King Henry Curtmantle II of England ²

  General Notes:

Reigned 1154-1189. He ruled an empire that stretched from the Tweed to the Pyrenees. In spite of frequent hostitilties with the French King his own family and rebellious Barons culminating in the great revolt of 1173-74) and his quarrel with Thomas Becket, Henry maintained control over his possessions until shortly before his death. His judicial and administrative reforms which increased Royal control and influence at the expense of the Barons were of great constitutional importance. Introduced trial by Jury. ---------

Contemporaries: Louis VII (King of France, 1137-1180), Thomas Beckett (Archbishop of
Canterbury), Pope Adrian IV, Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor,
1152-1190)

Henry II, first of the Angevin kings, was one of the most effective of all England's
monarchs. He came to the throne amid the anarchy of Stephen's reign and promptly
collared his errant barons. He refined Norman government and created a capable,
self-standing bureaucracy. His energy was equaled only by his ambition and intelligence.
Henry survived wars, rebellion, and controversy to successfully rule one of the Middle Ages'
most powerful kingdoms.

Henry was raised in the French province of Anjou and first visited England in 1142 to
defend his mother's claim to the disputed throne of Stephen. His continental possessions
were already vast before his coronation: He acquired Normandy and Anjou upon the death
of his father in September 1151, and his French holdings more than doubled with his
marriage to Eleanor of Aquitane (ex-wife of King Louis VII of France). In accordance with
the Treaty of Wallingford, a succession agreement signed by Stephen and Matilda in
1153, Henry was crowned in October 1154. The continental empire ruled by Henry and his
sons included the French counties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine, Gascony, Anjou,
Aquitane, and Normandy. Henry was technically a feudal vassal of the king of France but,
in reality, owned more territory and was more powerful than his French lord. Although King
John (Henry's son) lost most of the English holdings in France, English kings laid claim to
the French throne until the fifteenth century. Henry also extended his territory in the British
Isles in two significant ways. First, he retrieved Cumbria and Northumbria form Malcom IV
of Scotland and settled the Anglo-Scot border in the North. Secondly, although his success
with Welsh campaigns was limited, Henry invaded Ireland and secured an English
presence on the island.

English and Norman barons in Stephen's reign manipulated feudal law to undermine
royal authority; Henry instituted many reforms to weaken traditional feudal ties and
strengthen his position. Unauthorized castles built during the previous reign were razed.
Monetary payments replaced military service as the primary duty of vassals. The
Exchequer was revitalized to enforce accurate record keeping and tax collection.
Incompetent sheriffs were replaced and the authority of royal courts was expanded. Henry
empowered a new social class of government clerks that stabilized procedure - the
government could operate effectively in the king's absence and would subsequently prove
sufficiently tenacious to survive the reign of incompetent kings. Henry's reforms allowed the
emergence of a body of common law to replace the disparate customs of feudal and
county courts. Jury trials were initiated to end the old Germanic trials by ordeal or battle.
Henry's systematic approach to law provided a common basis for development of royal
institutions throughout the entire realm.

The process of strengthening the royal courts, however, yielded an unexpected
controversy. The church courts instituted by William the Conqueror became a safe haven
for criminals of varying degree and ability, for one in fifty of the English population
qualified as clerics. Henry wished to transfer sentencing in such cases to the royal courts, as
church courts merely demoted clerics to laymen. Thomas Beckett, Henry's close friend and
chancellor since 1155, was named Archbishop of Canterbury in June 1162 but distanced
himself from Henry and vehemently opposed the weakening of church courts. Beckett fled
England in 1164, but through the intervention of Pope Adrian IV (the lone English pope),
returned in 1170.He greatly angered Henry by opposing to the coronation of Prince Henry.
Exasperated, Henry hastily and publicly conveyed his desire to be rid of the contentious
Archbishop - four ambitious knights took the king at his word and murdered Beckett in his
own cathedral on December 29, 1170. Henry endured a rather limited storm of protest over
the incident and the controversy passed.

Henry's plans of dividing his myriad lands and titles evoked treachery from his sons. At the
encouragement - and sometimes because of the treatment - of their mother, they rebelled
against their father several times, often with Louis VII of France as their accomplice. The
deaths of Henry the Young King in 1183 and Geoffrey in 1186 gave no respite from his
children's rebellious nature; Richard, with the assistance of Philip II Augustus of France,
attacked and defeated Henry on July 4, 1189 and forced him to accept a humiliating
peace. Henry II died two days later, on July 6, 1189.

A few quotes from historic manuscripts shed a unique light on Henry, Eleanor, and their
sons.

From Sir Winston Churchill Kt, 1675: "Henry II Plantagenet, the very first of that name and
race, and the very greatest King that England ever knew, but withal the most unfortunate .
. . his death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life, his ungracious
sons. . ."

From Sir Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of England: Concerning endowments of
mind, he was of a spirit in the highest degree generous . . . His custom was to be always in
action; for which cause, if he had no real wars, he would have feigned . . . To his children
he was both indulgent and hard; for out of indulgence he caused his son henry to be
crowned King in his own time; and out of hardness he caused his younger sons to rebel
against him . . . He married Eleanor, daughter of William Duke of Guienne, late wife of
Lewis the Seventh of France. Some say King Lewis carried her into the Holy Land, where
she carried herself not very holily, but led a licentious life; and, which is the worst kind of
licentiousness, in carnal familiarity with a Turk."

from the EC: Matilda's son Henry Plantagenet, the first and greatest of three Angevin kings of England, succeeded Stephen in 1154. Aged 21, he already possessed a reputation for restless energy and decisive action. He was to inherit vast lands. As heir to his mother and to Stephen he held England and Normandy; as heir to his father he held Anjou (hence Angevin), Maine, and Touraine; as heir to his brother Geoffrey he obtained Brittany; as husband of Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII of France, he held Aquitaine, the major part of southwestern France. Altogether his holdings in France were far larger than those of the French king. They have become known as the Angevin empire, although Henry never in fact claimed any imperial rights or used the title of emperor. From the beginning Henry showed himself determined to assert and maintain his rights in all his lands. In England this meant reasserting the centralized power of his grandfather, Henry I. His success in these aims is the measure of his greatness.

Government of England

In the first decade of his reign Henry was largely concerned with continental affairs, though he made sure that the adulterine castles in England were destroyed. Many of the earldoms created in the anarchy of Stephen's reign were allowed to lapse. Major change in England began in the mid-1160s. The Assize of Clarendon of 1166, and that of Northampton 10 years later, promoted public order. Juries were used to provide evidence of what crimes had been committed and to bring accusations. New forms of legal action were introduced, notably the so-called possessory assizes, which determined who had the right to immediate possession of land, not who had the best fundamental right. That could be decided by the grand assize, by means of which a jury of 12 knights would decide the case. The use of standardized forms of writ greatly simplified judicial administration. "Returnable" writs, which had to be sent back by the sheriffs to the central administration, enabled the crown to check that its instructions were obeyed. An increasing number of cases came before royal courts rather than private feudal courts. Henry I's practice of sending out itinerant justices was extended and systematized. In 1170 a major inquiry into local administration, the Inquest of Sheriffs, was held, and many sheriffs were dismissed.

There were important changes to the military system. In 1166 the tenants in chief were commanded to disclose the number of knights enfeoffed on their lands so that Henry could take proper financial advantage of changes that had taken place since his grandfather's day. Scutage (money payment in lieu of military service) was an important source of funds, and Henry preferred scutage to service because mercenaries were more efficient than feudal contingents. In the Assize of Arms of 1181 Henry determined the arms and equipment appropriate to every free man, based on his income from land. This measure, which could be seen as a revival of the principles of the Anglo-Saxon fyrd, was intended to provide for a local militia, which could be used against invasion, rebellion, or for peacekeeping.

Struggle with Thomas Becket

Henry attempted to restore the close relationship between church and state that had existed under the Norman kings. His first move was the appointment in 1162 of Thomas Becket as archbishop of Canterbury. Henry assumed that Becket, who had served efficiently as chancellor since 1155 and been a close companion to him, would continue to do so as archbishop. Becket, however, disappointed him. Once appointed archbishop, he became a militant defender of the church against royal encroachment and a champion of the papal ideology of ecclesiastical supremacy over the lay world. The struggle between Henry and Becket reached a crisis at the Council of Clarendon in 1164. In the Constitutions of Clarendon Henry tried to set down in writing the ancient customs of the land. The most controversial issue proved to be that of jurisdiction over "criminous clerks" (clerics who had committed crimes); the king demanded that such men should, after trial in church courts, be sent for punishment in royal courts.

Becket initially accepted the Constitutions but would not set his seal to them. Shortly thereafter, however, he suspended himself from office for the sin of yielding to the royal will in the matter. Although he failed to obtain full papal support at this stage, Alexander III ultimately came to his aid over the Constitutions. Later in 1164 Becket was charged with peculation of royal funds when chancellor. After Becket had taken flight for France, the king confiscated the revenues of his province, exiled his friends, and confiscated their revenues. In 1170 Henry had his eldest son crowned king by the archbishop of York, not Canterbury, as was traditional. Becket, in exile, appealed to Rome and excommunicated the clergy who had taken part in the ceremony. A reconciliation between Becket and Henry at the end of the same year settled none of the points at issue. When Becket returned to England, he took further measures against the clergy who had taken part in the coronation. In Normandy the enraged king, hearing the news, burst out with the fateful words that incited four of his knights to take ship for England and murder the archbishop in Canterbury Cathedral.

Almost overnight the martyred Thomas became a saint in the eyes of the people. Henry repudiated responsibility for the murder and reconciled himself with the church. But despite various royal promises to abolish customs injurious to the church, royal control of the church was little affected. Henceforth criminous clerks were to be tried in church courts, save for offenses against the forest laws. Disputes over ecclesiastical patronage and church lands that were held on the same terms as lay estates were, however, to come under royal jurisdiction. Finally Henry did penance at Canterbury, allowing the monks to scourge him. But with Becket out of the way, it proved possible to negotiate most of the points at issue between church and state. The martyred archbishop, however, was to prove a potent example for future prelates.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Title. ⁵ Duke of Normandy

• Title, 19 Dec 1154, Westminster Abbey, London, England. ⁵ King of England

Henry married Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, daughter of Duke William of Aquitaine X and Aenor de Châtellerault, on 18 May 1152 in Bordeaux, France.¹ (Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine was born about 1122 in Chateau DE Belin, Guinne, France,⁶ died on 1 Apr 1204 in Fontevraud Abbey, Maine-Et-Loire, France ⁶ and was buried in Fontevraud Abbey, Maine-Et-Loire, France.)

  Marriage Notes:

From the EC: Rebellion of Henry's sons and Eleanor of Aquitaine

Henry's sons, urged on by their mother and by a coalition of his enemies, raised a rebellion throughout his domains in 1173. King William I the Lion of Scotland joined the rebel coalition and invaded the north of England. Lack of cooperation among the rebels, however, enabled Henry to defeat them one at a time with a mercenary army. The Scottish king was taken prisoner at Alnwick. Queen Eleanor was retired to polite imprisonment for the rest of Henry's life. The king's sons and the baronial rebels were treated with leniency, but many baronial castles were destroyed following the rising. A brief period of amity between Henry and Louis of France followed, and the years between 1175 and 1182 marked the zenith of Henry's prestige and power. In 1183 the younger Henry again tried to organize opposition to his father, but he died in June of that year. Henry spent the last years of his life locked in combat with the new French king, Philip II Augustus, with whom his son Richard had entered into an alliance. Even his youngest son, John, deserted him at the end.

Henry next married Alisa Capet, daughter of King Louis Capet VII of France "The Younger" and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. (Alisa Capet was born in 1150 ⁶ and died in 1198 ⁶.)