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4 This probably overestimates the amount of octuol interference that took place, but even so it cannot be denied that when it come to matters of hereditary succession the Norman kings were hard ly slow to exercise their powerful, royal prerogative. The voluntas regis - the will of the king - was the crucial factor in the building up and maintenance of territorial wealth. Great estates or lordships could be forfeited and their lords disseised at the stroke of a royal hand, new men were 'raised from the dust' to positions of undreamt of authority, 5 and on one occasion the inheritance was passed to a younger son simply because the king thought he was a 'better knight'.

1237 d . 1240 (J, t. Henry. 12 541el William Langespe p d . 12461gl Azure six lions rampant or. (f) Argent a lion rampant gules crowned or within ,J A lion ramp:'"t. bordure scable bezonty. Two lions pasSlnt. (g ) Quorterly Of and gules four lions passont guorcbnt Gules three lions passont guarcb nt or. c ounterchanged. England dimidioting the Empire. (h) Gules two lions possant guardont or. 1. This pedigree is based upon that by Wagner in 'Heraldry ' in Medieval England (1958) though here amended.

Traditionally he is said to have borne these arms as duke of Normandy. More recently it has been argued that since two of those whom he had knighted used this same shield then, according to the practice whereby a 'potron-in-chivalry' bestowed upon the newly-made knight a shield identical or similar to his own Henry must have likewise used a shield charged with two lions passant. 26 However, both explanations are not entirely valid. The first can be readily dismissed since the two lions shield did not become officially associated with Normandy for a number of centuries to comei the second cannot a lane provide sufficient grounds to justify the belief that Henry used these arms.