King Henry II

1133 – 1189 · Generation XI · King of England (r. 1154–1189) · House of Normandy · House of Plantagenet

Henry was born at Le Mans on 5 March 1133, the eldest son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, and the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England. When Henry I died in 1135 his nephew Stephen of Blois took the English crown, and Matilda’s long war to win it back shaped her son’s youth. He spent part of his boyhood in Bristol, the Angevin stronghold in England, and at fourteen he led a small, unpaid expedition into Wiltshire, which ended only when Stephen himself paid off his mercenaries. His father made him Duke of Normandy in 1150, and on Geoffrey’s death in 1151 he inherited Anjou, Maine and Touraine.

In May 1152, eight weeks after Louis VII of France had his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine annulled, the nineteen-year-old Henry married her, gaining control of her great duchy of Aquitaine and making an enemy of Louis. In 1153 he crossed to England with a small army. The two armies faced each other across the Thames at Wallingford that July and a truce was arranged. Stephen’s son Eustace died soon afterwards, and in November, at Winchester, Stephen recognised Henry as his adopted son and successor. Stephen died in October 1154, and on 19 December 1154 Henry and Eleanor were crowned at Westminster Abbey. He now ruled lands stretching from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees, more of France than any ruler since the Carolingians, the domain historians call the Angevin Empire.

Chroniclers describe a stocky, red-haired, restless man, careless of his dress, famous for his temper and his energy, who was said to understand many languages but to speak only Latin and French. He was constantly on the move, and only about thirteen years of his reign were spent in England. He set out to restore the royal lands and powers his grandfather had held, recovering the northern English counties from Malcolm IV of Scotland in 1157 and pressing into Wales, though he was nearly killed at Ewloe that year and turned back by a Welsh coalition in 1165. His lasting work lay in the law. New legal actions introduced after the Assize of Clarendon in 1166 protected people who had been wrongly dispossessed of land, travelling royal justices were sent through every county, and juries came into much wider use. Historians generally regard these changes as the foundation of the English common law.

His quarrel with Thomas Becket defined the middle of the reign. Henry made Becket, his chancellor and friend, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, expecting a pliant ally, but Becket became the champion of the Church’s rights, above all the claim of clergy accused of crimes to be tried only in church courts. After years of dispute and exile, Becket was killed in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 by four knights who had taken the king’s angry words as a call to act. The murder horrified Europe, and in 1174 Henry did penance at Becket’s tomb. In October 1171 he crossed to Ireland, where Anglo-Norman lords had begun to carve out lands, and his authority was acknowledged by settlers and Irish rulers alike across the south and east.

His last years were consumed by his own family. Henry had eight children with Eleanor, and his plans to divide his lands among the sons satisfied none of them. In 1173 his heir, Henry the Young King, rose against him, joined by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey, by Eleanor, by Louis VII and by William the Lion of Scotland. Henry had crushed the Great Revolt by the autumn of 1174. William was captured at Alnwick and forced to accept Henry’s overlordship, and Eleanor remained under guard for the rest of her husband’s life. Young Henry died in 1183 and Geoffrey in 1186, but the struggle went on. In 1189 Richard allied with Philip II of France, and together they defeated the ailing king. At Ballan in early July Henry accepted their terms, recognising Richard as his heir. He died at Chinon on 6 July 1189, aged fifty-six, and was buried at Fontevraud Abbey.

His empire did not long outlive him, collapsing in the reign of his youngest son, John. His reforms of government and justice proved far more durable.

Place in the family

• The archive records 143 of his descendants, across 29 generations.

Images

• Both faces of Henry II’s second great seal, showing the king enthroned and on horseback (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales, CC0)
• Henry II and Thomas Becket in dispute, from an early 14th-century copy of Peter of Langtoft’s chronicle (Unknown illuminator, public domain)
• The murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, from the Carrow Psalter, about 1250 (Unknown English illuminator, public domain)
• The tomb effigies of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine at Fontevraud Abbey (Touriste, public domain)

One of 7 people of House of Normandy (until 1154) in this archive. The conqueror’s house — William I took the English crown in 1066 and his sons held it after him.

One of 26 people of House of Plantagenet (1126–1485) in this archive. The longest-reigning English house, counting its Angevin beginning and the rival Lancaster and York branches that fought the Wars of the Roses.

Line of descent: King William I The Conqueror → King Henry I → Matilda the Empress → King Henry II.

Read more on Wikipedia

Parents

• Geoffrey Plantagenet (1113 – 1151)
• Matilda the Empress (1102 – 1167)

Partners

• Married Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 – 1204) in 1152 — 2 children together

Children

• King Richard I The Lion Heart (1157 – 1199)
• King John (1166 – 1216)

Life

• 1133 — Born
• 1152 — Married Eleanor of Aquitaine
• 1154 — Henry II accedes to the throne at the age of 21 upon the death of his second cousin, Stephen.
• 1155 — Henry appoints Thomas a Becket as Chancellor of England, a post that he holds for seven years.
• 1155 — Pope Adrian IV issues the papal bull Laudabiliter, which gives Henry dispensation to invade Ireland and bring the Irish Church under the control of the Church of Rome.
• 1162 — On the death of Archbishop Theobald, Henry appoints Thomas a Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury in the hope that he will help introduce Church reforms.
• 1164 — Henry introduces the Constitutions of Clarendon, which place limitations on the Church’s jurisdiction over crimes committed by the clergy. The Pope refuses to approve the Constitutions, so Thomas a Becket refuses to sign them.
• 1166 — Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster in Ireland, appeals to Henry to help him oppose a confederation of other Irish kings. In response to the appeal, Henry sends a force led by Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, thereby beginning the English settlement of Ireland.
• 1170 — Pope Alexander III threatens England with an interdict and forces Henry to a formal reconciliation with Becket. However, the two of them quarrel again when Becket publishes papal letters voiding Henry’s Constitutions of Clarendon.
• 1170 — Becket is killed in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December by four of Henry’s knights.
• 1171 — Henry invades Ireland and receives homage from the King of Leinster and the other kings. Henry is accepted as Lord of Ireland.
• 1171 — At Cashel Henry makes Irish clergy submit to the authority of Rome
• 1173 — Eleanor of Aquitaine and her sons revolt unsuccessfully against her husband Henry II.
• 1174 — Henry’s sons Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey lead an unsuccessful rebellion against their father
• 1176 — Henry creates a framework of justice creating judges and dividing England into six counties
• 1189 — Died
• 1189 — Henry dies at Chinon castle, Anjou, France

Sources

1. Henry II of England · Wikipedia
2. Henry II ‘Curtmantle’ (r. 1154–1189) · The Royal Family (royal.uk)
3. Henry II of England · World History Encyclopedia