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dwellordream · 3 years

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“…The royal offer was to set up a special commission to discuss the rebel grievances concerning the Queen’s marriage, and also to pardon all those who returned to their homes within twenty four hours of agreement. Confident of success, Wyatt demanded securities for the keeping of these terms, and it appears that neither side was negotiating sincerely. Since 26 January, royal proclamations had claimed the rebellion to be heretical as well as seditious, while Wyatt insolently demanded custody of the Tower of London and even Mary herself as a hostage.

The daughter of Henry VIII was not going to take lying down such a slur on a sovereign, and Gardiner’s strategy now lost all credibility, especially when he made the mistake of advising the Queen to withdraw to Windsor. The Council now had to take practical action at once, beginning with a proclamation that day, in London and Southwark, that Wyatt and his men were all traitors. On the next day, having at last stopped listening to the previcating and conflicting advice of the councillors, Mary took her fate into her own hands.

At three o’clock in the afternoon on 1 February, she rode from Westminster to the City Guildhall, escorted by peers and armed guards. There, before the mayor, she first read out Wyatt’s latest communication, in which he had demanded control over her and the Tower, and then launched into the speech of her life. …In the manner of her father, Mary seems to have produced a speech that was powerful, passionate, and not without a touch of dissimulation… According to Proctor, she told the assembly that she had just sent two of her privy councillors to try to bring Wyatt round by peaceful argument, so as to avoid bloodshed if possible, even though he was an arrogant traitor.

Daringly, she asserted that, as far as her marriage was concerned, she had done everything with the consent and advice of her whole Council, and in the interest of the entire kingdom. In a purple passage of characteristic Tudor and Trastamaran eloquence, she proclaimed that she was already ‘married to the Common Weal’, for which she wore a wedding ring, that of her coronation, which she would never take off. She promised that she would never desert her people, and would if necessary shed her blood to protect them. By all accounts, this speech had the effect of galvanizing her subjects and, after she had delivered it, she returned to Whitehall to coordinate action against the rebels.”

- John Edwards, “England Tries European Integration.” in Mary I

#mary i of england #mary i #tudor #history #renaissance #john edwards

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the-busy-ghost · 6 years

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Vengeful Fathers, Unhappy Children, and Why Not To Pick Fights With Henry I of England: The Story of Juliana of Fontevrault

Ok so over the past six months I’ve come across the story of Henry I’s illegitimate daughter Juliana several times in various books, and kept meaning to look into it further. Having finally done so I thought I’d share it here as I really find it a fascinating, if sometimes a bit unlikely, tale- though please excuse my rubbish narration as I’m out of practise. Also there’s probably a lot more to be explained, especially re: the context of Henry I’s rule in Normandy, and also about Eustace, but I’ve mostly focused on Juliana’s role for now (but I’ve provided some references as starting points)

[Quick warning before I start, this story mentions mutilation so like I’d skip past if you really don’t want to hear about that today. Otherwise it’s the usual warning of ‘medieval crazies abound.]

This story starts in Normandy around 1103, when conflict broke out over the inheritance of Breteuil. The previous lord, William, had died without legitimate heirs and so as usual various claimants were squabbling over the succession, namely two of his nephews- the Breton William de Gael and the Burgundian Reynold de Grancei- and his illegitimate son Eustace, who appears to have been the preferred candidate among the inhabitants of the lordship of Breteuil. William de Gael died early on, but Reynold, supported by the Count of Evreux among others, continued to press his claim to Breteuil, resulting in open war. Eustace soon found his own powerful supporter, having appealed to Henry I of England. Henry was king of England only at this point, but had no qualms about stirring up trouble in his brother Robert’s duchy of Normandy, and had a vested interest in making overtures to Norman lords, especially those who controlled powerful strategic positions along the Norman border. One of the ways that Henry often sealed such alliances, both in Normandy and elsewhere, was through the marriage of his illegitimate daughters. Thus, when he agreed to support Eustace he gave him the hand of his daughter, Juliana, in marriage. In doing so he made it clear that his new- and possibly first- son-in-law had his explicit support. Although Reynold and his allies continued to mount surprise attacks on Eustace’s position for some time, they were eventually chased out of Breteuil.

Eustace’s new bride, Juliana, was just one of her father’s many illegitimate children. Despite fathering just two surviving legitimate children (William the Aetheling and the Empress Matilda), Henry I had well over twenty children born outside of marriage, and frequently made use of them to further his political aims and alliances- notable examples include Robert, Earl of Gloucester, Matilda Countess of Perche, Sybilla, Queen of Scots, Richard of Lincoln, and Maud Duchess of Brittany. For some of the children we know quite a lot about their backgrounds, but for others, including Juliana, it is difficult to even identify who their mothers were. Juliana has sometimes been theorised to have been the full sister of Richard of Lincoln, and thus a daughter of Ansfride, but this is based on very flimsy evidence. Meanwhile, Orderic Vitalis describes her as “the king’s daughter by a concubine”, and while in some cases ‘concubine’ was used to indicate that the woman was of low status, this is equally uncertain. In any case we can at least assume that she was born before 1100, probably long before her father became king, and that her father considered her a suitable bride for Eustace, one who could be relied on to help further his political strategy.

Fifteen years later, however, Henry might have had reason to doubt this. By this time Henry had managed to wrest control of the duchy of Normandy from his older brother, but was now facing widespread revolt from his own Norman barons, and he had also become embroiled in a war with King Louis VI of France. So the last thing he needed was for Eustace of Breteuil to begin pestering him and aggressively pursuing a claim to the castle of Ivry. Orderic Vitalis says that Henry, unwilling to quarrel with Eustace, refrained from giving a definite answer at that time and mediated a temporary settlement by organising an exchange of child hostages. Ralph-Harene, who was then in control of the castle, was to give his son to Eustace, while the two daughters of Eustace and Juliana were in turn given to their grandfather Henry. This was to act as a symbol of good faith, and should have at least secured a temporary peace, if not a permanent settlement.

Unfortunately, it was not long before this peace was broken- soon Eustace decided to send a very clear message of defiance to Ralph, by blinding Ralph’s son and then sending him back to his father. Why Eustace took such a risk in not only breaking a very serious agreement, but also openly flouting royal authority, is essentially unclear. However Orderic Vitalis claims that he was egged on by Amaury de Montfort, a long-time enemy of Henry I, who had recently attempted to prevent him inheriting the county of Evreux, and that Amaury “used every artifice that malice could suggest to renew the quarrel, and made many promises to Eustace on oath which he never performed”. But if Eustace thought that he would not have to face the consequences of his actions, or that his daughters’ kinship to Henry I would protect them, he was about to receive a nasty shock. Ralph went to the king with his complaint, and Henry I, angry and appalled, handed over his granddaughters to Ralph as he must have felt justice and honour demanded. Ralph not only blinded the girls but also cut off the tips of their noses, before returning to Ivry, where he swiftly communicated to Eustace what he had done.

Eustace and Juliana did not believe this was justice in the slightest. The outraged parents soon retaliated: Eustace garrisoned several castles against the king, while Juliana was sent to hold Breteuil with a strong force. The burgesses of Breteuil, however, were less eager to fight with Henry I and, having sent messages to him inviting him to come to Breteuil, they assisted the king in taking control of the town. Juliana was now confined to the castle, surrounded by a royal army and a hostile town.

Juliana seems to have been caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, she was naturally enraged over the mutilation of her daughters, and as much at her father for handing them over for punishment as with Ralph. On the other hand, Orderic Vitalis claims that she was fretful and scared, convinced that her father was too angry to think of giving up his siege, and that she could not see a way out of her situation. Eventually she decided to take matters into her own hands- quite literally- and sent word to Henry’s camp that she wanted to meet with him face to face. The king agreed, but when he came within close range his “unhappy daughter” drew a crossbow and shot at him, apparently attempting to kill him. In the event Henry escaped unscathed, but with his patience much reduced he ordered the drawbridge to be broken down so that nobody could enter or leave the stronghold. Juliana, now completely desperate, surrendered the castle, but her father refused to allow her to leave freely. Instead Juliana was forced to clamber over the walls, and drop down into the moat- then filled with freezing cold water as it was February. The chronicler Orderic Vitalis makes much of her having to wade through the moat “indecently, with naked legs”, until eventually, “covered with shame” she was able to make her way to the castle of Pacy, where she found her husband and related to him what had happened.

In the meantime, Henry stripped his son-in-law of Breteuil, granting it to Ralph de Gael, a relation of one of the previous claimants. Pacy alone remained in Eustace’s hands. Eventually though, Eustace and Juliana gave in. A few months later, while Henry was besieging Evreux, the couple came into his presence barefoot and without a safe conduct, and on their knees begged to be accepted back into the king’s peace. After some of the other nobles present interceded on their behalf, including Juliana’s brother Richard of Lincoln, Henry finally relented and forgave the pair. Juliana was sent home to Pacy, while Eustace was promised three hundred marks from England every year, and lived out the rest of his days in relative comfort, although Breteuil was never restored to him. By way of conclusion, Orderic Vitalis relates that Juliana herself “sometime afterward abandoned her loose mode of life”, taking the veil at the new abbey of Fontevrault, a house that was to be famously associated with many members of her paternal family in the century afterwards. This is borne out by the abbey’s cartulary, and it seems that her two unfortunate daughters also lived out the rest of their days in the same foundation- around 1130, Eustace gave ten pounds from his rents in England to the abbey, “for the weal of his predecessors and of himself and his wife and daughters who there serve God devoutly as nuns”. This grant was also confirmed by two sons that Juliana seems to have borne Eustace at some point before 1119- William and Roger. Juliana herself was still alive and witnessing agreements in 1136, outliving her father.

What should we take away from this tale? For a start, I should offer a word of caution that the only chronicler who gives us such a detailed description of the mutilation of the hostages and Juliana’s personal assassination attempt on her father is Orderic Vitalis- it is possible that he could have exaggerated bits to explain a conflict between Eustace and Henry I, while his descriptions of Juliana’s state of mind whilst under siege in Breteuil are of course not to be taken at face value, fascinating though they are. The children of both Ralph and Eustace paying for the squabbles of their parents is particularly horrifying (as the chronicler himself noted), especially since Henry I was grandfather to the two girls he allowed to be punished for their father’s bad faith. But the whole affair is messy, with family strife everywhere and the tragedy is deeply personal. Nonetheless, and despite the fact that we know so little about her, I find Juliana a fascinating figure, and not just for her squabble with her famous father. For a start, Orderic Vitalis fixates on the concept of shame regarding her- though he is not entirely unsympathetic to her plight, he considers her to have led a ‘loose’ life, so what does this tell us about her character (for example, it reminds me of what William of Malmesbury says about her sister Queen Sybilla)? Or does he simply mean this in connection to her quarrel with her father? Equally there is the remarkable and unenviable plight she was placed in- a mother furious at the injury done to her children, although it was an injury indirectly caused by her husband’s actions, and when avenging this injury, she comes up against her own father, who had allowed his grandchildren to be punished in the first place, as harsh justice. And then, of course, she seems to have made an attempt on the life of her father and king, which if nothing else demonstrates the desperate measures she was apparently willing to take in such a situation. That she was so readily forgiven afterwards might also be seen as a bit surprising, though it is hardly the most unbelievable part of the tale. In any case, Juliana is by no means the least interesting of Henry I’s children and I thought her story- and that of the unfortunate children- was something I needed to talk about on here- and one I really want to know more about!

Some main sources:

“The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy”, by Orderic Vitalis, Volumes III and IV, translated by Thomas Forester

“Calendar of Documents Preserved in France, Illustrative of the History of Great Britain and Ireland”, Volume I, edited by J. Horace Round

“Affairs of State: the Illegitimate Children of Henry I,” by Kathleen Thompson in the Journal of Medieval History (2003)

“Royal Bastards: the Birth of Illegitimacy, 800-1230″, by Sara McDougall

“The Royal Bastards of Medieval England”, by Alice Curteis and Chris Given-Wilson

(Idek what this is but I felt the story was worth sharing on here and I needed a break from dissertation).

#Henry I #Normandy #twelfth century #mediaeval #English history #I mean not really it's more French history but like twelfth century Normandy's that in-between thing so idk

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