Why the Angevins (Plantagenets) Ruled Half of Europe
Great Rebellion 1173-4, Plantagenets, 12th Century Rachel Elwiss Joyce Great Rebellion 1173-4, Plantagenets, 12th Century Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Why the Angevins (Plantagenets) 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
Medieval England, Medieval Warfare, Medieval Women, Great Rebellion 1173-4, 12th Century Rachel Elwiss Joyce Medieval England, Medieval Warfare, Medieval Women, Great Rebellion 1173-4, 12th Century 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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