William the Conqueror's youngest son inherited cash, not land, and still became king
When William the Conqueror died in 1087, Normandy went to his eldest son and England to the next. Henry, the youngest, got money, reportedly 5,000 pounds, and no territory. Within thirteen years he had grabbed the English crown, and within twenty he had locked his eldest brother away for life and taken Normandy too.
Born around 1068, probably in England, Henry was the fourth son of William and Matilda of Flanders, short, stocky and dark-haired by one historian's description. He was likely educated by the Church and could probably read Latin, which later earned him the nickname Beauclerc. His father divided his realm along Norman custom, giving the inherited duchy to Robert Curthose and conquered England to William Rufus. Henry paid Robert 3,000 pounds to become count over the Cotentin, only to be pushed out by both brothers in 1091, when they also agreed to name each other as heirs, shutting him out.
Chance intervened. When William Rufus was killed in a hunting accident in 1100, Henry moved faster than Robert and seized the throne, promising at his coronation to reverse his brother's unpopular policies. Robert invaded in 1101 but settled for a treaty. Henry struck back across the Channel in 1105 and 1106, defeated Robert at Tinchebray, and kept him prisoner until his death. French, Flemish and Angevin rivals backed Robert's son William Clito, but Henry's win at Bremule led to a favourable peace in 1120.
Contemporaries called him harsh but effective. He built on Anglo-Saxon systems of justice and tax while adding institutions such as the royal exchequer and travelling judges, often staffed by capable new men from modest families rather than great nobles. He clashed with Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury from 1101 before a compromise in 1105.
His dynasty foundered on a single shipwreck. His only legitimate son, William Adelin, drowned in the White Ship disaster of 1120. A second marriage produced no children, so Henry made his daughter Matilda heir and married her to Geoffrey of Anjou. After his death on 1 December 1135, however, his nephew Stephen of Blois took the throne, and England slid into the civil war remembered as the Anarchy.
Source: Henry I of England
