Henry II came to the throne in 1154, Henry's emblem was a plant called Plantagenesta - дрок, hence his dynasty was to be called the
Plantagenetdynasty. (Плантагенеты – королевская династия с 1151 по 1399 годы). Henry II created the common law system, according to which every freeman had a right to plead in royal courts, even against his feudal lord.
The Church claimed that the appointment of bishops was its own exclusive right. In 1172 it was agreed that the Church would invest the bishops, but the King would have to be consulted on the choice of candidates.
At the end of the 11th century the so-called Crusades began to be popular. The Pope of Rome sent his Emissaries to go throughout all Europe preaching a Crusade and persuading the kings and nobles to sell their lands and take their subjects to Jerusalem to drive out the Saracens
Henry II was the first king to attempt expansion of the British Isles. He invaded Ireland and established his reign there. Though on his death his son Richard I agreed to exchange the claim for a considerable sum of money. In Henry's reign the church was becoming increasingly strong. The church supported the crown against the barons.
England was rapidly developing its economy.. It was in the 12lh century that London became an industrial and commercial center of importance for those times.
The second Plantagenet King, Richard I (1189-1199), popularly called Richard the Lion Heart was an enthusiastic crusader. For the first time in history English ships entered the Mediterranean, and Richard adopted St. George as his patron saint. The Crusade itself was a failure, immensely costly in lives and treasure, though it lead to the establishment of direct and permanent connections between England and the trading cities of Italy. Richard was killed in 1199.
The 13th century began under a new king, the second son of Henry II, and a third Plantagenet, John (1193-1216). He showed no respect for law or custom. The result was the complete isolation of the crown from those sections that had previously been
Its supporters.
One by one he lost his provinces in France, including the dukedom of Normandy (John was nicknamed Lackland). the kings of France and Scotland to make war on him. John stood alone. Thus in 1215 the aristocracy, the Church and the merchants formed a coalition against the king. Unwillingly he submitted, and at Runnymede (a small island in the Thames), near Windsor, John's opponents obliged him to agree to the terms of Magna Carter, or the Great Charter. 1215 is one of the important dates in English history.
Magna Carta was not a "constitutional" document. It did not guarantee parliamentary government, since Parliament did not exist then. It set out in detail the way in which John had gone beyond his rights as a feudal overlord and to demand that his unlawful practices should stop. It marked the alliance between the barons and the citizens of London, by insisting on the freedom of merchants from arbitrary (произвольный, деспотичный) taxation.
More important was the clause in the carter setting up a permanent committee of 24 barons to see that John's promises were kept. This device did not work very well, but it did open a new avenue along which the barons could conduct a political struggle as a class rather than as individuals. It led to the development of Parliament as the instrument through which first the nobles and later the bourgeoisie defended their interests. The charter checked the king's power and it was an instrument of perfecting feudalism.
John had no intention of agreeing to Magna Carta without a fight. He gathered an army and denounced the Carta. The barons declared him deposed and offered the crown to Lois, son of the King of France. So hostilities were renewed, and when John died in 1216 England was deep in war. In the following centuries Magna Carta was solemnly reaffirmed by every king from Henry III to Henry VI (1422).
Its subsequent history is curious and falls into 3 chapters. 1) As feudalism declined it ceased to have any clear practical application and passed out of memory. The Tudor bourgeoisie were too closely allied to the monarchy to wish to place any check on it, while the power of the nobles was broken in the wars of the Roses (1455-85). Shakespeare, writing in the Wars of the Roses (1455-85). Shakespeare, writing his play "King John", never mentions Magna Carta and quite possibly never heard of it. 2) When the bourgeoisie entered their revolutionary period under the Stuarts the Charter was rediscovered, and was completely misinterpreted and used as a basis for the claims of Parliament. "Ibis view of the Charter as the cornerstone of democratic rights persisted through the greater part of the 19th' century. 3) It is only within the last decades that historians have examined itcritically as a feudal document and discovered its real meaning and importance.
Just because it marks the highest point of feudal development and expressed most precisely the nature of feudal class relations, Magna Carta marks also the passing of society beyond those relations. It's both a culmination and a point of departure. The barons won the greatest victory but only at the price of acting in a way which was not strictly feudal, of forming new kinds of combinations both among themselves and with other classes.
Late Medieval England
The 13th century in England is marked by a general transformation of feudalism, leading ultimately to its decline and the growth of a capitalist agriculture.
Wool was becoming a key to the economic development of the country.
The 13th century witnessed the birth of the new class of gentry, new nobles, small landowners. Class differentiation that was progressing among peasants was a modem division into the rich and the poor. Class struggle was assuming greater proportions in the countryside.
In 1327 Edward III took over the government of the country. He was a great and popular soldier. He refused to pay homage (дань) to Philip (France) and claimed the throne of France. Thus began the Hundred Years war. The 100 years' War was a usual feudal war of conquest. The remnant of Plantagenet possessions in France were only the obvious source of discord. In 1304 English soldiers won the battle. Thereafter the English controlled the Channel. In 1346 Edward invaded France. In 1355 war was renewed. In May 1360 England and France concluded the Treaty, by which England's ownership of Gascony was confirmed.
In 1377 Edward was suffering from horrific consequences of the Plague. In 1348-50 plague (sometimes called the "Black Death" swept over the country, killing about 1/3 of the population. The exhaustion of the country after almost 40 years almost unbroken war put an end to the war till it was revived in 1415 by Henry V.
The grievances of the peasantry came to a head in 1381. Led by Wat Tyler, angry peasants marched to London. They demanded the abolition of villeinage and the division of Church property. Certificates were written out saying that all the demands were satisfied and the crowds dispersed quietly. Tyler was killed. All who rebelled were punished.
In 1396 Richard married the daughter of Charles VII of France and made peace with France.
The power of the Parliament continued to grow. It deposed the last Plantagenet king and appointed Henry IV (1399-1413).
After the war ended, the feudal lords returned to England. They readily took part in the fight for power and influence over the royal treasury. They divided into 2 hostile groups, one supporting the House of York with a white rose in their coat-of-arms, the other supporting the House of Lancaster with a red rose in theirs. The Lancaster dynasty was chiefly supported by the nobility of North and Wales while the York forces found support among some of the feudal lords of the economically developed South-East. The head of the York Party, Richard of York collected an army of war veterans used to fighting and plunder. The march of his army to the south and a battle of 1455 began the civil war that goes in history as "The wars of the Roses" and which plagued the country during 30 years. In 1460 the Duke of York and his youngest son were killed in battle but his eldest son Edward of York was crowned in Westmister in 1461 as Edward IV. A distant relative of the House of Lancaster, Henry Tudor, who was the earl of Richmond, gathered an army in France. In 1485 Richard's army was defeated and Richard himself killed. This ended the Wars of Roses and prepared the way for the economic development of the country. Supported by the Parliament and by the gentry and the townsmen, Henry Tudor established the new Tudor dynasty.
Cultural Development of the 14th Century
The appearance of the House of Commons (1343) heralded future developments. Palaces and castles were built with spacious banqueting halls illuminated by wide windows.
There was progress in letters.
John Wycliffe translated the Bible in English creating the beginnings of English prose.
English literature flourished accordingly. An anonymous poet created an elegy for a daughter lost ("The Pearl"), and another created a chivalric romance in verse. "Sir Gawaian and the Green Knight" of the King Arthur cycle.
William Langland (1332-1400), a poor priest, created the poem "The version of Piers the Plowman”. It is is a passionate pamphlet in verse directed against the social injustice of feudalism;
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The development of the national language was greatly promoted by the work of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), an outstanding poet, "father of English literature" as many historians style him. His works paved the way to English Renaissance literature. His "Canterbury Tales" is a splendid picture of the 14th century England, showing all walks of life.
1215-magna carta was created
1455-85-the wars of the Roses
1337 to 1453-the hundred years war
1343-The appearance of the House of Commons
