The House of Normandy was the first dynasty which ruled England after the Norman Conquest. It lasted seventy-one years almost to the day. William the Conqueror famously won the Battle of Hastings on the 14th of October, 1066. He was crowned on Christmas day of that year. The dynasty ended with King Stephen’s death on the 22 of December, 1135. King Stephen died without a viable heir, and so ended the dynasty. Need to jump to a specific king in the Norman dynasty? Here’s what we’ll cover today…
Table of Contents
Where was Normandy Anyway?
To understand the roots of the Norman dynasty, one must understand the ancient province of Normandy. In the ancient world Viking raiders continually attacked and pillaged the north western coast of modern day France. As these assaults continued, they traveled further and further inland until King Charles III of France finally devised a solution. In 911 ad, he gave the land around the City of Rouen to Rollo, the most prominent Viking leader in the area, in the treaty of St. Clair-sur-Epte.
As the decades passed, more Vikings settled in this province, assimilated into French culture, and became Norman citizens. The Normans ruled their province as they would a kingdom, passing it in succession from father to son, and expanding it in a series of wars. By the 11th century the duchy of Normandy was almost powerful enough to be its own country, but the dukes that ruled it were still considered French nobility. In the year 1035, an eight year old little boy named William inherited the dukedom, but the feat of keeping his duchy was somewhat eclipsed by his later exploits.
William The Conqueror
The House of Normandy is so named because William the Conqueror had no last name. He was the illegitimate son of Robert I of Normandy and his mistress Herlava. William ruled England from 1066 to 1087, conquering it at the Battle of Hastings.
After succeeding there, he embarked on the Norman Conquest, sacking his way north past Edinburgh. Despite his brute force, he did introduce the notion of Constitutional Monarchy and by extension the feudal system, a hierarchical system in which the king ruled the lords who ruled the commoners. He focused very much on the construction of Norman castles all over the country, most notably the Tower of London. William was also responsible for the Doomsday Book. This was a detailed survey of all landholdings and property, including livestock, in the land. It was a revolutionary step towards organizing his power and a treasure trove for modern day archeologists.
The Unconquerable
William struggled extensively with retaining power in the face of his eldest son’s rebellion. When his queen, Matilda, passed away from illness brought on by the grief of familial disputes, William was devastated. He had legendarily never taken a mistress for love of Matilda. When she died he gained weight and became reckless.
A year after his direction to produce the Domesday Book, he was leading a campaign in Normandy to extend his lands there. It is thought William injured himself on the horn of his saddle while riding into battle. A painful intestinal complaint forced him to suspend his campaign and take to his bed. He died shortly after on September 9th, 1087 in the city of Rouen.
William Rufus
William II was nicknamed Rufus, the latin word for red, because he had a mane of red hair and somewhat of a red complexion. He was William the Conqueror’s second living son and ruled England from 1087 until his death in 1100. His capacity to balance strategic alliances with his impressive military prowess was very successful. This political agility served him well with the numerous rebellions, both of family and lords, that he had to deal with.
Difficulties With The Church
William Rufus was not, however, as talented at juggling his disagreements with the church which were numerous and intense. The underlying theme of these disagreements was a fundamental mutual dislike of each other’s nature. William Rufus believed the church was only good for taxation while the clergy believed William was good for nothing because of the open licentiousness of his court.
Possibly because it was true, but mainly because it was slanderous for the times, the church spread rumors that Willam was a homosexual. Not to be outdone, William would refuse to appoint bishops whenever possible so that he could utilize the land and funds set aside for those positions. And when he did appoint bishops, his contentious dealings with them were never ending. This political rivalry was possibly the single most significant thing William Rufus is known for.
His thirteen year reign came to a close when he was hunting one morning in the New Forest and caught a fatal, wayward arrow. Many historians and contemporary chroniclers believe the arrow was aimed by his brother, Henry, who coveted the throne and happened to be hunting that morning as well.
King Henry I
King Henry I ruled from 1100 until his death in 1135. He was William the Conqueror’s youngest son and possibly his most cunning son. Henry blatantly usurped the throne from his older brother Robert Curthose, who was on crusade at the time of William Rufus’s death. He did this with force and a shrewd understanding of how to gain popular opinion by lowering taxes for the church, lords and peasants.
Despite the fact that he likely murdered his brother, Henry was rather a good king. Due to his focus on organizing a central bureaucracy, implementing rules and regulations for a secure trade system and reforming the legal system, the country enjoyed stability and significant economic growth. Most notably, he issued the Charter of Liberties which protected Barons’ rights and limited the power of lords in general. He further created a favorable environment for trade by taking an interest in things like infrastructure and the integrity of coinage. Overall, his reign was marked by a genuine interest in implementing policies which were good for the general functioning of society.
Henry's Difficulties
Henry’s struggle came in the form of a succession crisis. When his only legitimate son, William Adelin, died in the White Ship Disaster in 1120, he could only hope that England would accept a Queen as ruler. He’d married off his daughter, Matilda, to Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. Consequently, Empress Matilda had been brought up in Germany with different royal values than that of England with its constitutional monarchy. But Henry had to try to secure the succession. Empress Matilda had been widowed, so Henry arranged her marriage a second time to the French nobleman, Geoffrey, Count of Anjou to strengthen her political power. He also obtained his nobilitys’ oaths of allegiance to Matilda. Plagued by worry for the future, Henry died at the age of sixty-seven reportedly of food poisoning.
King Stephen
Stephen of Blois was the son of Adela of Normandy, Henry’s sister, and ruled from 1135 to 1154. He was Henry’s closest living male relative who could take up the throne. It may not have been necessary had it not been for Empress Matilda’s notion of majesty.
Matilda had learned absolute power from her first husband, the Holy Roman Emperor. She had no understanding of the clause in the coronation oath that mentioned “upholding the laws of this land.” Because of her absolutist thinking, and the fact that England and Normandy had never been ruled by a woman before, she quickly lost support from many of the English nobility. Her challengers encouraged Stephen to take the throne, which he did. This kick started a period of terrible instability, economic difficulty, civil war, and back and forth conflict over the throne commonly known as “The Anarchy.” The added hardship of trying to rule a country at war with itself aside, King Stephen did not have his uncle’s flair for organizing and consolidating power.
Stephen's Heirs
King Stephen did have two sons, the heir and a spare commonly sought by the royal family since the tragic case of Henry I. But Eustace IV, Stephen’s oldest son, died suddenly only a year before King Stephen did. Baldwin, his youngest son, was entering into a religious life, one that would make inheriting the crown difficult, and he lacked the support of the nobles. They chose to back Empress Matilda’s son, Henry, as the next logical heir. Tired from almost twenty years of fighting, Stephen agreed to recognize his nephew as heir to the throne in the Treaty of Wallingford. He died the next year of natural causes when he was in his late fifties.
Concluding Thoughts
The House of Normandy spanned three generations and changed English society forever. Known for the definitive Norman Conquest, instating the feudal system, and an architectural renaissance, the Norman dynasty left its mark on the very land itself. Whenever we think of the English castle, with its towers and turrets, we are picturing the iconic handiwork of the Normans who built their castles to exhibit strength and power. They imprinted their unique culture on the English too and created the foundation for the England we know today.
Further Reading and Streaming...
Fraser, Antonia, and John Philip Brooke-Little. The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England. University of California Press, 1995.
“Kings and Queens of England,” Griffiths, Rachael, Producer/Director. UKTV History, 1 Apr. 2004.
“William the Conqueror; the Norman Impact Upon England” by Douglas, David Charles.