King Henry against Duke Robert

On the death of William Rufus, the youngest son of William the Conqueror, Henry assumed the crown of England, thus depriving Robert Curthose of his birthright. Robert returned from Jerusalem in September 1100, too late to oppose the coronation of his brother, but he did manage to take back his Duchy.

The situation regarding the succession of 1087 returned. Some of the more powerful barons sought to free themselves from the authority of King Henry, and put themselves behind Robert who set sail for Portsmouth in 1101 with the intention of engaging in battle with his brother. An accord based on a mutual renunciation on the part of the two brothers of their claims to each others' domains provisionally averted the conflict.

Whereas Henry had a firm grip on his kingdom, Robert was once again, however, unable to control the barons' excesses and they resumed their private wars. The most famous of them all Robert of Bellême, faced up to the brothers, both in his Norman domain and in his English earldom of Shrewsbury.

The disorder led many of the Norman barons who were subjects of the King of England to transfer homage to him for their lands held from the Duke of Normandy and to ask him to intervene. In 1104, Henry set sail in his turn, for Normandy, but in 1105 he conducted the decisive offensive. Via Carentan, Bayeux, Caen, and Falaise Henry took control of the towns and strongholds of Normandy. He did not hesitate in his severity against the rebels. Bayeux and its cathedral were burned (1105). The abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives where an ambush had been set for the Duke-King suffered the same fate in 1106.

Finally, Robert Curthose was defeated and captured at Tinchebray (1106). He was taken into exile at Cardiff castle. Henry I Beauclerc had restored on his own account the estates of William the Conqueror.