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The Plantagenets
They descended from Matilda, Henry I’ s daughter and Geoffrey’s son. This dynasty of kings reigned from 1154 when Geoffrey’s son was made king of England and western France with the name of Henry II. Henry II ‘s reign was successful in restoring the order, bringing stability, and has remained famous because he improved through reforms about military service and the justice. His first task was to reduce the power of the barons, which he did with the help of professional soldiers. Knights could now pay a tax at the king instead to giving service so the king was able to hire mercenaries. About the justice Henry sent travelling judges round the land to hold assizes , in the largest towns in each country. The law administered by these travelling judges became known as common Law because it was applied everywhere. As well as the power of the barons, the king also wanted to reduce the power of the Church thought that easiest way of controlling the Church would be to make Thomas Becket head it but once Archbishop of Canterbury Becket became a stubborn opponent of the king and he refused to comply with the constitutions of Clarendon according to which the king claimed considerable authority in investing the bishop. For a long time the conflict dragged on until on 1170 when Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral.
When Henry died in 1189 only two of his sons were still living and he was succeeded by the elder of them, who became Richard I. He spent very little time in his own kingdom, since he set out almost at once on the third crusade. Richard was succeeded by his young brother, John Lackland (1196-1216) who has the reputation of being the worst of English kings. In order to get more money to wage wars to defend his French possessions, he levied higher taxes. This annoyed the barons and when the king returned from an unsuccessful campaign in France in 1215 he had to yield to the combined demands of the barons, the Church and the merchants of London so John was forced to sign the Magna Charta and with this document was marks the first long step towards the constitutional monarchy of a far later day.
Al the John death, his son, Henry III (1216-1272) was only nine when he became king and the England was governed by a group of barons until he grew up. It was in his reign that parliament began, through the efforts of Simon de Montfort (1208-1265). In 165 he called a meeting, or a parliament of barons, knights and for the first time, two representatives from each town. The usefulness of a parliament had been established and Edward I (1272-1307) continued the experiment after he became king. The meeting of his Council known as the Model Parliament of the 1295 included representatives of the barons, the clergy, two knights from each country and two each citizen from each town. The successor to Edward I, Edward II (1307-1327) cared only for himself and was deposed by the barons and probably murdered in 1327.
Edward III introduced the idea of chivalry , a name given to a set of values – bravery, loyalty, honesty and glory – which the perfect knight had to respect . It was Edward who founded the Order of the Garter, a group of 24 knights, the same number the legendary Arthur had chosen with high ideals of honour and service. In the 1337 Edward III laid claim to the crown of the France on the grounds that his mother was the French king’s sister, and began a struggle which was to last with interval for a hundred years till 1453. There was, of course a more solid reason for the Hundred Years War: the French were threatening Flanders, which was the chief market for English wool. This war received a severe check from the Black Death. Known as the black death because of the colour the body turned after the death; it was caused by fleas living on the black rats which infested the ship trading with Europe. The mortality rate was very high; it is generally thought that the plague carried off a third of England’s population. The last years of Edward III’ s reign were marked by the rise of a religious reformist movement, which attacked the power and worldliness of the church. At the death of Edward III, his grandson Richard became king as Richard II (1377-1399) in 1377 when he was only ten. Thus a council of noblemen governed the kingdom while Richard was a boy. The first parliament of the reign decided to levy a new tax on every person to pay the debts deriving deriving from with the France and to reinforce the navy. This led to widespread discontent. It was the moment in which all factors coalesced: the result of the Black Death upon economy and labourers, feudal pressure in the society ect….. so in 1381 all this discontent exploded in the Peasant’s Revolt
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