THE CHARACTER OF MARCHER POLITICS

In the twelfth century the Norman frontier was of far more than local political importance: more often than not two of the greatest dynasties in Europe played out their rivalries there. Between 1106 and 1128, for instance, the challenge which William Clito posed to Henry I frequently ignited the borders of Normandy from Alençon to Aumale, and in the frontier regions the kings of England and France both suffered humiliating defeats, Henry I outside Alençon in 1118 and Louis VI at Brémule in the Norman Vexin the following year. In the early 1150s some of the first clashes between the Angevin dukes of Normandy and the Capetian kings took place in the Saosnois and along the Avre, Eure and Epte valleys. The great revolt against Henry II in 1173–4 inflamed the frontiers of Normandy for their entire length from Dol to Eu. In the 1190s, the crisis which the captivity of Richard I inflicted upon the Angevin lands left a permanent mark upon Angevin rule in south-eastern Normandy owing to the encroachments of the king of France and his supporters. Finally, the collapse of Angevin rule under King John found its most famous expressions in the dramatic siege of the Norman frontier castle of Château-Gaillard in 1203–4 and in the surrender of Alençon and Vaudreuil which did so much to undermine confidence in the Angevin régime.