Henry II Plantagenet (March 25, 1133 - July 6, 1189), was Duke of Anjou and King of England (1154 - 1189) and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland, eastern Ireland, and western France. His soubriquets include "Curt Mantle" (because of the practical short cloaks he wore), "Fitz Empress," and sometimes "The Lion of Justice," which had been used for his grandfather Henry I. He would be known as the first of the Angevin Kings.
Following the disastrous reign of King Stephen, Henry's reign was one of efficient consolidation. Henry II is regarded as England's greatest medieval king.He was born on March 5, 1133, to the Empress Matilda and her second husband, Geoffrey the Fair, Duke of Anjou. He was brought up in Anjou and visited England in 1142 to help his mother in her disputed claim to the English throne.
Prior to coming to the throne he already controlled Normandy and Anjou on the continent; his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 added her land holdings to his, including vast areas such as Touraine, Aquitaine, and Gascony. He was thus effectively more powerful than the king of France with an empire that stretched from Solway Firth almost to the Mediterranean and from the Somme to the Pyrenees. As king, he would make Ireland a part of his vast domain. He also was in lively communication with the Emperor of Byzantium Manuel I Comnenus.
In August 1152 Henry, who had been fighting Eleanor's ex-husband Louis VII of France and his allies, rushed back to her, and they spent several months together. Around the end of November 1152 they parted: Henry went to spend some weeks with his mother and then sailed for England, arriving on 6 January 1153. Some historians believe that the couple's first child, William, Count of Poitiers, was born in 1152. It is possible that this was why Henry came home at that time, and the progress they made through Eleanor's lands was to mark the birth of the new heir -- that is, that their stated purpose of "introducing the new count" to the people meant Count William, not Count Henry. Others think William was born in 1153, and point out that Henry might still have been there nine months before William was born.
During Stephen's reign, the barons had subverted feudal legislation to undermine the monarch's grip on the realm; Henry saw it as his first task to reverse this shift in power. Castles which had been built without authorisation during Stephen's reign, for example, were torn down, and an early form of taxation replaced military service as the primary duty of vassals. Record-keeping was dramatically improved in order to streamline this taxation.
Henry II established courts in various parts of the country and was the first king to grant magistrates the power to render legal decisions on a wide range of civil matters in the name of the Crown. Under his reign, the first written legal textbook was produced, proving the basis of what today is referred to as Common Law. By the Assize of Clarendon (1166), trial by jury became the norm. Since the Norman Conquest, jury trials had been largely replaced by trial by ordeal and "wager of battel" (which was not abolished in England until 1819). This was one of Henry's major contributions to the social history of England. As a consequence of the improvements in the legal system, the power of church courts waned. The church, not unnaturally, opposed this, and its most vehement spokesman was Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formerly a close friend of Henry's and his chancellor. Henry had appointed Becket to the archbishopric precisely because he wanted to avoid conflict.
The conflict with Becket effectively began with a dispute over whether clergy who had committed a secular offence could be tried by the secular courts. Henry attempted to subdue Becket and his fellow churchmen by making them swear to obey the "customs of the realm", but there was controversy over what constituted these customs, and the church was reluctant to submit. Becket left England in 1164 to solicit personally the support of the Pope in Rome and the king of France, where he stayed for a time. After a reconciliation between Henry and Thomas in Normandy in 1170, he returned to England. Becket again confronted Henry, this time over the coronation of Prince Henry (see below). The much-quoted words of Henry II echo down the centuries: "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four of his knights took their king literally (as he may have intended for them to do, although he later denied it) and travelled immediately to England, where they assassinated Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170.
William, Count of Poitiers, had died in infancy. In 1170, Henry and Eleanor's fifteen-year-old son Henry was crowned king, but he never actually ruled and is not counted as a monarch of England; he is now known as Henry the Young King to distinguish him from his nephew Henry III of England.
Henry and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, had four sons and three daughters. (Henry also had some ten children by at least four other women, and Eleanor had several of those children reared in the royal nursery with her own children; some remained members of the household in adulthood.) His attempts to wrest control of her lands from her (and her heir Richard) led to confrontation between Henry on the one side and his wife and legitimate sons on the other.
Henry's notorious liaison with Rosamund Clifford, the "fair Rosamund" of legend, is thought to have begun in 1165, during one of his Welsh campaigns, and continued until her death in 1176. However, it was not until 1174, at around the time of his break with Eleanor, that Henry acknowledged Rosamund as his mistress. Almost simultaneously, he began negotiating to divorce Eleanor and marry Alice, daughter of King Louis VII of France, who was already betrothed to his son, Richard. His affair with her continued for some years, and, unlike Rosamund Clifford, Alice is believed to have given birth to several of his illegitimate children.
Henry II's attempt to divide his titles amongst his sons but keep the power associated with them provoked them into trying to take control of the lands assigned to them, which amounted to treason, at least in Henry's eyes. Henry was fortunate to have on his side a knight who was both loyal and unbeatable in battle: William Marshal; Henry's illegitimate son Geoffrey Plantagenet (1151-1212), Archbishop of York, also stood by him the whole time and was the only son with Henry when he died.
When Henry's legitimate sons rebelled against him, they often had the help of King Louis VII of France. The death of Henry the Young King, in 1183, was followed by the death of the next in line to the throne, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany who was trampled to death by a horse in 1186. His third son, Richard the Lionheart, with the assistance of Philippe II Auguste, attacked and defeated Henry on July 4, 1189; Henry died at the Chateau Chinon on July 7, 1189 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey, near Chinon and Saumur in the Anjou Region that today is part of France.
Richard the Lionheart then became king of England. He was followed by King John, the youngest son of Henry II, laying aside the claims of Geoffrey's son, Arthur, and daughter, Eleanor.
Eleanor of Aquitaine (about 1122 - April 1, 1204) was one of the most powerful people of the Middle Ages and the richest and most powerful woman in Europe during her lifetime. She was married first to the French King Louis VII and then to the English King Henry II, a marriage that produced the two English kings Richard the Lionheart and John. Her father was William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and her mother was Aenor Aimery. When Eleanor was born she was named after her mother and called "Alia Aenor", which in their language meant "other Aenor", but it became "Eleanor" in English.
The eldest of their three children, she became heiress to the province of Aquitaine, largest and richest of the provinces that would become modern France, when her only brother died as a baby. As soon as her father died in 1137, when she was 15 years old, Eleanor became the target of marriage proposals from all parts of Europe: She married King Louis VII of France, bringing to the marriage her vast possessions from the river Loire to the Pyrenees, most of what is now the west of France. She also gave him a wedding present that is still in existence, a rock crystal vase. She took part in the Crusades with some female contemporaries but as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and those other ladies dressed as Amazons is no longer credited by serious historians, but her conduct was repeatedly criticized by Church elders as indecorous. Eitherway it remains to be debated. While in the eastern Mediterranean countries, she learned about maritime conventions developing there that were the beginnings of what would become the field of admiralty law, and she later introduced those conventions in her own lands, on the island of Oleron in 1160, and then into England, while she was acting as regent for her son, King Richard.
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged. She sided with her flamboyant, handsome uncle, Raymond of Toulouse, in his desire to re-capture the County of Edessa. Louis preferred an assault on Jerusalem. When Eleanor declared her intention to go with Raymond to Edessa, Louis had her brought with him by force. When they passed through Rome on the way home, the Pope himself tried to reconcile them, and Eleanor did conceive their second daughter (Alix (or Alice) Capet, the first being Marie de Champagne), but there was no saving their marriage. In 1152 the marriage to Louis was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. Her vast estates reverted to her and were considered no longer a portion of the French royal properties.
Within a year, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou, who was shortly to become king of England. She was eleven years older than he and related in the same degree as she had been to Louis. She bore Henry five sons and three daughters -- (William, Henry the Young King, Richard I "the Lionheart, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, John "Lackland, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan) -- over the next thirteen years. Some time between 1168 and 1173, Eleanor instigated a separation, deciding that from then on she would mostly remain in her own territory of Poitou, while Henry concentrated on controlling his increasingly large empire elsewhere.
In 1173, Eleanor led a rebellion against Henry, in league with their three surviving sons, although his bastard sons stood by him. She may have grown weary of Henry's numerous sexual dalliances, and she was certainly fed up with his attempts to control her patrimony of Aquitaine and Poitiers. The rebellion was put down, and Eleanor was imprisoned at the age of 50 for the next fifteen years.
Upon Henry's death in 1189, her son Richard inherited the throne and released his mother from prison. She ruled England while Richard went off to Crusade. She survived him and lived long enough to see her youngest son John on the throne.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey near her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible.
Eleanor and Henry are the main characters in the play, The Lion in Winter, by James Goldman, which was made into a film starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. The depiction of her in the film Becket is totally inaccurate.
William (~1152 - 1156) was the first child of Henry Plantagenet (later Henry II of England) and Eleanor of Aquitaine, born so soon after their marriage (which took place on 18 May 1152) as to set people counting on their fingers: He is said by some historians -- the ones who believe the couple began an affair soon after they met in August 1151 -- to have been born on 17 August 1152 but by others to have been born in 1153.
At the time of his death, he had already been given the title of Count of Poitiers. For centuries, the dukes of Aquitaine had held this as one of their minor titles, so it had passed to Eleanor from her father; giving it to her son was effectively a revival of the title, separating it from the dukedom. Some authorities say he also held the title of "Archbishop of York", but this is probably an error. His bastard half-brother Geoffrey Plantagenet (1151-1212), who was born within months of William, did later hold that office, causing the confusion.
King John "Lackland" of England
King John (December 24, 1166 - October, 1216) was King of England from 1199 to 1216. He was the youngest brother of King Richard I who was known as "Richard the Lion-hearted." Nicknames are "Lackland" (in French, sans terre) and "Soft-sword".
John is best known for angering the barons to rebellion, so that they forced him to agree to the Magna Carta in 1215, and then signing England over to the Pope to get out of the promises he made in that Great Charter. The truth, however, is that he was no better or worse a king than his immediate predecessor or his successor (which is still not much of a compliment).
Born at Oxford, he was the fifth son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and was always his father's favourite son, though, being the youngest, he could expect no inheritance (hence his nickname, "Lackland"). In 1189, he married Isabel, daughter of the Earl of Gloucester. (She is given several alternative names by history, including Hawise (or Avice), Joan, and Eleanor.) They had no children, and John had their marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity, some time before or shortly after his accession to the throne, which took place on April 6, 1199. (She then married Hubert de Burgh.)
Before his accession, John had already acquired a reputation for treachery, having conspired sometimes with and sometimes against his elder brothers, Henry, Geoffrey and Richard. During Richard's absence on crusade, John attempted to overthrow his designated regent, despite having been forbidden by his brother to leave France. This was one reason the older legend of Hereward the Wake was updated to King Richard's reign, with "Prince John" as the ultimate villain and the hero now called "Robin Hood". However, on his return to England in 1194, Richard forgave John and named him as his heir.
On Richard's death, John was not universally recognised as king. His young nephew, Arthur of Brittany, the posthumous son of his brother Geoffrey, was regarded by some as the rightful heir, and John eventually disposed of him around 1203, thus adding to his reputation for ruthlessness. In the meantime, he had married, on August 24, 1200, Isabella of Angouleme, who was twenty years his junior. Isabella eventually produced five children, including two sons (Henry and Richard). At around this time John also married off his illegitimate daughter, Joan, to the Welsh prince, Llywelyn the Great, building an alliance in the hope of keeping peace within England and Wales so that he would be free to recover his French lands. The French king had declared most of these forfeit in 1204, leaving John only Gascony in the southwest.
As far as the administration of his kingdom went, John was quite a just and enlightened ruler, but he won the disapproval of the barons by taxing them. Particularly unpopular was the tax known as scutage, which was a penalty for those who failed to supply military resources. He also fell out with the Pope by rejecting Stephen Langton, the official candidate for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. This resulted in John's being excommunicated. He was having much the same kind of dispute with the church as his father had had before him. Unfortunately, his excommunication was an encouragement to his political rivals to rise against him. Having successfully put down the Welsh uprising of 1211, he turned his attentions back to his overseas interests and regained the approval of Pope Innocent III.
The European wars culminated in a defeat which forced the king to accept an unfavourable peace with France. This finally turned the barons against him, and he met their leaders at Runnymede, near London, on June 15, 1215, to sign the Great Charter called, in Latin, Magna Carta. Because it had been signed under duress, however, John felt entitled to break it as soon as hostilities had ceased. It was the following year that John, retreating from a threatened French invasion, crossed the marshy area known as The Wash in East Anglia and lost his most valuable treasures, including the Crown Jewels, as a result of the unexpected incoming tide. This was a terrible blow, which affected his health and state of mind, and he succumbed to dysentery, dying on October 18 or October 19, 1216, at Newark in Lincolnshire*, and is buried in Worcester Cathedral in the city of Worcester. He was succeeded by his nine-year-old son as King Henry III of England.
*Footnote: Newark is now within the County of Nottinghamshire, close to its long boundary with Lincolnshire.
Henry III , Holy Roman Emperor
Henry III (1017-1056) was a member of the Salian (sometimes Franconian) dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. Born in 1017, he became king of Germany upon the death of his father, the emperor Conrad II in 1039. He was crowned emperor by the Pope in 1046.
Henry was married in 1036 to Canute the Great's daughter Gunhilda, born around 1020. Early on Henry's father emperor Conrad II had arranged fief with Canute to have him rule over some parts of northern Germany and in turn to have their children get married. After the marriage took place at the earliest legal age, Gunhilda died just two years later at the Adriatic Coast on an imperial journey.
Henry was re-married in 1043 to Agnes de Poitou, daughter of duke of Aquitaine. They had a son Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and a daughter, Judith of Swabia.
In 1046 Henry held royal/imperial courts at Merseburg and Meissen, where he ended the strife between the Dux Bomeraniorum, the duke Bratislaw of Bohemia and Casimir I of Poland. This is one of, or perhaps the earliest recording of the name of Pomerania.
Henry's reign as emperor was marked by his attempts to reform the Church, but also by his use of lay investiture to further his religious and political goals. This policy was continued by his son and successor, Henry IV, and eventually lead to the imperial-papal conflict known as the Investiture Controversy.
Henry III , Holy Roman Emperor
Henry III (1017-1056) was a member of the Salian (sometimes Franconian) dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. Born in 1017, he became king of Germany upon the death of his father, the emperor Conrad II in 1039. He was crowned emperor by the Pope in 1046.
Henry was married in 1036 to Canute the Great's daughter Gunhilda, born around 1020. Early on Henry's father emperor Conrad II had arranged fief with Canute to have him rule over some parts of northern Germany and in turn to have their children get married. After the marriage took place at the earliest legal age, Gunhilda died just two years later at the Adriatic Coast on an imperial journey.
Henry was re-married in 1043 to Agnes de Poitou, daughter of duke of Aquitaine. They had a son Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and a daughter, Judith of Swabia.
In 1046 Henry held royal/imperial courts at Merseburg and Meissen, where he ended the strife between the Dux Bomeraniorum, the duke Bratislaw of Bohemia and Casimir I of Poland. This is one of, or perhaps the earliest recording of the name of Pomerania.
Henry's reign as emperor was marked by his attempts to reform the Church, but also by his use of lay investiture to further his religious and political goals. This policy was continued by his son and successor, Henry IV, and eventually lead to the imperial-papal conflict known as the Investiture Controversy.
Conrad II , Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II (circa 990 - [1039]]) was the son of count Henry of Speyer. He was elected king in 1024 and crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on March 26, 1027, the first member of the Salian Dynasty.
During his reign, he proved that the German monarchy had become a viable institution. Survival of the monarchy was no longer dependent on contracts between sovereign and territorial nobles.
Conrad grew up poor by the standards of the nobility and was raised by the bishop of Worms and was reputed to be prudent and firm out of consciousness of deprivation. In 1016 he married Gisela of Swabia, a widowed duchess. Both parties claimed descent from Charlemagne and were thus distantly related. Strict canonists took exception to the marriage and emperor Henry II used these findings to force Conrad into temporary exile. They became reconciled and upon Henry's death in 1024. Conrad appeared as candidate before the electoral assembly of princes at Kamba in the Rhineland. He was elected by the majority and was crowned king in Mainz on September 8, 1024.
The Italian bishops paid homage at Conrad's court at Constance in June 1025, but lay princes sought to elect William III (V), Duke of Aquitaine, as king instead. However early in 1026 Conrad went to Milan, where archbishop Ariberto crowned him king of Italy. After overcoming some opposition of the towns Conrad reached Rome, where Pope John XIX crowned him emperor on Easter, 1027.
He formally confirmed the popular legal traditions of Saxony and issued new constitutions for Lombardy. In 1028 at Aachen he had his son Henry elected and anointed king of Germany. Henry married Cunigunde or Gunhilda, daughter of King Canute the Great of England, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. This was an arrangement that Conrad had made many years ago, when he gave Canute the Great parts of northern Germany to administer. Henry, the later EmperorHenry III, became chief counsellor of his father.
Conrad campaigned against Poland in 1028 and forced Mieszko II, son and heir of Boleslaus I, to make peace and return land that Boleslaw I had conquered from the empire during his father's reign. At the death of Henry II the bold and rebellious Duke of Poland Mieszko II had tried to throw off vassalage, but then submitted and swore to be emperor Conrad's faithful vassal. Mieszko II quit being self-annointed king and returned to being duke of Poland.
When King Rudolf of Burgundy died on February 2, 1032, he left his kingdom to Conrad. (How? why? was he a legitimate blood heir?) Despite some opposition, the Burgundian princes (how many princes did Burgundy have? is this prince in the sense or ruler -- wasn't Burgundy ruled by a duke?) paid homage to Conrad in Zurich in 1034. This kingdom of Burgundy included Switzerland. It did not include the Duchy of Burgundy. That belonged at that time to the French King.
Conrad upheld the rights of the valvassores (knights and burghers of the cities) of Italy against Archbishop Aribert of Milan and the princes. The princes as vassal lords and the bishop had conspired to rescind rights from the burghers. With skillful diplomacy and luck Conrad restored order. He went on to southern Italy, to Salerno and Anversa and appointed Richer from Germany as abbot of Monte Cassino.
During the return trip to Germany an epidemic broke out amongs the troops. Conrad's daughter-in-law and stepson died. Conrad himself returned safely and held several important courts in Solothurn, Strasbourg and in Goslar. His son Henry was invested with the kingdom of Burgundy.
A year later in 1039 Conrad fell ill and died in Utrecht.
Empress Maud (Matilda) of England
Empress Maud (February 7, 1102 - September 10, 1167) is the title by which Matilda, daughter and dispossessed heir of King Henry I of England and his wife Maud of Scotland (herself daughter of Malcolm III Canmore and St. Margaret of Scotland), is known, in order to differentiate her from the many other Matildas of the period.
Maud was christened Adelaide, but took her mother's name of Matilda when she married for the first time, on January 7, 1114. Her first husband was Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, but the marriage was childless and Henry died in 1125. In 1128, she was married again, at Le Mans in Anjou, to Geoffrey of Anjou, who was eleven years her junior. He was nicknamed "Plantagenet" from the broom flower which he took as his emblem, hence the name of the line of English kings descended from him. Although the marriage could not be said to be a happy one, it did produce three sons, the eldest of whom, Henry, was born on March 5, 11/A>.
On the death of her father in 1135, Maud expected to succeed to the throne of England, but her cousin, Stephen of Blois usurped the throne, breaking an oath he had previously made to defend her rights. The civil war which followed was bitter and prolonged, with neither side gaining the ascendancy for long, but it was not until 1139 that Maud could command the military strength necessary to challenge Stephen within his own realm. Her most loyal and capable supporter was her half-brother, Robert of Gloucester; Stephen's was his wife, another Matilda: Matilda of Boulogne.
Maud's greatest triumph came in April 1141, when her forces defeated and captured King Stephen, who was made a prisoner and effectively deposed. Although she now controlled the kingdom, Maud never styled herself queen but took the title "Lady of the English". Her advantage lasted only a few months. By November, Stephen was free, and a year later, the tables were turned when Maud was besieged at Oxford; the circumstances of her escape were the stuff of fiction. In 1147, Maud was finally forced to return to France, following the death of Robert of Gloucester.
All hope was not lost. Maud's son, Henry (later, Henry II of England), was showing signs of becoming a successful leader. Although the civil war had been decided in Stephen's favour, his reign was troubled. In 1153, the death of his son Eustace, combined with the arrival of a military expedition led by Henry, led him to acknowledge the latter as his heir by the Treaty of Wallingford. Maud died at Rouen, and was buried in the cathedral there.
The civil war between Stephen's supporters and Maud's is the background for the popular "Brother Cadfael" books by Ellis Peters and the films made from them starring Sir Derek Jacobi as that rare Benedictine.
Besides Henry, Matilda also bore two other sons, Geoffrey, Count of Anjou and William, Count of Poitou.
King Henry (the young king) of Normandy
Henry the Young King (1155-1183) was the first of four sons of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Fostered by Thomas a Becket, in 1170 the fifteen-year-old Henry was crowned king during his father's lifetime, but he never actually ruled and is not counted in the monarchs of England.He is now known as "Henry the Young King" to distinguish him from his nephew Henry III of England. He broke with his father and allied with his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and brothers in a lengthy civil war (1173-74) in which he tried to wrest the power of the crown from his father. When he died at the age of 28 of dysentery, during the middle of a second rebellion, his father is said to have exclaimed: "He cost me much, but I wish he had lived to cost me more."
The historian W.L. Warren said of him, "The Young Henry was the only one of his family who was popular in his own day. It was true that he was also the only one who gave no evidence of political sagacity, military skill, or even ordinary intelligence....", and elaborated in a later book, "He was gracious, benign, affable, courteous, the soul of liberality and generosity. Unfortunately he was also shallow, vain, careless, empty-headed, incompetent, improvident, and irresponsible."
Henry did not seem much interested in the day-to-day business of government, or in the subtleties of military tactics. Instead he spent much of his time at tournaments or meddling in the affairs of his brothers.
Henry the Young King was married to Margaret of France. His brothers Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland both later became king.
Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany (September 23, 1158 - August 19, 1186) was the fourth son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. In July, 1181, he married Constance, daughter of the Duke of Brittany, inheriting the title through her a few months later.
Geoffrey never got to rule England, because he was killed in a tournament before his older brother Richard the Lionhearted died.
Eleanor of Aquitaine (about 1122 - April 1, 1204) was one of the most powerful people of the Middle Ages and the richest and most powerful woman in Europe during her lifetime. She was married first to the French King Louis VII and then to the English King Henry II, a marriage that produced the two English kings Richard the Lionheart and John. Her father was William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and her mother was Aenor Aimery. When Eleanor was born she was named after her mother and called "Alia Aenor", which in their language meant "other Aenor", but it became "Eleanor" in English.
The eldest of their three children, she became heiress to the province of Aquitaine, largest and richest of the provinces that would become modern France, when her only brother died as a baby. As soon as her father died in 1137, when she was 15 years old, Eleanor became the target of marriage proposals from all parts of Europe: She married King Louis VII of France, bringing to the marriage her vast possessions from the river Loire to the Pyrenees, most of what is now the west of France. She also gave him a wedding present that is still in existence, a rock crystal vase. She took part in the Crusades with some female contemporaries but as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and those other ladies dressed as Amazons is no longer credited by serious historians, but her conduct was repeatedly criticized by Church elders as indecorous. Eitherway it remains to be debated. While in the eastern Mediterranean countries, she learned about maritime conventions developing there that were the beginnings of what would become the field of admiralty law, and she later introduced those conventions in her own lands, on the island of Oleron in 1160, and then into England, while she was acting as regent for her son, King Richard.
Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged. She sided with her flamboyant, handsome uncle, Raymond of Toulouse, in his desire to re-capture the County of Edessa. Louis preferred an assault on Jerusalem. When Eleanor declared her intention to go with Raymond to Edessa, Louis had her brought with him by force. When they passed through Rome on the way home, the Pope himself tried to reconcile them, and Eleanor did conceive their second daughter (Alix (or Alice) Capet, the first being Marie de Champagne), but there was no saving their marriage. In 1152 the marriage to Louis was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. Her vast estates reverted to her and were considered no longer a portion of the French royal properties.
Within a year, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou, who was shortly to become king of England. She was eleven years older than he and related in the same degree as she had been to Louis. She bore Henry five sons and three daughters -- (William, Henry the Young King, Richard I "the Lionheart, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, John "Lackland, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan) -- over the next thirteen years. Some time between 1168 and 1173, Eleanor instigated a separation, deciding that from then on she would mostly remain in her own territory of Poitou, while Henry concentrated on controlling his increasingly large empire elsewhere.
In 1173, Eleanor led a rebellion against Henry, in league with their three surviving sons, although his bastard sons stood by him. She may have grown weary of Henry's numerous sexual dalliances, and she was certainly fed up with his attempts to control her patrimony of Aquitaine and Poitiers. The rebellion was put down, and Eleanor was imprisoned at the age of 50 for the next fifteen years.
Upon Henry's death in 1189, her son Richard inherited the throne and released his mother from prison. She ruled England while Richard went off to Crusade. She survived him and lived long enough to see her youngest son John on the throne.
Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey near her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible.
Eleanor and Henry are the main characters in the play, The Lion in Winter, by James Goldman, which was made into a film starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. The depiction of her in the film Becket is totally inaccurate.
Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony , Duke of Bavaria
Henry the Lion (112/1131-1195; in German, Heinrich der Löwe) was Duke of Saxony from 1142 and Duke of Bavaria from 1156. He was the richest of the German nobles, at least until the enrichment of the rival Hohenstaufen dynasty during the reign of Frederick I. The Lion was his heraldic animal.
Henry achieved this great wealth in large part by the combined legacies of his four grandparents. He was the son of Henry the Proud, duke of Bavaria and Saxony, who was the son of duke Welf IV and an heiress of the Billungs, former dukes of Saxony. Henry's mother was Gertude, only daughter of the Emperor Lothar II and of Richenza of Nordheim, heiress to the Saxon territories of Nordheim and Brunswick.
Henry's father died in 1139 when Henry was still a child, and King Conrad III did not immediately give the two dukedoms to Henry. He acquired Saxony in 1142, and Bavaria in 1156.
He is the founder of Munich (1157/58; München) and Lübeck (1159); he also founded and developed the cities of Stade, Lüneburg and Brunswick, where he had a bronze Lion erected on his castle yard, next to the Brunswick cathedral, in 1166 the first bronze statue north of the Alps, which still exists today (see "Brunswick cathedral" for a photo).
He made Brunswick the capital of his principality. The lion demonstrates his power which was nearly that of a king.
In 1158 he married as his second wife Matilda (1156 -1189) the daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
In 1175, Henry the Lion refused to aid his cousin Emperor Frederick I, against Lombardy, because he did not accept the condition of investing him with the rich city of Goslar. It was this insubordination the Emperor could not tolerate. Henry had to face a feudal lawsuit and was condemned in 1180, losing most of his principality. He had to leave Germany in 1182 for three years and stayed with his father-in-law, Henry II.
The last years of his life Henry the Lion tried to gain back what he had lost, but he mostly failed.
He was taken from his tomb in Brunswick cathedral, made between 1230 and 1240. When the Nazis exhumed his corpse in the hope of finding a symbol for their ideology of a superior German race, they were disappointed finding a comparably small man with black hair.