Summary Henry I - Thematic Revision Notes, British History (OCR A-level)
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Course
Unit 3 (H505)
Institution
OCR
Detailed revision notes on the reign of Henry I, structured thematically. Created for the OCR A-level History course, Y303/01 'English Government and the Church ', but provide a general overview of Henry I's reign with key thematic information. Suitable background information for the 'interpretatio...
INTERPRETATIONS QUESTIONS – HENRY I
VIEWS OF HIS REIGN
Henry – centralisation of government, administrative developments, strong king, rich
Anglo Saxon Chronicle – Henry’s reign a time of peace compared with ensuing civil wars
Hollister – ADMIISTRATIVE KINGSHIP
GREAT ADMINISTRATIVE INNOVATIONS: Development of new, highly effective means to
conventional ends
- Exchequer
- Central treasury
- Systematic judicial eyres (facilitated by new men)
- Specialised viceregencies
Role of Roger of Salisbury (justiciar) was key.
- Helm of a fundamental shift in the style of government
Systematisation and increasing bureaucracy
- Administrative innovations (above)
- Also standardisation of weights and measures and coins
- Regulations governing wages and perquisites of the royal household domus regis
- Fixed stipends for barons attending court
Royal patronage
- New men
Growing literacy and mastery of Latin among magnates and administrators
- Increase in writs
Green – CHANGE WAS INCREMENTAL NOT RADICAL
MERELY ALONG THE SAME LINES AS PREVIOUSLY SEEN
Henry I was an extremely able ruler, understanding of propaganda
- Calculating, determined and ruthless nature
- Politically cunning
- Understood how to win and keep the loyalty of others, instil fear
Keen protector of the church
Brutal but capable
- Ordered for all moneyers to be castrated and for right hands to be cut off 1125
, Personality of Henry I
Negative: Cruel
Contemporary reports of Henry = Avaricious and cruel personality
- Gruesome penalties on wrongdoers. Instilled fear in his subjects
- Blinded the Count of Mortain (fought against him at Tinchebrai 1106)
- Thieves were blinded and castrated
- 1125: all moneyers in England were sentenced to have their right hands cut off and
be castrated
Henry’s application of these penalties must have been particularly severe to have merited
comment.
Henry lived in personal fear – weakness internally? Acknowledged his poor government?
- Fears are depicted in drawings in John of Worcester’s chronicle
- Fears of a rebellion by all orders of society – peasants knights and clergy
All groups of people complain of oppressive taxation
- Known as ‘the lion of justice’ because he fought the French and extracted money
from his subjects
Positive: Firm and authoritative
Often henry’s firm action was in praise of him
- Death and mutilation were standard punishments in medieval Europe but Henry I
avoided death and rarely used mutilation
Henry was right to cause men to fear him and this was a sign of his strength
- Monastic writers admired how he called to justice royal officials who exceeded their
authority, and kept nobles from breaking peace
Henry’s severity gave him a reputation as a maintainer of law and order
- Called the ‘Lion of Justice’ by John of Salisbury
Managed to maintain peace (Anglo Saxon Chronicle)
- Impressive given that the king was also absent from England for over 50% of reign
- If henry had been more repressive and extortionate, revolt could have occurred long
before his death
Honourable and generous treatment of magnates
- Orderic, “Adding to their wealth and estates, Henry won their loyalty”
- A large group of magnates supported Henry’s peace and profited from his lordship
- Successfully shaped a royalist baronage. Loyal to him through gratitude
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