Blood Cries Afar (55 page)

Read Blood Cries Afar Online

Authors: Sean McGlynn

BOOK: Blood Cries Afar
2.32Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

234
   WB, i. 161–2.

235
   RC, 146.

236
   Ibid,152–4; Gervase of Canterbury, ii, 98.

237
   Turner,
King John
, 129; Warren,
King John
, 115.

238
   RW, ii, 13–14.

239
   Cited in Jones,
King John
, 122. See Gisbert of Mons, 101, for an example of how readily allegiances could be shifted.

240
   Rigord says that he ‘totally destroyed the city’ (WB, i,163); the local chronicle of St Aubin restricts the damage to a bridge (see Norgate,
John Lackland
, 115, n. 5).

241
   Peter Coss (ed),
Thomas Wright’s Political Songs of England: From the Reign of John to that of Edward III
, Cambridge, 1996 [1839], 2–3.

242
   Turner,
King John
, 130.

243
   The Channel Islands had previously fallen with Normandy: J.A. Everard and J.C. Holt,
Jersey 1204
, 2004, 85–6. For the truce, see Norgate,
John Lackland
, 117 and Rigord, WB, i, 174.

244
   Warren,
King John
, 119.

245
   Baldwin says that military operations began after the expiry in 1208 (Baldwin,
Government of Philip Augustus
, 199). French writers go with the date of 1207.

246
   I am currently working on a military history of this conflict (see chapter seven and bibiliography.) A recent account can be found in Marvin,
The Occitan War
.

247
   Baldwin,
Government of Philip Augustus
, 196–207.

248
   See ns. 213 and 214 above.

249
   Painter,
Reign of King John
, 253–6. For Anglo-Scottish relations, see: A.A.M. Duncan, ‘John King of England and the King of Scots’, in Church,
King John
; Owen,
William the Lion
, ch. 5 passim.

250
   RW, ii, 50–1.

251
   HWM, ii, 214–15. For Anglo-Irish relations around this time, see: Sean Duffy, ‘John and Ireland: the Origins of England’s Irish Problem’, in Church,
King John
; F.X. Martin, ‘John, Lord of Ireland’, in Art Cosgrove (ed),
A New History of Ireland, Vol II: Medieval Ireland, 1169–1534
, Oxford, 1993.

252
   Duffy, ‘John and Ireland’, 242.

253
   
Brut y Tywysogion
, 1210, cited in Norgate
John Lackland
, 157–8, n. For Anglo-Welsh relations around this time, see Ifor W. Rolands, ‘King John and Wales’, in Church,
King John
.

254
   BC, ii, 203.

255
   Warren,
King John
, 199–200, offers a brief summary of the 1212 revolt.

256
   RW, ii, 61. The Welsh and Irish regularly decapitated their enemies. This led to English reciprocation in the Anglo-Welsh conflict: in 1231, the heads of Welsh raiders were delivered to Henry III; in 1245, Matthew Paris tells of an English division of troops returning the camp with over 100 Welsh heads. See McGlynn,
By Sword and Fire
, 242; Frederick C. Suppe,
Military Institutions on the Welsh Marches: Shropshire, 1066–1300
, Woodbridge, 1994, 22; idem, ‘The Cultural Significance of Decapitation in High Medieval Wales and the Marches’,
Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies
, 36, 1989. Gerald of Wales offers a grisly account from Ireland in 1069 when about 200 heads are laid before the victorious King Dermot. The king inspected each in turn, jumping with joy. On recognising the head of one man that he particularly loathed, he lifted it by its ears and hair and gnawed at its nose and cheeks. See Gerald of Wales,
Expugnatio Hibernica
, ed. and trans. by A.B. Scott and F.X. Martin, Dublin, 1978, 37; McGlynn,
By Sword and Fire
, 218.

257
   Rowlands, ‘King John and Wales’, 282–3.

258
   RW, ii, 63.

259
   WB, ii, 248. See also RW, ii, 63–4. Baldwin supports the idea of a crusade (
Government of Philip Augustus
, 208).

260
   For the events that follow, see: Warren,
King John
, 202–5; Baldwin,
Government of Philip Augustus
, 210–12; Norgate,
John Lackland
, 185–6; Sivéry,
Phillipe Auguste
, 261–70; Nicholas,
Medieval Flanders
, 152–3; F.W. Brooks, ‘The Battle of Damme, 1213’,
Mariner’s Mirror
, 19, 1933; RW, ii, 67–80; WB, i, 249–53, and ii, 252–75; AB, 129–31; BC (Walter of Coventry), ii, 211; HWM, ii, 230–33.

261
   Poole,
Domesday Book to Magna Carta
, 453; Baldwin,
Government of Philip Augustus
, 207. For Renaud, see Glynn Burgess,
Two Medieval Outlaws: Eustace the Monk and Fouke Fitz Waryn
, Woodbridge, 1997, 24–7.

262
   RW, ii, 67. Royalist forces repeatedly appealed to patriotism throughout the conflict, especially after the French arrived.

263
   RW, ii, 67–8.

264
   BC, 216. See Cheney,
Innocent III and England
, 335 and Innocent’s letters to John in Cheney and Semple,
Selected Letters of Innocent III
, 161–3, 168–71.

265
   Warren,
King John
, 203.

266
   There is some uncertainty among historians as to whether Philip intended to follow through with his invasion after the papal threat delivered by Pandulf. Norgate says that Philip ‘dared not go on in the teeth of the papal prohibition’ (
John Lackland
, 185); Bradbury writes his plans had been ‘frustrated’, reasonably telling of how the Capetian unleashed his readied forces into Flanders instead (
Philip Augustus
, 286). Baldwin seems to assume that the invasion was to go ahead, as do I (
Government of Philip Augustus
, 211). As he showed in his Normandy campaign, Philip turned a deaf ear to ecclesiastical entreaties for peace when it suited him; much of his great success is owed to his great tenacity and perseverance in the field. William the Breton dutifully claims that Philip abandoned the invasion, but this may well be because a papal order to do so was more palatable to admit as a reason than the drumming taken by the French at Damme (WB, i, 259).

267
   RW, ii, 78.William the Breton confirms the extensive ravaging: WB, i, 251. David Nicholas says that Flanders was ‘devastated’ (Nicholas,
Medieval Flanders
, 153). See n. 111 for primary source quotations.

268
   RC, 167.

269
   See Vincent, ‘A Roll of Knights’, 90.

270
   Harper-Bill, ‘John and the Church’, 310.

271
   Poole,
Domesday Book to Magna Carta
, 464.

272
   RC, 168; Turner,
King John
, 132.

273
   Turner,
King John
, 132.

4 The Battle of Bouvines, 1214

274
   For this campaign, its political background and culminating battle, see: WB, i, 260–96; WB, ii,. 281–347; RW, ii, 105–110; HWM, 235–43; RC, 168–9; MGH, 390–1; AB, 142–4; Anonymous of Béthune,
Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France
, xxiv, 768–70; Warren,
King John
, 217–24; Turner,
King John
, 132–5; Norgate,
John Lackland
, 196–203; John Gillingham,
Richard Couer de Lion
, 78–9; Baldwin,
The Government of Philip Augustus
, 220–6; Bradbury,
Philip Augustus
, 279–316; Cartellieri,
Philip
II, iv, 402–80. French historians understandably devote much space to this seminal battle in their nation’s formation: Georges Duby,
France in the Middle Ages, 987–1460
, Oxford, 1991, 220–6; Luchaire,
Philippe Auguste
, 193–212; Bordonove,
Philippe Auguste
, 213–53; Sivéry,
Philippe Auguste
, 271–311; Antoine Hadenague,
Philippe Auguste et Bouvines
, Paris, 1978 [1935]; Georges Duby,
La Dimanche de Bouvines
, Paris, 1973; Guy Gauthier,
Philippe Auguste
, Paris, 2002, 300–9; and, most recently, Jean Flori,
Philippe Auguste
, Paris, 2007, 84–9. The international and diplomatic scene is closely followed in Holzapfel,
Papst Innozenz III
, 223–80. The military angle is analysed Duby’s
La Dimanche de Bouvines
and also in Verbruggen,
The Art of Warfare
, 220–37; Wade,
Armies and
Warfare, 156–74; John France,
Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades
, 235–41 (see n. 10, 294, for France’s differences with Verbruggen’s account). Prof France offers a brief but up-to-date account in France, ‘Battle of Bouvines’,
OEMW
,163–5.

275
   
Rot. Lit. Pat.
, 115a; Poole,
Domesday Book to Magna Carta
, 466.

276
   RW, ii, 99–100.

277
   AB, 143; RW, ii, 104; WB, i, 254. In the
Philippidos
, William claims that Robert was caught in an underhand ambush (WB, ii, 283 ff.). For the Dreux family, see Sidney Painter,
The Scourge of the Clergy: Peter of Dreux, Duke of Brittany
, New York, 1969 [1937]. For Brittany, see Everard,
Brittany and the Angevins
and Michael Jones, ‘The Capetians and Brittany’,
Historical Research
, 63, 1990.

278
   WB, i, 260–4; WB, ii, 287–94; RW, ii, 104–5;
Chroniques d’Anjou
, 252–4. The most detailed secondary accounts before this one are, not surprisingly, French: Petit-Dutaillis,
Louis VIII
, 48–50; Sivéry,
Louis VIII
, 121–3. The exception, as ever, is the quantity provided by Cartellieri,
Philipp II
, 419–30. See also Bradbury,
Philip Augustus
, 293–5.

279
   WB, ii,287–9, with the quote at 289. Here
parma
is almost certainly a mantlet of the type frequently seen in later medieval manuscript depictions of besieging forces.

280
   For Louis, see: Sivéry,
Louis VIII
; Hallam,
Capetian France
, 132–6; and most useful despite its age, Petit-Dutaillis,
Louis VIII.
For a snapshot of Louis’s personal and financial life a year earlier in 1213, including details of military expenditure and pre-invasion contacts with disaffected forces in England, see Fawtier, ‘Un Fragment du Compte de l’Hôtel du Prince Louis de France pour le Terme de la Purification, 1213’.

281
   WB, ii, 290. William was almost certainly not an eye-witness to events here as he would have been accompanying Philip Augustus to Flanders at this time. His account is therefore most likely to have been constructed from the leading French protagonists involved in the engagement.

282
   RW, ii,105. Bradbury calls John’s retreat ‘a panic move’: Bradbury,
Philip Augustus
, 293–5.

283
   
Rot. Pat.
, i, 118.

284
   Poole,
Domesday Book to Magna Carta
, 467; Sivèry, Louis VIII, 134.

285
   Turner,
King John
, 132.

286
   Power, ‘King John and the Norman Aristocracy’ and ‘The End of Angevin Normandy’.

287
   Mathhew Paris,
Historia Minor
, ii, 150. William the Breton portrays La Roche as a great victory only in his
Philippidos
, and not in his earlier
Gesta
; this may reflect William’s sensitive awareness as to who was on the throne at the time of writing.

288
   Anonymous of Béthune,
Chroniques des Rois
, 198.

289
   For the German alliance: A.L. Poole, ‘Richard the First Alliances with the German Princes in 1194’; Bartlett,
England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings
, 103–6; Gillingham,
Richard I
, 311–12; Fryde, ‘King John and the Empire’ and the references in ch. 3.

290
   See Sean McGlynn, ‘Philip Augustus’,
Medieval Life
, 24

291
   What follows is taken from the contemporary sources cited in note 274.

292
   RW, ii 107. For Henry’s and Richard’s similar comments see WB, ii, 75 (Richard in particular remarks that ‘To those who are well prepared, delay has always been and always will be dangerous’). Hugh’s remark is noted in
HWM
, 241. See also chapter 4, n. 12.

293
   RW, ii, 105.

294
   See Powicke,
The Thirteenth Century
, 187.

295
   For 1124, see Suger,
Vie de Louis VI le Gros
, ed. H. Waquet, Paris 1964, 226: ‘ustar castellorum in corona locarentur’. For the Battle of Alençon see
Chroniques des Comtes d’Anjou
, 146; the battle is discussed in depth by Jim Bradbury in his
Medieval Archer
, Woodbridge, 1985, 44–5 and in
ANW
, 188–9. For 1197 the episode is also briefly discussed in Gillingham,
Richard Couer de Lion
, 233.

296
   The numbers are analysed by Verbruggen,
The Art of Warfare
223–9. See also Baldwin,
Philip Augustus
, 450.

297
   John France offers a viable different perspective for the dispositions (see France,
Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades
, pp. xiv-xv and appendix 1, 235–41). As explained in the text, I believe that that a lull in the fighting allowed for Ferrand and Guérin to align themselves practically, if not regimentally, into the overall order of battle.

Other books

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
Call of the Wild by Lucy Kelly
Fever Mist by L. K. Rigel
Farrah in Fairyland by B.R. Stranges
Annabel Scheme by Sloan, Robin