The Major and Minor Britain, A Plantagenet Timeline mk2

The Major and Minor Britain, A Plantagenet Timeline MK2


The Other Breton Girl and the Castilian Maiden
On 1189, a sick girl was able to recover and that girl is Matilda of Brittany, the daughter of Constance of Brittany and her late husband Geoffrey of Brittany, the girl is the other sister of the presumed heir of Richard I of England, Arthur of Brittany.

Eleanor and Matilda both became fatherless at the age of two and was brought up by her uncle King Richard and grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine.However, Richard's ward also meant that they were under Angevin custody, and thus even her mother Constance never considered them as potential heiresses to Brittany, which weakened their later claim to the duchy. As her younger brother Arthur was the heir presumptive to England and Brittany, she was one of the most marriageable princesses at that time. In 1190, after Richard failed to marry his younger sister Joan to Al-Adil I, brother of Saladin, he proposed that Eleanor should be the bride instead, but the negotiation was also in vain, as Al-Adil showed no interest in Christianity. In 1193, she was engaged to Frederick, son of Leopold V, Duke of Austria, as part of the conditions to release Richard, who had been taken prisoner by Emperor Henry VI. However, when she was on the way to Austria with Baldwin of Bethune and the next year, the duke died, so the marriage never took place, and under order of Pope Celestine III she returned to England, accompanied by her grandmother Eleanor and Richard was forced to handover his niece Berengaria of Castile to him because she is already married to Conrad of Swabia but he died in an unknown reason on 1196, the couple was childless.

Berengaria of Castile is betrothed to Peter, Prince of Aragon on 1196 just after the death of first husband, since the marriage would mean that Aragon will be always allied with France, originally it was Eleanor of Brittany who would be the one would be married to Peter, the son of Alfonso II, Berengaria of Castile spent sometime in the English court after her first husband, Conrad died, the marriage was childless.

Originally, Alfonso IX wanted to marry Berengaria of Castile after the dissolution of his marriage to Theresa of Portugal but was offered Eleanor of Brittany instead since Berengaria is betrothed to the King of Aragon and the marriage is in violation of the canon law and Peter II is given dispensation to marry Berengaria, and the King of France opposed a marriage between Eleanor of Brittany and Alfonso IX but the betrothal between a Breton Princess and the Leonese King is still in place and Matilda of Brittany chose that she is the bride of Alfonso IX in order for the marriage to still happen.

Berengaria of Castile and Matilda of Brittany were accompanied by Eleanor of Aquitaine on 1197 in the journey from Richard’s court from Anjou after Berengaria is left in Foix, they continued to Castile and then to Asturias Matilda of Brittany is left in Asturias where in she journeys to the court of Alfonso IX where in the two were married, she takes the name Matilde or Mafalda, but she would be more known as Matilde.

Eleanor of Aquitaine returned to Richard’s court on 1197 after Matilda is left to Asturias to marry the Leonese King.






Ingeborg of Denmark

Ingeborg was married to Philip II Augustus of France on 15 August 1193 after the death of Philip's first wife Isabelle of Hainaut (d. 1190). Her marriage brought a large dowry from her brother Knut VI, king of Denmark. Stephen of Tournai described her as "very kind, young of age but old of wisdom." At the marriage, she was renamed Isambour.

On their wedding night Philip II August was not able to enjoy his night with Ingeborg.

On the day after his marriage to Ingeborg, King Philip changed his mind, and attempted to send her back to Denmark. Outraged, Ingeborg fled to a convent in Soissons, from where she protested to Pope Celestine III.

On 1193, the latter part, Ingeborg gives birth to a son named Charles, Philip II August and Ingeborg would remain separated for a couple of years and Philip would recognize Charles as his son.

Invasion of Sicily

Once Henry had withdrawn with the bulk of the imperial army, the towns that had supposedly fallen to the Empire immediately declared their allegiance to Tancred, for the most part now fearing his retribution. The populace of Salerno saw an opportunity to win some favour with Tancred, and delivered Constance to him in Messina, an important prize given that Henry had every intention of returning. However, Tancred was willing to give up his negotiation advantage, that is, the Empress, in return for Pope Celestine III legitimising him as King of Sicily. In turn, the Pope was hoping that by securing Constance's safe passage back to Rome, Henry would be better disposed towards the papacy and he was still hoping to keep the Empire and the Kingdom from uniting. However, imperial soldiers were able to intervene before Constance made it to Rome, and they returned her safely across the Alps, ensuring that in the end, both the papacy and the kingdom failed to score any real advantage in having the Empress in their custody.

Henry was already preparing to invade Sicily a second time when Tancred died in 1194. Later that year he moved south, entered Palermo unopposed, deposed Tancred's young son William III, and had himself crowned instead.

While Henry moved quickly south with his army, a pregnant Constance followed at a slower pace. On 26 December, the day after Henry's crowning at Palermo, she gave birth to a son, Frederick-Roger (the future Emperor and king of Sicily Frederick II) in the small town of Iesi, near Ancona.

Constance was 40, and she knew that many would question whether the child was really hers. Thus she had the baby in a pavilion tent in the market square of the town, and invited the town matrons to witness the birth. A few days later she returned to the town square and publicly breast-fed the infant, the child turned out to be a female and named Bertha.









John the Usurper
After Richard's death on 6 April 1199 there were two potential claimants to the Angevin throne: John, whose claim rested on being the sole surviving son of Henry II, and young Arthur I of Brittany, who held a claim as the son of John's elder brother Geoffrey. Richard appears to have started to recognise John as his heir presumptive in the final years before his death, but the matter was not clear-cut and medieval law gave little guidance as to how the competing claims should be decided. With Norman law favouring John as the only surviving son of Henry II and Angevin law favouring Arthur as the only son of Henry's elder son, the matter rapidly became an open conflict. John was supported by the bulk of the English and Norman nobility and was crowned at Westminster, backed by his mother, Eleanor. Arthur was supported by the majority of the Breton, Maine and Anjou nobles and received the support of Philip II, who remained committed to breaking up the Angevin territories on the continent. With Arthur's army pressing up the Loire valley towards Angers and Philip's forces moving down the valley towards Tours, John's continental empire was in danger of being cut in two.

Warfare in Normandy at the time was shaped by the defensive potential of castles and the increasing costs of conducting campaigns. The Norman frontiers had limited natural defences but were heavily reinforced with castles, such as Château Gaillard, at strategic points, built and maintained at considerable expense. It was difficult for a commander to advance far into fresh territory without having secured his lines of communication by capturing these fortifications, which slowed the progress of any attack. Armies of the period could be formed from either feudal or mercenary forces. Feudal levies could only be raised for a fixed length of time before they returned home, forcing an end to a campaign; mercenary forces, often called Brabançons after the Duchy of Brabant but actually recruited from across northern Europe, could operate all year long and provide a commander with more strategic options to pursue a campaign, but cost much more than equivalent feudal forces.As a result, commanders of the period were increasingly drawing on larger numbers of mercenaries.

After his coronation, John moved south into France with military forces and adopted a defensive posture along the eastern and southern Normandy borders. Both sides paused for desultory negotiations before the war recommenced; John's position was now stronger, thanks to confirmation that the counts Baldwin IX of Flanders and Renaud of Boulogne had renewed the anti-French alliances they had previously agreed to with Richard. The powerful Anjou nobleman William des Roches was persuaded to switch sides from Arthur to John; suddenly the balance seemed to be tipping away from Philip and Arthur in favour of John.

Philip II August would not recognize John as the King of England but rather he would recognize Arthur, Duke of Brittany as the Rightful King of England and his vassal on Anjou, Maine and Normandy.




The Treaty of Rennes

The King of France is able to support the Duke of Brittany due to the fact that he is stronger and have no problems in the security of his rule since Ingeborg of Denmark has already have a son with Philip II August and the previous year, the two were reconciled with each other.

The Treaty of Rennes was signed by the kings Arthur of Brittany, the rightful heir to England, his mother, the heavily pregnant Constance of Brittany and Philip II of France in June 1200 and aimed to ultimately settle the claims the Angevin kings of England had on French lands. The treaty was a victory for Philip as it asserted his legal claims to overlordship over Arthur’s French lands that John Lackland is ruling defacto.

The terms of the treaty signed at Rouen included clarifications of the feudal relationships binding the monarchs. Arthur recognized Philip as the suzerain of the continental lands in the Angevin Empire and the partition of the Angevin Empire and Brittany would be recognized as independent and not suzerain from France.

Arthur also bound himself not to support any rebellions on the part of the counts of Boulogne and Flanders.

Philip had previously recognised Arthur and earlier Richard as suzerain of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany, but with the treaty of Rennes he extorted 20,000 marks sterling in payment for recognition of Arthur and Constance’s sovereignty of Brittany.

The Duchy of Aquitaine was not included in the treaty. It was still held by John as heir to his still-living mother, Eleanor. The treaty was sealed with a marriage alliance between the Angevin and Capetian dynasties. Arthur’s Elder sister Eleanor married Philip's eldest son, Louis VIII of France (to be eventually known as Louis the Lion).

According to the treaty the claim to Toulouse and Provence via Philippa of Toulouse will be given to Berengaria of Castile, Queen of Aragon

Eleanor, Fair maid of Brittany and Louis the Lion were married in Paris on July 1200, the heavily pregnant Constance and Arthur of Brittany attended the wedding, the bride is 16 year old and the groom is 13 year old.
 
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The Beginning of the End of the Usurper
The war between Philip and John would worsen in the aftermath of John's decision in August 1200 to marry Isabella of Angoulême. In order to remarry, John first needed to abandon Isabel, Countess of Gloucester, his first wife; John accomplished this by arguing that he had failed to get the necessary papal permission to marry Isabel in the first place – as a cousin, John could not have legally wed her without this. It remains unclear why John chose to marry Isabella of Angoulême. Contemporary chroniclers argued that John had fallen deeply in love with Isabella, and John may have been motivated by desire for an apparently beautiful, if rather young, girl. On the other hand, the Angoumois lands that came with Isabella were strategically vital to John: by marrying Isabella, John was acquiring a key land route between Poitou and Gascony, which significantly strengthened his grip on Aquitaine.

Unfortunately, Isabella was already engaged to Hugh of Lusignan, an important member of a key Poitou noble family and brother of Count Raoul of Eu, who possessed lands along the sensitive eastern Normandy border. Just as John stood to benefit strategically from marrying Isabella, so the marriage threatened the interests of the Lusignans, whose own lands currently provided the key route for royal goods and troops across Aquitaine. Rather than negotiating some form of compensation, John treated Hugh "with contempt"; this resulted in a Lusignan uprising that was promptly crushed by John, who also intervened to suppress Raoul in Normandy.

Hugh and Raoul had switched sides to Philip and Arthur and this would be the start of the end for John Lackland.
 
Matilda of Brittany
Originally, Alfonso IX wanted to marry Berengaria of Castile after the dissolution of his marriage to Theresa of Portugal but was offered Eleanor of Brittany instead since Berengaria is betrothed to the King of Aragon and the marriage is in violation of the canon law and Peter II is given dispensation to marry Berengaria, and the King of France opposed a marriage between Eleanor of Brittany and Alfonso IX but the betrothal between a Breton Princess and the Leonese King is still in place and Matilda of Brittany is chosen to be the bride of Alfonso IX in order for the marriage to still happen.

Berengaria of Castile and Matilda of Brittany was accompanied by Eleanor of Aquitaine on 1197 in the journey from Richard’s court from Anjou after Berengaria is left in Foix, they continued to Castile and then to Asturias Matilda of Brittany is left in Asturias where in she journeys to the court of Alfonso IX where in the two were married, she takes the name Matilde or Mafalda, but she would be more known as Matilde.

By 1200 this time Matilda of Brittany had given birth to two children for her husband Alfonso IX of Leon, on the latter part of 1198, Matilda was barely 13, she gave birth to a daughter named Constance and she later would give birth to a son named Alfonso on 1200, the two would have a good marriage and never had a problem with the pope and the people loved her as their queen, the King and Queen would have further children.

Alfonso IX m. Theresa of Portugal(a) m. Matilda of Brittany(b)

1a) Ferdinand b. 1192
2a) Sancha b. 1193
3a) Dulce, b.1194
4b) Berengaria b. 1198
5b) Alfonso b. 1200
6b) Eleanor b. 1202
7b) Constance b. 1205
8b) Enrique b. 1207
9b) Felipe b. 1210
10b) Catherine b. 1211

Queen Matilde would be the one who invited her brother, Arthur to join the las Navas de Tolosas on 1212 wherein her husband, Alfonso IX died, she retired to a monastery in Galicia after her husband died.
 
Berengaria of Castile and Peter II
Berengaria of Castile is betrothed to Peter, Prince of Aragon on 1196 just after the death of first husband, since the marriage would mean that Aragon will be always allied with France, originally it was Eleanor of Brittany who would be the one would be married to Peter, the son of Alfonso II, Berengaria of Castile spent sometime in the English court after her first husband, Conrad died, the marriage was childless.

Originally, Alfonso IX wanted to marry Berengaria of Castile after the dissolution of his marriage to Theresa of Portugal but was offered Eleanor of Brittany instead since Berengaria is betrothed to the King of Aragon and the marriage is in violation of the canon law and Peter II is given dispensation to marry Berengaria, and the King of France opposed a marriage between Eleanor of Brittany and Alfonso IX but the betrothal between a Breton Princess and the Leonese King is still in place and Matilda of Brittany chose that she is the bride of Alfonso IX in order for the marriage to still happen.

Berengaria of Castile and Matilda of Brittany were accompanied by Eleanor of Aquitaine on 1197 in the journey from Richard’s court from Anjou then passing to Bordeaux to Foix, an Aragonese Vassal where Berengaria was left in order to meet her husband, she marries Peter II of Aragon on the same year

Berengaria of Castile had 5 surviving children with Peter II of Aragon

Peter II of Aragon m. Berengaria of Castile(a)
1a. Alfonso/Anfos b. 1198
2a. Peter b. 1202
3a. Eleanor b. 1204
4a. Philippa b. 1206
5a. Richard b. 1210

Due to the marriage with Berengaria, Peter II had an anti-cathar stance which ended any possible alliance with the Cathar Patrons in Toulouse.
 
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Peter may have now an anti-cathar stance (as far as I know, he was not pro-cathar, just keep in mind how he punished the pro-cathar rebellion in Montpellier in 1206), but he has still a brother, Alfonso, who is still earl of Provence, and, futhermore, as you have mentioned, he had lands and vassals in the south of France.

Does he marry his sister Leonor with Raymond of Tolouse in 1202? Bernard of Comminges becomes his vassal in 1201?

Of course, he's not going to marry Maria of Montpellier, but he's deeply involved in the Occitania's politics by family and politic links, not to mention he wanted to follow the plans of his father, Alfonso II, to protect and increase their lands there.
 
Peter may have now an anti-cathar stance (as far as I know, he was not pro-cathar, just keep in mind how he punished the pro-cathar rebellion in Montpellier in 1206), but he has still a brother, Alfonso, who is still earl of Provence, and, futhermore, as you have mentioned, he had lands and vassals in the south of France.

Does he marry his sister Leonor with Raymond of Tolouse in 1202? Bernard of Comminges becomes his vassal in 1201?

Of course, he's not going to marry Maria of Montpellier, but he's deeply involved in the Occitania's politics by family and politic links, not to mention he wanted to follow the plans of his father, Alfonso II, to protect and increase their lands there.

No, he does not marry her..I have plans for her but for Berengaria and Peter, they are the heirs to Eleanor of Aquitaine's claims to Toulouse..
 
Death of Constance of Brittany
On the latter part of 1200, Constance of Brittany gives birth for a second time and gives birth to Alice and Margaret of Brittany, Constance of Brittany dies due to the exhaustion and complications of giving birth, Alix is betrothed to Ramon Berenguer IV and Arthur of Brittany is married to Eleanor of Aragon.

The Death of Constance of Brittany was a sad event for Arthur of Brittany but his spirit had not changed and not marred by the death of his own mother, he is made the sole ruler of Brittany after his mother’s death.

The marriage between Arthur and Eleanor happened in Brittany and Alix was left in the Provençal court.
 
The Death and Defeat of King John, his children and the coronation of King Arthur I
On 1204, Duke Arthur and his french army would prepare his invasion of England just four years after his marriage with Eleanor of Aragon and the death of his mother.

Eleanor of Brittany and Louis the Lion would watch their brother, Arthur reclaim the Kingdom of England, he would land in dover carrying people like Robert Dreux and the young cousin of Arthur, Thomas of Perche.

Arthur of Brittany would grant his cousin, Thomas of Perche the position as his general in the war just before they set to England, he would leave his wife Eleanor, pregnant just like what happened to the his father Geoffrey in the safety of the Breton court.

Philip II of France gave Arthur of Brittany and his cousin, Thomas of Perche of an army with 5000 frenchmen, enough to defeat John the Usurper, the armies of Arthur destroyed the fortifications of his enemy.

Finally the King met John, his uncle in the battle of Dover a few weeks after he had landed, Arthur was able to defeat John in battle and take his cousins, the illegitimate daughter and son of John, John is imprisoned as an usurper on Corfe and given the rightful treatment as an usurper, he is executed a week after.

Isabella of Angouleme was rescued and married to Hugh of Lusignan, who was her supposed husband.

Arthur of Brittany is crowned as Arthur I with his wife Eleanor, the crowds sing as he had been crowned but the barons saw him as very French.
 
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318px-Battle_of_Bosworth_by_Philip_James_de_Loutherbourg.jpg

A Modern depiction of the Battle of Dover by Philip James de Loutherbourg.

318px-Battle_of_Bosworth_by_Philip_James_de_Loutherbourg.jpg
 
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Death of Eleanor of Aquitaine

On 1204, the Enraged Eleanor of Aquitaine who was weeping on the death of John would go to the Fontravraud Abbaye, according to the treaty, her claims to Provence and Toulouse would pass to Berengaria of Castile.

As Eleanor of Aquitaine is still alive and found in the Fontravraud, the armies of Arthur and Louis would seize the dowager queen of both France and England.

The ailing dowager queen was said to not like Arthur so she decided that another heir should be the Duke of Aquitaine, she chose Theobald, the younger brother of the King of Jerusalem, Henry, a son of her daughter Marie of France, the King of France told Eleanor of Aquitaine to make the Duchy of Aquitaine would fall to the King of France while Poitou and Gascony will end up under Theobald of Champagne.

The former Queen of England and France has no choice but to agree with what the King of France, Philippe Auguste, Eleanor of Aquitaine took the veil and died a few weeks after that.
 
Eleanor of Brittany
Eleanor and Matilda both became fatherless at the age of two and was brought up by her uncle King Richard and grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine.However, Richard's ward also meant that they were under Angevin custody, and thus even her mother Constance never considered them as potential heiresses to Brittany, which weakened their later claim to the duchy. As her younger brother Arthur was the heir presumptive to England and Brittany, she was one of the most marriageable princesses at that time. In 1190, after Richard failed to marry his younger sister Joan to Al-Adil I, brother of Saladin, he proposed that Eleanor should be the bride instead, but the negotiation was also in vain, as Al-Adil showed no interest in Christianity. In 1193, she was engaged to Frederick, son of Leopold V, Duke of Austria, as part of the conditions to release Richard, who had been taken prisoner by Emperor Henry VI. However, when she was on the way to Austria with Baldwin of Bethune and the next year, the duke died, so the marriage never took place, and under order of Pope Celestine III she returned to England, accompanied by her grandmother Eleanor and Richard was forced to handover his niece Berengaria of Castile to him because she is already married to Conrad of Swabia but he died in an unknown reason on 1196, the couple was childless.

Berengaria of Castile is betrothed to Peter, Prince of Aragon on 1196 just after the death of first husband, since the marriage would mean that Aragon will be always allied with France, originally it was Eleanor of Brittany who would be the one would be married to Peter, the son of Alfonso II, Berengaria of Castile spent sometime in the English court after her first husband, Conrad died, the marriage was childless.

Originally, Alfonso IX wanted to marry Berengaria of Castile after the dissolution of his marriage to Theresa of Portugal but was offered Eleanor of Brittany instead since Berengaria is betrothed to the King of Aragon and the marriage is in violation of the canon law and Peter II is given dispensation to marry Berengaria, and the King of France opposed a marriage between Eleanor of Brittany and Alfonso IX but the betrothal between a Breton Princess and the Leonese King is still in place and Matilda of Brittany chose that she is the bride of Alfonso IX in order for the marriage to still happen.

Eleanor, Fair maid of Brittany and Louis the Lion were married in Paris on July 1200, the heavily pregnant Constance and Arthur of Brittany attended the wedding, the bride is 16 year old and the groom is 13 year old, the marriage was made due to a treaty.

Initially, Eleanor of Brittany was envious of Matilda because she is able to consummate her marriage instantly, however Eleanor was able to consummate the marriage on 1204, Eleanor of Brittany is a very noble woman, she spoke French, Occitan, English and Breton, it would take a while for her to have children, she had her first child on 1207, a boy named Philippe.

Eleanor of Brittany gave birth to many children for Louis, her husband

Louis VIII m. Eleanor of Brittany(a)
1a Philip III b. 1207
2a Eleonore b. 1210
3a Alix b. 1212
4a Robert count of Artois b. 1213
5a Charles count of Maine b. 1215
6a Arthur count of Contentin b. 1217

She dominated her husband during her husband’s rule, later on it turns out that Matilda, Queen of Leon turned to be also envious of Eleanor of Brittany.

England and France had no wars on the tenure of Louis VIII as the King, Eleanor of Brittany died on 1241, predeceasing her husband.
 
The Children of John

After the defeat of John, the children of John were left behind, for both Joanna and Richard were married to the nobility in the case of Joanna on 1205, she would be married to Sancho, Lord of Fines, she would be the ancestress of many Spanish nobles, she disappeared from the contemporary history.

In the case of Richard, the bastard of John, he became interested with Bertha of Sicily, the daughter of Henry VI of Germany but he died before fathering any son at 1198, Constance cannot provide Henry VI since she is already passed menopause.

The marriage between Richard and Bertha of Sicily happened on 1208, the marriage would signal the beginning of the Plantagenet rule in Sicily.

Bertha of Sicily m. Richard FitzJohn(a)
1a. Eleanor of Sicily b.1210
2a. Henry of Sicily b.1212
3a. Constance of Sicily b.1215
4a Matilda of Sicily b.1220
 
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