King Henry has troubles of his own. Bruges town, Flanders' main port and fortress, is a veritable den of pirates. Count Baldwin of Flanders is trying to throw off his vassalage to the king of France: so Henry has a great deal of distraction in dealing with this growing menace. He doesn't have time to worry over-much about you just now. Your excuses for not immediately attending your king at court are accepted for the moment, and he only sends a stern warning, that in future you must behave yourself and know your place better. No more ecclesiastical councils without his prior permission. This is an easy promise for you to make; the "truce of God" activated in Normandy has quelled most rebellions for the time being, and you cannot see any reason why another ecclesiastical council would even be necessary in the foreseeable future.
Using your new-found military dominance, you go about Normandy, pulling down the castles that you deem unnecessary and a threat to your rule. You put your own garrisons into the castles that you allow to remain.
Your uncle, William of Talou, is building a mighty castle at Arques, with your licence: but Arques is being built bigger than you were told at the beginning that it was going to be, and Talou is building out of stone: not just the keep, but the curtain wall as well. His protestations of loyalty ("Arques is for you, nephew; when it is finished, you can put your troops in it") are naturally suspect, taken at face-value. Rumors are afloat that Arques (once completed) is going to form the center of a new rebellion.
Then your cousin Guy of Burgundy turns against you openly, raising the standard of rebellion at his castle of Brionne. Talou sends a contingent to the army that you raise to besiege Brionne, thus proving that his loyalties are not to be questioned (at least, not yet). The siege drags on for nearly three years; during which you must constantly relieve the besieging troops with fresh ones, and with mercenaries where possible. The turbulence of your realm is still your greatest concern. Your military resources are stretched to their limit, dealing with one petty rebellion after another.
Into the midst of your problems, Geoffrey the count of Anjou suddenly invades in support of his own ambitions to carve out a piece of Normandy to add to his dominions; some of your vassals would rather have him for a lord than you. You have no troops to meet this threat, and soon Domfront and Alençon are in Angevin hands. Count Geoffrey withdraws to cause trouble in Brittany: but you have lost a chunk of your territory unless you can swiftly retake the two lost towns.
To enable yourself to campaign elsewhere, you come to terms with your cousin Guy: Brionne surrenders on terms, and Guy withdraws from Normandy to live in Burgundy in permanent exile. (Scratch one rebel from the list.) With your army free, you move to Domfront and lay siege to it. You move about between the siege and other business, including the supervision of castle construction and disciplinary actions of all kinds.
Then William of Talou withdraws his troops from the siege, claiming that he needs them to secure a slight disturbance at home: no need for you to bother, he can take care of it. A sudden visit by you reveals nothing amiss, and Arques is coming along nicely; most impressive. A tour of the massive castle assures you that it will be impregnable to assault: and Talou is pleased with your assessment, voicing his resolve again to let your troops garrison it, to help secure his surrounding demesne from outside attack.
Domfront is being plagued stubborn and now requires your presence and almost constant, full attention. Anjou is making noise again, and looks to be ready to attack another of your strongholds.
Did we forget to mention, that you have been wooing Flander's daughter? Count Baldwin, in his efforts to free himself from French and imperialistic German entanglements, is looking for allies; and Normandy would be a good friend. The trouble is, Matilda, his daughter, although she likes you as a man, does not wish to marry a bastard. (Your reaction to this proud woman's public disdain of your parentage, is typical of your own proud and volatile personality: you ride unannounced to Bruges, enter Matilda's chambers and drag her out: carrying her kicking and screaming down to the bailey yard, you proceed to deliberately "annoint" her from head to foot with the offal of the stables. Then you mount up and without ever having uttered a single word, you return to the siege of Domfront.)
Things are getting worse: Anjou is sniping at your garrisons on his border, and raiding your peasants there. You cannot meet this threat without raising the siege of Domfront, and the town is only now getting desperate and thinking of surrender. It is obvious that Anjou is trying to relieve the Angevin garrison of Domfront by drawing you off.
You need either less trouble or more troops, or a break of good fortune. A possible lucky break comes in the form of a rumor: the garrison at Alençon is being lax: a sudden attack on the town might take it by surprise.
Call upon king Henry to discipline Anjou.
Offer peace terms with count Geoffrey of Anjou.
Take a portion of your army from the siege, and ride to Alençon to attempt a surprise attack.