General Notes

Henry II (1154-1189)

Born: 5th March 1133 at Le Mans, Maine

Died: 6th July 1189 at Chinon Castle, Anjou

Buried: Fontevrault Abbey, Anjou

Parents: Geoffrey, Count of Anjou and the Empress Matilda

Siblings: Geoffrey, Count of Nantes & William, Count of Poitou

Crowned: 19th December 1154 at Westminster Abbey, Middlesex

Married: 18th May 1152 at Bordeaux Cathedral, Gascony

Spouse: Eleanor daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitane & divorcee ofLouis VII, King of France

Offspring: William, Henry, Matilda, Richard, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan &John

Contemporaries: Louis VII (King of France, 1137-1180), Thomas Beckett(Archbishop of Canterbury), Pope Adrian IV, Frederick I (FrederickBarbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, 1152-1190)
Henry II, first of the Angevin kings, was one of the most effective ofall England's monarchs. He came to the throne amid the anarchy ofStephen's reign and promptly collared his errant barons. He refinedNorman government and created a capable, self-standing bureaucracy. Hisenergy was equaled only by his ambition and intelligence. Henry survivedwars, rebellion, and controversy to successfully rule one of the MiddleAges' most powerful kingdoms.

Henry was raised in the French province of Anjou and first visitedEngland in 1142 to defend his mother's claim to the disputed throne ofStephen. His continental possessions were already vast before hiscoronation: He acquired Normandy and Anjou upon the death of his fatherin September 1151, and his French holdings more than doubled with hismarriage to Eleanor of Aquitane (ex-wife of King Louis VII of France). Inaccordance with the Treaty of Wallingford, a succession agreement signedby Stephen and Matilda in 1153, Henry was crowned in October 1154. Thecontinental empire ruled by Henry and his sons included the Frenchcounties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine, Gascony, Anjou, Aquitane,and Normandy. Henry was technically a feudal vassal of the king of Francebut, in reality, owned more territory and was more powerful than hisFrench lord. Although King John (Henry's son) lost most of the Englishholdings in France, English kings laid claim to the French throne untilthe fifteenth century. Henry also extended his territory in the BritishIsles in two significant ways. First, he retrieved Cumbria andNorthumbria form Malcom IV of Scotland and settled the Anglo-Scot borderin the North. Secondly, although his success with Welsh campaigns waslimited, Henry invaded Ireland and secured an English presence on theisland.

English and Norman barons in Stephen's reign manipulated feudal law toundermine royal authority; Henry instituted many reforms to weakentraditional feudal ties and strengthen his position. Unauthorized castlesbuilt during the previous reign were razed. Monetary payments replacedmilitary service as the primary duty of vassals. The Exchequer wasrevitalized to enforce accurate record keeping and tax collection.Incompetent sheriffs were replaced and the authority of royal courts wasexpanded. Henry empowered a new social class of government clerks thatstabilized procedure - the government could operate effectively in theking's absence and would subsequently prove sufficiently tenacious tosurvive the reign of incompetent kings. Henry's reforms allowed theemergence of a body of common law to replace the disparate customs offeudal and county courts. Jury trials were initiated to end the oldGermanic trials by ordeal or battle. Henry's systematic approach to lawprovided a common basis for development of royal institutions throughoutthe entire realm.

The process of strengthening the royal courts, however, yielded anunexpected controversy. The church courts instituted by William theConqueror became a safe haven for criminals of varying degree andability, for one in fifty of the English population qualified as clerics.Henry wished to transfer sentencing in such cases to the royal courts, aschurch courts merely demoted clerics to laymen. Thomas Beckett, Henry'sclose friend and chancellor since 1155, was named Archbishop ofCanterbury in June 1162 but distanced himself from Henry and vehementlyopposed the weakening of church courts. Beckett fled England in 1164, butthrough the intervention of Pope Adrian IV (the lone English pope),returned in 1170.He greatly angered Henry by opposing to the coronationof Prince Henry. Exasperated, Henry hastily and publicly conveyed hisdesire to be rid of the contentious Archbishop - four ambitious knightstook the king at his word and murdered Beckett in his own cathedral onDecember 29, 1170. Henry endured a rather limited storm of protest overthe incident and the controversy passed.

Henry's plans of dividing his myriad lands and titles evoked treacheryfrom his sons. At the encouragement - and sometimes because of thetreatment - of their mother, they rebelled against their father severaltimes, often with Louis VII of France as their accomplice. The deaths ofHenry the Young King in 1183 and Geoffrey in 1186 gave no respite fromhis children's rebellious nature; Richard, with the assistance of PhilipII Augustus of France, attacked and defeated Henry on July 4, 1189 andforced him to accept a humiliating peace. Henry II died two days later,on July 6, 1189.

A few quotes from historic manuscripts shed a unique light on Henry,Eleanor, and their sons.

From Sir Winston Churchill Kt, 1675: "Henry II Plantagenet, the veryfirst of that name and race, and the very greatest King that England everknew, but withal the most unfortunate . . . his death being imputed tothose only to whom himself had given life, his ungracious sons. . ."

From Sir Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of England: Concerningendowments of mind, he was of a spirit in the highest degree generous . .. His custom was to be always in action; for which cause, if he had noreal wars, he would have feigned . . . To his children he was bothindulgent and hard; for out of indulgence he caused his son henry to becrowned King in his own time; and out of hardness he caused his youngersons to rebel against him . . . He married Eleanor, daughter of WilliamDuke of Guienne, late wife of Lewis the Seventh of France. Some say KingLewis carried her into the Holy Land, where she carried herself not veryholily, but led a licentious life; and, which is the worst kind oflicentiousness, in carnal familiarity with a Turk."

Henry II. Plantaganet, first Plantaganet King of England (1154-1189),known as Curt Mantel, was born at Le Mans, France, on March 15, 1133. Ateighteen in 1151 he was invested with the Duchy of Normandy, his mother'sheritage, and within a year became also, by his father's death, Count ofAnjou; while in 1152 he married Eleanor of Aquitaine, the daughter ofWilliam X, Duke of Aquitaine (see his ancestral lineage elsewhere in Vol.I.), and divorced wife of King Louis VII. of France, added Poitou andGuienne to his dominions. In January 1153 he landed in England, and inNovember a treaty was agreed to whereby Henry was declared successor toKing Stephen; he was crowned in 1154 and ruled until his death in 1189.He confirmed the laws of his grandfather, King Henry I, reestablished theexchequer, banished the foreign mercenaries, demolished the hundreds ofcastles erected in Stephen's reign, and recovered the royal estates. Thewhole of 1156 he spent in France, reducing his brother, Geoffrey ofNantes, who died in 1158, and having secured his territories, he spentthe next five years warring and organizing his possessions on theContinent. Henry's objective was that of all Norman kings, to build upthe royal power at the expense of the barons and the church. From thebarons his reforms met with little serious opposition; with the clergy hewas less successful. To aid him in reducing the church to subjection, heappointed his chancellor, Thomas a Becket to the see of Canterbury. Henrycompelled him and the other prelates to agree to the 'Constitution ofClarendon', but Bechet proved a sturdy churchman, and the strugglebetween him and the monarch terminated only by his murder. In 1174 Henrydid penance at Bechet's tomb, but he ended by bringing the church tosubordination in civil matters. Meanwhile he organized an expedition toIreland. The English Pope, Adrian IV, had in 1155 given Henry authorityover the entire island of Ireland; and a number of Norman-Welsh knightshad gained a footing in the country, among them Richard de Clare, Earl ofPembroke, styled Strongbow, who in 1155 married the heiress of Leinsterand assumed rule as the Earl of Leinster. Henry was jealous at the riseof a powerful feudal baronage in Ireland, and during his stay there(1171-1172) he broke the power of Richard Strongbow and the other nobles.Henry and Eleanor had many children as follows:


1. William Plantaganet, the eldest son, was born in 1153, but died inchildhood in 1156.

2. Henry Plantaganet, Associate King of England, born February 28, 1155,known as Henry "the Young King," was crowned as his father's successor in1170. Henry married Margaret, daughter of Louis VII., King of France. In1173, incited by their jealous mother, Queen Eleanor, this prince and hisbrother Richard rebelled against their father, and their cause wasespoused by the King of France and the King of Scotland. The latter, KingWilliam the Lion, was ravaging the north of England when he was takenprisoner at Alnwick in 1174, and to obtain his liberty he submitted to dohomage to Henry II. In a few months King Henry II. had reestablished hisauthority in all his domains. During a second rebellion, Prince Henrydied June 11, 1183. He married Margaret, daughter of Louis VII., King ofFrance.

3. Matilda Plantaganet, born in 1156, died in 1189, married Henry theLion, Duke of Saxony and Duke of Bavaria. They had a son, Otto IV. ofBrunswick, Emperor (1208-1215).

4. Richard Plantaganet, the Lion-Hearted, born in 1157, marriedBerengaria of Navarre, daughter of Sancho VI. of Navarre. Richard d.s.p.April 6, 1199. He reigned as King Richard I. of England and Duke ofNormandy, 1189-1199. Richard was imprisoned by the Emperor Henry VI in1192, while returning from a Crusade. His freedom was obtained by ransomin 1194. After his release he was in constant battle with PhilipAugustus, King of France. Berengaria died in 1230.

5. Geoffrey Plantaganet, Duke of Brittany, 1171-1186, died in 1158,married Constance of Brittany, daughter of Conan IV. of Brittany. Shedied in 1201. In 1186, he was killed in a tournament. He and his wife hadtwo children:


1. Eleanor, who died in 1240.

2. Arthur, Duke of Brittany, born in 1187 and murdered in 1204, while inconflict with his uncle, King John I. King John saw him as a rival to thethrone.