On this day, 4 December 1259
King Henry III of England and King Louis IX of France agreed to the Treaty of Paris
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On this day, 4 December 1259, Henry III of England and Louis IX of France signed the Treaty of Paris of 1259, greatly reducing the claims of the Plantagenets. This treaty was later ratified by Parliament.
At this point in history, the barons were more in control of England than the king himself. In the Provisions of Oxford, enacted in 1258 as a part of a coup d'état, the country abandoned the absolutism of the monarchy. A sixteen-member Privy Council held power in the name of the king. Dominated by Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, this council of barons favored peace with France after Henry III’s multiple failed invasions.
The Treaty of Paris of 1259 was very one-sided, with England relinquishing its claims to Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Poitou. England would be allowed to retain a portion of Aquitaine known as Gascony that was expanded by the French king, but as a vassal, for which he was to pay homage. Although technically the English king had been a vassal of the French king for his lands in France since the Norman Conquest, the area of Aquitaine especially was deeply independent and repudiated any relationship with the French crown.
With this treaty and the homage Henry III was to pay to Louis IX, for the first time the Capetians had some control over the region in the southwest of France. As overlord, the French king could now call up Gascon subjects for military service, and the Gascon people could appeal to the king in court and thus overrule their English dukes. Also as a result of the treaty, the lands the English laid claim to continued to diminish, as they had also during the reign of Henry III’s father, King John.
At the height of Plantagenet control under Henry II (1154-1189):
Parts of southern Scotland
Duke of Normandy
Count of Anjou
Count of Maine
Count of Touraine
Duke of Aquitaine, including Gascony, Poitou, Auvergne
Suzerainty over northern Wales
Direct control over southern Wales
Direct or indirect control of Irish states
Red and pink = lands directly or indirectly controlled by England
After the Treaty of Paris of 1259, England had:
Direct control of parts of what is now southern Scotland
Direct control of eastern Wales
Indirect control of western Wales
Direct control of parts of Ireland
Control of the the remaining portion of Aquitaine, mainly an extended Gascony
Red or outlined in red = lands directly or indirectly controlled by England
I feel like the article on the Historic-UK website summed up the results of the treaty quite well:
“The treaty had satisfied no one. The French kings had been riding a wave of continuous territorial expansion and growth in power for over a century – at the expense of the Plantagenet dynasty. By making the English kings their vassal of an expanded Gascony the treaty had left the duchy of Aquitaine like the fruit of Tantalus to the French – their final victory hung just out of their reach, close enough for them to be tempted to reach for it. Meanwhile the Treaty left the English kings as substantial land holders in France, yet besmirched their royal dignity by their inferiority to the French king and exposed them to the latter’s attempts to reclaim it.”
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryofEngland/Treaty-Of-Paris-1259/
In actuality, the vagueness of the treaty would in part lead to the hostilities of the Hundred Years War under later kings, though it was definitely not the sole cause.
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Sources for this article:
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens That Made England (p223-224) by Dan Jones
Etude sur le traite de Paris de 1259 entre Louis IX, roi de France, & Henri III, roi d'Angleterre (p34-38) by Gavrilovic,Mihailo
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryofEngland/Treaty-Of-Paris-1259/
https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/simondemontfort/provisionsoxford/
https://www.britannica.com/event/Provisions-of-Oxford
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/King-Henry-III/#:~:text=Henry%20had%20inherited%20not%20only,by%20Richard%20I%20and%20John.
https://www.heritage-history.com/ssl/cds/british_middle_ages/html/guide_maps.html
https://www.medievalists.net/2018/02/simon-de-montfort-king-henry-iii-first-revolution-english-history-1258-1265/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Treaty_of_Paris,_1259