Treaty of Paris 1259

The Treaty of Paris is a major diplomatic milestone in medieval Anglo-French relations, marking the end (for a while) of centuries of conflict over lands that English kings held in France. Since the Norman Conquest of 1066, the kings of England were also dukes of Normandy, as such they held lands in France and owed feudal allegiance to the French king.

It was signed between King Henry III of England and King Louis IX (“Saint Louis”) of France, and it reshaped the political map of Western Europe in the mid-13th century. In the early 1200s, Henry's father, King John of England lost most of the English continental possessions, including Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, to Philip II of France. The Treaty of Chinon (1214) confirmed these losses after John’s defeat at Bouvines.

Henry III had tried unsuccessfully to regain these lands during his early reign,12 but by the 1250s, both England and France were exhausted, and Louis IX wanted peace to focus on his Crusades and internal administrative reform of France.

On the 4th of December 1259 Louis IX of France and Henry III of England came to a settlement over the lands lost by John of England in the war of 1204. In return for keeping parts of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal of Louis, along with the cities of Limoges, Cahors and Périgueux, Henry agreed to renounced his claims on Normandy, Maine, Anjou and Poitou, and personally did homage to Louis IX for his remaining French possessions, symbolically recognizing the French king’s suzerainty.3 Henry III’s acceptance of vassalage was humiliating to some English nobles, further fueling domestic unrest.

In the short term, the treaty ended decades of Anglo-French warfare that had plagued both kingdoms, and allowed both monarchs to focus on domestic issues and reform. Henry III could concentrate on the English baronial crisis (Provisions of Oxford), and Louis IX on French administration and his Crusades.

However in the long term it defined the feudal relationship that underpinned later tensions. The King of England remained a vassal of the King of France for Gascony a source of endless friction.

This feudal tie would later contribute to the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) when English kings tried to assert full sovereignty over their French lands.

Whilst the treaty was meant to settle the dispute between the French and English kings but the terms of the agreement were never completely met, and the resentments led to the 100 years war. 4

• 1.
  
  Baker, Darren Henry Iii Stroud History Press 2017.

  pp55-57.

• 2.
  
  Powicke, Sir Maurice The Thirteenth Century 1216-1307 The Oxford History Of England The Oxford History Of England Oxford Clarendon Press 1962.

  pp100-104.

• 3.
  
  Baker, Darren Henry Iii Stroud History Press 2017.

  pp267-268.

• 4.
  
  Powicke, Sir Maurice The Thirteenth Century 1216-1307 The Oxford History Of England The Oxford History Of England Oxford Clarendon Press 1962.

  p84.