General Notes

1ST KING OF ENGLAND; DIED AGE 67; ARSC 121:25.

To my (Roger W. Winget - Genealogy@Winget.com) knowledge,
this individual was still alive as of May 2000.


Acquired from Roger W. Winget (Genealogy@Winget.com)

Henry I, Beauclerc
(1100-1135 AD)

Born: 1068

Died: 1135

Parents: William the Conqueror and Mathilda of Flanders

Significant Siblings: Robert, William Rufus

Spouse: (1st) Eadgyth, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland; (2nd)Adelaide of Louvain

Significant Offspring: William, Matilda, Robert de Mellent (Earl ofGloucester), Sibylla

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 lastedthirty-five years), was nicknamed "Beauclerc" (fine scholar) for hisabove average education. During his reign, the differences betweenEnglish and Norman society began to slowly evaporate. Reforms in theroyal treasury system became the foundation upon which later kings built.The stability Henry afforded the throne was offset by problems insuccession: his only surviving son, William, was lost in the wreck of theWhite 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 olderbrothers, leaving England to William Rufus and Normandy to Robert. Henryinherited no land but received £5000 in silver. He played each brotheroff of the other during their quarrels; both distrusted Henry andsubsequently signed a mutual accession treaty barring Henry from thecrown. Henry's hope arose when Robert departed for the Holy Land on theFirst Crusade; should William die, Henry was the obvious heir. Henry wasin the woods hunting on the morning of August 2, 1100 when William Rufuswas killed by an arrow. His quick movement in securing the crown onAugust 5 led many to believe he was responsible for his brother's death.In his coronation charter, Henry denounced William's oppressive policiesand promising good government in an effort to appease his barons. Robertreturned to Normandy a few weeks later but escaped final defeat until theBattle of Tinchebrai in 1106; Robert was captured and lived the remainingtwenty-eight years of his life as Henry's prisoner.

Henry was drawn into controversy with a rapidly expanding Church. Layinvestiture, the king's selling of clergy appointments, was heavilyopposed by Gregorian reformers in the Church but was a cornerstone ofNorman government. Henry recalled Anselm of Bec to the archbishopric ofCanterbury to gain baronial support, but the stubborn Anselm refused todo homage to Henry for his lands. The situation remained unresolved untilPope Paschal II threatened Henry with excommunication in 1105. He reacheda compromise with the papacy: Henry rescinded the king's divine authorityin conferring sacred offices but appointees continued to do homage fortheir fiefs. In practice, it changed little - the king maintained thedeciding voice in appointing ecclesiastical offices - but it a marked apoint where kingship became purely secular and subservient in the eyes ofthe Church.

By 1106, both the quarrels with the church and the conquest of Normandywere settled and Henry concentrated on expanding royal power. He mixedgenerosity with violence in motivating allegiance to the crown andappointing loyal and gifted men to administrative positions. By raisingmen out of obscurity for such appointments, Henry began to rely less onlanded barons as ministers and created a loyal bureaucracy. He was deeplyinvolved in continental affairs and therefore spent almost half of histime in Normandy, prompting him to create the position of justiciar - themost trusted of all the king's officials, the justiciar literally ruledin the king's stead. Roger of Salisbury, the first justiciar, wasinstrumental in organizing an efficient department for collection ofroyal revenues, the Exchequer. The Exchequer held sessions twice a yearfor sheriffs and other revenue-collecting officials; these officialsappeared before the justiciar, the chancellor, and several clerks andrendered an account of their finances. The Exchequer was an ingeniousdevice for balancing amounts owed versus amounts paid. Henry gainednotoriety for sending out court officials to judge local financialdisputes (weakening the feudal courts controlled by local lords) and curberrant sheriffs (weakening the power bestowed upon the sheriffs by hisfather).

The final years of his reign were consumed in war with France anddifficulties ensuring the succession. The French King Louis VI beganconsolidating his kingdom and attacked Normandy unsuccessfully on threeseparate occasions. The succession became a concern upon the death of hisson William in 1120: Henry's marriage to Adelaide was fruitless, leavinghis daughter Matilda as the only surviving legitimate heir. She wasrecalled to Henry's court in 1125 after the death of her husband, EmperorHenry V of Germany. Henry forced his barons to swear an oath ofallegiance to Matilda in 1127 after he arranged her marriage to thesixteen-year-old Geoffrey of Anjou to cement an Angevin alliance on thecontinent. The marriage, unpopular with the Norman barons, produced amale heir in 1133, which prompted yet another reluctant oath of loyaltyfrom the aggravated barons. In the summer of 1135, Geoffrey demandedcustody 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 thissorry state of affairs - war with his son-in-law and rebellion on thehorizon - in December 1135.

Third surviving son of WIlliam the Conqueror.

Henry had at least 20 illegimate children. (The Kings & Queens ofBritain, John Cannon and Anne Hargreaves, Oxford University Press, page184, printed 2001)

Henry

Kings of England. Henry I, 1068-1135 (r.1100-1135), was the youngest sonof William I. On the death of his brother William Ii, he had himselfelected and crowned king while his older brother, Robert Ii, duke ofNormandy, was on crusade. In 1101 Robert invaded England, but Henrybought him off. Henry invaded Normandy in 1105, defeated his brother, andbecame duke of Normandy. In the meantime he had been involved in astruggle with Anselm over lay investiture. His later years were marked byhis attempts to obtain the succession for his daughter Matilda. UnderHenry's reign of order and progress, royal justice was strengthened.Henry II, 1133-89 (r.1154-89), was the son of Matilda and Geoffrey Iv,count of Anjou. Founder of the Angevin, or Plantagenet, line, he becameduke of Normandy in 1150 and in 1152 married Eleanor Of Aquitaine, thusgaining vast territories in France. In 1153 he invaded England and forcedStephen to acknowledge him as his heir. As king he restored order towar-ravaged England, subdued the barons, centralized the power ofgovernment in royalty, and strengthened royal courts. Henry's desire toincrease royal authority brought him into conflict with Thomas à Becket,whom he had made (1162) archbishop of Canterbury. The quarrel, whichfocused largely on the jurisdiction of the church courts, came to a headwhen Henry issued (1163) the Constitutions of Clarendon, defining therelationship between church and state, and ended (1170) with Becket'smurder, for which Henry was forced by public indignation to do penance.During his reign he gained northern counties from Scotland and increasedhis French holdings. He was also involved in family struggles. Encouragedby their mother and Louis Vi of France, his three oldest sons, Henry,Richard I, and Geoffrey, rebelled (1173-74) against him. The rebellioncollapsed, but at the time of Henry's death, Richard and the youngestson, John, were in the course of another rebellion. Henry III, 1207-72(r.1216-72), was the son of John. He became king under a regency and wasgranted full powers of kingship in 1227. In 1230, against the advice ofthe chief justiciar, Hubert de Burgh, he led an unsuccessful expeditionto Gascony and Brittany. He dismissed Hubert in 1232 and began a reign ofextravagance and general incapacity, spending vast sums on futile wars inFrance. Henry's absolutism, his reliance on French favorites, and hissubservience to the papacy aroused the hostility of the barons. Hisattempt to put his son, Edmund, earl of Lancaster, on the throne ofSicily (given to Henry by the pope) eventually led to the Barons' War.Simon de Montfort, the barons' leader, won at Lewes and summoned (1265) afamous Parliament, but Henry's son Edward I led royal troops to victoryat Evesham (1265), where de Montfort was killed. By 1267 the barons hadcapitulated, Prince Edward ruled the realm, and Henry was king in nameonly. Henry IV, 1367-1413, (r.1399-1413), was the son of John Of Gaunt.In 1387 he joined the opposition to Richard Ii and was one of the five"lords appellant" who ruled England from 1388 to 1389. In 1398 Richardbanished Henry and, after John's death in 1399, seized the family's vastLancastrian holdings. Counting on the king's unpopularity and his absencein Ireland, Henry invaded England and successfully claimed the throne,thus establishing the Lancastrian dynasty. His reign was spentsuppressing rebellions, notably by Richard's followers; by the Scots; bythe Welsh under Owen Glendower; and by Sir Henry Percy. He left thekingdom militarily secure but in debt. His son, Henry V, 1387-1422(r.1413-22), presided over the privy council during his father's illness.As prince of Wales (Shakespeare's "Prince Hal"), he led armies againstOwen Glendower and figured largely in the victory over the Percys. Theearly years of his reign were troubled by the rebellion of the Lollards(see Lollardry). Determined to regain lands he believed to be his, heinvaded France in 1415, thus reopening the Hundred Years War. Afterannouncing his claim to the French throne, he met and defeated a superiorFrench force at the famous battle of Agincourt. By 1420 he had conqueredNormandy, married Catherine Of Valois, and persuaded her father, CharlesVi of France, to name him his successor. He fell ill and died in 1422. Asking he ruled with justice and industry, restoring civil order and thenational spirit. Though his wars left the crown in debt, his charm,military genius, and care for his less fortunate subjects made him apopular hero. His son, Henry VI, 1421-71 (r.1422-61, 1470-71), becameking when he was not yet nine months old. During his early years Englandwas under the protectorate of two of his uncles. After their defeat atOrléans by Joan Of Arc, the English attempted to protect their Frenchinterests by crowning Henry king of France at Paris in 1431, but theircause was hopeless. Henry's rule was dominated by factions, and therewere many riots and uprisings indicating public dissatisfaction with thegovernment. The struggle between the faction headed by Henry's wife,Margaret Of Anjou, and Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, and that headedby Richard, duke of York, developed into the dynastic battle between theLancasters and Yorks known as the Wars of the Roses. Henry went insane in1453. In 1455 Somerset was killed in the battle of St. Albans, and theYorkists gained control of the government. Margaret had control from 1456until 1460, when the Yorkists won a victory at Northampton and Henry wastaken prisoner. York, who had been named Henry's successor, was killed atWakefield in 1460, but his son Edward Iv defeated the Lancastrians andwas proclaimed king. Later he fled to Holland, and Henry was briefly(1470-71) restored. In 1471 Edward retook the throne, and Henry wasmurdered in the Tower of London. Henry was a mild, honest, pious man, apatron of literature and the arts, and the founder (1440) of EtonCollege. He was also unstable, weak-willed, and politically naïve. HenryVII, 1457-1509 (r.1485-1509), became head of the house of Lancaster atHenry VI's death. In 1485 he invaded England from France and defeated theforces of Richard Iii at the battle of Bosworth Field. The next year hemarried Edward IV's daughter, Elizabeth, thus uniting the houses of Yorkand Lancaster and founding the Tudor dynasty. Although his accessionmarked the end of the Wars of the Roses, the early years of his reignwere disturbed by Yorkist attempts to regain the throne, e.g., theimpersonations of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. He consolidatedEnglish rule in Ireland (1494) and effected a peace treaty with Scotland(1499), which was followed by the marriage of his daughter Margaret toJames Iv of Scotland. He established the Tudor tradition of autocraticrule tempered by justice and increased the powers of the Star Chambercourt. His son Henry VIII, 1491-1547 (r.1509-47), married his brotherArthur's widow, Katharine Of Aragón, who bore him a daughter, Mary I. Hischief minister, Thomas Wolsey, concluded an alliance with Francis I ofFrance. but Henry (despite the Field Of The Cloth Of Gold) joined (1522)Emperor Charles V in a war against France. England prospered internallyunder Wolsey, who had almost complete control. The court became a centerof learning, and the pope gave Henry the title "Defender of the Faith"for a treatise he wrote against Martin Luther. By 1527 Henry, desiring amale heir, wished to marry Anne Boleyn, but Pope Clement Vii, under thecontrol of Katharine's nephew, Charles V, resisted his demands for adivorce. Wolsey's failure in this affair caused his downfall, and ThomasCromwell became chief minister. An anti-ecclesiastical policy wasadopted, and the subservient Thomas Cranmer became archbishop ofCanterbury. He immediately pronounced Henry's marriage to Katharineinvalid. Papal powers were transferred to the king, who became thesupreme head of the English church. The break with Rome was now complete,and the Church of England was established. Anne, whom Henry immediatelymarried, had one daughter, Elizabeth I. The marriage ended in 1536, whenAnne was convicted of adultery and beheaded. Ten days later Henry marriedJane Seymour, who died in 1537 giving birth to Edward Vi. The king dealtharshly with rebellions against the abolition of papal supremacy and thedissolution of the monasteries. In 1537 he licensed the publication ofthe Bible in English. His marriage (1540) to Anne Of Cleves (whom hedisliked and soon divorced) led to the execution of Cromwell. He thenmarried Catherine Howard, who suffered (1542) Anne Boleyn's fate. In 1543Catherine Parr became his sixth queen. In 1542 war with Scotland beganagain, and Henry made unsuccessful attempts to unite the two kingdoms.Wales was officially incorporated into England (1536), but the conquestof Ireland proved too expensive. The end of Henry's reign saw a gradualmove toward Protestantism. Henry remained immensely popular, despite hisadvancement of personal desires under the guise of public policy or moralright. His political insight, however, grew steadily better, and thepower of Parliament increased. He gave England a comparatively peacefulreign