Editing Henry I of England (section)

== Government, family and household ==
=== Government, law and court ===
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{{Further|Government in Norman and Angevin England}}

Henry inherited the kingdom of England from William Rufus, giving him a claim of [[suzerainty]] over [[Wales]] and [[Scotland]], and acquired the [[Duchy of Normandy]], a complex entity with troubled borders.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=224–225}}</ref> The borders between England and Scotland were still uncertain during Henry's reign, with Anglo-Norman influence pushing northwards through [[Cumbria]], but his relationship with King [[David I of Scotland]] was generally good, partially due to Henry's marriage to his sister.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=226–227}}; {{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=126}}</ref> In Wales, Henry used his power to coerce and charm the indigenous Welsh princes, while Norman [[Marcher Lord]]s pushed across the valleys of [[South Wales]].<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=226}}; {{harvnb|Davies|1990|pp=11–12, 48–49}}</ref> Normandy was controlled via interlocking networks of ducal, ecclesiastical and family contacts, backed by a growing string of important ducal castles along the borders.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=98, 105}}</ref> Alliances and relationships with neighbouring counties along the Norman border were particularly important to maintaining the stability of the Duchy.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=228}}</ref>

Henry ruled through the barons and lords in England and Normandy, whom he manipulated skilfully for political effect.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=232–233}}</ref> Political friendships, termed ''amicitia'' in Latin, were important during the 12th century, and Henry maintained a wide range of these, mediating between his friends in factions across his realm when necessary, and rewarding those who were loyal to him.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|pp=47–48}}; {{harvnb|Green|2009|p=231}}</ref> He also had a reputation for punishing those barons who stood against him, and he maintained an effective network of informers and spies who reported to him on events.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=232–233}}; {{harvnb|Crouch|1986|p=17}}</ref> Henry was a harsh, firm ruler, but not excessively so by the standards of the day.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=314}}; {{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=332, 334}}</ref> Over time, he increased the degree of his control over the barons, removing his enemies and bolstering his friends until the "reconstructed baronage", as historian Warren Hollister describes it, was predominantly loyal and dependent on the King.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=329, 324–347}}</ref>

Henry's itinerant royal court comprised several parts.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=285–286}}; {{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|p=69}}</ref> At the heart was his domestic household, called the ''domus''; a wider grouping was termed the ''[[familia regis]]'', and formal gatherings of the court were termed ''[[Curia regis|curia]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=285–286}}</ref> The ''domus'' was divided into several parts. The chapel, headed by the chancellor, looked after the royal documents, the chamber dealt with financial affairs and the master-marshal was responsible for travel and accommodation.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=286–287}}</ref> The ''familia regis'' included Henry's mounted household troops, up to several hundred strong, who came from a wider range of social backgrounds, and could be deployed across England and Normandy as required.<ref>{{harvnb|Chibnall|1992|pp=86–89}}; {{harvnb|Prestwich|1992|pp=102–103, 118}}</ref> Initially Henry continued his father's practice of regular crown-wearing ceremonies at his ''curia'', but they became less frequent as the years passed.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=289–290}}</ref> Henry's court was grand and ostentatious, financing the construction of large new buildings and castles with a range of precious gifts on display, including his private menagerie of exotic animals, which he kept at [[Woodstock Palace]].<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=294–295, 304–305}}</ref> Despite being a lively community, Henry's court was more tightly controlled than those of previous kings.<ref name=Hollister2003PP330>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=330–331}}</ref> Strict rules controlled personal behaviour and prohibited members of the court from pillaging neighbouring villages, as had been the norm under William Rufus.<ref name=Hollister2003PP330/>

Henry was responsible for a substantial expansion of the royal justice system.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=350}}</ref>{{refn|Geoffrey of Monmouth memorably likened Henry to the "Lion of Justice" in his ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'', in a section in which he recounts the prophecies of [[Merlin]]. Despite Henry not being named in the document itself, historians are broadly agreed that Geoffrey intended to refer to him, but there are differing interpretations of the simile itself. Judith Green, for example, argues that the description was a positive one; Alan Cooper is far more cautious, noting that, in this period, lions were considered to be strong but also brutal and cruel, and that the surrounding context in the section is certainly not flattering about its subject.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=239}}; {{harvnb|Cooper|2001|pp=47–51}}</ref>|group=nb}} In England, Henry drew on the existing [[Anglo-Saxon law|Anglo-Saxon system]] of justice, local government and [[Taxation in medieval England#Anglo-Saxon England (597–1066)|taxes]], but strengthened it with more central governmental institutions.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=351, 356}}</ref> Roger of Salisbury began to develop the royal exchequer after 1110, using it to collect and audit revenues from the King's sheriffs in the shires.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=356–357}}</ref> Itinerant justices began to emerge under Henry, travelling around the country managing [[Eyre (legal term)|eyre courts]], and many more laws were formally recorded.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=358–359}}; {{harvnb|Green|2009|p=319}}; {{harvnb|Newman|1988|p=24}}</ref> Henry gathered increasing revenue from the expansion of royal justice, both from fines and from fees.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=358}}</ref> The first [[Pipe Roll]] that is known to have survived dates from 1130, recording royal expenditures.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=356}}</ref> Henry reformed the coinage in 1107, 1108 and in 1125, inflicting harsh corporal punishments to English coiners who had been found guilty of debasing the currency.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=354}}</ref>{{refn|In 1124, Henry received reports from his soldiers that they had been paid in substandard English silver pennies. He instructed Roger of Salisbury to investigate, and ordered that any coiners found guilty were to have their right hands and genitals chopped off. The sentence was carried out at Salisbury by the Bishop. Contemporary chroniclers approved of Henry's firm action.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=188–189}}</ref>|group=nb}} In Normandy, he restored law and order after 1106, operating through a body of Norman justices and an exchequer system similar to that in England.<ref>{{harvnb|Haskins|1918|pp=86, 93, 105–106}}</ref> Norman institutions grew in scale and scope under Henry, although less quickly than in England.<ref>{{harvnb|Newman|1988|p=20}}</ref> Many of the officials that ran Henry's system were termed "new men", relatively low-born individuals who rose through the ranks as administrators, managing justice or the royal revenues.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=242–243}}</ref>{{refn|Historian David Crouch has noted that many of Henry's key advisers and officials later regretted their actions on behalf of the King, observing that "life at King Henry's court tended to put a burden on the consciences of its inmates".<ref>{{harvnb|Crouch|1986|p=3}}</ref>|group=nb}}

=== Relations with the Church ===
{{Further|topic=religion in England during this period|Religion in Medieval England}}

==== Church and the King ====
[[File:Anselm of Canterbury, seal.jpg|thumb|left|The seal of Archbishop [[Anselm of Canterbury]]]]

Henry's ability to govern was intimately bound up with the Church, which formed the key to the administration of both England and Normandy, and this relationship changed considerably over the course of his reign.<ref>{{harvnb|Vaughn|2007|p=134}}</ref> William the Conqueror had reformed the English Church with the support of his Archbishop of Canterbury, [[Lanfranc]], who became a close colleague and advisor to the King.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=255}}</ref>{{refn|Anselm used the metaphor of the government being a plough pulled by two oxen, the King and the Archbishop, ruling through temporal and religious right respectively.<ref>{{harvnb|Vaughn|2007|p=135}}</ref>|group=nb}} Under William Rufus this arrangement had collapsed, the King and Archbishop Anselm had become estranged and Anselm had gone into exile. Henry also believed in Church reform, but on taking power in England he became embroiled in the [[investiture controversy]].<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=273}}</ref>

The argument concerned who should invest a new bishop with his staff and ring: traditionally, this had been carried out by the King in a symbolic demonstration of royal power, but Pope Urban II had condemned this practice in 1099, arguing that only the papacy could carry out this task, and declaring that the clergy should not give homage to their local temporal rulers.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|pp=51–53}}</ref> Anselm returned to England from exile in 1100 having heard Urban's pronouncement, and informed Henry that he would be complying with the Pope's wishes.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|pp=52–53}}</ref> Henry was in a difficult position. On one hand, the symbolism and homage was important to him; on the other hand, he needed Anselm's support in his struggle with his brother Robert.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|p=53}}; {{harvnb|Green|2009|p=53}}</ref>

Anselm stuck firmly to the letter of the papal decree, despite Henry's attempts to persuade him to give way in return for a vague assurance of a future royal compromise.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|p=53}}; {{harvnb|Vaughn|2007|p=142}}</ref> Matters escalated, with Anselm going back into exile and Henry confiscating the revenues of his estates. Anselm threatened excommunication, and in July 1105 the two men finally negotiated a solution.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|p=53}}; {{harvnb|Vaughn|2007|p=142}}; {{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=84–88}}; {{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=196}}</ref> A distinction was drawn between the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the prelates, under which Henry gave up his right to invest his clergy, but retained the custom of requiring them to come and do homage for the [[temporalities]], the landed properties they held in England.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=196}}</ref> Despite this argument, the pair worked closely together, combining to deal with Duke Robert's invasion of 1101, for example, and holding major reforming councils in 1102 and 1108.<ref>{{harvnb|Vaughn|2007|pp=139–140, 144}}</ref>

A long-running dispute between the Archbishops of Canterbury and York flared up under Anselm's successor, [[Ralph d'Escures]].<ref name=MayrHarting2001PP58>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|pp=58–59}}</ref> Canterbury, traditionally the senior of the two establishments, had long argued that the Archbishop of York should formally promise to obey their Archbishop, but York argued that the two episcopates were independent within the English Church and that no such promise was necessary. Henry supported the primacy of Canterbury, to ensure that England remained under a single ecclesiastical administration, but the Pope preferred the case of York.<ref name=MayrHarting2001PP58/> The matter was complicated by Henry's personal friendship with [[Thurstan]], the Archbishop of York, and the King's desire that the case should not end up in a papal court, beyond royal control.<ref name=MayrHarting2001PP58/> Henry needed the support of the Papacy in his struggle with [[Louis VI of France]], however, and therefore allowed Thurstan to attend the Council of Rheims in 1119, where Thurstan was then consecrated by the Pope with no mention of any duty towards Canterbury.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|pp=61–62}}</ref> Henry believed that this went against assurances Thurstan had previously made and exiled him from England until the King and Archbishop came to a negotiated solution the following year.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|p=62}}; {{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=272–273}}</ref>

Even after the investiture dispute, Henry continued to play a major role in the selection of new English and Norman bishops and archbishops.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=262–265}}</ref> He appointed many of his officials to bishoprics and, as historian Martin Brett suggests, "some of his officers could look forward to a mitre with all but absolute confidence".<ref>{{harvnb|Brett|1975|p=106}}</ref> Henry's chancellors, and those of his queens, became bishops of Durham, Hereford, London, Lincoln, Winchester and Salisbury.<ref>{{harvnb|Brett|1975|pp=106–107}}</ref> Henry increasingly drew on a wider range of these bishops as advisors – particularly Roger of Salisbury – breaking with the earlier tradition of relying primarily on the Archbishop of Canterbury.<ref>{{harvnb|Vaughn|2007|p=148}}</ref> The result was a cohesive body of administrators through which Henry could exercise careful influence, holding general councils to discuss key matters of policy.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=371, 379}}; {{harvnb|Brett|1975|pp=110–111}}</ref> This stability shifted slightly after 1125, when he began to inject a wider range of candidates into the senior positions of the Church, often with more reformist views, and the impact of this generation would be felt in the years after Henry's death.<ref>{{harvnb|Brett|1975|pp=111–112}}</ref>

==== Personal beliefs and piety ====
[[File:Reading Abbey 03.jpg|thumb|upright=1.65|The ruined chapter house of [[Reading Abbey]] in 2008]]

Like other rulers of the period, Henry donated to the Church and patronised several religious communities, but contemporary chroniclers did not consider him an unusually pious king.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=14}}</ref> His personal beliefs and piety may have developed during the course of his life; Henry had always taken an interest in religion, but in his later years he may have become much more concerned about spiritual affairs.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|pp=44–45}}; {{harvnb|Brett|1975|p=112}}</ref> If so, the major shifts in his thinking would appear to have occurred after 1120, when his son William Adelin died, and 1129, when his daughter Matilda's marriage to [[Geoffrey of Anjou]] teetered on the verge of collapse.<ref>{{harvnb|Brett|1975|p=112}}</ref>{{refn|Assessing Henry's personal attitude towards religion later in his life is challenging. Historian Richard Southern argued in favour of the two shifts being in 1120 and 1129, although Martin Brett dismissed 1120 as a probable date, preferring 1129 as the key date. Judith Green is more cautious, observing that the fashion among chroniclers during the later period was to focus more of their writing on the themes of repenting and confession, and this may have given a false impression of a shift in Henry's thinking. Henry Mayr-Harting also doubts the extent of the evidence for a mid-life change, but draws out more of his earlier piety, suggesting that Henry was always more religiously inclined than was once thought.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr-Harting|2011|pp=46}}; {{harvnb|Southern|1962|pp=155, 163}}, cited in {{harvnb|Brett|1975|p=112}}; {{harvnb|Green|2009|p=282}}</ref>|group=nb}}

As a proponent of religious reform, Henry gave extensively to reformist groups within the Church.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=277–280}}</ref> He was a keen supporter of the [[Cluniac order]], probably for intellectual reasons.<ref name=Green2009P278>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=278}}</ref> He donated money to the abbey at Cluny itself, and after 1120 gave generously to [[Reading Abbey]], a Cluniac establishment.<ref name=Green2009P278/> Construction on Reading began in 1121, and Henry endowed it with rich lands and extensive privileges, making it a symbol of his dynastic lines.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=435–438}}</ref> He also focused effort on promoting the conversion of communities of clerks into Augustinian canons, the foundation of [[Leper colony|leper hospitals]], expanding the provision of nunneries, and the charismatic orders of the [[Congregation of Savigny|Savigniacs]] and [[Tironensians]].<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=278–280}}</ref> He was an avid collector of relics, sending an embassy to Constantinople in 1118 to collect Byzantine items, some of which were donated to Reading Abbey.<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2009|p=14}}; {{harvnb|Bethell|1971|p=69}}</ref>