Henry I, King of England and Duke of Normandy by Judith A. Green (review)

REVIEWS 231 Trencavel were in a more insecure position than the other higher nobility of Languedoc. The book concludes with a discussion of the survival of the other nobility in Languedoc, which demonstrates that the Trencavels were the only southern nobility to lose their position to the crusade. In sum, it was their poor relationship with the Cistercians, their poor position within their own lands, and their lack of support from their neighbors, which brought about the demise of the Trencavels. It is hard to believe that these were the only reasons the crusaders first attacked the Trencavel, as she suggests. Her claim does not refute the more traditional claims for the attack on the Trencavel, namely that the decision was strategic to both the crusaders and Raymond VI. Still, both her claims and traditional claims are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Graham-Leigh’s book is a welcome addition to the historiography, as most political histories of the Albigensian Crusade move quickly past the first campaign of 1209 to focus more intently upon the relationship of the crusaders with the counts of Toulouse. On the whole her thesis is convincing, even if there are some problems in the specifics. It should be noted that Dr. Graham-Leigh provides good maps of the Trencavel lands and detailed genealogies of the nobility of Languedoc, though her bibliography is hardly adequate. Most importantly, she reminds us how muddled things were among the southern nobility, and why they were unable to provide a uniform front against the crusade. WALKER REID COSGROVE, History, Saint Louis University Judith A. Green, Henry I, King of England and Duke of Normandy (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press 2006) xi + 392 pp., ill., maps. By Green’s own admission, Henry I is a frustrating monarch for the modern historian to assess. There is, to be sure, a wealth of twelfth-century documentation on his life and government, but few paint a reliable picture of the man himself. The author’s driving question is, then, “what can be learned of the man behind his recorded actions and achievements?” Henry I stands in a very peculiar shadow of Norman and Angevin history: his memorial does not include the history-altering Conquest associated with his father, nor does he have the reputation of a salon patron, a role that so draws literary historians to his grandson , Henry II. Green sheds light on both sides of Henry’s career, the king of domestic and international politics and the man of a rather engaging court culture , and complicates a traditionally staid portrait. Throughout her biography, Green seeks to redress assumptions and misconceptions of her subject, and even though one of her primary goals is to establish Henry as a ruler on both sides of the Channel, the most alluring sections of this book are—as with any good and popular biography—the juicy bits of private life. In her last three chapters, Green leaves her chronological survey of Henry’s career and focuses on the three spheres that encircled medieval rulers : politics, the church, and courtly society. In each, the fruits of Green’s labors (her introduction offers an excellent lesson in the methodology of evaluating medieval historiography) are apparent. There is, in fact, a man behind the king. Although Green, too, can write Henry’s epitaph simply—“Three great loves of Henry’s life were wealth, hunting, and sex (not necessarily in that or- REVIEWS 232 der)”—she does so with tongue firmly in cheek. Henry’s legacy is such that it cannot be determined solely by occasionally harsh and occasionally expansionist policies; he is somehow more endearing as an extremely adept hunter and a man who left his kingdom without a male heir, though not for lack of trying. CHARLES RUSSELL STONE, English, UCLA Tobias Gregory, From Many Gods to One: Divine Action in Renaissance Epic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2006) xii + 247 pp. In From Many Gods to One, professor of literature Tobias Gregory sets out to “tell the story” (5) of the rebirth of divine action in the epic poems of the Renaissance. Gregory chooses for his investigation the literary (as opposed to orally-derived) epic in the...