Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie, and this is episode 476, The Crackdown.

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much to Laurel, Dennis, and Jeremiah for signing up already. In 1096, Robert de Mowbray,

the former Earl of Northumbria, was living in Windsor.

And he better get comfy because his majesty seemed quite happy to keep him there as a permanent resident.

And Rufus wasn't the only person pleased to see D'Amobre imprisoned.

The king's younger brother, Henry, was downright delighted.

Now, you may have noticed there hasn't been a whole lot of Henry in the story lately,

and there's a few reasons for that.

First, he was the youngest of the Conqueror's sons, and so he was considered a footnote

in the pages of Norman power struggles. I mean, he wasn't even given any lands in the will,

and was essentially suffering total political neglect. But the second reason is that likely in response

to living among two older brothers who were impossibly powerful in comparison to him,

Henry had learned to keep his head down.

And so he typically only makes himself known in our record at this point when he makes a play for increased power.

Often by playing one brother against another, or taking

advantage of an existing conflict between the two of them, of which there were many. But just because

Henry hasn't been a major character in our story doesn't mean that he wasn't doing anything.

Most recently, he had switched sides and supported

Rufus in his fight against Robert. And in doing so, he had regained control of his lands in western

Normandy, you know, with the help of Rufus and also some of Henry's allies, like Earl Hugh Lupus.

...