Edmund King - Henry I: The Father of His People

Edmund King

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HENRY I

The Father of His People

Now in paperback

For Jenny on our Golden Wedding 30 December 2017

. The coronation of Henry I. Matthew Paris, Flores Historiarum: Chethams Library, Manchester, MS 6712, fo. 129r ( Chethams Library)

. Queen Matilda as benefactor. The Golden Book of St Albans: BL Cotton MS Nero D. VII, fo. 7r ( The British Library Board. All rights reserved/Bridgeman Images)

Photos/Alamy Stock Photo)

. The exchequer in session. Eadwines Psalter: Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R.17 I, fo. 230r ( The Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge)

. The hanging of thieves. Life of St Edmund: The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, MS 736, fo. 19v. Purchased by J. P. Morgan (18671943) in 1927.

of John of Worcester: Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS 157, pp. 382, 383 ( Corpus Christi College, Oxford/Bridgeman Images)

. Henry grieves over the loss of the White Ship. Peter of Langtofts Chronicle: BL Royal MS 20 A. II, fo. 6v ( The British Library Board. All rights reserved/Bridgeman Images)

Images)

. The seal of Richard Basset. Sir Christopher Hattons Book of Seals: Northamptonshire Record Office, Finch Hatton MS 170, p. 84 ( Northamptonshire Archives Service)

. The funeral of Henry I. Painting by Harry Morley, 1916, Reading Museum ( Reading Museum [Reading Borough Council]. All rights reserved)

Jubilee Galleries ( Dean and Chapter of Westminster)

On 4 April 1962 the future Sir Richard Southern gave the Raleigh Lecture on History at the British Academy, on The Place of Henry I in English History. A few weeks later, on 6 June, I presented the results of my studies in medieval English history to the Cambridge examiners. What significance do you attach to the administrative reforms of Henry Is reign? was one of the questions

Southerns essay is a tour de force. He plays down administrative developments: Henry I was not a creator of institutions,

Henrys reign, Southern noted, is the first and one of the greatest ages in English historical scholarship. The three great historians of the age are William, a monk of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, Henry, the Archdeacon of Huntingdon in the diocese of Lincoln, and Orderic Vitalis, a monk of St Evroul in Normandy. Each of these writers had a father of Norman birth and a mother who was English.

It is not just the scale that is new but the register. Both

Granted that this is a new style of historical writing, it is remarkable to find it done with such assurance.

The place of Henry I in English history was one that he chose for himself and which the writers of the day helped him to formulate. Here I am attempting to follow Henrys own narrative. Its key elements, as I see them, will be found in my chapter headings. We start with loyalty.

The new King of England was a ready but not a polished speaker; he weighed up every situation and chose his words with care. But as the coronation ritual proceeded,

Henry was the fourth son and perhaps the ninth and certainly the youngest child of his parents, William, Duke of Normandy, and Matilda of Flanders. Just two of them had been born after 1066, when his father became King of England. The elder of the two was Adela, subsequently Countess

If we are looking for key events that would shape Henrys life we need to travel south, via Winchester, to the New Forest. It was remembered as the creation of the Conqueror, a man who loved the stags as though he was their father. William would lose two of his sons to this passion. The first of these was his second son, Richard. He was learning to hunt, so it was said, and so perhaps

The accident left three boys, Robert, William and Henry. They are

The ceremonies at Westminster were a staging post in a measured progression, the king wearing his crown in the accustomed places. It had started at Gloucester, at the Christmas court, 1085, when the royal council,