Henry II: An Imperialist King?

Page 3 of 9

• 1. Approach to empire
• 2. Relations with France
• 3. Campaigns in Wales
• 4. Approach to Ireland
• 5. Henry lands in Ireland
• 6. Conclusions on Ireland
• 7. Henry and Scotland
• 8. Feudal control
• 9. Find out more
• Print entire article

Campaigns in Wales

This was a lesson that Henry took some time to learn. He made a similar mistake with Becket and the Church over the Constitutions of Clarendon and also with Wales, though here he was as much a victim of bad luck as of bad judgement. The Welsh princes had always enjoyed a somewhat ambivalent relationship with their technical Norman overlords. During Stephen's reign, they had been able to regain some of the territory they had lost to the Norman barons in Wales, who had been carving out private empires since the days of King William I. Henry set out to stop the rot. He mounted three punitive campaigns into Wales between 1157 and 1163, which reasserted royal authority over the princes of Gwynedd and Deheubarth, the major principalities in Wales.

Then he overreached himself. In 1163, he attempted to firmly define his rights as feudal overlord of the Welsh princes by demanding oaths of vassalage from them at the Council of Woodstock. The Welsh rebelled and Henry responded in 1165 with a major campaign. It was the largest military venture attempted in his reign, but as such it was unwieldy and suffered from the inherent problems of campaigning in Wales: bad weather, poor supply lines and difficult terrain. Despite that, it would have succeeded if he hadn't picked the wettest summer in memory to mount the campaign. He was quite literally washed out of the Welsh valleys.

'In 1163, he attempted to firmly define his rights as feudal overlord of the Welsh princes...'

After that, Wales was never a high enough priority for Henry to bother again. He left the Welsh to their own devices, and only paid any real attention when the Welsh themselves rebelled in 1183 (in response to the technical defaulting of Glamorgan into royal hands on the death of its lord). The Welsh meanwhile continued to encroach onto the lands of the Norman barons, even overrunning the royal castles of Cardigan and Rhuddlan.

NextPrevious

Published: 2001-04-01