them. According to some accounts Edgar had followed Robert to the Holy Land; but this is at the least doubtful, and the Saxon Chronicle represents him as having joined the duke only a short time before the battle of Tenchebray, where he charged with the Norman chivalry. This was his last public appearance. He was sent over to England, where, to show the Norman king's contempt of him, he was allowed to go at large. At the intercession of his niece, the Queen Maud, Henry granted him a trifling pension; and this survivor of so many changes and sanguinary revolutions passed the rest of his life in an obscure but tranquil solitude in the country. So perfect was the oblivion into which he fell, that not one of the chroniclers mentions the place of his residence or records when or how he died. The fate of his friend Duke Robert, who had much less apathy, was infinitely more galling from the beginning, and his captivity was soon accompanied with other atrocities. He was committed a prisoner for life to one of his brother's castles. At first his keepers, appointing a proper guard, allowed him to take air and exercise in the neighbouring woods and fields. One day he seized a horse, and breaking from his guard, did his best to escape; but he was presently pursued, and taken in a morass, wherein his

In 1086, the last year of the Conqueror's reign, Edgar Atheling obtained permission to conduct two hundred knights to Apulia, and thenee to Palestine; but we are not informed what progress he made in this journey, and Duke Robert did not set out for the Iloly Land until 1096, or ten years after.

horse had stuck fast. Upon hearing of this attempt the king not only commanded "a greater restraint and harder durance," but ordered that his sight should be destroyed, in order to render him incapable of such enterprises, and unapt to all royal or martial duties for the future. This detestable order was executed by a method which had become horribly common in Italy* during these ages, and which was not unknown in other countries on the continent. A basin of copper or iron, made redhot, was held close over the victim's eyes till the organs of sight were seared and destroyed. The wretched prince lived twenty-eight years after this, and died in Cardiff Castle in 1135, a few months before his brother Henry. He was nearly eighty years old, and had survived all the chiefs of name who rescued Jerusalem from the Saracens. Matthew of Paris tells a touching anecdote of his captivity. One day, when some new dresses were brought to him from the king, in examining them by his touch. he found that one of the garments was torn or rent in the seam: the people told him that the king had tried it on and found it too tight for him. Then the prisoner threw them all far from him, and

The punishment was usually applied to captive princes, fallen ministers, and personages of the highest rank and political influence. The Italians had even a verb to express it-Abbacinare, from bacino, a basin. "L'abbacinare è il medesimo che l'accecare; e perchè si faceva con un bacino rovente, che avvicinato agli occhi tenuti aperti per forza, concentrandosi il calore struggeva que' panicelli, e riseccava l'umidità, che, come un' uva è intorno alla pupilla, e la ricopriva di una cotal nuvola, che gli toglieva la vista, si aveva preso questo nome d'abbacinare." Such is the formal explanation of the horrid verb in the Dictionary Della Crusca.

exclaimed, "How, then, my brother, or rather my traitor, that craven clerk who has deprived me of my all, imprisoned me, blinded me, now holds me at so mean a rate-I, who had so much honour and renown, that he makes me alms of his old clothes, as if I were his valet." It seems to have been an established custom for kings to give dresses to their state prisoners at certain festivals in the year; and it is related of Fitz-Osborn that he lost his only chance of enlargement by treating a suit sent him by the Conqueror with disrespect.

As another trait of manners we may mention hefe, that Duke Robert was made prisoner at Tenchebray by Galdric, King Henry's chaplain, who was promoted to the bishopric of Llandaff for this clerical piece of service. This martial prelate's end was, however, in keeping with the circumstances of his promotion; for, having exasperated the people of Llandaff with his tyranny and violence, they set upon him in a field and killed him, with five of his canons.

In getting possession of Robert's person Henry became master of all Normandy. Rouen, the capital, submitted to the conqueror, and Falaise surrendered after a short resistance. At the latter place William, the only son of Sibylla and Duke Robert, fell into his hands. When the child, who was then only five years old, was brought into the presence of his uncle, he sobbed and cried for mercy. It could not escape the king's far-reaching calculations that this boy's legitimate claims might cause him future trouble; but Henry, as if making a violent effort to rid himself of evil thoughts, suddenly commanded that he should be removed from him, and given in custody to Helie de St. Saen, a Norman noble, on whom, though he had married an illegitimate daughter of Duke Robert, he thought he could rely. He soon, however, repented of this arrangement, and sent a force to surprise the castle of St. Saen, and secure the person of young William. Helie fled with his pupil, and they were both honourably received at all the neighbouring courts, where the beauty, the innocence, the early misfortunes, and claims of the boy, gained him many protectors. The most powerful of these friends were Louis the Sixth, commonly called Le Gros, and Fulk, Earl of Anjou, who were reasonably apprehensive of the increasing power of his uncle on the continent. As William Fitz-Robert, as he was called, grew up, and gave good promise of being a valiant prince, they espoused his cause more decidedly, Louis engaging to grant him the investiture of Normandy, and Fulk to give him his daughter Sibylla in marriage as soon as he should be of proper age. Before that period arrived circumstances occurred (A.D.1113) that hurried them into hostilities, and the Earl of Flanders having been induced to sanction, if not to join their league, Henry was attacked at every point along the frontiers of Normandy. He lost towns and castles, and was alarmed at the same time by a report, true or false, that some friends of Duke Robert had formed a plot against his life. So great was his alarm, that for a long

time he never slept without having a sword and buckler by his bed-side. When the war had lasted two years Henry put an end to it by a skilful treaty, in which he regained whatever he had lost in Normandy, and in which the interests of William Fitz-Robert were overlooked. These advantages were obtained by giving the estates and honours of the faithful Helie de St. Saen to Fulk, Earl of Anjou, and by stipulating a marriage between his only son, Prince William of England, and Matilda, another daughter of that earl. The previous contract between Fitz-Robert and Sibylla was broken off, and the Earl of Anjou agreed to give no more aid or countenance to that young prince.

These arrangements, so advantageous for Henry, were not made without great sacrifices of money on the part of the English people; and some years before they were concluded the nation was made to bear another burden. By the feudal customs the king was entitled to levy a tax for the marrying of his eldest daughter; and (A.D. 1110) Henry affianced the Princess Matilda, a child only eight years old, to Henry V., Emperor of Germany. The high nominal rank of the party, and the general poverty of the German emperors in those days, would alike call for a large dowry; and Henry V. drove a hard bargain with his brother (and to-be father-in-law) of England. The marriage portion seems to have been principally raised by a tax laid upon land at the rate of three shillings per hide ; and the contemporary histories abound in complaints of the harsh manner in which instant payment was exacted. The stipulated sum was at length placed in the hands of the emperor's ambassadors, who conducted the young lady into Germany, where she was to be educated. If the English people suffered, they were regaled by a fine spectacle; for it is said that never was sight seen more splendid than Matilda's embarkation. The graver of the impressions, however, remained, and it was remembered to her disadvantage, many years after, how dear her espousals had cost the nation.

He

About this time Henry checked some incursions of the Welsh, the only wars waged in the interior of England during his reign, and, causing a strong army to follow them into their fastnesses, he gained several advantages over the mountaineers. despaired, however, of reducing them to his obedience, and was fain to content himself with building a few castles a little in advance of those erected by the Conqueror and the Red King. He also collected a number of Flemings who had been driven into England by the misfortunes of their own country, and gave them the town of Haverfordwest, with the district of Ross, in Pembrokeshire. They were a brave and industrious people, skilled in manufacturing woollen cloths; and, increasing in wealth and numbers, they maintained themselves in their advanced post, in spite of the 'long efforts of the Welsh to drive them from

But a subject which occupied the mind of the English king much more than the

con

quest of Wales was the securing the succession. of all his dominions to his only legitimate son William, to whom he confidently and proudly looked as to one who was to perpetuate his lineage and power. Having already made all the barons and prelates of Normandy swear fealty and do homage to the boy, he exacted the same oaths in England at a great council of all the bishops, earls, and barons of the kingdom, held at Salisbury; and being still pursued by the dread of the growing popularity on the continent, and the just claims, of his nephew Fitz-Robert, he artfully laboured to get him into his power, making use, among other means, of the most enticing promises, such as the immediate possession of three great earldoms in England. But that prince would never trust the gaoler of his father; and his cause was again supported by powerful friends, whose apprehensions were anew excited by the ambition of the English king.

(A.D. 1118.) At a moment when the most formidable confederacy that ever threatened him was forming on the continent, Henry lost his excellent Consort, Maud the Good, who must indeed have "died with the sad reflection that she had sacrificed herself for her race in vain ;"* and in about a month after he suffered a loss, which he probably felt much more, in the death of the Earl of Mellent, the ablest instrument of his ambition, the most skilful of all his ministers, who had so managed his foreign politics as to obtain the reputation of being the greatest statesman in Europe.

Henry's want of good faith had hurried on the storm which now burst upon him. He had secretly assisted his nephew Theobald,+ Earl of Blois, in a revolt against his feudal superior and liege lord, the French king, he had broken off the match agreed upon between his son William and the Earl of Anjou's daughter Matilda,-and he had belied many of the promises made to the Norman barons in his hour of need. The league that was formed against him, therefore, included many of his own disaffected Norman subjects, Louis of France, Fulk of Anjou, and Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, the last-mentioned having fewer interested motives, and a purer affection for the gallant son of Duke Robert, than any of the others. The beginning of the war was altogether unfavourable to the allies, and King Louis, at one time, was forced to beg a suspension of hostilities. Then fortune veered, and King Henry lost ground; but, after a succession of reverses, his better star prevailed, and he was made happy by the death of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, the soul of the confederacy, who died of a wound received at the siege of Eu. Being thus relieved from one of his formidable enemies, he proceeded to detach another by means as prevalent as sword, or lance, or arrow-shot. He sent a large sum of money to the venal Earl of Anjou, and agreed that the marriage between his son and

the earl's daughter should be solemnized forthwith. Fulk took the bribe, and, abandoning his allies, went to prepare for the wedding. At the same time Henry gained over most of the disaffected Norman barons with rich presents or new promises; and after two more years of a war of petty sieges and of skirmishes scarcely deserving the name of battles, the French king saw himself deserted by all his allies. As before, the real sufferers in these campaigns were the people of Normandy and the neighbouring countries, whose lands were wasted and houses burned, and the people of England, who were taxed and harried to furnish the money for Henry. As for the chief warriors themselves, what with the impenetrable armour in which they now encased themselves, and a system of ransoming one another, and holding all knights, on whatever side they fought, as forming part of a brotherhood, every member of which, except in certain predicaments, was to be treated with respect, they suffered little more than if they had been engaged in jousts and tournaments. The engagement which closed this war, and which was more decisive than any fought during the course of it, is an amusing specimen of these knightly encounters.

On the 20th of August, A.D. 1119, King Louis, with four hundred knights, and King Henry, with five hundred knights, met, more by accident than by any design on either side, in the vicinity of the town of Noyon. Vizors were lowered, trumpets sounded, lances couched, and a brilliant charge made by the French chivalry headed by FitzRobert, or, as he was now generally called, "William of Normandy." This young prince broke through Henry's first rank, and penetrated to his uncle, who was struck twice on the head by William Crispin, Count of Evreux, a valiant knight, but, as the king wore a steel helmet of the best quality, he received little injury. After a gallant contest the French were defeated, leaving the royal standard and one hundred and forty knights in the hands of the victors. When the dead were counted they were found to amount to three knights! The king of France and young William of Normandy had their horses killed under them, but they escaped on foot. This boasted battle, which deserves to be remembered, was called the battle of Brenville. The French excused their overthrow by saying that King Henry set upon King Louis "when he was not aware, and his knights were all out of order and array;" adding, also, "that King Henry had a far greater number than the French king had." The Anglo-Normans or English (for the latter designation was already common) maintained that the victory had been won "in the open field royally;" but their superiority in number seems unquestionable. The battle was followed by a display of chivalrous courtesies. Henry sent King Louis a war-horse splendidly caparisoned, and his son made presents to William of Normandy: the prisoners were hospitably entertained, and dismissed on the payment of proper knightly ransoms. All this, though it only included

the higher classes, was an immense improvement on the savage practices of earlier times; but the civilization of chivalry was at all times somewhat superficial and uncertain in its operation, and during this very war atrocities were committed which make us shudder. Henry had married Juliana, one of his illegitimate children, to Eustace of Breteuil, of whose fidelity he afterwards doubted. He exacted as hostages two children, the daughters of Juliana and Eustace, and, as a pledge on his own part, ordered Harenc, one of his officers, to place his son in the hands of Eustace. In a moment of rage the brutal lord of Evreux tore out the eyes of the son of Harenc, and sent him back to his father. Harenc demanded justice, and Henry coolly told him he might retaliate on the daughters of Eustace and Juliana, the king's own grandchildren; and this the barbarian did forthwith, by putting out their eyes and cutting off their noses. In this horrid wreck of the strongest affections and feelings of human nature, Juliana attempted the life of her own father, by discharging an arrow at his breast with her own hands.*

Soon after the battle of Brenville an end was put to the war, now only maintained on one side by Louis, through the praiseworthy mediation of the Pope,† who, however, laboured in vain to procure a mitigation of the severity exercised on Duke Robert, and a proper settlement for his son William. By this treaty of peace Henry was to preserve undisturbed and unquestioned possession of Normandy; and his pride was saved by Louis consenting to receive the homage due to him for the duchy from the son instead of the father. This son, who was in his eighteenth year, had received the oaths of the Norman nobles, as also the hand of his bride, a child only twelve years old, whose father, Fulk of Anjou, had given her a considerable dower. King Henry, elated by success, now resolved to return triumphantly to England. The place of embarkation was Barfleur, where Rufus had landed after his stormy passage and impious daring of the elements. The double retinue of the king and prince royal was most numerous, and some delay was caused by the providing of accommodation and means of transport for so many noble personages; among whom were counted we scarcely know how many illegitimate children and mistresses of the king. On the 25th of November (A.D. 1120), however, all was ready, and the sails were joyously bent as for a short and pleasant voyage. Thomas Fitz-Stephen, a mariner of some repute, presented himself to the king, and tendering a golden mark, said," Stephen, son of Evrard, my father, served yours all his life by sea, and he it was who steered the ship in which your father sailed for the conquest

Orderic.-Hen. Hunt.

+ Calixtus II. He was related by marriage to King Henry, and personally visited that sovereign, who, among other signal falsehoods, assured him that his brother Robert was not a prisoner, but entertained in a sumptuous manner in one of the royal castles, where he enjoyed as much liberty and amusement as he desired.

See ante, p. 401. Most of the old historians are of opinion that the drowning of the nephew was a judgment provoked by the presumption of the uncle.

of England. Sire King, I beg you to grant me the same office in fief: I have a vessel called the Blanche-Nef, well equipped, and manned with fifty skilful mariners." The king replied that he had already chosen a vessel for himself, but, that in order to accede to the prayer of Fitz-Stephen, he would confide to his care the prince, with his companions and attendants. Henry then embarked, and setting sail in the afternoon with a favourable and gentle wind from the south, reached the English coast in safety on the following morning. The prince was accompanied in the Blanche-Nef, or White Ship, by his half-brother Richard, his half-sister the Lady Marie,* Countess of Perche, Richard earl of Chester, with his wife, who was the king's niece, her brother, the prince's governor, with a host of gay young nobles, both of Normandy and of England, one hundred and forty in number, eighteen being ladies of the first rank; all these and their retinues amounting, with the crew, to about three hundred persons. On such occasions it was usual to regale the mariners with a little wine, but the prince and the young men with him imprudently ordered three whole casks of wine to be distributed among the men, who "drank out their wits and reason." The captain had a sailor's pride in the speed of his craft and the qualities of his crew, and, though hours passed away, he promised to overtake every ship that had sailed before him. The prince certainly did not press his departure, for he spent some hours on deck in feasting and dancing with his company. A few prudent persons quitted the disorderly vessel, and went on shore. Night had set in before the BlancheNef started from her moorings, but it was a bright moon-light, and the wind, though it had freshened somewhat, was still fair and gentle. Fitz-Stephen, proud of his charge, held the helm ; every sail was set, and, still to increase the speed, the fifty sturdy mariners, encouraged by their boyish passengers, plied the oar with all their vigour. As they proceeded coastwise they got engaged among some rocks at a spot called Ras de Catte (now Ras de Catteville), and the White Ship struck on one of these with such violence on her larboard side, that several planks were started, and she instantly began to fill. A cry of alarm and horror was raised at once by three hundred voices, and was heard on board some of the king's ships that had gained the high sea, but nobody there suspected the cause. Fitz-Stephen lowered a boat, and putting the prince with some of his companions in it, advised them to row for the shore, and save themselves. This would not have been difficult, for the sea was smooth, and the coast at no great distance; but his sister Marie had been left behind in the ship, and her shrieks touched the heart of the prince, the best or most generous deed of whose life seems to have been his last. He ordered the boat to be put back to take her in; but such

By some writers this lady is called Maud, and by o'hers Adele or Adela. The name of her mother is not mentioned. Richard was the son of an English mistress, who is called " the widow of Auskill, a nobleman that lived near the monastery of Abingdon,"

numbers leaped into it at the same time as the lady, that it was upset or swamped, and all in it perished. The ship also went down with all on board. Only two men escaped by rising and clinging to the main-yard, which floated, and was probably detached from the wreck: one of these was a butcher of Rouen, named Berold, the other a young man of higher condition, named Godfrey, the son of Gilbert de l'Aigle. Fitz-Stephen, the unfortunate captain, seeing the heads of two men clinging to the yard, swam towards them." And the king's son," said he, "what has happened to him ?" "He is gone! neither he, nor his brother, nor his sister, nor any person of his company, has appeared above water." "Woe to me," cried Fitz-Stephen; and then plunged to the bottom. The night was cold, and the young nobleman, the

more delicate of the two survivors, became exhausted, and after holding on for some hours let go the yard, and, recommending his poor companion to God's mercy, sunk to the bottom of the

sea.

*

The butcher of Rouen, the poorest of all those who had embarked in the White Ship, wrapped in his sheep-skin coat, held on till morning, when he was seen from the shore, and saved by some fishermen, who took him into their boat; and from him, being the sole survivor, the circumstances of the fearful event were learned. The tidings reached England in the course of the following day, but no one would venture on communicating them to the king. For three days the courtiers concealed the fact, and at last they sent in Qui pauperior erat omnibus, renone amictus ex arietinis pelli bus.....Orderic.