page_title: Henry II of England
section_title: Great Revolt (1173–1174)
hierarchical_section_title: Henry II of England / Later reign (1162–1175) / Great Revolt (1173–1174)
caption_attribution_description: English: Blank topographic map of France in the official Lambert-93 projection, with details of Normandy campaign in 1205 overlaid, information from Warren "King John", p.98. Note: The background map is a raster image embedded in the SVG file. Français&#160;: Carte topographique vierge de la France suivant la projection officielle Lambert-93. Note&#160;: Le fond de carte est une image bitmap embarquée dans le fichier SVG. Lambert-93 projection&#160;; RGF-93 datum Scales: *Topography: 1:2,490,000 (precision 623 m) *Bathymetry: 1:7,640,000 (precision 1,910 m)
context_page_description: Henry II, also known as Henry Curtmantle, Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 to his death. He was the first king of the House of Plantagenet. King Louis VII of France made him Duke of Normandy in 1150. Henry became Count of Anjou and Maine upon the death of his father, Geoffrey of Anjou, in 1151. His marriage in 1152 to Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Louis VII had recently been annulled, made him Duke of Aquitaine. He became Count of Nantes by treaty in 1185. Before he was 40 he controlled England, large parts of Wales, the eastern half of Ireland and the western half of France—an area that would later come to be called the Angevin Empire. At various times, Henry also partially controlled Scotland, Wales and the Duchy of Brittany.
  Henry became actively involved by the age of 14 in the efforts of his mother Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, to claim the throne of England, then occupied by Stephen of Blois. Stephen agreed to a peace treaty after Henry's military expedition to England in 1153, and Henry inherited the kingdom on Stephen's death a year later.
context_section_description: In 1173 Henry faced the Great Revolt, an uprising by his eldest sons and rebellious barons, supported by France, Scotland and Flanders. Several grievances underpinned the revolt. Young Henry was unhappy that, despite the title of king, in practice he made no real decisions and his father kept him chronically short of money. He had also been very attached to Thomas Becket, his former tutor, and may have held his father responsible for Becket's death. Geoffrey faced similar difficulties; Duke Conan of Brittany had died in 1171, but Geoffrey and Constance were still unmarried, leaving Geoffrey in limbo without his own lands. Richard was encouraged to join the revolt as well by Eleanor, whose relationship with Henry had disintegrated. Meanwhile, local barons unhappy with Henry's rule saw opportunities to recover traditional powers and influence by allying themselves with his sons.
  The final straw was Henry's decision to give his youngest son John three major castles belonging to Young Henry, who first protested and then fled to Paris, followed by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey; Eleanor attempted to join them but was captured by Henry's forces in November. Louis supported Young Henry and war became imminent. Young Henry wrote to the pope, complaining about his father's behaviour, and began to acquire allies, including King William of Scotland and the Counts of Boulogne, Flanders and Blois—all of whom were promised lands if Young Henry won. Major baronial revolts broke out in England, Brittany, Maine, Poitou and Angoulême. In Normandy some of the border barons rose up and, although the majority of the duchy remained openly loyal, there appears to have been a wider undercurrent of discontent. Only Anjou proved relatively secure. Despite the size and scope of the crisis, Henry had several advantages, including his control of many powerful royal castles in strategic areas, control of most of the English ports throughout the war, and his continuing popularity within the towns across his empire.
  In May 1173 Louis and Young Henry probed the defences of the Vexin, the main route to the Norman capital, Rouen; armies invaded from Flanders and Blois, attempting a pincer movement, while rebels from Brittany invaded from the west. Henry secretly travelled back to England to order an offensive on the rebels, and on his return counter-attacked Louis's army, massacring many of them and pushing them back across the border. An army was dispatched to drive back the Brittany rebels, whom Henry then pursued, surprised and captured. Henry offered to negotiate with his sons, but these discussions at Gisors soon broke down. Meanwhile, the fighting in England proved evenly balanced until a royal army defeated a superior force of rebel and Flemish reinforcements in September in the battle of Fornham near Fornham All Saints in East Anglia. Henry took advantage of this respite to crush the rebel strongholds in Touraine, securing the strategically important route through his empire. In January 1174 the forces of Young Henry and Louis attacked again, threatening to push through into central Normandy. The attack failed and the fighting paused while the winter weather set in.
  In early 1174, Henry's enemies appeared to have tried to lure him back into England, allowing them to attack Normandy in his absence. As part of this plan, William of Scotland attacked the south of England, supported by the northern English rebels; additional Scottish forces were sent into the Midlands, where the rebel barons were making good progress. Henry refused the bait and instead focused on crushing opposition in south-west France. William's campaign began to falter as the Scots failed to take the key northern royal castles, in part due to the efforts of Henry's illegitimate son, Geoffrey. In an effort to reinvigorate the plan, Philip, the Count of Flanders, announced his intention to invade England and sent an advance force into East Anglia. The prospective Flemish invasion forced Henry to return to England in early July. Louis and Philip could now push overland into eastern
caption: Events in Normandy, summer 1173
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