The Battle of Tinchebrai!

Fought on the 28th September 1106 AD!

The Battle of Tinchebrai was fought in September 1106 near the Town and  Castle of Tinchebrai in South Western Normandy, somewhere between the  towns of Vire and Flers. Between the Englisc Forces of King Henry I of  England and Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy. The two Armies involved  were about equal in size around 7,000 men a piece.

Background to the Battle

With the death of William Rufus in 1100 in a hunting 'accident' in the  New Forest, the Crown of England was seized by his younger brother  Henry, who rapidly took advantage of the situation and secured his  coronation as King on the 5th August, a mere three days after his  Brother's death. Henry's seizure of power was sudden and affective but  his position remained somewhat insecure. In an attempt to cement his  authority he thus issued a Charter of Liberties and married Matilda of  Scotland, a symbolically uniting the new Norman dynasty with the old  Englisc line of Wessex; both projects that were designed perhaps to give  the Native Englisc something his Father and Brother had taken away from  them after the Usurpation of England in 1066.

There remained the issue of his elder brother Robert Curthose, who had  been denied England after his Father William The "Bastard's" Death in  1088 and had been forced to be content with Normandy alone. Absent on  the first Crusade since 1096 he returned home to Normandy in September  1100 to be faced with a fete accompli by Henry.

The Battle!

Robert Curthose and William of Mortain marched with their forces against  the siege of Tinchebrai. They were joined by Robert of Belleme (who  despite his earlier spat with the Duke had no with to see his old  adversary King Henry in charge of affairs in Normandy) and others such  as Robert d'Estoutville and William Crispin together with the enigmatic  figure of Edgar Atheling.

As it was the intention of Robert and William to break the siege, it was  they who attacked first. William of Mortain charged the King's lines  and drove back his opponents only to be surprised by the appearance of  the Englisc Reserves from England who "charged in and broke the Norman  army to pieces"; the whole battle was over in less than an hour.

Robert of Belleme, who commanded the rearguard, took one look at the  unfolding battle and made his excuses and left the field; "he received  no blow and gave no blow". The rest of the Norman army were either  killed or captured, the most notable captives being Robert Curthose  himself, William of Mortain and Edger Ætheling.

After the fighting was over and the remains of the smashed Norman army  streamed off of the field, the Englisc Forces were heard to be chanting  "HASTINGS AVENGED!! HASTINGS AVENGED!! HASTINGS AVENGED!!"

Which may have rang in the ears of their defeated Norman foe as they  streamed from the bloody field!!

So at least the Englisc had won their first Battle against the hated  Normans and on Norman soil, the first Victory of the Englisc over their  Norman Tormentors, but it wouldn't be the last!!

Copyright: Harold Godwinsson from a site called Everything2.com