richard, john and the loss of normandy

• from 1194-1204, richard, john and philip II devoted their energies to trying to win control of normandy
• philip wanted control over the whole of france, which inevitably brought him into conflict wit richard and, later, john
• when richard returned to normandy in 1194, it was weak as a result of john's treachery and philip's attacks
• philip had persuaded a number of barons who held castles on the border between france and normandy to switch their allegiance to france, making it easier for philip to invade normandy
• philip and john had conquered much of western normandy including 2 important harbours, meaning philip could now threaten the angevins by sea as well as by land, with the allegiance with the count of flaunders
• philip took control of the strategically important vexin, and john did not stop him
• the greatest gain by philip was the great castle at gisors, as it was vital to the defences of normandy because it was positioned between the french capital at paris and the norman capital of rouen
• the problem of john was easily settled by richard, as john knew he was no match for his elderly brother
• john met richard at his court in normandy and threw himself upon richard's mercy
• it would have been understandable if richard had considered john to be his lifelong enemy and ordered his punishment, however richard forgave him, blaming philip for misleading his brother
• with john now on his side, richard had only one enemy to attack
• richard soon benefited from john's treacherous nature, as john betrayed philip and attcked his forced at evreux, killing the town's garrison
• after john attacked philip's forces, richard and philip fought siege after siege on the norman borders while their knights engaged in battle, aswell s both lords paying neighbouring lords for their allegiance
• by the winter of 1195-96, richard had enjoyed such a run of victories that philip pulled his troops out pf aquitaine in order to concentrate his forces in the north
• although richard enjoyed his military success against philip, philip achieved a great victory by taking the 9-year-old arthur of brittany into his custody
• if succession to the angevin territories was done on the basis of primogeniture, then arthur was the heir to brittany
• with arthur under his control, philip could also use brittany as a base to attack normandy, especially as the bretons had never been enthusiastic supporters of the angevins
• despite philip's success with arthur, he was soon on the back foot again as, by1197, richard's strategy of bribing the vassals on philip's borders to switch allegiance was working
• philip found that he was surrounded by hostile neighbours, and also used trade embargo to persuade the count of flanders to support the angevin empire, alongside arthur returning to brittany and philip's influence over the bretons was reduced
• trade embargo


  a restriction on trade for political purposes. the suspension of the valuable wool trade between england and flanders was enough to encourage the count of flanders to support richard instead of philip
• the most important element in richard's strategy to retrieve all the lands taken by philip in his absence was the construction of a great castle on the river seine overlooking the vexin, called chateau gaillard
• the building of chateau gaillard was a magnificent feat of engineering and was built in just 2 years (1196-98) at the enormous cost of £12,000
• richard only spent £7,000 on the construction of all the royal castles that he built in england during his reign
• chateu guillard was both a defensive structure and a royal palace where richard could hold court, with defences considered to be the finest in europe
• during this period, most warfare focused on besieging castles rather than pitching battles on an open field
• besiegers concentrated on using catapults to launch stones at the weak points in the walls and engineers to tunnel under walls to cause them to collapse
• a key strength of chateau gaillard was that it was built hundreds of feet above the town and harbour at les andelys, which made it difficult to tunnel under its walls, and even more importantly it had round walls
• catapults were successful in a siege when the stones struck the angles on castle walls as these were the weakest points, but with no angles, chateau gaillard seemed impossible to attack
• historians used to assume that chateau guillard was built for defensive purposes, situated as it was on the border of philip's lands
• more recently, some historians have claimed that the castle was part of an aggressive strategy; it would be the base for richard to launch a campaign to recapture the vexin
• the castle was on direct route to rouen, the capital of normandy, from which supplies could be transported to the trops at chateau gaillard
• chateau gaillard could be used as a base to launch attacks on nearby french castles, such as the ones atgisors, meaning the castle was very important to richard's plans for restoring his empire and the events following its construction support this theory
• in september 1198, richard launched a surprise attack on philip's army, which was forced to retreat to gisors
• during his surprise attack, richard captured over 90 knights and 200 horses, but he did not have the siege engines to attack the castle at gisors
• by january 1199, richard almost controlled the vexin, and he and philip negotiated a truce
• the negotiations for a truce were still going on when, in late march 1199, richard decided to survey the defences of his troops besieging a small castle near the city of limoges
• without wearing his armour, richard strolled along his line of defence, and from the castle, a single archer armed with a crossbow shot a bolt at richard, which hit him in the shoulder
• although richard's wound from the crossbow wasn't fatal, he broke off the arrow shaft and left the bolt in his shoulder
• surgeons removed the bolt from richard's shoulder, but the wound became infected and, within a week, infection had spread and, on 6th april 1199, richard died
• when john became king in 1199, he inherited an empire that was almost as complete as that which richard had taken over a decade earlier