A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Defeat of Belesme. Establishment of royal power in England.

But the English were true to the King. Fitz-Hamon, Bigot, and the Earl of Mellent, added their influence to the same side. It was probably chiefly the talents of Mellent, and the threat of excommunication from Archbishop Anselm, which brought about a peaceful solution of the difficulty. A treaty was arranged by which Robert renounced his claims in exchange for the Cotentin and 3000 marks a year. It was also stipulated that a complete amnesty should be extended to the partisans of either prince in his brother’s country. It was not Henry’s intention however to carry out this part of the stipulation, and no sooner had Robert left the country than the King proceeded to take steps against the two leaders of his brother’s faction, Ivo of Grantmesnil and Robert of Belesme. Ivo had been a crusader, and was one of those who had fled from the siege of Antioch, being let down the wall with a rope. He had thus earned the title among the witty Normans of the “Rope-dancer,” and finding his credit gone he withdrew from England. His share in the earldom of Leicester was given to Robert of Mellent, who subsequently acquired the rest of the earldom. Alarmed by these measures of the King, William de Warrenne induced Robert foolishly to come over to England to negotiate for the safety of his partisans. His position there was one of great jeopardy, and he was glad to retire, having renounced his money payment, but having secured the restitution of William in his Earldom of Surrey, of which he had been deprived. The withdrawal of Robert from the contest allowed Henry to turn his undivided attention to the destruction of Robert de Belesme, the head of the Norman party in England. From him he won the castles of Nottingham and Tickhill, and subsequently that of Bridgenorth, to which he had retreated. When many of the barons combined to seek his pardon, Henry, still resting on the support of the English, refused to listen to them, and proceeded to win from him his last stronghold, the Castle of Shrewsbury. Upon this Belesme withdrew with his two brothers into Normandy, and the disaffection of the aristocracy was permanently checked.

Belesme received in Normandy. Consequent invasion of the Duchy. 1105.

Battle of Tenchebray. 1106.

It had been stipulated that the brothers should not receive each other’s exiles. In spite of this Robert of Normandy, enraged at the persecution of his partisans, restored to Belesme his continental property. Henry consequently on his side continued his measures against Robert’s partisans. He first banished the Count of Mortain, Earl of Cornwall, who claimed also the Earldom of Kent in succession to Odo of Bayeux, the possession of which would have rendered him the most powerful noble in England, and then proceeded to Normandy to continue his attacks upon Belesme. He alleged not only the reception of his exiles, but the general misgovernment of Robert, as an excuse for his proceedings; and in truth, under that Prince, Normandy had become a scene of anarchy. As an instance of this it is mentioned, that on his arrival a church was pointed out to him full of property sent there for safety from the hands of the marauding barons. He captured the towns of Caen and Bayeux, and found allies in the persistent enemies of the Dukes of Normandy, Fulk Count of Anjou, and Hélie de la Fléche, who had succeeded in regaining the County of Maine. With Count Robert of Flanders also he renewed friendly relations. With such support he proved too strong for the Norman Duke, and before the Castle of Tenchebray a battle was fought, on the anniversary of the battle of Hastings, which ended in favour of the King. Duke Robert himself, the Count of Mortain, and Eadgar Ætheling, who had been serving with the Duke, were taken prisoners. Eadgar was liberated, and died in peace in England some years after; but Duke Robert and the Count of Mortain were imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Normandy and England were thus again united.

Wars with France. 1107.

Louis upholds William Clito as claimant to the Duchy.

End of the war. Treaty of Gisors. 1113.

The possession of Normandy brought Henry into more immediate contact with France. Louis VI. was upon the throne of that kingdom, the first of those great kings to whom the monarchy owed its ultimate triumph over feudalism. It was natural that he should look with jealousy on the vast strength of his great vassal, and should attempt to curtail that power which the supineness of his predecessor had allowed to accumulate. A constant border warfare was the consequence, rendered the more possible by the doubtful position of such counties as Maine, Evreux, the Vexin, Blois, and Alençon, the counts of which were for ever changing their allegiance. Louis had no difficulty in finding a pretender to the Norman Duchy whom he might use as his instrument in opposing the English King. William, the son of Robert, had fallen into Henry’s hands, and had been by him intrusted to the care of Hélie de St. Saen. In 1110, in connection apparently with a movement of disaffected nobility (for Braiose, Malet, and Bainard are mentioned as being exiled at that time), Hélie fled with the young Prince, and sought to raise all the neighbouring princes in his cause. Their efforts were not successful. Henry’s arch-enemy, Robert of Belesme, fell into the King’s hands at Bonneville, where he had presented himself with extraordinary effrontery, trusting that a message with which he was charged from the King of France would give him the security due to an ambassador. The same year Theobald of Blois, acting for Henry, defeated the French King at Puysac. And when Henry himself succeeded in capturing the town of Alençon, and in attaching the Count of Anjou to his interests, by giving him his heir, William the Ætheling, as a husband for his daughter, Louis found it desirable to conclude a peace at Gisors, by which he resigned his claim of suzerainty over Maine, Belesme, and Brittany, and left entirely unmentioned the rights of William, son of Robert. There followed a period of some years, during which Henry was able to live in tolerable peace in England.

Prince William acknowledged heir.