Henry the Young King Henry , known as the Young King ( 28 February 1155 – 11 June 1183 ) , was the second of five sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine but the first to survive infancy . He was officially King of England ; Duke of Normandy , Count of Anjou and Maine . Early life . Little is known of the young prince Henry before the events associated with his marriage and coronation . His mother ' s children by her first marriage to Louis VII of France were Marie of France , Countess of Champagne and Alix of France , Countess Blois . He had one older brother , William IX , Count of Poitiers ( d . 1156 ) , and his younger siblings included Matilda , Duchess of Saxony ; Richard I of England ; Geoffrey II , Duke of Brittany ; Eleanor , Queen of Castile ; Joan , Queen of Sicily ; and John of England . In June 1170 , the fifteen - year - old Henry was crowned king during his father ' s lifetime , something originally practised by the French Capetian dynasty and adopted by the English kings Stephen and Henry II . A Latin poem by a court official written to commemorate the coronation hints at the charisma of this young prince . There he is described as a charming youth of striking beauty , tall but well proportioned , broad - shouldered with a long and elegant neck , pale and freckled skin , bright and wide blue eyes , with a thick mop of the reddish - gold hair characteristic of his dynasty . He was known in his own lifetime as " Henry the Young King " to distinguish him from his father . Because he predeceased his father , he is not counted in the numerical succession of kings of England . Nonetheless , he was an anointed king and his royal status was not disputed . There is a question about his knighting . According to one of Becket ' s correspondents , Henry was knighted by his father before the coronation , but the biographer of William Marshal asserts that the king was knighted by William in the course of the rebellion of 1173 . Tournament hero and celebrity . Henry did not appear to have been very interested in the day - to - day business of government , which distinguished him from his father and younger brothers . His father , however , is reputed to have failed to delegate authority to his son , retaining power in England . The majority opinion amongst historians is that of W . L . Warren ( 1973 ) : " The Young Henry was the only one of his family who was popular in his own day . It was true that he was also the only one who gave no evidence of political sagacity , military skill , or even ordinary intelligence . . . " , and elaborated in a later book , " He was gracious , benign , affable , courteous , the soul of liberality and generosity . Unfortunately he was also shallow , vain , careless , high - hoped , incompetent , improvident , and irresponsible . " The Young King ' s contemporary reputation , however , was by no means so negative . This had much to do with his place in the enthusiastic tournament culture of his own day . We can see this from his appearances in the " History of William Marshal " , the biography of the knight assigned to him as a tutor in 1170 , and who became his tournament team leader until 1182 . The " History " depicts him as constantly moving from one tournament to another across northern and central France between 1175 and 1182 . With his cousins , Philip , Count of Flanders , and Baldwin V , Count of Hainaut , Flanders and Namur , he was one of the key patrons of the sport . He is said to have spent over £200 a day on the great retinue of knights he brought to the tournament of Lagny - sur - Marne in November 1179 . If he lacked political weight , the Young King ' s patronage gave him celebrity status throughout western Europe . The baron and troubador , Bertran de Born , who knew him , said that he was " . . . the best king who ever took up a shield , the most daring and best of all tourneyers . From the time when Roland was alive , and even before , never was seen a knight so skilled , so warlike , whose fame resounded so around the world – even if Roland did come back , or if the world were searched as far as the River Nile and the setting sun . " There was a perception amongst his contemporaries and the next generation that his death in 1183 marked a decline both in the tournament and knightly endeavour . His former chaplain , Gervase of Tilbury , said that " his death was the end of everything knightly " . However , de Born was later highly critical of the Young King , and satirised him in several of his works . Political career . The young Henry played an important part in the politics of his father ' s reign . On 2 November 1160 , he was betrothed to Margaret of France , daughter of King Louis VII of France and his second wife , Constance of Castile , when he was 5 years of age and she was at least 2 . The marriage was an attempt to finally settle the struggle between the Counts of Anjou and the French Kings over possession of the frontier district of the Norman Vexin , which Louis VII acquired from Henry ' s grandfather , Geoffrey Plantagenet , Count of Anjou , around 1144 . By the terms of the settlement , Margaret would bring the castles of the Norman Vexin to her new husband . However , the marriage was pushed through by Henry II when Young Henry and Margaret were small children , so that he could seize the castles . A bitter border war followed between the kings . They were formally married on 27 August 1172 at Winchester Cathedral , when Henry was crowned king of England a second time , this time together with Margaret , by Rotrou , the archbishop of Rouen . Young Henry fell out with his father in 1173 . Contemporary chroniclers allege that it was due to the young man ' s frustration that his father had given him no realm to rule , and feeling starved of funds . The rebellion seems , however , to have drawn strength from much deeper discontent with his father ' s rule , and a formidable party of Anglo - Norman , Norman , Angevin , Poitevin and Breton magnates joined him . The civil war ( 1173 – 74 ) came close to toppling the king and he was narrowly saved by the loyalty of a party of nobles with holdings on the English side of the Channel , and the defeat and capture of the king of Scotland . Young Henry sought a reconciliation after the capture of his mother and the failure of the revolt . By the terms of the settlement , his funds were much increased and he apparently devoted most of the next seven years to the amusement of the tournament . In November 1179 , he represented his father at the coronation of Philip Augustus as associate king of France at Reims . He acted as Steward of France and carried the crown in the coronation procession . Later , he played a leading role in the celebratory tournament held at Lagny - sur - Marne , to which he brought a retinue of over 500 knights at huge expense . The Young Henry ' s affairs took a turn for the worse in 1182 . He fell out with William Marshal , the leader of his tournament " mesnée " . The unknown author of " L ' Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal " suggests that Marshal ' s disgrace was because he had indulged in a clandestine affair with Queen Margaret . David Crouch , one of the Marshal ' s principal modern biographers , argues that the charge against William was actually one of " lèse majesté " , brought on by Marshal ' s own arrogance and greed . The charge of adultery was only introduced in the " Life of William Marshal " as a distraction from the real charges , of which he was most probably guilty . Though the Young King sent his wife early in 1183 to the French court , it was done most likely to keep her safe in the impending war with his brother , Richard , rather than because she was in disgrace . The only child of Henry and Margaret was William of England , born prematurely on 19 June 1177 , and dying three days later . This difficult delivery may have rendered her sterile as she had no further children . Death and burial . Henry the Young King died in the summer of 1183 , during the course of a campaign in the Limousin against his father and his brother Richard . He had just completed a pillage of local monasteries to raise money to pay his mercenaries . He contracted dysentery at the beginning of June . Weakening fast , he was taken to Martel , near Limoges . It was clear to his household that he was dying on 7 June when he was confessed and received the last rites . As a token of his penitence for his war against his father he prostrated himself naked on the floor before a crucifix . He made a testament and since he had taken a crusader ' s vow , he gave his cloak to his friend William Marshal with the plea that he should take the cloak ( presumably with the crusader ' s cross stitched to it ) to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem . On his deathbed , he reportedly asked to be reconciled to his father , but King Henry , fearing a trick , refused to see him . He died on 11 June , clasping a ring his father had sent instead as a sign of his forgiveness . After his death , his father is said to have exclaimed : " He cost me much , but I wish he had lived to cost me more . " After his death there was an attempt by his mother and a faction of his friends to promote his sainthood . Thomas of Earley , archdeacon of Wells , published a sermon not long afterwards which detailed miraculous events attending the cortège which took his body north to Normandy . Henry had left orders that his entrails and other body parts should be buried at the abbey of Charroux , but the rest of his body should rest in Rouen Cathedral . However , during the funeral procession , a member of Henry ' s household was seized by his mercenary captains for debts the late king had owed them . The knights accompanying his corpse were so penniless they had to be fed by charity at the monastery of Vigeois . There were large and emotional gatherings wherever his body rested . At Le Mans , the local bishop halted the procession and ordered the body buried in his cathedral , perhaps to help defuse the civil unrest Henry ' s death had caused . The dean of Rouen recovered the body from the chapter of Le Mans a month later by law suit so the Young Henry could be buried in Normandy as he had desired in his testament . His remains are in Rouen Cathedral , where his tomb is on the opposite side of the altar from the tomb of his younger brother Richard , with whom he was perpetually quarrelling . The tomb of the archbishop of Rouen , who had married him and Margaret , lies nearby in the ambulatory . His brothers Richard I and John both later became kings of England . Appearance and character . The Topography of Ireland by Gerald of Wales says that Henry and Richard were " both tall in stature , rather above the middle size , and of commanding aspect . In courage and magnanimity they were nearly equal ; but in the character of their virtues there was great disparity . . . [ Henry ] was admirable for gentleness and liberality . . . had a commendable suavity . . . commended for his easy temper . . . remarkable for his clemency . . . the vile and undeserving found their refuge in [ Henry ] . . . was the shield of bad men . . . was bent on martial sports . . . bestowed his favours on foreigners . . . [ Henry ' s ] ambition magnanimously compassed the world . " Fictional portrayals . Henry was portrayed by Riggs O ' Hara in the 1964 film , " Becket " . He was also portrayed by Alan Cox ( as a young boy ) , Dominic Savage ( as a teenager ) , and Kevin McNally ( as an adult ) in the 1978 BBC TV series " The Devil ' s Crown " , which dramatised the reigns of his father and brothers . Henry is an important character in Sharon Kay Penman ' s novels , " Time and Chance " and " The Devil ' s Brood . " Henry is an important secondary character in Elizabeth Chadwick ' s novel , " The Greatest Knight . " Although he does not personally appear , Henry ' s death precipitates the events of James Goldman ' s play , " The Lion in Winter " , which features Henry ' s parents and three younger brothers . Henry was also portrayed by Andrea Zirio in the 2013 film , " Richard The Lionheart " .