Henry II Was the duke of Anjou and introduced the Plantagenets dynasty.

The name Plantagenets come from their coats of arms that represented a ginestr. He was important for his relations with the barons and the church. He first provided to deprive barons of their power: they gave him money to fight with him, because fight with the king was considered an honor, but with this money he hire mercenaries, so he didn't need them to fight for him. Then he introduced the traveling judges. They were judges who traveled from shire to shire ad administrated justice, that before was administrated by the barons. The law that they administrated was the Common law, another introduction of Henry II. This law was used everywhere and was different from the law in the other parts of Europe which was based on Civil Law of Romans and the Canon Law of the Church because all the previous cases and decisions must be analyzed and judges must take a decision for it. So the power of barons was reduced because: -they were judged by the Common Law -they couldn't administrated the justice on their territory anymore because it was administrated by the traveling judges. He also reduced the power of the Church. In order to control it he nominated his friend Thomas Becket archbishop of Canterbury, but once became head of the church he became also a opponent of Henry II who introduced in 1164 the Constitution of Clarendon. The constitution said that: -Church must respect the Common Law. -Bishop and Archbishop were decided by the king. HENRY III After Henry II the king became Richard Lionheart (1189-1199) In these years the power the power was led by his brother Jhon Lackland (who lost Normandy and Anjou). He lost the territory in the 1204 and he tried to get it back since the 1216. In order to support the cost of the war he levy taxes on barons. In the 1215 the situation became unbearable and a group of barons forced him to sign the Magna Charta. This document contained the first step to limitation of the power of the king. Because of Magna Charta king couldn't levy taxes without the consent of barons and introduced the individual rights: no free man could be accused, sent in prison or tortured before he has been trial by his peer. The successor of Jhon Lackland was Henry III but he was only a child so the government of England it was taken by a group of barons that revolted to the power of the king and set up a parliament, an assembly of representative of different classes (included barons, knights and clergy) led by Simon de Monferre. After his death the parliament split and reestablish with Edward I in the 1295 and in the 1340 got the form that has today with the house of lords and house of common. THE BALLAD the 2 most important poems were the epic poem and the narrative poem. Two of the narrative poem ( it is a poem which tells a story) are the Canterbury tails and the ballad. A ballad is a type of narrative poem that was originally intended to be danced and sung and it was transmitted orally. The first collection was called Reliquies in 1765 written by Thomas Percy. Generally it is focus on outlaw ( like Robin Hood), tragic love, ballad of supernatural, border ballads ( story of fight between Scotland and England). It has a fixed form and has a particular features: -it has 4 lined stanzas and they are rhymed with the scheme abca or abab. The rhyme is important because it include the musicality of the poem. -then it has dialogues -repetition of sound ( to give unity) like assonants, consonants and alliteration and rhyme.

Words lines- refrain -the language is very simple and uncolloquial because they needed to be understand and transmitted. -it contains Kennings (formulas of epic poem). For example the king was the one who give the ring/ horse impetuoso destriero/ girls fair pretty made