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King Henry II

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King Henry II
One key person of the Middle Ages that I have studied or know of is, King Henry II. He was born on March 5, 1133 in Le Mans, France and died on July 6, 1189. Throughout his lifetime, his was, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Lord of Ireland and King of England. King Henry was related to Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Richard I. Three of his achievements that were significant to the Middle Ages are; improving economics and legal system of England. Being the first ever Angevin king and having power over territories that stretched of Ireland to the Pyrenees. The first accomplishment of Henry was improving England’s economics and legal system. He improved the economics by reforming the way currency was managed. As a result, that caused an increase of money in the country. Henry also established a system of royal finance. He improved the legal system by making changes. He took crimes more seriously and reinforced feudal principles. Henry also put all his strategies into a legal handbook called the Treatise of Glanvill. The second achievement of King Henry was the first ever Angevin king. Henry became the king of England in 1154 after he defeated the previous king Stephen. He ruled England until his death in 1189. In his time he as the first ever Angevin to become king. During his throne, his own wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine tried to turn their kids against Henry and try to kill him. When Eleanor failed, Henry threw her in prison. As a king, Henry also conquered a mass of territory in the United Kingdom. The last achievement of King Henry's was having control over mostly all territories in the United Kingdom and. He conquered the land that stretched from Ireland to the Pyrenees, with is over 1,300 miles in distance. Henry made Ireland part of the large domain of land he ruled, that included France. He controlled more of France since the Carolingian Dynasty that had existed more than several hundred years ago.

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