Entry taken from the book The Plantagenets
The first entry in the series dedicated to Eleanor of Aquitaine ended with the birth of a son from her marriage to Henry II, whom they called William. On February 28, 1155, Henry, the couple's second son, was born. Sadness at the untimely death of the eldest son William was replaced by joy at the birth in rapid succession of new royal princes:Matilda (1156), Richard (1157), and Geoffrey (1158). Later Leonor (1162), Juana (1165) and Juan (1166/1167) would come. The survival to adulthood of so many offspring ensured the royal succession and the survival of the newly born Plantagenet dynasty (whose coat of arms heads this article), but they would end up becoming a source of problems for Henry and between him and Eleanor.
In 1172, having prevailed over his internal and external rivals, the future looked bright for Henry II. However, he still had to suffer the hardest of tests that a man, king or not, can face and that would end up costing him his health and life:the rebellion of his own family, of his sons Enrique, Godofredo, Ricardo and Juan, all of them supported by their mother Leonor.
The succession issues of the abundant progeny of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, for which the opinion of the King of France should also be taken into account due to the vassalage to which they were subjected the continental possessions of the Plantagenet, seemed to have been resolved in a conference that both monarchs held in January 1169 in Montmirail. Henry's plans were for his son of the same name to inherit England, Normandy and Anjou, that Brittany would go to Godofredo (married to the daughter of the former Duke of Brittany) and Aquitaine would be reserved for Ricardo, Eleanor's right eye. Juan, barely three years old, and about whom it was not yet known if he would reach adulthood, was left out of the cast (hence his nickname Sin Tierra).
The agreement allowed to celebrate the coronation as associate king of England of his son Henry the Younger. If this was intended to ensure a smooth transition and promote stability in his domain, Henry II's miscalculation was tremendous. Almost immediately, the problems and discrepancies with the newly crowned began. It seems that father and son interpreted differently what the latter's coronation entailed in the daily exercise of power in England and Normandy.
The eighteen-year-old considered that, to make any sense, the formal act of imposing the crown on him had to be accompanied by a royal exercise of power, the transfer of some properties and Above all, from having his own income with which to support the growing court that he had generated around himself and his wife. For his father, however, it was more of a formal French-style ceremony; a confirmation that his child had reached adulthood and was in a position to inherit power when his time came. Enrique the Elder did not yield an iota of power to his son and the provision of the necessary funds for his support was carried out with a dropper. The austere Henry II spent sparingly at his own court (he was famous for the poor quality of his wines) and neither understood nor approved of the pageantry his young son intended to keep around him.
This hurt the Younger's pride, and he found two important pairs of ears willing to listen to his complaints and encourage a rebellion against his father; these ears were those of his mother Eleanor and those of her father-in-law Louis VII, King of France. And the spark exploded in 1173 when Henry II decided to marry the youngest of his children, Juan, who was then six years old, with the daughter of the Count of Savoy. Juan had been left out of the distribution of her parents' inheritance agreed in Montmirail, and as her marriage dowry the English monarch decided to give him the property of the castles of Chinon, Loudon and Mirebeau. Henry the Younger understood that with this his father was dispossessing him of part of his inheritance (it was also three fortresses with strategic importance) and the veiled confrontation between father and son erupted into an open conflict.
This circumstance was not excessively surprising, because the confrontation between father and son had been gestating for a long time. What did constitute a huge surprise is that the rebellion started by Enrique the Younger was joined by his brothers Ricardo and Godofredo, aged fifteen and fourteen respectively. It seems clear that the brain behind this surprising move was his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry II himself understood this, since he sent a letter to her wife in which he ordered her to return with her children to her husband, to whom she owed her obedience and with whom she was forced to coexist.
It has been suggested that the reason Eleanor turned against her husband was her jealousy that the king had fallen in love with her mistress Rosamund Clifford. This is unlikely, because it was such a common situation in monarchies at the time that any royal wife had to learn to live with it. It seems more that Eleanor, who had resumed her duties as Duchess of Aquitaine, saw how Henry decided on her properties without counting on her and taking into account the interests of her Plantagenet empire more than those of Aquitaine itself. The inheritance of her beloved Ricardo was at stake, and that is why Eleanor encouraged her younger children to join her brother, even if this meant allying with her ex-husband Louis VII of France. Thus, at the end of February, fearing being taken prisoner, she disguised herself as a man and fled on horseback trying to reach Paris to join her offspring. But during the trip she was recognized and detained by her husband's agents, who transferred her to Chinon Castle, where she remained in her custody.
The feud between father and sons lasted eighteen months, but Henry II prevailed over all his rivals in England and on the continent. His victory was complete and his enemies requested talks to end the conflict. The peace conference was held at Montlouis. After showing the world his strength against a formidable alliance of enemies, Henry II could afford to show generosity. He agreed to pardon the rebels and return to them the possessions they had before the start of the war. Others were not so lucky. Enrique considered Leonor the main person responsible for the betrayal of her children and, after her rebellion, he never trusted her again. She spent the rest of Henry's reign confined to different fortresses.
she only left her captivity on a few occasions when her husband needed her to put in
in her waist to her rowdy children . In 1182 there was another uprising of Henry the Younger, although it was short-lived as he died in 1183. In 1186 Godfrey died in Paris. Henry did not name Richard his sole heir, while relations with the King of France rapidly deteriorated. Felipe Augusto then began an approach to Ricardo, taking advantage of his anger against his father for not designating him heir, which prevented him from fulfilling his desire to join the crusades. In addition, Ricardo ended up believing the rumors that reached him, in the sense that his father was planning to disinherit him in favor of Juan.
In 1189, the gap between father and son was irreparable. The future Heart of the Lion lent his help to Felipe in the border skirmishes that he had with the English king. Henry took refuge in Chinon as the empire he had built for so many years crumbled around him. According to the chroniclers of the time, Enrique requested a list to find out how many of his nobles supported Felipe and Ricardo and, when he saw that the name at the top of the list was that of his other son, Juan, the pain and surprise were such that he suffered a collapse from which he did not recover.
The first king of the Plantagenet dynasty died in Chinon on July 6, 1189. Of the thirty-seven years of marriage union with him, his wife Eleanor had spent almost the half as a prisoner of her husband. It seemed that with the accession to the throne of her beloved son Ricardo, the already elderly Leonor could dedicate herself to enjoying the last years of her life in peace. But it wasn't like that at all; the time she had left was neither short nor, of course, was it going to be quiet. The third entry in this series will be dedicated to the exciting last fifteen years of Eleanor of Aquitaine's life.
Image| Wikimedia commons.
Fonts|
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Strong. A. The Story of Britain. Ed. Pimlico, London. 1st edition (1998)
Schama, S. A History of Britain .BBC Worldwide Limited, London. 1st edition, fourth printing (2000)
Wilson, D. The Plantagenets, The Kings That Made Britain . Quercus Edition Ltd., London. Ebook edition (2014)
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