Henry II (1133-1189) and Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204)


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Henry II spent more than 20 years of his three-and-a-half decade reign abroad.
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Henry II embarked on a campaign of destroying what were known as adulterine castles.
These castles were the fortresses built throughout the countryside without royal consent by barons taking advantage of a weak king.
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In 1185 Henry II was asked to be the ruler of the kingdom of Jerusalem. He declined.
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In December 1168, Eleanor held her first independent Christmas court at Portiers. :holly::holly::holly::holly::holly:
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In Kings & Queens of Great Britain, David Soud wrote:

Henry II enjoyed good relations with the Church for the first few years of his reign, not least because the pope at the time, Adrian IV was the only Englishman ever to sit on the papal throne.
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In Kings and Queens of Great Britain, David Soud wrote:

He (Henry II) was surrounded by pomp, yet he dressed simply, often in riding clothes, and he was not above dropping in on a local tavern for a few flagons of ale -- a practice that further endeared him to the commonfolk.
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In Queens Consort, Lisa Hilton wrote:

Richard was invested as Duke of Acquitaine in 1170, a very satisfying development for Eleanor, who used the occasion to demonstrate her own power and augment it by her association with the future duke. At the cathedral of St. Hilaire on 31 May, Eleanor wore the coronet of Acquitaine. The coronet was placed briefly on Richard's head, then substituted with a plainer silver circlet: Eleanor was making it clear that she was still in control.
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What a scheming, quarrelsome bunch Henry and Eleanor's children were, egged on by their mother and made worse by Henry's hair trigger temper ! We read less about the daughters than the sons of course, and the piece about Joanna was interesting.
 
The Assize of the Forest was King Henry II's 1184 formulation of laws regulating the forest. The King commanded that no tanner or bleacher of hides shall dwell in his forests outside of a borough.
 
Pope Adrian IV (in office from 1154 to 1159) gave King Henry II the right to rule Ireland. Why would the Pope have to give the monarch the right to rule another country?
 
On May 27, 1152 Eleonor of Aquitaine revoked a grant of the forest of Le Sevre to the abbey of Saint-Maixent. She had co-signed this grant with her first spouse, King Louis VII in 1146. Eleonor regranted the grant in her own right.
 
In a series of treaties, King Henry II was recognized as a feudal overlord. Henry had power over Scotland under the Treaty of Falaise signed in 1174 with King William of Scots. Henry was overlord of Ireland under the Treaty of Windsor in 1175.
 
Henry II seems to struggle to make an impact upon popular history. His reign falls in a century flanked by the Norman Conquest and Magna Carta. As great grandson of William the Conqueror, husband to Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of two of our more familiar monarchs, Richard the Lionheart and King John, it would seem understandable that he is often forgotten.

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/King-Henry-II-of-England/
 
King Henry II's mother, the Empress Matilda wrote strongly to discourage Henry from promoting Thomas Becket to archbishop. Henry did not listen to his mother. Becket became archbishop.
 
So his mother would have rid him of the troublesome priest and spared him the 'incitement to murder' part, if he'd listened to her? ?
 
The Empress Matilda did not approve of Thomas Becket being nominated as Archbishop in 1161 following the death of Theobald of Bec whom Matilda had a good relationship with.
Thomas Becket was also Lord Chancellor since 1155 and from the start Matilda made it very clear of her dislike for Thomas but the king ignored her.
However Matilda was very pious and would not have approved of the murder of the Archbishop despite her personal dislike of him.
Matilda had worked behind the scenes as a royal mediator between the king and Archbishop up until her death in 1167.
 
I mean Henry would never have wound up inciting a murder if he had listened to her and simply not appointed Becket to start with.
 
Prinsara said:
I mean Henry would never have wound up inciting a murder if he had listened to her and simply not appointed Becket to start with.
Click to expand...

Had he listened to his mother and her advice he would not have nominated Thomas as Archbishop but he was also Lord Chancellor prior to this and they had clashed several times!
 
If Thomas had remained Lord Chancellor, would there have been any way for King Henry II to incite a murder?
 
It's quite possible he would have had someone else (or even still Becket) inadvertently murdered. He was pretty temperamental, it was pre-Magna Carta, and people were that eager to curry favor.
 
From further reading it turns out that Thomas Beckett was related to Theobald of Bec who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1139 to 1161.
 
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