The Channel Islands in the Plantagenet realm, 1204-1341

Abstract

This thesis examines the place of the Channel Islands in the wider realm of the Plantagenet kings of England from 1204 to 1341. It seeks to demonstrate that the Islands, despite their small size, were viewed by the kings of England as an integral component of their realm. It offers an important subject of analysis and point of comparison that can contribute to understanding the composite monarchy of the Plantagenets and the extent of royal power in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The chapters of this thesis are thematic, organised around three areas of analysis. The first concerns the political and constitutional status of the Islands within the Plantagenet realm and in the context of Anglo-French relations following the loss of Normandy, the development of which is examined in Chapter I to facilitate discussion throughout the thesis. The second subject of analysis considers what the Islands’ administration, laws, and judicial institutions reveal about the practice and effectiveness of trans-regional and devolutionary power. This discussion is concentrated within Chapters III, IV and V, which examine the structure and personnel of the royal administration of the Islands. Lastly, this thesis analyses how the Islanders viewed themselves in the context of their wider political and socio-economic environment, particularly their `frontier’ position in the English Channel and their ongoing links with Normandy, and what impact this had on the Islands’ internal development. It is argued here that the experience of the Islands in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries reinforces the view that the composite monarchy of the Plantagenet kings of England was a lasting and, at times, formidable political structure. The conscious organisation of the realm into multiple political units each with their own administrations, and unique in culture and law, was not a sign of its inherent fragility or incoherence but showed great recognition of the constraints of royal power and the political realities of this period. A study of the Islands exemplifies that political uniformity and centralisation were neither then, nor indeed are presently, viewed as the only possible direction in the growth of European polities, and can offer a fruitful and reinvigorating insight into understanding political development and devolved governance.