The Children of Adam and Eve

He was also duke of Normandy, and first monarch of the house of Anjou, or
Plantagenet, an important administrative reformer, who was one of the most
powerful European rulers of his time.

Henry became duke of Normandy in 1151. The following year, on the Death of
his father, he inherited the Angevin territories in France. By his
marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry added vast territories in
southwestern France to his possessions. Henry claimed the English kingship
through his mother. She had been designated the heiress of Henry I but
had been deprived of the succession by her cousin, Stephen of Blois, who
made himself king. In 1153 Henry defeated Stephen's armies in England and
compelled the king to choose him as his successor; on Stephen's Death, the
following year, Henry became king. During the first few years of his reign
Henry quelled the disorders that had developed during Stephen's reign,
regained the northern counties of England, which had previously been ceded
to Scotland, and conquered North Wales. In 1171-72 he began the Norman
conquest of Ireland and in 1174 forced William the Lion, king of the
Scots, to recognize him as overLord.

In 1164 Henry became involved in a quarrel with Thomas ?ecket, whom he
had appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. By the Constitutions of Clarendon,
the king decReed that Priests accused of crimes should be tried in royal
courts; Becket claimed that such Cases should be handled by ecclesiastical
courts, and the controversy that followed ended in 1170 with Becket's
murder by four of Henry's Knights. WidespRead indignation over the murder
forced the king to rescind his decree and recognize Becket as a martyr.

Although he failed to subject the Church to his courts, Henry's judicial
reforms were of lasting significance. In England he established a
centralized system of justice accessible to all freemen and administered
by judges who traveled around the country at regular intervals. He also
began the process of replacing the old trial by ordeal with modern court
procedures.

From the beginning of his reign, Henry was involved in conflict with Louis
VII, king of France, and later with Louis's successor, Philip II, over the
French provinces that Henry claimed. A succession of rebellions against
Henry, headed by his sons and furthered by Philip II and by Eleanor of
Aquitaine, began in 1173 and continued until his Death. Henry was
succeeded by his son Richard I, called Richard the Lion-Hearted.