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HENRY II

Henry II (Henry Curtmantle) was king of England from 1154 to 1189. He was born in 1133 and died in 1189. Henry was the son of Geoffrey, count of Anjou, and Matilda, daughter of Henry I. He was invested with the Duchy of Normandy, by the consent of his mother, in 1150; in 1151 he succeeded to Anjou and Maine, and by a marriage with Eleanor of Guienne gained Guienne and Poitou. In 1152 he invaded England, but a compromise was effected, by which Stephen was to retain the crown, and Henry to succeed at his death, which took place in 1154.

Henry II was the first of the Plantagenet line, and ruled over an empire which stretched from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees. One of the strongest, most energetic and imaginative rulers, Henry was the inheritor of three dynasties who had acquired Aquitaine by marriage; his charters listed them: 'King of the English, Duke of the Normans and Aquitanians and Count of the Angevins'. The King spent only 13 years of his reign in England; the other 21 years were spent on the continent in his territories in what is now France. Henry's rapid movements in carrying out his dynastic responsibilities astonished the French King, who noted 'now in England, now in Normandy, he must fly rather than travel by horse or ship'.

By 1158, Henry had restored to the Crown some of the lands and royal power lost by Stephen; Malcom IV of Scotland was compelled to return the northern counties. Locally chosen sheriffs were changed into royally appointed agents charged with enforcing the law and collecting taxes in the counties. Personally interested in government and law, Henry made use of juries and re-introduced the sending of justices (judges) on regular tours of the country to try cases for the Crown. His legal reforms have led him to be seen as the founder of English Common Law. Henry's disagreements with the Archbishop of Canterbury (the king's former chief adviser), Thomas O Becket, over Church-State relations ended in Becket's murder in 1170 and a papal interdict on England. Family disputes over territorial ambitions almost wrecked the king's achievements. Henry died in France in 1189, at war with his son Richard who had joined forces with king Philip of France to attack Normandy.

Henry II ranks among the greatest English kings both in soldiership and statecraft. He partitioned England into four judiciary districts, and appointed itinerant justices to make regular excursions through them; revived trial by jury, discouraged that by combat, and demolished all the newly erected castles as 'dens of thieves.'
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