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871 - 899 : Alfred the Great
899 - 924 : Edward the Elder
924 - 939 : Athelstan
939 - 946 : Edmund
946 - 959 : Edwig the All Fair
959 - 975 : Edgar the Peaceful
975 - 978 : Edward II
978 - 1018 : Aethelred the Unready
1018 - 1057 : Edward III
1057 - 1126 : Edgar II
1126 - 1154 : Peter
Peter I ( c. 1099 - 1154 ), also known as Peter/Piero of Tuscany, was King of England from 1126 until his death in 1154. Peter's reign commenced with The Little Anarchy in 1125 in which the male line of Alfred the Great had been extinguished and several contenders, through female lines, or in the case of Peter himself, through the male line of King Alfreds cousin, Aethelhelm, presented themselves as candidates for the throne. Peter was succeeded by his own son, Edward, who would reign as Edward IV.
Peter (Ed Stoppard) in the 2018 BBC production of Christopher Marlowe's historical play, King Peter
Reign : 1126 - 1154
Coronation : 1127
Predecessor : Edgar II
Successor : Edward IV
Born : 1099
Died : 1154
Burial : Unknown
Spouse : Constance of England
Issue : Edward IV, Prince Anthony of England, Prince Stephen of England
House : Wessex (by birth), Tuscany (founder)
Father : Stephen of Wessex
Mother : Margaret of Tuscany
Early Life
Peter was born in Florence, Italy, c. 1099, to Stephen (of Wessex) and Margaret of Tuscany. His father was a merchant who traced his lineage back to King Aethelwulf of Wessex, elder brother of Alfred the Great, through Aethelwulf's elder son, Aethelhelm, whilst his mother was a descendant of Boniface III, Margrave of Tuscany. Peter had a younger brother, Simon (born c. 1105) and a sister, Margaret (born c. 1103) who remained in Florence when Peter travelled to Winchester in 1125 to seek an audience with King Edgar II and the Witenagemot to stake his claim as heir to the throne of England. Neither Simon or Margaret ever left Florence, but Simon was recognised by his brother as Heir Presumptive for almost twelve months in 1126 and 1127 before the future Edward IV was born to Peter and his wife, Constance of England.
The Little Anarchy
The Little Anarchy (titled to differentiate it from The Great Anarchy) is considered to have commenced in 1125 and concluded less than two years later in early 1126. When it became clear that Edgar II and Emma of France would not produce any male issue, the King and the Witenagemot started to consider who might succeed Edgar. From Alfred the Great's 890 treatise, 'De Legibus Coronam', the Kingdom of Wessex and the subsequent Kingdom of England practiced agnostic primogeniture - succession to the throne through only the male line. Alfred provided the caveat that, in the event of his male line being extinguished, the ruling King and/or the Witenagemot would take on the responsibility of selecting an heir. However, the 'De Legibus Coronam' gave few instructions on what exactly would qualify a candidate to become King of England.
This absence of clear instruction meant that, according to surviving letters, there may have been upwards of thirteen men presenting themselves to Edgar II and the Witenagemot, of which Peter of Tuscany was one.
Henry V of the Holy Roman Empire had a claim to the crown, albeit through a female line. He could trace his heritage back to Alfred, via Edward the Elders daughter, Edith of Wessex. His claim was weak, but the Holy Roman Empire was a major political player in Europe and might have been able to attempt to claim the crown by force if they had truly desired.
Peter travelled across Francia in order to reach England and stake his claim to the throne. Henry V, who had sent an envoy to present his own candidacy to Edgar II, had learned of the Tuscan merchant who intended to be King of England and invited Peter to his court. The two men reached a mutual agreement, that Henry V would withdraw his claim and lend the support of the Holy Roman Empire to Peter in his own claim.
As Peter continued on his journey to claim the throne, he was unaware that Edgar II and the Ealdormen of the Witenagemot were slowly discounting the other claims. For most they staked their claim through a female line, and for some of those, the claim was not deemed strong enough, whilst for others there was no political support and for some there was political support which, despite having a weak claim, made them contenders. Baldwin V of Flanders, Eustace II of Boulogne, Theobald, Count of Blois and Odo II, Count of Champagne, were discounted in the latter half of 1125.
Winchester Castle Great Hall (c. 2018)
Peter, as legend tells, arrived in Winchester on Christmas Eve of 1125. He identified himself at Winchester Castle as a claimant to the throne and provided the letter that Henry V had given and sealed, proclaiming his support for Peter. Edgar II granted Peter an audience, and in the spirit of Christian charity, invited him to spend the following few days with the royal family. It was during this period that Peter met Edgar's daughter, Constance of England, and the pair fell in love and married a few months later in the Summer of 1126. Peter, as both a male line claimant to the throne Cerdic of Wessex (albeit not a male line claimant of Alfred the Great), and now the son-in-law of King Edgar II had jumped to the front of the line of contenders for the throne.
David of Scotland reportedly greeted the news of the betrothal and marriage with little enthusiasm. His mother was Edgars sister and, had descent through a female line been considered possible, he had considered his claim to be the most secure, both by proximity in relation to Edgar and the geographical proximity between England and Scotland. David summoned his most loyal nobles - he wasn't going to take being passed over for the crown without a fight.
David marched on England a month later, Edgar II marshalled his own forces and, alongside Peter, marched northwards to meet them. The two armies met at Bonchester Bridge (Binster Brig in Scots) but the English troops held the ancient hill fort on nearby Bonchester Hill, and the two sides fell into a stalemate, broken only when English troops cut down King David causing the Scottish troops to retreat with the intent to regroup.
The regroup never happened. The new Scottish King, Henry, was barely eleven when news reached him of his father's death. Despite his age, and possibly under the influence of his mother, the Dowager Queen, Maud of Huntingdon, he clearly instructed the Scottish nobles to negotiate a settlement that would include Henry abdicating any claim to the English throne. When the offer reached Winchester shortly before Christmas 1126, Edgar II was dead and Peter had already been crowned King.
Reign
Peter managed to avoid becoming involved in the hostilities between his Hofenstauen and Salian patrons and Lothair II/III, King of Germany, later Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and a Supplenberg, over what was essentially a land grab between the two families over imperial lands. Frederick the One Eyed, Duke of Swabia, a Hofenstauen and a claimant to the Salian estates was father to two girls, Bertha and Judith, who would later marry Peter's eldest two sons, Prince Edward and Prince Anthony. It has been suggested that this initial attempt at impartiality was a response to Peter's established alliance with Fredericks uncle, Henry V, rather than any attempt to take sides in the dispute. It is difficult to believe that Peter would have chosen any side other than Frederick and his brother had he been forced to commit an opinion to parchment and Lothair clearly believed it would not be worth his time to involve England in the Empire's internal dispute.
This belief changed in 1130 when Lothair was called upon to declare which candidate for the papacy he would support, whether that would be Innocent II or Anacletus. Lothair lent his support to Innocent II who had promised to crown him Holy Roman Emperor, and led his forces on Rome to liberate the city from Anacletus. Innocent II becomes Pope and in return, Lothair is made Holy Roman Emperor rather than the King of Germany. However, by supporting Innocent II and marching on Rome, Lothair had left the still contested territories open for the Hofenstauens, led by Frederick the One Eyed and his brother Conrad, to rebuild their power base.
Peter had formally supported Lothair and the Holy Roman Empire in their support of Innocent II. But the Archbishop of Canterbury, William De Corbeil, had been involved in a dispute with the Archbishop of York regarding who would have primacy within England. Pope Honorious II had recognised the claim of Canterbury but on the grounds that this recognition would lapse on his death, and future Popes may choose to recognise the claim of York instead. So, whilst Peter backed Lothair and, by default, supported Innocent II and backed the primacy of the Archbishop of York, it was only Anacletus who was prepared to recognise the primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury and thus Peter and William were drawn into the argument between the papist factions.
Anacletus had, in turn, found support from the Hofenstauens so the Papal Crisis in Rome, the Primacy Crisis in England and the conflict between the Hofenstauens and the Supplenbergs over Salian and imperial lands, threatened to erupt into a Europe wide war. And it may well have done so if Lothair II/III had not died on the return trip from Rome to Utrecht.
Frederick the One Eyed was ineligible to be Holy Roman Emperor, but saw his brother, Conrad, elected in his stead. Conrad, in turn, recognised the primacy of Canterbury whilst Innocent II still maintained the primacy of York. Conrad subsequently arranged for the betrothal of his nieces to Peter's two eldest sons, Prince Edward and Prince Anthony, in order for Peter to voice support for the primacy of Canterbury.
The primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury was eventually recognised by the Vatican again in 1144 by Innocent II's successor, Celestine II, and this would largely remain the status quo until the present.
- death of Constance in 1152
Issue
Peter of Tuscany married Constance of England in 1126, they had three children - all sons.
1. Edward IV, b. 1127, m. Bertha of Swabia, daughter of Frederick II, Duke of Swabia, sister of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
2. Anthony of England, b. 1128, m. Judith of Swabia, daughter of Frederick II, Duke of Swabia, sister of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
3. Stephen of England, b. 1136, made Archbishop of Canterbury c. 1176 by his nephew, Peter II
Death
In October of 1154, Peter travelled to Tamworth to visit his eldest son, Edward, (who had been created Earl of Mercia on his marriage) and his wife, Ada of Holland, who had given birth to Peter's first grandson the month prior. The child, named Peter, would become King Peter II. It was during this trip that the elder Peter would develop what period sources simply called a fever and what modern historians believe may have been pneumonia. He died at Manchester Castle on the return journey to Winchester and his son Edward became Edward IV.
Legacy
The handful of remaining period sources we have describe Peter as unobjectionable enough that he is neither "great" or "magnificent" like his predecessors Alfred and Edmund, but also not disliked enough to face anything more than the most basic uprising.
Modern day scholars refer to Marlowe's historical play, "King Peter", to flesh out Peter's first (and, they believe only major) failing. The tragi-comedy describes Peter's rule in relation to the agreement he made with Emperor Henry V on his way to Winchester and modern day scholars explore how this event shackled England both politically and militarily to the Holy Roman Empire, divesting it of its own political agency, for the next three hundred years until The Great Anarchy shook the Court of Tuscany and England.
Peter also provided the first amendment in two hundred and fifty years to the 'De Legibus Coronam', stipulating not that the crown should be passed through the male line of Alfred the Great, but through the male line of Cerdic. This retroactively validated the grounds for his own claim to the throne. Further, he charged clerics to specifically keep track of the male lines of his own grandfather, William of Wessex, including the issue of his uncle, also named William, and of his younger brother, Simon.
In Popular Culture
"King Peter" or, more accurately, "(The Life and Death of) King Peter" was written by Christopher Marlowe in the 1590s. Written for the Court of Winchester following the Great Anarchy, it dramatises Peter's reign starting with his encounter with Henry V in Utrecht, his Christmas Eve arrival in Winchester, his marriage to Constance and the ties that bound him to Emperor's Henry V and Lothair II/III and subsequently, Conrad III, King of the Romans. A great deal of the play focuses on the year 1130 wherein Peter is dragged into the Holy Roman Empire's dispute with the papacy, subsequently bringing the King into conflict with William de Corbeil, Archbishop of Canterbury. It is most accurately described as a tragic comedy with Peter as a well meaning and kind man, constantly trying to do the right thing but finding himself frequently misled and manipulated by the people around him.
Constance of England (Michelle Dockery) in the 2018 BBC production of Christopher Marlowe's historical play, King Peter
It was adapted most recently in 2018 as part of a series of Christopher Marlowe adaptations on BBC2. Peter was played by Ed Stoppard, Constance by Michelle Dockery, Henry V by Simon Russell Beale and William De Corbeil by David Bamber.