Gone Medieval - Henry I of England

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

The fourth son of William the Conqueror, King Henry I, is remembered as a harsh but effective ruler. He skilfully manipulated the barons in England and Normandy. He strengthened the existing Anglo-Saxon system of justice, local government and taxation, with more institutions including the royal exchequer and itinerant justices. But he may also have been a thief or murderer, a spoilt brat - but definitely a man who knew how to grasp a chance.In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis discusses Henry I with historian Chris Riley.This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians including Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code MEDIEVAL. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up here > You can take part in our listener survey here. If you’re enjoying this podcast and are looking for more fascinating Medieval content then subscribe to our Medieval Monday newsletter here: https://insights.historyhit.com/signup-form Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From long-loss Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life, only on history hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries

with a brand-new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world, to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Welcome to this episode of God Medieval. I'm Matt Lewis. He's a bit of a bad boy, maybe a spoiled brat, or is he a gifted tactician? A thief, maybe a murderer, a man who knew how to grasp a chance, maybe, a hard ruler, but then weren't all successful medieval rulers hard. And I'm not talking about my guest, I'm talking about the subject of today's podcast. He is Henry the first And the way that he came to the throne

Is fascinating Unless you happen to be one of his brothers, maybe I'm joined to explore this episode a bit further By historian Chris Riley So welcome to Gone Medieval Chris Thank you for having my Matt I thought that was a really nice intro for me And then you broke my heart a little bit

And said it was about Henry We'll go back and we'll make it all about you We'll do it again And it can be about Chris Riley So to start off with What do we know about Henry's youth Who are his parents and when's he born? He has some pretty

famous parents. His dad is William Duke of Normandy or William the Conqueror is more commonly known or William the Bastard if you're not a big fan of him. And his mother was Matilda of Matilda. William and Matilda had four sons. Henry was the last of these sons. So in terms of childhood, we don't really know too much as unfortunately is fairly common. To start with, we don't even know where or when Henry was born. The best kind of estimate is at the end of 1068 or early 1069 when he was probably born in Selby, just outside of Leeds. So very similar to me, born just outside of Leeds, which is a nice little comparison for myself. In terms of his actual childhood, again, we don't know too much. He was probably, as the fourth son, raised to go into the church, which is a fairly common path

for third, fourth, fifth sons, because ultimately there's only so much land to be given out, and I'm sure we'll touch on that later in this story. But the main reason we think that Henry was raised for the church is due to his nickname, which is Bo-Clurk. basically means good scholar, or as I heard it recently, as Henry the Swat. He was unusually able to read and write, which obviously in the 21st century sounds like a fairly regular thing for the developed world, but even the sons of kings, like I said, we've already said that we don't know when or where he was born, but the fact that he could read and write in Latin and in Norman French was quite a strange thing. But again, this is one of the main reasons

why we think he was raised for the church. But in terms of his childhood, we don't really know too much, which is always a great shame. Yeah, I quite like Henry the Swatts or Henry the Smarty Pants or something. I've to see what listeners can come up with as a good nickname for someone who's essentially known as Smarty Pants. What do we know about how he got on with his dad, William the Conqueror, and with all of his older brothers? Yeah, so everybody, or most people know, William the Conqueror, he's one of those people that everybody pulls out of history, 1066, Battle of Hastings, but William is so much more than that. He is the bastard son of a duke that is raised to the almighty title of King of England through a lot of hard work. I'm not just saying

he was giving it on a silver plate. He did earn his keep as such, but I can imagine anyway that having this fella as your dad is probably quite a tough act to follow and especially having older brothers as well. I've already said that he had three older brothers. One of them unfortunately died as children Richard. He was killed in a hunting accident. And as we'll see later in this story, hunting is a dangerous sport that seems to play this Norman household. There's many stories of the fraught relationship between Henry and his brothers. More than anything else, there's a famous anecdote from around 1077, where Henry and one of his brothers, William, who would later become William II of England, or William Rufus, as he's better known as.

And the story goes that young Henry, who's only 11 at this point, maybe I'm terrible at maths. and his brother, William, tipped a chamber pot over the head of their older brother, Robert, which annoyed him so much that he essentially rebelled against his father and royally kicked up a fuss, if you pardon the thumb, between his father and their elder brother Robert. So I think there was always going to be a vying of power and all this testosterone and this male bravado going around and being raised by, or at least being the sons of the man that is William the Conqueror, must have had a real effect on even at this point a third surviving son who may have ended up going into the church who didn't. But yeah, the relationship between Henry and his brothers was definitely tested multiple times throughout their early life

and then throughout their lives as adults after their father died in 1087. And this is really where we start to see Henry as an individual appear on the scene. Famously, William the Conqueror dies because he fell into the pommel of his horse and he died of his womb at the age of 60. and all of the attendants that were there at his deathbed, scarpered, stealing all the jewels and everything like that. And Henry was there. He was the only son that actually was there when his father passed. But he did also run away, so it's not all great for poor William the Conqueror.

But I think this says a lot about his relationship with his father. His brother Robert had been somewhat allowed back into the fold. He rebelled against his father, but he was declared heir to the dukedom of Normandy. And I'll touch on the inheritance in a second. but I think it says a lot about Henry and his relationship with his father. It must have been somewhat close because as a third son, he knew or he had a fairly good idea that he wasn't going to be King of England. He certainly wasn't going to be Duke of Normandy.

His ancestral home that his father had fought his whole life for. Being Duke of Normandy was not an easy job. So I think it says a lot about his relationship with his father, William. And I think how he is as a king later, spoiler alert, he becomes Henry I first of England. I think how he ruled with such the iron fist that he ruled with was in direct relation to what he saw his father do. He was born in the late 1060s. This is in the period of immense change and upheaval, especially in the north of England where he was probably born. If he was born in Selby, he will have spent his first few years roaming around the desolate wasteland that is the north.

And I'm not saying that right now. I do live in the north, so I'm partial to it. but the stories of entire towns and entire civilization in the north of England wiped out. And Henry will have seen this firsthand as a toddler, but this is pretty formative stuff. And I think it really did form, is probably the idea of his father as William the Conqueror. He probably didn't call him as William the Conqueror as we do today. A heady world for a child to be born and raised in, I guess, isn't it, to be the son of a king, but also a tough king who William had had a tough life as Duke of Normandy and then as king of England.

So to be raised by that man must have been a fairly daunting thing for a child, I'd imagine. Not his oldest brother becomes King of England, William II. So his oldest brother becomes Duke of Normandy. Next brother becomes William the second King of England. When William dies, what were the arrangements for what should happen next? And spoiler alert, why doesn't that happen? Yeah, so when William the Conqueror dies, William Rufus, his kind of favourite son becomes king. and rules pretty terribly for the next sort of 13 years.

The reason this happens is because it's a Norman tradition that the eldest son gets the father's inheritance, so the dukedom of Normandy, and anything gained through conquest, which was the Norman's kind of favorite hobby, was either parceled off or given out in hold to a favoured son or a second son, in this case. But William Rufus, named for his probable red hair.

everybody has very literal nicknames at this point. Bo Clerk could read. Rufus had red hair. He was given the Kingdom of England, which seems like a weird way to divvy it up now because kingdom, dukedom, there's obviously a power struggle there, but that's a whole other episode of a whole other podcast. William II rules pretty poorly in England, and Robert doesn't do a great job as Duke of Normandy either. and all Henry Bocler gets out of this is a small loan of £5,000 from his father. He uses this money quite intelligently. He buys essentially the Cotton Tan Peninsula in Normandy, where he rules quite effectively, but he fights with Robert, he fights with William,

he fights against William with Robert. Everybody falls out constantly. The three brothers just cannot seem to get on. I wonder why their entire inheritance has been split down the middle with poor Henry sat on the sideline with like a, said, a very generous, I'd take five grand now, but five thousand pounds compared to a kingdom or a dukedom is relatively nothing. And again, at this point, succession, as you can probably tell, isn't set in stone. It isn't, father is always succeeded by firstborn son.

Premageniture is something that comes in later, pretty much after the next lot of kings, and that's, again, a whole other episode after Henry I, but after William the second dies in mysterious circumstances, let's say. I might be answering your next question with that one. But there is an agreement between William and Robert that they would become each other's heirs if neither of them had children. William II doesn't have any children. Robert does, but later. So at this point, in 1100, so 13 years after the conqueror's death, neither William the 2nd or Duke Robert of Normandy have any children. So it makes sense based on agreement and on primogeniture and everything like that, that Robert, as the eldest

surviving son would inherit the kingdom of England as well as the Duchy of Normandy. Obviously, this didn't happen or else this podcast episode wouldn't be happening, and a lot of history would look very different. But I think the reason that Henry does this or is able to become king, when he kind of shouldn't do, he's not next in line, he's still the third son of the conqueror with an older brother. I honestly think, and this sounds quite flippant as an answer, but I think he was in the right place at the right time. And I'm sure we'll go on to the way in which William II dies and how Henry is in that right place and right time.

But that's what it boils down to. I think if there was an official succession plan in place that had been followed for centuries, like we see centuries later, this wouldn't have happened. And this is a hangover from the pre-Norman conquest period in England that Kings were selected on might overwrite more often than not. So Henry being where he was in the situation, situation he was put him in a really good position to succeed his elder brother William.

And I guess we're going to come on to the most obvious question that you alluded to there. William dies, as his family tend to, in a hunting accident in the new forest. Henry happens to be there. Do you think Henry was involved in William II's death at all? It's a great question. And as many people that know this subject will know, is it's an unanswerable question. But I'll give it a go. For context, like you've already said, said William and Henry are hunting in the New Forest in August of the year 1100. And quite famously, William is struck in the chest by a loose arrow, famously shot apparently by a chap called Walter Tyrell, who was apparently a really good archer, which I guess is the first potential

clue into the rumours around this. Tyrell leaves the scene sharpish, as I think you probably would. You've just shot the king in the chest. No one's probably going to want to hear your side of the story. This kind of goes back to my last point about right place, right time. As you said, Henry was with William in the New Forest when this accident assassination, whatever it was, either way it happened. And Henry had a choice. He could mourn his brother and see how things played out. He knew Robert would hear this news and sail to England, be crowned King Robert the First of England, and pardon the pun, the rest would truly be history. Or he could do something different, which was get himself to Winchester as fast as humanly possible, which was where the

treasury was. And this is still the capital, the second capital of England at this point. He could do this, leaving his brother still warm on the floor of the forest and have himself crowned king. For context, he chooses option two and very quickly leaves to secure the treasury and to have himself crowned it in London. I think the reason he does this, and the reason I don't believe that one of the reasons I don't believe Henry was completely involved in the death of his brother is this idea of interregnum, the idea of between monarchs was such a terrifying prospect at this period of history. Between monarchs means between law. At this point, without a king to enforce the law, there is no law. I don't want to say Henry was this magnanimous man that thought of the people

of England and thought they cannot be without a king, but the thought of no law being followed, it was bad enough during William the second's reign. He was a pretty poor king as far as they come anyway. We probably don't see one as bad as William until King John, a couple of hundred years later. In short, my answer is no. I don't believe Henry was involved in the death of his brother, but I definitely think he benefited, obviously. But I also think he saw an opportunity to maybe write a wrong, a lifelong wrong between his family. And for probably the first time, get one up on at least one of his brothers in terms of Robert, who he knew would hear the news second and would have to travel further. No one could WhatsApp Robert in Normandy and say,

sorry to tell you, mate, your brother's just been killed in the forest, get yourself here sharpish. I think, again, Henry was in the absolute perfect place at the perfect time because he could witness the death. I'm making it sound like a murder, the more I say it, but he could witness the death of his brother so he can carry that message with him and then have himself crowned fairly quickly, which is what he does, and he does his best to secure things as quickly as possible. Everyone tends to overlook the point of the interregnum that there is no kind of automatic right. On William II's death, Robert doesn't become king.

There is just a vacuum of power, which needs somebody to step into it. And I tend to agree. I don't think that Henry was behind his brother's death, but I think he kind of sat there, watched it happen and thought, well, hang on, I'm not losing out again. I've already lost out when Dad died. I'm not losing out again when Big Brother dies. I can fix this for myself now.

But it's slightly an odd response, I think, to our sensibilities that he just gets on a horse and rides off to become king and just leaves his brother's body there on the forest floor. I think that's a bit that people kind of cling to is the speed in which this happens. But securing the crown, like you said, is a crucial part of the next kind of few weeks and months of history. And I think Henry shows real decisiveness,

as his father probably would have done. He became Duke of Normandy as a child. He saw what the potential for lawlessness could be. So maybe he shared that story with Henry as a child and said, whatever happens, if you ever see your brother get shot in the new forest, make sure you get to Winchester instantly. And all he wanted to do was avoid England descending into anarchy, which is a bit of a pun that I've tried to stay away from saying the word anarchy

because anyone that knows the end of Henry the first story is far too aware of the anarchy. but again, that's a topic for another day. Hello, host of Dan Snow's History Hit Podcast here. History isn't just dates and facts. It's about the incredible stories that shape our world. Three times a week on my podcast, my expert guests and I bring you extraordinary stories of heroism, discovery, mystery and power.

Expect tales of lost tombs, daring escapes, power-hungry rulers, and those determined to bring them all down. If you're a history lover or just looking for a good tale, You want to check out Dan Snow's History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. So Henry then has seen his brother die. He's ridden to Winchester. How easily does he actually manage to make himself king? Is it a fairly smooth process for Henry? Yeah, I think as you read it on the ruler at school that everybody seems to have where it had the monarchs of England, it just goes, name, name, name, name.

There's not, oh, they struggle to do this, they struggle to do that. But also, it's might overwrite. and Henry had the money from Winchester, which he did struggle to get. There was a little bit of a, wait, hang on a minute. Are you sure you don't want to speak to Robert first? This might not be what he wants you to do, but he had the money. He had the support because ultimately he wasn't his brother

and he was Johnny on the spot. He was the man on the spot at the time. And again, I think this threat of interregnum or there's no king land was a real fear to people. there was people still alive, or at least it was in pretty recent memory, the Harold Godwinson succession from Edward the Confessor and into William the Conqueror. That must have been a rough year, 1066. I know it comes up a lot when you talk about medieval history, but talk about bad days at the office. If you're an adult in 1066, you're going to see a lot of stuff and three kings of England.

It was a very smooth transition, but I think it was out of, not necessarily out of fear of the unknown, but, you know, he turned up, banged on the door and went, I'm the king. And everyone went, okay, that sounds about right. Have you got the money? Yeah, sound. You're in. It's that easy. Sometimes it's just that confidence thing, isn't it? Just convince everyone that you're the king and they'll go along with it. Did Henry take any particular steps then to make himself more appealing to the English polity? He is still a Norman king within half a century of the Norman conquest of England. Does he have to make any efforts to appeal to the English, maybe to compensate for the fact that his brother Robert ought to have been king.

Yeah, and I think that's a huge part of his early reign is appealing to the English people. And the church as well, the church is a huge part of daily life in the medieval world. So these two groups, the secular and the non-secular world, are two groups that he has to very much get on side very quickly. And after the conquest, I've already mentioned the harrying of the north in the 1060s, and this brutal suppression of Englishness. This isn't just a northern phenomenon. It happens in the southwest as well. It happens very famously in Ireland, obviously not English suppression, but still Norman suppression of natives. Henry's grown up seeing this. He's grown up being a part of this. He's French speaking. He's English-born, but to continental parents. So I think, again, this is a very shrewd move by Henry to appeal to his sense of Englishness. One thing that he does very much like to bring up is the fact that he was born in English. and he is the only son of the conqueror and one of only two children born in England after the conquest.

To us, now that seems coincidental more than anything. If a child is born during a prime minister's time in office, it's just a child born in that year. It doesn't mean anything. But at this point, the idea of being born in the purple as such, which is a hangover from the Roman Empire, it's like a Byzantine tradition. And it's a horrible word in Latin, and I'm going to do my best to say it, porphylogenature. is different to primogeniture. Primogeniture is essentially firstborn son gets everything. Porphrogeniture is this idea of being born when your father is king, emperor, monarch, whatever kind of word you want to use. And this grants like a special kind of title to you is

you were born in the purple and the colour purple seems like an odd choice. We usually associate red with kings or I do anyway. But purple is a color that's long been associated with ruling. Again, it comes all the way back to the Roman Republic, never mind the Roman Empire. The colour purple is notoriously difficult to get into fabric, and therefore it's expensive. So it's always been associated with this idea of ruling. And this is something that Henry carries with him and has over his elder brother Robert. He probably said to him, I'm the son of a king, you're merely the son of a duke. It's the same guy, but it's kind of a little internal family power play.

So I think that's a huge part of his appeal is I was born in. England to the King of England, when was the last time someone can say that? Another thing that he does, I've already mentioned the church, but he really tries to right the wrongs of his brother, William, who was pretty much despised by the church for many different reasons. He was very, very similar to King John in the way that he withheld church positions, rather than filling them straight away, he would withhold new appointees to claim the tax revenue. And he was somewhat sexually promiscuous according to the church. I don't think we'll probably ever really know exactly what William was up to and that's his business, but the church certainly didn't like it. So he very much

appeals to both the layman and the church saying, look, I'm not my brother. I'm very much an English king born in England and I'm going to rule as an English king with the church at my side. He gives money to the Pope, which is always a great way to get them on side, as much as they probably pretend not to, popes love money. That gets a huge player back on side of the monarchy. Anybody that knows anything about medieval England is, if the Pope doesn't like you, you're probably going to have a pretty tough time of ruling. So to get him back on side, he welcomes back archbishops. He presents himself as this, look, I promise I'm not William. I'm going to do everything I can to be everything that he wasn't. So yeah, I think being English

and being born in the purple, it was a huge part of his kind of. of marketing campaign. I always see Henry I first as a great marketer. He really shouldn't have been in the position he was in at pretty much any point in his life. He probably should have ended up in the church. But he didn't. He becomes King Henry I of England after some pretty remarkable things happen. It sounds like he's very good at pulling on all of the available levers that he has. You know, he's in the right place, but he's also making a fuss about the fact that he's born to a king, that he's born in England, and all of these things that will help to make him popular and kind of smooth that transition onto the throne for himself. How important do you think his coronation

charter was? So Henry the first coronation charter is one of those things that I just don't think he spoke about enough. It is a hugely important document. Everybody knows the Magna Carta. Magna Carta is one of those, again, like 1066. It's a cornerstone of medieval history. Chances are I could walk out my house right now and say to anyone, give me two things about medieval history, they'd go Battle of Hastings and Magna Carta. Whereas Henry's Coronation Charter, it's just Henry's Coronation Charter. It doesn't have a fancy Latin name that we refer it to, but it really does set the baseline for how English kings should rule in this period. His coronation charter or the Charter of Liberties was installed or, sorry, introduced by Henry,

again to prove that he wasn't his brother. But it was also to restore some of the rights and the privileges that had been completely destroyed by William II, but also by William the Conquer himself as well. So he wasn't just going back by it to one monarch. He was saying, look, I appreciate my family. I've done some pretty rough things to England over the last few years. So let's go back to the good governance of Edward the Confessor. Edward the Confessor is still lorded as this very just king, the kind of the good old days, I'm assuming people probably said back in my day quite a lot at this point. He was keen on granting rights to the church, which is a huge part, and I don't think I can stress this enough, how important the church was to monarchy at this period. Without church

backing, the king doesn't really have a leg to stand on. Obviously, they can still tax the laity and things like that, but the church is a huge cultural and societal expectation. And a big part of Norman kingship is the change from lay prince to this holy king. The crowning is so important to the Norman kings of England that having the church on side is seen as an absolute must. And to be honest, Henry probably looked at Willie in the second's reign as a bit of a golden egg for him because he could go, look how bad he was, how good I am already just by being nice to the church. It's a proper sibling thing as well though. I remember when I used to that with my brother, if one of us is misbehaving, the other one is

extra well-behaved just to highlight the bad behaviour of the other one. It's almost like Henry's doing that to William, even though he's dead by this point. One of the things I find fascinating about the three brothers is they are three brothers until the very end of all of their kind of lives. And like you said, I think this is a clear example of two brothers, obviously one from the beyond the grave, but them going, I'm the better brother, I'm better behave, look how much they like me over you. I've mentioned a few times. I think realistically his promise in this coronation Charter and more widely to just not be William II probably got him a lot of new friends. Because something that he also did as king is he promoted a lot of new men.

He didn't just reward the existing lords. What does an existing Earl need with a new king? They already had one. But these young men at court who were chomping at the bit for power and success, they're going to support you. And Henry really needed the support throughout his entire reign. But at the start of his reign, it was a pretty clear. obstacle in his way. But yeah, his coronation charter, like I said, I think it's a massively

underappreciated document that really does set the foundation and it's referred to multiple times famously with Magna Carta. We go back to this charter because it's seen as this cornerstone of kind of legal government still being ruled predominantly through one man's divine power, but there are wrinkles of politics in there that we still use some of the features of that today. Yeah, and I think where, you know, Magna Carta is often seen as this cornerstone of liberty and of the constitution of not just England, but several other countries as well. It's kind of like Henry's coronation charter is a cornerstone of Magna Carta. It's kind of a strong basis on which the barons built their ideas and formed what became Magna Carta that they shoved in front of John. So it really does have a long-lasting legacy beyond Henry's reign.

For whatever reason he did it, it certainly stuck. How important then do you think is his marriage to Matilda of Scotland as another step in this effort to make himself English and different from his brothers? Again, I think this is a really intelligent move by Henry and the people around him. He is an outsider. The Normans are still an outside group in England at this point, even 44 years after the conquest. So attaching himself to something English was probably top of it. his agenda. And we see this in his marriage to Matilda of Scotland, who was originally Edith of Scotland, but Matilda is a far more Norman name. Anyone that knows the next part of this story is

everybody is called Matilda. And it becomes quite problematic at times, especially as a historian who's trying to read and write this stuff all the time. So Matilda, we'll refer to her as Matilda just because it's easier than Edith Matilda, is the daughter of Margaret of Scotland and Malcolm the third of Scotland. Margaret of Scotland, or as she should really be known as, is Margaret of Wessex. She was a direct descendant of Alfred the Great. Therefore, her marriage to this woman would make any children that Henry had a direct descendant of Alfred the Great. I think she was the great granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, who famously was King of England for about 55 minutes before he mysteriously died as well, which everybody seems to do at this point. So yeah,

I think his marriage to a daughter of England was, again, another huge part in his image. creation and his kind of little internal marketing play. As well as his own marriage, he actively encouraged his Norman entourage to marry English women, which was not met with ruptuous applause. It was seen as lessening their kind of Norman blood. But ultimately it did happen. And we see this mixing of Anglo-Saxon English blood with this Norman blood as well. And whether he meant it as a peacekeeping operation. It was definitely this attempt to not right the wrong, but bring everything back to how it was before his father invades and becomes William the Conqueror. That means his dad gets to be William the Conqueror, but Henry gets to be, and Henry's children

get to be kings and queens and princesses and princes of England and Normandy. Well, that was the plan anyway. Obviously, it didn't always go to plan, but that was his thought anyway. I kind of feel like his marriage to Matilda of Scotland was his ultimate masterstroke, his absolute best move, because it's almost like saying to the old Anglo-Saxon community, I'm one of you. You know, I'm bringing back the old Anglo-Saxon people, which hints that perhaps bringing back the old Anglo-Saxon ways, which gives people kind of hope that the oppressiveness of the Normans might be over.

Whether he's actually going to do that will remain to be seen, but he's offering the promise of all of those things if the people will accept him? Yeah, I think that ties really nicely with his coronation charter and everything like that. Matilda is the bow on top that says, look how English I'm trying to make myself. I think in a way he's apologising for how Norman he is by proving how English he wants to be, even though he was very Norman to the end. I don't want anyone to take away from this, that he was a English king who spoke with an accent like mine. Absolutely not.

He spoke Norman French until the day he died. but it was important politically for him to be as English as possible, like you say. We haven't even discussed Henry as king. We've literally just got him onto the throne and just got him crowned and just got him married. There's just so much in that that is fascinating, I think. What do you make of Henry's reign? We're not going to be able to go into loads of detail about him as king, but would you say that Henry was a good king by the time that he dies?

Yeah, and this is a really tough question. It's really difficult to look back, I guess, I said, over a thousand years at someone and go, was he good, was he bad? But I think overall with Henry, I think we can give a pretty firm, yes. Overall, I think in terms of medieval kingship, Henry I did as good of a job as anyone in this period. He ruled with the law, very firmly with the law, but he set out a legal system and he followed it. He introduced things like the exchequer. The chancellor of the exchequer is still probably the second most important job in government today based exclusively on the use of a checkered tablecloth for counting tax.

It's probably Henry that introduces this. He fell out with the church a little bit due to the investiture crisis, but who wasn't falling out with the church at this point over who could have elect bishops and things like that. So I'm not going to poo him too much for that. But I think he understood what his job was as king. He'd seen how not to do it in his brother. he'd seen how you could do it with his father, William the Conqueror,

and his relationships with his brothers, with his father, with his wife, with the laity of England, with the church. I think he was constantly learning and adapting his policies and how he went about things personally to fit his situation. His first few years were not smooth.

He was fighting his elder brother Robert up until 1106, where he famously beats him and captures him at the Battle of Tonshbray in Normandy, he captures his brother and he's held captive for the rest of his life. He's very long life. He apparently learns Welsh and becomes a poet in Welsh captivity. Even then, he is able to capture a Norman lord, which is tough for this period, you know, a crusader as well. You know, Robert famously went on the first crusade, mortgaging Normandy to his brother, William at the time,

which led to even more problems and really does set the basis for the 100 years war and things like that, but I'm getting way ahead of myself. Yeah, I think Henry's a good king. I don't want to go on too much about him, but I think he was overall a good king. Yeah, I mean, I think for what it's worth, I'd probably agree. I think he lived up to his smarty pants nickname.

He was clearly incredibly clever in the way that he maneuvered himself on the throne and made himself appealing once he was on there too. I think I find him slightly tricky in that I think he's a good king in all the ways that we find utterly distasteful today because he was brutal to the point of savagery, but that's what people kind of expected and wanted, and at least they knew where

they stood. You break the law, it will cost you your hands or your eyes or your life or whatever else, but everyone knew where they stood. And I think sometimes in the medieval world, they preferred that to the mushy mess of a weak ruler who let something slide and didn't let others, and you never quite knew what you were going to get. So I think I kind of have Henry in my medieval pantheon of kings as a good king in really bad ways. if that makes sense. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more.

I mean, famously, Henry throws a man out of a tower to his death. He apparently blinds and cuts the noses off his own granddaughters. I think his least favorite group in the world are people that clip money. Coin clippers are Henry's nemesis throughout his reign. But like you said, he's following the law. He treats people, I don't want to say fairly, because that sounds, you know, like that's a warranted punishment. But he does.

He treats people fairly based on the rules that are, set up. And it's very easy to talk in the 21st century about not being very nice. I don't think that's up for debate. But yeah, I think like you said, for everything that they needed him to be, he was a good kick. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Chris, to talk about that. And like I say, we've literally only just got Henry on the throne, which just goes to show how fascinating his story is. But thank you so much for joining us to talk through some of that stuff around his accession. It's been absolutely fascinating. No, as at all. Thank you so much for having me, Matt. It's been great. And where can people find you if they want to hunt you down on

social media. The best place to find me is Instagram. You can follow me at Chris Riley History. I try and post as much as possible. I post pretty much predominantly about Eleanor of Aquitaine. I'm surprised it's taken me this whole episode without mentioning her. I usually try and get her in, as Matt knows, any which way I can. I'm also on Twitter or X, as it's called now and everything like that. You can find me under the same username. But probably the best place to see the work that I do is through The Historians Magazine, which you can find at The Historians Magazine on all the normal places or at the historiansmaginsmagine.com. We try and bring history to life for everybody, including kids. We have a kids-specific magazine as well, The Little Historians Magazine. We try and keep it and make

it as accessible, as educational and as exciting as humanly possible. And I work with some really great historians and some, yeah, really sound people on that. So if you're going to do anything today. Check that out. Don't check me out. Check the historians' magazine out. It's great. But yeah, thanks again, Matt. Yeah, no, I thoroughly recommend the historians' magazine as well, not just because I've written for it in the past, but everyone should go and read a copy. It really is fantastic and interesting and, yeah, something there for everybody. Thanks very much, Chris. Awesome. Thanks again. There are new episodes of Gone Medieval every Tuesday and Friday, so please join us next time for more from the greatest millennium in human history.

Don't forget to also subscribe or follow us wherever you get your podcast from and to tell all of your friends and family that you've gone medieval. If you get In a moment, please do drop us a review or rate us. It really does help new listeners to find the podcast. If you're enjoying this and looking for a bit more medieval goodness in your life, you can subscribe to our Medieval Monday's newsletter by following the links in the show notes below. Anyway, I've better let you go. I've been Matt Lewis, and we've just gone medieval with history hits.