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The Plantagenet Kings:

© Phyllis Agronsky

Henry II, Fitzempress b.1133 d.1189

Henry II, the first Plantagenet king of England,took control of a country in chaos after a decades-long war between Henry's mother, Matilda Empress, and Stephen I, the king of England. It was a bitter family quarrel, Matilda and Stephen being cousins. Both were descendants of William the Conqueror, and had inherited a full measure of that king's grasping nature. After nineteen years of war, in which first Stephen and then Matilda's half-brother, Robert of Gloucester were both captured and imprisoned, an agreement was reached. Upon Stephen's death, Matilda's son Henry Plantagenet would accede to the throne.

The barons of England, Normans to a man, had pretty much done as they pleased under Stephen. Castles bristled all over England, and the number of men under arms was alarming. It was under the new young King that order was restored. With the help of Thomas Becket, who was acting as his chancellor, he curbed the power of the barons, and razed many of the illegal castles to the ground. He took more and more power into own hands, and was able to better the lives of his subjects.

He was a tireless campaigner, and a very able soldier. During his reign, the English Empire stretched from the river Tweed to the Pyrenees. Some of these additions came about through marriage. Aquitaine, for instance, was his Queen's duchy. Eleanor had been Queen of France for 15 years, and when her marriage to the King was annulled, he returned Aquitaine to Eleanor. Normandy came to Henry II from his mother and Anjou from his father. He made illustrious and politically advantageous marriages for his children, which brought him more land and wealth. What he couldn't gain by scheming, he acquired at sword point, mostly at the expense of the King of France.

Some of the most critical precedents in jurisprudence came about during the 35-year reign of Henry II. For years, guilt or innocence had been decided in a ritual called "trial by ordeal". The accused would be forced to participate in some gruesome task, such as pulling a piece of red-hot iron out of a fire, after which the "jury" would examine his hand. If he showed no evidence of blistering, he was judged innocent. This was not scientific enough for Henry, who abolished trial by ordeal and instituted the forerunner of the modern legal system. He appointed circuit judges, whose sole job was to travel their districts dispensing the King's justice. No corner of his fast-growing empire was exempt.