336 Henry II Plantagenet
in the Reign of Henry I: The Second Generation(Philadel-
phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988).
Henry II Plantagenet (1133–1189)king of England
Born on March 5, 1133, Henry II was the eldest son of
Geoffrey (r. 1128–51), count of ANJOU, and Matilda
(1102–67), daughter of King HENRYI. On her father’s
death Matilda failed to secure control of ENGLANDand
NORMANDY, but Geoffrey conquered NORMANDYand in
1150 invested the young Henry with the duchy. On Geof-
frey’s death a year later, Henry became the count of
Anjou. To these lands he added the duchy of AQUITAINE
by his marriage on May 18, 1152, to ELEANOR, daughter
of the late duke. These lands were not independent but
were FIEFSof the kingdom of FRANCE. For each of them
Henry had to do homage to King Louis VII (r. 1137–80)
as his overlord. Louis, as were other kings in this period,
was trying to convert the vague feudal overlordships into
real authority and power to govern.
In 1153 Henry led an expedition to claim the throne
of England from his mother’s rival, King Stephen of Blois
(r. 1135–54), in a long civil war. The death of Stephen’s
son, Eustace (d. 1153), in August made accommodation
possible. At Winchester in November Stephen recognized
Henry as his heir. Henry left Stephen on the throne for
the rest of his life. Stephen died on October 25, 1154, and
Henry succeeded peacefully and was crowned on Decem-
ber 19 at Westminster.
HENRY AS KINGThe new king was tough, intelligent, young, well edu-
cated, ambitious, and ruthless. He was constantly on the
move within his vast realms. Henry’s first objective was to
reassert all the rights of his grandfather, King Henry I. He
reclaimed royal incomes and lands and CASTLES, destroy-
ing those built without royal permission during the civil
war. He reorganized the administration of finance and
justice. He had the service of able and experienced
administrators. He soon reasserted his overlordship of
SCOTLAND, the Welsh princes, and BRITTANY. He married
his eldest son to the daughter of the king of France, who
had as her dowry the Norman Vexin. He had forced his
brother, Geoffrey, to take money instead of control of the
county of Anjou.
QUARREL WITH THOMAS BECKETTriumphant elsewhere, Henry met some opposition in his
attempts to assert his authority over the CLERGY. On the
death of Archbishop Theobald in 1162, he arranged the
election a year later as archbishop of Canterbury of his
chancellor and friend Thomas BECKET. Thomas, once his
friend, opposed him, and Henry’s reaction was bitter and
violent.
The following January 1164, at Clarendon, the king’s
rights over the church were defined in 16 clauses, the
Constitutions of CLARENDON. Thomas refused to accept
them, and Henry now decided to marginalize him. At
Northampton in October 1164 Thomas had huge fines
imposed on him and his resignation was required.
Thomas fled secretly from England and appealed to the
pope. Henry had the support of many of the bishops of
England and a reasonable case. Most of the disputed
rights had been exercised without objection in Henry I’s
time. Pope ALEXANDERIII, locked in his own quarrel with
Emperor FREDERICK I, did not offend Henry. Thomas
remained in exile until 1170.
In 1170 Henry had his son crowned by the arch-
bishop of YORK, in defiance of the long accepted right of
the archbishop of Canterbury to crown the heir. Henry
then tried for peace with Becket. Thomas’s actions, how-
ever, soon drove the king into one of his famous rages.
Four of his KNIGHTS, hoping to please the king, hurried to
Canterbury and murdered Thomas, who had returned to
England, in the cathedral on December 29, 1170. Henry
made a great show of repentance and left for IRELAND.
Because all parties now desired peace, Henry was recon-
ciled with the church on May 21, 1172, at Avranches. He
promised to give up any rights that had been usurped in
his time from the church and even permit appeals from
ecclesiastical courts in England to the pope’s court. The
problem of jurisdiction over “criminous clerks” was set-
tled by a compromise in 1176.FAMILY PROBLEMS
From 1173 Henry had to meet rebellion and attack from
all sides. He had been constantly unfaithful to Eleanor,
and he had not given his grown sons power or indepen-
dent income. Eleanor and his three eldest sons allied with
King Louis VII of France, the count of Flanders, King
WILLIAMI THELIONof Scotland, and numerous nobles
from throughout his realms. Henry had warning as well
as effective, well-paid soldiers and loyal administrators.
Eleanor was captured and the other rebels defeated.
William the Lion was defeated and imprisoned, then
forced to make concessions to gain his freedom in the
Treaty of Falaise in December of 1174.
His sons, the later king RICHARDI and the eldest,
Henry, “the Young King” (1155–83), were dissatisfied and
jealous, eager to rebel and to ally with a new enemy, the
young and competent king of France, PHILIPII AUGUSTUS.
Philip exploited the situation for his own ambitions. The
heir to the throne, Henry, died while in rebellion against
his father on June 11, 1183. Finally both Richard and
John, the youngest son, allied with Philip against their
father. The old king was forced to make a humiliating
peace and died two days later on July 6, 1189. He was
buried in the abbey church at Fontevrault.LEGACY: GOVERNMENT AND LAW
The most enduring legacy of Henry’s reign was in England.
The administration and techniques of centralized rule