defeated at Dol and at Gerberoi; his son Robert in the period
between his two quarrels had failed in an expedition against
Scotland; he had just lost his son Richard in the New Forest;
and in 1083 he lost his wife, to whom he was deeply attached.
Meanwhile Odo had been ruling with extreme severity. In suppressing
an insurrection in Northumberland he had been guilty of extortion
and of cruel punishment even of the innocent. In his general
government he seems to have been extremely avaricious. In the
year 1082 his wealth and pride had risen to such a point that he
thought of attaining to the Papacy. This he intended to secure by
violent means. He purchased a magnificent palace in Rome to win the
favour of the people, and even collected an army, in which Hugh
of Chester took service, to cross the Apennines. William met him
and apprehended him at the Isle of Wight; nor could the complaints
of the Pope, which we cannot conceive to have been very earnest,
produce any effect. He was seized, as the King affirmed, not as
Bishop but as Earl of Kent, and remained in prison till the King’s
death. Odo’s oppressions had been very severe, and the condition
of England no doubt had become much worse since the complete
subjugation of the country, and now, in addition to a famine which
had just wasted the country, a heavy direct tax was laid on all
land, and worse than that, a vast host of foreign mercenaries
was quartered on all the King’s tenants, for a great danger was
threatening.
[Sidenote: Cnut’s threatened invasion. 1084.]
[Sidenote: The Domesday Book. 1085.]
Cnut was on the throne of Denmark. He had been one of the
commanders in Swend’s disastrous expeditions; he had married
Adela the daughter of Robert of Flanders, one of William’s chief
Continental enemies, and had now determined to invade England. He
had induced the King of Norway to join him, and their combined
fleets were expected. William took ruthless precautions against his
enemies. The old tax of the Danegelt was reimposed, and all the
land along the coast was laid waste. The people were even ordered
to shave and change their dresses, that the Danes might not easily
recognize them. Disputes among the leaders, and the death of
Cnut, prevented the invasion. But it was probably the difficulties
which William had found in collecting his taxes and troops on this
occasion which induced him to set on foot the great survey which
produced the Domesday Book. For this purpose commissioners were
appointed, who went through England, and in each shire inquired
of the sheriff, priests, reeves, and representatives of the
inhabitants, the condition of the land and its value, as compared
with what it had been in the reign of the Confessor. The whole of
this great work was completed in one year. On its completion a
great assembly was held on Salisbury Plain. It was, in fact, a vast
review, attended by no less than 60,000 persons. In this assembly
was passed the important ordinance which ordered that every man
should be not only the man of his immediate lord, but also the
man of the king. This was in direct opposition to the usual rule
in feudal countries. The whole assembly took the oath to William.
This great piece of work, which rendered England one nation, was a
fitting conclusion to William’s reign.
[Sidenote: William’s death and burial. 1087. Sept. 9.]
In the following year a war broke out for the possession of the
Vexin claimed by the King of France. Angered by a coarse jest of
that monarch, William entered the country and ruthlessly ravaged
it, and at the destruction of the town of Mantes, his horse stepped
upon a burning coal and threw him forward upon the pummel of the
saddle; the bulk of the King aggravated the injury, which in a few
days caused his death. Before he died he released his prisoners. No
sooner had the breath left his body than his attendants are said
to have fled. He owed his burial not to his son, but to the kind
offices of a neighbouring knight, and when brought to his Church
of St. Stephen’s at Caen, it was not till the clergy had paid the
price of the grave that Anselm Fitz-Arthur, whose property had been
seized to make room for the Church, would allow his body to be
buried.
WILLIAM II.
1087-1100.
CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.
_Scotland._ | _France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._
| | |
Malcolm III., 1057. | Philip I., | Henry IV., | Alphonso VI.,
Donald Bane, 1093. | 1060. | 1056. | 1072.
Duncan, 1094. |
Donald Bane, 1094. |
Edgar, 1097. |
POPES.--Urban II., 1088. Pascal II., 1099.
_Archbishops._ | _Chief-Justices._ | _Chancellors._
| |
Lanfranc, 1070-1089. | Odo of Bayeux, 1087. | William Giffard, 1087.
Anselm, 1093-1109. | William de S. Carilepho, | Robert Bloett, 1090.
| 1088. | Waldric, 1093.
| Ranulf Flambard, 1094. | William Giffard, 1094.
[Sidenote: 1087.]
While the late King was on his deathbed, he had been induced to
declare his wishes with regard to his kingdoms. In pursuance,
perhaps, of a wise policy, and with the wish to keep up and
increase the nationality of England, he gave his hereditary
dominions to his son Robert, England to his second son William. He
told his son Henry to bide his time, and gave him £5000 in money.
[Sidenote: William is crowned by Lanfranc, and appeases the English.]
[Sidenote: Opposition of the Normans checked. 1088.]
William at once hurried to England to secure his succession, and,
winning the support of Lanfranc, was in less than three weeks
crowned by him. At Winchester he found the King’s treasure, from
which he distributed gifts among the churches in England, and a sum
of money for the poor in every shire. A promise of laws more just
and mild than their forefathers had known, attached the English to
him for a time. Thus supported by the Church and by the conquered
people, who could not but rejoice at the separation of England from
Normandy, it was only the Norman Baronage he had to fear.
In Normandy the character of the new Duke Robert, who was a mere
knight-errant, induced the great nobility to get rid of the royal
garrisons from their castles, and otherwise to establish their
feudal independence. A similar movement was begun in England,
where Odo of Bayeux, liberated at the late King’s death, had
returned to his county of Kent, and now found himself at the head
of a strong party who disliked the separation of their conquered
possessions from their hereditary property. Among the adherents of
the party we find such names as the two great bishops, Geoffrey of
Coutances and William of Durham, Robert, Count of Mortain, Roger of
Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, his son Robert of Belesme, and Hugh
of Grantmesnil, with others. Odo occupied the castle of Rochester,
and against it William led a body of English, collected by a threat
that all who had remained behind should be proclaimed “nithing,”
or worthless. The efforts of the discontented barons in other
parts of England were checked, and finally the castle of Rochester
was captured. Odo of Bayeux and the Normans of the garrison were
allowed to march out, which they did amid the revilings of the
besiegers, and to retire to France. The King thus secured his
position in England.
[Sidenote: Lanfranc dies. Ralph Flambard succeeds him. 1089.]
He had hitherto been kept in some restraint by the influence
of Lanfranc; but when that prelate died in 1089, his coarse,
licentious, sceptical and avaricious character began to display
itself. His chief minister was Ralph Flambard, a Churchman, who,
like many others, was of low parentage, but who seems to have
recommended himself to William by his skill as a financier. One of
the plans attributed to him was a more accurate completion of the
Domesday survey, and the measurement of the hides of land there
returned. This would have been harmless enough, but there must have
been many other more flagrant exactions, though very likely covered
by some form of law, to account for the hatred with which he was
regarded. Although his office is not mentioned, he was probably
justiciary.
[Sidenote: William’s quarrels with his brothers in Normandy. 1090.]
While England was groaning under the exactions of this man, so
that “men would rather wish to die, than to live under his power,”
the attention of the King was chiefly engaged in intrigues with
the nobles of Normandy. The easy character of Duke Robert, and the
rising anarchy among the nobles, afforded abundant opportunity. On
one occasion it was the citizen Conan of Rouen with whom he was
in correspondence; and when this plot was discovered, and Prince
Henry, at that time acting with Duke Robert, had thrown the traitor
from the cathedral tower, it was a quarrel between Grantmesnil
and Curci on the one side, and Robert of Belesme on the other,
which gave him an opportunity of mixing in the affairs of the
duchy. In 1091, however, the brothers came to an agreement, and a
treaty was made at Caen, by which they engaged that the survivor
should succeed to the possessions of his brother; and meanwhile
Eu, Fécamp, Mont S. Michel, Cherbourg, and some other territories,
were given to William, who in return promised to conquer Maine for
Robert. Twelve barons of either party swore to the observance of
this treaty.
[Sidenote: Feb. 1091.]
[Sidenote: Henry obtains Domfront.]
Prince Henry, finding himself completely ignored by this
arrangement, took possession of the rock of St. Michel, and bade
defiance to his brothers. After a siege of some duration he was
driven thence; but in the general anarchy of the duchy he found a
home at Domfront, where the citizens begged him to be their lord,
on the condition that he would not give them up to any other. It
is doubtful whether he could have kept possession of this strong
place, had not William’s attention been engaged by the affairs of
Scotland.
[Sidenote: War with Scotland. 1091.]
[Sidenote: 1093.]
Malcolm had renewed hostilities, and William found it necessary to
march in person against him. His expedition was not successful.
The weather destroyed a fleet which accompanied it, and, by its
inclemency, caused much loss to his army. His presence, however,
was sufficient in some degree to overawe Malcolm; a compromise
was effected; Malcolm again did homage, and received back certain
properties in England of which he had been deprived, and which
were perhaps manors which had been given him as resting-places
when he came to do homage to his suzerain. At the same time,
William turned aside into the district of Cumberland, which was a
dependency of the Scotch crown. He re-established Carlisle, and
filled the county with peasants brought from the South of England
from destroyed villages in the neighbourhood of Winchester. In this
he disregarded the interests of the Scotch King, the immediate lord
of the country, who therefore complained, and was invited to meet
William at the next assembly at Gloucester. There, on the refusal
of William to do him justice, a new quarrel broke out, and Malcolm
was shortly afterwards killed, while invading England, at Alnwick,
by Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland.
[Sidenote: Continued war with Wales. 1094.]
In the neighbourhood of Wales, too, fighting was almost perpetual.
Not only did the great Earldoms of Shrewsbury and Chester increase
their borders, but many knights took advantage of the frequent
civil divisions of the Welsh to push westward and set up their
castles. The course of the war had lately been in favour of the
Welsh rather than of the Normans, and in 1095 William thought
it necessary to lead an army against them. His attempt was not
successful, nor was a repetition of it two years later more so. The
nature of the ground was too difficult for the advance of a great
army, and William, thus a second time repelled, had again to trust
to the self-interest and courage of individual Norman settlers.
This plan he strengthened by granting to Normans portions of land
as yet unconquered. Thus two members of the house of Montgomery,
brothers of Hugh, Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger and Arnulf, did homage
for lands in Powys and Dyfed, and Hugh de Lacy for lands to the
west of Herefordshire. This guerilla warfare was successful, and
Hugh of Chester was just succeeding in winning back Anglesey, which
had been taken from him, when an invasion of Magnus of Norway
checked for the time the Norman success. The Earl of Shrewsbury,
while assisting Hugh of Chester, lost his life, and was succeeded
by Robert de Belesme, his brother. On the whole, the English
frontier constantly advanced, and the border counties were thronged
with castles either of the great Earls or of individual adventurers.
[Sidenote: Troubles in Normandy. 1094.]
[Sidenote: Conspiracy of Mowbray crushed.]
[Sidenote: William obtains Normandy from Robert. 1096.]
[Sidenote: Size of his dominions at his death, 1100.]
Intrigues and irregular fighting had meanwhile been constant in
Normandy. In 1094 King Philip of France had been called in by
Robert, but nothing of importance arose from this. But it gave
rise to a curious act of extortion on the part of William, who
summoned 20,000 men from England, evidently the old English County
Militia, and on their arrival at the coast dismissed them, taking
from them the ten shillings a head, viaticum, or journey-money,
they had received from their counties. In 1095 a great conspiracy
of the nobles in England, headed by Mowbray of Northumberland,
came to light. Mowbray threw himself into Bamborough castle, which
could not itself be taken, but immediately opposite to it another
castle, called Malvoisin, was raised, and the garrison of this
“ill-neighbour” found means to decoy Mowbray out of his stronghold
and to take him prisoner. The danger which threatened William was
thus got over; while the following year the object of his wishes
came into his hands, when Robert, eager to join a crusade which
had just been preached, pledged Normandy to him for the sum of
£6,666. His new situation as ruler of Normandy brought William into
hostility with the neighbouring countries, and especially with
Maine, where Hélie de la Fléche made head against him, and, with
the assistance of Fulk IV. of Anjou, succeeded in beating him off
from Le Mans. William’s power was now, in spite of this repulse,
very great, and the King of France, with whom he became involved
in war in 1097 on the old subject of the Vexin, looked with
anxiety at the growth of his great vassal, especially when a close
friendship arose between him and the Duke of Poitiers and Guienne.
This conjunction, giving the English King a grasp of France all
round the seaboard, made men believe that his ambition reached to
the throne of France, especially as Philip had but one son, Louis.
The strange death of William put an end to all such thoughts. He
was hunting in the New Forest, whither he had been warned not to
go, and there met his death; whether by an accidental arrow from
the bow of Walter Tyrrel, or falling forward upon the point of an
arrow as he stooped over his prey, or slain by the hands of some of
those whom his cruelty and avarice had made his implacable enemies,
is uncertain. The flight of his attendants, and the unceremonious
treatment of his corpse, seemed to favour the last supposition.
[Sidenote: Causes of William’s inferiority to his father.]
In spite then of his unamiable character; of the difficulties
which had beset him from his somewhat questionable title; of
the natural impulse towards feudal isolation of his barons; of
troublesome neighbours; and occasional want of success in his
expeditions; Rufus had on the whole succeeded in his plans, as
far as his external circumstances were concerned. It was in his
domestic government, especially with regard to the Church, that
his inferiority to his great father is most obvious. Unlike the
Conqueror, he was unable to see, or if he saw, to care for the
national advantages which sprung from a well-organized Church. With
a similar determination to be a perfect king in his own dominions,
he asserted that opinion by violent acts against the Church itself,
by appointments of the worst description, and by a life from which
all show of decency was banished. As long as Lanfranc lived, he
kept some restraint upon himself, but upon his death he began to
show his real temper.
[Sidenote: Disputes with the Church.]
[Sidenote: Bishoprics left vacant.]
[Sidenote: Repenting after illness, he makes Anselm Archbishop.]
[Sidenote: Anselm unwillingly accepts. 1093.]
[Sidenote: Anselm’s reforms.]
[Sidenote: William opposes him.]
It was a critical time in the history of the Church. The quarrel
about investitures was raging in Europe. The skill of Lanfranc
and the power of the Conqueror had, as we have seen, prevented
the quarrel from reaching England during that King’s reign; and
to the end of Gregory’s life, 1085, he had kept up friendly, even
flattering, relations with the English King. When Henry IV. had, in
1080, raised the Anti-Pope Guibert to the Papal throne under the
name of Clement III., Lanfranc had contrived not to commit himself
to either party, but, on the whole, it is probable, that during his
life the regular Popes, Victor III. and Urban II., who succeeded
him in 1088, were acknowledged in England. On his death advantage
was taken of the Schism practically to acknowledge neither Pope,
and to leave the abbeys and bishoprics vacant. Indeed, we are told
that it was openly asserted that it was a privilege of the King
of England to acknowledge the Pope or not as he pleased. Thus for
four years the archbishopric was unfilled, along with several other
important ecclesiastical preferments, and the want of discipline in
the Church grew worse and worse. Ralph Flambard, as administrator
of the diocese of Lincoln, was unlimited in his extortions. The
Norman Church dignitaries marched between lines of armed men to
church. The Bishop of Wells demolished the houses of the canons to
build his own palace, and even the religious and moral scruples of
the English monks were laughed at by their licentious superiors.
In 1093 the King fell very ill, and for the time became repentant
and religious; he proceeded to listen to the wishes of his people
and fill up the vacant appointments. The most important of these
was the archbishopric. For this post he selected Anselm of Aosta,
Abbot of Bec. This man was a Piedmontese, who had been attracted to
Normandy by the fame of Lanfranc, and had entered the Abbey of Bec
under him. Upon Lanfranc’s removal to Caen he was made Prior, and
afterwards Abbot. Both his character and attainments commanded the
veneration of the age; and at the present time he had been invited
by Hugh the Fat, Earl of Chester, to come over and assist him in
establishing a Benedictine abbey at Chester. For this purpose, and
charged with a mission from his monastery, he was induced much
against his will to come to England. In the first access of the
King’s repentance--after issuing a royal proclamation promising
afresh the freedom of captives, the good laws of King Edward, and
the punishment of evil-doers--he proceeded so far to action as to
appoint Anselm Archbishop. It was not without something like actual
violence that Anselm was forced to accept the Episcopal staff. The
great importance of the primacy and Anselm’s view of the King’s
character are well shown by some words that are attributed to him:
“England’s plough is drawn by two supereminent oxen, the King and
the Archbishop of Canterbury.... Of these oxen one is dead, and the
other, fierce as a savage bull, is yoked young to the plough, and
in place of the dead ox you would yoke me a poor feeble old sheep
with the wild bull.” The feeble old sheep, however, was a very
decided ecclesiastic. He insisted at once upon the restoration of
the whole of the lands of the See of Canterbury, more even than
Lanfranc had held. He declared that he would publicly acknowledge
Pope Urban. And when, after his consecration, on his presenting
the King with £500 of silver, the King demanded £1000, he withdrew
his intended present and distributed all to the poor. Nor was it
as a defender of ecclesiastical rights that he was pre-eminent. He
set himself to check as far as it was possible the shameless and
abominable vice that was rampant in England. Among other signs of
the degraded licentiousness of the times was the effeminate foppery
of the courtiers. Against their long hair and sharp-peaked shoes
the Archbishop was never weary of inveighing. The King’s absence
from England put an end for a time to the disputes between the
Archbishop and the King, but upon his return Anselm demanded leave
to obtain his pall from Pope Urban. This open acknowledgment of
the Pope William wished to avoid, and at a council, summoned to
consider the matter, the deposition of Anselm appears to have been
suggested. The bishops, creatures of the King, basely deserted
their chief; and the wisdom of the Baronage of England, under the
guidance of Robert, Count of Mellent, who throughout this and the
preceding reign appears as the good adviser to the sons of the
Conqueror, alone saved him from that disgrace. Unable to refuse
Anselm’s wish absolutely, the King contrived to persuade the Pope
to send _him_ the pall, but Anselm stoutly refused to receive
it from secular hands, and ultimately triumphed so far as to be
allowed to take it himself from the high altar of the Cathedral of
Canterbury. For the moment the primate was triumphant, the cowardly
bishops sought his absolution. Bishoprics which fell vacant were at
once filled up. The Irish and Scotch prelates acknowledged Anselm’s
superiority. But William, cunning and implacable, was not to be
thus foiled. If the churchman could not be touched, the feudal
tenant could; and Anselm was accused of insufficient performance
of his duty in supplying military followers for an expedition into
Wales. In 1097, unable to withstand the royal violence, he left
England, and made his way to Rome. He there was present at two
great councils, that of Bari in 1098, where the orthodox doctrine
as to the Holy Ghost was established; and one at Rome in 1099,
where a curse was laid on all laymen who conferred ecclesiastical
investitures and upon all churchmen who received them. Upon
William’s death Anselm returned to England.
HENRY I.
1100-1135.
Born 1068 = Matilda of Scotland.
|
+--------------+----------------+
| |
William, Duke of Normandy. Henry V. = Matilda = Geoffrey of Anjou.
d. 1119. d. 1167. |
|
Henry II.
CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.
_Scotland._ | _France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._
| | |
Edgar, 1097. | Philip I., 1060. | Henry IV., 1056. | Alphonso VI., 1072.
Alexander I., | Louis VI., 1108. | Henry V., 1106. | Alphonso VII.,1109.
1106. | Lothaire II., | | Alphonso VIII.,
David I., 1124. | 1125. | | 1134.
POPES.--Pascal II., 1099. Gelasius II., 1118. Calixtus II., 1119.
Honorius II., 1124. Innocent II., 1130.
_Archbishops._ | _Chief-Justices._ | _Chancellors._
| |
Anselm, 1093-1109. | Robert Bloett, 1100. | William Giffard, 1100.
Ralph of Escures, | Roger the Poor, Bishop | Roger the Poor, 1101.
1114-1122. | of Salisbury, 1107. | William Giffard, 1103.
William of Corbeil, | | Waldric, 1104.
1123-1135. | | Ranulf, 1108.
| | Geoffrey Rufus, 1124.
[Sidenote: Henry secures the Crown. 1100.]
[Sidenote: He conciliates all classes.]
Henry had been hunting in the New Forest when his brother
William was killed, and rode at once to Winchester to secure the
King’s treasure. As the rights of primogeniture had not yet been
established, and he was very obviously a fitter man to be King than
his brother Robert, the slight opposition offered by the treasurer
was speedily overruled, and the Sunday following (August 5, 1100)
he was crowned at Westminster. To secure his position, however, he
found it necessary to conciliate all parties. The Church he won
by the immediate filling of vacant sees, and by the recall of the
exiled Anselm. William Giffard, the chancellor of Rufus, was made
Bishop of Winchester; Girard of Hereford, Archbishop of York; while
both Norman and Saxon laity were bound to him by a charter, by
which he laid some constitutional restrictions upon the despotism
established by his father. In that charter he promised to abolish
all oppressive duties, and to confine his demands to his just
claims as feudal lord; rendering the same agreement obligatory on
his tenants towards their vassals. False coining was checked, the
right of leaving personal property by will granted, and the law
of King Edward, which meant the old institutions of the country,
re-established. He likewise thought it well to win the heart of
the people by marrying a Princess of English descent, Matilda,
niece of Eadgar Ætheling, daughter of Margaret and Malcolm of
Scotland. Further to show his disapproval of his brother’s policy,
he arrested Ralph Flambard, who, however, found means to escape to
Normandy, and was made Bishop of Lisieux.
[Sidenote: His policy.]