Arthur, King of England, Jerusalem, Duke of Brittany 1187 - 1260

Arthur, King of England, Jerusalem, Duke of Brittany 1187 - 1260

The Early life of Arthur of Brittany
Arthur was born in 1187, the son of Constance of Brittany and Geoffrey II of Brittany, who died before he was born. As an infant, Arthur was second in line to the succession of his grandfather King Henry II, after his uncle Richard. King Henry II died when Arthur was 2 years old, and Richard became the new king in his place.

While Richard I was away on the Third Crusade, Arthur's mother Constance made actions to make the Duchy of Brittany more independent. On November 11, 1190, Richard betrothed Arthur to a daughter of Tancred of Sicily as part of their treaty. However, Emperor Henry VI conquered the Kingdom of Sicily in 1194, so the betrothal of Arthur came to nothing.

A marriage plan, originally aiming to establish an alliance between Richard and Philip II Augustus of France, to marry Arthur's elder sister Eleanor to Philip's son Louis also failed. In 1196, Constance had the young Arthur proclaimed its duke as a child of nine years. The same year, Richard again nominated Arthur as his heir and summoned him, as well as his mother Constance, to Normandy, but Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, stepfather of Arthur, abducted Constance. Richard marched to Brittany to rescue Arthur, who was then secretly carried to France to be brought up with Louis.



On his youth, the Duke of Brittany, Arthur seen the wars between Philippe Auguste and his uncle Richard the Lionhearted, the newly powerful Plantagenets and the old house of Capetians are battling for the dominance of the Kingdom of France.

He learned skills from his mentors, his uncle Richard I of England who was also the Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Poitiers, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, Overlord of Brittany, Wales and Ireland and the King of France, Philippe Auguste, so he had a headstart as a King but the fact that he is fatherless made his ascension very difficult.

Note:
The POD is the survival of Henry VI of Germany



Survival of an Emperor and a marriage
On 1197, Henry VI of Germany was able to recover from his possible sickness, the recovery from the sickness and because of this the Hohenstaufen rule in Germany.

On the beginning of 1198 Richard later negotiates a marriage between Otto of Brunswick, Count of Poitou and Aquitaine and Constance of Aragon in order to make an alliance between Richard I of England and Peter II the Catholic of Aragon, since he is the chosen as the heir to Aquitaine and the marriage would enhance the hold of Otto in Poitou, the two were married on the latter part of 1198, the marriage was made in order to secure the position of Otto in the Duchy of Aquitaine.

The two were given papal dispensation by Pope Innocent III as they are both descendants of Philippa of Toulouse and William IX of Aquitaine.

The marriage between Constance and Otto was celebrated in Bordeaux, the marriage was a very happy and he is trying to accustom himself to his new environment as the Duke of Aquitaine, he had to learn Occitan which his vassals and subjects spoke and his new wife spoke, the two would be good monarchs in their duchy.

After the marriage Constance of Aragon would teach her husband the language Occitan which is the language of his new subjects, the two were apparently liked each other at the beginning of the marriage despite of their subtle age gap, the two became fond of each other, Otto knew German, French and English while Constance of Aragon knew Aragonese and Occitan, the two were proven to be a good match.

the Heirs of Richard for the Duchy of Normandy, the Counties of Anjou and Maine and as well as the Kingdom of England would be Arthur I of Brittany and John Lackland, the two would be rivaling for the rule of the Angevin Inheritance.

Nice TL! I love seeing Brittany in action.

Looks awesome, I'll be keeping up with this.

Death of Richard the Lionhearted

In March 1199, Richard was in the Limousin suppressing a revolt by Viscount Aimar V of Limoges. Although it was Lent, he "devastated the Viscount's land with fire and sword". He besieged the puny, virtually unarmed castle of Châlus-Chabrol. Some chroniclers claimed that this was because a local peasant had uncovered a treasure trove of Roman gold,[99] which Richard claimed from Aimar in his position as feudal overlord.

In the early evening of 25 March 1199, Richard was walking around the castle perimeter without his chainmail, investigating the progress of sappers on the castle walls. Missiles were occasionally shot from the castle walls, but these were given little attention. One defender in particular amused the king greatly—a man standing on the walls, crossbow in one hand, the other clutching a frying pan he had been using all day as a shield to beat off missiles. He deliberately aimed at the king, which the king applauded; however, another crossbowman then struck the king in the left shoulder near the neck. He tried to pull this out in the privacy of his tent but failed; a surgeon, called a "butcher" by Howden, removed it, "carelessly mangling" the King's arm in the process. The wound swiftly became gangrenous. Accordingly, Richard asked to have the crossbowman brought before him; called alternatively Pierre (or Peter) Basile, John Sabroz, Dudo, and Bertrand de Gourdon (from the town of Gourdon) by chroniclers, the man turned out (according to some sources, but not all) to be a boy. This boy claimed that Richard had killed the boy's father and two brothers, and that he had killed Richard in revenge. The boy expected to be executed; Richard, as a last act of mercy, forgave him, saying, "Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day," before ordering that the boy be freed and sent away with 100 shillings. Richard then set his affairs in order, bequeathing England, Normandy and Anjou to his brother John and the complete control of Poitou, Gascony and his jewels to his nephew Otto who is the Duke of Aquitaine.

Richard died on 10 April 1199 in the arms of his mother; it was later said that "As the day was closing, he ended his earthly day." Because of the nature of Richard's death, he was later referred to as "the Lion (that) by the Ant was slain". According to one chronicler, Richard's last act of chivalry proved fruitless when the infamous mercenary captain Mercadier had the crossbowman flayed alive and hanged as soon as Richard died.

Oscar Isaac as John I in the movie Robin Hood

The Treaty of Le Goulet
The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed by the kings John of England and Philip II of France in May 1200 and aimed to ultimately settle the claims the Angevin kings of England had on French lands. Hence, it aimed to bring an end to the war over the Duchy of Normandy and finalise the new borders of what was left of the duchy, as well as the future relationship of the king of France and the dukes of Normandy. The treaty was a victory for Philip as it asserted his legal claims to overlordship over John's French lands.

The terms of the treaty signed at le Goulet, on the Gueuleton island in the middle of the Seine river near Vernon in Normandy, included clarifications of the feudal relationships binding the monarchs. Philip recognised John as King of England, heir of his brother Richard I, and thus formally abandoned his prior support for Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, the son of John's late brother, Geoffrey II of Brittany. John, meanwhile, formally recognised the new status of the lost Norman territories by acknowledging the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders as vassals of the kings of France, not those of England, and recognised Philip as the suzerain of the continental lands in the Angevin Empire. John also bound himself not to support any rebellions on the part of the counts of Boulogne and Flanders.

Philip had previously recognised John as suzerain of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany, but with the treaty of le Goulet, the Duchies of Brittany and Aquitaine would be considered as suzerain by Philip not by John.

The Duchy of Aquitaine was not included in the treaty. It is now held by his nephew Otto as the heir to his still-living mother, Eleanor. The treaty was sealed with a marriage alliance between the Angevin and Capetian dynasties. John's niece Eleanor, daughter of his brother Geoffrey and Constance, Duchess of Brittany, married Philip's eldest son, Louis VIII of France (to be eventually known as Louis the Lion). The marriage alliance only assured a strong regent for the minority of Louis IX of France. Philip declared John deposed from his fiefs for failure to obey a summons in 1202 and war broke out again. Philip moved quickly to seize John's lands in Normandy, strengthening the French throne in the process.

Around of the time of the signing of the Treaty of Le Goulet,, Arthur is with John, his uncle, and was treated kindly. Arthur told his uncle, that he wanted to go on crusade in place of his uncle and left to the Holy Land in order to crusade for his uncle.


note:
I initially toyed with marrying Eleanor of Brittany to Alexios Angelos instead..

Michelle Jenner as Eleanor of Brittany on the movie Robin Hood, after she is handed down after the signing of the Treaty of Goulet and shortly before her marriage with Louis the Lion.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Louis the Lion in the series the Plantagenets

The Happy Wedding
After the Treaty of Goulet and after the Pearl of Brittany is handed to the French custody, Eleanor wondered where did her brother go and why did he left the English Court.

The marriage was first proposed by her uncle, Richard but the marriage did not happen because she became betrothed to the dead Duke of Austria.

Eleanor’s retinue told that her brother gave up his own rights as the King of England to crusade instead..

Eleanor told her retinue that she is happy about her brother’s choice and that she would wait when her brother is back and when he will make homage as the Duke of Brittany to her future husband.

Before the wedding, Philippe Auguste seized King John I of England’s lands in Normandy, the battle was very harsh and had many casualties, but John quickly sent his emissaries to tell Philippe that he is swapping Anjou and Maine for Normandy which was sieged by Philippe Auguste.

Eleanor of Brittany met Louis for the second time and at this time he is an adult, when he was young he was playing with her brother Arthur and at this time, he is an adult and he is her groom and she is annoyed at him.

The two exchanged vows and Louis was knighted at the wedding, everyone was happy in the wedding.

After the Wedding they heard the news of Constance of Aragon, the wife of Eudes of Aquitaine(Otto of Brunswick) had given birth to a son , the couple rushed and made a plan to visit the couple, earlier, Constance gave birth to a daughter named Eleanor named after Eudes’ grandmother and Constance’s younger sister on 1199.

The Child was baptized as Guilhem, named after the father of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Henry Cavill as Arthur I Duke of Brittany in the Series the Plantagenets

The journey of Arthur of Brittany
On 1200, few months after the signing of the treaty of Goulet, Maria of Jerusalem died and Alice of Jerusalem, the Daughter of Henry of Champagne became the new heiress, this was very attractive to Arthur, he can now have a realm that no one could contest, compared to England in which he needed to fight his uncle, John, the fact that Maria of Jerusalem was marriageable and available was the reason he decided to sideline himself in the succession England a year before the treaty of Goulet.

Alice of Brittany is left in the court of the Duke of Provence as a payment for his transport to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Alice of Brittany is to marry Raymond Berenguer, the Prince of Provence and will become the duchess of Provence

On his arrival to Jerusalem on 1204, he found out that Maria of Jerusalem is already dead and it is Alice, his cousin from first marriage of his grandmother is the new heiress of Jerusalem and a marriage with her needed dispensation from a pope.

Natalie Dormer as Eleanor of Brittany, Queen of France in the Series the Plantagenets

Henry VI and Richard the Lionheart, an event that inspired him to take Eleanor of Brittany as his wife.

The second marriage of Henry VI of Germany
Emperor Henry VI sought a marriage with Eleanor of Brittany and negotiated with John and the two were betrothed and Henry VI demanded more and more of her since he heard of her beauty in the Austrian Court due to her dead Fiance, Leopold of Austria.

Due to the Treaty of Goulet, the marriage plans with Eleanor of Brittany was dashed, the terms of the marriage contract supposedly with Eleanor of Brittany with Henry VI is that she would renounce her claims to England and annul the alliance between France the Holy Roman Empire and Henry VI still knows nothing about the marriage between Louis the Lion and Eleanor of Brittany.

King Alfonso VIII and Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected Urraca. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Urraca back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the Queen and Princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin", a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Urraca rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Urraca to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill and John visited her at Fontevraud and later took the Veil as a Nun.

Emperor Henry VI was told that the bride that he will marry will not be Eleanor of Brittany but rather Urraca of Castile since Eleanor of Brittany is married to Louis the Lion, Henry VI saw Urraca for the first time in Swabia after she was escorted to the Alps by an English Retinue who left her in Swabia.

On the latter part of 1204 Urraca marries Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor, Urraca takes the name Helena after she marries Henry VI due to her name not being attractive to emperor.

In the Series the Plantagenets, the people that acted as Eleanor of Brittany and her husband Louis the Lion are Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Natalie Dormer while for the Robinhood the people that that took that role are Michelle Jenner and Daniel Radcliffe, I think the Robinhood version of the couple is better..

Natalie Dormer as Eleanor of Brittany, the first wife of Louis the Lion on the series the Plantagenets


Eleanor of Brittany, wife of Louis the Lion
The marriage between her and Louis the Lion was suggested on 1195 but did not happen because she became betrothed to Leopold of Austria which did not happen because her prospective father in law had died.

On 1200, the treaty of Goulet happened and the two married in order to secure peace between France and England

Since 1200 on the wedding of Eleanor of Brittany to the Future King of France was difficult, she is in her late teens and her husband is in his early teens because he was 13 and she was 16 and because of that the marriage had a rocky start due to their age difference.

The marriage was only consummated when Eleanor of Brittany was 19 on 1203, when Louis was already 16, Eleanor of Brittany gave birth to a son named Philippe, since her father. in law had confiscated Normandy but rather Eleanor told her father in law that Anjou and Maine should go to her brother and just leave Normandy her uncle, the King of England, so a further split of the Angevin inheritance will happen, the King of France told that in instead of Normandy being returned to the King of England the County of Anjou will be given to Arthur of Brittany who was going to a crusade, Eleanor of Brittany told Philippe Auguste to consummate his marriage with Ingeborg and have kids, the couple were able to have a boy named Henry on 1204.

The King of England was allowed to keep Normandy due to what Eleanor told her father in law, in this time a negotiation was made in order for John to marry his own niece, Joan of Flanders, Joan of Flanders married John I of England on 1208 and Eleanor of Brittany gave birth to a daughter on 1208 named Constance.

Eleanor of Brittany gave birth to another son named Geoffrey on 1210, however she died due to complications of labor a few months after the birth of Geoffrey.

Louis the Lion remarried to the 19 year old Princess of Castile, named Mafalda, a cousin of his first wife, the marriage was made in order to maintain the alliance between Brittany, England and France.

Eleanor of Brittany never became the Queen of France, but she is remembered for her devotion to the improvement of the St. Denis Cathedral and the Fontravraud Abbaye, she became canonized as a saint and in the Spanish East Indies[1] there is a feast of her known as Santacruzan.

1. The Spanish East Indies in this Timeline is Java and Eastern Indonesia not the OTL Philippines.

Tamzin Merchant as Mahaut/Mathilde(Mafalda) of Castille in the Series the Plantagenets

Arthur of Brittany slightly before his marriage to Alice of Jerusalem in the Series the Plantagenets


The Wedding of Arthur and Alice of Jerusalem
Alice of Jerusalem and Arthur, Count of Anjou were betrothed since his arrival in Jerusalem and in the case of the two they need to be given dispensation by Pope Innocent III, King Philippe Auguste as pleaded by his sister, Eleanor of Brittany and the two were married on 1208, the two were happy on the marriage.

Isabella of Jerusalem died on 1210, the same year as his sister, Eleanor died and thus, Arthur has his own Kingdom and he is the King of Jerusalem.

Want to hear the song that is in the mind when I am doing this timeline, this song also is good while reading this timeline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfVJkmZzOyg

Greg Manness as Eudes of Aquitaine in the Series The Plantagenets