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2. Henry II
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Henry fitzEmpress arrived in England in December of 1154 to claim the throne of a kingdom that had been ruled by his mother’s family for almost a century.1 At the age of twenty-one, Henry was already duke of Normandy, duke of Aquitaine, and count of Anjou. His father, Geoffrey the Fair of Anjou, had turned the duchy of Normandy over to him by 1150 and had left him the family patrimony, the counties of Anjou and Maine, upon his untimely death on September 7, 1151.2 Henry had subsequently acquired the duchy of Aquitaine in 1152 through his marriage 1. Henry of Huntingdon reports that it was “a few days before Christmas.” Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, x.40, 775. Ralph of Diceto and Robert de Torigny give December 7, while Gervase of Canterbury notes the date as December 8. Ralph of Diceto, Radulfi de Diceto Decani Lundoniensis Opera Historica, ed. William Stubbs, 2 vols. (London, 1876), I:299; Robert de Torigny, Chronique de Robert deTorigni, ed. L. Delisle, 2 vols. (Rouen, 1872), I:289; and Gervase of Canterbury, The HistoricalWorks of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. William Stubbs, 2 vols. (London, 1879–80), I:159. 2. Henry of Huntingdon says that Henry received both Normandy and Anjou upon his father’s death. Huntingdon, HA, x.31, 757. Cf. Gesta Stephani:The Deeds of Stephen, ed. K. R. Potter (London, 1955), 149; John of Hexham’s continuation of Symeon of Durham’s “Historia regum,” in Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, ed. T. Arnold, 2 vols. (London, 1882–85), II:326; and Torigny, Chronique, I:255–56. Geoffrey died on September 7, 1151, and was succeeded as count of Anjou by Henry, but he had given Henry the duchy of Normandy between November 1149 and March 1150; see Z. N. Brooke and C. N. L. Brooke, “Henry II, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine,” EHR 61 (1946): 81–89, at 84. Chapter 2 Henry II HENRY II 39 to Eleanor, heiress to Aquitaine and ex-wife of the French king, Louis VII.3 Henry made his way from the Hampshire coast to London in the winter of 1154 secure in the knowledge that the final territory to which he could lay claim by hereditary right would now be his.4 England had been kingless for six weeks since Stephen’s death on October 25, and yet the kingdom was at peace and waited for Henry.5 There had been little reason for him to hurry across the Channel in order to take control of the treasury and claim his crown before a more nimble and aggressive competitor beat him to it; instead, he was able to settle his affairs in Normandy and wait for a favorable wind before he crossed to England, a luxury that none of his Norman predecessors had ever possessed. Henry and Eleanor were jointly crowned in London on December 19, 1154, by Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury.6 Contemporaries noted that the occasion was memorable for its opulence, but otherwise uneventful. It was certainly unmarred by the riot that accompanied the coronation of Henry’s greatgrandfather , William the Conqueror, or by the unseemly haste and the undertones of treachery that surrounded those of his grandfather, Henry I, and his immediate predecessor, Stephen. After six weeks of peaceful, if tense, expectation, England received her new king and queen.7 Henry II’s accession was remarkable for its orderliness, but it had by no means been inevitable. As contemporaries were painfully aware, it had been preceded by a disaster and a disputed succession that had given way to a period of bitter civil war (later known as the Anarchy). Only years of fighting, intrigue, and diplomacy, aided by the unusually accommodating hand of death, had finally assured Henry’s control over the duchy of Normandy and his rise to the throne of England. 3. Huntingdon, HA, x.31, 755–58; Torigny, Chronique, I:259–60; Gesta Stephani, 149; and John of Hexham, Historia regum, II:327. 4. Henry had been recognized as Stephen’s heir under the Treaty of Winchester in 1153. Huntingdon, HA, x.37, 771; Torigny, Chronique, I:280–81; and Gervase of Canterbury, HistoricalWorks, I:156. 5. Huntingdon, HA, x.40, 775. 6. Henry of Huntingdon gives no date, but Robert de Torigny and the Chronicle of Battle Abbey note that the coronation occurred on Sunday, December 19. Huntingdon, HA, x.40, 775; Torigny, Chronique, I:289–90; and The Chronicle of Battle Abbey, ed. and trans...