Copyright 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. Henry II, King of England
Henry II, perhaps the greatest king of England, ruled a vast Anglo-Norman domain from 1154 to 1189, founding a structure of government both flexible and well defined and patronizing toward scholarship and literature. The son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, count of Anjou, and MATILDA, daughter of Henry I and briefly queen of England, Henry was born in France on Mar. 5, 1133. Made Duke of Normandy in 1150, he inherited his father's lands in 1151, and in 1152 married ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE, thus acquiring her large domain. After several unsuccessful attempts to recover his mother's throne, Henry invaded England in 1153 and was recognized as the heir of King STEPHEN, whom he succeeded in 1154.
Henry was a man of high intelligence, practical wisdom, and physical vigor. His early years as king were occupied with recovering his royal rights from the barons who had wrested them from Stephen. Although he could not effectively rule the entire so-called ANGEVIN empire, Henry created a stable royal government within England.
Under Henry many governmental reforms were instituted. A new class of professional royal officials emerged, and new record-keeping practices reflected the increasing complexity of English society. The king ordered inquiries into the operations of local government and a survey (1166) of knight service. During his reign, money payments called scutage replaced knight service as the principal means of raising his army, the largest and most highly organized in Europe since the days of the Roman Empire.
Perhaps Henry's greatest accomplishment was the development of the system of royal justice and hence of COMMON LAW, which was to become the basis of the legal systems of most English-speaking peoples. Common law employed the jury, made the king's legal initiative (in the form of a writ) available to all free men for a modest price, and began DUE PROCESS under the law.
Henry was primarily interested in extending royal law at the expense of feudal jurisdictions and reaping the financial benefits that accrued. Nonetheless, the ultimate effect of the legal reforms of this reign was to protect the weak from abuse by the strong.
The most famous episode of Henry's reign was the king's quarrel with his friend Thomas BECKET, whom he had made Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry had hoped to isolate his kingdom's church from papal leadership and thereby subject it to his own. Becket, however, firmly opposed this policy, often unsupported by his own bishops. His murder (1170) in Canterbury Cathedral, inadvertently instigated by Henry himself, caused considerable uproar but little change in Henry's relations with the church.
Henry's final years were troubled by quarrels with his wife and four sons. They rebelled against him several times, most notably in 1172-74. When Henry II died on July 6, 1189, he was succeeded by his second son, RICHARD I; the latter was succeeded in turn by his youngest brother, JOHN.
James W. Alexander
Bibliography: Warren, W. L., Henry II (1973).
More About Henry II Curtmantle and Eleanore Aquitaine: Marriage: 1154, Normandy, France.281
Children of Henry II Curtmantle and Eleanore Aquitaine are:
+John Lackland, b. December 24, 1166, Kings Manorhouse, Oxford, England281, d. October 19, 1216, Newark, Nottinghamshire, England281.
King of England Henry II Curtmantle (b. March 05, 1132/33, d. July 06, 1189)
Notes for Henry II Curtmantle: