Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 479,

Be Like Water. This show is ad-free due to member support and as a way of thanking members

for keeping the show independent. I offer members-only content, including extra episodes and

rough transcripts. and you can get

instant access to all the members' extras by signing up for membership at the British History

Podcast.com for about the price of a latte for a month. And thank you very much to George, Lee,

and Josh for signing up already. For years, Normandy had been racked with internal conflict, war, and political unrest.

The Duchy had nearly been the end of Duke Robert countless numbers of times,

and if there was one defining characteristic of Normandy under Robert, it would be chaos.

And by now, we know why. Rufus had been spending the

wealth of England on an influence campaign to undermine his brother, Duke Robert. And when that

wasn't satisfying enough, the king outright launched military campaigns against his brother for good measure.

The chaos of Normandy under Robert was something that Rufus had paid handsomely for.

Well, the kingdom of England had paid handsomely for.

But now that Robert was on Crusade, and Rufus was the one in charge of Normandy, the incentives had switched.

And now the king wanted stability, not chaos.

Now, thankfully, all those barons who had created such a ruckus were still on his payroll,

which means that now,

for the first time in over a decade, Normandy was downright placid.

And I'm sure that Rufus would say that this was because of his strong, decisive leadership and muscular domestic policy. But it was clearly just the next part of his

influence campaign. But speaking of influence, his other brother, Henry, had quite a bit himself

because he had spent the last decade ensuring that. And while he sticks to the shadows in the official records during this period,

...