![]() ![]() HENRY II (Image: National Portrait Gallery/Wikimedia Commons) He is mostly remembered for his quarrel with Thomas Becket, and the murder of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. He was a great soldier, and through his wars, and his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, he extended his French lands so that he ruled most of France. Henry II (1154-1189): Son of Matilda, and Geoffrey Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou. ![]() STEPHEN (Image: The Print Collector/Getty) House of Plantagenet Stephen (1135-1154): He was a weak king, and his reign was dogged by constant raids by the Welsh and Scots, the barons being powerful and unruly, and from 1139, when Matilda invaded from Anjou, there was a decade of civil war, which ended when Stephen agreed to nominate Matilda's son Henry as his successor. Live updates from the Coronation of King Charles III. ![]() HENRY I (Image: Hulton Archive) READ NEXT When he died in 1135, 'of a surfeit of lampreys', the Council considered a woman to be unfit to rule, and offered the crown to Stephen, Duke of Blois, a grandson of William I through his daughter Adela. His two sons were drowned in the White Ship in 1120, so his daughter Matilda was named as his successor. He gave England good laws, even if the punishments were often severe. He was called Henry Beauclerc because he was well-educated. Henry I (1100-1135): The youngest son of William I. WILLIAM II (Image: Hulton Archive/Stringer) He was killed by a stray arrow, while out hunting in the New Forest (which may or may not have been shot deliberately on the instructions of his younger brother, Henry). ![]() William II (1087-1100): He was unpopular and given to extravagance and cruelty. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR (Image: The Print Collector/Getty) In 1085 he started compiling the Domesday Book, a record of the wealth of his new kingdom. William claimed that his second cousin, Edward The Confessor, had promised him the throne of England, and that Harold was therefore an usurper. He was Duke of Normandy and became king of England after defeating Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. William I (1066-1087): Usually referred to as William the Conqueror. ROYAL CEREMONY: Bishops paying homage to Queen Elizabeth II during her coronation in 1953 Norman Kings ![]()
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