WI: Premature death of Robert Curthose.

In OTL, during a rebellion between 1077-79, at a siege at the town of Gerberoy, William I of England is fighting his rebellious son, Robert, during a sortie from the castle at Gerberoy. In battle, the two seemed to have personally fought, where Robert unhorses his old man and nearly kills him, only to hesitate when he recognises his father's voice.

Father and son are reconciled through the efforts of Matilda, the wife and mother of the two men. But subsequent fallings out results in Robert disappearing from Normandy for years, but is acknowledged by his father on his death-bed as heir to the dukedom of Normandy, while the younger son William Rufus inherits the English Crown. Henry, the youngest of William's sons, receives a fortune from his father.

What if Robert Curthose had perished at Gerberoy? Richard, William's second son, initially would have been the considered heir until his own demise when hunting in the New Forest in 1081 (just like his brother William II Rufus nineteen years later). So then would Normandy-England be inherited by the same son? Or would the duchy and kingdom be jointly inherited by William and Henry? And who would get which realm?
 
I would assume that William would give his oldest surviving son both Normandy and England, or if not, William Rufus still gets England and Henry gets Normandy.

Not sure of exactly why William gave Robert Normandy, so this is just assuming it was divided with the oldest son getting Normandy but the favored son getting England.
 
Not sure of exactly why William gave Robert Normandy, so this is just assuming it was divided with the oldest son getting Normandy but the favored son getting England.

Iirc it was a matter of feudal law.

Normandy had come to William by inheritance, so it had to pass on the same way - unless, possibly, the King of France as feudal overlord could be persuaded to go along with the disinheritance.

England, by contrast, he had conquered "with his own sword", and of course it had no overlord other than its king. So William could dispose of it as he pleased.
 
William was hesitant to allow his eldest son to succeed him, due to the bad blood between them and apparently because Robert Curthose was a total hothead who had no aptitude for politics. He relented in the end, perhaps knowing that his realm of Normandy-England would tear itself apart anyway in a civil war among his sons and their supporting camps. With Robert removed from the equation in the late 1070's, this leaves the possibilities of either William Rufus inheriting the undivided realm of his father, or perhaps the elder William recognizes the potential (and ambition) of Henry Beauclerc, and bequeaths him the Norman duchy.

Out of all the Conqueror's sons, Henry was the most capable ruler of England and Normandy. He would even be the first Norman king of England to learn the language and even married a Scottish princess with royal West Saxon ancestry.
 
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