The Battle of Brémule was fought on 20 August 1119 between

Henry I of England Henry I ( – 1 December 1135), 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, Henr ...

and Louis VI the Fat of France. Henry I had to defend his holdings in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

several times and his victory at this battle repelled a French invasion. The French defeat at Brémule effectively crippled the barons' rebellion and led to King Louis' having to accept

William Adelin William Ætheling (, ; 5 August 1103 – 25 November 1120), commonly called Adelin (sometimes ''Adelinus'', ''Adelingus'', ''A(u)delin'' or other Latinised Norman-French variants of '' Ætheling''), was the son of Henry I of England by his wif ...

Duke of Normandy In the Middle Ages, the duke of Normandy was the ruler of the Duchy of Normandy in north-western France. The duchy arose out of a grant of land to the Viking leader Rollo by the French king Charles the Simple in 911. In 924 and again in 933, N ...

. William was officially invested with the duchy in 1120, even though King Louis continued to support

William Clito William Clito (25 October 1102 – 28 July 1128) was a member of the House of Normandy who ruled the County of Flanders from 1127 until his death and unsuccessfully claimed the Duchy of Normandy. As the son of Robert Curthose, the eldest son o ...

's claim to the honour. This battle is the result of a fortuitous encounter between the two neighbours who were engaged in a lawkeeping operation on their respective borders, the limits of their kingdoms being still imprecise in the Vexin and in the valley of the Seine. Chronicles from the French side describe the battle as a fierce and bloody one where Louis the Fat, despite his heavy weight, fought so close to the opposing knights that a Norman seized his horse's reins and shouted, "The King is taken!", to which the King replied with a heavy blow from his mace, shouting back: "The King is not taken, neither at war, nor at chess!" However, this was later proven to be a misattribution. On the other side, chronicles from the Norman side tell that their knights gained much profit from the ransoms paid by their many prisoners, and that they had only three casualties on their side.

Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis (; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England.Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 6 Working out of ...

, ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' VI 240–241. Cfr. ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

'' 1119.

References

External links

"Battle of Brémule, according to Orderic Vitalis"
from ''De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History'', online. 1119 in Europe 1110s in France Battles involving England Battles involving France Conflicts in 1119 Brémule Henry I of England {{England-battle-stub