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Example research essay topic: Henry The Ii King Of England Western Civilization - 1,305 words

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... ded that he cease to question the validity of the Young King's crowning or leave the country. He refused, and they left him for a time to consider. There was, in fact, no choice left to him. He could not accept yet another shameful flight, and he had finally put himself beyond the reach of the generosity of his old friend the King. In his last minutes his theatrical instinct served him well.

He would not have the doors of the cathedral locked, nor conceal himself, and when the knights returned he went toward them to ask what they wanted. They cut him down at once, spilling his brains on the paved floor are the spot that is still called the Martyrdom. Later on, when he was known as Saint Thomas the "holy blissful martyr" an altar was set up to him called the Altar of the Sword's Point. It was an inspired choice of name, for the one thing in his life Beckett did not try to avoid was the sword's point. And, after all, his vindictiveness caused his King less trouble than might have been expected. At the news of his death Henry wept for three days; then, with his characteristic good sense, he saw that he must make peace with the Pope, and seized the chance of presenting him with a whole country.

It happened that a Norman Knight, Richard de Clare nicknamed Strongbow, had made himself Knight of Leinster. Henry took a force to Ireland, received Strongbow's homage, and imposed on the Irish clergy the authority of Rome. In return for the Irish Church, the Pope gave him a very light penance for the murder of an archbishop; he was to revoke the Articles of Clarendon, send 200 knights to the Holy Land, go himself to fight Saracen in Spain if the Pope thought it necessary, which he never did, and submit to a penitential scourging at Beckett's shrine. The ceremonial scouring, as it happened, fell on the day when Henry's armies captured his particular enemy William the Lion of Scotland, so even that sting could not have been too severe. The fundamental disagreement with the Church, However- was the King or the Church sovereign? - was too great to be solved by the death of Beckett. It had to be left until later reigns, for virtually all the eighteen years left to Henry II were to be taken up by the rebellions of his sons.

There were four of them- Henry, Richard, Geoffry, and John- and collectively they have been called Devil's Brood. Behind them in most of their risings was their mother Eleanor, who now began to justify the opinion of her former husband. Nominally, Henry the Young King was lord of Anjou; Richard of Aquitaine, and Geoffry (later) of Brittany. The youngest son, John, was given no lands, and nicknamed Lackland for it.

Was it Henry's unhappy attempt to stop his most dearly loved son showing his greed as nakedly as the rest? The problem of ambitious sons defeated Henry II as completely as it defeated the majority of his predecessors and successors; but, shameful as the sons were, the father was not wise. He consistently refused to allow them any real power just as he consistently ignored the thwarted energies of his wife Eleanor. The trouble began with John, who was on the point of betrothal and needed a proper establishment. Henry asked the Young King to give up some of his fiefs. The Young King refused, and then, encouraged by Eleanor and by Louis the VII of France, who was always ready to embarrass his great rival of England, rebelled and demanded either England or the French domains for himself.

Richard and Geoffry promptly joined him and Louis in an attack on Normandy, while William the Lion of Scotland, as well as some English barons, created trouble in England. Henry rode on this trouble without any great exertion and characteristically forgave his sons (not for the only time). His general amnesty excepted only his wife Eleanor, who was held in prison. The princes were given extra lands to console them, and some minor revolts there kept them occupied for the next five years. henry had peace enough even to think of organizing a Crusade. It did not last; for in 1180 Louis VII of France died, and was succeeded by Phillip Augustus, his son by his second wife.

Philip Augustus reigned over only half of France, because his father had given away the other half rather than tolerate Eleanor of Aquitaine as his first wife, and it was reasonable that he should be determined to break the power of Eleanor's husband, Henry. But it was a struggle even more personal than that, because his weapon was dissension within Henry's family. It was cold intelligence that ruined the Devil's Brood; and yet he must have had charm, too, for much of his power over Henry lay in his personal attraction of the Young King and his brothers. Perhaps Henry was too much used to grateful subjects to deal wisely with ungrateful sons. He tried to keep the Young King's loyalty by commanding Richard and Geoffry to do him homage, which was in fact correct by feudal standards. Richard refused, the Young King attacked him, and while Henry was trying to quell the consequent war he was summoned to the Young King, who was said to be ill.

He suspected treachery and refused to go, and his son died. Henry fell in agonies of remorse. He paid his dead son's considerable debts, saying, "He has cost me enough, but I wish he had lived to cost me more. " Yet he had learned nothing. Richard was now his heir, and he proposed a new division of his domains, which was fair enough except that it required Richard to give Aquitaine to John, and Richard had ruled and defended Aquitaine foe years, and passionately loved it. Possibly Henry had no idea of his love; Aquitaine was the land of Richard's mother, and Richard was always a mother's boy. Richard refused to give up his lands; he also quarreled bitterly with his father about his delayed marriage with Alice, half-sister of Phillip Augustus.

It was possible that Henry was keeping Richard, as his heir, free for a better match, but it was also rumored that Alice was Henry's mistress. Since Richard was a notorious homosexual, it was plain that his real purpose was a quarrel with his father. John, meanwhile, still lacked land, and in 1185 the Christians of the Holy Land were looking for an heir to their King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. who was a leper. John begged on his knees for his heritage, but Henry wisely refused his permission. In compensation he made John Lord of Ireland; but in the hands of his sons even Henry's wisest dispositions went wrong.

John sulked at what he had lost in the Holy Land and squandered what might have been a valuable opportunity in Ireland. Mostly he jeered at the wild Irish ways of his more powerful subjects. Finally Henry had to release Eleanor, after eleven years of captivity, and beg her to influence the intractable Richard. If he again refused to give Richard power in his kingdom, at least by now he had evidence to spare of his disloyalty. Philip Augustus had been intriguing which Geoffrey, which was frustrated by Geoffrey's death in 1186, but he now came into real conflict with Henry over a border dispute. Henry called Richard and John to join him, and truce was arranged.

The truce was more fatal to Henry than any battle could have been, for it brought Richard within reach of Philip's seductions. Soon they were "eating from the same dish and sleeping in the same bed. " This situation...


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