Henry the Second of England
				By Joseph A. Crisp II
King Henry II was the first English monarch of the Angevin line. An extremely successful monarch, he remains admired by some and despised by others. He was born in France on March 4, 1133, the grandson of King Henry I. He was born into the chaotic and conflict-ridden England of King Stephen, and so spent much of his early years in the relative safety of France.
Even in his youth he made minor invasions of the island he was to rule, sometimes with the help of mercenaries or the King of Scotland. However, he was also highly educated and intelligent and in 1152 claimed what many of the time considered his greatest prize: Eleanor of Aquitaine, who soon gave Henry five children. The year after his marriage, Henry launched a surprise attack on King Stephen, forcing him to accept the Angevin claim to the throne and adopt Henry as his heir. As a result, when he became King Henry II in 1154, his was the first undisputed succession since the Norman invasion. From the start of his reign, Henry II represented a high point in the history of England, with the Angevin Empire stretching across England, western France and would soon be expanded further. It is no exaggeration to say that King Henry II was the single most powerful monarch in Western Europe.
In the first years of his reign, Henry worked on consolidation; if not breaking at least weakening the power of the barons, destroying their strongholds as well as restoring English supremacy over Wales and Scotland. Although independent, with their own rulers, it is an often overlooked fact that England had long dominated the whole of Britain without considerable trouble or discontent. The feudal system which emerged during the Dark Ages, reached from peasant to king, with some kings being the vassals of others, vassals of the Holy Roman Emperor and vassals of the Pope as well.
Religion was also a paramount issue. An area that was to come to occupy a large part of Henry's reign was relations with the Church. In June of 1162 Henry made the now famous decision to approve his long-time friend and Lord Chancellor, Thomas a' Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England. Many at the time, especially in the Church, were disappointed by this, knowing of Henry's friendship with Becket and Thomas' slightly worldly past, it seemed to many that the King had managed to have a "yes man" become Archbishop of Canterbury.
King Henry, and many others, were shocked when Becket took his new position so seriously and determined to uphold the position of the Church, even if it meant conflict with his old friend Henry II. The two were soon in conflict over the jurisdiction of secular and ecclesiastical courts. Pope Alexander III advised Becket to be conciliatory with the King, although he did, and would, support the Archbishop throughout his trials, he made it clear that he wanted friendly relations with the Crown and hoped that Thomas would not make a minor dispute into a major confrontation.
This dispute has caused many historians since to view Becket as needlessly antagonistic or to view the King as oppressive toward the Church. The truth, however, seems to be nowhere as extreme in either case. Becket was, perhaps, going a bit far in trying to prove that his relationship with the King would not influence his actions and that he would uphold the sovereignty of the Church at any cost. Henry, on the other hand, had not been initially too demanding. When Becket expressed his desire to take the Pope's advice and reconcile, Henry laid out what were, at the time, very normal and traditional rights which the Crown could exercise in ecclesiastical matters. Becket agreed to this, but later accused himself of weakness for doing so. Henry responded like a man betrayed by his friend, and his feeling was quite natural. It was only then that Henry began to act with more harshness toward Becket than he should have and the Archbishop went into exile.
During these difficulties however, the business of government rolled forward. Previously, in 1155 for example, in response to worsening conditions on that island, Pope Hadrian IV had granted to King Henry II the rule of Ireland. At the outset though, this was more of a formality, the changing of overlordship of the island from one feudal lord, the Pope, to another, the King of England. Henry II also conquered Brittany before the matter of having his son crowned as official heir to the throne in the absence of Becket in 1169 necessitated the re-opening of the problems between Henry II, the Archbishop and the Pope. When Becket returned the following year, justly upset that the prince had been crowned in his absence, King Henry II uttered the now famous words that were to haunt him for the rest of his life. While in the company of some ruthless knights with more ambition than common sense, an exasperated Henry snapped, to no one in particular, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" It was the sort of thoughtless phrase, spoken in anger almost everyone has said at one time or another, but it had dire consequences.
The four knights who had heard the king's remark, thinking to advance themselves by pleasing their monarch, rushed to Canterbury and brutally murdered Archbishop Becket in his own cathedral. Europe, even in these supposedly brutal Middle Ages, was shocked by this act. The archbishop was rapidly canonized and came to represent, as he justly was, the symbol of the Church standing up to secular authority to preserve ecclesiastical independence. St Thomas a' Becket undoubtedly deserves his status, but in honoring him, many have been rather unfair toward Henry II. The King had not ordered the four knights to attack Becket, they had once been fast friends and those memories remained, and furthermore Henry II responded as a good Catholic monarch should have, repenting for his (marginal) role in the tragedy and allowed himself to be scourged by monks as penance.
Yet, Henry II continued to be known at the time as one of the most successful and involved monarchs England had ever had. He was tireless in his work, traveling constantly from one end of his vast dominions to the other, encouraging his friends and intimidating his enemies. He was a man of simple tastes, not given to ostentation in either food, surroundings or personal appearance. Also because of his frequent travels, England developed an advanced and complex bureaucracy that allowed government to function smoothly. Henry's very common sense approach to government and legal reform has also earned him the credit of being the father of English common law.
Henry, however, was not a desk-bound monarch and matters of military adventure soon called again. In 1171 the King was able to put his lordship over Ireland into practice. In the 1160's, after Henry II had been granted the overlordship of Ireland from the Pope, one of the lesser kings in Ireland, Dermot MacMurrough, tried to enlist Henry's support for his restoration and perhaps even rule of the island. At first, Henry took little interest, but allowed Dermot to collect any Norman soldiers he could in England to take back to Ireland. Dermot was successful at this, promising to share all lands taken with the Normans and landed in Ireland in 1170. When King Henry II visited their holdings in the eastern part of the island, the Normans declared him "Lord of Ireland" although the actual amount of land under his control was very small. Most of Ireland acted in a similar was as Wales, Scotland or any other fief of a feudal lord; part of a larger family but mostly autonomous.
Although it was the dramas of struggle with the Church and Irish adventures which is most remembered, the biggest concern King Henry had came from among the ranks of his own family. Unfortunately, while Henry could be called the most successful English monarch of the era, he was much less successful as a family man. He had planned to divide his vast possessions among his sons, but they were unable to wait for this, or risk another gaining a superior position. The newly crowned King Henry (the only heir ever crowned king while his father still reigned), Geoffrey, Richard and John battled their father and each other for position after 1173, often availing themselves of the aid of King Philip II of France, the avowed enemy of England.
With the benefit of hindsight we can see that Henry II was not a very wise in his dealings with his children. The younger King Henry died in 1183 and Geoffrey died in 1186 but Henry II showed considerable favoritism toward his younger son John at the expense of Richard. This, naturally, infuriated the proud, young Richard and after forging an alliance with France he invaded England and forced his father, by now old and ailing, to sign a humiliating peace treaty with him on July 4, 1189. To the King's great shock he found out that his beloved son John had participated with Richard in this rebellion against him, betraying the father who had brought down Richard's wrath for showing him so much favoritism. Broken hearted over this affair, King Henry II died in Chinon only two days later.
Sources: The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England By Antonia Frasier World Book Encyclopedia Triumph: 2,000 Year History of the Catholic Church by Harry Crocker