Titles:
King of England (1216 - 1272)

In the latter part of his reign, King Henry was styled as, "Rex Angliae, Dominus Hiberniae, et Dux Aquitaniae," conspicuously leaving off the "Dux Normaniae" of his predecessors.

Henry was crowned by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, and again by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Henry had a droopy eye, which appears to be a genetic trait of some of the Plantagenets; his son, Edward I, inherited it.

For Henry's wedding, he wore cloth of gold, which had recently been invented.

When his son Edward was born, Henry extorted so many presents from the London merchants that one said, "God gave us this child, but the king sells him to us."

Henry's zoo at the Tower of London was one of the most advanced in Europe. One of his favourite animals was a lion, a gift from Louis IX of France. A letter the King sent to sheriffs of London read, "We bid you to cause William, the keeper of our lion, to have 14s, which he spent on buying chains and other things for the use of the said lion." Henry also appreciated other gifts. Emperor Frederick II sent him three leopards in 1235 in token of his royal shield of arms, wherein three leopards were pictured. In 1252, the king of Norway gave Henry a white bear. In 1255, Louis IX exceded the sensation he had made with the lion by presenting an elephant, which lived for three years. It was buried in the Tower grounds, only to be exhumed so that its bones could be sent to the sacristan of Westminster. The menagerie existed into the 18th century. When he visited it in 1731, Emperor Francis I played with a four-month old lion cub, picking it up and pulling its whiskers. Parts of the Lion Tower and the Lion Gate can still be seen at the Tower of London.

Although Henry is remembered as a mostly ineffectual ruler, even his critics concede that he was a great builder-king. His most ambitious construction project was rebuilding Westminster Abbey, an undertaking he financed from his private funds. Although exceptionally pious for a medieval ruler, he may also have been motivated by competition with his brother-in-law Louis IX of France (St. Louis) and his beautiful Sainte-Chapelle, the stained glass chapel Louis was building at the time that Henry was planning the Abbey.

Among the improvements Henry made to the Tower of London was the installation of the most advanced privies of the day. He wrote to his clerk of works in 1245 complaining that the facility in his rooms "smelled badly", and ordered it to be replaced "even though it should cost one hundred pounds."

According to some sources, Henry died at Westminster Palace.