How a Birthday Party at Chinon Kickstarted a Civil War (5 March 1173)
HistoricalEvents, TimePeriods Hedgehog Books Admin HistoricalEvents, TimePeriods Hedgehog Books Admin

How a Birthday Party at Chinon Kickstarted a Civil War (5 March 1173)

Today is my birthday 😁. And as birthdays go, I could have shared mine with worse people, because 5 March 1133 was also the birthday of Henry II of England, born at Le Mans, one of the most formidable rulers medieval Europe ever produced.

Henry II’s Birthday was 5th March

Soldier, lawgiver, empire-builder, father of eight legitimate children (and countless illegitimate ones), and a man whose family would become both his greatest weapon, his biggest headache, and eventually most spectacular downfall.

Which makes today a good day to talk about what happened on his fortieth birthday, in 1173. Because that evening a feast was held at Château de Chinon. The great hall would have been ablaze with candlelight and Henry, thinking he’d managed to control his spoiled, entitled (but courteous and generous) namesake son, allowed the goblets to be repeatedly refilled by his son’s own hand.

The drunkenness that followed led to everything that followed: the Great Rebellion, where Henry’s family were torn apart, and his throne would never feel secure again.

This event, and the Great Rebellion itself, runs through the heart of my novel Lady of Lincoln.

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Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen, Duchess, and Mother of Rebels
Biographies, WomeninHistory Rachel Elwiss Joyce Biographies, WomeninHistory Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen, Duchess, and Mother of Rebels

When their sons grew to manhood, Eleanor encouraged them to demand their inheritance. Henry the Young King, Richard, and Geoffrey wanted lands to rule; Henry II refused. In 1173, when the princes fled to France, Eleanor supported them. Chroniclers later claimed she disguised herself as a man to join them—an image that has haunted legend ever since.

Her rebellion failed. Henry II’s forces captured her later that year while she travelled through Poitou. For the next sixteen years she was kept under guard, a queen turned prisoner. Yet even captivity could not erase her influence: her sons would continue to fight in her name.

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Henry II of England – The Jailer of Queens
Biographies, CrimeAndJustice Rachel Elwiss Joyce Biographies, CrimeAndJustice Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Henry II of England – The Jailer of Queens

When Henry of Anjou (later Henry II, also known as Henry Plantagenet) married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, they created a political alliance of breath taking scale. Henry was heir to the English throne; Eleanor, just divorced from King Louis VII of France, brought with her the duchy of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most independent regions in Europe.

For a time, their marriage was a true partnership. Eleanor rode beside Henry on campaign, governed Aquitaine in his name, and bore him eight children. Together, they forged the Angevin Empire stretching from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees.

But power and passion soured into mistrust. By the 1170s, the marriage had collapsed into open hostility.

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Princes Without Power: Why Henry the Young King Rebelled
People, HistoricalEvents Rachel Elwiss Joyce People, HistoricalEvents Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Princes Without Power: Why Henry the Young King Rebelled

On 14 June 1170, in Westminster Abbey, England witnessed a rare spectacle: a king crowned in his father’s lifetime. The boy was Henry, eldest surviving son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. At just fifteen, he was anointed, crowned, and hailed as rex iunior — the Young King.

It should have been the beginning of a glittering reign. Instead, it became the seed of betrayal.

Did you know? Henry the Young King’s coronation feast is covered in Lady of Lincoln.

A King Without a Kingdom

Despite the grandeur of his coronation, the Young King had no real authority. His father ruled with a firm hand and was unwilling to share power. Henry II kept hold of the castles, the revenues, and the decision-making. The son was left with ceremony but no substance.

Contemporaries pitied him. William of Newburgh remarked that the lad “was king in name only, while his father held the reins of government.” Others saw a prince who enjoyed the tournaments and glittering life of a knight but lacked the lands and soldiers that made a medieval ruler truly powerful.

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Geoffrey of Anjou: The Handsome Count Who Founded the Plantagenet Dynasty (Died 7th September 1151)
Biographies, TimePeriods Rachel Elwiss Joyce Biographies, TimePeriods Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Geoffrey of Anjou: The Handsome Count Who Founded the Plantagenet Dynasty (Died 7th September 1151)

On September 7, 1151, Geoffrey of Anjou — known as “le Bel” or “the Handsome” — collapsed with a sudden fever and died at just 38 years old.
He was never king. He never wore a crown.
And yet, Geoffrey Plantagenet shaped the medieval world more than many monarchs.

Without him, there would be no Henry II, no Richard the Lionheart, no King John and Magna Carta, and no centuries-long Plantagenet dynasty. Geoffrey’s story isn’t just a footnote — it’s the spark that set medieval England ablaze.

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Why the Plantenet Angevins Ruled Half of Europe
TimePeriods, EnglandAndAngevinEmpire Rachel Elwiss Joyce TimePeriods, EnglandAndAngevinEmpire Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Why the Plantenet Angevins Ruled Half of Europe

When most people think of medieval kings, we generally think of one monarch, one kingdom, and then the people below him.. But Henry II of England—first of the Angevin kings—was no ordinary ruler. By the 1170s, he commanded more territory than any other monarch in Christendom, stretching from the wild hills of Northumberland to the sunlit vineyards of Aquitaine. He was king in only England—he was the Norman and Aquitainian duke, the count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine. But is was all his dominion, and it was so vast that chroniclers called it an “empire,” though it was stitched together by marriage, inheritance, and sheer force of will.

So how did a French count’s son come to rule half of Europe?

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The Battle of Fornham: When a Countess Rode to War and Changed Medieval England Forever
HistoricalEvents, WomeninHistory Rachel Elwiss Joyce HistoricalEvents, WomeninHistory Rachel Elwiss Joyce

The Battle of Fornham: When a Countess Rode to War and Changed Medieval England Forever

In the mist-shrouded dawn of October 17, 1173, near the quiet Suffolk village of Fornham St. Genevieve, history was about to witness something remarkable. Not just another medieval battle between king and rebels, but the extraordinary tale of a countess who donned armor, took up lance and shield, and rode into battle alongside her husband against the Crown itself.

This is the story of Petronilla de Grandmesnil, Countess of Leicester – a woman whose courage would echo through the centuries, and whose fall into a muddy ditch would become one of the most memorable moments of medieval English warfare.

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