The Norman and Plantagenet Kings
The Hundred Years War
Same People…Different Topic
Because William the Conqueror
had been a powerful leader in
French Normandy, he claimed
both England, as well as much of
France as his kingdom.
Later English kings maintained
their right to rule parts of France.
This created a great deal of
resentment for both the French
people, as well as their kings, who
wanted control of their lands back.
In A.D. 1152 King Henry II of
England married Eleanor of
Aquitaine.
Eleanor was the
heiress to much
of the lands in
the southwest of
France.
This gave King
Henry II control
over more of
France than the
French king
had.
Edward III Plantagenet
In A.D. 1328 when the king of France
died without leaving a direct heir the
situation became dangerous.
King Edward III of England was
the grandson of the former French
King.
As such, he was the rightful
successor to the French throne.
This gave the King Edward III
the right to rule both England and
France from a single throne.
The Hundred Years War
The French were not ready to
be ruled by an English King.
Feelings between the English
and French were too bitter.
A Frenchman by the name of
Philip of Valois who was the
nephew of the former king of
France began preparations for
war with England.
A war that would last from A.D.
1337 until A.D. 1453.
The Hundred Years War
After more than one
hundred years of fighting,
the French were
eventually able to declare
victory over the English.
The One Hundred Years
War greatly strengthened
France, while weakening
England.
Following the war, England
would enter a period of
turmoil and civil war
The War of the Roses
that would last for another
30 years.
The War of the Roses
Following the Hundred Years War, England
found itself in turmoil.
The war had seriously weakened the monarchy, and
drained much of the nation’s treasury.
The nation was ruled by the house of Lancaster,
which bore the emblem of a red rose.
The Duke of York,
whose family bore the emblem of a white rose
saw the kings weakened state as an opportunity to
seize power, and establish himself as king.
The War of the Roses
By the reign of the
relatively weak Henry VI ,
civil war broke out between
rival claimants to the throne,
dating back to the sons of Edward III.
The Lancastrian dynasty descended from John of
Gaunt, third son of Edward III, whose son Henry
deposed the unpopular Richard II.
Yorkist claimants such as the Duke of York
asserted their legitimate claim to the throne through
Edward III's second surviving son,Edmund of
Langley,
but through a female line.
Causes
The Wars of the Roses therefore tested whether the succession
should keep to the male line or could pass through females.
Captured and briefly restored, Henry VI
was recaptured and put to death in 1461, and the Yorkist faction led by
Edward IV gained the throne
Princes in the Tower
The Yorkist conquest of the Lancastrians in 1461 did
not put an end to the Wars of the Roses, which
rumbled on until the start of the sixteenth century.
Family disloyalty in the form of Richard III's betrayal
of his nephews, the young King Edward V and his
brother, was part of his downfall.
2 of Edward IV sons – Edward (Would be Edward V)
and Richard were locked up in the Tower of London
since the end of May 1483 by their Uncle Richard.
–In mid-July, Richard had his
nephews declared
illegitimate,
–which meant that
neither boy would be
able to become king,
–and arranged to have himself
crowned Richard III
House of Tudor
Henry Tudor, a claimant to the throne of Lancastrian
descent, defeated Richard III in battle and Richard
was killed.
Henry was crowned Henry VII
With the marriage of Henry to Elizabeth
the sister of the young Princes in the Tower,
reconciliation was finally achieved between the
warring houses of Lancaster and York in the form of
the new Tudor dynasty,
which combined their respective red and white
emblems to produce the Tudor rose.