Henry I of England

Born in 1068, Henry was the youngest son of William the Conquer and was never expected to be king. Henry inherited the throne after his older brother, William II died during a hunt.

He was an educated and decisive ruler, and the only one of his brothers who could speak English. He earned the nickname Henry Beauclere, which means good writer.

In William the Conquers' will, he left Normandy to his eldest son, Robert. Williams second son, William Rufus was given the throne of England, while Henry was given a large sum of money as well as his mothers lands in Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire. The brother's weren't happy with this arrangement and went to war with each other almost their entire lives.

William Rufus was crowned King of England and immediately had Henry's lands taken away from him, meanwhile Robert held onto Normandy while at the same time demanding Henry's money. Obviously Henry refused, only to have another arrangement offered, Robert wanted some of Henry's money in exchange for land in Normandy, Henry agreed.

His next step was to reclaim his stolen lands, so he travelled to England in July 1088 and asked William to return them, unfortunately William refused.

Meanwhile, back in Normandy, Odo the Bishop of Bayeux had gotten into Robert's ear, convincing him that Henry was scheming against him with William. Henry was imprisoned as soon as he returned home to France and was held all throughout Winter, only being released because of certain members of the Normandy Nobility.

Although Henry no longer had a title, he still had certain influence over the nobles, leaving animosity between Henry and Robert.

Meanwhile, William hadn't given up his goal of taking Normandy from Robert. He had convinced Conan Pilatus of Rouen to turn against Robert, forcing a street battle to break out between Conan and Robert's supporters. In the middle of the battle, Robert retreated while Henry fought on, eventually capturing Conan and taking him to Rouen Castle where he was thrown of the roof.

This set off a new agreement between William and Robert, called the Treaty of Rouen, an agreement to support each other, offer land and excuse their brother from the proceedings. Understandably, this angered Henry, be began to raise an army, however with both his brothers and their armies against him, he was quickly defeated.

In the following years, Robert joined the First Crusade, giving William an opportunity to take Normandy. During this time, Henry appeared to be quite close to William, and in August 1100, Henry went on a hunt with William in the New Forest. This was when William was killed by an arrow that was shot by Walter Tirel.

Henry immediately took this opportunity to seize the throne of England. Only four days after William's death, Henry was crowned King at Westminster Abbey. In his first act as king, he wanted to establish his legitimacy to rule, presenting the coronation charter that outlined his plans for the country. This included reforming William's church policies and appealing to the barons, making sure that their lands would be protected from being taken.

During his reign her changed the royal justice system, earning him the name Lion Of Justice, as the system was much more efficient than the previous one.

Henry married Matilda of Scotland, the daughter of Malcom III of Scotland, to improve relations with Scotland. He also took multiple mistresses and had seven illegitimate children.

As Henry continued to strengthen his support in England, there were still those who opposed him, such as Bishop Flambard, who supported Robert's claim to the throne.

Henry met with his brother in Hampshire to try and negotiate a peace treaty, which seemed to settle some of the issues the two brothers had with each other. However, the treaty wasn't powerful enough to stop Henry from invading and taking Normandy in 1106. Robert remained Henry's prisoner until he died in 1134.

By 1108, Henry's interest became threatened by the duchy's Anjou and Flanders. At the same time he was forced to send troops into Wales in order to stop some rebellions taking place there.

Henry continued to have problems all throughout his reign, one of which was in 1120, when his only son and heir died in a ship wreck. This resulted in Henry's daughter, Matilda being named the heir. Matilda was married to Geoffrey of Anjou to make peace was Anjou.

Henry died in 1135.