BIOGRAPHY Eric Delderfield: "The youngest and only English-born son of William the Conqueror, Henry had suffered at the hands of both his brothers by the time he took the throne of England. Though the ablest of the three, he was capable of cruelty and deceit, and his greed exceeded even that of William II. Nonetheless, he was a capable and efficient ruler, who like Rufus realized the value of English support against the barons and against his elder brother. To help secure their allegiance he wisely renounced the oppressive policies of his dead brother, issuing a charter of liberties that promised to restore the laws of his father and King Edward the Elder. Anselm was recalled to Canterbury, and Ranulf was imprisoned. And, he astutely married Matilda, the daughter of Malcolm, King of Scotland, which made for peace with Scotland and pleased the English, Matilda being the great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. Henry's promises proved as worthless as those of William II, the exigencies of his costly wars and growing bureaucracy taking precedence over the restoration of rights. Though the death penalty for crimes against property was restored and sentences were often savagely harsh, they were not arbitrary as they had been under Rufus. All was done within the law. The prospect of war with Normandy after Robert's return from the crusade was precipitated by the escape from prison of Ranulf, who persuaded Robert that the barons would support him if he invaded England. Robert landed at Portsmouth, and at Alton in Hampshire the Norman army met the local fyrd. Henry was able to prevent combat by a few promises, which he was not to keep, but Robert of Belleme, the most powerful baron in England, continued with his brothers to oppose the king and had to be defeated. In exile in Normandy, Robert of Belleme formed the nucleus of a growing band of dispossessed and disenchanted barons whom Duke Robert was powerless to control, even if he had the inclination to do so. Henry used his brother's weakness as a pretext to invade Normandy in 1105, in order to destroy the external threat posed by the barons. After a slow start and unsuccessful negotiations to avoid combat, Henry routed the Norman forces at Tinchebrai, thereby uniting England and Normandy. Henry's brother spent the rest of his life imprisoned, first at Devizes and later at Cardiff. Surprisingly, Henry did not imprison or constrain his nephew William the Clito, whom many Normans regarded as Robert's rightful successor; for the rest of Henry's reign, William provided the cause for further fighting between Normandy and rebellious barons in alliance with Louis VI, King of France. When Louis appealed to the Pope on behalf of William the Clito's claim, Henry's brilliant use of dynastic marriages paid off: the Pope was keen to make peace with the Holy Roman Emperor, to whom Henry's daughter Matilda [# 3032] was married, so he was naturally reluctant to offend his father-in-law. William the Atheling, Henry's only legitimate son and heir to the English throne, was accepted as heir to Normandy too. The conflict between king and church continued under Henry, principally over the right to appoint bishops, which both claimed. The Pope had granted William I the right to invest his own bishops, but had no wish to extend that concession to his sons. After years of negotiations in a more polite refrain than that between Anselm and William II, a compromise was reached that still left Henry with substantial influence and income from sees. A major contribution to England's institutions was Henry's reorganization of the judicial system and the methods of raising taxes. He greatly expanded the scope of the Curia Regis (King's Court), in future acting as an advisory body and as a court of law, as well as supervising taxation. Members of this court were sent out to bring even the remote districts into contact with royal taxation, as well as to make people familiar with royal justice. The extension of the Curia Regis's powes paved the way for its evolution into a Parliament, its inner members forming the Privy Council and the King's Bench. Henry's greatest agent was Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, who it is said commended himself to the king by the speed with which he could get through church services. Roger was once a poor Norman priest, and an example of the way Henry appointed humble men of ability. In 1120 Henry's legitimate son was drowned in the tragedy of the White Ship. It was expected that Henry would nominate his favorite nephew, Stephen of Blois; but instead, to English dismay, he chose as his successor his daughter Matilda, who had married as her second husband Geoffrey, Count of Anjou [# 3031]. (Though Henry had remarried, no children were born.) But when Henry died in 1135 of a surfeit of lampreys, the Council, considering a woman unfit to rule, offered the throne to Stephen." Stephen reigned after Henry for 19 troublesome years.

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Record Change October 30, 1999