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diff --git a/old/wlmcn10.txt b/old/wlmcn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61753de --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wlmcn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5676 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of William the Conqueror, by E. A. Freeman + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: William the Conqueror + +Author: E. A. Freeman + +Release Date: October, 1997 [EBook #1066] +[This file was first posted on February 12, 1998] +[Most recently updated: June 28, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR *** + + + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +William the Conqueror + + + + +Contents + +Introduction +The Early Years of William +William's First Visit to England +The Reign of William in Normandy +Harold's Oat to William +The Negotiations of Duke William +William's Invasion of England +The Conquest of England +The Settlement of England +The Revolts against William +The Last Years of William + + + +CHAPTER I--INTRODUCTION + + + +The history of England, like the land and its people, has been +specially insular, and yet no land has undergone deeper influences +from without. No land has owed more than England to the personal +action of men not of native birth. Britain was truly called +another world, in opposition to the world of the European mainland, +the world of Rome. In every age the history of Britain is the +history of an island, of an island great enough to form a world of +itself. In speaking of Celts or Teutons in Britain, we are +speaking, not simply of Celts and Teutons, but of Celts and Teutons +parted from their kinsfolk on the mainland, and brought under the +common influences of an island world. The land has seen several +settlements from outside, but the settlers have always been brought +under the spell of their insular position. Whenever settlement has +not meant displacement, the new comers have been assimilated by the +existing people of the land. When it has meant displacement, they +have still become islanders, marked off from those whom they left +behind by characteristics which were the direct result of +settlement in an island world. + +The history of Britain then, and specially the history of England, +has been largely a history of elements absorbed and assimilated +from without. But each of those elements has done somewhat to +modify the mass into which it was absorbed. The English land and +nation are not as they might have been if they had never in later +times absorbed the Fleming, the French Huguenot, the German +Palatine. Still less are they as they might have been, if they had +not in earlier times absorbed the greater elements of the Dane and +the Norman. Both were assimilated; but both modified the character +and destiny of the people into whose substance they were absorbed. +The conquerors from Normandy were silently and peacefully lost in +the greater mass of the English people; still we can never be as if +the Norman had never come among us. We ever bear about us the +signs of his presence. Our colonists have carried those signs with +them into distant lands, to remind men that settlers in America and +Australia came from a land which the Norman once entered as a +conqueror. But that those signs of his presence hold the place +which they do hold in our mixed political being, that, badges of +conquest as they are, no one feels them to be badges of conquest-- +all this comes of the fact that, if the Norman came as a conqueror, +he came as a conqueror of a special, perhaps almost of an unique +kind. The Norman Conquest of England has, in its nature and in its +results, no exact parallel in history. And that it has no exact +parallel in history is largely owing to the character and position +of the man who wrought it. That the history of England for the +last eight hundred years has been what it has been has largely come +of the personal character of a single man. That we are what we are +to this day largely comes of the fact that there was a moment when +our national destiny might be said to hang on the will of a single +man, and that that man was William, surnamed at different stages of +his life and memory, the Bastard, the Conqueror, and the Great. + +With perfect fitness then does William the Norman, William the +Norman Conqueror of England, take his place in a series of English +statesmen. That so it should be is characteristic of English +history. Our history has been largely wrought for us by men who +have come in from without, sometimes as conquerors, sometimes as +the opposite of conquerors; but in whatever character they came, +they had to put on the character of Englishmen, and to make their +work an English work. From whatever land they came, on whatever +mission they came, as statesmen they were English. William, the +greatest of his class, is still but a member of a class. Along +with him we must reckon a crowd of kings, bishops, and high +officials in many ages of our history. Theodore of Tarsus and Cnut +of Denmark, Lanfranc of Pavia and Anselm of Aosta, Randolf Flambard +and Roger of Salisbury, Henry of Anjou and Simon of Montfort, are +all written on a list of which William is but the foremost. The +largest number come in William's own generation and in the +generations just before and after it. But the breed of England's +adopted children and rulers never died out. The name of William +the Deliverer stands, if not beside that of his namesake the +Conqueror, yet surely alongside of the lawgiver from Anjou. And we +count among the later worthies of England not a few men sprung from +other lands, who did and are doing their work among us, and who, as +statesmen at least, must count as English. As we look along the +whole line, even among the conquering kings and their immediate +instruments, their work never takes the shape of the rooting up of +the earlier institutions of the land. Those institutions are +modified, sometimes silently by the mere growth of events, +sometimes formally and of set purpose. Old institutions get new +names; new institutions are set up alongside of them. But the old +ones are never swept away; they sometimes die out; they are never +abolished. This comes largely of the absorbing and assimilating +power of the island world. But it comes no less of personal +character and personal circumstances, and pre-eminently of the +personal character of the Norman Conqueror and of the circumstances +in which he found himself. + + +Our special business now is with the personal acts and character of +William, and above all with his acts and character as an English +statesman. But the English reign of William followed on his +earlier Norman reign, and its character was largely the result of +his earlier Norman reign. A man of the highest natural gifts, he +had gone through such a schooling from his childhood upwards as +falls to the lot of few princes. Before he undertook the conquest +of England, he had in some sort to work the conquest of Normandy. +Of the ordinary work of a sovereign in a warlike age, the defence +of his own land, the annexation of other lands, William had his +full share. With the land of his overlord he had dealings of the +most opposite kinds. He had to call in the help of the French king +to put down rebellion in the Norman duchy, and he had to drive back +more than one invasion of the French king at the head of an united +Norman people. He added Domfront and Maine to his dominions, and +the conquest of Maine, the work as much of statesmanship as of +warfare, was the rehearsal of the conquest of England. There, +under circumstances strangely like those of England, he learned his +trade as conqueror, he learned to practise on a narrower field the +same arts which he afterwards practised on a wider. But after all, +William's own duchy was his special school; it was his life in his +own duchy which specially helped to make him what he was. +Surrounded by trials and difficulties almost from his cradle, he +early learned the art of enduring trials and overcoming +difficulties; he learned how to deal with men; he learned when to +smite and when to spare; and it is not a little to his honour that, +in the long course of such a reign as his, he almost always showed +himself far more ready to spare than to smite. + +Before then we can look at William as an English statesman, we must +first look on him in the land in which he learned the art of +statesmanship. We must see how one who started with all the +disadvantages which are implied in his earlier surname of the +Bastard came to win and to deserve his later surnames of the +Conqueror and the Great. + + + +CHAPTER II--THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM--A.D. 1028-1051 + + + +If William's early reign in Normandy was his time of schooling for +his later reign in England, his school was a stern one, and his +schooling began early. His nominal reign began at the age of seven +years, and his personal influence on events began long before he +had reached the usual years of discretion. And the events of his +minority might well harden him, while they could not corrupt him in +the way in which so many princes have been corrupted. His whole +position, political and personal, could not fail to have its effect +in forming the man. He was Duke of the Normans, sixth in +succession from Rolf, the founder of the Norman state. At the time +of his accession, rather more than a hundred and ten years had +passed since plunderers, occasionally settlers, from Scandinavia, +had changed into acknowledged members of the Western or Karolingian +kingdom. The Northmen, changed, name and thing, into NORMANS, were +now in all things members of the Christian and French-speaking +world. But French as the Normans of William's day had become, +their relation to the kings and people of France was not a friendly +one. At the time of the settlement of Rolf, the western kingdom of +the Franks had not yet finally passed to the Duces Francorum at +Paris; Rolf became the man of the Karolingian king at Laon. France +and Normandy were two great duchies, each owning a precarious +supremacy in the king of the West-Franks. On the one hand, +Normandy had been called into being by a frightful dismemberment of +the French duchy, from which the original Norman settlement had +been cut off. France had lost in Rouen one of her greatest cities, +and she was cut off from the sea and from the lower course of her +own river. On the other hand, the French and the Norman dukes had +found their interest in a close alliance; Norman support had done +much to transfer the crown from Laon to Paris, and to make the Dux +Francorum and the Rex Francorum the same person. It was the +adoption of the French speech and manners by the Normans, and their +steady alliance with the French dukes, which finally determined +that the ruling element in Gaul should be Romance and not Teutonic, +and that, of its Romance elements, it should be French and not +Aquitanian. If the creation of Normandy had done much to weaken +France as a duchy, it had done not a little towards the making of +France as a kingdom. Laon and its crown, the undefined influence +that went with the crown, the prospect of future advance to the +south, had been bought by the loss of Rouen and of the mouth of the +Seine. + +There was much therefore at the time of William's accession to keep +the French kings and the Norman dukes on friendly terms. The old +alliance had been strengthened by recent good offices. The +reigning king, Henry the First, owed his crown to the help of +William's father Robert. On the other hand, the original ground of +the alliance, mutual support against the Karolingian king, had +passed away. A King of the French reigning at Paris was more +likely to remember what the Normans had cost him as duke than what +they had done for him as king. And the alliance was only an +alliance of princes. The mutual dislike between the people of the +two countries was strong. The Normans had learned French ways, but +French and Normans had not become countrymen. And, as the fame of +Normandy grew, jealousy was doubtless mingled with dislike. +William, in short, inherited a very doubtful and dangerous state of +relations towards the king who was at once his chief neighbour and +his overlord. + +More doubtful and dangerous still were the relations which the +young duke inherited towards the people of his own duchy and the +kinsfolk of his own house. William was not as yet the Great or the +Conqueror, but he was the Bastard from the beginning. There was +then no generally received doctrine as to the succession to +kingdoms and duchies. Everywhere a single kingly or princely house +supplied, as a rule, candidates for the succession. Everywhere, +even where the elective doctrine was strong, a full-grown son was +always likely to succeed his father. The growth of feudal notions +too had greatly strengthened the hereditary principle. Still no +rule had anywhere been laid down for cases where the late prince +had not left a full-grown son. The question as to legitimate birth +was equally unsettled. Irregular unions of all kinds, though +condemned by the Church, were tolerated in practice, and were +nowhere more common than among the Norman dukes. In truth the +feeling of the kingliness of the stock, the doctrine that the king +should be the son of a king, is better satisfied by the succession +of the late king's bastard son than by sending for some distant +kinsman, claiming perhaps only through females. Still bastardy, if +it was often convenient to forget it, could always be turned +against a man. The succession of a bastard was never likely to be +quite undisputed or his reign to be quite undisturbed. + +Now William succeeded to his duchy under the double disadvantage of +being at once bastard and minor. He was born at Falaise in 1027 or +1028, being the son of Robert, afterwards duke, but then only Count +of Hiesmois, by Herleva, commonly called Arletta, the daughter of +Fulbert the tanner. There was no pretence of marriage between his +parents; yet his father, when he designed William to succeed him, +might have made him legitimate, as some of his predecessors had +been made, by a marriage with his mother. In 1028 Robert succeeded +his brother Richard in the duchy. In 1034 or 1035 he determined to +go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He called on his barons to swear +allegiance to his bastard of seven years old as his successor in +case he never came back. Their wise counsel to stay at home, to +look after his dominions and to raise up lawful heirs, was +unheeded. Robert carried his point. The succession of young +William was accepted by the Norman nobles, and was confirmed by the +overlord Henry King of the French. The arrangement soon took +effect. Robert died on his way back before the year 1035 was out, +and his son began, in name at least, his reign of fifty-two years +over the Norman duchy. + +The succession of one who was at once bastard and minor could +happen only when no one else had a distinctly better claim William +could never have held his ground for a moment against a brother of +his father of full age and undoubted legitimacy. But among the +living descendants of former dukes some were themselves of doubtful +legitimacy, some were shut out by their profession as churchmen, +some claimed only through females. Robert had indeed two half- +brothers, but they were young and their legitimacy was disputed; he +had an uncle, Robert Archbishop of Rouen, who had been legitimated +by the later marriage of his parents. The rival who in the end +gave William most trouble was his cousin Guy of Burgundy, son of a +daughter of his grandfather Richard the Good. Though William's +succession was not liked, no one of these candidates was generally +preferred to him. He therefore succeeded; but the first twelve +years of his reign were spent in the revolts and conspiracies of +unruly nobles, who hated the young duke as the one representative +of law and order, and who were not eager to set any one in his +place who might be better able to enforce them. + +Nobility, so variously defined in different lands, in Normandy took +in two classes of men. All were noble who had any kindred or +affinity, legitimate or otherwise, with the ducal house. The +natural children of Richard the Fearless were legitimated by his +marriage with their mother Gunnor, and many of the great houses of +Normandy sprang from her brothers and sisters. The mother of +William received no such exaltation as this. Besides her son, she +had borne to Robert a daughter Adelaide, and, after Robert's death, +she married a Norman knight named Herlwin of Conteville. To him, +besides a daughter, she bore two sons, Ode and Robert. They rose +to high posts in Church and State, and played an important part in +their half-brother's history. Besides men whose nobility was of +this kind, there were also Norman houses whose privileges were +older than the amours or marriages of any duke, houses whose +greatness was as old as the settlement of Rolf, as old that is as +the ducal power itself. The great men of both these classes were +alike hard to control. A Norman baron of this age was well +employed when he was merely rebelling against his prince or waging +private war against a fellow baron. What specially marks the time +is the frequency of treacherous murders wrought by men of the +highest rank, often on harmless neighbours or unsuspecting guests. +But victims were also found among those guardians of the young duke +whose faithful discharge of their duties shows that the Norman +nobility was not wholly corrupt. One indeed was a foreign prince, +Alan Count of the Bretons, a grandson of Richard the Fearless +through a daughter. Two others, the seneschal Osbern and Gilbert +Count of Eu, were irregular kinsmen of the duke. All these were +murdered, the Breton count by poison. Such a childhood as this +made William play the man while he was still a child. The helpless +boy had to seek for support of some kind. He got together the +chief men of his duchy, and took a new guardian by their advice. +But it marks the state of things that the new guardian was one of +the murderers of those whom he succeeded. This was Ralph of Wacey, +son of William's great-uncle, Archbishop Robert. Murderer as he +was, he seems to have discharged his duty faithfully. There are +men who are careless of general moral obligations, but who will +strictly carry out any charge which appeals to personal honour. +Anyhow Ralph's guardianship brought with it a certain amount of +calm. But men, high in the young duke's favour, were still +plotting against him, and they presently began to plot, not only +against their prince but against their country. The disaffected +nobles of Normandy sought for a helper against young William in his +lord King Henry of Paris. + +The art of diplomacy had never altogether slumbered since much +earlier times. The king who owed his crown to William's father, +and who could have no ground of offence against William himself, +easily found good pretexts for meddling in Norman affairs. It was +not unnatural in the King of the French to wish to win back a sea- +board which had been given up more than a hundred years before to +an alien power, even though that power had, for much more than half +of that time, acted more than a friendly part towards France. It +was not unnatural that the French people should cherish a strong +national dislike to the Normans and a strong wish that Rouen should +again be a French city. But such motives were not openly avowed +then any more than now. The alleged ground was quite different. +The counts of Chartres were troublesome neighbours to the duchy, +and the castle of Tillieres had been built as a defence against +them. An advance of the King's dominions had made Tillieres a +neighbour of France, and, as a neighbour, it was said to be a +standing menace. The King of the French, acting in concert with +the disaffected party in Normandy, was a dangerous enemy, and the +young Duke and his counsellors determined to give up Tillieres. +Now comes the first distinct exercise of William's personal will. +We are without exact dates, but the time can be hardly later than +1040, when William was from twelve to thirteen years old. At his +special request, the defender of Tillieres, Gilbert Crispin, who at +first held out against French and Normans alike, gave up the castle +to Henry. The castle was burned; the King promised not to repair +it for four years. Yet he is said to have entered Normandy, to +have laid waste William's native district of Hiesmois, to have +supplied a French garrison to a Norman rebel named Thurstan, who +held the castle of Falaise against the Duke, and to have ended by +restoring Tillieres as a menace against Normandy. And now the boy +whose destiny had made him so early a leader of men had to bear his +first arms against the fortress which looked down on his birth- +place. Thurstan surrendered and went into banishment. William +could set down his own Falaise as the first of a long list of towns +and castles which he knew how to win without shedding of blood. + +When we next see William's distinct personal action, he is still +young, but no longer a child or even a boy. At nineteen or +thereabouts he is a wise and valiant man, and his valour and wisdom +are tried to the uttermost. A few years of comparative quiet were +chiefly occupied, as a quiet time in those days commonly was, with +ecclesiastical affairs. One of these specially illustrates the +state of things with which William had to deal. In 1042, when the +Duke was about fourteen, Normandy adopted the Truce of God in its +later shape. It no longer attempted to establish universal peace; +it satisfied itself with forbidding, under the strongest +ecclesiastical censures, all private war and violence of any kind +on certain days of the week. Legislation of this kind has two +sides. It was an immediate gain if peace was really enforced for +four days in the week; but that which was not forbidden on the +other three could no longer be denounced as in itself evil. We are +told that in no land was the Truce more strictly observed than in +Normandy. But we may be sure that, when William was in the fulness +of his power, the stern weight of the ducal arm was exerted to +enforce peace on Mondays and Tuesdays as well as on Thursdays and +Fridays. + +It was in the year 1047 that William's authority was most +dangerously threatened and that he was first called on to show in +all their fulness the powers that were in him. He who was to be +conqueror of Maine and conqueror of England was first to be +conqueror of his own duchy. The revolt of a large part of the +country, contrasted with the firm loyalty of another part, throws a +most instructive light on the internal state of the duchy. There +was, as there still is, a line of severance between the districts +which formed the first grant to Rolf and those which were +afterwards added. In these last a lingering remnant of old +Teutonic life had been called into fresh strength by new +settlements from Scandinavia. At the beginning of the reign of +Richard the Fearless, Rouen, the French-speaking city, is +emphatically contrasted with Bayeux, the once Saxon city and land, +now the headquarters of the Danish speech. At that stage the +Danish party was distinctly a heathen party. We are not told +whether Danish was still spoken so late as the time of William's +youth. We can hardly believe that the Scandinavian gods still kept +any avowed worshippers. But the geographical limits of the revolt +exactly fall in with the boundary which had once divided French and +Danish speech, Christian and heathen worship. There was a wide +difference in feeling on the two sides of the Dive. The older +Norman settlements, now thoroughly French in tongue and manners, +stuck faithfully to the Duke; the lands to the west rose against +him. Rouen and Evreux were firmly loyal to William; Saxon Bayeux +and Danish Coutances were the headquarters of his enemies. + +When the geographical division took this shape, we are surprised at +the candidate for the duchy who was put forward by the rebels. +William was a Norman born and bred; his rival was in every sense a +Frenchman. This was William's cousin Guy of Burgundy, whose +connexion with the ducal house was only by the spindle-side. But +his descent was of uncontested legitimacy, which gave him an excuse +for claiming the duchy in opposition to the bastard grandson of the +tanner. By William he had been enriched with great possessions, +among which was the island fortress of Brionne in the Risle. The +real object of the revolt was the partition of the duchy. William +was to be dispossessed; Guy was to be duke in the lands east of +Dive; the great lords of Western Normandy were to be left +independent. To this end the lords of the Bessin and the Cotentin +revolted, their leader being Neal, Viscount of Saint-Sauveur in the +Cotentin. We are told that the mass of the people everywhere +wished well to their duke; in the common sovereign lay their only +chance of protection against their immediate lords. But the lords +had armed force of the land at their bidding. They first tried to +slay or seize the Duke himself, who chanced to be in the midst of +them at Valognes. He escaped; we hear a stirring tale of his +headlong ride from Valognes to Falaise. Safe among his own people, +he planned his course of action. He first sought help of the man +who could give him most help, but who had most wronged him. He +went into France; he saw King Henry at Poissy, and the King engaged +to bring a French force to William's help under his own command. + +This time Henry kept his promise. The dismemberment of Normandy +might have been profitable to France by weakening the power which +had become so special an object of French jealousy; but with a king +the common interest of princes against rebellious barons came +first. Henry came with a French army, and fought well for his ally +on the field of Val-es-dunes. Now came the Conqueror's first +battle, a tourney of horsemen on an open table-land just within the +land of the rebels between Caen and Mezidon. The young duke fought +well and manfully; but the Norman writers allow that it was French +help that gained him the victory. Yet one of the many anecdotes of +the battle points to a source of strength which was always ready to +tell for any lord against rebellious vassals. One of the leaders +of the revolt, Ralph of Tesson, struck with remorse and stirred by +the prayers of his knights, joined the Duke just before the battle. +He had sworn to smite William wherever he found him, and he +fulfilled his oath by giving the Duke a harmless blow with his +glove. How far an oath to do an unlawful act is binding is a +question which came up again at another stage of William's life. + +The victory at Val-es-dunes was decisive, and the French King, +whose help had done so much to win it, left William to follow it +up. He met with but little resistance except at the stronghold of +Brionne. Guy himself vanishes from Norman history. William had +now conquered his own duchy, and conquered it by foreign help. For +the rest of his Norman reign he had often to strive with enemies at +home, but he had never to put down such a rebellion again as that +of the lords of western Normandy. That western Normandy, the +truest Normandy, had to yield to the more thoroughly Romanized +lands to the east. The difference between them never again takes a +political shape. William was now lord of all Normandy, and able to +put down all later disturbers of the peace. His real reign now +begins; from the age of nineteen or twenty, his acts are his own. +According to his abiding practice, he showed himself a merciful +conqueror. Through his whole reign he shows a distinct +unwillingness to take human life except in fair fighting on the +battle-field. No blood was shed after the victory of Val-es-dunes; +one rebel died in bonds; the others underwent no harder punishment +than payment of fines, giving of hostages, and destruction of their +castles. These castles were not as yet the vast and elaborate +structures which arose in after days. A single strong square +tower, or even a defence of wood on a steep mound surrounded by a +ditch, was enough to make its owner dangerous. The possession of +these strongholds made every baron able at once to defy his prince +and to make himself a scourge to his neighbours. Every season of +anarchy is marked by the building of castles; every return of order +brings with it their overthrow as a necessary condition of peace. + + +Thus, in his lonely and troubled childhood, William had been +schooled for the rule of men. He had now, in the rule of a smaller +dominion, in warfare and conquest on a smaller scale, to be +schooled for the conquest and the rule of a greater dominion. +William had the gifts of a born ruler, and he was in no way +disposed to abuse them. We know his rule in Normandy only through +the language of panegyric; but the facts speak for themselves. He +made Normandy peaceful and flourishing, more peaceful and +flourishing perhaps than any other state of the European mainland. +He is set before us as in everything a wise and beneficent ruler, +the protector of the poor and helpless, the patron of commerce and +of all that might profit his dominions. For defensive wars, for +wars waged as the faithful man of his overlord, we cannot blame +him. But his main duty lay at home. He still had revolts to put +down, and he put them down. But to put them down was the first of +good works. He had to keep the peace of the land, to put some +cheek on the unruly wills of those turbulent barons on whom only an +arm like his could put any cheek. He had, in the language of his +day, to do justice, to visit wrong with sure and speedy punishment, +whoever was the wrong-doer. If a ruler did this first of duties +well, much was easily forgiven him in other ways. But William had +as yet little to be forgiven. Throughout life he steadily +practised some unusual virtues. His strict attention to religion +was always marked. And his religion was not that mere lavish +bounty to the Church which was consistent with any amount of +cruelty or license. William's religion really influenced his life, +public and private. He set an unusual example of a princely +household governed according to the rules of morality, and he dealt +with ecclesiastical matters in the spirit of a true reformer. He +did not, like so many princes of his age, make ecclesiastical +preferments a source of corrupt gain, but promoted good men from +all quarters. His own education is not likely to have received +much attention; it is not clear whether he had mastered the rarer +art of writing or the more usual one of reading; but both his +promotion of learned churchmen and the care given to the education +of some of his children show that he at least valued the best +attainments of his time. Had William's whole life been spent in +the duties of a Norman duke, ruling his duchy wisely, defending it +manfully, the world might never have known him for one of its +foremost men, but his life on that narrower field would have been +useful and honourable almost without a drawback. It was the fatal +temptation of princes, the temptation to territorial +aggrandizement, which enabled him fully to show the powers that +were in him, but which at the same time led to his moral +degradation. The defender of his own land became the invader of +other lands, and the invader could not fail often to sink into the +oppressor. Each step in his career as Conqueror was a step +downwards. Maine was a neighbouring land, a land of the same +speech, a land which, if the feelings of the time could have +allowed a willing union, would certainly have lost nothing by an +union with Normandy. England, a land apart, a land of speech, +laws, and feelings, utterly unlike those of any part of Gaul, was +in another case. There the Conqueror was driven to be the +oppressor. Wrong, as ever, was punished by leading to further +wrong. + +With the two fields, nearer and more distant, narrower and wider, +on which William was to appear as Conqueror he has as yet nothing +to do. It is vain to guess at what moment the thought of the +English succession may have entered his mind or that of his +advisers. When William began his real reign after Val-es-dunes, +Norman influence was high in England. Edward the Confessor had +spent his youth among his Norman kinsfolk; he loved Norman ways and +the company of Normans and other men of French speech. Strangers +from the favoured lands held endless posts in Church and State; +above all, Robert of Jumieges, first Bishop of London and then +Archbishop of Canterbury, was the King's special favourite and +adviser. These men may have suggested the thought of William's +succession very early. On the other hand, at this time it was by +no means clear that Edward might not leave a son of his own. He +had been only a few years married, and his alleged vow of chastity +is very doubtful. William's claim was of the flimsiest kind. By +English custom the king was chosen out of a single kingly house, +and only those who were descended from kings in the male line were +counted as members of that house. William was not descended, even +in the female line, from any English king; his whole kindred with +Edward was that Edward's mother Emma, a daughter of Richard the +Fearless, was William's great-aunt. Such a kindred, to say nothing +of William's bastardy, could give no right to the crown according +to any doctrine of succession that ever was heard of. It could at +most point him out as a candidate for adoption, in case the +reigning king should be disposed and allowed to choose his +successor. William or his advisers may have begun to weigh this +chance very early; but all that is really certain is that William +was a friend and favourite of his elder kinsman, and that events +finally brought his succession to the English crown within the +range of things that might be. + +But, before this, William was to show himself as a warrior beyond +the bounds of his own duchy, and to take seizin, as it were, of his +great continental conquest. William's first war out of Normandy +was waged in common with King Henry against Geoffrey Martel Count +of Anjou, and waged on the side of Maine. William undoubtedly owed +a debt of gratitude to his overlord for good help given at Val-es- +dunes, and excuses were never lacking for a quarrel between Anjou +and Normandy. Both powers asserted rights over the intermediate +land of Maine. In 1048 we find William giving help to Henry in a +war with Anjou, and we hear wonderful but vague tales of his +exploits. The really instructive part of the story deals with two +border fortresses on the march of Normandy and Maine. Alencon lay +on the Norman side of the Sarthe; but it was disloyal to Normandy. +Brionne was still holding out for Guy of Burgundy. The town was a +lordship of the house of Belleme, a house renowned for power and +wickedness, and which, as holding great possessions alike of +Normandy and of France, ranked rather with princes than with +ordinary nobles. The story went that William Talvas, lord of +Belleme, one of the fiercest of his race, had cursed William in his +cradle, as one by whom he and his should be brought to shame. Such +a tale set forth the noblest side of William's character, as the +man who did something to put down such enemies of mankind as he who +cursed him. The possessions of William Talvas passed through his +daughter Mabel to Roger of Montgomery, a man who plays a great part +in William's history; but it is the disloyalty of the burghers, not +of their lord, of which we hear just now. They willingly admitted +an Angevin garrison. William in return laid siege to Domfront on +the Varenne, a strong castle which was then an outpost of Maine +against Normandy. A long skirmishing warfare, in which William won +for himself a name by deeds of personal prowess, went on during the +autumn and winter (1048-49). One tale specially illustrates more +than one point in the feelings of the time. The two princes, +William and Geoffrey, give a mutual challenge; each gives the other +notice of the garb and shield that he will wear that he may not be +mistaken. The spirit of knight-errantry was coming in, and we see +that William himself in his younger days was touched by it. But we +see also that coat-armour was as yet unknown. Geoffrey and his +host, so the Normans say, shrink from the challenge and decamp in +the night, leaving the way open for a sudden march upon Alencon. +The disloyal burghers received the duke with mockery of his birth. +They hung out skins, and shouted, "Hides for the Tanner." Personal +insult is always hard for princes to bear, and the wrath of William +was stirred up to a pitch which made him for once depart from his +usual moderation towards conquered enemies. He swore that the men +who had jeered at him should be dealt with like a tree whose +branches are cut off with the pollarding-knife. The town was taken +by assault, and William kept his oath. The castle held out; the +hands and feet of thirty-two pollarded burghers of Alencon were +thrown over its walls, and the threat implied drove the garrison to +surrender on promise of safety for life and limb. The defenders of +Domfront, struck with fear, surrendered also, and kept their arms +as well as their lives and limbs. William had thus won back his +own rebellious town, and had enlarged his borders by his first +conquest. He went farther south, and fortified another castle at +Ambrieres; but Ambrieres was only a temporary conquest. Domfront +has ever since been counted as part of Normandy. But, as +ecclesiastical divisions commonly preserve the secular divisions of +an earlier time, Domfront remained down to the great French +Revolution in the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishops of Le Mans. + + +William had now shown himself in Maine as conqueror, and he was +before long to show himself in England, though not yet as +conqueror. If our chronology is to be trusted, he had still in +this interval to complete his conquest of his own duchy by securing +the surrender of Brionne; and two other events, both +characteristic, one of them memorable, fill up the same time. +William now banished a kinsman of his own name, who held the great +county of Mortain, Moretoliam or Moretonium, in the diocese of +Avranches, which must be carefully distinguished from Mortagne-en- +Perche, Mauritania or Moretonia in the diocese of Seez. This act, +of somewhat doubtful justice, is noteworthy on two grounds. First, +the accuser of the banished count was one who was then a poor +serving-knight of his own, but who became the forefather of a house +which plays a great part in English history, Robert surnamed the +Bigod. Secondly, the vacant county was granted by William to his +own half-brother Robert. He had already in 1048 bestowed the +bishopric of Bayeux on his other half-brother Odo, who cannot at +that time have been more than twelve years old. He must therefore +have held the see for a good while without consecration, and at no +time of his fifty years' holding of it did he show any very +episcopal merits. This was the last case in William's reign of an +old abuse by which the chief church preferments in Normandy had +been turned into means of providing for members, often unworthy +members, of the ducal family; and it is the only one for which +William can have been personally responsible. Both his brothers +were thus placed very early in life among the chief men of +Normandy, as they were in later years to be placed among the chief +men of England. But William's affection for his brothers, amiable +as it may have been personally, was assuredly not among the +brighter parts of his character as a sovereign. + +The other chief event of this time also concerns the domestic side +of William's life. The long story of his marriage now begins. The +date is fixed by one of the decrees of the council of Rheims held +in 1049 by Pope Leo the Ninth, in which Baldwin Count of Flanders +is forbidden to give his daughter to William the Norman. This +implies that the marriage was already thought of, and further that +it was looked on as uncanonical. The bride whom William sought, +Matilda daughter of Baldwin the Fifth, was connected with him by +some tie of kindred or affinity which made a marriage between them +unlawful by the rules of the Church. But no genealogist has yet +been able to find out exactly what the canonical hindrance was. It +is hard to trace the descent of William and Matilda up to any +common forefather. But the light which the story throws on +William's character is the same in any case. Whether he was +seeking a wife or a kingdom, he would have his will, but he could +wait for it. In William's doubtful position, a marriage with the +daughter of the Count of Flanders would be useful to him in many +ways; and Matilda won her husband's abiding love and trust. +Strange tales are told of William's wooing. Tales are told also of +Matilda's earlier love for the Englishman Brihtric, who is said to +have found favour in her eyes when he came as envoy from England to +her father's court. All that is certain is that the marriage had +been thought of and had been forbidden before the next important +event in William's life that we have to record. + +Was William's Flemish marriage in any way connected with his hopes +of succession to the English crown? Had there been any available +bride for him in England, it might have been for his interest to +seek for her there. But it should be noticed, though no ancient +writer points out the fact, that Matilda was actually descended +from Alfred in the female line; so that William's children, though +not William himself, had some few drops of English blood in their +veins. William or his advisers, in weighing every chance which +might help his interests in the direction of England, may have +reckoned this piece of rather ancient genealogy among the +advantages of a Flemish alliance. But it is far more certain that, +between the forbidding of the marriage and the marriage itself, a +direct hope of succession to the English crown had been opened to +the Norman duke. + + + +CHAPTER III--WILLIAM'S FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND--A.D. 1051-1052 + + + +While William was strengthening himself in Normandy, Norman +influence in England had risen to its full height. The king was +surrounded by foreign favourites. The only foreign earl was his +nephew Ralph of Mentes, the son of his sister Godgifu. But three +chief bishoprics were held by Normans, Robert of Canterbury, +William of London, and Ulf of Dorchester. William bears a good +character, and won the esteem of Englishmen; but the unlearned Ulf +is emphatically said to have done "nought bishoplike." Smaller +preferments in Church and State, estates in all parts of the +kingdom, were lavishly granted to strangers. They built castles, +and otherwise gave offence to English feeling. Archbishop Robert, +above all, was ever plotting against Godwine, Earl of the West- +Saxons, the head of the national party. At last, in the autumn of +1051, the national indignation burst forth. The immediate occasion +was a visit paid to the King by Count Eustace of Boulogne, who had +just married the widowed Countess Godgifu. The violent dealings of +his followers towards the burghers of Dover led to resistance on +their part, and to a long series of marches and negotiations, which +ended in the banishment of Godwine and his son, and the parting of +his daughter Edith, the King's wife, from her husband. From +October 1051 to September 1052, the Normans had their own way in +England. And during that time King Edward received a visitor of +greater fame than his brother-in-law from Boulogne in the person of +his cousin from Rouen. + +Of his visit we only read that "William Earl came from beyond sea +with mickle company of Frenchmen, and the king him received, and as +many of his comrades as to him seemed good, and let him go again." +Another account adds that William received great gifts from the +King. But William himself in several documents speaks of Edward as +his lord; he must therefore at some time have done to Edward an act +of homage, and there is no time but this at which we can conceive +such an act being done. Now for what was the homage paid? Homage +was often paid on very trifling occasions, and strange conflicts of +allegiance often followed. No such conflict was likely to arise if +the Duke of the Normans, already the man of the King of the French +for his duchy, became the man of the King of the English on any +other ground. Betwixt England and France there was as yet no +enmity or rivalry. England and France became enemies afterwards +because the King of the English and the Duke of the Normans were +one person. And this visit, this homage, was the first step +towards making the King of the English and the Duke of the Normans +the same person. The claim William had to the English crown rested +mainly on an alleged promise of the succession made by Edward. +This claim is not likely to have been a mere shameless falsehood. +That Edward did make some promise to William--as that Harold, at a +later stage, did take some oath to William--seems fully proved by +the fact that, while such Norman statements as could be denied were +emphatically denied by the English writers, on these two points the +most patriotic Englishmen, the strongest partisans of Harold, keep +a marked silence. We may be sure therefore that some promise was +made; for that promise a time must be found, and no time seems +possible except this time of William's visit to Edward. The date +rests on no direct authority, but it answers every requirement. +Those who spoke of the promise as being made earlier, when William +and Edward were boys together in Normandy, forgot that Edward was +many years older than William. The only possible moment earlier +than the visit was when Edward was elected king in 1042. Before +that time he could hardly have thought of disposing of a kingdom +which was not his, and at that time he might have looked forward to +leaving sons to succeed him. Still less could the promise have +been made later than the visit. From 1053 to the end of his life +Edward was under English influences, which led him first to send +for his nephew Edward from Hungary as his successor, and in the end +to make a recommendation in favour of Harold. But in 1051-52 +Edward, whether under a vow or not, may well have given up the hope +of children; he was surrounded by Norman influences; and, for the +only time in the last twenty-four years of their joint lives, he +and William met face to face. The only difficulty is one to which +no contemporary writer makes any reference. If Edward wished to +dispose of his crown in favour of one of his French-speaking +kinsmen, he had a nearer kinsman of whom he might more naturally +have thought. His own nephew Ralph was living in England and +holding an English earldom. He had the advantage over both William +and his own older brother Walter of Mantes, in not being a reigning +prince elsewhere. We can only say that there is evidence that +Edward did think of William, that there is no evidence that he ever +thought of Ralph. And, except the tie of nearer kindred, +everything would suggest William rather than Ralph. The personal +comparison is almost grotesque; and Edward's early associations and +the strongest influences around him, were not vaguely French but +specially Norman. Archbishop Robert would plead for his own native +sovereign only. In short, we may be as nearly sure as we can be of +any fact for which there is no direct authority, that Edward's +promise to William was made at the time of William's visit to +England, and that William's homage to Edward was done in the +character of a destined successor to the English crown. + +William then came to England a mere duke and went back to Normandy +a king expectant. But the value of his hopes, to the value of the +promise made to him, are quite another matter. Most likely they +were rated on both sides far above their real value. King and duke +may both have believed that they were making a settlement which the +English nation was bound to respect. If so, Edward at least was +undeceived within a few months. + + +The notion of a king disposing of his crown by his own act belongs +to the same range of ideas as the law of strict hereditary +succession. It implies that kingship is a possession and not an +office. Neither the heathen nor the Christian English had ever +admitted that doctrine; but it was fast growing on the continent. +Our forefathers had always combined respect for the kingly house +with some measure of choice among the members of that house. +Edward himself was not the lawful heir according to the notions of +a modern lawyer; for he was chosen while the son of his elder +brother was living. Every English king held his crown by the gift +of the great assembly of the nation, though the choice of the +nation was usually limited to the descendants of former kings, and +though the full-grown son of the late king was seldom opposed. +Christianity had strengthened the election principle. The king +lost his old sanctity as the son of Woden; he gained a new sanctity +as the Lord's anointed. But kingship thereby became more +distinctly an office, a great post, like a bishopric, to which its +holder had to be lawfully chosen and admitted by solemn rites. But +of that office he could be lawfully deprived, nor could he hand it +on to a successor either according to his own will or according to +any strict law of succession. The wishes of the late king, like +the wishes of the late bishop, went for something with the +electors. But that was all. All that Edward could really do for +his kinsmen was to promise to make, when the time came, a +recommendation to the Witan in his favour. The Witan might then +deal as they thought good with a recommendation so unusual as to +choose to the kingship of England a man who was neither a native +nor a conqueror of England nor the descendant of any English king. + +When the time came, Edward did make a recommendation to the Witan, +but it was not in favour of William. The English influences under +which he was brought during his last fourteen years taught him +better what the law of England was and what was the duty of an +English king. But at the time of William's visit Edward may well +have believed that he could by his own act settle his crown on his +Norman kinsman as his undoubted successor in case he died without a +son. And it may be that Edward was bound by a vow not to leave a +son. And if Edward so thought, William naturally thought so yet +more; he would sincerely believe himself to be the lawful heir of +the crown of England, the sole lawful successor, except in one +contingency which was perhaps impossible and certainly unlikely. + +The memorials of these times, so full on some points, are meagre on +others. Of those writers who mention the bequest or promise none +mention it at any time when it is supposed to have happened; they +mention it at some later time when it began to be of practical +importance. No English writer speaks of William's claim till the +time when he was about practically to assert it; no Norman writer +speaks of it till he tells the tale of Harold's visit and oath to +William. We therefore cannot say how far the promise was known +either in England or on the continent. But it could not be kept +altogether hid, even if either party wished it to be hid. English +statesmen must have known of it, and must have guided their policy +accordingly, whether it was generally known in the country or not. +William's position, both in his own duchy and among neighbouring +princes, would be greatly improved if he could be looked upon as a +future king. As heir to the crown of England, he may have more +earnestly wooed the descendant of former wearers of the crown; and +Matilda and her father may have looked more favourably on a suitor +to whom the crown of England was promised. On the other hand, the +existence of such a foreign claimant made it more needful than ever +for Englishmen to be ready with an English successor, in the royal +house or out of it, the moment the reigning king should pass away. + + +It was only for a short time that William could have had any +reasonable hope of a peaceful succession. The time of Norman +influence in England was short. The revolution of September 1052 +brought Godwine back, and placed the rule of England again in +English hands. Many Normans were banished, above all Archbishop +Robert and Bishop Ulf. The death of Godwine the next year placed +the chief power in the hands of his son Harold. This change +undoubtedly made Edward more disposed to the national cause. Of +Godwine, the man to whom he owed his crown, he was clearly in awe; +to Godwine's sons he was personally attached. We know not how +Edward was led to look on his promise to William as void. That he +was so led is quite plain. He sent for his nephew the AEtheling +Edward from Hungary, clearly as his intended successor. When the +AEtheling died in 1057, leaving a son under age, men seem to have +gradually come to look to Harold as the probable successor. He +clearly held a special position above that of an ordinary earl; but +there is no need to suppose any formal act in his favour till the +time of the King's death, January 5, 1066. On his deathbed Edward +did all that he legally could do on behalf of Harold by +recommending him to the Witan for election as the next king. That +he then either made a new or renewed an old nomination in favour of +William is a fable which is set aside by the witness of the +contemporary English writers. William's claim rested wholly on +that earlier nomination which could hardly have been made at any +other time than his visit to England. + + +We have now to follow William back to Normandy, for the remaining +years of his purely ducal reign. The expectant king had doubtless +thoughts and hopes which he had not had before. But we can guess +at them only: they are not recorded. + + + +CHAPTER IV--THE REIGN OF WILLIAM IN NORMANDY--A.D. 1052-1063 + + + +If William came back from England looking forward to a future +crown, the thought might even then flash across his mind that he +was not likely to win that crown without fighting for it. As yet +his business was still to fight for the duchy of Normandy. But he +had now to fight, not to win his duchy, but only to keep it. For +five years he had to strive both against rebellious subjects and +against invading enemies, among whom King Henry of Paris is again +the foremost. Whatever motives had led the French king to help +William at Val-es-dunes had now passed away. He had fallen back on +his former state of abiding enmity towards Normandy and her duke. +But this short period definitely fixed the position of Normandy and +her duke in Gaul and in Europe. At its beginning William is still +the Bastard of Falaise, who may or may not be able to keep himself +in the ducal chair, his right to which is still disputed. At the +end of it, if he is not yet the Conqueror and the Great, he has +shown all the gifts that were needed to win him either name. He is +the greatest vassal of the French crown, a vassal more powerful +than the overlord whose invasions of his duchy he has had to drive +back. + +These invasions of Normandy by the King of the French and his +allies fall into two periods. At first Henry appears in Normandy +as the supporter of Normans in open revolt against their duke. But +revolts are personal and local; there is no rebellion like that +which was crushed at Val-es-dunes, spreading over a large part of +the duchy. In the second period, the invaders have no such +starting-point. There are still traitors; there are still rebels; +but all that they can do is to join the invaders after they have +entered the land. William is still only making his way to the +universal good will of his duchy: but he is fast making it. + +There is, first of all, an obscure tale of a revolt of an unfixed +date, but which must have happened between 1048 and 1053. The +rebel, William Busac of the house of Eu, is said to have defended +the castle of Eu against the duke and to have gone into banishment +in France. But the year that followed William's visit to England +saw the far more memorable revolt of William Count of Arques. He +had drawn the Duke's suspicions on him, and he had to receive a +ducal garrison in his great fortress by Dieppe. But the garrison +betrayed the castle to its own master. Open revolt and havoc +followed, in which Count William was supported by the king and by +several other princes. Among them was Ingelram Count of Ponthieu, +husband of the duke's sister Adelaide. Another enemy was Guy Count +of Gascony, afterwards Duke William the Eighth of Aquitaine. What +quarrel a prince in the furthest corner of Gaul could have with the +Duke of the Normans does not appear; but neither Count William nor +his allies could withstand the loyal Normans and their prince. +Count Ingelram was killed; the other princes withdrew to devise +greater efforts against Normandy. Count William lost his castle +and part of his estates, and left the duchy of his free will. The +Duke's politic forbearance at last won him the general good will of +his subjects. We hear of no more open revolts till that of +William's own son many years after. But the assaults of foreign +enemies, helped sometimes by Norman traitors, begin again the next +year on a greater scale. + + +William the ruler and warrior had now a short breathing-space. He +had doubtless come back from England more bent than ever on his +marriage with Matilda of Flanders. Notwithstanding the decree of a +Pope and a Council entitled to special respect, the marriage was +celebrated, not very long after William's return to Normandy, in +the year of the revolt of William of Arques. In the course of the +year 1053 Count Baldwin brought his daughter to the Norman frontier +at Eu, and there she became the bride of William. We know not what +emboldened William to risk so daring a step at this particular +time, or what led Baldwin to consent to it. If it was suggested by +the imprisonment of Pope Leo by William's countrymen in Italy, in +the hope that a consent to the marriage would be wrung out of the +captive pontiff, that hope was disappointed. The marriage raised +much opposition in Normandy. It was denounced by Archbishop Malger +of Rouen, the brother of the dispossessed Count of Arques. His +character certainly added no weight to his censures; but the same +act in a saint would have been set down as a sign of holy boldness. +Presently, whether for his faults or for his merits, Malger was +deposed in a synod of the Norman Church, and William found him a +worthier successor in the learned and holy Maurilius. But a +greater man than Malger also opposed the marriage, and the +controversy thus introduces us to one who fills a place second only +to that of William himself in the Norman and English history of the +time. + +This was Lanfranc of Pavia, the lawyer, the scholar, the model +monk, the ecclesiastical statesman, who, as prior of the newly +founded abbey of Bec, was already one of the innermost counsellors +of the Duke. As duke and king, as prior, abbot, and archbishop, +William and Lanfranc ruled side by side, each helping the work of +the other till the end of their joint lives. Once only, at this +time, was their friendship broken for a moment. Lanfranc spoke +against the marriage, and ventured to rebuke the Duke himself. +William's wrath was kindled; he ordered Lanfranc into banishment +and took a baser revenge by laying waste part of the lands of the +abbey. But the quarrel was soon made up. Lanfranc presently left +Normandy, not as a banished man, but as the envoy of its sovereign, +commissioned to work for the confirmation of the marriage at the +papal court. He worked, and his work was crowned with success, but +not with speedy success. It was not till six years after the +marriage, not till the year 1059, that Lanfranc obtained the wished +for confirmation, not from Leo, but from his remote successor +Nicolas the Second. The sin of those who had contracted the +unlawful union was purged by various good works, among which the +foundation of the two stately abbeys of Caen was conspicuous. + +This story illustrates many points in the character of William and +of his time. His will is not to be thwarted, whether in a matter +of marriage or of any other. But he does not hurry matters; he +waits for a favourable opportunity. Something, we know not what, +must have made the year 1053 more favourable than the year 1049. +We mark also William's relations to the Church. He is at no time +disposed to submit quietly to the bidding of the spiritual power, +when it interferes with his rights or even when it crosses his +will. Yet he is really anxious for ecclesiastical reform; he +promotes men like Maurilius and Lanfranc; perhaps he is not +displeased when the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline, in the +case of Malger, frees him from a troublesome censor. But the worse +side of him also comes out. William could forgive rebels, but he +could not bear the personal rebuke even of his friend. Under this +feeling he punishes a whole body of men for the offence of one. To +lay waste the lands of Bec for the rebuke of Lanfranc was like an +ordinary prince of the time; it was unlike William, if he had not +been stirred up by a censure which touched his wife as well as +himself. But above all, the bargain between William and Lanfranc +is characteristic of the man and the age. Lanfranc goes to Rome to +support a marriage which he had censured in Normandy. But there is +no formal inconsistency, no forsaking of any principle. Lanfranc +holds an uncanonical marriage to be a sin, and he denounces it. He +does not withdraw his judgement as to its sinfulness. He simply +uses his influence with a power that can forgive the sin to get it +forgiven. + +While William's marriage was debated at Rome, he had to fight hard +in Normandy. His warfare and his negotiations ended about the same +time, and the two things may have had their bearing on one another. +William had now to undergo a new form of trial. The King of the +French had never put forth his full strength when he was simply +backing Norman rebels. William had now, in two successive +invasions, to withstand the whole power of the King, and of as many +of his vassals as the King could bring to his standard. In the +first invasion, in 1054, the Norman writers speak rhetorically of +warriors from Burgundy, Auvergne, and Gascony; but it is hard to +see any troops from a greater distance than Bourges. The princes +who followed Henry seem to have been only the nearer vassals of the +Crown. Chief among them are Theobald Count of Chartres, of a house +of old hostile to Normandy, and Guy the new Count of Ponthieu, to +be often heard of again. If not Geoffrey of Anjou himself, his +subjects from Tours were also there. Normandy was to be invaded on +two sides, on both banks of the Seine. The King and his allies +sought to wrest from William the western part of Normandy, the +older and the more thoroughly French part. No attack seems to have +been designed on the Bessin or the Cotentin. William was to be +allowed to keep those parts of his duchy, against which he had to +fight when the King was his ally at Val-es-dunes. + +The two armies entered Normandy; that which was to act on the left +of the Seine was led by the King, the other by his brother Odo. +Against the King William made ready to act himself; eastern +Normandy was left to its own loyal nobles. But all Normandy was +now loyal; the men of the Saxon and Danish lands were as ready to +fight for their duke against the King as they had been to fight +against King and Duke together. But William avoided pitched +battles; indeed pitched battles are rare in the continental warfare +of the time. War consists largely in surprises, and still more in +the attack and defence of fortified places. The plan of William's +present campaign was wholly defensive; provisions and cattle were +to be carried out of the French line of march; the Duke on his +side, the other Norman leaders on the other side, were to watch the +enemy and attack them at any favourable moment. The commanders +east of the Seine, Count Robert of Eu, Hugh of Gournay, William +Crispin, and Walter Giffard, found their opportunity when the +French had entered the unfortified town of Mortemer and had given +themselves up to revelry. Fire and sword did the work. The whole +French army was slain, scattered, or taken prisoners. Ode escaped; +Guy of Ponthieu was taken. The Duke's success was still easier. +The tale runs that the news from Mortemer, suddenly announced to +the King's army in the dead of the night, struck them with panic, +and led to a hasty retreat out of the land. + +This campaign is truly Norman; it is wholly unlike the simple +warfare of England. A traitorous Englishman did nothing or helped +the enemy; a patriotic Englishman gave battle to the enemy the +first time he had a chance. But no English commander of the +eleventh century was likely to lay so subtle a plan as this, and, +if he had laid such a plan, he would hardly have found an English +army able to carry it out. Harold, who refused to lay waste a rood +of English ground, would hardly have looked quietly on while many +roods of English ground were wasted by the enemy. With all the +valour of the Normans, what before all things distinguished them +from other nations was their craft. William could indeed fight a +pitched battle when a pitched battle served his purpose; but he +could control himself, he could control his followers, even to the +point of enduring to look quietly on the havoc of their own land +till the right moment. He who could do this was indeed practising +for his calling as Conqueror. And if the details of the story, +details specially characteristic, are to be believed, William +showed something also of that grim pleasantry which was another +marked feature in the Norman character. The startling message +which struck the French army with panic was deliberately sent with +that end. The messenger sent climbs a tree or a rock, and, with a +voice as from another world, bids the French awake; they are +sleeping too long; let them go and bury their friends who are lying +dead at Mortemer. These touches bring home to us the character of +the man and the people with whom our forefathers had presently to +deal. William was the greatest of his race, but he was essentially +of his race; he was Norman to the backbone. + +Of the French army one division had been surprised and cut to +pieces, the other had left Normandy without striking a blow. The +war was not yet quite over; the French still kept Tillieres; +William accordingly fortified the stronghold of Breteuil as a cheek +upon it. And he entrusted the command to a man who will soon be +memorable, his personal friend William, son of his old guardian +Osbern. King Henry was now glad to conclude a peace on somewhat +remarkable terms. William had the king's leave to take what he +could from Count Geoffrey of Anjou. He now annexed Cenomannian-- +that is just now Angevin--territory at more points than one, but +chiefly on the line of his earlier advances to Domfront and +Ambrieres. Ambrieres had perhaps been lost; for William now sent +Geoffrey a challenge to come on the fortieth day. He came on the +fortieth day, and found Ambrieres strongly fortified and occupied +by a Norman garrison. With Geoffrey came the Breton prince Ode, +and William or Peter Duke of Aquitaine. They besieged the castle; +but Norman accounts add that they all fled on William's approach to +relieve it. + +Three years of peace now followed, but in 1058 King Henry, this +time in partnership with Geoffrey of Anjou, ventured another +invasion of Normandy. He might say that he had never been fairly +beaten in his former campaign, but that he had been simply cheated +out of the land by Norman wiles. This time he had a second +experience of Norman wiles and of Norman strength too. King and +Count entered the land and ravaged far and wide. William, as +before, allowed the enemy to waste the land. He watched and +followed them till he found a favourable moment for attack. The +people in general zealously helped the Duke's schemes, but some +traitors of rank were still leagued with the Count of Anjou. While +William bided his time, the invaders burned Caen. This place, so +famous in Norman history, was not one of the ancient cities of the +land. It was now merely growing into importance, and it was as yet +undefended by walls or castle. But when the ravagers turned +eastward, William found the opportunity that he had waited for. As +the French were crossing the ford of Varaville on the Dive, near +the mouth of that river, he came suddenly on them, and slaughtered +a large part of the army under the eyes of the king who had already +crossed. The remnant marched out of Normandy. + +Henry now made peace, and restored Tillieres. Not long after, in +1060, the King died, leaving his young son Philip, who had been +already crowned, as his successor, under the guardianship of +William's father-in-law Baldwin. Geoffrey of Anjou and William of +Aquitaine also died, and the Angevin power was weakened by the +division of Geoffrey's dominions between his nephews. William's +position was greatly strengthened, now that France, under the new +regent, had become friendly, while Anjou was no longer able to do +mischief. William had now nothing to fear from his neighbours, and +the way was soon opened for his great continental conquest. But +what effect had these events on William's views on England? About +the time of the second French invasion of Normandy Earl Harold +became beyond doubt the first man in England, and for the first +time a chance of the royal succession was opened to him. In 1057, +the year before Varaville, the AEtheling Edward, the King's +selected successor, died soon after his coming to England; in the +same year died the King's nephew Earl Ralph and Leofric Earl of the +Mercians, the only Englishmen whose influence could at all compare +with that of Harold. Harold's succession now became possible; it +became even likely, if Edward should die while Edgar the son of the +AEtheling was still under age. William had no shadow of excuse for +interfering, but he doubtless was watching the internal affairs of +England. Harold was certainly watching the affairs of Gaul. About +this time, most likely in the year 1058, he made a pilgrimage to +Rome, and on his way back he looked diligently into the state of +things among the various vassals of the French crown. His exact +purpose is veiled in ambiguous language; but we can hardly doubt +that his object was to contract alliances with the continental +enemies of Normandy. Such views looked to the distant future, as +William had as yet been guilty of no unfriendly act towards +England. But it was well to come to an understanding with King +Henry, Count Geoffrey, and Duke William of Aquitaine, in case a +time should come when their interests and those of England would be +the same. But the deaths of all those princes must have put an end +to all hopes of common action between England and any Gaulish +power. The Emperor Henry also, the firm ally of England, was dead. +It was now clear that, if England should ever have to withstand a +Norman attack, she would have to withstand it wholly by her own +strength, or with such help as she might find among the kindred +powers of the North. + + +William's great continental conquest is drawing nigh; but between +the campaign of Varaville and the campaign of Le Mans came the +tardy papal confirmation of William's marriage. The Duke and +Duchess, now at last man and wife in the eye of the Church, began +to carry out the works of penance which were allotted to them. The +abbeys of Caen, William's Saint Stephen's, Matilda's Holy Trinity, +now began to arise. Yet, at this moment of reparation, one or two +facts seem to place William's government of his duchy in a less +favourable light than usual. The last French invasion was followed +by confiscations and banishments among the chief men of Normandy. +Roger of Montgomery and his wife Mabel, who certainly was capable +of any deed of blood or treachery, are charged with acting as false +accusers. We see also that, as late as the day of Varaville, there +were Norman traitors. Robert of Escalfoy had taken the Angevin +side, and had defended his castle against the Duke. He died in a +strange way, after snatching an apple from the hand of his own +wife. His nephew Arnold remained in rebellion three years, and was +simply required to go to the wars in Apulia. It is hard to believe +that the Duke had poisoned the apple, if poisoned it was; but +finding treason still at work among his nobles, he may have too +hastily listened to charges against men who had done him good +service, and who were to do him good service again. + +Five years after the combat at Varaville, William really began to +deserve, though not as yet to receive, the name of Conqueror. For +he now did a work second only to the conquest of England. He won +the city of Le Mans and the whole land of Maine. Between the tale +of Maine and the tale of England there is much of direct likeness. +Both lands were won against the will of their inhabitants; but both +conquests were made with an elaborate show of legal right. +William's earlier conquests in Maine had been won, not from any +count of Maine, but from Geoffrey of Anjou, who had occupied the +country to the prejudice of two successive counts, Hugh and +Herbert. He had further imprisoned the Bishop of Le Mans, Gervase +of the house of Belleme, though the King of the French had at his +request granted to the Count of Anjou for life royal rights over +the bishopric of Le Mans. The bishops of Le Mans, who thus, unlike +the bishops of Normandy, held their temporalities of the distant +king and not of the local count, held a very independent position. +The citizens of Le Mans too had large privileges and a high spirit +to defend them; the city was in a marked way the head of the +district. Thus it commonly carried with it the action of the whole +country. In Maine there were three rival powers, the prince, the +Church, and the people. The position of the counts was further +weakened by the claims to their homage made by the princes on +either side of them in Normandy and Anjou; the position of the +Bishop, vassal, till Gervase's late act, of the King only, was +really a higher one. Geoffrey had been received at Le Mans with +the good will of the citizens, and both Bishop and Count sought +shelter with William. Gervase was removed from the strife by +promotion to the highest place in the French kingdom, the +archbishopric of Rheims. The young Count Herbert, driven from his +county, commended himself to William. He became his man; he agreed +to hold his dominions of him, and to marry one of his daughters. +If he died childless, his father-in-law was to take the fief into +his own hands. But to unite the old and new dynasties, Herbert's +youngest sister Margaret was to marry William's eldest son Robert. +If female descent went for anything, it is not clear why Herbert +passed by the rights of his two elder sisters, Gersendis, wife of +Azo Marquess of Liguria, and Paula, wife of John of La Fleche on +the borders of Maine and Anjou. And sons both of Gersendis and of +Paula did actually reign at Le Mans, while no child either of +Herbert or of Margaret ever came into being. + +If Herbert ever actually got possession of his country, his +possession of it was short. He died in 1063 before either of the +contemplated marriages had been carried out. William therefore +stood towards Maine as he expected to stand with regard to England. +The sovereign of each country had made a formal settlement of his +dominions in his favour. It was to be seen whether those who were +most immediately concerned would accept that settlement. Was the +rule either of Maine or of England to be handed over in this way, +like a mere property, without the people who were to be ruled +speaking their minds on the matter? What the people of England +said to this question in 1066 we shall hear presently; what the +people of Maine said in 1063 we hear now. We know not why they had +submitted to the Angevin count; they had now no mind to merge their +country in the dominions of the Norman duke. The Bishop was +neutral; but the nobles and the citizens of Le Mans were of one +mind in refusing William's demand to be received as count by virtue +of the agreement with Herbert. They chose rulers for themselves. +Passing by Gersendis and Paula and their sons, they sent for +Herbert's aunt Biota and her husband Walter Count of Mantes. +Strangely enough, Walter, son of Godgifu daughter of AEthelred, was +a possible, though not a likely, candidate for the rule of England +as well as of Maine. The people of Maine are not likely to have +thought of this bit of genealogy. But it was doubtless present to +the minds alike of William and of Harold. + +William thus, for the first but not for the last time, claimed the +rule of a people who had no mind to have him as their ruler. Yet, +morally worthless as were his claims over Maine, in the merely +technical way of looking at things, he had more to say than most +princes have who annex the lands of their neighbours. He had a +perfectly good right by the terms of the agreement with Herbert. +And it might be argued by any who admitted the Norman claim to the +homage of Maine, that on the failure of male heirs the country +reverted to the overlord. Yet female succession was now coming in. +Anjou had passed to the sons of Geoffrey's sister; it had not +fallen back to the French king. There was thus a twofold answer to +William's claim, that Herbert could not grant away even the rights +of his sisters, still less the rights of his people. Still it was +characteristic of William that he had a case that might be +plausibly argued. The people of Maine had fallen back on the old +Teutonic right. They had chosen a prince connected with the old +stock, but who was not the next heir according to any rule of +succession. Walter was hardly worthy of such an exceptional +honour; he showed no more energy in Maine than his brother Ralph +had shown in England. The city was defended by Geoffrey, lord of +Mayenne, a valiant man who fills a large place in the local +history. But no valour or skill could withstand William's plan of +warfare. He invaded Maine in much the same sort in which he had +defended Normandy. He gave out that he wished to win Maine without +shedding man's blood. He fought no battles; he did not attack the +city, which he left to be the last spot that should be devoured. +He harried the open country, he occupied the smaller posts, till +the citizens were driven, against Geoffrey's will, to surrender. +William entered Le Mans; he was received, we are told, with joy. +When men make the best of a bad bargain, they sometimes persuade +themselves that they are really pleased. William, as ever, shed no +blood; he harmed none of the men who had become his subjects; but +Le Mans was to be bridled; its citizens needed a castle and a +Norman garrison to keep them in their new allegiance. Walter and +Biota surrendered their claims on Maine and became William's guests +at Falaise. Meanwhile Geoffrey of Mayenne refused to submit, and +withstood the new Count of Maine in his stronghold. William laid +siege to Mayenne, and took it by the favoured Norman argument of +fire. All Maine was now in the hands of the Conqueror. + +William had now made a greater conquest than any Norman duke had +made before him. He had won a county and a noble city, and he had +won them, in the ideas of his own age, with honour. Are we to +believe that he sullied his conquest by putting his late +competitors, his present guests, to death by poison? They died +conveniently for him, and they died in his own house. Such a death +was strange; but strange things do happen. William gradually came +to shrink from no crime for which he could find a technical +defence; but no advocate could have said anything on behalf of the +poisoning of Walter and Biota. Another member of the house of +Maine, Margaret the betrothed of his son Robert, died about the +same time; and her at least William had every motive to keep alive. +One who was more dangerous than Walter, if he suffered anything, +only suffered banishment. Of Geoffrey of Mayenne we hear no more +till William had again to fight for the possession of Maine. + + +William had thus, in the year 1063, reached the height of his power +and fame as a continental prince. In a conquest on Gaulish soil he +had rehearsed the greater conquest which he was before long to make +beyond sea. Three years, eventful in England, outwardly uneventful +in Normandy, still part us from William's second visit to our +shores. But in the course of these three years one event must have +happened, which, without a blow being struck or a treaty being +signed, did more for his hopes than any battle or any treaty. At +some unrecorded time, but at a time which must come within these +years, Harold Earl of the West-Saxons became the guest and the man +of William Duke of the Normans. + + + +CHAPTER V--HAROLD'S OATH TO WILLIAM--A.D. 1064? + + + +The lord of Normandy and Maine could now stop and reckon his +chances of becoming lord of England also. While our authorities +enable us to put together a fairly full account of both Norman and +English events, they throw no light on the way in which men in +either land looked at events in the other. Yet we might give much +to know what William and Harold at this time thought of one +another. Nothing had as yet happened to make the two great rivals +either national or personal enemies. England and Normandy were at +peace, and the great duke and the great earl had most likely had no +personal dealings with one another. They were rivals in the sense +that each looked forward to succeed to the English crown whenever +the reigning king should die. But neither had as yet put forward +his claim in any shape that the other could look on as any formal +wrong to himself. If William and Harold had ever met, it could +have been only during Harold's journey in Gaul. Whatever +negotiations Harold made during that journey were negotiations +unfriendly to William; still he may, in the course of that journey, +have visited Normandy as well as France or Anjou. It is hard to +avoid the thought that the tale of Harold's visit to William, of +his oath to William, arose out of something that happened on +Harold's way back from his Roman pilgrimage. To that journey we +can give an approximate date. Of any other journey we have no date +and no certain detail. We can say only that the fact that no +English writer makes any mention of any such visit, of any such +oath, is, under the circumstances, the strongest proof that the +story of the visit and the oath has some kind of foundation. Yet +if we grant thus much, the story reads on the whole as if it +happened a few years later than the English earl's return from +Rome. + +It is therefore most likely that Harold did pay a second visit to +Gaul, whether a first or a second visit to Normandy, at some time +nearer to Edward's death than the year 1058. The English writers +are silent; the Norman writers give no date or impossible dates; +they connect the visit with a war in Britanny; but that war is +without a date. We are driven to choose the year which is least +rich in events in the English annals. Harold could not have paid a +visit of several months to Normandy either in 1063 or in 1065. Of +those years the first was the year of Harold's great war in Wales, +when he found how the Britons might be overcome by their own arms, +when he broke the power of Gruffydd, and granted the Welsh kingdom +to princes who became the men of Earl Harold as well as of King +Edward. Harold's visit to Normandy is said to have taken place in +the summer and autumn mouths; but the summer and autumn of 1065 +were taken up by the building and destruction of Harold's hunting- +seat in Wales and by the greater events of the revolt and +pacification of Northumberland. But the year 1064 is a blank in +the English annals till the last days of December, and no action of +Harold's in that year is recorded. It is therefore the only +possible year among those just before Edward's death. Harold's +visit and oath to William may very well have taken place in that +year; but that is all. + +We know as little for certain as to the circumstances of the visit +or the nature of the oath. We can say only that Harold did +something which enabled William to charge him with perjury and +breach of the duty of a vassal. It is inconceivable in itself, and +unlike the formal scrupulousness of William's character, to fancy +that he made his appeal to all Christendom without any ground at +all. The Norman writers contradict one another so thoroughly in +every detail of the story that we can look on no part of it as +trustworthy. Yet such a story can hardly have grown up so near to +the alleged time without some kernel of truth in it. And herein +comes the strong corroborative witness that the English writers, +denying every other charge against Harold, pass this one by without +notice. We can hardly doubt that Harold swore some oath to William +which he did not keep. More than this it would be rash to say +except as an avowed guess. + +As our nearest approach to fixing the date is to take that year +which is not impossible, so, to fix the occasion of the visit, we +can only take that one among the Norman versions which is also not +impossible. All the main versions represent Harold as wrecked on +the coast of Ponthieu, as imprisoned, according to the barbarous +law of wreck, by Count Guy, and as delivered by the intervention of +William. If any part of the story is true, this is. But as to the +circumstances which led to the shipwreck there is no agreement. +Harold assuredly was not sent to announce to William a devise of +the crown in his favour made with the consent of the Witan of +England and confirmed by the oaths of Stigand, Godwine, Siward, and +Leofric. Stigand became Archbishop in September 1052: Godwine +died at Easter 1053. The devise must therefore have taken place, +and Harold's journey must have taken place, within those few most +unlikely months, the very time when Norman influence was +overthrown. Another version makes Harold go, against the King's +warnings, to bring back his brother Wulfnoth and his nephew Hakon, +who had been given as hostages on the return of Godwine, and had +been entrusted by the King to the keeping of Duke William. This +version is one degree less absurd; but no such hostages are known +to have been given, and if they were, the patriotic party, in the +full swing of triumph, would hardly have allowed them to be sent to +Normandy. A third version makes Harold's presence the result of +mere accident. He is sailing to Wales or Flanders, or simply +taking his pleasure in the Channel, when he is cast by a storm on +the coast of Ponthieu. Of these three accounts we may choose the +third as the only one that is possible. It is also one out of +which the others may have grown, while it is hard to see how the +third could have arisen out of either of the others. Harold then, +we may suppose, fell accidentally into the clutches of Guy, and was +rescued from them, at some cost in ransom and in grants of land, by +Guy's overlord Duke William. + +The whole story is eminently characteristic of William. He would +be honestly indignant at Guy's base treatment of Harold, and he +would feel it his part as Guy's overlord to redress the wrong. But +he would also be alive to the advantage of getting his rival into +his power on so honourable a pretext. Simply to establish a claim +to gratitude on the part of Harold would be something. But he +might easily do more, and, according to all accounts, he did more. +Harold, we are told, as the Duke's friend and guest, returns the +obligation under which the Duke has laid him by joining him in one +or more expeditions against the Bretons. The man who had just +smitten the Bret-Welsh of the island might well be asked to fight, +and might well be ready to fight, against the Bret-Welsh of the +mainland. The services of Harold won him high honour; he was +admitted into the ranks of Norman knighthood, and engaged to marry +one of William's daughters. Now, at any time to which we can fix +Harold's visit, all William's daughters must have been mere +children. Harold, on the other hand, seems to have been a little +older than William. Yet there is nothing unlikely in the +engagement, and it is the one point in which all the different +versions, contradicting each other on every other point, agree +without exception. Whatever else Harold promises, he promises +this, and in some versions he does not promise anything else. + +Here then we surely have the kernel of truth round which a mass of +fable, varying in different reports, has gathered. On no other +point is there any agreement. The place is unfixed; half a dozen +Norman towns and castles are made the scene of the oath. The form +of the oath is unfixed; in some accounts it is the ordinary oath of +homage; in others it is an oath of fearful solemnity, taken on the +holiest relics. In one well-known account, Harold is even made to +swear on hidden relics, not knowing on what he is swearing. Here +is matter for much thought. To hold that one form of oath or +promise is more binding than another upsets all true confidence +between man and man. The notion of the specially binding nature of +the oath by relies assumes that, in case of breach of the oath, +every holy person to whose relies despite has been done will become +the personal enemy of the perjurer. But the last story of all is +the most instructive. William's formal, and more than formal, +religion abhorred a false oath, in himself or in another man. But, +so long as he keeps himself personally clear from the guilt, he +does not scruple to put another man under special temptation, and, +while believing in the power of the holy relics, he does not +scruple to abuse them to a purpose of fraud. Surely, if Harold did +break his oath, the wrath of the saints would fall more justly on +William. Whether the tale be true or false, it equally illustrates +the feelings of the time, and assuredly its truth or falsehood +concerns the character of William far more than that of Harold. + +What it was that Harold swore, whether in this specially solemn +fashion or in any other, is left equally uncertain. In any case he +engages to marry a daughter of William--as to which daughter the +statements are endless--and in most versions he engages to do +something more. He becomes the man of William, much as William had +become the man of Edward. He promises to give his sister in +marriage to an unnamed Norman baron. Moreover he promises to +secure the kingdom of England for William at Edward's death. +Perhaps he is himself to hold the kingdom or part of it under +William; in any case William is to be the overlord; in the more +usual story, William is to be himself the immediate king, with +Harold as his highest and most favoured subject. Meanwhile Harold +is to act in William's interest, to receive a Norman garrison in +Dover castle, and to build other castles at other points. But no +two stories agree, and not a few know nothing of anything beyond +the promise of marriage. + +Now if William really required Harold to swear to all these things, +it must have been simply in order to have an occasion against him. +If Harold really swore to all of them, it must have been simply +because he felt that he was practically in William's power, without +any serious intention of keeping the oath. If Harold took any such +oath, he undoubtedly broke it; but we may safely say that any guilt +on his part lay wholly in taking the oath, not in breaking it. For +he swore to do what he could not do, and what it would have been a +crime to do, if he could. If the King himself could not dispose of +the crown, still less could the most powerful subject. Harold +could at most promise William his "vote and interest," whenever the +election came. But no one can believe that even Harold's influence +could have obtained the crown for William. His influence lay in +his being the embodiment of the national feeling; for him to appear +as the supporter of William would have been to lose the crown for +himself without gaining it for William. Others in England and in +Scandinavia would have been glad of it. And the engagements to +surrender Dover castle and the like were simply engagements on the +part of an English earl to play the traitor against England. If +William really called on Harold to swear to all this, he did so, +not with any hope that the oath would be kept, but simply to put +his competitor as far as possible in the wrong. But most likely +Harold swore only to something much simpler. Next to the universal +agreement about the marriage comes the very general agreement that +Harold became William's man. In these two statements we have +probably the whole truth. In those days men took the obligation of +homage upon themselves very easily. Homage was no degradation, +even in the highest; a man often did homage to any one from whom he +had received any great benefit, and Harold had received a very +great benefit from William. Nor did homage to a new lord imply +treason to the old one. Harold, delivered by William from Guy's +dungeon, would be eager to do for William any act of friendship. +The homage would be little more than binding himself in the +strongest form so to do. The relation of homage could be made to +mean anything or nothing, as might be convenient. The man might +often understand it in one sense and the lord in another. If +Harold became the man of William, he would look on the act as +little more than an expression of good will and gratitude towards +his benefactor, his future father-in-law, his commander in the +Breton war. He would not look on it as forbidding him to accept +the English crown if it were offered to him. Harold, the man of +Duke William, might become a king, if he could, just as William, +the man of King Philip, might become a king, if he could. As +things went in those days, both the homage and the promise of +marriage were capable of being looked on very lightly. + +But it was not in the temper or in the circumstances of William to +put any such easy meaning on either promise. The oath might, if +needful, be construed very strictly, and William was disposed to +construe it very strictly. Harold had not promised William a +crown, which was not his to promise; but he had promised to do that +which might be held to forbid him to take a crown which William +held to be his own. If the man owed his lord any duty at all, it +was surely his duty not to thwart his lord's wishes in such a +matter. If therefore, when the vacancy of the throne came, Harold +took the crown himself, or even failed to promote William's claim +to it, William might argue that he had not rightly discharged the +duty of a man to his lord. He could make an appeal to the world +against the new king, as a perjured man, who had failed to help his +lord in the matter where his lord most needed his help. And, if +the oath really had been taken on relics of special holiness, he +could further appeal to the religious feelings of the time against +the man who had done despite to the saints. If he should be driven +to claim the crown by arms, he could give the war the character of +a crusade. All this in the end William did, and all this, we may +be sure, he looked forward to doing, when he caused Harold to +become his man. The mere obligation of homage would, in the +skilful hands of William and Lanfranc, be quite enough to work on +men's minds, as William wished to work on them. To Harold +meanwhile and to those in England who heard the story, the +engagement would not seem to carry any of these consequences. The +mere homage then, which Harold could hardly refuse, would answer +William's purpose nearly as well as any of these fuller obligations +which Harold would surely have refused. And when a man older than +William engaged to marry William's child-daughter, we must bear in +mind the lightness with which such promises were made. William +could not seriously expect that this engagement would be kept, if +anything should lead Harold to another marriage. The promise was +meant simply to add another count to the charges against Harold +when the time should come. Yet on this point it is not clear that +the oath was broken. Harold undoubtedly married Ealdgyth, daughter +of AElfgar and widow of Gruffydd, and not any daughter of William. +But in one version Harold is made to say that the daughter of +William whom he had engaged to marry was dead. And that one of +William's daughters did die very early there seems little doubt. + + +Whatever William did Lanfranc no doubt at least helped to plan. +The Norman duke was subtle, but the Italian churchman was subtler +still. In this long series of schemes and negotiations which led +to the conquest of England, we are dealing with two of the greatest +recorded masters of statecraft. We may call their policy dishonest +and immoral, and so it was. But it was hardly more dishonest and +immoral than most of the diplomacy of later times. William's +object was, without any formal breach of faith on his own part, to +entrap Harold into an engagement which might be understood in +different senses, and which, in the sense which William chose to +put upon it, Harold was sure to break. Two men, themselves of +virtuous life, a rigid churchman and a layman of unusual religious +strictness, do not scruple to throw temptation in the way of a +fellow man in the hope that he will yield to that temptation. They +exact a promise, because the promise is likely to be broken, and +because its breach would suit their purposes. Through all +William's policy a strong regard for formal right as he chose to +understand formal right, is not only found in company with much +practical wrong, but is made the direct instrument of carrying out +that wrong. Never was trap more cunningly laid than that in which +William now entangled Harold. Never was greater wrong done without +the breach of any formal precept of right. William and Lanfranc +broke no oath themselves, and that was enough for them. But it was +no sin in their eyes to beguile another into engagements which he +would understand in one way and they in another; they even, as +their admirers tell the story, beguile him into engagements at once +unlawful and impossible, because their interests would be promoted +by his breach of those engagements. William, in short, under the +spiritual guidance of Lanfranc, made Harold swear because he +himself would gain by being able to denounce Harold as perjured. + +The moral question need not be further discussed; but we should +greatly like to know how far the fact of Harold's oath, whatever +its nature, was known in England? On this point we have no +trustworthy authority. The English writers say nothing about the +whole matter; to the Norman writers this point was of no interest. +No one mentions this point, except Harold's romantic biographer at +the beginning of the thirteenth century. His statements are of no +value, except as showing how long Harold's memory was cherished. +According to him, Harold formally laid the matter before the Witan, +and they unanimously voted that the oath--more, in his version, +than a mere oath of homage--was not binding. It is not likely that +such a vote was ever formally passed, but its terms would only +express what every Englishman would feel. The oath, whatever its +terms, had given William a great advantage; but every Englishman +would argue both that the oath, whatever its terms, could not +hinder the English nation from offering Harold the crown, and that +it could not bind Harold to refuse the crown if it should be so +offered. + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE NEGOTIATIONS OF DUKE WILLIAM--JANUARY-OCTOBER 1066 + + + +If the time that has been suggested was the real time of Harold's +oath to William, its fulfilment became a practical question in +little more than a year. How the year 1065 passed in Normandy we +have no record; in England its later months saw the revolt of +Northumberland against Harold's brother Tostig, and the +reconciliation which Harold made between the revolters and the king +to the damage of his brother's interests. Then came Edward's +sickness, of which he died on January 5, 1066. He had on his +deathbed recommended Harold to the assembled Witan as his successor +in the kingdom. The candidate was at once elected. Whether +William, Edgar, or any other, was spoken of we know not; but as to +the recommendation of Edward and the consequent election of Harold +the English writers are express. The next day Edward was buried, +and Harold was crowned in regular form by Ealdred Archbishop of +York in Edward's new church at Westminster. Northumberland refused +to acknowledge him; but the malcontents were won over by the coming +of the king and his friend Saint Wulfstan Bishop of Worcester. It +was most likely now, as a seal of this reconciliation, that Harold +married Ealdgyth, the sister of the two northern earls Edwin and +Morkere, and the widow of the Welsh king Gruffydd. He doubtless +hoped in this way to win the loyalty of the earls and their +followers. + +The accession of Harold was perfectly regular according to English +law. In later times endless fables arose; but the Norman writers +of the time do not deny the facts of the recommendation, election, +and coronation. They slur them over, or, while admitting the mere +facts, they represent each act as in some way invalid. No writer +near the time asserts a deathbed nomination of William; they speak +only of a nomination at some earlier time. But some Norman writers +represent Harold as crowned by Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury. +This was not, in the ideas of those times, a trifling question. A +coronation was then not a mere pageant; it was the actual admission +to the kingly office. Till his crowning and anointing, the +claimant of the crown was like a bishop-elect before his +consecration. He had, by birth or election, the sole right to +become king; it was the coronation that made him king. And as the +ceremony took the form of an ecclesiastical sacrament, its validity +might seem to depend on the lawful position of the officiating +bishop. In England to perform that ceremony was the right and duty +of the Archbishop of Canterbury; but the canonical position of +Stigand was doubtful. He had been appointed on the flight of +Robert; he had received the pallium, the badge of arch-episcopal +rank, only from the usurping Benedict the Tenth. It was therefore +good policy in Harold to be crowned by Ealdred, to whose position +there was no objection. This is the only difference of fact +between the English and Norman versions at this stage. And the +difference is easily explained. At William's coronation the king +walked to the altar between the two archbishops, but it was Ealdred +who actually performed the ceremony. Harold's coronation doubtless +followed the same order. But if Stigand took any part in that +coronation, it was easy to give out that he took that special part +on which the validity of the rite depended. + +Still, if Harold's accession was perfectly lawful, it was none the +less strange and unusual. Except the Danish kings chosen under +more or less of compulsion, he was the first king who did not +belong to the West-Saxon kingly house. Such a choice could be +justified only on the ground that that house contained no qualified +candidate. Its only known members were the children of the +AEtheling Edward, young Edgar and his sisters. Now Edgar would +certainly have been passed by in favour of any better qualified +member of the kingly house, as his father had been passed by in +favour of King Edward. And the same principle would, as things +stood, justify passing him by in favour of a qualified candidate +not of the kingly house. But Edgar's right to the crown is never +spoken of till a generation or two later, when the doctrines of +hereditary right had gained much greater strength, and when Henry +the Second, great-grandson through his mother of Edgar's sister +Margaret, insisted on his descent from the old kings. This +distinction is important, because Harold is often called an +usurper, as keeping out Edgar the heir by birth. But those who +called him an usurper at the time called him so as keeping out +William the heir by bequest. William's own election was out of the +question. He was no more of the English kingly house than Harold; +he was a foreigner and an utter stranger. Had Englishmen been +minded to choose a foreigner, they doubtless would have chosen +Swegen of Denmark. He had found supporters when Edward was chosen; +he was afterwards appealed to to deliver England from William. He +was no more of the English kingly house than Harold or William; but +he was grandson of a man who had reigned over England, +Northumberland might have preferred him to Harold; any part of +England would have preferred him to William. In fact any choice +that could have been made must have had something strange about it. +Edgar himself, the one surviving male of the old stock, besides his +youth, was neither born in the land nor the son of a crowned king. +Those two qualifications had always been deemed of great moment; an +elaborate pedigree went for little; actual royal birth went for a +great deal. There was now no son of a king to choose. Had there +been even a child who was at once a son of Edward and a sister's +son of Harold, he might have reigned with his uncle as his guardian +and counsellor. As it was, there was nothing to do but to choose +the man who, though not of kingly blood, had ruled England well for +thirteen years. + +The case thus put seemed plain to every Englishman, at all events +to every man in Wessex, East-Anglia, and southern Mercia. But it +would not seem so plain in OTHER lands. To the greater part of +Western Europe William's claim might really seem the better. +William himself doubtless thought his own claim the better; he +deluded himself as he deluded others. But we are more concerned +with William as a statesman; and if it be statesmanship to adapt +means to ends, whatever the ends may be, if it be statesmanship to +make men believe that the worse cause is the better, then no man +ever showed higher statesmanship than William showed in his great +pleading before all Western Christendom. It is a sign of the times +that it was a pleading before all Western Christendom. Others had +claimed crowns; none had taken such pains to convince all mankind +that the claim was a good one. Such an appeal to public opinion +marks on one side a great advance. It was a great step towards the +ideas of International Law and even of European concert. It showed +that the days of mere force were over, that the days of subtle +diplomacy had begun. Possibly the change was not without its dark +side; it may be doubted whether a change from force to fraud is +wholly a gain. Still it was an appeal from the mere argument of +the sword to something which at least professed to be right and +reason. William does not draw the sword till he has convinced +himself and everybody else that he is drawing it in a just cause. +In that age the appeal naturally took a religious shape. Herein +lay its immediate strength; herein lay its weakness as regarded the +times to come. William appealed to Emperor, kings, princes, +Christian men great and small, in every Christian land. He would +persuade all; he would ask help of all. But above all he appealed +to the head of Christendom, the Bishop of Rome. William in his own +person could afford to do so; where he reigned, in Normandy or in +England, there was no fear of Roman encroachments; he was fully +minded to be in all causes and over all persons within his +dominions supreme. While he lived, no Pope ventured to dispute his +right. But by acknowledging the right of the Pope to dispose of +crowns, or at least to judge as to the right to crowns, he prepared +many days of humiliation for kings in general and specially for his +own successors. One man in Western Europe could see further than +William, perhaps even further than Lanfranc. The chief counsellor +of Pope Alexander the Second was the Archdeacon Hildebrand, the +future Gregory the Seventh. If William outwitted the world, +Hildebrand outwitted William. William's appeal to the Pope to +decide between two claimants for the English crown strengthened +Gregory not a little in his daring claim to dispose of the crowns +of Rome, of Italy, and of Germany. Still this recognition of Roman +claims led more directly to the humiliation of William's successor +in his own kingdom. Moreover William's successful attempt to +represent his enterprise as a holy war, a crusade before crusades +were heard of, did much to suggest and to make ready the way for +the real crusades a generation later. It was not till after +William's death that Urban preached the crusade, but it was during +William's life that Gregory planned it. + +The appeal was strangely successful. William convinced, or seemed +to convince, all men out of England and Scandinavia that his claim +to the English crown was just and holy, and that it was a good work +to help him to assert it in arms. He persuaded his own subjects; +he certainly did not constrain them. He persuaded some foreign +princes to give him actual help, some to join his muster in person; +he persuaded all to help him so far as not to hinder their subjects +from joining him as volunteers. And all this was done by sheer +persuasion, by argument good or bad. In adapting of means to ends, +in applying to each class of men that kind of argument which best +suited it, the diplomacy, the statesmanship, of William was +perfect. Again we ask, How far was it the statesmanship of +William, how far of Lanfranc? But a prince need not do everything +with his own hands and say everything with his own tongue. It was +no small part of the statesmanship of William to find out Lanfranc, +to appreciate him and to trust him. And when two subtle brains +were at work, more could be done by the two working in partnership +than by either working alone. + +By what arguments did the Duke of the Normans and the Prior of Bec +convince mankind that the worse cause was the better? We must +always remember the transitional character of the age. England was +in political matters in advance of other Western lands; that is, it +lagged behind other Western lands. It had not gone so far on the +downward course. It kept far more than Gaul or even Germany of the +old Teutonic institutions, the substance of which later ages have +won back under new shapes. Many things were understood in England +which are now again understood everywhere, but which were no longer +understood in France or in the lands held of the French crown. The +popular election of kings comes foremost. Hugh Capet was an +elective king as much as Harold; but the French kings had made +their crown the most strictly hereditary of all crowns. They +avoided any interregnum by having their sons crowned in their +lifetime. So with the great fiefs of the crown. The notion of +kingship as an office conferred by the nation, of a duchy or county +as an office held under the king, was still fully alive in England; +in Gaul it was forgotten. Kingdom, duchies, counties, had all +become possessions instead of offices, possessions passing by +hereditary succession of some kind. But no rule of hereditary +succession was universally or generally accepted. To this day the +kingdoms of Europe differ as to the question of female succession, +and it is but slowly that the doctrine of representation has ousted +the more obvious doctrine of nearness of kin. All these points +were then utterly unsettled; crowns, save of course that of the +Empire, were to pass by hereditary right; only what was hereditary +right? At such a time claims would be pressed which would have +seemed absurd either earlier or later. To Englishmen, if it seemed +strange to elect one who was not of the stock of Cerdic, it seemed +much more strange to be called on to accept without election, or to +elect as a matter of course, one who was not of the stock of Cerdic +and who was a stranger into the bargain. Out of England it would +not seem strange when William set forth that Edward, having no +direct heirs, had chosen his near kinsman William as his successor. +Put by itself, that statement had a plausible sound. The +transmission of a crown by bequest belongs to the same range of +ideas as its transmission by hereditary right; both assume the +crown to be a property and not an office. Edward's nomination of +Harold, the election of Harold, the fact that William's kindred to +Edward lay outside the royal line of England, the fact that there +was, in the person of Edgar, a nearer kinsman within that royal +line, could all be slurred over or explained away or even turned to +William's profit. Let it be that Edward on his death-bed had +recommended Harold, and that the Witan had elected Harold. The +recommendation was wrung from a dying man in opposition to an +earlier act done when he was able to act freely. The election was +brought about by force or fraud; if it was free, it was of no force +against William's earlier claim of kindred and bequest. As for +Edgar, as few people in England thought of him, still fewer out of +England would have ever heard of him. It is more strange that the +bastardy of William did not tell against him, as it had once told +in his own duchy. But this fact again marks the transitional age. +Altogether the tale that a man who was no kinsman of the late king +had taken to himself the crown which the king had bequeathed to a +kinsman, might, even without further aggravation, be easily made to +sound like a tale of wrong. + +But the case gained tenfold strength when William added that the +doer of the wrong was of all men the one most specially bound not +to do it. The usurper was in any case William's man, bound to act +in all things for his lord. Perhaps he was more; perhaps he had +directly sworn to receive William as king. Perhaps he had promised +all this with an oath of special solemnity. It would be easy to +enlarge on all these further counts as making up an amount of guilt +which William not only had the right to chastise, but which he +would be lacking in duty if he failed to chastise. He had to +punish the perjurer, to avenge the wrongs of the saints. Surely +all who should help him in so doing would be helping in a righteous +work. + +The answer to all this was obvious. Putting the case at the very +worst, assuming that Harold had sworn all that he is ever said to +have sworn, assuming that he swore it in the most solemn way in +which he is ever said to have sworn it, William's claim was not +thereby made one whit better. Whatever Harold's own guilt might +be, the people of England had no share in it. Nothing that Harold +had done could bar their right to choose their king freely. Even +if Harold declined the crown, that would not bind the electors to +choose William. But when the notion of choosing kings had begun to +sound strange, all this would go for nothing. There would be no +need even to urge that in any case the wrong done by Harold to +William gave William a casus belli against Harold, and that +William, if victorious, might claim the crown of England, as a +possession of Harold's, by right of conquest. In fact William +never claimed the crown by conquest, as conquest is commonly +understood. He always represented himself as the lawful heir, +unhappily driven to use force to obtain his rights. The other +pleas were quite enough to satisfy most men out of England and +Scandinavia. William's work was to claim the crown of which he was +unjustly deprived, and withal to deal out a righteous chastisement +on the unrighteous and ungodly man by whom he had been deprived of +it. + +In the hands of diplomatists like William and Lanfranc, all these +arguments, none of which had in itself the slightest strength, were +enough to turn the great mass of continental opinion in William's +favour. But he could add further arguments specially adapted to +different classes of minds. He could hold out the prospect of +plunder, the prospect of lands and honours in a land whose wealth +was already proverbial. It might of course be answered that the +enterprise against England was hazardous and its success unlikely. +But in such matters, men listen rather to their hopes than to their +fears. To the Normans it would be easy, not only to make out a +case against Harold, but to rake up old grudges against the English +nation. Under Harold the son of Cnut, Alfred, a prince half Norman +by birth, wholly Norman by education, the brother of the late king, +the lawful heir to the crown, had been betrayed and murdered by +somebody. A widespread belief laid the deed to the charge of the +father of the new king. This story might easily be made a ground +of national complaint by Normandy against England, and it was easy +to infer that Harold had some share in the alleged crime of +Godwine. It was easy to dwell on later events, on the driving of +so many Normans out of England, with Archbishop Robert at their +head. Nay, not only had the lawful primate been driven out, but an +usurper had been set in his place, and this usurping archbishop had +been made to bestow a mockery of consecration on the usurping king. +The proposed aggression on England was even represented as a +missionary work, undertaken for the good of the souls of the +benighted islanders. For, though the English were undoubtedly +devout after their own fashion, there was much in the +ecclesiastical state of England which displeased strict churchmen +beyond sea, much that William, when he had the power, deemed it his +duty to reform. The insular position of England naturally parted +it in many things from the usages and feelings of the mainland, and +it was not hard to get up a feeling against the nation as well as +against its king. All this could not really strengthen William's +claim; but it made men look more favourably on his enterprise. + + +The fact that the Witan were actually in session at Edward's death +had made it possible to carry out Harold's election and coronation +with extreme speed. The electors had made their choice before +William had any opportunity of formally laying his claim before +them. This was really an advantage to him; he could the better +represent the election and coronation as invalid. His first step +was of course to send an embassy to Harold to call on him even now +to fulfil his oath. The accounts of this embassy, of which we have +no English account, differ as much as the different accounts of the +oath. Each version of course makes William demand and Harold +refuse whatever it had made Harold swear. These demands and +refusals range from the resignation of the kingdom to a marriage +with William's daughter. And it is hard to separate this embassy +from later messages between the rivals. In all William demands, +Harold refuses; the arguments on each side are likely to be +genuine. Harold is called on to give up the crown to William, to +hold it of William, to hold part of the kingdom of William, to +submit the question to the judgement of the Pope, lastly, if he +will do nothing else, at least to marry William's daughter. +Different writers place these demands at different times, +immediately after Harold's election or immediately before the +battle. The last challenge to a single combat between Harold and +William of course appears only on the eve of the battle. Now none +of these accounts come from contemporary partisans of Harold; every +one is touched by hostile feeling towards him. Thus the +constitutional language that is put into his mouth, almost +startling from its modern sound, has greater value. A King of the +English can do nothing without the consent of his Witan. They gave +him the kingdom; without their consent, he cannot resign it or +dismember it or agree to hold it of any man; without their consent, +he cannot even marry a foreign wife. Or he answers that the +daughter of William whom he promised to marry is dead, and that the +sister whom he promised to give to a Norman is dead also. Harold +does not deny the fact of his oath--whatever its nature; he +justifies its breach because it was taken against is will, and +because it was in itself of no strength, as binding him to do +impossible things. He does not deny Edward's earlier promise to +William; but, as a testament is of no force while the testator +liveth, he argues that it is cancelled by Edward's later nomination +of himself. In truth there is hardly any difference between the +disputants as to matters of fact. One side admits at least a +plighting of homage on the part of Harold; the other side admits +Harold's nomination and election. The real difference is as to the +legal effect of either. Herein comes William's policy. The +question was one of English law and of nothing else, a matter for +the Witan of England and for no other judges. William, by +ingeniously mixing all kinds of irrelevant issues, contrived to +remove the dispute from the region of municipal into that of +international law, a law whose chief representative was the Bishop +of Rome. By winning the Pope to his side, William could give his +aggression the air of a religious war; but in so doing, he +unwittingly undermined the throne that he was seeking and the +thrones of all other princes. + +The answers which Harold either made, or which writers of his time +thought that he ought to have made, are of the greatest moment in +our constitutional history. The King is the doer of everything; +but he can do nothing of moment without the consent of his Witan. +They can say Yea or Nay to every proposal of the King. An +energetic and popular king would get no answer but Yea to whatever +he chose to ask. A king who often got the answer of Nay, Nay, was +in great danger of losing his kingdom. The statesmanship of +William knew how to turn this constitutional system, without making +any change in the letter, into a despotism like that of +Constantinople or Cordova. But the letter lived, to come to light +again on occasion. The Revolution of 1399 was a falling back on +the doctrines of 1066, and the Revolution of 1688 was a falling +back on the doctrines of 1399. The principle at all three periods +is that the power of the King is strictly limited by law, but that, +within the limits which the law sets to his power, he acts +according to his own discretion. King and Witan stand out as +distinct powers, each of which needs the assent of the other to its +acts, and which may always refuse that assent. The political work +of the last two hundred years has been to hinder these direct +collisions between King and Parliament by the ingenious +conventional device of a body of men who shall be in name the +ministers of the Crown, but in truth the ministers of one House of +Parliament. We do not understand our own political history, still +less can we understand the position and the statesmanship of the +Conqueror, unless we fully take in what the English constitution in +the eleventh century really was, how very modern-sounding are some +of its doctrines, some of its forms. Statesmen of our own day +might do well to study the meagre records of the Gemot of 1047. +There is the earliest recorded instance of a debate on a question +of foreign policy. Earl Godwine proposes to give help to Denmark, +then at war with Norway. He is outvoted on the motion of Earl +Leofric, the man of moderate politics, who appears as leader of the +party of non-intervention. It may be that in some things we have +not always advanced in the space of eight hundred years. + + +The negotiations of William with his own subjects, with foreign +powers, and with the Pope, are hard to arrange in order. Several +negotiations were doubtless going on at the same time. The embassy +to Harold would of course come first of all. Till his demand had +been made and refused, William could make no appeal elsewhere. We +know not whether the embassy was sent before or after Harold's +journey to Northumberland, before or after his marriage with +Ealdgyth. If Harold was already married, the demand that he should +marry William's daughter could have been meant only in mockery. +Indeed, the whole embassy was so far meant in mockery that it was +sent without any expectation that its demands would be listened to. +It was sent to put Harold, from William's point of view, more +thoroughly in the wrong, and to strengthen William's case against +him. It would therefore be sent at the first moment; the only +statement, from a very poor authority certainly, makes the embassy +come on the tenth day after Edward's death. Next after the embassy +would come William's appeal to his own subjects, though Lanfranc +might well be pleading at Rome while William was pleading at +Lillebonne. The Duke first consulted a select company, who +promised their own services, but declined to pledge any one else. +It was held that no Norman was bound to follow the Duke in an +attempt to win for himself a crown beyond the sea. But voluntary +help was soon ready. A meeting of the whole baronage of Normandy +was held at Lillebonne. The assembly declined any obligation which +could be turned into a precedent, and passed no general vote at +all. But the barons were won over one by one, and each promised +help in men and ships according to his means. + +William had thus, with some difficulty, gained the support of his +own subjects; but when he had once gained it, it was a zealous +support. And as the flame spread from one part of Europe to +another, the zeal of Normandy would wax keener and keener. The +dealings of William with foreign powers are told us in a confused, +piecemeal, and sometimes contradictory way. We hear that embassies +went to the young King Henry of Germany, son of the great Emperor, +the friend of England, and also to Swegen of Denmark. The Norman +story runs that both princes promised William their active support. +Yet Swegen, the near kinsman of Harold, was a friend of England, +and the same writer who puts this promise into his mouth makes him +send troops to help his English cousin. Young Henry or his +advisers could have no motive for helping William; but subjects of +the Empire were at least not hindered from joining his banner. To +the French king William perhaps offered the bait of holding the +crown of England of him; but Philip is said to have discouraged +William's enterprise as much as he could. Still he did not hinder +French subjects from taking a part in it. Of the princes who held +of the French crown, Eustace of Boulogne, who joined the muster in +person, and Guy of Ponthieu, William's own vassal, who sent his +son, seem to have been the only ones who did more than allow the +levying of volunteers in their dominions. A strange tale is told +that Conan of Britanny took this moment for bringing up his own +forgotten pretensions to the Norman duchy. If William was going to +win England, let him give up Normandy to him. He presently, the +tale goes, died of a strange form of poisoning, in which it is +implied that William had a hand. This is the story of Walter and +Biota over again. It is perhaps enough to say that the Breton +writers know nothing of the tale. + +But the great negotiation of all was with the Papal court. We +might have thought that the envoy would be Lanfranc, so well +skilled in Roman ways; but William perhaps needed him as a constant +adviser by his own person. Gilbert, Archdeacon of Lisieux, was +sent to Pope Alexander. No application could better suit papal +interests than the one that was now made; but there were some moral +difficulties. Not a few of the cardinals, Hildebrand tells us +himself, argued, not without strong language towards Hildebrand, +that the Church had nothing to do with such matters, and that it +was sinful to encourage a claim which could not be enforced without +bloodshed. But with many, with Hildebrand among them, the notion +of the Church as a party or a power came before all thoughts of its +higher duties. One side was carefully heard; the other seems not +to have been heard at all. We hear of no summons to Harold, and +the King of the English could not have pleaded at the Pope's bar +without acknowledging that his case was at least doubtful. The +judgement of Alexander or of Hildebrand was given for William. +Harold was declared to be an usurper, perhaps declared +excommunicated. The right to the English crown was declared to be +in the Duke of the Normans, and William was solemnly blessed in the +enterprise in which he was at once to win his own rights, to +chastise the wrong-doer, to reform the spiritual state of the +misguided islanders, to teach them fuller obedience to the Roman +See and more regular payment of its temporal dues. William gained +his immediate point; but his successors on the English throne paid +the penalty. Hildebrand gained his point for ever, or for as long +a time as men might be willing to accept the Bishop of Rome as a +judge in any matters. The precedent by which Hildebrand, under +another name, took on him to dispose of a higher crown than that of +England was now fully established. + +As an outward sign of papal favour, William received a consecrated +banner and a ring containing a hair of Saint Peter. Here was +something for men to fight for. The war was now a holy one. All +who were ready to promote their souls' health by slaughter and +plunder might flock to William's standard, to the standard of Saint +Peter. Men came from most French-speaking lands, the Normans of +Apulia and Sicily being of course not slow to take up the quarrel +of their kinsfolk. But, next to his own Normandy, the lands which +sent most help were Flanders, the land of Matilda, and Britanny, +where the name of the Saxon might still be hateful. We must never +forget that the host of William, the men who won England, the men +who settled in England, were not an exclusively Norman body. Not +Norman, but FRENCH, is the name most commonly opposed to ENGLISH, +as the name of the conquering people. Each Norman severally would +have scorned that name for himself personally; but it was the only +name that could mark the whole of which he and his countrymen +formed a part. Yet, if the Normans were but a part, they were the +greatest and the noblest part; their presence alone redeemed the +enterprise from being a simple enterprise of brigandage. The +Norman Conquest was after all a Norman Conquest; men of other lands +were merely helpers. So far as it was not Norman, it was Italian; +the subtle wit of Lombard Lanfranc and Tuscan Hildebrand did as +much to overthrow us as the lance and bow of Normandy. + + + +CHAPTER VII--WILLIAM'S INVASION OF ENGLAND--AUGUST-DECEMBER 1066 + + + +The statesmanship of William had triumphed. The people of England +had chosen their king, and a large part of the world had been won +over by the arts of a foreign prince to believe that it was a +righteous and holy work to set him on the throne to which the +English people had chosen the foremost man among themselves. No +diplomatic success was ever more thorough. Unluckily we know +nothing of the state of feeling in England while William was +plotting and pleading beyond the sea. Nor do we know how much men +in England knew of what was going on in other lands, or what they +thought when they heard of it. We know only that, after Harold had +won over Northumberland, he came back and held the Easter Gemot at +Westminster. Then in the words of the Chronicler, "it was known to +him that William Bastard, King Edward's kinsman, would come hither +and win this land." This is all that our own writers tell us about +William Bastard, between his peaceful visit to England in 1052 and +his warlike visit in 1066. But we know that King Harold did all +that man could do to defeat his purposes, and that he was therein +loyally supported by the great mass of the English nation, we may +safely say by all, save his two brothers-in-law and so many as they +could influence. + +William's doings we know more fully. The military events of this +wonderful year there is no need to tell in detail. But we see that +William's generalship was equal to his statesmanship, and that it +was met by equal generalship on the side of Harold. Moreover, the +luck of William is as clear as either his statesmanship or his +generalship. When Harold was crowned on the day of the Epiphany, +he must have felt sure that he would have to withstand an invasion +of England before the year was out. But it could not have come +into the mind of Harold, William, or Lanfranc, or any other man, +that he would have to withstand two invasions of England at the +same moment. + +It was the invasion of Harold of Norway, at the same time as the +invasion of William, which decided the fate of England. The issue +of the struggle might have gone against England, had she had to +strive against one enemy only; as it was, it was the attack made by +two enemies at once which divided her strength, and enabled the +Normans to land without resistance. The two invasions came as +nearly as possible at the same moment. Harold Hardrada can hardly +have reached the Yorkshire coast before September; the battle of +Fulford was fought on September 20th and that of Stamfordbridge on +September 25th. William landed on September 28th, and the battle +of Senlac was fought on October 14th. Moreover William's fleet was +ready by August 12th; his delay in crossing was owing to his +waiting for a favourable wind. When William landed, the event of +the struggle in the North could not have been known in Sussex. He +might have had to strive, not with Harold of England, but with +Harold of Norway as his conqueror. + +At what time of the year Harold Hardrada first planned his invasion +of England is quite uncertain. We can say nothing of his doings +till he is actually afloat. And with the three mighty forms of +William and the two Harolds on the scene, there is something at +once grotesque and perplexing in the way in which an English +traitor flits about among them. The banished Tostig, deprived of +his earldom in the autumn of 1065, had then taken refuge in +Flanders. He now plays a busy part, the details of which are lost +in contradictory accounts. But it is certain that in May 1066 he +made an ineffectual attack on England. And this attack was most +likely made with the connivance of William. It suited William to +use Tostig as an instrument, and to encourage so restless a spirit +in annoying the common enemy. It is also certain that Tostig was +with the Norwegian fleet in September, and that he died at +Stamfordbridge. We know also that he was in Scotland between May +and September. It is therefore hard to believe that Tostig had so +great a hand in stirring up Harold Hardrada to his expedition as +the Norwegian story makes out. Most likely Tostig simply joined +the expedition which Harold Hardrada independently planned. One +thing is certain, that, when Harold of England was attacked by two +enemies at once, it was not by two enemies acting in concert. The +interests of William and of Harold of Norway were as much opposed +to one another as either of them was to the interests of Harold of +England. + +One great difficulty beset Harold and William alike. Either in +Normandy or in England it was easy to get together an army ready to +fight a battle; it was not easy to keep a large body of men under +arms for any long time without fighting. It was still harder to +keep them at once without fighting and without plundering. What +William had done in this way in two invasions of Normandy, he was +now called on to do on a greater scale. His great and motley army +was kept during a great part of August and September, first at the +Dive, then at Saint Valery, waiting for the wind that was to take +it to England. And it was kept without doing any serious damage to +the lands where they were encamped. In a holy war, this time was +of course largely spent in appeals to the religious feelings of the +army. Then came the wonderful luck of William, which enabled him +to cross at the particular moment when he did cross. A little +earlier or later, he would have found his landing stoutly disputed; +as it was, he landed without resistance. Harold of England, not +being able, in his own words, to be everywhere at once, had done +what he could. He and his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine undertook +the defence of southern England against the Norman; the earls of +the North, his brothers-in-law Edwin and Morkere, were to defend +their own land against the Norwegians. His own preparations were +looked on with wonder. To guard the long line of coast against the +invader, he got together such a force both by sea and land as no +king had ever got together before, and he kept it together for a +longer time than William did, through four months of inaction, save +perhaps some small encounters by sea. At last, early in September, +provisions failed; men were no doubt clamouring to go back for the +harvest, and the great host had to be disbanded. Could William +have sailed as soon as his fleet was ready, he would have found +southern England thoroughly prepared to meet him. Meanwhile the +northern earls had clearly not kept so good watch as the king. +Harold Hardrada harried the Yorkshire coast; he sailed up the Ouse, +and landed without resistance. At last the earls met him in arms +and were defeated by the Northmen at Fulford near York. Four days +later York capitulated, and agreed to receive Harold Hardrada as +king. Meanwhile the news reached Harold of England; he got +together his housecarls and such other troops as could be mustered +at the moment, and by a march of almost incredible speed he was +able to save the city and all northern England. The fight of +Stamfordbridge, the defeat and death of the most famous warrior of +the North, was the last and greatest success of Harold of England. +But his northward march had left southern England utterly +unprotected. Had the south wind delayed a little longer, he might, +before the second enemy came, have been again on the South-Saxon +coast. As it was, three days after Stamfordbridge, while Harold of +England was still at York, William of Normandy landed without +opposition at Pevensey. + +Thus wonderfully had an easy path into England been opened for +William. The Norwegian invasion had come at the best moment for +his purposes, and the result had been what he must have wished. +With one Harold he must fight, and to fight with Harold of England +was clearly best for his ends. His work would not have been done, +if another had stepped in to chastise the perjurer. Now that he +was in England, it became a trial of generalship between him and +Harold. William's policy was to provoke Harold to fight at once. +It was perhaps Harold's policy--so at least thought Gyrth--to +follow yet more thoroughly William's own example in the French +invasions. Let him watch and follow the enemy, let him avoid all +action, and even lay waste the land between London and the south +coast, and the strength of the invaders would gradually be worn +out. But it might have been hard to enforce such a policy on men +whose hearts were stirred by the invasion, and one part of whom, +the King's own thegns and housecarls, were eager to follow up their +victory over the Northern with a yet mightier victory over the +Norman. And Harold spoke as an English king should speak, when he +answered that he would never lay waste a single rood of English +ground, that he would never harm the lands or the goods of the men +who had chosen him to be their king. In the trial of skill between +the two commanders, each to some extent carried his point. +William's havoc of a large part of Sussex compelled Harold to march +at once to give battle. But Harold was able to give battle at a +place of his own choosing, thoroughly suited for the kind of +warfare which he had to wage. + +Harold was blamed, as defeated generals are blamed, for being too +eager to fight and not waiting for more troops. But to any one who +studies the ground it is plain that Harold needed, not more troops, +but to some extent better troops, and that he would not have got +those better troops by waiting. From York Harold had marched to +London, as the meeting-place for southern and eastern England, as +well as for the few who actually followed him from the North and +those who joined him on the march. Edwin and Morkere were bidden +to follow with the full force of their earldoms. This they took +care not to do. Harold and his West-Saxons had saved them, but +they would not strike a blow back again. Both now and earlier in +the year they doubtless aimed at a division of the kingdom, such as +had been twice made within fifty years. Either Harold or William +might reign in Wessex and East-Anglia; Edwin should reign in +Northumberland and Mercia. William, the enemy of Harold but no +enemy of theirs, might be satisfied with the part of England which +was under the immediate rule of Harold and his brothers, and might +allow the house of Leofric to keep at least an under-kingship in +the North. That the brother earls held back from the King's muster +is undoubted, and this explanation fits in with their whole conduct +both before and after. Harold had thus at his command the picked +men of part of England only, and he had to supply the place of +those who were lacking with such forces as he could get. The lack +of discipline on the part of these inferior troops lost Harold the +battle. But matters would hardly have been mended by waiting for +men who had made up their minds not to come. + +The messages exchanged between King and Duke immediately before the +battle, as well as at an earlier time, have been spoken of already. +The challenge to single combat at least comes now. When Harold +refused every demand, William called on Harold to spare the blood +of his followers, and decide his claims by battle in his own +person. Such a challenge was in the spirit of Norman +jurisprudence, which in doubtful cases looked for the judgement of +God, not, as the English did, by the ordeal, but by the personal +combat of the two parties. Yet this challenge too was surely given +in the hope that Harold would refuse it, and would thereby put +himself, in Norman eyes, yet more thoroughly in the wrong. For the +challenge was one which Harold could not but refuse. William +looked on himself as one who claimed his own from one who +wrongfully kept him out of it. He was plaintiff in a suit in which +Harold was defendant; that plaintiff and defendant were both +accompanied by armies was an accident for which the defendant, who +had refused all peaceful means of settlement, was to blame. But +Harold and his people could not look on the matter as a mere +question between two men. The crown was Harold's by the gift of +the nation, and he could not sever his own cause from the cause of +the nation. The crown was his; but it was not his to stake on the +issue of a single combat. If Harold were killed, the nation might +give the crown to whom they thought good; Harold's death could not +make William's claim one jot better. The cause was not personal, +but national. The Norman duke had, by a wanton invasion, wronged, +not the King only, but every man in England, and every man might +claim to help in driving him out. Again, in an ordinary wager of +battle, the judgement can be enforced; here, whether William slew +Harold or Harold slew William, there was no means of enforcing the +judgement except by the strength of the two armies. If Harold +fell, the English army were not likely to receive William as king; +if William fell, the Norman army was still less likely to go +quietly out of England. The challenge was meant as a mere blind; +it would raise the spirit of William's followers; it would be +something for his poets and chroniclers to record in his honour; +that was all. + + +The actual battle, fought on Senlac, on Saint Calixtus' day, was +more than a trial of skill and courage between two captains and two +armies. It was, like the old battles of Macedonian and Roman, a +trial between two modes of warfare. The English clave to the old +Teutonic tactics. They fought on foot in the close array of the +shield-wall. Those who rode to the field dismounted when the fight +began. They first hurled their javelins, and then took to the +weapons of close combat. Among these the Danish axe, brought in by +Cnut, had nearly displaced the older English broadsword. Such was +the array of the housecarls and of the thegns who had followed +Harold from York or joined him on his march. But the treason of +Edwin and Morkere had made it needful to supply the place of the +picked men of Northumberland with irregular levies, armed almost +anyhow. Of their weapons of various kinds the bow was the rarest. +The strength of the Normans lay in the arms in which the English +were lacking, in horsemen and archers. These last seem to have +been a force of William's training; we first hear of the Norman +bowmen at Varaville. These two ways of fighting were brought each +one to perfection by the leaders on each side. They had not yet +been tried against one another. At Stamfordbridge Harold had +defeated an enemy whose tactics were the same as his own. William +had not fought a pitched battle since Val-es-dunes in his youth. +Indeed pitched battles, such as English and Scandinavian warriors +were used to in the wars of Edmund and Cnut, were rare in +continental warfare. That warfare mainly consisted in the attack +and defence of strong places, and in skirmishes fought under their +walls. But William knew how to make use of troops of different +kinds and to adapt them to any emergency. Harold too was a man of +resources; he had gained his Welsh successes by adapting his men to +the enemy's way of fighting. To withstand the charge of the Norman +horsemen, Harold clave to the national tactics, but he chose for +the place of battle a spot where those tactics would have the +advantage. A battle on the low ground would have been favourable +to cavalry; Harold therefore occupied and fenced in a hill, the +hill of Senlac, the site in after days of the abbey and town of +Battle, and there awaited the Norman attack. The Norman horsemen +had thus to make their way up the hill under the shower of the +English javelins, and to meet the axes as soon as they reached the +barricade. And these tactics were thoroughly successful, till the +inferior troops were tempted to come down from the hill and chase +the Bretons whom they had driven back. This suggested to William +the device of the feigned flight; the English line of defence was +broken, and the advantage of ground was lost. Thus was the great +battle lost. And the war too was lost by the deaths of Harold and +his brothers, which left England without leaders, and by the +unyielding valour of Harold's immediate following. They were slain +to a man, and south-eastern England was left defenceless. + + +William, now truly the Conqueror in the vulgar sense, was still far +from having full possession of his conquest. He had military +possession of part of one shire only; he had to look for further +resistance, and he met with not a little. But his combined luck +and policy served him well. He could put on the form of full +possession before he had the reality; he could treat all further +resistance as rebellion against an established authority; he could +make resistance desultory and isolated. William had to subdue +England in detail; he had never again to fight what the English +Chroniclers call a folk-fight. His policy after his victory was +obvious. Still uncrowned, he was not, even in his own view, king, +but he alone had the right to become king. He had thus far been +driven to maintain his rights by force; he was not disposed to use +force any further, if peaceful possession was to be had. His +course was therefore to show himself stern to all who withstood +him, but to take all who submitted into his protection and favour. +He seems however to have looked for a speedier submission than +really happened. He waited a while in his camp for men to come in +and acknowledge him. As none came, he set forth to win by the +strong arm the land which he claimed of right. + +Thus to look for an immediate submission was not unnatural; fully +believing in the justice of his own cause, William would believe in +it all the more after the issue of the battle. God, Harold had +said, should judge between himself and William, and God had judged +in William's favour. With all his clear-sightedness, he would +hardly understand how differently things looked in English eyes. +Some indeed, specially churchmen, specially foreign churchmen, now +began to doubt whether to fight against William was not to fight +against God. But to the nation at large William was simply as +Hubba, Swegen, and Cnut in past times. England had before now been +conquered, but never in a single fight. Alfred and Edmund had +fought battle after battle with the Dane, and men had no mind to +submit to the Norman because he had been once victorious. But +Alfred and Edmund, in alternate defeat and victory, lived to fight +again; their people had not to choose a new king; the King had +merely to gather a new army. But Harold was slain, and the first +question was how to fill his place. The Witan, so many as could be +got together, met to choose a king, whose first duty would be to +meet William the Conqueror in arms. The choice was not easy. +Harold's sons were young, and not born AEthelings. His brothers, +of whom Gyrth at least must have been fit to reign, had fallen with +him. Edwin and Morkere were not at the battle, but they were at +the election. But schemes for winning the crown for the house of +Leofric would find no favour in an assembly held in London. For +lack of any better candidate, the hereditary sentiment prevailed. +Young Edgar was chosen. But the bishops, it is said, did not +agree; they must have held that God had declared in favour of +William. Edwin and Morkere did agree; but they withdrew to their +earldoms, still perhaps cherishing hopes of a divided kingdom. +Edgar, as king-elect, did at least one act of kingship by +confirming the election of an abbot of Peterborough; but of any +general preparation for warfare there is not a sign. The local +resistance which William met with shows that, with any combined +action, the case was not hopeless. But with Edgar for king, with +the northern earls withdrawing their forces, with the bishops at +least lukewarm, nothing could be done. The Londoners were eager to +fight; so doubtless were others; but there was no leader. So far +from there being another Harold or Edmund to risk another battle, +there was not even a leader to carry out the policy of Fabius and +Gyrth. + +Meanwhile the Conqueror was advancing, by his own road and after +his own fashion. We must remember the effect of the mere slaughter +of the great battle. William's own army had suffered severely: he +did not leave Hastings till he had received reinforcements from +Normandy. But to England the battle meant the loss of the whole +force of the south-eastern shires. A large part of England was +left helpless. William followed much the same course as he had +followed in Maine. A legal claimant of the crown, it was his +interest as soon as possible to become a crowned king, and that in +his kinsman's church at Westminster. But it was not his interest +to march straight on London and demand the crown, sword in hand. +He saw that, without the support of the northern earls, Edgar could +not possibly stand, and that submission to himself was only a +question of time. He therefore chose a roundabout course through +those south-eastern shires which were wholly without means of +resisting him. He marched from Sussex into Kent, harrying the land +as he went, to frighten the people into submission. The men of +Romney had before the battle cut in pieces a party of Normans who +had fallen into their hands, most likely by sea. William took some +undescribed vengeance for their slaughter. Dover and its castle, +the castle which, in some accounts, Harold had sworn to surrender +to William, yielded without a blow. Here then he was gracious. +When some of his unruly followers set fire to the houses of the +town, William made good the losses of their owners. Canterbury +submitted; from thence, by a bold stroke, he sent messengers who +received the submission of Winchester. He marched on, ravaging as +he went, to the immediate neighbourhood of London, but keeping ever +on the right bank of the Thames. But a gallant sally of the +citizens was repulsed by the Normans, and the suburb of Southwark +was burned. William marched along the river to Wallingford. Here +he crossed, receiving for the first time the active support of an +Englishman of high rank, Wiggod of Wallingford, sheriff of +Oxfordshire. He became one of a small class of Englishmen who were +received to William's fullest favour, and kept at least as high a +position under him as they had held before. William still kept on, +marching and harrying, to the north of London, as he had before +done to the south. The city was to be isolated within a cordon of +wasted lands. His policy succeeded. As no succours came from the +North, the hearts of those who had chosen them a king failed at the +approach of his rival. At Berkhampstead Edgar himself, with +several bishops and chief men, came to make their submission. They +offered the crown to William, and, after some debate, he accepted +it. But before he came in person, he took means to secure the +city. The beginnings of the fortress were now laid which, in the +course of William's reign, grew into the mighty Tower of London. + +It may seem strange that when his great object was at last within +his grasp, William should have made his acceptance of it a matter +of debate. He claims the crown as his right; the crown is offered +to him; and yet he doubts about taking it. Ought he, he asks, to +take the crown of a kingdom of which he has not as yet full +possession? At that time the territory of which William had even +military possession could not have stretched much to the north-west +of a line drawn from Winchester to Norwich. Outside that line men +were, as William is made to say, still in rebellion. His scruples +were come over by an orator who was neither Norman nor English, but +one of his foreign followers, Haimer Viscount of Thouars. The +debate was most likely got up at William's bidding, but it was not +got up without a motive. William, ever seeking outward legality, +seeking to do things peaceably when they could be done peaceably, +seeking for means to put every possible enemy in the wrong, wished +to make his acceptance of the English crown as formally regular as +might be. Strong as he held his claim to be by the gift of Edward, +it would be better to be, if not strictly chosen, at least +peacefully accepted, by the chief men of England. It might some +day serve his purpose to say that the crown had been offered to +him, and that he had accepted it only after a debate in which the +chief speaker was an impartial stranger. Having gained this point +more, William set out from Berkhampstead, already, in outward form, +King-elect of the English. + +The rite which was to change him from king-elect into full king +took place in Eadward's church of Westminster on Christmas day, +1066, somewhat more than two months after the great battle, +somewhat less than twelve months after the death of Edward and the +coronation of Harold. Nothing that was needed for a lawful +crowning was lacking. The consent of the people, the oath of the +king, the anointing by the hands of a lawful metropolitan, all were +there. Ealdred acted as the actual celebrant, while Stigand took +the second place in the ceremony. But this outward harmony between +the nation and its new king was marred by an unhappy accident. +Norman horsemen stationed outside the church mistook the shout with +which the people accepted the new king for the shout of men who +were doing him damage. But instead of going to his help, they +began, in true Norman fashion, to set fire to the neighbouring +houses. The havoc and plunder that followed disturbed the +solemnities of the day and were a bad omen for the new reign. It +was no personal fault of William's; in putting himself in the hands +of subjects of such new and doubtful loyalty, he needed men near at +hand whom he could trust. But then it was his doing that England +had to receive a king who needed foreign soldiers to guard him. + + +William was now lawful King of the English, so far as outward +ceremonies could make him so. But he knew well how far he was from +having won real kingly authority over the whole kingdom. Hardly a +third part of the land was in his obedience. He had still, as he +doubtless knew, to win his realm with the edge of the sword. But +he could now go forth to further conquests, not as a foreign +invader, but as the king of the land, putting down rebellion among +his own subjects. If the men of Northumberland should refuse to +receive him, he could tell them that he was their lawful king, +anointed by their own archbishop. It was sound policy to act as +king of the whole land, to exercise a semblance of authority where +he had none in fact. And in truth he was king of the whole land, +so far as there was no other king. The unconquered parts of the +land were in no mood to submit; but they could not agree on any +common plan of resistance under any common leader. Some were still +for Edgar, some for Harold's sons, some for Swegen of Denmark. +Edwin and Morkere doubtless were for themselves. If one common +leader could have been found even now, the throne of the foreign +king would have been in no small danger. But no such leader came: +men stood still, or resisted piecemeal, so the land was conquered +piecemeal, and that under cover of being brought under the +obedience of its lawful king. + + +Now that the Norman duke has become an English king, his career as +an English statesman strictly begins, and a wonderful career it is. +Its main principle was to respect formal legality wherever he +could. All William's purposes were to be carried out, as far as +possible, under cover of strict adherence to the law of the land of +which he had become the lawful ruler. He had sworn at his crowning +to keep the laws of the land, and to rule his kingdom as well as +any king that had gone before him. And assuredly he meant to keep +his oath. But a foreign king, at the head of a foreign army, and +who had his foreign followers to reward, could keep that oath only +in its letter and not in its spirit. But it is wonderful how +nearly he came to keep it in the letter. He contrived to do his +most oppressive acts, to deprive Englishmen of their lands and +offices, and to part them out among strangers, under cover of +English law. He could do this. A smaller man would either have +failed to carry out his purposes at all, or he could have carried +them out only by reckless violence. When we examine the +administration of William more in detail, we shall see that its +effects in the long run were rather to preserve than to destroy our +ancient institutions. He knew the strength of legal fictions; by +legal fictions he conquered and he ruled. But every legal fiction +is outward homage to the principle of law, an outward protest +against unlawful violence. That England underwent a Norman +Conquest did in the end only make her the more truly England. But +that this could be was because that conquest was wrought by the +Bastard of Falaise and by none other. + + + +CHAPTER VIII--THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND--DECEMBER 1066-MARCH 1070 + + + +The coronation of William had its effect in a moment. It made him +really king over part of England; it put him into a new position +with regard to the rest. As soon as there was a king, men flocked +to swear oaths to him and become his men. They came from shires +where he had no real authority. It was most likely now, rather +than at Berkhampstead, that Edwin and Morkere at last made up their +minds to acknowledge some king. They became William's men and +received again their lands and earldoms as his grant. Other chief +men from the North also submitted and received their lands and +honours again. But Edwin and Morkere were not allowed to go back +to their earldoms. William thought it safer to keep them near +himself, under the guise of honour--Edwin was even promised one of +his daughters in marriage--but really half as prisoners, half as +hostages. Of the two other earls, Waltheof son of Siward, who held +the shires of Northampton and Huntingdon, and Oswulf who held the +earldom of Bernicia or modern Northumberland, we hear nothing at +this moment. As for Waltheof, it is strange if he were not at +Senlac; it is strange if he were there and came away alive. But we +only know that he was in William's allegiance a few months later. +Oswulf must have held out in some marked way. It was William's +policy to act as king even where he had no means of carrying out +his kingly orders. He therefore in February 1067 granted the +Bernician earldom to an Englishman named Copsige, who had acted as +Tostig's lieutenant. This implies the formal deprivation of +Oswulf. But William sent no force with the new earl, who had to +take possession as he could. That is to say, of two parties in a +local quarrel, one hoped to strengthen itself by making use of +William's name. And William thought that it would strengthen his +position to let at least his name be heard in every corner of the +kingdom. The rest of the story stands rather aloof from the main +history. Copsige got possession of the earldom for a moment. He +was then killed by Oswulf and his partisans, and Oswulf himself was +killed in the course of the year by a common robber. At Christmas, +1067, William again granted or sold the earldom to another of the +local chiefs, Gospatric. But he made no attempt to exercise direct +authority in those parts till the beginning of the year 1069. + +All this illustrates William's general course. Crowned king over +the land, he would first strengthen himself in that part of the +kingdom which he actually held. Of the passive disobedience of +other parts he would take no present notice. In northern and +central England William could exercise no authority; but those +lands were not in arms against him, nor did they acknowledge any +other king. Their earls, now his earls, were his favoured +courtiers. He could afford to be satisfied with this nominal +kingship, till a fit opportunity came to make it real. He could +afford to lend his name to the local enterprise of Copsige. It +would at least be another count against the men of Bernicia that +they had killed the earl whom King William gave them. + +Meanwhile William was taking very practical possession in the +shires where late events had given him real authority. His policy +was to assert his rights in the strongest form, but to show his +mildness and good will by refraining from carrying them out to the +uttermost. By right of conquest William claimed nothing. He had +come to take his crown, and he had unluckily met with some +opposition in taking it. The crown lands of King Edward passed of +course to his successor. As for the lands of other men, in +William's theory all was forfeited to the crown. The lawful heir +had been driven to seek his kingdom in arms; no Englishman had +helped him; many Englishmen had fought against him. All then were +directly or indirectly traitors. The King might lawfully deal with +the lands of all as his own. But in the greater part of the +kingdom it was impossible, in no part was it prudent, to carry out +this doctrine in its fulness. A passage in Domesday, compared with +a passage in the English Chronicles, shows that, soon after +William's coronation, the English as a body, within the lands +already conquered, redeemed their lands. They bought them back at +a price, and held them as a fresh grant from King William. Some +special offenders, living and dead, were exempted from this favour. +The King took to himself the estates of the house of Godwine, save +those of Edith, the widow of his revered predecessor, whom it was +his policy to treat with all honour. The lands too of those who +had died on Senlac were granted back to their heirs only of special +favour, sometimes under the name of alms. Thus, from the beginning +of his reign, William began to make himself richer than any king +that had been before him in England or than any other Western king +of his day. He could both punish his enemies and reward his +friends. Much of what he took he kept; much he granted away, +mainly to his foreign followers, but sometimes also to Englishmen +who had in any way won his favour. Wiggod of Wallingford was one +of the very few Englishmen who kept and received estates which put +them alongside of the great Norman landowners. The doctrine that +all land was held of the King was now put into a practical shape. +All, Englishmen and strangers, not only became William's subjects, +but his men and his grantees. Thus he went on during his whole +reign. There was no sudden change from the old state of things to +the new. After the general redemption of lands, gradually carried +out as William's power advanced, no general blow was dealt at +Englishmen as such. They were not, like some conquered nations, +formally degraded or put under any legal incapacities in their own +land. William simply distinguished between his loyal and his +disloyal subjects, and used his opportunities for punishing the +disloyal and rewarding the loyal. Such punishments and rewards +naturally took the shape of confiscations and grants of land. If +punishment was commonly the lot of the Englishman, and reward was +the lot of the stranger, that was only because King William treated +all men as they deserved. Most Englishmen were disloyal; most +strangers were loyal. But disloyal strangers and loyal Englishmen +fared according to their deserts. The final result of this +process, begun now and steadily carried on, was that, by the end of +William's reign, the foreign king was surrounded by a body of +foreign landowners and office-bearers of foreign birth. When, in +the early days of his conquest, he gathered round him the great men +of his realm, it was still an English assembly with a sprinkling of +strangers. By the end of his reign it had changed, step by step, +into an assembly of strangers with a sprinkling of Englishmen. + +This revolution, which practically transferred the greater part of +the soil of England to the hands of strangers, was great indeed. +But it must not be mistaken for a sudden blow, for an irregular +scramble, for a formal proscription of Englishmen as such. +William, according to his character and practice, was able to do +all this gradually, according to legal forms, and without drawing +any formal distinction between natives and strangers. All land was +held of the King of the English, according to the law of England. +It may seem strange how such a process of spoliation, veiled under +a legal fiction, could have been carried out without resistance. +It was easier because it was gradual and piecemeal. The whole +country was not touched at once, nor even the whole of any one +district. One man lost his land while his neighbour kept his, and +he who kept his land was not likely to join in the possible plots +of the other. And though the land had never seen so great a +confiscation, or one so largely for the behoof of foreigners, yet +there was nothing new in the thing itself. Danes had settled under +Cnut, and Normans and other Frenchmen under Edward. Confiscation +of land was the everyday punishment for various public and private +crimes. In any change, such as we should call a change of +ministry, as at the fall and the return of Godwine, outlawry and +forfeiture of lands was the usual doom of the weaker party, a +milder doom than the judicial massacres of later ages. Even a +conquest of England was nothing new, and William at this stage +contrasted favourably with Cnut, whose early days were marked by +the death of not a few. William, at any rate since his crowning, +had shed the blood of no man. Men perhaps thought that things +might have been much worse, and that they were not unlikely to +mend. Anyhow, weakened, cowed, isolated, the people of the +conquered shires submitted humbly to the Conqueror's will. It +needed a kind of oppression of which William himself was never +guilty to stir them into actual revolt. + + +The provocation was not long in coming. Within three months after +his coronation, William paid a visit to his native duchy. The +ruler of two states could not be always in either; he owed it to +his old subjects to show himself among them in his new character; +and his absence might pass as a sign of the trust he put in his new +subjects. But the means which he took to secure their obedience +brought out his one weak point. We cannot believe that he really +wished to goad the people into rebellion; yet the choice of his +lieutenants might seem almost like it. He was led astray by +partiality for his brother and for his dearest friend. To Bishop +Ode of Bayeux, and to William Fitz-Osbern, the son of his early +guardian, he gave earldoms, that of Kent to Odo, that of Hereford +to William. The Conqueror was determined before all things that +his kingdom should be united and obedient; England should not be +split up like Gaul and Germany; he would have no man in England +whose formal homage should carry with it as little of practical +obedience as his own homage to the King of the French. A Norman +earl of all Wessex or all Mercia might strive after such a +position. William therefore forsook the old practice of dividing +the whole kingdom into earldoms. In the peaceful central shires he +would himself rule through his sheriffs and other immediate +officers; he would appoint earls only in dangerous border districts +where they were needed as military commanders. All William's earls +were in fact marquesses, guardians of a march or frontier. Ode had +to keep Kent against attacks from the continent; William Fitz- +Osbern had to keep Herefordshire against the Welsh and the +independent English. This last shire had its own local warfare. +William's authority did not yet reach over all the shires beyond +London and Hereford; but Harold had allowed some of Edward's Norman +favourites to keep power there. Hereford then and part of its +shire formed an isolated part of William's dominions, while the +lands around remained unsubdued. William Fitz-Osbern had to guard +this dangerous land as earl. But during the King's absence both he +and Ode received larger commissions as viceroys over the whole +kingdom. Ode guarded the South and William the North and North- +East. Norwich, a town dangerous from its easy communication with +Denmark, was specially under his care. The nominal earls of the +rest of the land, Edwin, Morkere, and Waltheof, with Edgar, King of +a moment, Archbishop Stigand, and a number of other chief men, +William took with him to Normandy. Nominally his cherished friends +and guests, they went in truth, as one of the English Chroniclers +calls them, as hostages. + +William's stay in Normandy lasted about six months. It was chiefly +devoted to rejoicings and religious ceremonies, but partly to +Norman legislation. Rich gifts from the spoils of England were +given to the churches of Normandy; gifts richer still were sent to +the Church of Rome whose favour had wrought so much for William. +In exchange for the banner of Saint Peter, Harold's standard of the +Fighting-man was sent as an offering to the head of all churches. +While William was in Normandy, Archbishop Maurilius of Rouen died. +The whole duchy named Lanfranc as his successor; but he declined +the post, and was himself sent to Rome to bring the pallium for the +new archbishop John, a kinsman of the ducal house. Lanfranc +doubtless refused the see of Rouen only because he was designed for +a yet greater post in England; the subtlest diplomatist in Europe +was not sent to Rome merely to ask for the pallium for Archbishop +John. + +Meanwhile William's choice of lieutenants bore its fruit in +England. They wrought such oppression as William himself never +wrought. The inferior leaders did as they thought good, and the +two earls restrained them not. The earls meanwhile were in one +point there faithfully carrying out the policy of their master in +the building of castles; a work, which specially when the work of +Ode and William Fitz-Osbern, is always spoken of by the native +writers with marked horror. The castles were the badges and the +instruments of the Conquest, the special means of holding the land +in bondage. Meanwhile tumults broke forth in various parts. The +slaughter of Copsige, William's earl in Northumberland, took place +about the time of the King's sailing for Normandy. In independent +Herefordshire the leading Englishman in those parts, Eadric, whom +the Normans called the Wild, allied himself with the Welsh, harried +the obedient lands, and threatened the castle of Hereford. Nothing +was done on either side beyond harrying and skirmishes; but +Eadric's corner of the land remained unsubdued. The men of Kent +made a strange foreign alliance with Eustace of Boulogne, the +brother-in-law of Edward, the man whose deeds had led to the great +movement of Edward's reign, to the banishment and the return of +Godwine. He had fought against England on Senlac, and was one of +four who had dealt the last blow to the wounded Harold. But the +oppression of Ode made the Kentishmen glad to seek any help against +him. Eustace, now William's enemy, came over, and gave help in an +unsuccessful attack on Dover castle. Meanwhile in the obedient +shires men were making ready for revolt; in the unsubdued lands +they were making ready for more active defence. Many went beyond +sea to ask for foreign help, specially in the kindred lands of +Denmark and Northern Germany. Against this threatening movement +William's strength lay in the incapacity of his enemies for +combined action. The whole land never rose at once, and Danish +help did not come at the times or in the shape when it could have +done most good. + + +The news of these movements brought William back to England in +December. He kept the Midwinter feast and assembly at Westminster; +there the absent Eustace was, by a characteristic stroke of policy, +arraigned as a traitor. He was a foreign prince against whom the +Duke of the Normans might have led a Norman army. But he had also +become an English landowner, and in that character he was +accountable to the King and Witan of England. He suffered the +traitor's punishment of confiscation of lands. Afterwards he +contrived to win back William's favour, and he left great English +possessions to his second wife and his son. Another stroke of +policy was to send an embassy to Denmark, to ward off the hostile +purposes of Swegen, and to choose as ambassador an English prelate +who had been in high favour with both Edward and Harold, +AEthelsige, Abbot of Ramsey. It came perhaps of his mission that +Swegen practically did nothing for two years. The envoy's own life +was a chequered one. He lost William's favour, and sought shelter +in Denmark. He again regained William's favour--perhaps by some +service at the Danish court--and died in possession of his abbey. + +It is instructive to see how in this same assembly William bestowed +several great offices. The earldom of Northumberland was vacant by +the slaughter of two earls, the bishopric of Dorchester by the +peaceful death of its bishop. William had no real authority in any +part of Northumberland, or in more than a small part of the diocese +of Dorchester. But he dealt with both earldom and bishopric as in +his own power. It was now that he granted Northumberland to +Gospatric. The appointment to the bishopric was the beginning of a +new system. Englishmen were now to give way step by step to +strangers in the highest offices and greatest estates of the land. +He had already made two Norman earls, but they were to act as +military commanders. He now made an English earl, whose earldom +was likely to be either nominal or fatal. The appointment of +Remigius of Fecamp to the see of Dorchester was of more real +importance. It is the beginning of William's ecclesiastical reign, +the first step in William's scheme of making the Church his +instrument in keeping down the conquered. While William lived, no +Englishman was appointed to a bishopric. As bishoprics became +vacant by death, foreigners were nominated, and excuses were often +found for hastening a vacancy by deprivation. At the end of +William's reign one English bishop only was left. With abbots, as +having less temporal power than bishops, the rule was less strict. +Foreigners were preferred, but Englishmen were not wholly shut out. +And the general process of confiscation and regrant of lands was +vigorously carried out. The Kentish revolt and the general +movement must have led to many forfeitures and to further grants to +loyal men of either nation. As the English Chronicles pithily puts +it, "the King gave away every man's land." + + +William could soon grant lands in new parts of England. In +February 1068 he for the first time went forth to warfare with +those whom he called his subjects, but who had never submitted to +him. In the course of the year a large part of England was in arms +against him. But there was no concert; the West rose and the North +rose; but the West rose first, and the North did not rise till the +West had been subdued. Western England threw off the purely +passive state which had lasted through the year 1067. Hitherto +each side had left the other alone. But now the men of the West +made ready for a more direct opposition to the foreign government. +If they could not drive William out of what he had already won, +they would at least keep him from coming any further. Exeter, the +greatest city of the West, was the natural centre of resistance; +the smaller towns, at least of Devonshire and Dorset entered into a +league with the capital. They seem to have aimed, like Italian +cities in the like case, at the formation of a civic confederation, +which might perhaps find it expedient to acknowledge William as an +external lord, but which would maintain perfect internal +independence. Still, as Gytha, widow of Godwine, mother of Harold, +was within the walls of Exeter, the movement was doubtless also in +some sort on behalf of the House of Godwine. In any case, Exeter +and the lands and towns in its alliance with Exeter strengthened +themselves in every way against attack. + +Things were not now as on the day of Senlac, when Englishmen on +their own soil withstood one who, however he might cloke his +enterprise, was to them simply a foreign invader. But William was +not yet, as he was in some later struggles, the de facto king of +the whole land, whom all had acknowledged, and opposition to whom +was in form rebellion. He now held an intermediate position. He +was still an invader; for Exeter had never submitted to him; but +the crowned King of the English, peacefully ruling over many +shires, was hardly a mere invader; resistance to him would have the +air of rebellion in the eyes of many besides William and his +flatterers. And they could not see, what we plainly see, what +William perhaps dimly saw, that it was in the long run better for +Exeter, or any other part of England, to share, even in conquest, +the fate of the whole land, rather than to keep on a precarious +independence to the aggravation of the common bondage. This we +feel throughout; William, with whatever motive, is fighting for the +unity of England. We therefore cannot seriously regret his +successes. But none the less honour is due to the men whom the +duty of the moment bade to withstand him. They could not see +things as we see them by the light of eight hundred years. + +The movement evidently stirred several shires; but it is only of +Exeter that we hear any details. William never used force till he +had tried negotiation. He sent messengers demanding that the +citizens should take oaths to him and receive him within their +walls. The choice lay now between unconditional submission and +valiant resistance. But the chief men of the city chose a middle +course which could gain nothing. They answered as an Italian city +might have answered a Swabian Emperor. They would not receive the +King within their walls; they would take no oaths to him; but they +would pay him the tribute which they had paid to earlier kings. +That is, they would not have him as king, but only as overlord over +a commonwealth otherwise independent. William's answer was short; +"It is not my custom to take subjects on those conditions." He set +out on his march; his policy was to overcome the rebellious English +by the arms of the loyal English. He called out the fyrd, the +militia, of all or some of the shires under his obedience. They +answered his call; to disobey it would have needed greater courage +than to wield the axe on Senlac. This use of English troops became +William's custom in all his later wars, in England and on the +mainland; but of course he did not trust to English troops only. +The plan of the campaign was that which had won Le Mans and London. +The towns of Dorset were frightfully harried on the march to the +capital of the West. Disunion at once broke out; the leading men +in Exeter sent to offer unconditional submission and to give +hostages. But the commonalty disowned the agreement; +notwithstanding the blinding of one of the hostages before the +walls, they defended the city valiantly for eighteen days. It was +only when the walls began to crumble away beneath William's mining- +engines that the men of Exeter at last submitted to his mercy. And +William's mercy could be trusted. No man was harmed in life, limb, +or goods. But, to hinder further revolts, a castle was at once +begun, and the payments made by the city to the King were largely +raised. + +Gytha, when the city yielded, withdrew to the Steep Holm, and +thence to Flanders. Her grandsons fled to Ireland; from thence, in +the course of the same year and the next, they twice landed in +Somerset and Devonshire. The Irish Danes who followed them could +not be kept back from plunder. Englishmen as well as Normans +withstood them, and the hopes of the House of Godwine came to an +end. + + +On the conquest of Exeter followed the submission of the whole +West. All the land south of the Thames was now in William's +obedience. Gloucestershire seems to have submitted at the same +time; the submission of Worcestershire is without date. A vast +confiscation of lands followed, most likely by slow degrees. Its +most memorable feature is that nearly all Cornwall was granted to +William's brother Robert Count of Mortain. His vast estate grew +into the famous Cornish earldom and duchy of later times. Southern +England was now conquered, and, as the North had not stirred during +the stirring of the West, the whole land was outwardly at peace. +William now deemed it safe to bring his wife to share his new +greatness. The Duchess Matilda came over to England, and was +hallowed to Queen at Westminster by Archbishop Ealdred. We may +believe that no part of his success gave William truer pleasure. +But the presence of the Lady was important in another way. It was +doubtless by design that she gave birth on English soil to her +youngest son, afterwards the renowned King Henry the First. He +alone of William's children was in any sense an Englishman. Born +on English ground, son of a crowned King and his Lady, Englishmen +looked on him as a countryman. And his father saw the wisdom of +encouraging such a feeling. Henry, surnamed in after days the +Clerk, was brought up with special care; he was trained in many +branches of learning unusual among the princes of his age, among +them in a thorough knowledge of the tongue of his native land. + + +The campaign of Exeter is of all William's English campaigns the +richest in political teaching. We see how near the cities of +England came for a moment--as we shall presently see a chief city +of northern Gaul--to running the same course as the cities of Italy +and Provence. Signs of the same tendency may sometimes be +suspected elsewhere, but they are not so clearly revealed. +William's later campaigns are of the deepest importance in English +history; they are far richer in recorded personal actors than the +siege of Exeter; but they hardly throw so much light on the +character of William and his statesmanship. William is throughout +ever ready, but never hasty--always willing to wait when waiting +seems the best policy--always ready to accept a nominal success +when there is a chance of turning it into a real one, but never +accepting nominal success as a cover for defeat, never losing an +inch of ground without at once taking measures to recover it. By +this means, he has in the former part of 1068 extended his dominion +to the Land's End; before the end of the year he extends it to the +Tees. In the next year he has indeed to win it back again; but he +does win it back and more also. Early in 1070 he was at last, in +deed as well as in name, full King over all England. + +The North was making ready for war while the war in the West went +on, but one part of England did nothing to help the other. In the +summer the movement in the North took shape. The nominal earls +Edwin, Morkere, and Gospatric, with the AEtheling Edgar and others, +left William's court to put themselves at the head of the movement. +Edwin was specially aggrieved, because the king had promised him +one of his daughters in marriage, but had delayed giving her to +him. The English formed alliances with the dependent princes of +Wales and Scotland, and stood ready to withstand any attack. +William set forth; as he had taken Exeter, he took Warwick, perhaps +Leicester. This was enough for Edwin and Morkere. They submitted, +and were again received to favour. More valiant spirits withdrew +northward, ready to defend Durham as the last shelter of +independence, while Edgar and Gospatric fled to the court of +Malcolm of Scotland. William went on, receiving the submission of +Nottingham and York; thence he turned southward, receiving on his +way the submission of Lincoln, Cambridge, and Huntingdon. Again he +deemed it his policy to establish his power in the lands which he +had already won rather than to jeopard matters by at once pressing +farther. In the conquered towns he built castles, and he placed +permanent garrisons in each district by granting estates to his +Norman and other followers. Different towns and districts suffered +in different degrees, according doubtless to the measure of +resistance met with in each. Lincoln and Lincolnshire were on the +whole favourably treated. An unusual number of Englishmen kept +lands and offices in city and shire. At Leicester and Northampton, +and in their shires, the wide confiscations and great destruction +of houses point to a stout resistance. And though Durham was still +untouched, and though William had assuredly no present purpose of +attacking Scotland, he found it expedient to receive with all +favour a nominal submission brought from the King of Scots by the +hands of the Bishop of Durham. + +If William's policy ever seems less prudent than usual, it was at +the beginning of the next year, 1069. The extreme North still +stood out. William had twice commissioned English earls of +Northumberland to take possession if they could. He now risked the +dangerous step of sending a stranger. Robert of Comines was +appointed to the earldom forfeited by the flight of Gospatric. +While it was still winter, he went with his force to Durham. By +help of the Bishop, he was admitted into the city, but he and his +whole force were cut off by the people of Durham and its +neighbourhood. Robert's expedition in short led only to a revolt +of York, where Edgar was received and siege was laid to the castle. +William marched in person with all speed; he relieved the castle; +he recovered the city and strengthened it by a second castle on the +other side of the river. Still he thought it prudent to take no +present steps against Durham. Soon after this came the second +attempt of Harold's sons in the West. + +Later in this year William's final warfare for the kingdom began. +In August, 1069 the long-promised help from Denmark came. Swegen +sent his brother Osbeorn and his sons Harold and Cnut, at the head +of the whole strength of Denmark and of other Northern lands. If +the two enterprises of Harold's sons had been planned in concert +with their Danish kinsmen, the invaders or deliverers from opposite +sides had failed to act together. Nor are Swegen's own objects +quite clear. He sought to deliver England from William and his +Normans, but it is not so plain in whose interest he acted. He +would naturally seek the English crown for himself or for one of +his sons; the sons of Harold he would rather make earls than kings. +But he could feel no interest in the kingship of Edgar. Yet, when +the Danish fleet entered the Humber, and the whole force of the +North came to meet it, the English host had the heir of Cerdic at +its head. It is now that Waltheof the son of Siward, Earl of +Northampton and Huntingdon, first stands out as a leading actor. +Gospatric too was there; but this time not Edwin and Morkere. +Danes and English joined and marched upon York; the city was +occupied; the castles were taken; the Norman commanders were made +prisoners, but not till they had set fire to the city and burned +the greater part of it, along with the metropolitan minster. It is +amazing to read that, after breaking down the castles, the English +host dispersed, and the Danish fleet withdrew into the Humber. + +England was again ruined by lack of concert. The news of the +coming of the Danes led only to isolated movements which were put +down piecemeal. The men of Somerset and Dorset and the men of +Devonshire and Cornwall were put down separately, and the movement +in Somerset was largely put down by English troops. The citizens +of Exeter, as well as the Norman garrison of the castle, stood a +siege on behalf of William. A rising on the Welsh border under +Eadric led only to the burning of Shrewsbury; a rising in +Staffordshire was held by William to call for his own presence. +But he first marched into Lindesey, and drove the crews of the +Danish ships across into Holderness; there he left two Norman +leaders, one of them his brother Robert of Mortain and Cornwall; he +then went westward and subdued Staffordshire, and marched towards +York by way of Nottingham. A constrained delay by the Aire gave +him an opportunity for negotiation with the Danish leaders. +Osbeorn took bribes to forsake the English cause, and William +reached and entered York without resistance. He restored the +castles and kept his Christmas in the half-burned city. And now +William forsook his usual policy of clemency. The Northern shires +had been too hard to win. To weaken them, he decreed a merciless +harrying of the whole land, the direct effects of which were seen +for many years, and which left its mark on English history for +ages. Till the growth of modern industry reversed the relative +position of Northern and Southern England, the old Northumbrian +kingdom never fully recovered from the blow dealt by William, and +remained the most backward part of the land. Herein comes one of +the most remarkable results of William's coming. His greatest work +was to make England a kingdom which no man henceforth thought of +dividing. But the circumstances of his conquest of Northern +England ruled that for several centuries the unity of England +should take the form of a distinct preponderance of Southern +England over Northern. William's reign strengthened every tendency +that way, chiefly by the fearful blow now dealt to the physical +strength and well-being of the Northern shires. From one side +indeed the Norman Conquest was truly a Saxon conquest. The King of +London and Winchester became more fully than ever king over the +whole land. + + +The Conqueror had now only to gather in what was still left to +conquer. But, as military exploits, none are more memorable than +the winter marches which put William into full possession of +England. The lands beyond Tees still held out; in January 1070 he +set forth to subdue them. The Earls Waltheof and Gospatric made +their submission, Waltheof in person, Gospatric by proxy. William +restored both of them to their earldoms, and received Waltheof to +his highest favour, giving him his niece Judith in marriage. But +he systematically wasted the land, as he had wasted Yorkshire. He +then returned to York, and thence set forth to subdue the last city +and shire that held out. A fearful march led him to the one +remaining fragment of free England, the unconquered land of +Chester. We know not how Chester fell; but the land was not won +without fighting, and a frightful harrying was the punishment. In +all this we see a distinct stage of moral downfall in the character +of the Conqueror. Yet it is thoroughly characteristic. All is +calm, deliberate, politic. William will have no more revolts, and +he will at any cost make the land incapable of revolt. Yet, as +ever, there is no blood shed save in battle. If men died of +hunger, that was not William's doing; nay, charitable people like +Abbot AEthelwig of Evesham might do what they could to help the +sufferers. But the lawful king, kept so long out of his kingdom, +would, at whatever price, be king over the whole land. And the +great harrying of the northern shires was the price paid for +William's kingship over them. + +At Chester the work was ended which had begun at Pevensey. Less +than three years and a half, with intervals of peace, had made the +Norman invader king over all England. He had won the kingdom; he +had now to keep it. He had for seventeen years to deal with +revolts on both sides of the sea, with revolts both of Englishmen +and of his own followers. But in England his power was never +shaken; in England he never knew defeat. His English enemies he +had subdued; the Danes were allowed to remain and in some sort to +help in his work by plundering during the winter. The King now +marched to the Salisbury of that day, the deeply fenced hill of Old +Sarum. The men who had conquered England were reviewed in the +great plain, and received their rewards. Some among them had by +failures of duty during the winter marches lost their right to +reward. Their punishment was to remain under arms forty days +longer than their comrades. William could trust himself to the +very mutineers whom he had picked out for punishment. He had now +to begin his real reign; and the champion of the Church had before +all things to reform the evil customs of the benighted islanders, +and to give them shepherds of their souls who might guide them in +the right way, + + + +CHAPTER IX--THE SETTLEMENT OF ENGLAND--1070-1086 + + + +England was now fully conquered, and William could for a moment sit +down quietly to the rule of the kingdom that he had won. The time +that immediately followed is spoken of as a time of comparative +quiet, and of less oppression than the times either before or +after. Before and after, warfare, on one side of the sea or the +other, was the main business. Hitherto William has been winning +his kingdom in arms. Afterwards he was more constantly called away +to his foreign dominions, and his absence always led to greater +oppression in England. Just now he had a moment of repose, when he +could give his mind to the affairs of Church and State in England. +Peace indeed was not quite unbroken. Events were tending to that +famous revolt in the Fenland which is perhaps the best remembered +part of William's reign. But even this movement was merely local, +and did not seriously interfere with William's government. He was +now striving to settle the land in peace, and to make his rule as +little grievous to the conquered as might be. The harrying of +Northumberland showed that he now shrank from no harshness that +would serve his ends; but from mere purposeless oppression he was +still free. Nor was he ever inclined to needless change or to that +scorn of the conquered which meaner conquerors have often shown. +He clearly wished both to change and to oppress as little as he +could. This is a side of him which has been greatly misunderstood, +largely through the book that passes for the History of Ingulf +Abbot of Crowland. Ingulf was William's English secretary; a real +history of his writing would be most precious. But the book that +goes by his name is a forgery not older than the fourteenth +century, and is in all points contradicted by the genuine documents +of the time. Thus the forger makes William try to abolish the +English language and order the use of French in legal writings. +This is pure fiction. The truth is that, from the time of +William's coming, English goes out of use in legal writings, but +only gradually, and not in favour of French. Ever since the coming +of Augustine, English and Latin had been alternative tongues; after +the coming of William English becomes less usual, and in the course +of the twelfth century it goes out of use in favour of Latin. +There are no French documents till the thirteenth century, and in +that century English begins again. Instead of abolishing the +English tongue, William took care that his English-born son should +learn it, and he even began to learn it himself. A king of those +days held it for his duty to hear and redress his subjects' +complaints; he had to go through the land and see for himself that +those who acted in his name did right among his people. This +earlier kings had done; this William wished to do; but he found his +ignorance of English a hindrance. Cares of other kinds checked his +English studies, but he may have learned enough to understand the +meaning of his own English charters. Nor did William try, as he is +often imagined to have done, to root out the ancient institutions +of England, and to set up in their stead either the existing +institutions of Normandy or some new institutions of his own +devising. The truth is that with William began a gradual change in +the laws and customs of England, undoubtedly great, but far less +than is commonly thought. French names have often supplanted +English, and have made the amount of change seem greater than it +really was. Still much change did follow on the Norman Conquest, +and the Norman Conquest was so completely William's own act that +all that came of it was in some sort his act also. But these +changes were mainly the gradual results of the state of things +which followed William's coming; they were but very slightly the +results of any formal acts of his. With a foreign king and +foreigners in all high places, much practical change could not fail +to follow, even where the letter of the law was unchanged. Still +the practical change was less than if the letter of the law had +been changed as well. English law was administered by foreign +judges; the foreign grantees of William held English land according +to English law. The Norman had no special position as a Norman; in +every rank except perhaps the very highest and the very lowest, he +had Englishmen to his fellows. All this helped to give the Norman +Conquest of England its peculiar character, to give it an air of +having swept away everything English, while its real work was to +turn strangers into Englishmen. And that character was impressed +on William's work by William himself. The king claiming by legal +right, but driven to assert his right by the sword, was unlike both +the foreign king who comes in by peaceful succession and the +foreign king who comes in without even the pretext of law. The +Normans too, if born soldiers, were also born lawyers, and no man +was more deeply impressed with the legal spirit than William +himself. He loved neither to change the law nor to transgress the +law, and he had little need to do either. He knew how to make the +law his instrument, and, without either changing or transgressing +it, to use it to make himself all-powerful. He thoroughly enjoyed +that system of legal fictions and official euphemisms which marks +his reign. William himself became in some sort an Englishman, and +those to whom he granted English lands had in some sort to become +Englishmen in order to hold them. The Norman stepped into the +exact place of the Englishman whose land he held; he took his +rights and his burthens, and disputes about those rights and +burthens were judged according to English law by the witness of +Englishmen. Reigning over two races in one land, William would be +lord of both alike, able to use either against the other in case of +need. He would make the most of everything in the feelings and +customs of either that tended to strengthen his own hands. And, in +the state of things in which men then found themselves, whatever +strengthened William's hands strengthened law and order in his +kingdom. + +There was therefore nothing to lead William to make any large +changes in the letter of the English law. The powers of a King of +the English, wielded as he knew how to wield them, made him as +great as he could wish to be. Once granting the original wrong of +his coming at all and bringing a host of strangers with him, there +is singularly little to blame in the acts of the Conqueror. Of +bloodshed, of wanton interference with law and usage, there is +wonderfully little. Englishmen and Normans were held to have +settled down in peace under the equal protection of King William. +The two races were drawing together; the process was beginning +which, a hundred years later, made it impossible, in any rank but +the highest and the lowest, to distinguish Norman from Englishman. +Among the smaller landowners and the townsfolk this intermingling +had already begun, while earls and bishops were not yet so +exclusively Norman, nor had the free churls of England as yet sunk +so low as at a later stage. Still some legislation was needed to +settle the relations of the two races. King William proclaimed the +"renewal of the law of King Edward." This phrase has often been +misunderstood; it is a common form when peace and good order are +restored after a period of disturbance. The last reign which is +looked back to as to a time of good government becomes the standard +of good government, and it is agreed between king and people, +between contending races or parties, that things shall be as they +were in the days of the model ruler. So we hear in Normandy of the +renewal of the law of Rolf, and in England of the renewal of the +law of Cnut. So at an earlier time Danes and Englishmen agreed in +the renewal of the law of Edgar. So now Normans and Englishmen +agreed in the renewal of the law of Edward. There was no code +either of Edward's or of William's making. William simply bound +himself to rule as Edward had ruled. But in restoring the law of +King Edward, he added, "with the additions which I have decreed for +the advantage of the people of the English." + +These few words are indeed weighty. The little legislation of +William's reign takes throughout the shape of additions. Nothing +old is repealed; a few new enactments are set up by the side of the +old ones. And these words describe, not only William's actual +legislation, but the widest general effect of his coming. The +Norman Conquest did little towards any direct abolition of the +older English laws or institutions. But it set up some new +institutions alongside of old ones; and it brought in not a few +names, habits, and ways of looking at things, which gradually did +their work. In England no man has pulled down; many have added and +modified. Our law is still the law of King Edward with the +additions of King William. Some old institutions took new names; +some new institutions with new names sprang up by the side of old +ones. Sometimes the old has lasted, sometimes the new. We still +have a king and not a roy; but he gathers round him a parliament +and not a vitenagemot. We have a sheriff and not a viscount; but +his district is more commonly called a county than a shire. But +county and shire are French and English for the same thing, and +"parliament" is simply French for the "deep speech" which King +William had with his Witan. The National Assembly of England has +changed its name and its constitution more than once; but it has +never been changed by any sudden revolution, never till later times +by any formal enactment. There was no moment when one kind of +assembly supplanted another. And this has come because our +Conqueror was, both by his disposition and his circumstances, led +to act as a preserver and not as a destroyer. + +The greatest recorded acts of William, administrative and +legislative, come in the last days of his reign. But there are +several enactments of William belonging to various periods of his +reign, and some of them to this first moment of peace. Here we +distinctly see William as an English statesman, as a statesman who +knew how to work a radical change under conservative forms. One +enactment, perhaps the earliest of all, provided for the safety of +the strangers who had come with him to subdue and to settle in the +land. The murder of a Norman by an Englishman, especially of a +Norman intruder by a dispossessed Englishman, was a thing that +doubtless often happened. William therefore provides for the +safety of those whom he calls "the men whom I brought with me or +who have come after me;" that is, the warriors of Senlac, Exeter, +and York. These men are put within his own peace; wrong done to +them is wrong done to the King, his crown and dignity. If the +murderer cannot be found, the lord and, failing him, the hundred, +must make payment to the King. Of this grew the presentment of +Englishry, one of the few formal badges of distinction between the +conquering and the conquered race. Its practical need could not +have lasted beyond a generation or two, but it went on as a form +ages after it had lost all meaning. An unknown corpse, unless it +could be proved that the dead man was English, was assumed to be +that of a man who had come with King William, and the fine was +levied. Some other enactments were needed when two nations lived +side by side in the same land. As in earlier times, Roman and +barbarian each kept his own law, so now for some purposes the +Frenchman--"Francigena"--and the Englishman kept their own law. +This is chiefly with regard to the modes of appealing to God's +judgement in doubtful cases. The English did this by ordeal, the +Normans by wager of battle. When a man of one nation appealed a +man of the other, the accused chose the mode of trial. If an +Englishman appealed a Frenchman and declined to prove his charge +either way, the Frenchman might clear himself by oath. But these +privileges were strictly confined to Frenchmen who had come with +William and after him. Frenchmen who had in Edward's time settled +in England as the land of their own choice, reckoned as Englishmen. +Other enactments, fresh enactments of older laws, touched both +races. The slave trade was rife in its worst form; men were sold +out of the land, chiefly to the Danes of Ireland. Earlier kings +had denounced the crime, and earlier bishops had preached against +it. William denounced it again under the penalty of forfeiture of +all lands and goods, and Saint Wulfstan, the Bishop of Worcester, +persuaded the chief offenders, Englishmen of Bristol, to give up +their darling sin for a season. Yet in the next reign Anselm and +his synod had once more to denounce the crime under spiritual +penalties, when they had no longer the strong arm of William to +enforce them. + +Another law bears more than all the personal impress of William. +In it he at once, on one side, forestalls the most humane theories +of modern times, and on the other sins most directly against them. +His remarkable unwillingness to put any man to death, except among +the chances of the battle-field, was to some extent the feeling of +his age. With him the feeling takes the shape of a formal law. He +forbids the infliction of death for any crime whatever. But those +who may on this score be disposed to claim the Conqueror as a +sympathizer will be shocked at the next enactment. Those crimes +which kings less merciful than William would have punished with +death are to be punished with loss of eyes or other foul and cruel +mutilations. Punishments of this kind now seem more revolting than +death, though possibly, now as then, the sufferer himself might +think otherwise. But in those days to substitute mutilation for +death, in the case of crimes which were held to deserve death, was +universally deemed an act of mercy. Grave men shrank from sending +their fellow-creatures out of the world, perhaps without time for +repentance; but physical sympathy with physical suffering had +little place in their minds. In the next century a feeling against +bodily mutilation gradually comes in; but as yet the mildest and +most thoughtful men, Anselm himself, make no protest against it +when it is believed to be really deserved. There is no sign of any +general complaint on this score. The English Chronicler applauds +the strict police of which mutilation formed a part, and in one +case he deliberately holds it to be the fitting punishment of the +offence. In fact, when penal settlements were unknown and legal +prisons were few and loathsome, there was something to be said for +a punishment which disabled the criminal from repeating his +offence. In William's jurisprudence mutilation became the ordinary +sentence of the murderer, the robber, the ravisher, sometimes also +of English revolters against William's power. We must in short +balance his mercy against the mercy of Kirk and Jeffreys. + +The ground on which the English Chronicler does raise his wail on +behalf of his countrymen is the special jurisprudence of the +forests and the extortions of money with which he charges the +Conqueror. In both these points the royal hand became far heavier +under the Norman rule. In both William's character grew darker as +he grew older. He is charged with unlawful exactions of money, in +his character alike of sovereign and of landlord. We read of his +sharp practice in dealing with the profits of the royal demesnes. +He would turn out the tenant to whom he had just let the land, if +another offered a higher rent. But with regard to taxation, we +must remember that William's exactions, however heavy at the time, +were a step in the direction of regular government. In those days +all taxation was disliked. Direct taking of the subject's money by +the King was deemed an extraordinary resource to be justified only +by some extraordinary emergency, to buy off the Danes or to hire +soldiers against them. Men long after still dreamed that the King +could "live of his own," that he could pay all expenses of his +court and government out of the rents and services due to him as a +landowner, without asking his people for anything in the character +of sovereign. Demands of money on behalf of the King now became +both heavier and more frequent. And another change which had long +been gradually working now came to a head. When, centuries later, +the King was bidden to "live of his own," men had forgotten that +the land of the King had once been the land of the nation. In all +Teutonic communities, great and small, just as in the city +communities of Greece and Italy, the community itself was a chief +landowner. The nation had its folkland, its ager publicus, the +property of no one man but of the whole state. Out of this, by the +common consent, portions might be cut off and booked--granted by a +written document--to particular men as their own bookland. The +King might have his private estate, to be dealt with at his own +pleasure, but of the folkland, the land of the nation, he was only +the chief administrator, bound to act by the advice of his Witan. +But in this case more than in others, the advice of the Witan could +not fail to become formal; the folkland, ever growing through +confiscations, ever lessening through grants, gradually came to be +looked on as the land of the King, to be dealt with as he thought +good. We must not look for any change formally enacted; but in +Edward's day the notion of folkland, as the possession of the +nation and not of the King, could have been only a survival, and in +William's day even the survival passed away. The land which was +practically the land of King Edward became, as a matter of course, +Terra Regis, the land of King William. That land was now enlarged +by greater confiscations and lessened by greater grants than ever. +For a moment, every lay estate had been part of the land of +William. And far more than had been the land of the nation +remained the land of the King, to be dealt with as he thought good. + +In the tenure of land William seems to have made no formal change. +But the circumstances of his reign gave increased strength to +certain tendencies which had been long afloat. And out of them, in +the next reign, the malignant genius of Randolf Flambard devised a +systematic code of oppression. Yet even in his work there is +little of formal change. There are no laws of William Rufus. The +so called feudal incidents, the claims of marriage, wardship, and +the like, on the part of the lord, the ancient heriot developed +into the later relief, all these things were in the germ under +William, as they had been in the germ long before him. In the +hands of Randolf Flambard they stiffen into established custom; +their legal acknowledgement comes from the charter of Henry the +First which promises to reform their abuses. Thus the Conqueror +clearly claimed the right to interfere with the marriages of his +nobles, at any rate to forbid a marriage to which he objected on +grounds of policy. Under Randolf Flambard this became a regular +claim, which of course was made a means of extorting money. Under +Henry the claim is regulated and modified, but by being regulated +and modified, it is legally established. + +The ordinary administration of the kingdom went on under William, +greatly modified by the circumstances of his reign, but hardly at +all changed in outward form. Like the kings that were before him, +he "wore his crown" at the three great feasts, at Easter at +Winchester, at Pentecost at Westminster, at Christmas at +Gloucester. Like the kings that were before him, he gathered +together the great men of the realm, and when need was, the small +men also. Nothing seems to have been changed in the constitution +or the powers of the assembly; but its spirit must have been +utterly changed. The innermost circle, earls, bishops, great +officers of state and household, gradually changed from a body of +Englishmen with a few strangers among them into a body of strangers +among whom two or three Englishmen still kept their places. The +result of their "deep speech" with William was not likely to be +other than an assent to William's will. The ordinary freeman did +not lose his abstract right to come and shout "Yea, yea," to any +addition that King William made to the law of King Edward. But +there would be nothing to tempt him to come, unless King William +thought fit to bid him. But once at least William did gather +together, if not every freeman, at least all freeholders of the +smallest account. On one point the Conqueror had fully made up his +mind; on one point he was to be a benefactor to his kingdom through +all succeeding ages. The realm of England was to be one and +indivisible. No ruler or subject in the kingdom of England should +again dream that that kingdom could be split asunder. When he +offered Harold the underkingship of the realm or of some part of +it, he did so doubtless only in the full conviction that the offer +would be refused. No such offer should be heard of again. There +should be no such division as had been between Cnut and Edmund, +between Harthacnut and the first Harold, such as Edwin and Morkere +had dreamed of in later times. Nor should the kingdom be split +asunder in that subtler way which William of all men best +understood, the way in which the Frankish kingdoms, East and West, +had split asunder. He would have no dukes or earls who might +become kings in all but name, each in his own duchy or earldom. No +man in his realm should be to him as he was to his overlord at +Paris. No man in his realm should plead duty towards an immediate +lord as an excuse for breach of duty towards the lord of that +immediate lord. Hence William's policy with regard to earldoms. +There was to be nothing like the great governments which had been +held by Godwine, Leofric, and Siward; an Earl of the West-Saxons or +the Northumbrians was too like a Duke of the Normans to be endured +by one who was Duke of the Normans himself. The earl, even of the +king's appointment, still represented the separate being of the +district over which he was set. He was the king's representative +rather than merely his officer; if he was a magistrate and not a +prince, he often sat in the seat of former princes, and might +easily grow into a prince. And at last, at the very end of his +reign, as the finishing of his work, he took the final step that +made England for ever one. In 1086 every land-owner in England +swore to be faithful to King William within and without England and +to defend him against his enemies. The subject's duty to the King +was to any duty which the vassal might owe to any inferior lord. +When the King was the embodiment of national unity and orderly +government, this was the greatest of all steps in the direction of +both. Never did William or any other man act more distinctly as an +English statesman, never did any one act tell more directly towards +the later making of England, than this memorable act of the +Conqueror. Here indeed is an addition which William made to the +law of Edward for the truest good of the English folk. And yet no +enactment has ever been more thoroughly misunderstood. Lawyer +after lawyer has set down in his book that, at the assembly of +Salisbury in 1086, William introduced "the feudal system." If the +words "feudal system" have any meaning, the object of the law now +made was to hinder any "feudal system" from coming into England. +William would be king of a kingdom, head of a commonwealth, +personal lord of every man in his realm, not merely, like a King of +the French, external lord of princes whose subjects owed him no +allegiance. This greatest monument of the Conqueror's +statesmanship was carried into effect in a special assembly of the +English nation gathered on the first day of August 1086 on the +great plain of Salisbury. Now, perhaps for the first time, we get +a distinct foreshadowing of Lords and Commons. The Witan, the +great men of the realm, and "the landsitting men," the whole body +of landowners, are now distinguished. The point is that William +required the personal presence of every man whose personal +allegiance he thought worth having. Every man in the mixed +assembly, mixed indeed in race and speech, the King's own men and +the men of other lords, took the oath and became the man of King +William. On that day England became for ever a kingdom one and +indivisible, which since that day no man has dreamed of parting +asunder. + + +The great assembly of 1086 will come again among the events of +William's later reign; it comes here as the last act of that +general settlement which began in 1070. That settlement, besides +its secular side, has also an ecclesiastical side of a somewhat +different character. In both William's coming brought the island +kingdom into a closer connexion with the continent; and brought a +large displacement of Englishmen and a large promotion of +strangers. But on the ecclesiastical side, though the changes were +less violent, there was a more marked beginning of a new state of +things. The religious missionary was more inclined to innovate +than the military conqueror. Here William not only added but +changed; on one point he even proclaimed that the existing law of +England was bad. Certainly the religious state of England was +likely to displease churchmen from the mainland. The English +Church, so directly the child of the Roman, was, for that very +reason, less dependent on her parent. She was a free colony, not a +conquered province. The English Church too was most distinctly +national; no land came so near to that ideal state of things in +which the Church is the nation on its religious side. Papal +authority therefore was weaker in England than elsewhere, and a +less careful line was drawn between spiritual and temporal things +and jurisdictions. Two friendly powers could take liberties with +each other. The national assemblies dealt with ecclesiastical as +well as with temporal matters; one indeed among our ancient laws +blames any assembly that did otherwise. Bishop and earl sat +together in the local Gemot, to deal with many matters which, +according to continental ideas, should have been dealt with in +separate courts. And, by what in continental eyes seemed a strange +laxity of discipline, priests, bishops, members of capitular +bodies, were often married. The English diocesan arrangements were +unlike continental models. In Gaul, by a tradition of Roman date, +the bishop was bishop of the city. His diocese was marked by the +extent of the civil jurisdiction of the city. His home, his head +church, his bishopstool in the head church, were all in the city. +In Teutonic England the bishop was commonly bishop, not of a city +but of a tribe or district; his style was that of a tribe; his +home, his head church, his bishopstool, might be anywhere within +the territory of that tribe. Still, on the greatest point of all, +matters in England were thoroughly to William's liking; nowhere did +the King stand forth more distinctly as the Supreme Governor of the +Church. In England, as in Normandy, the right of the sovereign to +the investiture of ecclesiastical benefices was ancient and +undisputed. What Edward had freely done, William went on freely +doing, and Hildebrand himself never ventured on a word of +remonstrance against a power which he deemed so wrongful in the +hands of his own sovereign. William had but to stand on the rights +of his predecessors. When Gregory asked for homage for the crown +which he had in some sort given, William answered indeed as an +English king. What the kings before him had done for or paid to +the Roman see, that would he do and pay; but this no king before +him had ever done, nor would he be the first to do it. But while +William thus maintained the rights of his crown, he was willing and +eager to do all that seemed needful for ecclesiastical reform. And +the general result of his reform was to weaken the insular +independence of England, to make her Church more like the other +Churches of the West, and to increase the power of the Roman +Bishop. + +William had now a fellow-worker in his taste. The subtle spirit +which had helped to win his kingdom was now at his side to help him +to rule it. Within a few months after the taking of Chester +Lanfranc sat on the throne of Augustine. As soon as the actual +Conquest was over, William began to give his mind to ecclesiastical +matters. It might look like sacrilege when he caused all the +monasteries of England to be harried. But no harm was done to the +monks or to their possessions. The holy houses were searched for +the hoards which the rich men of England, fearing the new king, had +laid up in the monastic treasuries. William looked on these hoards +as part of the forfeited goods of rebels, and carried them off +during the Lent of 1070. This done, he sat steadily down to the +reform of the English Church. + +He had three papal legates to guide him, one of whom, Ermenfrid, +Bishop of Sitten, had come in on a like errand in the time of +Edward. It was a kind of solemn confirmation of the Conquest, +when, at the assembly held at Winchester in 1070, the King's crown +was placed on his head by Ermenfrid. The work of deposing English +prelates and appointing foreign successors now began. The primacy +of York was regularly vacant; Ealdred had died as the Danes sailed +up the Humber to assault or to deliver his city. The primacy of +Canterbury was to be made vacant by the deposition of Stigand. His +canonical position had always been doubtful; neither Harold nor +William had been crowned by him; yet William had treated him +hitherto with marked courtesy, and he had consecrated at least one +Norman bishop, Remigius of Dorchester. He was now deprived both of +the archbishopric and of the bishopric of Winchester which he held +with it, and was kept under restraint for the rest of his life. +According to foreign canonical rules the sentence may pass as just; +but it marked a stage in the conquest of England when a stout- +hearted Englishman was removed from the highest place in the +English Church to make way for the innermost counsellor of the +Conqueror. In the Pentecostal assembly, held at Windsor, Lanfranc +was appointed archbishop; his excuses were overcome by his old +master Herlwin of Bec; he came to England, and on August 15, 1070 +he was consecrated to the primacy. + +Other deprivations and appointments took place in these assemblies. +The see of York was given to Thomas, a canon of Bayeux, a man of +high character and memorable in the local history of his see. The +abbey of Peterborough was vacant by the death of Brand, who had +received the staff from the uncrowned Eadgar. It was only by rich +gifts that he had turned away the wrath of William from his house. +The Fenland was perhaps already stirring, and the Abbot of +Peterborough might have to act as a military commander. In this +case the prelate appointed, a Norman named Turold, was accordingly +more of a soldier than of a monk. From these assemblies of 1070 +the series of William's ecclesiastical changes goes on. As the +English bishops die or are deprived, strangers take their place. +They are commonly Normans, but Walcher, who became Bishop of Durham +in 1071, was one of those natives of Lorraine who had been largely +favoured in Edward's day. At the time of William's death Wulfstan +was the only Englishman who kept a bishopric. Even his deprivation +had once been thought of. The story takes a legendary shape, but +it throws an important light on the relations of Church and State +in England. In an assembly held in the West Minster Wulfstan is +called on by William and Lanfranc to give up his staff. He +refuses; he will give it back to him who gave it, and places it on +the tomb of his dead master Edward. No of his enemies can move it. +The sentence is recalled, and the staff yields to his touch. +Edward was not yet a canonized saint; the appeal is simply from the +living and foreign king to the dead and native king. This legend, +growing up when Western Europe was torn in pieces by the struggle +about investitures, proves better than the most authentic documents +how the right which Popes denied to Emperors was taken for granted +in the case of an English king. But, while the spoils of England, +temporal and spiritual, were thus scattered abroad among men of the +conquering race, two men at least among them refused all share in +plunder which they deemed unrighteous. One gallant Norman knight, +Gulbert of Hugleville, followed William through all his campaigns, +but when English estates were offered as his reward, he refused to +share in unrighteous gains, and went back to the lands of his +fathers which he could hold with a good conscience. And one monk, +Wimund of Saint-Leutfried, not only refused bishoprics and abbeys, +but rebuked the Conqueror for wrong and robbery. And William bore +no grudge against his censor, but, when the archbishopric of Rouen +became vacant, he offered it to the man who had rebuked him. Among +the worthies of England Gulbert and Wimund can hardly claim a +place, but a place should surely be theirs among the men whom +England honours. + + +The primacy of Lanfranc is one of the most memorable in our +history. In the words of the parable put forth by Anselm in the +next reign, the plough of the English Church was for seventeen +years drawn by two oxen of equal strength. By ancient English +custom the Archbishop of Canterbury was the King's special +counsellor, the special representative of his Church and people. +Lanfranc cannot be charged with any direct oppression; yet in the +hands of a stranger who had his spiritual conquest to make, the +tribunitian office of former archbishops was lost in that of chief +minister of the sovereign. In the first action of their joint +rule, the interest of king and primate was the same. Lanfranc +sought for a more distinct acknowledgement of the superiority of +Canterbury over the rival metropolis of York. And this fell in +with William's schemes for the consolidation of the kingdom. The +political motive is avowed. Northumberland, which had been so hard +to subdue and which still lay open to Danish invaders or +deliverers, was still dangerous. An independent Archbishop of York +might consecrate a King of the Northumbrians, native or Danish, who +might grow into a King of the English. The Northern metropolitan +had unwillingly to admit the superiority, and something more, of +the Southern. The caution of William and his ecclesiastical +adviser reckoned it among possible chances that even Thomas of +Bayeux might crown an invading Cnut or Harold in opposition to his +native sovereign and benefactor. + +For some of his own purposes, William had perhaps chosen his +minister too wisely. The objects of the two colleagues were not +always the same. Lanfranc, sprung from Imperialist Pavia, was no +zealot for extravagant papal claims. The caution with which he +bore himself during the schism which followed the strife between +Gregory and Henry brought on him more than one papal censure. Yet +the general tendency of his administration was towards the growth +of ecclesiastical, and even of papal, claims. William never +dreamed of giving up his ecclesiastical supremacy or of exempting +churchmen from the ordinary power of the law. But the division of +the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the increased frequency +of synods distinct from the general assemblies of the realm--even +though the acts of those synods needed the royal assent--were steps +towards that exemption of churchmen from the civil power which was +asserted in one memorable saying towards the end of William's own +reign. William could hold his own against Hildebrand himself; yet +the increased intercourse with Rome, the more frequent presence of +Roman Legates, all tended to increase the papal claims and the +deference yielded to them. William refused homage to Gregory; but +it is significant that Gregory asked for it. It was a step towards +the day when a King of England was glad to offer it. The increased +strictness as to the marriage of the clergy tended the same way. +Lanfranc did not at once enforce the full rigour of Hildebrand's +decrees. Marriage was forbidden for the future; the capitular +clergy had to part from their wives; but the vested interest of the +parish priest was respected. In another point William directly +helped to undermine his own authority and the independence of his +kingdom. He exempted his abbey of the Battle from the authority of +the diocesan bishop. With this began a crowd of such exemptions, +which, by weakening local authority, strengthened the power of the +Roman see. All these things helped on Hildebrand's great scheme +which made the clergy everywhere members of one distinct and +exclusive body, with the Roman Bishop at their head. Whatever +tended to part the clergy from other men tended to weaken the +throne of every king. While William reigned with Lanfranc at his +side, these things were not felt; but the seed was sown for the +controversy between Henry and Thomas and for the humiliation of +John. + +Even those changes of Lanfranc's primacy which seem of purely +ecclesiastical concern all helped, in some way to increase the +intercourse between England and the continent or to break down some +insular peculiarity. And whatever did this increased the power of +Rome. Even the decree of 1075 that bishoprics should be removed to +the chief cities of their dioceses helped to make England more like +Gaul or Italy. So did the fancy of William's bishops and abbots +for rebuilding their churches on a greater scale and in the last +devised continental style. All tended to make England less of +another world. On the other hand, one insular peculiarity well +served the purposes of the new primate. Monastic chapters in +episcopal churches were almost unknown out of England. Lanfranc, +himself a monk, favoured monks in this matter also. In several +churches the secular canons were displaced by monks. The corporate +spirit of the regulars, and their dependence on Rome, was far +stronger than that of the secular clergy. The secular chapters +could be refractory, but the disputes between them and their +bishops were mainly of local importance; they form no such part of +the general story of ecclesiastical and papal advance as the long +tale of the quarrel between the archbishops and the monks of Christ +Church. + +Lanfranc survived William, and placed the crown on the head of his +successor. The friendship between king and archbishop remained +unbroken through their joint lives. Lanfranc's acts were William's +acts; what the Primate did must have been approved by the King. +How far William's acts were Lanfranc's acts it is less easy to say. +But the Archbishop was ever a trusted minister, and a trusted +counsellor, and in the King's frequent absences from England, he +often acted as his lieutenant. We do not find him actually taking +a part in warfare, but he duly reports military successes to his +sovereign. It was William's combined wisdom and good luck to +provide himself with a counsellor than whom for his immediate +purposes none could be better. A man either of a higher or a lower +moral level than Lanfranc, a saint like Anselm or one of the mere +worldly bishops of the time, would not have done his work so well. +William needed an ecclesiastical statesman, neither unscrupulous +nor over-scrupulous, and he found him in the lawyer of Pavia, the +doctor of Avranches, the monk of Bec, the abbot of Saint Stephen's. +If Lanfranc sometimes unwittingly outwitted both his master and +himself, if his policy served the purposes of Rome more than suited +the purposes of either, that is the common course of human affairs. +Great men are apt to forget that systems which they can work +themselves cannot be worked by smaller men. From this error +neither William nor Lanfranc was free. But, from their own point +of view, it was their only error. Their work was to subdue +England, soul and body; and they subdued it. That work could not +be done without great wrong: but no other two men of that day +could have done it with so little wrong. The shrinking from +needless and violent change which is so strongly characteristic of +William, and less strongly of Lanfranc also, made their work at the +time easier to be done; in the course of ages it made it easier to +be undone. + + + +CHAPTER X--THE REVOLTS AGAINST WILLIAM--1070-1086 + + + +The years which saw the settlement of England, though not years of +constant fighting like the two years between the march to Exeter +and the fall of Chester, were not years of perfect peace. William +had to withstand foes on both sides of the sea, to withstand foes +in his own household, to undergo his first defeat, to receive his +first wound in personal conflict. Nothing shook his firm hold +either on duchy or kingdom; but in his later years his good luck +forsook him. And men did not fail to connect this change in his +future with a change in himself, above all with one deed of blood +which stands out as utterly unlike all his other recorded acts. + +But the amount of warfare which William had to go through in these +later years was small compared with the great struggles of his +earlier days. There is no tale to tell like the war of Val-es- +dunes, like the French invasions of Normandy, like the campaigns +that won England. One event only of the earlier time is repeated +almost as exactly as an event can be repeated. William had won +Maine once; he had now to win it again, and less thoroughly. As +Conqueror his work is done; a single expedition into Wales is the +only campaign of this part of his life that led to any increase of +territory. + +When William sat down to the settlement of his kingdom after the +fall of Chester, he was in the strictest sense full king over all +England. For the moment the whole land obeyed him; at no later +moment did any large part of the land fail to obey him. All +opposition was now revolt. Men were no longer keeping out an +invader; when they rose, they rose against a power which, however +wrongfully, was the established government of the land. Two such +movements took place. One was a real revolt of Englishmen against +foreign rule. The other was a rebellion of William's own earls in +their own interests, in which English feeling went with the King. +Both were short sharp struggles which stand out boldly in the tale. +More important in the general story, though less striking in +detail, are the relations of William to the other powers in and +near the isle of Britain. With the crown of the West-Saxon kings, +he had taken up their claims to supremacy over the whole island, +and probably beyond it. And even without such claims, border +warfare with his Welsh and Scottish neighbours could not be +avoided. Counting from the completion of the real conquest of +England in 1070, there were in William's reign three distinct +sources of disturbance. There were revolts within the kingdom of +England. There was border warfare in Britain. There were revolts +in William's continental dominions. And we may add actual foreign +warfare or threats of foreign warfare, affecting William, sometimes +in his Norman, sometimes in his English character. + +With the affairs of Wales William had little personally to do. In +this he is unlike those who came immediately before and after him. +In the lives of Harold and of William Rufus personal warfare +against the Welsh forms an important part. William the Great +commonly left this kind of work to the earls of the frontier, to +Hugh of Chester, Roger of Shrewsbury, and to his early friend +William of Hereford, so long as that fierce warrior's life lasted. +These earls were ever at war with the Welsh princes, and they +extended the English kingdom at their cost. Once only did the King +take a personal share in the work, when he entered South Wales, in +1081. We hear vaguely of his subduing the land and founding +castles; we see more distinctly that he released many subjects who +were in British bondage, and that he went on a religious pilgrimage +to Saint David's. This last journey is in some accounts connected +with schemes for the conquest of Ireland. And in one most +remarkable passage of the English Chronicle, the writer for once +speculates as to what might have happened but did not. Had William +lived two years longer, he would have won Ireland by his wisdom +without weapons. And if William had won Ireland either by wisdom +or by weapons, he would assuredly have known better how to deal +with it than most of those who have come after him. If any man +could have joined together the lands which God has put asunder, +surely it was he. This mysterious saying must have a reference to +some definite act or plan of which we have no other record. And +some slight approach to the process of winning Ireland without +weapons does appear in the ecclesiastical intercourse between +England and Ireland which now begins. Both the native Irish +princes and the Danes of the east coast begin to treat Lanfranc as +their metropolitan, and to send bishops to him for consecration. +The name of the King of the English is never mentioned in the +letters which passed between the English primate and the kings and +bishops of Ireland. It may be that William was biding his time for +some act of special wisdom; but our speculations cannot go any +further than those of the Peterborough Chronicler. + +Revolt within the kingdom and invasion from without both began in +the year in which the Conquest was brought to an end. William's +ecclesiastical reforms were interrupted by the revolt of the +Fenland. William's authority had never been fully acknowledged in +that corner of England, while he wore his crown and held his +councils elsewhere. But the place where disturbances began, the +abbey of Peterborough, was certainly in William's obedience. The +warfare made memorable by the name of Hereward began in June 1070, +and a Scottish harrying of Northern England, the second of five +which are laid to the charge of Malcolm, took place in the same +year, and most likely about the same time. The English movement is +connected alike with the course of the Danish fleet and with the +appointment of Turold to the abbey of Peterborough. William had +bribed the Danish commanders to forsake their English allies, and +he allowed them to ravage the coast. A later bribe took them back +to Denmark; but not till they had shown themselves in the waters of +Ely. The people, largely of Danish descent, flocked to them, +thinking, as the Chronicler says, that they would win the whole +land. The movement was doubtless in favour of the kingship of +Swegen. But nothing was done by Danes and English together save to +plunder Peterborough abbey. Hereward, said to have been the nephew +of Turold's English predecessor, doubtless looked on the holy +place, under a Norman abbot, as part of the enemy's country. + +The name of Hereward has gathered round it such a mass of fiction, +old and new, that it is hard to disentangle the few details of his +real history. His descent and birth-place are uncertain; but he +was assuredly a man of Lincolnshire, and assuredly not the son of +Earl Leofric. For some unknown cause, he had been banished in the +days of Edward or of Harold. He now came back to lead his +countrymen against William. He was the soul of the movement of +which the abbey of Ely became the centre. The isle, then easily +defensible, was the last English ground on which the Conqueror was +defied by Englishmen fighting for England. The men of the Fenland +were zealous; the monks of Ely were zealous; helpers came in from +other parts of England. English leaders left their shelter in +Scotland to share the dangers of their countrymen; even Edwin and +Morkere at last plucked up heart to leave William's court and join +the patriotic movement. Edwin was pursued; he was betrayed by +traitors; he was overtaken and slain, to William's deep grief, we +are told. His brother reached the isle, and helped in its defence. +William now felt that the revolt called for his own presence and +his full energies. The isle was stoutly attacked and stoutly +defended, till, according to one version, the monks betrayed the +stronghold to the King. According to another, Morkere was induced +to surrender by promises of mercy which William failed to fulfil. +In any case, before the year 1071 was ended, the isle of Ely was in +William's hands. Hereward alone with a few companions made their +way out by sea. William was less merciful than usual; still no man +was put to death. Some were mutilated, some imprisoned; Morkere +and other chief men spent the rest of their days in bonds. The +temper of the Conqueror had now fearfully hardened. Still he could +honour a valiant enemy; those who resisted to the last fared best. +All the legends of Hereward's later days speak of him as admitted +to William's peace and favour. One makes him die quietly, another +kills him at the hands of Norman enemies, but not at William's +bidding or with William's knowledge. Evidence a little better +suggests that he bore arms for his new sovereign beyond the sea; +and an entry in Domesday also suggests that he held lands under +Count Robert of Mortain in Warwickshire. It would suit William's +policy, when he received Hereward to his favour, to make him +exchange lands near to the scene of his exploits for lands in a +distant shire held under the lordship of the King's brother. + +Meanwhile, most likely in the summer months of 1070, Malcolm +ravaged Cleveland, Durham, and other districts where there must +have been little left to ravage. Meanwhile the AEtheling Edgar and +his sisters, with other English exiles, sought shelter in Scotland, +and were hospitably received. At the same time Gospatric, now +William's earl in Northumberland, retaliated by a harrying of +Scottish Cumberland, which provoked Malcolm to greater cruelties. +It was said that there was no house in Scotland so poor that it had +not an English bondman. Presently some of Malcolm's English guests +joined the defenders of Ely; those of highest birth stayed in +Scotland, and Malcolm, after much striving, persuaded Margaret the +sister of Edgar to become his wife. Her praises are written in +Scottish history, and the marriage had no small share in the +process which made the Scottish kings and the lands which formed +their real kingdom practically English. The sons and grandsons of +Margaret, sprung of the Old-English kingly house, were far more +English within their own realm than the Norman and Angevin kings of +Southern England. But within the English border men looked at +things with other eyes. Thrice again did Malcolm ravage England; +two and twenty years later he was slain in his last visit of havoc. +William meanwhile and his earls at least drew to themselves some +measure of loyalty from the men of Northern England as the +guardians of the land against the Scot. + +For the present however Malcolm's invasion was only avenged by +Gospatric's harrying in Cumberland. The year 1071 called William +to Ely; in the early part of 1072 his presence was still needed on +the mainland; in August he found leisure for a march against +Scotland. He went as an English king, to assert the rights of the +English crown, to avenge wrongs done to the English land; and on +such an errand Englishmen followed him gladly. Eadric, the +defender of Herefordshire, had made his peace with the King, and he +now held a place of high honour in his army. But if William met +with any armed resistance on his Scottish expedition, it did not +amount to a pitched battle. He passed through Lothian into +Scotland; he crossed Forth and drew near to Tay, and there, by the +round tower of Abernethy, the King of Scots swore oaths and gave +hostages and became the man of the King of the English. William +might now call himself, like his West-Saxon predecessors, Bretwalda +and Basileus of the isle of Britain. This was the highest point of +his fortune. Duke of the Normans, King of the English, he was +undisputed lord from the march of Anjou to the narrow sea between +Caithness and Orkney. + +The exact terms of the treaty between William's royal vassal and +his overlord are unknown. But one of them was clearly the removal +of Edgar from Scotland. Before long he was on the continent. +William had not yet learned that Edgar was less dangerous in +Britain than in any other part of the world, and that he was safest +of all in William's own court. Homage done and hostages received, +the Lord of all Britain returned to his immediate kingdom. His +march is connected with many legendary stories. In real history it +is marked by the foundation of the castle of Durham, and by the +Conqueror's confirmation of the privileges of the palatine bishops. +If all the earls of England had been like the earls of Chester, and +all the bishops like the bishops of Durham, England would assuredly +have split up, like Germany, into a loose federation of temporal +and spiritual princes. This it was William's special work to +hinder; but he doubtless saw that the exceptional privileges of one +or two favoured lordships, standing in marked contrast to the rest, +would not really interfere with his great plan of union. And +William would hardly have confirmed the sees of London or +Winchester in the privileges which he allowed to the distant see of +Durham. He now also made a grant of earldoms, the object of which +is less clear than that of most of his actions. It is not easy to +say why Gospatric was deprived of his earldom. His former acts of +hostility to William had been covered by his pardon and +reappointment in 1069; and since then he had acted as a loyal, if +perhaps an indiscreet, guardian of the land. Two greater earldoms +than his had become vacant by the revolt, the death, the +imprisonment, of Edwin and Morkere. But these William had no +intention of filling. He would not have in his realm anything so +dangerous as an earl of the Mercian's or the Northumbrians in the +old sense, whether English or Norman. But the defence of the +northern frontier needed an earl to rule Northumberland in the +later sense, the land north of the Tyne. And after the fate of +Robert of Comines, William could not as yet put a Norman earl in so +perilous a post. But the Englishman whom he chose was open to the +same charges as the deposed Gospatric. For he was Waltheof the son +of Siward, the hero of the storm of York in 1069. Already Earl of +Northampton and Huntingdon, he was at this time high in the King's +personal favour, perhaps already the husband of the King's niece. +One side of William's policy comes out here. Union was sometimes +helped by division. There were men whom William loved to make +great, but whom he had no mind to make dangerous. He gave them +vast estates, but estates for the most part scattered over +different parts of the kingdom. It was only in the border earldoms +and in Cornwall that he allowed anything at all near to the +lordship of a whole shire to be put in the hands of a single man. +One Norman and one Englishman held two earldoms together; but they +were earldoms far apart. Roger of Montgomery held the earldoms of +Shrewsbury and Sussex, and Waltheof to his midland earldom of +Northampton and Huntingdon now added the rule of distant +Northumberland. The men who had fought most stoutly against +William were the men whom he most willingly received to favour. +Eadric and Hereward were honoured; Waltheof was honoured more +highly. He ranked along with the greatest Normans; his position +was perhaps higher than any but the King's born kinsmen. But the +whole tale of Waltheof is a problem that touches the character of +the king under whom he rose and fell. Lifted up higher than any +other man among the conquered, he was the one man whom William put +to death on a political charge. It is hard to see the reasons for +either his rise or his fall. It was doubtless mainly his end which +won him the abiding reverence of his countrymen. His valour and +his piety are loudly praised. But his valour we know only from his +one personal exploit at York; his piety was consistent with a base +murder. In other matters, he seems amiable, irresolute, and of a +scrupulous conscience, and Northumbrian morality perhaps saw no +great crime in a murder committed under the traditions of a +Northumbrian deadly feud. Long before Waltheof was born, his +grandfather Earl Ealdred had been killed by a certain Carl. The +sons of Carl had fought by his side at York; but, notwithstanding +this comradeship, the first act of Waltheof's rule in +Northumberland was to send men to slay them beyond the bounds of +his earldom. A crime that was perhaps admired in Northumberland +and unheard of elsewhere did not lose him either the favour of the +King or the friendship of his neighbour Bishop Walcher, a reforming +prelate with whom Waltheof acted in concert. And when he was +chosen as the single exception to William's merciful rule, it was +not for this undoubted crime, but on charges of which, even if +guilty, he might well have been forgiven. + + +The sojourn of William on the continent in 1072 carries us out of +England and Normandy into the general affairs of Europe. Signs may +have already showed themselves of what was coming to the south of +Normandy; but the interest of the moment lay in the country of +Matilda. Flanders, long the firm ally of Normandy, was now to +change into a bitter enemy. Count Baldwin died in 1067; his +successor of the same name died three years later, and a war +followed between his widow Richildis, the guardian of his young son +Arnulf, and his brother Robert the Frisian. Robert had won fame in +the East; he had received the sovereignty of Friesland--a name +which takes in Holland and Zealand--and he was now invited to +deliver Flanders from the oppressions of Richildis. Meanwhile, +Matilda was acting as regent of Normandy, with Earl William of +Hereford as her counsellor. Richildis sought help of her son's two +overlords, King Henry of Germany and King Philip of France. Philip +came in person; the German succours were too late. From Normandy +came Earl William with a small party of knights. The kings had +been asked for armies; to the Earl she offered herself, and he came +to fight for his bride. But early in 1071 Philip, Arnulf, and +William, were all overthrown by Robert the Frisian in the battle of +Cassel. Arnulf and Earl William were killed; Philip made peace +with Robert, henceforth undisputed Count of Flanders. + +All this brought King William to the continent, while the invasion +of Malcolm was still unavenged. No open war followed between +Normandy and Flanders; but for the rest of their lives Robert and +William were enemies, and each helped the enemies of the other. +William gave his support to Baldwin brother of the slain Arnulf, +who strove to win Flanders from Robert. But the real interest of +this episode lies in the impression which was made in the lands +east of Flanders. In the troubled state of Germany, when Henry the +Fourth was striving with the Saxons, both sides seem to have looked +to the Conqueror of England with hope and with fear. On this +matter our English and Norman authorities are silent, and the +notices in the contemporary German writers are strangely unlike one +another. But they show at least that the prince who ruled on both +sides of the sea was largely in men's thoughts. The Saxon enemy of +Henry describes him in his despair as seeking help in Denmark, +France, Aquitaine, and also of the King of the English, promising +him the like help, if he should ever need it. William and Henry +had both to guard against Saxon enmity, but the throne at +Winchester stood firmer than the throne at Goslar. But the +historian of the continental Saxons puts into William's mouth an +answer utterly unsuited to his position. He is made, when in +Normandy, to answer that, having won his kingdom by force, he fears +to leave it, lest he might not find his way back again. Far more +striking is the story told three years later by Lambert of +Herzfeld. Henry, when engaged in an Hungarian war, heard that the +famous Archbishop Hanno of Koln had leagued with William Bostar--so +is his earliest surname written--King of the English, and that a +vast army was coming to set the island monarch on the German +throne. The host never came; but Henry hastened back to guard his +frontier against BARBARIANS. By that phrase a Teutonic writer can +hardly mean the insular part of William's subjects. + +Now assuredly William never cherished, as his successor probably +did, so wild a dream as that of a kingly crowning at Aachen, to be +followed perhaps by an imperial crowning at Rome. But that such +schemes were looked on as a practical danger against which the +actual German King had to guard, at least shows the place which the +Conqueror of England held in European imagination. + +For the three or four years immediately following the surrender of +Ely, William's journeys to and fro between his kingdom and his +duchy were specially frequent. Matilda seems to have always stayed +in Normandy; she is never mentioned in England after the year of +her coronation and the birth of her youngest son, and she commonly +acted as regent of the duchy. In the course of 1072 we see William +in England, in Normandy, again in England, and in Scotland. In +1073 he was called beyond sea by a formidable movement. His great +continental conquest had risen against him; Le Mans and all Maine +were again independent. City and land chose for them a prince who +came by female descent from the stock of their ancient counts. +This was Hugh the son of Azo Marquess of Liguria and of Gersendis +the sister of the last Count Herbert. The Normans were driven out +of Le Mans; Azo came to take possession in the name of his son, but +he and the citizens did not long agree. He went back, leaving his +wife and son under the guardianship of Geoffrey of Mayenne. +Presently the men of Le Mans threw off princely rule altogether and +proclaimed the earliest commune in Northern Gaul. Here then, as at +Exeter, William had to strive against an armed commonwealth, and, +as at Exeter, we specially wish to know what were to be the +relations between the capital and the county at large. The mass of +the people throughout Maine threw themselves zealously into the +cause of the commonwealth. But their zeal might not have lasted +long, if, according to the usual run of things in such cases, they +had simply exchanged the lordship of their hereditary masters for +the corporate lordship of the citizens of Le Mans. To the nobles +the change was naturally distasteful. They had to swear to the +commune, but many of them, Geoffrey for one, had no thought of +keeping their oaths. Dissensions arose; Hugh went back to Italy; +Geoffrey occupied the castle of Le Mans, and the citizens dislodged +him only by the dangerous help of the other prince who claimed the +overlordship of Maine, Count Fulk of Anjou. + +If Maine was to have a master from outside, the lord of Anjou +hardly promised better than the lord of Normandy. But men in +despair grasp at anything. The strange thing is that Fulk +disappears now from the story; William steps in instead. And it +was at least as much in his English as in his Norman character that +the Duke and King won back the revolted land. A place in his army +was held by English warriors, seemingly under the command of +Hereward himself. Men who had fought for freedom in their own land +now fought at the bidding of their Conqueror to put down freedom in +another land. They went willingly; the English Chronicler +describes the campaign with glee, and breaks into verse--or +incorporates a contemporary ballad--at the tale of English victory. +Few men of that day would see that the cause of Maine was in truth +the cause of England. If York and Exeter could not act in concert +with one another, still less could either act in concert with Le +Mans. Englishmen serving in Maine would fancy that they were +avenging their own wrongs by laying waste the lands of any man who +spoke the French tongue. On William's part, the employment of +Englishmen, the employment of Hereward, was another stroke of +policy. It was more fully following out the system which led +Englishmen against Exeter, which led Eadric and his comrades into +Scotland. For in every English soldier whom William carried into +Maine he won a loyal English subject. To men who had fought under +his banners beyond the sea he would be no longer the Conqueror but +the victorious captain; they would need some very special +oppression at home to make them revolt against the chief whose +laurels they had helped to win. As our own gleeman tells the tale, +they did little beyond harrying the helpless land; but in +continental writers we can trace a regular campaign, in which we +hear of no battles, but of many sieges. William, as before, +subdued the land piecemeal, keeping the city for the last. When he +drew near to Le Mans, its defenders surrendered at his summons, to +escape fire and slaughter by speedy submission. The new commune +was abolished, but the Conqueror swore to observe all the ancient +rights of the city. + +All this time we have heard nothing of Count Fulk. Presently we +find him warring against nobles of Maine who had taken William's +part, and leaguing with the Bretons against William himself. The +King set forth with his whole force, Norman and English; but peace +was made by the mediation of an unnamed Roman cardinal, abetted, we +are told, by the chief Norman nobles. Success against confederated +Anjou and Britanny might be doubtful, with Maine and England +wavering in their allegiance, and France, Scotland, and Flanders, +possible enemies in the distance. The rights of the Count of Anjou +over Maine were formally acknowledged, and William's eldest son +Robert did homage to Fulk for the county. Each prince stipulated +for the safety and favour of all subjects of the other who had +taken his side. Between Normandy and Anjou there was peace during +the rest of the days of William; in Maine we shall see yet another +revolt, though only a partial one. + +William went back to England in 1073. In 1074 he went to the +continent for a longer absence. As the time just after the first +completion of the Conquest is spoken of as a time when Normans and +English were beginning to sit down side by side in peace, so the +years which followed the submission of Ely are spoken of as a time +of special oppression. This fact is not unconnected with the +King's frequent absences from England. Whatever we say of +William's own position, he was a check on smaller oppressors. +Things were always worse when the eye of the great master was no +longer watching. William's one weakness was that of putting +overmuch trust in his immediate kinsfolk and friends. Of the two +special oppressors, William Fitz-Osbern had thrown away his life in +Flanders; but Bishop Ode was still at work, till several years +later his king and brother struck him down with a truly righteous +blow. + +The year 1074, not a year of fighting, was pro-eminently a year of +intrigue. William's enemies on the continent strove to turn the +representative of the West-Saxon kings to help their ends. Edgar +flits to and fro between Scotland and Flanders, and the King of the +French tempts him with the offer of a convenient settlement on the +march of France, Normandy, and Flanders. Edgar sets forth from +Scotland, but is driven back by a storm; Malcolm and Margaret then +change their minds, and bid him make his peace with King William. +William gladly accepts his submission; an embassy is sent to bring +him with all worship to the King in Normandy. He abides for +several years in William's court contented and despised, receiving +a daily pension and the profits of estates in England of no great +extent which the King of a moment held by the grant of a rival who +could afford to be magnanimous. + + +Edgar's after-life showed that he belonged to that class of men +who, as a rule slothful and listless, can yet on occasion act with +energy, and who act most creditably on behalf of others. But +William had no need to fear him, and he was easily turned into a +friend and a dependant. Edgar, first of Englishmen by descent, was +hardly an Englishman by birth. William had now to deal with the +Englishman who stood next to Edgar in dignity and far above him in +personal estimation. We have reached the great turning-point in +William's reign and character, the black and mysterious tale of the +fate of Waltheof. The Earl of Northumberland, Northampton, and +Huntingdon, was not the only earl in England of English birth. The +earldom of the East-Angles was held by a born Englishman who was +more hateful than any stranger. Ralph of Wader was the one +Englishman who had fought at William's side against England. He +often passes for a native of Britanny, and he certainly held lands +and castles in that country; but he was Breton only by the mother's +side. For Domesday and the Chronicles show that he was the son of +an elder Earl Ralph, who had been staller or master of the horse in +Edward's days, and who is expressly said to have been born in +Norfolk. The unusual name suggests that the elder Ralph was not of +English descent. He survived the coming of William, and his son +fought on Senlac among the countrymen of his mother. This treason +implies an unrecorded banishment in the days of Edward or Harold. +Already earl in 1069, he had in that year acted vigorously for +William against the Danes. But he now conspired against him along +with Roger, the younger son of William Fitz-Osbern, who had +succeeded his father in the earldom of Hereford, while his Norman +estates had passed to his elder brother William. What grounds of +complaint either Ralph or Roger had against William we know not; +but that the loyalty of the Earl of Hereford was doubtful +throughout the year 1074 appears from several letters of rebuke and +counsel sent to him by the Regent Lanfranc. At last the wielder of +both swords took to his spiritual arms, and pronounced the Earl +excommunicate, till he should submit to the King's mercy and make +restitution to the King and to all men whom he had wronged. Roger +remained stiff-necked under the Primate's censure, and presently +committed an act of direct disobedience. The next year, 1075, he +gave his sister Emma in marriage to Earl Ralph. This marriage the +King had forbidden, on some unrecorded ground of state policy. +Most likely he already suspected both earls, and thought any tie +between them dangerous. The notice shows William stepping in to +do, as an act of policy, what under his successors became a matter +of course, done with the sole object of making money. The bride- +ale--the name that lurks in the modern shape of bridal--was held at +Exning in Cambridgeshire; bishops and abbots were guests of the +excommunicated Roger; Waltheof was there, and many Breton comrades +of Ralph. In their cups they began to plot how they might drive +the King out of the kingdom. Charges, both true and false, were +brought against William; in a mixed gathering of Normans, English, +and Bretons, almost every act of William's life might pass as a +wrong done to some part of the company, even though some others of +the company were his accomplices. Above all, the two earls Ralph +and Roger made a distinct proposal to their fellow-earl Waltheof. +King William should be driven out of the land; one of the three +should be King; the other two should remain earls, ruling each over +a third of the kingdom. Such a scheme might attract earls, but no +one else; it would undo William's best and greatest work; it would +throw back the growing unity of the kingdom by all the steps that +it had taken during several generations. + +Now what amount of favour did Waltheof give to these schemes? +Weighing the accounts, it would seem that, in the excitement of the +bride-ale, he consented to the treason, but that he thought better +of it the next morning. He went to Lanfranc, at once regent and +ghostly father, and confessed to him whatever he had to confess. +The Primate assigned his penitent some ecclesiastical penances; the +Regent bade the Earl go into Normandy and tell the whole tale to +the King. Waltheof went, with gifts in hand; he told his story and +craved forgiveness. William made light of the matter, and kept +Waltheof with him, but seemingly not under restraint, till he came +back to England. + +Meanwhile the other two earls were in open rebellion. Ralph, half +Breton by birth and earl of a Danish land, asked help in Britanny +and Denmark. Bretons from Britanny and Bretons settled in England +flocked to him. King Swegen, now almost at the end of his reign +and life, listened to the call of the rebels, and sent a fleet +under the command of his son Cnut, the future saint, together with +an earl named Hakon. The revolt in England was soon put down, both +in East and West. The rebel earls met with no support save from +those who were under their immediate influence. The country acted +zealously for the King. Lanfranc could report that Earl Ralph and +his army were fleeing, and that the King's men, French and English, +were chasing them. In another letter he could add, with some +strength of language, that the kingdom was cleansed from the filth +of the Bretons. At Norwich only the castle was valiantly defended +by the newly married Countess Emma. Roger was taken prisoner; +Ralph fled to Britanny; their followers were punished with various +mutilations, save the defenders of Norwich, who were admitted to +terms. The Countess joined her husband in Britanny, and in days to +come Ralph did something to redeem so many treasons by dying as an +armed pilgrim in the first crusade. + +The main point of this story is that the revolt met with no English +support whatever. Not only did Bishop Wulfstan march along with +his fierce Norman brethren Ode and Geoffrey; the English people +everywhere were against the rebels. For this revolt offered no +attraction to English feeling; had the undertaking been less +hopeless, nothing could have been gained by exchanging the rule of +William for that of Ralph or Roger. It might have been different +if the Danes had played their part better. The rebellion broke out +while William was in Normandy; it was the sailing of the Danish +fleet which brought him back to England. But never did enterprise +bring less honour on its leaders than this last Danish voyage up +the Humber. All that the holy Cnut did was to plunder the minster +of Saint Peter at York and to sail away. + +His coming however seems to have altogether changed the King's +feelings with regard to Waltheof. As yet he had not been dealt +with as a prisoner or an enemy. He now came back to England with +the King, and William's first act was to imprison both Waltheof and +Roger. The imprisonment of Roger, a rebel taken in arms, was a +matter of course. As for Waltheof, whatever he had promised at the +bride-ale, he had done no disloyal act; he had had no share in the +rebellion, and he had told the King all that he knew. But he had +listened to traitors, and it might be dangerous to leave him at +large when a Danish fleet, led by his old comrade Cnut, was +actually afloat. Still what followed is strange indeed, specially +strange with William as its chief doer. + +At the Midwinter Gemot of 1075-1076 Roger and Waltheof were brought +to trial. Ralph was condemned in absence, like Eustace of +Boulogne. Roger was sentenced to forfeiture and imprisonment for +life. Waltheof made his defence; his sentence was deferred; he was +kept at Winchester in a straiter imprisonment than before. At the +Pentecostal Gemot of 1076, held at Westminster, his case was again +argued, and he was sentenced to death. On the last day of May the +last English earl was beheaded on the hills above Winchester. + +Such a sentence and execution, strange at any time, is specially +strange under William. Whatever Waltheof had done, his offence was +lighter than that of Roger; yet Waltheof has the heavier and Roger +the lighter punishment. With Scroggs or Jeffreys on the bench, it +might have been argued that Waltheof's confession to the King did +not, in strictness of law, wipe out the guilt of his original +promise to the conspirators; but William the Great did not commonly +act after the fashion of Scroggs and Jeffreys. To deprive Waltheof +of his earldom might doubtless be prudent; a man who had even +listened to traitors might be deemed unfit for such a trust. It +might be wise to keep him safe under the King's eye, like Edwin, +Morkere, and Edgar. But why should he be picked out for death, +when the far more guilty Roger was allowed to live? Why should he +be chosen as the one victim of a prince who never before or after, +in Normandy or in England, doomed any man to die on a political +charge? These are questions hard to answer. It is not enough to +say that Waltheof was an Englishman, that it was William's policy +gradually to get rid of Englishmen in high places, and that the +time was now come to get rid of the last. For such a policy +forfeiture, or at most imprisonment, would have been enough. While +other Englishmen lost lands, honours, at most liberty, Waltheof +alone lost his life by a judicial sentence. It is likely enough +that many Normans hungered for the lands and honours of the one +Englishman who still held the highest rank in England. Still +forfeiture without death might have satisfied even them. But +Waltheof was not only earl of three shires; he was husband of the +King's near kinswoman. We are told that Judith was the enemy and +accuser of her husband. This may have touched William's one weak +point. Yet he would hardly have swerved from the practice of his +whole life to please the bloody caprice of a niece who longed for +the death of her husband. And if Judith longed for Waltheof's +death, it was not from a wish to supply his place with another. +Legend says that she refused a second husband offered her by the +King; it is certain that she remained a widow. + +Waltheof's death must thus remain a mystery, an isolated deed of +blood unlike anything else in William's life. It seems to have +been impolitic; it led to no revolt, but it called forth a new +burst of English feeling. Waltheof was deemed the martyr of his +people; he received the same popular canonization as more than one +English patriot. Signs and wonders were wrought at his tomb at +Crowland, till displays of miraculous power which were so +inconsistent with loyalty and good order were straitly forbidden. +The act itself marks a stage in the downward course of William's +character. In itself, the harrying of Northumberland, the very +invasion of England, with all the bloodshed that they caused, might +be deemed blacker crimes than the unjust death of a single man. +But as human nature stands, the less crime needs a worse man to do +it. Crime, as ever, led to further crime and was itself the +punishment of crime. In the eyes of William's contemporaries the +death of Waltheof, the blackest act of William's life, was also its +turning-point. From the day of the martyrdom on Saint Giles' hill +the magic of William's name and William's arms passed away. +Unfailing luck no longer waited on him; after Waltheof's death he +never, till his last campaign of all, won a battle or took a town. +In this change of William's fortunes the men of his own day saw the +judgement of God upon his crime. And in the fact at least they +were undoubtedly right. Henceforth, though William's real power +abides unshaken, the tale of his warfare is chiefly a tale of petty +defeats. The last eleven years of his life would never have won +him the name of Conqueror. But in the higher walk of policy and +legislation never was his nobler surname more truly deserved. +Never did William the Great show himself so truly great as in these +later years. + + +The death of Waltheof and the popular judgement on it suggest +another act of William's which cannot have been far from it in +point of time, and about which men spoke in his own day in the same +spirit. If the judgement of God came on William for the beheading +of Waltheof, it came on him also for the making of the New Forest. +As to that forest there is a good deal of ancient exaggeration and +a good deal of modern misconception. The word forest is often +misunderstood. In its older meaning, a meaning which it still +keeps in some parts, a forest has nothing to do with trees. It is +a tract of land put outside the common law and subject to a +stricter law of its own, and that commonly, probably always, to +secure for the King the freer enjoyment of the pleasure of hunting. +Such a forest William made in Hampshire; the impression which it +made on men's minds at the time is shown by its having kept the +name of the New Forest for eight hundred years. There is no reason +to think that William laid waste any large tract of specially +fruitful country, least of all that he laid waste a land thickly +inhabited; for most of the Forest land never can have been such. +But it is certain from Domesday and the Chronicle that William did +afforest a considerable tract of land in Hampshire; he set it apart +for the purposes of hunting; he fenced it in by special and cruel +laws--stopping indeed short of death--for the protection of his +pleasures, and in this process some men lost their lands, and were +driven from their homes. Some destruction of houses is here +implied; some destruction of churches is not unlikely. The popular +belief, which hardly differs from the account of writers one degree +later than Domesday and the Chronicle, simply exaggerates the +extent of destruction. There was no such wide-spread laying waste +as is often supposed, because no such wide-spread laying waste was +needed. But whatever was needed for William's purpose was done; +and Domesday gives us the record. And the act surely makes, like +the death of Waltheof, a downward stage in William's character. +The harrying of Northumberland was in itself a far greater crime, +and involved far more of human wretchedness. But it is not +remembered in the same way, because it has left no such abiding +memorial. But here again the lesser crime needed a worse man to do +it. The harrying of Northumberland was a crime done with a +political object; it was the extreme form of military severity; it +was not vulgar robbery done with no higher motive than to secure +the fuller enjoyment of a brutal sport. To this level William had +now sunk. It was in truth now that hunting in England finally took +the character of a mere sport. Hunting was no new thing; in an +early state of society it is often a necessary thing. The hunting +of Alfred is spoken of as a grave matter of business, as part of +his kingly duty. He had to make war on the wild beasts, as he had +to make war on the Danes. The hunting of William is simply a +sport, not his duty or his business, but merely his pleasure. And +to this pleasure, the pleasure of inflicting pain and slaughter, he +did not scruple to sacrifice the rights of other men, and to guard +his enjoyment by ruthless laws at which even in that rough age men +shuddered. + +For this crime the men of his day saw the punishment in the strange +and frightful deaths of his offspring, two sons and a grandson, on +the scene of his crime. One of these himself he saw, the death of +his second son Richard, a youth of great promise, whose prolonged +life might have saved England from the rule of William Rufus. He +died in the Forest, about the year 1081, to the deep grief of his +parents. And Domesday contains a touching entry, how William gave +back his land to a despoiled Englishman as an offering for +Richard's soul. + + +The forfeiture of three earls, the death of one, threw their +honours and estates into the King's hands. Another fresh source of +wealth came by the death of the Lady Edith, who had kept her royal +rank and her great estates, and who died while the proceedings +against Waltheof were going on. It was not now so important for +William as it had been in the first years of the Conquest to reward +his followers; he could now think of the royal hoard in the first +place. Of the estates which now fell in to the Crown large parts +were granted out. The house of Bigod, afterwards so renowned as +Earls of Norfolk, owe their rise to their forefather's share in the +forfeited lands of Earl Ralph. But William kept the greater part +to himself; one lordship in Somerset, part of the lands of the +Lady, he gave to the church of Saint Peter at Rome. Of the three +earldoms, those of Hereford and East-Anglia were not filled up; the +later earldoms of those lands have no connexion with the earls of +William's day. Waltheof's southern earldoms of Northampton and +Huntingdon became the dowry of his daughter Matilda; that of +Huntingdon passed to his descendants the Kings of Scots. But +Northumberland, close on the Scottish border, still needed an earl; +but there is something strange in the choice of Bishop Walcher of +Durham. It is possible that this appointment was a concession to +English feeling stirred to wrath at the death of Waltheof. The +days of English earls were over, and a Norman would have been +looked on as Waltheof's murderer. The Lotharingian bishop was a +stranger; but he was not a Norman, and he was no oppressor of +Englishmen. But he was strangely unfit for the place. Not a +fighting bishop like Ode and Geoffrey, he was chiefly devoted to +spiritual affairs, specially to the revival of the monastic life, +which had died out in Northern England since the Danish invasions. +But his weak trust in unworthy favourites, English and foreign, led +him to a fearful and memorable end. The Bishop was on terms of +close friendship with Ligulf, an Englishman of the highest birth +and uncle by marriage to Earl Waltheof. He had kept his estates; +but the insolence of his Norman neighbours had caused him to come +and live in the city of Durham near his friend the Bishop. His +favour with Walcher roused the envy of some of the Bishop's +favourites, who presently contrived his death. The Bishop +lamented, and rebuked them; but he failed to "do justice," to +punish the offenders sternly and speedily. He was therefore +believed to be himself guilty of Ligulf's death. One of the most +striking and instructive events of the time followed. On May 14, +1080, a full Gemot of the earldom was held at Gateshead to deal +with the murder of Ligulf. This was one of those rare occasions +when a strong feeling led every man to the assembly. The local +Parliament took its ancient shape of an armed crowd, headed by the +noblest Englishmen left in the earldom. There was no vote, no +debate; the shout was "Short rede good rede, slay ye the Bishop." +And to that cry, Walcher himself and his companions, the murderers +of Ligulf among them, were slaughtered by the raging multitude who +had gathered to avenge him. + +The riot in which Walcher died was no real revolt against William's +government. Such a local rising against a local wrong might have +happened in the like case under Edward or Harold. No government +could leave such a deed unpunished; but William's own ideas of +justice would have been fully satisfied by the blinding or +mutilation of a few ringleaders. But William was in Normandy in +the midst of domestic and political cares. He sent his brother Ode +to restore order, and his vengeance was frightful. The land was +harried; innocent men were mutilated and put to death; others saved +their lives by bribes. Earl after earl was set over a land so hard +to rule. A certain Alberie was appointed, but he was removed as +unfit. The fierce Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances tried his hand and +resigned. At the time of William's death the earldom was held by +Geoffrey's nephew Robert of Mowbray, a stern and gloomy stranger, +but whom Englishmen reckoned among "good men," when he guarded the +marches of England against the Scot. + + +After the death of Waltheof William seems to have stayed in +Normandy for several years. His ill luck now began. Before the +year 1076 was out, he entered, we know not why, on a Breton +campaign. But he was driven from Dol by the combined forces of +Britanny and France; Philip was ready to help any enemy of William. +The Conqueror had now for the first time suffered defeat in his own +person. He made peace with both enemies, promising his daughter +Constance to Alan of Britanny. But the marriage did not follow +till ten years later. The peace with France, as the English +Chronicle says, "held little while;" Philip could not resist the +temptation of helping William's eldest son Robert when the reckless +young man rebelled against his father. With most of the qualities +of an accomplished knight, Robert had few of those which make +either a wise ruler or an honest man. A brave soldier, even a +skilful captain, he was no general; ready of speech and free of +hand, he was lavish rather than bountiful. He did not lack +generous and noble feelings; but of a steady course, even in evil, +he was incapable. As a ruler, he was no oppressor in his own +person; but sloth, carelessness, love of pleasure, incapacity to +say No, failure to do justice, caused more wretchedness than the +oppression of those tyrants who hinder the oppressions of others. +William would not set such an one over any part of his dominions +before his time, and it was his policy to keep his children +dependent on him. While he enriched his brothers, he did not give +the smallest scrap of the spoils of England to his sons. But +Robert deemed that he had a right to something greater than private +estates. The nobles of Normandy had done homage to him as +William's successor; he had done homage to Fulk for Maine, as if he +were himself its count. He was now stirred up by evil companions +to demand that, if his father would not give him part of his +kingdom--the spirit of Edwin and Morkere had crossed the sea--he +would at least give him Normandy and Maine. William refused with +many pithy sayings. It was not his manner to take off his clothes +till he went to bed. Robert now, with a band of discontented young +nobles, plunged into border warfare against his father. He then +wandered over a large part of Europe, begging and receiving money +and squandering all that he got. His mother too sent him money, +which led to the first quarrel between William and Matilda after so +many years of faithful union. William rebuked his wife for helping +his enemy in breach of his orders: she pleaded the mother's love +for her first-born. The mother was forgiven, but her messenger, +sentenced to loss of eyes, found shelter in a monastery. + +At last in 1079 Philip gave Robert a settled dwelling-place in the +border-fortress of Gerberoi. The strife between father and son +became dangerous. William besieged the castle, to undergo before +its walls his second defeat, to receive his first wound, and that +at the hands of his own son. Pierced in the hand by the lance of +Robert, his horse smitten by an arrow, the Conqueror fell to the +ground, and was saved only by an Englishman, Tokig, son of Wiggod +of Wallingford, who gave his life for his king. It seems an early +softening of the tale which says that Robert dismounted and craved +his father's pardon; it seems a later hardening which says that +William pronounced a curse on his son. William Rufus too, known as +yet only as the dutiful son of his father, was wounded in his +defence. The blow was not only grievous to William's feelings as a +father; it was a serious military defeat. The two wounded Williams +and the rest of the besiegers escaped how they might, and the siege +of Gerberoi was raised. + +We next find the wise men of Normandy debating how to make peace +between father and son. In the course of the year 1080 a peace was +patched up, and a more honourable sphere was found for Robert's +energies in an expedition into Scotland. In the autumn of the year +of Gerberoi Malcolm had made another wasting inroad into +Northumberland. With the King absent and Northumberland in +confusion through the death of Walcher, this wrong went unavenged +till the autumn of 1080. Robert gained no special glory in +Scotland; a second quarrel with his father followed, and Robert +remained a banished man during the last seven years of William's +reign. + +In this same year 1080 a synod of the Norman Church was held, the +Truce of God again renewed which we heard of years ago. The forms +of outrage on which the Truce was meant to put a cheek, and which +the strong hand of William had put down more thoroughly than the +Truce would do, had clearly begun again during the confusions +caused by the rebellion of Robert. + +The two next years, 1081-1082, William was in England. His home +sorrows were now pressing heavily on him. His eldest son was a +rebel and an exile; about this time his second son died in the New +Forest; according to one version, his daughter, the betrothed of +Edwin, who had never forgotten her English lover, was now promised +to the Spanish King Alfonso, and died--in answer to her own +prayers--before the marriage was celebrated. And now the partner +of William's life was taken from him four years after his one +difference with her. On November 3, 1083, Matilda died after a +long sickness, to her husband's lasting grief. She was buried in +her own church at Caen, and churches in England received gifts from +William on behalf of her soul. + +The mourner had soon again to play the warrior. Nearly the whole +of William's few remaining years were spent in a struggle which in +earlier times he would surely have ended in a day. Maine, city and +county, did not call for a third conquest; but a single baron of +Maine defied William's power, and a single castle of Maine held out +against him for three years. Hubert, Viscount of Beaumont and +Fresnay, revolted on some slight quarrel. The siege of his castle +of Sainte-Susanne went on from the death of Matilda till the last +year but one of William's reign. The tale is full of picturesque +detail; but William had little personal share in it. The best +captains of Normandy tried their strength in vain against this one +donjon on its rock. William at last made peace with the subject +who was too strong for him. Hubert came to England and received +the King's pardon. Practically the pardon was the other way. + +Thus for the last eleven years of his life William ceased to be the +Conqueror. Engaged only in small enterprises, he was unsuccessful +in all. One last success was indeed in store for him; but that was +to be purchased with his own life. As he turned away in defeat +from this castle and that, as he felt the full bitterness of +domestic sorrow, he may have thought, as others thought for him, +that the curse of Waltheof, the curse of the New Forest, was ever +tracking his steps. If so, his crimes were done in England, and +their vengeance came in Normandy. In England there was no further +room for his mission as Conqueror; he had no longer foes to +overcome. He had an act of justice to do, and he did it. He had +his kingdom to guard, and he guarded it. He had to take the great +step which should make his kingdom one for ever; and he had, +perhaps without fully knowing what he did, to bid the picture of +his reign be painted for all time as no reign before or after has +been painted. + + + +CHAPTER XI--THE LAST YEARS OF WILLIAM--1081-1087 + + + +Of two events of these last years of the Conqueror's reign, events +of very different degrees of importance, we have already spoken. +The Welsh expedition of William was the only recorded fighting on +British ground, and that lay without the bounds of the kingdom of +England. William now made Normandy his chief dwelling-place, but +he was constantly called over to England. The Welsh campaign +proves his presence in England in 1081; he was again in England in +1082, but he went back to Normandy between the two visits. The +visit of 1082 was a memorable one; there is no more characteristic +act of the Conqueror than the deed which marks it. The cruelty and +insolence of his brother Ode, whom he had trusted so much more than +he deserved, had passed all bounds. In avenging the death of +Walcher he had done deeds such as William never did himself or +allowed any other man to do. And now, beguiled by a soothsayer who +said that one of his name should be the next Pope, he dreamed of +succeeding to the throne of Gregory the Seventh. He made all kinds +of preparations to secure his succession, and he was at last about +to set forth for Italy at the head of something like an army. His +schemes were by no means to the liking of his brother. William +came suddenly over from Normandy, and met Ode in the Isle of Wight. +There the King got together as many as he could of the great men of +the realm. Before them he arraigned Ode for all his crimes. He +had left him as the lieutenant of his kingdom, and he had shown +himself the common oppressor of every class of men in the realm. +Last of all, he had beguiled the warriors who were needed for the +defence of England against the Danes and Irish to follow him on his +wild schemes in Italy. How was he to deal with such a brother, +William asked of his wise men. + +He had to answer himself; no other man dared to speak. William +then gave his judgement. The common enemy of the whole realm +should not be spared because he was the King's brother. He should +be seized and put in ward. As none dared to seize him, the King +seized him with his own hands. And now, for the first time in +England, we hear words which were often heard again. The bishop +stained with blood and sacrilege appealed to the privileges of his +order. He was a clerk, a bishop; no man might judge him but the +Pope. William, taught, so men said, by Lanfranc, had his answer +ready. "I do not seize a clerk or a bishop; I seize my earl whom I +set over my kingdom." So the Earl of Kent was carried off to a +prison in Normandy, and Pope Gregory himself pleaded in vain for +the release of the Bishop of Bayeux. + +The mind of William was just now mainly given to the affairs of his +island kingdom. In the winter of 1083 he hastened from the death- +bed of his wife to the siege of Sainte-Susanne, and thence to the +Midwinter Gemot in England. The chief object of the assembly was +the specially distasteful one of laying on of a tax. In the course +of the next year, six shillings was levied on every hide of land to +meet a pressing need. The powers of the North were again +threatening; the danger, if it was danger, was greater than when +Waltheof smote the Normans in the gate at York. Swegen and his +successor Harold were dead. Cnut the Saint reigned in Denmark, the +son-in-law of Robert of Flanders. This alliance with William's +enemy joined with his remembrance of his own two failures to stir +up the Danish king to a yearning for some exploit in England. +English exiles were still found to urge him to the enterprise. +William's conquest had scattered banished or discontented +Englishmen over all Europe. Many had made their way to the Eastern +Rome; they had joined the Warangian guard, the surest support of +the Imperial throne, and at Dyrrhachion, as on Senlac, the axe of +England had met the lance of Normandy in battle. Others had fled +to the North; they prayed Cnut to avenge the death of his kinsman +Harold and to deliver England from the yoke of men--so an English +writer living in Denmark spoke of them--of Roman speech. Thus the +Greek at one end of Europe, the Norman at the other, still kept on +the name of Rome. The fleet of Denmark was joined by the fleet of +Flanders; a smaller contingent was promised by the devout and +peaceful Olaf of Norway, who himself felt no call to take a share +in the work of war. + +Against this danger William strengthened himself by the help of the +tax that he had just levied. He could hardly have dreamed of +defending England against Danish invaders by English weapons only. +But he thought as little of trusting the work to his own Normans. +With the money of England he hired a host of mercenaries, horse and +foot, from France and Britanny, even from Maine where Hubert was +still defying him at Sainte-Susanne. He gathered this force on the +mainland, and came back at its head, a force such as England had +never before seen; men wondered how the land might feed them all. +The King's men, French and English, had to feed them, each man +according to the amount of his land. And now William did what +Harold had refused to do; he laid waste the whole coast that lay +open to attack from Denmark and Flanders. But no Danes, no +Flemings, came. Disputes arose between Cnut and his brother Olaf, +and the great enterprise came to nothing. William kept part of his +mercenaries in England, and part he sent to their homes. Cnut was +murdered in a church by his own subjects, and was canonized as +Sanctus Canutus by a Pope who could not speak the Scandinavian +name. + +Meanwhile, at the Midwinter Gemot of 1085-1086, held in due form at +Gloucester, William did one of his greatest acts. "The King had +mickle thought and sooth deep speech with his Witan about his land, +how it were set and with whilk men." In that "deep speech," so +called in our own tongue, lurks a name well known and dear to every +Englishman. The result of that famous parliament is set forth at +length by the Chronicler. The King sent his men into each shire, +men who did indeed set down in their writ how the land was set and +of what men. In that writ we have a record in the Roman tongue no +less precious than the Chronicles in our own. For that writ became +the Book of Winchester, the book to which our fathers gave the name +of Domesday, the book of judgement that spared no man. + +The Great Survey was made in the course of the first seven months +of the year 1086. Commissioners were sent into every shire, who +inquired by the oaths of the men of the hundreds by whom the land +had been held in King Edward's days and what it was worth then, by +whom it was held at the time of the survey and what it was worth +then; and lastly, whether its worth could be raised. Nothing was +to be left out. "So sooth narrowly did he let spear it out, that +there was not a hide or a yard of land, nor further--it is shame to +tell, and it thought him no shame to do--an ox nor a cow nor a +swine was left that was not set in his writ." This kind of +searching inquiry, never liked at any time, would be specially +grievous then. The taking of the survey led to disturbances in +many places, in which not a few lives were lost. While the work +was going on, William went to and fro till he knew thoroughly how +this land was set and of what men. He had now a list of all men, +French and English, who held land in his kingdom. And it was not +enough to have their names in a writ; he would see them face to +face. On the making of the survey followed that great assembly, +that great work of legislation, which was the crown of William's +life as a ruler and lawgiver of England. The usual assemblies of +the year had been held at Winchester and Westminster. An +extraordinary assembly was held in the plain of Salisbury on the +first day of August. The work of that assembly has been already +spoken of. It was now that all the owners of land in the kingdom +became the men of the King; it was now that England became one, +with no fear of being again parted asunder. + + +The close connexion between the Great Survey and the law and the +oath of Salisbury is plain. It was a great matter for the King to +get in the gold certainly and, we may add, fairly. William would +deal with no man otherwise than according to law as he understood +the law. But he sought for more than this. He would not only know +what this land could be made to pay; he would know the state of his +kingdom in every detail; he would know its military strength; he +would know whether his own will, in the long process of taking from +this man and giving to that, had been really carried out. Domesday +is before all things a record of the great confiscation, a record +of that gradual change by which, in less than twenty years, the +greater part of the land of England had been transferred from +native to foreign owners. And nothing shows like Domesday in what +a formally legal fashion that transfer was carried out. What were +the principles on which it was carried out, we have already seen. +All private property in land came only from the grant of King +William. It had all passed into his hands by lawful forfeiture; he +might keep it himself; he might give it back to its old owner or +grant it to a new one. So it was at the general redemption of +lands; so it was whenever fresh conquests or fresh revolts threw +fresh lands into the King's hands. The principle is so thoroughly +taken for granted, that we are a little startled to find it +incidentally set forth in so many words in a case of no special +importance. A priest named Robert held a single yardland in alms +of the King; he became a monk in the monastery of Stow-in-Lindesey, +and his yardland became the property of the house. One hardly sees +why this case should have been picked out for a solemn declaration +of the general law. Yet, as "the day on which the English redeemed +their lands" is spoken of only casually in the case of a particular +estate, so the principle that no man could hold lands except by the +King's grant ("Non licet terram alicui habere nisi regis concessu") +is brought in only to illustrate the wrongful dealing of Robert and +the monks of Stow in the case of a very small holding indeed. + +All this is a vast system of legal fictions; for William's whole +position, the whole scheme of his government, rested on a system of +legal fictions. Domesday is full of them; one might almost say +that there is nothing else there. A very attentive study of +Domesday might bring out the fact that William was a foreign +conqueror, and that the book itself was a record of the process by +which he took the lands of the natives who had fought against him +to reward the strangers who had fought for him. But nothing of +this kind appears on the surface of the record. The great facts of +the Conquest are put out of sight. William is taken for granted, +not only as the lawful king, but as the immediate successor of +Edward. The "time of King Edward" and the "time of King William" +are the two times that the law knows of. The compilers of the +record are put to some curious shifts to describe the time between +"the day when King Edward was alive and dead" and the day "when +King William came into England." That coming might have been as +peaceful as the coming of James the First or George the First. The +two great battles are more than once referred to, but only casually +in the mention of particular persons. A very sharp critic might +guess that one of them had something to do with King William's +coming into England; but that is all. Harold appears only as Earl; +it is only in two or three places that we hear of a "time of +Harold," and even of Harold "seizing the kingdom" and "reigning." +These two or three places stand out in such contrast to the general +language of the record that we are led to think that the scribe +must have copied some earlier record or taken down the words of +some witness, and must have forgotten to translate them into more +loyal formulae. So in recording who held the land in King Edward's +day and who in King William's, there is nothing to show that in so +many cases the holder under Edward had been turned out to make room +for the holder under William. The former holder is marked by the +perfectly colourless word "ancestor" ("antecessor"), a word as yet +meaning, not "forefather," but "predecessor" of any kind. In +Domesday the word is most commonly an euphemism for "dispossessed +Englishman." It is a still more distinct euphemism where the +Norman holder is in more than one place called the "heir" of the +dispossessed Englishmen. + +The formulae of Domesday are the most speaking witness to the +spirit of outward legality which ruled every act of William. In +this way they are wonderfully instructive; but from the formulae +alone no one could ever make the real facts of William's coming and +reign. It is the incidental notices which make us more at home in +the local and personal life of this reign than of any reign before +or for a long time after. The Commissioners had to report whether +the King's will had been everywhere carried out, whether every man, +great and small, French and English, had what the King meant him to +have, neither more nor less. And they had often to report a state +of things different from what the King had meant to be. Many men +had not all that King William had meant them to have, and many +others had much more. Normans had taken both from Englishmen and +from other Normans. Englishmen had taken from Englishmen; some had +taken from ecclesiastical bodies; some had taken from King William +himself; nay King William himself holds lands which he ought to +give up to another man. This last entry at least shows that +William was fully ready to do right, according to his notions of +right. So also the King's two brothers are set down among the +chief offenders. Of these unlawful holdings of land, marked in the +technical language of the Survey as invasiones and occupationes, +many were doubtless real cases of violent seizure, without excuse +even according to William's reading of the law. But this does not +always follow, even when the language of the Survey would seem to +imply it. Words implying violence, per vim and the like, are used +in the legal language of all ages, where no force has been used, +merely to mark a possession as illegal. We are startled at finding +the Apostle Paul set down as one of the offenders; but the words +"sanctus Paulus invasit" mean no more than that the canons of Saint +Paul's church in London held lands to which the Commissioners held +that they had no good title. It is these cases where one man held +land which another claimed that gave opportunity for those personal +details, stories, notices of tenures and customs, which make +Domesday the most precious store of knowledge of the time. + +One fruitful and instructive source of dispute comes from the way +in which the lands in this or that district were commonly granted +out. The in-comer, commonly a foreigner, received all the lands +which such and such a man, commonly a dispossessed Englishman, held +in that shire or district. The grantee stepped exactly into the +place of the antecessor; he inherited all his rights and all his +burthens. He inherited therewith any disputes as to the extent of +the lands of the antecessor or as to the nature of his tenure. And +new disputes arose in the process of transfer. One common source +of dispute was when the former owner, besides lands which were +strictly his own, held lands on lease, subject to a reversionary +interest on the part of the Crown or the Church. The lease or +sale--emere is the usual word--of Church lands for three lives to +return to the Church at the end of the third life was very common. +If the antecessor was himself the third life, the grantee, his +heir, had no claim to the land; and in any case he could take in +only with all its existing liabilities. But the grantee often took +possession of the whole of the land held by the antecessor, as if +it were all alike his own. A crowd of complaints followed from all +manner of injured persons and bodies, great and small, French and +English, lay and clerical. The Commissioners seem to have fairly +heard all, and to have fairly reported all for the King to judge +of. It is their care to do right to all men which has given us +such strange glimpses of the inner life of an age which had none +like it before or after. + +The general Survey followed by the general homage might seem to +mark William's work in England, his work as an English statesman, +as done. He could hardly have had time to redress the many cases +of wrong which the Survey laid before him; but he was able to wring +yet another tax out of the nation according to his new and more +certain register. He then, for the last time, crossed to Normandy +with his new hoard. The Chronicler and other writers of the time +dwell on the physical portents of these two years, the storms, the +fires, the plagues, the sharp hunger, the deaths of famous men on +both sides of the sea. Of the year 1087, the last year of the +Conqueror, it needs the full strength of our ancient tongue to set +forth the signs and wonders. The King had left England safe, +peaceful, thoroughly bowed down under the yoke, cursing the ruler +who taxed her and granted away her lands, yet half blessing him for +the "good frith" that he made against the murderer, the robber, and +the ravisher. But the land that he had won was neither to see his +end nor to shelter his dust. One last gleam of success was, after +so many reverses, to crown his arms; but it was success which was +indeed unworthy of the Conqueror who had entered Exeter and Le Mans +in peaceful triumph. And the death-blow was now to come to him +who, after so many years of warfare, stooped at last for the first +time to cruel and petty havoc without an object. + +The border-land of France and Normandy, the French Vexin, the land +of which Mantes is the capital, had always been disputed between +kingdom and duchy. Border wars had been common; just at this time +the inroads of the French commanders at Mantes are said to have +been specially destructive. William not only demanded redress from +the King, but called for the surrender of the whole Vexin. What +followed is a familiar story. Philip makes a foolish jest on the +bodily state of his great rival, unable just then to carry out his +threats. "The King of the English lies in at Rouen; there will be +a great show of candles at his churching." As at Alencon in his +youth, so now, William, who could pass by real injuries, was stung +to the uttermost by personal mockery. By the splendour of God, +when he rose up again, he would light a hundred thousand candles at +Philip's cost. He kept his word at the cost of Philip's subjects. +The ballads of the day told how he went forth and gathered the +fruits of autumn in the fields and orchards and vineyards of the +enemy. But he did more than gather fruits; the candles of his +churching were indeed lighted in the burning streets of Mantes. +The picture of William the Great directing in person mere brutal +havoc like this is strange even after the harrying of +Northumberland and the making of the New Forest. Riding to and fro +among the flames, bidding his men with glee to heap on the fuel, +gladdened at the sight of burning houses and churches, a false step +of his horse gave him his death-blow. Carried to Rouen, to the +priory of Saint Gervase near the city, he lingered from August 15 +to September 7, and then the reign and life of the Conqueror came +to an end. Forsaken by his children, his body stripped and well +nigh forgotten, the loyalty of one honest knight, Herlwin of +Conteville, bears his body to his grave in his own church at Caen. +His very grave is disputed--a dispossessed antecessor claims the +ground as his own, and the dead body of the Conqueror has to wait +while its last resting-place is bought with money. Into that +resting-place force alone can thrust his bulky frame, and the rites +of his burial are as wildly cut short as were the rites of his +crowning. With much striving he had at last won his seven feet of +ground; but he was not to keep it for ever. Religious warfare +broke down his tomb and scattered his bones, save one treasured +relic. Civil revolution swept away the one remaining fragment. +And now, while we seek in vain beneath the open sky for the rifled +tombs of Harold and of Waltheof, a stone beneath the vault of Saint +Stephen's still tells us where the bones of William once lay but +where they lie no longer. + + +There is no need to doubt the striking details of the death and +burial of the Conqueror. We shrink from giving the same trust to +the long tale of penitence which is put into the mouth of the dying +King. He may, in that awful hour, have seen the wrong-doing of the +last one-and-twenty years of his life; he hardly threw his +repentance into the shape of a detailed autobiographical +confession. But the more authentic sayings and doings of William's +death-bed enable us to follow his course as an English statesman +almost to his last moments. His end was one of devotion, of +prayers and almsgiving, and of opening of the prison to them that +were bound. All save one of his political prisoners, English and +Norman, he willingly set free. Morkere and his companions from +Ely, Walfnoth son of Godwine, hostage for Harold's faith, Wulf son +of Harold and Ealdgyth, taken, we can hardly doubt, as a babe when +Chester opened its gates to William, were all set free; some indeed +were put in bonds again by the King's successor. But Ode William +would not set free; he knew too well how many would suffer if he +were again let loose upon the world. But love of kindred was still +strong; at last he yielded, sorely against his will, to the prayers +and pledges of his other brother. Ode went forth from his prison, +again Bishop of Bayeux, soon again to be Earl of Kent, and soon to +prove William's foresight by his deeds. + +William's disposal of his dominions on his death-bed carries on his +political history almost to his last breath. Robert, the banished +rebel, might seem to have forfeited all claims to the succession. +But the doctrine of hereditary right had strengthened during the +sixty years of William's life. He is made to say that, though he +foresees the wretchedness of any land over which Robert should be +the ruler, still he cannot keep him out of the duchy of Normandy +which is his birthright. Of England he will not dare to dispose; +he leaves the decision to God, seemingly to Archbishop Lanfranc as +the vicar of God. He will only say that his wish is for his son +William to succeed him in his kingdom, and he prays Lanfranc to +crown him king, if he deem such a course to be right. Such a +message was a virtual nomination, and William the Red succeeded his +father in England, but kept his crown only by the help of loyal +Englishmen against Norman rebels. William Rufus, it must be +remembered, still under the tutelage of his father and Lanfranc, +had not yet shown his bad qualities; he was known as yet only as +the dutiful son who fought for his father against the rebel Robert. +By ancient English law, that strong preference which was all that +any man could claim of right belonged beyond doubt to the youngest +of William's sons, the English AEtheling Henry. He alone was born +in the land; he alone was the son of a crowned King and his Lady. +It is perhaps with a knowledge of what followed that William is +made to bid his youngest son wait while his eldest go before him; +that he left him landless, but master of a hoard of silver, there +is no reason to doubt. English feeling, which welcomed Henry +thirteen years later, would doubtless have gladly seen his +immediate accession; but it might have been hard, in dividing +William's dominions, to have shut out the second son in favour of +the third. And in the scheme of events by which conquered England +was to rise again, the reign of Rufus, at the moment the darkest +time of all, had its appointed share. + + +That England could rise again, that she could rise with a new life, +strengthened by her momentary overthrow, was before all things +owing to the lucky destiny which, if she was to be conquered, gave +her William the Great as her Conqueror. It is as it is in all +human affairs. William himself could not have done all that he +did, wittingly and unwittingly, unless circumstances had been +favourable to him; but favourable circumstances would have been +useless, unless there had been a man like William to take advantage +of them. What he did, wittingly or unwittingly, he did by virtue +of his special position, the position of a foreign conqueror +veiling his conquest under a legal claim. The hour and the man +were alike needed. The man in his own hour wrought a work, partly +conscious, partly unconscious. The more clearly any man +understands his conscious work, the more sure is that conscious +work to lead to further results of which he dreams not. So it was +with the Conqueror of England. His purpose was to win and to keep +the kingdom of England, and to hand it on to those who should come +after him more firmly united than it had ever been before. In this +work his spirit of formal legality, his shrinking from needless +change, stood him in good stead. He saw that as the kingdom of +England could best be won by putting forth a legal claim to it, so +it could best be kept by putting on the character of a legal ruler, +and reigning as the successor of the old kings seeking the unity of +the kingdom; he saw, from the example both of England and of other +lands, the dangers which threatened that unity; he saw what +measures were needed to preserve it in his own day, measures which +have preserved it ever since. Here is a work, a conscious work, +which entitles the foreign Conqueror to a place among English +statesmen, and to a place in their highest rank. Further than this +we cannot conceive William himself to have looked. All that was to +come of his work in future ages was of necessity hidden from his +eyes, no less than from the eyes of smaller men. He had assuredly +no formal purpose to make England Norman; but still less had he any +thought that the final outcome of his work would make England on +one side more truly English than if he had never crossed the sea. +In his ecclesiastical work he saw the future still less clearly. +He designed to reform what he deemed abuses, to bring the English +Church into closer conformity with the other Churches of the West; +he assuredly never dreamed that the issue of his reform would be +the strife between Henry and Thomas and the humiliation of John. +His error was that of forgetting that he himself could wield +powers, that he could hold forces in check, which would be too +strong for those who should come after him. At his purposes with +regard to the relations of England and Normandy it would be vain to +guess. The mere leaving of kingdom and duchy to different sons +would not necessarily imply that he designed a complete or lasting +separation. But assuredly William did not foresee that England, +dragged into wars with France as the ally of Normandy, would remain +the lasting rival of France after Normandy had been swallowed up in +the French kingdom. If rivalry between England and France had not +come in this way, it would doubtless have come in some other way; +but this is the way in which it did come about. As a result of the +union of Normandy and England under one ruler, it was part of +William's work, but a work of which William had no thought. So it +was with the increased connexion of every kind between England and +the continent of Europe which followed on William's coming. With +one part of Europe indeed the connexion of England was lessened. +For three centuries before William's coming, dealings in war and +peace with the Scandinavian kingdoms had made up a large part of +English history. Since the baffled enterprise of the holy Cnut, +our dealings with that part of Europe have been of only secondary +account. + +But in our view of William as an English statesman, the main +feature of all is that spirit of formal legality of which we have +so often spoken. Its direct effects, partly designed, partly +undesigned, have affected our whole history to this day. It was +his policy to disguise the fact of conquest, to cause all the +spoils of conquest to be held, in outward form, according to the +ancient law of England. The fiction became a fact, and the fact +greatly helped in the process of fusion between Normans and +English. The conquering race could not keep itself distinct from +the conquered, and the form which the fusion took was for the +conquerors to be lost in the greater mass of the conquered. +William founded no new state, no new nation, no new constitution; +he simply kept what he found, with such modifications as his +position made needful. But without any formal change in the nature +of English kingship, his position enabled him to clothe the crown +with a practical power such as it had never held before, to make +his rule, in short, a virtual despotism. These two facts +determined the later course of English history, and they determined +it to the lasting good of the English nation. The conservative +instincts of William allowed our national life and our national +institutions to live on unbroken through his conquest. But it was +before all things the despotism of William, his despotism under +legal forms, which preserved our national institutions to all time. +As a less discerning conqueror might have swept our ancient laws +and liberties away, so under a series of native kings those laws +and liberties might have died out, as they died out in so many +continental lands. But the despotism of the crown called forth the +national spirit in a conscious and antagonistic shape; it called +forth that spirit in men of both races alike, and made Normans and +English one people. The old institutions lived on, to be clothed +with a fresh life, to be modified as changed circumstances might +make needful. The despotism of the Norman kings, the peculiar +character of that despotism, enabled the great revolution of the +thirteenth century to take the forms, which it took, at once +conservative and progressive. So it was when, more than four +centuries after William's day, England again saw a despotism +carried on under the forms of law. Henry the Eighth reigned as +William had reigned; he did not reign like his brother despots on +the continent; the forms of law and freedom lived on. In the +seventeenth century therefore, as in the thirteenth, the forms +stood ready to be again clothed with a new life, to supply the +means for another revolution, again at once conservative and +progressive. It has been remarked a thousand times that, while +other nations have been driven to destroy and to rebuild the +political fabric, in England we have never had to destroy and to +rebuild, but have found it enough to repair, to enlarge, and to +improve. This characteristic of English history is mainly owing to +the events of the eleventh century, and owing above all to the +personal agency of William. As far as mortal man can guide the +course of things when he is gone, the course of our national +history since William's day has been the result of William's +character and of William's acts. Well may we restore to him the +surname that men gave him in his own day. He may worthily take his +place as William the Great alongside of Alexander, Constantine, and +Charles. They may have wrought in some sort a greater work, +because they had a wider stage to work it on. But no man ever +wrought a greater and more abiding work on the stage that fortune +gave him than he + + +"Qui dux Normannis, qui Caesar praefuit Anglis." + + +Stranger and conqueror, his deeds won him a right to a place on the +roll of English statesmen, and no man that came after him has won a +right to a higher place. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR *** + +This file should be named wlmcn10.txt or wlmcn10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, wlmcn11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wlmcn10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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