Henry II of England
Henry II was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189. During his reign he controlled England, substantial parts of Wales and Ireland, and much of France, an area that was later called the Angevin Empire, and also held power over Scotland for a time and the Duchy of Brittany.
Henry was the eldest son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, and Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England. By the age of fourteen, he became politically and militarily involved in his mother's efforts to claim the English throne, at that time held by her cousin Stephen of Blois. Henry's father made him Duke of Normandy in 1150, and upon his father's death in 1151, Henry inherited Anjou, Maine and Touraine. His marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine brought him control of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Thus, he controlled most of France. Henry's military expedition to England in 1153 resulted in King Stephen agreeing, by the Treaty of Wallingford, to leave England to Henry; he inherited the kingdom at Stephen's death a year later.
Henry was an energetic and ruthless ruler, driven by a desire to restore the royal lands and prerogatives of his grandfather Henry I. During the early years of his reign Henry restored the royal administration in England, which had almost collapsed during Stephen's reign, and re-established hegemony over Wales. Henry's desire to control the English Church led to conflict with his former friend Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This controversy lasted for much of the 1160s and resulted in Becket's murder in 1170. Soon after his accession, Henry came into conflict with Louis VII of France, his feudal overlord, and the two rulers fought over several decades in what has been termed a "cold war". Henry expanded his empire at Louis's expense, taking Brittany and pushing east into central France and south into Toulouse. Despite numerous peace conferences and treaties, no lasting agreement was reached.
Henry and Eleanor had eight children. Three of their sons were kings, Henry the Young King as co-ruler with his father and Richard I and John as sole monarchs. As his sons grew up, Henry struggled to find ways to satisfy their desires for land and immediate power, and tensions rose over the future inheritance of the empire, encouraged by Louis VII and his son Philip II, who ascended to the French throne in 1180. In 1173 Henry's heir apparent, "Young Henry", rebelled against his father. He was subsequently joined in his rebellion by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey as well as their mother. Several European states allied themselves with the rebels, and the Great Revolt was defeated only by Henry's vigorous military action and talented local commanders, many of them "new men" appointed for their loyalty and administrative skills. Young Henry and Geoffrey led another revolt in 1183, during which Young Henry died of dysentery. Geoffrey died in 1186. The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland provided lands for Henry's youngest son, John. By 1189, Philip swayed Richard to his side, leading to a final rebellion. Decisively defeated by Philip and Richard and suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry retreated to Chinon Castle in Anjou. He died soon afterwards and was succeeded by his son Richard.
Henry's empire quickly collapsed during the reign of his son John, but many of the changes Henry introduced during his lengthy rule had long-term consequences. Henry's legal reforms are generally considered to have laid the basis for the English Common Law, while his intervention in Brittany, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland shaped the development of their societies, histories, and governmental systems. Historical interpretations of Henry's reign have changed considerably over time. Contemporary chroniclers such as Gerald of Wales and William of Newburgh, though sometimes unfavourable, generally lauded his achievements. In the 18th century, scholars argued that Henry was a driving force in the creation of a genuinely English monarchy and, ultimately, a unified Britain. During the Victorian expansion of the British Empire, historians were keenly interested in the formation of Henry's own empire, but they also criticized certain aspects of his private life and treatment of Becket.
Early years (1133–1149)
Henry was born in Maine at Le Mans on 5 March 1133, the eldest child of the Empress Matilda and her second husband, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. The French county of Anjou was formed in the 10th century and its Angevin rulers attempted for several centuries to extend their influence and power across France through careful marriages and political alliances. In theory, the county answered to the French king, but royal power over Anjou weakened during the 11th century and the county became largely autonomous.Henry's mother was the legitimate daughter of Henry I, King of England and Duke of Normandy. She was born into a powerful ruling class of Normans, who traditionally owned extensive estates in both England and Normandy, and her first husband had been Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. Henry I had during his own lifetime obtained pledges of fealty from his nobility, including from his nephew Stephen of Blois, promising to support Matilda's claim to the throne. After her father's death in 1135, Matilda hoped to claim the English throne, but instead, Stephen was crowned king and recognised as the Duke of Normandy, resulting in a civil war between their rival supporters. Geoffrey took advantage of the confusion to attack the Duchy of Normandy but played no direct role in the English conflict, leaving this to Matilda and her powerful illegitimate half-brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester. The war, termed the Anarchy by historians, dragged on and degenerated into a stalemate.
Henry most likely spent part of his childhood in his mother's household. In the late 1130s, he accompanied Matilda to Normandy, which would only be fully taken by Geoffrey around 1144. Henry's later childhood, probably from the age of seven, was spent in Anjou, where he was educated by Peter of Saintes, a noted grammarian. In late 1142, Geoffrey sent his nine-year-old son to Bristol, the centre of Angevin opposition to Stephen in the south-west of England, accompanied by Robert of Gloucester. Although having children educated in relatives' households was common among noblemen of the period, sending Henry to England also had political benefits, as Geoffrey was coming under criticism by Matilda's supporters for refusing to join the war in England. For about a year, Henry lived alongside Roger of Worcester, one of Robert's sons, and was instructed by a magister, Master Matthew; Robert's household was known for its education and learning. The canons of St Augustine's in Bristol also helped in Henry's education, and he remembered them with affection in later years. Henry returned to Anjou in either 1143 or 1144, resuming his education under William of Conches, another famous academic.
Henry returned to England in 1147, at the age of fourteen. Taking his immediate household and a few mercenaries, he left Normandy and landed in England, striking into Wiltshire. Despite initially causing considerable panic, the expedition had little success, and Henry found himself unable to pay his forces and therefore unable to return to Normandy. Neither his mother nor his uncle was prepared to support him, implying that they had not approved of the expedition in the first place. Henry instead turned to King Stephen, who paid the outstanding wages and thereby allowed Henry to retire gracefully. Stephen's reasons for doing so are unclear. One potential explanation is his general courtesy to a member of his extended family; another is that he was starting to consider how to end the war peacefully, and saw this as a way of building a relationship with Henry. Henry intervened once again in 1149, commencing what is often termed the Henrician phase of the civil war. This time, Henry planned to form a northern alliance with King David I of Scotland, his great-uncle, and Ranulf of Chester, a powerful regional leader who controlled most of the north-west of England. Under this alliance, Henry and Ranulf agreed to attack York, probably with the help of Scots. The planned attack disintegrated after Stephen marched north to York, and Henry returned to Normandy.
Appearance and personality
Henry was said by chroniclers to be good-looking, red-haired, freckled, with a large head. He had a short, stocky body and was bow-legged from riding. Often he was scruffily dressed. His preference for the short Angevin cloak earned him the nickname "Curtmantle".Henry was neither as reserved as his mother nor as charming as his father, but he was famous for his energy and drive. He was ruthless but not vindictive. He was also infamous for his piercing stare, bullying, bursts of temper, and, on occasion, his sullen refusal to speak at all. Some of these outbursts may have been theatrical and for effect. Henry was said to have understood a wide range of languages, including English, but spoke only Latin and French. In his youth he enjoyed active participation in warfare, hunting and other adventurous pursuits; as the years went by he put increasing energy into judicial and administrative affairs and became more cautious, but throughout his life, he was energetic and frequently impulsive. Despite his surges of anger, he was not normally fiery or overbearing; he was witty in conversation and eloquent in an argument with an intellectual bent of mind and an astonishing memory, and much preferred the solitude of hunting or retiring to his chamber with a book rather than the entertainments of tournaments or troubadours. He also had concern for ordinary people, ordaining early in his reign that those shipwrecked should be well-treated and prescribing heavy penalties for anyone who plundered their goods. The chronicler Ralph of Diceto records that when famine struck Anjou and Maine in 1176, Henry emptied his private stores to relieve distress among the poor.
Henry had a passionate desire to rebuild his control of the territories that his grandfather HenryI had once governed. He took back territories, regained estates and re-established influence over the smaller lords that had once provided what the historian John Gillingham describes as a "protective ring" around his core territories. He was probably the first king of England to use a heraldic design: a signet ring with either a leopard or a lion engraved on it. The design would be altered in later generations to form the royal arms of England.