Unity of the 'Angevin Empire'

Unity of the 'Angevin Empire'

1. While Westminster was at the heart of the administration, this did not make London the capital.

   • Normandy described as the heart of the Empire

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Lands ultimately broken down by rebellion and French attack