v28_0821 - HENRY I Obole c. 1040-1060 Paris

HENRY I

(07/20/1031-08/04/1060)

The reign of Henry I, third monarch of the Capetian dynasty, opened with a civil war between the king and his younger brother, Robert, supported by their mother Queen Constance. It was only after the death of Constance, which occurred in 1034, that the two princes were reconciled.. To ensure family peace, Henri invests Hugues of the Duchy of Burgundy. It was the stem of a second Capetian house that was to last three centuries. This first conflict was followed by a war against the counts of Blois (1034-1039), the outcome of which was victorious: the Capetians annexed the Sénonais and Touraine was taken from the house of Blois to pass to the counts of Anjou.. But another vassal was beginning to offend the King of France: William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy.. First allied with Henry, the young duke came into conflict with him from 1048. Against the duke, the king supported the revolt of his Norman vassals. Defeated at Mortemer (1054) and Varaville (1058), Henry watched helplessly as the future king of England grew in power.. His reign perhaps marks the extreme point of the decadence of royal power.. South of the Loire, his authority had become almost nil. The King of France nevertheless retained an international stature. Opposite the pope and the emperor, Henry fought to preserve his authority over the episcopate and over the east of his kingdom.. If the Empire ensured its hold on the former kingdom of Burgundy, the king of France intrigued, without much success, to detach Lorraine from Germanic influence.. In 1051 he married Anne, daughter of the Grand Prince of kyiv, Yaroslav. This alliance shows that, from that time, the horizon of the French monarchy went far beyond the restricted space of the royal domain or of northern France.. In 1052, the queen gave birth to a son, endowed with the Byzantine first name of Philip, which was incorporated into the tradition of royal names.. Henry crowned his heir in 1059 and died the following year, having at least ensured the continuity of the dynasty. His long reign had been the darkest of those of the eleventh century..