HENRY II (1133–1189; r. 1154–89)
The eldest son of Count Geoffrey of Anjou and Matilda
of England (heiress of Henry I), born 5 March 1133. He
became duke of Normandy in 1150 and count of Anjou
in 1151. In May 1152 he married Eleanor, duchess of
Aquitaine and dis owned wife of Louis VII of France.
On the death of Stephen he became king of England,
at age 21, and was crowned on 19 December 1154. His
children included Henry (d. 1183), Matilda, Richard the
Lionheart, Geoffrey, duke of Brittany, Eleanor, Joan, and
John, as well as the illegitimate Geoffrey archbishop
of York and William Longsword, earl of Salisbury. He
died on 6 July 1189.
Tireless, well educated, and dismissive of conven-
tional wisdom, Henry was also a man of seemingly
contradictory qualities: willful but calculating, obsti-
nate but open-minded, volatile but purposeful, both
magnanimous and vindictive, jealous of his rights but
indifferent to pomp and personal dignity. He was an
enigma to contemporaries and has elicited varying judg-
ments from historians. Few students have denied that
he exercised a major infl uence on the course of western
European history.
The wide dominions under his direct rule, covering
more than half of France as well as England, may have
seemed largely ungovernable, but Henry’s achievement
was to oblige all over whom he claimed jurisdiction to
respect his author ity and to overcome resistance swiftly
and decisively. It was achieved largely by a daring use
of mercenary forces skilled in siege techniques, thus
devaluing the castle as the traditional base of defense.
His dominance aroused not only the resent ment of
the greater barons but also the apprehensions of his
neighbors.
The most publicized but by no means the only ex-
ample of Henry challenging special interest groups was
his confl ict with the church. Though not opposed in
principle to the church extending and refi ning its juris-
diction, Henry insisted that it should neither encroach
on the crown’s jurisdiction nor threaten crown interests.
His tactic for ensuring smooth rela tions by installing an
ally, his chancellor and friend Thomas Becket, as arch-
bishop of Canterbury, backfi red when Becket, showing
a dedication to the church’s power and independence
that surprised many who had been lukewarm about his
nomination, vigorously defended his own authority.
Henry tried to settle the issue by fi at, by issuing his
Con stitutions of Clarendon (1166), based largely but
selectively on customary practice. His demand for an un-
precedented oath of observance from the bishops united
them in resistance. It did not, however, unite them in
support of Becket; some be lieved him to be mistakenly
provocative and tactically inept. Henry’s not unreason-
able stance was undermined by his vin dictive harrying
of the archbishop, and it culminated, after a purported
reconciliation, in intemperate words that prompted someHENRY IIKing Henry II arguing with St. Thomas
Becket, c1300–c1325. Illustrated
page of Latin text from “Chronical of
England” by Peter of Langtoft.
© Scala/Art Resource, New York.