HENRY
I (r. 1100-1135)William's younger brother Henry succeeded to the throne.
He was crowned three days after his brother's death, against the possibility that
his eldest brother Robert might claim the English throne. After the decisive battle
of Tinchebrai in 1106 in France, Henry completed his conquest of Normandy from
Robert, who then (unusually even for that time) spent the last 28 years of his
life as his brother's prisoner. An energetic, decisive and occasionally cruel
ruler, Henry centralised the administration of England and Normandy in the royal
court, using 'viceroys' in Normandy and a group of advisers in England to act
on his behalf when he was absent across the Channel. Henry successfully sought
to increase royal revenues, as shown by the official records of his exchequer
(the Pipe Roll of 1130, the first exchequer account to survive). He established
peaceful relations with Scotland, through his marriage to Mathilda of Scotland.Henry's
name 'Beauclerc' denoted his good education (as the youngest son, his parents
possibly expected that he would become a bishop); Henry was probably the first
Norman king to be fluent in English. In 1120, his legitimate sons William and
Richard drowned in the White Ship which sank in the English Channel. This posed
a succession problem, as Henry never allowed any of his illegitimate children
to expect succession to either England or Normandy. Henry had a legitimate daughter
Matilda (widow of Emperor Henry V, subsequently married to the Count of Anjou).
However, it was his nephew Stephen (reigned 1135-54), son of William the Conqueror's
daughter Adela, who succeeded Henry after his death, allegedly caused by eating
too many lampreys (fish) in 1135, as the barons mostly opposed the idea of a female
ruler.