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Weelcome to RoyaList Online, a guide to the royal genealogy of Britain. As its name suggests, the core of the web site is a "royal list": a database that provides biographical details of thousands of individuals who have either belonged to, or been connected with, the royal family of England and Scotland during more than 1,000 years of history.lthough the primary focus is on British royalty, the web of intermarriages amongst the royal houses of Europe is such that many representatives of continental royalty are also featured. The intention has been to include all known members of the immediate family of those who are either in or close to the English and Scottish royal lines.

"Introduction: A visitor to the Empress Matilda's tomb at Rouen might be mistaken in believing that its occupant had never sought the English throne in her own right. Yet in the long struggle which engulfed the kingdom after her father's death in 1135 this is exactly what she did. Matilda may indeed have been the greatest English heiress of the twelfth century to fail to secure her inheritance. Charles Beem remarks that Matilda's epitaph 'described the summit of earthly achievement to which a twelfth-century aristocratic woman could aspire, according to the dictate of a male-dominated feudal society'. Matilda's rule lasted less than seven months before she was unceremoniously driven out of London in the spring of 1141. Even so, her lordship bore many of the typical characteristics of royal administration, and with King Stephen imprisoned by her supporters Matilda for a time was recognised as the sole source of royal authority in the kingdom."

The subject of The Life of King Louis the Fat  was Louis VI, the first important Capetian king of France, who reigned from 1108 to 1137.  Louis's main achievement was to consolidate royal power within the Ile-de-France by suppressing the castellans who dominated the royal domain lands. (The term "castellan" refers to a noble who possessed one or more castles.) Louis's success owed much to an alliance he forged between the French monarch and the great Churchmen (bishops and abbots) and the leading townsmen of northern France.  Suspicious of the power of his barons, Louis used clergy and burghers rather than great nobles as royal administrators. His efforts to establish peace and maintain order facilitated the development of agriculture, trade and intellectual activity in the Ile-de-France. Under his rule, Paris began its expansion which would make it by 1200 the greatest Christian city north of the Alps. The following excerpts describe Louis's military actions against the "robber barons" of the Ile-de-France and the King of England Henry I (r.1100-1135).

The French state has its origin in the middle ages. Before the 13th century, the king of France had very little power. He had to deal with many other feudal lords, some of which were more powerful than him. He had, however a model : the Roman catholic Church who had just reorganized itself. The pope was surrounded by jurists as advisors. Roman law had been rediscovered too : the corpus iuris civilis of Justinian. Canon law had been codified according to this model with the decree of Gratien.

The Peasants' Revolt began in the Essex village of Fobbing in May 1381. It started with the arrival of a royal tax commissioner, John Bampton, enquiring into evasion of the new poll-tax. As a JP and former sheriff of Essex, Bampton was typical of the local notables against whom the risings were directed. Supported by men from nearby villages the rebellion had begun.

Having examined the Poll Tax returns for 1380, the Royal Council headed by John of Gaunt were upset to discover that less money than ever had been collected. Tax collectors were sent out again, with instructions to collect the full amounts.

"Published on Jun 2, 2014 http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and... What was the difference between the fortress of a great magnate and the palace of a king? A lack of differentiation dogged the medieval monarchy. Yet royal buildings were deliberately distinct from their aristocratic imitators. The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and... Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Category Education License Standard YouTube License "

"Medieval libraries in England were assembled in many places and for different purposes. Monastic libraries supported both theological education and the advancement of learning, and provided the seeds for later university libraries. Cathedrals and their schools likewise collected books and encouraged their reading. Royal libraries gathered both practical and artistic books, with illuminated manuscripts given and received as signs of wealth and power. However, our knowledge of these libraries can be described as limited at best. The majority of manuscripts have been lost over time, their greatest enemies being fire, war or insurrection, theft and neglect. So what can we know about the manuscripts contained in these medieval libraries? And how and where were these manuscripts produced?"

family trees, descriptions

In 1176 a delegation from Sicily came to the English court, asking for Joan's hand in marriage on behalf of William II of Sicily. Joan's parents agreed to the proposal, and the betrothal was confirmed. On the 27th of August, Joan, together with a large group of people consisting of ladies-in-waiting, knights, clergy and various retainers, laid out to sail for Sicily. The trip began with the short stretch from Winchester to Southampton, escorted by the archbishops of Canterbury and Rouen, the bishop of Evreux and her father's brother Hamelane. Then Prince Henry, her oldest brother, accompanied her across the Channel and into France to Poitiers. There she was met by another brother, Richard, who escorted her through the Duchy of Aquitaine, across the allied County of Toulouse to Saint Gilles Port, where Bishop Richard Palmer welcomed her in the name of the King of Sicily. Twenty-five Sicilian ships awaited the young princess to sail her to her husband-to-be. The last part of the journey left Joan seasick, but she finally arrived at the end of January and married William at Palermo Cathedral on the 13th of February 1177 at the tender age of eleven while her husband was twenty-three! She was crowned, and was now queen consort.