Westminster. Rouen. Chinon. Poitiers. The Four Centres Of Power For Henry II Plantagenet. Mediæval King Of England, 1154 – 1189. Friend And Foe Of Thomas à Becket. (Part One).

Soundtrack from Simon Schama’s

“A History of Britain”,

which included King Henry II's reign.

Sung by Emma Kirkby (Soprano)

Music by John Harle.

Available on YouTube

HERE

An excerpt from folio 100r of Royal MS 14 C VII 

(Historia Anglorum). The Coat-of-Arms is that of 

Henry III, King of England.

Date: 13th-Century.

Source:

British Library Web-Site (Royal MS 14 C VII).

Author: Matthew Paris (1200–1259).

(Wikimedia Commons)

“Three lions passants guardants or”.

Coat-of-Arms of the Plantagenets.

The Blazon of the Arms of Plantagenet is: “Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or armed and langued azure”,[18][19] signifying three identical Gold Lions (also 

known as Leopards) with Blue Tongues and Claws, 

walking past but facing the observer, arranged in a column 

on a Red background.

Although the tincture Azure of Tongue and Claws is not 

cited in many Blazons, they are historically a distinguishing feature of the Arms of England.

This Coat-of-Arms, designed in the High Middle Ages, 

has been variously combined with those of the Kings of 

France, Scotland, a symbol of Ireland, the House of Nassau and the Kingdom of Hanover, according to dynastic and other political changes occurring in England, but has not altered since it took a fixed form in the reign of King Richard I of England (1189 – 1199), the second Plantagenet King.

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (French: Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, ruled as Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Nantes, King of England (1154–1189) and Lord of Ireland. At various times, he also controlled Wales, Scotland and Brittany.

Henry was the son of Geoffrey of Anjou and Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England. He became actively involved by the age of 14 in his mother's efforts to claim the throne of England, then occupied by Stephen of Blois, and was made Duke of Normandy at 17. 

He inherited Anjou in 1151 and shortly afterwards married Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Louis VII of France had recently been annulled. Stephen of Blois agreed to a Peace Treaty after Henry’s military expedition to England in 1153. Henry inherited the Kingdom on Stephen’s death a year later.

PART TWO FOLLOWS.