223: The Exchequer & Henry's "New Men"

By 1106, King Henry I of England was not just sitting comfortably at the top of the Anglo-Norman world, he was at last ready to push forward with his ultimate plans for the kingdom, which, now I should add, included his father's Duchy of Normandy.

We've seen the last five years, since Robert's first invasion of England, how Henry has overcome obstacle after obstacle, ultimately culminating in the Battle of Tinsprey, where he not only captured not one, but two claimants to his crown, Robert Curdhose and Edgar Effling.

But he sent a serious pain in the backside, scampering away toward those beautiful Norman Hills, this being the dreaded Robert of Belem.

But here's yet another astounding facet to Henry.

While he was doing all of this, throughout the years of 1101 to 1106, he was also building a legion of loyalists who would be put in specific places should the need for them arise.

Inroads were made early on, but this coincided, as we've seen, with the house cleaning he conducted in those same years.

It kicked into full gear when he ousted Robert of Belem, his two younger brothers, Arnulf of Montgomery and Roger de Pontavine, Earl William of Warren and Count William of Mortain, along with many others.

Sure, these sparked a rebellion against him, but as we saw in the last episode, Henry outmaneuvered them masterfully.

But he didn't just survive a rebellion of his barons.

He was given a very valuable lesson on a silver platter at the outset of his reign, before things got too messy and twisted.

He learned the fickleness of loyalty and how one's position at the top sits precariously on a flimsy tower made up of people who could bring the whole thing crashing down with these smallest of movements.

Dr. Seuss's Yertle the Turtle comes to mind.

I don't know about yours, but, and I don't care what anybody says, that's a freaking masterpiece right there.

No one's going to convince me otherwise.

Now, William of Warren was reinstated by the time Teenspray happened, but the rest we can file under the pretty permanent stripped and banished category.

There was one man who kind of straddled that fence, and I find it fascinating, but I'll keep it short.

Ivo de Granvenel, son of the great Hugh de Granvenel, who rode with the Conqueror so many decades before, well, Ivo decided to throw his support Curdhose's way back in 1101.

His family had become a wealthy and powerful staple in England during the previous 40 years or so, but that was all about to change.

Henry, as we know, but he wasn't having it, and we see another strip-and-banish situation looming.

But the story doesn't stop there.

See, Robert de Beaumont, widely considered the old sage at the time, stepped in to help Evo out a little.

He spoke with King Henry, who agreed that Evo would be stripped and banished, but not in a forever kind of way.

Robert de Beaumont promised to pay Evo for his lands in England while Evo went to the Holy Land, in the hopes of arriving in time to help with that next call for reinforcements by Pope Pascal that sparked the Crusade of 1101.

It's all intertwining once again, you see.

Now, this deal between Robert de Beaumont and Ivo de Granmenal was a temporary one, and it looked an awful lot like the deal Kurthos made with Rufus back in 1096, which allowed Kurthos to head to the Holy Land and participate in the First Crusade, thus becoming the hero that he was.