Marriage Alliances

It was expected that kings and other nobles would try to gain alliances (and therefore security) by marrying their sons and daughters to important people in other realms, and King Henry II of England was no exception. He had gained Aquitaine and Poitou on the continent by marriage to Eleanor, and was already Duke of Normandy.

Not all marriage plans come to fruition, however, for one reason or another.

Henry's first plan was to marry his eldest legitimate son, Henry the Young King, to Marguerite the daughter of Louis VII of France. Ideally, their offspring would rule both France and England. They were married in 1172, when Henry was only 17 and Marguerite 14 (it had been negotiated when he was only five). Young Henry died in 1183 from dysentery while rebelling against his father. His one child, a son named William, did not survive. The attempt to bring several territories together failed.

Another son, Richard "Lionheart," was betrothed to another daughter of Louis, Alys, in 1169. But the rumor became that Alys, being fostered in the care of Henry II, became his mistress. As the sister of the new king of France, Philip II, Richard was reluctant to renounce the betrothal. When Henry died in 1189 and Richard was crowned, he broke off the intended marriage in 1190 while speaking with Philip on the Third Crusade. A year later Richard married Berengaria of Navarre.

Alys was offered by Philip to Prince John, but Eleanor stopped it. Alys went on to marry William IV Talvas, Count of Ponthieu, in 1195; she was 35, he was 16.

Another son, Geoffrey, was married to Constance of Brittany, daughter of Conan IV, Duke of Brittany, in order to quell problems of rebellion there.

While Henry II was figuring out how his kingdom would be divided among his sons, he had nothing left for the youngest son, John. John's nickname of "Lackland" reflects this. Looking far afield for some way to use his youngest, he made an arrangement to marry John to Alice, the daughter of Humbert III of Savoy. John was promised to inherit from hi father-in-law Savoy, Piedmont, Maurienne, and other possessions in northern Italy. Alice of Maurienne traveled to England to become a ward of Henry II, but she died before the wedding could take place. John later married twice, both women named Isabella; "local" women whose fathers were important and wanted their grandchildren to rule England.

Political marriages don't always work out as planned.

I've used Henry the Young King mostly as a footnote, but he was much written about while he lived, and accomplished more than being crowned prematurely and dying while rebelling unsuccessfully against his father. I want to dive into his life and motives a little more...next time.