Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Here the two kinsmen spoke against William; calling him base-born and no rightful ruler, cruel, unjust, and treacherous to his nobles; saying that he had rewarded the knights who won him his crown with the worst lands and kept the best himself; and proposing to oust him by the help of the English (who, they said, would be glad to get revenge, though they seemed to think of little but eating and drinking), setting one of themselves in his place, while the other two should be dukes in the old way, as when Edward ruled with his earls. Waltheof would not join them, though he promised secrecy; Ralf and Roger, however, gathered troops, hired Bretons from abroad, sent for help from Denmark, and raised their standards: but the English took arms against them, and the Norman garrisons were true to the king. Ralf fled over sea, leaving his bride to hold Norwich, which she did bravely, only surrendering on condition of the garrison being allowed to leave England unharmed; Roger was taken; Waltheof gave himself up, and the Bretons were made prisoners. The Danish fleet, 240 strong, came when all was over, and, not daring to meet William, made a hasty raid on York, where they burned the minster (a deed which brought ill-luck on all that took part in it, and death to Earl Hakon's son, their leader), and sailed off to Flanders. The Bretons were judged at Westminster, at the Christmas Great Moot.

"Some were blinded : and some banished.
So were William's traitors treated!"

The innocent Waltheof was put to death next year, either through the lies of his wicked wife (Judith, the king's niece) or because William was afraid of his popularity and influence in England, Scotland, and Denmark. Early on the morning of May 31 the young earl was led to a little hill near Winchester to die. He took off his rich robes and gave them to the poor, knelt down at the block and prayed earnestly, till the headsman, fearing a rescue, cut off his head while the words "deliver us from evil!" were yet in his mouth. His body was buried at his beloved Abbey of Crowland, where miracles were wrought at his tomb, as the English believed, and it was said that none of William's plans ever prospered after the Martyr-Earl's death. A Norwegian poet who had known Waltheof says in his dirge on him

"Yea, he that, sailing northward, clove the cold sea, and blood-red Dyed many a sword in battle-William-slew Waltheof foully. Bravest of knights my lord was; never died doughtier champion! Ah! 'twill be long ere slaughter ceases out of England!"

Judith soon fell into deserved disgrace, but Maud, Waltheof's daughter, was allowed to keep her father's earldom of Huntingdon, and at last wedded the King of Scots' son.

William's

abroad.

5. After a war with his vassals, the Bretons, who got help from the French king, ever jealous of the Normans, and defeated William for the first troubles at time at Dol, taking his camp and treasure, and home and obliging him to accept their terms of peace, a worse disaster followed. Robert Curthose, William's eldest son, a brave young man, but ill-advised, asked for the heritage, Normandy and Maine, which his father had promised him. "I do not take off my clothes before I go to bed," said the king, and refused him. Whereupon, getting the help of King Philip and those Norman barons who disliked William's just rule and longed for the licence the lazy goodnature of Robert would allow them, the headstrong young man took up arms. At Gerberoi (1079) he met his father in battle, and, not knowing who he was, wounded him in the hand. The king's horse was shot under him, and but for a brave Englishman, Tostig, who fell struck through by an arblast bolt as he brought him another charger, he would most likely have been killed. When Robert heard his father's voice and knew him, he dismounted, threw himself at his feet, and begged his forgiveness. A peace was patched up, and Robert came to England, where he built Newcastle for his father as a Border fortress against the Scots in 1080.

William's glorious progress through South Wales to S. David's, receiving the homage of the Welsh princes and making them free their English captives (many hundred souls), showed his power; but the end of his reign was gloomy. He lost his son Richard and his much-loved wife Matilda, a good, pious woman, whose foolish fondness for the misguided Robert was her only fault. He was obliged to imprison his brother Odo, who had ruled badly and greedily, and was now gathering an army to go to Rome to try and be made Pope, having spent vast sums in bribing the Roman people. Moreover, the Danes were again threatening England, Cnut, their king, had married a daughter of William Fitz-Osbern's foe, now Earl of Flanders, and in alliance with him and the King of Norway, had gathered a fleet to conquer England. William was obliged to summon soldiers from abroad, “so many that men wondered how the land might feed them all," quarter them on the English, and raise Danegild to pay them. He also let waste the whole east coast for miles inland, so that no foe could find meat

or shelter or landing. Cnut, however, was slain by his own men, so that his plans came to nought. But William, wishing to find out exactly the resources of his kingdom, so that it might be defended in the least burdensome way if ever there were danger again, "took great thought, and held deep speech with his Wise Men" at Gloster, 1085; and being advised to make a survey of the whole country, sent commissioners into every shire to find out how much land of every sort there was, how many landholders, cottars, and slaves, and what was the worth of the land and cattle in every manor. Inquest was held in every village and evidence taken on oath; 66 so narrowly did he make them seek out all this, that there was not a single hyde or yard of land (shameful it is to tell, though he thought it no shame to do), nor one ox, nor one cow, nor one swine left out, that was not set down in his rolls, and all these rolls were afterwards brought to him." From them was made the great Domesday Book, which tells us more of the history, state, and condition of England than can be known of any other country for hundreds of years afterwards, and gives us cause to bless William's wisdom rather than blame his greed.

With the results of this great Inquest before him, William summoned all the landholders of England, mediate and immediate (whether holding of other lords or directly of him), to meet him at Sarum, where he made them swear, according to the old English custom, to be faithful to him, for he did not wish the Norman ideas, that a man was only bound to be faithful to him whose tenant he was, disregarding the overlord's rights altogether, to grow up in England. It was also a sign that he would uphold the free English customs and moots, and not suffer the lords' power to override them. The distress caused by the heavy taxes, bad harvests and consequent famines, and several great fires (in one of which S. Paul's in London was burned), besides the heavy rule of the Norman landlords, all made Englishmen believe that their sins had brought God's heavy wrath upon them.

6. In 1087, raging against the French king for a coarse William's death jest on his stoutness, William left England for and character. the last time, and marching to Mantes, a frontier town, burned it, minsters and all. As he rode round the flaming city, his horse reared and threw him against the pommel of his saddle, giving him a hurt of which he died on Tuesday, September 9, 1087. On his deathbed he called his sons to him and told them the whole story of his life. "I have never hurt God's Church, but I am stained with

rivers of blood," he said, and prayed them all to pay heed to his mistakes and sins and rule uprightly. Then leaving Normandy and Maine to Robert, his first-born, prophesying ill-luck for him, he said, "Having made my way to the English throne by so many evil deeds, I dare not leave it to any one but God, by whose will I trust that my son William, who hath ever been good son to me, may be king after me and reign gloriously." To Henry he gave £5000, bidding him trust in the Lord, for that in the end he should have all his father ever held. Then he forgave all his enemies, set free all his prisoners of state, and commended his soul to the Lord Jesus with his last breath as the morning bell rang out from the steeple of Rouen Minster. Thence they bore him to his own abbey at Caen, where, but in little state, and not till the knight from whom he had seized the land for his foundation had been paid for the grave, he was laid.

One who knew him well says of this great king that he was mightier and wiser than any of his forerunners; a pious man that built many minsters and loved God's servants; so stern a man that he would not spare his own brother if he did wrong; so just that the good peace he made cannot be forgotten; and so mighty that he held Normandy and Brittany, won England and Maine, made Scotland and Wales bow to him, and would, had he lived two years longer, have won Ireland by his mere renown, without need of weapon. But he was also greedy of gold, proud and hard-hearted, as when he made the Great Deer-parks, "and ordered that whoso slew hart or hind, him men should blind, and forbade men to slay deer or bear, and made the hare go free, for he loved the big game as if he were their father," recking nought of the poor that he oppressed. In person William was tall and stout, skilled in horsemanship, and so strong that no man could bend his bow. His face was handsome, but stern-looking; he had an aquiline nose, quick grey eyes, a high brow, and dark hair, but became bald in middle age. A man of few words, but able to speak well; passionate, but never losing his head; crafty, but true to his pledged word; a far-sighted statesman, a`skilful general, and a just judge, no king of England was better gifted for the hard evil days in which his rule was cast.

CHAPTER II.

William the Red, 1087-1100.

1. William began his reign well, loosing the prisoners (amongst whom were Earl Morkere and Wulfnoth, Godwine's youngest son, who had been the Conqueror's hostage and captive many years) and dealing out the great hoard at Winchester for the good of the dead king's soul; to every minster in England six or ten gold marks, to every church sixty pence, and to every shire 100 for the poor. Still the Norman barons, ill-content with a strong king, plotted in favour of Robert, who would leave all power in their hands. But Lanfranc stood by William, sent for the chief Englishmen, told them of the king's need, and promised them on his behalf "the best laws that ever were in the land," the strict punishment of all evil-doers, and the woods and huntingrights which the Conqueror had taken away. Accordingly the faithful English levies met, drove off Robert when he tried to land, and put down the rebellion, Odo and many others being banished and their lands given to better men. But William soon forgot his promises, and when Lanfranc, “the father and friend of the monks and all good men," was dead, he began to vex his people with heavy taxes and make them labour at his buildings, the Tower Wall, London Bridge, and the Great Hall at Westminster. His new Justiciar was William's hard Ranulf, nicknamed the Torch, who had served on the Domesday Commission, a rough, burly, coarse man, but eager to please the king, and clever enough to cover all his ill-doing with the cloak of law. It is owing to him that the English system of landholding became harder, stricter, and more burdensome than before the Conquest.

rule.

2. By Ranulf's counsel, also, the king refused to put fresh bishops and abbots in the place of those that died, keeping their lands meanwhile for his own profit, starving the Church and the poor. This went on till 1093, when he fell ill, and, his heart misgiving him at the point of death, vowed to make amends to his people and the Church. Anselm, Abbot of Bec, who happened to be staying in England founding a minster for the Earl of Chester, was sent for to his bedside and given the archbishopric of Canterbury; he refused, being afraid, as he said, that the plough of the Church, which had been drawn by two strong oxen (William and Lanfranc), would go hardly if a poor weak

Anselm.

« AnteriorContinuar »