Thanks fhaessig!
- - -
Chapter 2: 1216 and all that.
- - -
“The French Dynasties of Outremer Isles: Norman, Plantagenet and Capetian.”
By David Locke
King John I Lackland sat on an unstable throne in 1214. The loss of almost all the Plantagenet lands in France except for Gascony and Armagnac in the south was a devastating blow to his legitimacy. For fifteen years England had been taxed dry to pay for John’s continental exploits, and well before the victory by Philippe at Saint Amand had been growing distrust between King John and the Barons of England. The failure of John in France, especially the loss of ancestral Normandy, angered his Barons. When John manipulated the current laws, including increasing scutage eleven times in his reign, they raged against him. To further finance his wars in France he instituted an income tax, which raised the astronomical amount of 70,000 pounds. And it was all for nought.
His actions against the Church, which resulted in his excommunication and then his submission, angered both the Barons and the English Clergy. But it was Philip’s victory at Saint Amand that turned the Barons against him. In early 1215 open rebellion broke out, and on the 10th of May a rebel army of Barons entered London. The gates of the city were opened to them, and the King was caught unaware. Many moderates, including Hubert de Burgh, also turned against him. Forced by the Barons King John met them at the field of Runnymede on the 15th of July, where he would sign the ‘Articles of the Barons’ (or the Barons Charter). The Barons articles consisted of many clauses that would give the Barons increased power, whilst controlling that of the Monarch. In many ways it was the successor of the Charter of Liberties, signed by King Henry I in the year 1100. The Baron’s Charter set out almost every aspect of feudal dues and rights in English society. John was alone against the Barons, and so he signed the Great Charter on the 15th of June. Four days later the Barons renewed their vows of fealty to King John.
No sooner had the ink dried on the vellum did John manoeuvre against the Barons. Once the Barons army had left London he renounced his signing of the Charter, claiming that he was forced to sign under duress. Civil War was unleashed upon England. Let us consider the barons who had brought John to Runnymede in 1215.
The men who opposed John were known as Boreales, or Aquilonares by the chroniclers, but despite the name the centre of the revolt lay in Essex and East Anglia, although of the twenty five barons who signed the Barons Charter a large proportion of them were from the north of England. The Boreales were for the most part a force of young men, and there where occasions where level headed older Barons supported Lackland, and their hot-headed sons stood against him. Many of the Boreales had a mixed record of disloyalty and failure, although many of their stories of personal wrongs inflicted by King John were fabricated. After the signing of the Barons Charter several leaders emerged:
Eustace de Vesci, lord of Alnwick. Robert Fitz Walter, lord of Dunmow in Essex. Saer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester. Fulk Fitz Warin, outlaw. Hubert de Burgh, the castellan who had fallen from the Kings grace.
Hubert de Burgh had risen to power in the household of Lacklands, but in June 1204 his fortunes changed. The castle of Chinon in Poitou had been placed under his command, to defend the Loire valley against the invasion by the French King Philip II. However through misfortune the castle lacked supplies for an extended siege, and de Burgh was forced to surrender the castle after a three month siege. When he returned to England in 1206 he was in disgrace. Lackland robbed him of almost all his land and titles, but granted him the shrievalty of Kent and Essex in 1210, when England was under Papal Interdiction. de Burgh brought to the Boreales not only the force of his name and men-at-arms, but also the promise of support from his father-in-law William de Vernon[1], Earl of Devon.
The rift between Lackland and de Burgh was never repaired. After the Battle of Saint Amand de Burgh rose in rebellion against King John. On Michaelmas [29th of September] - four months after Saint Amand – He publicly invited Simon ‘the Cathar-slayer’ de Montfort, who was on crusade against the Albigensians in the Languedoc to become King of England [2]. For this he was charged with treason.
Around King John gathered the older generation of earls, men such as William Marshal, (although his eldest two sons were supportive of the Boreales), the great mercenary Falkes de Breaute, Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester (Later 1st Earl of March). The Papal Legate Pandulph stood by him, as did Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, despite the treachery of his brother Simon, Bishop of York.
In early 1215 the Boreales met at Stamford. It was a natural choice of location by the rebels, as it sat on the great north road, easily accessible by barons from the north and east. It would also have been a familiar location for many of the rebels, as it was a popular location for jousting tournaments. At Stamford Hubert de Burgh was appointed by the Boreales as their commander, ‘the marshal of the army of the Lord and Holy Church’[3].
War loomed, and both sides began to anticipate a long struggle. In April the rebellion began. From Stamford the army of the Boreales marched to Northampton and from there onto Brackley, where they renounced their homage to John I Lackland. They returned to Northampton from Brackley, and after laying siege to the castle for a fortnight without success they marched eastward to Bedford. John and the barons continued to negotiate whilst the Boreales army marched through the north.
On the 17th of May the Boreales leaders were secretly admitted into London. A fortnight earlier King John had granted London a favourable charter of rights, but this was ignored by the moderates of London, and the city was taken by the Boreales. London was the one great success by the Boreales in May, a face saving achievement after the failure at Northampton. But Hubert de Burgh knew that they could not succeed against John, and so reluctantly he sent an embassy to King Philip II of France (Who by this stage had acquired the title of Augustus) asking for help.
Philip agreed, eager to destroy the Plantagenets agreed. As King John attempted to make peace with the Boreales and meet the conditions of the Barons Charter, the French King prepared for war. In November a French army was prepared, as was an excuse for invasion. King Philip II proclaimed that John had been tried by the court of France in 1203 for the murder of Duke Arthur of Brittany. That court had condemned John to the loss of the English crown for his crime.
By 1216 John had seized the north and east, the areas that had rebelled against him, and the Boreales were confined to London. During the winter he had retaken the north, defeating a force by King Alexander II of Scotland in the Lowlands, and returned to the south through Lincolnshire. The affairs of the English government continued to run. The courts were continuous, as was the business of the chancellery. The rebel Boreales was trapped in the east of England, and yet the line between Lackland and Boreale territory was, as it would be during the rest of the civil war, blurry. London remained the single major town held by the Boreales, and King John was preparing to attack. [4]
In May the inevitable French invasion arrived. For almost a year King Philip had been preparing for war, and had sent two small forces of French knights across the Channel before the winter. However these knights gave little relief to the Boreales. Philip dispatched the pirate Eustace the Monk- who had been in his service for several years – charging him with protecting the French fleet and attacking that of Lackland. Eustace and his brothers would transfer the army of Lewis across the channel in May. A fleet of twenty one ships had been assembled at the Thames to combat the French fleet but were dispatched by a storm, and on the 21st of May the French prince landed on English soil at Thanet. Within a week he marched to London and was received by the Boreales. King John had been on the Kentish coast observing the movements of the French army, and on the advice of William Marshal he retreated to the old Saxon capitol of Winchester.
The effect of the French prince in the land cannot be underestimated. Gerald of Wales wrote that:
“The madness of slavery is over, the time of liberty has been granted, English necks are free from the yoke.”
Castles were surrendered, town gates were opened, but above all there were numerous desertions and several great Earls, most importantly the Earl of Salisbury, William Longsword and Earl of Devon, William de Vernon [5]. In the area of London only Windsor and Dover remained loyal. The castle of Dover was under the command of Reginald de Cornhill, the High Sheriff of Surrey [6,7]. The castle was the key to England -the Clavis Angliae - and whoever held it would be in a very powerful position.
Upon arriving in London Lewis received King Alexander II of Scotland, who had made the dangerous journey across England to pay homage to the Prince [8], although at this state Lewis was not crowned as King in the cathedral, only proclaimed. In June he mustered his army and on the advice of de Burgh he marched to Dover. Like other nobles before him de Cornhill surrendered his castle to Prince Lewis on the 20th of June. Lewis then cowed the Cinque Ports, forcing them to swear their allegiance to him. Their loyalty would be questionable throughout the Civil War, and on August 27th King Philip issued a mandate to merchants of Poitou and Gascony ordering them to put into ports between the Isle of Wight and Bristol which are ‘not in the power of our enemies’.
After seizing Dover, Lewis marched west to take Winchester and Windsor. King John had left Winchester after hearing of the loss of Dover, and was heading north once more, into the Welsh marches to gather reinforcements. Lewis seized Winchester and Windsor after two long sieges, as both towns had large garrisons of knights, some one hundred at each. It took two long months for Lewis to take Winchester, but after it fell Windsor surrendered shortly after on the 2nd of October. [9]
After the fall of Windsor King Lewis met Earl William of Devon at Southampton on the 23rd of October, and aided the Earl with the capture of the Plantagenet stronghold. Lewis had brought a trebuchet from the continent, the first on English soil, and it was used to break the walls of Southampton [10].
In the north John found his army enlarged by the knights and men-at-arms of Chester and Hereford as he marched east into Lincolnshire. The castle of Lincoln itself had been held by Gilbert de Gant, and upon hearing word of the victory of the Boreales and Lewis at Dover, Winchester and Southampton, held the castle against John.
John lay siege to Lincoln castle. For all of October John sat outside Lincoln castle, attempting to starve de Gant out. He sent his agents across Lincolnshire to gather goods for the siege. As winter began, and on the advice of William Marshal and Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester – who had taken command of the midlands, and held them for Lackland – John broke the siege of Lincoln and marched north to York, a loyal Plantagenet stronghold amongst the lands of the Boreales. York had been seized the year earlier during John’s subjugation of the north, the rebellious Bishop Simon Langdon had been cast out. John’s progress was slow, hampered by the royal baggage train. John reached York on the 17th of October, and spent a sombre Christmas in the company of his few loyal men [11]. The bishops of Winchester, Chichester and Worcester, the Earls of Pembroke, Chester and Derby, and the papal legate Gualo and few others sat in attendance. This latter guest of Lackland was the most important, for the Plantagenets had few supporters outside of England, but amongst them was Pope Honorius III [12]. John had God on his side, and the Plantagenet soldiers wore the cross at the Siege of Lincoln [13], and Gualo had placed an Interdiction on the territory under Lewis’s control. However this Interdiction was contested by Lewis, and was not enforced.
During the winter the fighting declined, as was the nature of medieval warfare, and John sat in York and feasted. Spring returned, and John’s position was becoming desperate. He gathered his men in April, and marched south to take Lincoln. Lewis to had also prepared an army, made up of French and English with which he would strike at de Blondeville in the midlands. When he received word of the presence of John at Lincoln Lewis turned his army away from Nottingham and marched to north, to face John in open battle.
- - -
[1] More commonly known as William de Redvers IOTL. Vernon was used IOTL on occasion (as he was from Vernon castle), and it is more common in TTL.
[2] In OTL in 1210 rumour reached King John that rebellious barons were planning to invite Simon ‘the Crusader’ de Montfort to sit on the English throne. It never amounted to anything, but he would be the natural choice to be invited to become King by de Burgh, who wouldn’t be that keen on a Capetian monarch.
[3] Robert Fitzwalter would have been given command of the rebels IOTL, but de Burgh is more competent and popular with the barons then Fitzwalter.
[4] For the record this all fairly similar to OTL.
[5] William de Vernon remained on the side of King John throughout the First Barons War. Also the name William seems to have been quite popular with nobles in the 12th and 13th Century, as it seems every noble and his son is named William. I blame King William I, the Bastard.
[6] IOTL the castle was under the command of Hubert de Burgh.
[7] IOTL Reginald was given control of Rochester Castle. In the absence of Hubert de Burgh Reginald was given control of Dover instead.
[8] Happened in OTL as well.
[9] Winchester has a slightly larger garrison then OTL.
[10] As a result Marlborough remains in the hands of the Plantagenets.
[11] IOTL John was able to seize Lincoln easily, as Gilbert de Gant abandoned the castle to him. However with the successes of Lewis and the Boreales in the south de Gant is rather unwilling to hand Lincoln over to John. With his success at Lincoln IOTL John attempted to go further south, but when he passed through to King’s Lynn, where he caught dysentery on the 9th of October. He continued to journey on, and on the 18th of October he died at Newark.
[12] Although the only other supporter is the Count of Flanders.
[13] Again, it happened IOTL as well. The Plantagenet forces at the OTL Battles of Lincoln and Sandwich wore the cross.
- - -
Thoughts?
- - -
Chapter 2: 1216 and all that.
- - -
“The French Dynasties of Outremer Isles: Norman, Plantagenet and Capetian.”
By David Locke
King John I Lackland sat on an unstable throne in 1214. The loss of almost all the Plantagenet lands in France except for Gascony and Armagnac in the south was a devastating blow to his legitimacy. For fifteen years England had been taxed dry to pay for John’s continental exploits, and well before the victory by Philippe at Saint Amand had been growing distrust between King John and the Barons of England. The failure of John in France, especially the loss of ancestral Normandy, angered his Barons. When John manipulated the current laws, including increasing scutage eleven times in his reign, they raged against him. To further finance his wars in France he instituted an income tax, which raised the astronomical amount of 70,000 pounds. And it was all for nought.
His actions against the Church, which resulted in his excommunication and then his submission, angered both the Barons and the English Clergy. But it was Philip’s victory at Saint Amand that turned the Barons against him. In early 1215 open rebellion broke out, and on the 10th of May a rebel army of Barons entered London. The gates of the city were opened to them, and the King was caught unaware. Many moderates, including Hubert de Burgh, also turned against him. Forced by the Barons King John met them at the field of Runnymede on the 15th of July, where he would sign the ‘Articles of the Barons’ (or the Barons Charter). The Barons articles consisted of many clauses that would give the Barons increased power, whilst controlling that of the Monarch. In many ways it was the successor of the Charter of Liberties, signed by King Henry I in the year 1100. The Baron’s Charter set out almost every aspect of feudal dues and rights in English society. John was alone against the Barons, and so he signed the Great Charter on the 15th of June. Four days later the Barons renewed their vows of fealty to King John.
No sooner had the ink dried on the vellum did John manoeuvre against the Barons. Once the Barons army had left London he renounced his signing of the Charter, claiming that he was forced to sign under duress. Civil War was unleashed upon England. Let us consider the barons who had brought John to Runnymede in 1215.
The men who opposed John were known as Boreales, or Aquilonares by the chroniclers, but despite the name the centre of the revolt lay in Essex and East Anglia, although of the twenty five barons who signed the Barons Charter a large proportion of them were from the north of England. The Boreales were for the most part a force of young men, and there where occasions where level headed older Barons supported Lackland, and their hot-headed sons stood against him. Many of the Boreales had a mixed record of disloyalty and failure, although many of their stories of personal wrongs inflicted by King John were fabricated. After the signing of the Barons Charter several leaders emerged:
Eustace de Vesci, lord of Alnwick. Robert Fitz Walter, lord of Dunmow in Essex. Saer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester. Fulk Fitz Warin, outlaw. Hubert de Burgh, the castellan who had fallen from the Kings grace.
Hubert de Burgh had risen to power in the household of Lacklands, but in June 1204 his fortunes changed. The castle of Chinon in Poitou had been placed under his command, to defend the Loire valley against the invasion by the French King Philip II. However through misfortune the castle lacked supplies for an extended siege, and de Burgh was forced to surrender the castle after a three month siege. When he returned to England in 1206 he was in disgrace. Lackland robbed him of almost all his land and titles, but granted him the shrievalty of Kent and Essex in 1210, when England was under Papal Interdiction. de Burgh brought to the Boreales not only the force of his name and men-at-arms, but also the promise of support from his father-in-law William de Vernon[1], Earl of Devon.
The rift between Lackland and de Burgh was never repaired. After the Battle of Saint Amand de Burgh rose in rebellion against King John. On Michaelmas [29th of September] - four months after Saint Amand – He publicly invited Simon ‘the Cathar-slayer’ de Montfort, who was on crusade against the Albigensians in the Languedoc to become King of England [2]. For this he was charged with treason.
Around King John gathered the older generation of earls, men such as William Marshal, (although his eldest two sons were supportive of the Boreales), the great mercenary Falkes de Breaute, Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester (Later 1st Earl of March). The Papal Legate Pandulph stood by him, as did Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, despite the treachery of his brother Simon, Bishop of York.
In early 1215 the Boreales met at Stamford. It was a natural choice of location by the rebels, as it sat on the great north road, easily accessible by barons from the north and east. It would also have been a familiar location for many of the rebels, as it was a popular location for jousting tournaments. At Stamford Hubert de Burgh was appointed by the Boreales as their commander, ‘the marshal of the army of the Lord and Holy Church’[3].
War loomed, and both sides began to anticipate a long struggle. In April the rebellion began. From Stamford the army of the Boreales marched to Northampton and from there onto Brackley, where they renounced their homage to John I Lackland. They returned to Northampton from Brackley, and after laying siege to the castle for a fortnight without success they marched eastward to Bedford. John and the barons continued to negotiate whilst the Boreales army marched through the north.
On the 17th of May the Boreales leaders were secretly admitted into London. A fortnight earlier King John had granted London a favourable charter of rights, but this was ignored by the moderates of London, and the city was taken by the Boreales. London was the one great success by the Boreales in May, a face saving achievement after the failure at Northampton. But Hubert de Burgh knew that they could not succeed against John, and so reluctantly he sent an embassy to King Philip II of France (Who by this stage had acquired the title of Augustus) asking for help.
Philip agreed, eager to destroy the Plantagenets agreed. As King John attempted to make peace with the Boreales and meet the conditions of the Barons Charter, the French King prepared for war. In November a French army was prepared, as was an excuse for invasion. King Philip II proclaimed that John had been tried by the court of France in 1203 for the murder of Duke Arthur of Brittany. That court had condemned John to the loss of the English crown for his crime.
By 1216 John had seized the north and east, the areas that had rebelled against him, and the Boreales were confined to London. During the winter he had retaken the north, defeating a force by King Alexander II of Scotland in the Lowlands, and returned to the south through Lincolnshire. The affairs of the English government continued to run. The courts were continuous, as was the business of the chancellery. The rebel Boreales was trapped in the east of England, and yet the line between Lackland and Boreale territory was, as it would be during the rest of the civil war, blurry. London remained the single major town held by the Boreales, and King John was preparing to attack. [4]
In May the inevitable French invasion arrived. For almost a year King Philip had been preparing for war, and had sent two small forces of French knights across the Channel before the winter. However these knights gave little relief to the Boreales. Philip dispatched the pirate Eustace the Monk- who had been in his service for several years – charging him with protecting the French fleet and attacking that of Lackland. Eustace and his brothers would transfer the army of Lewis across the channel in May. A fleet of twenty one ships had been assembled at the Thames to combat the French fleet but were dispatched by a storm, and on the 21st of May the French prince landed on English soil at Thanet. Within a week he marched to London and was received by the Boreales. King John had been on the Kentish coast observing the movements of the French army, and on the advice of William Marshal he retreated to the old Saxon capitol of Winchester.
The effect of the French prince in the land cannot be underestimated. Gerald of Wales wrote that:
“The madness of slavery is over, the time of liberty has been granted, English necks are free from the yoke.”
Castles were surrendered, town gates were opened, but above all there were numerous desertions and several great Earls, most importantly the Earl of Salisbury, William Longsword and Earl of Devon, William de Vernon [5]. In the area of London only Windsor and Dover remained loyal. The castle of Dover was under the command of Reginald de Cornhill, the High Sheriff of Surrey [6,7]. The castle was the key to England -the Clavis Angliae - and whoever held it would be in a very powerful position.
Upon arriving in London Lewis received King Alexander II of Scotland, who had made the dangerous journey across England to pay homage to the Prince [8], although at this state Lewis was not crowned as King in the cathedral, only proclaimed. In June he mustered his army and on the advice of de Burgh he marched to Dover. Like other nobles before him de Cornhill surrendered his castle to Prince Lewis on the 20th of June. Lewis then cowed the Cinque Ports, forcing them to swear their allegiance to him. Their loyalty would be questionable throughout the Civil War, and on August 27th King Philip issued a mandate to merchants of Poitou and Gascony ordering them to put into ports between the Isle of Wight and Bristol which are ‘not in the power of our enemies’.
After seizing Dover, Lewis marched west to take Winchester and Windsor. King John had left Winchester after hearing of the loss of Dover, and was heading north once more, into the Welsh marches to gather reinforcements. Lewis seized Winchester and Windsor after two long sieges, as both towns had large garrisons of knights, some one hundred at each. It took two long months for Lewis to take Winchester, but after it fell Windsor surrendered shortly after on the 2nd of October. [9]
After the fall of Windsor King Lewis met Earl William of Devon at Southampton on the 23rd of October, and aided the Earl with the capture of the Plantagenet stronghold. Lewis had brought a trebuchet from the continent, the first on English soil, and it was used to break the walls of Southampton [10].
In the north John found his army enlarged by the knights and men-at-arms of Chester and Hereford as he marched east into Lincolnshire. The castle of Lincoln itself had been held by Gilbert de Gant, and upon hearing word of the victory of the Boreales and Lewis at Dover, Winchester and Southampton, held the castle against John.
John lay siege to Lincoln castle. For all of October John sat outside Lincoln castle, attempting to starve de Gant out. He sent his agents across Lincolnshire to gather goods for the siege. As winter began, and on the advice of William Marshal and Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester – who had taken command of the midlands, and held them for Lackland – John broke the siege of Lincoln and marched north to York, a loyal Plantagenet stronghold amongst the lands of the Boreales. York had been seized the year earlier during John’s subjugation of the north, the rebellious Bishop Simon Langdon had been cast out. John’s progress was slow, hampered by the royal baggage train. John reached York on the 17th of October, and spent a sombre Christmas in the company of his few loyal men [11]. The bishops of Winchester, Chichester and Worcester, the Earls of Pembroke, Chester and Derby, and the papal legate Gualo and few others sat in attendance. This latter guest of Lackland was the most important, for the Plantagenets had few supporters outside of England, but amongst them was Pope Honorius III [12]. John had God on his side, and the Plantagenet soldiers wore the cross at the Siege of Lincoln [13], and Gualo had placed an Interdiction on the territory under Lewis’s control. However this Interdiction was contested by Lewis, and was not enforced.
During the winter the fighting declined, as was the nature of medieval warfare, and John sat in York and feasted. Spring returned, and John’s position was becoming desperate. He gathered his men in April, and marched south to take Lincoln. Lewis to had also prepared an army, made up of French and English with which he would strike at de Blondeville in the midlands. When he received word of the presence of John at Lincoln Lewis turned his army away from Nottingham and marched to north, to face John in open battle.
- - -
[1] More commonly known as William de Redvers IOTL. Vernon was used IOTL on occasion (as he was from Vernon castle), and it is more common in TTL.
[2] In OTL in 1210 rumour reached King John that rebellious barons were planning to invite Simon ‘the Crusader’ de Montfort to sit on the English throne. It never amounted to anything, but he would be the natural choice to be invited to become King by de Burgh, who wouldn’t be that keen on a Capetian monarch.
[3] Robert Fitzwalter would have been given command of the rebels IOTL, but de Burgh is more competent and popular with the barons then Fitzwalter.
[4] For the record this all fairly similar to OTL.
[5] William de Vernon remained on the side of King John throughout the First Barons War. Also the name William seems to have been quite popular with nobles in the 12th and 13th Century, as it seems every noble and his son is named William. I blame King William I, the Bastard.
[6] IOTL the castle was under the command of Hubert de Burgh.
[7] IOTL Reginald was given control of Rochester Castle. In the absence of Hubert de Burgh Reginald was given control of Dover instead.
[8] Happened in OTL as well.
[9] Winchester has a slightly larger garrison then OTL.
[10] As a result Marlborough remains in the hands of the Plantagenets.
[11] IOTL John was able to seize Lincoln easily, as Gilbert de Gant abandoned the castle to him. However with the successes of Lewis and the Boreales in the south de Gant is rather unwilling to hand Lincoln over to John. With his success at Lincoln IOTL John attempted to go further south, but when he passed through to King’s Lynn, where he caught dysentery on the 9th of October. He continued to journey on, and on the 18th of October he died at Newark.
[12] Although the only other supporter is the Count of Flanders.
[13] Again, it happened IOTL as well. The Plantagenet forces at the OTL Battles of Lincoln and Sandwich wore the cross.
- - -
Thoughts?
