In 1088, a wealthy but landless royal youth transformed his fortunes by acquiring, at the cost of most of his inheritance, a vast lordship in western Normandy. In 1140, a blind old man made the short crossing of the Thames from the Tower of London to Bermondsey Priory, there to live out his remaining days. Representing the opening and closing of a story of a rivalry, these two events provide an insight into both the politics of western Normandy at the turn of the twelfth century and that region's place in the wider history of the Anglo-Norman world. Through studying the relationship between the protagonists in these two stories, Henry I and William of Mortain respectively, this paper seeks to develop in greater detail and provide a fuller context for the early career of the future king. It thereby aims to present a fresh assessment of Henry's interaction with west Norman society as well as the extent, character, and significance of his comital authority in the region.

The first of our two events is the more widely known. Desperate to secure funds for an invasion of England, Robert Curthose sold the title of count of the Côtentin to his youngest brother, Henry, and with it, according to Orderic Vitalis, land amounting to one-third of Normandy. For the next twelve years at least, through both success and failure, Henry's fate was inextricably bound to that of western Normandy.