, Research Paper

Henry II was born in 1133, the boy of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Matilda, girl of Henry I. He grew up in Anjou, but visited England every bit early as 1142 to support his female parent & # 8217 ; s claim to the disputed throne of Stephen ; educated by celebrated bookmans, he had a true love of reading and rational treatment. Geoffrey of Anjou died in September 1151, go forthing Normandy and Anjou to Henry. Henry & # 8217 ; s Continental ownerships more than doubled when he married Eleanor of Aquitane, ex-wife of King Louis VII of France. After a sequence understanding between Stephen and Matilda in 1153, he was crowned Henry II in October 1154. Eleanor bore Henry five boies and three girls between 1153 and 1167 ; the relationship between Henry, Eleanor and their boies Henry, Richard and John proved to be disruptive and unreliable. The imperium ruled by Henry and his boies was well larger than the lone English island & # 8211 ; the Gallic Angevin places extended from Normandy due south to the Pyrennes, covering the counties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine and Gascony, every bit good as Anjou, Aquitane and Normandy. Henry was highly energetic and traveled rapidly and extensively within the boundary lines of his land.

Henry revitalized the English Exchequer, publishing grosss for revenue enhancement payments and maintaining written histories on involute parchment. He replaced unqualified sheriffs, spread outing the authorization of royal tribunals, which brought more financess into his caissons. A organic structure of common jurisprudence emerged to replace feudal and county tribunals, which varied from topographic point to topographic point. Jury tests were initiated to stop the old Germanic customary tests by ordeal or conflict. Henry & # 8217 ; s systematic attack to jurisprudence provided a common footing for development of royal establishments throughout the full kingdom.

The procedure of beef uping the royal tribunals, nevertheless, yielded an unexpected contention. Church tribunals, instituted by William the Conqueror, became a safe oasis for felons of changing grade and ability, for one in 50 of the English population qualified as churchmans. Henry wished to reassign such instances to the royal tribunals, as the lone penalty unfastened to the Church tribunals was demotion of the churchman. Thomas Beckett, Henry & # 8217 ; s shut friend and Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1155, was named Archbishop of Canterbury in June 1162. In an effort to discredit claims that he was excessively closely tied to the male monarch, he vehemently opposed the weakening of Church tribunals. Henry drove Beckett into expatriate from 1164-1170. When the Archbishop returne

vitamin D to England, he greatly angered Henry over his resistance to the enthronement of Prince Henry. Exasperated, Henry publically announced a halfhearted desire to be rid off Beckett – four ambitious knights took the male monarch at his word and murdered Beckett in his ain cathedral on December 29, 1170. Henry is possibly best remembered for Beckett’s slaying, but in fact, the kingdom was better off without the combative Archbishop. Henry endured a instead limited storm of protest over the incident, but the existent menace to his power came from within his household.

Henry & # 8217 ; s boies & # 8211 ; Henry the Young King, Richard, Geoffrey and John & # 8211 ; were ne’er satisfied with any of their male parent & # 8217 ; s programs for spliting his lands and rubrics upon his decease. The boies, at the encouragement ( and sometimes the intervention ) of their female parent, rebelled against the male monarch several times. Prince Henry, the lone adult male of all time to be crowned while his male parent still lived, wanted more than a royal rubric. Therefore from 1193 to the terminal of his reign Henry was plagued by his rebellious boies, who ever found a willing spouse in Louis VII of France. The decease of Henry the Young King in 1183 and Geoffrey in 1186, gave no reprieve from his kids & # 8217 ; s rebellion & # 8211 ; Richard, with the aid of Louis VII, attacked and defeated Henry, coercing him to accept a mortifying peace on July 4, 1189.

Henry II died two yearss subsequently, on July 6, 1189. A few quotation marks from historic manuscripts shed a alone visible radiation on Henry, Eleanor and their boies.

From Sir Winston Churchill Kt, 1675: & # 8220 ; Henry II Plantagenet, the really first of that name and race, and the really greatest King that England of all time knew, but withal the most unfortunate & # 8230 ; his decease being imputed to those lone to whom himself had given life, his ungracious boies & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ;

From Sir Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of England: Refering gifts of head, he was of a spirit in the highest grade generous & # 8230 ; His usage was to be ever in action ; for which cause, if he had no existent wars, he would hold feigned & # 8230 ; To his kids he was both indulgent and difficult ; for out of indulgence he caused his boy H to be crowned King in his ain clip ; and out of hardness he caused his younger boies to arise against him & # 8230 ; He married Eleanor, girl of William Duke of Guienne, late married woman of Lewis the Seventh of France. Some say King Lewis carried her into the Holy Land, where she carried herself non really holy, but led a licentious life ; and, which is the worst sort of wantonness, in animal acquaintance with a Turk. & # 8221 ;