Henry ii (Anarchy)

Question 1

What is Purpresture

Answer 1

Expanding your land illegally by taking control of your neighbour’s land​

Question 2

What is escheat

Answer 2

The feudal law which allowed the crown to take lands away from baronial families if the baron had died or committed a serious crime​

Question 3

What was Henry’s first act as king and why?

Answer 3

Henry’s first act as king was to destroy the all the adulterine (illegal) castles held by barons

With their high walls, barons could hide in their castles and defend themselves from the crown – they could do what they want. In addition, barons could also use these huge castles to keep their armies of mercenaries

Question 4

How many castles in england were under Henry’s control by 1176?

Answer 4

every single castle in England was under Henry’s control.

Question 5

What did Henry decide to do when he took control of the Welsh marcher baron Hugh Mortimer’s 3 castles?

Answer 5

he decided to fortify them by adding higher walls and larger towers. Henry then started pay around £760 a year on building and maintaining the castles he owned to ensure that his castles were stronger than any other barons and to strengthen Englands defenses.

Question 6

What did William le Gros Earl of York decide to establish?

Answer 6

a fiefdom, independent of the crown

Question 7

How did Henry respond to William le Gros of York?

Answer 7

in 1155, Henry responded by marching north with a huge army and his siege engines. William knew he could never hold off Henry’s might. William gave up and gave Henry all his castles.

Question 8

How did Henry utilise escheat in 1155?

Answer 8

Henry used Escheat to claim all the lands of William, giving him ownership over most of the North East of England

Henry used Escheat again and claimed most of the earldom of Chester which had expanded into a huge fiefdom during The Anarchy.

Question 9

How had the number of earldoms and duchies changed under Henry’s reign?

Answer 9

fell from 22 to 12 mainly through escheat

Question 10

What did Henry collect during his resolving of the Anarchy?

Answer 10

tried to collect big market cities such as London, Lincoln, York, Winchester, Exeter, Oxford and Leicester which would result in him profiting a lot from the wealth of these cities.

Question 11

Where was the first place Henry went when arrving in England and what did he find?

Answer 11

to go straight to the city of Winchester where the kingdom’s treasury was held. the kingdom had been run dry

Question 12

What was usually the biggest source of royal income?

Answer 12

rent from the barons

Question 13

What was the forrest?

Answer 13

an area of royal demesne which covered over a quarter of England

Question 14

How did the crown profit from the forrest?

Answer 14

from the minerals, timber, charcoal and hay which the forest produced

Question 15

What was the farm?

Answer 15

an area of royal demesne although much smaller than the forrest.

Question 16

How did the crown profit from the farm?

Answer 16

profited lots from the crops and livestock which the farm produced

Question 17

What happened to the farm and forest under the reign on Stephen I.

Answer 17

large sections of both the forest and the farm had been either abandoned or destroyed. Many neighbouring land holders had committed purpresture on these lands

Question 18

What had Henry been able to do the the forest and farm by 1162?

Answer 18

Henry reclaimed all the forest and farm lands back to the borders established by Henry I and increased the revenue of these assets by 25% by 1162.​

Question 19

What were the two taxes raised by Henry in 1156

Answer 19

Tallage and Danegeld, howver danegeld had not been used since before 1066.

Question 20

Who did tallage tax?

Answer 20

taxed the towns of the royal demesne more depending on how much land they owned

Question 21

Why was tallage successful?

Answer 21

The owners of land in the royal demesne were very wealthy, and records on land ownership were very organised. This meant that tallage brought about lots of royal income without any confusion

Question 22

Who did Danegeld tax

Answer 22

taxed every single baron more depending on how much land they owned

Question 23

Why was Danegeld unsuccessful?

Answer 23

The Anarchy caused significant disorder in baronial land ownership, leading to confusion and disputes over payments, which resulted in little revenue for the crown. Many lands, including forests and farms, were abandoned or damaged, leaving 24% of English land classified as “waste.” Barons, unwilling to pay taxes on land that no longer generated profit, resisted taxation. Additionally, Henry’s decision to grant tax exemptions only to his closest allies made the Danegeld tax unpopular and unjust. As a result, Henry abandoned the tax within the year.

Question 24

Who did Henry ii hire as his treasurer.

Answer 24

Bishop Nigel of Ely in 1154 and his son, Richard fitzNigel was made treasurer from 1160

Question 25

What did Bishop Nigel do to increase financial scrutiny?

Answer 25

Bishop Nigel started twice-yearly exchequer courts to question all the financial processes

Question 26

What change occured in financial matters under Henry?

Answer 26

the kingdom’s finances had changed from “memory to written record”

Question 27

What did Henry do in 1158 to centralise the kingdom's finances?

Answer 27

recoinage

Question 28

What happened as a result of Coinage

Answer 28

coins all had the same amount of silver in them and had a picture of his face on them and no longer were rival barons minting their own coins.

Question 29

Where were new mints created in 1158?

Answer 29

north of England

Question 30

How did Henry II reform coin minting and control over finances in England

Answer 30

The Exchequer, under Bishop Nigel and Richard fitzNigel, ensured uniform coin quality and prevented waste. The number of mints was reduced from 47 (1154) to 29 (1158) to centralize control. Henry claimed control over ecclesiastical mints. In 1160, Henry investigated mints for efficiency and fined moneyers for poor-quality coins.

Question 31

What were the marcher barons on the Wales-England Border and why?

Answer 31

Earldoms of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford were positioned on the border between Wales and England to contain the princes from invading England

Question 32

Who were the strongest princes in Wales by 1154?

Answer 32

Owain Gwynedd of Gwynedd and Lord Rhys ap Gruffudd of Deheaubarth had emerged as the strongest princes in Wales

Question 33

Who was the only prince willing to pay Henry homage in 1154?

Answer 33

The ruler of Powys.

Question 34

What was the aim of Henry's first campaign into Wales in 1157

Answer 34

to take out Owain and Rhys and re-establish the borders between England and Wales which existed under Henry I

Question 35

How big of an army had Henry raised in his first campaign into wales

Answer 35

30,000

Question 36

How did Henry make Owian submit to Henry and pay homage?

Answer 36

Henry then used his army to invade North Wales from his earldom in Chester. He had also placed a fleet of ships of the coast of Anglesey (a large island off the coast of North Wales) to prevent any Welsh princes from escaping the invasion by sea. The pressure of an invasion and a lack of escape route led Owain to submit to Henry without a battle. Owain paid homage to Henry

Question 37

When did Lord Rhys pay homage?

Answer 37

1158

Question 38

How far down did Scotland push during the Anarchy and what territories did they take?

Answer 38

The Scottish had advanced as far south as Durham (get a map) and had taken the territories of Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmoreland

Question 39

How did Henry respond to Scotland in 1157?

Answer 39

Henry marched north with an army to reclaim these territories. Before Henry got to Northumberland, Malcolm IV, the Scottish king surrendered all the English territories he took

Question 40

What was the aftermath of Henry's response to Scotland in 1157?

Answer 40

Henry made Malcolm IV the Earl of Huntingdon. Malcolm paid homage to Henry in response

Question 41

Why does Richard de Lucy’s appointment show Henry hired magnates for talent only?

Answer 41

Richard de Lucy was experienced with the law and was appointed as justicier despite having supported Stephen’s claim to the throne.

Question 42

Why was Richard de Lucy known as Richard the Loyal?

Answer 42

as he was responsible for leading fights against rebellious barons and was even sometimes the regent.

Question 43

What was the role of chancellor and why was it important?

Answer 43

The chancellor was the most important magnate, attending all meetings of the Curia Regis and having access to the king’s private meetings. He controlled the king’s seal, a wax stamp used to approve official documents, making him almost as important as the king. Additionally, the chancellor managed the chancery, the king’s office for writing and recording royal documents.

Question 44

Who did Henry choose to be his chancellor and why?

Answer 44

Henry chose Thomas Becket to be chancellor. Becket was previously a clerk to the Archbishop of Canterbury, a job requiring a strong education especially in writing, languages and diplomacy – all skills required of the most important magnate

Question 45

Did henry and Becket have a stong or weak relationship?

Answer 45

Becket and Henry had a strong relationship – they played, hawked, played chess and hunted together

Question 46

How much had becket increased the number of chancellor clerks?

Answer 46

Becket increased the number of chancellor clerks from 11 under Stephen to 16 in 1154 and 52 by 1162

Question 47

Did the courts have little or a lot of power from 1154?

Answer 47

By 1154, courts had little power and organisation (see Anstey’s story) and justice was expensive Legal cases were also mostly delegated to God via trials by oath or trials by ordeal

Question 48

What were trials by oath?

Answer 48

Trial by oath meant that witnesses could be called to swear the defendant was telling the truth on a holy relic

Question 49

What were trials by ordeal?

Answer 49

Trial by ordeal meant either battling the accuser, picking up a stone from the bottom of a bucket of boiling water, being dunked in a pond or being asked to walk whilst holding a red-hot poker

Question 50

What did Henry do in 1155 Surrounding trails?

Answer 50

Henry introduced the repeal of trials of ordeal Instead, punishments were standardised for each serious crime – hanging, mutilation or removal of limb

Question 51

Name the 5 different types of courts introduced by Henry?

Answer 51

Manor courts Hundred courts County or shire courts Forest courts King's courts

Question 52

What were manor courts?

Answer 52

Manor courts were overseen by the lord of the land and were about small matters

Question 53

What were hundred courts?

Answer 53

Hundred courts were overseen by a sheriff or a magnate and were about debts and land disputes between common folk and theft and met up to once a fortnight

Question 54

What were county or shire courts?

Answer 54

County or shire courts were overseen by a sheriff or a magnate and were about general writs, disputes between local lords as well as crown please. Itinerant justices visited these

Question 55

What were forest courts?

Answer 55

Forest courts were overseen by royal foresters or forest justices and were about crimes of the forest. Itinerant justices visited here

Question 56

What were kings courts?

Answer 56

King’s courts were overseen by the king and was a supreme court of appeal which dealt with serious crimes often committed by barons

Question 57

What type of writs did Henry introduce?

Answer 57

Henry II introduced “standardised writs” which were mass-produced, general rules for generic legal cases

Question 58

What were two examples of standardised writs

Answer 58

Novel disseisin and Mort d’ancestor

Question 59

What was Novel disseisin?

Answer 59

Novel disseisin was used for those who had clearly been dispossessed of their land illegally and thousands of these were made by the Chancery

Question 60

What was Mort d'ancestor?

Answer 60

Mort d’ancestor was another standardised writ which was needed to automatically inherit land and Henry ensured that widows could apply for mort d’ancestor

Question 61

How much most standardised writs cost and what did these mean?

Answer 61

Standardised writs were cheap at 6 shillings a piece, meaning most people could save up and afford one. Common people had more legal agency over barons and This standardised the legal system

Question 62

What would itinerant justices do?

Answer 62

Itinerant justices would travel the courts of the country in groups on a set route over and over (making them known as circuit courts)

Question 63

What did judges do?

Answer 63

Judges would spend three weeks in each shire, and if a defended did not turn up the date they were assigned, they would face fines

Question 64

What did a jury of 12 men do?

Answer 64

A jury of twelve men of good character who knew the defendant and accuser was required under Henry II to increase trustworthiness

Question 65

What did Henry issue to sherifs and what were the results of this?

Answer 65

Henry issued the Articles of Eyre to Sheriffs, instructions on how to make sure justices were doing their job properly The chattels (possessions) of the accused went to the king through escheat The increased legal scrutiny meant more people were paying their dues

Question 66

Who was mostly exempt from his legal reforms?

Answer 66

Villeins were mostly exempt from these legal reforms – the law was for free men

Question 67

What areas did Ecclesiastical law have jurisdiction over by 1154?

Answer 67

Ecclesiastical law by 1154 had jurisdiction over heresy, blasphemy, usury, sorcery, marriage, adultery and any crime of a member of the clergy

Question 68

What were ecclesiastical courts like?

Answer 68

Ecclesiastical courts had no standardised punishments and utilised trials by oath and ordeal

Question 69

What were clergy renowned for?

Answer 69

The clergy was renowned for being criminous and using its legal system to shield itself

Question 70

What is an example of corruption in the clergy?

Answer 70

In 1154, archdeacon Osbert of Richmond was accused of killing his archbishop by poisoning the chalice he used at mass. Henry wanted him tried in a court, but the church refused

Question 71

Between 1154-1163 how many lay people had been killed by clerks?

Answer 71

Between 1154-1163 at least 100 lay people had been killed by clerks

Question 72

Was Henry religious?

Answer 72

Henry himself was not religious – his favourite phrase according to Gerard of Wales was “by God’s eyes, throat or testicles”