The Angevin Empire

One of the longest standing conflicts in Europe was the fight to dominate the North Atlantic between France and England. Wars were fought across Europe, India and North America between the English and French as they clashed over world domination.

While the Anglo-French story began when William the Conqueror invaded Saxon England, it was the rise of the Angevin Empire that would lock France and England into a centuries long conflict.

The Angevin Empire was born out of a series of hereditary titles and marriage alliances. Henry II was made Duke of Normandy after a brief civil war between the supporters of his claim and those of his opponents. Henry later asserted his rights as count of Anjou, and then married the duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor. This made his holdings in France greater than that of the king of France.

As Henry was consolidating his personal fiefs he also made client states of his neighbors. Henry created a series of marriages that dominated Brittany, and various truces with Flanders. His goal in doing this was to strip away potential enemies for his wars with the king of France.

In France Henry II was a recognized vassal of the French king Louis VII. He continued to have agreements with Louis that gave him land in exchange for homage. Henry would have his allies in Brittany recognized by Louis as well. This meant that Louis could nominally give or take away land from Henry II.

Henry's territory in France was clearly French. They were French barons, the people were French and they followed French laws. Henry may have been king of England, but in his French territories he was just a duke or count. More importantly his French territories were not the territory of the English king, they were Henry's territories. He held them in personal union, which means that each of his territories were ruled as individual states with one foreign policy, but each state had it's own domestic laws.

In England Henry had to fight to establish his claim. He forced his predecessor to recognize him as the heir to the crown, and then waited for him to die. This made Henry king in England, and master of France.

Some of Henry's vassals tried to conquer parts of Ireland to increase their own power, but they became embroiled. When they asked for Henry's assistance he went and took over Ireland for himself, and was named Lord of Ireland. He further consolidated his hold over Wales during this time.

During one of Henry's wars with Louis, king of France, the king of Scotland invaded England in support of the French offensive. King William of Scotland was captured by the English forces and forced to submit to Henry. This created a situation in which Henry had no enemies left in the British isles, and he was able to dominate France.

Henry made himself the most powerful man in Europe. His empire stretched from the Pyrenees to Ireland, but it was all invested in his person. Upon his death his empire began to shatter.

Henry had intended to split his empire between his four sons, but two had died. John was given Ireland, and the rest went to Richard the Lion-Hearted. Richard freed Scotland from it's vassalage in exchange for money to go crusading. Richard then left the empire in the hands of regents, and left for the Holy Land. By the time he returned to his kingdom Philip Augustus, king of France, had broken in to Normandy.

John revolted against Richard and took over the empire, but was made heir when Richard returned. John failed to pay homage to Philip Augustus, and he was militarily incompetent which led to Philip invading the Angevin territory. Most of France fell to the control of the king of France, and this was to set the stage for the Hundred Years War. English kings would continue to rule parts of France up until 1558 when Calais fell to the French.