English Kings and Their Impact

Alfred the Great: Fights back against the Vikings who have previously conquered England and is considered to be the first English king.

Edward the Confessor: He has a hard time controlling his citizens and has an interesting power play between his wife and him. Eventually he dies with no heir, resulting in struggle for the throne.

Harold Godwinson: Edward’s brother in law, one of the people who struggled for the throne.

Harold Hydrada: Viking who tried to take the throne by force,

William the Bastard: Because he was from Normandy, the part of northern France that was given to the Vikings, William is a Viking. But he’s also related to Edward, so he launches an invasion. The Bayeux Tapestry is a record of the Battle of Hastings. In the battle, William, Harold, and the Hydrada invade England at the same time. Harold is torn apart by Hydrada in the north, and Hydrada travels south and gets slaughtered (through the eye…?) by William. And William becomes William the Conquerer since he has conquered all of England, and Normandy.

Unfortunately, since William is a Viking, then he is technically a vassal of the French king. So French King says, “Hey dude, thanks for conquering all this land for me.” But William goes, “Wha… no, I’m the King of England and some of your land!” And a grudge develops that causes the Hundred Years War. Way to go, man.

Doomsday Book: So the first thing Will does is kick all the people who fought against him out and redistributed the land to his friends who did fight for him. He then sends people to conduct a census of people, pigs, corn, everything. And they put it all into the Doomsday Book. With this book, Will now knows who owns what, who to tax, and to tax how many. The book is significant because it’s a base line. Now all the kings who follow Will has to do is keep tabs on their people. “Hey what’s new? You had kids? Your chicken had kids? Your corn reproduced? Got more cash?” And the power of the king RISES…

Henry II: Tries to put his people into the church, but once he does, he is betrayed by that friend. Then Friend gets murdered by other friends of Henry, and Henry gets humiliated because he has to apologize to the pope to avoid excommunication.

Eleanor was married to the king of France but it was a bad marriage and was divorced. So when Henry II marries, her, she brought the south of France, Aquitaine, with her. So that pisses France off.

His sons John and Richard fight him and soon, he’s at war. In the meantime, France is at war with England because they want Aquitaine back. And wars are expensive and what pay them are taxes. Richard eventually replaces him when he dies.

Common Law: Written by Henry II. With this, there are no longer any questions and it’s nice and clear. These laws don’t change much over the years and is also the bases for our own Constitution. Henry creates courts that travel from town to town. So if you break a law, they hold you until the court show up to convict and punish you. The juries and judges are selected by the king himself.

Richard: The son of Henry II and Eleanor. He becomes the king of England and feels compelled to take back Jerusalem from the Muslims, thus sparking the 3^rd crusade. He comes back; ending John’s spending of money, but dies two years later of disease.

John: The son of Henry II and Eleanor. As King Richard is crusading, John decides to step in and build castles and have extra jewels. Now the people are being taxed for the two wars, a crusade, and now they have to pay for his jewelry. After Richard’s death, he becomes king.

And his Reign: But the people already hate him, so John gets into a fight with his nobility for the taxes and Pope Innocent III on who will become Archbishop of Canterbury. Finally, the Pope tells England, “If you guys aren’t restraining John, I’m gonna kick him and ALL y’all out of the church!” So the people, not wanting to be excommunicated, starts refusing to fight in King John’s wars, and France takes back Normandy. Finally, the Pope says, “I’m so sick of arguing with you, begone with you.” Now the nobility gets upset so they go, “Listen, John, we are going to have a revolt and execute you tomorrow unless you sign this sheet of paper”. And that sheet of paper is…

Magna Carta: An alliance between John and his nobility. It allows him back into church and most of his powers. But he must consult his nobles before he makes a decision that will raise taxes. “No taxation without representation.”

Robin Hood: Fun fact, John was Evil Prince John and Richard was Good King Richard in the books. In actuality, neither was that great.

Edward I: This king finds the constraints the Magna Carta puts very bothersome. He wants to go to war a lot, so he needs to consult his nobles frequently. But it soon becomes a pain getting the nobles from across the country together for each thing he wants to consult them with. So he comes up with the Model Parliament, an assembly of nobles. So when he wants something from them, all he has to do is walk across the street and holler, “Yo, I need to tax!”

Model Parliament: It gradually evolved in its own way and the nobility starts to craft their own ways to manipulate the king. After Edward’s reign, the Parliament gradually grew more powerful and the kings’ power declined. Eventually, the commoners gained a right to have a representation, the Commons. The Commons consist of two elected knights from each county. The Parliament still exists in England today.

And to sum it up:

William the Conqueror – Doomsday Book – Power goes up

Henry II – Common Law – Power goes up

King John I - Magna Carta – Power goes down

King Edward I – Model Parliament – Good for him but power goes down for everyone that follows.