Henry II (French: Henri; 29 July 1166 – 10 September 1197) was the count of Champagne from 1181 and the lord of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his marriage to Isabella I of Jerusalem in 1192 until his death in 1197. He was an assertive ruler and was especially popular among his subjects in Palestine.
Henry was the eldest child of Count Henry I of Champagne and Marie of France. His mother was the half-sister of Kings Philip II of France and Richard I of England. Henry was betrothed in 1171 to Isabella of Hainaut, but Philip married her himself in 1180, causing a family rift and revolt against Philip. When Henry's father died in 1181, his mother ruled Champagne in Henry's name. Shortly before assuming personal rule, Henry negotiated a betrothal to Ermesinde, the infant daughter of Count Henry the Blind of Luxembourg and Namur. The count of Namur declared that Henry should succeed him, disinheriting his nephew Count Baldwin V of Hainaut, Philip's father-in-law. Philip sided with Baldwin, and Henry did not gain control of Luxembourg and Namur.
In 1190, Henry joined the Third Crusade, aimed at conquering Jerusalem back from Muslims. He had his barons recognize his young brother, Theobald, as his heir and left his lands under their mother's rule. He arrived at Acre in July 1190, heartening the Christian army besieging the city. Acre fell in 1191, after the arrival of Henry's half-uncles Philip and Richard. In April 1192, the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem chose Conrad of Montferrat, the husband of the royal heir Isabella, to be their king. Henry conveyed the news to Conrad, who was killed by Assassins within days. The nobles then elected Henry and he married Isabella.
The Third Crusade ended with the reestablishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem on a narrow strip of land along the Palestinian coast excluding Jerusalem itself. Henry ruled the kingdom, but was never crowned its king. He had a difficult relationship with the Church but enjoyed the support of the barons. He responded resolutely when Pisan merchants plotted on behalf of the former king, Isabella's brother-in-law Guy of Lusignan, and had Guy's brother Aimery imprisoned. The same year, Henry allied with the Assassins and intervened in the conflict between Leo II of Armenia and Bohemond III of Antioch. In 1197, Henry reconciled with Aimery and arranged for his three daughters by Isabella to marry Aimery's sons. Soon after, he fell from his window and died. Aimery married Isabella and succeeded him, while Champagne passed to Theobald.
Henry was born on 29 July 1166. He was named after his father, Count Henry I of Champagne, who commissioned a luxurious gospel book for the Abbey of Saint Loup in Troyes to celebrate the birth of his firstborn son. The boy's mother, Countess Marie, was the elder daughter of King Louis VII of France and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. After Eleanor and Louis divorced in 1152, Eleanor married King Henry II of England, while Louis married Count Henry's sister Adela. Adela bore Louis his only son, Philip, in 1165. Henry I was likewise well-connected: besides Queen Adela, his siblings included Theobald V of Blois, Stephen I of Sancerre, and Archbishop William of Reims. At this time, the County of Champagne was one of the most powerful counties in the Kingdom of France.
In 1171, Count Henry and Count Philip I of Flanders arranged a double betrothal for their young relatives: The younger Henry was to marry Philip's niece, Isabella of Hainaut, and his sister Marie was promised to Isabella's brother Baldwin. On 13 May 1179, Henry gained a brother, Theobald, and Henry's betrothal to Isabella was subsequently confirmed by her father, Count Baldwin V of Hainaut. Shortly after this, Count Henry departed for the crusader states to lead an expedition in support of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, leaving Marie to rule Champagne as regent.
In November 1179, King Louis VII, recently paralyzed, had his son Philip crowned king. Philip disliked his maternal family and immediately broke ties with his mother Adela and uncle Theobald. Count Philip I of Flanders emerged as King Philip's chief adviser and proposed that the young king take Henry's betrothed, Isabella, for himself. Philip and Isabella's marriage was celebrated in April 1180 to the indignation of the Champenois family. Theobald, his brothers William and Stephen, and their nephew Duke Hugh III of Burgundy revolted against King Philip; King Henry II of England mediated peace between King Philip and Queen Adela in June, and King Louis died in September.
Count Henry returned to Troyes from Jerusalem gravely ill on 8 March 1181, and died in the evening of 16 March. Since Henry II was only 15 and would reach the age of majority when he turned 21, Countess Marie became regent in his name. She frequently associated Henry with herself in her acts, but in practice, she exercised the powers of the comital office alone. Henry seems to have been tutored privately at his parents' household rather than a religious institution or the court of another noble. Unlike his father, he was not highly intellectual, and although he sometimes sat at court with his mother, he does not appear to have been mentored in rulership. Still aged 15, Henry joined Arnold V of Ardres, heir apparent to the County of Guînes, on a tournament circuit with a band of other young noblemen. Arnold travelled with a personal trainer in martial arts, and Henry became accomplished in arms as well as familiar with the lands of northern France as a result.On 14 May 1181, Marie and her brothers-in-law reconciled with Count Baldwin of Hainaut, who promised another one of his daughters, Yolanda, to Henry. Baldwin's brother-in-law Count Philip of Flanders, Henry's aunt Queen Adela, and Count Henry I of Bar all swore to the new contract. At this occasion, the Champenois family plotted against King Philip, and their rebellion lasted until December of that year.
Henry's sister Marie married Baldwin, son of Count Baldwin of Hainaut, in 1185; Count Baldwin asked that Henry's marriage with Yolanda, who was then six years old, be postponed on account of her youth. Possibly because he had a brother to succeed him, Henry appears not to have been interested in marrying. In late 1186, a daughter, Ermesinde, was born to Count Baldwin's uncle Count Henry the Blind of Luxembourg and Namur. Henry the Blind had previously promised the succession of Namur to Baldwin, but now wished to make his infant daughter his heir. In March 1187, he sent his nephew Count Manasses IV of Rethel—a vassal of Henry of Champagne—to offer Ermesinde to Henry in marriage, and the betrothal was negotiated on 29 March. Baldwin, who was furious with Henry for jilting his daughter and dashing his hopes of inheriting Namur, began complaining to King Philip and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. In July, Henry travelled to Namur to formalize the agreement, and Ermesinde's father had his men swear to accept Henry as his successor. Henry then had Ermesinde taken to Champagne, where she would be brought up.
Between March and July 1187, Henry accompanied his mother to Fontaines-les-Nonnes, a priory near Meaux, where she retired. He reached his majority on 29 July, becoming the ruler of a vast and wealthy feudal state and the most powerful baron in France. He was determined to start acting as count immediately, and issued a flurry of charters in his first year of rule. He called himself the count of Troyes, a title which he came to associate with all of his lands regardless of their location; simultaneously, he became commonly known as the count of Champagne. Henry was an assertive ruler: he resumed his father's title of count palatine—which Marie had eschewed—and had the comital chancery stop naming the witnesses who vetted his acts and instead record acts as being carried out under his sole authority.
Henry's rule over Champagne was marked by a ceaseless conflict between his step-grandfather, King Henry II of England, and his half-uncle King Philip II of France. Henry feared that the constantly shifting alliances connecting the warring kings with Counts Baldwin of Hainaut and Henry of Namur might endanger the Champagne trade fairs, which were fundamental to the economic stability of Champagne. In one document, Henry acknowledged that a war between King Philip and Count Philip of Flanders would harm the trade fair of Saint-Ayoul at Provins by diminishing income from the event. Because many of Henry's financial obligations—such as fief-rents, prebends, and pensions—were financed by the fair, any decline in revenues would place those payments in jeopardy. In December 1187, Henry and his uncles, Archbishop William and Count Theobald, met with King Philip and Emperor Frederick between Ivoy and Mouzon. They then presented their case for Henry's succession to Namur, but neither Philip nor Frederick were convinced.