…a son, Henry, was born in London to King Henry of England and Queen Eleanor on 28 February [1155] and was baptized by Richard, bishop of London. Ralph of Diceto, Images of History
Henry, the future Young King, was the second son of Henry II, King of England, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, and Eleanor, Queen of England and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, and their first child to be born in the purple. At the time of his birth Eleanor was thirty-one and already a mother of three, two daughters by her first husband, Louis VII of France, and a son, William (b.1153) by her second husband. And whereas William’s was a special triumph of her own – she proved her first husband wrong and showed she was perfectly able to produce a male heir – her second son must have been seen as an additional confirmation that she and Henry had the Almighty on their side.
Shortly before young Henry’s birth, on 19 December 1154, Eleanor, seven months pregnant, was crowned together with her husband at Westminster Abbey by Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury. A few days afterwards, they celebrated Christmas at Bermondsey manor, where the newly crowned king held council to discuss and agree upon ‘a general demolition of castles erected during Stephen’s reign, and the expulsion of the Flandrian routiers, bands of Flemish mercenaries who engaged in brigandage, that had overrun the kingdom. It was probably there, in a Saxon palace opposite the Tower of London, where Eleanor delivered her second son.
Harold II held the initial manor before it went to the Norman kings (it could be found in the royal demesne in 1086). It was also a site where the first post-Conquest monastic house and manor were founded by William II. Possibly, as Rose Graham pointed out, he intended it to become his burial church. Bermondsey was a daughter-house of the Cluniac La-Charite-sur-Loire. William granted the church of St Savior to it. Both Henry I and Stephen extended to the house meaning they regarded it as a royal foundation.
Newborn Henry was baptized by Richard de Belmeis II, bishop of London (1152-1162), former canon and archdeacon of Middlesex and nephew of the former bishop, Richard de Belmeis I appointed in 1108 by Henry I. The London see and chapter were occupied by a Belmeis – Foliot dynasty (famous Gilbert Foliot was also related to the Belmeis clan) for a large part of the twelfth century (1108-1127 and 1152-1187). The baptism ceremony itself took place shortly after birth in case the baby should die before being given the chance of salvation which only the baptism could assure.
The baptism of a child of royal or noble birth was usually conducted in a private chapel in the presence of godparents or ‘gosspis’, who were supposed to be the child’s spiritual guardians and instructors throughout its life. The main godparent of the same sex as the baby named the child and lifted it out of the font. The name was usually a family name and thus the new-born Henry was christened after his great-grandfather, Henry I, the Lion of Justice and powerful ruler.
Let me quote Nicholas Orme’s From Childhood to Chivalryto explain what our little Henry had been through during ceremony: ‘In accordance with the medieval rite of baptism, salt was put into its [baby’s] mouth, its ears and nostrils were wetted with saliva, oiled was smeared on its breast and back, and it was totally immersed in the font three times: once on the right side, once on the left and once face downwards’. Eleanor was not present. According to the custom she needed to wait forty days for her churching ceremony, which was to be held to give thanks for her survival of childbirth. It was also a cleansing ritual to welcome her back into society.
When Henry was born his father was away, busily restoring order in his realm (York – Scarborough – Nottinghamshire – the Western Counties). Having succeeded Stephen as king of England, at two-and-twenty Henry II, as William of Newburgh put it in his History, ‘possessed the dignity of more extensive empire than any other who had hitherto reigned in England, for it extended from the farthest boundary of Scotland to the Pyrenean mountains’, but had his hands full dealing with all that came in the aftermath of the civil war waged by his predecessors.
He did not return south until c. 27 March when he held a great council at London, at which many bishops and abbots sought renewal and confirmation of their charters. Immediately after his return he must have seen his second-born for the first time, held him in his arms and presented him proudly to the nobles of the realm. In the opening days of April he would arrange yet one more meeting, the one of great importance. Both his sons, William and Henry would be taken to Wallingford, where their father would call ‘together the barons and bishops of the realm to swear allegiance to his eldest son and, in case of William’s death, to Henry as his second heir’, a ceremony which neither of the boys would remember.
Alas, not a year would pass, when little William, a few months shy of his third birthday would fall ill and die, the death that for his younger brother would mean a sudden change of fortune: as the eldest surviving son he would become his father’s heir and the only king in English history (after the Norman Conquest) crowned in his father’s lifetime.
About the author:
Katarzyna Ogrodnik-Fujcik specializes in British literature and history, her area of expertise being the first Plantagenets (the Angevins). She hails from Poland and writes for different magazines and websites on Polish and European Middle Ages. You can find her blog dedicated to Henry the Young King here.
