Henry, known as the Young King (28 February 1155 – 11 June 1183) was the second of five sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Early life
Little is known of the young prince Henry before the events associated with his marriage and coronation. His mother's children by her first marriage to the king of France were Marie de Champagne and Alix de Blois. He was a younger brother of William IX, Count of Poitiers (d. 1156), and his younger siblings included Matilda, Duchess of Saxony; Richard I of England; Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany; Eleanor, Queen of Castile; Joan, Queen of Sicily; and John I of England.
In June 1170, the fifteen-year-old Henry was crowned king during his father's lifetime, an adoption into England of the practice of French Capetian dynasty. A Latin poem by a court official written to commemorate the coronation hints at the charisma of this young prince. There he is described as a charming youth of striking beauty, tall but well proportioned, broad-shouldered with a long and elegant neck, pale and freckled skin, bright and wide blue eyes, with a thick mop of the reddish-gold hair characteristic of his dynasty.[citation needed]
He was known in his own lifetime as "Henry the Young King" to distinguish him from the elder King Henry his father. Because he predeceased his father, he is not counted in the numerical succession of kings of England. Nonetheless, he was an anointed king and his royal status was not disputed.[citation needed] There is a question about his knighting. According to one of Becket's correspondents, Henry was knighted by his father before the coronation, but the biographer of William Marshal asserts that the king was knighted by William in the course of the rebellion of 1173.[citation needed]
Tournament hero and celebrity
Henry did not seem much interested in the day-to-day business of government, which distinguished him from his father and younger brothers. His father, however, is reputed to have failed to delegate authority to his son, retaining the reins of power in England in his own hands. The majority opinion amongst historians is that of W. L. Warren (1973), "The Young Henry was the only one of his family who was popular in his own day. It was true that he was also the only one who gave no evidence of political sagacity, military skill, or even ordinary intelligence…", and elaborated in a later book, "He was gracious, benign, affable, courteous, the soul of liberality and generosity. Unfortunately he was also shallow, vain, careless, high-hoped, incompetent, improvident, and irresponsible."
The Young King's contemporary reputation, however, was by no means so negative. This had much to do with his place in the enthusiastic tournament culture of his own day. We can see this from his appearances in the History of William Marshal, the biography of the knight who was assigned to him as a tutor in 1170, and who became his tournament team leader until 1182. The History depicts him as constantly moving from tournament to tournament across northern and central France between 1175 and 1182. With his first cousin Count Philip of Flanders and Count Baldwin V of Hainault and Namur, he was one of the key patrons of the sport. He is said to have spent over £200 a day on the great retinue of knights he brought to the tournament of Lagny-sur-Marne in November 1179.
If he lacked political weight, the Young King's patronage gave him celebrity status throughout western Europe. The baron and troubador, Bertran de Born, who knew him, said that he was '…the best king who ever took up a shield, the most daring and best of all tourneyers. From the time when Roland was alive, and even before, never was seen a knight so skilled, so warlike, whose fame resounded so around the world — even if Roland did come back, or if the world were searched as far as the River Nile and the setting sun.' There was a perception amongst his contemporaries and the next generation that his death in 1183 marked a decline both in the tournament and knightly endeavor. His former chaplain, Gervase of Tilbury, said that 'his death was the end of everything knightly'. However, de Born was later highly critical of the Young King, and satirized him in several of his works.
Political career
The Young Henry played an important part in the politics of his father's reign. On 2 November 1160 he was betrothed to Marguerite of France, daughter of King Louis VII of France by his second wife Constance of Castile, when he was 5 years of age and she was 2. The marriage was an attempt to settle the long struggle between the Plantagenets and Capetians over the possession of the frontier district of the Norman Vexin, which Louis VII had acquired from Henry II's father, Geoffrey Plantagenet, around 1144. By the terms of the settlement, Marguerite would bring the castles of the Norman Vexin to her new husband. However, the marriage was pushed through by Henry II when Young Henry and Marguerite were small children, so that he could seize the castles. A bitter border war followed between the kings.
They were formally married on 27 August 1172 in cathedral at Winchester, when Henry was crowned king of England a second time, by the bishop of Evreux or the archbishop of Rouen.[1][2]
Young Henry fell out with his father in 1173. Contemporary chroniclers allege that it was due to the young man's frustration that his father had given him no realm to rule, and that he felt starved of funds. The rebellion seems however to have drawn strength from much deeper discontent with his father's rule, and a formidable party of Anglo- Norman, Norman, Angevin, Poitevian and Breton magnates joined him. The civil war (1173–74) came close to toppling the king, and he was narrowly saved by the loyalty of a party of nobles with holdings on the English side of the Channel, and the defeat and capture of the king of Scotland. Young Henry sought a reconciliation after the capture of his mother and the failure of the revolt. By the terms of the settlement his funds were much increased and he apparently devoted most of the next seven years to the amusement of the tournament.
In November 1179 he represented his father at the coronation of Philip Augustus as associate king of France at Reims. He acted as Steward of France and carried the crown in the coronation procession. Later he played a leading role in the celebratory tournament held at Lagny-sur-Marne, to which he brought a retinue of over 500 knights at huge expense.
The Young Henry's affairs took a turn for the worse in 1182. He fell out with William Marshal, the leader of his tournament mesnée. The unknown author of L'Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal suggests that Marshal's disgrace was because he had indulged in a clandestine affair with Queen Marguerite. David Crouch, one of the Marshal's principal modern biographers, argues that the charge against William was actually one of lèse majesté, brought on by Marshal's own arrogance and greed. The charge of adultery was only introduced in the Life of William Marshal as a distraction from the real charges, of which he was most probably guilty. Though the Young King sent his wife early in 1183 to the French court, it was done most likely to keep her safe in the impending war with his brother Richard rather than because she was in disgrace.
The only child of Henry and Marguerite was William, born prematurely on 19 June 1177, and dying on 22 June of the same year. This difficult delivery may have rendered her sterile, as she had no further children by Henry or her second husband.
Death and burial
Henry the Young King died in the summer of 1183, during the course of a campaign in the Limousin against his father and his brother, Richard. He had just completed a pillage of local monasteries to raise money to pay his mercenaries. He contracted dysentery at the beginning of June. Weakening fast, he was taken to Martel, near Limoges. It was clear to his household that he was dying on 7 June when he was confessed and received the last rites. As a token of his penitence for his war against his father he prostrated himself naked on the floor before a crucifix. He made a testament and since he had taken a crusader's vow, he gave his cloak to his friend William Marshal with the plea that he should take the cloak (presumably with the crusader's cross stitched to it) to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. On his deathbed he reportedly asked to be reconciled to his father, but King Henry, fearing a trick, refused to see him. He died on 11 June clasping a ring his father had sent instead as a sign of his forgiveness. After his death, his father is said to have exclaimed: "He cost me much, but I wish he had lived to cost me more."
After his death there was an attempt by his mother and a faction of his friends to promote his sainthood. Thomas of Earley, archdeacon of Wells, published a sermon not long afterwards which detailed miraculous events attending the cortège which took his body north to Normandy. Henry had left orders that his entrails and other body parts should be buried at the abbey of Charroux, but the rest of his body should rest in Rouen Cathedral.[3] However, during the funeral procession, a member of Henry's household was seized by his mercenary captains for debts the late king had owed them. The knights accompanying his corpse were so penniless they had to be fed by charity at the monastery of Vigeois. There were large and emotional gatherings wherever his body rested. At Le Mans, the local bishop halted the procession and ordered the body buried in his cathedral, perhaps to help defuse the civil unrest Henry's death had caused. The dean of Rouen recovered the body from the chapter of Le Mans a month later by law suit so the Young Henry could be buried in Normandy as he had desired in his testament. His remains are in Rouen Cathedral, where his tomb is on the opposite side of the altar from the tomb[4] of his younger brother Richard, with whom he was perpetually quarrelling. The tomb of the archbishop of Rouen, who had married him and Margaret, lies nearby in the ambulatory. His brothers Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland both later became king.
Ancestry
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Ancestors of Henry the Young King |
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Notes
- ^ Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (Ballantine Books, 1999) p. 195
- ^ W L Warren, Henry II (Univ. of California Press, 1973) p. 111, note 3
- ^ Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine
- ^ This tomb contained a lead reliquary, with Richard's heart, that is stored with the treasure of the Cathedral. His body is in the Fontevraud Abbey.
References
- W.L. Warren, Henry II (London, 1973) ISBN 0-520-03494-5
- O.H. Moore, The Young King Henry Plantagenet, 1155–83, in History, Literature, and Tradition (Columbus OH, 1925)
- G. Duby, William Marshal: the Flower of Chivalry trans. R. Howard (London, 1986)
- D. Crouch, William Marshal: Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 1147–1219 (2nd edn, London, 2002)
- D. Crouch, Tournament (London, 2005)
- L. Diggelmann, 'Marriage as Tactical Response: Henry II and the Royal Wedding of 1160', English Historical Review, CXIX, (2004), pp. 954–64
- R.J. Smith, 'Henry II's Heir: the Acta and Seal of Henry the Young King, 1170-83', English Historical Review, CXVI, (2001), pp. 297–326
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