2. Henry II's Rule (1154-1189)

Henry was born in Le Mans Anjou, France in 1133. He owed his Kingship of England to his Norman mother Matilda, daughter of Henry 1st and his vast lands to his father Count of Anjou and his wife Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitou. His father Geoffrey was called Plantagenet because of the sprig of broom (in Latin Planta genista) he habitually wore in his hat. Eleanor had been previously married to the King of France, Louis 7th and was the richest woman in Europe. When crowned King of England, Henry became the ruler of the largest realm in Europe also the richest and most powerful. In those days, this meant he was continuously in the saddle and indeed he made sure there were a number of horses always available to him at strategic points in his empire. He would generally travel with his court which at the minimum was 100 people. Henry, in a similar manner to most Kings since 1066, spent more time in France than England as Anjou was an area of culture, learning, art, music and poetry. Eleanor, his wife of two years when he was crowned, was 32 on her wedding day and already a royal mother having been wife to the French King but divorced on the grounds of their close blood relations in 1152. Henry had a lot of women in his life, perhaps because of his marriage for political purposes to a woman 10 years older than himself. However, they produced 9 children which with the 2 she had produced with the French King shows the poor woman had a total of 11. Henry had time to sire 12 other children, 3 with a woman called Ikenai and the remainder with 6 other women. In addition to these mistresses and after 21 years of marriage to Eleanor, Henry eventually found the love of his life the 16 year old “fair Rosamund” who, hidden away in a house at Woodstock (near Oxford England) produced him a son.