King Henry ENGLAND, I ¹

   Other names for Henry were "Beauclerc" and ENGLAND King.

   Ancestral File Number: 8XJ0-6V. User ID: 75638978.

   General Notes:

"Beauclerc", King of ENGLAND Reigned 5 Aug 1100- 1 Dec 1135, Crowned in
Westminster Sunday 5 Aug 1100 by Maurice Bishop of LONDON.

BOOKS
A History of the Plantagenets, Vol I, The Conquering Family, Thomas B Costain, Doubleday& Co, Garden City, 1949, p4:
"Henry I of England, the youngest son of William the Conqueror, became a saddened man when his only son was drowned in the wreck of `La Blance Nef' off the Norman coast. He had no appetite, he sat alone and stared at nothing, his temper was so fitful that the people of the court tried to keep out of his way, he did not pay any attention even to affairs of state, which was the surest indication of the mental condition into which this most painstakingof rulers had fallen...A concerted effort was made to bring the sorrowing man back to an interest in life, and he was finally persuaded, much against his will, to marry again in the hope of having a male heir to take the place of his lost William."
p8: "...Events followed rapidly thereafter. The King went to Normandy to see his grandson [Henry II], his cook put too much oil in a dish of lampreys, and the end came to a long and in some respects a memorable reign. And back in England all men paused in dire apprehension and wondered what would happen now."

The Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes, Elizabeth Longford, 1991, Oxford Univ Press, pxix: "Normans and Plantagenets Genealogy: Henry I Beauclerc (1100-1135), mar Edith Matilda."

A History of the English Speaking People Winston S Churchill Vol I The Birth of Britain Dodd Mead & Co p167:
"...Within two years of the conquest Duchess Matilda, who ruled Normandy in William's absence, came across the sea to her coronation at Westminster on Whit Sunday 1068, and later in the year a son, Henry, symbol and portent of dynastic stability, was born on English soil."
p170: "When death drew near [For William the Conqueror] his sons William and Henry cameto him...For the youngest, Henry, there was nothing by five thousand pounds of silver, and the prophecy that he would one day reign over a united Anglo-Norman nation. This proved no empty blessing."
p182: "Prince Henry, the youngest of the royal brothers, had been a member of the fatal hunting party in the New Forest. There is no proof that he was implicated in the death of his brother, but he cerainly wasted no time in mourning...Evidently he represented a strong movement of opinion among the leading classes, and he had a policy of his own...He set the precedent, which his successor followed, of proclaiming a charter upon his accession...He guaranteed that the rights of the baronage and the Church should be respected. Atthe same time, having seen the value of Saxon loyalty in the reigns of his father and brother, he promised the conquered race good justice and the laws of Edward the Confessor. He know that the friction caused by the separation of Normandy from England was by no means soothed. Duke Robert was already on his way back from his crusade with his mortgage to redeem. The barons on both sides of the Channel would profit from fraternal strife to drive hard bargains in their own interests. Henry's desire to base himself in part at least upon the Saxon population of England led him, much to the suspicion of the Norman barons, to make a marriage with Matilda, niece of the last surviving Saxon claimant to the English throne and descendant of the old English line of Kings. The barons, mollified by the charter, accepted this decisive step..."
"Henry was now ready to face Robert whenever he should return. In September 1100 this event occurred...and for the next six yearsthe King had to fight to make good his title under his father's will...But the root evil lay in Normandy, and 1105, having consolidated his position in England, Henry crossed the Channel. In September 1106 the most important battle since Hastings was fought at Tenchebrai. King Henry's victory was complete. Duke Robert was carried to his perpetual prison in England. Normandy acknowledged Henry's authority, and the control of Anglo-Norman policy passed from Rouen to London. The Saxons, who had fought heartily for Henry, regarded this battle as their military revenge for Hastings. By this new comradeship with the Crown, as well as by the royal marriage with Matilda, they felt themselves relieved from some at least of the pangs of being conquered...a certain broad measure of unity was re-established in the Island."
p185: "Henry took care that the sheriffs of the counties were brought under an increasingly strict control, and several commissions were appointed during the reign to revise their personnel. In troublous times the office of sheriff tended to fall into the hands of powerful barons and to become hereditary. The King saw to it that whenever possible his own men held these key positions..."
p187: "...Thus, as the years wore on the stresses grew between the royal authority and the feudal leaders. The King's hand, though it lay heavy upon all, became increasingly a protection of the people against the injustice and caprice of the localrulers...We see therefore the beginning of an attachment to the King or central Government on the part of the people, which invested the Crown with a new source of strength, sometimes forthcoming and sometimes estranged, but always to be gathered, especially after periods of weakness and disorder, by a strong and righteous ruler."
p188: "...The King had a son, his heir apparent, successor indisputable. On this young man of seventeen many hopes and assurances were founded. In the winter of 1120 he was coming back from a visit to France in the royal yacht called the White Ship. Off the coast of Normandy the vessel struck a rock and all but one were drowned...None dared tell it to the King. When at last he heard the tidings`he never smiled again.' This was more than the agony of parental grief for an only son. It portended the breakdown of a system and prospect upon the consolidation of which the whole life's work of Henry stood..."
191: "After giving the Island thirty years of peace and order and largely reconciling the Saxon population to Norman rule, Henry I expired on December 1, 1135, in the confident hope that his daughter Maud would carry on his work. But she was with her husband in Anjou andStephen was the first on the spot..."

Wall Chart of World History, Edward Hull, 1988, Studio Edition, England 1100: "King of England 1100-1135, Mar Queen Matilda daughter of Malcolm King of Scotland & sister of Edgar King of Scotland, a Finescholar..."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p24: "Henry I 1068-1135, mar (1) Edith (Matilda), mar (2) Adelaide of Louvain ..."

The Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol IV, The Age of Faith,Bk V, The Climax of Christianity, Ch XXV, The Recovery of Europe, Sec VIII.2., England, p669: "It is an adage in England that between two strong kings a weak king intervenes; but there is no limit to the number of intermediate middlings. Afterthe Conqueror's death his eldest son Robert received Normandy as a separate kingdom. A younger son, William Rufus (the Red, 1087-1100) was crowned King of England on promising good behavior, and ruled as a tyrant till he was shot to death. A third son, Henry I (1100-1135), recalled the saintly Anselm, who had succeeded Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury. The prelate philosopher demanded an end to the royal election of bishops; Henry refused; after a tedious quarrel it was agreed that English bishops and abbots were to be chosen by cathedral chapters of the monks in the presence of the king, and should do homage to him for their feudal possessions and powers. Henry loved money and hated waste; he taxed heavily but governed providently and justly; he kept England in order and at peace, except that with one battle-at Tinchebrai in 1106-he restored Normandy to the British crown...he himself had many illegitimate sons and daughters by various mistresses, but he had the grace and wisdom to marry Maud, scion of both the Scottish and pre-Normand English kings, thereby bringing old royal blood into the new royal line..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Micropaedia, Vol IV, p1022, Henry I of England: "Born1069 Selby Yorkshire, Died 1 Dec 1135 Lyons-la Foret Normandy, Youngest and ablest of William the Conqueror's sons, strengthened the crown's executive powers, and like his father also ruled Normandy.
"Crowned king of England (1100) in succession to his brother William II while his elder brother, Robert Curthose, was away on the First Crusade, Henry successfully asserted his right to the succession when Robert invaded England in 1101 and also took Normandy form him in 1106. Henryquarrelled with the church over lay investiture of churchmen, finally reaching a compromise in 1107, and engaged in dynastic manoeuvrings in England and on the Continent. He was married forst to Matilda, a Scottish princess, and then to Adelaide of Louvain."

Macropaedia, Vol VIII, p763, Henry I of England: "The youngest and ablest of William the Conqueror's sons, and king of England from 1100 until his death in 1135, Henry I greatly strengthened the crown's executive powers and reunited the duchy of Normandy with the English kingdom.
"Henry was born in England in 1069. He was crowned at Westminster, on August 5, 1100, three days after his brother, King William II, William the Conqueror's second son, had been killedin 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. Normand 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 hsi way with bribes to Norman barons and agreements with neighbouring princes, in 1106 Henry routed Robert's army at Tinchebrai in southwestern Normandy. Robert was captured and remained Henry's prisoner for the rest of his life.
"...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, CountFulk 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 concludeda definitive peace.
"The settlement was shattered in November 1120, when Henry's son perished in a shipwrick of the `White Ship', destroying Henry's succession plans. After Queen Matilda's death in 1118, he married Adelaide of Louvain in1121, 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. On December 1, 1135, Henry I died at Lyons-la-Foret in eastern Normandy, whereupon his favorite 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.
"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 statethat 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 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 himselfwith keeping domestic peace, defending his Anglo-Norman state against rebellion and invasion, and making alliances with neighbouring princes."

The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams, 1905, Longmans Green & Co, p115: [1100] "The man who thus came to the throne of England was one of her ablest kings. We know far less of the details of his reign than we could wish. Particularly scanty is our evidence of the growth in institutions which went on during these thirty-five years, and which would be of especial value in illustrating the character and abilities of the king. Not without some trace of the passions which raged in the blood of the Norman and Angevin princes, he exceeded them all in the strength of his self-control. This is the one most marked trait which constantly recurs throughout the events of his long reign. Always calm, we are sometimes tempted to say even cold, he never lost command of himself in the most trying circumstances. Perfectly clear-headed, he saw plainly the end to be reached from the distant beginning, and the way to reach it, and though he would turn aside from the direct road for policy's sake, he reached the goal in time. He knew how to wait, to allow circumstances to work for him, to let men work out their own destruction, but he was quick to act when the moment for action came. Less of a military genius than his father, he was a greater diplomatist. And yet perhaps we call him less of amilitary genius than his father because he disliked war and gave himself no opportunities which he could avoid; but he was a skilful tactician when he was forced to fight a battle. But diplomacy was his chosen weapon, and by its means he won battles which most kings would have sought to win by the sword. With justice William of Malmesbury applied to him the words of Scipio Africanus: `My mother brought me forth a general, not a mere soldier.'
"These were the gifts of nature. But when he came to the throne, he was a man already disciplined in a severe school. Ever since the death of his father, thirteen years before, when he was not yet twenty, the events which had befallen him, the opportunities which had come to him, the inferences which he could not have failed to make from the methods of his brothers, had been training him for the business of his life. It was not as a novice, but as a man experienced in government, that he began to reign. And governmentwas to him a business. It is clear that Henry had always far less delight in the ordinary or possible glories of the kingship than in the business of managing well a great state; and a name by which he has been called, `The Lion of Justice,' records a judgment of his success. Physically Henry followed the type of his house. He was short and thick-set, with a tendency to corpulence. He was not `the Red'; the mass of his black hair and his eyes clear and serene struck the observer. Naturally of a pleasant disposition and agreeable to those about him, he was quick to see the humorous side of things and carried easily the great weight of business which fell to him. He was called `Beauclerc,' but he was never so commonly knownby this name as William by his of `Rufus.' But he had, it would seem with some justice, the reputation of being a learned kings. Some doubtful evidence has been interpreted to mean that he could both speak and read English. Certainly he cherished a love of books and reading remarkable, at that time, in a man of the world, and he seems to have deserved his reputation of a ready, and even eloquent, speaker.
"...Henry seems certainly to have believed that he had much to gain by pledging himself in the most binding way to correct the abuses which his brother had introduced, and also that he could safely trust his cause to an English, or rather to a national party against the element in the state which seemed unassimilable, the purely Norman element.
"On the day of his coronation, or at least within a few days of that event, Henry issued, in form of a charter- that is, in the form of a legally binding royal grant- his promise to undo his brother's misdeeds; and a copy of this charter, separately addressed, was sent to every county in England. Considered both in itself as issued in the year 1100, and in its historical consequences, this charter is one of the most important of historical documents. It opens a long list of similar constitutional documents which very possibly is not complete, and it is in form and spirit worthy of the best of its descendants. Considering the generally unformulated character of feudal law at this date, itis neither vague nor general. It is to be noticed also, that the practical character of the Anglo-Saxon race rules in this first charter of its liberties. It is as business-like and clean cut as the Bill of Rights, or as the American Declaration of Independence when this last gets to the business in hand.
"The charter opens with an announcement of Henry's coronation. In true medieval order of precedence, it promises first to the Church freedom from unjust exactions. The temporalities of the Church shall not be sold nor put to farm nor shall anything be taken from its domain land nor from its men during a vacancy. Then follows a promise to do away with all evil custons, and a statement that these in part will be enumerated. Thus by direct statement here and elsewhere in the charter, its provisions are immediately connected with the abuses which William II had introduced, and the charter made a formal pledge to do away with them. The first promises to the laybarons have to do with extortionate reliefs and the abuse of the rights of wardship and marriage. The provision inserted in both these cases, that the barons themselves shall be bound by the same limitations in regard to their men, leads us to infer that William's abuses had been copied by his barons, and suggests that Henry was looking for the support of the lower ranks of the feudal order. Other promises concern the coinage, fines, and debts due the late king, the right to dispose by will of personal property, excessive fines, and the punishment of murder. The forests Henry announces he will hold as his father held them. To knights freedom of taxation is promised in the domain lands proper of the estates which they hold by military service. The law of King Edward is to be restored with those changes which the Conqueror had made, and finally any property of the crown or of any individual which has been seized upon since the death of William is to be restoredunder threat of heavy penalty."
p189: [1135] "...Then came the end suddenly. On November 25, Henry still apparently in full health and vigour, planning a hunt for the next day, ate too heartily of eels, a favourite dish but always harmfulto him and died a week later, December 1, of the illness which resulted. Asked on his death-bed what disposition should be made of the succession, he declared again that all should go to Matilda, but made no mention of Geoffrey.
"Henry was born in 1068, and was now past the end of his sixty-seventh year. His reign of a little more than thirty-five years was a long one, not merely for the middle ages, when the average of human life was short, but for any period of history. He was a man of unusual physical vigour. He had been very little troubled with illness. His health and strength were still unaffected by the labours of his life. He might reasonable have looked forward to seeing his grandson, who was now nearing theend of his third year, if not of an age to rule, at least of an age to be accepted as king with a strong regency under the leadership of Robert of Gloucester. A few years more of life for King Henry might have saved England from a generation that laboured to undo his work.
"With the death of Henry I a great reign in English history closed. Considered as a single period, it does not form and epoch by itself. It is rather an introductory age, an age of beginnings, which, interrupted by a generation of anarchy, were taken up and completed by others. We are tempted to suspect that these others receive more credit for the completed result than they really deserve, because we know their work so well and Henry's so imperfectly. Certainly, we may well note this fact, that every new bit of evidence which the scholar from time to time rescues from neglect tends to show that the special creations for which we have distinguished the reign of Henry's grandson, reach further back in time than we had supposed. To this we may add the fact that, wherever we can follow in detail the action of the king, we find it the action of a man of political genius. Did we know as much of Henry's activity in government and administration as we do of the carrying out of his foreign policy, it is more than probable that we should find in it the clear marks of creative statesmanship. Not the least important of Henry's achievements of which we are sure was the peace which he secured and maintained for England with a strong and unsparing hand. More than thirty years of undisturbed quiet was a long period for any land in the middle ages, and during that time the vital process of union, the growing together inblood and laws and feeling of the two great races which occupied the land, was going rapidly forward."
p198: [1135] "Immediately after the Christmas festivities in London [Stephen] went with his court to Reading, whither the body of KingHenry had now been brought from Normandy. There it was interred with becoming pomp, in the presence of the new king, in the abbey which Henry had founded and richly endowed..."

ANCESTRY.COM
World Ancestral Chart No. 31759 Ancestors of Warren Cash 1760.
World Ancestral Chart No. 125360 Ancestors of Patricia Ann Kieffer.

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.10 8XJ0-6V Henry I "Beauclerc" King of ENGLAND Born 1070 Selby Yorkshire England Chr 5 Aug 1100 Mar 11 Nov 1100 Matilda "Atheling" Princess of SCOTLAND 8XJ0-JL Westminster London Middlesex England Died 1 Dec 1135 St Denis Seine-St Denis France Bur 4 Jan 1136 Abbey Reading Berkshire England.

   Marriage Information:

Henry married Queen Matilda Edith Scotland ENGLAND, daughter of King Malcolm Canmore SCOTLAND, III and Queen Saint Margaret Cerdic SCOTLAND, on 11 Nov 1100 in Abbey, Westminster, London, Middlesex, England. (Queen Matilda Edith Scotland ENGLAND was born about 1079-1080 in Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland, died on 1 May 1118 in Abbey, Westminster, London, Middlesex, England and was buried in Jun 1118 in Church, St Peter, Westminster, Middlesex, England.)

   Marriage Information:

   Marriage Information:

Henry also married Queen Adelaide Louvain ENGLAND, daughter of Duke Geoffrey Louvain BRABANT, on 24 Jan 1120-1121 in Windsor, Berkshire, England. (Queen Adelaide Louvain ENGLAND was born about 1094 in , Brabant, Netherlands, died on 23 Apr 1151 in Affligham, Flanders, France and was buried on 23 Apr 1151 in Abbey, Reading, Berkshire, England.)

   Marriage Information:

Henry also married Princess Nest Verch Rhys WALES, daughter of Rhys Ap TEWDWR and Gwladus Verch RHIWALLON. (Princess Nest Verch Rhys WALES was born about 1073 in Dynevor, Llandyfeisant, Carmarthenshire, Wales and died about 1163.)

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Henry also married Sibyl CORBET, daughter of Robert CORBET. (Sibyl CORBET was born about 1075 in Alcester, Warwickshire, England and died after 1157.)

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Henry also married Isabel Elizabeth De BEAUMONT, daughter of Count Robert De Beaumont MEULAN, I and Countess Isabel De Vermandois SURREY. (Isabel Elizabeth De BEAUMONT was born about 1086-1096 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England and died about 1147.)

   Marriage Information:

Henry also married Edith FITZ FORNE, daughter of Baron Forne Fitz Sigulf De GREYSTOKE and Baroness Fitz Sigulf Forne GREYSTOKE. (Edith FITZ FORNE was born about 1082-1084 in Greystoke, Cumberland, England, died about 1152 and was buried in Abbey, Oseney, Oxfordshire, England.)

   Marriage Information:

Henry also married Gieva De TRACY.

   Marriage Information:

Henry also married Concubine England Henry I ENGLAND, I. (Concubine England Henry I ENGLAND, I was born about 1070 in Caen, Calvados, Normandy, France.)

   Marriage Information:

Henry also married Concubine England Ansfride , II.

   Marriage Information:

Henry also married Concubine England Henry I , III.