Historical Figure
Henry II of England
1133–1189
King of England from 1154 to 1189
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Biography
Henry II was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189. During his reign he controlled England, substantial parts of Wales and Ireland, and much of France, an area that was later called the Angevin Empire, and also held power over Scotland for a time and the Duchy of Brittany.
Timeline
The story of Henry II of England, told in moments.
Became King of England at 21. By then he already controlled Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitaine through his wife Eleanor. His empire stretched from Scotland to the Pyrenees.
Clashed with Thomas Becket, his former friend and chancellor, over the rights of church courts. Henry wanted royal justice to apply to clergymen. Becket refused. It got worse from there.
Four knights murdered Becket in Canterbury Cathedral after Henry allegedly said "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" He may not have meant it literally. It didn't matter.
Died at Chinon Castle in France. His sons Richard and John had rebelled against him with French backing. His last words, reportedly: "Shame on a conquered king."
In Their Own Words (20)
Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?!
The Black Adder (1983), "The Archbishop". Written by and . Spoken by a fictitious Richard IV (), quoting his ancestor, 1983
What separated the king and archbishop was more than the personality of the two antagonists. Each had become by the time of Clarendon a fierce and unyielding representative of opposing views regarding the nature and purpose of law. Germanic law, which only in the Angevin lands was maintaining its purity against the spread of the Roman concept of justice, operated pragmatically to settle disputes by appealing to earlier practices. Custom and precedent, rather than an abstract concept of “justice,” determined what was just in a given case. This explains Henry’s conservatism and obsessive search for the practices of his ancestors. By Roman (and Canon) lawyers, on the other hand, a law was deemed just not because it was aligned to the past, but because it borrowed its justness from an a priori, rational, transcendental concept of justice.
Chapter 6, “The Challenge from Canterbury” (pp. 103-104), 1973
To a mind such as Henry’s Thomas’s preference for principle, even to the point of personal disloyalty, was incomprehensible. Within the black and white cavities of the king’s mind the idea was forming that Becket must have been carrying on a false front all these years in hopes of greater preferment, and that his present rejection of the secular office was an act of disloyalty and even treason.
Chapter 6, “The Challenge from Canterbury” (p. 93), 1973
Of the two pillars of Henry Plantagenet’s monument, the continental fiefs of the Angevin lands and an England that was assuming some of the early trappings of nationhood, the first did not survive the life span of his sons while the second continued on with varying fortunes to become a political unit that would occupy the center of world history and turmoil for seven centuries. The Angevin realm, like its creator, foundered on the ineptitude and pettiness of Henry’s sons.
Epilogue (p. 177), 1973
Henry Plantagenet, no less than any political leader in the second half of the present century, was confronted with such varied problems as law and order, a war weariness which brought about a military organizational revolution, economic inflation, the choice between isolation and “internationalism,” sovereignty, and even, on a personal level, women’s lib. To maintain that any of these tensions are new to the twentieth century is the highest form of self-adulation and to hold that nothing can be learned from their past appearances the height of historical nearsightedness.
Epilogue (p. 178), 1973
Artifacts (14)
Allegory of England, Scotland, and Ireland
Thomas Stothard
I've Loved and I've Lost, and I'm Sad but Not Blue
City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. With the Goya guitar that she received for her 16th birthday, Nicks wrote her first song, titled "I've Loved and I've Lost, and I'm Sad but Not Blue". She...
her 'Rhiannon' in those days was like an exorcism.
lays on the album. The song built to a climax in which Nicks's vocals were so impassioned that Mick Fleetwood declared, "her 'Rhiannon' in those days was like an exorcism." "Landslide" became...
Never in a million years could you have told me that would happen,
he Rumours tour, Nicks and Fleetwood secretly began an affair. Fleetwood was married to Jenny Boyd. "Never in a million years could you have told me that would happen," Nicks has stated. "Everybody...
We were all in such insane grief, just completely deranged,
ks married Robin's widower, Kim Anderson, believing that Robin would want her to care for the baby. "We were all in such insane grief, just completely deranged," she told the Telegraph in 2007....
, she recalled on The Chris Isaak Hour in 2009.
evere health problems if she did not stop using cocaine. "I said, 'What do you think about my nose?'", she recalled on The Chris Isaak Hour in 2009. "And he said, 'Well, I think the next time you do...
And he said, 'Well, I think the next time you do a hit of cocaine, you could dro...
re health problems if she did not stop using cocaine. "I said, 'What do you think about my nose?'", she recalled on The Chris Isaak Hour in 2009. "And he said, 'Well, I think the next time you do a...
I saw how they went down, and a part of me wanted to go down with them ... but t...
e addiction. Recalling the strong influence of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix on her music and life, she told a UK interviewer, "I saw how they went down, and a part of me wanted to go down with...
Everybody was angry because Mick was married to a wonderful girl and had two won...
rried to Jenny Boyd. "Never in a million years could you have told me that would happen," Nicks has stated. "Everybody was angry because Mick was married to a wonderful girl and had two wonderful...
I lost those 8 years of my life. I didn't write, and I had gained so much weight...
m), had gained weight, peaking at 175 lb (79.4 kg). "Klonopin was worse than the cocaine," she has said. "I lost those 8 years of my life. I didn't write, and I had gained so much weight." In late...
I'm one of those people who doesn't injure themselves. I was horrified to see th...
aby shower at her house, she tripped over a box, passed out, and cut her forehead near a fireplace. "I'm one of those people who doesn't injure themselves. I was horrified to see that blood. I...
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