Normandy, Plantagenets, Tudors

The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, in 911, marks the birth of the Duchy of Normandy: the Frankish king Charles the Simple grants the Viking chief Rollo the lands of the Lower Seine, to defend them in his name. Rollo’s descendants — William « Longsword », Richard I « the Fearless », Richard II « the Good » — consolidate the Norman state around Rouen, resisting internal revolts and powerful neighbours.

William « the Conqueror », duke at eight after the death of his father Robert « the Devil », overcomes the barons’ anarchy and wins his first battle at Val-ès-Dunes (1047). Named heir by his cousin Edward the Confessor but betrayed by Harold, he lands in England and triumphs at Hastings: on 25 December 1066 he is crowned King of England. Normandy becomes an international power.

On the death of Henry I « Beauclerc » (1135), the female succession of the heir Matilda triggers the « Anarchy » (1138-1153). Matilda marries Geoffrey V « the Fair » of Anjou, bynamed « Plantagenet » for the broom (planta genista) that adorned his emblem. The Treaty of Wallingford (1153) names their son Henry heir to the throne.

Henry II Plantagenet (1154-1189) gathers a vast empire: England, Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and — through his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine — the whole of south-western France, to the Pyrenees. He is « the greatest monarch of the West ». His son Richard « the Lionheart » defends Normandy against Philip Augustus, raising Château-Gaillard. But John « Lackland », a weak successor, loses Normandy: Rouen surrenders on 24 June 1204.

After John « Lackland », great Plantagenet kings rule England: Henry III, Edward I (who subdues Wales and Scotland), Edward III (who opens the Hundred Years’ War). In 1399 the last Plantagenet, Richard II, is deposed. The Wars of the Roses set the Lancasters against the Yorks, until in 1485 Henry VII Tudor takes the throne and marries Elizabeth of York, uniting the two roses.

From the Tudors, through Margaret Tudor (wife of Archibald Douglas), the royal English blood passes to the great families of Scotland — Douglas, Stewart, Campbell, Hay — then, marriage by marriage, to the Carnegies and the Scotts. Beatrice Arnould, a descendant of this line, marries in 1884 Augusto II della Posta, Duke of Civitella Alfedena. From them descends Maria Bianca Gallone, and thus Léon: the blood of the kings of England thus reaches the family.