Adeliza of Louvain
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Adeliza of Louvain was Queen of England from 1121 to 1135 as the second wife of King Henry I.
Detail of a Shaftesbury manuscript, most likely depicting Adeliza
King Henry I holding Reading Abbey, where he was buried.
Arundel Castle
Henry I of England
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Henry I, also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henry's elder brothers Robert Curthose and William Rufus inherited Normandy and England, respectively, but Henry was left landless. He purchased the County of Cotentin in western Normandy from Robert, but his brothers deposed him in 1091. He gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin and allied himself with William Rufus against Robert.
Miniature from Matthew Paris's Historia Anglorum, c. 1253. The portrait is generic and depicts Henry holding the Church of Reading Abbey, where he was buried.
13th-century depiction of Henry
Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, site of the 1091 siege
Henry's first wife, Matilda of Scotland