Henry II was the son of Geoffrey of Anjou and Matilda, and spent his childhood at war trying to regain his family's inheritance. As an adult, Henry had eight children with his wife Eleanor but tensions emerged over the inheritance. His heir rebelled in 1173, and Henry struggled to satisfy all his sons' desires for land. Politically, Henry was a ruthless ruler who restored royal control over England and expanded his territories, coming into conflict with Thomas Becket and King Louis VII of France. By 1172, Henry controlled a vast empire including England, Wales, Ireland, and western France.

1. KING HENRY II
Made by: Saph

2. Childhood
 The son of Geoffrey of Anjou and Matilda
(daughter of Henry I) against whom the
barons of England and Normandy
rebelled in favour of the usurper Stephen.
his entire childhood was consumed by war
and the need of his parents to regain the
their inheritance. It was Henry to whom
that inheritance go to, and who had the
responsibility of holding it together.
Consequently, Henry II, king at the age of
22, was mature beyond his years and
obsessed with the restoration of his
ancestral rights.

3. Adult Life
 Henry and his wife, Eleanor, had eight children.
As they grew up, tensions over the future
inheritance of the empire began to emerge. In
1173 Henry's heir, "Young Henry", rebelled in
protest; he was joined by his brothers Richard
and Geoffrey and by their mother. France,
Scotland, Flanders and Boulogne allied
themselves with the rebels and the Great Revolt
was only defeated by military action and
talented local commanders, many of them
"new men" appointed because of loyalty and
administrative skills.

4. Adult life continued
 Young Henry and Geoffrey revolted
again in 1183, resulting in Young Henry's
death. The Norman invasion of Ireland
provided lands for his youngest son
John, but Henry struggled to find ways
to satisfy all his sons' desires for land and
immediate power. Philip successfully
played on Richard's fears that Henry
would make John king, and a final
rebellion broke out in 1189. Decisively
defeated by Philip and Richard and
suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry
retreated to Chinon in Anjou, where he
died.

5. Political
 Henry was an energetic and ruthless ruler,
driven by desires to restore the lands and
privileges of Henry I. In the early years of the
younger Henry's reign he restored the royal
administration in England, re-established
hegemony over Wales & got full control over
lands in Anjou, Maine and Touraine. His desire
to reform the relationship with the Church led
to conflict with his former friend Thomas
Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This
lasted for much of the 1160s and resulted in
Becket's murder in 1170.

6. Political Continued
 Henry then conflicted with Louis VII and
the two rulers fought what was termed
a "cold war" for several decades.
Henry expanded his empire, often at
Louis' expense, taking Brittany and
pushing east into central France and
south into Toulouse; despite numerous
peace conferences and treaties no
lasting agreement was reached. By
1172, he controlled England, large
parts of Wales, the eastern half of
Ireland and the western half of France,
an area that would later come to be
called the Angevin Empire.

7. Ideals
 At the beginning of his reign Henry found
England in disorder, with royal authority ruined
by civil war and the violence of feudal
magnates. His first task was to crush the unruly
elements and restore firm government, using
the existing institutions of government, with
which the Anglo-Norman monarchy was well
provided. One was theKing’s council of
barons, with its inner group of ministers who
were both judges and accountants and who
sat at the Exchequer, into which the taxes and
dues of the shires were paid by the King’s local
representative, the sheriff. The council
contained an unusually able group of men—
some of them were great barons, such as
Richard de Lucy and Robert de Beaumont,
earl of Leicester; others included civil servants,
such as Nigel, bishop of Ely.

8. Ideals Continued
 Henry took a personal interest in the
technique of the Exchequer, which was
described at length for posterity in the
celebrated Dialogus de scaccario, whose
composition seemed to Maitland “one of
the most wonderful things of Henry’s
wonderful reign.” How far these royal
servants were responsible for the innovations
of the reign cannot be known, though the
development in practice continued steadily,
even during the King’s long absences
abroad.

9. The END
 noot noot

10. Works cited
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/261477/Henry-II/3111/Reign
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_II_of_England
 http://www.biography.com/people/henry-ii-9335107
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/henryii_character_01.shtml