Editing Henry the Young King (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Coronation of Henry the Young King - Becket Leaves (c.1220-1240), f. 3r - BL Loan MS 88 3.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|At his coronation banquet, the Young King (top right) is served by his father, King [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] (Becket Leaves, c. 1220–1240).]]

Little is known of the young 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|Marie]] and [[Alix of France|Alix]]. He had one elder brother, [[William IX, Count of Poitiers|William]] (d. 1156), and his younger siblings included [[Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony|Matilda]], [[Richard I of England|Richard]], [[Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany|Geoffrey]], [[Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile|Eleanor]], [[Joan of England, Queen of Sicily|Joan]] and [[John, King of England|John]].

In June 1170, the fifteen-year-old Henry was crowned king during his father's lifetime, a traditional practice of the French [[Capetian dynasty]] which held formal overlordship of [[Henry II of England|Henry II]]'s continental domains. [[Stephen of England|King Stephen]] had previously attempted to have his son [[Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne|Eustace]] crowned as early as 1143 but was unable to secure papal support. On the latter's death in 1153, Stephen did not even attempt to have his second son William acknowledged as heir.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Strickland |first1=Matthew |title=Henry the Young King: 1155–1183 |date=2016 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven and London |pages=89–90}}</ref>

He was known in his own lifetime as "Henry the Young King" to distinguish him from his father. As he was not a reigning king, he is not counted in the numerical succession of kings of England. According to one of [[Thomas Becket]]'s correspondents, Henry was knighted by his father before the coronation, but the [[L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal|''History of William Marshal'']] asserts that the king was knighted by [[William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke|Marshal]] in the course of the rebellion of 1173.<ref name="Duby1984">{{cite book |author=Georges Duby |author-link=Georges Duby |title=Guillaume le Maréchal. Le meilleur chevalier du monde |year=1984}}</ref>