Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Unity of the 'Angevin Empire'
- While Westminster was
at the heart of the
administration, this did
not make London the
capital.
- Normandy described as the heart of the Empire
- The term 'Angevin Empire' implies that Anjou
was of central importance: Henry was Angevin
by decent and upbringing. Strategically
significant military bases of Chinon and
Loches castle suggest Anjou was important
- Normandy and England
arguable more important?
- Normandy = main base, spending 176
months there throughout his reign.
Closely followed by 154 months in Eng,
Scot and Wales
- The term 'Angevin
Empire' is used as a
historical convenience
rather than a precise 12th
century reality.
- Titled empire around the
19th century, but was never
used by contemporaries
- Contempories saw the
empire as a lucky
acquisition of a
quarrelsome family and
not an institution
- Haphazard collection of
states, unorganised by a
leader who applied no imperial
jurisdictions across his
lands
- Disunity
- A lack of uniform institutions of power meant
each of these regions maintained their own
customs = diversity in culture, lang and laws.
- Did Henry deliberately allow
this to respect the diversity of
his lands?
- Lacked political unity
- the French called the Angevin Empire
'espace plantaganet' as they believed
there was no political unity
- Henry never envisioned his lands
would become an empire as he
intended to divide his lands
amongst his sons in 1170.
- Both Geoffrey and Henry
intended on dividing lands
- Never tried to unite lands
into a monolithic union -
vulnerable to break up. They
were not centrally directed
- Cultural differences caused
divisions, forming rifts, particularly
between England and Normandy
- Lacks the attributes of a
unified empire - greed of the
angevin kings kept the
so-called empire together
- Unity
- Henry's lands were joined by a
common culture and government
- Despite countries differences, they shared similar
feudal frameworks and were united geographically
- Greed of the sons
maintained this
so-called unity
- Formed an
administrative and
geographical whole -
a very strong state in
a feudal network
- Geographical bloc, stretching
from Northumberland to the
Pyrenees
- Administratively united: At the same time of
the Inquest of Sheriffs in England, a similar
enquiry took place in Normandy
- More of a personal empire of
the three Angevin Kings than
an 'Angevin Empire'
- Responsibility of growth and
loss of lands due to leadership of
the individual rather than unity of
the empire
- Lands ultimately broken down
by rebellion and French attack