Eric Delderfield: "Henry II was [really more of] a European ruler rather than an English king. His empire stretched from the Solway almost to the Mediterranean, and from the Somme to the Pyrenees. The size of Henry's inheritance was the result of two key marriages: his father's to Matilda,... and his own to the vivacious Eleanor of Aquitaine. By the time he was crowned king at the age of twenty-one, Henry's wealth exceeded that of any other prince in Europe, even his nominal overlord, the king of France. To his inheritance he added Ireland, a mission entrusted to him by Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Brakespear, the only Englishman ever to be Pope [1154-9]). Through diplomacy he forced Malcolm IV, the young king of Scotland, to return the counties of Westmoreland, Cumberland and Northumberland, which Stephen [the prior English king] had lost. The general aim of his policy in England was to undo all the harm caused by Stephen's reign. He triumphed brilliantly over the nobility, but he was, in turn, worsted by the church. His first concern was to restore order. Castles built by rebellious nobles were demolished, royal castles were resumed, along with Crown lands. Henry was then able to plan for the future. He raised new taxes (scutage, or shield money) from the landholders in lieu of their feudal military obligations. The old feudal limit of forty days' military service was of little use to a monarch who might need to take troops to Gascony. By a command of 1181 the basis of an English militia force was laid. Henry now had two armies: the mercenary army, paid for by new taxes, and the militia; whilst his powerful subjects and their followers got less practice in the arts of war. As a result, their attentions turned to the lands they held and the techniques of agriculture, which were developed most skillfully by Cistercian monks on their estates. The stone castle gave way to the stone manor house, and the tournament became the only means for some to display their martial skills (Henry's son Geoffrey was killed at a tournament in Paris). Royal justice was revived. Judges from the King's courts were again sent into the shires, where they now combined with twelve local men to administer the law; in this way Henry laid the foundations of Common Law (a law applicable to the whole country, free of local customs), emanating from the Curia Regis, and of the modern English jury system. Gradually trial by judges, with the assistance of jurymen, replaced the barbarous trials by ordeal and trials by battle, in both criminal and civil cases. (For a trial by ordeal, the accused was made to plunge his head into boiling water or carry a piece of red-hot metal. His guilt or innocence was decided by the speed with which the wounds healed.) The jury was not yet a group of 'outside' people brought in to hear and decide on a case, but witnesses to the fact. These reforms were not inspired by Henry's high-mindedness but because the courts were his chosen instrument for enforcing and extorting payment of revenues. By the end of Henry's reign, the English had for the first time become accustomed to paying their taxes, to cooperating in government and to expecting fair play in the law courts. His system was so fundamentally efficient that it continued to work even under the weak rulers that followed him. But, unjustly, it is probably for his quarrel with Thomas Becket that Henry is chiefly remembered. The Church of England was claiming more independence from lay control than Henry was prepared to allow. He wished to retain the right to nominate his own appointees to vacant bishoprics and to try in his own courts clerks (a 'clerk' in the Middle Ages was anyone in orders, from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the humblest verger - about one in fifty in the population) who had committed a crime, for the Church courts (introduced by William I) had no power of life and death - a cleric could only be downgraded. Any wrongdoer who could read a Latin text from the Bible passed the test of clerical status (the so-called 'neck verse'), and could claim 'benefit of clergy', or immunity from the State prosecution by instigating a system whereby a clerk accused of a felony would appear first in a lay court, then be tried by a Church court and, if found guilty, be brought back to the lay court for sentence. Becket, Henry's chancellor and one-time convivial friend, turned ascetic and quarreled bitterly with Henry over these questions, even rejecting the Constitutions of Clarendon. He was exiled from 1164 to 1170. In his stand against the king, Becket was not even supported by all the bishops, and lay opinion inclined to the king. Only Becket's murder gave him posthumous victory, thereby allowing anyone who could make a stab at reading to commit serious crimes without fear of heavy penalties. This only served to attract some dubious characters to holy orders in order to obtain protection from State law. But Henry stood firm over advowsons, and prevented them becoming the prerogative of the Roman Court, though this remained for centuries a cause for struggle between the Pope and the patrons of English livings. When Becket returned from exile he proceeded to anger Henry still further. The murder of Becket at Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170, by men believing they were acting on Henry's orders, gave the Church a martyr and ultimately a saint, whilst Henry lost all. Not until the Reformation did royal power prevail over the Church. Chaucer's epic work reflected the popularity of the cult of St. Thomas, giving to the language the word 'canter' as the pace at which pilgrims should ride. The closing years of the reign were troublesome. Henry's subjects on both sides of the channel rebelled, and it was only with the aid of mercenaries and the militia that the realm was quieted at home and abroad. Much of the trouble was caused by the frustrations of Henry's sons, incited to rebellion by their mother, [along with] the kings of France and Scotland. It was while Henry was fighting Philip of France in 1188 that his son Richard [#2963] joined the French king. Military reverses compelled Henry to grant a peace treaty which granted a pardon to Richard's followers. Shortly before he died, Henry was devastated to fing on the list the name of his favorite son John."

Facts about this person:

Record Change October 30, 1999

Adult Christening 1154

Burial 1189 Fontrevault, France