Henry II of Champagne (29 July 1166 – 10 September 1197) was
count of ChampagneThe Counts of Champagne ruled the region of Champagne from 950 to 1316. Champagne evolved from the county of Troyes in the late eleventh century and Hugh I was the first to officially use the title "Count of Champagne". When Louis became King of France in 1314, upon the death of his father Philip...
from 1181 to 1197, and
King of JerusalemThis is a list of kings of Jerusalem, from 1099 to 1291, as well as claimants to the title up to the present day.-Kings of Jerusalem :...
from 1192 to 1197, although he never used the title of king.
Early Life and Family
Henry was the eldest son of Count
Henry I of ChampagneHenry I of Champagne , known as "the Liberal", was count of Champagne from 1152 to 1181. He was the eldest son of Count Thibaut II of Champagne and his wife, Matilda of Carinthia....
and
Marie of FranceMarie of France , Countess of Champagne was the elder daughter of Louis VII of France and his first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.- Family :Marie's younger sister was Alix of France....
, a daughter of King
Louis VII of FranceLouis VII was King of France, the son and successor of Louis VI . He ruled from 1137 until his death. He was a member of the House of Capet. His reign was dominated by feudal struggles , and saw the beginning of the long rivalry between France and England...
and
Eleanor of AquitaineEleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France and of England...
. His aunt
Adèle of ChampagneAdèle of Champagne , also known as Adelaide and Alix, was the third wife of Louis VII of France and the mother of his only male heir, the future Philip II...
was Queen of France.
In 1171, Henry was betrothed to Isabella of Hainault. When she married
Philip II of FrancePhilip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
instead, his father, aunt and other members of his family were angered. It temporarily made Queen Mother Adèle's faction hostile to Isabella's family and so caused tension at the French court.
Henry's father died in 1181, and his mother ruled as regent until 1187.
Crusade
In 1190 Henry left for the East, after having his barons swear to recognize his younger brother
TheobaldTheobald III was Count of Champagne from 1197 to his death.Theobald was the younger son of Henry I of Champagne and Marie, a daughter of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine...
as his successor should he fail to return. He joined the Third Crusade, arriving ahead of his uncles, King
Philip II of FrancePhilip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
and King
Richard I of EnglandRichard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
. Initially, he was one of the leaders of the French contingent at the siege of Acre before Philip's arrival. He is said to have been a member of the group involved in the abduction of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem, to get her to consent to a divorce from
Humphrey IV of ToronHumphrey IV of Toron was the lord of Toron, Kerak, and Oultrejordain in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.-Biography:...
so that she could be married to
Conrad of MontferratConrad of Montferrat was a northern Italian nobleman, one of the major participants in the Third Crusade. He was the de facto King of Jerusalem, by marriage, from 24 November 1190, but officially elected only in 1192, days before his death...
. Henry was related to Conrad through both his maternal grandparents. According to
Baha ad-Din ibn ShaddadBahā' ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Rafi ibn Shaddād was a 12th-century Muslim jurist and scholar, an Arabian historian of great note, notable for writing a biography of Saladin whom he knew well.Ibn Shaddād was born in Mosul on 10 Ramadan 539 AH , where he studied the...
, he was wounded at Acre on 15 November.
Later on in the campaign, Henry shifted his allegiances to Richard. In April 1192, King Richard sent Henry as his representative from Acre to Tyre, to inform Conrad of Montferrat of his election as King of Jerusalem. Henry then returned to Acre. A few days later, Conrad was murdered by two
HashshashinThe Assassins were an order of Nizari Ismailis, particularly those of Persia that existed from around 1092 to 1265...
. Henry came back to Tyre two days later, ostensibly to help organise Conrad's coronation, but found that a funeral was being prepared instead. He was immediately betrothed to the newly widowed – and pregnant – Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem. They were married just eight days after Conrad's death.
The marriage was glossed romantically by some of the chroniclers: that Isabella was so taken with Henry's physical attractions (he was 20 years younger than Conrad) that she asked him to marry her. Since she was already known to be pregnant with Conrad's child (
Maria of MontferratMaria of Montferrat was Queen of Jerusalem, the daughter of Conrad of Montferrat and Isabella, Queen of Jerusalem...
), the marriage was considered scandalous by some, but it was politically vital for her to acquire another husband to defend the kingdom. However, some consultation with the
Haute CourThe Haute Cour was the feudal council of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was sometimes also called the curia generalis, the curia regis, or, rarely, the parlement.-Composition of the court:...
might have been expected. The couple went on to have two daughters,
AliceAlice of Champagne was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and her third husband Henry II, Count of Champagne. Alice and her sister Philippa spent part of their life fighting for their father's homeland of Champagne, over another branch of their family...
and
PhilippaPhilippa of Champagne, Lady of Ramerupt and of Venizy was the third daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and Henry II, Count of Champagne. She was the wife of Erard de Brienne-Ramerupt who encouraged her in 1216 to claim the county of Champagne which belonged to her cousin Theobald IV, who...
.
Henry asked for permission from his uncle Richard, who gave it promptly: however, since Richard was suspected of Conrad's murder, this raises further questions about the whole episode. Indeed, Henry, who was known to the Arabs as "
al-kond Herri", later sought an alliance with the Hashshashin, and was invited to visit their fortress stronghold, al-Kahf. To demonstrate his authority, the grand master of the Hashshashin beckoned to two adherents, who immediately flung themselves from the ramparts to their deaths. The Hashshashin then offered to commit a murder for Henry, as an honour to their guest. Henry demurred, concluded the treaty, and departed. Patrick A. Williams has suggested Henry himself as a suspect in Conrad's murder, although it would have been a risky undertaking without his uncle's support.
Henry died in 1197, falling from a first-floor window at his palace in Acre. There are varying accounts in different manuscripts of the
Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, also known as
The Chronicle of ErnoulErnoul is the name generally given to the author of a chronicle of the late 12th century dealing with the fall of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.-Biography:Ernoul himself is mentioned only once in history, and only in his own chronicle...
. The majority suggest that a window-lattice or balcony gave way as he leaned against it. A servant, possibly a dwarf named Scarlet, also fell, after trying to save him by catching hold of his hanging sleeve, but he weighed too little to pull the king (who was tall and strongly built) back. Another version suggests that Henry had been watching a parade from the window, when a party of
PisaPisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
n envoys entered the room. Turning to greet them, he stepped backwards and overbalanced. Whatever the exact circumstances, Henry was killed outright; the servant, who suffered a fractured femur, raised the alarm, but later died of his injury. Some accounts suggest that Henry might have survived if his servant had not landed on top of him.
Legacy
His widow Queen Isabella remarried soon after his death. Her fourth (and last) husband was
Amalric of LusignanAmalric II of Jerusalem or Amalric I of Cyprus, born Amalric of Lusignan , King of Jerusalem 1197–1205, was an older brother of Guy of Lusignan....
, king of
CyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
. Henry's heir-general was his eldest daughter Alice who was soon married to her stepbrother King
Hugh I of CyprusHugh I of Cyprus succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on April 1, 1205 underage upon the death of his elderly father Amalric of Lusignan, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem...
and whose heirs represent the senior line of Counts of Champagne.
Henry left behind several difficulties for Champagne. He had borrowed a great deal of money to finance his expedition to Jerusalem, and for his marriage; and the succession to the county of Champagne would later be contested by his daughters. In 1213, supporters of his nephew
Theobald IV of ChampagneTheobald I , called the Troubadour, the Chansonnier, and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne from birth and King of Navarre from 1234...
alleged to a
papal legateA papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....
that the annulment of Isabella's marriage to Humphrey of Toron (who was still alive during her marriage to Henry) was invalid, and therefore the girls were illegitimate. However, this was questionable: the legitimacy of Isabella's daughter by Conrad, Maria, and the right of her descendants to the throne of Jerusalem was never challenged, and if Maria was legitimate, so too were Isabella's daughters by Henry. Theobald eventually had to buy off both Alice and Philippa at considerable cost.
Fictional representations
Henry has generally been treated favorably in novels about the Third Crusade. However, in
Alan GordonAlan Gordon is the author of several mysteries, the first of which is based on the characters from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. He lives in New York City and is a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society.-Bibliography:...
's
The Widow of Jerusalem (2003), he is one of the chief villains. This treatment may be influenced by Patrick A. Williams's article, listed below.
Henri is a major character in the new book
LionheartLionheart may refer to:People*"Richard the Lionheart", a name for Richard I of England*" Brendon 'Lionheart' Hartley" is a nickname given to motor racing driver Brendon Hartley*"Corazon de Leon", former ringname of professional wrestler Chris Jericho...
by historical novelist
Sharon Kay PenmanSharon Kay Penman is an American historical novelist, published in the UK as Sharon Penman. She is best known for the Welsh Princes trilogy and the Plantagenet series. In addition, she has written four medieval mysteries, the first of which, The Queen's Man, was a finalist in 1996 for the Best...
about the life and times of Richard I. He also appears in her novel
Devil's BroodDevil's Brood is a historical novel written by Sharon Kay Penman, published in 2008, and is the third volume in her Plantagenet series, preceeded by When Christ and His Saints Slept and Time and Chance, and followed by Lionheart ....
.
Sources
- Morgan, M. R. The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre,1973
- Nolan, Kathleen D. Capetian Women, 2003.
- Payne, Robert. The Dream and the Tomb, 1984
- Runciman, Steven
The Hon. Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman CH — known as Steven Runciman — was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages...
. A History of the Crusades, vol. 3, 1954
- Wheeler, Bonnie. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, 2002
- Williams, Patrick A. "The Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat: Another Suspect?", Traditio, vol. XXVI, 1970.