Anjou

Who he is

Name

John (Jean sans Terre)

Title

Count of Anjou (and king of England, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine-heir)

Since

6 April 1199, Richard's death; received at Chinon about 14 April 1199, but refused at Angers, where the barons acclaimed Arthur on 18 April 1199

Born

24 December 1166 (aged 33)

Family

Youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine; uncle of Arthur of Brittany and of Louis of Blois. Married to Isabella of Gloucester, a marriage his own bishops are dissolving.

Confidence

high

Holder certain; what he actually controlled in Anjou that morning is the hard part (see status_1200).

Overlord

Philip II, king of France, in law; but on 1 January 1200 John has NOT done homage for Anjou, and Philip has instead taken Arthur's homage (1199) for Anjou, Maine and Touraine. John's homage comes only at Le Goulet, 22 May 1200.

What it holds

• The city and castle of Angers (comital), with the comital mint of the angevin penny
• Saumur castle and the Saumurois
• Baugé and Beaufort-en-Vallée with their forests
• The Loire bridge and toll at Les Ponts-de-Cé, and Loire tolls downstream
• Overlordship of the Angevin baronies: Craon, Château-Gontier, Montreuil-Bellay, Doué, Chemillé, Montsoreau, Durtal, Candé, Pouancé (held by the lord of La Guerche) and others
• Advocacy of the great Angevin abbeys (Saint-Aubin and Saint-Serge of Angers, Saint-Florent of Saumur) and the patronage of Fontevraud, where Henry II and Richard lie

How it was acquired

Inherited from Richard as the last surviving son of Henry II; Anjou had been the core of the Angevin house since the tenth century. John's claim rests on Richard's deathbed designation and on Angevin custom; Arthur's on the right of the son of an elder brother (Geoffrey).

Allies and rivals

Allies: William des Roches (since September 1199), Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Angevin bishops in general. Rivals: Arthur and Constance; Guy of Thouars and his brother Aimery VII, viscount of Thouars (who fled with Arthur in September 1199); Philip II, who recognises Arthur as count.

How things stand that morning

John holds Saumur, Baugé and the comital castles that William des Roches brought back to him, and William acts as his seneschal (styled so in John's acts by 26 December 1199). Angers is not pinned: Arthur's party took the castle on 18 April 1199, Constance and Guy of Thouars were there in October 1199, and John made a formal entry only on 24 June 1200, after the peace. The Thouars brothers are in arms against John on the Poitou side.

Philip and John are moving toward the January 1200 truce that leads to Le Goulet; there is no open campaign in Anjou that morning.

Wealth

Loire tolls and river trade (salt coming up from the Breton bays, wine going down), the vineyards of the Saumurois and the slopes of the Layon and the Loir, comital mills and forests, the angevin penny (deniers angevins) struck at Angers.

Military

Comital castles at Angers, Saumur, Baugé, Beaufort and Les Ponts-de-Cé; baronial castles across the county owe service to the count. John relies on William des Roches's following and on paid troops (routiers). No figures in the sources for 1199-1200.

Threats

• Arthur's claim, recognised by Philip
• The Thouars brothers in the south and the Breton border in the west
• A renewed French campaign if the truce talks fail
• The loyalty of barons who acclaimed Arthur in April 1199

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. mid-January 1200John and Philip meet on the Seine border and agree a truce and the outline of a peace (Le Goulet).Depends on: Both kings wanting a settlement; the legate Peter Capuano pressing for peace. Stopped by: Either king breaking off talks; a major baronial defection.
2. 22 May 1200Treaty of Le Goulet: Philip recognises John as Richard's heir in all his French fiefs, Anjou included; John does liege homage and pays a relief of 20,000 marks; Arthur is to hold Brittany of John.Depends on: The truce holding; John accepting the losses on the Norman and Berry borders. Stopped by: A breakdown of the January truce; Arthur's party winning a field success.
3. 24 June 1200John enters Angers in state and takes the submission of the Angevin barons.Depends on: Le Goulet. Stopped by: No treaty, or Angers held against him.
4. 24 August 1200John marries Isabella of Angoulême, betrothed to Hugh IX of Lusignan, which will turn the Lusignans and later the Angevin barons against him (1201-1202).Depends on: John's choice; the annulment of his first marriage. Stopped by: John marrying elsewhere (a Portuguese match was under discussion).

Places of note

• Castle of Angers: Comital castle and city; acclaimed Arthur 18 April 1199
• Castle of Saumur: Comital castle on the Loire
• Baugé: Comital castle and forest
• Les Ponts-de-Cé: Loire bridge and toll south of Angers
• Fontevraud Abbey: Dynastic abbey, tomb of Henry II and Richard; Eleanor's house

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The main lines (April 1199 acclamation of Arthur at Angers, William des Roches's switch in September, his seneschalship by December, John's entry into Angers on 24 June 1200) are in the chronicles and modern lives; who held Angers castle in the winter of 1199-1200 is not pinned.

On the map: The outline follows the later province of Anjou (Haut-Anjou with Craon and Château-Gontier, the Baugeois with La Flèche, the Saumurois with Bourgueil, the Mauges) and leaves the Loudunais to Poitou; county limits in 1200 were defined by castellanies and parishes, not lines.

Primary sources for Angevin lands

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• Chronicles of Saint-Martial of Limoges, Bernard Itier and other monks of Saint-Martial; Geoffrey of Vigeois for the earlier chronicle (Geoffrey's chronicle to 1184; Bernard Itier's notes about 1195 to 1225). Bernard Itier, librarian of Saint-Martial, kept dated notes through 1200 of what reached Limoges: Richard's death at Chalus in 1199, the viscounts of Limoges and the lords of the Limousin, John's passage through Aquitaine in 1200 and the affairs of Angouleme and the Lusignans, and the abbey's own elections and prices. Read online
• Chronicles of the Churches of Anjou (Saint-Aubin, Saint-Serge, Saint-Florent and others), Various (monks of Angers and the Loire) (11th to 13th centuries; the Saint-Aubin annals run to the 1220s). The Angevin houses' own annals of the succession crisis in their city: Arthur received at Angers in 1199 with Constance and the Breton and Angevin barons, John's counter-moves, the defection of William des Roches and the Angevin lords to John, and the peace of 1200 that left Arthur John's vassal. Read online
• The Great Chronicle of Tours, Anonymous (a canon of Saint-Martin of Tours) (about 1227). The Loire valley's view of the Angevin succession. Read online
• Universal Chronicle of the Anonymous of Laon, Anonymous (an English-born canon of Laon) (about 1219). A Picard chronicle whose author had lived in England and keeps an eye on both kingdoms. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Chronicle; Deeds of the Kings, Gervase of Canterbury (Chronica about 1188 to 1199; Gesta Regum about 1199 to 1210). The Chronica stops in 1199, so for 1200 the witness is the briefer Gesta Regum, which notes John's peace with Philip, the coronation of Isabella at Westminster on 8 October 1200, and matters touching Canterbury: the archbishop Hubert Walter as chancellor, the cathedral priory's quarrel with him, and the Lambeth college dispute lately settled by the pope. Read online
• English Chronicle of Ralph of Coggeshall, Ralph of Coggeshall (about 1200 to 1224, in stages). Short but independent entries for 1200 from a Cistercian house in Essex: John's levy on the Cistercians and the carucage, the peace with Philip, the king's new marriage and the queen's coronation, and the death of Hugh of Lincoln. Read online

14 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.