Our understanding of Henry's administration in Normandy still rests on the foundations laid down by Lucien Valin, Maurice Powicke, Charles Haskins and Jacques Boussard. More recent work has nuanced and revised this picture with regard to, for example: the Norman frontier; Henry's relations with the Norman aristocracy; the elections to Norman bishoprics; and the production of Norman ducal acta and the personnel at court, but the mechanisms of rule and the institutions that put them into effect, both at the centre and in the various regions of Normandy, remain largely unloved.

These mechanisms are the subject of this article, and I will explore them by examining how one individual, or rather one institution, interacted with Henry's administration. That institution is the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel and its abbot who was, of course, none other than Robert of Torigni for the whole of the period under discussion. It is unlikely that the experiences of the abbot and monks vis-à-vis Henry were especially remarkable at the time, but they are remarkable now due to the relative richness of the materials that have survived, which allow us to see when and how the abbot interacted with the duke and his officials. This inquiry also provides an opportunity to mitigate the arguments advanced by John Joliffe, Lewis Warren, Maïté Billoré and others, who have seen Henry's rule as arbitrary and oppressive. No doubt some of Henry's subjects did see it that way, but Torigni's experiences suggest a much more accommodating character to the duke and his administration. Torigni's experiences of Henry's regime also provide the opportunity to think about some broader issues, including, in particular, the way that ducal justice was done in Normandy during Henry's reign.

Among the most important sources for this exercise is a document that Thomas Bisson christened the ‘Annuary’, which covers the years between 1155 and 1159. Bisson noted a lack of obvious precedents for this list of Torigni's administrative activities, discounting, probably correctly, the influence of the records of the purchases and other transactions actioned by Abbots Lanfranc, Gilbert and Eudo of Saint-Etienne, Caen. It is possible, however, that Torigni found a precedent at the Mont itself.