General Notes

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REF: British Monarchy Official Website: After William's death while hunting in the New Forest in 1100, his younger brother, Henry I (reigned 1100-35), succeeded to the throne. By 1106 he had captured Normandy from his brother,
Robert, who then spent the last 28 years of his life as his brother's prisoner. An energetic and decisive ruler, Henry centralised the administration of
England and Normandy in the royal court, and extended royal powers of patronage.
Acceded 1100-1135.

Henry I
William's younger brother Henry (reigned 1100-35) succeeded to the throne. He was crowned three days after his brother's death, against the possibility that his eldest brother Robert might claim the English throne. After the decisive battle of Tinchebrai in 1106 in France, Henry completed his conquest of Normandy from Robert, who then (unusually even for that time) spent the last 28 years of his life as his brother's prisoner. An energetic, decisive and occasionally cruel ruler, Henry centralised the administration of England and Normandy in the royal court, using 'viceroys' in Normandy and a group of advisers in England to act on his behalf when he was absent across the Channel. Henry successfully sought to increase royal revenues, as shown by the official records of his exchequer (the Pipe Roll of 1130, the first exchequer account to survive). He established peaceful relations with Scotland, through his marriage to Mathilda of Scotland.
Henry's name 'Beauclerc' denoted his good education (as the youngest son, his parents possibly expected that he would become a bishop); Henry was probably the first Norman king to be fluent in English. In 1120, his legitimate sons William and Richard drowned in the White Ship which sank in the English Channel. This posed a succession problem, as Henry never allowed any of his illegitimate children to expect succession to either England or Normandy. Henry had a legitimate daughter Matilda (widow of Emperor Henry V, subsequently married to the Count of Anjou). However, it was his nephew Stephen (reigned 1135-54), son of William the Conqueror's daughter Adela, who succeeded Henry after his death allegedly caused by eating too many lampreys (fish) in 1135, as the barons mostly opposed the idea of a female ruler.[bellchance.ged]

Contemporaries: Louis VI ("Louis the Fat", King of France, 1108-1137), Roger of Salisbury, Anselm (Archbishop of Canterbury), Pope Pascal II
Henry I, the most resilient of the Norman kings (his reign lasted thirty-five years), was nicknamed "Beauclerc" (fine scholar) for his above average education. During his reign, the differences between English and Norman society began to slowly evaporate. Reforms in the royal treasury system became the foundation upon which later kings built. The stability Henry afforded the throne was offset by problems in succession: his only surviving son, William, was lost in the wreck of the White Ship in November 1120.
The first years of Henry's reign were concerned with subduing Normandy. William the Conqueror divided his kingdoms between Henry's older brothers, leaving England to William Rufus and Normandy to Robert. Henry inherited no land but received £5000 in silver. He played each brother off of the other during their quarrels; both distrusted Henry and subsequently signed a mutual accession treaty barring Henry from the crown. Henry's hope arose when Robert departed for the Holy Land on the First Crusade; should William die, Henry was the obvious heir. Henry was in the woods hunting on the morning of August 2, 1100 when William Rufus was killed by an arrow. His quick movement in securing the crown on August 5 led many to believe he was responsible for his brother's death. In his coronation charter, Henry denounced William's oppressive policies and promising good government in an effort to appease his barons. Robert returned to Normandy a few weeks later but escaped final defeat until the Battle of Tinchebrai in 1106; Robert was captured and lived the remaining twenty-eight years of his life as Henry's prisoner.
Henry was drawn into controversy with a rapidly expanding Church. Lay investiture, the king's selling of clergy appointments, was heavily opposed by Gregorian reformers in the Church but was a cornerstone of Norman government. Henry recalled Anselm of Bec to the archbishopric of Canterbury to gain baronial support, but the stubborn Anselm refused to do homage to Henry for his lands. The situation remained unresolved until Pope Paschal II threatened Henry with excommunication in 1105. He reached a compromise with the papacy: Henry rescinded the king's divine authority in conferring sacred offices but appointees continued to do homage for their fiefs. In practice, it changed little - the king maintained the deciding voice in appointing ecclesiastical offices - but it a marked a point where kingship became purely secular and subservient in the eyes of the Church.
By 1106, both the quarrels with the church and the conquest of Normandy were settled and Henry concentrated on expanding royal power. He mixed generosity with violence in motivating allegiance to the crown and appointing loyal and gifted men to administrative positions. By raising men out of obscurity for such appointments, Henry began to rely less on landed barons as ministers and created a loyal bureaucracy. He was deeply involved in continental affairs and therefore spent almost half of his time in Normandy, prompting him to create the position of justiciar - the most trusted of all the king's officials, the justiciar literally ruled in the king's stead. Roger of Salisbury, the first justiciar, was instrumental in organizing an efficient department for collection of royal revenues, the Exchequer. The Exchequer held sessions twice a year for sheriffs and other revenue-collecting officials; these officials appeared before the justiciar, the chancellor, and several clerks and rendered an account of their finances. The Exchequer was an ingenious device for balancing amounts owed versus amounts paid. Henry gained notoriety for sending out court officials to judge local financial disputes (weakening the feudal courts controlled by local lords) and curb errant sheriffs (weakening the power bestowed upon the sheriffs by his father).
The final years of his reign were consumed in war with France and difficulties ensuring the succession. The French King Louis VI began consolidating his kingdom and attacked Normandy unsuccessfully on three separate occasions. The succession became a concern upon the death of his son William in 1120: Henry's marriage to Adelaide was fruitless, leaving his daughter Matilda as the only surviving legitimate heir. She was recalled to Henry's court in 1125 after the death of her husband, Emperor Henry V of Germany. Henry forced his barons to swear an oath of allegiance to Matilda in 1127 after he arranged her marriage to the sixteen-year-old Geoffrey of Anjou to cement an Angevin alliance on the continent. The marriage, unpopular with the Norman barons, produced a male heir in 1133, which prompted yet another reluctant oath of loyalty from the aggravated barons. In the summer of 1135, Geoffrey demanded custody of certain key Norman castles as a show of good will from Henry; Henry refused and the pair entered into war. Henry's life ended in this sorry state of affairs - war with his son-in-law and rebellion on the horizon - in December 1135.

The Wreck of the White Ship
On the 25th November 1120 a disaster struck in the English Channel which had a dramatic effect, not only on the families of those involved, but on the very fabric of English Government.
The Norman dynasty had not long established itself on the English throne and King Henry I was eager that his line should continue to wear the crown for many generations to come. Despite having numerous bastard offspring, he had but two surviving legitimate children and his hopes for his family were firmly secured by the birth of his only son, William the Aethling: called by the Saxon princely title to stress that his parents had united both Saxon and Norman Royal Houses. William was a warrior prince who, even at the age of seventeen, fought alongside his father to reassert their rights in their Norman lands on the Continent.
After the successful campaign of 1119 which culminated in King Louis VI of France's defeat and humiliation at the Battle of BrEmule, King Henry and his entourage were finally preparing to return to England. Henry was offered a fine vessel, the White Ship, in which to set sail for England, but the King had already made his travelling arrangements and suggested that it would be an excellent choice for his son, William.
As the rising star of the Royal Court, Prince William attracted the cream of society to surround him. He was to be accompanied by some three hundred fellow passengers: 140 knights and 18 noblewomen; his half-brother, Richard; his half-sister, Matilda the Countess of Perche; his cousins, Stephen and Matilda of Blois; the nephew of the German Emperor Henry V; the young Earl of Chester and most of the heirs to the great estates of England and Normandy. There was a mood of celebration in the air and the Prince had wine brought aboard ship by the barrel-load to help the party go with a swing. Both passengers and crew soon became highly intoxicated: shouting abuse at one another and ejecting a group of clerics who had arrived to bless the voyage. Some passengers, including Stephen of Blois, who was ill with diarrhoea, appear to have sensed further trouble and decided to take a later craft.
The onboard revelries had delayed the White Ship's departure and it only finally set out to sea, after night had already fallen. The Prince found that most of the King's forces had already left him far behind yet, as with all young rabble-rousers, he wished to be first back home. He therefore ordered the ship's master to have his oarsmen row full-pelt and overtake the rest of the fleet. Being as drunk as the rest of them, the master complied and the ship soon began to race through the waves.
An excellent vessel though the White Ship was, sea-faring was not as safe as it is today. Many a boat was lost on the most routine of trips and people did not travel over the water unless they really had to. With a drunken crew in charge moreover, it seems that fate had marked out the White Ship for special treatment. It hit a rock in the gloom of the night and the port-side timbers cracked wide-open to reveal a gaping whole.
Prince William's quick-thinking bodyguard immediately rushed him on deck and bundled him into a small dinghy. They were away to safety even before the crew had begun to make their abortive attempts to hook the vessel off the rocks. However, back aboard ship, the Prince could hear his half-sister calling to him, begging him not to leave her to the ravages of the merciless sea. He ordered his little boat to turn round, but the situation was hopeless. As William grew nearer once more, the White Ship began to descend beneath the waves. More and more people were in the water now and they fought desperately for the safety of the Royal dinghy. The turmoil and the weight were too much. The Prince's little boat was capsized and sank without trace.
It is said that the only person to survive the wreck to tell the tale was a Rouen butcher, called Berold, who had only been on board to collect debts owed him by the noble revellers. Finely dressed bodies, such as the Earl of Chester's, were washed up along the Norman shoreline for months after.
After King Henry heard of the disaster, it is said that he never smiled again. Desperate to secure his family's succession, he had the English barons swear an oath to uphold the rights of his only remaining legitimate child: his daughter Matilda who they were to recognise as their Queen after Henry's death. But the time had not yet come for a woman to be accepted on the English throne. When King Henry died, his nephew, Stephen of Blois siezed the crown and four years later, the status quo degenerated into a patchy Civil War.





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Henry I was Duke of Normandy from 1106-1135 and King of England from 1100-1135. William I left Normandy to his oldest son Robert II Curthose and England to his next oldest son, William II Rufus. Henry was left great wealth and eventually outmanuvered his brothers to become King of England in 1100 and ruled 35 years. Henry is remembered for expanding and strengthening royal justice, integrating the Norman and Anglo-Saxon legal systems, and laying the foundation for more centralized royal rule. "The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages" Norman F. Cantor, General Editor[Masland Family.FTW]

Henry I was Duke of Normandy from 1106-1135 and King of England from 1100-1135. William I left Normandy to his oldest son Robert II Curthose and England to his next oldest son, William II Rufus. Henry was left great wealth and eventually outmanuvered his brothers to become King of England in 1100 and ruled 35 years. Henry is remembered for expanding and strengthening royal justice, integrating the Norman and Anglo-Saxon legal systems, and laying the foundation for more centralized royal rule. "The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages" Norman F. Cantor, General Editorbyname HENRY BEAUCLERC (Good Scholar), French HENRI BEAUCLERC.Youngest and ablest of William I the Conqueror's sons, who as king ofEngland (1100-35) strengthened the crown's executive powers and, likehis father, also ruled Normandy (from 1106).

Reign.

Henry was crowned at Westminster, on Aug. 5, 1100, three days afterhis brother, King William II, William the Conqueror's second son, hadbeen killed in a hunting accident. Duke Robert Curthose, the eldest ofthe three brothers, who by feudal custom had succeeded to his father'sinheritance, Normandy, was returning from the First Crusade and couldnot assert his own claim to the English throne until the followingyear. The succession was precarious, however, because a number ofwealthy Anglo-Norman barons supported Duke Robert, and Henry movedquickly to gain all the backing he could. He issued an ingeniousCharter of Liberties, which purported to end capricious taxes,confiscations of church revenues, and other abuses of his predecessor.By his marriage with Matilda, a Scottish princess of the oldAnglo-Saxon royal line, he established the foundations for peaceablerelations with the Scots and support from the English. And he recalledSt. Anselm, the scholarly archbishop of Canterbury whom his brother,William II, had banished.

When Robert Curthose finally invaded England in 1101, several of thegreatest barons defected to him. But Henry, supported by a number ofhis barons, most of the Anglo-Saxons, and St. Anselm, worked out anamicable settlement with the invaders. Robert relinquished his claimto England, receiving in return Henry's own territories in Normandyand a large annuity.

Although a crusading hero, Robert was a self-indulgent, vacillatingruler who allowed Normandy to slip into chaos. Norman churchmen whofled to England urged Henry to conquer and pacify the duchy and thusprovided moral grounds for Henry's ambition to reunify his father'srealm at his brother's expense. Paving his way with bribes to Normanbarons and agreements with neighbouring princes, in 1106 Henry routedRobert's army at Tinchebrai in southwestern Normandy and capturedRobert, holding him prisoner for life. (see also Index: Tinchebrai,Battle of)

Between 1104 and 1106 Henry had been in the uncomfortable position ofposing, in Normandy, as a champion of the church while fighting withhis own archbishop of Canterbury. St. Anselm had returned from exilein 1100 dedicated to reforms of Pope Paschal II, which were designedto make the church independent of secular sovereigns. Following papalbans against lay lords investing churchmen with their lands andagainst churchmen rendering homage to laymen, Anselm refused toconsecrate bishops whom Henry had invested and declined to do homageto Henry himself. Henry regarded bishoprics and abbeys not only asspiritual offices but as great sources of wealth. Since in many casesthey owed the crown military services, he was anxious to maintain thefeudal bond between the bishops and the crown. (see also Index:Investiture Controversy)

Ultimately, the issues of ecclesiastical homage and lay investitureforced Anselm into a second exile. After numerous letters and threatsbetween king, pope, and archbishop, a compromise was concluded shortlybefore the Battle of Tinchebrai and was ratified in London in 1107.Henry relinquished his right to invest churchmen while Anselmsubmitted on the question of homage. With the London settlement andthe English victory at Tinchebrai, the Anglo-Norman state wasreunified and at peace.

In the years following, Henry married his daughter Matilda (alsocalled Maud) to Emperor Henry V of Germany and groomed his onlylegitimate son, William, as his successor. Henry's right to Normandywas challenged by William Clito, son of the captive Robert Curthose,and Henry was obliged to repel two major assaults against easternNormandy by William Clito's supporters: Louis VI of France, Count Fulkof Anjou, and the restless Norman barons who detested Henry'subiquitous officials and high taxes. By 1120, however, the barons hadsubmitted, Henry's son had married into the Angevin house, and LouisVI--defeated in battle--had concluded a definitive peace.

The settlement was shattered in November 1120, when Henry's sonperished in a shipwreck of the "White Ship," destroying Henry'ssuccession plans. After Queen Matilda's death in 1118, he marriedAdelaide of Louvain in 1121, but this union proved childless. OnEmperor Henry V's death in 1125, Henry summoned the empress Matildaback to England and made his barons do homage to her as his heir. In1128 Matilda married Geoffrey Plantagenet, heir to the county ofAnjou, and in 1133 she bore him her first son, the future king HenryII. When Henry I died at Lyons-la-ForIt in eastern Normandy, hisfavourite nephew, Stephen of Blois, disregarding Matilda's right ofsuccession, seized the English throne. Matilda's subsequent invasionof England unleashed a bitter civil war that ended with King Stephen'sdeath and Henry II's unopposed accession in 1154.

Assessment

Henry I was a skillful, intelligent monarch who achieved peace inEngland, relative stability in Normandy, and notable administrativeadvances on both sides of the Channel. Under Henry, the Anglo-Normanstate his father had created was reunited. Royal justices began makingsystematic tours of the English shires, but, although hisadministrative policies were highly efficient, they were notinfrequently regarded as oppressive. His reign marked a significantadvance from the informal, personal monarchy of former times towardthe bureaucratized state that lay in the future. It also marked ashift from the wide-ranging imperialism of earlier Norman leaders toconsolidation and internal development. In the generations beforeHenry's accession, Norman dukes, magnates, and adventurers hadconquered southern Italy, Sicily, Antioch, and England. Henry won hismajor battles but preferred diplomacy or bribery to the risks of thebattlefield. Subduing Normandy in 1106, he contented himself withkeeping domestic peace, defending his Anglo-Norman state againstrebellion and invasion, and making alliances with neighbouring princes.

Abbrev: Directory of Royal Genealogical Data
Title: Directory of Royal Genealogical Data on the Internet

http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/GEDCOM.HTML
Author: Brian Tompsett
Publication: University of Hull, UK
Abbrev: Ancestral Roots of Americans
Title: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to AmericaBefore 1700
Seventh Edition
Author: Frederick Lewis Weis/Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr.
Publication: Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995
Page: pp. 3, 36, 108
Abbrev: Encyclopedia Britannica
Title: Encyclopedia Britannica on the Internet

http://www.britannica.com
Publication: Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. [temp.FTW]

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Tompsett: "Reigned 1100-1135. Duke of Normandy 1106-1135. His reign is notable for important legal and administrative reforms, and for the final resolution of the investiture controversy. Abroad, he waged several campaigns in order to consolidate and expand his continental possessions. Was so hated by his brothers that they vowed to disinherit him. In 1106 he captured Robert and held him til he died. He proved to be a hard but just ruler. He apparently died from over eating Lampreys!"[919019.ged]

Debrett's Kings and Queens of Britain
p 47-50
Crowned Westminster Abbey 6 Aug 1100