=Source.=--_The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, ed. Thorpe, vol. i., p. 353.
(Rolls Series.)
After the birth-tide of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand and seven
and eighty winters, in the one and twentieth year that William ruled
and governed England, as God permitted him, there befel a most heavy
and most pestilent year in this land. Such a sickness came on men that
wellnigh every other man was in the worst evil, that is with the fever,
and that so sorely that many men died of the evil. Afterwards there
came, through the great tempests which befel, as we told before, a very
great famine over all England, so that many hundred men woefully met
their death through that famine. Ah! how woeful and how rueful a time
was then, when the wretched men lay driven full nigh to death, and
thereafter came the sharp hunger and destroyed them withal. Whom can
such times not touch? and who is so hard of heart that he cannot weep
for such misfortune? But such things befal for a folk’s sins, because
they will not love God and righteousness; so it was in those days that
little righteousness was in this land with any man, but with the monks
only, where they fared well. The king and the chief men loved much and
overmuch the getting of gold and of silver, and cared not how sinfully
it were gotten, if only it came to them. The king granted his land for
as dear a rent as he could; then came some other and offered more than
the other gave before, and the king let it to the man who offered him
more; then came a third and offered yet more, and the king let it to
the man who offered him most of all; and he cared not how sinfully the
reeves got it from poor men, nor how many unlawful things they did,
but the more men spake of right laws, the more unlawful things they
did. They gathered unjust tolls, and many other unjust things they did,
which are hard to number.
And in the same year before harvest the holy minster of St. Paul,
the bishop’s see in London, was burned, and many other minsters, and
the greatest and fairest part of all that borough. So also, at the
same time, wellnigh every chief town in all England was burned. Ah! a
rueful and sorrowful time was that year, which brought forth so many
misfortunes. Also in the same year before the Assumption of St. Mary
(15 August) king William went from Normandy into France with a host and
made war upon his own lord, Philip the king, and slew a great part of
his men, and burned the borough of Mantes and all the holy monasteries
that were within the borough; and two holy men, who served God dwelling
in a hermitage, were there burned. This so done, king William turned
again to Normandy. A rueful thing he did, and a more rueful thing befel
him. How more rueful? He fell sick and was sorely stricken. What can
I say? Sharp death that passes by neither mighty men nor humble, took
him. He died in Normandy on the day next after the Nativity of St.
Mary (9 September), and he was buried at Caen in the monastery of St.
Stephen, which he had formerly built and afterwards richly endowed.
Ah! how false and how unstable is the wealth of this world. He who was
before a mighty king and lord of many a land had then of all his land
but a seven foot strip, and he who was once decked with gold and with
gems lay then covered over with mould....
If any one will know what sort of a man he was, or what worship he
had, or of how many lands he was lord, then will we write of him as we
understood him, who looked upon him and at another time dwelt in his
court. King William, of whom we speak, was a very wise man and very
mighty, and worthier and stronger than were any of his predecessors.
He was gentle to the good men who loved God, and beyond all measure
severe to the men who withstood his will. On the same spot where
God granted to him that he should conquer England, he built a noble
monastery and set monks there and well endowed it. In his days was
built the noble monastery at Canterbury, and also full many others
over all England. Yea! this land was filled with monks, and they lived
their life after the rule of St. Benedict, and Christianity was such
in his day that every man that would followed what belonged to his
degree. Also he was full worshipful; thrice he bare his crown each year
as oft as he was in England; at Easter he bare it in Winchester, on
Whitsunday at Westminster, at Midwinter in Gloucester. And then there
were with him all the mighty men over all England, archbishops and
bishops, abbots and earls, thegns and knights. So also was he a full
stern and cruel man, so that none durst do anything against his will.
He had earls in his bonds who had done against his will; bishops he put
away from their bishoprics, and abbots from their abbeys, and thegns he
put in prison, and at last he spared not his own brother Odo. He was a
very great bishop in Normandy, at Bayeux was his bishop’s see, and he
was the foremost man beside the king. He had an earldom in England, and
when the king was in Normandy, then was he the mightiest in this land;
and him he put in prison.
Among other things is not to be forgotten the good peace that he made
in this land, so that a man who himself were aught might fare unhurt
throughout his realm with his bosom full of gold. And no man durst
slay another man, how much evil soever he had done to the other....
He reigned over England and by his wisdom so well surveyed it, that
there was not a hide of land in England that he knew not who had it, or
what it was worth, and afterwards set it in his book. Wales was in his
lordship, and he wrought castles therein and ruled over that race of
men withal. So also he subdued Scotland to him by his great strength.
The land of Normandy was his by heritage, and he ruled over the county
called Maine, and if he might have lived yet two years more, he would
have won Ireland by his valour, and without any weapons.
Truly in his time men had much hardship and full many troubles. He
caused castles to be built and poor men to be sore oppressed. The
king was so very stern and took from his subjects many a mark of gold
and more hundred pounds of silver, which he took by weight and with
much unright from his people for little need. He was fallen upon
covetousness and greed he loved withal. He planted a great deer forest
and laid down laws for the same that whosoever slew hart or hind should
be blinded. He forbade that the harts and also the boars be slain;
so much he loved the high deer, as he had been their father. Also
he ordained for the hares, that they should go free. His mighty men
grieved and the poor men murmured thereat, but he was so hard that he
cared not for the hatred of them all, and they must follow the king’s
will withal, if they would live or hold land or chattels, or even have
his peace. Ah! that any man should be so haughty and lift himself
up and count himself above all men. May God Almighty shew his soul
lovingkindness and forgive him his sins. These things we have written
of him, both the good and the evil, that good men may follow after the
good and altogether eschew the evil, and go in the way that leads us to
the kingdom of heaven.