name only. But she is almost universally unpopular – her bid for the crown ends when Londoners chase her out of town. The streetwise son of a comfortably off London merchant, he rises to become Henry II's close adviser and record-keeper. He is educated at cathedral schools in Paris and Auxerre and inclines towards flashiness. He is elected archbishop of Canterbury on Henry's orders in 1162 (after being ordained as a priest only the day before) to curb the power of the Church, but unexpectedly joins the other side. In 1164, he escapes in disguise to a Cistercian monastery in France after Henry attempts to bring him to trial. After his murder in Canterbury Cathedral, he is found to be wearing a hair shirt, rather than his showy garments of old. He is made a saint by the pope in 1173. Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) Perhaps the most powerful woman in Europe, she marries the future Henry II in 1152, having been divorced by Louis VII of France for failing to produce a male heir. She is considered wilful, passionate and articulate, and takes an active part in government – as Henry's queen, as mother to Richard I and John, and as ruler of Aquitaine. While married to Louis, she goes on crusade and is alleged to be having an affair with her uncle. When she becomes estranged from Henry in the 1170s, she maintains her own court (under guard) in France, from where she encourages her sons to rebel against their father. She creates a scandal by escaping from Henry's army in men's clothes and seeks refuge with Louis. On her return to England, she is kept under house arrest for 10 years, only being reunited with her lands and wealth on Henry's death. Born into a climate of Christian fervour in France, where his parents lead a crusade against heretics, Simon, soon to be earl of Leicester, secretly marries Henry III's sister Eleanor in 1238. After a stint on the Crusades, he takes to wearing a hair shirt and getting up at midnight to pray all night. Energetic, dogmatic and an aggressive soldier, he divides opinion. He becomes a champion of constitutional reform but fails to maintain support. For all his piety and charisma, he gets too big for his boots, riding with a massive retinue of 160 knights, helping himself to lands seized from foreign nobles and declaring himself 'steward of England'. After he is killed and mutilated at the battle of Evesham, admirers of his idealism flock to his tomb. As duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of Edward III is the richest landowner in England. The name 'Gaunt' derives from his birthplace of Ghent. He is a loyal ruler in place of Edward's young grandson, Richard II, until the latter is old enough to take the throne. An early supporter of the Lollards, he falls foul of the Church and is accused – probably falsely – of plotting both to kill the bishop of London and to assume the throne. Through his second marriage to Constance of Castile, he lays claim to the Spanish throne in 1386, but is paid off. He becomes duke of Aquitaine in 1390. Robert Bruce (Robert I) (1274-1329) Bruce is a nobleman with lands in England – his grandfather is one of the claimants to the throne when John Balliol is chosen in 1292. For a time, he is loyal to Edward I, serving as sheriff of Lanark and Ayr, then proclaims himself king of Scotland in 1306 after murdering his nearest rival, John Comyn, in a Dumfries church. After several defeats by English forces, Robert I 'takes to the heather', resurfacing as a master of guerrilla warfare and a leader able to win support through consultation. His time as a fugitive is romantically told in John Barbour's epic poem, 'The Bruce'. Victory against Edward II at Bannockburn in 1314 is followed by the recapture of Berwick in 1318. Scottish independence is assured by the Treaty of Northampton in 1328. Robert I dies suffering from leprosy. Little is known about Wallace's early life other than that he is the younger son of a knight from Paisley. After his wife is killed, he embarks on a series of hit-and-run raids against English rulers, capturing all the fortresses north of the Forth. After victory at Stirling Bridge in 1297, he marches into England, plundering towns in the north. He assumes the title 'Guardian of Scotland', which makes him powerful enemies, one of whom later betrays him to Edward I. The nickname 'Braveheart', which has been applied to him in the late 20th century, actually belonged to Robert Bruce. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (c 1228-82) The grandson of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, the ruler of Gwynedd, in 1247 Llywelyn ap Gruffudd finds himself joint ruler of a Gwynedd reduced in size by English conquest. Over the next 20 years, he imprisons his two rival brothers to claim Gwynedd for himself, then goes on to unite all three Welsh provinces and some March lands in one principality, with himself as prince of Wales. This success is recognised by the Treaty of Montgomery, but Llywelyn's refusal to pay homage to the newly crowned Edward I, and his alliance with the rebel noble Simon de Montfort – whose daughter he marries – provokes an English invasion of Wales. He surrenders, retreating to his only remaining land, Gwynedd, west of Conwy. When a further revolt breaks out in 1282, he joins in but is killed. His head is put on a spike at the Tower of London and he becomes known as 'Llywelyn the Last' because, after his death, Wales is ruled from Westminster. Descended from the princes of Powys and Deheubarth, Owain Glyndwr is an esquire fighting for the earl of Arundel's forces against the Scots and French in the 1380s before he becomes a legendary Welsh rebel leader. Despite eventually losing control of Wales to the English, Owain evades capture. It is not known where he dies. Geoffrey Chaucer (c 1341-1400) The son of a London vintner, Chaucer is an official in the royal household before being given a top job in customs, which gives him plenty of opportunity to travel to the Continent. He fights in France with Edward III and rises to the position of clerk of the king's works and surveyor of roads. He is also a justice of the peace, an MP and a keen birdwatcher, and writes in his spare time. In the 1360s, he pens an elegy to John of Gaunt's wife, Blanche, called Book of the Duchess. In the 1380s, he produces the Legend of Good Women, a dream vision about good women betrayed by no-good men. Other works include Troilus and Criseyde, The Parson's Tale and Treatise on the Astrolabe, the last being a scientific study for his son. The Canterbury Tales is his final – and greatest – work of literature. |
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