Eleanor of Aquitaine

King John of England, also known as John Lackland, was born either in late 1166 or early 1167 at the Tower of London. He was the youngest son of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry II, the latter controlling a ‘territory that stretched from the pyrenees in the south of France to the very borders of Scotland’. His father held considerable claims of territories at the time, and was part of a Royal House known as the Angevins. Due to the size of his controlled lands, they collectively became known…

France would inevitably cause a reaction at some point. This had indeed been the case since the late 12th century when England had come into possession of almost the whole of Western France by virtue of the English King Henry II’s marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Edward III’s subsequent claim to the French throne, along with lands he possessed in the south-west of France provoked Philip VI of France to attack England as he felt threatened. In 1346, England laid a siege on Calais, which after a…