American Demons

Post-Roman Strategists

England defines itself the first time under French influence. Until then, territorial princes determined its political shape. None of these local rulers was able to establish a central authority. Five hundred years was lost in Anglo-Saxon family feuds and in fending off subsequent usurpers. Kingdoms and counties retained the character of exclaves. Danish and Norwegian interests were asserted in England until 1066. A Duke of Normandy puts an end to it.

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The post-Roman states in Britain emerged from buffer and feudal societies. Their reference was Rome until Rome was overrun by Alaric's Goths in 410.Colonization remains the main driver. Post-Roman strategists copied the imperial rule format and built settlements based on the Roman model on both sides of Hadrian's Wall. They address each other as citizens and recognize barbarians in their enemies. Only now do Angeln and Saxony get in their way. The Germanic migrants settle on a coastal spur and they don't look like the Anglo-Saxons in the picture book of history. The newcomers soon feel the Vikings' desire to expand. The Scandinavians and their French descendants (Normans) emerge as the last foreign power before consolidation - before England becomes a Norman kingdom under Guillaume le Conquérant at the beginning of the second Christian millennium.

England defines itself the first time under French influence. Until then, territorial princes determined its political shape. None of these local rulers was able to establish a central authority. Five hundred years was lost in Anglo-Saxon family feuds and in fending off subsequent usurpers. Kingdoms and counties retained the character of exclaves. Danish and Norwegian interests were asserted in England until 1066. A Duke of Normandy puts an end to it. He comes as Guillaume le Bâtard and stays as William the Conqueror. He succeeds in establishing a monarchy that increases the continuance and dynastically melts the Anglo-Saxon into Norman. One of his presumed daughters, Adela of Blois (around 1067 - 1137), encouraged her husband, Count Étienne Henri, to take part in a crusade. In his absence and after his death, she runs the family business, which is closely linked to the royal family. 

King Henry I is her brother. His only legitimate son, William Ætheling, drowns at a young age. That's why the father appoints his daughter Matilda as his successor. But first Adela's son seizes the crown. Stephan von Bois offends an empress. The rank goes to William's granddaughter as the wife of a German whose family has been emperor for a hundred years.

After the death of her Salian Henry V (who has no male heir), Adela marries the beautiful Gottfried without enthusiasm. He's just a count. Namely from Anjou and Plantagenêt. She remains uncrowned during a temporary reign as Queen of England. After all, the highest claim passes to her son Henry II, who came from her second marriage. He inherits the rude uncle as the first Plantagenêt on the English throne. With his Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II founded the Angevin Empire.

English is not one of his languages. The Empire Plantagenêt existed in direct lines from 1154 to 1399 and in secondary lines until 1485. For so long, Plantagenêts have been the kings of England. The reign ends with Richard III. (1452 - 1485). He is the last English monarch to be shot from his horse in a battle. After him, the House of Tudor take over the imperial regalia. Think of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I.

The first royal Plantagenêt goes down in history as the father of Richard the Lionheart. The legendary man barely spent six months in England.