Seigneur Bernard Taillefer de Bezalu
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
King John "Lackland" of England
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
John is best known for angering the barons to rebellion, so that they forced him to agree to the Magna Carta in 1215, and then signing England over to the Pope to get out of the promises he made in that Great Charter. The truth, however, is that he was no better or worse a king than his immediate predecessor or his successor (which is still not much of a compliment). Born at Oxford, he was the fifth son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and was always his father's favourite son, though being the youngest, he could expect no inheritance (hence his nickname, "Lackland"). In 1189 he married Isabel, daughter of the Earl of Gloucester. (She is given several alternative names by history, including Hawise (or Avice), Joan, and Eleanor.) They had no children, and John had their marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity, some time before or shortly after his accession to the throne, which took place on April 6, 1199. (She then married Hubert de Burgh). Before his accession, John had already acquired a reputation for treachery, having conspired sometimes with and sometimes against his elder brothers, Henry, Geoffrey and Richard. In 1184, John and Richard both claimed that they were the rightful heir to the Aquitaine, one of many unfriendly encounters between the two. The 1185 though, John was given rule over Ireland, whose people grew to despise him, causing John to leave after only six months. During Richard's absence on crusade, John attempted to overthrow his designated regent, despite having been forbidden by his brother to leave France. This was one reason the older legend of Hereward the Wake was updated to King Richard's reign, with "Prince John" as the ultimate villain and the hero now called "Robin Hood". However, on his return to England in 1194, Richard forgave John and named him as his heir. On Richard's death, John was not universally recognised as king. His young nephew, Arthur of Brittany, the posthumous son of his brother Geoffrey, was regarded by some as the rightful heir, and John eventually disposed of him around 1203, thus adding to his reputation for ruthlessness. In the meantime, he had married, on August 24, 1200, Isabella of Angouleme, who was twenty years his junior. Isabella eventually produced five children, including two sons (Henry and Richard). At around this time John also married off his illegitimate daughter, Joan, to the Welsh prince, Llywelyn the Great, building an alliance in the hope of keeping peace within England and Wales so that he would be free to recover his French lands. The French king had declared most of these forfeit in 1204, leaving John only Gascony in the southwest. As far as the administration of his kingdom went, John was quite a just and enlightened ruler, but he won the disapproval of the barons by taxing them. Particularly unpopular was the tax known as scutage, which was a penalty for those who failed to supply military resources. He also fell out with the Pope by rejecting Stephen Langton, the official candidate for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. This resulted in John's being excommunicated. He was having much the same kind of dispute with the church as his father had had before him. Unfortunately, his excommunication was an encouragement to his political rivals to rise against him. Having successfully put down the Welsh uprising of 1211, he turned his attentions back to his overseas interests and regained the approval of Pope Innocent III. The European wars culminated in a defeat which forced the king to accept an unfavourable peace with France. This finally turned the barons against him, and he met their leaders at Runnymede, near London, on June 15, 1215, to sign the Great Charter called, in Latin, Magna Carta. Because it had been signed under duress, however, John felt entitled to break it as soon as hostilities had ceased. It was the following year that John, retreating from a threatened French invasion, crossed the marshy area known as The Wash in East Anglia and lost his most valuable treasures, including the Crown Jewels, as a result of the unexpected incoming tide. This was a terrible blow, which affected his health and state of mind, and he succumbed to dysentery, dying on October 18 or October 19, 1216, at Newark in Lincolnshire*, and is buried in Worcester Cathedral in the city of Worcester. He was succeeded by his nine-year-old son as King Henry III of England. *Footnote: Newark is now within the County of Nottinghamshire, close to its long boundary with Lincolnshire. Was King John illiterate? For a long time, school children have been taught that King John had to approve the Magna Carta by attaching his seal to it because he could not sign it, being unable to read or write. The textbooks that said that were the same kind that said Christopher Columbus wanted to prove the earth was round. Whether the original authors of these errors knew better and oversimplified because they were writing for children, or whether they had been misinformed themselves, the result was generations of adults who remembered mainly two things about "wicked King John," and both of them wrong. (The other one being that if Robin Hood had not stepped in, Prince John would have embezzled the money raised to ransom King Richard.) In fact, King John did sign the draft of the Charter that was hammered out in the tent on Charter Island at Runnymede on 15 - 18 June 1215, but it took the clerks and scribes working in the royal offices some time after everyone went home to prepare the final copies, which were then sealed and delivered to the appropriate officials. In those days, legal documents were sealed to make them official, not signed. (Even today, many legal documents are not considered effective without the seal of a notary public or corporate official, and printed legal forms such as deeds say "L.S." next to the signature lines. That stands for the Latin locus signilli ("place of the seal"), signifying that the signer is using a signature as a substitute for a seal.) When William the Conqueror (and his wife) signed the Accord of Winchester in 1072, for example, they and all the bishops signed with crosses, as illiterate people would later do, but it was because it was the legal practice, not because the bishops could not write their own names. Henry II had at first intended for his son Prince John to be educated to go into the Church, which would have meant Henry did not have to give him any land, but in 1171 Henry began negotiations to betroth John to the daughter of Count Humbert III of Maurienne-Savoy (who had no son yet and so wanted a son-in-law), and after that there was no more talk of making John a churchman. John's parents were both well educated -- Henry II spoke some half dozen languages, and Eleanor of Aquitaine had attended lectures at what was about to become the University of Paris, in addition to what they had been taught of law and government, religion, and literature -- and John was one of the best educated kings England ever had. Some of the books the records show he read were: De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei by Hugh of St. Victor, Sentences by Peter Lombard, The Treatise of Origen, and a history of England that was probably Robert Wace's Roman de Brut, based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. References
John of England
============
King John (December 24, 1167 - October 19, 1216) was King of England from 1199 to 1216. He was the youngest brother of King Richard I who was known as "Richard the Lionheart". Nicknames are "Lackland" (in French, sans terre) and "Soft-sword".
King John, by W.L. Warren ISBN 0520036433
(http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/j/jo/john_of_england.html).
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
Mother: Sibyl de Braose Associated with John , King of England Child 1?: Joan of England (possibly) One source for the speculation that Agatha Ferrers was Joan's mother is Sir William Dugdale, in The Baronage of England (1675-6). He states his source to be Dr David Powel's History of Wales (1584). Powel's work is an enlarged edition of H Lhoyd's translation of The Historie of Cambria by the 12th century Saint Caradoc of Llancarfan.
Agatha Ferrers
============
Father: William Ferrers, Earl of Derby
© Doug Thompson 1997 - 1999
(http://freespace.virgin.net/doug.thompson/BraoseWeb/Agatha.htm).
King Henry II "Plantagenet" of England
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
Following the disastrous reign of King Stephen, Henry's reign was one of efficient consolidation. Henry II is regarded as England's greatest medieval king. He was born on March 5, 1133, to the Empress Matilda and her second husband, Geoffrey the Fair, Duke of Anjou. He was brought up in Anjou and visited England in 1142 to help his mother in her disputed claim to the English throne.
Henry II of England
===============
Henry II Plantagenet (March 25, 1133 - July 6, 1189), was Duke of Anjou and King of England (1154 - 1189) and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland, eastern Ireland, and western France. His soubriquets include "Curt Mantle" (because of the practical short cloaks he wore), "Fitz Empress," and sometimes "The Lion of Justice," which had been used for his grandfather Henry I. He would be known as the first of the Angevin Kings.
Prior to coming to the throne he already controlled Normandy and Anjou on the continent; his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 added her land holdings to his, including vast areas such as Touraine, Aquitaine, and Gascony. He was thus effectively more powerful than the king of France with an empire that stretched from Solway Firth almost to the Mediterranean and from the Somme to the Pyrenees. As king, he would make Ireland a part of his vast domain. He also was in lively communication with the Emperor of Byzantium Manuel I Comnenus. In August 1152 Henry, who had been fighting Eleanor's ex-husband Louis VII of France and his allies, rushed back to her, and they spent several months together. Around the end of November 1152 they parted: Henry went to spend some weeks with his mother and then sailed for England, arriving on 6 January 1153. Some historians believe that the couple's first child, William, Count of Poitiers, was born in 1152. It is possible that this was why Henry came home at that time, and the progress they made through Eleanor's lands was to mark the birth of the new heir -- that is, that their stated purpose of "introducing the new count" to the people meant Count William, not Count Henry. Others think William was born in 1153, and point out that Henry might still have been there nine months before William was born. During Stephen's reign, the barons had subverted feudal legislation to undermine the monarch's grip on the realm; Henry saw it as his first task to reverse this shift in power. Castles which had been built without authorisation during Stephen's reign, for example, were torn down, and an early form of taxation replaced military service as the primary duty of vassals. Record-keeping was dramatically improved in order to streamline this taxation. Henry II established courts in various parts of the country and was the first king to grant magistrates the power to render legal decisions on a wide range of civil matters in the name of the Crown. Under his reign, the first written legal textbook was produced, proving the basis of what today is referred to as Common Law. By the Assize of Clarendon (1166), trial by jury became the norm. Since the Norman Conquest, jury trials had been largely replaced by trial by ordeal and "wager of battel" (which was not abolished in England until 1819). This was one of Henry's major contributions to the social history of England. As a consequence of the improvements in the legal system, the power of church courts waned. The church, not unnaturally, opposed this, and its most vehement spokesman was Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formerly a close friend of Henry's and his chancellor. Henry had appointed Becket to the archbishopric precisely because he wanted to avoid conflict. The conflict with Becket effectively began with a dispute over whether clergy who had committed a secular offence could be tried by the secular courts. Henry attempted to subdue Becket and his fellow churchmen by making them swear to obey the "customs of the realm", but there was controversy over what constituted these customs, and the church was reluctant to submit. Becket left England in 1164 to solicit personally the support of the Pope in Rome and the king of France, where he stayed for a time. After a reconciliation between Henry and Thomas in Normandy in 1170, he returned to England. Becket again confronted Henry, this time over the coronation of Prince Henry (see below). The much-quoted words of Henry II echo down the centuries: "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four of his knights took their king literally (as he may have intended for them to do, although he later denied it) and travelled immediately to England, where they assassinated Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170. William, Count of Poitiers, had died in infancy. In 1170, Henry and Eleanor's fifteen-year-old son Henry was crowned king, but he never actually ruled and is not counted as a monarch of England; he is now known as Henry the Young King to distinguish him from his nephew Henry III of England. Henry and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, had five sons and three daughters. (Henry also had some ten children by at least four other women, and Eleanor had several of those children reared in the royal nursery with her own children; some remained members of the household in adulthood.) His attempts to wrest control of her lands from her (and her heir Richard) led to confrontation between Henry on the one side and his wife and legitimate sons on the other. Henry's notorious liaison with Rosamund Clifford, the "fair Rosamund" of legend, is thought to have begun in 1165, during one of his Welsh campaigns, and continued until her death in 1176. However, it was not until 1174, at around the time of his break with Eleanor, that Henry acknowledged Rosamund as his mistress. Almost simultaneously, he began negotiating to divorce Eleanor and marry Alice, daughter of King Louis VII of France, who was already betrothed to his son, Richard. His affair with her continued for some years, and, unlike Rosamund Clifford, Alice is believed to have given birth to several of his illegitimate children. Henry II's attempt to divide his titles amongst his sons but keep the power associated with them provoked them into trying to take control of the lands assigned to them, which amounted to treason, at least in Henry's eyes. Henry was fortunate to have on his side a knight who was both loyal and unbeatable in battle: William Marshal; Henry's illegitimate son Geoffrey Plantagenet (1151-1212), Archbishop of York, also stood by him the whole time and was the only son with Henry when he died. When Henry's legitimate sons rebelled against him, they often had the help of King Louis VII of France. The death of Henry the Young King, in 1183, was followed by the death of the next in line to the throne, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany who was trampled to death by a horse in 1186. His third son, Richard the Lionheart, with the assistance of Philippe II Auguste, attacked and defeated Henry on July 4, 1189; Henry died at the Chateau Chinon on July 7, 1189 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey, near Chinon and Saumur in the Anjou Region that today is part of France.
Richard the Lionheart then became king of England. He was followed by King John, the youngest son of Henry II, laying aside the claims of Geoffrey's son, Arthur, and daughter, Eleanor. Fiction The treasons associated with the succession were the main theme of the play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. Henry II and his sons King Richard and King John were also the subject of the BBC2 series The Devil's Crown and the 1978 book of the same title, written by Richard Barber and published as a guide to the tv series, which starred Brian Cox and Jane Lapotaire as Henry and Eleanor.
(http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/h/he/henry_ii_of_england.html).
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
King Richard I "Coeur de Lion" of England
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
King Henry II "Plantagenet" of England
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
Following the disastrous reign of King Stephen, Henry's reign was one of efficient consolidation. Henry II is regarded as England's greatest medieval king. He was born on March 5, 1133, to the Empress Matilda and her second husband, Geoffrey the Fair, Duke of Anjou. He was brought up in Anjou and visited England in 1142 to help his mother in her disputed claim to the English throne.
Henry II of England
===============
Henry II Plantagenet (March 25, 1133 - July 6, 1189), was Duke of Anjou and King of England (1154 - 1189) and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland, eastern Ireland, and western France. His soubriquets include "Curt Mantle" (because of the practical short cloaks he wore), "Fitz Empress," and sometimes "The Lion of Justice," which had been used for his grandfather Henry I. He would be known as the first of the Angevin Kings.
Prior to coming to the throne he already controlled Normandy and Anjou on the continent; his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 added her land holdings to his, including vast areas such as Touraine, Aquitaine, and Gascony. He was thus effectively more powerful than the king of France with an empire that stretched from Solway Firth almost to the Mediterranean and from the Somme to the Pyrenees. As king, he would make Ireland a part of his vast domain. He also was in lively communication with the Emperor of Byzantium Manuel I Comnenus. In August 1152 Henry, who had been fighting Eleanor's ex-husband Louis VII of France and his allies, rushed back to her, and they spent several months together. Around the end of November 1152 they parted: Henry went to spend some weeks with his mother and then sailed for England, arriving on 6 January 1153. Some historians believe that the couple's first child, William, Count of Poitiers, was born in 1152. It is possible that this was why Henry came home at that time, and the progress they made through Eleanor's lands was to mark the birth of the new heir -- that is, that their stated purpose of "introducing the new count" to the people meant Count William, not Count Henry. Others think William was born in 1153, and point out that Henry might still have been there nine months before William was born. During Stephen's reign, the barons had subverted feudal legislation to undermine the monarch's grip on the realm; Henry saw it as his first task to reverse this shift in power. Castles which had been built without authorisation during Stephen's reign, for example, were torn down, and an early form of taxation replaced military service as the primary duty of vassals. Record-keeping was dramatically improved in order to streamline this taxation. Henry II established courts in various parts of the country and was the first king to grant magistrates the power to render legal decisions on a wide range of civil matters in the name of the Crown. Under his reign, the first written legal textbook was produced, proving the basis of what today is referred to as Common Law. By the Assize of Clarendon (1166), trial by jury became the norm. Since the Norman Conquest, jury trials had been largely replaced by trial by ordeal and "wager of battel" (which was not abolished in England until 1819). This was one of Henry's major contributions to the social history of England. As a consequence of the improvements in the legal system, the power of church courts waned. The church, not unnaturally, opposed this, and its most vehement spokesman was Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formerly a close friend of Henry's and his chancellor. Henry had appointed Becket to the archbishopric precisely because he wanted to avoid conflict. The conflict with Becket effectively began with a dispute over whether clergy who had committed a secular offence could be tried by the secular courts. Henry attempted to subdue Becket and his fellow churchmen by making them swear to obey the "customs of the realm", but there was controversy over what constituted these customs, and the church was reluctant to submit. Becket left England in 1164 to solicit personally the support of the Pope in Rome and the king of France, where he stayed for a time. After a reconciliation between Henry and Thomas in Normandy in 1170, he returned to England. Becket again confronted Henry, this time over the coronation of Prince Henry (see below). The much-quoted words of Henry II echo down the centuries: "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four of his knights took their king literally (as he may have intended for them to do, although he later denied it) and travelled immediately to England, where they assassinated Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170. William, Count of Poitiers, had died in infancy. In 1170, Henry and Eleanor's fifteen-year-old son Henry was crowned king, but he never actually ruled and is not counted as a monarch of England; he is now known as Henry the Young King to distinguish him from his nephew Henry III of England. Henry and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, had five sons and three daughters. (Henry also had some ten children by at least four other women, and Eleanor had several of those children reared in the royal nursery with her own children; some remained members of the household in adulthood.) His attempts to wrest control of her lands from her (and her heir Richard) led to confrontation between Henry on the one side and his wife and legitimate sons on the other. Henry's notorious liaison with Rosamund Clifford, the "fair Rosamund" of legend, is thought to have begun in 1165, during one of his Welsh campaigns, and continued until her death in 1176. However, it was not until 1174, at around the time of his break with Eleanor, that Henry acknowledged Rosamund as his mistress. Almost simultaneously, he began negotiating to divorce Eleanor and marry Alice, daughter of King Louis VII of France, who was already betrothed to his son, Richard. His affair with her continued for some years, and, unlike Rosamund Clifford, Alice is believed to have given birth to several of his illegitimate children. Henry II's attempt to divide his titles amongst his sons but keep the power associated with them provoked them into trying to take control of the lands assigned to them, which amounted to treason, at least in Henry's eyes. Henry was fortunate to have on his side a knight who was both loyal and unbeatable in battle: William Marshal; Henry's illegitimate son Geoffrey Plantagenet (1151-1212), Archbishop of York, also stood by him the whole time and was the only son with Henry when he died. When Henry's legitimate sons rebelled against him, they often had the help of King Louis VII of France. The death of Henry the Young King, in 1183, was followed by the death of the next in line to the throne, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany who was trampled to death by a horse in 1186. His third son, Richard the Lionheart, with the assistance of Philippe II Auguste, attacked and defeated Henry on July 4, 1189; Henry died at the Chateau Chinon on July 7, 1189 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey, near Chinon and Saumur in the Anjou Region that today is part of France.
Richard the Lionheart then became king of England. He was followed by King John, the youngest son of Henry II, laying aside the claims of Geoffrey's son, Arthur, and daughter, Eleanor. Fiction The treasons associated with the succession were the main theme of the play The Lion in Winter, which was made into a film starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. Henry II and his sons King Richard and King John were also the subject of the BBC2 series The Devil's Crown and the 1978 book of the same title, written by Richard Barber and published as a guide to the tv series, which starred Brian Cox and Jane Lapotaire as Henry and Eleanor.
(http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/h/he/henry_ii_of_england.html).
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Duke Geoffrey V "le Bon" Plantagenet
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
Nicknamed for the sprig of broom (= genêt plant, in French) he wore in his hat as a badge, at the age of 15 he married Matilda, the daughter of Henry I of England and widow of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The marriage in 1128 was meant to seal a peace between England/Normandy and Anjou. She was eleven years older than Geoffrey, and their marriage was a stormy one, but she survived him. Their eldest son became Henry II of England. The year after the marriage Geoffrey's father left for Jerusalem (where he was to become king), leaving Geoffrey behind as count as Anjou. When King Henry died in 1135, Maud's cousin Stephen seized the throne. While Maud turned her attentions to England, Geoffrey focused on the conquest of Normandy. This was to take a decade of steady seigework and alliance-building, a process Geoffrey would not abandon even when his wife pleaded for help in England. The merits of this strategy are sometimes debated. While Angevin forces might have been decisive if brought over to England, it also seems that the possession of Normandy played a role, possibly even a decisive one, in the eventual success of their son Henry in taking the English crown. Geoffrey also put down three baronial rebellions in Anjou, in 1129, 1135, and 1145-1151. The threat of rebellion slowed his progress in Normandy, and is one reason he could not intervene in England. In the remaining years of his life, Geoffrey consolidated his hold on Normandy, reforming the administration of the duchy, and, in 1150, introduced Henry into its rule. He died on September 7, 1151, still a young man, and is buried in Le Mans Cathedral in France. Geoffrey and Matilda had three sons, Henry, Geoffrey, and William. He also had an illegitimate son, Hamelin de Warenne. The first reference to Norman heraldry was in 1128, when Henry I of England knighted his son-in-law Geoffrey and granted him a badge of gold lions (or leopards) on a blue background. (A gold lion may already have been Henry’s own badge.) Henry II used two gold lions and two lions on a red background are still part of the arms of Normandy. Henry's son, Richard I, added a third lion to distinguish the arms of England.
Geoffrey V (August 24, 1113 - September 7, 1151), Count of Anjou and Maine, and later Duke of Normandy, called "Geoffrey the Fair" or "Geoffrey Plantagent", was the son of Fulk V, Count of Anjou and King of Jerusalem. Geoffrey's mother was Eremburg of La Flèche, heiress of Maine. Geoffrey himself became the father of the Plantagenet dynasty of English kings.
References
Jim Bradbury, "Geoffrey V of Anjou, Count and Knight", in The Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood III
Charles H. Haskins, "Normandy Under Geoffrey Plantagenet", The English Historical Review, volume 27 (July 1912), pp. 417-444
(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Geoffrey_of_Anjou).
Empress Matilda (Maud) of Germany
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
Maud was christened Adelaide, but took her mother's name of Matilda when she married for the first time, on January 7, 1114. Her first husband was Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, but the marriage was childless and Henry died in 1125. In 1128, she was married again, at Le Mans in Anjou, to Geoffrey of Anjou, who was eleven years her junior. He was nicknamed "Plantagenet" from the broom flower which he took as his emblem, hence the name of the line of English kings descended from him. Although the marriage could not be said to be a happy one, it did produce three sons, the eldest of whom, Henry, was born on March 5, 1132/3. On the death of her father in 1135, Maud expected to succeed to the throne of England, but her cousin, Stephen of Blois usurped the throne, breaking an oath he had previously made to defend her rights. The civil war which followed was bitter and prolonged, with neither side gaining the ascendancy for long, but it was not until 1139 that Maud could command the military strength necessary to challenge Stephen within his own realm. Her most loyal and capable supporter was her half-brother, Robert of Gloucester; Stephen's was his wife, another Matilda: Matilda of Boulogne. Maud's greatest triumph came in April 1141, when her forces defeated and captured King Stephen, who was made a prisoner and effectively deposed. Although she now controlled the kingdom, Maud never styled herself queen but took the title "Lady of the English". Her advantage lasted only a few months. By November, Stephen was free, and a year later, the tables were turned when Maud was besieged at Oxford; the circumstances of her escape were the stuff of fiction. In 1147, Maud was finally forced to return to France, following the death of Robert of Gloucester. All hope was not lost. Maud's son, Henry (later, Henry II of England), was showing signs of becoming a successful leader. Although the civil war had been decided in Stephen's favour, his reign was troubled. In 1153, the death of his son Eustace, combined with the arrival of a military expedition led by Henry, led him to acknowledge the latter as his heir by the Treaty of Wallingford. Maud died at Rouen, and was buried in the cathedral there. The civil war between Stephen's supporters and Maud's is the background for the popular "Brother Cadfael" books by Ellis Peters and the films made from them starring Sir Derek Jacobi as that rare Benedictine. Besides Henry, Matilda also bore two other sons, Geoffrey, Count of Anjou and William, Count of Poitou.
Empress Maud
============
Empress Maud (February 7, 1102 - September 10, 1167) is the title by which Matilda, daughter and dispossessed heir of King Henry I of England and his wife Maud of Scotland (herself daughter of Malcolm III Canmore and St. Margaret of Scotland), is known, in order to differentiate her from the many other Matildas of the period.
(http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/e/em/empress_maud.html).
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Count of Nantes Geoffrey VI "Mantell" Plantagenet
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Count of Poitou Guillaume Plantagenet
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Princess of Wales Emma Plantagenet
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Duke Geoffrey V "le Bon" Plantagenet
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
Nicknamed for the sprig of broom (= genêt plant, in French) he wore in his hat as a badge, at the age of 15 he married Matilda, the daughter of Henry I of England and widow of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The marriage in 1128 was meant to seal a peace between England/Normandy and Anjou. She was eleven years older than Geoffrey, and their marriage was a stormy one, but she survived him. Their eldest son became Henry II of England. The year after the marriage Geoffrey's father left for Jerusalem (where he was to become king), leaving Geoffrey behind as count as Anjou. When King Henry died in 1135, Maud's cousin Stephen seized the throne. While Maud turned her attentions to England, Geoffrey focused on the conquest of Normandy. This was to take a decade of steady seigework and alliance-building, a process Geoffrey would not abandon even when his wife pleaded for help in England. The merits of this strategy are sometimes debated. While Angevin forces might have been decisive if brought over to England, it also seems that the possession of Normandy played a role, possibly even a decisive one, in the eventual success of their son Henry in taking the English crown. Geoffrey also put down three baronial rebellions in Anjou, in 1129, 1135, and 1145-1151. The threat of rebellion slowed his progress in Normandy, and is one reason he could not intervene in England. In the remaining years of his life, Geoffrey consolidated his hold on Normandy, reforming the administration of the duchy, and, in 1150, introduced Henry into its rule. He died on September 7, 1151, still a young man, and is buried in Le Mans Cathedral in France. Geoffrey and Matilda had three sons, Henry, Geoffrey, and William. He also had an illegitimate son, Hamelin de Warenne. The first reference to Norman heraldry was in 1128, when Henry I of England knighted his son-in-law Geoffrey and granted him a badge of gold lions (or leopards) on a blue background. (A gold lion may already have been Henry’s own badge.) Henry II used two gold lions and two lions on a red background are still part of the arms of Normandy. Henry's son, Richard I, added a third lion to distinguish the arms of England.
Geoffrey V (August 24, 1113 - September 7, 1151), Count of Anjou and Maine, and later Duke of Normandy, called "Geoffrey the Fair" or "Geoffrey Plantagent", was the son of Fulk V, Count of Anjou and King of Jerusalem. Geoffrey's mother was Eremburg of La Flèche, heiress of Maine. Geoffrey himself became the father of the Plantagenet dynasty of English kings.
References
Jim Bradbury, "Geoffrey V of Anjou, Count and Knight", in The Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood III
Charles H. Haskins, "Normandy Under Geoffrey Plantagenet", The English Historical Review, volume 27 (July 1912), pp. 417-444
(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Geoffrey_of_Anjou).
Concubine (Mrs. Geoffrey Plantagenet V)
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Count Foulques (Fulk) V "le Jeune" of Anjou
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
He became count of Anjou (as Fulk V) in 1109. He was originally an opponent of Henry I of England and a supporter of Louis VI of France, but in 1127 he allied with Henry when Henry arranged for his daughter Matilda to marry Fulk's son Geoffrey Plantagenet. Fulk visited the Holy Land in 1120, and become a close friend of the Templars. After his return he began to subsidize the Templars and also maintained two knights in the Holy Land for a year. In 1128 he was preparing to return to the East when he received an embassy from King Baldwin II of Jerusalem who had no male heir to succeed him. Baldwin arranged for Fulk to marry his daughter Melisende, which would allow Fulk to succeed Baldwin as king. Fulk accepted the offer and in 1129 he and Melisende were married, with the towns of Acre and Tyre as her dowry. In 1131 Fulk became king of Jerusalem when Baldwin II died. The kingdom under Fulk was prosperous, and at the beginning of his reign he also acted as regent of the Principality of Antioch. As regent he had Raymund of Poitou marry the infant Constance of Antioch, daughter of Bohemund II. However, the greatest concern during Fulk's reign was the rise of atabeg Zengi of Mosul. In 1137 Fulk was defeated near Barin. Fulk then allied with the vizier of Damascus, who was also threatened by Zengi, and was able to capture the fort of Banias, to the north of Lake Tiberias. Fulk also strengthened the kingdom to the south. His butler Paganus built the fortress of Kerak to the south of the Dead Sea, and to help give the kingdom access to the Red Sea, Fulk had Blanche Garde and other forts built in the south-west to overpower the Egyptian fortress at Ascalon. In 1137 and 1142, Byzantine emperor John II Comnenus arrived in Syria attempting to impose Byzantine control over the Crusader States. John's arrival was ignored by Fulk, who declined an invitation to meet John in Jerusalem. Fulk died in 1143, leaving two sons who both became kings, as Baldwin III and Amalric I. William of Tyre described Fulk as a capable soldier and politician, who defended both the kingdom and the church, reflecting the policies of his predecessors Baldwin I and Baldwin II. William felt that the major fault of Fulk's reign was his inattention to the defense of the states to the north against the invasions of Zengi, which culminated in the fall of the County of Edessa in 1143.
Fulk of Jerusalem
=============
Fulk of Anjou, king of Jerusalem (1092-1143), was the son of Fulk IV, count of Anjou, and his wife Bertrada (who ultimately deserted her husband and became the mistress of Philip I of France).
(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Fulk_of_Jerusalem).
Ermengarde (Ermentrude) du Maine
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
King Henry I "Beauclerc" of England
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Burke's Peerage, (http://www.burkes-peerage.net).
An undoubted Earl of Gloucester, perhaps the first authentic such, at any rate after the Conquest, is Robert FitzHamon's son-in-law, another Robert, who was an illegitimate son of HENRY I and was so created in 1122.
(http://www.burkes-peerage.net/Sites/Peerage/SitePages/page62-6h.asp).3Web site.
Henry was born between May 1068 and May 1069, probably in Selby, Yorkshire in England. As the youngest son of the family, he was most likely expected to become a bishop and was given extensive schooling for a young nobleman of that time period. He was probably the first Norman ruler to be fluent in English. His father William, upon his death in 1087, bequeathed his dominions to his sons in the following manner: Robert received the Duchy of Normandy
Henry I of England
===========
Henry I (c.1068 - December 1, 1135), called Henry Beauclerk or Henry Beauclerc because of his scholarly interests, was the youngest son of William the Conqueror. He reigned as King of England from 1100 to 1135, succeeding his brother, William II Rufus. He was also known by the nickname "Lion of Justice". His reign is noted for his limitations on the power of the crown, his improvements in the machinery of government, his reuniting of the dominions of his father, and his controversial decision to name his daughter as his heir.
William received the Kingdom of England
Henry received 5000 pounds of silver
It is reported that he prophesied that Henry would eventually get everything his father had (Cross, 1917). The two older brothers made an agreement that if either died without an heir, the two dominions of their father would be reunited under the surviving brother. When William II died in 1100, however, Robert was returning from the First Crusade. His absence, along with his poor reputation among the Norman nobles, allowed Henry to seize the keys of the royal hoard at Winchester. He was accepted as king by the leading barons and was crowned three days later on August 5 at Westminster. He immediately secured his position among the nobles by issuing the Charter of Liberties, which is considered a forerunner of the Magna Carta. On November 11, 1100 Henry married Edith, daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland. Since Edith was also the niece of Edgar Atheling, the marriage united the Norman line with old English line of kings. The marriage greatly displeased the Norman barons, however, and as a concession to their sensibilities, Edith changed her named to Matilda upon becoming queen. The following year in 1101, Robert Curthose attempted to seize back the crown by an invading England. In the Treaty of Alton, Robert agreed to recognize Henry as king of England and return peacefully to Normandy. In 1105, to eliminate the continuing threat from Robert, Henry led an expeditionary force across the English Channel. In 1106, he decisively defeated his brother's Norman army at Tinchebray. He imprisoned his brother and appropriated the Duchy of Normandy as a possession of England, thus reuniting his father's dominions. As king, Henry carried out social and judicial reforms, including: issuing the Charter of Liberties
restoring laws of King Edward the Confessor.
He had four children by Matilda before her death in 1118. On January 29, 1121, he married Adeliza, daughter of Godfrey, Count of Louvain, but there were no children from this marriage. He also holds the record for the largest number of acknowledged illegitimate children born to any English king, with a provisional total of twenty-five. However, neither of his legitimate sons, both by his first wife, survived him; both died in the wreck of the White Ship, on November 25, 1120, off the coast of Normandy. One of these sons, Richard, remains extremely obscure and may not have existed at all. The other, William Adelin, definitely existed and his death proved a disaster for England. Left without male heirs, Henry took the unprecedented step of making his barons swear to accept his daughter Matilda, widow of Henry V, the Holy Roman Emperor, as his heir. Henry died of food poisoning from eating foul lampreys in December, 1135, at St. Denis le Fermont in Normandy and was buried at Reading Abbey. Although Henry's barons had sworn allegiance to his daughter Matilda as their queen, Matilda's sex and her remarriage to the House of Anjou, an enemy of the Normans, allowed Henry's nephew Stephen of Boulogne to come to England and claim the throne with popular support. The struggle between Matilda and Stephen resulted in a long civil war known as the Anarchy. The dispute was eventually settled by Stephen's naming of Matilda's son, Henry, as his heir in 1153.
(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Henry_I_of_England).
Princess Matilda (Edith) "Ætheling" of Scotland
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
2Web site.
[Edgar's] niece Edith (renamed Matilda) had married Henry I in 1100.
(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Edgar_Atheling).
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Prince William "Ætheling" of England
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Viscount Aimeri I of Chatellerault
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.
Dangereuse (aka) Maubergeonne de l' Isle Bouchard
1The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 USA.