The British Isles are divided into four broad nations: England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. In the period in which our game is set, England is in the process of exerting dominance over the others, with varying degrees of success. England itself is ruled by the House of Anjou--called the Plantagenets by most modern folks. Anjou is a county in France, and these kings, as well as much of the nobility, speak French or Occitan (the language of southern France) and conceive of themselves as Angevin, not English.

This is the result of two layers of French intervention in the British Isles. The first and most radical of these occurred in 1066 when William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, with his companions, who went on to establish the great earldoms represented in our game, seized the throne of England from Harold Godwinson. The second came after the tragedy of the White Ship, when William's son Henry I Beauclerc's children drowned off the coast of Normandy. This left the crown to his only surviving child: Matilda, who, for a time, had been Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, but was now the wife of Count Geoffrey "Plantagenet" of Anjou. The prospect of direct female rule upset some of the nobility, who transferred their loyalties to a cousin of the royal line, Stephen of Blois. This led to a period known as the Anarchy, in which control of the Kingdom of England seesawed between these two factions before entering a protracted stalemate. Many of the enmities between the great houses in our game stem in part from this period.

In the end, Stephen was permitted to remain on the throne for his lifetime, but was obliged to name Matilda's son by Count Geoffrey, Henry, as his heir. Henry II Curtmantle was a dynamic king, who, in part through an advantageous marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, became the master of the greater part of France as well as king of England. This has led to lasting tensions with the king of France, Philip Augustus.

Because of a protracted bout of illness late in his reign, Henry devolved many of the responsibilities for his kingdom to his four sons and crowned the eldest, also named Henry, a co-king. King Lear is a good play, and things progressed much as one might expect. A period of civil strife amid flashes of disease resulted in the prolonged imprisonment of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the deaths of two of Henry's sons (Henry "the Young King" and Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany) and, in the end, the death of Henry himself.

Our game opens at a time of rapid change. The crown has passed to Richard Lionheart, a warrior of legendary prowess who has already declared that he will take the cross to recover Jerusalem from Saladin. Eleanor has been released from prison. The great houses are re-aligning in the light of a new political reality--there is a new king, and he will be gone on Crusade very soon. Who will have custody of the realm? Who will shine in the light of royal favor? Who will be ground underfoot?
All will be decided at Westminster.


Quick Reference of the Kings of England
1) Edward the Confessor [1042-1066]
2) Harold Godwinson [1066]
3) Edgar Aetheling [1066]
4) William the Conqueror [1066-1087]
5) William II Rufus [1087-1100]
6) Henry I Beauclerc [1100-1135]
7) Stephen of Blois/Empress Matilda (The Anarchy) [1135-1154]
8) Henry II Curtmantle, called fitzEmpress in his youth. [1154-1189]
9) Richard Lionheart