Cassell's Illustrated History of England/Volume 1/Chapter 32
CHAPTER XXXII.
Although released from external menaces, it was not permitted to the Conqueror to enjoy repose in the last year of his eventful reign. Ordericus Vitalis, in speaking of him, says, "He was afflicted by the just judgment of God. Since the death of Waltheof, whom he had so unjustly punished, he had neither repose nor peace, and the astonishing course of his success was poisoned by the troubles which those related to him occasioned."
When William first received the submission of the province of Maine, he had promised the inhabitants that Robert should be their prince; and before he undertook the expedition against England, he had, on the application of the French court, declared him his successor in Normandy, and had obliged the barons of that duchy to do him homage as their future sovereign.
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William the Conqueror and his son Robert (See p.104.)
By this artifice, he had endeavoured to appease the jealousy of his neighbours, as affording them a prospect of separating England from his dominions on the Continent; but when Robert demanded of him the execution of those engagements, he gave him an absolute refusal, and told him, according to the homely saying, that he never intended to throw off his clothes till he went to bed. Robert openly declared his discontent; and was suspected of secretly instigating the King of France and the Earl of Brittany to the opposition which they made to William, and which had formerly frustrated his attempts on the town of Dol; and, as the quarrel still augmented, Robert proceeded to entertain a strong jealousy of his two surviving brothers, William and Henry (for Richard was killed in hunting by a stag), who, by greater submission and complaisance, had acquired the affections of their father. In this disposition on both sides, a small matter sufficed to produce a rupture between them.
The three princes, residing with their father in the castle of l'Aigle, in Normandy, were one day engaged in sport together; and, after some mirth and jollity, the two younger took a fancy of throwing over some water on Robert, as he passed through the court on leaving their apartment—a frolic which he would naturally have regarded as innocent, had it not been for the suggestions of Alberic de Grentmesnil, son of that Hugh de Grentmesnil whom William had formerly deprived of his fortunes, when that baron deserted him during his greatest difficulties in England. The young man, mindful of the injury, persuaded the prince that this action was meant as a public affront, which it behoved him in honour to resent; and the choleric Robert, drawing his sword, ran up-stairs, with an intention of taking revenge on his brothers. The whole castle was filled with tumult, which the king himself, who hastened from his apartment, found some difficulty in appeasing. He could by no means calm the resentment of his eldest son, who, complaining of his father's partiality, and fancying that no proper atonement had been made for the insult, left the court that very evening, and hastened to Rouen, with the intention of seizing the citadel of that place. Disappointed in this attempt by the precaution and vigilance of Roger de Ivery, the governor, he fled to Hugh do Neufchatel, a powerful Norman baron, who gave him protection in his castles; and he levied war openly against his father. The popular character of the prince, and a similarity of manners, engaged all the young nobility of Normandy and Maine, as well as of Anjou and Brittany, to take part with him; and it was suspected that Matilda, his mother, whose favourite ho was, supported him in his rebellion by secret remittances of money, which so enraged her husband that, despite the affection he is known to have borne her, he is said to have beaten her with his own hand.
All the hereditary provinces of William were convulsed by this war, and he was at la«t compelled to draw an army from England to assist him. These forces, led by his ancient captains, soon enabled him to drive Robert and his adherents from their strongholds, and re-establish his authority; the rebellious son himself being driven to seek a retreat in the castle of Gerberay, which the King of France, who had secretly fomented these dissensions, placed at his disposal. In this fortress he was closely besieged by his angry father, and many encounters took place in the sorties made by the garrison.
In one of these Robert engaged the king without knowing him, wounded him in the arm, and unhorsed him. On William calling out for assistance, his son recognised his voice, and, filled with horror at the idea of having so nearly become a parricide, threw himself at his feet, and asked pardon for his offences. William's mortification, however, and rage did not permit him to reply to this dutiful submission as be ought to have done: breathing a malediction upon his heir, he mounted his son's horse, and rode sullenly away.
The entreaties of the queen, and other influences, soon afterwards brought about a reconciliation; but it is thought the Conqueror in his heart never forgave his son, although he afterwards took Robert to England. This occurred previous to the expedition recorded in the preceding chapter, in which he sent his son to oppose the King of Scotland.
The tranquillity which now ensued gave William leisure to begin an undertaking which proves the comprehensive nature of his talents: it was a general survey of all the lands in the kingdom in 1081; their extent in each district; their proprietors, tenures, value; the quantity of meadow, pasture, wood, and arable land which they contained; and, in some counties, the number of tenants, cottagers, and slaves of all denominations who lived on them. He appointed commissioners for this purpose, who entered every particular in their register by the verdict of juries, and, after a labour of six years (for the work w;is so long in finishing), brought him an exact account of all the lauded property in England. This monument, called Domesday Book—the most valuable piece of antiquity possessed by any nation—is still preserved in the Exchequer; and, though only some extracts of it have hitherto been published, it serves to illustrate, in many particulars, the ancient condition of England. The great Alfred had finished a like survey of the kingdom in his time, which was long kept at Winchester, and which probably served as a model to William in his undertaking.
William, in common with all the great men of the time, was passionately addicted to the chase; a pastime he indulged in at the expense of his unhappy subjects. Not content with the royal domains, he resolved to make a new forest near Winchester, his usual place of abode, and for this purpose laid waste a tract of country extending above thirty miles, expelling the inhabitants from their houses, and seizing on their property without affording them the least compensation; neither did he respect the churches and convents—the possessions of the clergy as well as laity were alike confiscated to his pleasures. At the same time, he enacted penalties, more severe than had hitherto been known in England, against hunting in any of the royal forests. The killing of a deer, wild boar, or hare, was punished by the loss of the offender's eyes—and that at a time when the slaying of a fellow-creature might be atoned by the payment of a fine.
Matilda was spared the pain of witnessing the misfortunes of her favourite son; she died some years before. Matthew Paris, in speaking of her, says, "She was an incomparably noble and pious princess, whose generous gifts were the joy of the Church."
Although the wife of William possessed many virtues, her character was far from being perfect. It was her influence which induced her husband to put the Earl of Gloucester to death, and to confiscate his possessions to her use. She never forgave that unhappy noble for having rejected her love.
It is even said that one of the conditions on which. she married William was, that he should minister to her revenge. Certain it is that she refused the latter when he first made proposal for her hand, which so much incensed the Norman duke that, meeting her in the streets of Bruges as she returned from the church, he not only beat her, but rolled her in the dirt. Notwithstanding this unknightly outrage, she afterwards consented to become his wife.
The transactions recorded during the remainder of this reign may be considered more as domestic occurrences which concern the prince, than as national events which regard England. Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the king's uterine brother, whom he had created Earl of Kent, and entrusted with a great share of power during his whole reign, had amassed immense riches; and, agreeably to the usual progress of human wishes, he began to regard his present acquisitions as but a step to farther grandeur. He had formed the chimerical project of buying the papacy; and though Gregory, the reigning pope, was not of advanced years, the prelate had confided so much in the predictions of an astrologer, that he reckoned on the pontiff's death, and on attaining, by his own intrigues and money, that envied state of greatness. Resolving, therefore, to remit all his riches to Italy, he had persuaded many considerable barons, and among the rest Hugh, Earl of Chester, to take the same course, in hopes that when he should mount the Papal throne, he would bestow on them more considerable establishments in that country. The king, from whom all these projects had been carefully concealed, at last got intelligence of the design, and ordered Odo to be arrested. His officers, from respect to the immunities which the ecclesiastics now assumed, scrupled to execute the command, till the king himself was obliged in person to seize him; and when Odo insisted that he was a prelate, and exempt from all temporal jurisdiction, William replied that he arrested him not as Bishop of Bayeux, but as Earl of Kent. He was sent prisoner to Normandy, and, notwithstanding the remonstrances and menaces of Gregory, was kept in confinement during the remainder of William's reign.
William was detained upon the Continent some time after this affair by a quarrel which, in 1087, broke out between himself and his suzerain the lung of France, and was occasioned by inroads which the French barons made into Normandy. His displeasure was also increased by some railleries which had been thrown out against his person. The king had grown remarkably stout, and been detained for some time on a bed of sickness. Philip, hearing of this, expressed his surprise that his brother of England should be so long at his lying-in, but that no doubt there would be a fine churching when he was delivered. The Conqueror, enraged at the insulting jest, sent him word, that as soon as he was up he would be churched in Nôtre Dame, and present so many lights—alluding to the Catholic custom—as would give little pleasure to the King of France. Immediately on his recovery he kept his word; for, gathering an army, he led his forces into the L'Isle de France, laying everything waste with fire and sword in his passage, and took the town of Mantes, which he reduced to ashes.
This career of conquest, however, was cut short by an accident which afterwards cost William his life. His horse starting on a sudden, caused him to bruise his stomach severely against the pommel of his saddle. Being advanced in years, he began to apprehend the consequences, and ordered himself to be conveyed to the monastery of St. Gervas. Finding his end approaching, he perceived the vanity of all human greatness, and began to feel the most bitter remorse of conscience for the cruelties he had practised, the desolation he had caused, and the innocent blood he had shed during his reign in England; and by way of atonement gave great gifts to various monasteries. He also commanded that Earls Morcar, Siward, Beorn, and other English prisoners, should be set at liberty. He was now prevailed upon, though not without reluctance, to release his brother Odo, against whom he was terribly incensed.
He left Normandy and Maine to his eldest son Robert, whom he had never forgiven for his rebellion against him. He wrote to Lanfranc, the primate, desiring him to crown William King of England, and bequeathed to his son Henry the possessions of his mother; foretelling, it is said, that he would one day surpass both his brothers in greatness.
He died at Rouen, on the 9th of September, 1087, in the sixty-third year of his age, the twenty-first of his reign in England, and fifty-fourth over Normandy.
Few princes have been more fortunate than William, or better entitled to grandeur and prosperity, from the abilities and the vigour of mind displayed in all his conduct. His spirit was bold and enterprising, yet guided by prudence; his ambition, which was exorbitant, and lay little under the restraints of justice, still less under those of humanity, ever submitted to the dictates of sound policy. Born in an age when the minds of men were intractable and unacquainted with submission, he was yet able to direct them to his purposes; and partly from the influence of his vehement character, partly from art and dissimulation, to establish an unlimited authority. The maxims of his administration were austere, but might have been useful, had they been solely employed to preserve order in an established government: they were ill calculated for softening the rigours which, under the most gentle management, are inseparable from conquest. His attempt against England was the last great enterprise of the kind which, during the course of 800 years, has fully succeeded in Europe; and the force of his genius broke through those limits which the feudal institutions and the refined policy of princes have fixed to the several states of Christendom.
King William had issue, besides his three sons who survived him, five daughters, to wit—1. Cicely, a nun in the monastery of Feschamp, afterwards abbess in the Holy Trinity at Caen, where she died in 1127. 2. Constantia, married to Alan Fergent, Earl of Brittany: she died without issue. 3. Alice, contracted to Harold. 4. Adela, married to Stephen, Earl of Blois, by whom she had four sons—William, Theobald, Henry, and Stephen—of whom the elder was neglected on account of the imbecility of his understanding. 6. Agatha, who died a virgin, but was betrothed to the King of Gallicia: she died on her journey thither, before she joined her bridegroom.
A learned historian gives the following more circumstantial account of William's death and character. He says, "Early on the morning of the 9 th of September, 1087, the king heard the sound of a bell, and eagerly demanded what it meant. He was told that it sounded the hour of prime in the Church of St. Mary. 'Then,' said he, 'I commend my soul to my Lady, the mother of God, that by her holy prayers she may reconcile me to her son, my Lord Jesus Christ,' and immediately expired."
From the events which followed the reader may judge of the unsettled nature of the time. The knights and prelates hastened to their respective homes to secure their property; the citizens of Rouen began to conceal their most valuable effects; the servants rifled the palace, and hurried away with the booty; and the royal corpse for three hours lay almost in a state of nudity on the ground. At length the archbishop ordered the body to be interred at Caen; and Herluin, a neighbouring knight, out of compassion, conveyed it at his own expense to that city.
At the day appointed for the interment, Prince Henry, the Norman prelates, and a multitude of clergy and people, assembled in the Church of St. Stephen, which the Conqueror had founded. The mass had been performed, the corpse was placed on the bier, and the Bishop of Evreux had pronounced the panegyric of the deceased, when a voice from the crowd exclaimed, "He whom you have praised was a robber.
View of Lincoln, showing the Ruins of the Castle.
The very land on which you stand is mine. By violence he took it from my father; and in the name of God I forbid you to bury him in it." The speaker was Asceline Fitz-Arthur, who had often, but fruitlessly, sought reparation from the justice of William. After some debate the prelates called him to them, paid him sixty shillings for the grave, and promised that he should receive the full value of his land. The ceremony was then continued, and the body of the king deposited in a coffin of stone.
William's character has been drawn with apparent impartiality in the Saxon Chronicle, by a contemporary and an Englishman. That the reader may learn the opinion of one who possessed the means of forming an accurate judgment, we have transcribed the passage, retaining, as far as it may be intelligible, the phraseology of the original:—
"If any one wish to know what manner of man he was, or what worship he had, or of how many lands he were the lord, we will describe him as we have known him; for we looked on him, and some time lived in his herd. King William was a very wise man, and very rich, more worshipful and strong than any of his fore-gangers. He was mild to good men who loved God, and stark beyond all bounds to those who withstand his will. On the very stede where God gave him to win England, he reared a noble monastery and set monks therein, and endowed it well. He was very worshipful. Thrice he bore his king-helmet every year when he was in England: at Easter he bore it at Winchester, at Pentecost at Westminster, and in mid-winter at Gloucester: and there were with him all the rich men all over England, archbishops and diocesan bishops, abbot and earls, thanes and knights. Moreover, he was a very stark man, and very savage; so that no man durst do anything against his will. He had earls in his bonds, who had done against his will; bishops he set off their bishoprics, abbots off their abbotries, and thanes in prisons; and at last he did not spare his own brother Odo. Him he set in prison. Yet, among other things, we must not forget the good frith which he made in this land, so that a man that was good for aught might travel over the kingdom with his bosom full of gold without molestation; and no man durst slay another man, though he had suffered never so mickle evil from the other. He ruled over England; and by his cunning he was so thoroughly acquainted with it, that there is not a hide of land of which he did not know both who had it, and what was its worth, and that he set down in his writings. Wales was under his wield, and therein he wrought castles: and he wielded the Isle of Man withal: and moreover, he subdued Scotland by his mickle strength. Normandy was his by kin: and over the earldom called Mans he ruled: and if he might have lived yet two years, he would have won Ireland by the fame of his power, and without any armament. Yet, truly, in his time men had mickle suffering, and very many hardships. Castles he caused to be wrought, and poor men to be oppressed. He was so very stark. He took from his subjects many marks of gold, and many hundred pounds of silver; and that he took, some by right, and some by mickle might, for very little need. He had fallen into avarice, and greediness he loved withal. He let his lands to fine as dear as he could; then came some other and bade more than the first had given, and the king let it to him who bade more. Then came a third and bid yet more, and the king let it into the hands of the man who bade the most. Nor did he reck how sinfully his reeves got money of poor men, or how many unlawful things they did. For the more men talked of right law, the more they did against the law. He also set many deer friths; and he made laws therewith, that whosoever should slay hart or hind, him man should blind. As he forbade the slaying of harts, so also did he of boars. So much he loved the high deer, as if he had been their father. He also decreed about hares, that they should go free. His rich men moaned, and the poor men murmured; but he was so hard that he recked not the hatred of them all. For it was need they should follow the king's will withal, if they wished to live, or have lands or goods, or his favour. Alas, that any man should be so moody, and should so puff up himself and think himself above all other men! May Almighty God have mercy on his soul, and grant him forgiveness of his sins!"
To this account may be added a few particulars gleaned from other historians. The king was of ordinary stature, but inclined to corpulency. His countenance wore an air of ferocity, which, when he was agitated by passion, struck terror into every beholder. The story told of his strength at one period of his life almost exceeds belief. It is said that, sitting on horseback, he could draw the string of a bow which no other man could bend even on foot.
William's education had left on his mind religious impressions which were never effaced. When, indeed, his power or interest was concerned, he listened to no suggestions but those of ambition or avarice, but on other occasions he displayed a strong sense of religion, and a profound respect for its institutions.
Dr. Lingard concludes this reign with the following paragraph:—
"During William's reign the people of England were exposed to calamities of every description. It commenced with years of carnage and devastation, its progress was marked by a regular system of confiscation and oppression, and this succession of evils was closed with famine and pestilence. In 1086, a summer more rainy and tempestuous than had been experienced in the memory of man, occasioned a total failure in the harvest; and the winter introduced a malignant disease, which attacked one-half of the inhabitants, and is said to have proved fatal to many thousands. Even of those who escaped the infection, or recovered from the disease, numbers perished afterwards from want or unwholesome nourishment. 'Alas!' exclaims an eye-witness, 'how miserable, how rueful a time was that! The wretched victims had nearly perished by the fever; then came the sharp hunger, and destroyed them outricht. Who is so hard-hearted as not to weep over such calamities?'"