The Angevin Empire (; French: Empire Plantagenêt) was the collection of territories held by the House of Plantagenet during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they ruled over an area covering roughly all of present-day England, half of France, and parts of Ireland and Wales, and claiming overlordship and some influence over the remaining parts of Wales, Scotland and Ireland. It may be described as an early example of a composite monarchy. The empire was established by Henry II of England, who succeeded his father Geoffrey as duke of Normandy and count of Anjou (from the latter of which the term Angevin is derived). Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, acquiring the Duchy of Aquitaine, and inherited his mother Empress Matilda's claim to the English throne, succeeding his rival Stephen in 1154. Although their title of highest rank came from the Kingdom of England, the Plantagenets held court primarily on the continent at Angers in Anjou and at Chinon in Touraine.
The influence and power of the Angevin kings of England brought them into conflict with the kings of France of the House of Capet, to whom they also owed feudal homage for their French possessions, bringing in a period of rivalry between the dynasties. Despite the extent of Angevin rule, Henry's son King John was defeated in the Anglo-French War (1213–1214) by Philip II of France following the Battle of Bouvines. John lost control of most of his continental possessions, apart from Guyenne and Gascony in southern Aquitaine. This defeat set the scene for further conflicts between England and France, leading up to the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), in which the Plantagenets re-established dominion over much of western, central, and northern France before losing their possessions again, this time permanently.
Terminology
The term Angevin Empire is a historiographic retronym defining the lands of the House of Plantagenet: Henry II and his sons Richard I and John. Another son, Geoffrey, ruled Brittany and established a separate line there. As far as historians know, there was no contemporary term for the region under Angevin control; however, descriptions such as "our kingdom and everything subject to our rule whatever it may be" were used. The term Angevin Empire was coined by Kate Norgate in her 1887 publication England under the Angevin Kings. In France, the term espace Plantagenet (French for "Plantagenet area") is sometimes used to describe the fiefdoms the Plantagenets had acquired.
The adoption of the Angevin Empire label marked a re-evaluation of the times, considering that both English and French influence spread throughout the dominion in the half-century during which the union lasted. The term Angevin is the demonym for the residents of Anjou and its historic capital, Angers; the Plantagenets were descended from Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou, hence the term. The demonym, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has been in use since 1511.
The use of the term empire has engendered controversy among some historians over whether the term is accurate for the actual state of affairs at the time. The area was a collection of the lands inherited and acquired by Henry. The continental lands in question were fully part of the medieval Kingdom of France, and the lands in England were part of the Kingdom of England. Henry did not rule the lands he held in France as a king but ruled under the relevant local title such as "duje". There is no evidence that the lands owned or ruled by Henry shared any common identity relating to the Plantagenets and so should be labelled with the term empire in the context of a unified state. Referring to the shared lands as an empire of property real estate may be more accurate.
Some historians argue that the term should be reserved solely for the Holy Roman Empire, the only Western European political structure actually named an empire at that time, although Alfonso VII of León and Castile had taken the title "Emperor of all Spain" in 1135. Other historians argue that Henry II's empire was not powerful, centralised or large enough to be seriously called an empire. Furthermore, the Plantagenets never claimed any sort of imperial title as implied by the term Angevin Empire. However, even if the Plantagenets themselves did not claim an imperial title, some chroniclers, often working for Henry II, used the term empire to describe the assemblage of lands. The highest title was "king of England"; the other titles of dukes and counts of different areas held in France were independent from the royal title and were not subject to English royal law. Because of this, some historians, such as W. L. Warren, prefer the term commonwealth to empire, emphasising that the Angevin Empire was more of an assemblage of seven independent, sovereign states loosely bound to each other, only united in the person of the king of England.
Geography and administration
At its largest extent, the Angevin Empire consisted of the Kingdom of England, the Lordship of Ireland (which was considered illegitimate since Henry II broke the Treaty of Windsor), the Duchies of Normandy (which included the Channel Islands), Gascony and Aquitaine, as well as of the counties of Anjou, Poitou, Maine, Touraine, Saintonge, La Marche, Périgord, Limousin, Nantes and Quercy. While the duchies and counties were held with various levels of vassalage to the king of France, the Plantagenets held various levels of control over the duchies of Brittany and Cornwall, the Welsh princedoms, the County of Toulouse, and the Kingdom of Scotland, although those regions were not formal parts of the empire. Auvergne was also in the empire for parts of the reigns of Henry and Richard, in their capacity as dukes of Aquitaine. Henry and Richard pushed further claims over the County of Berry, but these were not completely fulfilled, and the county was lost completely by the time of the accession of John in 1199.
The frontiers of the empire were sometimes well known and therefore easy to mark, such as the levees constructed between the crown lands of France and the Duchy of Normandy. In other places, the borders were not so clear, particularly the eastern border of Aquitaine, where there was often a difference between the frontier that Henry and Richard claimed and the frontier where their effective power ended. Scotland was an independent kingdom, but after a disastrous campaign led by William the Lion, English garrisons were established in the castles of Edinburgh, Roxburgh, Jedburgh and Berwick in southern Scotland as defined in the Treaty of Falaise.
Rather than being administered directly by the ruling monarch, power was delegated to specially appointed subjects in different areas. Supported by what Warren calls a "self-regulating administrative machine", these subjects had varied political and military powers.
England
England was under the firmest control of all the lands in the Angevin Empire due to the age of many of the offices that governed the country and the established traditions and customs. England was divided in shires, with sheriffs in each enforcing the common law. A justiciar was appointed by the king to stand in his absence when he was on the continent. As the kings of England were more often in France than England, they used writs more frequently than did the Anglo-Saxon kings, which actually proved beneficial to England. Under William I's rule, Anglo-Saxon nobles had been largely replaced by Anglo-Norman settlers whose lands were split between England and France. This made it much harder for them to revolt against the king and defend all their lands simultaneously. The power of the English earls had grown during the Anarchy between Empress Matilda and King Stephen, as she and he vied for support by granting earldoms to various barons, but this reversed beginning with Henry II, whose reign saw the number of earls halve from 24 to 12. England instead saw a reliance on the exchequer to provide both financial and administrative control on behalf of the ruling monarch.
Wales obtained good terms provided it paid homage to the Plantagenets and recognised them as lords. However, it remained almost self-ruling. It supplied the Plantagenets with infantry and longbowmen.
Ireland
Ireland was ruled by the Lord of Ireland, who at first had great difficulty imposing his rule. Dublin and Leinster were Angevin strongholds, and Cork, Limerick and parts of eastern Ulster were taken by Anglo-Norman nobles.
France
All of the continental domains ruled by the Angevin kings were governed by a seneschal at the top of the hierarchical system, with lesser government officials such as baillis, vicomtes, and prévôts. However, all counties and duchies would differ to an extent.
Greater Anjou is a modern term to describe the area consisting of Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Vendôme, and Saintonge. Here, prévôts, the seneschal of Anjou, and other seneschals governed. However, the constituent counties, such as Maine, were often administered by the officials of the local lords, rather than their Angevin suzerains. Maine was initially largely self-governing and lacked centralized administration until the Angevin kings made efforts to improve governance by installing new officials, such as the seneschal of Le Mans. These reforms came too late for the Angevins, however, and only the Capetians saw the beneficial effects of this reform after they annexed the area.
Aquitaine differed in the level of administration in its different constituent regions. Gascony was a very loosely administered region. Officials were stationed mostly in Entre-Deux-Mers, Bayonne, Dax, but some were found on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela and also on the river Garonne up to Agen. The rest of Gascony was not administered, despite being a significantly larger area compared to other, smaller, well-administered provinces. This difficulty when it came to administering the region was not new – it had been just as difficult for the previous dukes to cement their authority over this area. A similar state of affairs was found in the eastern provinces of Périgord and Limousin, where there was not much of a royal administrative system and practically no officials were stationed. Indeed, there were lords that ruled these regions as if they were "sovereign princes" and they had extra powers, such as the ability to mint their own coins, something English lords had been unable to do for decades. The Lusignans, for example, became rivals to the Angevins during John's rule as he attempted to consolidate his power. Officials could be stationed in Poitou, however, as there was a large concentration of castles compared to the rest of Aquitaine.
Normandy was the most consistently administered state within the continental Angevin Empire. Under Angevin rule, ducal government was regularised and strengthened, with the seneschal of Normandy becoming the pre-eminent figure in Norman government. The seneschals' administrative and judicial power peaked with William FitzRalph. Below them were the baillis, who held executive, judicial, and financial powers. Theoe officials were introduced under Geoffrey of Anjou, replacing the weaker prévôts and vicomtes in response to the unrest that followed Henry I's death and Geoffrey's invasion. Ducal authority was the strongest on the frontier near the Capetian royal demesne.
Toulouse was held through weak vassalage by the count of Toulouse, but it was rare for him to comply with Angevin rule. Only Quercy was directly administered by the Angevins after Henry II's conquest in 1159, but it did remain a contested area. Brittany, a region in which the nobles were traditionally very independent, was under Angevin control during Henry II and Richard I's reigns. The county of Nantes was under the firmest control. The Angevins often involved themselves in Breton affairs, such as when Henry II arranged Conan of Brittany's marriage and installed the archbishop of Dol.
Economy
The economy of the Angevin Empire was complex with varying political structures of the different fiefdoms. England and Normandy were well administered and therefore would be able to generate larger revenues than areas such as Aquitaine. This is because England and Normandy were home to more officials to collect taxes and, unlike Aquitaine, local lords were unable to mint their own coins, allowing the Angevin kings to control the economy from their administrative base of Chinon. Chinon's importance was shown by Richard's seizure of Chinon first when he rebelled against his father in 1187 and then when John rushed to Chinon after his brother's death.
Money raised in England was used mostly for continental issues, although historian John Gillingham argues that although areas like Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitaine are recorded to have brought in less revenue compared to England, much of this is due to poor financial accounts for these continental possessions. Gillingham argues that by the end of Richard's reign, Normandy may have been generating even more revenue for the royal treasury than England.