Book Review: "Henry I: The Father of His People" by Edmund King

As you guys already know, I'm reading one book for every king and queen of England from Edward the Confessor to our own Queen, Elizabeth II. People often ask me why I start with Edward the Confessor and to be honest, I don't actually know - I kind of take England being passed around Europe as being the Battle of Hastings and so, Edward the Confessor is really the last of the old English kings before a new age begins. As you can probably tell, I have been really enjoying myself, except for the book I read on Harold Godwinson which was far too long winded for a man who is quintessentially only famous for losing a war. Every other book has been quite alright and I am back again to review my reading of a book about Henry I of England entitled Henry I: The Father of His People by Edmund King.

This book was surprisingly good as I have been having a slew of good books on the monarchy, I didn't expect to have another really great one. But alas, this book has really shocked me in the fact that it doesn't begin with the reign of Henry I, instead it begins with the reign of William the Conqueror, his father. It then goes on to William II's reign briefly, looking at Henry's visit to him in 1088 to get their mother's lands back. After William's strange death, Henry finally comes into power and we see a king who was basically born to be a king.

He spends the first part of his reign in Normandy, he gets married and oh my gosh are there a lot of women named Matilda! I found it so difficult to keep up with all of the Matildas and honestly, when I did get the hang of it, the first one died. That was a huge blow - it was a very emotional for me because I had only just learned the difference between them all. I really feel sorry for Henry when his wife dies and seriously, this does feel like the last blow to him, but before that there is something else - something much worse.

The disaster of the White Ship is possibly one of the most famous things associated with Henry I's reign and even I knew about it - I hardly knew anything about Henry I before reading this book. Henry had a son called William, named for his father and his brother. William was the heir apparent to the throne and one night, whilst drinking a lot of alcohol and racing the White Ship, the ship hit the rocks and many people were killed. The future king of England died in what was the equivalent of a drunken car crash. Henry was in almost constant mourning and had nothing left for the land now, his heir apparent was gone. It is a massively emotional part of the book and honestly, it was perfectly avoidable. I always like to think how different history could have been if that accident had not have taken place.

All in all, this book was a great, concise and yet, explorative read concerning the reign of Henry I. It looked at how he was desperately trying to piece the country back together and, even after his heir was killed, he had to carry on working though he knew there was little chance for him to contribute another heir now that he was getting older. Henry I truly was one of the most tragic, but hard-working kings of Normandy and honestly, he was the one out of the brothers that was the most like his father.

This was such an incredible book - one of my favourites so far.