Henry and Normandy

During the first nine years of his reign, Henry had great trouble because of Normandy. His elder brother, Robert, returned in 1100 from the First Crusade, and was welcomed by a considerable party of Norman lords who supported his claim to the throne. Ranulf Flambard, whose evil influence had not yet ended, escaped in February, 1101, and fleeing to Normandy, urged the earl to invade England. The opposition to Henry was a powerful one. In France, Louis VI, the first king to create a strong French monarchy, aided Robert, hoping to weaken the Norman house by encouraging war between its leading members. In England, Robert of Belesme was prepared to give help.

But Henry acted with characteristic energy and was aided by his English as well as by his Norman followers. With a bribe of three thousand marks a year, he bought off Robert, who had already shown his eagerness for money by mortgaging his fief to William Rufus in 1096. He struck down the powerful Robert of Belesme in 1101 and drove him from the kingdom. By this act he became master at home. He then crossed the channel in 1104 and subdued "almost all the castles and the chief men" in the land of Normandy. Finally, on September 25, 1106, he won the battle of Tinchebrai against his brother, who had renewed the conflict, and Robert of Belesme, who had spent his time in Normandy stirring up strife. Henry became master of Normandy on the anniversary of Stamford Bridge, fought by Harold forty years before. The struggle bound more closely Norman king king and English people, and promoted that unity which was to make of two peoples one nation.

The Investiture Struggle

While Henry was warring with the feudal lords, a new and important issue was arising with the church. This issue was not peculiar to England, but was part of a great Continental movement, which had its origin in the efforts made by a series of popes, of whom the greatest was Gregory VII (1073-1085), to reform the church, to separate it from secular control, and to make its authority universally recognized in temporal as well as in spiritual affairs.

England had already felt in the days of Dunstan the early effects of this movement; Lanfranc had continued the work under William the Conqueror; and now Anselm was to stand forward as the great representative of the new position that the popes were taking. For three centuries lay lords (emperors, kings, and feudal barons) had been accustomed to invest archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastics, who were at the same time their feudal vassals, not only with their lands but also with the ring and the staff, symbols of their spiritual office. Gregory VII determined to put an end to this encroachment on the rights of the church, and entered into a bitter struggle with the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry IV. This struggle, which is one of the most dramatic events of the Middle Ages, was not ended on the Continent until 1122, when Henry V and Calixtus II agreed on a compromise called the Concordat of Worms.

Anselm had asserted the independence of the church during the reign of William Rufus, when he refused to receive the pallium, a spiritual symbol, from the hands of the king. Because of the quarrel that followed, Anselm fled from England in 1096. Soon after his return, in accordance with instructions from Rome, he renewed the struggle over the question of investiture with the ring and the staff. From 1102 to 1107 the archbishop refused to recognize the king's right of investiture, and twice, in 1102 and 1103, was exiled from England because he would not do homage and receive investiture for his see. But king and archbishop were not enemies, and there were reasons on each side why a compromise should be effected. Henry was involved in war with his brother and wanted the aid of Anselm and the English people ; the pope, Paschal, was in the thick of his quarrel with the emperor Henry V, who had married King Henry's only legitimate child, Matilda, and did not care to force Anselm to take extreme measures. So a compromise was reached: the king gave up the right of investiture with ring and staff, and Anselm agreed that bishops should do homage to the king for the lands that they held. The rapidity and ease with which this result was obtained, as contrasted with the bitterness of the continental strife, shows us the greater harmony existing in England between the king and the church. The resistance of Anselm showed Henry that, though an absolute king in claim, he was in reality already limited by the freedom of the church and the independence of his people.

Administration under Henry

Henry made few changes in matters of administration ; and government under him was about the same as it had been under William the Conqueror. In central administration the justiciar now became, however, a permanent officer, and out of the great council a small council of barons was created for financial and judicial purposes. When dealing with finances this body took the name of the Exchequer, and sat twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas; when rendering justice it was called the curia regis, or king's court. This court dealt with important cases only and left smaller matters entirely in the hands of the local courts, which Henry ordered to be held as in the days of King Eadward. At times the king sent one or more of the members of this Exchequer and king's court into the counties to look after the revenues and to hear the pleas of the crown. But very little had been done as yet to centralize justice. What Henry did simply prepared the way for the greater work of the second Henry.