Welcome to the British History podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 490. Messengers from France.

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the British History Podcast.com for about the price of a latte per month. And thank you very much

to Bruce, David, and Lacey for signing up already. King Henry's first Christmas court in the

closing days of 1100 had felt off.

As we discussed in the last episode, Prince Louis of France was in attendance, which was actually a really big deal for the new king.

But it also was politically complicated.

If you recall, Louis's father, King Philip, had recently destroyed his personal reputation.

He'd abandoned Prince Louis's mother, decided he wanted to count Folk's wife instead and stole her, got himself excommunicated, and he was now living in basically 24-7 goblin mode,

ignoring pretty much everything except for his own personal pleasure. Philip even got a nickname over

this whole situation, the amorous, which almost sounds innocent until you know the full story.

So, things in France were tense, and I guess Prince Louis needed some space because he was spending Christmas with King Henry.

And according to Orderick, and I should note here, that only Orderick recounts this next part of the

tale, so take that as you will. Well, at some point during the festivities, a messenger arrived.

He had come from the French court bearing a letter carrying the seal of King Philip.

King Henry took the letter and read it,

because, as Orderick notes, Henry was a scholar, and so he could read. After perusing the letter,

he immediately summoned his counsel while walking out of the room. That's not good.

And Prince Louis's companion, a knight by the name of William de Bouchelais, immediately took notice of this.

They needed to know what the hell was going on here.

...