HENRY I., king of England, the youngest son of William the conqueror, was b. in 1068. When his brother, William 1I., was found dead in the new forest, where they had both been hunting, on Aug. 2, 1100. with a broken arrow in his breast, prince Henry at once seized the reins of government, which, according to the then but imper fectly understood law of primogeniture, should have passed into the hands of his elder brother, Robert, duke of Normandy, who was at the time in Italy, on his way home from crusading in Palestine. Henry was crowned at Westminster, the third day after his brother's violent death. Regarding it he instituted no inquiry, possibly because lie was privy to it; and he sUccegsfully held the crown against lrrs brother Robert, at first negotiating with him, and granting him a pension to resign his pretensions, but finally making war upon his badly-governed duchy. Robert was defeated in a bloody battle before the walls of Tenchebray, on Sept. 28. 1106, taken prisoner, and shut up in Car diff castle during the remaining 28 years of his life. The acquisition of Normandy, the ancient patrimony of his family, had been a point of ambiiion with Henry, as he despised England and the English; but he had some trouble in keeping it, as the French king, Louis VI., and the counts of Anjou and Flanders, took part with William, Robert's youthful son, whose virtues and misfortunes secured him friends. Henry, how ever, brought over to himself the count of Anjou, by betrothing his only son to the count's daughter; he rendered neutral, by his eloquence and fair promises, pope Colixtus II., whose intervention in the interests of justice had been besought; and lie defeated the French king and his mailed knights in the almost bloodless battle of Brenneville, in 2119. Next year his successes in arms and intrigue were darkened for life by the death
of his only son William, who was drowned at sea on his passage from Normandy to England. unregretted by the English, who knew of his hatred towards then], his arro gance, and his gross vices. Henry himself died from a surfeit of lampreys, on Dec. 1, 1135, its lie was preparing to leave Normandy, to repress an incursion of the Welsh. He was very anxious that his daughter Matilda, who had married Geoffrey Plantagenet, the boy count of Anjou, on the death of her first husband, Heury—V., emperor of Ger many, should succeed hint on the throne, and had twice made the English nobles swear fealty to her; but on his death the crown was seized by Stephen of Blois, the son of Adele, the conqueror's youngest daughter.
Henry I. was styled Beauclerc, or the scholar, in honor of his learning, which, for a king in his age, was not undeserving of distinction. He had great natural especially in the line of state intrigue. Law was administered with considerable fair ness, and not a little rigor, during his reign, and his administrative ability restrained the spirit of rebellion which had been seething incessantly since the conquest. The punishment of crimes during his reign was capricious and barbarous; death, the loss of eyesight (which he is alleged to have inflicted on more than one of his relatives), and perpetual imprisonment, being the most usual penalties of the law.