French campaign of Henry III. (1230)
The campaign of King Henry III. after France by 1230 there was a military conflict between England and France . Through the campaign, the English King Henry III. who during the reign of his father King Johann Ohneland in the Franco-English War from 1202 to 1214 recaptured possessions of the so-called Angevin Empire . The campaign, in which there was no major fighting, did not bring about any territorial changes.
prehistory
After the four-year armistice, concluded in 1220, the French King Louis VIII invaded the Poitou and Gascony in the summer of 1224 and quickly conquered most of the territories belonging to the English king. In March 1225 Richard of Cornwall , the king's younger brother, and the Earl of Salisbury set out with an army for Bordeaux, which was still held by English troops . They were able to quickly recapture most of Gascony , so that the young King Henry III. as early as the spring of 1226 believed that he could recapture the territories lost by his father. On pressure from Pope Honorius III. , which pointed to the Albigensian crusade of the French king, the already planned campaign to France was postponed. On November 8, 1226, the French King Louis VIII died of the Ruhr during his campaign in southern France . He was followed by his underage son Ludwig IX. , for whom his mother Blanka of Castile ruled. Their reign was rejected by numerous French barons, which King Henry III. wanted to exploit for a campaign to France. He sent envoys to the barons in Normandy , Brittany , Anjou and Poitou and renewed his claims in these areas. He was already allied with Peter Mauclerc , Duke of Brittany, and in December he made an agreement with Hugo X of Lusignan , his mother's husband, and with the Vice-Count of Thouars . On January 8, 1227, the king was declared of legal age at a council meeting in Oxford , who then dismissed Peter des Roches and his other tutors. The king tried to win other allies for a war against France. In April 1227, however, his ambassadors returned from France and reported that the Duke of Brittany, Hugo X of Lusignan and other disaffected barons, on March 16, the reign of Louis IX. should have recognized. The armistice with France was then extended until the summer of 1228.
The campaign of 1230
At Christmas 1228 the king received envoys from French barons from Normandy and Poitou, who encouraged him to campaign in France, but the Justiciar Hubert de Burgh refused to continue the war with France. Nevertheless, shield money of three marks per Knight's fee and other taxes were levied on the royal property, and after numerous announcements, the king decided in the summer of 1229, against the advice of his legal advisor, to go on a campaign in France. At the end of September he called his army to Portsmouth , where a muster was held on October 13th, the feast of Saint Edward . However, there were not enough ships for the passage of the troops, for which the king publicly held his legal advisor responsible, for which he is said to have even threatened him with the sword. Shortly afterwards Peter Mauclerc, the Duke of Brittany, arrived in England and advised the King to postpone his campaign until Easter next year because of the bad weather for a crossing.
On April 30, 1230, the king set out from Portsmouth with a large army. In addition to the Justiciar Hubert de Burgh, most of the magnates such as Ranulf of Chester , Gilbert de Clare , Humphrey de Bohun and William Marshal took part in the campaign. After a stopover in Guernsey on May 2nd, the king landed in St. Malo on May 3rd, wearing a crown, scepter and a white silk cloak , where they were received by the Duke of Brittany. Most of the English army landed at Tréguier . Although Normandy was on the verge of rebellion against the French regent, de Burgh advised against an attack on Normandy, as he had promised the French in secret negotiations the year before. Instead, on May 8, the English advanced to Dinant and then on to Nantes . There the king hoped to meet his mother Isabella of Angoulême and her husband Hugo X of Lusignan. In Eastern France there was a revolt of various barons such as Philippe Hurepel de Clermont and Enguerrand III. de Coucy came against the regent, so that only part of the French army at Angers could block the English's way to Poitou. King Henry III waited in Oudon near Nantes for further reinforcements, but in contrast to eastern France there was no open rebellion in western France. The nobility of Brittany was divided because of the English invasion, some paid homage to the English king, others closed their castles. Hugo X of Lusignan continued to hesitate to join his stepson, and Henry's own mother did not support her son either, while the Vice-Count of Thouars sided with the French king.
At the end of June, the French army vacated their position at Angers, whereupon King Henry III. which Angevin invaded. The English advance met little resistance, only the castle of Mirebeau had to be besieged from July 21st. Only with the help of siege engines brought from Bordeaux could it be conquered on July 30th. The English then marched on to the Poitou and Gascony, where numerous nobles paid homage to the king. The English king, however, left Bordeaux after only one week and set out for Brittany on August 10th. On September 15th he reached Nantes again, where he stayed for several weeks. Hubert de Burgh pressed for retreat, and without further fighting the king left Brittany from Saint-Pol-de-Léon at the end of October . In support of the Duke, he left a small force under Ranulf of Chester and William Marshal. On October 27, 1230 the king reached Portsmouth again.
consequences
The failed, costly campaign led to further alienation between King Henry III. and his legal advisor Hubert de Burgh. After the regent Blanka of Castile was able to put down the revolt of the French barons, a three-year armistice between France and England was concluded on July 4, 1231 through the mediation of Peter des Roches, who had returned from the crusade, while Peter Mauclerc gave up his claim to Brittany .
literature
- TF Tout: The History of England. From the Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III. (1216-1377) . Longmans, London 1905
Individual evidence
- ^ HW Ridgeway: Henry III (1207-1272). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004