King Henry II
Henry II (of England) (1133-89), king of England (1154-89), first
monarch of the house of Anjou, or Plantagenet, was an important
administrative reformer, who was one of the most powerful European
rulers of his time.
Born March 5, 1133, at Le Mans, France, Henry became duke of
Normandy in 1151. The following year, on the death of his father, he
inherited the Angevin territories in France. By his marriage in 1152 to
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry added vast territories in southwestern
France to his possessions. Henry claimed the English kingship through
his mother, Matilda. She had been designated the heiress of Henry I but
had been deprived of the succession by her cousin, Stephen of Blois, who
made himself king.
In 1153 Henry defeated Stephen's armies in England and compelled the
king to choose him as his successor; on Stephen's death, the following
year, Henry became king. During the first few years of his reign Henry
quelled the disorders that had developed during Stephen's reign, regained
the northern counties of England, which had previously been ceded to
Scotland, and conquered North Wales. In 1171-72 he began the Norman
conquest of Ireland and in 1174 forced William the Lion, king of the
Scots, to recognize him as overlord.
In 1164 Henry became involved in a quarrel with Thomas à Becket,
whom he had appointed archbishop of Canterbury. By the Constitutions
of Clarendon, the king decreed that priests accused of crimes should be
tried in royal courts; Becket claimed that such cases should be handled
by ecclesiastical courts, and the controversy that followed ended in 1170
with Becket's murder by four of Henry's knights. Widespread indignation
over the murder forced the king to rescind his decree and recognize
Becket as a martyr.
Although he failed to subject the church to his courts, Henry's judicial
reforms were of lasting significance. In England he established a
centralized system of justice accessible to all freemen and administered
by judges who traveled around the country at regular intervals. He also
began the process of replacing the old trial by ordeal with modern court
procedures.
From the beginning of his reign, Henry was involved in conflict with
Louis VII, king of France, and later with Louis's successor, Philip II,
over the French provinces that Henry claimed. A succession of rebellions
against Henry, headed by his sons and furthered by Philip II and by
Eleanor of Aquitaine, began in 1173 and continued until his death at
Chinon, France, on July 6, 1189. Henry was succeeded by his son
Richard I, called Richard the Lion-Hearted.
Bibliography
Encarta 95
By Zachary 4/5S
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