137.  Henry’s Quarrel with Robert; the “Lion of Justice.”

While this Church question was in dispute, Henry had still more pressing matters to attend to.  His elder brother Robert (SS124, 127) had invaded England and demanded the crown.  The greater part of the Norman nobles supported this claim, but the English people held to Henry.  Finally, in consideration of a heavy money payment, Robert agreed to return to Normandy and leave his brother in full possession of the realm.  On his departure, Henry resolved to drive out the prominent nobles who had aided Robert.  Of these, the Earl of Shrewsbury, called “Robert the Devil,” was the leader.  With the aid of the English, who hated him for his cruelty, the earl was at last compelled to leave the country.

He fled to Normandy, and, in violation of a previous agreement, was received by Henry’s brother Robert.  Upon that, Henry declared war, and, crossing the Channel, fought (1106) the battle of Tinchebrai,[1] by which he conquered and held Normandy as completely as William, Duke of Normandy, had conquered England forty years before.  The King carried his brother captive to Wales, and kept him in prison during his life in Cardiff Castle.  This ended the contest with the nobles.

[1] Tinchebrai, Normandy, in the region west of Caen and Avranches.  (See map facing p. 54.)

By his uprightness, his decision, his courage, and by his organization of better courts of law (S147), Henry fairly won the honorable title of the “Lion of Justice”; for the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” says, “No man durst misdo against another in his time."[2]

[2] See, too, the Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. vi, S7.

138.  Summary.

The three leading points of Henry I’s reign are:  (1) the self-limitation of the royal power embodied in his Charter of Liberties; (2) the settlement of old disputes between the King and the Church; (3) the banishment of the chief of the mutinous barons, and the victory of Tinchebrai, with its important results.

Stephen—­1135-1154

139.  The Rival Candidates.

With Henry I’s death two candidates presented themselves for the throne,—­Henry’s daughter, Matilda (for he left no lawful son), and his nephew, Stephen.  In France the custom of centuries had determined that the crown should never descend to a female.  It was an age when the sovereign was expected to lead his army in person, and it certainly was not expedient that a woman should hold a position one of whose chief duties she could not discharge.  This French custom had, of course, no force in England; but the Norman nobles must have recognized its reasonableness; or if not, the people did.[1]

[1] Before Henry’s death, the baronage had generally sworn to support Matilda (commonly called the Empress Matilda, or Maud, from her marriage to the Emperor Henry V of Germany; later, she married Geoffrey of Anjou).  But Stephen, with the help of London and the Church, declared himself “elected King by the assent of the clergy and the people.”  Many of the barons now gave Stephen their support.