Henry the First

A brief biography of King Henry I

Henry was the fourth eldest son of William the Conqueror and Matilda. As fourth son it was considered very unlikely that Henry would ever reach the height of Monarch or Duke of Normandy. Indeed his inheritance upon his fathers death included no land whatsoever, he did however inherit a massive amount of silver.

Henry has been considered by many Historians to have been a highly ambitious young prince. His hopes of acquiring power were raised on a number of occasions, firstly by the death of William's second son and in later years by the news of his eldest brothers decision to go on Crusade. 

Both of these factors played a huge part in creating the man who did eventually become king. An intelligent and well educated man, Henry was quick to establish that should Robert perish on the Crusades that he would be in line for power as Rufus had no children of his own. These ascertains were frowned upon by his elder brothers who made a pact early in Rufus' reign that effectively disinherited Henry from all rights to the families land and wealth. 

Henry used the inheritance from his father wisely in order to gain support and favour amongst those who would ultimately make the decision as to who the future monarch would be. He made sure that he was in England, close to the seat of power and upon Rufus' death went immediately to the Treasury to secure it as his own. He moved quickly to buy favour in Normandy as Robert was due to return. 

This, along with several other clever moves such as inviting Anselm back to England and his marriage to Edith of Scotland, ensured that once Robert did finally return, his route to London to claim the throne for himself was blocked. Anslem negotiated a settlement and Robert returned to Normandy. 

This settlement was not long lasting and led to conflict brought about by the split in the family land. Robert was captured by Henry's knights at the battle of Tichenbrai in 1106 and spent the rest of his life as a prisoner of his younger brother. 

Once Henry had asserted his right to rule in England, he faced problems with the church. Despite having brought Anselm back and his successful appeasement of the Archbishop he was faced very quickly with attempts to reform the church within England. This was a result of the increasing power of the Gregorian movement within the European church, which Anselm was certainly sympathetic towards. 

In essence the church wanted self reform and self government, Henry wished to retain the traditional rights of the Monarchy over the clergy. Anslem, following his departure from England had been in Rome and returned with full knowledge of papal decrees stating that lay investiture (The King choosing the Bishops) was against church rules. 

Henry felt it more appropriate to delay confrontation with the church and this led to Anslem becoming so frustrated that he exiled himself once again in 1103. Henry however was forced to compromise later when the pope threatened to excommunicate him and so in 1106  he made an agreement with the pope. Anselm's death in 1109 proved quite timely or the king, who then left the see of Canterbury vacant for the following five years. 

In accepting that lay investiture was not permissible, which is what Henry had agreed to in 1106, he ensured that once Normandy was under his control he had little opposition to his reign. Henry was safe to concentrate on the more traditional role of ensuring that the monarch's line was intact. 

This apparently straight forward process was throne into turmoil by the untimely death of his only legitimate son, William, in 1120. Henry soon remarried (his first wife Edith having died in 1118) and attempted to have another son. In the mean time however Henry made moves to ensure that his eldest legitimate daughter, Matilda, would succeed him as monarch. 

Whilst Henry's Norman barons were willing to accept Matilda as his heir they frowned upon Henry's choice of husband: Geoffrey of Anjou. Geoffrey attempted to persuade Henry that he should take control of areas of Normandy whilst the now ageing king concentrated his energies elsewhere. Henry refused to budge and his barons felt entitled to rebuke Geoffrey's overtures. In 1135 this led to conflict within Normandy. Henry never lived to sort out the problem, he died in December of 1135 leaving the question of his successor quite open. 

Henry's reign can be viewed in a number of ways. He achieved 30 years of peace, which by medieval standards is an excellent testimony to his political guile and diplomatic reasoning. His failure to leave an obvious heir may be viewed as a failing, although circumstance definitely played against Henry with regards this issue.