Final years
Henry II was devastated and profoundly shaken by the whole affair. He tried to restructure his kingdom, requiring Richard to give up Aquitaine to John, with the implication that Richard would get Henry the Younger's old inheritance. But Richard was in no mood to trust his father. It is one of the family conferences prompted by this tension that is depicted in the Lion in Winter. Richard's paranoia over Aquitaine was astutely manipulated by King Philip of France, the son of Louis VII, whose overwhelming ambition was to destroy Angevin rule within his kingdom. The inevitable break came in 1189, when Richard and Philip ambushed Henry after a peace conference at La Ferté. Unwell and sick unto death, Henry fled towards Anjou; but the final blow was struck when he discovered that the rebels had been joined by his favoured youngest son, John. He lapsed into a delirium during a peace conference at Ballan near Tours and died on 6th July 1189, aged 56.
'With the end of his reign came the end of the dream of a federal Angevin empire.'
It seems a fitting and tragic death, given Henry's history with his family. With the end of his reign came the end of the dream of a federal Angevin empire. In this respect, the great winner from Henry II's reign was King Philip of France, for with the death of the federal ideal, the structural weaknesses of the Angevin empire could be exploited to wrench it from the lacklustre hand of a weak ruler. Richard I took all the reins of power into his hands, and despite his absence on crusade, proved a capable and effective ruler, able to hold onto the hugely disparate agglomeration of kingdoms he had inherited. This is more than can be said for John. It was John who failed to maintain the proper vassal/liege relationship with the king of France, who antagonised the barons of Aquitaine and who failed to defend Normandy against the incursions of King Philip.
No-one could have predicted it at the time, but the ultimate failure of Henry and his family was the failure of the kings of England to establish themselves as anything more than kings of Britain.
Published: 2001-07-01
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