There are few better examples of the gap between fame and importance among English monarchs than Henry I. The youngest son of William the Conqueror, he was the odd son out when William’s kingdom was divided after his death. When Henry’s brother William was struck down by the fatal arrow, however, Henry seized his chance, rushing off to claim the throne before his brother Robert had a chance. Henry’s boldness resulted a reign that lasted over a third of a century, and was one which is widely credited today with forging the effective royal administration that characterized English government throughout the Middle Ages.
Yet despite the substantial records available for Henry’s reign, accounts of his life are surprisingly few, with only three modern biographies available. Fortunately, this seems another case where the lack of quantity is offset by the quality of the authors. The first of these that I’m going to read is Edmund King’s 2018 biography Henry I: The Father of His People. A longtime medieval historian who has published an extensive number of books about medieval England, King seems a natural choice for a contribution to the Penguin Monarchs set, and I’m looking forward to the sort of brief overview provided by the series before delving into the larger volumes.
After King’s book I plan on reading C. Warren Hollister’s 2001 biography of Henry for the Yale English Monarchs series. Hollister was regarded as a landmark scholar on Henry I’s reign, and his biography was meant to serve as a capstone to his distinguished career. Hollister did before he could finish the book, however, which was completed by Amanda Clark Frost, one of his former students. This look to be the most substantial of the three books, and as a volume in the Yale series I expect it will be a good one, though as a work completed and published posthumously I’m curious to discover how coherent and complete an analysis of its subject that it provides.
The final biography that I’ll read is Judith Green’s 2006 book Henry I: King of England and Duke of Normandy. Like Hollister, Green is a historian who has written important works on Henry prior to turning her pen to a biography of the king. Like Emma Mason’s book on William Rufus it looks as though it sits halfway between the volumes produced for the Penguin and Yale series, so it could provide an interesting mix of concision and depth.