There was enough backstabbing to suspect they plundered a cuterly shop.
To be fair, it's less about the family but the family AND a particularly complex political puzzle that some still strive to call an "Empire".
Oh aye, oh aye.
There was enough backstabbing to suspect they plundered a cuterly shop.
To be fair, it's less about the family but the family AND a particularly complex political puzzle that some still strive to call an "Empire".
Probably not giving the title and name of William, traditionally associated with the Duchy of Aquitaine I'd think he was really expected inheriting it; I'd rather see Richard obtaining either a northern French title or ending as another Lackland.I wonder if Richard will still be given his mother's duchy in it's entirety if he becomes a third son.
What about Eleanor of Aquitaine having a son with her first husband and he dies on the crusades but still marrries Henry II that would be interesting.
Maybe not.
As said above, all these lands and titles were really distinct from each other, and their respective nobilities weren't exactly thrilled on the tought of a same head for all of them and would likely ask for their own rulers as soon as possible if not brothers, than nephews (in the medieval sense of any close enough parents) : and giving that Geoffrey Plantagenet's descendents list would be extremely limited ITTL...
Heck, even Foulques V's descendent list would be reduced and would basically be limited to Yerosolemite kings.
EDIT : Not even that actually, Baudouin IV having died before Henry II IOTL : House of Bellême (a House that Normans had significantly crushed and that would lack support) or House of Alsace as the only likely possible candidates, while House of Lusignan would be hardly models of likely and that legitim possibilities.
Well, either Henri II's only son refuse to abandon some prerogative and would likely face important nobiliars revolts (possibly formed around, or supported, by the aformentioned noble families); or he would be forced to give up titles and lands to a far (and a really far) kniship if not people not of his blood, which is not going to end well.
Of course "only one son surviving" and this particularly explosive situation could end with an Anarchy-on-steroids, if any sudden death should happens, as in dying in battle against aforementioned nobles or any other cause. It would make IOTL situation looking as an unquestionable big win for Plantagenêts in comparison.
It's not a familial problem, or that Henry or Alienor were jerks. It's just that half of the most populated kingdom in Europe, and divided Lego-style in many different principalities (whom nobility complied to orders only when it fit it, especially in Aquitaine or Anjou) on which your main opponent had suzerainty (and that was far from being a gadget, as Capetians/Plantagenêts conflicts point out) was a big and hard pill to swallow.Hmm interesting, it seems that combined with the differences in the territories, and Henry's and Elaenor's shit parenting skills, the PLatagentns were never going to be able to retain their possession for long
Another possibility is what if Henry The Young King's son William survived his infancy, and was alive when his father died?
The problem right now I guess is that the principal of primogeniture over proximity of blood wasn't quite established yet.
No,I'm talking about the fact that John took over was the triumph of proximity of blood over primogeniture.You didn't have such thing as "established primogeniture" as a law.
You really have to wait the legalisation of the medieval bureaucraties one century after to have such, and only when the case was brought on legal grounds.
For what mattered Plantagenets, the succession for the elder son had enough precedents that it went into custom (look at Angevine succession), and it never was really challenged by Plantagenets, except in moments of deep legitimacy crisis.
The problem wasn't that Henry's sons claimed the crown, but claimed to be independent princes of their own lands and trying to get most of it (including monetary compensations for not inheriting, which was the case elsewhere in France).
No,I'm talking about the fact that John took over was the triumph of proximity of blood over primogeniture.
It's not a familial problem, or that Henry or Alienor were jerks. It's just that half of the most populated kingdom in Europe, and divided Lego-style in many different principalities (whom nobility complied to orders only when it fit it, especially in Aquitaine or Anjou) on which your main opponent had suzerainty (and that was far from being a gadget, as Capetians/Plantagenêts conflicts point out) was a big and hard pill to swallow.
Heck if something, we're talking of quite skilled persons, with most diverging interests, and a very complex situation to manage.
So basically an earlier "Arthur of Brittany"-equivalent? I couldn't see how it could ever possibly backfire. [/sarcasm]