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Henry II 'Curtmantle' PLANTAGENET, King of England

Male 1133 - 1189  (56 years)


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Generation: 1

  1. 1.  Henry II 'Curtmantle' PLANTAGENET, King of England was born on 25 Mar 1133 in Le Mans, Sarthe, Pays de la Loire, France; died on 6 Jul 1189 in Chinon Castle, Chinon, Indre-Et-Loire, France; was buried on 8 Jul 1189 in Fontevruad Abbey, Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, Maine-et-Loire, Anjou, France.

    Notes:

    Henry II. Plantaganet, first Plantaganet King of England (1154-1189), known as Curt Mantel, was born at Le Mans, France, on March 15, 1133. At eighteen in 1151 he was invested with the Duchy of Normandy, his mother's heritage, and within a year became also, by his father's death, Count of Anjou; while in 1152 he married Eleanor of Aquitaine, the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine (see his ancestral lineage elsewhere in Vol. I.), and divorced wife of King Louis VII. of France, added Poitou and Guienne to his dominions. In January 1153 he landed in England, and in November a treaty was agreed to whereby Henry was declared successor to King Stephen; he was crowned in 1154 and ruled until his death in 1189. He confirmed the laws of his grandfather, King Henry I, reestablished the exchequer, banished the foreign mercenaries, demolished the hundreds of castles erected in Stephen's reign, and recovered the royal estates. The whole of 1156 he spent in France, reducing his brother, Geoffrey of Nantes, who died in 1158, and having secured his territories, he spent the next five years warring and organizing his possessions on the Continent. Henry's objective was that of all Norman kings, to build up the royal power at the expense of the barons and the church. From the barons his reforms met with little serious opposition; with the clergy he was less successful. To aid him in reducing the church to subjection, he appointed his chancellor, Thomas a Becket to the see of Canterbury. Henry compelled him and the other prelates to agree to the 'Constitution of Clarendon', but Bechet proved a sturdy churchman, and the struggle between him and the monarch terminated only by his murder. In 1174 Henry did penance at Bechet's tomb, but he ended by bringing the church to subordination in civil matters. Meanwhile he organized an expedition to Ireland. The English Pope, Adrian IV, had in 1155 given Henry authority over the entire island of Ireland; and a number of Norman-Welsh knights had gained a footing in the country, among them Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, styled Strongbow, who in 1155 married the heiress of Leinster and assumed rule as the Earl of Leinster. Henry was jealous at the rise of a powerful feudal baronage in Ireland, and during his stay there (1171-1172) he broke the power of Richard Strongbow and the other nobles.

    Henry was raised in the French province of Anjou and first visited England in 1142 to defend his mother's claim to the disputed throne of Stephen. His continued possessions were already vast before his coronation. He acquired Normandy and Anjou upon the death of his father in September 1151, and his French holdings more than doubled with his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitane (ex-wife of Louis VII of France). In accordance with the Treaty of Wallingford, a sucession agreement signed by Stephen and Matilda in 1151, Henry was crowned in October 1154. The continental empire ruled by Henry and his sons included the French counties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine, Gascony, Anjou, Aquitane and Normandy. Henry was technically a feudal vassal of the King of France, but, in reality owned more territory and was more powerful than his French lord. Although King John (Henry's son) lost most of the English holdings in France, English kings laid claim to the French throne until the fifteenth century. Henry also extended his territory in the British Isles in two significant ways. First, he retrieved Cumbria and Northumbria from Malcolm IV of Scotland and settled the Anglo-Scot border in the North. Secondly, although his success with Welsh campaigns was limited. Henry invaded Ireland and secured an English presence on the island. English and Norman barons in Stephen's reign manipulated feudal law to undermine royal authority. Henry instituted many reforms to weaken traditional feudal ties and strengthen his position. Unathorized castles built during the previous reign were razed. Monetary payments replaced military service as the primary duty of vassals. The exchequer was revitalized to enforce accurate record keeping and tax collection. Incompetent sheriffs were replaced and the authority of royal courts was expanded. Henry empowered a new social class of government clerks that stabilized procedure--the government could operate effectively in the king's absence and would subsequently prove sufficiently tenacious to survive the reign of incompetent kings. Henry's reforms allowed the emergence of a body of common law to replace the disparate customs of feudal and county courts. Jury trials were initiated to end the old Germanic trials by ordeal or battle. Henry's systemanic approach to law provided a common basis for development of royal institutions throughout the entire realm. Henry's plans of dividing his myriad lands and titles evoked treachery from his sons. At the encouragement, and sometimes because of the treatment of their mother, they rebelled against their father several times, often with Louis VII of France as their accomplice. The deaths of Henry, the Young King, in 1183 and Georffrey in 1186, gave no respite from his children's rebvellious nature. Richard, with the assistance of Phillip II Augustus of France, attacked and defeated Henry on July 4, 1189 and forced him to accept a humiliating peace. Henry II died two days later, on July 6, 1189.

    Henry II's contemporaries were Louis VII (King of France, 1137-1180), Thomas Beckett (Archbishop of Canterbury), Pope Adrian IV, Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor) 1152-1190. Henry II, first of the Angevin kings, was one of the most effective of all England's monarchs. He came to the throne amid the anarch of Stephen's reign and promptly collard his errant barons. He refind Norman government and created a capable, self-standing bureaucracy. His energy was equaled by his ambition and intelligence. He survived wars, rebellion, and controversy to successfully rule one of the Middle Ages' most powerful kingdoms.

    Henry married Eleanor OF AQUITAINE on 18 May 1152 in Bordeaux Cathredal, Bordeaux, Gironde, France. Eleanor (daughter of Duke William X Toulousan OF AQUITAINE and Aenor Chatellerault DE ROUCHEFOUCAULD) was born on 6 Dec 1122 in Chateau de Belin, Guinne, France; died on 1 Apr 1204 in Mirabell Castle, Poitiers, France; was buried in Fontevruad Abbey, Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, Maine-et-Loire, Anjou, France. [Group Sheet]

    Children:
    1. 2. William PLANTAGENET, of England  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 17 Aug 1152 in Le Mans, Sarthe, Pays de la Loire, France; died in Apr 1156 in Wallingford Castle, Wallingford, Berkshire, England.
    2. 3. Henry 'the Young King' PLANTAGANET  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 28 Feb 1155; died on 11 Jun 1183.
    3. 4. Matilda PLANTAGENET, of England  Descendancy chart to this point was born in Jun 1156 in London, Greater London, England; died on 28 Jun 1189 in Brunswick, Germany.
    4. 5. Richard I 'the Lionheart' PLANTAGENET, King of England  Descendancy chart to this point was born in 1157; and died.
    5. 6. Geoffrey II PLANAGENET, of England  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 23 Sep 1158 in England; died on 19 Aug 1186 in Paris, France.
    6. 7. Eleanor PLANTAGENET, of Castile  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 13 Oct 1162 in Domfront, Orne, France; died on 31 Oct 1214 in Las Hueglas, Burgos, Castile, Spain.
    7. 8. Joan PLANTAGENET, of England  Descendancy chart to this point was born in Oct 1165 in Angers, Maine-Et-Loire, France; died on 4 Sep 1199 in Fontevruad Abbey, Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, Maine-et-Loire, Anjou, France.
    8. 9. John I "Lackland" KING OF ENGLAND  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 24 Dec 1167 in Beaumont Palace, Oxford, England; died on 19 Oct 1216 in Newark Castle, Newark, Nottinghamshire, England; was buried in Worcester Cathedral, Worcester, Worcestershire, England.


Generation: 2

  1. 2.  William PLANTAGENET, of England Descendancy chart to this point (1.Henry1) was born on 17 Aug 1152 in Le Mans, Sarthe, Pays de la Loire, France; died in Apr 1156 in Wallingford Castle, Wallingford, Berkshire, England.

  2. 3.  Henry 'the Young King' PLANTAGANET Descendancy chart to this point (1.Henry1) was born on 28 Feb 1155; died on 11 Jun 1183.

    Notes:

    Henry Plantaganet, Associate King of England, born February 28, 1155, known as Henry "the Young King," was crowned as his father's successor in 1170. Henry married Margaret, daughter of Louis VII., King of France. In 1173, incited by their jealous mother, Queen Eleanor, this prince and his brother Richard rebelled against their father, and their cause was espoused by the King of France and the King of Scotland. The latter, King William the Lion, was ravaging the north of England when he was taken prisoner at Alnwick in 1174, and to obtain his liberty he submitted to do homage to Henry II. In a few months King Henry II. had reestablished his authority in all his domains. During a second rebellion, Prince Henry died June 11, 1183. He married Margaret, daughter of Louis VII., King of France.


  3. 4.  Matilda PLANTAGENET, of England Descendancy chart to this point (1.Henry1) was born in Jun 1156 in London, Greater London, England; died on 28 Jun 1189 in Brunswick, Germany.

  4. 5.  Richard I 'the Lionheart' PLANTAGENET, King of England Descendancy chart to this point (1.Henry1) was born in 1157; and died.

    Notes:

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