Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/831

* HENKY II. 7<'>7 HENRY III. clergy, whose imiiuiiiily fiom llio jurisdiction of the secuUir courls made thfiii a ilisturliinj; lac- tor in tlie judicial adiuiiiislration of the country. To aid liini in reducing- the Cluirch to submission to the civil power, lleurv appointed liis trusted Chancellor, Thomas it iiccket (q.v.) to the fSee of Canterbury, in .lune, 1102. Beckct. however, to the surprise and indignation of the ICing. became the most fervent champion of ecclesiastical privi- lege and repeatedly thwarted the royal meas- ures aimed against the Church. Henry succeeded, nevertheless, in wringing from the bishops a rati- fication of the ancient customs of the land as re- enacted in the Constitutions of Clarendon in 11G4. (See Clahe.xuo.x, Coxstitutioxs of.) Tlic long struggle with Uecket was terminated only by the latter's murder, in 1170. Henry did penance at his grave, allowing himself to be scourged by the monks; but though the Constitutions of Clarendon were fornuilly repealed, the King was ultimately successful in reducing the Church to subordina- tion in civil matters. The administration of jus- tice in the criminal courts was regulated in 1100 by the Assize of Clarendon. See Clarexdo>", Assize of. During Henry's reign occurred the conquest of Ireland. That country was then the home of a number of tribes or clans, and Pope Adrian IV. in 1155, by a bull, is said to have given Henry the .authority over the entire island, and ordered the inhabitants to obey him. In HOG the intervention of the English was solicited by one of the Irish petty kings, Diarmait of Leinster (see MacMurrovoh ) . and Henry gave leave to any of his subjects to aid him. Robert Fitz- stephens. Constable of Albcrtivi. Maurice Fitz- gerald, and Richard de Clare, surnanicd Strong- bow, Earl of Strigul. went over with a few hun- dred men-at-arms, and in four years conquered the coast region from the Nore to the LifTey. Their success was so rapid that Henry became jealous, and in 1171 went over himself with an army of four thousand men to complete the conquest of the country. All Ireland except Connauglit sub- mitted for the time, but the majority of Irish tribes and chieftains continued to be independent for centuries. During this reign, also, the first ascendency of England over Scotland was gained. Henry's sons, incited M- their mother, rebelled against him (in."?), and their cause was espoused by the Kings of France and Scotland. The lat- ter, William the Lion, was ravaging the north of England with an armv, when he was sur- prised at Alnwick and taken prisoner. July 13. 1174. To obtain his liberty, he stipulated to do homage to Henry for Scotland, and to cede to him five of his strongest fortresses. In Kormandy, Anjou, and .Aciuitaine, Henry was equally success- ful in suppressing the rebellion. In the course of a second rebellion of his sons (1183) Henry, the eldest son. died ; Geoffrey, the second son, died three years later. Richard Crpur-de-Lion still remained hfistile to his father, and with the aid of King Philip Augustus of France drove He)iry from Jlaino and Anjou. Deserted by all his troops, Henry was compelled to come to terms with Richard. On July 4, 1189, peace was con- eluded at Colonibi^res. One of the .stipulations was for an indemnity for all the followers of Richard. The sight of the name of his favorite son .Tohn in the list, acting upon a constitution weakened by many cares, threw the King into a fever, of which he died, July 6. 1180, at Chinon. Henry was a man of restless energy, subject to sudden outbursts of a mad temper, but a born ruler, nevertheless, who gave to his subjects justice and peace. During his reign the baron.s were overawed, and hundreds of their castles were destroyed. Law ma<le ery great progress; circuit courts were established, and Henry fa- cilitated the making of appeals to his own courts, in order to bring the people into direct depend- ence upon the King. The earliest writer on Eng- lish law, Ranulf de Glanville, was Henry's chief judiciary. In intellect and character he re- sembled hi.5 grandfather, Henry 1. He had three illegitimate children; his mistress, the Fair Rosamond (q.v. ), may have been the mother of the first of the two that are remembered; Wil- liam Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, and Geof- frey, who became Archbishop of York, and who was faithful to him when his four legitimate sons took up arms against him. Henry was a great builder of palaces and roads; of the latter, the great embankment, 30 miles in length, erected to prevent floods from the river Loire, still re- mains in use. He was a lover of learning and an assiduous reader. His great work for England consisted in uniting the conquerors and conquered into one race, and in laying tlie foundation for the present Greater Britain by the conquest of Ireland. Consult: Norgate. Eiiijlniid Under the Aiiffpvin Kings (London, 1887) ; Stubbs. Consti- iuiionid History of Enf/land (Oxford. 1801) ; id., The Early Plantagciwfs (London. 1876) ; Green, History of the English People (London, 1874) ; Sirs. J. R. Green, Henry the Second (London, 1888). HENRY III. (1207-72). King of England from 1216 to 1272. He was the eldest son of King John and of Isabella of. gouleme. and was born at Winchester, October 1, 1207. He .succeeded his father in 1210, under the regency of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. The French Dauphin, who had invaded England dur- ing the lifetime of King John, in response to an invitation by a party among the nobles, was de- feated in 1217. and the confirmation of Magna Charta. in the same year established Henry se- curely on the throne. The Regent died in 1210, and the chief powers of govermnent were exer- cised by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canter- bury, and the Justiciar Hubert de IJurgh. The dismissal of Hubert in 1232 was followed by the rule of foreign favorites, which stirred up great dissatisfaction in the nation. Henry was con- stantly beset with hosts of his Poilevin rela- tions and men from the country of his Queen, Eleanor of Provence, whom he married on .lanu- ary 14. 1236. His weakness was shown also in his failure to make a stand against the eccle- siastical denrands of the clergy and the Pope. Schemes for foreign conquest loaded the nation with a heavy debt and iiu'reased the general dis- content. In 1258 the barons in Parliament, head- ed by his brother-in-law, Simon de Montfiirt, Earl of Leicester, rose against him, and forced him to transfer his power temporarily to a com- mission of barons and to enact a number of re- forms. He agreed to these demands by the Pro- visions of Oxford (q.v.). The barons, however, failed to make any use of that power in reform- ing the State, and the King utilized the oppor- tunity to regain the power which he alleged, with truth, had been taken from him by com- pulsion, though his action had worn the appear-