ity of California lern Regional rary Facility THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Mr Norton Simon flDafeers of William the Conqueror BY JACOB ABBOTT WITH ENGRAVING* NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1902 Entered, according to Act ex' Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, by HARPER & BROTHERS, n the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New lork. Copyright, 1877, by JACOB ABBOTT. PREFACE. IN selecting the subjects for the successive volumes of this series, it has been the object of the author to look for the names of those great personages whose histories constitute useful, and not merely entertaining, knowledge. There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all mankind ; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental cultivation, feels desir- ous of informing himself of the leading outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. This knowledge, which it seems incum- bent on every one to obtain in respect to such personages as Hannibal, Alexander, Csesar, Cle- opatra, Darius, Xerxes, Alfred, "William the Conqueror, Queen Elizabeth, and Mary Queen of Scots, it is the design and object of these vol- umes to communicate, in a faithful, and, at the same time, if possible, in an attractive manner. Consequently, great historical names alone are 2217508 viii PREFACE. selected ; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits in their characters, and all the important events hi then- lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple language which is so obvious- ly required in works which aim at permanent and practical usefulness. CONTENTS. Chapter Paga I. NORMANDY 13 H. BIRTH OF WILLIAM 31 III. THE ACCESSION 51 iv. WILLIAM'S REIGN IN NORMANDY 72 V. THE MARRIAGE 96 VI. THE LADY EMMA 119 VH. KING HAROLD 142 Vra. PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION 164 IX. CROSSING THE CHANNEL 189 X. THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS 212 xi. PRINCE ROBERT'S REBELLION 242 XII. THE CONCLUSION . , ..... 265 ENGRAVINGS. MAP THE SITUATION OF NORMANDY 14 WILLIAM AND AKLOTTE 40 WILLIAM'S ESCAPE 77 THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY 102 THE RESCUE 127 HAROLD'S INTERVIEW WITH EDWARD 147 WILLIAM RECEIVING TOSTIG's TIDINGS 166 MAP NORMANDY 189 'FHE NORWEGIANS AT SCARBOROUGH 218 WILLIAM'S HORSE STEPPING ON THE EMBERS. . . 281 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. CHAPTER I. NORMANDY. The Norman Conquest. Claim of William to the throne. ONE of those great events in English his- tory, which occur at distant intervals, and form, respectively, a sort of bound or landmark, to which all other events, preceding or follow- ing them for centuries, are referred, is what is called the Norman Conquest. The Norman Conquest was, in fact, the accession of William, duke of Normandy, to the English throne. This accession was not altogether a matter of military force, for William claimed a right to the throne, which, if not altogether perfect, was, as he maintained, at any rate superior to that of the prince against whom he contended. The rightfulness of his claim was, however, a mat- ter of little consequence, except so far as the moral influence of it aided him in gaining pos- session. The right to rule was, in those days, 14 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The right of the strongest. Map of Nonnandy. rather more openly and nakedly, though not much more really, than it is now, the -right of the strongest. Normandy, "William's native land, is a very rich and beautiful province in the north of France. The following map shows its situ- ation : Map of England and part of France, showing the situation of Normandy AD. 870.] NORMANDY. 15 The English Channel. Nature of the French coast It lies, as will be seen upon the map, on the coast of France, adjoining the English Channel. The Channel is here irregular in form, but may be, perhaps, on the average, one hundred miles wide. The line of coast on the southern side of the Channel, which forms, of course, the northern border of Normandy, is a range of cliffs, which are almost perpendicular toward the sea, and which frown forbiddingly upon ev- 3ry ship that sails along the shore. Here and there, it is true, a river opens a passage for it- self among these cliffs from the interior, and these river mouths would form harbors into which ships might enter from the offing, were it not that the northwestern winds prevail so generally, and drive such a continual swell of rolling surges in upon the shore, that they choke up all these estuary openings, as well as every natural indentation of the land, with shoals and bars of sand and shingle. The reverse is the case with the northern, or English shore of this famous channel. There the harbors formed by the mouths of the rivers, or by the sinuosities of the shore, are open and accessible, and at the same time sheltered from the winds and the sea. Thus, while the northern or English shore has been, for many centuries, all the time enticing 16 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Nature of the English coast. Northmen and Danes the seaman in and out over the calm, deep, and sheltered waters which there penetrate the land, the southern side has been an almost impassa- ble barrier, consisting of a long line of frowning cuffs, with every opening through it choked with shoals and sand-banks, and guarded by the roll- ing and tumbling of surges which scarcely ever rest. It is in a great measure owing to these great physical differences between the two shores, that the people who live upon the one side, though of the same stock and origin with those who live upon the other, have become so vastly superior to them in respect to naval exploits and power. They are really of the same stock and origin, since both England and the northern part of France were overrun and settled by what is called the Scandinavian race, that is, people from Norway, Denmark, and other coun- tries on the Baltic. These people were called the Northmen in the histories of those times. Those who landed in England are generally termed Danes, though but a small portion of them came really from Denmark. They were all, however, of the same parent stock, and pos- sessed the same qualities of courage, energy, and fearless love of adventure and of danger A.D.870.] NORMANDY. 17 Character of the Northmen. Their descendants. which distinguish their descendants at the pres- ent day. They came down in those early times in great military hordes, and in fleets of pirat- ical ships, through the German Ocean and the various British seas, braving every hardship and every imaginable danger, to find new regions to dwell in, more genial, and fertile, and rich than their own native northern climes. In these days they evince the same energy, and endure equal privations and hardships, in hunting whales in the Pacific Ocean ; in overrunning India, and seizing its sources of wealth and power ; or in sallying forth, whole fleets of ad- venturers at a time, to go more than half round the globe, to dig for gold in California. The times and circumstances have changed, but the race and spirit are the same. Normandy takes its name from the North- men. It was the province of France which the Northmen made peculiarly their own. They gained access to it from the sea by the River Seine, which, as will be seen from the map, flows, as it were, through the heart of the coun- try. The lower part of this river, and the sea around its mouth, are much choked up with sand and gravel, which the waves have been for ages washing in. Their incessant industry 18 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The Dukes of Normandy. The first duke, Rollo. would result in closing up the passage entirely, were it not that the waters of the river must have an outlet ; and thus the current, setting outward, wages perpetual war with the surf and surges which are continually breaking in. The expeditions of the Northmen, however, found their way through all these obstructions. They ascended the river with their ships, and finally gained a permanent settlement hi the country. They had occupied the country for some centuries at the time when our story be- gins the province being governed by a line of princes almost, if not quite, independent sover~ eigns called the Dukes of Normandy. The first Duke of Normandy, and the found- er of the line the chieftain who originally in- vaded and conquered the country was a wild and half-savage hero from the north, named Rollo. He is often, in history, called Rollo the Dane. Norway was his native land. He was a chieftain by birth there, and, being of a wild and adventurous disposition, he collected a band of followers, and committed with them so many piracies and robberies, that at length the king of the country expelled him. Rollo seems not to have considered this ban- ishment as any very great calamity, since, far AD.870.] NORMANDY. 19 History of Rollo. His rendezvous on the Scottish coast. from interrupting his career of piracy and plun- der, it only widened the field on which he was to pursue it. He accordingly increased the equipment and the force of his fleet, enlisted more followers, and set sail across the northern part of the German Ocean toward the British shores. Off the northwestern coast of Scotland there are some groups of mountainous and gloomy islands, which have been, in many different pe- riods of the world, the refuge of fugitives and outlaws. Rollo made these islands his rendez- vous now ; and he found collected there many other similar spirits, who had fled to these lone- ly retreats, some on account of political dis- turbances in which they had become involved, and some on account of their crimes. Hollo's impetuous, ardent, and self-confident character inspired them with new energy and zeal. They gathered around him as their leader. Finding his strength thus increasing, he formed a scheme of concentrating all the force that he could command, so as to organize a grand expedition to proceed to the southward, and endeavor to find some pleasant country which they could seize and settle upon, and make their own. The desperate adventurers around him were 20 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Expedition of Hollo. His descent upon Flanders. ready enough to enter into this scheme. The fleet was refitted, provisioned, and equipped. The expedition was organized, arms and muni- tions of war provided, and when all was ready they set sail. They had no definite plan in respect to the place of their destination, their intention being to make themselves a home on the first favorable spot that they should find. They moved southward, cruising at first along the coast of Scotland, and then of En- gland. They made several fruitless attempts to land on the English shores, but were every where repulsed. The time when these events took place was during the reign of Alfred the Great. Through Alfred's wise and efficient measures the whole of his frontier had been put into a perfect state of defense, and Hollo found that there was no hope for him there. He accordingly moved on toward the Straits of l)over ; but, before passing them, he made a descent upon the coast of Flanders. Here there was a country named Hainault. It was gov- erned by a potentate called the Count of Hain- ault. Rollo made war upon him, defeated him in battle, took him prisoner, and then compelled the countess his wife to raise and pay him an immense sum for his ransom. Thus he replen- A.D.900.] NORMANDY. 21 Hollo passes the Straits of Dover. Difficulties encountered. ished his treasury by an exploit which was con- sidered in those days very great and glorious. To perpetrate such a deed now, unless it were on a very great scale, would be to incur the universal reprobation of mankind; but Hollo, by doing it then, not only enriched his coffers, but acquired a very extended and honorable fame. For some reason or other, Hollo did not at- tempt to take permanent possession of Hain- ault, but, after receiving his ransom money, and replenishing his ammunition and stores, he sailed away with his fleet, and, turning west- ward, he passed through the Straits of Dover, and cruised along the coast of France. He found that the country on the French side of the channel, though equally rich and beautiful with the opposite shore, was in a very different state of defense. He entered the mouth of the Seine. He was embarrassed at first by the difficulties of the navigation in entering the river ; but as there was no efficient enemy to oppose him, he soon triumphed over these diffi- culties, and, once fairly in the river, he found no difficulty in ascending to Rouen.* In the mean time, the King of France, whose * See the map at the commencement of this chapter. 22 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Charles the Simple. Defeated by Rollo. name was Charles, and who is generally desig- nated in history as Charles the Simple, began to collect an army to meet the invader. Rollo, however, had made himself master of Rouen before Charles was able to offer him any ef- fectual opposition. Rouen was already a strong place, but Rollo made it stronger. He enlarged and repaired the fortifications, built store-houses, established a garrison, and, in a word, made all the arrangements requisite for securing an im- pregnable position for himself and his army. A long and obstinate war followed between Rollo and Charles, Rollo being almost uniform- ly victorious in the combats that took place. Rollo became more and more proud and imperi- ous in proportion to his success. He drove the French king from port to port, and from field to field, until he made himself master of a large part of the north of France, over which he gradually established a regular government of his own. Charles struggled in vain to resist these encroachments. Rollo continually de- feated him ; and finally he shut him up and besieged him in Paris itself. At length Charles was compelled to enter into negotiations for peace. Rollo demanded that the large and rich tract on both sides of the Seine, next the sea A.D. 912.] NORMANDY. 23 Treaty of peac. Its conditions. the same, in fact, that now constitutes Nor- mandy should be ceded to him and his follow- ers for their permanent possession. Charles was extremely unwilling thus to alienate a part of his kingdom. He would not consent to cede it absolutely and entirely, so as to make it an independent realm. It should be a duke- dom, and not a separate kingdom, so that it might continue still a part of his own royal do- mains Rollo to reign over it as a duke, and to acknowledge a general allegiance to the French king. Rollo agreed to this. The war had been now protracted so long that he began himself to desire repose. It was, more than thirty years since the time of his landing. Charles had a daughter named Giselle, and it was a part of the treaty of peace that she should become Rollo's wife. He also agreed to become a Christian. Thus there were, in the execution of the treaty, three ceremonies to be performed. First, Rollo was to do homage, as it was called, for his duchy ; for it was the cus- tom in those days for subordinate princes, who held their possessions of some higher and more strictly sovereign power, to perform certain cer- emonies in the presence of their superior lord, which was called doing Jiomage. These cere- 24 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The three ceremonies. Hollo's pride. monies were of various kinds in different coun- tries, though they were all intended to express the submission of the dependent prince to the superior authority and power of the higher po- tentate of whom he held his lands. This act of homage was therefore to be performed, and next to the homage was to come the baptism, and after the baptism, the marriage. When, however, the time came for the per- formance of the first of these ceremonies, and all the great chieftains and potentates of the re- spective armies were assembled to witness it, Rollo, it was found, would not submit to what the customs of the French monarchy required. He ought to kneel before the king, and put his hands, clasped together, between the king's hands, in token of submission, and then to kiss his foot, which was covered with an elegantly fashioned slipper on such occasions. Rollo would do all except the last ; but that, no re- monstrances, urgencies, or persuasions would induce him to consent to. And yet it was not a very unusual sign or token of political subordination to sovereign power in those days. The pope had exacted it even of an emperor a hundred years before ; and it is continued by that dignitary to the A.D.912.] NORMANDY. 25 Kissing the king's foot. The baptism and marriage. present day, on certain state occasions ; though in the case of the pope, there is embroidered on the slipper which the kneeling suppliant kisses, a cross, so that he who humbles himself to this ceremony may consider, if he pleases, that it is that sacred symbol of the divine Re- deemer's sufferings and death that he so rev- erently kisses, and not the human foot by which it is covered. Rollo could not be made to consent, himself, to kiss King Charles's foot; and, finally, the difficulty was compromised by his agreeing to do it by proxy. He ordered one of his courtiers to perform that part of the ceremony. The courtier obeyed, but when he came to lift the foot, he did it so rudely and lifted it so high as to turn the monarch over off his seat. This made a laugh, but Rollo was too powerful for Charles to think of resenting it. A few days after this Rollo was baptized in the cathedral church at Rouen, with great pomp and parade ; and then, on the following week, he was married to Griselle. The din of war in which he had lived for more than thirty years was now changed into festivities and re- joicings. He took full and peaceable possession of his dukedom, and governed it for the remain- 26 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Hollo's peaceful and prosperous reign. Description of Normandy. der of his days with great wisdom, and lived in great prosperity. He made it, in fact, one of the richest and most prosperous realms in Eu- rope, and laid the foundations of still higher de- grees of greatness and power, which were grad- ually developed after his death. And this was the origin of Normandy. It appears thus that this part of France was seized by Rollo and his Northmen partly because it was nearest at hand to them, being accessi- ble from the English Channel through the Riv- er Seine, and partly on account of its exceeding richness and fertility. It has been famous in every age as the garden of France, and travel- ers at the present day gaze upon its picturesque and beautiful scenery with the highest admira- tion and pleasure. And yet the scenes which are there presented to the view are wholly un- like those which constitute picturesque and beautiful rural scenery in England and Amer- ica. In Normandy, the land is not inclosed. No hedges, fences, or walls break the continuity of the surface, but vast tracts spread in every direction, divided into plots and squares, of va- rious sizes and forms, by the varieties of culti- vation, like a vast carpet of an irregular tesse- lated pattern, and varied in the color by a thou- A.D.912.] NORMANDY. 27 Scenery. Hamlets. Chateaux. Peasantry. sand hues of brown and green. Here and there vast forests extend, where countless thousands of trees, though ancient and venerable in form, stand in rows, mathematically arranged, as they were planted centuries ago. These are royal demesnes, and hunting grounds, and parks con- nected with the country palaces of the kings or the chateaux of the ancient nobility. The cul- tivators of the soil live, not, as in America, in little farm-houses built along the road-sides and dotting the slopes of the hills, but in compact villages, consisting of ancient dwellings of brick or stone, densely packed together along a single street, from which the laborers issue, in pictu- resque dresses, men and women together, every morning, to go miles, perhaps, to the scene of their daily toil. Except these villages, and the occasional appearance of an ancient chateau, no habitations are seen. The country seems a vast solitude, teeming every where, however, with fertility and beauty. The roads which traverse these scenes are magnificent avenues, broad, straight, continuing for many miles an undevi- ating course over the undulations of the land, with nothing to separate them from the ex- panse of cultivation and fruitfulness on either hand but rows of ancient and venerable trees. 28 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Public roads. Rouen. Its situation. Between these rows of trees the traveler sees an interminable vista extending both before him and behind him. In England, the public road winds beautifully between walls overhung with shrubbery, or hedge-rows, with stiles or gate- ways here and there, revealing hamlets or cot- tages, which appear and disappear in a rapid and endlessly varied succession, as the road meanders, like a rivulet, between its beautiful banks. In a word, the public highway in En- gland is beautiful ; in France it is grand. The greatest city in Normandy hi modern tunes is Rouen, which is situated, as will be seen by referring to the map at the commence- ment of this chapter, on the Seine, half way between Paris and the sea. At the mouth of the Seine, or, rather, on the northern shore of the estuary which forms the mouth of the river, is a small inlet, which has been found to afford, on the whole, the best facilities for a harbor that can be found on the whole line of the coast. Even this little port, however, is so filled up with sand, that when the water re- cedes at low tide it leaves the shipping all aground. The inlet would, in fact, probably become filled up entirely were it not for artifi- cial means taken to prevent it. There are A.D.912.] NORMANDY. 29 The port of Rouen. Its name of Le Havre de Grace. locks and gateways built in such a manner as to retain a large body of water until the tide is down, and then these gates are opened, and the water is allowed to rush out all together, carrying with it the mud and sand which had begun to accumulate. This haven, being, on the whole, the best and most commodious on the coast, was called the harbor, or, as the French expressed it in their language, le havre, the word havre meaning harbor. In fact, the name was in full le havre de grace, as if the Normans considered it a matter of special good luck to have even such a chance of a harbor as this at the mouth of their river. The English world have, however, dropped all except the principal word from this long phrase of designa- tion, and call the port simply Havre. From Rollo the line of Dukes of Normandy continued in uninterrupted succession down to the time of William, a period of about a hund- red and fifty years. The country increased all the time in wealth, in population, and in pros- perity. The original inhabitants were not, however, expelled ; they remained as peasants, herdsmen, and agriculturists, while the Norman chieftains settled over them, holding severally 30 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Intermingling of races. Superiority of the Norman stoc* large estates of land which "William granted them. The races gradually became intermin- gled, though they continued for many centu- ries to evince the superior spirit and energy which was infused into the population by the Norman stock. In fact, it is thought by many observers that that superiority continues to the present day. A.D.912.] BIRTH OF WILLIAM. 31 Castle at Falaise. Present ruins of the castle. CHAPTER II. BIRTH OF WILLIAM. A L THOUGH Rouen is now very far before - all the other cities of Normandy in point of magnitude and importance, and though Hol- lo, in his conquest of the country, made it his principal head-quarters and his main stronghold, it did not continue exclusively the residence of the dukes of Normandy in after years. The father of William the Conqueror was Robert, who became subsequently the duke, the sixth in the line. He resided, at the time when William was born, in a great castle at Falaise. Falaise, as will be seen upon the map, is west of Rouen, and it stands, like Rouen, at some distance from the sea. The castle was built upon a hill, at a little distance from the town. It has long since ceased to be habitable, but the ruins still remain, giving a picturesque bu/ mournful beauty to the eminence which thej crown. They are often visited by travelers, who go to see the place where the great hero and conqueror was born. 32 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Scenery of the town and castle. Wall and buildings. The hill on which the old castle stands term- inates, on one side, at the foot of the castle walls, in a precipice of rocks, and on two other sides, also, the ascent is too steep to be practi- cable for an enemy. On the fourth side there is a more gradual declivity, up which the for- tress could be approached by means of a wind- ing roadway. At the foot of this roadway was the town. The access to the castle from the town was defended by a ditch and draw-bridge, with strong towers on each side of the gate- way to defend the approach. There was a beautiful stream of water which meandered along through the valley, near the town, and, after passing it, it disappeared, winding around the foot of the precipice which the castle crowned. The castle inclosures were shut in with walls of stone of enormous thickness ; so thick, in fact, they were, that some of the apartments were built in the body of the wall. There were various buildings within the inclosure. There was, in particular, one large, square tower, several stories in height, built of white stone. This tower, it is said, still stands in good pres- ervation. There was a chapel, also, and vari- ous other buildings and apartments within the Walls, for the use of the ducal family and their A.D.912.] BIRTH OF WILLIAM. 33 Watch-towers. Sentinels. Enchanting prospect. numerous retinue of servants and attendants, for the storage of munitions of war, and for the garrison. There were watch-towers on the corners of the walls, and on various lofty pro- jecting pinnacles, where solitary sentinels watched, the livelong day and night, for any approaching danger. These sentinels looked down on a broad expanse of richly-cultivated country, fields beautified with groves of trees, and with the various colors presented by the changing vegetation, while meandering streams gleamed with their silvery radiance among them, and hamlets of laborers and peasantry were scattered here and there, giving life and animation to the scene. We have said that William's father was Rob- ert, the sixth Duke of Normandy, so that Will- iam himself, being his immediate successor, was the seventh in the line. And as it is the design of these narratives not merely to amuse the reader with what is entertaining as a tale, but to impart substantial historical knowledge, we must prepare the way for the account of Will- iam's birth, by presenting a brief chronological view of the whole ducal line, extending from Rollo to William. We recommend to the read- er to examine with special attention this brief 283 - 34 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Chronological history of the Norman line. Rollo. account of William's ancestry, for the true causes which led to William's invasion of En- gland can not be fully appreciated without thor- oughly understanding certain important trans- actions in which some members of the family of his ancestors were concerned before he was born. This is particularly the case with the Lady Emma, who, as will be seen by the fol- lowing summary, was the sister of the third duke in the line. The extraordinary and event- ful history of her life is so intimately connected with the subsequent exploits of William, that it is necessary to relate it in full, and it be- comes, accordingly, the subject of one of the subsequent chapters of this volume. Chronological History of the Norman Line. ROLLO, first Duke of Normandy. From A.D. 912 to A.D. 917. It was about 870 that Rollo was banished from Norway, and a few years after that, at most, that he landed in France. It was not, however, until 912 that he concluded his treaty of peace with Charles, so as to be fully invested with the title of Duke of Normandy. He was advanced in age at this time, and, after spending five years in settling the affairs A.D.912.] BIRTH OF WILLIAM. 35 William I., second duke. Richard I., third duke. of his realm, he resigned his dukedom into the hands of his son, that he might spend the re- mainder of his days in rest and peace. He died in 922, five years after his resignation. WILLIAM I., second Duke of Normandy. From 917 to 942. "William was Hollo's son. He began to reign, of course, five years before his father's death. He had a quiet and prosperous reign of about twenty-five years, but he was assassinated at last by a political enemy, in 942. RICHARD I., third Duke of Normandy. From 942 to 996. He was only ten years old when his father was assassinated. He became involved in long and arduous wars with the King of France, which compelled him to call in the aid of more Northmen from the Baltic. His new allies, in the end, gave him as much trouble as the old enemy, with whom they came to help "William contend ; and he found it very hard to get them away. He wanted, at length, to make peace with the French king, and to have them leave his dominions ; but they said, " That was not what they came for." Richard had a beautiful daughter, named Emma, who afterward became a very import 36 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Richard II., fourth duke. Richard III., fifth duke- ant political personage, as will be seen more fully in a subsequent chapter. Richard died in 996, after reigning fifty-four years. RICHARD II., fourth Duke of Normandy. From 996 to 1026. Richard II. was the son of Richard I., and as his father had been engaged during his reign in contentions with his sovereign lord, the King of France, he, in his turn, was harassed by long- continued struggles with his vassals, the barons and nobles of his own realm. He, too, sent for Northmen to come and assist him. During his reign there was a great contest in England be- tween the Saxons and the Danes, and Ethel- red, who was the Saxon claimant to the throne, came to Normandy, and soon afterward mar- ried the Lady Emma, Richard's sister. The particulars of this event, from which the most momentous consequences were afterward seen to flow, will be given in full in a future chap- ter. Richard died in 1026. He left two sons, Richard and Robert. William the Conqueror was the son of the youngest, and was born two years before this Richard II. died. RICHARD III., fifth Duke of Normandy. From 1026 to 1028. A.D. 1028-1035.] BIRTH OF WILLIAM. 37 Intrigues of Robert. lie becomes the sixtb duke. He was the oldest brother, and, of course, suc- ceeded to the dukedom. His brother Robert was then only a baron his son William, after- ward the Conqueror, being then about two years old. Robert was very ambitious and as- piring, and eager to get possession of the duke- dom himself. He adopted every possible means to circumvent and supplant his brother, and, as is supposed, shortened his days by the anxiety and vexation which he caused him ; for Rich- ard died suddenly and mysteriously only two years after his accession. It was supposed by some, in fact, that he was poisoned, though there was never any satisfactory proof of this. ROBERT, sixth Duke of Normandy. From 1028 to 1035. Robert, of course, succeeded his brother, and then, with the characteristic inconsistency of selfishness and ambition, he employed all the power of his realm in helping the King of France to subdue his younger brother, who was evinc- ing the same spirit of seditiousness and insub- mission that he had himself displayed. His as- sistance was of great importance to King Hen- ry ; it, in fact, decided the contest in his favor ; and thus one younger brother was put down in the commencement of his career of turbulence 38 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Robert and Henry. William's mother. and rebellion, by another who had successfully accomplished a precisely similar course of crime. King Henry was very grateful for the service thus rendered, and was ready to do all in his power, at all times, to co-operate with Robert in the plans which the latter might form. Rob- ert died in 1035, when William was about eleven years old. And here we close this brief summary of the history of the ducal line, as we have already passed the period of William's birth ; and we return, accordingly, to give in detail some of the particulars of that event. Although the dukes of Normandy were very powerful potentates, reigning, as they did, al- most in the character of independent sovereigns, over one of the richest and most populous ter- ritories of the globe, and though William the Conqueror was the son of one of them, his birth was nevertheless very ignoble. His mother was not the wife of Robert his father, but a poor peasant girl, the daughter of an humble tanner of Falaise ; and, indeed, William's fa- ther, Robert, was not himself the duke at this time, but a simple baron, as his father was still living. It was not even certain that he AJX1024.] BIRTH OF WILLIAM. 41 Robert's first meeting with Arlotte. He is captivated. ever would be the duke, as his older brother, who, of course, would come before him, was also then alive. Still, as the son and prospective heir of the reigning duke, his rank was very high. The circumstances of Robert's first acquaint- ance with the tanner's daughter were these. He was one day returning home to the castle from some expedition on which he had been sent by his father, when he saw a group of peasant girls standing on the margin of the brook, washing clothes. They were barefooted, and then- dress was in other respects disarrang- ed. There was one named Arlotte,* the daugh- ter of a tanner of the town, whose countenance and figure seem to have captivated the young baron. He gazed at her with admiration and pleasure as he rode along. Her complexion was fair, her eyes full and blue, and the ex- pression of her countenance was frank, and open, and happy. She was talking joyously and merrily with her companions as Robert passed, little dreaming of the conspicuous place on the page of English history which she was to occupy, in all future time, in connection with the gay horseman who was riding by. * Her name is spelled variously, Arlette, Arlotte, Harlotte, and in other ways. 42 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Robert sends for Arlotte. Scruples of her father. The etiquette of royal and ducal palaces and castles in those days, as now, forbade that a noble of such lofty rank should marry a peasant girl. Robert could not, therefore, have Arlotte for his wife ; but there was nothing to prevent his proposing her coming to the castle and liv- ing with him that is, nothing but the law of Grod, and this was an authority to which dukes and barons in the Middle Ages were accus- tomed to pay very little regard. There was not even a public sentiment to forbid this, for a no- bility like that of England and France in the Middle Ages stands so far above all the mass of society as to be scarcely amenable at all to the ordinary restrictions and obligations of so- cial life. And even to the present day, in those countries where dukes exist, public sentiment seems to tolerate pretty generally whatever dukes see fit to do. Accordingly, as soon as Robert had arrived at the castle, he sent a messenger from his ret- inue of attendants down to the village, to the father of Arlotte, proposing that she should come to the castle. The father seems to have had some hesitation in respect to his duty. It is said that he had a brother who was a monk, or rather hermit, who lived a life of reading, med- AJX1024.] BIRTH OF WILLIAM. 43 Arlotte sent to the castle. Robert's affection for her. itation, and prayer, in a solitary place not far from Falaise. Arlotte's father sent immedi- ately to this religious recluse for his spiritual counsel. The monk replied tha.t it was right to comply with the wishes of so great a man, whatever 'they might be. The tanner, thus re- lieved of all conscientious scruples on the sub- ject by this high religious authority, and re- joicing in the opening tide of prosperity and distinction which he foresaw for his family through the baron's love, robed and decorated his daughter, like a lamb for the sacrifice, and sent her to the castle. Arlotte had one of the rooms assigned her, which was built in the thickness of the wall. It communicated by a door with the other apart- ments and inclosures within the area, and there were narrow windows in the masonry without, through which she could look out over the broad expanse of beautiful fields and meadows which were smiling below. Robert seems to have loved her with sincere and strong affection, and to have done all in his power to make her happy. Her room, however, could not have been very sumptuously furnished, although she was the favorite in a ducal castle at least so far as we can judge from the few glimpses we get of the 44 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Birth of William The nurse's prediction. interior through the ancient chroniclers' stories. One story is, that when William was born, his first exploit was to grasp a handful of straw, and to hold it so tenaciously in his little fist that the nurse could scarcely take it away. The nurse was greatly delighted with this infantile prowess; she considered it an omen, and pre- dicted that the babe would some day signalize himself by seizing and holding great possessions. The prediction would have been forgotten if William had not become the conqueror of En- gland at a future day. As it was, it was re- membered and recorded ; and it suggests to our imagination a very different picture of the con- veniences and comforts of Arlotte's chamber from those presented to the eye in ducal pala- ces now, where carpets of velvet silence the tread on marble floors, and favorites repose un- der silken canopies on beds of down. The babe was named William, and he was a great favorite with his father. He was brought up at Falaise. Two years after his birth, Robert's father died, and his oldest broth- er, Richard III., succeeded to the ducal throne. In two years more, which years were spent in contention between the brothers, Richard also died, and then Robert himself came into posses- A.D.1029.] BIRTH OF WILMAM. 45 William's childhood. He is a universal favorite sion of the castle in his own name, reigning there over all the cities and domains of Normandy. William was, of course, now about four years old. He was a bright and beautiful boy, and he grew more and more engaging every year. His father, instead of neglecting and disowning him, as it might have been supposed he would do, took a great deal of pride and pleasure in witnessing the gradual development of his pow- ers and his increasing attractiveness, and he openly acknowledged him as his son. In fact, William was a universal favorite about the castle. When he was five and six years old he was very fond of playing the sol- dier. He would marshal the other boys of the castle, his playmates, into a little troop, and train them around the castle inclosures, just as ardent and aspiring boys do with their com- rades now. He possessed a certain vivacity %nd spirit too, which gave him, even then, a great ascendency over his playfellows. He in- vented their plays | he led them in -their mis- chief ; he settled their disputes. In a word, he possessed a temperament and character which enabled him very easily and strongly to hold the position which his rank as son of the lord of the castle so naturally assigned him. 46 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Robert determines to visit the Holy Land. Dangers of the journey. A few years thus passed away, when, at length, Robert conceived the design of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This was a plan, not of humble-minded piety, but of am- bition for fame. To make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a romantic achievement that covered whoever accomplished it with a sort of sombre glory, which, in the case of a prince or potentate, mingled with, and hallowed and ex- alted, his military renown. Robert determined on making the pilgrimage. It was a distant and dangerous journey. In fact, the difficulties and dangers of the way were perhaps what chiefly imparted to the enterprise its romance, and gave it its charms. It was customary for kings and rulers, before setting out, to arrange all the affairs of their kingdoms, to provide a regency to govern during their absence, and to determine upon their successors, so as to pro- vide for the very probable contingency of their not living to return. As soon, therefore, as Robert announced his plan of a pilgrimage, men's minds were imme- diately turned to the question of the succession. Robert had never been married, and he had consequently no son who was entitled to suc- ceed him. He had two brothers, and also a AD. 1031.] BIRTH OF WILLIAM. 47 Maneuvering among the chieftains. A council of nobles. cousin, and some other relatives, who had claims to the succession. These all began to maneu- ver among the chieftains and nobles, each en- deavoring to prepare the way for having his own claims advanced, while Robert himself was secretly determining that the little William should be his heir. He said nothing about this, however, but he took care to magnify the im- portance of his little son in every way, and to bring him as much as possible into public notice. William, on his part, possessed so much per- sonal beauty, and so many juvenile accomplish- ments, that he became a great favorite with all the nobles, and chieftains, and knights who saw him, sometimes at his father's castle, and sometimes away from home, in their own for- tresses or towns, where his father took him, from time to time, in his train. At length, when affairs were ripe for their consummation, Duke Robert called together a grand council of all the subordinate dukes, and earls, and barons of his realm, to make known to them the plan of his pilgrimage. They came together from all parts of Normandy, each hi a splendid cavalcade, and attended by an armed retinue of retainers. When the assembly had been convened, and the preliminary forms and 48 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Robert announces his design He makes William his heir. ceremonies had been disposed of, Robert an- nounced his grand design. As soon as he had concluded, one of the no- bles, whose name and title was Guy, count of Burgundy, rose and addressed the duke in re- ply. He was sorry, he said, to hear that the duke, his cousin, entertained such a plan. He feared for the safety of the realm when the chief ruler should be gone. All the estates of the realm, he said, the barons, the knights, the chieftains and soldiers of every degree, would be all without a head. " Not so," said Robert : " I will leave you a master in my place." Then, pointing to the beautiful boy by his side, he added, " I have a little fellow here, who, though he is little now, I acknowledge, will grow bigger by and by, with God's grace, and I have great hopes that he will become a brave and gallant man. I present him to you, and from this time forth I give him seizin* of the Duchy of Normandy as my known and acknowledged heir. And I appoint Alan, duke of Brittany, governor of Normandy in my name until I shall return, and in case I shall not return, in the name of * Seizin, an ancient feudal term denoting the inducting of a party to a legal possession of his right. A.D. 1033.] BIRTH OF WILLIAM. -49 Surprise of the assembly. The nobles do homage to William. William my son, until he shall become of manly age." The assembly was taken wholly by surprise at this announcement. Alan, duke of Brit- tany, who was one of the chief claimants to the succession, was pleased with the honor confer- red upon him in making him at once the gov- ernor of the realm, and was inclined to prefer the present certainty of governing at once in the name of others, to the remote contingency of reigning in his own. The other claimants to the inheritance were confounded by the sud- denness of the emergency, and knew not what to say or do. The rest of the assembly were pleased with the romance of having the beauti- ful boy for their feudal sovereign. The duke saw at once that every thing was favorable to the accomplishment of his design. He took the lad in his arms, kissed him, and held him out in view of the assembly. William gazed around upon the panoplied warriors before him with a bright and beaming eye. They knelt down as by a common accord to do him hom- age, and then took the oath of perpetual alle- giance and fidelity to his cause. Robert thought, however, that it would not be quite prudent to leave his son himself in the 284 50 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William is taken to Paris. He is presented to the French king. custody of these his rivals, so he took him with him to Paris when he set out upon his pilgrim- age, with a view of establishing him there, in the court of Henry, the French king, while he should himself be gone. Young William was presented to the French king, on a day set apart for the ceremony, with great pomp and parade. The king held a special court to receive him. He seated himself on his throne in a grand apartment of his palace, and was surrounded by his nobles and officers of state, all magnifi- cently dressed for the occasion. At the proper time, Duke Robert came in, dressed in his pil- grim's garb, and leading young William by the hand. His attendant pilgrim knights accom- panied him. Robert led the boy to the feet of their common sovereign, and, kneeling there, ordered William to kneel too, to do homage to the king. King Henry received him very gra- ciously. Pie embraced him, and promised to receive him into his court, and to take the best possible care of him while his father was away. The courtiers were very much struck with the beauty and noble bearing of the boy. His coun- tenance beamed with an animated, but yet very serious expression, as he was somewhat awed by the splendor of the scene around him. He was himself then nine years old. A.D. 1035.] THE ACCESSION. 51 Robert departs on his pilgrimage. He visits Rome and Constantinople. CHAPTER III. THE ACCESSION. AFTER spending a little time at Paris, Robert took leave of the king, and of William his son, and went forth, with a train of attendant knights, on his pilgrimage. He had a great variety of adventures, which can not be related here, as it is the history of the son, and not of the father, which is the subject of this narrative. Though he traveled strictly as a pilgrim, it was still with great pomp and parade. After visiting Rome, and accomplish- ing various services and duties connected with his pilgrimage there, he laid aside his pilgrim's garb, and, assuming his proper rank as a great Norman chieftain, he went to Constantinople, where he made a great display of his wealth and magnificence. At the time of the grand procession, for example, by which he entered the city of Constantinople, he rode a mule, which, besides being gorgeously caparisoned, had shoes of gold instead of iron; and these shoes were purposely attached so slightly to the 52 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Robert's illness. Litter bearers. hoofs, that they were shaken off as the animal walked along, to be picked up by the populace. This was to impress them with grand ideas of the rider's wealth and splendor. After leaving Constantinople, Robert resumed his pilgrim's garb, and went on toward the Holy Land. The journey, however, did not pass without the usual vicissitudes of so long an absence and so distant a pilgrimage. At one time Robert was sick, and, after lingering for some time in a fever, he so far recovered his strength as to be borne on a litter by the strength of other men, though he could not advance himself, either on horseback or on foot ; and as for traveling car- riages, there had been no such invention in those days. They made arrangements, there- fore, for carrying the duke on a litter. There were sixteen Moorish slaves employed to serve as his bearers. This company was divided into sets, four in each, the several sets taking the burden in rotation. Robert and his attendant knights looked down with great contempt on these black pagan slaves. One day the caval- cade was met by a Norman who was returning home to Normandy after having accomplished his pilgrimage. He asked Duke Robert if he had any message to send to his friends at home. A.D. 1035.] THE ACCESSION. 53 Death of Robert. Claimants to the crown " Yes," said he ; " tell them you saw me here, on my way to Paradise, carried hy sixteen de- mons" Rohert reached Jerusalem, and set out on his return ; and soon after rumors came hack to Paris that he had died on his way home. The accounts of the manner of his death were contradictory and uncertain ; hut the fact was soon made sure, and the news produced every where a great sensation. It soon appeared that the brothers and cousins of Robert, who had claimed the right to succeed him in preference to his son William, had only suspended their claims they had not abandoned them. They began to gather their forces, each in his own separate domain, and to prepare to take the field, if necessary, in vindication of what they considered their rights to the inheritance. In a word, their oaths of fealty to William were all forgotten, and each claimant was intent only on getting possession himself of the ducal crown. In the mean time, William himself was at Paris, and only eleven years of age. He had been receiving a careful education there, and was a very prepossessing and accomplished young prince. Still, he was yet but a mere boy. He had been under the care of a milita- 54 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Theroulde. William's military education. ry tutor, whose name was Theroulde. The- roulde was a veteran soldier, who had long been in the employ of the King of France. He took great interest in his young pupil's progress. He taught him to ride and to practice all the evolutions of horsemanship which were required hy the tactics of those days. He trained him, too, in the use of arms, the bow and arrow, the javelin, the sword, the spear, and accustomed him to wear, and to exercise in, the armor of steel with which warriors were used, in those days, to load themselves in going into battle. Young princes like William had suits of this armor made for them, of small size, which they were accustomed to wear in private in their military exercises and trainings, and to appear in, publicly, on great occasions of state. These dresses of iron were of course very heavy and uncomfortable, but the young princes and dukes were, nevertheless, very proud and happy to wear them. While William was thus engaged in pursu- ing his military education in Paris, several com- petitors for his dukedom immediately appeared in Normandy and took the field. The strongest and most prominent among them was the Earl of Arques- His name was William too, but, to A.D. 1035.] THE ACCESSION. 55 The Earl of Arques. William proclaimed duke. distinguish him from the young duke, we shall call him Arques. He was a brother of Robert, and maintained that, as Robert left no lawful heir, he was indisputably entitled to succeed him. Arques assembled his forces and prepared to take possession of the country. It will be recollected that Robert, when he left Normandy in setting out on his pilgrimage, had appointed a nobleman named Alan to act as regent, or governor of the country, until he should return ; or, in case he should never re- turn, until William should become of age. Alan had a council of officers, called the council of regency, with whose aid he managed the ad- ministration of the government. This council, with Alan at their head, proclaimed young Will- iam duke, and immediately began to act in his name. When they found that the Earl of Arques was preparing to seize the government, they began to assemble their forces also, and thus both sides prepared for war. Before they actually commenced hostilities, however, the pilgrim knights who had accom- panied Robert on his pilgrimage, and who had been journeying home slowly by themselves ever since their leader's death, arrived in Nor- mandy. These were chieftains and nobles of 56 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The pilgrim knights. They embrace William's cause. high rank and influence, and each of the con- tending parties were eager to have them join their side. Besides the actual addition of force which these men could bring to the cause they should espouse, the moral support they would give to it was a very important consideration. Their having been on this long and dangerous pilgrimage invested them with a sort of ro- mantic and religious interest in the minds of all the people, who looked up to them, in con- sequence of it, with a sort of veneration and awe ; and then, as they had been selected by Robert to accompany him on his pilgrimage, and had gone on the long and dangerous jour- ney with him, continuing to attend upon him until he died, they were naturally regarded as his most faithful and confidential friends. For these and similar reasons, it was obvious that the cause which they should espouse in the ap- proaching contest would gain a large accession of moral power by their adhesion. As soon as they arrived in Normandy, reject- ing all proposals from other quarters, they joined young William's cause with the utmost prompt- itude and decision. Alan received them at once into his councils. An assembly was convened, and the question was discussed whether Will- A.D. 1035.] THE ACCESSION. 57 Debates in the council on the propriety of William's return. iam should be sent for to come to Normandy. Some argued that he was yet a mere boy, in- capable of rendering them any real service in the impending contest, while he would be ex- posed, more perhaps than they themselves, to be taken captive or slain. They thought it best, therefore, that he should remain, for the pres- ent, in Paris, under the protection of the French king. Others, on the other hand, contended that the influence of William's presence, boy as he was, would animate and inspire all his follow- ers, and awaken every where, throughout the country, a warm interest in his cause ; that his very tenderness and helplessness would ap- peal strongly to every generous heart, and that his youthful accomplishments and personal charms would enlist thousands in his favor, who would forget, and perhaps abandon him, if he kept away. Besides, it was by no means cer- tain that he was so safe as some might suppose in King Henry's custody and power. King Henry might himself lay claims to the vacant duchy, with a view of bestowing it upon some favorite of his own, in which case he might con- fine young William in one of his castles, in an honorable, but still rigid and hopeless captivity, 58 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's return to Normandy. Its efferts or treacherously destroy his life by the secret u\ministration of poison. These latter counsels prevailed. Alan and ihe nobles who were with him sent an embas- eage to the court of King Henry to bring Will- iam home. Henry made objections and diffi- culties. This alarmed the nobles. They feared that it would prove true that Henry himself had designs on Normandy. They sent a new embassage, with demands more urgent than be- fore. Finally, after some time spent in nego- tiations and delays, King Henry concluded to yield, and William set out on his return. He was now about twelve or thirteen years old. His military tutor, Theroulde, accompanied him, and he was attended likewise by the em- bassadors whom Alan had sent for him, and by a strong escort for his protection by the way. He arrived in safety at Alan's head-quarters. William's presence in Normandy had the ef- fect which had been anticipated from it. It awakened every where a great deal of enthusi- asm in his favor. The soldiers were pleased to see how handsome their young commander was in form, and how finely he could ride. He was, in fact, a very superior equestrian for one so young. He was more fond, even, than other A.D. 1036.] THE ACCESSION. 59 William's accomplishments. Impression upon the army. boys of horses ; and as, of course, the most graceful and the fleetest horses which could be found were provided for him, and as Theroulde had given him the best and most complete in- struction, he made a fine display as he rode swiftly through the camp, followed by veteran nobles, splendidly dressed and mounted, and happy to be in his train, while his own counte- nance beamed with a radiance in which native intelligence and beauty were heightened by the animation and excitement of pride and pleas- ure. In respect to the command of the army, of course the real power remained in Alan's hands, but every thing was done in William's name ; and hi respect to all external marks and symbols of sovereignty, the beautiful boy seemed to possess the supreme command ; and as the sentiment of loyalty is always the stron- gest when the object which calls for the exer- cise of it is most helpless or frail, Alan found his power very much increased when he had this beautiful boy to exhibit as the true and rightful heir, in whose name and for whose benefit all his power was held. Still, however, the country was very far from becoming settled. The Earl of Arques kept the field, and other claimants, too, strengthened 60 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Claimants in the field. Iron rule of the nobles. themselves in their various castles and towns, as if preparing to resist. In those days, every separate district of the country was almost a separate realm, governed by its own baron, who lived, with his retainers, within his own castle walls, and ruled the land around him with a rod of iron. These barons were engaged in perpetual quarrels among themselves, each plundering the dominions of the rest, or making hostile incursions into the territories of a neigh- bor to revenge some real or imaginary wrong. This turbulence and disorder prevailed every where throughout Normandy at the time of William's return. In the general confusion, William's government scarcely knew who were his friends or his enemies. At one time, when a deputation was sent to some of the barons in William's name, summoning them to come with their forces and join his standard, as they were in duty bound to do, they felt independ- ent enough to send back word to him that they had " too much to do in settling their own quarrels to be able to pay any attention to his." In the course of a year or two, moreover, and while his own realm continued in this unsettled and distracted state, William became involved in what was almost a quarrel with King Henry A.D. 1039.] THE ACCESSION. 61 Almost a quarrel. Interview between William and Henry himself. When he was fifteen years old, which was two or three years after his return from Paris to Normandy, Henry sent directions to William to come to a certain town, called Ev- reux, situated ahout half way between Falaiso and Paris, and just within the confines of Nor- mandy,* to do homage to him there for his duchy. There was some doubt among Will- iam's counselors whether it would be most pru- dent to obey or disobey this command. They finally concluded that it was best to obey. Grand preparations were accordingly made for the expedition ; and, when all was ready, the young duke was conducted in great state, and with much pomp and parade, to meet his sov- ereign. The interview between William and his sov- ereign, and the ceremonies connected with it, lasted some days. In the course of this time, William remained at Evreux, and was, in some sense, of course, in Henry's power. William, having been so long in Henry's court as a mere boy, accustomed all the time to look up to and obey Henry as a father, regarded him some- what in that light now, and approached him with great deference and respect. Henry re- * See map at the commencement of chapter ix. 62 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Henry's demand. William's indignation. ceived him in a somewhat haughty and impe- rious manner, as if he considered him still un- der the same subjection as heretofore. William had a fortress or castle on the fron- tiers of his dukedom, toward Henry's domin- ions. The name of the castle was Tellieres, and the governor of it was a faithful old soldier named De Crespin. William's father, Robert, had intrusted De Crespin with the command of the castle, and given him a garrison to defend it. Henry now began to make complaint to William in respect to this castle. The garri- son, he said, were continually making incur- sions into his dominions. William replied that he was very sorry that there was cause for such a complaint. He would inquire into it, and if the fact were really so, he would have the evil immediately corrected. Henry replied that that was not sufficient. " You must deliver up the castle to me," he said, " to be destroyed." Will- iam was indignant at such a demand ; but he was so accustomed to obey implicitly whatever King Henry might require of him, that he seni the order to have the castle surrendered. When, however, the order came to De Cres- pin, the governor of the castle, he refused to obey it. The fortress, he said, had been cony AJX1039.] THE ACCESSION 63 Henry destroys one of William's castles. Difficulties which followed. mitted to his charge by Robert, duke of Nor- mandy, and he should not give it up to the pos- session of any foreign power. When this an- swer was reported to William and his counsel- ors, it made them still more indignant than be- fore at the domineering tyranny of the com- mand, and more disposed than ever to refuse obedience to it. Still William was in a great measure in the monarch's power. On cool re- flection, they perceived that resistance would then be vain. New and more authoritative or- ders were accordingly issued for the surrender of the castle. De Crespin now obeyed. He gave up the keys and withdrew with his garri- son. William was then allowed to leave Evreux and return home, and soon afterward the castle was razed to the ground. This affair produced, of course, a great deal of animosity and irritation between the govern- ments of France and Normandy ; and where such a state of feeling exists between two pow- ers separated only by an imaginary line run- ning through a populous and fertile country, aggressions from one side and from the other are sure to follow. These are soon succeeded by acts of retaliation and revenge, leading, in the end, to an open and general war. It was 64 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. War with Henry. William rescues Falaise. so now. Henry marched his armies into Nor- mandy, seized towns, destroyed castles, and, where he was resisted by the people, he laid waste the country with fire and sword. He finally laid siege to the very castle of Falaise. William and his government were for a time nearly overwhelmed with the tide of disaster and calamity. The tide turned, however, at length, and the fortune of war inclined in their favor. William rescued the town and castle of Falaise ; it was in a very remarkable manner, too, that this exploit was accomplished. The fortress was closely invested with Henry's for- ces, and was on the very eve of being surren- dered. The story is, that Henry had offered bribes to the governor of the castle to give it up to him, and that the governor had agreed to re- ceive them and to betray his trust. While he was preparing to do so, William arrived at the head of a resolute and determined band of Nor- mans. They came with so sudden an onset upon the army of besiegers as to break up their camp and force them to abandon the siege, The people of the town and the garrison of the castle were extremely rejoiced to be thus res- cued, and when they came to learn through whose instrumentality they had been saved, and A.D.1039.] THE ACCESSION. 65 William received with acclamations. Punishment of the governor. saw the beautiful horseman whom they remem- bered as a gay and happy child playing about the precincts of the castle, they were perfectly intoxicated with delight. They filled the air with the wildest acclamations, and welcomed William back to the home of his childhood with manifestations of the most extravagant joy. As to the traitorous governor, he was dealt with very leniently. Perhaps the general feeling of joy awakened emotions of leniency and forgive- ness in William's mind or perhaps the proof against the betrayer was incomplete. They did not, therefore, take his life, which would have been justly forfeited, according to the mil- itary ideas of the times, if he had been really guilty. They deprived him of his command, confiscated his property, and let him go free. After this, William's forces continued for some time to make head successfully against those of the King of France ; but then, on the other hand, the danger from his uncle, the Earl of Arques, increased. The earl took advantage of the difficulty and danger in which William was involved in his contests with King Henry, and began to organize his forces again. He fortified himself in his castle at Arques,* and * See map, chapter ix. 286 66 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The Earl of Arques. Advance of Henrjr was collecting a large force there. Arques was in the northeastern part of Normandy, near the sea, where the ruins of the ancient castle still remain. The earl built an almost impregnable tower for himself on the summit of the rock on which the castle stood, in a situation so in- accessible that he thought he could retreat to it in any emergency, with a few chosen follow- ers, and bid defiance to any assault. In and around this castle the earl had got quite a large army together. William advanced with his forces, and, encamping around them, shut them in. King Henry, who was then in a distant part of Normandy, began to put his army in motion to come to the rescue of Arques. Things being in this state, William left a strong body of men to continue the investment and siege of Arques, and went off himself, at the head of the remainder of his force, to inter- cept Henry on his advance. The result was a battle and a victory, gained under circum- stances so extraordinary, that William, young as he was, acquired by his exploits a brilliant and universal renown. It seems that Henry, in his progress to Arques, had to pass through a long and gloomy valley, which was bounded on either side by AJX1039.] THE ACCESSION. 67 A dangerous defile. Henry's order of march. precipitous and forest-covered hills. Through this dangerous defile the long train of Henry's army was advancing, arranged and marshaled in such an order as seemed to afford the great- est hope of security in case of an attack. First came the vanguard, a strong escort, formed of heavy bodies of soldiery, armed with battle- axes and pikes, and other similar weapons, the most efficient then known. Immediately after this vanguard came a long train of baggage, the tents, the provisions, the stores, and all the munitions of war. The baggage was followed by a great company of servants the cooks, the carters, the laborers, the camp followers of every description a throng of non-combatants, use- less, of course, hi a battle, and a burden on a march, and yet the inseparable and indispensa- ble attendant of an army, whether at rest or hi motion. After this throng came the main body of the army, with the king, escorted by his guard of honor, at the head of it. An active and efficient corps of lancers and men-at-arms brought up the rear. William conceived the design of drawing this cumbrous and unmanageable body into an am- buscade. He selected, accordingly, the narrow- est and most dangerous part of the defile for the 68 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's ambuscade. Its success. purpose, and stationed vast numbers of Norman soldiers, armed with javelins and arrows, upon the slopes of the hill on either side, concealing them all carefully among the thickets and rocks. He then marshaled the remainder of his forces in the valley, and sent them up the valley to meet Henry as he was descending. This body of troops, which was to advance openly to meet the king, as if they constituted the whole of "William's force, were to fight a pretended bat- tle with the vanguard, and then to retreat, in hopes to draw the whole train after them in a pursuit so eager as to throw them into confu- sion ; and then, when the column, thus disar- ranged, should reach the place of ambuscade, the Normans were to come down upon them suddenly from their hiding-places, and complete their discomfiture. The plan was well laid, and wisely and bravely executed ; and it was most triumphant- ly successful in its result. The vanguard of Henry's army were deceived by the pretended flight of the Norman detachment. They sup- posed, too, that it constituted the whole body of their enemies. They pressed forward, there- fore, with great exultation and eagerness to pursue them. News of the attack, and of the A.D. 1040.] THE ACCESSION. 69 Pretended flight of the Normans. Disarray of the French, apparent repulse with which the French sol- diers had met it, passed rapidly along the valley, producing every where the wildest excitement, and an eager desire to press forward to the scene of conflict. The whole valley was filled! with shouts and outcries ; baggage was aban- doned, that those who had charge of it might hurry on ; men ran to and fro for tidings, or ascended eminences to try to see. Horsemen drove at full speed from front to rear, and from rear on to the front again ; orders and counter orders were given, which nobody would under- stand or attend to in the general confusion and din. In fact, the universal attention seemed absorbed in one general and eager desire to press forward with headlong impetuosity to the scene of victory and pursuit which they sup- posed was enacting hi the van. The army pressed on in this confused and excited manner until they reached the place of ambuscade. They went on, too, through this narrow passage, as heedlessly as ever ; and, when the densest and most powerful portion of the column was crowding through, they were suddenly thunderstruck by the issuing of a thousand weapons from the heights and thick- ets above them on either hand a dreadful 70 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Rout of the French. William's r rr.basage to Henry. shower of arrows, javelins, and spears, which struck down hundreds in a moment, and over- whelmed the rest with astonishment and terror. As soon as this first discharge had been effect- ed, the concealed enemy came pouring down the sides of the mountain, springing out from a thousand hiding-places, as if suddenly brought into being by some magic power. The discom- fiture of Henry's forces was complete and irre- mediable. The men fled every where in utter dismay, trampling upon and destroying one an- other, as they crowded back in terrified throngs to find some place of safety up the valley. There, after a day or two, Henry got together the scattered remains of his army, and estab- lished something like a camp. It is a curious illustration of the feudal feel- ings of those times in respect to the gradation of ranks, or else of the extraordinary modesty and good sense of William's character, that he assumed no airs of superiority over his sover- eign, and showed no signs of extravagant ela- tion after this battle. He sent a respectful em- bassage to Henry, recognizing his own acknowl- edged subjection to Henry as his sovereign, and imploring his protection ! He looked confident- ly to him, he said, for aid and support against his rebellious subjects. A.D. 1040.] THE ACCESSION. 71 The castle at Arques taken. William crowned at Falaise. Though he thus professed, however, to rely on Henry, he really trusted most, it seems, to his own right arm ; for, as soon as this battle was fairly over, and while the whole country was excited with the astonishing brilliancy of the exploit performed by so young a man, Will- iam mounted his horse, and calling upon those to follow him who wished to do so, he rode at full speed, at the head of a small cavalcade, to the castle at Arques. His sudden appearance here, with the news of the victory, inspirited the besiegers to such a degree that the castle was soon taken. He allowed the rebel earl' to escape, and thus, perhaps, all the more effectu- ally put an end to the rebellion. He was now in peaceable possession of his realm. He went in triumph to Falaise, where he was solemnly crowned with great ceremony and pa- rade, and all Normandy was filled with con- gratulations and rejoicings. 72 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. A lapse of twenty years. Conspiracy of Guy of Burgundy. CHAPTER IY. WILLIAM'S REIGN IN NORMANDY. FROM the time of William's obtaining quiet possession of his realm to his invasion of England, a long period intervened. There was a lapse of more than twenty years. During this long interval, William governed his duchy, sup- pressed insurrections, huilt castles and towns, carried on wars, regulated civil institutions, and, in fact, exercised, in a very energetic and suc- cessful manner, all the functions of government his life being diversified all the time by the usual incidents which mark the career of a great military ruler of an independent realm in the Middle Ages. We will give hi this chapter a description of some of these incidents. On one occasion a conspiracy was formed to take his life by secret assassination. A great chieftain, named Gruy of Burgundy, William's uncle, was the leader of it, and a half-witted man, named Gralet, who occupied the place of jester or fool in William's court, was the means of discovering and exposing it. These Jesters, A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 73 The fool or jester. Meetings of the conspirators. of whom there was always one or more in the retinue of every great prince in those days, were either very eccentric or very foolish, or half-in- sane men, who were dressed fantastically, in gaudy colors and with cap and bells, and were kept to make amusement for the court. The name of William's jester was Gralet. Guy of Burgundy and his fellow-conspirators occupied certain gloomy castles, built in remote and lonely situations on the confines of Nor- mandy. Here they were accustomed to assem- ble for the purpose of concocting their plans, and gathering their men and their resources doing every thing in the most cunning and se- cret manner. Before their scheme was fully ripe for execution, it happened that William made a hunting excursion into the neighborhood of their territory with a small band of followers such as would be naturally got together on such a party of pleasure, (ralet, the fool, was among them. As soon as Gruy and his fellow-conspirators learned that William was so near, they determ- ined to precipitate the execution of their plan, and waylay and assassinate him on his return. They accordingly left their secret and lonely rendezvous among the mountains one by one, 74 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Final plans of the conspirators. Discovered by Galet. in order to avoid attracting observation, and went to a town called Bayeux, through which they supposed that William would have to pass on his return. Here they held secret consulta- tions, and formed their final plans. They sent out a part of their number, in small bands, into the region of country which William would have to cross, to occupy the various roads and passes, and thus to cut off all possibility of his escape. They made all these arrangements hi the most secret and cautious manner, and be- gan to think that they were sure of their prey. It happened, however, that some of William's attendants, with Galet the fool among them, had preceded William on his return, and had reached Bayeux* at the tune when the con- spirators arrived there. The townspeople did not observe the coming of the conspirators par- ticularly, as many horsemen and soldiers were coming and going at that time, and they had no means of distinguishing the duke's friends from his enemies ; but Galet, as he sauntered about the town, noticed that there were many soldiers and knights to be seen who were not of his master's party. This attracted his atten- tion ; he began to watch the motions of these * See map, chapter ix. A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 75 Galet sets out in search of William. He finds him asleep. strangers, and to listen, without seeming to listen, in order to catch the words they spoke to each other as they talked hi groups or passed one another in the streets. He was soon satis- fied that some mischief was intended. He im- mediately threw aside his cap and hells, and his fantastic dress, and, taking a staff in his hand, he set off on foot to go hack as fast as possible in search of the duke, and give him the alarm. He found the duke at a village called Valonges. He arrived there at night. He pressed forward hastily into his master's chamber, half forcing his way through the attendants, who, accus- tomed to the liberties which such a personage as he was accustomed to take on ah 1 occasions, made only a feeble resistance to his wishes. He found the duke asleep, and he called upon him with a very earnest voice to awake and arise immediately, for his life was in danger. "William was at first inclined to disbelieve the story which Galet told him, and to think that there was no cause to fear. He was, however, soon convinced that Gralet was right, and that there was reason for alarm. He arose and dressed himself hastily ; and, inasmuch as a monarch, hi the first moments of the discov- ery of a treasonable plot, knows not whom to 76 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's flight. His narrow escape trust, William wisely concluded not to trust any body. He went himself to the stables, saddled his horse with his own hand, mounted him, and rode away. He had a very narrow escape ; for, at the same time, while Galet was hastening to Valonges to give his master warn- ing of his danger, the conspirators had been ad- vancing to the same place, and had completely surrounded it; and they were on the eve of making an attack upon William's quarters at the very hour when he set out upon his flight. William had accordingly proceeded only a lit- tle way on his route before he heard the foot- steps of galloping horses, and the clanking of arms, on the road behind him. It was a troop of the conspirators coming, who, finding that William had fled, had set off immediately in pursuit. William rode hastily into a wood, and let them go I y. He remained for some time in his hiding- place, and then cautiously emerged from it to continue his way. He did not dare to keep the public road, although it was night, but took a wild and circuitous route, in lanes and by- paths, which conducted him, at length, to the vicinity of the sea. Here, about day-break, he was passing a mansion, supposing that no one A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 79 William is recognized. Hubert's castle. would observe him at so early an hour, when, suddenly, he perceived a man sitting at the gate, armed and equipped, and in an attitude of waiting. He was waiting for his horse. He was a nobleman named Hubert. He recognized William immediately as the duke, and accosted him in a tone of astonishment, saying, " Why, my lord duke, is it possible that this is you ?" He was amazed to see the ruler of the realm out at such an hour, in such a condition, alone, exhausted, his dress all hi disorder from the haste with which he had put it on, and his steed breathless and covered with dust, and ready, apparently, to drop down with fatigue and exhaustion. William, finding that he was recognized, re- lated his story. It appeared, in the end, that Hubert held his own castle and village as a tenant of one of the principal conspirators, and was bound, according to the feudal ideas of the time, to espouse his landlord's cause. He told William, however, that he had nothing to fear. " I will defend your life," said he, " as if it were my own." So saying, he called his three sons, who were all athletic and courageous young men, and commanded them to mount their hor- ses and get ready for a march. He took Will- 80 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Hubert's sons. Pursuit of the conspirators. iam into his castle, and gave him the food and refreshment that he needed. Then he brought him again into the court-yard of the house, where William found the three young horsemen mounted and ready, and a strong and fleet steed prepared for himself. He mounted. Hubert commanded his sons to conduct the prince with all dispatch to Falaise, without traveling at all upon the highway or entering a town. They took, accordingly, a straight course across the country which was probably then, as now, nearly destitute of inclosures and conducted William safely to his castle at Falaise. In the course of the morning, William's pur- suers came to Hubert's castle, and asked if the duke had been seen going by. Hubert replied in the affirmative, and he mounted his steed with great readiness to go and show them the road which the fugitive had taken. He urged them to ride hard, in hopes of soon overtaking the object of their pursuit. They drove on, ac- cordingly, with great impetuosity and ardor, under Hubert's guidance ; but, as he had pur- posely taken a wrong road, he was only leading them further and further astray. Finally they gave up the chase, and Hubert returned with the disappointed pursuers to his fortress, Will- A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 81 Defeat of the rebels. Their punishment. iam having in the mean time arrived safely at Falaise. The conspirators now found that it was use- less any longer to attempt to conceal their plans. In fact, they were already all exposed, and they knew that William would immediately summon his troops and come out to seize them. They must, therefore, either fly from the country or attempt an open rebellion. They decided on the latter the result was a civil war. In the end, William was victorious. He took a large num- ber of the rebels prisoners, and he adopted the following very singular plan for inflicting a suitable punishment upon them, and at the same time erecting a permanent monument of his victory. He laid out a public road across the country, on the line over which he had been conducted by the sons of Hubert, and compelled the rebels to make it. A great part of this country was low and marshy, and had been for this reason avoided by the public road, which took a circuitous course around it. The rebel prisoners were now, however, set at work to raise a terrace or embankment, on a line sur- veyed by William's engineers, which followed almost exactly the course of his retreat. The high road was then laid out upon this terrace, 286 82 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Curious incident. Coats of armor. and it became immediately a public thorough- fare of great importance. It continued for sev- eral centuries one of the most frequented high- ways in the realm, and was known by the name of the Raised Road Terre levee throughout the kingdom. In fact, the remains of it, ap- pearing like the rums of an ancient rail-road embankment, exist to the present day. In the course of the war with these rebels a curious incident occurred at one of the battles, or, rather, is said to have occurred, by the histo- rians who tell the story, which, if true, illus- trates very strikingly the romantic and chival- rous ideas of the times. Just as the battle was commencing, William perceived a strong and finely-equipped body of horsemen preparing to charge upon the very spot where he himself, surrounded by his officers, was standing. Now the armor worn by knights in battle in those times covered and concealed the figure and the face so fully, that it would have been impossi- ble even for acquaintances and friends to recog- nize each other, were it not that the knights were all accustomed to wear certain devices upon some part of their armor painted, for in- stance, upon their shields, or embroidered on little banners which they bore by means of A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 83 Origin of heraldry. Rollo de Tesson. which they might be known. These devices became at length hereditary in the great fami- lies sons being proud to wear, themselves, the emblems to which the deeds of their fathers had imparted a trace of glory and renown. The de- vices of different chieftains were combined, sometimes, in cases of intermarriage, or were modified hi various ways ; and with these minor changes they would descend from generation to generation as the family coat of arms. And this was the origin of heraldry. Now the body of horsemen that were advanc- ing to the charge, as above described, had each of them his device upon a little flag or banner attached to their lances. As they were advanc- ing, William scrutinized them closely, and pres- ently recognized in their leader a man who had formerly been upon his side. His name was Rollo de Tesson. He was one of those who had sworn fealty to him at the time when his father Robert presented him to the council, when set- ting out upon his pilgrimage. William accord- ingly exclaimed, with a loud voice, " Why, these are my friends !" The officers and the soldiers of the body-guard who were with him, taking up the cry, shouted " Friends ! friends /" Rol- lo de Tesson and the other knights, who were 84 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Keeping both oaths. Changing sides. slowly coming up, preparing to charge upon William's party, surprised at being thus accost- ed, paused in their advance, and finally halted. Rollo said to the other knights, who gathered around him, " I was his friend. I gave my oath to his father that I would stand by him and de- fend him with my life ; and now I have this morning sworn to the Count of Cotentin" the Count of Cotentin was the leader of the rebell- ion " that I would seek out William on the battle-field, and be the first to give him a blow. I know not what to do." " Keep both oaths," replied one of his companions. " Gro and strike him a gentle blow, and then defend him with your life." The whole troop seconded this pro- posal by acclamation. Rollo advanced, followed by the other knights, with gestures and shouts denoting that they were friends. He rode up to William, told him that he had that morning sworn to strike him, and then dealt him a pre- tended blow upon his shoulder ; but as both the shoulder and the hand which struck it were armed with steel, the clanking sound was all the effect that was produced. Rollo and his trooptheir sworn obligation to the Count of Cotentin being thus fulfilled turned now into the ranks of William's soldiery, and fought val- iantly all day upon his side. A. D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 85 Character of the ancient chieftains. Their love of war Although William was generally victorious in the battles that he fought, and succeeded in- putting down one rebellion after another with promptness and decision, still, new rebellions and new wars were constantly breaking out, which kept his dominions in a continual state of commotion. In fact, the chieftains, the no- bles, and the knights, constituting the only classes of society that exercised any influence, or were regarded with any respect in those days, were never contented except when active- ly employed in military campaigns. The ex- citements and the glory of war were the only excitements and glory that they understood, or had the means of enjoying. Their dwellings were great fortresses, built on the summits of the rocks, which, however picturesque and beautiful they appear as ruins now, were very gloomy and desolate as residences then. They were attractive enough when their inmates were flying to them for refuge from an enemy, or were employed within the walls in concentrat- ing their forces and brightening up their arms for some new expedition for vengeance or plun- der, but they were lonely and lifeless scenes of restlessness and discontent in times of quietness" and peace. 86 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Ancient castles. Their interior construction It is difficult for us, at this day, to conceive how destitute of all the ordinary means of com- fort and enjoyment, in comparison with a mod- ern dwelling, the ancient feudal castles must have been. They were placed in situations as nearly inaccessible as possible, and the natural impediments of approach were increased by walls, and gates, and ditches, and draw-bridges. The door of access was often a window in the wall, ten or fifteen feet from the ground, to which the inmates or their friends mounted by a ladder. The floors were of stone, the waUs were naked, the ceiling was a rudely-construct- ed series of arches. The apartments, too, were ordinarily small, and were arranged one above another, in the successive stories of a tower. Nor could these cell-like chambers be enlivened by the wide and cheerful windows of modern times, which not only admit the light to ani- mate >the scene within, but also afford to the spectator there, wide-spread, and sometimes en- chanting views of the surrounding country. The castle windows of ancient days were, on the contrary, narrow loop-holes, each at the bottom of a deep recess in the thick wall. If they had been made wide they would have ad- mitted too easily the arrows and javelins of be- A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 87 Nothing respectable for the nobility but war. siegers, as well as the wind and rain of wintery storms. There were no books hi these desolate dwellings, no furniture but armor, no pleasures but drinking and carousals. Nor could these noble and valiant knights and barons occupy themselves hi any useful employment. There was nothing which it was respectable for them to do but to fight. They looked down with contempt upon all the indus- trial pursuits of life. The cultivation of farms, the rearing of flocks and herds, arts, manufac- tures, and commerce every thing of this sort, by which man can benefit his fellow-man, was entirely beneath them. In fact, their descend- ants to the present day, even in England, enter- tain the same ideas. Their younger sons can enter the army or the navy, and spend their lives hi killing and destroying, or in awaiting, in idleness, dissipation, and vice, for orders to kill and destroy, without dishonor ; but to en- gage in any way hi those vast and magnificent operations of peaceful industry, on which the true greatness and glory of England depend, would be perpetual and irretrievable disgrace. A young nobleman can serve, hi the most sub- ordinate official capacity, on board a man-of- war, and take pay for it, without degradation ; 88 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Rebellions. Insulting allusions to William's birth. but to build a man-of-war itself and take pay for it, would be to compel his whole class to dis- own him. It was in consequence of this state of feeling among the knights and barons of William's day that peace was always tedious and irksome to them, and they were never contented except when engaged in battles and campaigns. It was this feeling, probably, quite as much as any settled hostility to William's right to reign, that made his barons so eager to engage in in- surrections and rebellions. There was, how- ever, after all, a real and deep-seated opposition to William's right of succession, founded in the ideas of the day. They could not well endure that one of so humble and even ignominious birth, on the mother's side, should be the heir of so illustrious a line as the great dukes of Normandy. William's enemies were accus- tomed to designate him by opprobrious epithets, derived from the circumstances of his birth. Though he was patient and enduring, and often very generous in forgiving other injuries, these insults to the memory of his mother always stung him very deeply, and awakened the strongest emotions of resentment. One in- stance of this was so conspicuous that it is re- A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 89 The ambuscade. Its failure. corded in almost all the histories of William that have been written. It was in the midst of one of the wars in which he was involved, that he was advancing across the country to the attack of a strong castle, which, in addition to the natural strength of its walls and fortifications, was defended by a numerous and powerful garrison. So con- fident, in fact, were the garrison in their num- bers and power, that when they heard that William was advancing to attack them, they sent out a detachment to meet him. This de- tachment, however, were not intending to give him open battle. Their plan was to lay in ambuscade, and attack William's troops when they came to the spot, and while they were un- aware of the vicinity of an enemy, and off their guard. William, however, they found, was not off his guard. He attacked the ambuscade with so much vigor as to put the whole force immedi.. ately to flight. Of course the fugitives direct- ed their steps toward the castle. William and his soldiers followed them in headlong pursuit. The end was, that the detachment from the gar- rison had scarcely time, after making good their own entrance, to raise the draw-bridges and se- 90 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Insults of the garrison. Indignation of William. cure the gates, so as to keep their pursuers from entering too. They did, however, succeed in doing this, and William, establishing his troops about the castle, opened his lines and com- menced a regular siege. The garrison were very naturally vexed and irritated at the bad success of their intended stratagem. To have the ambuscade not only fail of its object, but to have also the men that formed it driven thus ignominiously in, and so narrowly escaping, also, the danger of letting in the whole troop of their enemies after them, was a great disgrace. To retaliate upon Will- iam, and to throw back upon him the feelings of mortification and chagrin which they felt themselves, they mounted the walls and towers, and shouted out all sorts of reproaches and in- sults. Finally, when they found that they could not make mere words sufficiently sting- ing, they went and procured skins and hides, and aprons of leather, and every thing else that they could find that was connected with the trade of a tanner, and shook them at the troops of their assailants from the towers and walls, with shouts of merriment and derision. William was desperately enraged at these in- sults. He organized an assaulting party, and A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 91 William's campaign in France. His popularity. by means of the great exertions which the ex- asperation of his men stimulated them to make, he carried some of the outworks, and took a number of prisoners. These prisoners he cut to pieces, and then caused their bloody and mangled limbs and members to be thrown, by great slings, over the castle walls. At one time during the period which is in- cluded within the limits of this chapter, and in the course of one of those intervals of peace and quietness within his own dominions which Will- iam sometimes enjoyed, the King of France be- came involved in a war with one of his own re- bellious subjects, and William went, with an army of Normans, to render him aid. King Henry was at first highly gratified at this prompt and effectual succor, but he soon after- ward began to feel jealous of the universal pop- ularity and renown which the young duke be- gan soon to acquire. William was at that time only about twenty-four years old, but he took the direction of every thing moved to and fro with the utmost celerity planned the cam- paigns directed the sieges, and by his personal accomplishments and his bravery, he won all hearts, and was the subject of every body's praises. King Henry found himself supplant- 92 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's prowess. True nature of courage. ed, in some measure, in the regard and honora- ble consideration of his subjects, and he began to feel very envious and jealous of his rival. Sometimes particular incidents would occur, in which William's feats of prowess or dex- terity would so excite the admiration of the army that he would be overwhelmed with ac- clamations and applause. These were gener- ally exploits of combat on the field, or of escape from pursuers when outnumbered, in which good fortune had often, perhaps, quite as much to do in securing the result as strength or cour- age. But in those days a soldier's good luck was perhaps as much the subject of applause as his muscular force or his bravery ; and, in fact, it was as deservedly so ; for the strength of arm, and the coolness, or, rather, the ferocity of courage, which make a good combatant in personal contests on a battle-field, are qualities of brutes rather than of men. We feel a spe- cies of respect for them in the lion or tiger, but they deserve only execration when exercised in the wantonness of hatred and revenge by man against his brother man. One of the instances of William's extraordi- nary success was the following. He was re- connoitering the enemy on one occasion, ac- A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 93 An ambuscade. William's bravery companied only by four or five knights, who acted as his attendants and body-guard. The party were at a distance from the camp of the enemy, and supposed they were not observed. They were observed, however, and immediately a party of twelve chosen horsemen was formed, and ordered to ride out and surprise them. This detachment concealed themselves hi an ambus- cade, at a place where the reconnoitering party must pass, and when the proper moment ar- rived, they burst out suddenly upon them and summoned them to surrender. Twelve against six seemed to render both flight and resistance equally vain. William, however, advanced im- mediately to the attack of the ambuscaders. He poised his long lance, and, riding on with it at full speed, he unhorsed and killed the foremost of them at a blow. Then, just drawing back his weapon to gather strength for another blow, he killed the second of his enemies in the same manner. His followers were so much animated at this successful onset, that they advanced very resolutely to the combat. In the mean time, the shouts carried the alarm to William's camp, and a strong party set off to rescue William and his companions. The others then turned to fly, while William followed them so eagerly 94 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's victory. Applause of the French army. and closely, that he and they who were with him overtook and disabled seven of them, and made them prisoners. The rest escaped. Will- iam and his party then turned and began to proceed toward their own camp, conveying their prisoners in their train. They were met by King Henry himself at the head of a detachment of three hundred men, who, not knowing how much necessity there might be for efficient aid, were hastening to the scene of action. The sight of William coming home victorious, and the tales told by his companions of the invincible strength and daring which he had displayed in the sudden danger, awakened a universal enthusiasm, and the plaudits and encomiums with which the whole camp resounded were doubtless as de- licious and intoxicating to him as they were bitter to the king. It was by such deeds, and by such personal and mental characteristics as these, that Will- iam, notwithstanding the untoward influences of his birth, fought his way, during the twenty years of which we have been speaking, into general favor, and established a universal re- nown. He completely organized and arranged the internal affairs of his own kingdom, and es- A.D. 1040-60.] REIGN IN NORMANDY. 95 William firmly seated on his throne. His new projects. tablished himself firmly upon the ducal throne. His mind had become mature, his resources were well developed, and his soul, always am- bitious and aspiring, began to reach forward to the grasping of some grander objects of pursuit, and to the entering upon some wider field of action than his duchy of Normandy could afford. During this interval, however, he was married ; and, as the circumstances of his marriage were somewhat extraordinary, we must make that event the subject of a separate chapter. 96 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Political importance of a royal marriage. CHAPTER V. THE MARRIAGE. ONE of the most important points which an hereditary potentate has to attend to, in completing his political arrangements, is the question of his marriage. Until he has a fami- ly and an heir, men's minds are unsettled in respect to the succession, and the various rival candidates and claimants to the throne are per- petually plotting and intriguing to put them- selves into a position to spring at once into his place if sickness, or a battle, or any sudden ac- cident should take him away. This evil was more formidable than usual in the case of Will- iam, for the men who were prepared to claim his place when he was dead were all secretly or openly maintaining that their right to it was superior to his while he was living. This gave a double intensity to the excitement with which the public was perpetually agitated in respect to the crown, and kept the minds of the ambi- tious and the aspiring, throughout William's dominions, in a continual fever. It was ob- A.D.1045.] THE MARRIAGE. 97 William's views in regard to his marriage. His choice. vious that a great part of the cause of this rest- less looking for change and consequent planning to promote it would be removed if William had a son. It became, therefore, an important matter of state policy that the duke should be married. In fact, the barons and military chieftains who were friendly to him urged this measure upon him, on account of the great effect which they perceived it would have in settling the minds of the people of the country and consolidating his power. William accordingly began to look around for a wife. It appeared, however, in the end, that, though policy was the main con- sideration which first led him to contemplate marriage, love very probably exercised an im- portant influence in determining his choice of the lady ; at all events, the object of his choice was an object worthy of love. She was one of. the most beautiful and accomplished princesses in Europe. She was the daughter of a great potentate who ruled over the country of Flanders. Flan- ders lies upon the coast, east of Normandy, be- yond the frontiers of France, and on the south- ern shore of the German Ocean. Her father's title was the Earl of Flanders. He governed 287 98 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Matilda's genealogy. Her relationship to William. his dominions, however, like a sovereign, and was at the head of a very effective military pow- er. His family, too, occupied a very high rank, and enjoyed great consideration among the other princes and potentates of Europe. It had in- termarried with the royal family of England, so that Matilda, the daughter of the earl, whom William was disposed to make his bride, was found, by the genealogists, who took great in- terest in those days in tracing such connections, to have descended in a direct line from the great English king, Alfred himself. This relationship, by making Matilda's birth the more illustrious, operated strongly in favor of the match, as a great part of the motive which William had in view, in his intended marriage, was to aggrandize and strengthen his own position, by the connection which he was about to form. There was, however, an- other consanguinity in the case which had a contrary tendency. Matilda's father had been connected with the Norman as well as with the English line, and Matilda and William were in some "remote sense cousins. This circum- stance led, in the sequel, as will presently be seen, to serious difficulty and trouble. Matilda was seven years younger than Will- A.D. 1045.] THE MARRIAGE. 99 Matilda's accomplishments. Her embroidery. iam. She was brought up in her father's court, and famed far and wide for her beauty and ac- complishments. The accomplishments in which ladies of high rank sought to distinguish them- selves in those days were two, music and em- broidery. The embroidery of tapestry was the great attainment, and in this art the young Matilda acquired great skill. The tapestry which was made in the Middle Ages was used to hang against the walls of some of the more ornamented rooms in royal palaces and castles, to hide the naked surface of the stones of which the building was constructed. The cloths thus suspended were at first plain, afterward they began to be ornamented with embroidered bor- ders or other decorations, and at length ladies learned to employ their own leisure hours, and beguile the tedium of the long confinement which many of them had to endure within their castles, in embroidering various devices and de- signs on the hangings intended for their own chambers, or to execute such work as presents for their friends. Matilda's industry and skill in this kind of work were celebrated far and wide. The accomplishments which ladies take great pains to acquire in their early years are some- 100 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Matilda's industry. The Bayeux tapestry. times, it is said, laid almost entirely aside after their marriage ; not necessarily because they are then less desirous to please, but sometimes from the abundance of domestic duty, which al- lows them little time, and sometimes from the pressure of their burdens of care or sorrow, which leave them no heart for the occupations of amusement or gayety. It seems not to have been so in Matilda's case, however. She re- sumed her needle often during the years of her wedded life, and after William had accomplish- ed his conquest of England, she worked upon a long linen web, with immense labor, a series of designs illustrating the various events and inci- dents of his campaign, and the work has been preserved to the present day. At least there is such a web now existing in the ancient town of Bayeux, in Normandy, which has been there from a period beyond the memory of men, and which tradition says wab worked by Matilda. It would seem, however, that if she did it at all, she must have done it " as Solomon built the temple with a great deal of help ;" for this famous piece of embroid- ery, which has been celebrated among all the historians and scholars of the world for several hundred years by the name of the Bayeux Taj)- A.D.1045.] THE MARRIAGE. 101 The designs. Uncouth drawing. Preservation. estry, is over four hundred feet long, and nearly two feet wide. The web is of linen, while the embroidery is of woolen. It was all obviously executed with the needle, and was worked with infinite labor and care. The woolen thread which was used was of various colors, suited to represent the different objects in the design, though these colors are, of course, now much tarnished and faded. The designs themselves are very simple and even rude, evincing very little knowledge of the principles of modern art. The specimens on the following page, of engravings made from them, will give some idea of the childish style of delineation which characterizes all Matilda's designs. Childish, however, as such a style of drawing would be considered now, it seems to have been, in Matilda's days, very much prais- ed and admired. We often have occasion to observe, in watch- ing the course of human affairs, the frailty and transitoriness of things apparently most durable and strong. In the case of this embroidery, on the contrary, we are struck with the durability and permanence of what would seem to be most frail and fleeting. William's conquest of En- gland took place in 1066. This piece of tapes- 102 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Specimens of the designs of the Bayeux tapestry. A J). 1045-52.] THE MARRIAGE. 103 Elements of decay. Great age of the Bayeux tapestry. try, therefore, if Matilda really worked it, is about eight hundred years old. And when we consider how delicate, slender, and frail is the fibre of a linen thread, and that the various ele- ments of decay, always busy in the work of cor- rupting and destroying the works of man, have proved themselves powerful enough to waste away and crumble into rain the proudest struc- tures which he has ever attempted to rear, we are amazed that these slender filaments have been able to resist then- action so long. The Bayeux tapestry has lasted nearly a thousand years. It will probably last for a thousand years to come. So that the vast and resistless power, which destroyed Babylon and Troy, and is making visible progress hi the work of de- stroying the Pyramids, is foiled by the durabil- ity of a piece of needle-work, executed by the frail and delicate fingers of a woman. We may have occasion to advert to the Ba- yeux tapestry again, when we come to narrate the exploits which it was the particular object of this historical embroidery to illustrate and adorn. In the mean time, we return to our story. The matrimonial negotiations of princes and princesses are always conducted in a formal and ceremonious manner, and through the in- 104 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Marriage negotiations. Matilda's objections. tervention of legates, embassadors, and commis- sioners without number, who are, of course, in- terested in protracting the proceedings, so as to prolong, as much as possible, their own diplo- matic importance and power. Besides these ac- cidental and temporary difficulties, it soon ap- peared that there were, in this case, some real and very formidable obstacles, which threaten- ed for a time entirely to frustrate the scheme. Among these difficulties there was one which was not usually, in such cases, considered of much importance, but which, in this instance, seemed for a long time to put an effectual bar to William's wishes, and that was the aversion which the young princess herself felt for the match. She could have, one would suppose, no personal feeling of repugnance against Will- iam, for he was a tall and handsome cavalier, highly graceful and accomplished, and renown- ed for his bravery and success in war. He was, in every respect, such a personage as would be most likely to captivate the imagination of a maiden princess in those warlike times. Ma- tilda, however, made objections to his birth- She could not consider him as the legitimate descendant and heir of the dukes of Normandy. It is true, he was then in possession of the A.D. 1045-52.] T H E M A R R i A G E. 105 Matilda's refusal. Her attachment to Brihtric. throne, but he was regarded by a large portion of the most powerful chieftains in his realm as a usurper. He was liable, at any time, on some sudden change of fortune, to be expelled from his dominions. His position, in a word, though for the time being very exalted, was too precarious and unstable, and his personal claims to high social rank were too equivocal, to justi- fy her trusting her destiny in his hands. In a word, Matilda's answer to "William's proposals was an absolute refusal to become his wife. These ostensible grounds, however, on which Matilda based her refusal, plausible as they were, were not the real and true ones. The secret motive was another attachment which she had formed. There had been sent to her father's court in Flanders, from the English king, a young Saxon embassador, whose name was Brihtric. Brihtric remained some little time at the court in Flanders, and Matilda, who saw him often at the various entertain- ments, celebrations, and parties of pleasure which were arranged for his amusement, con- ceived a strong attachment to him. He was of a very fair complexion, and his features were expressive and beautiful. He was a noble of high position hi England, though, of course, his 106 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Matilda's attachment not reciprocated. Her thirst for revenge. rank was inferior to that of Matilda. As it would have been deemed hardly proper for him, under the circumstances of the case, to have aspired to the princess's hand, on account of the superiority of her social position, Matilda felt that it was her duty to make known her sentiments to him, and thus to open the way. She did so ; but she found, unhappy maiden, that Brihtric did not feel, himself, the love which he had inspired in her, and all the efforts and arts to which she was impelled by the in- stinct of affection proved wholly unavailing to call it forth. Brihtric, after fulfilling the ob- ject of his mission, took leave of Matilda coldly, while her heart was almost breaking, and went away. As the sweetest wine transforms itself into the sharpest vinegar, so the warmest and most ardent love turns, when it turns at all, to the most bitter and envenomed hate. Love gave place soon in Matilda's heart to indignation, and indignation to a burning thirst for revenge. The intensity of the first excitement subsided ; but Matilda never forgot and never forgave the disappointment and the indignity which she had endured. She had an opportunity long afterward to take terrible revenge on Brihtrio A.D. 1045-52.] THE MARRIAGE. 107 William and Matilda's consanguinity. An obstacle to their marriage in England, by subjecting him to cruelties and hardships there which brought him to his grave. In the mean time, while her thoughts were so occupied with this attachment, she had, of course, no heart to listen favorably to Will- iam's proposals. Her friends would have at- tached no importance to the real cause of her aversion to the match, but they felt the force of the objections which could justly be advanced against William's rank, and his real right to his throne. Then J;he consanguinity of the parties was a great source of embarrassment and trouble. Persons as nearly related to each other as they were, were forbidden by the Ro- man Catholic rules to marry. There was such a thing as getting a dispensation from the pope, by which the marriage would be authorized. William accordingly sent embassadors to Rome to negotiate this business. This, of course, opened a new field for difficulties and delays. The papal authorities were accustomed, in such cases, to exact as the price, or, rather, as the condition of their dispensation, some grant or beneficial conveyance from the parties inter- ested, to the Church, such as the foundation of an abbey or a monastery, the building of a chapel, or the endowment of a charity, by way, 108 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Negotiations with the pope. Causes of delay. as it were, of making amends to the Church, by the benefit thus received, for whatever injury the cause of religion and morality might sus- tain by the relaxation of a divine law. Of course, this being the end in view, the tendency on the part of the authorities at Rome would be to protract the negotiations, so as to obtain from the suitor's impatience better terms in the end. The embassadors and commissioners, too, on William's part, would have no strong motive for hastening the proceed^gs. Rome was an agreeable place of residence, and to live there as the embassador of a royal duke of Normandy was to enjoy a high degree of consideration, and to be surrounded continually by scenes of mag- nificence and splendor. Then, again, William himself was not always at leisure to urge the business forward by giving it his own close at- tention ; for, during the period while these ne- gotiations were pending, he was occupied, from time to time, with foreign wars, or in the sup- pression of rebellions among his barons. Thus, from one cause and another, it seemed as if the business would never come to an end. In fact, a less resolute and determined man than William would have given up in despair, for it was seven years, it is said, before the af- A.D. 1045-52.] THE MARRIAGE. 109 William's quarrel with Matilda. The reconciliation. fair was brought to a conclusion. One story is told of the impetuous energy which William manifested in this suit, which seems almost in- credible. It was after the negotiations had been pro- tracted for several years, and at a time when the difficulties were principally those arising from Matilda's opposition, that the occurrence took place. It was at an interview which Will- iam had with Matilda in the streets of Bruges, one of her father's cities. All that took place at the interview is not known, but in the end of it William's resentment at Matilda's treat- ment of him lost all bounds. He struck her or pushed her so violently as to throw her down upon the ground. It is said that he struck her repeatedly, and then, leaving her with her clothes all soiled and disheveled, rode off in a rage. Love quarrels are often the means of bringing the contending parties nearer together than they were before, but such a terrible love quarrel as this, we hope, is very rare. Violent as it was, however, it was followed by a perfect reconciliation, and in the end all obstacles were removed, and William and Ma- tilda were married. The event took place in 1052. 110 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The marriage. Rejoicings an^ ^festivities. The marriage ceremony was performed at one of William's castles, on the frontiers of Nor- mandy, as it is customary for princes and kings to be married always in their own dominions. Matilda was conducted there with great pomp and parade by her parents, and was accompa- nied by a large train of attendants and friends. This company, mounted both knights and la- dies on horses beautifully caparisoned, moved across the country like a little army on a march, or rather like a triumphal procession escorting a queen. Matilda was received at the castle with distinguished honor, and the marriage cel- ebrations, and the entertainments accompany- ing it, were continued for several days. It was a scene of unusual festivity and rejoicing. The dress both of William and Matilda, on this occasion, was very specially splendid. She wore a mantle studded with the most costly jewels ; and, in addition to the other splendors of his dress, William too wore a mantle and a helmet, both of which were richly adorned with the same costly decorations. So much import- ance was attached, in those days, to this out- ward show, and so great was the public inter- est taken in it, that these dresses of William and Matilda, with all the jewelry that adorned A.D. 1052.] THE MARRIAGE. Ill Residence at Rouen. Ancient castles and palaces them, were deposited afterward in the great church at Bayeux, where they remained a sort of public spectacle, the property of the Church, for nearly five hundred years. From the castle of Augi, where the marriage ceremonies were performed, William proceeded, after these first festivities and rejoicings were over, to the great city of Rouen, conducting his bride thither with great pomp and parade. Here the young couple established themselves, living in the enjoyment of every species of lux- ury and splendor which were attainable in those days. As has already been said, the interiors, even of royal castles and palaces, presented but few of the comforts and conveniences deemed essential to the happiness of a home in modern times. The European ladies of the present day delight in their suites of retired and well-fur- nished apartments, adorned with velvet carpets, and silken curtains, and luxuriant beds of down, with sofas and couches adapted to every fancy which the caprice of fatigue or restlessness may assume, and cabinets stored with treasures, and libraries of embellished books the whole scene illuminated by the splendor of gas-lights, whose brilliancy is reflected by mirrors and candela- bras, sparkling with a thousand hues- MatiJ- 112 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, Matilda's palace. ^ Luxury and splendor. da's feudal palace presented no such scenes as these. The cold stone floors were covered with mats of rushes. The walls if the naked ma- sonry was hidden at all were screened by hangings of coarse tapestry, ornamented with uncouth and hideous figures. The beds were miserable pallets, the windows were loop-holes, and the castle itself had all the architectural characteristics of a prison. Still, there was a species of luxury and splen- dor even then. Matilda had splendid horses to ride, all magnificently caparisoned. She had dresses adorned most lavishly with gold and jewels. There were troops of valiant knights, all glittering in armor of steel, to escort her on her journeys, and accompany and wait upon her on her excursions of pleasure ; and there were grand banquets and carousals, from time to time, in the long castle hall, with tourna- ments, and races, and games, and other military shows, conducted with great parade and pa- geantry. Matilda thus commenced her married life in luxury and splendor. In luxury and splendor, but not in peace. William had an uncle, whose name was Mau- ger. He was the Archbishop of Rouen, and was a dignitary of great influence and power. Now A.D. 1052.] THE MARRIAGE. 113 Mauger, archbishop of Rouen. William and Matilda excommunicated. it was, of course, the interest of William's rel- atives that he should not be married, as every increase of probability that his crown would de- scend to direct heirs diminished their future chances of the succession, and of course under- mined their present importance. Mauger had been very much opposed to this match, and had exerted himself in every way, while the negoti- ations were pending, to impede and delay them. The point which he most strenuously urged was the consanguinity of the parties, a point to which it was incumbent on him, as he main- tained being the head of the Church in Nor- mandy particularly to attend. It seems that, notwithstanding William's negotiations with the pope to obtain a dispensation, the affair was not fully settled at Rome before the marriage ; and very soon after the celebration of the nup- tials, Mauger fulminated an edict of excommu- nication against both William and Matilda, for intermarrying within the degrees of relationship which the canons of the Church proscribed. An excommunication, in the Middle Ages, was a terrible calamity. The person thus con- demned was made, so far as such a sentence could effect it, an outcast from man, and a wretch accursed of Heaven. The most terrible 288 114 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Lanfranc sent to negotiate with the pope. His success. denunciations were uttered against him, and in the case of a prince, like that of William, his subjects were all absolved from their allegiance, and forbidden to succor or defend him. A pow- erful potentate like William could maintain himself for a time against the influence and ef- fects of such a course, but it was pretty sure to Work more and more strongly against him through the superstitions of the people, and to wear him out in the end. William resolved to appeal at once to the pope, and to effect, by some means or other, the object of securing his dispensation. There was a certain monk, then obscure and unknown, but who afterward became a very celebrated public character, named Lanfranc, whom, for some reason or other, William supposed to possess the necessary qualifications for this mission. He accordingly gave him his instructions and sent him away. Lanfranc proceeded to Rome, and there he managed the negotiation with the pope so dexterously as soon to bring it to a con- clusion. The arrangement which he made was this. The pope was to grant the dispensation and confirm the marriage, thus removing the sen- tence of excommunication which the Archbish- A.D. 1052.] THE MARRIAGE. 115 Conditions of Lanfranc's treaty. Their fulfillment. op Mauger had pronounced, on condition that William should build and endow a hospital for a Hundred poor persons, and also erect two ab- beys, one to be built by himself, for monks, and one by Matilda, for nuns. Lanfranc agreed to these conditions on the part of William and Matilda, and they, when they came to be in- formed of them, accepted and confirmed them with great joy. The ban of excommunication was removed ; all Normandy acquiesced in the marriage, and William and Matilda proceeded to form the plans and to superintend the con- struction of the abbeys. They selected the city of Caen for the site. The place of this city will be seen marked upon the map near the northern coast of Normandy.* It was situated in a broad and pleasant valley, at the confluence of two rivers, and was sur- rounded by beautiful and fertile meadows. It was strongly fortified, being surrounded by walls and towers, which William's ancestors, the dukes of Normandy, had built. William and Matilda took a strong interest in the plans and constructions connected with the building of the abbeys. William's was a very extensive edifice, and contained within its inclosures a * See map, chapter ix. 116 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William and Matilda's children. Matilda's domestic character royal palace for himself, where, in subsequent years, himself and Matilda often resided. The principal buildings of these abbeys still stand, though the walls and fortifications of Caen are gone. The buildings are used now for other purposes than those for which they were erected, but they retain the names origi- nally given them, and are visited by great num- bers of tourists, being regarded with great in- terest as singular memorials of the past twin monuments commemorating an ancient mar- riage. The marriage being thus finally confirmed and acquiesced in, William and Matilda en- joyed a long period of domestic peace. The oldest child was a son. He was born within a year of the marriage, and William named him Robert, that, as the reader will recollect, hav- ing been the name of William's father. There was, in process of time, a large family of cl il- dren. Their names were Robert, William Ru^ fus, Henry, Cecilia, Agatha, Constance, Adela, Adelaide, and Ofundred. Matilda devoted her- self with great maternal fidelity to the care and education of these children, and many of them became subsequently historical personages of the highest distinction. A.D. 1052.] THE MARRIAGE. 117 Objects of William's marriage. Baldwin, Count of Flanders. The object which, it will be recollected, was one of William's main inducements for con- tracting this alliance, namely, the strengthen- ing of his power by thus connecting himself with the reigning family of Flanders, was, in a great measure, accomplished. The two gov- ernments, leagued together by this natural tie, strengthened each other's power, and often ren- dered each other essential assistance, though there was one occasion, subsequently, when William's reliance on this aid was disappoint- ed. It was as follows : When he was planning his invasion of En- gland, he sent to Matilda's brother, Baldwin, who was then Count of Flanders, inviting him to raise a force and join him. Baldwin, who considered the enterprise as dangerous and Quixotic, sent back word to inquire what share of the English territory William would give him if he would go and help him conquer it. William thought that this attempt to make a bargain beforehand, for a division of spoil, evinced a very mercenary and distrustful spirit on the part of his brother-in-law a spirit which he was not at all disposed to encourage. He accordingly took a sheet of parchment, and writing nothing within, he folded it in the form 118 WILLIAM THE CONQDKEOK. The blank letter. Baldwin's sarprta. of a letter, and wrote upon the outside the foll- owing rhyme : "Beau frere, en Angleterre rona aurea Oe qul dedans escript, TOUS trourerea." Which royal distich might be translated thua : "Tour share, good brother, of the land we win, You'll find entitled and described within." William forwarded the empty missive by the hand of a messenger, who delivered it to Bald- win as if it were a dispatch of great consequence. Baldwin received it eagerly, and opened it at once. He was surprised at finding nothing within ; and after turning the parchment every way, in vain search after the description of his share, he asked the messenger what it meant " It means," said he, " that as there is nothing writ within, so nothing you shall have," Notwithstanding this witticism, however, some arrangement seems afterward to have been made between the parties, for Flanders did, in fact, contribute an important share to- ward the force which William raised when pre- paring for the invasion. AJD. 1002.] THE LADY EMMA. 119 William's claims to the English throne. The Lady Emma. CHAPTER VI. THE LADY EMMA. TT is not to be supposed that, even in the war- -*- like times of which we are writing, such a potentate as a duke of Normandy would invade a country like England, so large and powerful in comparison to his own, without some pretext. William's pretext was, that he himself was the legitimate successor to the English crown, and that the English king who possessed it at the time of his invasion was a usurper. In order that the reader may understand the nature and origin of this his claim, it is necessary to relate somewhat in full the story of the Lady Emma. By referring to the genealogy of the Norman line of dukes contained in the second chapter of this volume, it will be seen that Emma was the daughter, of the first Richard. She was cele- brated in her early years for her great personal beauty. They called her the Pearl of Normandy. She married, at length, one of the kings of England, whose name was Ethelred. England was at that time distracted by civil wars, waged 120 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Claimants to the English throne. EthelreA between the two antagonist races of Saxons and Danes. There were, in fact, two separate dy- nasties or lines of kings, who were contending, all the time, for the mastery. In these contests, sometimes the Danes would triumph for a time, and sometimes the Saxons ; and sometimes both races would have a royal representative in the field, each claiming the throne, and reigning over separate portions of the island. Thus there were, at certain periods, two kingdoms in En- gland, both covering the same territory, and claiming the government of the same popula- tion with two kings, two capitals, two admin- istrations while the wretched inhabitants were distracted and ruined by the terrible conflicts to which these hostile pretensions gave rise. Ethelred was of the Saxon line. He was a widower at the time of his marriage to Emma, nearly forty years old, and he had, among other children by his former wife, a son named Ed- mund, an active, energetic young man, who aft- erward became king. One motive which he had in view in marrying Emma was to strength- en his position by securing the alliance of the Normans of Normandy. The Danes, his En- glish enemies, were Normans. The government of Normandy would therefore be naturally in- A.D. 1002.] THE LADY EMMA. 121 Ethelred subdued. He flies to Normandy. clined to take part with them. By this mar- riage, however, Ethelred hoped to detach the Normans of France from the cause of his ene- mies, and to unite them to his own. He would thus gain a double advantage, strengthening himself by an accession which weakened his foes. His plan succeeded so far as inducing Rich- ard himself, the Duke of Normandy, to espouse his cause, but it did not enable Ethelred to tri- umph over his enemies. They, on the contra- ry, conquered htm, and, in the end, drove him from the country altogether. He fled to Nor- mandy for refuge, with Emma his wife, and his two young sons. Their names were Edward and Alfred. Richard II., Emma's brother, who was then the Duke of Normandy, received the unhappy fugitives with great kindness, although Ae, at least, scarcely deserved it. It was not surpris- ing that he was driven from his native realm, for he possessed none of those high qualities of mind which fit men to conquer or to govern. Like all other weak-minded tyrants, he substi- tuted cruelty for wisdom and energy in his at- tempts to subjugate his foes. As soon as he was married to Emma, for instance, feeling elated and strong at the great accession of pow- 122 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Massacre of the Danes. Horrors of civil wai. er which he imagined he had obtained by thi? alliance, he planned a general massacre of the Danes, and executed it on a given day, by means of private orders, sent secretly through- out the kingdom. Vast numbers of the Danes were destroyed ; and so great was the hatred of the two races for each other, that they who had these bloody orders to obey executed them with a savage cruelty that was absolutely horrible. In one instance they buried women to the waist, and then set dogs upon them, to tear then- nak- ed flesh until they died in agony. It would be best, in narrating history, to suppress such hor- rid details as these, were it not that hi a land like this, where so much depends upon the influ- ence of every individual in determining whether the questions and discussions which are from time to time arising, and are hereafter to arise, shall be settled peacefully, or by a resort to vi- olence and civil war, it is very important that we should all know what civil war is, and to what horrible atrocities it inevitably leads. Alfred the Great, when he was contending with the Danes in England, a century before this time, treated them, so far as he gained ad- vantages over them, with generosity and kind- ness ; and this policy wholly conquered them in A.D. 1002.] THE LADY EMMA. 123 Ethelred's tyranny. Emma's policy. the end. Ethelred, on the other hand, tried the effect of the most tyrannical cruelty, and the effect was only to arouse his enemies to a more determined and desperate resistance. It was the phrensy of vengeance and hate that these atrocities awakened every where among the Danes, which nerved them with so much vigor and strength that they finally expelled him from the island ; so that, when he arrived in Nor- mandy, a fugitive and an exile, he came in the character of a dethroned tyrant, execrated for his senseless and atrocious cruelties, and not in that of an unhappy prince driven from his home by the pressure of unavoidable calamity. Nev- ertheless, Richard, the Duke of Normandy, re- ceived him, as we have already said, with kind- ness. ' He felt the obligation of receiving the exiled monarch in a hospitable manner, if not on his own account, at least for the sake of Emma and the children. The origin and end of Emma's interest in Ethelred seems to have been merely ambition. The " Pearl of Normandy" had given herself to this monster for the sake, apparently, of the glory of being the English queen. Her subse- quent conduct compels the readers of history to make this supposition, which otherwise would 124 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Emma's humiliation. Ethelred invited to return be uncharitable. She now mourned her disap- pointment in finding that, instead of being sus- tained by her husband in the lofty position to which she aspired, she was obliged to come back to her former home again, to be once more de- pendent, and with the additional burden of her husband himself, and her children, upon her father's family. Her situation was rendered even still more humiliating, in some degree, by the circumstances that her father was no longer alive, and that it was to her brother, on whom her natural claim was far less strong, that she had now to look for shelter and pro- tection. Richard, however, received them all in a kind and generous manner. In the mean time, the wars and commotions which had driven Ethelred away continued to rage in England, the Saxons gradually gaining ground against the Danes. At length the king of the Danes, who had seized the government when Ethelred was expelled, died. The Saxons then regained their former power, and they sent 3ommissioners to Ethelred to propose his return to England. At the same time, they expressed their unwillingness to receive him, unless they could bind him, by a solemn treaty, to take a very different course of conduct, in the future A.D.1002.] THE LADY EMMA. 125 Restoration of Ethelred and Emma. War with Canute. management of his government, from that which he had pursued before. Ethelred and Emma were eager to regain, on any terms, their lost throne. They sent over embassadors empow- ered to make, in Ethelred's name, any prom- ises which the English nobles might demand ; and shortly afterward the royal pan- crossed the Channel and went to London, and Ethelred was acknowledged there by the Saxon portion of the population of the island once more as king. The Danes, however, though weakened, were not yet disposed to submit. They declared their allegiance to Canute, who was the suc- cessor in the Danish line. Then followed a long war between Canute and Ethelred. Ca- nute was a man of extraordinary sagacity and intelligence, and also of great courage and en- ergy. Ethelred, on the other hand, proved him- self, notwithstanding all his promises, incurably inefficient, cowardly, and cruel. In fact, his son Prince Edmund, the son of his first wife, was far more efficient than his father in resist- ing Canute and the Danes. Edmund was ac- tive and fearless, and he soon acquired very ex- tensive power. In fact, he seems to have held the authority of his father in very little respect. One striking instance of this insubordination 126 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Ethelred's death. Situation of Emma. occurred. Ethelred had taken offense, for some reason or other, at one of the nobles in his realm, and had put him to death, and confiscated his estates ; and, in addition to this, with a cruel- ty characteristic of him, he shut up the unhap- py widow of his victim, a young and beautiful woman, in a gloomy convent, as a prisoner. Edmund, his son, went to the convent, liberated the prisoner, and made her his own wife. "With such unfriendly relations between the king and his son, who seems to have been the ablest general in his father's army, there could be little hope of making head against such an enemy as Canute the Dane. In fact, the course of public affairs went on from bad to worse, Emma leading all the time a life of unceasing anxiety and alarm. At length, in 1016, Eth- elred died, and Emma's cup of disappointment and humiliation was now full. Her own sons, Edward and Alfred, had no claims to the crown ; for Edmund, being the son by a former mar- riage, was older than they. They were too young to take personally an active part in the fierce contests of the day, and thus fight their way to importance and power. And then Ed- mund, who was now to become king, would, of course, feel no interest in advancing them, or A.D. 1017.] THE LADY EMMA. 129 Flight of Emma to Normandy. Her children. doing honor to her. A son who would thwart and counteract the plans and measures of a father, as Edmund had done, would be little likely to evince much deference or regard for a mother-in-law, or for half brothers, whom he would naturally consider as his rivals. In a word, Emma had reason to be alarmed at the situation of insignificance and danger in which she found herself suddenly placed. She fled a second time, in destitution and distress, to her brother's in Normandy. She was now, how- ever, a widow, and her children were fatherless. It is difficult to decide whether to consider her situation as better or worse on this account, than it was at her former exile. Her sons were lads, but little advanced be- yond the period of childhood ; and Edward, the eldest, on whom the duty of making exertions to advance the family interests would first de- volve, was of a quiet and gentle spirit, giving little promise that he would soon be disposed to enter vigorously upon military campaigns. Edmund, on the other hand, who was now king, was in the prime of life, and was a man of great spirit and energy. There was a reasonable prospect that he would live many years ; and even if he were to be suddenly cut off, there 289 130 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. War with Canute. Treaty between Edmund and Canute. seemed to be no hope of the restoration of Emma to importance or power ; for Edmund was mar- ried and had two sons, one of whom would be entitled to succeed him in case of his decease. It seemed, therefore, to be Emma's destiny now, to spend the remainder of her days with her children in neglect and obscurity. The case resulted differently, however, as we shall see in the end. Edmund, notwithstanding his prospect of a long and prosperous career, was cut off sudden- ly, after a stormy reign of one year. During his reign, Canute the Dane had been fast gain- ing gronnd in England, notwithstanding the vigor and energy with which Edmund .had op- posed him. Finally, the two monarchs assem- bled their armies, and were about to fight a great final battle. Edmund sent a flag of truce to Canute's camp, proposing "that, to save the effusion of blood, they should agree to decide the case by single combat, and that he and Ca- nute should be the champions, and fight in pres- ence of the armies. Canute declined this pro- posal. He was himself small and slender in form, while Edmund was distinguished for his personal development and muscular strength. Canute therefore declined the personal contest, A.D. 10170 THB LADY EMMA. 131 Death of Edmund. Accession of Canute. bat offered to leave the question to the decision of a council chosen from among the leading nobles on either side. This plan was finally adopted. The council convened, and, after long deliberations, they framed a treaty by which the country was divided between the two poten- tates, and a sort of peace was restored. A very short period after this treaty was settled, Ed- mund was murdered. Canute immediately laid claim to the whole realm. He maintained that it was a part of the treaty that the partition of the kingdom waft to continue only during their joint lives, and that, on the death of either, the whole was to pass to the survivor of them. The Saxon lead- ers did not admit this, but they were in no con- dition very strenuously to oppose it. Ethelred's sons by Emma were too young to come forward as leaders yet ; and as to Edmund's, they were mere children. There was, therefore, no one whom they could produce as an efficient repre- sentative of the Saxon line, and thus the Sax- ons were compelled to submit to Canute's pre- tensions, at least for a time. They would not wholly give up the claims of Edmund's children, but they consented to waive them for a season. They gave Canute the guardianship of the boys 132 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Canute's wise policy. His treatment of Edmund's children. until they should become of age, and allowed him, in the mean time, to reign, himself, over the whole land. Canute exercised his power in a very discreet and judicious manner, seeming intent, in all his arrangements, to protect the rights and in- terests of the Saxons as well as of the Danes. It might be supposed that the lives of the young Saxon princes, Edmund's sons, would not have been safe in his hands ; but the policy which he immediately resolved to pursue was to concili- ate the Saxons, and not to intimidate and coerce them. He therefore did the young children no harm, but sent them away out of the country to Denmark, that they might, if possible, be gradv ually forgotten. Perhaps he thought that, if the necessity should arise for it, they might there, at any time, be put secretly to death. There was another reason still to prevent Canute's destroying these children, which was, that if they were removed, the claims of the Saxon line would not thereby be extinguished, but would only be transferred to Emma's chil- dren in Normandy, who, being older, were like- ly the sooner to be in a condition to give him trouble as rivals. It was therefore a very wise and sagacious policy which prompted him to A.D. 1017-37.] THE LADY EMMA. 133 Canute marries Emma. Opposition of her sons. keep the young children of Edmund alive, but to remove them to a safe distance out of the way. In respect to Emma's children, Canute con- ceived a different plan for guarding against any danger which came from their claims, and that was, to propose to take their mother for his wife. By this plan her family would come into his power, and then her own influence and that of her Norman friends would be forever prevented from taking sides against him. He according- ly made the proposal. Emma was ambitious enough of again returning to her former position of greatness as English queen to accept it ea- gerly. The world condemned her for being so ready to many, for her second husband, the deadly enemy and rival of the first ; but it was all one to her whether her husband was Saxon or Dane, provided that she could be queen. The boys, or, rather, the young men, for they were now advancing to maturity, were very strongly opposed to this connection. They did all in their power to prevent its consummation, and they never forgave their mother for thus basely betraying their interests. They were the more incensed at this transaction, because it was stipulated in the marriage articles be- tween Canute and Emma that their future chil- 134 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Emma again queen of England. The Earl Godwin. dren the offspring of the marriage then con- tracted should succeed to the throne of En- gland, to the exclusion of all previously born on either side. Thus Canute fancied that he had secured his title, and that of his descendants, to the crown forever, and Emma prepared to re- turn to England as once more its queen. The marriage was celebrated with great pomp and splendor, and Emma, bidding Normandy and her now alienated children farewell, was con- ducted in state to the royal palace in London. We must now pass over, with a very few words, a long interval of twenty years. It was the period of Canute's reign, which was pros- perous and peaceful. During this period Em- ma's Norman sons continued in Normandy. She had another son in England a few years after her marriage, who was named Canute, aft- er his father, but he is generally known in his- tory by the name of Hardicanute, the prefix be- ing a Saxon word denoting energetic or strong. Canute had also a very celebrated minister in his government named Godwin. Godwin was a Saxon of a very humble origin, and the histo- ry of his life constitutes quite a romantic tale.* * It is given at length in the last chapter of our history f Alfred the Great AJX1037.] THE LADY EMMA. 135 Canute's death. He bequeaths the kingdom to Harold He was a man of extraordinary talents and character, and at the time of Canute's death ho was altogether the most powerful subject in th< realm. When Canute found that he was about to die, and began to consider what arrangements he should make for the succession, he concluded that it would not be safe for him to fulfill the agreement made in his marriage contract with Emma, that the children of that marriage should inherit the kingdom ; for Hardicanute, who was entitled to succeed under that cove- nant, was only about sixteen or seventeen years old, and consequently too young to attempt to* govern. He therefore made a will, in which he left the kingdom to an older son, named Harold a son whom he had had before his marriage with Emma. This was the signal for a new struggle. The influence of the Saxons and of Emma's friends was of course in favor of Har- dicanute, while the Danes espoused the cause of Harold. Gfodwin at length taking sides with this last-named party, Harold was estab- lished on the throne, and Emma and all her children, whether descended from Ethelred or Canute, were set aside and forgotten. Emma was not at all disposed to acquiesce 136 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Emma's plots for her children. Her letter to them in this change of fortune. She remained in England, but was secretly incensed at her sec- ond husband's breach of faith toward her ; and as he had abandoned the child of his marriage with her for his former children, she now de- termined to abandon him for hers. She gave up Hardicanute's cause, therefore, and began secretly to plot among the Saxon population for bringing forward her son Edward to the throne. When she thought that things were ripe for the execution of the plot, she wrote a letter to her children in Normandy, saying to them that the Saxon population were weary of the Danish line, and were ready, she believed, to rise hi behalf of the ancient Saxon line, if the true representative of it would appear to lead them. She therefore invited them to come to London and consult with her on the subject. She directed them, however, to come, if they came at all, in a quiet and peaceful manner, and without any appearance of hostile intent, inasmuch as any thing which might seem like a foreign invasion would awaken universal jeal- ousy and alarm. When this letter was received by the broth- ers in Normandy, the eldest, Edward, declined to go, but gave his consent that Alfred should A.D. 1037.] THE LADY EMMA. 137 Disastrous issue of Alfred's expedition. His terrible sentence. undertake the expedition if he were disposed. Alfred accepted the proposal. In fact, the tem- perament and character of the two brothers were very different. Edward was sedate, serious, and timid. Alfred was ardent and aspiring. The younger, therefore, decided to take the risk of crossing the Channel, while the elder prefer- red to remain at home. The result was very disastrous. Contrary to his mother's instructions, Alfred took with him quite a troop of Norman soldiers. He crossed the Channel in safety, and advanced across the country some distance toward London. Harold sent out a force to intercept him. He was sur- rounded, and he himself and all his followers were taken prisoners. He was sentenced to lose his eyes, and he died in a few days after the execution of this terrible sentence, from the mingled effects of fever and of mental anguish and despair. Emma fled to Flanders. Finally Harold died, and Hardicanute suc- ceeded him. In a short time Hardicanute died, leaving no heirs, and now, of course, there was no one left* to compete with Emma's oldest * The children of Ethelred's oldest son, Edmund, were in Hungary at this time, and seem to have been wellnigh fon. gotten. 138 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Edward's accession. Emma wretched and miserable, son Edward, who had remained all this time quietly in Normandy. He was accordingly pro- claimed king. This was in 1041. He reigned for twenty years, having commenced his reign about the time that William the Conqueror was established in the possession of his dominions as Duke of Normandy. Edward had known Will- iam intimately during his long residence in Nor- mandy, and William came to visit him in En- gland in the course of his reign. William, in fact, considered himself as Edward's heir ; for as Edward, though married, had no children, the dukes of the Norman line were his nearest relatives. He obtained, he said, a promise from Edward that Edward would sanction and con- firm his claim to the English crown, in the event of his decease, by bequeathing it to William in his will. Emma was now advanced in years. The ambition which had been the ruling principle of her life would seem to have been well satis- fied, so far as it is possible to satisfy ambition, for she had had two husbands and two sons, all kings of England. But as she advanced to- ward the close of her career, she found herself wretched and miserable. Her son Edward could not forgive her for her abandonment of A.D. 1063.] THE LADY EMMA. 139 Accusations against Emma. Her wretched end. himself and his brother, to marry a man who was their own and their father's bitterest enemy. She had made a formal treaty in her marriage covenant to exclude them from the throne. She had treated them with neglect during all the time of Canute's reign, while she was living with him in London in power and splendor. Edward accused her, also, of having connived at his brother Alfred's death. The story is, that he caused her to be tried on this charge by the ordeal of fire. This method consisted of laying red-hot irons upon the stone floor of a church, at certain distances from each other, and requiring the accused to walk over them with naked feet. If the accused was innocent, Providence, as they supposed, would so guide his footsteps that he should not touch the irons. Thus, if he was innocent, he would go over safely ; if guilty, he would be burned. Emma, according to the story of the times, was sub- jected to this test, in the Cathedral of "Win- chester, to determine whether she was cogni- zant of the murder of her son. Whether this is true or not, there is no doubt that Edward confined her a prisoner hi the monastery at Winchester, where she ended her days at last in neglect and wretchedness. 140 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Edmund's children. Godwin. Harold. When Edward himself drew near to the close of his life, his mind was greatly perplexed in respect to the succession. There was one de- scendant of his brother Edmund whose chil- dren, it will be remembered, Canute had sent away to Denmark, hi order to remove them out of the way who was still living in Hungary. The name of this descendant was Edward. He was, in fact, the lawful heir to the crown. But he had spent his life in foreign countries, and was now far away ; and, in the mean time, the Earl Godwin, who has been already mentioned as the great Saxon nobleman who rose from a very humble rank to the position of the most powerful subject in the realm, obtained such an influence, and wielded so great a power, that he seemed at one time stronger than the king himself. Godwin at length died, but his son Harold, who was as energetic and active as his father, inherited his power, and seemed, as Ed- ward thought, to be aspiring to the future pos- session of the throne. Edward had hated God- win and all his family, and was now extremely anxious to prevent the possibility of Harold's accession. He accordingly sent to Hungary to bring Edward, his nephew, home. Edward eame, bringing his family with him. He had A-.D. 1052.] THE LADY EMMA. 141 Plans of Edward. Plots and counterplots. a young son named Edgar. It was King Ed- ward's plan to make arrangements for bring- ing this Prince Edward to the throne after his death, that Harold might be excluded. The plan was a very judicious one, but it was unfortunately frustrated by Prince Edward's death, which event took place soon after he ar- rived in England. The young Edgar, then a child, was, of course, his heir. The king was convinced that no government which could be organized in the name of Edgar would be able to resist the mighty power of Harold, and he turned his thoughts, therefore, again to the ac- cession of William of Normandy, who was the nearest relative on his mother's side, as the only means of saving the realm from falling into the hands of the usurper Harold. A long and vex- atious contest then ensued, in wliich the lead- ing powers and influences of the kingdom were divided and distracted by the plans, plots, man- euvers, and countei maneuvers of Harold to obtain the accession for himself, and of Edward to secure it for William of Normandy. In this contest H&rold conquered in the first instance., and Edward and William in the end. 142 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Harold and William. Quarrel between Godwin and Edward CHAPTER VII. KING HAROLD. HAROLD, the son of the Earl Godwin, who was maneuvering to gain possession of the English throne, and William of Normandy, though they lived on opposite sides of the En- glish Channel, the one in France and the other in England, were still personally known to each other ; for not only had William, as was stated in the last chapter, paid a visit to England, but Harold himself, on one occasion, made an ex- cursion to Normandy. The circumstances of this expedition were, in some respects, quite ex- traordinary, and illustrate in a striking manner some of the peculiar ideas and customs of the times. They were as follows : During the life of Harold's father Godwin, there was a very serious quarrel between him, that is, Godwin, and King Edward, in which both the king and his rebellious subject marshal- ed their forces, and for a time waged against each other an open and sanguinary war. In this contest the power of Godwin had proved so A. D. 1063.] KING HAROLD. 143 Treaty between Godwin and Edward. Hostages. formidable, and the military forces which he succeeded in marshaling under his banners were so great, that Edward's government was una- ble effectually to put him down. At length, after a long and terrible struggle, which involv- ed a large part of the country in the horrors of a civil war, the belligerents made a treaty with each other, which settled their quarrel by a sort of compromise. Godwin was to retain his high position and rank as a subject, and to continue in the government of certain portions of the isl- and which had long been under his jurisdiction ; he, on his part, promising to dismiss his armies, and to make war upon the king no more. He bound himself to the faithful performance of these covenants by giving the king hostages, The hostages given up on such occasions were always near and dear relatives and friends, and the understanding was, that if the party giving them failed in fulfilling his obligations, the in- nocent and helpless hostages were to be entirely at the mercy of the other party into whose cus- tody they had been given. The latter would, in such cases, imprison them, torture them, or put them to death, with a greater or less de- gree of severity in respect to the infliction of pain, according to the degree of exasperation 144 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The giving of hostages now abandoned. Cruelties inflicted. which the real or fancied injury which he had received awakened in his mind. This cruel method of binding fierce and un- principled men to the performance of then- prom- ises has been universally abandoned in modern times, though in the rude and early stages of civilization it has been practiced among all na- tions, ancient and modern. The hostages cho- sen were often of young and tender years, and were always such as to render the separation which took place when they were torn from their friends most painful, as it was the very object of the selection to obtain those who were most beloved. They were delivered into the hands of those whom they had always regarded as their bitterest enemies, and who, of course, were objects of aversion and terror. They were sent away into places of confinement and seclu- sion, and kept in the custody of strangers, where they lived in perpetual fear that some new outbreak between the contending parties would occur, and consign them to torture or death. The cruelties sometimes inflicted, in such cases, on the innocent hostages, were aw- ful. At one time, during the contentions be- tween Ethelred and Canute, Canute, being driv- en across the country to the sea-coast, and there A.D.1064.] KING HAROLD. 145 Canute's hostages. Godwin's hostages. compelled to embark on board his ships to make his escape, was cruel enough to cut off the hands and the feet of some hostages which Ethelred had previously given him, and leave them writh- ing in agony on the sands of the shore. The hostages which are particularly named by historians as given by Godwin to King Ed- ward were his son and his grandson. Their names were Ulnoth and Hacune. Ulnoth, of course, was Harold's brother, and Hacune hi& nephew. Edward, thinking that Godwin would contrive some means of getting these securities back into his possession again if he attempted to keep them in England, decided to send them to Normandy, and to put them under the charge of William the duke for safe keeping. When Godwin died, Harold applied to Edward to give up the hostages, since, as he alleged, there was no longer any reason for detaining them. They had been given as security for Godwin's good behavior, and now Godwin was no more. Edward could not well refuse to surrender them, and yet, as Harold succeeded to the power, and evidently possessed all the ambition of his father, it seemed to be, politically, as necessary to retain the hostages now as it had been before. Edward, therefore, without abso- 2&-10 146 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Edward declines to give up the hostages. Harold goes to Normandy. lutely refusing to surrender them, postponed and evaded compliance with Harold's demand, on the ground that the hostages were in Nor- mandy. He was going, he said, to send for them as soon as he could make the necessary arrangements for bringing them home in safety. Under these circumstances, Harold determ- ined to go and bring them himself. He pro- posed this plan to Edward. Edward would not absolutely refuse his consent, but he did all in his power to discourage such an expedition. He told Harold that William of Normandy was a crafty and powerful man; that by going into his dominions he would put himself entirely into his power, and would be certain to involve himself in some serious difficulty. This inter- view between Harold and the king is commem- orated on the Bayeux tapestry by the opposite uncouth design. What effect Edward's disapproval of the pro- ject produced upon Harold's mind is not cer- tainly known. It is true that he went across the Channel, but the accounts of the crossing are confused and contradictory, some of them stating that, while sailing for pleasure with a party of attendants and companions on the coast, he was blown off from the shore and driven A.D 1064.] KING HAROLD. 147 Barold's interview with Edward. The storm. HAROLD'S INTERVIEW WITH EDWERD. across to France by a storm. The probability, however, is, that this story was only a pretense- He was determined to go, but not wishing to act openly in defiance of the king's wishes, he contrived to be blown off, in order to make it seem that he went against his will. At all events, the storm was real, whether his being compelled to leave the English shores by the power of it was real or pretended. It 148 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Harold shipwrecked. Guy, count of Pontuieu. carried him, too, out of his course, driving him up the Channel to the eastward of Normandy, where he had intended to land, and at length throwing his galley, a wreck, on the shore, not far from the mouth of the Somme. The galley itself was broken up, but Harold and his com- pany escaped to land. They found that they were in the dominions of a certain prince who held possessions on that coast, whose style and title was Gruy, count of Ponthieu. The law in those days was, that wrecks be- came the property of the lord of the territory on the shores of which they occurred ; and not only were the ships and the goods which they contained thus confiscated in case of such a disaster, but the owners themselves became li- able to be seized and held captive for a ransom. Harold, knowing his danger, was attempting to secrete himself on the coast till he could get to Normandy, when a fisherman who saw him, and knew by his dress and appearance, and by the deference with which he was treated by the rest of the company, that he was a man of great consequence in his native land, went to the count, and said that for ten crowns he would show him where there was a man who would be worth a thousand to him. The count came A.D. 1064.] KING HAROLD. 149 Harold a prisoner. He is ransomed by William. down with his retinue to the coast, seized the un- fortunate adventurers, took possession of all the goods and baggage that the waves had spared, and shut the men themselves up in his castle at Abbeville till they could pay their ransom. Harold remonstrated against this treatment. He said that he was on his way to Normandy on business of great importance with the duke, from the King of England, and that he could not be detained. But the count was very de- cided in refusing to let him go without his ran- som. Harold then sent word to William, ac- quainting him with his situation, and asking him to effect his release. William sent to the count, demanding that he should give his pris- oner up. All these things, however, only tend- ed to elevate and enlarge the count's ideas of the value and importance of the prize which he had been so fortunate to secure. He persisted in refusing to give him up without ransom. Finally William paid the ransom, in the shape of a large sum of money, and the cession, in addition, of a considerable territory. Harold and his companions in bondage were then de- livered to William's messengers, and conducted by them in safety to Rouen, where William was then residing. 10 150 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's hospitality. His policy in this. William received his distinguished guest with every possible mark of the most honorable consideration. He was escorted with great pa- rade and ceremony into the palace, lodged in the most sumptuous manner, provided with ev- ery necessary supply, and games, and military spectacles, and feasts and entertainments with- out number, were arranged to celebrate his visit. William informed him that he was at liberty to return to England whenever he pleased, and that his brother and his nephew, the hostages that he had come to seek, were at his disposal. He, however, urged him not to return imme- diately, but to remain a short time in Norman- dy with his companions. Harold accepted the invitation. All this exuberance of hospitality had its or- igin, as the reader will readily divine, in the duke's joy in finding the only important rival likely to appear to contest his claims to the En- lish crown so fully in his power, and in the hope which he entertained of so managing affairs at this visit as to divert Harold's mind from the idea of becoming the King of England himself, and to induce him to pledge himself to act in his, that is, William's favor. He took, there- fore, all possible pains to make him enjoy his A.D.1064.J KING HAROLD. 151 William's treatment of his guests. Excursion to Brittany. visit in Normandy ; he exhibited to him the wealth and the resources of the country con- ducting him from place to place to visit the cas- tles, the abbeys, and the towns and, finally, he proposed that he should accompany him on a military expedition into Brittany. Harold, pleased with the honors conferred upon him, and with the novelty and magnifi- cence of the scenes to which he was introduced, entered heartily into all these plans, and his companions and attendants were no less pleased than he. "William knighted many of these fol- lowers of Harold, and made them costly pres- ents of horses, and banners, and suits of armor, and other such gifts as were calculated to cap- tivate the hearts of martial adventurers such as they. "William soon gained an entire ascend- ency over their minds, and when he invited them to accompany him on his expedition into Brittany, they were all eager to go. Brittany was west of Normandy, and on the frontiers of it, so that the expedition was not a distant one. Nor was it long protracted. It was, in fact, a sort of pleasure excursion, Will- iam taking his guest across the frontier into his neighbor's territory, on a marauding party, just as a nobleman, in modern times, would take a 152 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Harold's talents. William's policy. party into a forest to hunt. William and Har- old were on the most intimate and friendly terms possible during the continuance of this campaign. They occupied the same tent, and ate at the same table. Harold evinced great military talents and much bravery in the va- rious adventures which they met with in Brit- tany, and William felt more than ever the de- sirableness of securing his influence on his, that is, William's side, or, at least, of preventing his becoming an open rival and enemy. On their return from Brittany into Normandy, he judg- ed that the time had arrived for taking his measures. He accordingly resolved to come to an open understanding with Harold in respect to his plans, and to seek his co-operation. He introduced the subject, the historians say, one day as they were riding along homeward from their excursion, and had been for some time talking familiarly on the way, relating tales to one another of wars, battles, sieges, and hair-breadth escapes, and other such ad- ventures as formed, generally, the subjects of narrative conversation in those days. At length William, finding Harold, as he judged, in a fa- vorable mood for such a communication, intro- duced the subject of the English realm and the A.D.1064.] KING HAROLD. - 153 William makes known to Harold his claims to the English crown. approaching demise of the crown. He told him, confidentially, that there had been an arrange- ment between him, "William, and King Ed- ward, for some time, that Edward was to adopt him as his successor. William told Harold, moreover, that he should rely a great deal on his co-operation and assistance in getting peace- able possession of the kingdom, and promised to bestow upon him the very highest rewards and honors in return if he would give him his aid. The only rival claimant, William said, was the young child Edgar, and he had no friends, no party, no military forces, and no means what- ever for maintaining his pretensions. On the other hand, he, William, and Harold, had obvi- ously all the power in their own hands, and if they could only co-operate together on a com- mon understanding, they would be sure to have the power and the honors of the English realm entirely at their disposal. Harold listened to all these suggestions, and pretended to be interested and pleased. He was, in reality, interested, but he was not pleased. He wished to secure the kingdom for himself, not merely to obtain a share, however large, of its power and its honors as the subject of an- other. He was, however, too wary to evince 154 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Harold's dissimulation. William's precautions. his displeasure. On the contrary, he assented to the plan, professed to enter into it with all his heart, and expressed his readiness to com- mence, immediately, the necessary preliminary measures for carrying it into execution. Will- iam was much gratified with the successful re- sult of his negotiation, and the two chieftains rode home to William's palace in Normandy, banded together, apparently, by very strong ties. In secret, however, Harold was resolving to effect his departure from Normandy as soon as possible, and to make immediate and most effectual measures for securing the kingdom of England to himself, without any regard to the promises that he had made to William. Nor must it be supposed that William him- self placed any positive reliance on mere prom- ises from Harold. He immediately began to form plans for binding him to the performance of his stipulations, by the modes then commonly employed for securing the fulfillment of cove- nants made among princes. These methods were three intermarriages, the giving of hos- tages, and solemn oaths. William proposed two marriages as means of strengthening the alliance between himself and Harold. Harold was to give to William A.D. 1064.] KING HAROLD. 155 The betrothment. William retains a hostage one of his daughters, that William might marry her to one of his Norman chieftains. This would be, of course, placing her in William's power, and making her a hostage all but hi name. Harold, however, consented. The sec- ond marriage proposed was between William's daughter and Harold himself ; but as his daugh- ter was a child of only seven years of age, it could only be a betrothment that could take place at that time. Harold acceded to this proposal too, and arrangements were made for having the faith of the parties pledged to one another in the most solemn manner. A great assembly of all the knights, nobles, and ladies of the court was convened, and the ceremony of pledging the troth between the fierce warrior and the gentle and wondering child was per- formed with as much pomp and parade as if it had been an actual wedding. The name of the girl was Adela. In respect to hostages, William determined to detain one of those whom Harold, as will be rec- ollected, had come into Normandy to recover. He told him, therefore, that he might take with him his nephew Hacune, but that Ulnoth, his brother, should remain, and William would bring him over himself when he came to take 156 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Harold's apparent acquiescence. The public oath. possession of the kingdom. Harold was ex- tremely unwilling to leave his brother thus in William's power ; hut as he knew very well that his being allowed to return to England himself would depend upon his not evincing any reluc- tance to giving William security, or manifest- ing any other indication that he was not intend- ing to keep his plighted faith, he readily con- sented, and it was thus settled that Ulnoth should remain. Finally, in order to hold Harold to the fulfill- ment of his promises by every possible form of obligation, William proposed that he should take a public and solemn oath, in the presence of a large assembly of all the great potentates and chieftains of the realm, by which he should bind himself, under the most awful sanctions, to keep his word. Harold made no objection to this either. He considered himself as, in fact, in duress, and his actions as not free. He was in William's power, and was influenced in all he did by a desire to escape from Normandy, and once more recover his liberty. He accord- ingly decided, in his own mind, that whatever oaths he might take he should afterward con- sider as forced upon him, and consequently as null and void, and was ready, therefore, to take any that William might propose. A.D. 1064.] KING HAROLD. 157 The great assembly of knights and nobles. The threefold oath. The great assembly was accordingly conven- ed. In the middle of the council hall there was placed a great chair of state, which was covered with a cloth of gold. Upon this cloth, and rais- ed considerably above the seat, was the missal, that is, the book of service of the Catholic Church, written on parchment and splendidly illuminated. The book was open at a passage from one of the Evangelists the Evangelists being a portion of the Holy Scriptures which was, in those days, supposed to invest an oath with the most solemn sanctions. Harold felt some slight misgivings as he ad- vanced in the midst of such an imposing scene as the great assembly of knights and ladies pre- sented in the council hall, to repeat his prom- ises in the very presence of (rod, and to impre- cate the retributive curses of the Almighty on the violation of them, which he was deliberately and fully determined to incur. He had, how- ever, gone too far to retreat now. He advanc- ed, therefore, to the open missal, laid his hand upon the book, and, repeating the words which William dictated to him from his throne, he took the threefold oath required, namely, to aid "William to the utmost of his power in his attempt to secure the succession to the English 158 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's precaution. The sacred relics. crown, to marry William's daughter Adela as soon as she should arrive at a suitable age, and to send over forthwith from England his own daughter, that she might be espoused to one of William's nobles. As soon as the oath was thus taken, William caused the missal and the cloth of gold to be re- moved, and there appeared beneath it, on the chair of state, a chest, containing the sacred rel- ics of the Church, which William had secretly collected from the abbeys and monasteries of his dominions, and placed in this concealment, that, without Harold's being conscious of it, their dreadful sanction might be added to that which the Holy Evangelists imposed. These relics were fragments of bones set in caskets and frames, and portions of blood relics, as the monks alleged, of apostles or of the Savior and small pieces of wood, similarly preserved, which had been portions of the cross of Christ or of his thorny crown. These things were treasured up with great solemnity in the monastic estab- lishments and in the churches of these early times, and were regarded with a veneration and awe, of which it is almost beyond our power even to conceive. Harold trembled when he saw what he had unwittingly done. He was AD. 1064.] KING HAROLD. 159 Harold's departure. His measures to secure the throne. terrified to think how much more dreadful was the force of the imprecations that he had utter- ed than he had imagined while uttering them. But it was too late to undo what he had done. The assembly was finally dismissed. William thought he had the conscience of his new ally firmly secured, and Harold began to prepare for leaving Normandy. He continued on excellent terms with Will- iam until his departure. William accompanied him to the sea-shore when the time of his em- barkation arrived, and dismissed him at last with many farewell honors, and a profusion of presents. Harold set sail, and, crossing the Channel in safety, he landed in England. He commenced immediately an energetic sys- tem of measures to strengthen his own cause, and prepare the way for his own accession. He organized his party, collected arms and muni- tions of war, and did all that he could to ingrati- ate himself with the most powerful and wealthy nobles. He sought the favor of the king, too, and endeavored to persuade him to discard Will- iam. The king was now old and infirm, and was growing more and more inert and gloomy as he advanced in age. His mind was occu- pied altogether in ecclesiastical rites and ob- 160 "WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Age and infirmities of Edward. Westminster. servances, or plunged in a torpid and lifeless melancholy, which made him averse to giving any thought to the course which the affairs of his kingdom were to take after he was gone. He did not care whether Harold or William took the crown when he laid it aside, provided they would allow him to die in peace. He had had, a few years previous to this time, a plan of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but had finally made an arrangement with the pope, allowing him to build a Cathedral church, to be dedicated to St. Peter, a few miles west of London, in lieu of his pilgrimage. There was already a Cathedral church or minster in the heart of London which was dedicated to St. Paul. The new one was afterward often called, to distinguish it from the other, the west min- ster, which designation, Westminster, became afterward its regular name. It was on this spot, where Westminster Abbey now stands, that Edward's church was to be built. It was just completed at the time of which we are speak- ing, and the king was preparing for the dedi- cation of it. He summoned an assembly of all the prelates and great ecclesiastical dignitaries of the land to convene at London, in order to dedicate the new Cathedral. Before they were A.D. 1066.] KING HAROLD. 161 Edward's death. The crown offered to Harold. ready for the service, the king was taken sud- denly sick. They placed him upon his couch in his palace chamber, where he lay, restless, and moaning in pain, and repeating incessantly, half in sleep and half in delirium, the gloomy and threatening texts of Scripture which seem- ed to haunt his mind. He was eager to have the dedication go on. and they hastened the service in order to gratify him by having it per- formed before he died. The next day he was obviously failing. Harold and his friends were very earnest to have the departing monarch de- clare in his favor before he died, and their coming and going, and their loud discussions, rude sol- diers as they were, disturbed his dying hours. He sent them word to choose whom they would for king, duke or earl, it was indifferent to him, and thus expired. Harold had made his arrangements so well, and had managed so effectually to secure the influence of all the powerful nobles of the king- dom, that they immediately convened and offer- ed him the crown. Edgar was in the court of Edward at the time, but he was too young to make any effort to advance his claims. He was, in fact, a foreigner, though in the English royal line. He had been brought up on the 2811 162 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR Harold's coronation. He knigta Edgar. Continent of Europe, and could not even speak the English tongue. He acquiesced, therefore, without complaint, in these proceedings, and was even present as a consenting spectator on the occasion of Harold's coronation, which cere- mony was performed with great pomp and pa- rade, at St. Paul's, in London, very soon after King Edward's death. Harold rewarded Ed- gar for his complaisance and discretion hy con- ferring upon him the honor of knighthood im- mediately after the coronation, and in the church where the ceremony was performed. He also conferred similar distinctions and honors upon many other aspiring and ambitious men whom he wished to secure to his side. He thus seem- ed to have secure and settled possession of the throne. Previously to this time, Harold had married a young lady of England, a sister of two very powerful noblemen, and the richest heiress in the realm. This marriage greatly strengthen- ed his influence in England, and helped to pre- pare the way for his accession to the supreme power. The tidings of it, however, when they crossed the Channel and reached the ears of William of Normandy, as the act was an open and deliberate violation of one of the covenants A.D. 1066.] KING HAROLD. 163 Harold violates his plighted faith to William. which Harold had made with William, con- vinced the latter that none of these covenants would be kept, and prepared him to expect all that afterward followed. 164 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Harold's brother Tostig. He brings intelligence of Harold's accession. CHAPTER VIII. THE PREPARATIONS. messenger who brought William the tidings of Harold's accession to the throne was a man named Tostig, Harold's brother. Though he was Harold's brother, he was still his bitterest enemy. Brothers are seldom friends in families where there is a crown to be con- tended for. There were, of course, no public modes of communicating intelligence in those days, and Tostig had learned the facts of Ed- ward's death and Harold's coronation through spies which he had stationed at certain points on the coast. He was himself, at that time, on the Continent. He rode with all speed to Rouen to communicate the news to William, eager to incite him to commence hostilities against his brother. When Tostig arrived at Rouen, William was in a park which lay in the vicinity of the city, trying a new bow that had been recently made for him. William was a man of prodigious muscular strength, and they gave him the credit A.D. 1066.] THE PREPARATIONS. 167 William's strength and dexterity. His surprise. of being able to use easily a bow which nobody else could bend. A part of this credit was doubtless due to the etiquette which, in royal palaces and grounds, leads all sensible courtiers to take good care never to succeed in attempts to excel the king. But, notwithstanding this consideration, there is no doubt that the duke really merited a great portion of the commen- dation that he received for his strength and dex- terity in the use of the bow. It was a weapon in which he took great interest. A new one had been made for him, of great elasticity and strength, and he had gone out into his park, with his officers, to try its powers, when Tostig arrived. Tostig followed him to the place, and there advancing to his side, communicated the tidings to him privately. William was greatly moved by the intelli- gence. His ' arrow dropped upon the ground. He gave the bow to an attendant. He stood for a tune speechless, tying and untying the cordon of his cloak in his abstraction. Present- ly he began slowly to move away from the place, and to return toward the city. His at- tendants followed him in silence, wondering what the exciting tidings could be which had produced so sudden and powerful an effect 168 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Fitzosborne. His interview with William. "William went into the castle hall, and walk- ed to and fro a long time, thoughtful, and evi- dently agitated. His attendants waited in si- lence, afraid to speak to him. Rumors began at length to circulate among them in respect to the nature of the intelligence which had been received. At length a great officer of state, named Fitzosborne, arrived at the castle. As he passed through the court-yard and gates, the attendants and the people, knowing that he pos- sessed in a great degree the confidence of his sovereign, asked him what the tidings were that had made such an impression. " I know noth- ing certain about it," said he, " but I will soon learn." So saying, he advanced toward Will- iam, and accosted him by saying, " Why should you conceal from us your news ? It is report- ed in the city that the King of England is dead, and that Harold has violated his oaths to you, and has seized the kingdom. Is that true ?" William acknowledged that that was the in- telligence by which he had been so vexed and chagrined. Fitzosborne urged the duke not to allow such events to depress or dispirit him. " As for the death of Edward," said he, " that is an event past and sure, and can not be re- called; but Harold's usurpation and treachery A.D. 1066.] THE PREPARATIONS. 169 The great council of state. The embassy to Harold. admits of a very easy remedy. You have the right to the throne, and you have the soldiers necessary to enforce that right. Undertake the enterprise boldly. You will be sure to succeed." William revolved the subject in his mind for a few days, during which the exasperation and anger which the first receipt of the intelligence had produced upon him was succeeded by calm but indignant deliberation, in respect to the course which he should pursue. He concluded to call a great council of state, and to lay the case before them not for the purpose of ob- taining their advice, but to call their attention to the crisis in a formal and solemn manner, and to prepare them to act in concert in the subsequent measures to be pursued. The re- sult of the deliberations of this council, guided, doubtless, by William's own designs, was, that the first step should be to send an embassy to Harold to demand of him the fulfillment of his promises. The messenger was accordingly dispatched. He proceeded to London, and laid before Harold the communication with which he had been in- trusted. This communication recounted the thre-3 promises which Harold had made, name- ly, to send his daughter to Normandy to be 170 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Harold reminded or his promises. His replies. married to one of William's generals ; to marry William's daughter himself; and to maintain William's claims to the English crown on the death of Edward. He was to remind Harold, also, of the solemnity with which he had bound himself to fulfill these obligations, by oaths tak- en in the presence of the most sacred relics of the Church, and in the most public and deliber- ate manner. Harold replied, 1. That as to sending over his daughter to be married to one of William's generals, he could not do it, for his daughter was dead. He pre- sumed, he said, that William did not wish him to send the corpse. 2. In respect to marrying William's daughter, to whom he had been affianced in Normandy, he was sorry to say that that was also out of his power, as he could not take a foreign wife without the consent of his people, which he was confident would never be given; besides, he was already married, he said, to a Saxon lady of his own dominions. 3. In regard to the kingdom : it did not de- pend upon him, he said, to decide who should rule over England as Edward's successor, but upon the will of Edward himself, and upon the A.D. 1066.] THE PREPARATIONS. 171 Return of the messenger. William prejyires for war. English people. The English barons and no- bles had decided, with Edward's concurrence, that he, Harold, was their legitimate and proper sovereign, and that it was not for him to con- trovert their will. However much he might be disposed to comply with "William's wishes, and to keep his promise, it was plain that it was out of his power, for in promising him the English crown, he had promised what did not belong to him to give. 4. As to his oaths, he said that, notwith- standing the secret presence of the sacred relics under the cloth of gold, he considered them as of no binding force upon his conscience, for he was constrained to take them as the only means of escaping from the duress in which he was virtually held in Normandy. Promises, and oaths even, when extorted by necessity, were null and void. The messenger returned to Normandy with these replies, and William immediately began to prepare for war. His first measure was to call a council of his most confidential friends and advisers, and to lay the subject before them. They cordially approved of the plan of an invasion of England, and promised to co-operate in the accomplish- ment of it to the utmost of their power. 172 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William calls a general council. Want of funds. The next step was to call a general council of all the chieftains and nobles of the land, and also the notables, as they were called, or prin- cipal officers and municipal authorities of the towns. The main point of interest for the con- sideration of this assembly was, whether the country would submit to the necessary taxation for raising the necessary funds. William had ample power, as duke, to decide upon the in- vasion and to undertake it. He could also, without much difficulty, raise the necessary number of men ; for every baron in his realm was bound, by the feudal conditions on which he held his land, to furnish his quota of men for any military enterprise in which his sover- eign might see fit to engage. But for so dis- tant and vast an undertaking as this, William needed a much larger supply of funds than were usually required in the wars of those days. For raising such large supplies, the political in- stitutions of the Middle Ages had not made any adequate provision. Governments then had no power of taxation, like that so freely exercised in modern times; and even now, taxes in France and England take the form of grants from the people to the kings. And as to the contrivance, so exceedingly ingenious, by which A.D. 1066.] THE PREPARATIONS. 173 Means of raising money. Adverse viewg. inexhaustible resources are opened to govern- ments at the present day that is, the plan of borrowing the money, and leaving posterity to pay or repudiate the debt, as they please, no minister of finance had, in William's day, been brilliant enough to discover it. Thus each ruler had to rely, then, mainly on the rents and income from his own lands, and other private resources, for the comparatively small amount of money that he needed in his brief campaigns. But now "William perceived that ships must be built and equipped, and great stores of provisions accumulated, and arms and munitions of war provided, all which would require a considera- ble outlay ; and how was this money to be ob- tained ? The general assembly which he convened were greatly distracted by the discussion of the question. The quiet and peaceful citizens who inhabited the towns, the artisans and trades- men, who wished for nothing but to be allowed to go on in their industrial pursuits in peace, were opposed to the whole project. They thought it unreasonable and absurd that they should be required to contribute from their earn- ings to enable their lord and master to go off on so distant and desperate an undertaking, from 174 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Various opinions. Confusion and disorder. which, even if successful, they could derive no benefit whatever. Many of the barons, too, were opposed to the scheme. They thought it very likely to end in disaster and defeat; and they denied that their feudal obligation to fur- nish men for their sovereign's wars was binding to the extent of requiring them to go out of the country, and beyond the sea, to prosecute his claims to the throne of another kingdom. Others, on the other hand, among the mem- bers of William's assembly, were strongly dis- posed to favor the plan. They were more ar- dent or more courageous than the rest, or per- haps their position and circumstances were such that they had more to hope from the suc- cess of the enterprise than they, or less to fear from its failure. Thus there was great divers- ity of opinion ; and as the parliamentary system of rules, by which a body of turbulent men, in modern times, are kept in some semblance of organization and order during a debate, had not then been developed, the meeting of these Nor- man deliberators was, for a time, a scene of up- roar and confusion. The members gathered in groups, each speaker getting around him as many as he could obtain to listen to his ha- rangue ; the more quiet and passive portion of A.D. 1066.] THE PREPARATIONS. 175 Plan of Fitzosborne. It is adopted by William. the assembly moving to and fro, from group to group, as they were attracted by the earnest- ness and eloquence of the different speakers, or by their approval of the sentiments which they heard them expressing. The scene, in fact, was like that presented in exciting times by a political caucus in America, before it is called to order by the chairman. Fitzosborne, the confidential friend and coun- selor, who has already been mentioned as the one who ventured to accost the duke at the time when the tidings of Edward's death and of Harold's accession first reached him, now seeing that any thing like definite and harmo- nious action on the part of this tumultuous as- sembly was out of the question, went to the duke, and proposed to him to give up the as- sembly as such, and make the best terms and arrangements that he could with the constitu- ent elements of it, individually and severally. He would himself, he said, furnish forty ships, manned, equipped, and provisioned ; and he rec- ommended to the duke to call each of the others into his presence, and ask them what they were individually willing to do. The duke adopted this plan, and it was wonderfully successful. Those who were first invited made large offers, 176 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Success of Fitzosborne's plan. Supplies flow in liberally. and their offers were immediately registered in form by the proper officers. Each one who fol- lowed was emulous of the example of those who had preceded him, and desirous of evincing as much zeal and generosity as they. Then, be- sides, the duke received these vassals with so much condescension and urbanity, and treated them with so much consideration and respect, as greatly to flatter their vanity, and raise them in their own estimation, by exalting their ideas of the importance of the services which they could render in carrying so vast an enterprise to a successful result. In a word, the tide turn- ed like a flood in favor of granting liberal sup- plies. The nobles and knights promised freely men, money, ships, arms, provisions every thing, in short, that was required ; and when the work of receiving and registering the offers was completed, and the officers summed up the aggregate amount, William found, to his ex- treme satisfaction, that his wants were abun- dantly supplied. There was another very important point, which William adopted immediate measures to secure, and that was obtaining the Pope's ap- proval of his intended expedition. The moral influence of having the Roman pontiff on his A.D. 1066.] THE PREPARATIONS. 177 Embassage to the pope. Its success. side, would, he knew, be of incalculable advant- age to him. He sent an embassage, according- ly, to Rome, to lay the whole subject before his holiness, and to pray that the pope would de- clare that he was justly entitled to the English crown, and authorize him to proceed and take possession of it by force of arms. Lanfranc was the messenger whom he employed the same Lanfranc who had been so successful, some years before, in the negotiations at Rome con- nected with the confirmation of "William and Matilda's marriage. Lanfranc was equally successful now. The pope, after examining William's claims, pro- nounced them valid. He decided that William was entitled to the rank and honors of King of England. He caused a formal diploma to be made out to this effect. The diploma was ele- gantly executed, signed with the cross, accord- ing to the pontifical custom, and sealed with a round leaden seal.* It was, in fact, very natural that the Roman authorities should take a favorable view of Will, iam's enterprise, and feel an interest in its sue. * The Latin name for such a seal was India. It is on uo count of this sort of seal, which is customarily affixed U them, that papal edicts have received the name of bulls. 2812 178 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Reasons why the pope favored William's claims. cess, as it was undoubtedly for the interest of the Church that William, rather than Harold, should reign over England, as the accession of William would bring the English realm far more fully under the influence of the Roman Church. William had always been very sub- missive to the pontifical authority, as was shown in his conduct in respect to the question of his marriage. He himself, and also Matilda his wife, had always taken a warm interest in the welfare and prosperity of the abbeys, the mon- asteries, the churches, and the other religious establishments of the times. Then the very cir- cumstance that he sent his embassador to Rome to submit his claims to the pontiff's adjudica- tion, while Harold did not do so, indicated a greater deference for the authority of the Church, and made it probable that he would be a far more obedient and submissive son of the Church, in his manner of ruling his realm, if he should succeed in gaining possession of it, than Har- old his rival. The pope and his counselors at Rome thought it proper to take all these things into the account in deciding between William and Harold, as they honestly believed, without doubt, that it was their first and highest duty to exalt and aggrandize, by every possible means, AD. 1066.] THE PREPARATIONS. 179 The banner and the ring. Excitement produced by their reception. the spiritual authority of the sacred institution over which they were called to preside. The pope and his cardinals, accordingly, es- poused William's cause very warmly. In ad- dition to the diploma which gave William for- mal authority to take possession cf the English crown, the pope sent him a banner and a ring. The banner was of costly and elegant workman- ship ; its value, however, did not consist in its elegance or its cost, but in a solemn benediction which his holiness pronounced over it, by which it was rendered sacred and inviolable. The banner, thus blessed, was forwarded to William by Lanfranc with great care. It was accompanied by the ring. The ring was of gold, and it contained a diamond of great value. The gold and the diamond both, how- ever, served only as settings to preserve and honor something of far greater value than they. This choice treasure was a hair from the head of the Apostle Peter ! a sacred relic of miracu- lous virtue and of inestimable value. When the edict with its leaden seal, and the banner and the ring arrived in Normandy, they produced a great and universal excitement. To have bestowed upon the enterprise thus emphat- ically the solemn sanction of the great spiritual 180 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's proclamations. Their effects. head of the Church, to whom the great mass of the people looked up with an awe and a rever- ence almost divine, was to seal indissolubly the rightfulness of the enterprise, and to insure its success. There was thenceforward no difficulty in procuring men or means. Every body was eager to share in the glory, and to obtain the rewards, of an enterprise thus commended by an authority duly commissioned to express, in all such cases, the judgment of Heaven. Finding that the current was thus fairly set- ting in his favor, William sent proclamations into all the countries surrounding Normandy, inviting knights, and soldiers, and adventurers . Era. i. bffi. cat. Xn Unto, e traa ear. 7 }?b. bftti 7 n**"- iorfc rii. un. car. Huiwba 7 ftUcJta ccrta- 7 ** ac ptf. Sflba.' b. note The passage, deciphered and expressed in full, stands thus the letters omitted in the original, above, being supplied in italics : IN BRIXISTAN Huxorafo. Rex tenet BEHMTJXDESTE. Heraldw* cornea tentut Twnc se defendebat pro xiii. hidis, modo pro xii. hidis. Terra est viil c&rrucatarurn. In dominio est una c&rrncata et xxv. villanv et xxxiii. bordam" cun una currucata, Ibi nova etpulchra ecclma, et xx. aerce prati. Silva v. porcis de pasnagio. The Engush translation is as follows : In Brixistan Hundred. The king holds BERMUXDESYE. Earl HERALD held it [be- fore]. At that time it was rated at thirteen hides ; now, at twelve. The arable land is eight carrucates [or plow-lands]. There is one carrucate in demesne, and twenty-five villans, and thirty -three bordars, with one carrucate. There is a new and handsome church, with twenty acres of meadow, and woodland for five hogs in pasnage [pasturage] time. But we must pass on to the conclusion of the story. About the year 1G32, Queen Matilda's 2818 274 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Matilda's health declines. Death of her daughter. health began seriously to decline. She was harassed by a great many anxieties and cares connected with the affairs of state which de- volved upon her, and arising from the situation of her family : these anxieties produced great dejection of spirits, and aggravated, if they did not wholly cause, her bodily disease. She was at this time in Normandy. One great source of her mental suffering was her anxiety in respect to one of her daughters, who, as well as her- self, was declining in health. Forgetting her own danger in her earnest desires for the wel- fare of her child, she made a sort of pilgrimage to a monastery which contained the shrine of a certain saint, who, as she imagined, had pow- er to save her daughter. She laid a rich pres- ent on the shrine; she offered before it most earnest prayers, imploring, with tears of bitter grief, the intercession of the saint, and mani- festing every outward symbol of humility and faith. She took her place in the religious serv- ices of the monastery, and conformed to its usages, as if she had been in the humblest pri- vate station. But all was in vain. The health of her beloved daughter continued to fail, until at length she died ; and Matilda, growing her- self more feeble, and almost broken hearted A.D. 1083.] THE CONCLUSION. 275 Matilda retires to her palace at Caen. Her distress of mind. through grief, shut herself up in the palace at Caen. It was in the same palace which William had built, within his monastery, many long years before, at the time of their marriage. Matilda looked back to that period, and to the buoyant hopes and bright anticipations of pow- er, glory, and happiness which then filled her heart, with sadness and sorrow. The power and the glory had been attained, and in a meas- ure tenfold greater than she had imagined, but the happiness had never come. Ambition had been contending unceasingly for twenty years, among all the branches of her family, against domestic peace and love. She possessed, her- self, an aspiring mind, but the principles of ma- ternal and conjugal love were stronger in her heart than those of ambition ; and yet she was compelled to see ambition bearing down and de- stroying love in all its forms every where around her. Her last days were embittered by the breaking out of new contests between her hus- band and her son. Matilda sought for peace and comfort in mul- tiplying her religious services and observances. She fasted, she prayed, she interceded for the forgiveness of her sins with many tears. The 276 W I L L 1 A M T H K C O N Q U E R O R. Matilda's health. Memorials of her- monks celebrated mass at her bed-side, and made, as she thought, by renewing the sacrifice of Christ, a fresh propitiation for her sins. Will- iam, who was then in Normandy, hearing of her forlorn and unhappy condition, came to see her. He arrived just in time to see her die. They conveyed hor body from the palace in her husband's monastery at Caen to the convent which she had built. It was received there in solemn state, and deposited in the tomb. For centuries afterward, there remained many me- morials of her existence and her greatness there, in paintings, embroideries, sacred gifts, and rec- ords, which have been gradually wasted away by the hand of time. They have not, however, wholly disappeared, for travelers who visit the spot find that many memorials and traditions of Matilda linger there still. "William himself did not live many years af- ter the death of his wife. He was several years older than she. In fact, he was now consider- ''ably advanced hi age. He became extremely corpulent as he grew old, which, as he was orig- inally of a large frame, made him excessively unwieldy. The inconvenience resulting from this habit of body was not the only evil that attended it. It affected his health, and even A.D.1085.] THE CONCLUSION. 277 William's declining years. His fitfulness and discontent. threatened to end in serious if not fatal disease. While he was thus made comparatively help- less in body by the infirmities of his advancing age, he was nevertheless as active and restless in spirit as ever. It was, however, no longer the activity of youth, and hope, and progress which animated him, but rather the fitful un- easiness with which age agitates itself under the vexations which it sometimes has to endure, or struggles convulsively at the approach of real or imaginary dangers, threatening the posses- sions which it has been the work of life to gain. The dangers in William's case were real, not imaginary. He was continually threatened on every side. In fact, the very year before he died, the dissensions between himself and Rob- ert broke out anew, and he was obliged, un- wieldy and helpless as he was, to repair to Nor- mandy, at the head of an armed force, to quell the disturbances which Robert and his partisans had raised. Robert was countenanced and aided at this time by Philip, the king of France, who had always been King William's jealous and im- placable rival. Philip, who, as will be recollect- ed, was very young when William asked his aid at the time of his invasion of England, was 18 278 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Philip ridicules William. William's rage. now in middle life, and at the height of his power. As he had refused William his aid, he was naturally somewhat envious and jealous of his success, and he was always ready to take part against him. He now aided and abetted Robert in his turbulence and insubordination, and ridiculed the helpless infirmities of the aged king- While William was in Normandy, he sub- mitted to a course of medical treatment, in the hope of diminishing his excessive corpulency, and relieving the disagreeable and dangerous symptoms which attended it. While thus in his physician's hands, he was, of course, con- fined to his chamber. Philip, in ridicule, called it " being in the straw." He asked some one who appeared at his court, having recently ar- rived from Normandy, whether the old woman of England was still in the straw. Some mis- erable tale-bearer, such as every where infest society at the present day, who delight in quot- ing to one friend what they think will excite their anger against another, repeated these words to William. Sick as he was, the sar- casm aroused him to a furious paroxysm of rage. He swore by " (rod's brightness and resurrec- tion" that, when he got out again, he would A..D. 1086.] THE CONCLUSION. 279 William's threats. Conflagration of Mantes. kindle such fires in Philip's dominions, in com- memoration of his delivery, as should make his realms too hot to hold him. He kept his word at least so far as respects the kindling of the fires ; but the fires, instead of making Philip's realms too hot to hold him, by a strange yet just retribution, were simply the means of closing forever the mortal career of the hand that kindled them. The circum- stances of this final scene of the great conquer- or's earthly history were these : In the execution of his threat to make Philip's dominions too hot to hold him, William, as soon as he was able to mount his horse, headed an expedition, and crossed the frontiers of Nor- mandy, and moved forward into the heart of France, laying waste the country, as he ad- vanced, with fire and sword. He came soon to the town of Mantes, a town upon the Seine, directly on the road to Paris. William's soldiers attacked the town with furious impetuosity, carried it by assault, and set it on fire. Will- iam followed them in, through the gates, glory- ing in the fulfillment of his threats of vengeance. Some timbers from a burning house had fallen into the street, and, burning there, had left a smoldering bed of embers, in which the fire was 280 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's injury. His great danger. still remaining. William, excited with the feeling of exultation and victory, was riding unguardedly on through the scene of ruin he had made, issuing orders, and shouting in a frantic manner as he went, when he was sud- denly stopped by a violent recoil of his horse from the burning embers, on which he had stepped, and which had been concealed from view by the ashes which covered them. Will- iam, unwieldy and comparatively helpless as he was, was thrown with great force upon the pommel of the saddle. He saved himself from falling from the horse, but he immediately found that he had sustained some serious inter- nal injury. He was obliged to dismount, and to be conveyed away, by a very sudden transi- tion, from the dreadful scene of conflagration and vengeance which he had been enacting, to the solemn chamber of death. They made a litter for him, and a corps of strong men was designated to bear the heavy and now helpless burden back to Normandy. They took the suffering monarch to Rouen. The ablest physicians were summoned to his bed-side. After examining his case, they con- cluded that he must die. The tidings threw the unhappy patient into a state of extreme A.D. 1087.] THE CONCLUSION. 283 William's remorse. His last acts. anxiety and terror. The recollection of the thousand deeds of selfish ambition and cruelty which he had been perpetrating, he said, all his days, filled him with remorse. He shrunk back with invincible dread from the hour, now so rapidly approaching, when he was to appear in judgment before Grod, and answer, like any common mortal, for his crimes. He had been accustomed all his life to consider himself as above all law, superior to all power, and beyond the reach of all judicial question. But now his time had come. He who had so often made others tremble, trembled now in his turn, with an acuteness of terror and distress which only the boldest and most high-handed offenders ever feel. He cried bitterly to Grod for forgiveness, and brought the monks around him to help him with incessant prayers. He ordered all the money that he had on hand to be given to the poor. He sent commands to have the churches which he had burned at Mantes rebuilt, and the other injuries which he had effected in his anger repaired. In a word, he gave himself very earnestly to the work of attempting, by all the means considered most efficacious in those days, to avert and appease the dreaded ansrer of heaven. 284 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Robert absent. He receives Normandy. Of his three oldest sons, Robert was away ; the quarrel between him and his father had be- come irreconcilable, and he would not come to visit him, even in his dying hours. William Rufus and Henry were there, and they remain- ed very constantly at their father's bed-side not, however, from a principle of filial affection, but because they wanted to be present when he should express his last wishes hi respect to the disposal of his dominions. Such an expression, though oral, would be binding as a will. When, at length, the king gave his dying directions in respect to the succession, it appeared that, aft- er all, he considered his right to the English throne as very doubtful in the sight of God. He had, in a former part of his life, promised Normandy to Robert, as his inheritance, when he himself should die ; and though he had so often refused to surrender it to him while he himself continued to live, he confirmed his title to the succession now. " I have promised it to him," he said, " and I keep my promise ; and yet I know that that will be a miserable coun- try which is subject to his government. He is a proud and foolish knave, and can never pros- per. As for my kingdom of England," he con- tinued, " I bequeath it to no one, for it was not A.D. 1087.] THE CONCLUSION. 285 William Rufus and Henry. The king's will bequeathed to me. I acquired it by force, and at the price of blood. I leave it in the hands of God, only wishing that my son William Ru- fus may have it, for he has been submissive to me in all things." " And what do you give me, father ?" asked Henry, eagerly, at this point. " I give you," said the king, " five thousand pounds from my treasury." " But what shall I do with my five thousand pounds," asked Henry, " if you do not give me either house or \and ?" " Be quiet, my son," rejoined the king, 'and trust in God. Let your brothers go be- fore you ; your turn will come after theirs." The object which had kept the young men at their father's bed-side having been now attain- ed, they both withdrew. Henry went to get his money, and William Rufus set off immedi- ately for England, to prepare the way for his own accession to the throne, as soon as his fa- ther should be no more. The king determined to be removed from his castle in Rouen to a monastery which was situ- ated at a short distance from the city, without the walls. The noise of the city disturbed him, and, besides, he thought he should feel safer to die on sacred ground. He was accordingly re- moved to the monastery. There, on the tenth 286 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. William's death. Abandonment of the body. of September, he was awakened in the morning by hearing the city bells ringing. He asked what it meant. He was told that the bells were ringing for the morning service at the church of St. Mary. He lifted up his hands, looked to heaven, and said, " I commend myself to my Lady Mary, the holy Mother of God," and al- most immediately expired. The readers of history have frequent occasion to be surprised at the sudden and total change which often takes place at the moment of the death of a mighty sovereign, and even some- times before his death, in the indications of the respect and consideration with which his attend- ants and followers regard him. In William's case, as has happened in many other cases since, the moment he ceased to breathe he was utter- ly abandoned. Every body fled, carrying with them, as they went, whatever they could seize from the chamber the arms, the furniture, the dresses, and the plate ; for all these articles be- came their perquisites on the decease of their master. The almost incredible statement is made that the heartless monsters actually strip- ped the dead body of their sovereign, to make sure of all their dues, and left it naked on the stone floor, while they bore their prizes to a A.D. 1087.] THE CONCLUSION. 287 Apprehensions of the people. The body removed to Caen. place of safety. The body lay in this neglected state for many hours; for the tidings of the great monarch's death, which was so sudden at last, produced, as it spread, universal excite- ment and apprehension. No one knew to what changes the event would lead, what wars would follow between the sons, or what insurrections or rebellions might have been secretly formed, to break out suddenly when this crisis should have arrived. Thus the whole community were thrown into a state of excitement and confusion. The monk and lay brethren of the monas- tery at length came in, took up the body, and prepared it for burial. They then brought crosses, tapers, and censers, and began to offer prayers and to chant requiems for the repose of the soul of the deceased. They sent also the Archbishop of Rouen, to know what was to be done with the body. The archbishop gave or- ders that it should be taken to Caen, and be deposited there in the monastery which William had erected at the time of his marriage. The tale which the ancient historians have told in respect to the interment is still more ex- traordinary, and more inconsistent with all the ideas we naturally form of the kind of consider- ation and honor which the remains of so great 288 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR Extraordinary scenes. The body conveyed to the monastery on a art a potentate would receive at the hands of his household and his officers of state, than the ac- oount of his death, it is said that all the mem bers of his household, and all his officers, imme- diately after his decease, abandoned the town all eagerly occupied in plans and maneuvers to secure their positions under the new reign. Some went in pursuit of Robert, and some to follow William Rufus. Henry locked up his money in a strong box, well ironed, and went off with it to find some place of security. There was nobody left to take the neglected body to the grave. At last a countryman was found who under- took to transport the heavy burden from Rouen to Caen. He procured a cart, and conveyed it from the monastery to the river, where it was put on board a vessel, and taken down the Seine to its mouth, and thence by sea to Caen. The Abbot of St. Stephen's, which was the name of William's monastery there, came, with some monks and a procession of the people, to accom- pany the body to the abbey. As this proces- sion was moving along, however, a fire broke out in the town, and the attendants, actuated either by a sense of duty requiring them to aid in extinguishing the flames, or by curiosity te A.D. 1087.] THE CONCLUSION. 289 The procession broken up. Scene at the interment. witness the conflagration, abandoned the funer- al cortege. The procession was broken up, and the whole multitude, clergy and laity, went off to the fire, leaving the coffin, with its bearers, alone. The bearers, however, went on, and con- veyed their charge to the church within the ab- bey walls. When the time arrived for the interment, a great company assembled to witness the cere- monies. Stones had been taken up in the church floor, and a grave dug. A stone coffin, a sort of sarcophagus, had been prepared, and placed in the grave as a receptacle for the body. When all. was ready, and the body was about to be let down, a man suddenly came forward from the crowd and arrested the proceedings. He said that the land on which the abbey stood belonged to him ; that William had taken for- cible possession of it, for the abbey, at the time of his marriage ; that he, the owner, had been compelled thus far to submit to this wrong, in- asmuch as he had, during William's life-time, no means of redress, but now he protested against a spoliation. " The land," he said, " is mine ; it belonged to my father. I have not sold it, or forfeited it, nor pledged it, nor given it. It is my right. I claim it. In the 2819 290 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The sarcophagus too small. The body burst. name of God, I forbid you to put the body of the spoiler there, or to cover him with my ground." When the excitement and surprise which this denunciation had awakened had subsided a little, the bishops called this sudden claimant aside, examined the proofs of his allegations, and, finding that the case was truly as he stated it, they paid him, on the spot, a sum equal to the value of ground enough for a grave, and promised to take immediate measures for the payment of the rest. The remonstrant then consented that the interment might proceed. In attempting to let the body down into the place prepared for it, they found that the sar- cophagus was too small. They undertook to force the body in. In attempting this, the coffin was broken, and the body, already, through the long delays, advanced in decomposition, was burst. The monks brought incense and per- fumes, and burned and sprinkled them around the place, but in vain. The church was so of- fensive that every body abandoned it at once, except the workmen who remained to fill the grave. While these things were transpiring in Nor- mandy, William Rufus had hastened to En- A.D. 1087.] THE CONCLUSION. 291 William Rufus obtains possession of the English throne. gland, taking with him the evidences of his fa- ther's dying wish that he should succeed him on the English throne. Before he reached head- quarters there, he heard of his father's death, and he succeeded in inducing the Norman chief- tains to proclaim him king. Robert's friends made an effort to advance his claims, hut they could do nothing effectual for him, and so it was soon settled, by a treaty between the broth- ers, that William Rufus should reign in En- gland, while Robert was to content himself with his father's ancient domain of Normandy. THE END. 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