ithets Beauclerc and the Lion of Justice, which were
bestowed on him, so far accurately describe him as he appeared to his
people; his attainments were scholarly for his times, and his reign was
distinguished by the strong and organised administration of justice,
although morally his life was a depraved one; after seizing Normandy from
his brother Robert, whom he imprisoned for life, he governed his kingdom
with a firm hand; the turbulent Norman nobles were subdued, while the
administration of the law was greatly improved by the institution of the
_Curia Regis_ (the King's Court) and of itinerant judges; trade took a
start, and the religious life of the nation was deepened through the
advent of the Cistercian monks and the influence of Anselm; he was
married to Eadgyth (changed to Matilda), daughter of Malcolm of Scotland
(1068-1135).

HENRY II., king of England from 1154 to 1189, first of the
Plantagenet line; was the son of Matilda, daughter of Henry I., and her
second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, born at Le Mans;
when he came to the throne as Stephen's successor he was already in
possession, mainly through his marriage with Eleanor, the divorced wife
of Louis VII., of more than half of France; he set himself with all the
vigour of his energetic nature to reform the abuses which had become
rampant under Stephen, and Thomas a Becket was his zealous Chancellor;
the Great Council was frequently summoned to deliberate on national
affairs; the _Curia Regis_ was strengthened, the itinerant judgeships
revived, while the oppression and immorality of the nobles was sternly
suppressed by the demolition of the "adulterine castles"; a blow was
aimed at the privileges and licentiousness of the clergy by the
Constitutions of Clarendon, but their enactment brought about a rupture
between the king and Becket, now Archbishop of Canterbury, which
subsequently ended in the murder of Becket; in 1171 Ireland was invaded
and annexed, and three years later William the Lion of Scotland was
forced to declare his kingdom a fief to the English throne; some time
previously the Welsh princes had done him homage; the last years of his
reign were embittered by quarrels and strife with his ungrateful sons; he
was a man of many kingly qualities, perhaps the best, taken all in all,
that England ever had, and his reign marks an epoch in the development of
constitutional law and liberty (1133-1189).

HENRY III., king of England fro