Sons of the Lion - A Plantagenet Timeline

A daughter was born
Sons of the Lion

A daughter was born

Richard had Berengaria brought to him by his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine. Since Richard was already on the Third Crusade, having wasted no time in setting off after his coronation, the two women had a long and difficult journey to catch up with him. They arrived at Messina in Sicily during Lent (when the marriage could not take place) in 1191 and were joined by Richard's sister Joan, the widowed Queen of Sicily. The two women became good friends and Berengaria was left in Joan's custody. En route to the Holy Land, the ship carrying Berengaria and Joan ran aground off the coast of Cyprus, and they were threatened by the island's ruler, Isaac Comnenus. Richard came to their rescue, captured the island, and overthrew Comnenus. Berengaria married Richard the Lionheart on 12 May 1191, in the Chapel of St George at Limassol on Cyprus, and was crowned the same day by the Archbishop of Bordeaux and Bishops of Évreux and Bayonne.

After the wedding Richard had a nightmare and decided to consummate the marriage in Cyprus which would have left his wife Berengaria leaving her courses late and was revealed to be pregnant, however, Richard I and Berengaria would embark to Jerusalem, however the two would be on separate ships and Berengaria and Richard would separate till they meet on Jerusalem, she would give birth to a daughter and a son in Jerusalem named Berengaria and Henry on March 10 of 1192, it was said that their birth gave a light to King Richard I of England despite the fact that the marriage is primarily a political one, however, Richard would want a male heir his difficulty in return and separation with Berengaria and the birth of his daughter would mean that in his return after his captivity in Austria he would again successfully attempt to sire a male heir and in this time successfully as Berengaria is beautiful and has a proven fertility herself.

Berengaria of England would be a very eligible heiress when Richard I had no sons yet and it is no secret that Philippe II of France would want Berengaria of England married to his own son, Prince Louis but Richard would be against that kind of match between the two, Berengaria would return to England on 1194, with her daughter and namesake Berengaria, Berengaria would theoretically displace Arthur of Brittany from succession, she is followed by her own husband, Richard I of England.

In summer 1196, a marriage between Louis and the young Berengaria of England, daughter of Richard I of England, was suggested for an alliance between Philip II and Richard. This led to a sudden deterioration in relations between Richard and Philip and Richard I would sign an alliance with Odo II of Burgundy betrothing his niece Eleanor to Odo II of Burgundy as she is already not the heiress she would be easily married off.




Odo II of Burgundy

He married in 1194 Teresa of Portugal (1156–1218), the daughter of Afonso I of Portugal, and Matilda/Maud of Savoy, and the widow of Philip, Count of Flanders. She was repudiated in 1195, having produced no children.

In 1196, he married Eleanor of Brittany, Niece of King Richard(1184–1252), the daughter of Geoffrey II, duke of Brittany after his own divorce with Teresa of Portugal, she was just 12 years old at the marriage.

This marriage produced four surviving children:

Marie (1200–1223), married Raoul II of Lusignan (died 1250), Seigneur d'Issoudun and Count of Eu.

Alix (1204–1266) married Robert I (died 1262) Count of Clermont et Dauphin of Auvergne

Hugh IV (1213–1272), his successor in the Duchy

Mathilde (born 1216), married Humbert III of Thoire (died 1279)
 
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Hohenstauffen Sicily
Hohenstauffen Sicily

After Henry VI’s defeat at Naples, Tancred's brother-in-law Count Richard of Acerra had reconquered large parts of Apulia, and Tancred himself had reached the allowance of his claims by the pope. Henry was granted free passage in Northern Italy, having forged an alliance with the Lombard communes. In February 1194, Tancred of Lecce died, leaving as heir a young boy, William III, under the tutelage of his mother Sibylla of Acerra. In May Emperor Henry, based on King Richard's ransom, again set out for Italy. He reached Milan at Pentecost and occupied Naples in August. He met little resistance and on 20 November 1194 entered Palermo capital of Kingdom of Sicily and was crowned king on 25 December. On the next day his wife Constance, who had stayed back in Iesi, gave birth to his only son and heir Frederick II, the future emperor and king of Sicily and Jerusalem.

The young William and his mother Sibylla had fled to Caltabellotta Castle; he officially renounced the Sicilian kingdom in turn for the County of Lecce and the Principality of Capua. A few days after Henry's coronation, however, the royal family and several Norman nobles were accused of a coup attempt and arrested. William would die due to consumption or pneumonia in the castle, while many of his liensmen were burned alive. Some, however, like the Siculo-Greek Eugene of Palermo, transitioned into the new Hohenstaufen government with ease. William probably was deported to Altems (Hohenems) Castle in Swabia, where he died in captivity about 1198. To take revenge of the capture of his wife Henry hanged Richard, Count of Acerra brother of Sibylla in 1196.

At the same time, the emperor stayed in Capua, where he had Count Richard of Acerra, held in custody by his ministerialis Dipold von Schweinspeunt, cruelly executed. He entered Sicily in March 1197 and applied himself to prepare his crusade in Messina.

Soon after, the tyrannical power of the foreign King in Italy spurred a revolt, especially around Catania and southern Sicily, which his German soldiers led by Markward of Annweiler and Henry of Kalden suppressed mercilessly. The rebels even sought to make Count Jordan of Bovino king in Henry's place. Even Queen Constance, provoked by the neglect of Henry and pitying her countrymen, joined the revolts against him and besieged him in a castle, forcing him into a treaty. In the midst of preparations Henry fell ill with chills while hunting near Fiumedinisi and on 28 September died, possibly of malaria, in Messina, although it is also widely believed that he was poisoned.His wife Constance had him buried at Messina, his mortal remains were transferred to Palermo Cathedral in 1198.

Henry's minor son Frederick II was to inherit both the Kingdom of Sicily and the Imperial crown. However, a number of princes around Archbishop Adolf of Cologne elected the Welf Otto of Brunswick, son of Henry the Lion, anti-king. To defend the claims of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, Frederick's uncle Philip of Swabia had himself elected King of the Romans in March 1198.

Otto Count of Burgundy

Meanwhile, Count Palatine Otto's regional conflicts had become a severe threat to the power politics of his Hohenstaufen relatives. After Philip of Swabia had been elected King of the Romans in 1198, rivaling with the Welf duke Otto of Brunswick, he tried to settle the numerous quarrels picked by his brother. In 1200 Otto was assassinated at Besançon, his death came in useful to many political actors, however, his wife, Margaret of Blois would bear a posthumous son in 1200, named Otto.
 
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The two further sons that were finally born
The two further sons that were finally born

When Richard returned to England on 1195, he had to regain all the territory that had either been lost by his brother John or taken by King Philip of France. His focus was on his kingdom, not his queen. King Richard was ordered by Pope Celestine III to reunite with Queen Berengaria and to show fidelity to her in the future.

When Richard I returned he would returned on wanting to sire children with Princess Berengaria of Navarre who is now a decade before her own menopausal years, however she would provide Richard of two sons due to this, namely William(May 2, 1195) and Geoffroy(June 2, 1196) it was definitely important for Richard to have male heirs knowing that Empress Matilda’s reign was unstable, the two sons would be the heir to Aquitaine and England and Richard would give Anjou to his own former heir, Arthur as his compensation for no longer being the heir and William of England would be given off to her grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine so that he would be reared as the heir of Aquitaine and possibly and during this time Blanche of Navarre would be introduced to Henry II of Champagne so that she would be his bride in order to reinforce the ties of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s family with the Navarrese in the south, Blanche of Navarre would be a beauty to behold like her own sister, Berengaria and Eleanor of Aquitaine would ensure a betrothal between her grandson, the future William XI and Marie, the daughter of Philippe II Augustus from his second marriage with Agnes of Merania which was recently dissolved due to Queen Ingeborg’s fighting off the divorce and her insistence that she is the real queen of France on 1200 as Ingeborg’s divorce was never granted and Philippe Auguste was forced to reunite with Queen Ingeborg.

After the birth of his son, Geoffroy on, Richard I of England would abandon his duties to his wife Berengaria who would instead focus on rearing and preparing her eldest son to be the future King of England.

In March 1199, Richard was in 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, 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. 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. He said Richard had killed his father and two brothers, and that he had killed Richard in revenge. He expected to be executed, but as a final act of mercy Richard forgave him, saying "Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day", before he ordered the boy to be freed and sent away with 100 shillings. It is unclear whether the King's pardon was upheld following his death. Richard then set his affairs in order, bequeathing England to his brother John, his territories of Normandy to his son Henry and Anjou to his son Geoffrey and his jewels to his nephew Otto, the fate of his son William was decided as Eleanor of Aquitaine would pick him as her heir as William XI.

Richard died on 6 April 1199 in the arms of his mother, and thus "ended his earthly day". Because of the nature of Richard's death, it was later referred to as "the Lion 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.
 
Treaty of Le Goulet
Treaty of Le Goulet

The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed by Kings John of England and Philip II of France in May 1200. It concerned bringing an end to the war over the Duchy of Normandy and finalising the new borders of what was left of the duchy. The treaty was a victory for Philip in asserting his legal claims to overlordship over the Angevin domain.

The terms of the treaty signed at Le Goulet, an 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 to his brother Richard I, and thus formally abandoned his prior support for Henry, the son of John's late brother, Richard I of England who would now be the ruler of Maine what is left of Normandy. John, meanwhile, formally recognized 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 he extorted 20,000 marks sterling as "relief" in payment for recognition of John's sovereignty of Brittany.

The treaty also included territorial concessions by John to Philip. The Vexin (except for Les Andelys, where Château Gaillard, vital to the defence of the region, was located) and the Évrécin in Normandy, as well as Issoudun, Graçay, and the fief of André de Chauvigny in Berry were to be removed from Angevin suzerainty and put directly into that of France.

The Duchy of Aquitaine was not included in the treaty. It was still held by his still-living mother, Eleanor and her heir William XI, duke of Aquitaine. The treaty was sealed with a marriage alliance between the Angevin and Capetian dynasties. John's niece Blanche, daughter of his sister Leonora and Alfonso VIII of Castile, 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.

However, even if Henry is not the recognized heir of Philippe Auguste to England he would change the betrothal of his daughter Mary to Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine would advance the betrothal of Isabella of Angouleme and William XI of Aquitaine.
 
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