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Henry II "Plantagenet" King of England

Henry II "Plantagenet" King of England[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Male 1133 - 1189  (56 years)

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  • Name Henry II "Plantagenet" King of England 
    Born 5 Mar 1133  LEMANS, SARTHS, Sarthe, FRANCE Find all individuals with events at this location  [9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
    Gender Male 
    Died 6 Jul 1189  Chinon Indre et Loire France Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15
    Age 56 years 
    Buried 8 Jul 1189  Fontevrault Abbe, FONTEVRAULT, MAINE-ET-LOIRE, FRANCE Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • NAME Henry II "Plantagenet" King Of /ENGLAND/

      BURI PLAC Fontevrault Abbey, Fontevrault, Maine-Et-Loire, France
      KING OR ENGLAND 1154-1189

      Henry II was born at Le Mans in 1133. He was the eldest son of theEmpress Matilda, daughter of Henry I, by her second marriage to Geoffreythe Fair of Anjou. His parents' marriage was tempestous, and both partieswere glad when politics brought a separation, with Matilda going toEngland to fight King Stephen, and Geoffrey of Normandy to win a heritagefor young Henry.

      He first came to England at the age of nine when his mother made herdramatic escape from Oxford where she was besieged by Stephen, across theice and snow, dressed all in white, to welcome him at Wallingford. Hisnext visit, when he was fourteen, showed his character: he recruited asmall army of mercenaries to cross over and fight Stephen in England, butfailed so miserably in the execution of his plans that he ended upborrowing money from Stephen to get back home. A third expedition, twoyears later, was almost as great a failure. Henry was not a soldier, hiswere skills of administration and diplomacy; warfare bored and sometimesfrightened him. For the meanwhile he now concentrated on Normandy, ofwhich his father had made him joint ruler. In 1151, the year of hisfather's death, he went to Paris to do homage to Louis VII for his duchy.There he met Queen Eleanor, and she fell in love with him.

      Henry was by no means averse. To steal a king's wife does a great dealfor the ego of a young duke; he was as lusty as she, and late in their lives he was still ardently wenching with 'the fair Rosamund' Clifford,and less salubrious girls with names like 'Bellebelle'; finally, shewould bring with her the rich Duchy of Aquitaine, which she held in herown right. With this territory added to those he hoped to inherit and win, his boundaries would be Scotland in the north, and the Pyrenees in the south.

      Henry was, apart from his prospects, a 'catch' for any woman. He was intelligent, had learned Latin and could read and possibly write;immensely strong and vigorous, a sportsman and hard rider who loved travel; emotional and passionate, prone to tears and incredible rages;carelessly but richly dressed, worried enough in later life to conceal his baldness by careful arrangement of his hair, and very concerned not to grow fat.

      But now he was in the prime of youth, and in 1153, when he landed with alarge force in Bristol, the world was ready to be won. He quickly gained control of the West Country and moved up to Wallingford for a crucialbattle with Stephen. This was avoided, however, because in the preparations for the battle Henry fell from his horse three times, abad omen. Henry himself was not superstitious -- he was the reverse, a cheerful blasphemer -- but he disliked battles and when his anxious advisers urged him to heed the omen, he willingly agreed to parley privately with Stephen. The conference was a strange occasion: there were only two of them there, at the narowest point of the Thames, with Henryon one bank and Stephen on the other. None the less, they seem to have come to an agreement to take negotiations further.

      That summer Stephen's son died mysteriously, and Eleanor bore Henry anheir (about the same time as an English whore Hikenai produced his faithful bastard Geoffrey). The omens clearly showed what was soon confirmed between the two -- that when Stephen died, Henry should rule in his place. A year later Stephen did die, and in December 1154, Henry and Eleanor were crowned in London.

      Henry was only 21, but he soon showed his worth, destroying unlicensed castles, and dispersing the foreign mercenaries. He gave even-handed justice, showing himself firm, but not unduly harsh. A country racked by civil war sighed with relief. Only two major difficulties appeared: firs tHenry's failure in his two Welsh campaigns in 1157 and 1165, when guerilla tactics utterly defeated and on the first occasion nearly killed him; second was the reversal of his friendship for Becket when he changed from being Chancellor to Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162.

      The quarrel with Becket was linked with the King's determination to continue his grandfather's reform of the administration of justice in the country. He was anxious for a uniform pattern, operated by royal justices, to control the corrupt, ill-administered and unequal loca lsystems operated by barons and churchmen. At Clarendon in 1166 and Northampton in 1176, he got his council's agreeemnt to a series of measures which established circuits of royal justices dealing with the widest range of criminal activities. The method of operation was novel,too, relying on a sworn jury of inquest of twelve men. Though not like amodern jury, in that they were witnesses rather than assessors, the assize juries were the ancestors of the modern English legal system.

      Henry travelled constantly, and much of the time in his Contninental territories, for there were constant rebellions to deal with, usually inspired or encouraged by Louis of France. Henry was determined to keep the integrity of his empire, and to pass it on as a unity. To do this was no small task, but in 1169 Henry held a conference with the King of France which he hoped would achieve his objectives: he himself again did homage for Normandy, his eldest son Henry did homage for Anjou, Maine and Brittany, and Richard for Aquitaine. The next year he had young Henry crowned in his own lifetime. If anything could preserve the succession,surely this would, yet, in fact, it brought all the troubles in the world onto Henry's head, for he had given his sons paper domains, and had no intention that they should rule his empire. Yet a man with a title does not rest until he has that title's power.

      Late in 1171 Henry had a pleasant interlude in Ireland -- escaping from the world's condemnation for the murder of Becket. He spent Christmas at Dublin in a palace built for him out of wattles by the Irish.

      Meanwhile, Eleanor had been intriguing with her sons, urging them to revolt and demand their rights. Early in 1173 they trooped off to the French court, and with Louis joined in an attack on Normandy. Henry clamped Eleanor into prison and went off to meet the new threat. Whilst he was busy meeting this, England was invaded from Flanders and Scotland ,and more barons who fancied a return of the warlord days of Stephen broke into revolt.

      Plainly it was St. Thomas's revenge, and there was no hope of dealing with the situation without expiation. In July 1174 Henry returned to England, and went in pilgrim's dress to Canterbury. Through the town he walked barefoot, leaving a trail of blood on the flinty stones, and went to keep his vigil of a day and a night by the tomb, not even coming out to relive himself. As he knelt, the assembled bishops and all the monks of Christ church came to scourge him -- each giving him three strokes, but some with bitterness in their hearts laying on with five.

      It was worth it though, for the very morning his vigil ended Henry was brought the news that the King of Scotland had been captured. He moved quickly northwards, receving rebels' submission all the time. He met upwith Geoffrey who had fought valiantly for him, and commented, 'My othe rsons have proved themselves bastards, this one alone is my true and legitimate son.'

      Returning to France, he quickly came to an agreement with Louis and his three rebel sons, giving each a substantial income, though still no share of power.

      Richard set to work reducing the Duchy of Aquitaine to order, and quickly proved himself an able general who performed tremendous feats, such as capturing a fully manned and provisioned castle with three walls and moats to defend it. But the people were less easy to subdue -- they loved war for its own sake as their poet-leader, Bertrand de Born, shows wel lin his works: '. . . I love to see amidst the meadows tents and pavilionsspread; and it gives me great joy to see drawn up on the field knightsand horses in battle array; and it delights me when the scouts scatterpeople and herds in their path; and my heart is filled with gladness whenI see strong castles besieged, and the stockades broken and overwhelmed,and the warriors on the bank, girt about by fosses, with a line of strongstakes, interlaced . . . Maces, swords, helms of different hues, shields that will be riven and shattered as soon as the fight begins; and many vassals struck down together; and the horses of the dead and wounde droving at random. And when battle is joined, let all men of good lineage think of nought but the breaking of heads and arms: I tell you I find no such savour in food or in wine or in sleep as in hearing the shout "On!On!" from both sides, and the neighing of steeds that have lost their riders, and the cries of "Help! Help!"; and in seeing men great and smal lgo down on the grass beyond the fosses; in seeing at last the dead, with the pennoned stumps of lances still in their sides.'

      These robust knights were actively encouraged by the young King Henry. He was handsome, charming and beloved of all, but also feckless and thoughtless -- far keener on tournaments and frivolity than the serious business of government. Then in the midle of his new rebellion he caught disentery and shortly died. His devoted followers were thunderstruck --one young lad actually pined to death -- and the rebellion fizzled out.

      The young king was dead, but Henry, wary of previous errors, was not going to rush into making a new one. He called his favourite youngest son, John, to his side and ordered Richard to give his duchy into his brother's hands. Richard -- his mother's favourite -- had made Aquitainehis home and worked hard to establish his control there; he refused to give his mother's land to anyone, unless it were back to Eleanor herself.

      Henry packed John off to Ireland (which he speedily turned against himself) whilst he arranged to get Eleanor out of her prison and bringher to Aquitaine to receive back the duchy. Meanwhile the new King of France, Philip, was planning to renew the attack on English territories,all the while the three, Henry, Richard, and Philip, were supposed to be planning a joint crusade.

      In 1188 Henry, already ill with the absessed anal fistula that was to cause him such an agonising death, refused pointblank to recognise Richard as his heir. The crazy project for substituting John was at the root of it all, though Henry may have deluded himself into thinking he was playing his usual canny hand.


      .
    Person ID I2043  Wilson-Maynard Family Tree
    Last Modified 7 Jan 2012 

    Father Geoffrey PLANTAGENET,   b. 24 August 1113,   d. 7 Sep 1151  (Age 38 years) 
    Mother Lady of the English, Empress Matilda Empress Queen of England,   b. 1102,   d. 1167  (Age 65 years) 
    Family ID F1625  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Annabel BALLIOL, [Concubine 3],   b. Abt 1153, , , , ENGLAND Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 31 Mar 1204  (Age ~ 51 years) 
    Married 18 May 1153  Unmd Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Divorced Yes, date unknown 
    Family ID F883  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2 ALIX DE FRANCE,   b. 1159 
    Family ID F884  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 3 Eleanor of Aquitaine,   b. 1122, Chateau de Belin-Belit,Gironde,Aquitaine,France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 26 Jun 1202, Fontevrault, Anjou, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 80 years) 
    Married 18 May 1152  Bordeaux, Gironde, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20
    Children 
     1. John I "Lackland" Plantagenet King of England,   b. 24 Dec 1166, Kings Manor House, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 19 Oct 1216, Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 49 years)
     2. Geoffrey Plantagenet, , Earl of Richmond,   b. 23 Sep 1158, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 19 Aug 1186, Paris, Seine, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 27 years)
     3. Eleanor Princess of England, Queen Castile,   b. 13 Oct 1162, Domfront, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 31 Oct 1214, Las Huelgas, Brugos, Spain Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 52 years)
     4. JOAN PLANTAGENET ENGLAND,   b. Oct 1165, ANGERS, ANJOU, FRANCE Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 4 Sep 1199  (Age ~ 33 years)
     5. MATILDA PLANTAGENET FITZHENRI, PRINCESS,   b. Abt 1162, London,England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1189  (Age ~ 27 years)
     6. Richard I "The Lion Hearted" King of England,   b. 8 Sep 1157, Beaumont Palace, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 6 Apr 1199, Chalus, Haute-Vienne, Aquitaine, France (dsp) Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 41 years)
     7. William England,   b. 17 AUIG 1152, NORMANDY, FRANCE Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Apr 1156, WALLINGFORD CASTLE, , BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 4 years)
     8. Henry "Young King" Plantagenet, , Duke Aquitaine,   b. 28 Feb 1154/1155, Bermondsey Palace, Surrey, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 11 Jun 1183, Chateau Martel, Turenne, France (dvp) Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 28 years)
     9. Matilda Princess of England,   b. 1156, London, Middlesex, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 28 Jun 1189, Braunschweig, Brunswick, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 33 years)
     10. Eleanor Princess of England,   b. 13 Oct 1161, Domfront, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 25 Oct 1214, Las Huelgas, Brugos, Spain Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 53 years)
    Family ID F885  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 4 Rosamond "Fair Rosamond" de Clifford,   b. 1136, Clifford Castle, Hay, Herefordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1176, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 40 years) 
    Married BEF. 1173  No Marriage Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. WILLIAM LONGESPEE, MAGNA CHARTA,   b. 1176, , , , ENGLAND Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 7 Mar 1225/1226, Salisbury Castle, Wiltishire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 50 years)
     2. William I Longespee, , Earl of Salisbury,   b. BEF. 1173, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 7 Mar 1225/1226, Salisbury Castle, Wiltishire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age > 53 years)
    Family ID F882  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 5 Ida de Toeni,   b. Abt 1155, Flamstead,England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F886  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 5 Mar 1133 - LEMANS, SARTHS, Sarthe, FRANCE Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarried - 18 May 1152 - Bordeaux, Gironde, France Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarried - BEF. 1173 - No Marriage Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDied - 6 Jul 1189 - Chinon Indre et Loire France Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBuried - 8 Jul 1189 - Fontevrault Abbe, FONTEVRAULT, MAINE-ET-LOIRE, FRANCE Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Photos
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    King Henry II
    King Henry II

  • Sources 
    1. [S14313] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, line 142, 161.

    2. [S14580] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, Henry II.

    3. [S14286] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 142-1, 161-11.

    4. [S14501] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, Henry II.

    5. [S14581] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 142-1, 161-11.

    6. [S14582] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, Henry II.

    7. [S14533] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 142-1, 161-11.

    8. [S14583] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, Henry II.

    9. [S14313] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, line 161.

    10. [S14580] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, Henry II.
      1133 year only

    11. [S14286] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 161-11.

    12. [S14501] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, Henry II.
      1133 year only

    13. [S14581] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 161-11.

    14. [S14582] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, Henry II.
      1133 year only

    15. [S14533] The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 161-11.

    16. [S14583] Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on, Henry II.
      1133 year only

    17. [S14415] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1-25.

    18. [S14433] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1-25.

    19. [S14596] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1-25.

    20. [S14418] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1-25.