HENRY II. of England was the grandson of Henry I. by his daughter Matilda, and her second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, and was h. in 1133. his mother, assisted by her illegitimate brother, the earl of Gloucester, in the early part of Stephen's reign, and towards its close by Henry himself, had made war against Stephen, as a usurper, who had no good title to the throne. In 1153, when the rival armies were drawing near each other, a treaty for a compromise was set on foot, and in the course of it the only son of Stephen having died, it was agreed that Stephen should reign during his life, and that Henry should succeed him, which he did on Stephen's death next year. Ile was crowned Dec. 19, 1154, along with his queen Eleanor, whom, at the age of 18, lie had married within six weeks after she was divorced by Louis VII. of France. She was countess of Poitou, and duchess of Aquitaine, in her own right. Henry inherited from his father Anjou, Touraine, and Maine, and his father and mother succeeded by force of arms, in keeping and taking possession of Normandy for themselves and him ; so that, by one method and another, he came to be possessed of it large portion of France as well as England. His chief rivals in power were the clergy, who could use their weapon of excommunication with terrible effect, and who being tried by their own courts were not amenable to the common laws of the realm, and were protected from the punishment due to their crimes, which were too often of the deepest dye. To aid him in reducing the church to subjection to the civil power, he appointed his tasted chancellor, Thomas a-Becket, to the see of Canterbury, and compelled him and the other ecclesiastics to agree to the "constitutions of Clarendon ;" a set of laws enacted by a sort of prototype of a parliament, or council of the barons, and having for their object to render the crown mul the civil law (such as it had grown to be) superior to the church. Becket, however, proved to be a true churchman, and the long and obstinate struggle between him and his monarch was only terminated by his murder See BECKET, THOMAS I. Henry did penance at his grave, allowing himself to be scourged by monks: but though the "constitutions of Clarendon" were formally repealed, the king was ulti mately successful in reducing the church to subordination in civil matters. During his reign, occurred the conquest of Ireland. That country was then the home of a number of tribes or clans of the ordinary feudal type, and pope Adrian IV., in 1156, by a bull. gave Henry authority over the entire island, and ordered the inhabitants to obey him. He had not leisure at the time to conquer them, but afterwards, English aid being solicited by one of the Irish petty kings, Dermot of Leinster, Henry gave leave to any of his subjects to aid him; and Robert Fitzstephens, constable of Albertivi, Maurice Fitz gerald, and Richard de Clare, surnamed Strong-how, earl of Strip', went over with a very few hundred trained Englishmen, and in one year conquered Ireland. They suc
ceeded so well, that Henry became jealous, and recalled them; and next year (1172) he went over himself, to conquer in a royal way, and was everywhere loyally received, except in Ulster. This was the nominal conquest of Ireland, but the majority of the Irish tribes and ehieftaitts continued to be. independent barbarians for. centuries.
During this reign, aft; the first considerable ascendency of England over Scotland was gained. Henry's sons, incited by their jealous mother, queen Eleanor, rebelled against him, and their cause was espoused by the kings of France and Scotland. The latter, William the lion, was ravaging the n. of England with an army, when he was surprised at Alnwick, and taken prisoner, July 12, 1174. To obtain his liberty, he stipu lated to do homage to Henry for Scotland, to cede for ever to him the fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, and the castle of Edinburgh for a limited time. In the course of this filial rebellion, Henry, the eldest son, died of a fever, exhibiting great remorse, and Geoffrey was killed in a tournament at Paris. Richard, surnamed Coeur de Lion, with king Philip of France, obtained some advantages over his father. A treaty of peace was-concluded between them, of which one of the stipulations was for an indem nity for all the followers of Richard. The sight of the name of his favorite son John in the list, acting upon a constitution weakened by many cares, threw the king into a fever, of which he died, July 6, 1189.
Upon the whole, Henry was an able and enlightened sovereign. The barons were indeed overawed, but the monarch did not use his power despotically. Law made very great progress in his reign: circuit courts were established, and other improvements effected. The earliest writer on English law, Ranulph de Glanville, was Henry's chief justiciary. In intellect and character, he resembled his grandfather, Henry I., but his violations of the moral law were fewer, and less heinous. Still he had some illegitimate children, his mistress, the fair Rosamond, being the mother of two that are remem bered: William Longsword, earl of Salisbury, and Geoffrey, who became archbishop of York, and who was faithful to him when his four legitimate sons took up arms against him.