Henry II of England

Henry was born in 1133, the eldest son of Geoffrey Plantagenet and Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England. By fourteen he was fighting for his mother's claim to the English throne against her cousin Stephen; by 1150 his father made him Duke of Normandy, and a year later he inherited Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. His marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine handed him control of most of France. A military expedition in 1153 forced Stephen to accept him as heir; Henry became king in 1154. He spent the early years restoring royal power, fought campaigns in Wales, and clashed bitterly with his former friend Thomas Becket over control of the Church - a fight that ended with Becket's murder in 1170. He waged a decades-long cold war with Louis VII of France, expanding into Brittany and Toulouse. But his eight children tore the empire apart from within: in 1173 his heir "Young Henry" rebelled, joined by brothers Richard and Geoffrey and their mother Eleanor. Henry crushed the Great Revolt, but his sons kept rising. Young Henry died of dysentery in 1183, Geoffrey in 1186. By 1189 Philip II of France had turned Richard against him; bleeding from an ulcer, Henry was defeated and re