Burning of Mantes-Death-bed of the Conqueror-His funeral-Traits of his character-Coronation of William II.-Insurrection of Norman nobles in England-Ralph FlambardProfligacy of the court of Rufus-Robert's government in Normandy-Quarrels of William and Robert-Troubles in England-Rapacity of the king-Effects upon the country-Robert pawns Normandy-The first Crusade preached by Pope Urban II.Progress of the Crusaders-Jerusalem taken-William's Norman wars-His death in the New Forest.

KING WILLIAM was holding his court at Westminster in 1086. His youngest son, Henry, who is eighteen years of age, had been knighted by his father. He was the Beau Clerc-the lettered prince-of the family; brought up under the tuition of the learned and sagacious Archbishop Lanfranc. In the January of 1087, William returned to Normandy. He had a longstanding dispute to settle with Philip I. of France, about his claim to the territory of the Vexin, which had been dismembered from Normandy and annexed to France. The French king despised the demand of the Norman duke, and made a coarse joke about his corpulency. William, old and heavy,

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DEATH AND FUNERAL OF THE CONQUEROR,

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had still that alacrity of mind, and that unconquerable will which won and kept England. He left his bed at Rouen, and in August was on his warhorse before the town of Mantes. As his army had marched along those pleasant banks of the Seine, on whose winding course the steam-borne traveller of the nineteenth century gazes with delight, the ripe corn was burnt, and the laden vines trodden down. The fierce soldiers took the town by assault; and fire and slaughter waited upon the ferocious duke as his accustomed ministers. The race, of which he was the greatest, cared very little for human life; but they were equally prodigal of their own lives. William, under the hot autumn sun, rode amongst the smouldering ruins of the burning town. His horse fell, with his bulky rider, who received a severe injury, and was carried back to Rouen. The hour was approaching, when the great ones of the earth feel that their glory is a very unsubstantial thing; and when some human emotions mingle with the pride and cruelty which have separated them from mankind. The death-bed of William, according to the Chroniclers, was a death-bed of repentance. He had always made a profession of religion, and he was now surrounded by bishops and confessors. He spoke, it is related, of the rivers of blood he had shed. He lamented his barbarities in England. We are somewhat sceptical about the authenticity of his dying oration. His two sons, William and Henry, were around their father. Robert, the elder, was at the court of France. He, whom his fathers and brothers used to ridicule for his short legs-the Gambaron or Curt-hose-had a nobler nature than the brutal Rufus, or the crafty Beau Clerc. But the king hated him. Still, he could not deny him his right to the inheritance of Normandy. To William he recommended an instant journey to England to secure possession of the crown. To Henry, who was then only eighteen years of age, he bequeathed five thousand pounds of silver. He commanded the release of some whom he held in captivity— amongst whom was earl Morcar. His forgiveness of Odo was most reluctantly wrung from him. The great duke and king suddenly expired, on the morning of the 9th of September, as the cathedral bell of Rouen was tolling the hour of prime. The moment he was gone, his attendants laid hands on robes and linen, plate and armour; and the Conqueror was left, to point the same moral of the vanity of grandeur, and the heartlessness of flatterers and favourites, that has been drawn from kingly death-beds, even up to our own times. The grave of William was as remarkable for an extraordinary occurrence as the deserted chamber of death. He had founded the church of St. Etienne at Caen. It was consecrated in 1077, amidst the most gorgeous ceremonies. The west front of the original building, with two high and solid towers, still remains. Here was brought the body of the king, by barge from Rouen. Being about to be lowered into the earth-in the presence of a few, for a fire had broken out in the town-Ascelin, the son of Arthur, cried out, that the land upon which they stood was the yard belonging to his father's house, and that the Duke of Normandy had seized it, by an exercise of tyranny. "I therefore," said the bold man, "openly demand its restitution, and in God's name I forbid the body of the spoiler being covered with earth which is my inheritance." Ordericus thus sums up the closing scene of the life of the Conqueror:-"A king, once potent, and warlike, and the terror of numberless inhabitants of many provinces, lay naked on the floor, deserted

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by those who owed him their birth, and those he had fed and enriched. He needed the money of a stranger for the cost of his funeral, and a coffin and bearers were provided, at the expense of an ordinary person, for him, who till then had been in the enjoyment of enormous wealth. He was carried to the church, amidst flaming houses, by trembling crowds, and a spot of freehold land was wanting for the grave of one whose princely sway had extended over so many cities, and towns, and villages."

The Saxon Chronicler, from whom we have quoted a passage or two bearing hardly upon. the character of the Conqueror, has put some of his merits in a fair point of view. He says, 'King William was a very wise man." He was "rich," and "worshipful," and "strong," according to the same authority; but these would have availed him little had he been wanting in sagacity. His ferocity is contrasted with "his mildness to good men who loved God." Whatever violence was exercised by the powerful, he forcibly put down that system of private violence which was a part of the old Germanic habits and

traditions: "No man durst slay another man, though he had suffered never so mickle evil from the other." In Alfred's time, the right of private vengeance, in certain cases, was legally recognised. However the Norman chiefs plundered the

Saxon, in the guise of feudal rights, the vulgar plunderer was mercilessly punished, "So that a man, that was good for aught, might travel over the kingdom with his bosom full of gold, without molestation." His pride, his avarice, his severity, are prominent characteristics of this man; but we must look at him in connection with the times in which he lived, and the circumstances he had to controul; and admire the pious chronicler who sums up his merits and demerits, by praying that God would "grant him of his sins forgiveness."

The "Red King" was crowned at Westminster on the 26th September, 1087. He was on his road to England while his father was dying. But there were difficulties in his elevation to the throne, which would probably not have been easily overcome had not Archbishop Lanfranc moved the whole power of the church in his behalf. The principle of elevation to the sovereignty was not relaxed. As the elder brother, Robert, would have had a clearer

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[1088

title, the doubts that hung over the accession of the younger were very considerable. But, beyond this, the severance of the crowns of England and Normandy could not have been agreeable to many of the Norman barons. If the severance could have been maintained, the destinies of the islandkingdom might have been changed at an earlier period.

The first proceedings of William II. gave evidence of his character. The death-bed clemency of the Conqueror had bestowed freedom on Morcar, and on Wulfnoth, the brother of Harold. They followed Rufus to England;

and he rewarded their confidence by immediate imprisonment. He had greater dangers to apprehend from the Norman chiefs. Some of the more powerful were strongly against a divided sovereignty. They had large possessions in both countries. If they clung to William, Robert would seize upon their Norman estates. If they clung to Robert, William would seize upon their English estates. Robert was of an easy temper; William was arrogant. Odo and others therefore tendered their allegiance to Duke Robert. An insurrection very soon broke out in different quarters. It is worthy of special remark that the English, almost universally, supported the young king. We may attribute this not only to the oppressions they had endured from the Norman chieftains, but to a far-seeing policy, chiefly derived from the churchmen. The bold and haughty Rufus, as a sole king of England, was to be upheld, in preference to the indolent and pliant Robert, as joint sovereign of England and Normandy. It was a part of the old Saxon nationality, subdued, but not extinct. William raised a large army, and besieged Odo, who was the most formidable of the conspirators, in Rochester Castle, after a previous encounter at Pevensey. There were five hundred Normans shut up in the strong-hold of the Medway, with the Bishop of Bayeux, and Eustace of Boulogne, and other powerful leaders. It