February 2, 1141: Battle of Lincoln, Stephen & Matilda

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Adela of Normandy, Empress Matilda, Geoffrey of Anjou, Henry I of England, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, Kingdom of England, Stephen Henry of Blois, Stephen of England, The Anarchy, The Battle of Lincoln

Stephen (1092 or 1096 – October 25, 1154), often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from December 22, 1135 to his death in 1154.

Stephen was a younger son of the Stephen Henry, Count of Blois and Adela of Normandy. Stephen’s mother, Adela, was the daughter of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, famous amongst her contemporaries for her piety, wealth and political talent.

Stephen was married to Matilda of Boulogne. Her father was Count Eustace III of Boulogne. Her mother, Mary, was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret of Scotland. Through her maternal grandmother, Matilda was descended from the Anglo-Saxon kings of England.

This made Stephen, was Count of Boulogne jure uxoris (by right of his wife) from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 until 1144. His reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda, whose son, Henry II, succeeded Stephen as the first of the Angevin kings of England.

Empress Matilda (c. February 7, 1102 – September 10, 1167), also known as the Empress Maude, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I of England, she moved to Germany as a child when she married the future Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich V.

Matilda travelled with her husband into Italy in 1116, was controversially crowned in St Peter’s Basilica, and acted as the imperial regent in Italy. Matilda and Heinrich V had no children, and when he died in 1125, the imperial crown was claimed by his rival Lothair of Supplinburg.

Matilda’s younger brother, William Adelin, died in the White Ship disaster of 1120, leaving Matilda’s father and realm facing a potential succession crisis. On Emperor Heinrich V’s death, Matilda was recalled to Normandy by her father, who arranged for her to marry Geoffrey of Anjou to form an alliance to protect his southern borders.

Stephen, King of England and Count of Blois

Henry I had no further legitimate children and nominated Matilda as his heir, making his court swear an oath of loyalty to her and her successors, but the decision was not popular in the Anglo-Norman court. Henry died in 1135, but Matilda and Geoffrey faced opposition from Anglo-Norman barons. The throne was instead taken by Matilda’s cousin Stephen of Blois, who enjoyed the backing of the English Church.

In the ensuing civil war a decisive battle, The Battle of Lincoln, or the First Battle of Lincoln, occurred on February 2, 1141 in Lincoln, England between King Stephen of England and forces loyal to Empress Matilda. Stephen was captured during the battle, imprisoned, and effectively deposed while Matilda ruled for a short time.

The forces of King Stephen of England had been besieging Lincoln Castle but were themselves attacked by a relief force loyal to Empress Matilda and commanded by Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, Matilda’s half-brother.

The Angevin army consisted of the divisions of Robert’s men, those of Ranulf, Earl of Chester and those disinherited by Stephen, while on the flank was a mass of Welsh troops led by Madog ap Maredudd, Lord of Powys, and Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd. Cadwaladr was the brother of Owain, King of Gwynedd, but Owain did not support any side in the Anarchy. Stephen’s force included William of Ypres; Simon of Senlis; Gilbert of Hertford; William of Aumale, Alan of Richmond and Hugh Bigod but was markedly short of cavalry.

As soon as the battle was joined, the majority of the leading magnates fled the king. Other important magnates captured with the king were Baldwin fitz Gilbert; Bernard de Balliol, Roger de Mowbray; Richard de Courcy; William Peverel of Nottingham; Gilbert de Gant; Ingelram de Say; Ilbert de Lacy and Richard fitzUrse, all men of respected baronial families; it had only been the Earls who had fled.

Even as the royal troops listened to the exhortations of Stephen’s lieutenant, Baldwin fitz Gilbert, the advancing enemy was heard and soon the disinherited Angevin knights charged the cavalry of the five earls.

On the left Earl William Aumale of York and William Ypres charged and smashed the poorly armed, ‘but full of spirits’, Welsh division but were themselves in turn routed ‘in a moment’ by the well-ordered military might of Earl Ranulf who stood out from the mass in ‘his bright armour’.

The earls, outnumbered and outfought, were soon put to flight and many of their men were killed and captured. King Stephen and his knights were rapidly surrounded by the Angevin force.

Then might you have seen a dreadful aspect of battle, on every quarter around the king’s troop fire flashing from the meeting of swords and helmets – a dreadful crash, a terrific clamour – at which the hills re-echoed, the city walls resounded. With horses spurred on, they charged the king’s troop, slew some, wounded others, and dragging some away, made them prisoners.

No rest, no breathing time was granted them, except in the quarter where stood that most valiant king, as the foe dreaded the incomparable force of his blows. The earl of Chester, on perceiving this, envying the king his glory, rushed upon him with all the weight of his armed men. Then was seen the might of the king, equal to a thunderbolt, slaying some with his immense battle-axe, and striking others down.

Then arose the shouts afresh, all rushing against him and him against all. At length through the number of the blows, the king’s battle-axe was broken asunder. Instantly, with his right hand, drawing his sword, well worthy of a king, he marvellously waged the combat, until the sword as well was broken asunder.

On seeing this William Kahamnes [i.e. William de Keynes], a most powerful knight, rushed upon the king, and seizing him by the helmet, cried with a loud voice, “Hither, all of you come hither! I have taken the king!”

After fierce fighting in the city’s streets, Stephen’s forces were defeated. Stephen himself was captured and taken to Bristol, where he was imprisoned. He was subsequently exchanged for Robert of Gloucester, who was later captured in the Rout of Winchester the following September. This ended Matilda’s brief ascendancy in the wars with Stephen.

December 1, 1135: Death of Henry I, King of the English

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Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, Edith of Scotland, Empress Matilda, Geoffrey Plantaganet, Henry Beauclerc, Henry I of England, King of the English, Matilda of Scotland, Robert Curthose, William Adelin, William Clito, William the Conqueror

Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of the English from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders. Henry was probably born in England in 1068, in either the summer or the last weeks of the year, possibly in the town of Selby in Yorkshire. Henry was educated in Latin and the liberal arts.

On William the Conqueror’s death in 1087, Henry’s elder brothers Robert Curthose and William Rufus inherited Normandy and England, respectively, but Henry was left landless. He purchased the County of Cotentin in western Normandy from Robert, but his brothers deposed him in 1091. He gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin and allied himself with William against Robert.

Present at the place where his brother King William II died in a hunting accident in 1100, Henry seized the English throne, promising at his coronation to correct many of William’s less popular policies. This gave Henry a claim of suzerainty over Wales and Scotland, and acquired the Duchy of Normandy, a complex entity with troubled borders.

Soon after coming to the throne Henry sought the hand of Edith of Scotland for marriage.

Born in 1080, in Dunfermline, Scotland, Edith was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and Margaret of Wessex. Margaret of Wessex, was an English princess born in the Kingdom of Hungary to the expatriate English Prince Edward the Exile and Agatha of unknown parentage.

Edith was therefore a descendant of both the Scottish and the Anglo-Saxon royal families, great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside and descended from Alfred the Great.

Edith was educated at a convent in southern England, where her aunt Christina was abbess, and forced her to wear a veil. In 1093, Edith was engaged to an English nobleman until her father and her brother Edward were killed in the Battle of Alnwick (1093).

After proving she had not taken religious vows, Edith and Henry were married on November 11, 1100 at Westminster Abbey by Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury. At he end of the ceremony, Edith was crowned and took the reginal name of “Matilda”, a hallowed Norman name.

Henry and Matilda and they had two surviving children, William Adelin and Matilda, who first became the wife of Heinrich V, Holy Roman Emperor and her second husband was Geoffrey Plantaganet, Count of Anjou. King Henry I also had many illegitimate children by his many mistresses.

The borders between England and Scotland were still uncertain during Henry’s reign, with Anglo-Norman influence pushing northwards through Cumbria, but his relationship with King David I of Scotland was generally good, partially due to Henry’s marriage to his sister.

Robert Curthose, who invaded in 1101, disputed Henry’s control of England; this military campaign ended in a negotiated settlement that confirmed Henry as king. The peace was short-lived, and Henry invaded the Duchy of Normandy in 1105 and 1106, finally defeating Robert at the Battle of Tinchebray.

Henry kept Robert imprisoned for the rest of his life. Henry’s control of Normandy was challenged by Louis VI, King of the Franks, Baldwin VII of Flanders and Fulk V of Anjou, who promoted the rival claims of Robert’s son, William Clito, and supported a major rebellion in the Duchy between 1116 and 1119. Following Henry’s victory at the Battle of Brémule, a favourable peace settlement was agreed with Louis in 1120.

Considered by contemporaries to be a harsh but effective ruler, Henry skillfully manipulated the barons in England and Normandy. In England, he drew on the existing Anglo-Saxon system of justice, local government and taxation, but also strengthened it with additional institutions, including the royal exchequer and itinerant justices.

Normandy was also governed through a growing system of justices and an exchequer. Many of the officials who ran Henry’s system were “new men” of obscure backgrounds, rather than from families of high status, who rose through the ranks as administrators.

Henry encouraged ecclesiastical reform, but became embroiled in a serious dispute in 1101 with Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, which was resolved through a compromise solution in 1105. He supported the Cluniac order and played a major role in the selection of the senior clergy in England and Normandy.

Henry’s son William drowned in the White Ship disaster of 1120, throwing the royal succession into doubt. Henry took a second wife, Adeliza of Louvain, in the hope of having another son, but their marriage was childless. In response to this, he declared his daughter Matilda his heir and married her to Geoffrey of Anjou.

The relationship between Henry and the couple became strained, and fighting broke out along the border with Anjou. Henry died on December 1, 1135 after a week of illness. Despite his plans for Matilda, the king was succeeded by his nephew Stephen of Blois, resulting in a period of civil war known as the Anarchy.

Malcolm III, King of Scots: Part II

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Arnesson., Edward the Confessor, Henry I of England, Ingibiorg, King of England, King of Scots, Malcolm III of Scotland, Royal Marriage, The Orkneyinga Saga

Marriage to Ingiborg

One of Malcolm’s earliest actions as king was to travel to the court of Edward the Confessor in 1059 to arrange a marriage with Edward’s kinswoman Margaret, who had arrived in England two years before from Hungary. If a marriage agreement was made in 1059, it was not kept, and this may explain the Scots invasion of Northumbria in 1061 when Lindisfarne was plundered. Equally, Malcolm’s raids in Northumbria may have been related to the disputed “Kingdom of the Cumbrians”, reestablished by Earl Siward in 1054, which was under Malcolm’s control by 1070.

The Orkneyinga saga reports that Malcolm III married the widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Ingibiorg, a daughter of Finn Arnesson. Although Ingibiorg is generally assumed to have died shortly before 1070, it is possible that she died much earlier, around 1058. The Orkneyinga Saga records that Malcolm and Ingibiorg had a son, Duncan II (Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim), who was later king. Some Medieval commentators, following William of Malmesbury, claimed that Duncan was illegitimate, but this claim is propaganda reflecting the need of Malcolm’s descendants by Margaret to undermine the claims of Duncan’s descendants, the Meic Uilleim. Malcolm’s son Domnall, whose death is reported in 1085, is not mentioned by the author of the Orkneyinga Saga. He is assumed to have been born to Ingibiorg.

Malcolm’s marriage to Ingibiorg secured him peace in the north and west. The Heimskringla tells that her father Finn had been an adviser to Harald Hardraade and, after falling out with Harald, was then made an Earl by Sweyn Estridsson, King of Denmark, which may have been another recommendation for the match. Malcolm enjoyed a peaceful relationship with the Earldom of Orkney, ruled jointly by his stepsons, Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson. The Orkneyinga Saga reports strife with Norway but this is probably misplaced as it associates this with Magnus Barefoot, who became king of Norway only in 1093, the year of Malcolm’s death.

Marriage to Margaret

Although he had given sanctuary to Tostig Godwinson when the Northumbrians drove him out, Malcolm was not directly involved in the ill-fated invasion of England by Harald Hardraade and Tostig in 1066, which ended in defeat and death at the battle of Stamford Bridge. In 1068, he granted asylum to a group of English exiles fleeing from William of Normandy, among them Agatha, widow of Edward the Confessor’s nephew Edward the Exile, and her children: Edgar Ætheling and his sisters Margaret and Cristina. They were accompanied by Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria. The exiles were disappointed, however, if they had expected immediate assistance from the Scots.

In 1069 the exiles returned to England, to join a spreading revolt in the north. Even though Gospatric and Siward’s son Waltheof submitted by the end of the year, the arrival of a Danish army under Sweyn Estridsson seemed to ensure that William’s position remained weak. Malcolm decided on war, and took his army south into Cumbria and across the Pennines, wasting Teesdale and Cleveland then marching north, loaded with loot, to Wearmouth.

There Malcolm met Edgar and his family, who were invited to return with him, but did not. As Sweyn had by now been bought off with a large Danegeld, Malcolm took his army home. In reprisal, William sent Gospatric to raid Scotland through Cumbria. In return, the Scots fleet raided the Northumbrian coast where Gospatric’s possessions were concentrated.

Late in the year, perhaps shipwrecked on their way to a European exile, Edgar and his family again arrived in Scotland, this time to remain. By the end of 1070, Malcolm had married Edgar’s sister Margaret (later known as Saint Margaret).

The naming of their children represented a break with the traditional Scots regal names such as Malcolm, Cináed and Áed. The point of naming Margaret’s sons—Edward after her father Edward the Exile, Edmund for her grandfather Edmund Ironside, Ethelred for her great-grandfather Ethelred the Unready and Edgar for her great-great-grandfather Edgar and her brother, briefly the elected king, Edgar Ætheling—was unlikely to be missed in England, where William of Normandy’s grasp on power was far from secure.

Whether the adoption of the classical Alexander for the future Alexander I of Scotland (either for Pope Alexander II or for Alexander the Great) and the biblical David for the future David I of Scotland represented a recognition that William of Normandy would not be easily removed, or was due to the repetition of Anglo-Saxon royal name—another Edmund had preceded Edgar—is not known. Margaret also gave Malcolm two daughters, Edith, who married Henry I of England, and Mary, who married Eustace III of Boulogne.

March 26, 1031: Birth of Malcolm III, King of Scots. Part I.

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Duncan I, Edward the Confessor, Henry I of England, King of England, King of Scots, Malcolm Canmore, Malcolm III

Malcolm III (c. March 26, 1031 – November 13, 1093) was King of Scots from 1058 to 1093. He was later nicknamed “Canmore” (“ceann mòr”, Gaelic for “Great Chief”). Malcolm’s long reign of 35 years preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age. Henry I of England and Eustace III of Boulogne were his sons-in-law, making him the maternal grandfather of Empress Matilda, William Adelin and Matilda of Boulogne. All three of them were prominent in English politics during the 12th century.

Malcolm’s kingdom did not extend over the full territory of modern Scotland: the north and west of Scotland remained under Scandinavian rule following the Norse invasions. Malcolm III fought a series of wars against the Kingdom of England, which may have had as its objective the conquest of the English earldom of Northumbria. These wars did not result in any significant advances southward. Malcolm’s primary achievement was to continue a lineage that ruled Scotland for many years, although his role as founder of a dynasty has more to do with the propaganda of his youngest son David I and his descendants than with history.

Malcolm’s father Duncan I became king in late 1034, on the death of Malcolm II, Duncan’s maternal grandfather and Malcolm’s great-grandfather. According to John of Fordun, whose account is the original source of part of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Malcolm’s mother was a niece of Siward, Earl of Northumbria, but an earlier king-list gives her the Gaelic name Suthen.

Other sources claim that either a daughter or niece would have been too young to fit the timeline, thus the likely relative would have been Siward’s own sister Sybil, which may have translated into Gaelic as Sutherland.

Duncan’s reign was not successful and he was killed in battle with the men of Moray, led by Macbeth, on August 15, 1040. Duncan was young at the time of his death, and Malcolm and his brother Donalbane were children. Malcolm’s family attempted to overthrow Macbeth in 1045, but Malcolm’s grandfather Crínán of Dunkeld was killed in the attempt.Soon after the death of Duncan his two young sons were sent away for greater safety—exactly where is the subject of debate. According to one version, Malcolm (then aged about nine) was sent to England, and his younger brother Donalbane was sent to the Isles.

Based on Fordun’s account, it was assumed that Malcolm passed most of Macbeth’s seventeen-year reign in the Kingdom of England at the court of Edward the Confessor. Today’s British royal family can trace their family history back to Malcolm III via his daughter Matilda as well as his son David I, an ancestor of Robert the Bruce and thus also the Stewart/Stuart kings.According to an alternative version, Malcolm’s mother took both sons into exile at the court of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, an enemy of Macbeth’s family, and perhaps Duncan’s kinsman by marriage.

An English invasion in 1054, with Siward, Earl of Northumbria in command, had as its goal the installation of one “Máel Coluim, son of the king of the Cumbrians”. This Máel Coluim has traditionally been identified with the later Malcolm III.

This interpretation derives from the Chronicle attributed to the 14th-century chronicler of Scotland, John of Fordun, as well as from earlier sources such as William of Malmesbury. The latter reported that Macbeth was killed in the battle by Siward, but it is known that Macbeth outlived Siward by two years. A. A. M. Duncan argued in 2002 that, using the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry as their source, later writers innocently misidentified “Máel Coluim” with the later Scottish king of the same name.

Duncan’s argument has been supported by several subsequent historians specialising in the era, such as Richard Oram, Dauvit Broun and Alex Woolf. It has also been suggested that Máel Coluim may have been a son of Owain Foel, British king of Strathclyde perhaps by a daughter of Malcolm II, King of Scotland.

In 1057 various chroniclers report the death of Macbeth at Malcolm’s hand, on 15 August 1057 at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire. Macbeth was succeeded by his stepson Lulach, who was crowned at Scone, probably on 8 September 1057. Lulach was killed by Malcolm, “by treachery”, near Huntly on April 23, 1058. After this, Malcolm became king, perhaps being inaugurated on April 24, 1058, although only John of Fordun reports this.

May 18, 1152 – The future Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. Part II.

Tags

Anullment, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Empress Matilda, Geoffrey of Anjou, Henry I of England, Henry II of England, Louis VI of France, Louis VII of France, Pope Eugene III, The Second Crusade

The marriage between the Empress Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou proved difficult, as the couple did not particularly like each other. There was a further dispute over Matilda’s dowry; she was granted various castles in Normandy by King Henry I, but it was not specified when the couple would actually take possession of them. It is also unknown whether King Henry intended Geoffrey to have any future claim on England or Normandy, and he was probably keeping Geoffrey’s status deliberately uncertain.

Soon after the marriage, Matilda and Geoffrey separated Matilda returned to Normandy. King Henry appears to have blamed Geoffrey for the separation, but the couple were finally reconciled in 1131. Henry summoned Matilda from Normandy, and she arrived in England that August. It was decided that Matilda would return to Geoffrey at a meeting of the King’s great council in September. The council also gave another collective oath of allegiance to recognize Matilda as Henry’s heir.

Matilda gave birth to her first son in March 1133 at Le Mans, the future Henry II. King Henry was delighted by the news and came to see her at Rouen. At Pentecost 1134, their second son Geoffrey was born in Rouen, but the childbirth was extremely difficult and Matilda appeared close to death. Matilda made arrangements for her will and argued with her father about where she should be buried. Matilda preferred Bec Abbey.

King Henry I died on December 1, 1135, and his corpse was taken to Rouen accompanied by the barons, where it was embalmed; his entrails were buried locally at the priory of Notre-Dame du Pré, and the preserved body was taken on to England, where it was interred at Reading Abbey.

Despite Henry’s efforts, to secure the succession to the throne for Matilda with the Barons, the succession was disputed. In July 1136 Matilda gave birth to her third son William at Argentan.

The news of Henry’s death had reached Stephen of Blois, conveniently placed in Boulogne, and he left for England, accompanied by his military household. Robert of Gloucester had garrisoned the ports of Dover and Canterbury and some accounts suggest that they refused Stephen access when he first arrived.

Henry I, King of the English

Nonetheless Stephen reached the edge of London by December 8, and over the next week he began to seize power in England. The crowds in London proclaimed Stephen the new King of the English, believing that he would grant the city new rights and privileges in return, and his brother, Henry of Blois, the Bishop of Winchester, delivered the support of the Church to Stephen.

Stephen had sworn to support Matilda in 1127, but Henry of Blois convincingly argued that the late King had been wrong to insist that his court take the oath, and suggested that the King had changed his mind on his deathbed. Stephen’s coronation was held a week later at Westminster Abbey on December 26.

A civil war between the factions of King Stephen and Empress Matilda dominated the majority of King Stephen’s reign.

Count Geoffrey of Anjou died in September 1151, and Geoffrey’s eldest son, Henry Curtmantle, postponed his plans to return to England, as he first needed to ensure that his succession, particularly in Anjou, was secure. At around this time he was also probably secretly planning his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, then still the wife of King Louis VII of the Franks.

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Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 – April 1, 1204) was queen consort of the Franks (1137–1152) and the English (1154–1189) and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right (1137–1204). As a member of the Ramnulfids (House of Poitiers) rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.

Eleanor’s year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor’s fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 more likely the year of birth.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of Guillém X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l’Isle Bouchard, who was Guillém IX’s longtime mistress as well as Eleanor’s maternal grandmother. Her parents’ marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather Guillém IX.

The King of the Franks, known as Louis VI the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis VI’s mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis the Younger,, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philippe, died in a riding accident in 1131.

The death of Guillém X of Aquitaine, one of the king’s most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis VI exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet.

Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis the Younger to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.

On July 25, 1137, Eleanor and Louis VII were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux.nImmediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as reigning Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor’s oldest son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation.

The pairing of the monkish Louis VII and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she reportedly once declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she had married a monk. There was a marked difference between the frosty, reserved culture of the northern court in the Íle de France, where Louis had been raised, and the rich, free-wheeling court life of the Aquitaine with which Eleanor was familiar. Louis VII and Eleanor had two daughters, Marie and Alix.

In the autumn of 1145 Louis was still burned with guilt over the Massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. Massacre at Vitry was when 1,300 people burned alive in a church by forces of King Louis VII of the Franks. Also in the autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III r. 1145-1153) requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster.

Louis VII, King of the Franks

Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade. The Second Crusade (1147–1150) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade (1096–1099) by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1098. While it was the first Crusader state to be founded, it was also the first to fall.

Eleanor also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens.

However, even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. They went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.

Pope Eugene III did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. Eventually, he manipulated events so that Eleanor had no choice but to sleep with Louis in a bed specially prepared by the Pope. Thus was conceived their second child —not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.

Without a male heir the marriage was now doomed. Facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On March 11, 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.

On March 21, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis VII’s third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with King Robert II of the Franks. Despite the annulment their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate.

Eleanor remained the Duchess of Aquitaine and was considered beautiful, lively and controversial.

May 18, 1152 – The future Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. Part I.

Tags

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Empress Matilda, Henry I of England, Henry II of England, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, Matilda of England, royal wedding, William Ætheling, William the Conqueror

From the Emperor’s Desk: Much leads up to this historical marriage. Over the next few days I will cover what lead up to the marriage of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

1152 – The future Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. He would become king two years later, after the death of his cousin once removed King Stephen of England.

Henry II (March 5, 1133 – July 6, 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, was King of the English from 1154 to his death. He was the first king of the House of Plantagenet. King Louis VII of the Franks made him Duke of Normandy in 1150. Henry became Count of Anjou and Maine upon the death of his father, Geoffrey of Anjou.

Background

Henry was born in France at Le Mans the eldest child of the Empress Matilda and her second husband, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. The Empress Matilda Matilda was born to Henry I, King of the English and Duke of Normandy, and his first wife, Matilda of Scotland, possibly around February 7, 1102 at Sutton Courtenay, in Berkshire. King Henry I was the youngest son of King William I the Conqueror, who had invaded England in 1066, creating an empire stretching into Wales.

Matilda had a younger, legitimate brother, William Ætheling, and her father’s relationships with numerous mistresses resulted in around 22 illegitimate siblings. In late 1108 or early 1109, Heinrich V, Holy Roman Emperor, sent envoys to Normandy proposing that Matilda marry him, and wrote separately to her mother on the same matter. The match was attractive to the English king: his daughter would be marrying into one of the most prestigious dynasties in Europe, reaffirming his own, slightly questionable, status as the youngest son of a new royal house, and gaining him an ally in dealing with France.

The couple met at Liège before travelling to Utrecht where, on 10 April, they became officially betrothed. On July 25, Matilda was crowned Queen of the Romans in a ceremony at Mainz. There was a considerable age gap between the couple, as Matilda was only eight years old while Henry was 24.

Matilda and Heinrich remained childless, but neither party was considered to be infertile and contemporary chroniclers blamed their situation on the Emperor and his sins against the Church.

In early 1122, the couple travelled down the Rhine together as Henry continued to suppress the ongoing political unrest, but by now he was suffering from cancer. Heinrich V died on May 23, 1125 in Utrecht.

Now aged 23, Matilda had only limited options as to how she might spend the rest of her life. Being childless, she could not exercise a role as an imperial regent, which left her with the choice of either becoming a nun or remarrying. Some offers of marriage started to arrive from German princes, but she chose to return to Normandy.

Matilda’s brother, William Ætheling, heir to the English throne, died in the White Ship tragedy of November 25, 1120. William Ætheling and his companions had been crossing the English Channel from Barfleur in the Blanche-Nef, the swiftest and most modern ship in the royal fleet. William drowned when trying to rescue his illegitimate half-sister, Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche; when they and several others threw themselves into the small dinghy, it, “overcharged by the multitude that leapt into her, capsized and sank and buried all indiscriminately in the deep.” His death created a succession crisis.

Matilda returned to Normandy in 1125 and spent about a year at the royal court, where her father was still hoping that his second marriage would generate a son. In the event that this failed to happen, Matilda was now Henry’s preferred choice, and he declared that she was to be his rightful successor if he should not have another legitimate son.

Henry began to formally look for a new husband for Matilda in early 1127 and received various offers from princes within the Empire. His preference was to use Matilda’s marriage to secure the southern borders of Normandy by marrying her to Geoffrey of Anjou, the eldest son of Fulk, the Count of Anjou, and Countess Ermengarde of Maine, (died 1126), the daughter of Elias I, Count of Maine, and Mathilda of Château-du-Loire.

Matilda appears to have been unimpressed by the prospect of marrying Geoffrey of Anjou. She felt that marrying the son of a count diminished her imperial status and was probably also unhappy about marrying someone so much younger than she was; Matilda was 25 and Geoffrey was 13.

Hildebert, the Archbishop of Tours, eventually intervened to persuade her to go along with the engagement. Matilda finally agreed, and she travelled to Rouen in May 1127 with Robert of Gloucester and Brian Fitz Count where she was formally betrothed to Geoffrey. King Henry I knighted his future son-in-law, and Matilda and Geoffrey were married a week later on June 17, 1128 in Le Mans by the bishops of Le Mans and Séez. Fulk finally left Anjou for Jerusalem in 1129, declaring Geoffrey the Count of Anjou and Maine.

Edgar Ætheling, King of England. Part II

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Edgar Atheling, First Crusade, Henry I of England, Kings and Queens of England, Malcolm III of Scotland, William II of England, William Rufus, William the Conqueror

William kept Edgar in his custody and took him, along with other English leaders, to his court in Normandy in 1067, before returning with them to England. Edgar may have been involved in the abortive rebellion of the Earls Edwin and Morcar in 1068, or he may have been attempting to return to Hungary with his family and been blown off course; in any case, in that year he arrived with his mother and sisters at the court of King Malcolm III Canmore of Scotland. Malcolm married Edgar’s sister Margaret, and agreed to support Edgar in his attempt to reclaim the English throne. When a major rebellion broke out in Northumbria at the beginning of 1069, Edgar returned to England with other rebels who had fled to Scotland, to become the leader, or at least the figurehead, of the revolt.

However, after early successes the rebels were defeated by William at York and Edgar again sought refuge with Malcolm. In late summer that year, the arrival of a fleet sent by King Sweyn of Denmark triggered a fresh wave of English uprisings in various parts of the country. Edgar and the other exiles sailed to the Humber, where they linked up with Northumbrian rebels and the Danes. Their combined forces overwhelmed the Normans at York and took control of Northumbria, but a small seaborne raid which Edgar led into the Kingdom of Lindsey ended in disaster, and he escaped with only a handful of followers to rejoin the main army. Late in the year, William fought his way into Northumbria and occupied York, buying off the Danes and devastating the surrounding country. Early in 1070, he moved against Edgar and other English leaders who had taken refuge with their remaining followers in a marshy region, perhaps Holderness, and put them to flight. Edgar returned to Scotland.

Many of Edgar’s men were hunted down by the Normans, but he managed to escape with the remainder to Scotland by land. Following this disaster, he was persuaded by Malcolm to make peace with William and return to England as his subject, abandoning any ambition of regaining his ancestral throne.

Disappointed at the level of recompense and respect he received from William, in 1086 Edgar renounced his allegiance to the Conqueror and moved with a retinue of men to Norman Apulia.

Norman and Scottish dynastic strife

After King William’s death in 1087, Edgar supported William’s eldest son Robert Curthose, who succeeded him as Duke of Normandy, against his second son, William Rufus, who received the throne of England as William II. Edgar was one of Robert’s three principal advisors at this time. The war waged by Robert and his allies to overthrow William ended in defeat in 1091. As part of the resulting settlement between the brothers, Edgar was deprived of lands which he had been granted by Robert. These were presumably former possessions of William and his supporters in Normandy, confiscated by Robert and distributed to his own followers, including Edgar, but restored to their previous owners by the terms of the peace agreement. The disgruntled Edgar travelled once again to Scotland, where Malcolm was preparing for war with William. When William marched north and the two armies confronted one another, the kings opted to talk rather than fight. The negotiations were conducted by Edgar on behalf of Malcolm, and the newly reconciled Robert Curthose on behalf of William. The resulting agreement included a reconciliation between William and Edgar. However, within months Robert left England, unhappy with William’s failure to fulfil the pact between them, and Edgar went with him to Normandy.

Having returned to England, Edgar went to Scotland again in 1093, on a diplomatic mission for William to negotiate with Malcolm, who was dissatisfied with the Norman failure to implement in full the terms of the 1091 treaty. This dispute led to war, and within the year Malcolm had invaded England and had been killed along with his designated heir Edward, eldest of his sons by Margaret, in the Battle of Alnwick. Malcolm’s successor, his brother Donald Bán, drove out the English and French retainers who had risen high in Malcolm’s service and had thus aroused the jealousy of the existing Scottish aristocracy. This purge brought him into conflict with the Anglo-Norman monarchy, whose influence in Scotland it had diminished. William helped Malcolm’s eldest son Duncan, who had spent many years as a hostage at William I’s court and remained there when set at liberty by William II, to overthrow his uncle, but Donald soon regained the throne and Duncan was killed.

Another effort to restore the Anglo-Norman interest through sponsorship of Malcolm’s sons was launched in 1097, and Edgar made yet another journey to Scotland, this time in command of an invading army. Donald was ousted, and Edgar installed his nephew and namesake, Malcolm and Margaret’s son Edgar, on the Scottish throne.

First Crusade

Orderic tells us that Edgar was the commander of an English fleet which operated off the coast of the region of Syria in support of the First Crusade, whose crews eventually burned their dilapidated ships and joined the advance by land to Jerusalem is doubtful, for this fleet is known to have arrived off the Syrian coast by March 1098; since Edgar invaded Scotland late in 1097, he could not have made the voyage in the time available. It may be though that he travelled overland to the Mediterranean and joined the fleet en route; this is the view taken by Runciman.

William of Malmesbury recorded that Edgar made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1102, and it may be that Orderic’s report is the product of confusion, conflating the expedition of the English fleet with Edgar’s later journey. Some modern historians have suggested that at some point during these years Edgar served in the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Empire, a unit which was at that time composed primarily of English emigrants, but this is unsupported by evidence. William of Malmesbury stated that on his way back from Jerusalem Edgar was given rich gifts by both the Byzantine and the German emperors, each of whom offered him an honoured place at court, but that he insisted on returning home instead.

Later life

Back in Europe, Edgar again took the side of Robert Curthose in the internal struggles of the Norman dynasty, this time against Robert’s youngest brother, who was now Henry I, King of England. He was taken prisoner in the final defeat at the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106, which resulted in Robert being imprisoned for the rest of his life. Edgar was more fortunate: having been taken back to England, he was pardoned and released by King Henry. His niece Edith (renamed Matilda), daughter of Malcolm III and Margaret, had married Henry in 1100. Edgar is believed to have travelled to Scotland once more late in life, perhaps around the year 1120. He lived to see the death at sea in November 1120 of William Adeling, the son of his niece Edith and heir to Henry I. Edgar was still alive in 1125, according to William of Malmesbury, who wrote at the time that Edgar “now grows old in the country in privacy and quiet”.The general consensus is that Edgar died shortly after 1125. The location of his grave is not known.

There is no evidence that Edgar married or produced children apart from two references to an “Edgar Adeling” found in the Magnus Rotulus Pipae Northumberland(Pipe rolls) for the years 1158 and 1167.

Historian Edward Freeman, writing in The History of the Norman Conquest of England, says that this was the same Edgar (aged over 110), a son of his, or some other person known by the title “Ætheling”. This is the only evidence that the male line of England’s original royal family continued beyond Edgar’s death.

Royal Ancestry of Henry VII of England: Part III

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Alfonso X of Castile, Alfred the Great, Edward I of England, Eleanor of Castile, Ferdinand III of Castile, Henry I of England, Henry II of England, Henry III of England, Henry VII of England, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, Louis VII of France, Margaret of Wessex, Matilda of Scotland

We left off with the descendants Isabella of France, wife of Edward II, in our examination of the royal ancestry of Henry VII. Today we will begin with Eleanor of Castile the wife of Edward I, King of England and Lord of Ireland.

Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland.

Edward I (June 17/18, 1239 – July 7, 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as The Lord Edward. Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster on the night of 17–18 June 1239, to King Henry III of England (1216-1272) and Eleanor of Provence. Edward is an Anglo-Saxon name, and was not commonly given among the aristocracy of England after the Norman conquest, but Henry was devoted to the veneration of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), and decided to name his firstborn son after the saint.* Edward I was a tall man (6’2″) for his era, hence the nickname “Longshanks“. He was temperamental, and this, along with his height, made him an intimidating man, and he often instilled fear in his contemporaries.

Nevertheless, he held the respect of his subjects for the way he embodied the medieval ideal of kingship, as a soldier, an administrator and a man of faith. Edward I is credited with many accomplishments during his reign, including restoring royal authority after the reign of Henry III, establishing Parliament as a permanent institution and thereby also a functional system for raising taxes, and reforming the law through statutes. At the same time, he is also often criticised for other actions, such as his brutal conduct towards the Welsh and Scots, and issuing the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, by which the Jews were expelled from England.

Edward I, King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine.

In 1252, Alfonso X of Castile and León (1252-1284) had resurrected another ancestral claim, this time to the duchy of Gascony, in the south of Aquitaine, last possession of the Kings of England in France, which he claimed had formed part of the dowry of Eleanor of England. Henry III of England swiftly countered Alfonso X’s claims with both diplomatic and military moves. Early in 1254 the two kings began to negotiate the marriage between his fifteen-year-old son and thirteen-year-old Eleanor, Alfonso X’s half-sister. After haggling over the financial provision for Eleanor, Henry III and Alfonso X agreed Eleanor would marry Henry’s son Edward, and Alfonso would transfer his Gascon claims to Edward. Eleanor and Edward were married on November 1, 1254 in the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Castile. As part of the marriage agreement, the young prince received grants of land worth 15,000 marks a year.

Eleanor was born in Burgos, daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile León (1230-1252) and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu. Her Castilian name, Leonor, became Alienor or Alianor in England, and Eleanor in modern English. She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Eleanor of England, the daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. This made Edward and Eleanor second cousins once removed.

Eleanor of Castile’s great-great grandfather was Louis VII of France (1137-1180) and his great-grandmother was Alice of Normandy the daughter of of Richard II, Duke of Normandy (972–1026) and Judith of Brittany. Richard II of Normandy was the the paternal grandfather of William the Conqueror (1066-1087) King of England, Duke of Normandy. This displays that Eleanor of Castile’s lineage descends not only from the Kings of England but from at least two lines from the Dukes of Normandy.

Louis VII, King of France.

I will not pursue the descendants of the wives of Henry II, John or Henry III for they simply repeat descent from either the kings of France or other members of the French nobility. However, I do want to mention Henry VII’s descent from Henry I of England (1100-1135) specifically his spouse, Matilda of Scotland (c. 1080 – May 1, 1118) and her mother Margaret of Wessex.

Matilda, originally christened Edith, was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry I. She acted as regent of England in the absence of her spouse on several occasions. Matilda was the daughter of Margaret of Wessex and Malcolm III, King of Scots. On November 11, 1100 Matilda married Henry I of England. Henry was now around 31 years old, Margaret was about 19/20 years of age but late marriages for noblemen such as Henry was not unusual in the 11th century. The pair had probably first met earlier the previous decade, possibly being introduced through Bishop Osmund of Salisbury.

Matilda’s mother was St. Margaret of Wessex (c. 1045 – November 1093), she was an English princess and a Scottish queen, sometimes called “The Pearl of Scotland.” Born in exile in the Kingdom of Hungary, was the daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile, and granddaughter of Edmund II Ironside, King of England (1016) Margaret and her family returned to the Kingdom of England in 1057, but fled to the Kingdom of Scotlandfollowing the Norman conquest of England in 1066. By the end of 1070, Margaret had married King Malcolm III of Scotland (1058-1093) becoming Queen of Scots.

Malcolm III, King of Scots greets Margaret of Wessex.

Margaret was a descendant of Alfred The Great, King of Wessex from 871 to c. 886 and King of the Anglo-Saxons from c. 886 to 899. And further back she descends from Cerdic leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first king of Saxon Wessex, reigning from c.519 to c.534.

Margaret’s husband Malcolm III, king of Scots and their eldest son Edward, were killed in the Battle of Alnwick against the English on November 13, 1093. Her son Edgar was left with the task of informing his mother of their deaths. Not yet 50 years old, Margaret died on November 16, 1093, three days after the deaths of her husband and eldest son. The cause of death was reportedly grief. Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254) canonized St. Margaret in 1250 in recognition of her personal holiness, fidelity to the Roman Catholic Church, work for ecclesiastical reform, and charity.

* Since the use of ordinal numbers had not come into common usage during the reign of Edward Longshanks, he was simply known as King Edward or King Edward Longshanks. It wasn’t until the successive reigns of his son and grandson, also named Edward, that Edward Longshanks became known as Edward I. But this was not accurate for there were three Anglo-Saxon kings named Edward prior to the Norman conquest. Therefore, Edward I was in reality the fourth King of England by that name and should have been called King Edward IV.

Legal SuccessionI Part III: Stephen and Matilda

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Buckingham Palace, Elizabeth II, Empress Matilda, Henry I of England, Henry II of England, Kings and Queens of England, Matilda of England, William Atheling, William I of England, William the Conqueror

In the last section of this series I wrote of the battle for the throne between the three surviving sons of William the Conqueror. While that royal melee between the brothers really cannot be called a sucession crisis, the battle for an hier to the throne after the death of Henry I can be considered a crisis. It was a crisis that lasted almost 20 years.

Henry I had three children by his first wife Matilda of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III, King of Scots. The two eldest surviving children were William Adelin and Matilda. William was married Matilda of Anjou in 1119 when he was 16 and Matilda was only 8. Needless to say that when William drowned in the English channel the next year when his ship, The White Ship, sank, there were no children from the union. Henry I did remarry the next year. His new bride was Adeliza of Louvain, who was 18 while Henry was 53. No children were born of this union.

The other legitimate child of Henry to survive was Matilda who had married Holy Roman Emperor Hienrich V. That union gave Matilda the title of Empress and it is as Empress Matilda she is most known by. There were no children of this union and the Emperor died in 1125. Matilda remarried in 1128, Geoffery, Count of Anjou (who had the nickname Plantaganet) a prince which the powerful barons did not trust. This union provided Matilda with three healthy sons, Henry, Geoffery & William.  

Henry I desired that his daughter would succeed him and had the Barons of the relm swear and oath to that aim. When Henry died on December 1, 1135 Matilda was in Normandy pregnant with her third child and her cousin, Stephen of Blois usurped the throne from her. Stephen had support from the Barons and was swiftly crowned King of England. Although Stephen held the crown Matilda did not just sit quietly. For almost the entierty of the reign of king Stephen there was civil war, which some historians call “the Anarchy,” which was settled shortly before his death in 1154. The agreement between the two factions was that Matiilda’s eldest son, Henry Fitzempress, would succeed as King of England upon the death of King Stephen.

When Stephen died on October 25, 1154, Matilda’s son became King Henry II of England. Matilda retired to Normandy and held court when her son was abscent from Normandy. She died in 1167 and was clearly the legal successor to her father. Since she was the legal heir and given the fact the she briefly held London when Stephen was captured and imprisoned, many consider her the first true Queen Regnant of England.

Legal Succession Part II: Henry I

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Buckingham Palace, Germany, Henry I of England, Kings and Queens of England, Robert II of Normandy, William I of England, William II of England, William Rufus, William the Conqueror

With the Norman Conquest and the Witan abolished the monarch had greater authority in name his successor. This authority later evolved into a more concise hereditary system.

William I “the Conqueror” divided his lands upon his death in 1087. This was a common practice in this age. This practice was continued in many German states leading to many problems…but I digress. William gave Normandy to his eldest son Robert, and the Crown of England went to his next surviving son, William Rufus. The third surviving son, Henry, received 5,000 pounds in silver and there is a legend that says that the old king, William I, had declared to Henry: “You in your own time will have all the dominions I have acquired and be greater than both your brothers in wealth and power.”

William Rufus was therefore the new and lawful king and is counted as William II and ruled until his death in a hunting accident in 1100. By that time the “prophecy” about Henry had come true. Robert II of Normandy was on a crusade in the Holy Land in August of 1100 when William II died in a hunting accident in the New Forest. With Robert far a way Henry claimed the throne. Did Henry usurp the throne from his brother Robert?

There had been an agreement between Robert II and William II to become one anothers hier should either of them die without issue. This was made in 1087 upon the death of the conqueror. This brotherly love did not last long for in 1088 the two rebelled against one another. This rebellion was spurred on by the barons in both Normandy and England. Dividing the lands between the two brothers created a problem for the barons. The Barons owned land in both England and Normandy and having to serve two different rulers created many difficulties so they sided with Robert II to defeat William II and take the Crown of England from him. The major problem with this rebellion is that when it became time Robert II did not arive at the battle for Rochester Castle and the rebellion swiftly ended.

From that time on who the legal successor to William II should be was never settled. The Crown was up for grabs until William could name a successor. He never got the chance. When he was killed in a hunting accident and with Robert too far away from England to claim the throne, Henry siezed the opportunity and was crowned King of England. In 1106 Henry I of England took Normandy from his brother thus unifying England and Normandy once again.

From a legal standpoint it seems that Henry can be considered the legal hier since the 1088 rebellion dissolved any agreement between William II and Robert II and in the abscence of a named heir the crown went to the first person to grab it.