REIGN OF WILLIAM II.
William's Surname--How he obtained the Throne--Rising in favour
of his Brother, Robert--Bishop Odo's Ill-fortune--Surrender of
Rochester Castle--Flight of Odo--Failure of the Conspiracy--Death
of Lanfranc--William's Misrule--Randolf the Firebrand--Appointment
of Anselm to Canterbury--Rufus invades Normandy--Treaty between
the Brothers--Siege of Mount St. Michael--Malcolm Canmore's
Inroad into England--Building of Castle at Carlisle--Death of
Malcolm--Illness of William--His Treachery towards Robert--Welsh
Marauders--Earl Mowbray's Hard Fortune--The King's Exactions--He
obtains possession of Normandy--The Hunt in the New Forest--Death
of the Red King.
William, whose surname of Rufus was derived from the ruddiness of his
countenance, no sooner found himself in possession of his father's letter
to the primate Lanfranc, than he fled from the monastery of St. Gervais,
where William was dying, and hastened to England, in order to secure
possession of the crown.
Sensible that an act so opposed to the laws of primogeniture and the
feudal rights might meet with great opposition from the nobles, he
trusted to his celerity for success, and reached the kingdom before
the news of the king's death arrived. Pretending orders from the dead
monarch, he secured the strong fortresses of Dover, Pevensey, and
Hastings. On his arrival a council of prelates and barons was summoned
to proceed to the election of a sovereign. Robert, who would naturally
be chosen, and his partisans, were in Normandy, while William and his
adherents were on the spot. Besides, Archbishop Lanfranc, who felt
himself bound to obey the last injunction of his benefactor William,
exerted the whole influence of the Church in his favour. Three weeks
after his father's death William II. was proclaimed king, and crowned
with the usual formalities.
As we before stated, the Conqueror on his death-bed commanded the
liberation of his half-brother, Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux. That warlike
prelate, who had recovered some portion of his possessions in Kent, had
long been the enemy of Lanfranc. The prompt compliance of the archbishop
with the letter of the deceased king led William at first to yield
himself entirely to his directions. Odo therefore extended his hatred to
his nephew, and he set himself accordingly to form a party in favour of
the eldest brother, Robert, who was already in possession of the duchy of
Normandy, as well as the county of Maine.
The great point he urged upon the nobles whom he enlisted in the cause of
the last-named prince, was the fact that they held possessions in both
countries, and that it would be much more prudent to hold their lands of
one sovereign only. These representations were not without effect; and
whilst the newly-crowned king held the festival of Easter, the barons,
who had matured their plans, departed to raise the standard of revolt in
various parts of the kingdom--Odo, in Kent; William, Bishop of Durham,
in Northumberland; Geoffrey of Coutances, in Somerset; Roger Montgomery,
in Shropshire; Hugh de Bigod, in Norfolk; and Hugh de Grantmesnil, in
Leicester.
The rising which thus took place might have been formidable if the
movements of the insurgents had been seconded by energetic action on the
part of Robert. That pleasure-loving prince, who had promised to bring
over an army from Normandy, once more sacrificed the prospect of a throne
to his habitual indolence: and Odo waited in vain for the assistance
which was to come across the channel. When at length single ships, with
detachments of the invading forces, ventured from the Norman coast, they
were intercepted and destroyed by English cruisers. The Norman attempt at
invasion was abandoned, and the English insurgents were left to sustain
the shock of the king's forces as best they might.
The first attacks of Rufus were directed against his uncle Odo of Bayeux.
That fierce and turbulent bishop waited his coming at Pevensey, which he
had fortified and garrisoned. This stronghold was taken after a siege
of a few weeks, and Odo fell into the hands of Rufus, who set him at
liberty, on condition of his taking a solemn oath to deliver up Rochester
Castle into the king's possession, and to quit the country immediately
afterwards.
[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF BISHOP ODO FROM ROCHESTER. (_See p._ 126.)]
Rochester Castle was held by Eustace, Count of Boulogne, one of the
warmest partisans of Robert. When Odo arrived before the gates with the
king's escort, and demanded in set form that the keys should be given
up, the count took him prisoner with his guards. This was a stratagem by
which Odo hoped to escape the accusation of perjury, while he continued
his rebellious course of action against the king. As the real commander
of the garrison, this truculent bishop sustained for many weeks the
attacks of his royal nephew, who, with his united forces of English and
Normans, laid siege to the castle. Defied by his own countrymen, the
Red King turned for counsel and assistance to the English. He adopted a
policy of conciliation towards those nobles of English blood who still
retained any influence; he made liberal promises, which afterwards were
only partially fulfilled, and he obtained their adherence to his cause.
The king proclaimed the old English call to battle, "Let every man who is
not a man of nothing,[5] whether he live in burgh or out of burgh, leave
his house and come," and many Englishmen flocked to his standard.
[Illustration: WILLIAM II., SURNAMED RUFUS.]
At length the besieged were subdued by disease and famine, and compelled
to capitulate. They sent to William, informing him of their desire, and
demanding that they should be allowed to retain their lands and titles
under his sovereignty. Rufus at first refused to grant such a permission;
but the Norman troops in his army, who could not forget that the garrison
of the castle were their countrymen, and many of whom may have had
relatives or friends within the walls, made appeals to the mercy of the
king. "We," they said, "who have been with thee in great dangers, entreat
thee to spare our countrymen, who are thine also, and who have fought
with thy father."[6]
After much entreaty, the king permitted the besieged to leave the town
with their arms and horses. Not satisfied with this concession, Odo had
the arrogance to demand that when the garrison quitted the castle the
bugles of the king's troops should not sound in token of triumph, as was
the custom in those days. Rufus replied angrily that he would not grant
such a request for a thousand marks of gold.
The Norman adherents of Robert then passed out of the gates with ensigns
lowered, and amidst the sounds of exultation from the king's troops.
At the sight of Odo, a great clamour arose among the English soldiers.
They remembered the thousand crimes of the soldier-bishop, and cried out
that he was unfit to live. "Ropes! bring ropes!" they shouted; "hang the
traitor bishop and his friends!" Such sounds as these from every side
thundered in the ears of the prelate, and thus, pursued by curses, he
left the country for ever.
Meanwhile the conspirators in another part of the kingdom had met with
ill success. The Earl of Shrewsbury, and with him other Norman nobles,
had collected an army, which was occupied in laying waste the surrounding
country. The earl with his troops set out from Shrewsbury, plundering and
burning towns and villages, and putting many of the inhabitants to the
sword. The progress of this marauding force was stopped on its arrival
before Worcester. The citizens, excited by a deep hatred of their Norman
oppressors, closed the gates, and, conveying their wives and children
into the castle, prepared for a desperate resistance. Headed by their
bishop, who refused to go into the castle, but took the post of danger
on the walls, they gave battle to the besiegers, and having watched
their opportunity when part of the Norman forces were absent on one
of their plundering expeditions, the citizens sallied forth upon the
remainder, and cut many of them to pieces. These reverses proved fatal
to the success of the conspiracy, and Rufus found little difficulty in
dealing with the rest of the insurgent chiefs. Some he won to his side by
promises; others, who still defied him, were quickly subdued, and were
visited with various degrees of punishment, or made their escape into
Normandy, with the loss of their estates. As soon as the insurrection was
quelled, and all danger from that source was at an end, Rufus revoked
the concessions he had made to his English subjects, and before long the
English population were reduced to their previous condition of servitude
and misery.
In the following year (1089) Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, died. If
we compare the acts of his life with those of his contemporaries, and
judge of his character with a due regard to the times in which he lived,
we shall find his memory entitled to our respect. It is said of him that
he was "a wise, politic, and learned prelate, who, whilst he lived,
mollified the furious and cruel nature of King William Rufus, instructing
to forbear such wild and outrageous behaviour as his youth was inclined
unto."[7] The archbishop built various hospitals and almshouses, and
recovered twenty-five manors which had been wrested from the see of
Canterbury. One of these was a large estate which had been seized by Odo,
and which that rapacious bishop was compelled to restore. Removed from
the influence of Lanfranc, the king gave the rein to his debaucheries,
and showed himself "very cruel and inconstant in all his doings, so that
he became a heavy burden unto his people." He appointed no successor to
the primacy, but kept the see of Canterbury vacant four years, seizing
the revenues, and applying them to his own vicious purposes.
Rufus elevated to the offices of royal chaplain and chief minister of
state a Norman priest, named Randolf, who had received the surname of
Le Flambard, or the Firebrand. This man, who was of humble origin, was
of bad character, ambitious, ready-witted, and a willing pander to the
vices of the king. To raise money for his royal master's pleasures, he
increased the burdens of the people; inflicted heavy fines in punishment
of trifling offences; and caused a second survey of the kingdom to
be made, raising the estimated value of estates, and increasing the
royal revenues, at the expense of great suffering throughout the
country. Contentions were continually occurring between the English and
their oppressors. Everywhere the Normans showed themselves cruel and
avaricious, trampling down the conquered race, and treating them as
inferior beings. Flambard, who was Bishop of Lincoln, ruled his diocese
with such tyranny that, as we read in an old chronicle, the inhabitants
wished rather to die than live under his authority.
At length William, seized with remorse after an attack of illness,
appointed Anselm, the Abbot of Bec, to the vacant archbishopric. Anselm
was sorely unwilling. "You would yoke me," said he, "a poor feeble old
sheep, with the savage bull." But he withstood the king with saintly
patience, constantly inveighing against the corruption of the court,
until, in 1097, he was forced to retire from the royal persecution to
Rome.
Meanwhile the Norman fortresses of Albemarle, St. Valery, and others,
were obtained possession of by various means, and were held in the name
of King William; and Conan, a powerful burgess of Rouen, had entered
into the conspiracy, and engaged to betray the capital into the hands of
a lieutenant of Rufus. Robert at length was roused to the dangers which
surrounded him, but finding himself without money to raise troops, he
applied to Philip I., of France, for assistance. Philip responded to the
call, and advanced with an army to the borders of Normandy: but Rufus
sent him a sum of money as a bribe, and the French king returned at once
to his own country.
Robert appealed to his brother Henry, whom he had placed some time before
in possession of a portion of the Norman duchy, in return for a sum of
£3,000 which Henry had advanced. Since that time frequent quarrels had
occurred between them, and it is related that, on one occasion, Henry
was arrested by the duke's orders, and kept for a short time in prison.
However, on receiving Robert's request for succour, Henry came to Rouen,
and rendered his brother important assistance. Reginald de Warrenne,
the lieutenant of Rufus, was driven back and compelled to retreat: the
burgess Conan was taken prisoner, and pushed by Prince Henry, with
deliberate cruelty, through the window of a high tower in the cathedral.
Early in the year 1091, the Red King landed an English army in Normandy,
and advanced into the country. Robert again applied to Philip of France
who exerted himself to arrange a treaty of peace between the two
brothers. By the provisions of this treaty, which was signed at Caen, the
lands of Eu, Albemarle, Fécamp, and others, were assigned to Rufus; and
it was agreed that no further attempt should be made by Robert upon the
English throne. Robert was to be aided to conquer the districts of Maine
and portions of Henry's territory in place of those which he resigned in
Normandy, and William engaged to pardon those barons who had defended
his brother's cause, and to restore to them their titles and lands. The
barons of the two factions agreed that if the king survived the duke, he
was to have possession of Normandy; and if the duke outlived the king, he
should receive the English crown. This treaty was signed by twelve barons
on each side, who swore to maintain its provisions.
Peace had been concluded between the two elder sons of the Conqueror;
but it only produced war between Robert and Rufus, on the one side, and
Henry on the other. Finding that his brothers were combining to despoil
him, Henry seized St. Michael's Mount, a solitary rock on the coast of
Normandy, and in this strong position he sustained a long siege from
the combined armies of his kinsmen. An incident of the siege is related
by some of the old chroniclers to the following effect:--The supply of
water in the castle fell short, and the garrison were reduced to great
distress from thirst. Robert, having been informed of this circumstance,
sent a supply of wine to his brother Henry, and also permitted some of
the people of the castle to fetch water. This conduct incensed William,
who expressed his indignation at such generosity; but Robert replied
that he could not suffer his brother to die of thirst. "Where," said
he, "shall we get another brother when he is gone?" There is another
story told of the same siege, from which it appears that on one occasion
Rufus had a narrow escape from death. The king had ridden out alone to
take a survey of the fortress, when he was suddenly attacked by two of
Henry's soldiers, who struck him from his horse. One of the men was about
to dispatch him, when Rufus called out, "Hold, knave! I am the King of
England!" The soldier threw down his dagger, and raised him from the
ground with professions of respect. It is related that Rufus rewarded the
man with presents, and took him into his service.
According to some accounts, the besieging forces retired without having
obtained possession of the fortress; but the more probable story, and
that which rests on the better authority, is that Prince Henry was
at length obliged to capitulate, and that he was deprived of all his
estates. For two years he wandered about the Continent with a scanty
escort and in great poverty. At length he obtained the government of the
city of Domfront, and in that position he displayed much ability, and
obtained considerable power in the surrounding country.
Meanwhile (1091) Malcolm Canmore had invaded England, and had penetrated
"even to Chester." William sent an army to oppose him, and, according
to some authorities, also fitted out a naval force, which was overtaken
by a storm on the Scottish coast and destroyed.[8] The two armies met
somewhere on the borders of Scotland, but the impending conflict was
prevented by the efforts of Robert of Normandy, who had returned with
William to England, and Edgar Atheling. A treaty of peace was concluded,
by which Malcolm rendered homage to Rufus, as he had done to William the
Conqueror, and was permitted to retain certain lands in Northumberland,
of which he had become possessed.
Soon after (1093) Rufus gave directions for the building of a fortress
at Carlisle, and having sent a number of English to inhabit the town,
he bestowed on them many valuable privileges. This act, if not an
infringement of the recent treaty with Malcolm, was at least a violation
of the rights of that monarch. The earldom of Cumberland had been for
centuries attached to the Scottish crown, and Malcolm demanded its
restitution. A conference took place between the two kings, and Rufus
having refused redress for the injury, Malcolm returned in haste to
Scotland, and carried an army into Northumberland, burning and laying
waste the country. Before Rufus could advance to meet him, the Scottish
monarch had fallen into an ambush, and was killed, together with his
eldest son, at Alnwick. It is related that when the news of the death of
her husband and son was brought to Margaret, the Queen of Scotland, she
bowed her head beneath the stroke, and died within four days afterwards.
[Illustration: GREAT SEAL OF WILLIAM II.]
William, after his return from Carlisle, fell sick at Gloucester; and
being oppressed with the recollection of his many crimes, and probably
deriving little comfort from the ghostly ministrations of Flambard, he
gave signs of repentance, and promised on his recovery to amend his
life. The repentance, however, passed away with the danger, and he is
represented as having become from this time more cruel and debauched than
before.
The king still withholding from his brother Robert the possessions which
were his right, the duke returned to Normandy, and sent heralds to
William, according to the usage of chivalry, denouncing him as a false
and perjured knight, who held possession of lands which he had resigned
by treaty. William went to Normandy to answer the charge, and agreed to
submit to the decision of a court composed of the high Norman nobility.
The award, however, being in favour of Robert, the Red King refused to
abide by the decision, and, leading an army into Normandy, he defeated
the adherents of the duke in several engagements.
Events followed each other closely resembling those which took place
on William's previous expedition against his brother (1094). Robert,
as before, made an appeal to Philip. The disputes between the sons of
the Conqueror would seem to have been a source of considerable profit
to the King of France, and his ready response to the call of Robert was
probably less from a regard for his neighbour's welfare than from a view
to his own interest. Rufus determined to buy him off as he had done
before, and to obtain money for this purpose he devised a scheme in which
he had the assistance of Randolf Flambard. He ordered a levy of 20,000
men in England, and when the troops arrived at Hastings to embark, it
was announced to them that the king was willing to excuse them from the
dangers of the campaign, and that each man would be permitted to return
to his home on payment of ten shillings towards the expenses of the
war. The money raised by this means was paid to Philip, who marched his
forces back to France. The small and ill-appointed army of Robert would
probably now have been overcome, had not affairs in England compelled
Rufus to relinquish the contest.
[Illustration: SURRENDER OF BAMBOROUGH CASTLE. (_See p._ 130.)]
The Welsh had taken advantage of the king's difficulties to invade the
adjoining counties, and "after their accustomed manner,"[9] carried off
the cattle, and plundered and murdered the inhabitants, many of whom they
also made prisoners. They laid siege to the castle of Montgomery, and
took it by assault, slaying all the garrison. William in 1095 marched
hastily into Wales, but found it impossible to reach the marauders, who
kept to the cover of the woods and marshes, and among the mountains,
watching their opportunity to slay any of the English and Norman troops
whom they could reach unawares. Rufus pursued them over the hills; but
his march was attended with heavy loss to his army, and he was at length
compelled to retreat, "not without some note of dishonour." Two other
expeditions met with no better success. Thereupon he left the conquest
of Wales to his nobles, whose eagerness was whetted by grants of land
in the unconquered districts. An army was despatched under the command
of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the Earl of Chester, who re-took the
isle of Anglesea, of which the Welsh had obtained possession.[10] The
inhabitants were maltreated or put to the sword; but, having received
some reinforcements, a battle ensued, in which the Earl of Shrewsbury was
slain. The victory, however, was on the side of the Earl of Chester, who
remained for some time in Wales, desolating the country.
While the Welsh were still unsubdued, Rufus received information of a
powerful confederacy which had been formed against him in the north
of England. The king had reason to suspect some of his nobles of
disaffection, and especially Robert Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, a
powerful noble, whose long absence from court had excited suspicion. A
royal proclamation was issued, calling upon every baron in the kingdom
to appear at court at the approaching festival of Whitsuntide, on pain
of outlawry. The Earl of Northumberland neglected to obey the summons,
and the king immediately marched an army to Newcastle, where he surprised
some of the earl's accomplices. He next besieged and took the castle of
Tynemouth, and thence proceeded to Bamborough, an impregnable fortress,
to which the Earl had retreated with his family.
After various unsuccessful attempts to take this castle by storm,
Rufus, who seems to have inherited much of the military talent of
his father, adopted another plan of attack. He built a wooden fort
opposite Bamborough, calling it _Malvoisin_, or "bad neighbour"; and,
having placed a garrison in it, he withdrew the rest of his army. His
lieutenants were directed to use every opportunity of inflicting damage
upon the adherents of Earl Mowbray, or of gaining possession of his
person.
One night the earl quitted his castle with an escort of only thirty
horsemen. The object with which he did so is variously stated; but the
most probable account is that he was betrayed by some followers of Rufus,
who offered to give up the town of Newcastle into his possession. The
earl was surprised by a body of Norman troops, and while many of his
retinue were cut to pieces, he escaped from his assailants, and took
sanctuary at St. Oswin's monastery, Tynemouth. By the laws of chivalry,
the blackest criminal was safe under the shadow of the Cross; but the
soldiers of William were deterred neither by those laws, nor by any
respect for the sacredness of the place. They pursued the earl to his
sanctuary, and after a desperate resistance made him prisoner.
Having carried Earl Mowbray to Bamborough, and placed him before the
gates of his castle, they demanded a parley with the Countess Matilda.
On her appearance, they exhibited her husband as a prisoner, and told
her that they would put out his eyes before her face unless she at once
gave up the castle into their hands. Matilda is described as having been
remarkable for her beauty; she was young, and had been married to the
earl only a few months before. She did not long hesitate, but ordered the
gates to be thrown open. Among the followers of Mowbray was one through
whom Rufus gained a knowledge of the extent of the conspiracy, and of
the persons implicated in it. The subsequent fate of Mowbray was that of
a living death. His young wife had indeed saved him from blindness, but
he was not the less deprived of the light of day. Condemned to perpetual
imprisonment, he was confined in a dungeon at Windsor Castle, where we
read that he dragged on existence for thirty years afterwards. Another
account, however, has it that he ended his life as a monk.
The property of the banished nobles was plundered by the adherents of
the king, and then left for some time uncultivated, and without owners.
Nevertheless, the people of the town or hundred in which such estates
lay, were compelled to pay the full amount of land tax as before. The
king, also, forcibly raised troops of men to build a wall encircling the
Conqueror's Tower at London, a bridge over the Thames, and, near the West
Minster, a hall or palace of audiences, for the stated assemblies or
assizes of the great barons.[11]
The money which William Rufus paid to his brother for the possession
of Normandy was obtained by inflicting new burdens and exactions upon
his people. "All this," says Holinshed, "was grievous and intolerable,
as well to the spirituality as temporality, so that divers bishops and
abbesses, who had already made away with some of their chalices and
church jewels to pay the king, made now plain answer that they were not
able to help him with any more; unto whom, on the other side, as the
report went, the king said again, 'Have you not, I beseech you, coffins
of gold and silver, full of dead men's bones?' meaning the shrines in
which the relics of saints were enclosed."
The king also argued that there was no sacrilege in taking money obtained
from such a source, for the purpose of prosecuting a holy war, and
delivering the sepulchre of Christ from the hands of the infidel. He
did not choose to remember that the expedition to the Holy Land was one
in which he had no part, and that he required the money, not for that
purpose, but to obtain a worldly possession. If the argument carried
little weight, the force by which it was backed was not to be resisted,
and the spoils of the altar, as well as the hoards of civilians, were
seized in the king's name.
Robert, having resigned his dukedom, and set out for the Holy Land,
William passed over into Normandy to take possession. He was received
with welcome by the Norman nobles, who, if not well disposed towards
their new sovereign were overawed by his power or bought by his gold. The
people of Maine, however, rose in revolt, and, headed by Helie, the Lord
of La Flèche, the insurrection assumed an importance which rendered it
necessary for Rufus to take energetic measures for its repression. He
entered Maine at the head of a large force, but on the interference of
the Count of Anjou and Philip of France, he consented to a truce with the
insurgents, and Helie, having been taken prisoner, was set at liberty, on
tendering his submission, and giving up of Le Mans into the king's hands.
(A.D. 1099.)
The people, however, remained disaffected towards the English king. A
year passed away without any change in this state of things, when one
day, as William was hunting in the New Forest, a messenger came to him
with the intelligence that Helie had obtained possession of the town of
Le Mans, that the inhabitants had joined him, and were besieging the
castle, containing the Norman garrison. Rufus immediately set off for the
sea-coast without waiting for an escort; and when some of his lords came
up with him, as he was about to embark, they counselled him to wait until
troops could be summoned to accompany him. William replied, "Such as love
me, I know well, will follow me," and went at once on shipboard. A storm
was blowing so violently that even the sailors hesitated to set sail; but
the king was determined to proceed, and cried out to the master to weigh
anchor, asking him if he had ever heard of a king that was drowned?
Rufus escaped the storm, and landed next day at Harfleur. When the news
of his advance reached Le Mans the insurgents were struck with dismay.
Helie, forgetting his knightly fame, and the safety of the people,
disbanded his troops and fled at the mere sound of the enemy's approach,
while William passed through the country, dealing ruin and desolation
around him.
On his return to England, the king began, "after his old manner, to spoil
and waste the country by unreasonable exactions," assisted by Randolf
Flambard. Various public buildings, which were erected by Rufus, served
as pretexts for demands of money, most of which was applied to satisfy
his own private extravagance.
In the month of August, 1100, there was held, in the New Forest, a
hunting meeting, at which the king was present. This district, where the
blackened ruins of villages still remained, where the ground had been
watered by the tears and the blood of the miserable inhabitants, murdered
or driven from their homes, where the trees grew thickly in commemoration
of a deed of cruelty which has but few parallels in history--this gloomy
solitude was destined to be the death-scene of Rufus, as it had already
been of two other persons of the Conqueror's blood. In the year 1081,
Richard, the eldest son of William I., had been accidentally killed in
the New Forest; and in May, 1100, Richard, son of Duke Robert and nephew
of Rufus, was killed there accidentally by an arrow. In these successive
calamities, the people thought they saw a retribution for the crime which
had been committed in that place.
On August 2, the king and his court were assembled at Malwood Keep
or Castle, preparing to go a-hunting. A large and noble company were
there making merry, and at the side of the King sat Prince Henry--the
two brothers having become reconciled some time before. Among the
party was a Norman knight, whose name was Sir Walter Tyrrel, Lord of
Poix. The company separated on arriving in the forest, as the custom
was in hunting; the only person who remained near to the king being
Sir Walter Tyrrel. As it drew towards evening a hart suddenly bounding
from a thicket, crossed the path of the king. Rufus drew his bow, but
the shot missed its mark. Tyrrel was placed at some little distance in
the underwood, and the hart, being attacked on both sides, stood for a
moment at bay. Then the king, who had spent all his arrows, called out
to his companion, "Shoot! shoot! in the devil's name!" Tyrrel obeyed,
and the arrow, glancing from a tree, struck the king in the breast,
piercing him to the heart. Rufus fell beside his startled horse, and died
instantaneously. Such is the story most commonly related of the death of
the Red King, but the account is not to be received without reservation.
The facts which may be considered fully authenticated are, that Rufus met
with a violent death in the New Forest, having been shot in the breast
by an arrow. Whether the bow was drawn "at a venture," or by the hand
of a murderer--whether the hand was that of Tyrrel, or of another--are
questions to which no positive answer can be given. Tyrrel, however,
was suspected from the first of having killed the king. He immediately
galloped away to the sea-coast, and took ship for Normandy, whence he
proceeded to seek the protection of the King of France. On arriving there
he swore he had no part in the death of King William; but in those days
few men hesitated either to make or break an oath for a powerful motive,
and, therefore, this circumstance of itself would not be sufficient to
throw discredit on the account already related. The body of the king was
discovered by a poor charcoal burner, by whom it was carried in a cart to
Winchester Cathedral, where it was buried. He died without issue.
[Illustration: ST. HELENA DISCOVERING THE TRUE CROSS.
(_From a Greek MS. of the Ninth Century in the National Library,
Paris._) [_See p._ 135.]]