Download The War of Stephen and Matilda, Historical Cabinet Crisis

Achieving Gender Equality
A/CUIMUN/22/NOC
Historical Cabinet Crisis
Distr.: General
5- 6 November 2016
Original: English
The War of Stephen and Matilda,
A game of queens,
Easter, 1136
1
CONTENTS
CUIMUN HISTORICAL CABINET CRISIS
The War of Stephen and Matilda
The Anarchy, Easter, 1136
Prolegomena
I. Delegate welcome
II. How to use this Guide
p. 3
p. 4
The Crisis
III. The game: Historical background
p. 5
IV. The rules: Twelfth-century society
a. The Church
b. The Economy
c. Warfare
p. 8
p. 9
p. 11
p. 12
V. The board: Geography
a. The Anglo-Norman realm
b. The Kingdom of France
c. The Celtic borders
d. The Empire and Italy
p. 15
p. 15
p. 17
p. 25
p. 29
VI. The pieces: The Courts
a. The Court of King Stephen at Winchester
b. The Court of Matilda and Geoffrey at Angers
c. The Court of King Louis at Paris
d. The Court of Pope Innocent at Pisa
p. 36
p. 37
p. 39
p. 41
p. 43
Reference
VII.
VIII.
IX.
Appendix: King Stephen’s Charter of Liberties
Further reading
Source citations
2
p. 45
p. 46
p. 47
I. WELCOME FROM THE DIRECTORS
Dear delegates,
Welcome to this year’s CUIMUN 2016 Crisis! Now in its twenty-second year, the Cambridge International Model United Nations is
the oldest university-level MUN conference on the UK circuit, and one which can truly be said to be both the cradle and the
innovative testing ground of Crisis simulations in the UK. Whether it was our full simulation the Congress of Westphalia in 2013, our
simulation of Italian renaissance politics in 2014 (complete with papal conclave), or our fully integrated League of Nations Crisis last
year in 2015 – not to mention the topics in years before then – each historical simulation has successfully pushed the boundaries of
what is possible with Crisis and has taught lessons which our team members have brought with them to other conferences.
We are especially excited for our topic for CUIMUN 2016, one which ably marries the beautiful medieval surroundings of
Cambridge with the important conference theme of Gender in politics and society, and one which additionally has a wider if less
obvious contemporary relevance to the challenges of the world today.
Recent years and months have challenged the so-called ‘Whiggish’ school of history. Conditioned by our memory of the world post1945, we tend to think of history, particularly as it concerns international institutions, in terms of a linear progression: the spread of
democracy in the face of totalitarianism, a more peaceful rules-based approach to conflict through the United Nations, a more open
and tolerant civil society, a triumph of inclusive and cooperative statesmanship over petty nationalism, and ever closer union within
the European Union. It is because these things seem inevitable that we think them good, and because we think them good that they
seem inevitable.
Recent political events and developments in Europe, North America and the Middle East however have challenged that perspective.
A narrow-blinkered view of history limited to the last seventy years has left us unable to process these most recent events with
anything more than confusion, a state of affairs which invites a much wider perspective before we can confidently engage with the
challenges we face today.
For CUIMUN 2016, we have decided therefore to look to a much earlier, but no less relevant, period: one that forces the delegates
to radically reorient their assumptions about the international order by featuring a completely different set of actors and challenges,
but one which nonetheless bears distant echoes and relevance to our own day.
In the seventy years after 1066, the educated men and women of western Europe thought of their world too as growing in a linear
progression of ever closer union, of growing peace, and of more effective statecraft. The events of 1136 disrupted that comfortable
assumption, and forced the creation of a new order borne of conflict and compromise to establish peace in the wake of its earlier
shortcomings. Our Crisis stands precisely one generation before the reigns of arguably the greatest generation of monarchs of
medieval Europe: Henry II and Richard I in England, Friedrich Barbarossa in Germany, and Philippe Auguste in France. The new
order which emerged under these men was not foreseen, and in some ways was unforeseeable, but it was nonetheless a product of
the events which preceded it.
The outcome of our Crisis for its part remains to be seen, and is very much open to the delegates depending on how they choose to
engage with the world as laid out in the guide. Whatever the outcome, we hope however that you will take away what this dynamic
format has to offer, and above all that you will enjoy yourselves in what we expect to be a challenging and fast-paced simulation
amidst some beautiful surroundings this weekend.
Jesse Harrington, Lead Crisis Director,
On behalf of the Crisis Team for CUIMUN XXII 2016
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II. HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
The following guide is intended as complementary to two separate documents (the ‘General Introduction to
Crisis’ and the detailed character profiles which will be simultaneously distributed to delegates in advance of the
Crisis), and is intended to perform two primary functions:
1. To serve as an introduction to the topic in preparation for the Crisis, and
2. To serve as an easily searchable reference work or ‘factbook’ during the Crisis itself.
The guide serves as the basis of information that is ‘public’ within the Crisis and as the common framework
that will be used by both delegates and the Crisis Team.
How the delegate reads the guide will depend largely on the position and character they are given in advance of
the Crisis, and it is neither expected nor required that delegates should read the guide in its entirety.
All delegates must however be familiar with the general introduction in Sections III and IV (pp. 5-14), which
covers the background to the topic and to the fundamental world of the Crisis.
Delegates should also minimally be familiar with the relevant two-page introduction to their assigned Court as
included in Section VI, and with whatever territories included in Section V are of direct relevance to them
personally as indicated in their character profiles.
After that, delegates may decide how to prioritise the information that is of most relevance to them and their
position in the Crisis. It is a good idea to be familiar with other territories represented by other delegates on
one’s own cabinet, as well as with the territories of one’s immediate neighbours. Don’t find yourself asking
‘What is Aleppo?’, if the position you’re running for might at some point foreseeably entail having to respond
to a conflict there.
The tools however are there for you to use. A delegate on the northern border of England may never have to
be aware of the cities or politics of Italy or the Empire to do well in the Crisis, but while such information may
not be essential, it is never irrelevant, as there are always productive ways of using such information if you are
imaginative and practical about it.
And while the guide aims to be thorough and rounded, it is by no means complete. The world of the twelfth
century was far richer and more detailed than we can convey here in outline, and information found outside the
guide may provide a competitive edge that others might not be aware of. We have included a short list of
further reading at the end for those who, with perhaps another half hour free, might be particularly interested
in finding out more.
4
III. THE GAME: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (1066-1136)
‘Princes who did not succeed one another in regular hereditary order, but rather acquired violent domination
through an inversion of order, by killing and slaughtering their own’ – Gerald of Wales1
The Conquest
In 1065, Edward the Confessor, the childless king from the House of Wessex which had ruled England for
nearly two hundred years, fell into a coma without giving a clear indication of who was to succeed him as king
of England. Edward died on 5th January 1066. The Witenagemot, the customary assembly of the great men of
the England, met the following day and chose Edward’s brother-in-law Harold Godwinson of the House of
Godwin as their king. Despite this initial support, Harold Godwinson was immediately faced by rival
contenders. First Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, allied himself with Godwinson’s brother Tostig and
invaded the north of England, only to be defeated at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
While these challenges arose from the northeast, Duke William of Normandy made his own claim to the
throne of England, as intermarriage between the House of Wessex and the House of Normandy meant that
William and the deceased Edward were first cousins. Gathering an invasion fleet and an army drawn from
Normandy, Brittany and Flanders, William crossed the sea to England. Harold marched south from Stamford
Bridge to meet the invader, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. It was
nearly a decade before England was fully conquered: the North of England and the Isle of Ely held out until
violently subdued by William. By 1075 however England was a conquered country: the Anglo-Saxon
aristocracy was replaced by William’s continental supporters, motte-and-bailey castles were built across the
country to solidify control,2 and lofty churches and cathedrals were constructed or rebuilt both to awe
William’s new subjects and to atone for the bloodshed in the conquest.
William avoided the mistake of his predecessor Edward and had nearly a dozen children, though some died at
a young age. On his death he divided his realm between his sons: his eldest son Robert Curthose became Duke
of Normandy, his middle son William Rufus became King of England, and his youngest son Henry Beauclerc
was given money to buy land for himself.3 Robert joined the First Crusade and travelled to Jerusalem in 1096,
mortgaging Normandy to his brother William to pay for his voyage. When William died in a hunting accident
while his brother was still on crusade, Robert was passed over in favour of his youngest brother Henry. On
Robert’s return the two brothers fought for control of their inheritances: Robert led an unsuccessful invasion
of England in 1101, and Henry himself invaded Normandy, capturing and imprisoning Robert following the
Battle of Tinchebray in 1106 and claiming Normandy for himself. 4 Though a famous crusader, Robert spent
the following twenty years imprisoned until his death in 1134, while his brother Henry ruled a united AngloNorman realm with lands on either side of the English Channel.
The White Ship
Henry had high hopes for a stable succession, with a single legitimate son William Adelin to succeed him.
Tragedy struck in 1120: Henry’s son and many of his relatives and closest advisors travelled from Normandy to
England aboard the White Ship, which struck a submerged rock off Barfleur in Normandy and drowned some
5
three hundred passengers; it was said that the passengers
and crew were drunk at the time. The only man reported
to have survived to tell the tale was a butcher from Rouen,
clinging all night to the rock which had sunk them. One
man in his twenties, Henry’s nephew Stephen of Blois,
was reported to have escaped the disaster because a
sudden bout of diarrhoea forced him to disembark and
remain in Normandy before the ship set sail.a
Though he left more illegitimate children than any other
English king,5 Henry had only a single legitimate child
remaining to succeed him: Matilda of England, then the
wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in Germany,
and thus known either as the Empress Matilda or
Empress Maud. Henry of England’s wife Matilda of
Scotland had died two years earlier, and he took a second
wife Adeliza of Louvain in the hope of having another son
to succeed him. He was unsuccessful. In 1127 and again in
1131, Henry gathered together the lords and bishops of
the realm to swear an oath to recognise his daughter
Matilda as heir to England and Normandy.6 Matilda’s
husband the emperor had meanwhile died and she
remarried, this time to Count Geoffrey of Anjou. With Geoffrey, Matilda had two sons, and the future of the
House of Normandy suddenly seemed more secure.
The Succession
Despite having seemingly resolved the succession, relations between Henry and his heirs Matilda and
Geoffrey became increasingly strained during the king’s final years. To secure the succession, Matilda and
Geoffrey urged Henry to hand over the royal castles in Normandy while he was still alive and have the Norman
nobility swear allegiance to her. Henry angrily declined, and when a rebellion broke out among the barons of
southern Normandy led by Count William III of Ponthieu, Matilda and Geoffrey intervened in the baron’s
support. Henry campaigned in Normandy to quell the rebellion, but fell ill over the course of the campaign;
reportedly as a result of eating lampreys against his physician’s advice.b Henry died on 1 December 1135. His
corpse was embalmed at Rouen, with his entrails buried locally at Port-du-Salut Abbey while the rest of his
preserved body taken on to England for burial at Reading Abbey. In England, his corpse burst open and
revealed it had rotten inside, which was taken by those who heard of it as a sign of disaster to come.
In spite of the earlier oath, the succession was unclear. When news of the king’s death spread, Geoffrey and
Matilda were far inland in Anjou supporting the rebels; many of those who had sworn to support Matilda as
queen were themselves in the opposing royal army, and had taken an oath to remain in Normandy until Henry
was properly buried.7 The House of Anjou were also traditional enemies of the Normans, and a queen had
never ruled in her own right before the twelfth century.c 8 The Norman nobility discussed declaring as king of
a
b
c
According to Orderic Vitalis, a monk and chronicler in Normandy, alive in 1136.
According to Henry of Huntingdon, an archdeacon and chronicler in England, alive in 1136.
The sole example was the troubled Urraca of Léon and Castille, whose reign was not considered a success.
6
England Henry’s eldest nephew Count Theobald of Blois, whom Henry had previously supported in his
campaigns and who they thought could most effectively ensure peace and stability within the realm.
Before either side could move however, Theobald’s younger brother Stephen of Blois, now Count of
Boulogne in the strategic location on the Flemish coast opposite the English port of Dover, quickly crossed to
England with his military household. At London, Stephen announced his arrival and was promptly proclaimed
king, having been ‘elected’ by the burghers of the city. Stephen continued on to Winchester, where he was
aided by his youngest brother Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester. Bishop Henry argued that Stephen
could ignore his earlier oath to support Matilda because it had been taken in order to ensure the stability of the
realm, and that in light of recent events, Stephen would himself be the most stable ruler. The king’s steward
Hugh Bigod additionally swore that the king had changed his mind about the succession on his deathbed, and
had nominated Stephen as his heir.9 With the support of Stephen and Hugh, the administrators of King Henry
came around to Stephen.
Thus, within three weeks of King Henry’s death, Stephen of Blois had been crowned king of England at
Westminster Abbey and the leading men of England had broken their oath to support Matilda. Those who
held lands in both Normandy and England additionally fell in behind Stephen as duke of Normandy, wanting
to ensure the security of their lands by having a single lord in both regions. To consolidate his position,
Stephen made preparations for his first royal court at Easter 1136. In return for the support of his brother
Henry of Blois and of the Church, he also granted a Charter of Liberties (see Appendix, p. 45) as part of the
terms of his coronation. Despite these fortuitous beginnings however, Stephen was also faced with immediate
challenges: rumblings of war on the borders with Wales and Scotland, ongoing civil conflict in Normandy, rival
claimants to the throne of England, and other foreign kings, counts and magnates willing to take advantage of
the instability of the Anglo-Norman realm. As Stephen’s Easter Court gathered in March 1136, the fate of his
throne was still insecure.
7
IV. THE RULES: TWELFTH-CENTURY SOCIETY
The ‘Latin West’ or ‘Western Christendom’ in the twelfth century comprises those Christian lands in
western Europe which, with rare exception, were once under the rule of the Roman Empire. These lands
underwent a series of important changes from the fourth to the seventh centuries: a transformative period in
the West which simultaneously saw increased migration and deurbanisation, the spread of Christianity through
the cities of the Empire, the collapse of direct political rule from Rome, and the emergence and growth of new
kingdoms and polities in place of the Empire which preceded them. The successors of the Romans looked
back to Rome and modelled themselves on it as a source of legitimacy, so that Latin retains pride of place as a
universal language of administration, liturgy, and learning. In the twelfth century, two major institutions claim
the universal jurisdiction and authority once wielded held by the Romans. One is the so-called Holy Roman
Empire, an empire centred on the German-speaking lands and on the north of Italy. The other is the Papacy of
the Latin Church, which claims an authority throughout all Christian lands not only from the former empire
but from the Christian apostles who were martyred in Rome under it.
At its simplest, every polity in the West can be divided
into three orders of society based on their particular
social function: those who fight, those who work, and
those who pray. Those who fight mainly comprise the
aristocratic knightly class who serve as landholders and
provide land and protection to their tenants in return for
loyalty, support and service. Members of this class may
include the king or the great counts who hold their land
in their own right, or it may include lesser nobility who
hold their land as tenants of greater lords. Those who
fight may thus be grouped into an internally ordered
hierarchy, with land given from king to count to lord
until the level of a single knight with a number of farms
grouped around a manor. Those who work comprise
the labouring tenants who work on these farms by
providing their lords with labour and rent in the form of
crop yields, as well as any servants in the lord’s
household, both of whom are often utterly dependent
on their lord and cannot change masters without his
permission. A growing subset however of those who work include the merchants and burghers who inhabitant
urban communities, who are often politically independent of a particular lord and hold their rights as a
community subject to the king directly. It is also important to recognise that an individual lord may hold land
from two or more greater lords, and may thus owe differing obligations to a number of masters.
Those who pray comprise the clergy, which includes the ‘worldly’ or secular clergy (priests, deacons and
bishops attached to a particular diocese) and the ‘rule-based’ or regular clergy (monks and abbots attached to
a particular religious order’s rule and monastery). The primary function of both types of clergy is to pray and
minister on behalf of society and on behalf of the patrons who support them and their institutions, but they
can also serve as important institutional agents in local administration: writing documents, running courts,
implementing justice and defence, and providing a place of deposit for legal and historical records. While
literacy is not confined to the clergy and many nobles and their household clerks are also literate, it is true that
the clergy is the order of society most known for literate activity. Individual dioceses and monasteries can also
8
act as independent landholders, with their own peasant tenants to labour for them and knightly tenants to
protect them. The three orders of society is thus a convenient shorthand for a complex reality of overlapping
personal relationships and obligations within society as a whole across a culturally varied Christendom, the
exact configuration of which can vary according to the individual, institution or locality in question.
The century and a half since the year 1000 has seen a marked recovery and expansion in the West, with
increased political peace and stability, technological advancement, population growth and urbanisation. At the
same it has seen an increased drive from various sources towards centralisation and reform in both the political
and religious arenas. The result has been a dynamic society in the Latin West, though one which has produced
its own conflicts and challenges.
The Church
The ultimate religious and political authority in western Europe is that exercised by the Latin Church, with
control over the administration of the sacraments and the forgiveness of sins, and a wide range of judicial
and disciplinary powers. The Church claims its powers based in particular on the power of ‘binding and
loosing’ given by Jesus to St. Peter and his successors in the Gospel of Matthew (16:18-19). As these powers
have been developed, individual bishops hold the power to impose sanctions such as excommunication or
interdict upon those who are expressly under their jurisdiction. Excommunication refers to the formal
expulsion of an individual target from the church for the violation of some specific church law, with the
sentence read out before a public audience. Excommunication can be designated as greater or lesser. Lesser
excommunication simply bars an individual from partaking in the church sacraments. Greater
excommunication excludes the censured individual from all social contact, threatening those who associate
with them with the same sentence automatically, and absolving those contracted to them from any further
obligations or loyalties. Lesser and greater excommunication are thus part of a graded sanction, and must be
preceded by a warning. Interdict is a more general ecclesiastical censure, by which an ecclesiastical authority
can forbid the administration of the sacraments within a particular area under his jurisdiction on account of a
specific crime against the church by the ruler of that territory. Preventing the administration of the sacraments
is prone to cause unrest among pious citizens, and the aim is that the social pressure and threat of popular
justice will induce the transgressor into making restitution.
At the head of the Church is the Pope, the elected bishop of Rome. Unlike individual bishops and
archbishops, whose authority is confined to the dioceses under their jurisdiction, the Pope holds universal
jurisdiction on all matters of faith and morals and can pronounce or lift sentences of excommunication or
interdict in any part of the Church. As the direct successor of St. Peter, the Pope additionally holds a number
of unique powers held by no other member of the Church, to dissolve oaths and contracts, to annul
marriages that have been improperly contracted, and to confirm or dissolve the bonds of loyalty that exist
between lords and their subjects. The Pope additionally claims the sole right to appoint or remove bishops
and to crown the Holy Roman Emperor: though in practice the appointment of bishops usually follows the
nomination of a candidate by the cathedral’s clergy, while the coronation of the Emperor follows the election
of ‘the king of the Romans’ by the nobles of the Empire, and the coronation itself may be delegated to one of
the Pope’s representatives. The Pope is served by a group of appointed cardinals, whose appointment grants
them the right of participation in the election of the Pope’s successor. The Pope may also be represented by
appointed papal legates, who carry delegated papal powers and can override any bishop in the lands to which
they have been sent.
9
Papal politics: the Investiture Controversy and the Gregorian Reform
The importance of the Pope has made the
procedures and the powers of the office a
contentious matter. Prior to 1059, popes were
not chosen by elections but were often
appointed by their predecessors or by the
powerful families of Rome. Between 1046 and
1059, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III took
it upon himself to install four popes, after he
arrived in Rome for his coronation and found
three different claimants to the papacy waiting
for him. This led Pope Nicholas II in 1059 to
enact In nomine Domini, which represented a
radical change in the papal selection process by
requiring a body of electors solely comprised of
the college of cardinals. The next major shift
in papal policy was the election in 1073 of Pope
Gregory VII, who became the first Pope in over
three-hundred years to be elected by
acclamation. Pope Gregory was a monk and a
member of an enthusiastic generation of papal
reformers whose three decades in clerical
service had given him a strong belief in the
political and religious independence of the
Church. The signature product of Gregory’s
pontificate were the Gregorian Reforms, a series of changes designed to revive the Church’s integrity and
independence. Key tenets of the reform included the promotion of celibacy among the clergy, theological
uniformity, greater austerity among new monastic orders, and the centralisation of the authority of the papacy.
The Church was to be the direct representative of God and not dependent on the Roman families or the
emperor. The papal councils of 1074-1075 banned secular rulers from appointing church offices. Bishops in
Germany, who held extensive lands within the Empire, were therefore freed from the direct influence of the
Emperor. Tensions rose between the Church and secular rulers who saw their power as being undermined,
giving rise to the Investiture Controversy. Emperor Henry IV and a group of bishops attempted to depose
Pope Gregory, which led to the Pope pronouncing excommunication upon Henry. Dramatic confrontations
and fighting continued across Europe, and events which appeared to ease the tensions – such as the so-called
Road to Canossa, when Henry IV travelled to Italy and begged to have his excommunication evoked – only
lasted until actions from one side or another rekindled the conflict. Gregory VII’s successors each tried to
diminish the emperor’s influence, until the reign of Henry V (the future husband of Empress Matilda), who
rose against his father in favour of Rome and replaced him as emperor in 1106.
The end of conflict between the Church and Empire came about through a series of concordats and councils.
The Concordat of London (1107) concluded that secular rulers should distinguish between secular and
religious powers, thus relinquishing their authority over bishops while still requiring bishops to pledge
allegiance to secular rulers. This compromise was then adopted throughout Christendom by the Concordat of
Worms (1122), when Henry V and the papacy came to terms and ceased hostilities. The emperor’s influence
over the Church was seriously diminished. This was reiterated in Rome by the Council of the Lateran (1123),
10
which sought to free the election of bishops and abbots from monarchical influences, to re-establish the
principle that spiritual authority resides solely in the Church, and to abolish the claim of secular rulers to
influence papal elections.
The current rift: the Anacletan schism
By 1130, the Investiture Controversy had been largely resolved and a consensus had emerged among the
Roman bishops, though a rivalry had emerged between two Roman families as to which should have the next
Pope: the aristocratic Frangipani (whose position in Rome dominated the region around the Colosseum,
including the Palatine and Coelian hills), and the popular Pierleoni (who dominated Isola Tiburina and the
ancient theatre of Marcellus). With the approaching death of Pope Honorius II, the papal chancellor Aimeric,
who favoured the Frangipani, prepared a commission of eight cardinals for the purpose of choosing the next
Pope and having its choice approved by the College of Cardinals. Only three members of the commission were
members of the Pierleoni, who nonetheless held a majority in the College of Cardinals. On the night of
Honorius’ death, Aimeric gathered together the six members of the commission present, of whom only one
was a Pierleoni: by a vote of six to one, the commission elected Gregorio Papareschi, who was close to the
Frangipani. Gregorio was led to the Lateran Basilica in Rome and presented as Pope Innocent II. A majority
of the cardinal-bishops were on Innocent’s side, but the other cardinals (the cardinal-deacons and cardinalpriests) and the people and clergy of Rome reacted strongly against his election, and within a few hours had
elected Pietro Pierleoni as a rival pope, Anacletus II.10 A week later Anacletus was consecrated in St. Peter’s
Basilica, on the same day that Innocent was consecrated at Santa Maria Nouvo on the Palatine Hill.11
Both are experienced men with papal qualities: the popular but dignified Anacletus believes in the
independence of the Church from the emperor, while the aristocratic Innocent is both politically capable and
committed to the liturgy and to Gregorian reform. Neither however has been strictly canonically elected, both
because the cardinal-bishops were never convened as a college on the terms required by Pope Nicholas, and
because the commissions that elected Pope Innocent had no decision-making power.12 Rather than convene
the cardinal-bishops under the terms required by Pope Nicholas’ decree of 1059, both men immediately moved
to gain political support in Europe: Innocent was recognised and supported by a majority of bishops in
France, England, the Empire, Castille and Aragon, while Anacletus was recognised and supported by the
people of Rome, the Duke of Sicily, and most of the cities of northern Italy. The Duke of Aquitaine was
an early supporter of Anacletus, but changed his support to Innocent in 1135 following negotiations led by the
Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. The schism within the Church remains unresolved division ‘between the
city and the world’, with the court of Anacletus based in Rome, while the court of Innocent has
established itself in Pisa following an itinerant tour of Europe. 13 The current Holy Roman Emperor, Lothair
III, has however committed himself to campaign in Italy on behalf of Innocent II, and a group of his nobles
have already entered the north of Italy this year (1136).
Economy and illness
Europe is a fundamentally agrarian society, dependent on the staple crops of rye, wheat, barley and oats.
Agriculture is chiefly organised through a peasant tenantry as part of a manorial economy. The central unit is
the lord’s manor, surrounded by fields given to his tenants, farmed for his own profit. His tenants are required
11
to pay him rent in return for the peasant holdings, in terms of cash, labour or produce, and are subject to him
as a master and a judge. In addition to the payment of rents, his tenants additionally had to pay for rights such
as changing masters or arranging marriages.14
Agricultural yields are low, at less than a quarter of a ton of wheat harvested per acre. d Of these, one tenth
of the harvest is taken by the Church and roughly a quarter is held back for next year’s crop.15 The fragility of
agrarian life in terms of low crop yields and the risk of harvests ruined by bad weather means that chronic
hunger as well as the potential for disease and death are an ever-present reality for the bulk of the population.16
Increasing urbanisation and specialisation has however enriched the upper sectors of society in northern
Europe, through the labour of craftsmen such as smiths, tailors, leatherworkers and dyers, as well as tradesmen
such as butchers, bakers, cooks, brewers and vintners.17
The most common illnesses include fevers, headaches and parasites, or ailments affecting the skin, lungs, eyes
or heart.18 For women, childbirth was the most common cause of death. Additionally, plagues could become
pandemic and last for years, most heavily affecting the weak or old. Such illnesses have a high chance of
becoming deadly, with few effective treatments available. In general there are two medical traditions with
regard to treatment: a ‘practical’ folk tradition based on herbs and charms, and an ‘educated’ tradition inherited
from the classical world and practised by physicians and surgeons, who might themselves be either monks or
laymen.19 The latter category includes traditional techniques such as bloodletting, cauterisation and the
inspection of urine, but Mediterranean schools such as Salerno and Montpellier have also become famous for
the translation and practice of techniques from the Arabic world. 20 Traditional techniques as well as the
separation of the sick and the provision of extra food rations and meat can be used to help recovery, but are
naturally limited to those individuals who are able to pay for such a treatment. 21 In recent years however some
wealthy individuals have begun the foundation of almshouses or hospitals for the provision of charity to the
sick.22 In cases where these methods are unsuccessful or unavailable, a third available option is to rely on prayer
and pilgrimage, with important saints’ shrines becoming famous for their abilities to cure diseased individuals.
Warfare
Warfare in this period is generally conducted on a small scale, with campaigns by led kings and barons
typically consisting a few hundred knights, supported by their tenants, local militias, or military members of the
lord’s household. Recruitment can come from a number of means. The most obvious is the feudal levy, by
which landholders owe annual military obligations to their lord or king in return for their lands. Such
obligations can be met by personal service in the army, garrison duty, or cash payment; in the case of longer
campaigns, some knights may be excused the requirement of serving in the army directly and required instead
to provide provisions and maintain the supply-lines to support those on campaign. Another method is the
maintenance of household troops, which comes with the advantage of having a permanent military on hand,
but the disadvantages of needing to kept them fed, housed, and well-disciplined throughout the year. Kings
have a particularly strong interest in maintaining a royal household for their protection and wars, which serves
as the core of the royal army directly dependent on the king, while some important cathedrals and abbeys have
also maintained military households. If undisciplined however, such men can be a terror to the peasants and
clergy and a source of general unrest. Armies can also be supplemented by knights who serve as mercenaries,
particularly in the case of knights from poorer areas such as Wales and Brittany, but also those from
d
Compared to 2-2.5 tons of wheat per acre in the 21st century.
12
overcrowded urban areas such as Flanders and Brabant, hired from the region’s major tournaments. These
categories of course are not mutually exclusive, with mercenaries often serving as members of household.
There are also local free militias attached to towns and important settlements, so that in times of national
emergency or local unrest it is additionally possible to issue a general summons or call to arms to all free men,
calling upon religious or national sentiment. Such summonses however produce troops of uncertain quality,
and is thus better suited to defensive than offensive campaigns.23
In terms of military technology and equipment, the typical knight has a full mail-coat, helmet, shield and
lance in their weapons inventory, while freemen below the rank of knight typically own a padded coat or
mail-shirt, and an iron-cap and lance. Hooded mail-coats are the most expensive type of armour, made of
rings of metal reaching down to the knees, for deflecting sword blows to the head, neck or torso; shorter mailshirts and padded coats are the cheaper alternative, though the very wealthy may also have mail leggings for
additional protection. The neck and head of the knight are also protected underneath a conical helmet, though
this does not protect the wearer’s face which is only covered by an iron nosepiece. Shields are typically large
and kite-shaped, being held in the left hand for defensive purposes, while the right hand holds a 34-inch sword
ten foot long lance for offensive purposes. Enlisted men can vary widely in the quality of their armour and
weaponry, especially due to the difficulties of sourcing materials of appropriate size and quality. Crucially, the
number of blacksmiths able to produce enough weapons for a military campaign are in short supply, and
armament remains a lengthy and costly process.24
Aside from hand-to-hand soldiers, campaigns also make indispensible use of archers, effective both on the
battlefield and in guerilla warfare, and whose yew bows and wooden arrows can be inexpensively produced in
great numbers. Conversely, archers can also be supplied with more expensive crossbows made of horn,
typically reserved for the most costly and well-trained archers. Crossbowmen are highly prized and maintaining
their livelihood and weapons stock (often stocking castles with thousands of crossbow bolts or “quarrels” at a
time) is a priority for many kings. As the crossbow has a slow rate of fire it is most useful from fixed and
protected positions, such as defending castles from invading forces, rather than using them as offensive
troops. While kings, knights are lords can win great renown in courageously taking a castle, they are vulnerable
to well-aimed crossbow bolts and their death by one could lead the rest of the army to scatter.25
The most important feature of warfare is the castle, a vital advancement in fortification which ensures an
active military presence in a given locale. Castles vary from simple wooden versions of the so-called motte-andbailey fortifications – a wooden tower surrounded by a wall on a hill (the motte), protected by an outer walled
courtyard and embankment (the bailey) – to more elaborate versions built of stone, with a central keep, chapel,
and great hall. While more expensive, stone castles bear greater prestige and durability, being less susceptible to
fire and rot; on the other hand, wooden fortifications can be built cheaply and quickly on a more temporary
basis, and dismantled later. The innovation of the castle is that while earlier generations built earthworks and
wooden walls to protect whole settlements, the castle is designed chiefly to protect its garrison and the lord
who controls it. Whether built by kings or lords, the purpose of the castle is to represent authority within an
area or borough, as well as to serve as the base of the area’s military personnel. The construction, capture or
successful maintenance of a castle thus represents lasting control over its locale when the campaign season
ends, as a base from which its garrison can extract provisions from the surrounding locale. As powerful as
castles are for defensive purposes, they are however also vulnerable to fire, blockade (surrounding the castle in
the hope of starving its defenders) and siege-towers (catapult technology is little developed). Nonetheless, if
adequate conditions for personnel and maintenance are met they can be maintained effectively, and any
attempt to take them by blockade or assault will be costly in terms of time or men. 26
Open field battles are riskier and less common than sieges, raids, and skirmishes, being limited mainly to
times of civil war and rebellion. Such engagements typically require the use of knights to lead infantries.
Leaders may choose to fight mounted for better mobility and ease of retreat, but fighting dismounted
13
represents a greater symbolic commitment to victory in the eyes of those on the field, as one is left with no
option but to emerge victorious, dead or captured. 27 Off the field, the more common method of war is the use
of fire to lay waste to lands and resources, whether farms, crops or castles. The ultimate intention of this tactic
being to starve local populations or deny invaders the chance to supply themselves, being used to destroy in the
case of land-based raids or to lay waste to coastal assets when naval invasion is expected (as William the
Conqueror did in England in 1085). The use of fire can be a double-edged sword, as it provides extensive
damage to enemy territory but can also be a serious disadvantage to allies in the area, especially in cases where
the ravaging army is also dependent on what it can forage or plunder to maintain itself.28
Maritime vessels have become an increasingly essential part of warfare and administration following the
creation of the Anglo-Norman cross-channel realm. The people of England and and Normandy can draw on a
long tradition of expertise inherited from Scandinavian settlers in both regions, with some 200 or so ships
being deployed a generation ago during the Anglo-Norman civil war of 1101, but with usual engagements being
much smaller. Ships vary from Scandinavian-style longships or “snecca”, which are shallow and quick, to slower
but sturdier cogs, which are capable of carrying bulkier cargoes. In general, the value of naval manoeuvres lies
not in direct naval engagements, which are rare with the exception of piracy, but in the movement of men and
resources for engagements which take place of land. Recruitment of ships is typically outsourced to those with
expertise and is made possible through important ports such as Dover in England, which to give one example
is customarily obliged to give twenty ships to its king each year for fifteen days, with any additional days paid
for at the king’s cost. Ships can additionally be hired from other important foreign ports such as those in
Flanders, or purchased outright at a cost of about £50-66 per vessel, but this latter option represents a
substantial and costly investment and as such is relatively rare. 29
14
V. THE BOARD: GEOGRAPHY
The Anglo-Norman Realm
The Anglo-Norman realm comprises the cross-channel polity unified by the Norman duke William the
Conqueror in 1066 and currently held by his grandson King Stephen. The realm comprises two parts: the
Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy. Though the Duchy of Normandy is nominally subject
to the Kingdom of France, the strong tradition of Norman autonomy within France combined with the fact
that the duke of Normandy is also king of England and vice versa by virtue of inheritance means that in
practice Normandy operates more as part of the Anglo-Norman realm than as a subject of France.30 The two
regions are further tied by a cross-channel aristocracy of predominantly Norman or Breton descent which
holds lands in both regions, but whose primary language and culture are essentially French. 31 These additional
ties mean that Normandy and England operate as one in terms of the nobility, who will by preference
recognise the same man as king and duke rather than serve two masters. 32 At the same time, holding the two
lands together can be a difficult task requiring duplicate administrations and strong maritime links to tie them
together.33
The Kingdom of England
The kingdom of England is the wealthiest and most powerful kingdom in Britain, covering a little less than
60% of the island which it shares with the independent kingdom of Scotland to the north and the independent
Welsh kingdoms to the west. 34 The boundaries in the north have been marked by the River Tweed for the last
century while the boundary to the west is defended by Offa’s Dyke built some centuries earlier.35 Once divided
into several independent or overlapping kingdoms under the Anglo-Saxons, England was politically unified by
the House of Wessex in the ninth and tenth centuries in response to the pressures of Viking invasion. The idea
of a single ‘English’ people had an even longer history and was used as a tool to facilitate political unity within a
single royal government, common coinage, and local administration. 36
As a result however of the total shift in power following the conquest of 1066, the current aristocracy and
church hierarchy is almost exclusively Norman in terms of descent or background, with their own
language and customs. This means the aristocracy is predominantly French-speaking, though there are some of
both Norman and English descent due to limited intermarriage with the daughters of the displaced AngloSaxon nobility, and many of the present generation were born in England. Those who continue to speak the
English language or are solely of Anglo-Saxon descent are confined to the less powerful majority of
peasants, monks, minor gentry and townsmen.37
The wealth and population of the country is difficult to determine with precision, though the Domesday
Book completed two generations ago as a survey of the newly conquered kingdom gives some idea. Half of the
income of the kingdom is held by fewer than 200 barons, with the rest of the income going to the king or the
Church.38 There may be as many as 5000 knights in the kingdom, holding their lands and estates from the
barons above them in return for crops and military service. 39 About a half of these barons control fewer than
ten knights each as their tenants, while only a quarter control in excess of forty, with the greatest barons in the
realm (the earls) having over a hundred.40 The number of “well-born” families able to live off the labour of
others below the rank of knight is uncertain.41
15
The rural population is similarly difficult to determine, but the Domesday Book lists 268,862 individuals. The
Domesday Book however was never intended to work like a census, and importantly omitted the sizable
monastic population, the cities of London and Winchester, most of northern counties, and the family members
of slaves or peasants.42 If these individuals are included, the population of the kingdom may rise to as many as
1.5 million if not more.43
Ranked by wealth and population, the most important cities are those of London, Winchester, Lincoln, York,
Norwich, Canterbury, Colchester, Oxford, Gloucester and Wallingford. Most of the major towns and boroughs
are situated at ports or river crossings, and (as in the case of the first six named) are the seats of the local
bishop.44 The boroughs are also largely self-governing in terms of law and administration and hold special
privileges, though they still owe rents to the lord or bishop who controls them as well as loyalty to the king.45
The city of London boasts about 20,000 inhabitants as the largest city of the kingdom, and supported Stephen
as king when he announced that he would grant the most powerful Londoners a right in the royal election;
while the second tier of Winchester, Lincoln, York and Norwich have perhaps 5000 and certainly no more than
10,000.46 Canterbury has a particular importance as the seat of the archbishop who presides as head of the
Church in England, while York is the seat of the archbishop who controls the Church in the north and is a key
point of defence in the north of the kingdom (see Section VI, pp. 37-38). Winchester is important as the seat of
the royal treasury and as the location of the Domesday Book, and thus serves as an important centre of royal
administration.
Though most English trade is conducted locally, international trade is concentrated on the great annual
fairs in the region of East Anglia, at the towns of Boston, Stamford, St. Ives, King’s Lynn and Norwich.47
These fairs are heavily attended by merchants from Flanders, Scandinavia and Germany. Of similar standing in
the west is the St. Giles’ Fair at Winchester. The ports of Bristol and Chester do important trade with Ireland
as do the port of Southampton and Portsmouth with Normandy, but the bulk of trade is otherwise
concentrated along the east coast, as at the ports of Dover, Lynn and Boston. The counties of Flanders and
Boulogne are England’s most important trading partners, taking England’s wool exports to support the
Flemish and northern French textile industry, and providing for England’s imports in wine, dyes and other
goods from the continent.48
Though largely politically unified, there also parts of the kingdom with cultural distinctiveness. The
southwestern counties of Cornwall and Devon for instance have retained their ancient British-speaking
population which shares close cultural ties with Wales and Brittany. The counties of the north meanwhile have
their own cultural distinctiveness as areas of heavy Scandinavian settlement, albeit now integrated into the
regional Anglo-Saxon culture, along with some standing resentment at the particularly violent conquest of the
region as part of William the Conqueror’s “Harrying of the North”. Whether these points may manifest
themselves in more practical terms remains to be seen.
The Duchy of Normandy
Lying across the English Channel, the Duchy of Normandy is the most important continental possession of
the King of England, and is the principal source of the shared cross-channel aristocracy that governs England.
The region is bordered by the independent but neutral Duchy of Brittany to the west, by the counties of Maine
(ruled by Empress Matilda) and Blois (ruled by King Stephen’s brother Theobald) to the south, and by the
counties of Ponthieu (allied with Empress Matilda), Vermandois, and Ile-de-France to the east. The county of
the Vexin to the east has long been disputed between the dukes of Normandy and the kings of France, as the
main point of entry between Normandy and Ile-de-France, and has been uneasily divided into Norman Vexin
and French Vexin.
16
Nominally subject to the king of France, the duchy of Normandy is in practice largely autonomous and
historically a power to rival the kings of France even without the support of England. The duchy emerged in
the tenth century as a result of the negotiated settlement by the king of France with the Scandinavian Vikings
(“Northmen” or “Normans”) who had invaded the region, and who quickly adapted to French culture while
retaining a strong sense of a distinct regional identity. It was as duke of Normandy and cousin of King Edward
the Confessor that Duke William the Conqueror seized England. The current war between the grandchildren
of the Conqueror for their inheritance means that Normandy will be a major point of dispute in the current
Crisis, with the seigneur of Montgomery William Talvas currently leading an ongoing revolt in the south of
Normandy with the support of Empress Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou.
The capital of the Norman administration is centred on Rouen, the seat of the archbishop of Rouen who is
the most senior member of the Church in Normandy. The city lies on the lower River Seine within about a day
or two’s ride or a few days’ march from Paris, the seat of the kings of France, and therefore there are important
French and Norman defences located on either side of the county of Vexin. To the immediate south at about
half the distance of Paris is the city of Évreux, also the seat of a bishop.
A second important centre of ducal administration further away from the border is Caen, on the northern
coast of Normandy. The key defence of the city is the Château de Caen, a fortified castle built on a hillock by
William the Conqueror in 1066, and subsequently expanded with a keep and a great hall capable of hosting
over a thousand knights. The city was also where William founded the abbeys of the Eglise Saint Etienne and
the Eglise de la Sainte Trinité. The remaining major settlements in Normandy which serve as the seats of
bishops are those at Coutances, Bayeux, Falaise and Lisieux in the west and centre of the duchy, and Séez
(Sées) and Avranches in the south and south west.
Normandy is also the site of a number of important abbeys which have trained and educated numerous
churchmen for the administration of the Anglo-Norman realm and whose fame lends prestige to the dukes of
Normandy. The abbey of Fécamp has served as the burial site of several Norman dukes and is subject to no
bishop in Normandy, being answerable only to the Pope himself. The abbey of Bec in Bec-Hellouin educated
the future Pope Alexander II, as well as the famous theologians and philosophers Ivo of Chartres, Lanfranc,
and Anselm -- the last two of whom went on to become archbishops of Canterbury and are widely regarded as
saints. The abbey also owns administers a number of foundations in England, including St Neots Priory in
Cambridgeshire, Goldcliff Priory in Monmouthshire, and Tooting Bec near London. The current Abbot Boson
has however been suffering from illness recently, leaving administration to Prior Theobald of Bec. The
recently founded abbey of Savigny is the head of an international federation of reformed monks (the
Congregation of Savigny) and has been a particular favourite of King Henry and of King Stephen, who
founded or supported thirty or so abbeys affiliated with it throughout the realm, including the abbey of Furness
in England. Finally, the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel stands as a striking fortified island monastery, built in
Romanesque style in the tidal estuary of the River Couesnon on the far western border of Normandy.
The Kingdom of France
The Kingdom of France (Francia) is one of the largest polities in Europe, second only to its neighbour the
Holy Roman Empire which stretches from northern Germany and down into parts of Italy. The kingdom
traced its origins to the Carolingian Empire brought together by the Frankish king Charles the Great (‘Carolus
Magnus’ or ‘Charlemagne’), whose realm was divided among his grandsons by the Treaty of Verdun in 843.
Over the course of the ninth and tenth centuries, the West Frankish Kingdom was further broken up by
17
internal pressures from dynastic rivals and rising regional lords, and by external pressures such as Viking raids.49
The kingdom in 1136 is thus notably fragmented and predominantly devolved to local institutions, castellans
and lords, while many of the individual counties and duchies have developed strong local or regional
identities reinforced by the dynasties which control them. Only the most important of these are listed below.
Though nominally lord of the realm to whom the great princes owe fealty, in practice the king of France
controls little outside of the royal domain of Île-de-France centred on Paris, and at best is little more than a
first among equals.50 The position of the king is thus one of constant manoeuvring in a world of dukes and
counts over whom a king was no more powerful. 51 Since 987, the kingdom has been ruled by the House of
Capet, the descendants of Hugh Capet. Unlike the experience in Normandy and England, where the throne
passes between brothers, the Capetian throne has passed from father to son for nearly a century and a half
since the dynasty has been established.52 The current Capetian king of France is Louis VI, whose son Louis
VII is expected to succeed him.
Île-de-France (the royal domain)
The royal domain of Île-de-France is centred on the middle Seine and its capital city of Paris, and is the sole
area under the direct control of the French king. The domain is bracketed on two sides by the counties of Blois
and Champagne, is bordered to the south by the duchy of Burgundy and the duchy of Aquitaine, and to north
by the duchy of Normandy, the counties of Vermandois and Valois, and the disputed county of French Vexin.
The city of Paris has been built up around the island of Île de a Cité since Roman times. The island of Île de a
Cité is the site both of the great Cathedral of Saint-Étienne and of the fortified royal palace of Palais de la
Cité, expanded by Louis VI with the assistance of Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis. The Palais is surrounded by
wall 130 metres long and 110 metres wide, with its own private chambers, meeting rooms for the court, and
chapel dedicated to Saint Nicholas. At the centre of the Palais is a massive keep, the Grosse Tour, which is
nearly 12 metres wide at its base and has walls three meters thick. In addition to the ramparts of the Palais and
the island, and wooden stockades around some of the churches and monasteries, the city is protected by walls
on its right bank running from the Hôtel de Ville to the Louvre, featuring more than thirty towers and four
gates. The left bank of the city with its smaller population is largely undefended.
Other notable sites within the city of Paris are the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the burial site of some
of the earliest kings of France and site of an important school; and the Abbey of Saint-Denis, the burial site
of the Capetians, which has just begun to be rebuilt in a daring new architectural style that its abbot hopes will
enhance the prestige of the king and city. On the unprotected left bank of the city in the neighbourhood of
Mount Sainte-Geneviève, outside the jurisdiction of the bishop of Paris, are the Abbey of St. Geneviève and
the Abbey of St. Victor, which are home to famous schools which offer training in theology and philosophy
to several thousand students from across Europe. The autonomy of these schools from the bishop’s
jurisdiction has allowed Paris to become a major educational centre to rival that of the neighbouring county of
Chartres. Though the court has spent more time in Paris lately following the expansion of the Palais by King
Louis, there are additional fortified royal residences at nearby Vincennes, at Compiègne in the north, and at
Orléans in the south.
18
County of Blois, Brie, Champagne and Chartres
The four counties to the east and west of Ile-de-France represent the inheritance of Count Theobald II of
Champagne from two sides of his family: in the east, the counties of Blois and Chartres from his father Count
Stephen II; in the west, the counties of Brie and Champagne from his uncle Count Hugh. Theobald is the elder
brother of King Stephen, and was once considered a possible candidate for the throne of England; he is
married to the Austrian-born Matilda of Carinthia, the sister of the current Duke Ulrich of Carinthia.
The county of Blois is an extensive county centred on the capital city of Blois on the river Loire, whose castle
was the seat of the counts going back to at least the ninth century. To the north is the county of Chartres,
located in the agriculturally rich region of Beauce between the river Seine and the Loire, centred on the
important cathedral city of Chartres. Though the county is judicially and administratively governed by the
counts, the area immediately around the cathedral (the cloître) is a bustling free-trade zone where taxes are
collected by the bishop and clergy rather than by the count. The cathedral is an important pilgrimage site,
claiming to hold the relic of the Sancta Camisa, the tunic worn by the Virgin Mary at the time of Christ’s birth.
The present cathedral is an impressive romanesque structure built a little over a hundred years ago by Bishop
Fulbert to replace an earlier one which had been destroyed by fire. The town and cathedral were both damaged
by fire in 1134; construction has immediately begun on the first tower of the partly-damaged cathedral, at the
northern end of the building. Arguably the most famous feature of the cathedral however is the celebrated
School of Chartres, which has been an important centre for scholarship and for the training of the clergy for
over a century. Perhaps its most famous product was two decades ago in the person of Bishop Ivo of Chartres,
whose Decretum is currently the major collection of canon law. Nonetheless, the school is limited in scale and
capacity and more recently looks to be in competition with the schools of Paris in Ile-de-France. The current
chancellor of Chartres is the famous logician Gilbert of Poitiers, who also lectures at Paris.
The county of Champagne was itself formed from the counties of Bar-sur-Aube, Troyes and Vitry-le-François
during the late Count Hugh’s lifetime. Its main episcopal see is the Cathedral of Troyes, which was the
preferred seat of the counts as well as the site of the council which confirmed the creation of the Order of
Knights Templar in 1128; the order was closely supported by Count Hugh, who joined it some years earlier
when it only had a few dozen knights. The first and current Grand Master of the Order is Hugues de Payens,
who was a former vassal of Count Hugh and had grown up in a village near Troyes. Arguably more important
even than the Knights Templar is the Abbey of Clairvaux, a monastery of reformed Cistercians founded by
Count Hugh in a wild valley of a tributary of the Aube, and governed by the influential abbot and preacher
Bernard of Clairvaux – arguably the best-connected and most influential man in Christendom. In the 1120s
the more remote wilds of Champagne also served as a refuge for the controversial scholar and philosopher
Peter Abelard, now serving as abbot of Saint Gildas’ in Brittany. In economic terms, the county of Champagne
is especially wealthy for its famous cloth-fairs, which rival the fairs of Flanders as the greatest in Europe, and
serve as the great clearing-house of textiles imported from nearby Flanders and exported to the markets of
France, Germany, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.53 These fairs are also important opportunities for
the hosting of international tournaments, where noblemen from across Europe prove their skill at arms.
Though Blois and Champagne are governed by a single count, the two bishops of the counties are subject to
different archbishops: the bishop of Chartres in the west is subject to the archbishop of Tours, while the
bishop of Champagne in the east is subject to the archbishop of Rheims.
19
County of Vermandois and Valois
To the north of Ile-de-France and Champagne are the counties of Valois and Vermandois, the latter of which
also borders Ponthieu, Flanders and imperial Hainaut to the north and Normandy to the west. Vermandois and
Valois are separated by the intervening territories of Ile-de-France (under the king of France) and Champagne
(under the count of Champagne), but both are ruled by Count Ralph the Valliant, a first cousin of King
Louis of France, a brother-in-law of Count Theobald of Champagne and King Stephen of England (by their
sister Eleanor of Blois), and seneschal of France. Fearless in battle, he lost an eye at the siege of the chateau of
Livry in 1129. He was appointed seneschal of France in 1131 and acts as the king’s representative charged with
controlling the administration and dispatching justice in specific districts.
The agriculturally fertile county of Vermandois lies in the Picardy region of northern France, organised
around the fortified domains of St Quentin and Péronne as a buffer against raids from the north. The city of
St Quentin, centred on the monastery at the tomb of the Christian Roman martyr Quentin, developed rapidly
in previous centuries and was granted a large degree of autonomy by an early municipal charter in the eleventh
century. The economic base of the city is its textile industry and its commercial position as a trading centre
between the ports and textile industry of neighbouring Flanders and the great cloth-fairs of Champagne. Its
hinterland is also an important producer of grain and woad, which rivals that of neighbouring Ponthieu. There
are also fortifications at Péronne and Boves, the latter of which features a circular ring-fort. The main episcopal
see of the county is Amiens, a city on the bridge of the Somme, which also governs the Church in Ponthieu.
The city was granted its charter with autonomous liberties in 1115, which was also the year of the death of its
patron saint, Bishop Godfrey of Amiens.
The county of Valois lies further south in the valley of the Oise river in Picardy, and was also part of the ‘Oise
line’ (along with the Vexin) designed to buffer against attacks on Paris. The capital of the county is at Crépy,
which is the main seat of the counts and profits as a market for leather, cloth, spices and other goods nearby
the great fairs of Champagne.
County of Vexin
Like Vermandois and Valois, the County of Vexin is a part of the “Oise line” of defences in the Oise valley
designed to buffer the royal domain of Ile-de-France against attacks, and is a strategic and contested location
between the Duchy of Normandy and the royal domain of the Kingdom of France. Located on the northern
(right) bank of the Seine, it covers a strategic plateau between the French capital of Paris and the city of Rouen
in Normandy, and is a fertile region on account of its valley position. The county was divided into Norman
Vexin and French Vexin by the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, signed between the duke of Normandy and the
king of France in the year 911. It is likely to be an important battleground in any future conflict between
Normandy and France.
Norman Vexin is the region bounded by the rivers Epte, Andelle and Seine. The primary defensive
fortification in the region is the Château de Gisors, which consists of a motte with a strong octagonal stone
keep surrounded by a bailey, protecting the neighbouring town of Gisors.
French Vexin is the region of Isle-de-France bounded by the rivers Epte, Oise and Seine. Its primary
defence is the historic town of Pontoise, which guards the road to the greater city of Paris a mere 20km away.
The region is mainly controlled by the French royal family and its vassals, but the important County of Meulan
within French Vexin is ruled Count Waleran de Beaumont, a vassal of both King Louis and King Stephen
20
who mainly attends the Anglo-Norman court of Stephen. Its main settlement is the town of Meulan, built on a
fortified island in the Seine with a fortified bridge where river tolls are collected. The town is the site of the
church of St Nicaise, which serves as a priory of the abbey of Bec in Normandy. The town is also protected by
the count’s nearby castle of Locenis, which includes the collegiate church of St. Nicholas. The count is also
supported by his chief tenant, the viscount of Meulan, who has his own castle at Mézy-sur-Seine, and by the
viscount of Mantes, whose town lies within the royal domain. The dual allegiance of Count Waleran to King
Stephen and King Louis places the county of Meulan and the Vexin more broadly in a precarious position.
County of Flanders
On the northernmost tip of the kingdom of France, the County of Flanders is the main hub for the
increasing urbanisation and commercialisation of European society, a so-called ‘Flemish miracle’ which has
made it the most urbanised area of Europe north of the Alps. 54 The success of the region has been in large part
due to its central position in trading bulk goods and raw materials, actively promoted by the Flemish counts.55
Flanders has become the primary trading partner of England, importing wool as a raw material for the clothmaking industry in the Flemish towns, and exporting textiles to the cloth-fairs of the County of Champagne:
from which Flemish cloth reaches markets in France, Germany, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. 56 The
region additionally imports cheese from England, while exporting foodstuffs and continental luxury goods such
as wine, woad and silk to England.57 A reason for this is the region’s position: within forty miles of the English
port of Dover, or a quarter of the distance between Portsmouth and Normandy. 58
The treasury and administrative base of the county is in the north at Bruges, while southern Flanders includes
the more locally autonomous counties of Artois, Guines and St. Pol, and part of the greater region of Picardy.59
The division corresponds to the traditional fault-line between the Germanic north and the francophone south,
though the northern elites are functionally bilingual.60 The seven largest centres are the interior towns of Arras,
Douai, Lille, Saint-Omer,e and Yrpres, along with the important northern ports of Bruges and Ghent, each
boasting somewhere below 5000 inhabitants as of 1100; a favourable comparison with England, in which
London boasts about 20,000 inhabitants, while the second tier of Norwich, Winchester and York have no
more than 10,000.61 These towns each hold annual international fairs between late February and early
November, each lasting up to thirty days,62 and have formed guilds as a means of internal political
organisation.63 The growth of these urban centres has expanded beyond the agricultural capacity of their
surrounding hinterlands, and they are thus reliant on imports of grain from France and England to supplement
their own agricultural production.64 The region is also famous for its tournaments which coincide with the fairs,
from which mercenaries can be hired,65 and is centre of shipping from which transport vessels may be hired. 66
The region’s current ruler is Count Thierry of Flanders, who gained the county as a compromise between
the candidates of King Henry of England (who backed the then-Count Stephen of Boulogne) and King Louis
VI (who backed William Clito, the now-dead illegitimate son of Duke Robert Curthose of Normandy), after
the murder of his childless cousin Count Charles the Good in 1127 left the county without an heir. 67 Count
Thierry was able to gain his position with the backing of the Flemish towns, who were fiercely independent of
French or English interference and claimed that they alone had the right to elect their count: during the civil
war they showed themselves able to close their gates and refuse any candidate they did not recognise. 68 Count
Thierry has been married to Sibyl of Anjou since 1134, making him brother-in-law to Geoffrey of Anjou and
Empress Matilda.69 Nonetheless his position as neighbour of Boulogne has meant he has pursued a neutral
e
Saint-Omer was originally coastal but had begun silting up, and therefore used the port of Gravelines for its trade.
21
position toward King Stephen. 70 Thierry’s main interests are on his southern and eastern borders, though he is
also interested in the crusades.71
County of Boulogne
In spite of its small size, the County of Boulogne is of great strategic and economic importance on account of
its geographical proximity to England.72 Alongside Saint-Omer and Gravelines in Flanders, the ancient port of
Wissant in Boulogne serves as the main port for cross-channel traffic and has been the closest to the English
coast since Roman times (Calais, Dunkirk and Ostend are little more than sandbanks). 73 It was because of this
proximity that Count Stephen was able to cross quickly to England and have himself proclaimed king before
his rivals could decide how to act. The county thus controls trade in England’s primary export of wool with the
cloth-producing towns of Flanders.74 Though once part of Flanders proper, the county is currently held directly
by King Stephen as a vassalage of the king of France.75 The county also includes the exclave viscounty of
Merck, which borders Flanders and includes the currently unimportant villages of Merck-Saint-Liévin and
Calais, while being separated from Boulogne proper by the independent Flemish county of Guines. 76
County of Ponthieu
To the immediate west of Boulogne and Flanders is the county of Ponthieu, which lies on the eastern border
of Normandy and the northern border of Vermandois. The county is centred on the Somme valley, with its
capital at Abbeville, a fortified island in the Somme. The city is subject to the Abbey of Saint-Riquier, which
has the count of Ponthieu as its patron. The current count of Ponthieu is Count Guy II, a member of the
Talvas family, and count since his father William Talvas retired to become seigneur of Montgomery in southern
Normandy. William Talvas has been in revolt against the Duke of Normandy with the support of the Duke of
Anjou for some time, and Ponthieu under his son has therefore aligned itself with the court of Anjou.
Economically the county’s interests are similar to those of Boulogne and Flanders. The county trades salt
mined from the town of Rue, woad grown in Picard, and textiles, through Abbeville’s port of Grand-Laviers at
the mouth of the Somme. The county is part of the diocese of Amiens in Vermandois.
Counties of Anjou, Maine and Touraine (‘Greater Anjou’)
Greater Anjou comprises the counties of Anjou (with its capital in Angers), Maine (with its capital in Le
Mans), and Touraine (with its capital in Tours), which each have a cathedral and bishop in their respective
capitals. The three counties are ruled by Geoffrey of Anjou, the husband of the Empress Matilda, while the
Archbishop of Tours exercises ecclesiastical control over the three dioceses of the region.
The counts of Anjou have been traditional enemies of the Normans, and the county of Maine which sits
between Anjou and Normandy has been the chief theatre of Angevin-Norman conflict.77 Maine was ruled by
the dukes of Normandy from the 1060s, by a native dynasty from 1092-1110, and then for the last twenty-five
years by Anjou.78 The county struggled with an outbreak of heresy following the arrival of the heretic Henry of
Lausanne in 1101, though it was brought under control thanks to the work of the bishop of Le Mans.
22
Duchy of Aquitaine
The Duchy of Aquitaine is one of the largest parts of the kingdom of France, stretching along the Atlantic
coast from the southern border of Brittany to the northern border of Navarre in the Iberian peninsula, and
reaching far inland. Incorporating a number of territories and fiercely protective of its centuries-old tradition
of autonomy within the kingdom, the duchy comprises the Duchy of Aquitaine proper, the Duchy of
Gascony, the counties of Poitou, Périgord, la Marche and Auvergne, and the viscounty of Limoges. In the
north it is bordered by Brittany, Anjou, Blois and Ile-de-France, in the east by Burgundy and Toulouse, and in
the south by the kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre.
The ducal lands are rich and fertile, with a temperate climate and warm summers. Over a century ago the
Flemish abbot Herriger of Lobbes described the land as ‘opulent Aquitaine, sweet as nectar thanks to its
vineyards... overflowing with fruits of every kind’.79 Aquitaine and Poitou boast fertile plains, high tors and
dense woodlands, bounded by hills or mountains to the east or south, while the duchy of Gascony is
characterised mainly by flat sandy wastes and scrubland.80 The wealth of the duchy is largely agricultural, with
its exports underpinned by wine and salt, traded through the port cities of Bordeaux and La Rochelle.81 The
duchy is also criss-crossed by the Camino de Santiago (St. James’ Way), which is the most important
pilgrimage route after those of Rome and Jerusalem.
Descended from the Roman province of Aquitania, Aquitaine features the strongest vestiges of Roman
culture and civilisation within the kingdom, and a rich and vibrant culture which is often contrasted with the
more staid culture of the north. Its legal tradition for instance is based in part on a mixture of Visigothic and
Roman law, a result of which is that women can inherit property in their own right and rule autonomously.82
In terms of language the duchy is divided: most of the duchy speak the langue d’oc Occitan, though the langue
d’oïl Poitevin is spoken north of the Loire and in Poitou, and the unrelated Basque is spoken in parts of
southern Gascony.83 The duchy is a particular hotbed of vernacular literature and song, centred either on
chansons de gestes celebrating military ideals of courage and loyalty and the heroes of the recent or distant past, or
on the lais or lays focused on courtly love. These songs are recited by troubadours, of whom Duke William IX
of Aquitaine is considered to have been the first, to the accompaniment of such instruments as the rebec, viol,
fidel, bow, pipe and tabor.84
The current ruler of the duchy is Duke William X, who fought for the County of Toulouse on behalf of his
mother’s inheritance but was unable to hold on to it. After the death of his wife, Duke William married the
daughter of his father’s mistress, but has been subsequently been widowed a second time. Like his father, the
duke has had a sometimes stormy relationship with the Church, having initially supported Antipope
Anacletus and expelling the bishops who supported Pope Innocent from their dioceses, but he recently
reconciled with the Pope through the mediation of Bernard of Clairvaux in 1135. A known lover of the arts
and a respected warrior, Duke William has two marriageable daughters by his late wife: Eleanor and
Petronilla, the elder of whom is heir to the duchy in her own right.
The main centres of political power in Aquitaine are the ancient Merovingian palace of Poitiers (whose
Maubergeonne Tower holds its ducal apartments), the Ombrière Palace at Bordeaux with its tall keep
protected by walls which stood from Roman times, and the Tutelle Palace not far outside the walls of
Bordeaux.85 Other important ducal keeps and palaces are located at Limoges, Niort, Sainte-Jean d’Angély,
Blaye, Melle and Bayonne,86 while the duke’s favourite hunting lodge lies at Talmont in Poitou. 87 The church in
the duchy is administered through the five episcopal sees of Poitiers, Angoulême, Saintes, Limoges and
Périgueux.88 Poitiers is particularly famous for the cathedral school founded by the archbishop a little over a
century ago on the model of that at Chartres; 89 but arguably the most important religious institution in the
duchy is the great Benedictine abbey of Cluny, which was the centre of the influential Cluniac monastic
23
reform movement, and which still exercises considerable influence throughout Christendom through its abbot
Peter the Venerable.
County of Toulouse
Bounded by the Duchy of Burgundy to the northeast, the Duchy of Aquitaine to the north and west, and the
Mediterranean to its immediate south, the County of Toulouse features a similar economy, culture and legal
tradition to that of neighbouring Aquitaine, and has long been a rival of the duchy. In 1096 Count Raymond IV
of Toulouse embarked on the First Crusade and began to carve up for himself lands in Palestine, where his son
Alphonse Jourdain was born - receiving his nickname in honour of his sacred baptism in the holy river
Jordan. Raymond’s lands in Toulouse were protected for his family by the Church as part of the ‘Truce of
God’, but the neighbouring Duke William IX of Aquitaine invaded the county, claiming it as the lawful
inheritance of his wife Philippa and thus sparking a series of succession wars. Though Alphonse inherited the
county of Toulouse along with the neighbouring marquisate of Provence after the death of his half-brother
in 1112, it was many years of fighting before he could make good his claim to either, as Toulouse was occupied
by the duke of Aquitaine and Provence was claimed by the count of Barcelona. Having reclaimed and
consolidated both positions in 1125, Count Alphonse has jealously guarded against those who would seek to
annex his lands ever since, and remains well-regarded by his subjects after he cut the traditional taxes on salt
and wine following his recognition as count. Alphonse has been married for ten years to Faydiva d’Uzès and
has two infant children: a son Raymond and a daughter Faydiva. He has sought to undermine the neighbouring
lords of Montpellier, and has also claimed the right as marquis of Provence to act as regent of the viscounty
of Narbonne, whose viscount Aimery II left the territory to his underaged, five-year old daughter Ermengarde
following his death at the Battle of Fraga in 1134.
Duchy of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy falls in the middle of the eastern border of the kingdom of France, bordered by
Toulouse to the south, Champagne and Ile-de-France to the north, and Aquitaine to the west; while the Holy
Roman Empire and the imperial Kingdom of Burgundy lies to the east (sometimes called the Kingdom of
Arles to distinguish it from the duchy). The Duchy of Burgundy consists of a core ducal area focused around
the capital and episcopal seat of Dijon, the cities of Autun and Auxerre, and two important monasteries, the
Cluniac abbey of Vézelay and the Cistercian abbey of Citeaux. The duchy also holds the allegiance of several
vassals, including the bishop of Langres and the counties of Nevers, Chalon and Macon.
The current ruler of the duchy Duke Hugh II of Burgundy, a member of the House of Burgundy who also
acts as official ward and guardian of the St. Benigne Monastery in Dijon. The House of Burgundy was founded
as a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty of France when it was granted to Duke Robert I by his elder brother
King Henry of the Franks in 1032 following a rebellion. Robert had very little control over his various vassals,
who had been granted great power in order to keep the duchy whole, and did little in his long reign to rectify
this beyond raiding his own vassals for their wealth. More recent generations of dukes however have sought to
restore the ducal demesne and to strengthen their control over the duchy and its dependencies. Nonetheless,
the control of the French crown over the duchy remains tenuous and reliant on the goodwill and cooperation
of the dukes. Though economically wealthy by virtue of its commercial position between the kingdom of
France and the empire, the collection and taxation of such wealth by external powers is for the moment at least
a non-starter.
24
The Duke of Burgundy’s sister Helie is married to William Talvas, seigneur of Montgomery in Normandy
and ally of Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou. Duke Hugh is thus also the uncle of Count Guy of Ponthieu, the
son of Helie and William.
Western territories outside France and England
Kingdom of Scotland
The kingdom of Scotland is England’s most powerful land neighbour, lying to the immediate north of the
River Tweed, although in previous centuries the border between the two kingdoms has been fluid and illdefined. The kingdom features a population of a few hundred thousand 90 and is divided by language and
culture into at least two major nations, which can be broadly defined as Gaelic-speakers in the highlands and
English-speakers in the lowlands.91 The Gaelic Scots represent the historic core of the kingdom of Scotland
north of the River Forth, and speak the same language as that of Ireland. The English Scots represent the
descendants of the old kingdom of Northumbria, and occupy the lowland territory of Lothian between the
Tweed and the River Forth.92 This linguistic division entails a cross-border cultural unity as well, with for
example the English-speaking south of Scotland sharing patron saints such as Saint Cuthbert with the north of
England, and the Gaelic-speaking north sharing patrons such as Saint Columba with Ireland.93 The kingdom
additionally features a minority of Picts, descendants of the ancient British kingdom of Strathclyde who speak
a language similar to Welsh, in the southwestern region of Galloway;94 and a more recent minority of Norse
Scots on the northern and western coasts, whose Scandinavian language is the result of generations of trade
and settlement within the wider North Sea world.95 Finally, the kingdom has seen an increased settlement of
French-speaking Norman Scots from England and the continent, particularly in the lowland parts of the
kingdom, sponsored in recent years especially by the kings of Scotland.96
In terms of administration, Scotland’s royal court is based at its capital in Roxburgh, with the church centred
on the key cathedrals of Saint Andrews and the newly founded see of Glasgow in Galloway. The king for the
last decade has been David I of Scotland, son of the Scottish King Malcolm III of the Gaelic House of
Canmore and the English exile Margaret of the House of Wessex.97 David was additionally brought up at the
court of Henry I of England, and his sister Edith married the English king;98 as a result, David is the uncle of
Empress Matilda and sworn to recognise her, invading England on her behalf this year. Through his late wife
Queen Maud of Scotland, the daughter of the earl of Northumbria and countess of Huntingdon, David has
also been earl of Huntingdon in the southeast of England and has a claim to the north of England.99
David can thus be considered an Anglo-Scottish monarch with close cultural affinities with the Gaelic,
English, and Norman worlds.100 David’s links with the wider Norman world have been an inspiration of his
desire to reform the administration and church of his kingdom along Norman lines.101 A major feature of this
policy has been the introduction of feudalism by means of Norman settlement in Scotland from the AngloNorman regions of Huntingdon and Yorkshire.102 To take an example, one such settler from Yorkshire, Robert
Bruce, became Lord of Annandale in Scotland a decade ago, and has brought many Flemings from his English
estates to settle in the southwest of Scotland.103 Such settlement and feudalisation has been heaviest in the
lowlands, in regions of Lothian, Fife, Gowrie, Angus, Mearns, and lowland Moray, 104 and has been easiest to
implement in lands within the kingdom which were surrendered to the Crown in the wake of rebellion, as in
the case of the rebellion of Moray in 1130.105 Feudalism within Scotland however remains uneven and
traditional non-feudal structures of land tenure also exist,106 with the north and west operating according to
Gaelic tribal customs.107
25
The Scottish treasury relies primarily on lands which fall within the royal domain as a source of revenue.108
Within the Gaelic heartlands in the north and west, the Crown exerts a right to collect tribute (cáin) every two
or three years and to claim hospitality (conveth) on the occasion of a royal visit, as the most important of its
ancient Celtic rights.109 In the Normanised lowlands, the Crown exercises control according to the more
familiar feudal structure, while retaining royal forests under its exclusive control such as in Gowrie and
Mearns.110 The Crown additionally has the right to place levies on any ships entering the kingdom, and as a
result has promoted increased urbanisation and commercialisation along with the introduction of coinage
to increase trade in recent years. The result has been the growth of important ports in Perth, Stirling, Inverness,
and Ayr, the latter pair of which have also served to extend royal authority in difficult to control areas. 111
The relations between the kingdoms of Scotland and England have occasionally been violent, with the
southwest lowlands of Annandale, Nithsdale and Ayrshire being unusually well-defended by hill-forts and
castles.112 Five major raids into England took place between 1070-94, prompting the English response of
ravaging the south of Scotland and founding the castle at Newcastle on the River Tyne.113 Though such raids
are infrequent and the border enjoyed relative peace for the last generation, such conflicts are bitterly
remembered in the north of England.114 The latest engagement was the invasion of the North in January
1136, during which King David seized a number of key settlements along the border. King Stephen responded
quickly and the two kings agreed the Treaty of Durham on 5 February 1136, returning Wark, Alnwick,
Norham and Newcastle to King Stephen, while leaving King David in control of Carlisle, Doncaster, and
much of Cumberland and Lancashire. David also relinquished his title of earl of Huntingdon to his eldest
son Prince Henry, as holding it would require taking an oath of loyalty to King Stephen, which would conflict
with his earlier oath to recognise Empress Matilda as Queen of England. 115 The treaty may not be permanent
however, and rival English and Scottish claims to Northumbria and Cumbria in particular have yet to be
definitively settled.116
As in other parts of Europe, the succession of the eldest son of the ruling monarch (primogeniture) is rare in
Scotland, but David is committed to ensuring the success of his dynasty and is likely to designate his eldest son
Prince Henry as his successor.117
Kingdoms of Ireland
To the west of Britain lies the island of Ireland, historically divided into many overlapping kingdoms and
dynasties, but increasingly consolidated into a number of great provincial kingdoms vying for hegemony over
the whole island. The two most powerful dynasties at present are the O’Connors (Uí Conchobair), the kings
with their powerbase in the kingdom of Connacht in the west, and the O’Briens (Uí Briain), the kings with
their powerbase in the kingdom of Munster in the south. In the past decade the King of Connacht, Turlough
O’Connor (Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair), was able to maintain sufficiently wide sway over the island through
effective military and political manoeuvring that he was able to claim the coveted title of High King of Ireland
and fell just short of making it a reality.118 By deploying a fleet of 190 ships in a grand campaign and
partitioning the kingdom of Munster into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Thomond under Conor O’Brien
(Conchobar Ua Briain) and the Kingdom of Desmond under Donnchadh McCarthy (Donnchadh Mac
Carthaig), Turlough was able to weaken his main dynastic rivals. Since 1131 however Turlough has been beset
by internal pressures: although he is supported by his sons Conor (Conchobar) and Tadhg (Tadc), Turlough’s
opponents have tried to depose him in favour of his other son Rory, who has the support of the most
important bishops and clergy in the country. 119 Many of Turlough’s most important castles and defences have
been burnt, and it remains to be seen which faction will emerge victorious.
26
Ireland does important trade with the ports of Bristol and Chester in England. The main Irish ports of Cork,
Dublin, Limerick and Waterford were founded by Scandinavians and each have their own kings, who are
traditionally of mixed Hiberno-Norse culture and ancestry and speak Norse and Irish; though it is also
common for the more powerful neighbouring kings to install a member of their family as king of these cities.
In terms of cultural links, Ireland is linked with the Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland, with the wider Norsespeaking world through it cities, and with the Kingdom of Gwynedd in Wales, whose king Gruffudd ap Cynan
has family ties to the kingdom of Dublin and uses it as a base for political and military support.
The head of the Church in Ireland is Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, an active reformer who has been
keen to promote Roman customs, new religious orders, and general religious discipline within the Church.
Another influential figure within the church at the present time is the similarly reformist Bishop Gilbert of
Limerick, who convened the Synod of Ráth Breasail which drew up the official church boundaries on the
island two decades ago. A generation ago a number of key Irish bishops in the Hiberno-Norse cities, such as
those of Dublin and Waterford, were appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury, which was a key precedent
for the interference of Canterbury in the Irish Church. This precedent was removed by the Synod, but Dublin
alone was omitted from proceedings and so in practice is still under the control of Canterbury. Indeed, the
current bishop of Dublin, Gregory (Gréne), received his position in 1121 at the hands of the late Archbishop
Ralph d’Escures of Canterbury. Beyond the British Isles, the Irish Church also has important continental links
through the exclusively Gaelic Benedictine monasteries (Schottenklöster) established in Germany as part of
the Hiberno-Scottish mission in the last century, which include the famous Scots Monastery of St. James in
Regensburg, the Abbey of St. James at Würzburg, and the Abbey of St. James at Erfurt.
Kingdoms of Wales
The mountainous, hilly and forested land of Wales to the west of England is a contested space, divided
between a number of decentralised native Welsh kingdoms and the more recent ‘marcher lordships’ of AngloNorman settlers, who occupy the so-called Welsh March that forms the frontier between the kingdom of
England and the kingdoms of Wales.
The northern and central parts of Wales remain under the control of the Welsh princes, based in the
kingdom of Gwynedd in the north (ruled by Gruffudd ap Cynan), the principality of Deheubarth in the
south (ruled by Gruffydd ap Rhys and his wife Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd), and the kingdom of Powys in
the north-central March (ruled by Madog ap Maredudd).120
The eastern and southern parts of Wales are under Anglo-Norman occupation, governed by the marcher
lordships of Glamorgan, Pembroke, and Brecon.121 The lordship of Glamorgan, centred on its key
settlement of Cardiff and further defended by the castellated settlement of Caerleon on the west bank of the
River Usk, is part of the earldom of Gloucester, held by King Stephen’s cousin Earl Robert of Gloucester.122
The lordship of Pembroke in the southwest is a direct territorial holding of the English Crown, reinforced by a
Flemish colony settled under King Henry to provide a group staunchly loyal to the English Crown in the
defence against the Welsh kingdom.123 The lordship of Brecon in the southwest also features the direct royal
territorial holding of Carmarthen.124
The division of political power in Wales also means a divided Church. Of the three main Welsh ecclesiastical
centres at Llandaff and St. Davids, the current bishop of Llandaff has recognised the authority of the
archbishop of Canterbury, while the bishop of St. Davids claims autonomy within Britain as head of an
independent Church in Wales.
27
In England proper, the border with Wales and the Welsh March is protected by the earldoms of Hereford,
Shrewsbury and Chester.125 Hereford and Shrewsbury were forfeited to the English Crown after the rebellion
of their lords. Chester remains under the control of Earl Ranulf de Gernon, whose father had held title to
much of Cumberland and Lancaster, lands recently surrendered to Scotland as part of the Treaty of Durham
and a possible source of dissatisfaction for the earl.126
As descendants of the earliest inhabitants of Britain known from history, the native Welsh share close cultural
ties with the people of Brittany and Cornwall with whom they effectively share a language, and travellers and
stories such as those of the legendary King Arthur travel freely between both regions. English encroachment
into Wales has chiefly been organised by private dynastic ventures, delegation of wide powers to the AngloNorman marcher lords, and by diplomatically playing off the Welsh princes against each other. 127 When
necessary, it has also occasionally been reinforced by major royal expeditions, as under King Henry in 1114 and
1121, though the hilly Welsh terrain makes campaigning difficult.128 There are however some signs of a
possible Welsh resurgence on account of a recent revolt in south Wales, where Hywel ap Maredudd, the
Welsh lord of Brycheiniog (Brecknockshire), defeated a group of Norman and English colonists in the Battle
of Llwchwr on the Gower (Gŵyr) Peninsula in January 1136. Whether other Welsh lords rise up to take
advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the succession in England remains to be seen.
Duchy of Brittany
Despite the historic efforts of both the dukes of Normandy and the king of France, the duchy of Normandy
remains outside the control of either: though some Breton lords were important allies of the Normans during
the 1066 conquest of England, and became the second largest group in the post-conquest aristocracy.129 One
reason for the difficulty of subjugating the duchy is that Brittany has few clear geographical boundaries, as the
rough terrain of the Armorican peninsula dissolves into the rolling plains of its French neighbours and is thus
difficult to occupy effectively. Linguistically the duchy is broadly divided between speakers of French in the
east and speakers of Breton in the west, whose Celtic language and ancestry traces back to settlement from
Britain in Roman times -- though many of the duchy’s subjects are bilingual. The people on the western
peninsula thus share particularly close cultural ties with the people of Wales and Cornwall with whom they
effectively share a language, and travellers and stories such as those of the legendary King Arthur travel freely
between both regions. The duchy thus has two ties to the island of Britain in spite of its political independence:
one through Breton lords with family and lands in both Brittany and England; and the other through the close
language and culture between Brittany and Wales.
The current ruler of Brittany is Duke Conan III, whose wife is an illegitimate daughter of King Henry of
England. Conan has aligned himself politically with King Stephen to make Brittany an ally rather than potential
conquest of Normandy. Brittany’s position on a peninsula holding open borders with Normandy, Maine,
Anjou and Poitou makes the duchy a potential player or object in the coming war.
Internally, the Duchy of Brittany consists of six counties and lordships, which though united through
marriage are highly autonomous political entities. These are the counties of Rennes, Cornouaille, Nantes, and
the Vannetais, and the lordships of Penthievre and Leon. The duke’s power within these areas varies. In the
lordships of Leon and Penthievre, the lords are too remote to control effectively, such that they are almost
totally exempt from ducal authority and can even build fortifications and mint coinage without the permission
of the duke. The duke additionally holds little control over the baronies and has no authority to summon them,
though they attend his councils on a voluntary basis. In the counties the duke’s power is more secure, though
in general these are divided between urban areas under ducal control and autonomous rural territories in the
hinterlands. In Nantes, political control over the county is divided between the duke and the bishop, while a
28
similar arrangement prevails in Vannes. Cornouaille however is an exception, as the bishop holds substantial
control while the surrounding strategic areas are controlled by the duke. Duke Conan has recently begun
streamlining the duchy by shifting the exercise of ducal authority from his direct personal administration to one
exercised through bureaucratic intermediaries. One contribution has been to expand the role of his ducal
seneschal William to represent him in Rennes, though these efforts remain in a relatively early stage.
The Empire and Italy
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire – or as it is currently simply known, the Empire – is geographically the largest
political unit in Europe, stretching from northern Germany and down into parts of Italy. Like the Kingdom of
France, the Empire traces its origins to the Carolingian Empire brought together by the Frankish king Charles
the Great (‘Carolus Magnus’ or ‘Charlemagne’), whose realm was divided among his grandsons by the Treaty of
Verdun in 843. While the Kingdom of France stands as the successor of the West Frankish Kingdom set up
under that treaty, the Empire on the other hand incorporates three constituent kingdoms: the East Frankish
Kingdom (now simply known as the Kingdom of Germany), the lesser Middle Frankish Kingdom (the
Kingdom of Burgundy), and the Kingdom of Italy.
The dominant kingdom within the Empire is the kingdom of Germany, which has been divided since the
tenth century into a number of powerful and autonomous duchies, of which the most important are those of
Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, and Saxony. The position of king of the Germans is no longer hereditary as
under the Carolingians, but is instead by current custom an elective monarchy, chosen by representatives
from each of the major lands and churches of the kingdom. The ecclesiastical magnates with a right of election
are the key archbishops of Trier, Cologne and Mainz, who each cast a vote on their own behalf. The secular
regions or circles with a right of election are those of Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony and Franconia. In order for each
regional circle to cast a vote, an agreement on a candidate must be reached among the representatives of that
region and then cast as a single vote in the election. Once the candidate is elected as king of the Germans and
confirmed by the Pope, he is granted the additional title of king of the Romans, taking the title of Emperor
only at the moment of his coronation by the Pope himself. These customs hearken back to the Carolingian
tradition of the papal coronation of the Emperor in Rome.
The current Emperor is Lothair III of the House of Supplinburg, though his lack of a son may mark the end
of the dynasty. Three rival houses are represented at the court of Pisa: Welf, Staufen, and Sponheim (see
Section VI, pp. 43-44).
The Kingdom of Germany
The most important kingdom in the Empire is the Kingdom of Germany, which stretches from the North
Sea to the Adriatic Sea in the south. It borders with the Kingdom of Hungary on the southeast, Pomerania on
the northeast, the Kingdom of Italy on the southwest, the Kingdom of Burgundy above Italy, and France
on the northwest. The kingdom is comprised of several duchies and marches: traditionally these polities
corresponded with a particular tribe or ethnic group, although almost all were ruled by one of the Germanic
lineages. Currently, four of these duchies are called stem duchies, which comprise the four main Germanic
tribal duchies of the Franks, Saxons, Swabians and Bavarians (i.e. Franconia, Saxony, Swabia and Bavaria). The
kingdom has no official and permanent capital, as the Emperor’s court usually travelled between residences
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administering the affairs of the kingdom and the Empire, although important ecclesiastical sites such as
Aachen, Cologne and Trier hold prestige as imperial centres. Currently the Emperor is in Italy on campaign,
and thus his court is centred on the Republic of Pisa. The most important polities of the kingdom can be
summarised below.
Duchy of Bavaria
The Duchy of Bavaria constitutes the southeastern part of the German kingdom, with only the neighbouring
Duchy of Carinthia being more southern. Bavaria is ruled by Duke Henry X the Proud of the house of Welf
(a senior branch of the House of Este who are hereditary Margraves of Milan, Verona, Padua). Henry is also
the direct heir to the Duchy of Saxony. The Bavarian capital is at Regensburg and is situated on the meeting
of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen. This makes the city an important and potentially crucial trading gateway
between the northern and southern parts of Kingdom of Germany, and by extension between northern
Europe and the maritime trading republics of the Adriatic (such as Venice). Another important city in Bavaria
is Salzburg, an important archdiocese under Archbishop Conrad I of Abenberg. Archbishop Conrad is an
important political figure who was instrumental to the election of Emperor Lothair III and committed to the
revitalisation of his diocese, though his appointment as archbishop was performed in the Emperor’s absence
which has lately strained relations between the two. Under Conrad, Salzburg has been a strong supporter of the
House of Welf and loyal to Duke Henry in opposition to the rival Staufen dynasty.
Duchy of Saxony
The Duchy of Saxony covers the greater part of northern Germany, from Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt
up to the Elbe and Saale rivers in the east, the cities of Bremen and Hamburg, as well as the Westphalian part
of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Holstein region (Nordalbingia) of Schleswig-Holstein. The current ruler of
Saxony is Emperor Lothair III Supplinburg, while the heir to the duchy is his son-in-law, the current Duke
of Bavaria Henry the Proud (through marriage to Lothair’s daughter Gertrude). Important sites include
Hamburg, a fortified and strategic site situated between the rivers Elbe and Alster, and Bremen which is an
important center of trade with England.
Duchy of Swabia
The Duchy of Swabia is located in the eastern and central part of the Kingdom of Germany and has a large
border with the Kingdom of Burgundy to the east, with northern Italy directly to the south. The ruler of
Swabia is Duke Frederick II, a member of the Staufen dynasty and brother-in-law of the Welf Duke of
Bavaria. Important settlements connected with the duchy include Strasbourg, Augsburg, Constance, and the
major abbey of St. Gall.
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Duchy of Franconia
The Duchy of Franconia has traditionally been the patrimony of the Salian dynasty, and the Salic Emperors
were those who held the title of Duke until the last Salic King Henry V. Currently, the Duchy of Franconia is a
duchy in name only. Conrad II of the Staufen dynasty was given the title of Duke of Franconia by the late
Emperor Henry V. With Henry’s death in 1125, Conrad backed his brother Duke Frederick II of Swabia as
King of the Germans against his rival Lothair III but failed. In turn, he was stripped of his dukedom. By 1135,
however, both Conrad and Frederick II have reconciled with Lothair, though without recovering the title of
Duke of Franconia. Nonetheless, Franconia’s status as a stem duchy with electoral rights in choosing the
Emperor remains, and the Staufen dynasty may have designs on recovering it in the future. Today, Franconia is
ruled over by the Emperor more along the lines of a confederation of states, notably including the cities of
Frankfurt, Speyer and Worms, the prince-bishoprics of Mainz, Speyer, and Worms, and the landgraviate of
Hesse. It is located inside Germany with no foreign borders, in the central-eastern part of the kingdom.
Lotharingia
A former stem duchy, Lotharingia was split into two separate marches in the tenth century: Lower and Upper
Lotharingia. In simple terms, the split was due to inconsistent loyalties to East Frankia (later Germany) and
West Frankia (later France) and, with Lotharingia being geographically located between the two, these dual
identities have persisted to our time. These marches later flourished under the Kingdom of Germany into
separate duchies, with Lower Lotharingia becoming the Duchy of Limburg and Upper Lotharingia becoming
simply Lorraine. Important centres within the region include the archdiocese of Cologne and the imperial
church of Aachen within Lower Lotharingia, and the archdiocese of Trier and its subordinate bishopric of
Metz within Upper Lotharingia. Periodic invasions and occupations by the French into Lotharingia have not
ceased, and the region remains a main point of conflict between the Kingdom of Germany and the kingdom of
France.
Carinthia and Verona
Formerly part of the Duchy of Bavaria, within whose circle it may sit for electoral purposes, the Duchy of
Carinthia is the southeastern-most duchy in the Kingdom of Germany, encompassing southern Austria and
northern Slovenia and parts of northeastern Italy (which include the Rioni of Friuli and Veneto, though not
including the Republic of Venice). The March (Margraviate) of Verona, though a separate political unit, is held
in personal union with Carinthia by Duke Ulrich I of Carinthia of the house of Sponheim, a noble dynasty
which originated in Rhenish Franconia and which is currently divided into a Rhenish line and a Carinthian line
of Sponheims. Verona has however developed into a rather independent and important city-state, and thus the
title Margrave of Verona is only a nominal honour.
Kingdom of Burgundy
The second constituent kingdom of the Empire, Burgundy was originally a Middle Frankish kingdom
between Germany, France and Italy. Its territory stretched from the Rhine River in the north to the
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Mediterranean Sea in the south. Though a kingdom of some sort has existed on those lands for centuries under
various sovereignties, it was finally absorbed into the Empire in 1033. The last family to hold the independent
kingship of Burgundy was the Welf dynasty. The title of king of Burgundy (officially, ‘king of Arles’) is
traditionally given to the Emperor, although in practice the Emperor rarely visits the region even to be
crowned and the kingdom generally operates with a considerable degree of autonomy. The capital of Burgundy
is the city of Arles, located on the Mediterranean coast where the Rhône River meets the sea.
Kingdom of Italy
The third constituent kingdom of the Empire is the Kingdom of Italy, comprising parts of northern and
central Italy (with the notable exclusion of the Republic of Venice), ending in the south on the border with the
Kingdom of Sicily. Before the Carolingian conquest of Italy, the vast majority of the peninsula with the
exception of Rome was part of the Kingdom of the Lombards, and even centuries later the Lombard identity
has not faded away in north and south Italy. After Charlemagne’s victory over the Lombards in the eighth
century he crowned himself as King of the Lombards, which became the basis for a tradition whereby when an
elected king of the Germans journeyed to be crowned in Rome as Emperor, he would stop on the way in Pavia
or Milan to be crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy by the Archbishop of Milan. The Iron Crown
consists of a circlet of gold fitted around a central silver band, and is also a holy relic, believed to contain a nail
of the True Cross recovered by the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine.
Additionally, from the time of Emperor Otto I it has been firmly established that the king of Germany is also
the only King of Italy. This however created a reality in which the rightful King of Italy was an absentee rarely
making court in Italy. This lack of a centralised secular authority along with the lack of strong and authoritative
Margraves in Italy (with the death of Matilda of Canossa Margrave of Tuscany in 1115) has created an
atmosphere in which the Italian cities could develop independently and spread their influence to the
surrounding countryside, and as such the Italian city-state has returned to prominence as a political unit in the
peninsula.
The Kingdom of Italy contains numerous, de facto independent cities, such as the city of Genoa and the
city of Venice. Some of the more important constituents within Italy will be laid out below.
Republic of Pisa
The Republic of Pisa is a vassal state of the Empire which at this time enjoys full autonomy, centred on the
city of Pisa on the northwestern coast of the Italian peninsula, where the river Arno meets the sea. The
republic is ruled by two Consuls who are elected by the Senate, without the interference of the Empire.
Formerly dependent on the margrave of Tuscany, the republic has been independent for some time and is now
one of the maritime, commercial and colonial giants of Italy. In 1085 Pope Gregory VII gave Pisa suzerainty
over the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean, and in 1092 Pisa was elevated to an Archdiocese by
Pope Urban II, who also granted the Republic dominion over Corsica and Sardinia. By 1136 Pisa’s trading
power in the Mediterranean and maritime power has come close to surpassing that of the Republic of Venice,
in no small part thanks to Pisa’s military and trading alliance with the Byzantine Empire. It has established
merchant colonies and zones of influence all around the Mediterranean Sea, including in Constantinople,
Alexandria, Tunis, Antioch and the Holy Land. The republic has also long held designs on other strategic ports
of Italy, such as Palermo, Salerno, Messina and Amalfi, and it launched a naval invasion of Palermo to take it
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from the Muslims in 1063 which failed due to the refusal of Roger I of Sicily (father of the current King of
Sicily) to join the Pisan campaign overland. The insult has not been forgotten. Relations between Pisa and Sicily
are now particularly sour, rent apart by their respective support of the rival claimants to the papacy, Innocent II
and Anacletus II. Pisa is currently the seat of Pope Innocent II’s court, and as such is also an important base of
operations for the imperial campaign in Italy.
City of Milan
The city of Milan is a major ecclesiastical and commercial centre within the Kingdom of Italy with a
particularly proud and illustrious history, having once been capital of the later Roman Empire at a time when
the city boasted a population of over 100,000. Though now only somewhat smaller in population, many of the
signs of Roman rule remain: its ancient walls with eight gates, its columns beside the Basilica of San Lorenzo,
the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio with its beloved saints’ relics, the crypt of San Giovanni in Conca, and of course
the Cathedral of Saint Thecla. The sense of the past is especially in evidence during the elaborate customary
Palm Sunday procession from the Basilica of San Lorenzo to the Cathedral of Saint Thecla, led annually by its
archbishop, with both the basilica and the cathedral bearing the damage of fire from 1071 and 1075
respectively. The wealth and pride of the Milanese citizens and clergy in their long history and traditions has
bred an independent streak in the city: particularly strong is the memory for its patron Saint Ambrose, who in
his lifetime some seven centuries ago was more widely respected and influential than the Pope, and who even
barred the Roman Emperor Theodosius from entering Milan cathedral following a massacre he carried out in
Thessaloniki. The prestige of Milan has continued in the custom of the King of Italy receiving the Iron Crown
of Lombardy from the Archbishop of Milan, and in recent archbishops’ insistence on their special rights and
privileges guaranteeing a relative degree of independence from the Pope in Rome. (The Iron Crown itself is
normally held in the main basilica within the nearby walled city of Monza, a community of 7,000 also under
the archbishop.) A major sticking point has been the claimed right of the archbishop of Milan to receive the
cloth of his office (the pallium) at his own cathedral in accordance with ancient custom, which runs contrary
to the reformist popes’ agenda of insisting that all archbishops must receive their pallium from the Pope in
person.130
Such pride however led to recent tensions surrounding Archbishop Anselm V of Milan, a prominent
supporter of Anacletus II’s claims to the Papacy and thus a key opponent of Innocent II in Pisa.131 The
political climate in Milan changed only recently: in 1135 Pope Innocent despatched the leading Cistercian
preacher Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux to the city, where the abbot staged a popular uprising which deposed
Archbishop Anselm and forced him to flee to Rome. 132 At the Council of Pisa that same year, Innocent raised
the bishop of Genoa to the status of archbishop, thus freeing the church in Genoa from Milanese control and
diminishing the archbishop of Milan’s power in the north of Italy. 133 Other initiatives designed to bring the
church in Milan under more secure papal influence include the foundation near the city of the Cistercian
abbeys of Chiaravalle (a daughter-house of Clairvaux in Champagne) and Morimondo (a daughter-house of
Moiremont near Dijon), with the support of Abbot Bernard and the backing of the local Benedictine monks of
Sant’Ambrogio. Nonetheless, the situation in Milan is far from settled. After Bernard himself refused to fill the
vacant position of archbishop left by Anselm, the nomination of archbishop was given to Anselm’s former
advisor, Bishop Robald of Alba; Robald however has refused once again to receive the pallium except in
Milan itself, and negotiations are ongoing.134 The citizens of Milan are moreover highly defensive toward any
imperial encroachment on their city’s independence, and were largely won over to Pope Innocent’s side only
out of fears that failure to do so could result in the city falling under imperial control. Until Robald can be
brought into line, Milan could yet stand in favour or against Pope Innocent, and any policy toward the city by
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the representatives of Emperor Lothair’s campaign in Italy must be sensitive to matters which might unbalance
a delicate diplomatic situation.
Milan is also home to the aged Landulf of St Paul, a churchman and historian of some repute, who followed
Archbishop Anselm in supporting Anacletus but has most recently switched his support to Innocent following
the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux.
The Papal States
Encompassing the majority of central Italy, with the Kingdom of Sicily to the south, the Kingdom of Italy to
the northwest and the Kingdom of Germany to the northeast, the Papal States are the lands to which the Pope
has direct claim as earthly ruler. It has however been disputed as to whether the Papal States are a separate
realm with the Pope as their sovereign, or simply a part of the Empire over which the Pope was given
administrative control. An important basis for the present state of affairs is the tenth-century Diploma
Ottonianum between Pope John XII and Emperor Otto I, stipulating that the Pope remain the sovereign of
the Papal States in personal union, while the Emperor acts as guarantor of the states’ independence and
security. Despite this, the Pope is nonetheless rarely able to exercise effective control over these states due to
their extensive and mountainous territory. These geographic conditions, along with the long absence of a papal
or imperial presence, has caused the region to preserve many small counties, marches and city-states operating
independently of each other and with different political systems, all centered around a fortified town. The more
notable of these states include Ferrara, Ravenna, Spoleto, and Orvieto.
The city of Rome would normally be under the control of the Pope, but currently it is held by the supporters
of Anacletus II, claimant to the papacy, through the internal support of his brother Giordano Pierleoni and the
outside support of King Roger of Sicily. His rival Innocent II has consequently had to set up his papal court in
Pisa, and even with imperial backing it has not proved possible in the past to get further into Rome than its
outer suburbs.
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily consists of almost the entirety of southern Italy, with the kingdom’s capital in
Palermo on the island of Sicily. On mainland Italy the kingdom starches as far north as Gaeta on the west
coast and Vasto on the east coast, and all the way down to the tip of the Italian boot (Calabria) and the bottom
of the Italian heel (Apulia), excepting the Duchy of Naples, which still remains free and in opposition to the
King of Sicily. Culturally the kingdom has a mixed heritage, with Italian Lombards, Muslim Arabs, Christian
Greeks and Christian Normans all settling in recent centuries various parts of what has now become the
kingdom.
The kingdom is ruled over by King Roger II Hauteville who inherited the title of Count of Sicily from his
father Roger I, who conquered Sicily from the Arabs. King Roger additionally gained the titles of Duke of
Calabria and Apulia through a series of inheritances, conquests and abdications by his Norman relatives. As
Duke of Clabria and Apulia he is also the liege lord of the principalities of Capua, Salerno and Bari, which
begrudgingly accepted him as Duke in 1129 after much resistance. Since 1130 Roger II has united all the
Norman polities and their Lombard vassals in the Italian peninsula into one contiguous entity, making southern
Italy into one large Norman Kingdom. He was invested as King in 1130, by Anacletus II as a reward for his
support of Anacletus’ claims to the papacy.
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Some of the vassal polities within the kingdom of Sicily are not ruled directly by the Norman Hauteville
family: notably, Capua, Salerno and Benevento had been Lombard states for over a century, whose rulers
styled themselves as independent princes back in the time of Lombard hegemony over southern Italy. Though
with time these independent principalities became vassal states to Frankish and Norman polities, they were
always ruled by Lombards who were allowed to retain the title of prince. It is among these principalities that
rebels against King Roger II can be found. These Lombard principalities are important to the greater Kingdom
of Sicily not only to the their strategic location as a land buffer for potential northern invaders, but also due to
their contiguous spread over the more fertile farming lands and forests of the northwestern part of the
Kingdom.
Capua is a city-state located on the northern part of the Kingdom of Sicily on mainland Italy. It is wellprotected to the north by the heavy fortifications of the Triflisco hill and the Volturno river. Prince Robert II
of Capua did not accept Roger II’s rule as easily as some of his Lombard counterparts, and for that reason has
gone into exile and joined forces with Innocent II and Lothair III. He leads a mercenary army against Roger II
along with Count Rainulf of Caiazzo, another Lombard political unit which lies to the north east of Capua
on the northern bank of Volturno. East of Caiazzo and across the Taburno mountain lies Benevento, once
the largest and most powerful Lombard principalities and today not more than a city overseeing some of them
most fertile and bountiful farming lands. It sits on the point where the Calore and Sabato rivers meet in the
Benevento valley. Finally, Salerno is an important port south of the Sorrento gulf across the Lattari Mountains.
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire is the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire, centred on Greece and Asia Minor,
with its capital at Constantinople and a Christian Greek civilisation. Under the current rule of Emperor John II
Comnenus the Empire has undergone a great restoration in military, infrastructure, diplomacy, and economic
development. John II has opened Byzantium for trade and influence to Venice, Genoa and Pisa, with the latter
signing an important military alliance. Fearing the consequences of the Norman expansion in southern Italy by
King Roger II, and wishing to protect Byzantine lands in the Balkans and North Africa from the Normans,
John II has also made an alliance with Emperor Lothair III. The Byzantine Empire under John II has
supported Lothair’s campaign into Italy, with a large financial subsidy aimed at financing an invasion into the
kingdom of Sicily, as well as some military help. The bulk of the illustrious Comnenian army however, along
with John II himself, are at present chiefly occupied in the Levant.
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VI. THE PIECES: THE COURTS
The administration of the land of any prince is conducted through his court and personal household. The
court is a fluid and competitive environment, centred on its prince. Attendants of the court may be members
of the prince’s family, prominent churchmen such as bishops or abbots, aristocrats such as counts or earls, or
members of the prince’s personal household such as his stewards or knights. 135 What these attendants have in
common is their desire for the patronage and favour of their prince. 136 The prince is the ultimate source of
justice in the realm and his powers include the right to grant land and offices for a term or for life, the right
of custody over vacant church lands and over the lands of aristocratic heirs too young to inherit (as well as the
decision of whom such young heirs may marry), remission of taxation and military service, and pardon for
past offences.137 In return for this patronage, members of the court serve as its administrators, with the prince
having ultimate say over which tasks or duties in his realm are given to which members of the court.
Attendants of the court are present in a personal capacity. They may have lands or offices outside of the
court which are outside of the prince’s power, and they may owe duties to lords in multiple courts: the
Archbishop of Rouen, for example, is a subject of the duke of Normandy, the king of France, and the Pope.
Where loyalties conflict it is down to the character of the courtier to decide how best to resolve them, which
may be done with reference to the degree of power of the relevant princes over them. It is also possible for a
member to move between courts or, in some circumstances, to notify his prince that he is returning what has
been given to him and re-pledging his allegiance to another court.
Through the court it is possible to become immensely powerful, and to move from a position of obscurity to
the highest offices of the land. There are however a limited number of places at the top, making the court an
arena of envy and ambition. This problem has been summed up by the late King Henry’s court physician,
Petrus Alfonsi: ‘A prince is like a fire – if you are too close, you burn; if you are too far away, you freeze.’138
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I. The Court of King Stephen
The family of Stephen
The court of England is centred on Stephen of Blois, now King of
England, Duke of Normandy, and Count of Boulogne. Stephen’s father
was the elder Stephen, Count of Blois and Chartres, who joined Robert
Curthose of Normandy and Count Eustace of Boulogne on the First
Crusade to Jerusalem in 1096, but who deserted around the time the
crusaders reached the city of Antioch: some said he escaped Antioch
down a rope from the walls while it was under siege by the Turks, while
others say he fled before the Christian army had taken the city.139
Returning to Chartres as the laughing stock of all Christendom, his family
insisted he return to the newly established kingdom of Jerusalem to fulfil his
oath, where he was later killed in battle in 1102.140
King Stephen’s mother was Adela of Normandy, a daughter of William the
Conqueror, a friend of the late Anselm of Canterbury during his exile from England, and regent of Blois and
Chartres during her husband’s absence and following his death. 141 A religious woman, since her sons came of
age she has served from the 1120s on as a nun at the Cluniac double-monastery of Marcigny-sur-Loire.142
King Stephen’s wife since 1125 is Matilda of Boulogne, a descendant of Charlemagne and a niece of the late
crusader kings Godfrey and Baldwin of Jerusalem. It is through his wife that Stephen is Count of Boulogne,
which is a French county of great economic and strategic importance. 143 With his wife, Stephen also has a son
and heir, Eustace.
King Stephen is additionally the third of four brothers. The eldest, Count William of Sully, was concerned an
idiot after he took a solemn oath over twenty years ago in Chartres Cathedral to kill the bishop of Chartres; his
family disinherited him but married him off to the heiress of the minor county of Sully in the Loire valley,
whose land he now holds.144 The second and more successful brother Theobald inherited the lands of his
father and uncle and is now Count of Blois, Chartres, Champagne and Brie, 145 on account of which he is a
member of the Capetian Court of Louis VI (see pp. 41-42, below). The youngest brother Henry of Blois joined
the Church, and as bishop of Winchester and abbot of Glastonbury, is now the wealthiest and one of the most
important churchman in England.146
Stephen’s ministers
Most of the men in Stephen’s court have been carried over from that of King Henry. Within the Church in
England, the most honoured position is that of archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church in the
south of England, and whose office bears the special honour of first advisor to the king. For the last twelve
years the archiepiscopate has been held by the Frenchman William de Corbeil. The second honour is that of
archbishop of York, an office which holds direct control over the Church in the north of England, and has
been held for the last sixteen years by the Norman Thurstan of York. In times of war, the archbishop of York
is also a key figure in mobilising the knights and peasants of the north of England and in organising the north’s
defence. It is disputed whether the archbishop of York is subject to Canterbury in ecclesiastical affairs: the
most recent papal ruling of 1127 holds that primacy is to be determined by which bishop was appointed first,
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but arguments regularly flare up between the two and could be decided differently if the Pope sees fit. Aside
from this dispute however, either archbishop can only be overruled by a papal legate, an official appointed
with a specific mandate by the Pope as his directive representative in England.
The practical royal administration of the realm however is managed by three other men: the Justiciar, Bishop
Roger of Salisbury, and his nephews, Bishop Nigel of Ely and Bishop Alexander of Lincoln. These three
men have been given control over justice and finance within the realm, and have become extraordinarily
wealthy by doing so.
Stephen additionally has a number of nobles who support
and advise him in both political and military matters: the twin
brothers, Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, and
Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester; Brien fitz Count,
Baron of Wallingford; and Miles, Sheriff of Gloucester. Each
of these men holds private lands of their own as well as
castles which they hold on behalf of the king. Miles of
Gloucester is the local lay administrator in Roger of
Salisbury’s diocese, and thus works closely with the bishop.
The latest arrival to the court is Earl Robert of Gloucester,
who was detained in Normandy by the death of King Henry
and missed the first court convened by Stephen. The
illegitimate son of Henry I, Robert is widely regarded as a
man of honour and was considered a possible candidate for
the throne before Stephen took the throne. 147
Lastly, the king has his royal stewards, Hugh Bigod and Humphrey de Bohun. While each of Stephen’s
ministers have their own lands or church positions to administer, their positions and tasks within the court can
be delegated or withdrawn as the king sees fit.
Objectives
The overall objective of Stephen’s court is to stabilise and secure the realm and to protect England,
Normandy and Boulogne from foreign rivals who would claim the throne or the lands under Stephen’s rule.
Much has already been accomplished in securing the presence and oaths of fealty of the nobles and churchmen
of England to the king, but the war in Normandy between those loyal to King Henry and those supported by
Count Geoffrey of Anjou is still ongoing.
There are however more immediate threats and challenges: reports of a possible revolt in Devon, the lingering
threat of war with Matilda’s uncle David of Scotland, and rumblings on the Welsh borders. It will be necessary
for the court to resolve these challenges to England’s security before it can even contemplate the possibility of
war with Anjou.
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II. Court of Geoffrey and Matilda
The court of Anjou is centred on the former Empress Matilda and
her husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. Matilda is the
daughter of the late King Henry of England and his first wife Matilda of
Scotland, a member of the Scottish royal family whose ancestors included
the House of Wessex which ruled England before William the
Conqueror. The Empress’ royal pedigree in England is thus stronger on
both sides than that of King Stephen. Born in England, she was raised in
Germany from a young age and married the Holy Roman Emperor
Henry V, being later crowned Empress in Rome. Matilda acted as his
regent in Italy which gave her experience in government and familiarity
with both German and Italian manners and customs, but when she was
twenty-three her husband died in 1125. Returning to Normandy, she was
recognised as King Henry’s heir by his court in 1127, and remarried the
following year.
Her husband Geoffrey of Anjou is the son of the former count of Anjou and current King of Jerusalem, Fulk
of Anjou, and of the late Countess Erembourg of Maine. Geoffrey has a younger brother, Count Elias of
Maine, and two sisters, Matilda of Anjou (a nun of Fontevrault Abbey) and Sibylla of Anjou (currently with
her father in Jerusalem). Count Geoffrey and the Empress have two sons, Henry and Geoffrey, both under
three years of age, while the Empress is currently pregnant with a third child on the way.
The household in Anjou is served by Thomas of Loches, chancellor and chaplain of Anjou since 1133, and
by Jocelin of Tours, steward of Anjou. In Normandy the house has the support of the de Bohun family,
including Alexander de Bohun, a staunch supporter of Geoffrey and steward of Falaise, Argentan and
Domfront; his brother Engeler de Bohun; and Robert de Bohun, dean of Bayeux and chancellor for
Normandy.
The court has also been supportive of the family of William Talvas, the Norman baron of Montgomery who
went into revolt against King Henry in Normandy following the confiscation of his land. William Talvas’ late
father Robert of Bellême was imprisoned by Henry while serving as envoy of Louis, which gave him a notable
grievance against the English Crown. William Talvas is supported by his wife, Helie of Burgundy, daughter of
duke of Burgundy; and by their son, Count Guy of Ponthieu.
The court is also regularly attended by Hugues d’Etampes, Archbishop of Tours, by Ulger, Bishop of
Angers, and by Hugues de Saint-Calais, Bishop of Le Mans. Bishop Ulger is currently on a mission to Rome
to gather support for the Empress.
The court has few open allies in England, but Matilda’s uncle King David of Scotland and his son Prince
Henry of Scotland are known to be allies, as is the Scottish chancellor, William Cumin.
Objectives
The overall objective of the court of Anjou is to make effective Matilda’s claims to England and Normandy,
and to remove King Stephen from the lands of her father. Gaining allies has been difficult: in England Stephen
has at least publically secured the support of nearly all of the noblemen and churchmen, while in Normandy
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prospective allies have been deterred by fears that Geoffrey of Anjou is pursuing his claim on account of the
historic grudge between Anjou and Normandy, rather than on behalf of his wife’s claim. The Norman barons
are thus concerned as to how they might fare under Angevin rule. Gaining the support of at least one
prominent and respected Norman baron from Stephen’s court might result in more locals rallying to Matilda’s
cause in Normandy, while recognition from the Pope of Matilda’s claim to England would be an additionally
desirable source of legitimacy for the Empress.
Similar potential difficulties tar the support for Matilda by her Scottish uncle, as the historic image of the
Scots as raiders of the lowland English is hardly one with which the Empress would want to be immediately
associated. How the court conducts itself in its campaigns in terms of image and outcome will obviously
determine the degree of its success.
40
III. Court of Louis VI
The Capetian court is centred on Louis VI, king of France, and on his
queen Adélaide of Maurienne. Together they have seven children, of
whom the eldest is the fifteen-year-old Louis VII. Their only daughter is
Constance, now seven years of age. Though the royal domain of the
court is confined to Île-de-France (see Section V, pp. 17-18), the presence of
important neighbours at the court also grants access to the neighbouring
counties of Vermandois, Blois, Chartres, Champagne and Brie. In times
of war, the court flies under the Oriflamme, the sacred banner of the
Abbey of Saint-Denis (made famous as the royal banner of Charlemagne
by the French ballad Chanson de Roland), and no quarter may be given or
prisoners taken until it is lowered.
The king’s household includes the Constable of France, Hugues le Borgne de
Chanmont, who serves as master of the stables and first officer of the Crown; the
Chancellor of France, Étienne de Garlande, with responsibility for overseeing royal justice and royal decrees;
the Grand Butler of France, Guillaume de Senlis, with responsibility for the royal household; and the royal
seneschal, Count Ralph of Vermandois. Louis’ chief advisor is Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis, regarded as a
man of culture, taste and sound judgement.
Though previously at war with Louis, the court is additionally joined by its now-reconciled neighbour Count
Theobald of Blois, Chartres, Champagne, and Brie, whose power in terms of land and position in some
respects matches that of Louis himself. The brother of King Stephen and a grandson of William the
Conqueror, Theobald was considered the prime candidate for the English throne by the Norman barons and
lost out only for failure of moving quickly. His uncle, Count Hugh of Champagne, joined the order of the
Knights Templar and died in 1125, giving Theobald family ties with the crusading orders. He is additionally
joined by his wife Matilda of Carinthia, sister of the current Duke Ulrich of Carinthia, and by the chief
ecclesiastic of his counties, Raymond Martigné, Archbishop of Rheims.
Given the ongoing situation in Normandy, Louis has additionally summoned Hugh of Amiens, Archbishop
of Rouen, and Theobald of Bec, prior of Bec abbey in Normandy.
Objectives
The overall objective of the court of Louis is to advance the position of the House of Capet, to secure the
royal succession to his son, and to make the king of France more than merely king in name. Duchies such as
those of Aquitaine, Burgundy and Normandy are regularly more powerful in real terms than the Capetian
court. It is therefore in the interests of the king that lands be incorporated into the royal domain, tied into the
Capetian line through alliance or marriage, or otherwise made more directly subject to the Crown wherever
possible. It is for instance rare for the dukes of Normandy to recognise the fealty they owe to the king of
France, and even rarer when those same dukes are also kings of England. It is thus also in the king’s interests
that the kingdom of England and the duchy of Normandy remain divided where possible, and favourably
disposed toward the king of France where not.
41
Some of those at the court are more powerful than the king in terms of the lands
and wealth under their immediate control and disposal, and individual members of
the court can be expected to have their own particular objectives. The court as
configured can thus be thought of as a forum and meeting place of prestige for
various powers and interests within the French realm, not always aligning directly
with those of the king, and blocs can be expected to form and negotiate in pursuit
of more particular objectives as the players shift and specific opportunities arise.
Pictured (right): the Oriflamme, sacred banner of Saint-Denis.
42
IV. Court of Innocent II
The court of Pope Innocent II is currently located in the republic of
Pisa, due to the city of Rome being controlled by forces loyal to the rival
Pope Anacletus: a schism in the Church that traces back six years to the
disputed papal election of 1130 (see Section IV, p. 11). The court of Pope
Innocent is internationally recognised by the kings of France, England,
Castille and Aragon, by the Holy Roman Emperor Lothair III, and by a
majority of the bishops in those lands; it has also successfully concluded
church councils with the Pope present at Clermont (1130), Rheims
(1131), and Pisa (1135). The rival Pope Anacletus has the support and
recognition of the people of Rome, King Roger II of Sicily, and most of
the cities of northern Italy. The schism represents a division ‘between the
city and the world’, with ‘the city’ referring to Rome and the Italian
peninsula.
Pope Innocent is currently served at his court by his chancellor and five cardinals: Chancellor Aimeric
(cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria Nuova), William of Palestrina, (cardinal-bishop of Palestrina), Conrad of
Sabina (cardinal-bishop of Sabina), Guido of Tivoli, (cardinal-bishop of Tivoli), Guido of Castello (cardinal
deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata), and Drogo of Ostia (cardinal-bishop of Ostia). Two of these men, William
and Conrad, participated in the election which proclaimed Innocent as Pope. Guido of Tivoli was not present
for the election but joined Innocent soon afterwards.148 As cardinal-deacons rather than cardinal-bishops,
Aimeric and Guido of Castello were not eligible to participate in the papal election, but Aimeric was the
primary architect of the papal commission which selected him, while Guido of Castello has served in Germany
as papal legate gaining support for Innocent. Drogo of Ostia is the youngest and was only appointed cardinal in
1134. All six are considered loyal to Pope Innocent.
To place military pressure on Anacletus and end the current schism, the court is also joined by members of
the imperial court, who have just entered the north of Italy to campaign on behalf of Pope Innocent under the
orders of Emperor Lothair III. Lothair and his wife Empress Richenza were crowned in Rome by Pope
Innocent in 1133, with the coronation taking place at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, as St. Peter’s Basilica was
controlled by forces loyal to Anacletus. Lothair is the nominal leader of the expedition, though he is not
currently present at the court and the direction of the imperial army has been delegated to his vassals.
The main imperial nobles present are drawn from three houses: Welf, Staufen, and Sponheim. The court is
also joined by a number of imperial bishops who are not members of these three houses, most notably the
Archbishop of Trier, Albero de Montreuil.
The House of Welf is represented by Emperor Lothair’s son-in-law and heir presumptive, Henry the
Proud, Duke of Bavaria, and by Henry’s younger brother, Welf VI, Count of Altdorf and Ravensburg.
The House of Staufen is represented by Conrad Staufen and his brother Duke Frederick II of Swabia.
Conrad and Frederick were in revolt against the Emperor until last year, with Conrad proclaiming himself a
rival king within the empire, but was reconciled to the Emperor late in 1135. Conrad and Frederick are
maternal grandsons of the late Salian Emperor Henry IV, and are therefore nephews of the Empress Matilda of
Anjou. By his marriage to Judith of Bavaria, Frederick is additionally brother-in-law of Henry the Proud and
Welf VI.
43
The House of Sponheim is represented by members of two of its branches: Ulrich I, Duke of Carinthia
and Margrave of Verona (a member of the Carinthian Sponheims); and Hugo von Sponheim, dean of the
Marienstift, the imperial church of Aachen (a member of the Rhenish Sponheims). Through his sister Matilda
of Carinthia, Duke Ulrich is brother-in-law to Count Theobald of Champagne and King Stephen.
Lastly, the court is joined by two special representatives of the courts of King Stephen of England and of the
Empress Matilda of Anjou: Arnulf, archdeacon of Séez and legal representative for King Stephen; and Ulger,
bishop of Angers and legal representative for Empress Matilda. These men serve as legal and diplomatic
representatives for the two currently disputant claimants of the English throne.
Objectives
The overall objective of the court of Pope Innocent is to achieve the resolution of the schism and the
consolidation of Innocent as the sole Pope in Christendom. To do this, it must efficiently direct and coordinate
the two branches of power at its disposal – the ecclesiastical authority represented by the cardinals and bishops,
and the competing imperial nobles in Emperor Lothair’s expedition. Once Anacletus and his supporters have
been forced to submit, it will be necessary to find ways to heal the schism within Christendom and ensure it
does not happen again.
At the same time, the court must also continue with
the day-to-day business of the Church and of the
Papacy, which includes promoting the principles of the
Gregorian reform and resolving all manner of political,
religious and military disputes within Christendom as
they arise. The great church council most recently
concluded at Pisa in 1135 for instance included decrees
against lay investiture and simony, against tournaments
(as an idle pursuit and an unnecessary risk to Christian
lives), and against the marriage of blood relatives, while
ruling in favour of the new forms of monasticism,
conjugal morality, and the restitution of church lands
and tithing. It falls to the court and its members to
ensure that these provisions are made effective. It is
only by serving as an effective arbiter of Christendom
that the court of Innocent can consolidate and
represent itself as the one true Papacy.
In terms of political mediation, the current dispute
over the throne of England and the coming conflicts
which may arise from it are of course another vital
issue with which the court is faced. In the event of the
death of either the Pope or the Emperor, the court will
have to elect and proclaim their successor: with a
College of Cardinals convened to elect the Pope, and
the great nobles of the Empire convened to present to
the Pope their nomination for the new Emperor.
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VII. APPENDIX: THE CHARTER OF LIBERTIES OF
KING STEPHEN, EASTER 1136
The following charter stands as King Stephen’s contract with the realm of England and with the
Church, which he is sworn to uphold under the terms of his coronation oath:
“I, Stephen, by the grace of God with the assent of the clergy and people elected king of the English,
consecrated by William archbishop of Canterbury and legate of the Holy Roman church, and confirmed by
Innocent, pontiff of the holy Roman see, out of respect and love of God do grant freedom to the holy church
and confirm the reverence due to her.
“I promise that I shall neither do, nor permit to be done, anything by simony in the church or in ecclesiastical
affairs. I allow and confirm that jurisdiction and authority over ecclesiastical persons and over all clerks and
their property and the disposal of ecclesiastical honours will be in the hands of the bishops. I grant and
concede that the liberties of the church confirmed by their charters, and their customs that have been
observed from antiquity, will remain inviolate. I concede that all ecclesiastical possessions and tenures which
were held on the day when King William my grandfather was alive and dead, will be free and absolved from
all dues, without any recovery from claimants. But if the church hereafter seeks to recover possessions which
it held before the death of the said king but of which it is now deprived, I reserve to my own pleasure and
dispensation whether the property should be restored or the matter discussed. I confirm whatever has been
bestowed since the death of the said king by the liberality of kings or the munificence of princes whether in
alms, by purchase or by any other grant of the faithful. I promise that I shall keep the peace and do justice
in all things, and maintain them as far as I am able.
“I reserve for myself the forests which William my grandfather and William my uncle established and
maintained. All the others, which Henry added, I restore and concede intact to the churches and to the
kingdom.
“If any bishop or abbot or other ecclesiastical person makes reasonable distribution of his property before his
death or makes arrangements for its distribution, I allow this to be firmly maintained. If he should be
forestalled by death, let such distribution be made for the salvation of his soul by the counsel of the church.
But while sees are vacant without their own pastors, I shall commit them and their possessions into the hand
and keeping of clerks or upright men of the said church, until a pastor is appointed canonically.
“I wholly abolish all exactions, injustices and miskennings wrongfully imposed either by the sheriffs or by
anyone else.
“I shall observe good laws and ancient and lawful customs relating to murder fines, pleas and other suits,
and I command and ordain that they be observed. All these things I grant and confirm saving my regal and
rightful dignity.
“Witness: William Archbishop of Canterbury, Hugh Archbishop of Rouen, and Henry Bishop of Winchester,
and Roger Bishop of Salisbury, and Alexander Bishop of Lincoln, and Nigel Bishop of Ely, and Everard
Bishop of Norwich, and Simon Bishop of Worcester, and Bernard Bishop of Saint David’s, and Owen Bishop
of Evreux, Richard Bishop of Avranches, Robert Bishop of Hereford, John Bishop of Rochester, Athelwulf
Bishop of Carlisle, and other lay signatories. At Oxford, in the year 1136 from the Lord’s Incarnation, and the
first of my reign.”
45
VIII. FURTHER READING
The Story
David Carpenter, The struggle for mastery: Britain 1066-1284 (London : Penguin, 2004).
R.H.C. Davis, King Stephen, 1135-1154 (London : Longman, 1990).
Stephen and Matilda
David Crouch, The reign of King Stephen, 1135-1154 (Harlow: Longman, 2000).
Marjorie Chibnall, The Empress Matilda: queen consort, queen mother, and lady of the English (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).
Carl Watkins, Stephen: the reign of anarchy (London : Allen Lane, 2015).
Government and Society
Robert Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 1075-1225 (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 2002).
John Gillingham, The Angevin Empire (London: Arnold, 2001).
Emma Mason, Norman kingship (Bangor: Headstart History, 1991).
General
Julia Crick et al. (eds.), A social history of England, 900-1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Rosamond McKitterick, Atlas of the medieval world (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Eileen Power, Medieval women, edited by M.M. Postan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975).
Nigel Saul (ed.), The Oxford illustrated history of medieval England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Characters
H.C.G. Matthew et al. (eds.), Oxford dictionary of national biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Credits
Lead Author and Editor-in-Chief: Jesse Harrington
With writing contributions by: Michael Zeff, Thomas Barclay, Jack Seaton, Saskia Millmann, Hamzah Sheikh,
Miro Plückebaum, Ethan Elstein.
All images from wikimedia.commons.org except where otherwise stated.
46
IX. SOURCE CITATIONS
Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 1075-1225 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002), 7.
Ibid., 1.
3 Ibid., 8.
4 Ibid., 8, 20.
5 Ibid., 9.
6 Ibid., 21.
7 Frank Barlow, The feudal kingdom of England, 1042–1216 (London: Longman, 1999; fifth edition), 162; David Crouch, The reign of King
Stephen, 1135-1154 (Harlow: Longman, 2000), 246.
8 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 9-10, 21.
9 Crouch, The reign of King Stephen, 247.
10 Philippe Levillain, The papacy: an encyclopedia, trans. John W. O’Malley (London: Routledge, 2002), 783-5, passim; John Doran and
John Smith (eds.), Pope Innocent II (1130-43): The World vs. the City (New York: Routledge, 2016), 5-7, 14.
11 Doran et al., Pope Innocent II, 14.
12
Levillain, The papacy, 783-5; Doran et al., Pope Innocent II, 6-7, 12-13, 16. The precise weight of either argument is yet ambiguous,
ibid., 16.
13 Ibid., 16-7, 20.
14 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 213.
15 Ibid., 205.
16 Ibid., 211.
17 Ibid., 225.
18 Audrey Meaney, ‘The practice of medicine in England about the Year 1000’, Social History of Medicine 13 (2000), 230.
19 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 588; Meaney, ‘The practice of medicine in England’, 222, 229.
20 Ibid., 588-91.
21 Meaney, ‘The practice of medicine in England’, 226.
22 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 591.
23 Ibid., 261-269.
24 Ibid., 253.
25 Ibid., 254.
26 Ibid., 269-270, 276, 282-6.
27 Ibid., 256-7.
28 Ibid., 255.
29 Ibid., 258-61.
30 Ibid., 17.
31 Ibid., 13-7.
32 Ibid., 15.
33 Ibid., 14.
34 Ibid., 68.
35 Ibid., 68-9.
36 David Carpenter, The struggle for mastery: Britain 1066-1284 (London: Penguin, 2004), 3.
37 Ibid., 3.
38 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 202, 216.
39 Ibid., 216.
40 Ibid., 209, 213.
41 Ibid., 216.
42 Ibid., 290-291.
43 Ibid., 290-291.
44 Ibid., 332-3.
45 Ibid., 337-42.
1
2
47
Eljas Oksanen, Flanders and the Anglo-Norman world, 1066-1216 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 147-8, 158; cf.
Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 331-2.
47 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 362-3.
48 Ibid., 365, 368-70.
49 Oksanen, Flanders and the Anglo-Norman world, 1, 7.
50 Ibid., 1-2; Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 17.
51 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 12.
52 Ibid., 4.
53 Oksanen, Flanders and the Anglo-Norman world, 6, 148-9, 152-4.
54 Ibid., 145-7.
55
Ibid., 146-7
56 Ibid., 6, 148-9, 152-4.
57 Ibid., 150, 154.
58 Ibid., 158.
59 Ibid., 5, 67.
60 Ibid., 5.
61 Ibid., 147-8, 158.
62 Ibid., 148-9.
63 Ibid., 169-70.
64 Ibid., 150-1.
65 Ibid., 137-144.
66 Ibid., 156-62.
67 Ibid., 26-29.
68 Ibid., 27; R.H.C. Davis, King Stephen, 1135-1154 (Harlow, 1990: third edition), 11.
69 Oksanen, Flanders and the Anglo-Norman world, 29.
70 Ibid., 31.
71 Ibid., 31.
72 Ibid., 10.
73 Ibid., 3, 158.
74 Davis, King Stephen, 10.
75 Oksanen, Flanders and the Anglo-Norman world, 10.
76 Ibid., 46.
77 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 9-10, 19.
78 Ibid., 19.
79 Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine: by the wrath of God, Queen of England (London: Jonathan Cape, 1999), 5.
80 Ibid., 5-6.
81 Ibid., 7.
82 Ibid., 16.
83 Ibid., 6.
84 Ibid., 8-9.
85 Ibid., 15-6.
86 Ibid., 16.
87 Ibid., 15, 17.
88 Doran et al., Pope Innocent II, 161.
89 Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine, 8.
90 A.D.M. Barrell, Medieval Scotland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 19.
91 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 77.
92 Barrell, Medieval Scotland, 18.
93 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 77-8.
94 Barrell, Medieval Scotland, 25-6.
95 Ibid., 27.
46
48
Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 80; Barrell, 15.
Barrell, Medieval Scotland, 14-5.
98 Ibid., 32.
99 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 82.
100 Ibid., 79-80.
101 Barrell, Medieval Scotland, 32.
102 Ibid., 17-8.
103 Ibid., 18.
104 Ibid., 18-9, 23-24.
105 Ibid., 21-3.
106 Ibid., 19-20.
107 Ibid., 24-5.
108 Ibid., 21.
109 Ibid., 32.
110 Ibid., 22, 36.
111 Ibid., 33-34.
112 Ibid., 25-6.
113 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 78-9.
114 Ibid., 79.
115 Ibid., 83-84.
116 Ibid., 81.
117 Barrell, Medieval Scotland, 14, 37.
118 Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Early medieval Ireland, 400-1200 (London : Longman, 1995), 282-4.
119 Ibid., 282-4.
120 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 72.
121 Ibid., 72.
122
Ibid., 71, 74.
123 Ibid., 74.
124 Ibid., 74*.
125 Ibid., 69.
126 Davis, King Stephen, 20.
127 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 72.
128 Ibid., 72.
129 Ibid., 18-9.
130 Doran et al., Pope Innocent II, 320-1.
131 Ibid., 320-1.
132 Ibid., 320-1.
133 Ibid., 320-1.
134 Ibid., 320-1.
135 Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 31.
136 Ibid., 28-9.
137 Ibid., 31-3.
138 Ibid., 28.
139 Davis, King Stephen, 2-4.
140 Ibid., 2-4.
141 Ibid., 1.
142 Ibid., 5.
143 Ibid., 10.
144 Ibid., 4.
145 Ibid., 4.
146 Ibid., 5.
96
97
49
147
148
Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 9.
Doran et al., Pope Innocent II, 8.
7 hi sæden openlice ðæt Crist slep. 7 his halechen.
‘And men said openly that Christ and His saints slept.’
-- The Laud (Peterborough) Chronicle, Annal for 1137.
Securus belli: praedam civilibus armis scit non esse casas.
‘Careless of war, he knew that civil strife stoops not to cottages.’
-- Lucan, Pharsalia, 5
‘ “What do women most desire?” The answer, he learns from the old hag, is sovereignty over herself.’
--Mary Jones, Notes on the ‘Loathly Lady’ motif, Celtic Encyclopedia (2004)
‘The vision of empty seats waiting for their worthy occupants is a haunting one. It evokes so forcibly the knot of presence and
absence as to be almost sinister – no matter whether such empty, waiting seats are situated in some empyrean region (as in the
Somnium Scipionis) or in Paradise (as in that moving Dantesque image of political postponement in Paradiso XXX, 13338, where the fact that the seat is not really empty, for a crown is resting on it, waiting for a head to adorn, enhances this sinister
beauty); or down, down the other way to the depths of Hell.’
– Paolo Valesio, ‘Foreword’, Scenes from the drama of European literature (Minneapolis, 1984), vii.
© CUIMUN 2016. Please do not distribute without permission from the Crisis Directors.
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