In 1150 Geoffrey Plantagenet granted Normandy to his seventeen-year-old son Henry; when Geoffrey died in 1151, Henry also inherited Anjou. The next year Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine, former wife of the French king Louis VII, a marriage that united western France above and below the Loire River. In 1154, Eleanor and Henry became rulers of England. Within five years Henry was at war with France, and from then on he was involved in conflicts everywhere. His struggle with Thomas a Becket began in 1160, and the archbishop’s challenge to Henry’s authority culminated in Becket’s murder in 1170. In Thomas, England had a martyr and, in 1173, a saint. Then Eleanor and their sons, together with French nobles, rebelled in 1173 and again in 1188. In the east, from 1174 on, the Muslims under the leadership of Saladin reasserted their power, and the Christians suffered major defeats in 1187. Crusaders again rallied to march on Jerusalem.
Such troubled times saw the building and rebuilding of many castles, including Windsor Castle. During Henry II’s reign a new style in art and architecture emerged in the churches around Paris and in southern England. Later it became known as the Gothic style, but at the time it was called “modern art” or “French work.” Technically superior masonry vaults and effective new methods of buttressing vaults and walls permitted greater flexibility in design of buildings. Master masons and master carpenters were quick to capitalize on the new techniques. Castle and
Palace halls and chambers, as well as churches and other buildings, could be larger, with lighter walls and larger windows.
World History
