Henry of Huntingdon

So says Charles Spencer in his book The White Ship.

Spencer continues, quote, Henry of Huntingdon eulogized Queen Matilda thoughtfully.

Quote, successes did not make her happy, nor did troubles make her sad.

Troubles brought a smile to her, successes fear.

He's earned a reputation as an attractive and chivalric young man.

Henry of Huntingdon even asserted that he was now the king's sole heir and judged worthy in the expectation of all.

So there's got to be a process of giving a badge back then.

No one's thinking of Stephen.

Okay.

Much more.

So, Henry of Huntingdon reported that Henry was much distressed by this.

Why? Oh, Henry I.

He's it's a term.

He starts being given long after he's dead, you know, by people like Jeffrey Gamer and, uh, Henry of Huntingdon.

And it becomes a big thing in the 19th century because the British Empire and they've got to look for a founding father.

And so they call Alfred the founder of the British Navy without looking too closely at the sort of Navy he founded.

So Louis was taking it out on Blois.

Apparently, Henry's reinforcements allowed Theobald to, as Henry of Huntingdon records, "...cause considerable damage to King Louis." What's more was that this decade just wouldn't quit when it came to giving everybody fits.

The Anglo-Saxon chronicles also say, "...this was a very vexatious and destructive year with respect to the fruits of the earth, through the immoderate rains that fell soon after the beginning of August, harassing and perplexing men till Candlemas Day." Now, 1116 was a mixed bag of news for England and France.

First, on May 31st, Queen Matilda received word that her sister, just 34 years old, died.

And Jeffrey's book is taken as fact.

The guy who is the Lord Dacre of this whole shenanigans is an English chronicler called Henry of Huntingdon.

He's traveling to Rome, and in January 1139, he stops off at an abbey called Beck in Normandy.

In this abbey, he is shown Geoffrey's recently completed text.

It's just been not exactly published, but it's appeared.

He reads it, and he declares himself stupefied.

And this matters because Henry of Huntingdon is a much admired historian himself.

And to boot, he is the Archdeacon of Huntingdon.

Yeah.

Henry of Huntingdon takes things up a notch by saying that William and his companions died as an act of divine vengeance for their sins.

All right, wind it in.

William and Richard and many nobles were shipwrecked, besides the kings, butlers, stewards and bakers, all or most of whom were said to have been tainted with the sin of sodomy.

The first time it was mentioned in print was around 1130 CE.

That's when medieval historian Henry of Huntingdon discussed it in his book Historia Anglorum, which covered all of English history up until that point.

Henry described Stonehenge as one of the four great wonders of England, and just like every other historian who would write about Stonehenge over the next 896 years, he was completely mystified by it.

In his account, Henry wrote, quote, "No one can work out how the stones were so skillfully lifted up to such a height or why they were erected there." Six years later, another writer offered the first recorded theory of how Stonehenge was constructed, and his explanation was simple.