Plantagenets

Reference

Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia

"In 1147, Matilda’s fourteen-year-old son Henry excused himself from his studies in Western Francia (his tutor was the well-regarded philosopher William of Conches, author of a masterwork intended to reconcile Greek natural philosophy with Christian orthodoxy) and headed to England. . . . Eleanor, now aged twenty-eight, left her two girls in the care of their father and went at once to the French town of Poitiers. There, she was joined by young Henry; and on May 18, only two months after her marriage to the king ended, Eleanor and Henry were married. . . . But by marriage, Henry gained the vast rich territory of Aquitaine to add to his already extensive lands, and Eleanor gained the protection of the most powerful nobleman in Western Francia. And the wedding also weakened Louis, who lost half of his domain to his rival. . . . Both decrees cut to the heart of his biggest problem: the noblemen of England, the barons who had built the castles and employed the mercenaries, had grown, during the Anarchy, as powerful as the throne. . . . Henry immediately laid siege to the rebellious castles and confiscated them. . . . The Anarchy was finally over;" [Bauer: Renaissance World, p. 76-9]