Customer Reviews

Henry I (The English Monarchs Series)

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I will admit right up front that I was a student of Warren Hollister and loved him dearly. That being said, this is a grand book that has come to light in the face of great adversity. Despite the destruction of many of his initial notes in a fire and despite his own untimely death, both his own research, his love of detail, and the kindness of his friends have surfaced in this volume.

The best book to compare this to is W.L. Warren's "Henry II". Like that book, this is an attempt to get down in concrete fashion all the hard facts of an incredible monarch; in some ways Hollister is arguing against Warren in that Hollister is showing that many of the significant legal changes generally credited to Henry II, such as the expansion of circuit courts, actually had their origins during the reign of Henry I.

This is a methodical work; it is not light reading nor is it meant to be. It is, literally, the work of a lifetime, one historian's ode to a great figure from history. Yet it is not truly a panagaeic either; Hollister shows Henry's warts as well as his glories. The point is that in many ways this is Old School History. It is about kings, courts, wars, laws, and all the rest. It is not a stylish book with a lot of witty turns of phrase (though there are some). First and foremost this is a book of careful argumentation, a book that pushes even more strongly than in the past C. Warren Hollister's unflagging belief in the 12th Century Renaissance.

Warren was a great and charming man, endlessly hospitable, always kind, and a man who had a true care for his students. In each of them he planted a respect for documents -- how much can be inferred, more importantly how much cannot, how to honestly show what you have learned, and how to both back that up and prove it. I know he would have wanted to clean up passages of this book, tighten his arguments here and there, add several more footnotes. But it is because of the respect and love that Warren showed his many students, his family, that this book is here today.

May this work serve as a fitting epitath to a great and generous heart, as well as to a fine historian.

This biography follows the typical outline of books in the
English Monarch series, namely a set of chapters describing
the life chronologically, followed by a set of chapters
discussing key topics (in this case, on topics such as
administrative reforms, and relationships with the church),
followed by a concluding chapter which discusses the end of the
monarch's life and sums up contributions.

What makes this biography outstanding is the tone: Hollister
kept the tone slightly informal and and active -- as a result
the chronological sections are lively and the topical sections
feel like an informed but informal seminar.

This is a superb biography on an unjustly forgotten king. King Henry I was king during an interesting time. The son of William the Conqueror, he was a very different ruler than his father and brother. Professor Hollister writes an extremely readable book that makes clear how just how much changed during Henry's reign. Henry was an educated king for starters. Or at least he was educated when compared to the previous Norman kings. It was even said that he could read. This book is divided into sections. The first 300 pages are basically a straight narrative of his reign while the last few hundred are dedicated to specific topics such as Kings and Magnates, Law and Governance, and King and Church. Unfortunately Hollister died before the book was completed and the last sections had to be completed by his assistant Amanda Frost Clark. These last sections are rather more stilted than the first but then the narrative was bound to be more interesting anyways. If you're interested in this little-known king then this book is for you. If you've never heard of him then pick this up now. It's that good.

In my book, "Astronomical Symbols on Ancient and Medieval Coins", I devote an entire chapter to the astronomical symbols that were depicted on medieval English coinage as signs of divine right to sovereignty. As part of my research, I read numerous books on medieval English history, and I found that Hollister's book, "Henry I," was especially useful.

Not only were there many items of interest that added to my understanding of the history of his reign, but of all the books about Henry I that I read, Hollister's book was one of the most interesting reads. He really brought together an amazing amount of information.

I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in English history.

Marshall Faintich

Henry I was written under extraordinary circumstances. As noted in other reviews. Warren Hollister had the bulk of his research, including his entire research library and all his research note cards, destroyed in a California fire and had to reconstruct his book almost from the beginning. Then he passed away with the book unfinished and his former student and later editor for the University of California Press, Dr. Amanda Clark Frost, completed the book for him based on Hollister's outline materials. Hollister himself wrote up through part of Chapter 9 on Law and Governance and Frost wrote Chapter 10 on King and Church and Chapter 11, the concluding chapter on Henry's reign. Hollister's work is brilliant, a masterpiece of combining historical details with clear and engaging writing. Hollister ultimately presents Henry as the Great Compromiser. This was especially true on the Lay Investiture controversy and with several of the important barons. I was struck by the difference in the way that the people themselves viewed "England" compared to just a generation earlier. A stronger sense of a unified country had emerged and Henry's ability to be flexible and inclusive had a great deal to do with this. The book includes a cast of interesting characters besides Henry such as his relationship with Archbishop Anselm in the first part of his reign when Anselm was torn between his loyalty to the king and his loyalty to an increasingly powerful papacy. Another memorable (if often disgusting) character is the sadistic Robert of Belleme who enjoyed torturing his prisoners to death and whose people were so abused that at one point they invited Henry to take over Robert's lands. Henry's relationship with his often cowardly brother, Robert Curthose, is also brought to life by Hollister. Hollister also does a terrific job of analysing the effects of the White Ship disaster and how Henry spent much of the last part of his reign trying to rectify what for him was the tragic event of his life.

This is an excellent book but the fact is that the last couple chapters could have used Hollister's sure hand, especially the chapter on King and Church. Dr. Frost worked with Hollister's outline and, understandably, did not want to exclude anything that her mentor may have intended to include. Completeness of details was really her only option. Her work to make this book possible is a tribute to her former teacher and completed his masterwork. However, the result is a different format for Chapter 10, an 88 page chapter that lacks the flow and readability of the others. This is not a criticism of Dr. Frost; the circumstances were tragic, there were no options besides full inclusiveness, and we would not have this terrific work on Henry I without those last chapters. But the chapters are different than the rest of the book.

If William I was the physical conqueror of England, it might be said that Henry I was the political conqueror who did it with power if necessary, but mostly with a strong sense of inclusive leadership.

Warren Hollister's Henry I was published posthumously. The work was completed and edited by Amanda Clark Frost. The book is a great legacy for not only the life and career of the subject but for the author as well. Hollister tells the story a young prince, who as his father's youngest son was not going to be expected to be a king himself, but ended up as one of the most powerful rulers in Western Christendom.

The story of Henry I begins a few years after his father's conquest of England. As the youngest son of the Conqueror, it is unlikely that he will ever rule anything since his three older brothers will come first. Even after the death of the second oldest and the almost disinheritance of the oldest*, young Henry was only left with a small sum of money and no land. However after the accidental death** of his closest brother, King William II, Henry lays claim to the crown of England. Up to this point, he had lived his life as either the King's son or the King's brother, now he was the King himself.

Known as the King who created the Exchequer, Hollister describes King Henry I to be an administrative wonder. As king, Henry would issue multiple laws and actually took the time to have them widely published. More interested in governing his kingdom and duchy than waging war, Henry's reign would leave a legacy of peace. In one exciting adventure he did manage to wrest Normandy from his disinherited older brother Duke Robert. They fought in the battle of Tinchebray, a conflict that lasted only an hour compared to the battle of Hastings forty years earlier. (Interestingly, the battle of Tinchebray literally reversed the battle of Hastings for this time the King of England conquered the Duke of Normandy.)

Hollister goes into great detail discussing the various aspects of the reign of King Henry I. One the most important problems that King Henry faced were his struggles against the Church over the King's rights vs. the Church's rights. His struggles with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Anslem, a feud which would echo another two generations later but with far less deadly results. In this case the King in the Archbishop were able to work out a compromise that both could live with. Their successors would not be so lucky.

I do have some technical quibbles with the book. Hollister refers to King Henry's first wife as Queen Matilda II, in order to avoid confusion with Henry I's mother who was also Queen Matilda. The problem is it is wrong. Queens consort do not receive numbers, only queens regina do. For example the modern Queen of Great Britain is Queen Elizabeth II not Queen Elizabeth V.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about England in the 12th century or about the life of one of its better monarchs. Hollister was a very good writer and it is sad that he is no longer with us.

*Robert was able to inherit Normandy but denied England.

**And it does appear to have been accidental.

I read Hollister's Henry I recently and I must highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the English monarchy. I knew virtually nothing about Henry when I first began to read this book (as he is one of the less famous English rulers amongst the general public), and came away feeling as if I actually had met the man. Hollister's style is colorful and easy to understand and follow-even his more analytical chapters on the church and the sources he used are interesting. If you want to learn something about a underappreciated figure in medieval history, give this biography a try. I am sure you won't regret it.

THIS MONUMENTAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE KING WAS MR HOLLISTER'S DREAM AND IT WAS WELL WORTH THE WAIT. HE DELVES INTO EVERY ASPECT OF THE KING'S LIFE AND USES MEDIEVAL SOURCES AS WELL AS NEW RESEARCH. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE

Learned scholars tend to have all-encompassing analysis in their books, and this book is no exception. In my opinion, the last two sections of this book are not geared for a history buff such as myself and are dry and dull material; I know that scholars feel they have to be complete in their analysis, but the difference with books geared for history enthusiasts is that these books are exciting to read, from the first to the last page, and this book falls short in this regard, but to be fair about this, I think the majority of this book is exceptional and compares with any historian in my vast collection; the law and governance section was interesting to a degree but was dry as well. This book is complete in detail and goes beyond the perspective that historians employ on their readers.