Copy Book Archive

King Henry II The great-grandson of William the Conqueror, whose knights assassinated Thomas Becket and whose family harried him to an early grave.
1154-1189
Music: Sir Charles Hubert Parry

© Chinpat, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source

About this picture …

This fresco from the Chapel of St Radegund in Chinon, France, is generally held to show Henry II Eleanor of Aquitaine and one of their sons riding on a hunt.

King Henry II
Henry II was the grandson of Henry I and the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, and spent much of his life in the French estates he inherited from them. Henry managed to restore order to a country torn apart by almost thirty years of civil war, but is remembered today chiefly for a bitter dispute with Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.

AFTER the death of Henry I, his daughter Matilda was denied the crown by her cousin Stephen, and their stubborn rivalry left England and Wales in chaos. Stephen died childless in 1154, but Matilda’s son Henry II moved quickly to restore order, both at home and in northern France. Among his many reforms, he expanded the use and role of the jury, a defining feature of English justice ever since.

However, when Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, asked for greater independence from the Crown, Henry refused, and a furious argument erupted. Four of Henry’s knights, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Henry, murdered the Archbishop in his cathedral, but succeeded only in making a martyr of him.*

In 1173, Henry’s son Richard, supported by Queen Eleanor, led the first of a series of revolts against his father. At last the King, feeling weary and betrayed, fell victim to a fever and died at Chinon in France on 6th July, 1189.

See The Assassination of Thomas Becket.

Précis

Henry II brought order to England after the Anarchy created by Stephen and Matilda, and instituted the jury system which still lies at the heart of British justice. But he could not control the ambition of his sons and their mother, and was undermined by his loyal but foolish knights, who made a martyr of Archbishop Thomas Becket. (58 / 60 words)

Suggested Music

Symphony No 3 in C-major ‘English’ (1889)

4: Moderato

Sir Charles Hubert Parry (1848-1914)

Performed by the London Philharmonic, conducted by Matthias Bamert.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Related Posts

for King Henry II

The Hundred Years’ War

St John of Beverley at Agincourt

Following the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, King Henry V instructed the Church of York to recognise the contribution of one of her eighth-century bishops.

Character and Conduct

Up Before the Bench

As a young prince Henry V was ‘fierce and of wanton courage,’ Thomas Elyot tells us, but there was one man with courage to match his.

The Hundred Years’ War

Leading from the Front

Henry V’s chaplain Thomas Elmham, an eyewitness of the battle of Agincourt, gave us this account of the King in the moments before the fighting began.

The Hundred Years’ War

The Battle of Agincourt

One of the best-known of all battles in English history, but not because of the conflict of which it was a part.

Angevin & Plantagenet Era (25)
All Stories (1522)
Worksheets (14)
Word Games (5)