Henry I of England

I establish a firm peace in all my kingdom, and I order that this peace shall henceforth be kept.

Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts.

Quotes

• I establish a firm peace in all my kingdom, and I order that this peace shall henceforth be kept.
  • Coronation Charter (5 August 1100), quoted in English Historical Documents, Vol. II. 1042–1189, eds. David C. Douglas and George W. Greenaway (1953), p. 402

• I restore to you the law of King Edward together with such emendations to it as my father made with the counsel of his barons.
  • Coronation Charter (5 August 1100), quoted in English Historical Documents, Vol. II. 1042–1189, eds. David C. Douglas and George W. Greenaway (1953), p. 402

Quotes about Henry I

• A man of tremendous energy, he greatly increased his worldly possessions, and collected a huge treasure-store of precious objects. He claimed for himself alone the hunting rights all over England, and even had the feet of dogs living in the neighbourhood of forests mutilated, only grudgingly allowing a few of his greatest nobles and closest friends the privilege of hunting in their own woods. A diligent investigator, he inquired into everything, and retained all he heard in his tenacious memory. He wished to know all the business of officials and dignitaries; and, since he was an assiduous ruler, kept an eye on the many happenings in England and Normandy. He was thoroughly familiar with all secrets and things done surreptitiously, so that their perpetrators could not imagine how the king could be aware of their most secret plots. After a thorough study of past histories, I confidently assert that no king in the English realm was ever more richly or powerfully equipped than Henry in everything that contributes to worldly glory.
  • Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis. Volume VI. Books XI, XII, and XIII, edited and translated by Marjorie Chibnall (1978), p. 101

• Both these aspects of patronage, the governmental and the social, are of the very greatest importance in the Middle Ages. It would be an exaggeration to say that it was Henry I who made them so; but it was he who first controlled the whole range of government-patronage with which we are later familiar; and it is under him that we can first observe the effects of this patronage at all closely.
  • R. W. Southern, Medieval Humanism and Other Studies (1970), p. 209

• He was of middle stature, exceeding the diminutive, but exceeded by the very tall: his hair was black, but scanty near the forehead; his eyes mildly bright; his chest brawny; his body fleshy: he was facetious in proper season, nor did multiplicity of business cause him to be less pleasant when he mixed in society. Not prone to personal combat, he verified the saying of Scipio Africanus, "My mother bore me a commander, not a soldier;" wherefore he was inferior in wisdom to no king of modern time; and, as I may almost say, he clearly surpassed all his predecessors in England, and preferred contending by counsel, rather than by the sword. If he could, he conquered without bloodshed; if it was unavoidable, with as little as possible.
  • William of Malmesbury, Chronicle of the Kings of England. From the Earliest Period to the Reign of King Stephen, ed. J. A. Giles (1847), pp. 446-447