HENRY II. 1154-189

DOMINIONS By the treaty of Wallingford Henry succeeded to the kingdom of England, being already in possession of most of Normandy, Maine, and Anjou with Touraine, the latter throngh his father Geoffrey Count of Anjou. Died 1151. In 1157 he reclaimed Cumberland and Northumberland from the Scotch king, who, like his predecessors, acknow-ledged in general terms the overlordship of the English king. In Wales the hold of the Norman Lords Marchers on the southern part of the country was strengthened during the reign. In 1169 the same families of adventurers who had become powerful in South Wales extended their enter-prises to Ireland, and in 1171 the supremacy of Henry was acknowledged by the Irish kings, but there is no charter or seal extant in which the title of Lord of Ireland (Dominus Hiberniae) borne by his son John and by his successors appears. The rule of Henry's Norman subjects in Ireland extended over the east and south of the island. In 1174 William the Lion did full feudal homage to Henry for the kingdom of Scotland, and gave up the chief castles of the south of Scotland into Henry's hands

In 1151 Henry married Eleanor, the heiress of Acquitaine and Poictou, including Guienne, Gascony, Saintogne, Angou-mois, Marche, Limousin, Poictou, with some rights over Auvergne and Toulouse.

In 1156 he deprived his brother Geoffrey of some castles which beheld in Anjou; in 1158 he took possession of Nantes; in 1159 he fully annexed Querci. In 1161 he obtained full possession of the Vexin, on the borders of France and Normandy.

In 1182 the marriage of his son Geoffrey to Constance, the heiress of Britanny, secured that important but uncertain dependency, of Normandy, which Henry had already conquered when he defeated the Earl of Chester and the Bretons at Dol, 1173, during the great revolt of his sons and the feudal party against him.

ACTS AND DOCUMENTS

On the Constitutional aide the reign of Henry II. is most important for he succeeded in re-organizing the administration ,while his dynastic schemes for a great Angevin confederacy under his family failed, throngh the bad conduct of his wife and sons .
The Charter of Henry II promises the good government of Henry I in general terms.
The Constitutions of Clarendon, 1164, attempted to bring the Church Courts immediately under the control of the King's Court and to make ecclesiastical persons amenable to punishment from the latter, after degradation had been inflicted in the former, thereby modifying the separate jurisdiction of the royal and ecclesiastical courts, which had been the result of the action of William I. and Lanfranc, to increase the royal control over the appointment to clerical dignities, to restrain the ordination of villeins without the consent of their lords.
The Assize of Clarendon, 1166, regulated the police of the country, and provided for circuits by the king's justices, a practice which had existed under Henry I
The Assize of Northampton, 1176, is a repetition of the. Assize of Clarendon of additional strictness with clauses requiring a general oath of allegiance, and providing for the custody of castles in the hands of the king. These clauses pointing to the rebellion just suppressed, 1173 - 74
The Assizeize of Arms; 1181, is for the organisation of a national militia.
The latter three are noticeable for the constant use directed of the evidence on oath of men in each district concerning offences, valuations, and so on, involving the germ of the Jury-system and training the people themselves in the business of Government.
The Dialogue de Scaccario is a treatise on the Exchequer, and incidentally on much of the Government written by Richard Bishop of London, Treasurer, son of Nigel Bishop of
Ely, also Treasurer, and great nephew of Roger Bishop of Salisbury, Justiciar and Treasurer

OFFICIALS

Archbishops - Theobald, d. 1161; Thomas Becket, 1162 - 1170; Richard, 1174 - 84; Baldwin, trans. from Worcester 1185.

Justiciars - Robert, Earl of Leicestr e; 1154-1167; Richard de Lucy, 1154 - 1179; Ranulf Glanvil, 1180 - 89.
In 1170 the king removed all the sheriffs from office, and replaced them by officials of his own immediate court and surroundings; and in 1178 he in like manner cut down the numbers of the Curia (see on William I's reign) to five, chosen "de privata familia sua "

Chancellors - Thomas Becket afterwards Archbishop, 1154 -1162; Ralph de Warneville, 1173 - 1181; Geoffrey, the king's natural son, Bishop of Lincoln, and afterwards Archbishop of York, 1181 - 89.
The Chancellorship was in abeyance, or in commission, from the resignation of Becket the year of which is not quite certain, till after the defeat of the great rebellion in 1173. Ralph de Warnevllle resided in Normandy, and his duties in England were performed by a deputy, Walter do Coutances, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln.

Henry, the second son of Henry II, William the eldest dying as a child, was crowned king in his father's lifetime, 1170 , but died in 1183. He was styled the Young King or even Henry III. He had a chancellor of his own, and exercised the functions of royalty in his father's absence.

WARS