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Chapter 2: Louis I of England (1219-1223)
King Philip II of France and King Henry III or Louis I of England
Chapter 2: Louis I of England (1219-1223)

Before we may continue on our narrative, we need to take some time to discuss a term that will come into play with great importance as we continue to discuss the rising power of the union. That term, of course, is 'The Capetian Empire'. So far as having an emperor, this 'Empire' did not and neither was it a cohesive entity as with the Roman Empire. Neither was it like the Holy Roman Empire with an emperor who held jurisdiction over an increasingly autonomous hierarchy of duchies and states. Rather, the Capetian Empire can only be really compared to its predecessor from which we take the name; the Angevin Empire. The Angevin Empire is a term used to refer to the titles and lands held by the Angevin (Plantagenet) Kings up until the loss of the French lands to Philip. Just as the Angevin Empire is named after the House of Anjou, the Capetian Empire has come to be named after the ruling dynasty of France and, later, England; the House of Capet. In short, therefore, the 'empire' referred simply to the lands, titles and lordships held by the Kings of Capet. This is distinct from previous and, in some cases, contemporary empires such as Rome or the Holy Roman Empire. In both of those cases, the idea of the empire referred to the state and it was still Rome (or the Holy Roman Empire) regardless of who ruled it or what lands it held. In comparison, the Capetian Empire distinctly refers to the House of Capet and its kings and their rule of the Kingdoms of France and England. As such, the exact dating of the Capetian Empire can be tricky, especially at the very beginning. Opinion is massively divided as to when Louis actually became the King of England. Some believe that his ousting of Henry and his court from England in 1219 constituted his rise to power while others put the date even earlier at his proclamation in St Paul's Cathedral in 1216. Of course, this is the idea that many later Capetian Kings would argue; that the proclamation of Louis made him legitimate king of England and that, at least after the death of John in October of that year, the coronation of Henry was merely a pretender making a claim to the throne. By this argument, Louis was either king from his proclamation or from the moment John died at which point the throne was vacated and Louis thus became king. Of course, this is a point many later Capetians themselves would remain divided on as some argued that John had never been legitimate and that rather the throne should have gone to his nephew. In either case, some hold that the Capetian Empire could not begin until Louis became King of France in 1223 anyway while others maintain that since both kingdoms were ruled by Capetian Kings, the link still stands. Others argued that John's death ended the legitimate rule of the Plantagenets and opened the way for the House of Capet. Others, however, have argued a later date such as 1227 with Louis' coronation or 1236 with the death of King Henry III. As such, the beginning date of the Capetian Empire varies by over 20 years, putting much of Louis' reign in doubt as to whether or not it was legitimately part of 'The Capetian Empire'. Some attention has also been drawn to breaks in the Capetian rule of England or to breaks in the joint rule of both kingdoms by one king. Situations such as with Henry's return in the 1220s throw doubt as to the continued rule of England by Capetian Kings and thus cause doubt as to whether or not these periods constitute part of the empire's time. For the sake of this narrative, the beginning date is of less importance but it will work on the general consensus of the empire beginning with Louis' coronation as King of England in 1227.

So for the time being, Louis was left in a position of being only nominally king of what was only nominally his kingdom and only nominally under his control. Louis' influence and control were largely confined to the South-East and, due to the actions of Cassingham and others, remained spotty throughout the countryside. Cornwall still remained largely independent from his control and so too did the Midlands, which he had only partially subdued on his march to the South-West, Wales and the North. This isn't even bringing into account areas that had once been under English control such as Ireland, which was well beyond Louis' influence and control. While making an exact determination of what areas Louis held influence over is difficult, we can broadly say that this was probably mostly the South-East. However, this control would, for the time being, remain very spotty and resistance would continue in some areas well into the reign of Louis IX and even X throughout the course of the century. For the time being, Louis held most of the urban centres of the South-East and all of the castles, yet much of the countryside was still fraught with resistance such as with the still very real problem of Cassingham in Surrey. Furthermore, many of the nobles still siding with Henry had estates in the South-East so much of this land was either being occupied by Louis and his soldiers or in open resistance to his rule which created large problems. Extending and consolidating his position remained difficult and fraught with dangers while his control over the South-East remained so weak, yet his control over the South-East was permanently under threat while the lands beyond it were still resisting Louis and, indeed, areas such as Wales and the North would come to pose major threats to the Capetian rule in England as potential breeding grounds for dissent and rebellion as well as a landing ground for Henry and his forces. However, this isn't to say that his position was necessarily bad or weak in any way. For the time being, the Plantagenets were in no position to launch an immediate counter-attack and Louis' campaigns were free to continue in an attempt to extend his power. Furthermore, we mustn't forget the English nobles he already had on his side whose lands and estates formed potential areas for Louis to exercise his power from while he also, nominally, had the power to establish a number of other families or grant estates in England to his French nobles.

Henry's flight to Ireland freed Louis up to focus on consolidation of the gains he had made over the past three years. Determined to protect his position in the East, he sent Thomas of Perche with a large force of soldiers to Kent in an attempt put down Cassingham's resistance while he and Fitzwalter could continue West into Cornwall. With winter fast approaching and the land stripped bare from the marching armies, Louis had no intention of launching a campaign for Cornwall and Dorset straight off the bat. Instead, leaving Fitzwalter with a force in Corfe Castle, Louis returned with a sizeable portion of his force to London where he would spend the winter throughout which he would spend his time both preparing for the oncoming campaigns of spring and the administration of his new kingdom. While he still didn't actually control Cornwall itself, he officially restored Fitzwalter's Cornish estates (which had been seized by King John) and, for his loyalty and support, he raised Fitzwalter to become the 1st Earl of Cornwall. Similarly, he granted the Earldom of Leicester to Amaury de Montfort, Count of Toulouse whose father had been the 5th Earl of Leicester but had never been given the lands which had instead been given to Blondeville by John. He soon received the submission of Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon, whose father had been a prominent supporter of John's up until the King permitted Falkes de Breaute to kidnap his daughter, force a marriage and steal the dowry and Reginald de Braose, 5th Lord of Bramber and a powerful lord in Wales whose father and family had come into conflict with John before the Baronial war as well as other lords. The death of Earl William in 1217 meant that Devon passed to Baldwin. By this point, John was dead but with the triumph of Louis shortly after and the resentment still felt towards the Plantagenets, it's no wonder House Redvers came to give their submission to Louis with Henry's flight to Ireland. Determined to lock down the South-East through loyal vassals while rewarding those vassals who had fought by his side against Henry, Louis went further, granting the Earldom of Kent to Perche in 1220, thus locking down one of the most vital areas for landing soldiers and supplies with a loyal vassal and supporter. Saer de Quincy, already a major landholder, was granted the Earldom of Surrey, effectively disinheriting the existing House de Warenne. Louis' reasons for this were most likely the support of the House de Warenne for Henry III and Louis' desire to avoid leaving a potentially hostile peerage in the South-East but the decision has been criticised since for effectively ending any attempt at conciliation with not only the Warennes but many of Henry's other noble supporters who feared to lose their titles and lands to Louis.

In late December 1219, Louis officially confirmed Amaury de Montfort in the position previously held by members of the family of being High Steward of England. Furthermore, he invited Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury to return to England from abroad where he had been instructed to stay until hostilities ended by Innocent III for his refusal to publish the excommunication of the barons in 1215. Langton had sided with the Barons in the first rebellion against King John in the build up to the signing of the Magna Carta and had been removed from his position of Archbishop of Canterbury when Innocent excommunicated the Barons shortly afterwards and Langton refused to publish. He had been told he would have the position restored to him if he left England and remained abroad until hostilities ended. Innocent's death and the end of the Baronial War in 1219 gave Louis scope to invite Langton back which would further legitimise his own rule of England. In early February 1220, Louis would go a step further by making Langton the Chief Justiciar of England, a position which hadn't been filled since Hubert de Burgh's death in 1217.

With the return of spring in 1220, Louis turned his attention once again to Cornwall, hoping to enforce Fitzwalter's position as the new Earl of Cornwall and thus secure the South-West through one of his most loyal vassals. Undoubtedly, Louis saw that he would have to move quickly if he were to properly solidify and consolidate his position in England before Henry and his regent had an opportunity to mount another invasion of England. As such, while Louis and Fitzwalter advanced into Cornwall in spring 1220, the Earl of Kent was busy in the East playing a game of cat and mouse with Cassingham and his guerilla forces. Having been granted a portion of the forces from France as well as supporting soldiers from his own domains as well as those of Quincy, Earl of Winchester and William FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, Thomas was to put down Cassingham as quickly as possible and to secure and repair the vital castles of the region such as Dover. Needless to say, Cassingham would be far from an easy foe to put down, as shown by his successes during the initial invasion of 1216-19 and Thomas would spend most of 1220 and 1221 failing desperately to defeat the rebels. Cassingham's eventual defeat would come early in 1222 after reinforcements arrived from Louis, whose campaigns had spread by that point to the Midlands, although he would evade capture until 1224 while making a number of attempts to raise similar insurgencies elsewhere in the country to varying degrees of success. Louis, as stated, campaigned throughout Cornwall throughout 1220 and by early 1221, Fitzwalter was in a secure enough position that he could be left to stamp out much of the remaining resistance on his own. Louis returned once again to London in winter 1220 before turning his attention North towards the Midlands. As stated previously, Louis had passed through the Midlands en route South from Newark to Devon but hadn't extensively secured the region. For the most part, the Midlands had generally shown loyalty to Henry during the war and mostly remained loyal now. As we know, Lincoln had been captured in 1217 by the, now, Earl of Kent. Meanwhile, Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Earl of Hertford, had fought against John and supported Louis' claim to the throne. But, for example, Henry de Beaumont, Earl of Warwick and Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester were both hostile. That said, Henry de Bohun the Earl of Hereford had sided with the barons and, while it is uncertain who he supported out of Henry and Louis, he certainly fell to Louis' side as the tide began to turn in his favour. It's possible he, like the Earl of Devon, came to pledge loyalty to Louis in winter 1219 as well but whatever the case, Hereford, like Gloucester, was a vassal of Louis' by 1220.

Leaving London in spring 1221, Louis marched straight to Gloucester and North from there to Hereford wherefrom, joined by Clare and Bohun, he marched North into the Earldom of Chester, appointing Bohun as the Earl of Chester in July 1221 in recognition of his support for Louis' claim. This was a decision informed by a number of aspects one of which was, of course, Henry III. Remember that, at this point, Wales was very much beyond Louis' control and influence and there was undoubtedly some fear that Henry might strike a deal with one or more of the petty kings of Wales to allow him a foothold from which to launch an invasion of England. As a counter to this, and in possibly an attempt to help him assert his own influence over Wales, it seems likely that Louis wished to have a loyal and relatively strong vassal on the Welsh border. To this end, Bohun, as the Earl of Hereford, was an obvious choice since his earldom already bordered Wales. However, Louis now turned South-West and over the course of the rest of the year, expelled the Marshal family from the Earldom of Pembroke, restoring it to the House de Clare which had held it up until the death of Earl Richard de Clare in 1176 with no male heir, resulting in the title being passed to his daughter who had married the, now dead, William Marshal. Now bear in mind that Gilbert de Clare was only actually related to Richard de Clare by a long since dead common ancestor by the name of Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare who had been one of the Norman lords to first arrive in England in 1066. Hoping to reign in Southern Wales and displace the hostile Marshal family, Louis instead returned the Earldom to the House de Clare by making Gilbert the new Earl of Pembroke.

With that said, we need to bear in mind that there were nobles who did switch sides after Henry's flight to Ireland and not everyone remained hostile in the long run, such as John of Scotland, the Earl of Huntingdon who switched sides to that of Louis in winter of 1219, around the same time the Earl of Devon did the same. Despite attachments to the king before the Baronial War, Roger Bigod, the Earl of Norfolk had actually sided with the Barons and his excommunication by the Pope led to his siding with Louis in 1216. Alix of Thouars, the Countess of Richmond in her own right and the Duchess of Brittany by her marriage to Peter I of Brittany may well have supported John and Henry initially but, fearing that Louis who now held the country and thus her imprisoned sister Eleanor (who had been the Duchess of Brittany by her marriage to Arthur I of Brittany and the Countess of Richmond in her own right before both were imprisoned and Arthur killed in 1203) might choose to follow in the stead of what he had done with Quincy (making him the Earl of Surrey and displacing the nobles who had supported Henry), came over to support Louis either in 1219 or 1220. What is important to remember is that Louis VIII and Louis IX were very different in their approaches to the English nobility, Louis would take a very hard stance towards imposing royal prerogatives both in England and France as we'll see with his relationship to Theobald in later chapters. This did end up enforcing his rights but often trampled on what the nobility perceived as their rights which, as we know, was exactly what led to the Barons War in the first place. So while Louis did enforce his authority in this manner, his methods and ideas of how to rule England had a tendency to alienate supporters. Bear in mind that Louis' campaigns throughout Cornwall, the Midlands and Wales had just disinherited a number of powerful noble families from their Earldoms. On one hand, this approach did allow Louis to set up loyal vassals in these titles and thus enforce his authority much better but, by doing so, he risked going too far and making those very supporters angry at a seeming disregard for noble rights. Louis IX was more pragmatic, more conciliatory and generally better at working with the nobility of England, as evidenced by then Magni Tractatus. However, in turn, he would be unable to actually curb the power of the nobility as was happening in France at the time.

What we have to bear in mind is that France and England would prove to be two very different countries to rule in regards to the relationship between the king and the nobility. In France, the country was becoming more and more centralised under royal rule and control whereas England, with the Barons War and the Magna Carta, was going the opposite way as the king's power was reduced in favour of the increasing power and distinguished rights of the nobility. In part, this was an issue for someone such as Louis who might have been used to the dominating power of his father in the very centralised and the royal-dominated Kingdom of France. This would ultimately make it difficult for a king trying to rule both kingdoms with their separate systems and relationships between the king and the nobility.

Louis' successes in the Midlands and Wales had quite massively strengthened his position in England, transferring a number of titles held by hostile nobles to supporters of Louis' fight for the throne and thus consolidating his control of the South of England by both increasing his influence over certain areas of the country and helping to protect his borders while also cutting down on the number of viable landing sites for a potential resurgence of Henry and his supporters. After wintering in Gloucester, Louis would once again march North, turning West this time and advancing across the country towards Lincoln. Most notably, his path would take him through Warwick, the domain of Henry de Beaumont who had fought for Henry III at Lincoln in 1217 and had initially returned to Warwick after Henry's flight to Ireland. However, with the elevation of Bohun to the Earldom of Chester in 1221, Warwick began to fear that his Earldom was the obvious next target and fled while Louis was wintering in Gloucester, first North and then crossing the sea to Ireland where he met up with Henry. Throughout 1222, Louis pushed East from Chester to Lincoln before finally returning in late 1222 to London and settling there for the winter once again. As with the House Clare and the Earldom of Pembroke, Louis instead turned to relatives or descendants of the Earl or his family. Specifically, he found the infant son of Alice de Beaumont, the daughter of Waleran de Beaumont by his second wife and as such the nephew of Henry. Sensing an opportunity to put the Earldom in the hands of a house other than that of the Beaumonts and since Henry and, presumably, his younger brother Waleran were both in exile, Louis appointed the infant (barely two years old) to be the Earl of Warwick as the grandson of a previous Earl. This seemed to be an ideal opportunity, to ensure the future loyalty of Warwick by appointing his own regent for the young child and, in time, providing the education for the boy in London where Louis would be able to keep a close eye on him and his development. In later 1222, Louis created the Earldom of Lincoln in order to further solidify his control of the Midlands and granted it to his supporter and commander William d'Aubigny, a relative of the Philip d'Aubigny who had fought at Dover against Eustace the Monk but a supporter of Louis. Estates such as Belvoir, Ingleby, Saxilby and Boradhome were restored to Ralph d'Aubigny, the elder brother of Philip who had defected to the French in 1205 as well as Waltham Manor, which had been previously held by Philip.

Louis, for his part, spent the winter in London and, it seems, was planning to push further Nore-establish control of the region, much of which had fallen away from John's control towards the end despite a campaign to contain Alexander in January 1216. The flight of Henry III and the increasing power of Louis I to the South meant that the North, which Henry could not establish control over and which largely didn't recognise Louis' claim, retained much of its independence from the two kings throughout this period. However, news of his father's illness and the seeming impending death of King Philip effectively put an end to Louis' plans for another campaign in 1223. Instead, he spent the spring making preparations for England so that he could return to France in the event of his father's death without risking the loss of his English territory to a potential rebellion or, worse, the return of Henry III. Knowing he couldn't keep his French forces in England forever, especially after such an extremely long campaign in England, Louis concluded on a joint command of the forces in England during his absence. To this role, he appointed Robert Fitzwalter, Earl of Cornwall and one of the primary movers in the Barons War and, of course, the Earl of Kent whose loyalty had been frequently proven during the war against John and Henry. In his absence, the administrative aspects of the country were to be held by Montfort, in his capacity as High Steward of England, and Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury and, after 1219, Chief Justiciar of England. With these arrangements made and these men in power, Louis finally had his hands free to return to France.

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