Henry II PLANTAGENET

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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 &divorceeofLouisVII, King of France

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

Contemporaries: Louis VII (King of France,1137-1180),ThomasBeckett(Archbishop of Canterbury), Pope Adrian IV,FrederickI(FrederickBarbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, 1152-1190) Henry II,first of the Angevin kings, was one of the most effectiveofallEngland'smonarchs. He came to the throne amid the anarchyofStephen'sreign andpromptly collared his errant barons. HerefinedNormangovernment andcreated a capable, self-standing bureaucracy.Hisenergywas equaled only byhis ambition and intelligence. Henrysurvivedwars,rebellion, andcontroversy to successfully rule one of theMiddleAges'most powerfulkingdoms.

Henry was raised in the French province of Anjou andfirstvisitedEnglandin 1142 to defend his mother's claim to the disputedthroneofStephen.His continental possessions were already vastbeforehiscoronation: Heacquired Normandy and Anjou upon the death ofhisfatherin September1151, and his French holdings more than doubledwithhismarriage toEleanor of Aquitane (ex-wife of King Louis VII ofFrance).Inaccordancewith the Treaty of Wallingford, a successionagreementsignedby Stephenand Matilda in 1153, Henry was crowned inOctober 1154.Thecontinentalempire ruled by Henry and his sons includedtheFrenchcounties ofBrittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine, Gascony,Anjou,Aquitane,and Normandy.Henry was technically a feudal vassal of thekingof Francebut, inreality, owned more territory and was more powerfulthanhisFrench lord.Although King John (Henry's son) lost most oftheEnglishholdings inFrance, English kings laid claim to the Frenchthroneuntilthe fifteenthcentury. Henry also extended his territory intheBritishIsles in twosignificant ways. First, he retrievedCumbriaandNorthumbria form MalcomIV of Scotland and settled theAnglo-Scotborderin the North. Secondly,although his success with Welshcampaignswaslimited, Henry invadedIreland and secured an English presenceontheisland.

English and Norman barons in Stephen's reign manipulatedfeudallawtoundermine royal authority; Henry instituted manyreformstoweakentraditional feudal ties and strengthen hisposition.Unauthorizedcastlesbuilt during the previous reign were razed.Monetarypaymentsreplacedmilitary service as the primary duty of vassals.TheExchequerwasrevitalized to enforce accurate record keepingandtaxcollection.Incompetent sheriffs were replaced and the authorityofroyalcourts wasexpanded. Henry empowered a new social classofgovernmentclerks thatstabilized procedure - the governmentcouldoperateeffectively in theking's absence and wouldsubsequentlyprovesufficiently tenacious tosurvive the reign ofincompetent kings.Henry'sreforms allowed theemergence of a body of commonlaw to replacethedisparate customs offeudal and county courts. Jurytrials wereinitiatedto end the oldGermanic trials by ordeal or battle.Henry'ssystematicapproach to lawprovided a common basis for developmentofroyalinstitutions throughoutthe entire realm.

The process of strengthening the royal courts,however,yieldedanunexpected controversy. The church courts institutedbyWilliamtheConqueror became a safe haven for criminals ofvaryingdegreeandability, for one in fifty of the English populationqualifiedasclerics.Henry wished to transfer sentencing in such cases totheroyalcourts, aschurch courts merely demoted clerics to laymen.ThomasBeckett,Henry'sclose friend and chancellor since 1155, wasnamedArchbishopofCanterbury in June 1162 but distanced himself fromHenryandvehementlyopposed the weakening of church courts. Beckett fledEnglandin1164, butthrough the intervention of Pope Adrian IV (theloneEnglishpope),returned in 1170.He greatly angered Henry by opposingtothecoronationof Prince Henry. Exasperated, Henry hastilyandpubliclyconveyed hisdesire to be rid of the contentious Archbishop-fourambitious knightstook the king at his word and murdered Beckettinhisown cathedral onDecember 29, 1170. Henry endured a ratherlimitedstormof protest overthe incident and the controversy passed.

Henry's plans of dividing his myriad lands and titlesevokedtreacheryfromhis sons. At the encouragement - and sometimes becauseofthetreatment -of their mother, they rebelled against theirfatherseveraltimes, oftenwith Louis VII of France as their accomplice.Thedeaths ofHenry the YoungKing in 1183 and Geoffrey in 1186 gavenorespite fromhis children'srebellious nature; Richard, withtheassistance of PhilipII Augustus ofFrance, attacked and defeated HenryonJuly 4, 1189 andforced him toaccept a humiliating peace. Henry IIdiedtwo days later,on July 6, 1189.

A few quotes from historic manuscripts shed a uniquelightonHenry,Eleanor, and their sons.

From Sir Winston Churchill Kt, 1675: 'Henry II Plantagenet,theveryfirstof that name and race, and the very greatest King thatEnglandeverknew,but withal the most unfortunate . . . his death beingimputedtothoseonly to whom himself had given life, his ungracious sons. ..'

From Sir Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the KingsofEngland:Concerningendowments of mind, he was of a spirit in thehighestdegreegenerous . .. His custom was to be always in action; forwhichcause, ifhe had noreal wars, he would have feigned . . . To hischildrenhe wasbothindulgent and hard; for out of indulgence he caused hissonhenry tobecrowned King in his own time; and out of hardness hecausedhisyoungersons to rebel against him . . . He married Eleanor,daughterofWilliamDuke of Guienne, late wife of Lewis the Seventh ofFrance.Somesay KingLewis carried her into the Holy Land, where shecarriedherselfnot veryholily, but led a licentious life; and, which isthe worstkindoflicentiousness, in carnal familiarity with a Turk.'

Henry II. Plantaganet, first Plantaganet King ofEngland(1154-1189),knownas Curt Mantel, was born at Le Mans, France, onMarch15, 1133. Ateighteenin 1151 he was invested with the Duchy ofNormandy,his mother'sheritage,and within a year became also, by hisfather'sdeath, Count ofAnjou; whilein 1152 he married Eleanor ofAquitaine, thedaughter ofWilliam X, Duke ofAquitaine (see his ancestrallineageelsewhere in Vol.I.), and divorcedwife of King Louis VII. ofFrance,added Poitou andGuienne to hisdominions. In January 1153 he landedinEngland, and inNovember a treatywas agreed to whereby Henry wasdeclaredsuccessor toKing Stephen; he wascrowned in 1154 and ruled untilhisdeath in 1189.He confirmed the laws ofhis grandfather, King HenryI,reestablished theexchequer, banished theforeign mercenaries,demolishedthe hundreds ofcastles erected inStephen's reign, and recoveredtheroyal estates. Thewhole of 1156 hespent in France, reducing hisbrother,Geoffrey ofNantes, who died in1158, and having secured histerritories,he spentthe next five yearswarring and organizing hispossessions ontheContinent. Henry's objectivewas that of all Normankings, to buildupthe royal power at the expense ofthe barons and thechurch. Fromthebarons his reforms met with littleserious opposition; withthe clergyhewas less successful. To aid him inreducing the church tosubjection,heappointed his chancellor, Thomas aBecket to the see ofCanterbury.Henrycompelled him and the other prelatesto agree to the'ConstitutionofClarendon', but Bechet proved a sturdychurchman, andthestrugglebetween him and the monarch terminated only byhis murder.In1174 Henrydid penance at Bechet's tomb, but he ended bybringingthechurch tosubordination in civil matters. Meanwhile heorganizedanexpedition toIreland. The English Pope, Adrian IV, had in1155givenHenry authorityover the entire island of Ireland; and anumberofNorman-Welsh knightshad gained a footing in the country,amongthemRichard de Clare, Earl ofPembroke, styled Strongbow, who in1155marriedthe heiress of Leinsterand assumed rule as the Earl ofLeinster.Henrywas jealous at the riseof a powerful feudal baronage inIreland,andduring his stay there(1171-1172) he broke the power ofRichardStrongbowand the other nobles.Henry and Eleanor had many childrenasfollows:


1. William Plantaganet, the eldest son, was born in 1153,butdiedinchildhood in 1156.

2. Henry Plantaganet, Associate King of England, bornFebruary28,1155,known as Henry 'the Young King,' was crowned ashisfather'ssuccessor in1170. Henry married Margaret, daughter of LouisVII.,King ofFrance. In1173, incited by their jealous mother, QueenEleanor,thisprince and hisbrother Richard rebelled against their father,andtheircause wasespoused by the King of France and the King ofScotland.Thelatter, KingWilliam the Lion, was ravaging the north ofEngland whenhewas takenprisoner at Alnwick in 1174, and to obtain hislibertyhesubmitted to dohomage to Henry II. In a few months King HenryII.hadreestablished hisauthority in all his domains. During asecondrebellion,Prince Henrydied June 11, 1183. He married Margaret,daughterof LouisVII., King ofFrance.

3. Matilda Plantaganet, born in 1156, died in 1189, marriedHenrytheLion,Duke of Saxony and Duke of Bavaria. They had a son, OttoIV.ofBrunswick,Emperor (1208-1215).

4. Richard Plantaganet, the Lion-Hearted, born in1157,marriedBerengariaof Navarre, daughter of Sancho VI. of Navarre.Richardd.s.p.April 6,1199. He reigned as King Richard I. of England andDukeofNormandy,1189-1199. Richard was imprisoned by the Emperor HenryVIin1192, whilereturning from a Crusade. His freedom was obtainedbyransomin 1194.After his release he was in constant battlewithPhilipAugustus, King ofFrance. Berengaria died in 1230.

5. Geoffrey Plantaganet, Duke of Brittany, 1171-1186, diedin1158,marriedConstance of Brittany, daughter of Conan IV. ofBrittany.Shedied in 1201.In 1186, he was killed in a tournament. He andhis wifehadtwo children:


1. Eleanor, who died in 1240.

2. Arthur, Duke of Brittany, born in 1187 and murdered in1204,whileinconflict with his uncle, King John I. King John saw him as arivaltothethrone.

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Hochgeladen	2007-12-03 17:23:35.0
Einsender	Thomas Schäfer
E-Mail	dtschaefer@arcor.de
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