Angevin Empire

The kingdom of Naples had long been in dispute between the houses of Aragon and Anjou.

As heir to the Angevin line, Charles VIII proposed to satisfy national pride by the conquest of Naples.

Then he appealed to the old sentiment of Christendom by proclaiming his design of advancing against Constantinople, expelling the Turk from Europe, and realizing the ideal of medieval Christianity by planting once more the standard of the cross upon the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

The first part of his plan succeeded with a rapidity and ease that bewildered the rest of Europe.

She's not been in England at all.

And she comes with this Angevin husband.

And the one thing Normans don't like in this period is Angevins.

They're like their old enemy.

So is Alicent kind of London taking a decision to change the course of the succession because it benefits them?

The glory of the southern kingdom ends with the deaths of Manfred and Conradin.

The rule of the Angevin dynasty was fatal to the prosperity of the country.

The kingdom reached the extremity of anarchy under Joanna I, who married four husbands in succession.

Her cousin, Ladislaus, had subdued the barons, conquered his internal enemies, obtained authority over Rome, and was marching northwards with a large army aspiring to become King of Italy when he died of poison at Perugia in fourteen fourteen.

The Pope did not allow him to enjoy his kingdom without dispute.

Pope Calixtus claimed Naples as a papal fee.

The Angevin barons rose in arms.

Rene of Lorraine disembarked on the western coast.

Like I say, she is a very attractive bride and she does make a good political decision, I think, in marrying Henry II.

Between the two of them, they create this wonderful Angevin empire.

And they have, just as you mentioned, Eleanor, when she was with Louis, she didn't produce a son, instead she had two daughters.

And that's perhaps one of the reasons for the divorce.

Next he turned his attention to the Pope.

Rudolf never went to Rome to receive the imperial crown, but he had a magnificent meeting with Gregory X at Lausanne, where he formally confirmed the cessions of Italian territory already made to the Pope, gave up any claims in the Angevin kingdom of Naples and Sicily, and together with many of his barons took the cross in token that he would, on the first opportunity, fulfil the Pope's most fervent wish by undertaking a crusade to the Holy Land.

The old policy of the Hohenstaufen was finally abandoned when the Habsburg monarch made a treaty of friendship with Charles of Anjou, their bitterest enemy, and promised to marry his daughter Clementia to Charles's grandson.

Italian schemes certainly never tempted the prudent emperor.

But the close of his life was involved in misfortunes and humiliations by no means undeserved.

French rule was hated with a fierce and bitter hatred in this southern kingdom, and especially in Sicily, where Charles moreover had a determined opponent in John of Procida, sometime physician to King Manfred of the Swabian line.

Whether stirred by personal or purely patriotic motives, John was privately working for the downfall of the Angevin dynasty, and intriguing for this purpose with Pedro, King of Aragon, who himself had a claim to the throne from his marriage with Manfred's daughter, Constance of Sicily.

The train was laid therefore, although the fire was kindled by a chance spark, which suddenly precipitated the explosion.

The Count of Nevers may or may not have respected the spiritual presence of Christianity's second holiest Mary, but he refused to cede his secular rights over the territory.

To make matters even more dire, the French monarchs, who had been steadily increasing their power since Philippe Auguste destroyed the Angevin Empire, tried extending their reach southward.

In 1280, the King of France, Philippe IV, took advantage of the monks' unpopularity, claimed that the monastery was rightfully part of his royal domain, and promised to administer it better than they did.

Pope Martin IV even approved of the decree, putting the monks in a desperate situation.

but God, that's a huge book, right? So, so no, I can't do that.

I- you could start it with the Angevin conflict or the Eleanor of Aquitaine and everything that follows that.

Um, again, that's its own book.

A peace happens between England and France in 1253, Treaty of Paris.

Oh

... trying to hold onto that, that empire that you, you and I have talked about many times, that trans-Channel Angevin Empire.

But what's going on in this part of Europe? Who are the big players? Is this part of a, a big political unit, big empire, or, or is one, one, a, a small sort of city-state? What's going on?

So the Poles are a really scrappy bunch, and they're incredibly interesting because they're very wealthy.

The glory of the southern kingdom ends with the deaths of Manfred and Conradin.

The rule of the Angevin dynasty was fatal to the prosperity of the country.

The kingdom reached the extremity of anarchy under Joanna I, who married four husbands in succession.

Her cousin, Ladislav, had subdued the barons, conquered his internal enemies, obtained authority over Rome, and was marching northwards with a large army aspiring to become king of Italy when he died of poison at Perugia in 1414.

The Pope did not allow him to enjoy his kingdom without dispute.

Pope Calixtus claimed Naples as a papal fee.

The Angevin barons rose in arms.

René of Lorraine disembarked on the western coast.

Fortunately for the development of England, almost all of these foreign possessions were lost during the reign of John.

In the British Isles, on the other hand, the possessions of the Angevin kings became much more extensive.

One of the popes, Adrian IV, is said to have made a grant of Ireland to Henry.

Whether this is true or not, the latter made an expedition to that island in 1171, and during a brief stay received the submission of the Irish kings.

A long conflict followed in which the Welsh, aided by the mountainous character of their country, made a stubborn resistance, but were subjugated in 1283.

In the following year, Edward II was born in their land and received the title of Prince of Wales, which is still borne by the eldest son of the king of England.

The Angevin kings also claimed the overlordship of Scotland, as William the Conqueror and William Rufus had both received the homage of the Scottish kings, and in 1137, King David of Scotland had aided Matilda as her vassal.

The Scottish monarchs did homage to Henry II, but Richard the Lionhearted sold his rights as overlord when he needed money for his crusade.