Henry's successor, Richard I "the Lion Heart" (also known as "The absent king"), is preoccupied with foreign wars, taking part in the Third Crusade, being captured while returning and pledging fealty to the Holy Roman Empire as part of his ransom, and defending his French territories against Philip II of France.

His successor, his younger brother John, loses much of those territories including Normandy following the disastrous Battle of Bouvines in 1214, despite having in 1212 made the Kingdom of England a tribute-paying vassal of the Holy See, which it will remain until the fourteenth century when the Kingdom rejected the overlordship of the Holy See and re-establishes its sovereignty.