2 decades more for Henry II

[kasumigenx]

2 decades more for Henry II

The End of the two decades

On 1210, Henry II would die in the ripe age of 77 and he would die in his own sleep and he would have outlived his own first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Queen of France and England and have managed his two remaining sons, John and Richard who have been battling for their own succession on the English throne.

 

[isabella]

2 decades more for Henry II

The End of the two decades

On 1210, Henry II would die in the ripe age of 77 and he would die in his own sleep and he would have outlived his own first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Queen of France and England and have managed his two remaining sons, John and Richard who have been battling for their own succession on the English throne.

The heir would be either Richard or John as Henry will make sure to name a clear successor...

 

[kasumigenx]

The recovery of the King

On 1189, Henry II would recover from his illness and renewed his rule over England and would send Alys to marry his other son, John.

In September 1190 Richard, duke of Aquitaine and Philip arrived in Sicily. After the death of King William II of Sicily his cousin Tancred had seized power and had been crowned early in 1190 as King Tancred of Sicily, although the legal heir was William's aunt Constance, wife of the new Emperor Henry VI. Tancred had imprisoned William's widow, Queen Joan, who was Richard's sister and did not give her the money she had inherited in William's will. When Richard arrived he demanded that his sister be released and given her inheritance; she was freed on 28 September, but without the inheritance. The presence of foreign troops also caused unrest: in October, the people of Messina revolted, demanding that the foreigners leave. Richard attacked Messina, capturing it on 4 October 1190. After looting and burning the city Richard established his base there, but this created tension between Richard, duke of Aquitaine and Philip Augustus. He remained there until Tancred finally agreed to sign a treaty on 4 March 1191. The treaty was signed by Richard, Philip, and Tancred. Its main terms were:

Joan was to receive 20,000 ounces (570 kg) of gold as compensation for her inheritance, which Tancred kept.

The stayed on in Sicily for a while, but this resulted in increasing tensions between them and their men, with Philip Augustus plotting with Tancred against Richard. The Richard, duke of Aquitaine and Philippe Auguste finally met to clear the air and reached an agreement, including the end of Richard's betrothal to Philip's sister Alys (who had supposedly been the mistress of Richard's father Henry II) as Alice is married to John herself.

 

[kasumigenx]

That Aragonese woman

After Richard arrived in Sicily finally he would recognize his own lack of wife on his return to England he would feel an urgency to have issue and him finding a wife would be a hurdle and he heard of a young lass that would be able to marry him in Aragon named Constance of Aragon would be his wife in exchange of an alliance with the Aragonese King, Constance of Aragon and Richard would meet each other, however Constance herself was not impressed by King Richard of England who is as old as her own father.

However, despite that fact the marriage would push through since her father, Alfonso II of Aragon was the one deciding for that and the two left Aragon on 1192.

The future Peter II of Aragon would demand the hand of one of the nieces of Richard and Berengaria of Castile would be the chosen bride for Peter II and she would wed him soon after the marriage of Richard and Constance, while the other niece of Richard, Eleanor of Brittany would marry Alfonso IX of Leon after the annulment of his marriage.

On his return with Constance, he would recommend one of his possible brides Berengaria to Henry II of Champagne, his nephew who ended up marrying Princess Blanche of Navarre as Berengaria ended up in religious life after her betrothal with Richard did not push through.

 

[kasumigenx]

Richard’s death and his kids

Constance of Aragon would give birth to two sons named Fulk (1196) and William(1198), Fulk would be the heir to English and Angevin inheritance and William the heir to Aquitaine and a daughter named Marie on 1197, however Richard and Fulk would die on 1202 leaving the family of Richard left with his wife Constance and his surviving children, Marie and William, Constance was sent out and William and Marie was put in the care of Eleanor of Aquitaine as the heirs of the Angevin inheritance, the death of Richard I duke of Aquitaine and his first son would mean that Henry II would choose John over the issues of Geoffrey II of Brittany and Richard, duke of Aquitaine, when Eleanor of Aquitaine died on 1204, the custody of the children went to Philip II of France.

Constance of Aragon would went on and remarry to Emperor Frederick I of Sicily on 1208 after she briefly stayed in the monastery and later gave birth to a son named Henry (1211), she died on Palermo on 1220.

 

[kasumigenx]

The treaty of Le Goulet

The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed by Kings Henry II of England and Philip II of France in May 1200. It concerned bringing an end to the war over the Duchy of Normandy and finalizing the new borders of what was left of the duchy. The treaty was a victory for Philip in asserting his legal claims to over lordship over John's French lands. A consequence of the treaty was the separation of the Channel Islands from Normandy.

The terms of the treaty signed at Le Goulet, an island in the middle of the Seine river near Vernon in Normandy, included clarifications of the feudal relationships binding the monarchs. Philip recognized John as heir to king Henry II of England, and thus formally abandoned his prior support for William XI, Aquitaine. Henry II, meanwhile, formally recognized the new status of the lost Norman territories by acknowledging the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders as vassals of the kings of France, not those of England, and recognized Philip as the suzerain of the continental lands in the Angevin Empire. Henry II also bound himself not to support any rebellions on the part of the counts of Boulogne and Flanders.

Philip had previously recognized Henry II as suzerain of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany, but with the treaty of le Goulet he extorted 20,000 marks sterling as "relief" in payment for recognition of Henry II's sovereignty of Brittany.

The treaty also included territorial concessions by Henry II to Philip. The Vexin (except for Les Andelys, where Château Gaillard, vital to the defence of the region, was located) and the Évrécin in Normandy, as well as Issoudun, Graçay, and the fief of André de Chauvigny in Berry were to be removed from Angevin suzerainty and put directly into that of France.

The treaty was sealed with a marriage alliance between the Angevin and Capetian dynasties. Henry II’s granddaughter Mathilde of Brittany, daughter of his son, Geoffrey II of Brittany and Constance of Brittany, married Philip's eldest son, Louis VIII of France (to be eventually known as Louis the Lion).