Henry the Second
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Both as man and ruler he lacked the stamp of greatness that marked Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror. But if his reign is to be judged by its consequences for England, it undoubtedly stands high in importance, and Henry, as its mainspring, appears among the most notable of English kings. We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind.
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He never relinquished his claim to lordship over the Angevin lands, and he allowed…. As a result the work of the English mints reached its lowest level. His short-cross penny, so called from its reverse design, first issued in ,…. In a remarkable account of the conquest, Giraldus Cambrensis Gerald of Wales provided a lurid description of the archaic Irish civilization that the invaders encountered.
The recognition of Henry II ….
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Henry II of England - New World Encyclopedia
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Thank You for Your Contribution! There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later. Keep Exploring Britannica John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States —63 , who faced a number of foreign crises,…. As the funeral procession moved through the Duchy of Bavaria in February , Henry met the procession in Polling , just north of the Alps. Heribert, however, had sent these ahead of the procession, possibly out of distrust of Henry and possibly because he favored the succession of his relative Duke Herman II of Swabia as the next king.
With neither the symbols of imperial authority, the crown jewels, nor the cooperation of Heriberto, Henry was unable to convince the nobles attending Otto III's funeral procession to elect him as king. A few weeks later, at Otto III's funeral in Aachen Cathedral , Henry again attempted to gain the support of the Kingdom's nobles and was again rejected.
So it was without the support of the Kingdom's nobility that Henry took the radical action of having himself anointed and crowned King of Germany "Rex Romanorum" by Willigis , Archbishop of Mainz on 9 July at Mainz , in present-day Germany. Henry's action marked the first time a German king was not crowned in Aachen Cathedral since Emperor Otto I began the tradition in and the first time a German king assumed the throne without election by the German nobility.
In return for his support, Henry guaranteed Bernard's right to rule the Saxons and to represent their interests before him. Shortly after gaining the support of the Saxons, Henry arranged for Archbishop Willigis to crown his wife, Cunigunde of Luxembourg as Queen of Germany on 10 August [7] [8] in Paderborn , in present-day Germany. Henry II spent the next several years consolidating his political power within his borders.
This forced the two men to fight each other politically for the support of the Swabian nobles. Unable to decisively defeat Herman in Swabia, Henry II attempted to legitimize his seizing the throne by traveling throughout the various duchies of his kingdom — Saxony , Bavaria , Swabia , Upper Lorraine , Lower Lorraine , Franconia. This was done in order to obtain the general consent of his subjects as opposed to traditional election.
Henry II's familial ties to the Ottonian dynasty eventually caused the kingdom's nobles to accept him as king. Henry II had promised to install the Margrave as his successor to the Duchy of Bavaria in exchange for supporting his claim to the German crown. Upon assuming the throne, however, Henry II refused to honour his promise and instead supported the rights of the Bavarians to elect their own duke.
However, his rebellion was soon quashed and the Nordgauian Margrave was deposed in Henry II then abolished the March of Nordgau, established the Diocese of Bamberg in , and transferred secular authority over the March's former territory to the Diocese in order to prevent further uprisings. The death of Otto III in and the resulting political turmoil over his successor allowed Italy to fall from German control.
Arduin, however, had been excommunicated in for the murder of the Bishop of Vercelli. The following night, the inhabitants of Pavia revolted against Henry's rule. Henry ordered his troops to massacre the population in response. After receiving the homage of the remaining Italian nobles, Henry returned to Germany in the early summer of without first traveling to Rome to claim the Imperial crown. Henry would not return to Italy for a decade, leaving the Kingdom to govern itself.
The untimely death of Emperor Otto III at age 21 in upset the young Emperor's ambitious renovatio plans, which were never fully implemented. The Polish Duke accused Henry II of instituting the attack, and relations between the two countries were severed. Boleslaus III soon undermined his own position, however, by ordering a massacre of his leading nobles. The Polish duke willingly agreed and invited the Bohemian duke to Poland. There, Boleslaus III was captured, blinded, and imprisoned, where he would remain until his death some thirty years later.
Bohemia had previously been under the influence and protection of Germany, with the Polish invasion further increasing tension between Germany and Poland.
Returning from Italy after reclaiming the Italian throne, Henry II launch a military campaign against Poland in that would last until , spanning three wars and several smaller campaigns. As a consequence of their military alliance, Henry II halted Christianization efforts among the Slavic peoples. The new alliance with the Western Slavs against Poland was controversial, however. Many German nobles had hoped for continued missionary work and the direct submission of the Elbe Slavs.
In addition, many German nobles opposed the war because they had developed family ties with Poland during Otto III's reign. Similarly, members of the clergy, including Bishop Bruno of Querfurt , saw future tithe payments and Polish support for missionary work in Prussia evaporating due to the war. With his conquest west of the Oder River in , his domain stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian Mountains. Furthermore, the Polish Duke was connected by kinship to numerous princes of Scandinavia.
The state he regained was a small one, however, as Polish forces would hold Moravia , Silesia , and Lusatia until During the next part of the offensive, Henry II retook Meissen and, in summer , his army advanced deep into Poland, suffering significant losses along the way. The peace lasted only two years as neither party recognized the claims of the other. The German counter-offensive began three years later in It was of no significant consequence, beyond some pillaging in Silesia. In , a second peace treaty between Germany and Poland was signed.
He was succeeded by Pope Sergius IV from to As leader of the Crescentii clan and Patrician of Rome , John Crescentius was the effective ruler of the city.
John Crescentius' influence prevented Henry II from meeting the Pope on numerous occasions, preventing him from claiming the imperial title. Upon assuming the chair of St. The peace with Poland gave Henry opportunity to address affairs in Italy. On the march across the Alps, Henry was accompanied by his wife, Queen Cunigunde and a number of clerics. Upon reaching Pavia other bishops and abbots joined him. Margrave Arduin of Ivrea , who still ruled important parts of northern Italy, offered to submit to Henry as his overlord and offered his sons as hostages if Henry would recognize Arduin as King of Italy.
Henry's forces trapped Arduin in his capital of Ivrea , where he remained until Shortly afterwards, the Emperor moved north again where he established the Diocese of Bobbio. He left the rule of Rome to the Pope and thereafter rarely intervened in the politics of Italy or the Papal States. In the conflict with Arduin came to a close when Arduin became ill and sought peace with Henry II.
He resigned the office of Margrave of Ivrea to become a monk in a monastery at Fruttuaria. He died on December 14, His brief "reign" as King of Italy would be the last time a native Italian would reign over Italy until its unification under Victor Emmanuel II in After Arduin's death Henry ordered the Margraviate of Ivrea, which had given the Ottonian Emperors so much trouble, dissolved.
The plan failed, however, because, under pressure from his relatives, the Emperor soon agreed to release Mieszko II.
Battle of Britain
A son of Kievan Grand Duke Vladimir the Great , he was vice-regent of the Principality of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in Yaroslav's eldest surviving brother, Sviatopolk I of Kiev , killed three of his other brothers and seized power in Kiev. With three armies at his command, the largest contingent since the beginning of the conflict in , the Imperial army simultaneously marched in a pincer movement from the German north, south, and center. Henry II himself commanded the center army, supported by allied Slavic tribes, and moved from Magdeburg to cross the Oder river into Poland.
As the Imperial army crossed the Oder river and marched across Poland, Henry II's forces killed or captured several thousand Poles, including women and children. But the Imperial army suffered heavy losses throughout the campaign. The Imperial army retreated from Poland to Merseburg in order to address the assault without making any permanent territorial gains east of the Oder River.
His attempt at conquering the city failed, however, and he was forced to retreat back to Poland. As negotiations failed by autumn , Henry II again marched his army into Poland. Henry II then besieged Niemcza , but was likewise unable to capture the city. As his army besieged Niemcza, disease brought about from the winter cold devastated the Imperial forces. Henry II's involvement in Italian politics and his coronation as Emperor inevitably brought him into conflict with the Byzantine Empire.
Otto I's death in and John I's death in caused this alliance to deteriorate. The Byzantines still claimed sovereignty over the Lombard principalities, and the lack of single leader to prevent their advances into Lombard territory allowed the Byzantines to make inroads further north. While in Byzantine territory, Otto II encountered a large Muslim army brought into the region by Abu al-Qasim , Emir of Sicily , and was soundly defeated in the ensuing battle of Stilo on July 14, The defeat shifted the balance of power in southern Italy into Byzantine favor.
With an infant as ruler and a political crisis to address, the Western Empire was unable to challenge Byzantine dominance. Furthermore, the whole Becket matter was an increasing international embarrassment to Henry. He began to take a more conciliatory tone with Becket but, when this failed, had Young Henry crowned anyway by the Archbishop of York. The pope authorized Becket to lay an interdict on England, forcing Henry back to negotiations; they finally came to terms in July , and Becket returned to England in early December.
Just when the dispute seemed resolved, however, Becket excommunicated another three supporters of Henry: In response, four knights made their way secretly to Canterbury , apparently with the intent of confronting and if necessary arresting Becket for breaking his agreement with Henry. Although Becket had not been popular while he was alive, in death he was declared a martyr by the local monks. In the midth century Ireland was ruled by a number of local kings , although their authority was more limited than their counterparts in the rest of western Europe.
Diarmait turned to Henry for assistance in , and the English king agreed to allow Diarmait to recruit mercenaries within his empire. The situation in Ireland was tense and the Anglo-Normans heavily outnumbered. Henry took this opportunity to intervene personally in Ireland. He took a large army into south Wales, forcing the rebels who had held the area since into submission before sailing from Pembroke and landing in Ireland in October Henry undertook a wave of castle-building during his visit in to protect his new territories—the Anglo-Normans had superior military technologies to the Irish, and castles gave them a significant advantage.
Henry instead intervened more directly, establishing a system of local fiefs of his own through a conference held in Oxford in In Henry faced the Great Revolt , an uprising by his eldest sons and rebellious barons, supported by France, Scotland and Flanders. A number of grievances underpinned the revolt. Young Henry was unhappy that, despite the title of king, in practice he made no real decisions and was kept chronically short of money by Henry.
The final straw was Henry's decision to give his youngest son John three major castles belonging to Young Henry, who first protested and then fled to Paris, followed by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey; Eleanor attempted to join them but was captured by Henry's forces in November. In May Louis and the Young King probed the defences of the Vexin, the main route to the Norman capital, Rouen; armies invaded from Flanders and Blois, attempting a pincer movement, while rebels from Brittany invaded from the west.
In early , Henry's enemies appeared to have tried to lure him back into England, allowing them to attack Normandy in his absence. In the aftermath of the Great Revolt, Henry held negotiations at Montlouis, offering a lenient peace on the basis of the pre-war status quo. Henry now appeared to his contemporaries to be stronger than ever, and he was courted as an ally by many European leaders and asked to arbitrate over international disputes in Spain and Germany. Henry set about extending royal justice in England to reassert his authority and spent time in Normandy shoring up support amongst the barons.
The peace did not deal with the long-running tensions between Henry and Louis, however, and these resurfaced during the late s. In the late s Henry focused on trying to create a stable system of government, increasingly ruling through his family, but tensions over the succession arrangements were never far away, ultimately leading to a fresh revolt. By Young Henry reiterated his previous demands: With his eldest son dead, Henry rearranged the plans for the succession: Richard was to be made king of England, although without any actual power until the death of his father.
Geoffrey would have to retain Brittany, as he held it by marriage, so Henry's favourite son John would become the duke of Aquitaine in place of Richard. Meanwhile, John undertook an expedition to Ireland in , which was not a success. Ireland had only recently been conquered by Anglo-Norman forces, and tensions were still rife between Henry's representatives, the new settlers and the existing inhabitants. Henry's relationship with his two surviving heirs was fraught, for, while the King had great affection for his youngest son John, he showed little warmth towards Richard and indeed seems to have borne him a grudge after their argument in Despite attempts to divide the two, Henry and Philip Augustus agreed a joint alliance, even though this cost the French king the support of Flanders and Champagne.
In , Philip Augustus demanded that he be given custody of Geoffrey's children and Brittany, and insisted that Henry order Richard to withdraw from Toulouse, where he had been sent with an army to apply new pressure on Philip's uncle, Raymond. Philip's offer coincided with a crisis in the Levant. In Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin and calls for a new crusade swept Europe. The relationship between Henry and Richard finally dissolved into violence shortly before Henry's death. Philip held a peace conference in November , making a public offer of a generous long-term peace settlement with Henry, conceding to his various territorial demands, if Henry would finally marry Richard and Alice and announce Richard as his recognised heir.
Henry was carried back to Chinon on a litter , where he was informed that John had publicly sided with Richard in the conflict. In the immediate aftermath of Henry's death, Richard successfully claimed his father's lands; he later left on the Third Crusade , but never married Alice as he had agreed with Philip Augustus. Eleanor was released from house arrest and regained control of Aquitaine, where she ruled on Richard's behalf. This collapse had various causes, including long-term changes in economic power, growing cultural differences between England and Normandy but, in particular, the fragile, familial nature of Henry's empire.
Henry was not a popular king and few expressed much grief on news of his death. His legal changes are generally considered to have laid the basis for English Common Law , with the Exchequer court a forerunner of the later Common Bench at Westminster. Philip Augustus' creation of itinerant bailli , for example, clearly drew on the Henrician model.
Henry and his reign have attracted historians for many years. Twentieth-century historians challenged many of these conclusions. In the s Jacques Boussard and John Jolliffe, among others, examined the nature of Henry's "empire"; French scholars in particular analysed the mechanics of how royal power functioned during this period. Robert Eyton's ground-breaking work tracing Henry's itinerary through deductions from the pipe rolls , for example, has been criticised as being too certain a way of determining location or court attendance.
Henry II appears as a character in several modern plays and films. He is a central character in James Goldman 's play The Lion in Winter , set in and presenting an imaginary encounter between Henry's immediate family and Philip Augustus over Christmas at Chinon.
The film adaptation communicates the modern popular view of Henry as a somewhat sacrilegious, fiery and determined king although, as Goldman acknowledges, Henry's passions and character are essentially fictional. Henry also appears in the play Becket by Jean Anouilh , filmed in ; once again, however, the character of the King is deliberately fictitious, driven by the need for drama between Henry and Becket in the play. Eliot 's play Murder in the Cathedral , where the tensions between Henry and Becket form the basis both for a discussion of the more superficial events of Becket's death, and Eliot's deeper religious interpretation of the episode.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For others, see House of Plantagenet. Fontevraud Abbey , Anjou , France. Eleanor of Aquitaine m. Norman invasion of Ireland.
- The Wise Child?
- Peter Black and the Mystery of the Hidden Castle.
- Foundations of Low Vision: Clinical and Functional Perspectives, 2nd Edition;
Cultural depictions of Henry II of England. Ancestors of Henry II of England [] [] 8. Fulk IV of Anjou 4. Fulk V of Anjou 9. Bertrade de Montfort 2. Geoffrey V of Anjou Elias I of Maine 5. Ermengarde of Maine Henry II of England William I of England 6. Henry I of England Matilda of Flanders 3. Malcolm III of Scotland 7. Matilda of Scotland Davis believes that it did and was deterred by the presence of Stephen's forces. The terms "divorce" and "annul" are used interchangeably in much of the historical literature to describe Louis's actions towards Eleanor.
The term "the Anarchy" as a label for this conflict originates with the Victorian scholar John Round , and has been subject to historical challenge. Little hard evidence beyond a single chronicler account exists to support this, however, and current scholarship discounts the alleged episode. Earlier historians, such as Jacques Boussard, argued in favour of an "administrative coherence" featuring across the empire; this view is opposed by most current historians.
Contemporary historians discounted Henry's liaisons as a probable factor in his marital breakdown.
Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor
Warren's argument that Henry played a more significant role in the details of the reforms. The official website of the British Monarchy. Archived from the original PDF on The Journal of British Studies. Royal Government Restored, — The English Historical Review. The Feudal Kingdom of England, — 5th ed.
In Bates, David; Curry, Anne.
England and Normandy in the Middle Ages. Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: Legal Reforms of Henry II". The Anarchy of King Stephen's Reign.
