General Notes

Henry I, King of England

Henry I, (b. 1069), one of the greatest kings of England, ascended thethrone on 5 Aug. 1100 , and ruled until his death on 1 Dec. 1135. Thethird son of William I, he succeeded his oldest brother, William II, whodied under suspicious circumstances while hunting with Henry. Henry'soldier brother Robert I (c.1054-1134), duke of Normandy, invaded(1101)England but was defeated at Tinchebrai, France and was forced torecognize Henry as king. Subsequently, Henry seized (1106) Normandy aswell. Henry imprisoned Robert and he remained in prison until his deathin 1134

In his coronation charter (1100) Henry promised to remedy the allegedmisrule of William II; this document was the first English royal charterof liberties, the ancestor of Magna Carta (12 15). The king exploited hisresources as feudal suzerain; yet in his reign occurred the beginning ofthe transformation of feudalism by the commutation of personal tofinancial service. The creation of the office of justiciar and of theroyal exchequer also constituted the first appearance of specializationin English government. Royal justice was brought to the local level byitinerant judges, and control over the kingdom was strengthened.

He once issued a charter of liberties of great importance, conciliatinghis English subjects in order to gain their support in his struggle withthe Norman nobles, whose power he steadily opposed. This charter laterserved as the basis for the Magna Carta.

Although many barons objected to the severity of his rule, Henry gavepeace, security, and stability to his country. He quarreled with thechurch over the lay investiture of clergy, forcing the archbishop ofCanterbury, Saint Anselm, into exile for a time. This issue wassettled(1107), however, by a compromise that served as the pattern forlater resolution of the Investiture Controversy in Europe. During Henry'sreign England participated increasingly in Continent al intellectuallife. His was also the first post-Conquest reign noted for patronage oflearning and of secular officials.

Born at Selby , Yorkshire, the youngest son of William I. This was William's only son born in England upon which Henry later based his claim to the throne. In 1086 he was knighted at Westminster by his father who died in the following year.  William's estates were divided between his three sons;  1. Robert Curthose-received Normandy  2. William Rufus (William II) - received England  3. Henry inherited 5000 pounds in silver.  Henry was present when William II was killed by an arrow in the New Forest. Henry rode to Winchester to gain the treasury before his brother Robert returned from the Holy Land.  He was crowned in 1100 as King of England. The following year his brother attacked England. As a result, Robert was forced to renounce all claims to the throne..  Henry attacked Normandy and captured his brother and assumed the title of Duke of Normandy until his death in 1134.  Achievements:  1. Gained support of the barons, producing a charter of liberties, a precursor to the Magna Carta.  2. Employed itinerant judges and widened the judicial system.  3.Organised the Royal Exchequer which formed the basis of later economic eminence.

The mistresses of Henry  " HENRY I only had two wives but several mistresses, by whom he had numerous children.  He acknowledged over 20 bastards, but the only legitimate child to survive him was the eldest, Matilda. Wife no. 1 was Matilda (also known as Edith), Princess of Scots, daughter of Malcolm III, King of Strathclyde and all the Scots, and Margaret of Wessex (she later was canonized as St Margaret).  By Matilda, Henry I had 3 children as follows...  1)A daughter, the Empress Matilda (circa 1102-1169) who fought a civil war for many years with her cousin King Stephen I (reigned 1135-1154). Both were grandchildren of William the Conqueror. Stephen finally succeeded to the throne.  2)Son, William the Atheling, Henry's only legitimate son, IVth Duke of Normandy (drowned in the "White Ship")  3)Son, Richard (died at 16). Henry was married secondly to Adeliza of Louvain. They had no children and she became a nun after his death.
His mistresses included...  1) A Welsh princess, Nest of Deheubarth, who bore him a son, Henry FitzHenry (1104-1157)  2) Sybil, daughter of Robert Corbert of Alcester. She had 3 children by Henry - Robert de Caen (FitzRoy) Earl of Gloucester (c. 1090-1147); Sybil la of England (c. 1092-1122); Reynold de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall (died 1175).  3) 3 unnamed mistresses, by whom he had Matilda (Mary); Constance; and another Matilda.  4) Edith of Cumberland, by whom he had 1 child, Robert FitzEdith, Baron of Okehampton (d. 1172)  5) Elizabeth de Beaumont, Countess of Pembroke (no children). These are all the wives, mistresses and children listed on the Royal Families CD-ROM. But there must have been other mistresses, since one royal reference book says he had more than 20 bastards".1

"Married 1stly 11 Nov 1100, Matilda (Eadgyth) (she d 1 May 1118) daughter of Malcolm III (Caennmore) King of Scotland, by Margaret, his wife, dau and eventual heiress of Edward the Exile son of Edmund Ironside, King of England, and by her had issue:  1. William Atheling, IV Duke of Normand, b 1101, m 1119, Isabella (died as Abbess of Fontevrault, 1154), dau of Fulk V & I, count of Anjou, King of Jerusalem, and dsp, vp, drowned in the White Ship, 26 Nov 1119.  2. Richard, died unmarried, drowned in the White Ship, 26 Nov 1119 1. Matilda, succeeded her father as Queen of England in opposition to her cousin Stephen. Henry married 2ndly, 2 Feb 1121, Adela, daughter of Godfrey VII & I Duke of Lower Lorrain, Duke of Brabant, Marquis of Antwerp, etc, but by her (who m 2ndly, 1138, William Albini, Earl of Arundel, and died 23 April 1151) he had no issue, and died at Angers, 1 Dec 1135, bur at Reading Abbey".2

[passmore4.ged]

[more information in the royal database:http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal01391]

(from Pemble website http://www.my-ged.com/db/page/pemble/4999)

Longest reign of any of the Norman kings of England, 35 years.

Henry played both sides in his brothers' quarrel. Consequently, they bothmistrusted Henry and signed a pact barring Henry from the crown. Henry'shopes rose when Robert went with the crusades

Henry was in the woods hunting on August 2, 1100, when William died.Henry moved quickly and was crowned on August 5, 1100.  Robert wascaptured on his return from the holy land and spent the remaining 28years of his life as Henry's prisoner.

After the death in 1125 of his daughter Matilda's husband, Emporer HenryV of Germany, he forced the nobles to accept her as Queen on his death.She was then forced to marry the 16 year old Geoffrey of Anjou (founderof the Plantaganet dynasty) to continue the Angevin alliance.  Themarriage was unpopular among the Norman barons and Henry was forced toacquire another oath of Allegiance from them.

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from Raven website http://genweb.net/~raven/html/d15.htm#P248

Henry I Beauclerc King Of England  was born in Sep 1068 in Selby, NorthYorkshire, England.(19) He died on 1 Dec 1135 in Angers, Normandy,France.(19) He was a 8th Duke of Normandy. He was buried in ReadingAbbey, Berkshire, England. (19) Henry I  "Henry Beauclerk"  1100-1135

As the fourth son of William the Conqueror it was something of a surprisewhen Henry became King of England. The deaths of two of his three elderbrothers, however suspicious, coupled with the banishment of a third wereto see him succeed to this office.

Henry was known as Beauclerk due to his ability to read fluently. Thisability had not been witnessed in a King of England since Alfred theGreat. His other sobriquet of 'Lion of Justice' derives from hisformation of basic laws to govern England. These laws were harshlyenforced.  Henry is said to have been very alike to his brother, WilliamRufus in that he was avaricious, lustful and cruel. He was a calculatingman and his marriage to Matilda,
the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland virtually allayed any fearsof an invasion from north of the border.
The major threat to Henry was his surviving brother, Robert, who had beenhanded the Dukedom of Normandy by their father. Robert and Henry had beenin alliance to gain the throne of England, it is said for Robert. Thisthreat was countered once and for all following the Battle of Tinchobraiin 1106. After this battle Robert was imprisoned in Cardiff Castle forthe rest of his days.

Henry was married twice. His first wife, the previously mentionedMatilda, gave him three children; William, who died in the wreck of theWhite Ship in 1120; Matilda or Maud who married Geoffrey Count of Anjouand another son who died in infancy.  As Henry had no direct heir to thethrone he bequeathed the crown to his favourite nephew, Stephen.  Henrydied in Normandy in November 1135, after eating a surfeit of lampreys.(source: Henry I [http://www.camelotintl.com/heritage/heni.html])

Henry I (born 1068, ruled 1100-35). The youngest son of William theConqueror was born in England. His nickname, Beauclerc, which means "goodscholar," was given him because of his fine education. He seized thecrown in the year 1100, when his brother King William II was killed in ahunting accident and his brother Robert, duke of Normandy, who was nextin the line of succession, was absent on a crusade (see William, Kings ofEngland).
At his accession Henry I issued the famous Charter of Liberties, which,over a hundred years later, was used as the basis of Magna Carta, thefoundation of the liberties of the Anglo-Saxon world. He also favored thechurch in order to gain its backing against the claims of his brotherRobert to the English throne.  The Charter of Liberties helped gain Henrythe support of the nobles. He conciliated the English, conquered by hisfather, by marrying Matilda, who was the daughter of King Malcolm III ofScotland and who was descended from the Anglo-Saxon kings. The support ofthe common people was assured by the justice he administered through theKing's Court.
Henry's only son, William Aetheling, was drowned in 1120 when the WhiteShip sank in the English Channel.  according to legend, the king neversmiled again. The accident left his daughter Matilda, widow of the HolyRoman emperor Henry V, and his nephew Stephen contestants for the throneat his death.

(19) Royal database, http://www.camelotintl.com/royal/search.html
---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Henry I (of England)
Henry I (of England) (1068-1135), third Norman king of England (1100-35),fourth son of William the Conqueror. Henry was born in Selby. Because hisfather, who died in 1087, left him no land, Henry made severalunsuccessful attempts to gain territories on the Continent. On the deathof his brother William II in 1100, Henry took advantage of the absence ofanother brother-Robert (circa 1054-1134), who had a prior claim to thethrone-to seize the royal treasury and have himself crowned king atWestminster. Henry subsequently secured his position with the nobles andwith the church by issuing a charter of liberties that acknowledged thefeudal rights of the nobles and the rights of the church. In 1101 Robert,who was duke of Normandy, invaded England, but Henry persuaded him towithdraw by promising him a pension and military aid on the Continent. In1102 Henry put down a revolt of nobles, who subsequently took refuge inNormandy, where they were aided by Robert. By defeating Robert atTinchebray, France, in 1106, Henry won Normandy. During the rest of hisreign, however, he constantly had to put
down uprisings that threatened his rule in Normandy. The conflict betweenHenry and Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, over the question of layinvestiture (the appointment of church officials by the king), wassettled in 1107 by a compromise that left the king with substantialcontrol in the matter.  Because he had no surviving male heir, Henry wasforced to designate his daughter Matilda (1102-67) as his heiress. Afterhis death on December 1, 1135, at Lyons-la-Fôret, Normandy, however,Henry's nephew, Stephen of Blois, usurped the throne, plunging thecountry into a protracted civil war that ended only with the accession ofMatilda's son, Henry II, in 1154.

!King of England 1100-35, duke 1106-35.  Because his father left him no land, he made several unsuccessful attempts to gain territories on the Continent. On the death of his brother William II and absence of his brother Robert, he seized the royal treasury and had himself crowned in 1100.  No male heir, so his daughter Matilda was heiress. [Funk & Wagnalls]

BURR, FOSTER, WAITE, MINOR, NEWLIN LINES - 24th ggrandfather

Distinctly abnormal in his sexual preferences.  Widely separated from his elder brothers by age and better educated than they. His intellectual interests allowed him to move more easily in cultivated circles than his brothers.  The church prospered under his rule.  But in his private life he was as licentious as his brothers, a cold lecher, cruel, ungenerous, calculating, in some ways the most unpleasant of them all.  [William I and the Norman Conquest]

!His first act as king was to bid for popularity by granting a charter promising to reform all the abuses of his brother's reign.  Soon, however, he took up the quarrel with Anselm.  This struggle was far more fundamental than a mere difference between two men; the real question was whether the Church or the State should be supreme, a problem which agitated all Europe during the Middle Ages.  The particular issue upon which Anselm and Henry differed was lay investiture.  The quarrel was settled by a compromise:  the king could not invest churchmen with their symbols of office, but he would receive homage from them for the land they held as feudal vassals.  This looked like a victory for the Church, but in reality the king was strong enough to continue influencing church elections. [Outline History of Mankind]

!Some of Henry I's principal difficulties during his early reign were with his eldest brother, Robert.  When William Rufus died, Robert was on a Crusade. When Robert returned, Henry was already on the throne.  In 1101 Robert invaded England, but Henry met him and their difficulties were temporarily settled without battle.  But the peace did not last.  Henry regarded Robert as a threat to his own security, and in 1106 he crossed into Normandy, and at the Battle of Tinchebrai took his brother prisoner.  Robert was well treated, but remained a prisoner until his death in 1134. [Outline History of Mankind]

!On the whole, Henry was a good king.  He maintained order and preserved justice.  In fact, so great was his reputation for protecting the weak against the strong, that he was called "the lion of justice."  He was a good financial manager and efficiently organized the exchequer, or treasury department.  He strengthened his control over the country by sending royal judges, called itinerant justices, over the land to hear cases.  Finally, he waged no major wars, although he did take an active part in international affairs. [Outline History of Mankind]

!Well read, accomplished, easy and fluent of speech, the lord of a harem of mistresses, the center of a gay court where poet and jongleur found a home, Henry remained cool, self-possessed, clear-sighted, hard, methodical, loveless himself, and neither seeking nor desiring his people's love, but wringing from them their gratitude and regard by sheer dint of good government.  His work of order was necessarily a costly work; and the steady pressure of his taxation, a pressure made the harder by local famines and plagues during his reign, has left traces of the grumbling it roused in the pages of the English Chronicle.  The stern justice, the terrible punishment he inflicted on all who broke his laws, were parts of a fixed system which differed widely from the capricious severity of a mere despot.  To the end of his life the proudest barons lay bound and blinded in his prison. [WBH - England]

!Following his son William's drowning when the White Ship went down in the English Channel, his nephew William (son of his brother Robert) was now his natural heir.  But Henry hated his nephew William while he loved his daughter Maud, who had been married to the Emperor Henry V, but who had been restored by his death to her father's court.  The succession of a woman was new in English history.  But when all hope of issue from a second wife whom he wedded was over, Henry forced priests and nobles to swear allegiance to Maud as their future queen and affianced her to Geoffry the Handsome, the son of the one foe whom he dreaded, Count Fulk of Anjou. [WBH - England]

!Beau Clerc -- the lettered prince -- of the family. [Knight's Popular History of England, Vol. 1, p. 246]

!Husband of Matilda; reigned 1100-35. [Chronicle of the Royal Family, chart]

!Rouen, Normandy, 1 Dec 1135.  Henry died of food poisoning caused by gorging himself on lampreys. [Chronicle of the Royal Family, p. 40]

!Woodstock, Oxfordshire, c. 1120.  Henry enclosed Woodstock as hunting grounds and built a lodge, then collected a menagerie including lions, leopards, lynxes and camels, many of them brought by returning crusaders anxious to curry favor
with the king.  One of the most bizarre was said to be the African porcupine, donated by a kinght, William de Montpellier. [Chronicle of the Royal Family, p. 42]

!Our Noble & Gentle Families of Royal Descent Together with Their Paternal Ancestry by Joseph Foster p 178 1884 Edition: Name: Crowned 6 Aug 1100. He was the last heir male of the Norman line.

King of England, reigned 1100-1135.

Royal support for Castle Acre Priory came from both Henry I and Henry II who granted the priory freedom from tolls -- a valuable concession for a house with extensive estates. [Castle Acre Castle and Priory, p. 44]

1068-1135. Youngest son of William the Conqueror. William bequeathed Henry no lands, but left him a substantial sum of money. During the reign of his brother William II Rufus (1087-1100), Henry supported Rufus against Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, their eldest brother. William Rufus died in 1100, while Robert was on crusade, and Henry took advantage of the latter's absence to seize the treasury at Winchester and have himself elected and crowned king. At his coronation he issued a charter promising just rule. In 1100 his marriage to Matilda of Scotland, descended from the old English kings, won him English support.
   In 1101 Robert invaded England, but renounced his claim to the throne in return for a pension and Henry's Norman lands. However, in 1105, Henry invaded Normandy and the following year defeated Robert Curthose and consequently secured the duchy. Robert was imprisoned, and died in captivity in 1134. Henry married his daughter Matilda to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, and after his death in 1128, to Geoffrey of Anjou; their eldest son was the future Henry II of England.
   Henry I is remembered for his development of the English judicial system and for laying the foundations of the royal administration. [The Plantagenet Encyclopedia, p. 92]

Henry I died in 1135 with no lawful surviving son to succeed him, although he had about 20 illegitimate children, and he had bequeathed his throne to his daughter Matilda.  [Lincoln Castle, p. 17]

NORTHAMPTON CASTLE: There is practically nothering left of this once important medieval castle. The first sturcture was a motte castle, built in the 1080s, on a site from which several Anglo-Saxon houses had been cleared. In c.1110, Henry I took over the castle and enlarged it. Works include a substantial ditch and a rampart round a large bailey. This was one of thos occasions when the Crown paid compensation for encroaching upon another owner's land. By 1164 the castle had a great hall, a gateway, curtain walling and a chapel. Soon afterwards, a great tower was built although it is not possible to say what shape or size it achieved.
   Northampton was besieged by the Magna Carta barons' forces using French-built siege artillery, but King John relieved the garrison and forced the attackers to withdraw. Major repairs were needed after this engagement but, despite continuing expenditure, the castle was not properly defensible by the time of the Barons' War against Henry III, led by Simon de Montfort who used the castle as a headquarters. There was more spent on it over the next century but it continued to deteriorate. The remains were obscured by the erection of a railway over the site in the 19th century. [Castles of Britain and Ireland, p. 165]

Name Prefix:<NPFX> King

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 ruled35 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.

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.
Acceded: Aug 6, 1100, Westminster Abbey, London, England.
A Hard But Just Ruler. Known As "Beauclerk" Or "The Lion Of Justice."
No Proof Implicating Him In Death Of Elder Brother, William II Rufus.
Was So Hated By His Brothers That They Vowed To Disinherit Him.
Defeated Brother Robert At Battle Of Tenchebrai & Usurped Duchy Of Normandy.

Henry was crowned at Westminster, on Aug. 5, 1100, three days after his brother, King William II, William the Conqueror's second son, had been killed in a hunting accident. Duke Robert Curthose, the eldest of the three brothers, who by feudal custom had succeeded to his father's inheritance, Normandy, was returning from the First Crusade and could not assert his own claim to the English throne until the following year. The succession was precarious, however, because a number of wealthy Anglo-Norman barons supported Duke Robert, and Henry moved quickly to gain all the backing he could. He issued an ingenious Charter 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 old Anglo-Saxon royal line, he established the foundations for peaceable relations with the Scots and support from the English. And he recalled St. Anselm, the scholarly archbishop of Canterbury whom his brother, William II, had banished.
When Robert Curthose finally invaded England in 1101, several of the greatest barons defected to him. But Henry, supported by a number of his barons, most of the Anglo-Saxons, and St. Anselm, worked out an amicable settlement with the invaders. Robert relinquished his claim to England, receiving in return Henry's own territories in Normandy and a large annuity.
Although a crusading hero, Robert was a self-indulgent, vacillating ruler who allowed Normandy to slip into chaos. Norman churchmen who fled to England urged Henry to conquer and pacify the duchy and thus provided moral grounds for Henry's ambition to reunify his father's realm at his brother's expense. Paving his way with bribes to Norman barons and agreements with neighbouring princes, in 1106 Henry routed Robert's army at Tinchebrai in southwestern Normandy and captured Robert, holding him prisoner for life.
Between 1104 and 1106 Henry had been in the uncomfortable position of posing, in Normandy, as a champion of the church while fighting with his own archbishop of Canterbury. St. Anselm had returned from exile in 1100 dedicated to reforms of Pope Paschal II, which were designed to make the church independent of secular sovereigns. Following papal bans against lay lords investing churchmen with their lands and against churchmen rendering homage to laymen, Anselm refused to consecrate bishops whom Henry had invested and declined to do homage to Henry himself. Henry regarded bishoprics and abbeys not only as spiritual offices but as great sources of wealth. Since in many cases they owed the crown military services, he was anxious to maintain the feudal bond between the bishops and the crown.
Ultimately, the issues of ecclesiastical homage and lay investiture forced Anselm into a second exile. After numerous letters and threats between king, pope, and archbishop, a compromise was concluded shortly before the Battle of Tinchebrai and was ratified in London in 1107. Henry relinquished his right to invest churchmen while Anselm submitted on the question of homage. With the London settlement and the English victory at Tinchebrai, the Anglo-Norman state was reunified and at peace.
In the years following, Henry married his daughter Matilda (also called Maud) to Emperor Henry V of Germany and groomed his only legitimate son, William, as his successor. Henry's right to Normandy was challenged by William Clito, son of the captive Robert Curthose, and Henry was obliged to repel two major assaults against eastern Normandy by William Clito's supporters: Louis VI of France, Count Fulk of Anjou, and the restless Norman barons who detested Henry's ubiquitous officials and high taxes. By 1120, however, the barons had submitted, Henry's son had married into the Angevin house, and Louis VI—defeated in battle—had concluded a definitive peace.
The settlement was shattered in November 1120, when Henry's son perished in a shipwreck of the “White Ship,” destroying Henry's succession plans. After Queen Matilda's death in 1118, he married Adelaide of Louvain in 1121, but this union proved childless. On Emperor Henry V's death in 1125, Henry summoned the empress Matilda back to England and made his barons do homage to her as his heir. In 1128 Matilda married Geoffrey Plantagenet, heir to the county of Anjou, and in 1133 she bore him her first son, the future king Henry II. When Henry I died at Lyons-la-Forêt in eastern Normandy, his favourite nephew, Stephen of Blois, disregarding Matilda's right of succession, seized the English throne. Matilda's subsequent invasion of England unleashed a bitter civil war that ended with King Stephen's death and Henry II's unopposed accession in 1154.
Assessment
Henry I was a skillful, intelligent monarch who achieved peace in England, relative stability in Normandy, and notable administrative advances on both sides of the Channel. Under Henry, the Anglo-Norman state his father had created was reunited. Royal justices began making systematic tours of the English shires, but, although his administrative policies were highly efficient, they were not infrequently regarded as oppressive. His reign marked a significant advance from the informal, personal monarchy of former times toward the bureaucratized state that lay in the future. It also marked a shift from the wide-ranging imperialism of earlier Norman leaders to consolidation and internal development. In the generations before Henry's accession, Norman dukes, magnates, and adventurers had conquered southern Italy, Sicily, Antioch, and England. Henry won his major battles but preferred diplomacy or bribery to the risks of the battlefield. Subduing Normandy in 1106, he contented himself with keeping domestic peace, defending his Anglo-Norman state against rebellion and invasion, and making alliances with neighbouring princes.

C. Warren Hollister
Copyright © 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
!Fix This Location-964
!Fix This Location-965
Known For Final Resolution Of The Investiture Controversy.
Reign Is Notable For Important Legal And Administrative Reforms.
By End Of Reign, He Was The Lord Of England, Normandy And Maine.[2524482.FTW]

N: 3617
William's younger brother Henry (reigned 1100-35) succeede d 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 co nquest 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 Eng land 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.
Acceded: Aug 6, 1100, Westminster Abbey, London, England.
A Hard But Just Ruler. Known As "Beauclerk" Or "The Lion O f Justice."
No Proof Implicating Him In Death Of Elder Brother, William II Rufus.
Was So Hated By His Brothers That They Vowed To Disinherit Him.
Defeated Brother Robert At Battle Of Tenchebrai & Usurped Duchy Of Normandy.

Henry was crowned at Westminster, on Aug. 5, 1100, three days after his brother, King William II, William the Conqueror's second son, had been killed in a hunting accident. Duke Robert Curthose, the eldest of the three brothers, who by feudal custom had succeeded to his father's inheritance , Normandy, was returning from the First Crusade and could not assert his own claim to the English throne until the following year. The succession was precarious, however, because a number of wealthy Anglo-Norman barons supported Duke Robert, and Henry moved quickly to gain all the backing he could. He issued an ingenious Charter 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 old Anglo- Saxon royal line, he established the foundations for peaceable relations with the Scots and support from the English . And he recalled St. Anselm, the scholarly archbishop of Canterbury whom his brother, William II, had banished.
When Robert Curthose finally invaded England in 1101, several of the greatest barons defected to him. But Henry, supported by a number of his barons, most of the Anglo-Saxons, and St. Anselm, worked out an amicable settlement with the invaders. Robert relinquished his claim to England, receiving in return Henry's own territories in Normandy and a large annuity.
Although a crusading hero, Robert was a self-indulgent, vacillating ruler who allowed Normandy to slip into chaos. Nor man churchmen who fled to England urged Henry to conquer an d pacify the duchy and thus provided moral grounds for Henry's ambition to reunify his father's realm at his brother' s expense. Paving his way with bribes to Norman barons and agreements with neighbouring princes, in 1106 Henry route d Robert's army at Tinchebrai in southwestern Normandy and captured Robert, holding him prisoner for life.
Between 1104 and 1106 Henry had been in the uncomfortable position of posing, in Normandy, as a champion of the church while fighting with his own archbishop of Canterbury. St . Anselm had returned from exile in 1100 dedicated to reforms of Pope Paschal II, which were designed to make the church independent of secular sovereigns. Following papal ban s against lay lords investing churchmen with their lands and against churchmen rendering homage to laymen, Anselm refused to consecrate bishops whom Henry had invested and declined to do homage to Henry himself. Henry regarded bishoprics and abbeys not only as spiritual offices but as great sources of wealth. Since in many cases they owed the crown military services, he was anxious to maintain the feudal bond between the bishops and the crown.
Ultimately, the issues of ecclesiastical homage and lay investiture forced Anselm into a second exile. After numerous letters and threats between king, pope, and archbishop , a compromise was concluded shortly before the Battle of Tinchebrai and was ratified in London in 1107. Henry relinquished his right to invest churchmen while Anselm submitted on the question of homage. With the London settlement and the English victory at Tinchebrai, the Anglo-Norman state was reunified and at peace.
In the years following, Henry married his daughter Matild a (also called Maud) to Emperor Henry V of Germany and groomed his only legitimate son, William, as his successor. Henry's right to Normandy was challenged by William Clito, son of the captive Robert Curthose, and Henry was obliged t o repel two major assaults against eastern Normandy by William Clito's supporters: Louis VI of France, Count Fulk of Anjou, and the restless Norman barons who detested Henry's ubiquitous officials and high taxes. By 1120, however, the barons had submitted, Henry's son had married into the Angev in house, and Louis VI—defeated in battle—had concluded a definitive peace.
The settlement was shattered in November 1120, when Henry's son perished in a shipwreck of the “White Ship,” destroying Henry's succession plans. After Queen Matilda's death in 1118, he married Adelaide of Louvain in 1121, but this union proved childless. On Emperor Henry V's death in 1125, Henry summoned the empress Matilda back to England and made his barons do homage to her as his heir. In 1128 Matild a married Geoffrey Plantagenet, heir to the county of Anjou , and in 1133 she bore him her first son, the future king Henry II. When Henry I died at Lyons-la-Forêt in eastern Normandy, his favourite nephew, Stephen of Blois, disregarding Matilda's right of succession, seized the English throne . Matilda's subsequent invasion of England unleashed a bitter civil war that ended with King Stephen's death and Henry II's unopposed accession in 1154.
Assessment
Henry I was a skillful, intelligent monarch who achieved peace in England, relative stability in Normandy, and notable administrative advances on both sides of the Channel. Under Henry, the Anglo-Norman state his father had created was reunited. Royal justices began making systematic tours o f the English shires, but, although his administrative policies were highly efficient, they were not infrequently regarded as oppressive. His reign marked a significant advance from the informal, personal monarchy of former times toward the bureaucratized state that lay in the future. It also marked a shift from the wide-ranging imperialism of earlier Norman leaders to consolidation and internal development . In the generations before Henry's accession, Norman dukes , magnates, and adventurers had conquered southern Italy, Sicily, Antioch, and England. Henry won his major battles but preferred diplomacy or bribery to the risks of the battle field. Subduing Normandy in 1106, he contented himself with keeping domestic peace, defending his Anglo-Norman state against rebellion and invasion, and making alliances wit h neighbouring princes.

C. Warren Hollister <eb://gateway/g?gtype=doc_article&conte nt_name=auth/013/55.html>
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!Fix This Location-964
!Fix This Location-965
Known For  Final Resolution Of The Investiture Controversy.
Reign Is Notable For Important Legal And Administrative Ref orms.
By End Of Reign, He Was The Lord Of England, Normandy And M aine.