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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Sometime in the second decade of the twelfth century an anonymous clerk compiled a long awkward treatise which we call the Laws of Henry I. He pompously began by declaring, “The glorious Caesar, Henry, moderate, wise, just and valiant, sheds radiance over all his kingdom in ecclesiastical laws and secular ordinances, in writings, and in displays of good works.” On the very day that Henry died in Normandy a Saxon physician, priest, and prophet, Wulfric of Haselbury, living in seclusion in Somerset, told his feudal patron that the dead king would enter Paradise because he had kept peace, had sought justice, and had even built a splendid abbey for Benedictine monks. Few later commentators would be as generous as these two. Other historians unfavorably contrasted Henry's wisdom, wealth, and victory with his avarice, cruelty, and lust.
The law clerk's short catalog contains several surprises. It suggests Henry generated ecclesiastical laws himself, an odd, but not untrue, observation. It reports that the king performed good works, but these are never specified. Most fascinatingly, it hints that “in writings” Henry composed things other than charters and writs. Unfortunately, no such texts have survived. Thus, what we most seek to learn—the monarch's own intentions and reflections—still elude us. Henry's personal understanding of his monarchial responsibilities must therefore be interpreted from his actions, rather than traced from his plans.
1 Leges Henrici Prtmi, ed. Downer, L. J. (Oxford 1972), p. 1Google Scholar.
2 John of Ford, Wulfric of Haselbury, ed. Bell, Maurice, Somerset Record Society, 48(1933):91Google Scholar.
3 Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, ed. Arnold, Thomas, Rolls Series, (London: 1889), p. 255Google Scholar.
4 This is Brooke's, Christopher phrase in London, 800-1216: The Shaping of a City (London, 1975), p. 323Google Scholar.
5 For the development of Anglo-Norman government and financial institutions see Poole, Reginald Lane, The Exchequer in the Twelfth Century (London 1912)Google Scholar; and Kealey, Edward J., Roger of Salisbury, Viceroy of England (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), Chap. IIGoogle Scholar.
6 The old agrarian linear measurement of a rod, pole, or perch at 16-1/2 feet may also date from Henry's reign. William the Conqueror and King Stephen supposedly attempted to standardize weights and other measures. See Grierson, Philip, English Linear Measures (Reading, 1972), pp. 8–9, 17–18, 20–24Google Scholar. William of Malmesbury is the source for Henry's decision; De Gestis Regum Anglorum, ed. Stubbs, William, Rolls Series, 2 vols. (London, 1887–1889), 2:487Google Scholar.
7 A handy selection of Henrican merchantile privileges can be found in English Historical Documents, ed. Douglas, David C. and Greenaway, George W. (London, 1953), 2:944–974Google Scholar. [Hereafter cited as E.H.D.] For a listing of royal grants of markets, fairs, and boroughs see Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, ed. Johnson, Charles and Cronne, H. A., 4 vols. (Oxford, 1956), 2:xxlvGoogle Scholar. For Henry's new towns and those of his barons see Beresford, Maurice, New Towns of the Middle Ages: Town Plantation in England, Wales, and Gascony (London, 1967), pp. 327–337Google Scholar.
8 London (1100-1107) and (1130-1133), E.H.D., nos. 275, 270; Beverley (1124-1133), ibid., no. 283; Leicester (1118-1135), ibid., no. 292; Lincon, ibid., no. 295; Oxford, ibid., no. 300; Winchester, ibid., no. 303; Gloucester, ibid., no, 290; York, Magnus Rotulus Scaccarii, vel Magnus Rotutus Pipae, Anno Tricesimo-primo Regni Henrici Primi, ed., Hunter, Joseph (London, 1833), p. 34Google Scholar [Hereafter cited as 31 Henry I]; Canterbury, , Chichester, , and Wilton, , Gross, Charles, The Gild Merchant, A Contribution to British Municipal History, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1890), 2:37, 47, 251Google Scholar. For Henry's grant of a merchant guild to Southampton and for a discussion of the functions of such a guild at Huntingdon, see Platt, Colin, Medieval Southampton (London, 1973), pp. 17–19Google Scholar.
9 Burford (Robert fitz Hamon, 1088-1107), E.H.D., no. 286; Leicester (Robert of Meulan, 1103-1118), ibid., no. 292; Bury St. Edmunds (Abbot Anselm, 1121-1138), ibid., no. 217; Beverley (Archbishop Thurstun, 1124-1133), ibid., no. 282.
10 E.H.D., no. 276.
11 Ibid., no. 270.
12 Ibid., no. 298.
13 Ibid., no. 272.
14 31 Henry I. pp. 2, 37, 48, 109 and 114 and 144.
15 Ibid., p. 37; E.H.D., no. 299.
16 E.H.D., no. 301; 31 Henry I, p. 5.
17 Ibid., pp. 126, 144.
18 E.H.D., no. 277.
19 Biddle, Martin, ed., Winchester in the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 1976), pp. 335–336Google Scholar; Urry, William, Canterbury Under the Angevin Kings (London 1967), pp. 124–131Google Scholar.
20 Brooke, and Keir, , London, 800-1216, pp. 32, 99, 315Google Scholar.
21 In the first year of his reign the king granted the monks of St. Pancras of Lewes exemption from assessments for bridge building; Regesta, 2: no. 510. Then about 1114 and again about 1131 Henry confirmed his father's grant freeing the monks of Battle Abbey from work on London Bridge; ibid., nos. 1060, 1718. Other writs make passing mention of bridges at Durham, Newark, and Rochester, ibid., nos. 1586, 1770, 1867.
22 In 1130 Geoffrey, the engineer, was paid more than ten pounds at the same time that some twenty-five other pounds were disbursed for making, or maintaining, two arches for the bridge at London. Work was simultaneously accounted for the Tower of London; 31 Henry I, pp. 143-144. At least seven other engineers and masons are mentioned in the same pipe roll. A hermit near the bridge at Northdyke near Revensby in Lincolnshire was entrusted with the upkeep of that span; Victoria History of the Counties of England, Lincolnshire, (London, 1900-), 2:141Google Scholar [hereafter cited as VCH]. See also Clay, Rotha Mary, The Hermits and Anchorites of England (London, 1914), p. xviiGoogle Scholar.
23 Maud built two stone bridges over the Lea at Stratford-le-Bow. She made their upkeep a particular responsibility of Barking Abbey; VCH, Essex, 2:116Google Scholar. In her widowhood Queen Adeliza gave lands to Pynham priory to repair the causeway and wooden bridge across the River Arun and to maintain a hospital or hostel for poor brothers. Good stone for the causeway was close at hand; see VCH, Sussex, 2:80Google Scholar.
24 For the Oxford bridge see Hinton, David, Alfred's Kingdom: Wessex and the South, 800-1500 (London, 1977), p. 185Google Scholar. King Henry gave Bishop Alexander permission to build a bridge at Newark, , Regesta, 2: no. 1770Google Scholar. Bishop Ranulf of Durham also built a large arched stone bridge at Durham, Salzman, L. F., Building in England Down to 1540 (Oxford, 1952), p. 365Google Scholar. The Newcastle townsmen directed that their gifts should also support a physician named Gervase, (see Early Deeds Relating to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, ed. Oliver, Arthur M., Surtees Society, 137 [1924] 62Google Scholar). Aldwin de Malvern was a mason, or surveyor of the works, at the Wye Bridge at Hereford built about 1120. King Henry employed a Saracen named Lalys, who had been taken captive by crusaders, as an architect on several of his projects in Wales. For these early Norman masons, engineers, and architects see Harvey, John, English Medieval Architects (Boston, 1954), p. 156Google Scholar.
25 Hinton, , Alfred's Kingdom, p. 112Google Scholar.
26 This comment was part of an angry reply to one of Theobald of Étampes controversial debates, Leach, Arthur F., Educational Charters and Documents (Cambridge, 1911), pp. 102–106Google Scholar. Some conclusions about education are based on my study, “Scholars, Teachers, and Historians of the Reign of Henry I,” due to be published in a forthcoming festschrift.
27 Regesta, 2: nos. 1659, 1827. Schools at Gloucester and Warwick are mentioned in other writs, ibid, no. 1936, 1415.
28 31 Henry I, p. 22, see also Regesta 3: no. 764.
29 Constance flu Gilbert, for example, was fascinated by Arthurian literature. Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., The Governance of Medieval England (Edinburgh, 1963)Google Scholar, devote a chapter to “Statecraft and Learning,” pp. 265-284.
30 These figures are drawn from my unfinished researches on a project I call “Medical Medicus: An Examination of Anglo-Norman Health Care.” So far, for the reign of Henry I alone, I have located 56 physicians, many more than previously known.
31 Henry founded St. Bartholomew, Oxford; St. Mary Magdalene, Newcastle; St. John, Cirencester; St. James, Bridgnorth; and St. Giles, Shrewsbury. He was also instrumental in establishing St. Bartholomew, Rochester; St. Peter, Bury; Holy Innocents, Lincoln; St. Mary Magdalene, Colchester; St. Mary Magdalene, Reading; and possibly St. John, Gloucester. Queen Maud founded St. Giles-in-the-fields, Holborn; and St. James, Chichester. Queen Alice founded St. Giles, Wilton. King Stephen's queen, Matilda, established St. Katherine, London. For some of Henry's other endowments see Regesta, 2; nos. 1230, 1260, 1327, 1328, 1608, 1761, 1794 (a forgery), 1795, 1855, 19S4, and ibid., 3; no. 619. Henry also seems to have endowed a hospice for the poor at Goatland Hermitage on the moors near Whitby, ibid., 2; nos. 891, 926, 927. For overseas hospitals see ibid., nos. 1742, 1764, 1917, 1924. In 1130 Henry pardoned the sick of Derby 6s 2d at the exchequer. Other gifts or alms, some for particular churches, some evidently generally disbursed, are recorded for Northumberland, Huntingdon, Gloucester, Lincoln, Windsor, Durham, Northampton, Pembroke, and Carmarthen, 31 Henry I, pp. 12, 24, 44, 76, 109, 126, 131, 135, 137, 141. Many additional charities are disguised under pardons and payments to churches not specifically designated as alms.
32 Perhaps even more striking are the proclamations of other kings. Ethelwulf (d. 858), the father of Alfred, bade his successors provide lodging and food for one poor man from every tenth hide of the royal demesne which was cultivated (Finberg, H.P.R., The Formation of England, 550-1042 [St. Albans, 1976], p. 123.)Google Scholar The social reforms of Alfred are well known, but even his weakest successor, Ethelred, in 1014 prescribed that fully one-third of all Church tithes should be spent on poor relief (Tierney, Brian, Medieval Poor Law [Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1959], p. 68Google Scholar).
33 For other dedications to Henry (and sometimes also to his predecessors) see Durham Episcopal Charters, ed. Offler, H. S., Surtees Society, 179(1968):64, no. 9Google Scholar (Bishop Ranulf Flambard's creation of St. Giles Hospital, Durham in 1112); VCH, Cambridge, 2:203 and 218Google Scholar (a goldsmith's gift to St. Radegund's Priory); Regesta, 2: no. 1004 (Robert of Meulan for Bee in 1112); Dickinson, J. C., The Origins of the Austin Canons and their Introduction into England (London, 1950), pp. 282–283Google Scholar (Geoffrey Bayard's gift to Dummow Priory about 1106 and Bishop Richard of London's gift to St. Osyth Priory about 1120); Farrer, William, The Lancashire Pipe Rolls and Early Lancashire Charters (Liverpool, 1902), p. 301Google Scholar (Stephen, as count of Boulogne and Mortain, founds Furness Abbey in 1127); see also Early Yorkshire Charters, ed. Farrer, William and Clay, Charles, 12 vols. (Edinburgh, 1914–1965), 3: nos. 1305, 1308, 1313Google Scholar. King Henry's daughter, the Empress Matilda, established a fund to feast the lepers of St. Peter's York each year on the anniversary of her father's death; Clay, Rotha Mary, The Medieval Hospitals of England (London, 1909), p. 170Google Scholar.
34 Officials such as Eustace fitz John, Alan de Percy, and Nigel du Aubigny immediately jump to mind. Gilbert of Hampshire, Herbert the Chamberlain, Walter Espec, and Henry Earl of Warwick are other barons with long careers of civic minded interest. Much could also be said of Queen Matilda's concern for public welfare; her brother, David, followed her example in England and after 1124 as king of Scotland.
35 VCH, Buckingham, 1:392Google Scholar. A somewhat similar situation can be found at Hempton in Norfolk, ibid., Norfolk, 2:381; and at Winchester, Biddle, Winchester in the Early Middle Ages, p. 49. The creation of St. James, Bridgnorth, Shropshire seems to have been a cooperative effort. The land was given by King Henry, part of the original endowment by Richard of Brecon, one of his royal clerks, and the church was built by the Bridgnorth burgers; VCH, Shropshire, 2:100Google Scholar.
36 Vitalis, Orderic, Ecclesiastical History, ed. and trans. Chibnall, Marjorie, (Oxford, 1969-), 5:317Google Scholar; similar phrases were used by Orderic in 5:318; 332 and 372, so the usage may have been more his style than Meulan's exact wordage.