Book Review: "Henry II: A Prince Among Princes" by Richard Barber

Let me introduce you to what I'm doing at the moment; I am reading one book about each king or queen from English History, starting with Edward the Confessor and going all the way through to Queen Elizabeth II. So far, I have read a book about Edward the Confessor, that I thoroughly enjoyed. I have read a book about Harold Godwinson that could've been enjoyed more. I have read a really great book about William the Conqueror, learned a ton from a great book about William Rufus (William II) and read a brilliant book about Henry I. I moved on to King Stephen and then to Empress Matilda and now - I read a book on Henry II. This book is entitled: Henry II: A Prince Among Princes.

The way this book starts off is by analysing the character of Henry II, looking at what kind of man he was in his everyday life. He was, it has been studied, a man of principle and health. He liked exercise and horseriding. But, because of his lack of attention to safety and equipment, Henry II often ended up with injuries and roughness on parts of his body. Henry II was definitely a king who was trying to be better than those before him, but as we have already heard and as we know from history - much bigger problems than sore hands await Henry II's reign.

The next chapter goes back to before the beginning of Henry II's reign and looks at his main issues with King Stephen from the time before Henry's own mother, Empress Matilda. If William Adelin hadn't have died in the White Ship Disaster, the first Civil War entitled The Anarchy wouldn't have broken out and none of this would have ever have happened. Something that we learn from the era in which Stephen and Matilda are fighting for the throne is that law and order were constantly divided and conquered, breaking and being rebuilt. Henry II would seek to amend this during his own reign, restoring some amount of order to the kingdom. He also concentrated his efforts on expanding his kingdom, just as his mother had intended him to do. This is one of the reasons he married the powerful figure Eleanor of Aquitaine.

We also get a view of Henry's relations with Thomas Becket. When Becket gets closer and closer to Henry, obviously people start to talk about this man who basically believes that the king should be under the guidance of the church at all times. The amount of information we have about the relations between Becket and Henry II is amazing, there is even information about the fact that Becket fled from the church in order to escape Henry's men though, it is not clear as to whether they actually pursued him. Obviously this all leads up to Becket's death which was violent as it was politically motivated.

When we get to the next part, we investigate Henry II's achievements and we see mostly how he was king of a lot of places, conquered and took over just as his mother and his wife wanted. The book itself focuses on how it was to be Henry II at this particular time with everyone expecting that he listens to them. But, in his own right - he made some pretty harsh decisions and before you ask, yes I do think Henry II ordered Thomas Becket to be killed.

Ultimately, I will be moving on to the next book, but this was an interesting investigation of one of the strangest kings in English History - one that believed so much in his own power that he was willing to take advice from the corrupt rather than listening to the people who cared about him most.