King Henry II
Gone Medieval
History Hit
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2024
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the pivotal figures in Medieval history, King Henry II centralised royal power, instituted legal reforms and established common law. His marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine expanded his influence, as he became the ruler of a far-reaching European empire. But his demise was just as dramatic as his ascendancy.
In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis tells the story of Henry’s rise to power and his fall brought about by his catastrophic relationship with Thomas Becket and his feud with his sons, including the future Richard the Lionheart and King John.
This episode was edited and mixed by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval, I'm Matt Lewis. This is one of those |
| 0:07.6 | explainer episodes where you get to listen to me go on and on about one of my |
| 0:12.0 | favorite subjects, so sorry in advance. |
| 0:15.0 | This time it's King Henry II of England, |
| 0:18.0 | the founder of the Plantagenet Dynasty and the toy boy to Eleanor of Aquitaine. This came from a listener suggestion by |
| 0:26.0 | Chris Thomas who sent us a little voice note to explain why he wanted to hear something on this |
| 0:31.5 | monarch. Hi Matt, my name's Chris and I'm from Brisbane, Australia. |
| 0:35.0 | You did an episode about Henry the first a few months back, which I loved, |
| 0:38.0 | and it made me think it would be great to hear a show about Henry the second, |
| 0:41.0 | who in my view is England's greatest king, though I know you'll disagree with me on that one, and I think he's one of the greatest kings in medieval Europe. |
| 0:48.0 | I'd love to explore his remarkable story about his brilliant legal reforms, his's often turbulent marriage and clashes with those |
| 0:54.5 | close to him like his power-hungry children and of course his best friend Thomas Beckett. |
| 0:58.9 | Henry's legacy of starting the Plantagenet dynasty is exceptional and I feel he isn't as well known |
| 1:04.2 | or acknowledged as much as other medieval rulers. |
| 1:07.2 | But as you are here, he's up there with the best of them. |
| 1:10.0 | Henry's life story would make a brilliant film on Netflix series. We're going to go one better today, |
| 1:14.8 | a dedicated Gorn medieval episode. Thanks for covering his extraordinary story. History has often remembered Henry II as a gifted ruler, cursed with an inability to let go of power combined with sons who were variously stupid, cruel, ambitious, and much less capable than their father. |
| 1:47.3 | In the case of the youngest, John, he was all of those things at once. |
| 1:51.1 | But is this a fair reflection of Henry and his achievements? Now we can't cover all |
| 1:56.9 | of Henry's life and reign in one episode so this will be some of his highlights. |
| 2:01.9 | And let's see what you think of him by the end of this |
| 2:05.1 | episode as we explore the life of Henry II. Henry was 5th of March 1133. His father was Jeffrey Count of Anjou. His mother was Empress Matilda. She continued |
... |
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