Flo's History

  Following my previous post, let’s continue the study of the famous Angevin Empire, let’s meet even more famous historic characters! Revolts  In the last chapter, we saw Henry and Eleanor ruling over a large empire controlling England and half of France. However, Henry's troubles are starting to add up and things are about to go south.  All of this blew up around 1173 because of a castle dispute as all of his sons, except John Lackland, started a rebellion. Eleanor was busy running her court in Aquitaine, focusing on literature and cultural developments when she heard the news about the uprising. At that point, her actions are unclear; she neither supported her husband nor her sons. Henry blamed the uprising of their sons on her, and rumours have it that she tried to flee to reach Louis’ court when Henry captured and imprisonned her. Eleanor lost her territory of Aquitaine and was held captive by her husband. Aquitaine was then given to Eleanor's favourite son Richard....

  France and England are pretty famous rivals. Today this rivalry is more likely to be limited to Friday night soccer games, but things used to be much more intense between the two nations. We can count, for example, the Napoleonic wars, the 7 Years War, the war of Spanish Succession and the 100 Years War amongst all the moments the two came into conflict. However, today we will go over the biggest middle-finger England gave to France in the form of the Angevin Empire. For the French readers, don't worry, this is more of a 'settling the score' action anyway . The Foundations  The “empire” (historians can't seem to agree whether it was one or not), was actually formed in 1154. Henry II, duke of Normandy and count of Anjou, married the duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor, which set the foundation for the Angevin Empire. The weird thing is that the Angevin territories were seen as an English nation from the beginning. However, England entered the fray much later. This may be exp...