It is late June of the year 1106. Duke Robert Curthose of Normandy was holding a typical assembly in Rouen, struggling to address some of the burning issues of the Duchy. Then, with haste, one of his officers entered the hall. The news was disquieting: Henry Beauclerc - Robert’s younger brother and King of England had been seen landing a sizeable host just north of Caen. Immediately, the hall was abuzz with nobles arguing. Robert sighed and ordered his envoys to alert his Norman liegemen. The war was coming. It is the middle of summer of the year 1100. For the past dozen years the Kingdom of England has been ruled by William Rufus, the second king of the House of Normandy, established some thirty five years earlier by his father William the Conqueror. Though not of particularly pleasant appearance nor possessing an easy personality, the younger William was able to build on his father’s deeds, strengthening the Norman grip over the country and even meddling within the internal affairs of the neighbouring Welsh and Scots. In 1096 William was presented with an opportunity to extend his influence even further, when his brother Duke Robert of Normandy pledged his domain to William to fund his participation in the First Crusade. Direct control over Normandy opened many new doors for the English King, and he willingly campaigned in France in the subsequent years, sketching ambitious plans for further expansion at the same time. But William’s fruitful though somewhat unpopular reign was soon to draw to an unexpected end, as he was grievously wounded by a stray arrow shot by one of his companions during a hunting party in Southern England. Obviously, a number of conspiracy theories emerged around the death of the King, but since hunting was quite a perilous activity it’s quite possible that it was indeed just an accident. Considering that William Rufus died childless, and even unmarried, the matter of succession was to be decided by his two brothers: the older – Robert Curthose, and the younger – Henry Beauclerc. Of course, Robert’s claim to the English throne was moderately stronger, due to him being the oldest of the siblings and thanks to the succession agreement he made with William Rufus a decade earlier. But since he was not present in England at the time, being still on his journey back from the First Crusade, it was Henry who was able to react immediately to the death of the monarch, as he attended the royal hunting party that fateful day. Wasting no time, Henry rushed to Winchester to seize the royal treasury and convince the barons to take his side. Cleverly using coin and promises, he was able to gather a considerable following overnight and three days later was crowned as the new King of England in Westminster Abbey. In a span of the next six months, Henry had proven to be a savvy ruler. He reformed the existing administration, keeping some of the retainers of his late brother while promoting new ones, selected from his own retinue, thus creating an effective and loyal body of counsellors. For those nobles who backed his claim to the throne he awarded lands and titles, and for those who dared to defy the new king, a cell within the Tower of London was their prize. Moreover, Henry was aware of William’s uneasy relationship with the church, so he made best efforts to divert this course, trying to ease the frigid attitude of the bishops and making new alliances within the clergy. But despite Henry’s political acumen and successes on the domestic field, he remained aware, that the most singular challenge to his reign was surging on the other side of the channel. His brother, Robert Curthose had finally returned from his great voyage to the Holy Land and reclaimed the Duchy of Normandy, while trying to swiftly embed himself into local politics at the same time. He quickly learned that Henry’s reign in England was disputed by quite a substantial Norman opposition, and in July of the year 1101 landed near the Isle of Wight with a few hundred men, hoping to gain support of the local barons. Indeed, his numbers swelled as many Norman nobles of Southern England flocked under his banner, discontented by Henry’s rule. Everything pointed to a war between the brothers being imminent, but upon meeting, the two agreed to negotiate instead of spilling Norman blood. Since Robert garnered a considerable following, but not strong enough to oppose Henry, he agreed to recognise his younger brother as King of England in exchange for a yearly tribute and a promise to inherit England in the event of Henry’s death without a male heir. This fraternal agreement was in fact a substantial victory for Henry, who had now clearly seen the true loyalty of his retainers, and commenced to punish those who raised their banners against the king. Moreover, by signing the treaty he bought himself more time to prepare for another planned standoff with Robert and seek possible allies in Normandy. Over the next couple of years it gradually became apparent, that Duke Robert, though a famous Crusader and skilled field commander was not necessarily the best administrator, as his vacillating nature only contributed to his Duchy’s noticeable decline. This complex state of affairs in Normandy was naturally followed by the watchful eyes of King Henry’s spies, whose reports convinced him to exploit Robert’s incompetence. Henry’s first attempt to exert dominance in the duchy took place in 1104 but it was not until the following year, that his actions yielded lasting results. The king’s forces managed to burn a couple of strongholds and proceeded to occupy the western part of Normandy. Yet despite these early triumphs, the campaign eventually stalled. The peace talks dragged on until the end of the year, and Henry was finally compelled to winter back in England in order to settle the investiture controversy among the English archbishops, a topic which certainly deserves an episode of it’s own. Though the war between the brothers abated for the winter months, it was clear to Robert, that his younger brother wasn’t going to give up so easily and the Norman Duke did his best to prepare for the next year’s campaign. Indeed, in the early summer of 1106 Henry once again set sail to Normandy. His armed contingent landed near Caen and over the course of next two months ensured Henry’s dominance in the area, taking strongholds and awaiting the support from those Norman lords Henry was able to pull to his side over the last few years. For Robert, the situation looked less favourable. His power in the duchy was waning, both due to Henry’s clever political manoeuvres and his own incompetence. Robert knew this well, and when he heard the news that Henry’s troops had besieged Tinchebray Castle to the south-west, he mustered his still strong army and marched to meet the enemy, rightly assessing that risking a battle was his only reasonable bet to emerge victorious from this conflict. Robert’s army reached the vicinity of Tinchebray by the end of September and pitched tents a safe distance from the castle. Soon, yet another round of parleys ensued, but Henry refused to lift the siege and it became abundantly clear, that only an armed contest would decide this brotherly struggle for domination. Robert divided his troops, consisting of effective but not too large units of Norman cavalry complemented with infantrymen, into two lines. The reserve was commanded by Robert’s strongest and most important ally, Count Robert of Bellême, who was to join the battle at a later point. On the other side of the battlefield, roughly equal in number, Henry’s contingent formed intro three lines. Visibly, he had more heavy cavalry at his disposal but in order to trick his brother, or lure him to attack first, Henry ordered the majority of his knights to dismount and prepare to fight on foot. The only men who remained on horseback were on the flank, in deep reserve, out of Robert’s sight, led by Count Elias of Maine. At last, the horns blared and hundreds of Norman cavalrymen rushed forward to fight for Robert’s domination in the duchy. Henry’s dismounted knights and other infantry braced for an impact. Eventually, the two sides clashed and the first-lines bled into a barely distinguishable mass of men, horses, steel and violence. After the first shock faded, it became apparent, that Robert’s cavalry had made significant progress, fighting vigorously to the point that Henry’s footed knights were on the brink of losing cohesion and breaking the line. But even at this disadvantage, Henry’s best men had shown a great deal of fortitude, training and fighting spirit. And supported by the reserve units they endured the relentless push of Robert’s riders. Seeing that the opponent was making progress, Henry didn’t wait for Robert’s reserve to enter the battle and ordered his own reserves, under the Count of Maine, to ride forth and strike at the unprotected flank. The ground trembled, as Count Elias emerged with his unit of mounted knights on Robert’s flank, much to the surprise of the Norman cavalry, deeply embroiled in the battle. Robert Curthose, being an experienced field commander immediately realised that his men were in great danger and at last, this was the moment for Robert of Bellême to enter the battle with his reserve units and turn the tide. But the Count of Bellême, seeing that the ducal forces were suffering serious loses being attacked from the flank, decided not to engage and, much to the dismay of his allies fighting in the first line, fled the battlefield. Upon seeing his allies disappearing behind the hill in the distance, Duke Robert knew all too well that his cause was lost. In the matter of the next few minutes, the majority of the Norman infantry fled, while most of Robert’s mounted knights were unable to do so, either lying dead on the ground or were surrounded and captured. It was a great victory for Henry’s Anglo-Norman host. With relatively minor losses on his side, he managed to defeat his opponents and take his brother captive. Robert’s gamble failed and Henry had him imprisoned for life, making sure that his older brother would never again get in the way of his ambitious plans. From that very moment, King Henry of England had the entire Duchy of Normandy at his feet. Although this meant a considerable boost to his prestige in the European political arena, little did Henry know that bringing a new domain into his sphere of influence would lead to new concerns in the days to come. This video is sponsored by Audible. With a vast variety of audiobooks to choose from, you’ll find no greater selection of listening material than Audible. An excellent example for those who enjoy our content would be, 50 Battles That Changed the World, a selection of the most influential conflicts that shaped out very history. 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