Treaty of Paris (1259)
General Overview Towards The Treaty of Paris of 1259
[edit]The Treaty of Paris during 1259 highlights the complex relationship between Europe and England during the medieval period. This era consisted of major issues like political sovereignty that would come to overthrow the capital. This generation was morally focused on God and all the wonderful things he had to offer. This event did not happen by random; it digs deeper into what it means to be a civilization while hinting as to where we might be headed.
Archives Nationales (France).
The 1259 Treaty of Paris, also known as the Treaty of Abbeville, was a peace treaty agreed between King Louis IX of France and King Henry III of England on 4 December 1259, briefly ending a century-long conflict between the Capetian and Plantagenet dynasties.
The Lead Up
[edit]This era held monumental significance in certain regions, particularly in Paris, which was considered “scarcely inferior to Rome” and recognized as one of the most important cities in Europe. Paris’ role as the seat of Europe’s oldest university, established to study God’s dealings with mankind, reinforced its cultures and intellectual importance. This focus on Paris also draws connections to Briains own centers of learning and power, such as Oxford, Canterbury, York, Lincoln, and Ely. These locations highlight broader issues of the time; issues that shaped the larger European framework, including political sovereignty, economic wealth, and England's cultural integration into the wider European scene.[1]
History
[edit]The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, created an awkward situation whereby the kings of England were sovereign over some of their territory but bound by homage to the kings of France for other rich and well-populated lands on the Continent. William attempted to separate the two areas between his heirs, but subsequent fighting and inheritance not only reunited England and Normandy but greatly expanded English territory within France. King John's refusal to answer Philip II of France for the apparent murder of his teenage nephew Arthur gave Philip a pretext for recovering Normandy in 1204. The English recovered the Channel Islands and remained in control of Aquitaine, however, and, despite the 1217 Treaty of Lambeth, both the English and French kings continually engaged in wars of conquest and reconquest over Normandy and their borderlands.
Terms
[edit]The Treaty of Paris ushered in an era of peace between England and France, after decades of conflict stemming back to 1202. The treaty itself was ultimately a set of guarantees between the two kingdoms, the largest of which was a mutual forgiveness between both kingdoms for actions committed against one another. Both Henry and Louis made the promise to uphold the treaty and to ensure those promises were being held roughly every ten years.[2]
Under the treaty, Henry acknowledged the loss of the Duchy of Normandy. Henry agreed to renounce control of Maine, Anjou, Touruaine and Poitou, which had also been lost under the reign of King John, but Henry remained Duke of Aquitaine as a vassal to Louis. In exchange, Louis withdrew his support for English rebels. He also ceded to Henry the bishoprics and cities of Limoges, Cahors, and Périgueux and was to pay an annual rent for his continued occupation of Agenais.[3] Louis also ceded the regions of Agenais, Saintonge, and Quercy over to Henry, which would help bolster the English rule in Gascony.
By rule of the treaty, Louis recognized Henry's direct rule over the Duchy of Aquitaine so long as Henry paid a liege homage to the King of France.[4] Under this rule of homage, Henry was unable to offer any form of aid to those deemed as enemies of the King of France, causing a ripple between previous alliances forged by Henry. Despite Henry signing off on the treaty with the act of homage in mind, those within the duchy of Aquitaine greatly opposed the treaty due to the sovereignty Louis was given over the duchy. Under the order of the treaty, the King of France could exercise complete legal jurisdiction over the duchy allowing for those in the duchy to take their legal disputes to the Paris Parlement. An act which would only lead to increased conflicts between the two kingdoms due to the frequent overlapping of the two forms of government.[5]
Despite acknowledging the loss of Normandy, the treaty separately held that "islands (if any) which the King of England should hold" would be retained by him "as peer of France and Duke of Aquitaine".[6] Along with subsequent English denunciations of their French vassalage, this formed the basis of the special situation of the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and some smaller islands), which have been held directly by the English Crown without formal incorporation into the Kingdom of England or its successor states.
Aftermath
[edit]Doubts on the treaty's interpretation began almost as soon as it was signed.[7] The agreement continued the unstable situation whereby English monarchs were obliged to submit to the French kings for disputes over their territories on the continent. The French historian Édouard Perroy considered that the Treaty of Paris "was at the very root of the Hundred Years' War."[8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Nigel Saul, ed., England in Europe, 1066–1453. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. Pp. 180 plus 22 black-and-white illustrations; maps, genealogical charts". Speculum. 70 (04): 989. 1995-10. doi:10.1017/s0038713400151863. ISSN 0038-7134.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Jordan, William C. (2009). A tale of two monasteries: Westminster and Saint-Denis in the thirteenth century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. p. 59. ISBN 9786612259319.
- ^ Harry Rothwell (Editor) English Historical Documents 1189–1327, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-14368-3 [page needed]
- ^ Jordan, William C. (2009). A tale of two monasteries: Westminster and Saint-Denis in the thirteenth century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. p. 61. ISBN 9786612259319.
- ^ Kelleher, Alexander (2022). "'The King's Other Islands of the Sea': The Channel Islands in the Plantagenet Realm, 1254–1341". History. 107 (376): 469–470. doi:10.1111/1468-229X.13269. ISSN 1468-229X.
- ^ Summaries of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the International Court of Justice: Minquiers and Ecrehos Case Judgment of 17 November 1953
- ^ Hersch Lauterpacht, Volume 20 of International Law Reports, Cambridge University Press, 1957, p. 130, ISBN 0-521-46365-3
- ^ Perroy, Édouard (1959). The Hundred Years War (First English edition. Trans. W. B. Wells. ed.). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. p. 61.