Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/830

* HENRY VII. 766 HENRY II. 1840-41) ; Barthold, Der Romerzug Konig Hein- richs von Liitzelhurg (Konigsberg, 1830-31); Pohlmann, Der Romerzug Kaiser Beinrichs VJI. (Nuremberg, 1875). HENRY I. (1068-1135). King of England from 1100 to 1135. He was the fourth son of Villiani the Conqueror, and was born, according to tradition, at Selby, in Yorkshire. Unlike his elder brothers, Robert and William Rufus. he was of a studious disposition, and received what was for the times an excellent education, being loiown later in history as Beauclerc. At his father's death he received £5000. but no lands. With £3000 he bought from his brother Robert, Duke of Normandy, the Avranchin and the Cotentin, and displayed great ability in the government of his territories. In 1091 William Rufus and Robert crested his possessions from him. after besieging him for a long time in ilont Saint-Michel. For a time he wandered about, a landless man, until the men of the town of Domfront, on the river Varenne, invited him to become their lord. Henry thus obtained posses- sion of a powerful stronghold, which he used as a base of operations in numerous raids against liis brother, the Duke of Normandy, and Robert of Belleme. After 1094 he and William were allies, and in 1096 he received from the latter the counties of Coutances and Bayeux. When Wil- liam Rufus was found dead in the New For- est, where the two brothers had been hunting, August 2, 1100, Henry at once rode to Winchester and seized the royal treasury, and two days later was crowned at Westminster, puljlishing a charter of rights which was subsequently t,iken as the basis of Magna Charta. To strengthen his hold on the crown, he recalled Anselm, the exiled .Archbishop of Canterbury, thus gaining the sup- port of the clergy, and by his marriage to Eadgyth, or Matilda, daughter of Malcolm Can- more, King of Scotland, and great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, he won the affections of his Saxon subjects. Henry successfully defend- ed the throne against his brother Robert. In July, 1101, the Norman Duke invaded England, and Henry was forced by a conspiracy among his nobles to come to terms with his brother, ceding to Robert all his possessions in Normandy excepting Domfront. and granting him a pension. War with Robert broke out again in 1105. and en September 28. 1106, Henry defeated the Duke in a bloody battle before the walls of Tinche- brav, and took him prisoner. Robert was con- fined in Cardiff Castle till his death, in 1134. The acquisition of Normandy added greatly to Henry's strength : but he had some trovible in keeping the duchy, as the French King. Louis VI., and the Count of Anjou took part with William, Robert's youthful son. A desultory warfare was carried on from 1109 to 1120. dur- ing which a large part of Normandy was devas- tated and great atrocities were committed on both sides. The death in 1120 of his son Wil- liam, whom the King greatly loved, was a severe -blow to Hcnrj'. To prevent the crown from fall- ing into the possession of his nephew William, he caused his barons in 1126 to accept as his suc- cessor in England and Normandy his daughter !Matilda, who in 1128 became the wife of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. Henry died on December 1. 1135, near Rouen. The reign of Henry I. was important for the progress that was made toward the amalgamation of the Sa.xons and the Normans in England. The feeling of English nationality was greatly stimulated by the wars carried on against the French and the rebellious nobles in Normandy. The King continued tlie policy of the Conqueror in relentlessly crushing down the opposition of the great nobles, and in making himself the cham- pion of the common people against their terri- torial lords. In carrying out this policy the functions of the curia regis, or King's Court, were greatly increased, and for the first time justices as guardians of the King's peace were sent through the country. The great offices of State were conferred by preference on the mem- bers of the clergy*. Yet in his struggle with Anselm and other prelates over the rights of nomination and consecration of bishops, the King knew how to keep the virtual power in his own hands without arousing the open hostility of the Church. Henry had great natural ability, espe- cially in the line of State intrigue. He was. how- ever, dissolute, cruel, avaricious, and given to acts of meanness. His influence on English history, nevertheless, was lasting. Consult : Freeman, The Norman Conquest, vols. iv. and v. (Oxford, 1867-79) : id., IViHiom Rufus (Oxford, 1882) ; Norgate, England Under the Angevin Kings (London, 1887); Stubbs, Conxtitutional History of England, vol. i. (Oxford, 1891). HENRY II. (1133-89). King of England from 1154 to 1189. He was the grandson of Henry I. by his daughter Matilda and her sec- ond husband, Cieoffrey Plantagenet, and was born March 5, 1133, at Le Mans, in Maine. From his birth he was regarded as the successor of Henry I.; but on the death of the latter, in 1135. the English crown was seized by Stephen of Blois, and a civil war followed, in which the country was devastated and reduced to anarchy. During his minority Henry's affairs were under the care of his mother, Matilda, and her half-brother. Rob- ert, Earl of CJloucester. In 1151 Henry received Normandy from the French King ; the death of his father soon after left him master of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine; and by his marriage, in May. 1152, to Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, he added to his possessions the immense territories of Guienne (Aquitaine) and Poitou, so that he was the ruler of more extensive do- mains in France than the French King himself. In 1 153 Henry made an attempt to conquer Eng- land. After nine months of fighting it was agreed, by the Treaty of Wallingford, November, 1153, that Steiihen should reign during his lifetime, and that Henry should succeed him. Stephen's death occurred the following year, and Henry was crowned December 19, 1154, together with his Queen, Eleanor. The early years of his reign were devoted to the restoration of peace, and the reduction of the powerful nobles who had taken advantage of the civil war to make themselves virtually independent of the royal authority. The judicial and financial systems were reorgan- ized, and the Crown was freed in great measure from its dependence on the great feudatories by the institution of 'scutage' or shield money as a substitute for persona! military service, due from the vassal, thus enabling the King to maintain a standing force subject to his will alone. The chief obstacle in the way of Henry's schemes for the aggrandizement of the royal power was the