Angevin Reich , the areas located in the second half of the 12th century from Scotland extended to the Pyrenees and were ruled by the English king Henry II. And its immediate successors Richard I. and John; They were called the Angevin Kings because Henry's father count by Anjou war . Henry acquired most of his continental possessions before becoming King of England became . By inheritance from his mother (King Henry I's daughter Matilda), he became 1150 Duke Normandy; he stepped 1151 die his father's successor as Count of Anjou, Maine and Touraine an; and 1152 he acquired by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine this duchy along with the Gascony , Poitou and the Auvergne . First conquered by Henry I in 1113, Brittany was eventually brought to the Angevin Empire as the son of Henry II Geoffrey , who had married Duke Conan IV's heiress, became Duke of Brittany in 1171. Although all these lands are fiefs of the king of France , her concentration in the hands of a man was a serious threat to the French Monarchy , which had direct control over a much smaller area. As King of England from 1154, Henry had direct dominion over all of England and South Wales and sovereignty over the principality of Gwynedd in North Wales. 1171 he annexed Ireland and was given direct control of the eastern part of the island and the nominal control over the rest. Finally, William I. the lion, king of Scotland, captured in battle in 1174 , from 1174 to 1189 Accept Henry as his overlord.
Henry's plans to divide his "empire" among his sons resulted in many squabbles and wars that the French king was eager to fight used. Only Richard and John survived her father's death (1189), and although John was confirmed as Lord of Ireland, which he had held since 1177 , he was defeated by Richard, who otherwise owned all of his father's possessions. Early in John's reign (1199–1216) the French king wrestled him Philip II. Augustus from Normandy, Anjou, Maine and Touraine. By the Treaty of Paris (1259), the English retained only the Duchy of Guyenne (a greatly reduced remnant of Aquitaine with Gascony). The confiscation in 1337, combined with an English claim to the French throne, led to the outbreak of the Hundred Years War , at the end of which England in France just Calais kept which was permanently lost in 1558.