Lands of John and Eleanor

Who rules

Name

John (Jean sans Terre, John Lackland)

Title

King of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy, count of Anjou (with Maine and Touraine); heir to Aquitaine, which his mother holds

Since

Richard I died at Chalus on 6 April 1199. John was girded with the ducal sword and crowned with a golden circlet at Rouen on 25 April 1199 by Archbishop Walter of Coutances, and crowned king at Westminster on 27 May 1199 by Hubert Walter.

Born

24 December 1166 (some sources 1167), at Oxford. He turned 33 the week before play begins.

Family

Youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Mother: Eleanor, about 75 (born about 1124), duchess of Aquitaine in her own right. Living sister: Eleanor, queen of Castile (mother of Berengaria, Urraca and Blanche). His sister Joan, countess of Toulouse, died at Fontevraud in September 1199. Half-brothers: Geoffrey, archbishop of York, and William Longespee, earl of Salisbury. Nephews: Otto IV, the Welf king of the Romans; Arthur of Brittany (born 29 March 1187, aged 12) and his sister Eleanor; Count Geoffrey III of Perche is married to his niece Matilda of Saxony.

Confidence

high

Consort: none on the morning of 1 January 1200, or none in practice. His marriage (29 August 1189) to Isabella (Hawise), heiress of Gloucester, was declared void for consanguinity by bishops of Normandy and Aquitaine, not by the pope. The sentence is usually placed in 1199 after his coronation; some modern accounts say only that it was done by spring 1200. Exact date not pinned, so the campaign can treat it as done or as being completed.

Isabella is held as a royal ward and John keeps her lands. Heirs: no legitimate children. He has natural children, among them Joan (born about 1191, the future wife of Llywelyn) and Richard; the others' ages are not pinned. The heir in dispute is Arthur, son of his elder brother Geoffrey, whom Breton and Angevin custom (representation) preferred and Norman and English opinion did not.

Overlord

Philip II of France for Normandy, Anjou, Maine and Touraine, and through Eleanor for Aquitaine. On 1 January 1200 John has not yet done liege homage and has not paid the relief; both come at Le Goulet (22 May 1200).

What the realm holds

• England and the lordship of Ireland (outside this map)
• The duchy of Normandy, with the Channel Islands (see Normandy, Channel Islands)
• The county of Mortain, his own since 1189 (see Mortain)
• The counties of Anjou, Maine and Touraine, with the treasury castle of Chinon and Loches (see the Loire researcher's records)
• Angevin Berry: Issoudun, Gracay and the fiefs of Andre de Chauvigny, still his on 1 January (see the Aquitaine researcher's records)
• Aquitaine (Poitou, Saintonge, the Limousin overlordship, Gascony) is Eleanor's, held with John as heir; she has granted him lordship there in 1199 and he acts with her (see the Aquitaine researcher's duchy record)
• The overlordship of Brittany, claimed by John as Richard's heir and disputed by Arthur and Philip
• Claims, not possession: Evreux and the Evrecin (Philip's since April 1199), Gisors and Neaufles (Philip's since April 1193), Vernon, Gaillon, Pacy and Nonancourt (Philip's by the January 1196 settlement), probably Ivry, and Aumale (Philip's since 1196)

How it was acquired

Inherited from Richard I by the Norman and English choice of 1199 against the claim of Arthur. Normandy and England accepted John in April and May 1199; Anjou, Maine and Touraine came to him in September 1199; Aquitaine is his mother's.

Allies and rivals

Allies: his mother Eleanor; William Marshal; Hubert Walter; the Norman baronage almost entire; Archbishop Walter of Rouen; Count Baldwin of Flanders and Count Renaud of Boulogne (until they settle with Philip); Otto IV; the Lusignan for now (Hugh IX le Brun and Ralph of Exoudun, count of Eu). Rivals: Philip Augustus; Arthur and Constance with Guy and Aimery of Thouars; the counts of Angouleme and the viscount of Limoges, who fought Richard in 1199 (Aquitaine records).

The realm that morning

John holds Normandy except the eastern march: Philip holds Evreux and the heart of the Evrecin (since April 1199), Gisors and Neaufles in the Norman Vexin (since 1193), Vernon, Gaillon, Pacy and Nonancourt (left to Philip by the treaty concluded at Gaillon and Le Vaudreuil about 14 January 1196; Gaillon given to Philip's routier captain Cadoc in 1197), probably Ivry (not named in the sources checked), and Aumale (since 1196). John holds Les Andelys with Chateau-Gaillard, Lyons-la-Foret, Gournay (through Hugh of Gournay), the Bray and the Caux, Pont-de-l'Arche, Louviers (the archbishop's), Le Neubourg, Conches (Tosny), Breteuil (Leicester), Verneuil, Tillieres and everything west. Anjou, Maine and Touraine are his but shaken.

In law, every one of the lost places is still his until Le Goulet.

Wealth

The Norman exchequer at Caen, which audited the vicomtes and bailiffs (the 1198 roll shows how heavily Richard taxed the duchy for war); the ducal forests, tolls and mills; the Seine trade through Rouen; the wine of Poitou and Gascony through La Rochelle and Bordeaux; Chinon's treasury, which John seized in April 1199; England's revenues, the largest of all. No figures given here.

Military

The Norman feudal host and castle-guard (the 1172 inquest of knight service lists what each tenant owed), the household knights, and paid companies under Mercadier, Lupescar, Brandin and Martin Algais. Mercadier is alive on 1 January (killed at Bordeaux on 10 April 1200). The Seine is held by Richard's new works: Chateau-Gaillard with the fortified isle and new town of Les Andelys, Boutavant upstream, Pont-de-l'Arche and Radepont.

The castle line of the march: Arques, Driencourt, Gournay, Lyons, Chateau-Gaillard, Pont-de-l'Arche, Conches, Breteuil, Verneuil, Tillieres; in the west Falaise, Caen, Argentan, Domfront, Mortain.

Threats

• Philip in Evreux and on the Eure and Epte, a day's ride from Rouen and Pont-de-l'Arche
• Arthur's claim, the Breton party and the barons of Anjou and Maine who first chose Arthur
• Double allegiance on the march: Meulan, the Perche, Alencon, Gournay, Eu (a Lusignan), whose counts hold of both kings
• Losing his allies: Flanders makes peace with Philip on 2 January; the Champenois and Blesois princes have taken the cross
• Money: the Norman exchequer has been drained by five years of war
• The Lusignan and Angouleme quarrel that his remarriage will start (not yet)

Officers

Normandy: William FitzRalph, seneschal of Normandy since 1178, presides at the exchequer at Caen (dies during 1200, date not pinned; Guerin de Glapion follows). William du Hommet, hereditary constable of Normandy. The Tancarville family, hereditary chamberlains of Normandy (which member holds the office this winter is not pinned). Anjou: William des Roches, seneschal of Anjou for John since he came over in September 1199 (Loire records).

Poitou and Gascony: Eleanor's seneschals (Aquitaine records). England: Geoffrey FitzPeter, justiciar (earl of Essex since 27 May 1199); Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, chancellor since 27 May 1199. Household: Hubert de Burgh, the king's chamberlain. Captains of paid troops: Mercadier (with Eleanor in 1199), Brandin, Martin Algais; Lupescar (Lobar) is in John's service by 1203, when he holds Falaise (his service in 1199-1200 is not pinned).

Great men in his company in Normandy in 1199: William Marshal (earl of Pembroke since 27 May 1199, lord of Longueville), William de Briouze, Baldwin of Bethune (count of Aumale), the earl of Leicester, Robert of Harcourt, the Preaux brothers.

Court winter 1199 in 1200

John stayed on the continent from June 1199 until late February 1200. Where he kept Christmas 1199 is not pinned in the sources checked; the evidence puts him in Normandy for the winter and at the meeting with Philip near Les Andelys in mid-January. Treat the place of the Christmas court as the campaign's call (the Norman ducal residences in use were Rouen, Caen, Bur near Bayeux, Argentan and Falaise).

Treaties and truces

• Truce with Philip: agreed in the autumn of 1199 after the September fighting in Maine; runs to about the feast of St Hilary, 13 January 1200, as the standard narratives report from Roger of Howden (not re-checked against the chronicle text here). In force on 1 January.
• January 1199 truce of Vernon (Richard and Philip, brokered by Peter Capuano) lapsed with Richard's death.
• Alliance with Baldwin IX of Flanders and Hainaut, made with Richard in 1197 and renewed with John in the summer of 1199 (the standard narratives place it at Rouen in August 1199; not re-checked): Flanders makes a separate peace with Philip at Peronne on 2 January 1200, the day after play begins.
• Alliance with Renaud of Dammartin, count of Boulogne (from Richard's coalition of 1197-98): his allegiance this winter is covered by the Flanders researcher.
• Kinship alliance with Otto IV, John's nephew and the Welf king of the Romans, who needs English money and has little to give back in 1200.
• No peace yet with Arthur: Arthur's party (Constance, Guy of Thouars, Aimery of Thouars) is with Philip.

Arthur

Arthur, duke of Brittany, aged 12. In April 1199 the barons of Anjou, Maine and Touraine accepted him and Philip took his homage. About 22 September 1199 William des Roches brought Arthur and Constance to John at Le Mans, but they fled that night to Angers with Aimery of Thouars, and Arthur then went back to Philip. On 1 January 1200 he is in Philip's keeping; the exact place is not pinned (most accounts put him at Philip's court, probably Paris).

Le Goulet will make him John's vassal for Brittany.

Coinage

The denier angevin is the money of account and circulation in Normandy, Anjou and Maine; the denier of Tours circulates on the Loire; Poitevin money (Melle) and Bordelais money in Aquitaine; sterling in England.

Rome and interdict

The interdict decreed by Peter Capuano at Dijon in December 1199 is aimed at Philip's lands over Ingeborg and is to be proclaimed from mid-January. It does not touch John's lands: Norman and Angevin churches stay open, which is why Louis and Blanche will marry at Port-Mort on Norman ground on 23 May. Innocent III wants peace between the kings so that the crusade can sail. John's own Norman and Aquitanian bishops, not Rome, voided his first marriage.

The Norman church is at peace with the duke: Archbishop Walter's interdict of 1196-97 over Andely was settled in 1197 by an exchange that gave the archbishop Dieppe and Louviers. John holds Philip of Dreux, bishop of Beauvais, prisoner (since 1197).

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. 2 January 1200Baldwin IX of Flanders makes peace with Philip at Peronne, leaving John without his main northern ally.Depends on: Baldwin's wish to secure Saint-Omer and Aire and to go on crusade Stopped by: A better offer from John, or a breakdown at Peronne
2. 13 January 1200The truce runs out at the feast of St Hilary. On the same day John grants the Channel Islands to Peter de Preaux.Depends on: Nothing Stopped by: Renewal of the truce before it expires
3. Mid-January 1200 (after 13 January)The kings meet between Les Andelys and Le Goulet and agree the heads of peace: John to cede Evreux and the Norman Vexin, Louis to marry one of John's Castilian nieces. Eleanor, on the road south since December 1199, reaches Castile to fetch the bride; her capture by Hugh IX of Lusignan and the forced grant of La Marche most likely fell in December 1199, before first light (dates in the Aquitaine records).Depends on: Both kings wanting peace: Philip under the interdict and without Flanders, John short of money and allies Stopped by: Either king raising his price; Arthur's party recovering ground; a new campaign on the Eure
4. Late February 1200John crosses to England (late February; the day is not pinned here) to raise money, chiefly a carucage, and returns to Normandy in late April or early May.Depends on: The peace talks holding Stopped by: A French attack on the march
5. 10 April 1200Mercadier is killed in Bordeaux by a man of the routier Brandin.Depends on: Mercadier going to meet Eleanor at Bordeaux Stopped by: Any change to Mercadier's movements
6. 22 May 1200Treaty of Le Goulet: John does liege homage, pays the relief, cedes Evreux and the Evrecin (divided along a line between Evreux and Le Neubourg), the Norman Vexin except Les Andelys, and Issoudun, Gracay and the Berry fiefs as Blanche's dowry; Philip recognises John as Richard's heir and drops Arthur, who is to hold Brittany of John. Amaury of Evreux quitclaims and is compensated with the earldom of Gloucester.Depends on: Both kings willing to settle; the Castilian marriage Stopped by: A player breaking either king's will to settle: then no treaty, the lands stay where they are, and the Blanche marriage falls with it
7. 23 May 1200Louis marries Blanche of Castile at Port-Mort on Norman ground, because Philip's lands are under interdict.Depends on: Le Goulet Stopped by: No treaty
8. Summer 1200John tours Anjou, Poitou and Gascony to take the homage of the Aquitanian lords.Depends on: Peace in the north Stopped by: War
9. 24 August 1200John marries Isabella of Angouleme, betrothed to Hugh IX of Lusignan, which turns the Lusignan against him and leads to their appeal to Philip in 1201.Depends on: John's free choice and the count of Angouleme's consent Stopped by: John choosing another bride or honouring the Lusignan betrothal
10. During 1200 (date not pinned)William FitzRalph, seneschal of Normandy, dies; Guerin de Glapion succeeds him.Depends on: Natural death Stopped by: Nothing likely
11. 8 October 1200Isabella of Angouleme is crowned at Westminster.Depends on: The August marriage Stopped by: No marriage
12. 28 January 1200At Caen, John takes the homage of Hugh IX of Lusignan for the county of La Marche, accepting the grant Eleanor was forced to make.Depends on: John's need of the Lusignans while Arthur and Philip are still against him. Stopped by: John refusing an extorted grant, which would mean war with the Lusignans at once.

Places of note

• Rouen castle and the ducal treasury: Chief seat of the duke; Richard ordered the keep and treasure secured on his deathbed
• Exchequer of Normandy: Seat of the seneschal and the Norman exchequer
• Chateau-Gaillard: Richard's great castle of 1196-98 on the Rock of Andeley

Where the sources disagree

• The project's date rule says Evreux and the Norman Vexin are still Angevin on 1 January 1200. That is true in law (John has ceded nothing until Le Goulet) but not in possession. Philip invaded and took Evreux in April 1199 (Wikipedia, Amaury IV of Evreux, citing the Gloucester charters and chronicles), which the campaign's own Church notes also say. Gisors and Neaufles have been Philip's since Gilbert de Vascoeuil surrendered them in April 1193, and Vernon, Gaillon, Pacy and Nonancourt since the settlement of about 14 January 1196 (French Wikipedia, Chateau de Gaillon; Theatrum Belli on the treaty of Gaillon). Recommend: Evreux city and the Norman Vexin castles of Gisors and Neaufles, with Vernon, Gaillon and Pacy, are Philip's in fact; Les Andelys, Chateau-Gaillard, Lyons and the rest of the Vexin west of the Epte castles, and the north of the Evrecin, are John's.
• GM Church notes (Part 8, 6) say the annulment of John's first marriage has a date ruled in the main notes; sources checked do not pin it tighter than 1199 or spring 1200.
• Le Goulet date: the project uses 22 May 1200 for the treaty and 23 May for the Port-Mort wedding (the conventional dates). Rigord, quoted in French Wikipedia (Traite du Goulet), puts the treaty on Ascension Day and the wedding on the Monday after. Easter 1200 fell on 9 April, so Ascension was Thursday 18 May and the Monday after was 22 May. The treaty charter itself is dated only May 1200. The GM may keep the conventional dates or follow Rigord.

Evidence: Thick for the king, his titles and the treaty of 1200; fair for the castles of the march and the officers; thin for John's exact whereabouts at Christmas 1199 and for Arthur's exact place that winter.

Primary sources for this realm

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
• Flowers of History, Roger of Wendover (about 1220 to 1235 at St Albans). For 1200 Wendover is mostly Howden rewritten, so he is a second witness only where he adds St Albans material: a long account of Hugh of Lincoln's last months, death and funeral, and anecdotes about John's conduct toward the Cistercians and his new queen. Read online
• Images of History, Ralph de Diceto (about 1188 to 1202). A London view of the year from the dean of St Paul's, who knew the justiciar and the bishops personally. Read online
• Monastic Annals (Margam, Tewkesbury, Burton, Winchester, Waverley, Dunstable, Bermondsey, Worcester, Osney) (12th to 14th centuries). Nine sets of house annals, each with a short entry for 1200. Read online
• Deeds of Philip Augustus, Rigord (about 1186 to 1206, in stages). The French court's own chronicle for the year, from the monk of Saint-Denis who called himself the king's chronographer. Read online

10 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.