HENRY II. 



687 



loss, at sea, of his only son, William, who was 

 drowned, in 1120, in returning from Normandy, to- 

 gether with his natural sister, whose cries recalled 

 him to the sinking ship, after he had got clear from 

 it in the long-boat. Henry was never seen to smile 

 afterwards. He had betrothed his only daughter, 

 Matilda, to the emperor, Henry V., and when she 

 became a widow, married her a second tune to 

 Geoffry Plantagenet, son of the count of Anjou. 

 He himself also married a second wife, Adelaide, 

 daughter of the duke of Lorraine, by whom he 

 had no issue. He died in Normandy, of a sudden 

 illness, occasioned by eating lampreys, in the sixty- 

 seventh year of his age and thirty-sixth of his reign. 

 Henry was a prince of great accomplishments, both 

 of mind and person, and his ready elocution and pro- 

 ficiency in the literature of the period obtained him his 

 surname. He was much attached to women, and 

 possessed all the Norman passion for the chase, 

 which produced so many rigorous game-laws. 



HENRY II., king of England, the first of the line 

 of the Plantagenets, born in Normandy, in 1132, was 

 the son of Geoffry, count of Anjou, and the empress 

 M atilda, daughter of Henry I. He early displayed an 

 elevated character, and was invested with the duchy 

 of Normandy, by the consent of his mother, at the 

 age of sixteen. The year following, he succeeded 

 his father in the possession of Anjou and Maine, 

 and, by a marriage with Eleanor of Guienne, just 

 divorced from Louis VII., king of France, on a 

 suspicion of infidelity, annexed that province, with 

 Poictou, to his other dominions. Rendered thus 

 potent, he determined to pursue his claim to the 

 crown of England, against the usurpation of Stephen. 

 His expedition for that purpose ended in a compro- 

 mise, by which Stephen was to retain the crown 

 during his life, and Henry to succeed at his death, 

 which took place in 1154. The commencement of 

 his reign was marked by the dismissal of the foreign 

 mercenaries ; and, although involved with his brother 

 Geoffry, who attempted to seize Anjou and Maine, 

 and in a temporary dispute with France, he reigned 

 prosperously, till the memorable contest with Thomas 

 a Becket. Anxious to repress the usurpation of the 

 clergy, Henry in 1164, summoned a general council 

 of nobility and prelates, at Clarendon, which assem- 

 bly passed the famous constitutions named from that 

 place. The consequences of the reluctant subscrip- 

 tion of Becket to these articles, in the first instance, 

 and his subsequent conduct, have been already re- 

 lated in the life of Becket. A prince of less power 

 and policy than Henry, might have yielded to the 

 storm which followed ; but, although sufficiently 

 submissive in the way of penance and expiation, he 

 only gave up the article in the constitutions of Clar- 

 endon, which forbade appeals to the court of Rome 

 in ecclesiastical cases, and, even in that case, reserv- 

 ed the right of exacting sufficient security from all 

 clergy who should leave the country in prosecution 

 of such appeals. Before this matter was terminated, 

 Henry, in 1172, armed with a bull of pope Adrian, 

 whose authority to give away kingdoms, in this 

 instance, he did not dispute, undertook an expedition 

 into Ireland, a great part of which, owing to the 

 disputes of its native chieftains, had been reduced by 

 some private adventurers, conducted by Richard 

 Strongbow, earl of Strigul. The king found little 

 more to do than to make a progress through the 

 island, to receive the: submission of the Irish princes; 

 and, having left earl Richard in the post of seneschal 

 of Ireland, he returned to England, proceedings so 

 important to the future destinies of both countries 

 having occupied only a few months. Being an 

 indulgent father, Henry had assigned to each of his 

 four sons a provision out of his extensive territories. 



The eldest son, Henry, was not only declared heir to 

 England, Normandy, Anjou, Maine and Touraine, 

 but actually crowned in his father's life-time. On 

 paying a visit to the court of his father-in-law, Louis, 

 the prince was induced by the French monarch to 

 demand of his father the immediate resignation either 

 of the kingdom of England or of the dukedom of 

 Normandy. This extraordinary request being re- 

 fused, he withdrew from his father's court, and was 

 openly supported in his claim by Louis. Henry's 

 various gallantries, exemplified in the popular and 

 not altogether unfounded legend of fair Rosamond, or 

 Rosamond Clifford, also embroiled him with his queen, 

 Eleanor, who excited her other sons, Richard and 

 Geoffry, to make similar claims, and imitate the ex- 

 ample of their elder brother. Many potent barons 

 and nobles, in the respective provinces, were thus 

 withdrawn from their allegiance, and Louis, king of 

 France, William, king of Scotland, and other powers, 

 lent spirit to the confederacy. A general invasion of 

 Henry's dominions was in this way concerted, and 

 began, in 1173, by an attack on the frontiers of Nor- 

 mandy, where he opposed the storm with vigour. 

 In the mean time, the flame had broken out in Eng- 

 land, which was overrun with malcontents, while 

 the king of Scots made an incursion into the north. 

 Henry, in consequence, hastened home, and, to con- 

 ciliate the clergy, passed a day and night of penance 

 at the tomb of Becket. His absolution was followed 

 by the news of a complete victory, gained by his 

 general, the justiciary Glanville, over the Scots, in 

 which their king was made prisoner. The spirit of 

 the English malcontents being thus broken, they 

 rapidly submitted ; and Henry, returning to Nor- 

 mandy, entered into an accommodation with his sons, 

 on less favourable terms than they had previously 

 rejected ; nor did the king of Scotland gain his 

 liberty but by stipulating to do homage, and yield up 

 some fortresses. The pause obtained by these ex- 

 ertions of vigour and ability, Henry employed in 

 regulations and improvements which equally manifest 

 his capacity and love of justice. He checked the 

 prevailing licentiousness by severe laws, partitioned 

 England into four judiciary districts, and appointed 

 itinerant justices, to make regular excursions through 

 them. He revived trial by jury, discouraged that 

 by combat, and demolished all the newly-erected 

 castles, as shelters of violence and anarchy. The 

 turbulence of his sons still disquieted him ; but Henry, 

 the eldest, who had engaged in a new conspiracy, 

 was cut off by a fever, in 1183, after expressing great 

 contrition for his disobedience ; and, two years after, 

 the death of the equally restless Geoffry also released 

 the king from newly meditated hostilities. Philip 

 Augustus, then king of France, however, continued 

 to foment the differences between Henry and his sons, 

 and Richard was again prompted to rebel. A war be- 

 tween the two crowns followed, the event of which 

 was so unfavourable to Henry, that he was at length 

 obliged to agree that Richard should receive an oath 

 of fealty from all his subjects, and marry Alice, sister 

 of the French king, for whom Henry himself, under 

 whose care she had long resided, is charged, and not 

 without grounds, of having indulged an unbecoming, 

 if not a criminal passion. He also stipulated to pay a 

 sum of money to the Preach king, and to grant a par- 

 don to all Richard's adherents. The mortification of 

 Henry, at these humiliating terms, was aggravated to 

 despair when he saw the name of his favourite son, John, 

 at the head of the list of delinquents whom lie was 

 required to pardon ; and, cursing the day of his birth, 

 he pronounced a malediction upon his undutiful sons, 

 which he could never be persuaded to retract. The 

 anguish of his mind threw him into a low fever, 

 which put an end to his life, at the castle of Chinon, 



