Henry II of England

Henry II (1133 to 1189) was King of England from 1154 until his death and ruler of the Angevin Empire, which spanned England, parts of Wales and Ireland, and much of France including Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine. He was the eldest son of Geoffrey Plantagenet and Matilda, married Eleanor of Aquitaine, and came to the throne under the Treaty of Wallingford. His conflict with Thomas Becket over control of the English Church ended in the murder of Becket in 1170. For legal history the key point is that his legal reforms are generally considered to have laid the basis for the English Common Law, a legacy that outlasted the collapse of his empire under his son John.