Royal Profile - Henry II of England

Henry II, the first monarch of the House of Plantagenet

     On this day in 1133, Henry II of England was born at Chinon Castle in Anjou, France. Henry was the son of Matilda, a daughter of Henry I of England, and Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. 

     When the only legitimate son and heir of Henry I died in a shipping accident, the issue of succession to the English throne was throne into question. Eventually, Henry decided that his daughter Matilda should inherit the Crown upon his death. Yet the English nobles wanted a male successor, preferably Henry's nephew Stephen, and when Henry I died in 1135, Matilda was away in France, and Stephen - with the support of much of the nobility - seized the throne and became king. Matilda eventually landed in England and asserted her claim, which then led to a period known as The Anarchy, a 19-year civil war in which the country was divided between the warring cousins. In the end, Stephen retained his position as king, but acknowledged Matilda's son Henry as his successor. 

     Upon Stephen's death, Henry Plantagenet - already an established ruler of provincial lands in France such as Normandy - crossed the English Channel with his family to claim the throne of his grandfather and namesake, Henry I, and also like him, would go on to reign for 35 years. 

     The early part of his reign involved reuniting the country and restoring law & order following the chaos of the civil war. He issued standardized royal orders - known as writs - that were impressed by the great seal of the realm, and which dealt with the most common legal problems of Henry's subjects, and they were mass-produced so that the justice provided by the King could be everywhere at any given time. This legal and administrative innovation is considered to be the basis for English Common Law, the system under which many countries operate - including the United States and other former British colonies. 

     In later years, he clashed with the Church - and in particular, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury - over general question's of where ultimate authority lay in England, whether it be with the king or with the Church under the pope and his officials. These tensions eventually resulted in Becket's assassination by armed knights under King Henry, who is reputed to have said: "Who will rid me of the turbulent priest?"

     He also had to deal with rebellions by his sons, whose own appetite for land and power Henry could never satisfy, and from time to time, they would ally themselves with the King of France against their father. 

     Henry eventually lost his grip on power as his health began to fail him and died in despair in 1189. Two of his sons would go on to become King of England and head of his larger empire that included parts of France, Wales, and Ireland: Richard I (Coeur de Lion, or the Lionheart) and John, who lost much of the family empire and was forced to sign Magna Carta.