WILLIAM II., RUFUS. A.D. 1087-1100.
William the Conqueror was obliged to let Normandy fall to Robert, his
eldest son; but he thought he could do as he pleased about England,
which he had won for himself. He had sent off his second son, William,
to England, with his ring to Westminster, giving him a message that he
hoped the English people would have him for their king. And they did
take him, though they would hardly have done do if they had known what
he would be like when he was left to himself. But while he was kept
under by his father, they only knew that he had red hair and a ruddy
face, and had more sense than his brother Robert. He is sometimes
called the Red King, but more commonly William Rufus. Things went
worse than ever with the poor English in his time; for at lest William
the Conqueror had made everybody mind the law, but now William Rufus
let his cruel soldiers do just as they pleased, and spoil what they
did not want. It was of no use to complain, for the king would only
laugh and make jokes. He did not care for God or man; only for being
powerful, for feasting, and for hunting.
Just at this time there was a great stir in Europe. Jerusalem--that
holy city, where our blessed Lord had taught, where he had been
crucified, and where he had risen from the dead--was a place where
everyone wished to go and worship, and this they called going on
pilgrimage. A beautiful church had once been built over the sepulchre
where our Lord had lain, and enriched with gifts. But for a long time
past Jerusalem had been in the hands of an Eastern people, who think
their false prophet, Mahommed, greater than our blessed Lord. These
Mahommedans used to rob and ill-treat the pilgrims, and make them
pay great sums of money for leave to come into Jerusalem. At last
a pilgrim, named Peter the Hermit, came home, and got leave from
the Pope to try to go to the Holy Land, and fight to get the Holy
Sepulchre back into Christian hands again. He used to preach in the
open air, and the people who heard him were so stirred up that they
all shouted out, "It is God's will! It is God's will!" And each who
undertook to go and fight in the East received a cross cut out into
cloth, red or white, to wear on his shoulder. Many thousands promised
to go on this crusade, as they called it, among them was Robert, Duke
of Normandy. But he had wasted his money, so that he could not fit out
an army to take with him. So he offered to give up Normandy to his
brother William while he was gone, if William would let him have the
money he wanted. The Red King was very ready to make such a bargain,
and he laughed at the Crusaders, and thought that they were wasting
their time and trouble.
They had a very good man to lead them, named Godfrey de Buillon; and,
after many toils and troubles, they did gain Jerusalem, and could
kneel, weeping, at the Holy Sepulchre. It was proposed to make Robert
King of Jerusalem, but he would not accept the offer, and Godfrey was
made king instead, and staid to guard the holy places, while Duke
Robert set out on his return home.
In the meantime, the Red King had gone on in as fierce and ungodly a
way as ever, laughing good advice to scorn, and driving away the good
Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Anselm, and everyone else who tried to
warn him or withstand his wickedness. One day, in the year 1100, he
went out to hunt deer in the New Forest, which his father had wasted,
laughing and jesting in his rough way. By and by he was found under
an oak tree, with an arrow through his heart; and a wood-cutter took
up his body in his cart, and carried it to Winchester Cathedral, where
is was buried.
Who shot the arrow nobody knew, and nobody ever will know. Some
thought it must be a knight, named Walter Tyrrell, to whom the king
had given three long good arrows that morning. He rode straight away
to Southampton, and went off to the Holy Land; so it is likely that
he knew something about the king's death. But he never seems to have
told any one, whether it was only an accident, or a murder, or who
did it. Anyway, it was a fearful end, for a bad man to die in his
sin, without a moment to repent and pray.