Lesson video

Hello, welcome to history here at Oak National Academy.

I'm Mr. Newton, and thank you for joining me today.

I've got a great lesson lined up for you.

I'm basically here to simplify any tricky concepts we may encounter.

All right, let's get started.

Over the next few lessons we'll be thinking about our big inquiry question, how successfully did Henry reassert royal authority? How successful was Henry at showing he was still in power or in control of his land? When it looked like Henry's position was weak was Henry effective at taking back control? This is the question we will use to investigate Henry II.

This is important because mediaeval kings are powerful rulers of their kingdoms and of their empires, but over time, they will begin to face many challenges, and that's the case with Henry.

He becomes a king after a very chaotic period.

He will spend most of his reign trying to reassert his royal authority, trying to rebuild his power and control over his kingdom and empire.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe Henry II's control over the Angevin Empire after the Anarchy.

Before we begin, there are a few words we need to understand: anarchy, centralise, empire, duchy, allegiance.

When there is no government in society, this is known as anarchy.

It means political or social disorder.

To centralise is when separate parts are brought together so that they are organised or controlled from one place.

A group of countries or provinces ruled from the centre by one person or a group of people is known as an empire.

The area of land controlled by a duke or a duchess is known as a duchy.

When somebody is loyal to a Lord or monarch, this is allegiance.

This lesson has two parts.

In the first part, we'll look at Henry II and the Angevin Empire, and in the second part we look at expanding the Angevin Empire.

So let's starts with Henry II and the Angevin Empire.

Before Henry became king, there was a period of time known as the Anarchy.

What happened for this period to be called the Anarchy? Well, in 1135, the king died with no clear heir.

There was a succession crisis.

As you'll remember, this had previously happened when Edward de Confessor died with no clear heir.

Resulting in the battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror.

And a succession crisis also began the Anarchy in 1135.

There was disagreement over who should be the next ruler.

A 19 year long war erupted causing great chaos across the kingdom.

What's happened during the Anarchy? Well, Henry's cousin, Stephen, on the horse here in the image, claimed he should be the next king.

However, Henry's mother, Empress Matilda, claimed she was in fact, the rightful ruler.

The two sides went to war.

But neither Stephen nor Matilda was strong enough to rule the entire kingdom.

This resulted in a complete collapse in centralised royal control.

There was no one central person in charge of the kingdom.

This led to a breakdown in law and order.

Many barons, that's the large landholders, took advantage by setting up local areas of control, building their own castles, making their own coins, and being cruel to the population.

It is this disorder across the kingdom, due to a lack of royal authority, a lack of a ruler, which caused this period to be called the Anarchy.

Eventually, both sides are tired of conflict and wanted to work towards peace.

It was agreed that Stephen would remain as King of England, but upon his death, the throne would pass to Matilda's son Henry.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

Why was the period during the war between Matilda and Stephen known as the Anarchy? Was it A, a lack of centralised royal control had led to a breakdown in law and order.

B, a lack of centralised royal control had led to law and order being restored, or C, centralised royal control had led to a breakdown in law and order.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done If you knew it was A, a lack of centralised royal control had led to a breakdown in law and order.

Let's continue the story.

So Henry II became king in 1154.

the Anarchy was over, but Henry had inherited some challenging problems. What challenges do you think Henry might face? Pause and have a think.

Welcome back, there are many challenges that Henry might face.

Perhaps you thought about how would he ensure that war within England never happened again? How would he restore the law and order of his kingdom? How would he defend and build his kingdom, his empire? Overall, how would he reassert royal authority? Okay, I want you to think about this question.

Henry became king after a period of peace in England.

True or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was false.

So let's think about that a bit more deeply.

Why is it false? What is your justification for that answer? Is it because, A, Henry became king after a war within England known as the Anarchy? Or is it because, B, Henry became king after his mother Matilda won the war within England? Pause the video and choose the correct justification.

Welcome back and well done if you knew the answer was A, Henry became king after a war within England known as the Anarchy.

Let's continue the story.

Henry inherited the Angevin Empire.

Look at the map, the red area marks out the extent of the Angevin Empire.

It stretched across England and parts of modern day France.

Having an empire meant Henry ruled over many separate areas or provinces and countries.

His empire stretched from the Scottish border to the north, to the Pyrenees mountains in the south of modern day France.

This made Henry an extremely powerful ruler in Europe.

So how did he inherit the lands within his empire? Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine, which brought him control over the duchy of Aquitaine in the southwest of modern day France.

Eleanor was a powerful and wealthy queen who often ruled on Henry's behalf.

So this added to Henry's power as a king.

He was also made Duke of Normandy.

As you'll remember since William the Conqueror, there was a connection between England and Normandy as William was the duke there.

So Henry inherited this duchy too.

Henry also inherited lands from his father.

We can see then that when he became King of England, Henry II ruled over a vast area of land.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

What empire did Henry rule? Was it A, the Angevin Empire? B, the English Empire, or C, the French Empire? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was A, the Angevin Empire.

Okay, let's have another check here.

Which two countries did Henry's empire stretch across? Was it A, England, B, France, C, Spain? Remember, you need to select two countries here.

Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back and well done if you knew it was England and France.

Okay, so we've now established that Henry rules over a vast empire.

The Angevin Empire was divided into duchies.

A duchy is a separate area of land.

It had its own traditions and its own leader.

These leaders often had the title of a Duke or a Duchess.

Therefore, the area of land they ruled over became known as a duchy.

What this means is that modern day France did not exist yet.

Instead, the area we know as France was actually a collection of separate lands or duchies.

Let's highlight two important duchies, Normandy, which I've highlighted in purple on the map.

And the second duchy I want to highlight here is Aquitaine.

So despite being separate, each duchy had a duty of loyalty to follow their king, Henry.

Let's have a look at this diagram.

So we can see here each of the duchies are separate, however, they all are bound together in Henry's empire.

So given that a mediaeval king, such as Henry, rules over these separate lands, how can a king get people to be loyal to him? There are many possible answers.

The image on the screen may give you a clue to one answer.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back.

One answer is through allegiance.

The image here shows an earl swearing allegiance to William the Conqueror.

So what does it mean to swear allegiance? So what that means is it's a public promise to be loyal to the monarch or to William the Conqueror here in the image.

So this is a promise with the king and God.

It was unlikely you would break a public and spiritual promise like this.

It would not be good for your reputation or your soul.

There are other ways to inspire loyalty from the duchies.

Violence or brute force to make the duchies submit to your power.

Or you could provide protection or generosity or money, things like that.

However, rival kings often competed to gain the allegiance of the duchies.

And during the Anarchy, these rival kings took the opportunity to grab lands that Henry was expected to inherit.

Henry though has an energetic and hot tempered character and quickly set about restoring his royal lands in every corner of his empire.

His aim was to assert his authority and centralised royal power.

That is he wanted to show his strength, take back control, and rule over his empire from the centre.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

The Angevin Empire was divided into multiple duchies.

Was that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that was true.

So let's think about that more deeply.

Why is that true? What is your justification for that answer? Is it because A, the rulers of the duchies each promised to be loyal to Henry II or B Henry II had to promise to obey the rulers of the duchies.

Pause the video and choose the correct justification.

Okay, welcome back and well done If you knew the correct justification was A, the rulers of the Duchess each promised to be loyal to Henry II.

Good, so we now know that the empire is divided, but they are also united behind Henry.

Okay, let's check your understanding once again.

What I want you to do is choose the correct word to complete the text.

Select from the words below the text.

So here's your text, you've got a few sentences with a gap, and here are the words I want you to choose from.

Choose the correct word to complete the text.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew the correct word was restoring.

So the text should of read, "During the Anarchy, rival kings took the opportunity to grab lands that Henry II was expected to inherit.

Henry II quickly sets about restoring his control over his royal lands in every corner of his empire." Okay, let's move on to task A, fill in the missing words.

So again, I've given you a few sentences here, and you've got the words that you can use at the bottom of the text.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew these answers.

The text should have read, "Henry II became king following a war known as the Anarchy.

He became ruler of a vast area known as the Angevin Empire, which spanned England and modern day France.

The empire was divided into duchies, each with its own traditions and leadership, but all swore allegiance to Henry." Okay, let's move on to the second part.

I want you to apply all of your knowledge from the first part of this lesson to answer this question.

Explain in a paragraph why it was a challenge for Henry to rule the Angevin Empire.

In your answer, include as many of the following words as you can, duchies, allegiance, anarchy, restore, and centralise.

Pause the video, have a go at the task and come right back.

Okay, welcome back, how did you get on with that? There are many ways to answer that question, but here's my example.

"It was a challenge for Henry to rule the Angevin Empire because duchies often gave their allegiance to whichever king demonstrated power, protection, or generosity.

After the Anarchy, Henry's position had weakened and rival kings competed for the allegiance of duchies and seized lands.

Henry's challenge was to restore these lands and centralise his royal power within the Angevin Empire." So as we've seen, Henry ruled over the vast Angevin Empire, which consisted of many separate lands.

He faced a difficult task of keeping control of these lands or duchies, and this control had also been weakened during the chaos of the Anarchy.

Okay, let's move on to the second part of the lesson.

Expanding the Angevin Empire.

Henry was able to restore control after the Anarchy, but Henry wanted to go beyond this.

How would a mediaeval king build a greater empire? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back.

Now, there are many ways we could answer this question.

A mediaeval king who is looking to build a greater empire might look to expand the empire, and this is the case with Henry.

Henry will look to expand his Angevin Empire.

And the reason for this is that conquest was one way that mediaeval kings achieved greatness.

Mediaeval kings were judged by their ability on the battlefield.

Conquering land was the best way for a king to become powerful.

One of the lands Henry added his empire was Ireland.

And you can see I've now added Ireland to the map.

So how did this happen? Ireland was divided into multiple separate kingdoms. In 1169, the King of Leinster in Dublin, Diarmait Mac Murchada, requested help in dealing with his own rebels in Ireland.

This was a violence uprising against their king.

Henry II approved for a small group of knights who gave assistance in exchange for profits.

However, this soon escalated.

The Knights put down the rebellion, but Diarmait died leaving the knights to claim the territory for themselves.

Henry quickly acted, invaded Ireland and took control.

The Pope supported the invasion because he wanted Henry to carry out religious changes in Ireland.

The Pope's blessing boosted Henry's claim to rule over Ireland.

As you'll remember, William the Conqueror had also benefited from the support of the Pope for his claim to the English throne.

The knights, and many native Irish kings swore allegiance to Henry.

Eventually, all of Ireland was added to the Angevin Empire.

Now this is important because this marks the beginning of England's monarchs claiming to be rightful rulers of Ireland.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

Starting with the earliest events, sort these events into chronological order by numbering them one to four with one as the earliest.

And here are your events.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you had this correct order.

So number one was Henry sends troops to help the Irish King.

Number two, King Diarmait dies.

Number three, Henry invades and takes control over Ireland.

And number four, kings of England begin claiming to be the rightful rulers of Ireland.

Okay, let's move on to task B.

I want you to apply all of your knowledge from the lesson to answer this question, explain in a paragraph how Henry II expanded the Angevin Empire in 1171.

In your answer, include as many of the following words as you can: invaded, military, Ireland, Pope, allegiance, and claim to be rightful rulers.

Pause the video and have a go at the task.

Okay, welcome back.

How did you get on with that task? So again, there are many ways we could answer this question, but check and compare your answer with my example here.

"Henry II expanded the Angevin Empire by adding Ireland.

In 1169, an Irish king requested help in dealing with his own rebels.

Henry approved a military intervention.

However, the Irish king died in 1171.

Henry invaded and took control over this kingdom and beyond.

Henry's claim over Ireland was also boosted by the Pope's blessing.

Ireland was added to the Angevin Empire with many knight and Irish kings swearing allegiance to Henry.

Kings of England subsequently claimed to be the rightful rulers of Ireland." Okay, let's summarise today's lesson.

Henry II and the Angevin Empire.

After the Anarchy, Henry II worked to restore control over his royal lands: an area of Western Europe known as the Angevin Empire.

The Angevin Empire was a collection of separate lands, duchies, each of which had their own traditions and local leadership.

Henry II oversaw an invasion of Ireland with the support of the Pope and the kings of England subsequently claimed to be the rightful rulers of Ireland.

Well done on a brilliant lesson.

Thank you for joining me for this fascinating story of mediaeval kingship.

I will see you next time when we continue the story of Henry reasserting royal authority.

See you in the next lesson.