The principal amusements were hunting, and hawking (catching birds and other small game by the use of trained hawks).

The Church introduced theatrical plays, written and acted by the monks.  These represented scenes in Scripture history, and, later, the careers of the Vices and the Virtues were personified.

Jousts and tournaments, or mock combats between knights, were not encouraged by William I, or his immediate successors, but became common in the period following the Norman Kings.  On some occasions they were fought in earnest, and resulted in the death of one, or more, of the combatants.

SIXTH PERIOD[1]

“Man bears within him certain ideas of order, of justice, of reason, with a constant desire to bring them into play...; for this he labors unceasingly.”—­Guizot, “History of Civilization.”

THE ANGEVINS, OR PLANTAGENETS, 1154-1399

THE BARONS VERSUS THE CROWN

Consolidation of Norman and Saxon Interests—­Rise of the New English Nation

Henry II, 1154-1189
Richard I, 1189-1199
John, 1199-1216
Henry III, 1216-1272
Edward I, 1272-1307
Edward II, 1307-1327
Edward III, 1327-1377
Richard II, 1377-1399

[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified List of Books in the Appendix.  The pronunciation of names will be found in the Index.  The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others are in parentheses.

159.  Accession and Dominions of Henry II.

Henry was just of age when the death of Stephen (S141) called him to the throne.

From his father, Count Geoffrey of Anjou, a province of France, came the title of Angevin.  The name Plantagenet, by which the family came to be known later, was derived from the count’s habit of wearing a sprig of the golden-blossomed broom plant, or Plante-gene^t, as the French called it, in his helmet.

Henry received from his father the dukedoms of Anjou and Maine, from his mother Normandy and the dependent province of Brittany, while through his marriage with Eleanor, the divorced Queen of France, he acquired the great southern dukedom of Aquitaine.

Thus on his accession he became ruler over all England, and over more than half of France besides, his realms extending from the borders of Scorland to the base of the Pyrenees. (See map facing p. 84.)

To these extensive possessions Henry added the eastern half of Ireland.[1] The country was but partially conquered and never justly ruled.  The English power there remained “like a spear-point embedded in a living body,” inflaming all around it.[2]