ABSTRACT
The Norman and Angevin kings were the heirs of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy and had not given up any of their claims. Ethelred had formerly adopted the style of“ Sovereign of the English race and King of all the Island of Britain and the neighbouring isles ”. This was a nominal sovereignty about which Henry need have troubled little, especially when he had to maintain the huge structure of his French fiefs. He was not without justification for some anxiety lest he was going to see the adventurers of the Scottish borders and the petty Celtic kings of Wales invade his frontiers but he even launched an attack on Ireland from which he had nothing to fear and we are apparently driven to the conclusion that he had deliberately set out to establish throughout the British Isles his feudal supremacy at least. 1
