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24-03-2015, 04:53

HENRY I

(1008-1060). The third king of the Capetian line, Henry I (r. 1031-60) was the second son of Robert II and Constance of Arles. After the death of his elder brother, Hugh, in 1025, Henry was crowned in 1027 over the objections of his mother, who preferred her third son, Robert. After Henry succeeded his father, Robert and Constance rebelled with the aid of Eudes II, count of Blois and Champagne. Henry received direct support from Robert the Magnificent, duke of Normandy, and indirect support from the emperor Conrad II, a rival of Eudes in Burgundy and Lorraine, to whose daughter Matilda (d. 1034) Henry was affianced (1033). Henry had to give his brother the duchy of Burgundy, but the deaths of Constance in 1034 and Eudes in 1037 left the king more secure.

In the 1140s, Henry maintained the imperial connection by his marriage with another Matilda (d. 1044), the niece of the emperor Henry III (r. 1039-56). After the death of his Norman ally Robert, Henry supported Robert’s illegitimate son and heir, William (r. 1035-87), defeating rebellious vassals at Val-es-Dunes in 1047. Henry also supported the new count of Anjou, Geoffroi Martel (r. 1040-60), against his enemy Thibaut III of Blois (r. 1037-89), who had succeeded Eudes II. He also maintained his rights and control over the French church in the face of the reforming pope Leo IX (r. 1049-54), while avoiding a direct confrontation.

Henry concluded a new marriage in 1051, with Anne, the daughter of the Russian prince Jaroslaw III of Kiev (r. 1019-54). His heir, the future Philip I, was born in 1052, and Henry arranged for his coronation at Reims in May 1059. In his last years, Henry’s deteriorating relations with William the Conqueror led him to invade the duchy twice, but he met defeat at Mortemer (1054) and Varaville (1058). Following his son’s coronation, Henry arranged for a regency under Baudouin V of Flanders (r. 1035-67), the husband of

Henry’s sister Adele and the father-in-law of William the Conqueror. Soon afterward, the king died prematurely at Vitry-aux-Loges near Orleans (August 4, 1060).

R. Thomas McDonald

[See also: ANNE OF KIEV; CONSTANCE OF ARLES: ROBERT II THE PIOUS] Soehnee, Frederic. Catalogues des actes de Henri Ier, roi de France (1031-1060). Paris:

Champion, 1907.