KING OF NORTH WIND EB

Claudia Gold

• Publisher: William Collins
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780008352585
• eBook ISBN: 9780007554799
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Henry II conquered the largest empire of any English medieval king. Yet it is the people around him we remember: his wife Eleanor, whom he seduced from the French king; his son Richard the Lionheart; Thomas Becket, murdered in his cathedral. Who was this great, yet tragic king? For fans of Dan Jones, George RR Martin and Bernard Cornwell.

The only thing that could have stopped Henry was himself.

Henry II had all the gifts of the gods. He was charismatic, clever, learned, empathetic, a brilliant tactician, with great physical strength and an astonishing self-belief. Henry was the creator of the Plantagenet dynasty of kings, who ruled through eight generations in command of vast lands in Britain and Europe. Virtually unbeaten in battle, and engaged in a ceaseless round of conquest and diplomacy, Henry forged an empire that matched Charlemagne's.

It was not just on the battlefield that Henry excelled; he presided over a blossoming of culture and learning termed 'the twelfth century Renaissance', pursued the tenets of reason over religious faith, and did more to advance the cause of justice and enforce the rule of law than any other English monarch before or since. Contemporaries lauded his greatness and described him as their 'Alexander of the West'.

And yet it is the people around him who are remembered: his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he seduced away from the French king; his sons Richard the Lionheart and John; Thomas Becket, murdered in his cathedral. Henry – so famed during his lifetime – has slipped into the shadows of history. King of the North Wind offers a fresh evaluation of this great yet tragic ruler.

Written as a historical tragedy, it tells how this most talented of kings came into conflict with those closest to him, to become the most haunted.

NOTES

Prologue

1. W. L. Warren, Henry II (University of California Press, 1973), p. 560.

Act I – The Bargain

1. Judith A. Green, Henry I (CUP, 2009), p. 165.

2. Ibid., p. 166.

3. Ibid., p. 165.

4. Wace, Roman de Rou, ed. A. J. Holden (Société des Anciens Textes Français, 1970–3), line 10, p. 219.

5. Green, p. 167.

6. William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, I, p. 758.

7. Green, p. 164, cites Victoria Chandler, ‘The Wreck of the White Ship: A Mass Murder Revealed?’, in D. J. Kagay and L. J. Andrew Villalon (eds), The Final Argument: The Imprint of Violence on Society in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Boydell Press, 1998).

8. See Green for a full analysis of Henry I’s actions towards the daughters of his illegitimate daughter Juliana.

9. John Le Patourel, The Norman Empire (Clarendon Press, 1976), pp. 175–6.

10. Marjorie Chibnall, The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English (Wiley, 1991), p. 7, cites The Anglo Saxon Chronicle and The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis.

11. Ibid., p. 8.

12. Ibid., p. 11, cites Eadmer, Eadmeri Historia Novorum in Anglia, ed. M. Rule (Rolls Series, 1884), p. 127.

13. Judith Green suggests that the marriage may have been arranged some time before William’s death; this would account for the speed with which it took place; Green, pp. 168–9.

14. Green, p. 170, cites Hildebert of Lavardin’s letters to Adeliza, where he consoled her on her childless state. Hildebert of Lavardin, Letters, in J. P. Migne (ed.), Patrologia Latina, 221 vols (Paris, 1844–64), CLXXI, cols 135–312, no. 18.

15. Green, pp. 170, 187.

16. Marjorie Chibnall, ‘Matilda (1102–1167)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2004).

17. Chibnall, The Empress Matilda, p. 15.

18. Ibid., p. 24.

19. Ibid., p. 25, cites Chronique des ducs de Normandie par Benôit, ed. Carin Fahlin, II, pp. 604–6.

20. Heinrich was crowned Holy Roman Emperor at St Peter’s in Rome in 1111, by Pope Paschal II. Whether or not Matilda was crowned by the pope too, as she later claimed, is uncertain. Nevertheless, she would maintain that she had been for the rest of her life.

21. Chibnall, The Empress Matilda, p. 26, cites Anonymi Chronica Imperatorum Heinrico V dedicata, eds F. J. Schmale and I. Schmale-Ott (Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters, 1972), p. 262 (tr. Chibnall).

22. Karl Leyser, Communications and Power in Medieval Europe: The Gregorian Revolution and Beyond (Continuum, 1994), cites Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica XI, V, p. 200 (tr. Leyser).

23. Ibid., p. 40, cites Hermann, Liber de Restaurliiatione, MGH SS, XIV, p. 282.

24. See Chibnall, The Empress Matilda, p. 33.

25. Ibid., p. 38.

26. Matilda’s sister-in-law, Matilda of Anjou, entered Fontevraud Abbey following the death of William Atheling. She eventually became its abbess.

27. Some sources suggest that William the Conqueror intended to deny Robert his entire inheritance, but was persuaded by the archbishop of Rouen that he should inherit Normandy, while William Rufus had England. Robert probably expected to inherit all his father’s possessions.

28. Legend blamed the demise of Philip IV’s (Philip le Bel) dynasty on his execution of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, who, as he burned to death on a scaffold outside Notre-Dame in March 1314, apparently cursed the king and his dynasty. Philip was dead within the year, his eldest son Louis X two years later, his next son Philip V by 1322, and finally Charles IV by 1328. They all died leaving only daughters. The throne of France then passed to their cousin, Philip of Valois.

29. William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella, ed. K. R. Potter (1955), p. 18.

30. David Crouch, The Reign of King Stephen (Routledge, 2013), p. 18.

31. Henry, like his father William, typically wore his crown at the three great Church festivals, Christmas, Whitsun and Easter. See P. E. Schramm, The History of the Coronation (Clarendon Press, 1937), p. 32.

32. William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella, pp. 6–8. It is possible that another oath was sworn to Matilda the following year, at the Easter court on 29 April 1128. See John of Worcester, although he is the only chronicler to mention it.

33. Chibnall, The Empress Matilda, p. 55.

34. Ibid. Chi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Maps
• Family Trees
• Cast of Characters
• Prologue
• Act I – The Bargain
• Act II – Triumph
• Act III – Pariah
• Act IV – Rebellion
• Act V – Nemesis
• Epilogue
• Timeline
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Picture Section
• Index
• Also by Claudia Gold
• About the Author
• About the Publisher