Family/Spouse: Ermengarde DU MAINE. Ermengarde was born in 1086 in Maine, France; died in 1126 in Maine, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Matilda (Maud) DE ENGLAND EMPRESS. Matilda was born before 1102 in London, Middlesex, England; died on 10 Sep 1169 in Notre Dame,Rouen,Seine-Maritime,France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

King married Princess Eleanor DE AQUITAINE on 11 May 1153 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. Princess (daughter of Duke William VIII Of POITOU and Eleanor DE CHATELLERAULT) was born in 1121 in Bordeaux, France; died on 03 Mar 1204 in Fontevrault abbey, Maine-Et-Loire, France; was buried in Fontevrault abbey, Maine-Et-Loire, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Ella Of SALISBURY in 1198. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Marguerite Of FRANCE. Marguerite was born on 02 Nov 1160. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Matilda married Duke Heinrich V Of SAXONY on 01 Feb 1168 in St Peter, Domkirche, Minden, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

NOTE 1./
Richard I, the Lion-hearted, spent much of his youth in his mother's court at Poitiers. Richard cared much more for the continental possessions of his mother than for England - he also cared much more for his mother than for his father. Family considerations influenced much of his life: he fought along side of his brothers Prince Henry and Geoffrey in their rebellion of 1173-4; he fought for his father against his brothers when they supported an 1183 revolt in Aquitane; and he joined Philip II of France against his father in 1188, defeating Henry in 1189.

Richard spent but six months of his ten-year reign in England. He acted upon a promise to his father to join the Third Crusade and departed for the Holy Land in 1190 (accompanied by his partner-rival Philip II of France). In 1191, he conquered Cyprus en route to Jerusalem and performed admirably against Saladin, nearly taking the holy city twice. Philip II, in the meantime, returned to France and schemed with Richard's brother John. The Crusade failed in its primary objective of liberating the Holy Land from Moslem Turks, but did have a positive result - easier access to the region for Christian pilgrims through a truce with Saladin. Richard received word of John's treachery and decided to return home; he was captured by Leopold V of Austria and imprisoned by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. The administrative machinery of Henry II insured the continuance of royal authority, as Richard was unable to return to his realm until 1194. Upon his return, he crushed a coup attempt by John and regained lands lost to Philip II during the German captivity. Richard's war with Philip continued sporadically until the French were finally defeated near Gisors in 1198.

Richard died April 6, 1199, from a wound received in a skirmish at the castle of Chalus in the Limousin. Near his death, Richard finally reconciled his position with his late father, as evidenced by Sir Richard Baker in A Chronicle of the Kings of England: "The remorse for his undutifulness towards his father, was living in him till he died; for at his death he remembered it with bewailing, and desired to be buried as near him as might be, perhaps as thinking they should meet the sooner, that he might ask him forgiveness in another world." Richard's prowess and courage in battle earned him the nickname Coeur De Lion ("heart of the lion"), but the training of his mother's court is revealed in a verse Richard composed during his german captivity:

Richard married Princess Berengaria Of NAVARRA on 12 May 1191 in Limassol, Cyprus. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Princess married King Alfonso VIII Of CASTILE on 22 Sep 1177 in Burgos, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Princess married Guglielmo II (Il Buono) Of SICILY KING on 13 Feb 1176 in St Egidius,Palermo,Palermo,ITALY. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Princess married Count Raimond VI Of TOULOUS in Nov 1196 in Rouen,Sein-Maritime,France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

NOTE 1./

As the fourth child, inherited lands were not available to him, giving rise to his nickname, Lackland. His first marriage lasted but ten years and was fruitless, but his second wife, Isabella of Angouleme, bore him two sons and three daughters. He also had an illegitimate daughter, Joan, who married Llywelyn the Great, Ruler of All Wales, from which the Tudor line of monarchs was descended. The survival of the English government during John's reign is a testament to the reforms of his father, as John taxed the system socially, economically, and judicially.

The Angevin family feuds profoundly marked John. He and Richard clashed in 1184 following Richard's refusal to honor his father's wishes surrender Aquitane to John. The following year Henry II sent John to rule Ireland, but John alienated both the native Irish and the transplanted Anglo-Normans who emigrated to carve out new lordships for themselves; the experiment was a total failure and John returned home within six months. After Richard gained the throne in 1189, he gave John vast estates in an unsuccessful attempt to appease his younger brother. John failed to overthrow Richard's administrators during the German captivity and conspired with Philip II in another failed coup attempt. Upon Richard's release from captivity in 1194, John was forced to sue for pardon and he spent the next five years in his brother's shadow.

John proved extremely unpopular with his subjects. In addition to the Irish debacle, he inflamed his French vassals by orchestrating the murder of his popular nephew, Arthur of Brittany. By spring 1205, he lost the last of his French possessions and returned to England. The final ten years of his reign were occupied with failed attempts to regain these territories. After levying a number of new taxes upon the barons to pay for his dismal campaigns, the discontented barons revolted, capturing London in May 1215. At Runnymeade in the following June, John succumbed to pressure from the barons, the Church, and the English people at-large, and signed the Magna Carta. The document, a declaration of feudal rights, stressed three points. First, the Church was free to make ecclesiastic appointments. Second, larger-than-normal amounts of money could only be collected with the consent of the king's feudal tenants. Third, no freeman was to be punished except within the context of common law. Magna Carta, although a testament to John's complete failure as monarch, was the forerunner of modern constitutions. John only signed the document as a means of buying time and his hesitance to implement its principles compelled the nobility to seek French assistance. The barons offered the throne to Philip II's son, Louis. John died in the midst of invasion from the French in the South and rebellion from his barons in the North.

King married Isabella D'ANGOULEME on 24 Aug 1200 in Bordeaux Cathedral. Isabella (daughter of Count of Angouleme Aymer Taillefer DE VALENCE and Countess Alix DE COURTENAY) was born about 1188 in Angouleme, Charente, France; died on 31 May 1235 in Fontevrault L'Ab,Maine-Et-Loire,France; was buried in Fountervrault Ab, An Jou, Isere, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

King married ISABELLA on 29 Aug 1189 in Marlborough Castle, Wiltshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]