Adrian Noble
(1950– )English director. Noble began working at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980, and was its artistic director from 1991 to 2003. Almost all his work since 1982 was for ...
Alfonso VIII of Castile
(c. 1155–1214),king of Castile (1158–1214). Alfonso VIII inherited the throne of Castile at the age of two from his father, Sancho III (r. 1157–1158). Sancho’s premature death left his ...
Angevin
Any of the Plantagenet kings of England, especially those who were also counts of Anjou (Henry II, Richard I, and John), descended from Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. The name comes via French from ...
Anjou
A former province of western France, on the Loire. It was an English possession from 1154, when it was inherited by Henry II as count of Anjou, until 1204, when it was lost to France by King John; it ...
Aquitaine
A region and former province of SW France, on the Bay of Biscay, centred on Bordeaux. A province of the Roman Empire and a medieval duchy, it became an English possession by the marriage of Eleanor ...
bailli, bailliage
The French term baillie at first meant “commission”, and a bailli designated any demesnial agent, of whatever rank, whether or not exercising judicial or financial powers. The bayle of the ...
Benoît de Ste-Maure
(12th century) Court poet and historian of Henry II of England, succeeding Wace, he authored the Chronique des ducs de Normandie and the massively influential Roman de Troie (c.1165)This ...
broom
A sprig of this shrub (in Latin planta genista) was said to have been worn as a crest by Geoffrey of Anjou, and to be the origin of the name Plantagenet. The word is recorded from Old English (in the ...
Eleanor of Aquitaine
(c. 1122–1204)Daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine, queen of France (1137–52) and of England (1154–89). She was married to Louis VII of France from 1137; in 1152, with the annulment of their marriage, ...
Fontevraud
In France, the site of a major Benedictine abbey of the 11th and 12th centuries; Henry II of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their son Richard I are buried there.
Grandmont
It was at Grandmont, some leagues north of Limoges, that clerical and lay disciples of the hermit Stephen of Muret († 1124) established themselves in full independence. They wrote down ...
Henry II
(1133–89),king of England (1154–89). The first of the Plantagenet kings of England was one of the most successful of this country's monarchs. His achievements are the more remarkable since his ...
Henry VI Part 1
On 3 March 1592 the manager-owner of the Rose theatre, Philip Henslowe, recorded a ‘new’ performance of ‘Harry the VI’ in his diary. While this may conceivably allude to any ...
Henry VI, Part Three
The third play in Shakespeare's first historical tetralogy was first printed in a corrupt text in 1595 ( see ‘CONTENTION’ PLAYS). As with 2 Henry VI, the title may derive from the editors of the ...
House of Lancaster
The English royal house descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, that ruled England from 1399 (Henry IV) until 1461 (the deposition of Henry VI) and again on Henry's brief restoration in ...
House of Tudor
This is something of a misnomer. The important descent for Henry VII, who founded the dynasty when he defeated Richard III at Bosworth, was the direct line from Edward III through John of Gaunt and ...
house of York
15th‐cent.royal dynasty. Historians from the Tudor period onward viewed the Wars of the Roses as a dynastic contest between the houses of Lancaster and York. This interpretation appears in the papal ...
John
(1167–1216),king of England (1199–1216). As every schoolboy knows, John was a monster and a tyrant. It is a reputation with deep historical roots, culminating in the judgements of Victorian ...
John of Salisbury
(1115/20–1180)English churchman and diplomat. A student of Abelard, John was one of the most learned of early medieval writers on moral and political matters. He was secretary to Theobald, archbishop ...
Le Mans Cathedral
Under Louis the Pious was begun the chronicle of the Church of Le Mans, called Actus pontificum in urbe degentium, a collection of documents, often more legendary than historical, infinitely ...
