HENRY FITZEMPRESS

 

Henry Fitzempress aka Henry II was the son of Empress Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou aka Geoffrey le Bel aka Geoffrey Plantagent. Geoffrey was the son and heir of Count Fulk V of Anjou (King of Jerusalem) and Eremburga de La Flèche, Countess of Maine, he was the second husband of Empress Matilda who was the daughter of King Henry I of England and granddaughter of William the Conqueror.  He was Count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine and the Duke of Normandy and the father of King Henry II of England (and subsequent sons Geoffrey and William). He was married to Mathilda in Cathédrale Saint-Julien where his son Henry would later be baptized and where Geoffrey himself would be interred. Henry I married his daughter, widowed Empress Matilda, to Geoffrey to cement relations with Anjou, garnering continental support. The age mismatched couple was notoriously unhappy and Geoffrey unfaithful. Geoffrey died in 1151 never to see his son Henry ascend to the throne.

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Reading ideas for this post:

W.L. Warren, Henry II, (University of California Press Berkley 1973) 

Jeffery Anderson. The Angevin Dynasties of Europe 900-1500, (Crowood Press Ltd Wiltshire 2019)

 

See below image of Matilda's resting spot and the funerary plaquie of Geoffrey Plantagent now in the museum of Le Mans. (see link below in Link List)

 

A bit about Ranulf

 The family of Ranulf while being quite less in stature than Henry's was well know and well off.

The Glanville name is associated with land holdings after the conquest and a Robert de Glanville is listed in Doomesday. (see link in Link List below)

BY JOSEPH HENRY BEALE, JR ., A.M. , LL.B. , PROFESSOR
OF LAW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY .
I. RANULPH DE GLANVILLE.
RANULPH DE GLANVILLE was born in the Suffolk
Stratford, about 1130 A.D. He is believed to have been
the son of Sir Hervey de Glanville, Chamberlain to King
Stephen, and the grandson of that Ranulph de Glan
ville who came over with the Conqueror. The family
was an important one, owning much land in the counties
of Suffolk and Norfolk.

Henry and Ranulf

 On 12 October 1190 Ranulf died. He had traveled to the Crusades which at that time involved the hotly disputed city of Acre.  Did he go to fulfill a life long desire or perhaps his time of power in England was at an end or is it that he wanted to be free of the political morass that comes with a new king?

 

Henry II, King of England and his Justiciar.

Henry II (reigned in England 1154-1189) and Ranulf de Glanville (died 1190), Chief Justiciar of England beginning in 1180 had a good working relationship and Ranulf was known as the King's "eyes".  He was Henry's right hand man, learned, clever, talented and faithful.  For Henry faithfulness would be very important.

There is some disagreement over whether or not Ranulf wrote the document shown below: ‘Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England’.

In his many roles in the service of the crown and himself he succeeded and even survived the transfer of power upon Henry II's death to Richard I. When Richard I took the throne in 1189 or shortly thereafter Ranulf left on Crusade where he died. 

But we are getting way ahead in the story as a matter of fact the part where these two men are dead is indeed the end.