Henry II (r. 1154-1189)

Henry II (r. 1154-1189)

As discussed in my previous post ‘William II to Henry II’, Henry came to the throne following the Civil War of Stephen’s reign.  He was the first King of the Plantagenet line and married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 just eight weeks after her divorce from King Louis VII of France.   Eleanor was 12 years older than Henry and proved to be a forceful and controversial figure. Both were crowned in Westminster Abbey on 7^th December 1154 following the death of King Stephen.  Henry and Eleanor had 5 sons and 3 daughters.  The eldest two surviving sons, Henry and Geoffrey died before they could succeed their father, leaving the youngest, Richard and John, next in line to the throne.  Despite supposedly marrying for love rather than for political reasons, Henry adopted numerous mistresses.  The most prolific of these was Rosamund Clifford whom out of jealousy, Eleanor is considered to have arranged the murder of.

There is so much to say about Henry II apart from the Thomas à Becket ‘incident’ for which he is probably most well known (although this is obviously a topic which I will cover).  This post will attempt to discuss some of the key issues which characterise his reign, including his attempts to form a ‘state’ and his role in the establishment of English law.  Another book which I have started reading is Simon Schama’s A History of Britain 3000 BC – 1603 AD which is extremely useful and provides a detailed account of Henry II’s reign.

Some of the key questions to ask when approaching Henry II are:

1.       How important was loyalty to Henry and what part did this play in the events which characterised his rule?

2.       How important was the creation of a ‘state’ to Henry and what did he do to aid this?

3.       What role did Eleanor of Aquitaine play in Henry’s reign and that of her sons?

The formation of a ‘state’

Following his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry gained control of a large section of Southern France which when he became King added to his empire of England, where he was King, Normandy, of which he was the Duke, Anjou, where he was the Count, and parts of Wales and sections of Brittany too.  His state was by no means unified, however, Henry recognising that each section of his Empire was characterised by its own specific language and customs.  In order to ‘suppress evil laws and customs’, Schama describes how Henry knocked down many of the castles which had been erected during the Civil War do as to defuse the opportunity for continued rivalries between the barons.

Wales

Henry turned his attention to Wales to try and unify sections of his empire.  At this time, Wales was a divided country, split between English areas which were presided over by Marcher Lords and castles in areas such as Monmouth and Chepstow, and Welsh territories.  The three Welsh kingdoms were Gwynedd in the North, Powys in the middle and Deheubarth in the South.

In 1165, Rhys ad Gruffydd attempted to join up these territories to increase Welsh strength in the country.  Henry responded with a major campaign.  This turned out to be a humiliating failure for the English, however, their mounted Knights unable to cope with the Welsh weather and terrain.  Schama argues that it was this which instigated English activity in Ireland, Henry deciding to move his Marcher lords from Wales to Ireland so as to help the King of Leinster in Dublin, Diarmait MacMurchada, fight Irish rebels.  In contrast, however, Ibeji suggests that Henry left it to Diarmait to recruit help from the English and suffering from increasing pressure from the Welsh princes, the English lords chose to go to Ireland of their own accord.  Although this places questions of Henry’s intention to ‘collect’ Ireland as a centre under his control, either way the English lords did not enter Ireland as invaders, but as missionaries.

Ireland

In 1169 a group of these Knights were sent to Ireland, followed by the Earl of Pembroke, Richard de Clare.  Clare, known as “Strongbow”, married Aoife, Diarmait’s daughter and following Diarmait’s death in 1171 Strongbow became his successor.  Schama argues that it was this event which caused Henry to take interest in Ireland, seeing it as a Norman colony.  He had in effect become the overlord of Ireland. 

Reactions to Henry’s rule in Ireland were generally well met as Henry was not seen as having conquered Ireland but had risen to a position of control through intervention with Diarmait against the Irish rebels.  Henry compounded his influence in Ireland through the implementation of:

o   castles, manors and walled towns

o   monasteries

o   the formation of a French-speaking Knighthood

Thus, Henry managed to extend his area of control forming for the first time since William the Conqueror a form of unified ‘state’.

Henry II and the development of English Law

In order to reassert Royal strength and leadership following the Civil War of King Stephen’s reign, Henry also enforced numerous reforms to the legal system between 1154 and 1189 and his reign is often seen as instrumental in the formation of English Law.  Examples of his reforms included the implementation of more violent forms of punishment for serious crimes, where the guilty could lose a hand or a foot as examples of punishment.  He is also held responsible for the introduction of a jury of 12 members in criminal trial proceedings.

Threats to Henry’s position

Despite these actions to strengthen his position, Henry faced numerous threats to his position which ironically came from his own family.  In 1173, Eleanor encouraged Henry the Younger, Richard and Geoffrey to rebel against Henry, both sons resentful of Henry’s reluctance to give them royal responsibilities and reveal his intentions.  The coup failed and as a result Eleanor was captured and remained estranged from Henry.  Henry the Younger died in 1183 and it was not until 1189 that Eleanor attempted another rebellion.  Richard, the eldest surviving son, had asked his father to name his officially as heir, but apprehensive that this would encourage a coup, HenryHenry refused.  Moreover, Henry fathered an illegitimate child with Alais of France who was supposed to be promised to Richard, further intensifying hostilities between the two.  Contemporary accounts record how upon hearing that his favourite son John had joined Richard, died two days later of shock and heartbreak.

I have not mentioned the murder of Thomas à Becket in this post as it is going to be the topic of my next post.  Although Henry’s attitude towards the Church clearly engages with his wish to reassert the power of the crown over England, the murder of Thomas à Becket is a key event which I think would benefit more if it was treated in a separate post where I will be able to break the information up into more manageable sections.

I think that this topic might prove problematic to teach to a younger age group as  some of the concepts are quite complex, for example:

o   Henry’s realm was not limited to just England but was spread across the Channel

o   The United Kingdom did not exist as it does today, and even England was not unified

o   Henry had to tackle a realm which was comprised of different traditions, language and customs – Henry himself did not speak much beyond basic English.

One way to make this information more accessible might be to divide the information as I have here into thematic sections.  I could perhaps provide visual aids with names of the key people to make it more understandable – for example, a map of the territories overseen by Henry.