The Plantagenets: The Kings That Made Britain Read Online Free PDF

of the two kings for a new crusade. The resulting Treaty of Ivry stated:
We wish all men to know that we are now and intend henceforth to be friends, and that each of us will to the best of his ability defend the other in life and limb and in worldly honour against all men. And if anyone shall presume to do either of us harm, I Henry will aid my lord Louis, king of the French, against all men to the best of my ability, and I Louis will aid Henry, king of the English, as my vassal and liegeman … we mutually agree that henceforth neither of us will make demands upon each other’s lands and possessions and rights as they now stand. 4
    It was a triumph for Henry, although the ageing Louis was tired of dynastic conflict and was concentrating his efforts in handing over to his son, Philip Augustus, a realm at peace.
    Henry now enjoyed the status of senior statesman of Europe. He acted as arbiter in dynastic and territorial disputes, such as that between the kings of Castile and Navarre (1177). In 1176 his youngest daughter, Joanna, was married to the king of Sicily, the last of a system of alliances that connected the Plantagenets to several of the royal and ducal houses of Europe. After the death of Louis VII in 1180 the rival factions at the court of the young Philip Augustus both looked to Henry for support.
    In the years of peace, when his prestige was at its height, Henry concentrated on completing the overhaul of royal administration. In 1177 he ordered the sheriffs to carry out a survey of all lands held by the king’s tenants-in-chief (principal landholders). This placed on record the names of all such tenants and the services and payments they owed the crown. In 1178 the king reorganized his royal council (the curia Regis ), the body of advisers drawn from the barons, senior ecclesiastics and courtiers who sat with the king, wherever he was, to make policy and to hear ‘plaints’ (appeals for royal justice brought by subjects). The political and judicial functions of the curia had for some time been diverging, but Henry formalized this tendency by directing that five members should remain at Westminster to hear all judicial cases. This was the origin of the Court of King’s Bench, the highest law court in the land. The Assize of Arms of 1181 orderedevery freeman to equip himself with weapons and military equipment appropriate to his station for the defence of the realm, but at the same time Henry encouraged the development of scutage, the commutation of payment in lieu of military service. By these means the king intended to have troops at his disposal when needed while at the same time demilitarizing the baronage and increasing royal revenue. One outcome of all these measures was the introduction of property tax, for military liability was measured by every subject’s annual landed income.
    One measure of the impact of Henry II’s administrative and legislative reforms is the quantity of paper they generated. From this time official records began to be kept more diligently. The regular visitation of the justices in eyre to arbitrate in local disputes encouraged all landholders to have transactions documented so that they could be produced in evidence. Important documents were written on parchment on vellum ‘rolls’, which could be conveniently and securely stored. Most important in recording the rights and responsibilities of the king and his subjects were the court rolls, which were produced for every tribunal, from the manorial court to King’s Bench. Of particular importance to the government were the Exchequer rolls. The Exchequer was the department of the king’s household that dealt with money. It handled the collection and administration of royal revenue and all judicial matters concerning finance. The details of its workings have been preserved in one of the most remarkable books of the period, the Dialogus de Scaccario ( Dialogue concerning the Exchequer ). Composed towards the end ofthe reign by