BIRTH OF WILLIAM.
A.D. 912-1033
Castle at Falaise.--Present ruins of the castle.--Scenery of the town
and castle.--Wall and buildings.--Watch-towers.--Sentinels.--Enchanting
prospect.--Chronological history of the Norman line.--Rollo.--William
I., second duke.--Richard I., third duke.--Richard II., fourth
duke.--Richard III., fifth duke.--Intrigues of Robert.--He becomes
the sixth duke.--Robert and Henry.--William's mother.--Robert's
first meeting with Arlotte.--He is captivated.--Robert sends
for Arlotte.--Scruples of her father.--Arlotte sent to the
castle.--Robert's affection for her.--Birth of William.--The nurse's
prediction.--William's childhood.--He is a universal favorite.--Robert
determines to visit the Holy Land.--Dangers of the journey.--He makes
William his heir.--Surprise of the assembly.--The nobles do homage to
William.--William is taken to Paris.--He is presented to the French
king.
Although Rouen is now very far before all the other cities of Normandy
in point of magnitude and importance, and though Rollo, in his conquest
of the country, made it his principal head-quarters and his main
stronghold, it did not continue exclusively the residence of the dukes
of Normandy in after years. The father of William the Conqueror was
Robert, who became subsequently the duke, the sixth in the line. He
resided, at the time when William was born, in a great castle at
Falaise. Falaise, as will be seen upon the map, is west of Rouen, and it
stands, like Rouen, at some distance from the sea. The castle was built
upon a hill, at a little distance from the town. It has long since
ceased to be habitable, but the ruins still remain, giving a picturesque
but mournful beauty to the eminence which they crown. They are often
visited by travelers, who go to see the place where the great hero and
conqueror was born.
The hill on which the old castle stands terminates, on one side, at the
foot of the castle walls, in a precipice of rocks, and on two other
sides, also, the ascent is too steep to be practicable for an enemy. On
the fourth side there is a more gradual declivity, up which the fortress
could be approached by means of a winding roadway. At the foot of this
roadway was the town. The access to the castle from the town was
defended by a ditch and draw-bridge, with strong towers on each side of
the gateway to defend the approach. There was a beautiful stream of
water which meandered along through the valley, near the town, and,
after passing it, it disappeared, winding around the foot of the
precipice which the castle crowned. The castle inclosures were shut in
with walls of stone of enormous thickness; so thick, in fact, they were,
that some of the apartments were built in the body of the wall. There
were various buildings within the inclosure. There was, in particular,
one large, square tower, several stories in height, built of white
stone. This tower, it is said, still stands in good preservation. There
was a chapel, also, and various other buildings and apartments within
the walls, for the use of the ducal family and their numerous retinue
of servants and attendants, for the storage of munitions of war, and for
the garrison. There were watch-towers on the corners of the walls, and
on various lofty projecting pinnacles, where solitary sentinels watched,
the livelong day and night, for any approaching danger. These sentinels
looked down on a broad expanse of richly-cultivated country, fields
beautified with groves of trees, and with the various colors presented
by the changing vegetation, while meandering streams gleamed with their
silvery radiance among them, and hamlets of laborers and peasantry were
scattered here and there, giving life and animation to the scene.
We have said that William's father was Robert, the sixth Duke of
Normandy, so that William himself, being his immediate successor, was
the seventh in the line. And as it is the design of these narratives not
merely to amuse the reader with what is entertaining as a tale, but to
impart substantial historical knowledge, we must prepare the way for the
account of William's birth, by presenting a brief chronological view of
the whole ducal line, extending from Rollo to William. We recommend to
the reader to examine with special attention this brief account of
William's ancestry, for the true causes which led to William's invasion
of England can not be fully appreciated without thoroughly understanding
certain important transactions in which some members of the family of
his ancestors were concerned before he was born. This is particularly
the case with the Lady Emma, who, as will be seen by the following
summary, was the sister of the third duke in the line. The extraordinary
and eventful history of her life is so intimately connected with the
subsequent exploits of William, that it is necessary to relate it in
full, and it becomes, accordingly, the subject of one of the subsequent
chapters of this volume.
_Chronological History of the Norman Line._
ROLLO, first Duke of Normandy.
From A.D. 912 to A.D. 917.
It was about 870 that Rollo was banished from Norway, and a few years
after that, at most, that he landed in France. It was not, however,
until 912 that he concluded his treaty of peace with Charles, so as to
be fully invested with the title of Duke of Normandy.
He was advanced in age at this time, and, after spending five years in
settling the affairs of his realm, he resigned his dukedom into the
hands of his son, that he might spend the remainder of his days in rest
and peace. He died in 922, five years after his resignation.
WILLIAM I., second Duke of Normandy.
From 917 to 942.
William was Rollo's son. He began to reign, of course, five years before
his father's death. He had a quiet and prosperous reign of about
twenty-five years, but he was assassinated at last by a political enemy,
in 942.
RICHARD I., third Duke of Normandy.
From 942 to 996.
He was only ten years old when his father was assassinated. He became
involved in long and arduous wars with the King of France, which
compelled him to call in the aid of more Northmen from the Baltic. His
new allies, in the end, gave him as much trouble as the old enemy, with
whom they came to help William contend; and he found it very hard to get
them away. He wanted, at length, to make peace with the French king, and
to have them leave his dominions; but they said, "That was not what they
came for."
Richard had a beautiful daughter, named Emma, who afterward became a
very important political personage, as will be seen more fully in a
subsequent chapter.
Richard died in 996, after reigning fifty-four years.
RICHARD II., fourth Duke of Normandy.
From 996 to 1026.
Richard II. was the son of Richard I., and as his father had been
engaged during his reign in contentions with his sovereign lord, the
King of France, he, in his turn, was harassed by long-continued
struggles with his vassals, the barons and nobles of his own realm. He,
too, sent for Northmen to come and assist him. During his reign there
was a great contest in England between the Saxons and the Danes, and
Ethelred, who was the Saxon claimant to the throne, came to Normandy,
and soon afterward married the Lady Emma, Richard's sister. The
particulars of this event, from which the most momentous consequences
were afterward seen to flow, will be given in full in a future chapter.
Richard died in 1026. He left two sons, Richard and Robert. William the
Conqueror was the son of the youngest, and was born two years before
this Richard II. died.
RICHARD III., fifth Duke of Normandy.
From 1026 to 1028.
He was the oldest brother, and, of course, succeeded to the dukedom. His
brother Robert was then only a baron--his son William, afterward the
Conqueror, being then about two years old. Robert was very ambitious and
aspiring, and eager to get possession of the dukedom himself. He adopted
every possible means to circumvent and supplant his brother, and, as is
supposed, shortened his days by the anxiety and vexation which he caused
him; for Richard died suddenly and mysteriously only two years after his
accession. It was supposed by some, in fact, that he was poisoned,
though there was never any satisfactory proof of this.
ROBERT, sixth Duke of Normandy.
From 1028 to 1035.
Robert, of course, succeeded his brother, and then, with the
characteristic inconsistency of selfishness and ambition, he employed
all the power of his realm in helping the King of France to subdue his
younger brother, who was evincing the same spirit of seditiousness and
insubmission that he had himself displayed. His assistance was of great
importance to King Henry; it, in fact, decided the contest in his favor;
and thus one younger brother was put down in the commencement of his
career of turbulence and rebellion, by another who had successfully
accomplished a precisely similar course of crime. King Henry was very
grateful for the service thus rendered, and was ready to do all in his
power, at all times, to co-operate with Robert in the plans which the
latter might form. Robert died in 1035, when William was about eleven
years old.
And here we close this brief summary of the history of the ducal line,
as we have already passed the period of William's birth; and we return,
accordingly, to give in detail some of the particulars of that event.
[Illustration: WILLIAM AND ARLOTTE.]
* * * * *
Although the dukes of Normandy were very powerful potentates, reigning,
as they did, almost in the character of independent sovereigns, over one
of the richest and most populous territories of the globe, and though
William the Conqueror was the son of one of them, his birth was
nevertheless very ignoble. His mother was not the wife of Robert his
father, but a poor peasant girl, the daughter of an humble tanner of
Falaise; and, indeed, William's father, Robert, was not himself the duke
at this time, but a simple baron, as his father was still living. It
was not even certain that he ever would be the duke, as his older
brother, who, of course, would come before him, was also then alive.
Still, as the son and prospective heir of the reigning duke, his rank
was very high.
The circumstances of Robert's first acquaintance with the tanner's
daughter were these. He was one day returning home to the castle from
some expedition on which he had been sent by his father, when he saw a
group of peasant girls standing on the margin of the brook, washing
clothes. They were barefooted, and their dress was in other respects
disarranged. There was one named Arlotte,[B] the daughter of a tanner of
the town, whose countenance and figure seem to have captivated the young
baron. He gazed at her with admiration and pleasure as he rode along.
Her complexion was fair, her eyes full and blue, and the expression of
her countenance was frank, and open, and happy. She was talking joyously
and merrily with her companions as Robert passed, little dreaming of the
conspicuous place on the page of English history which she was to
occupy, in all future time, in connection with the gay horseman who was
riding by.
[Footnote B: Her name is spelled variously, Arlette, Arlotte, Harlotte,
and in other ways.]
The etiquette of royal and ducal palaces and castles in those days, as
now, forbade that a noble of such lofty rank should marry a peasant
girl. Robert could not, therefore, have Arlotte for his wife; but there
was nothing to prevent his proposing her coming to the castle and living
with him--that is, nothing but the law of God, and this was an authority
to which dukes and barons in the Middle Ages were accustomed to pay very
little regard. There was not even a public sentiment to forbid this, for
a nobility like that of England and France in the Middle Ages stands so
far above all the mass of society as to be scarcely amenable at all to
the ordinary restrictions and obligations of social life. And even to
the present day, in those countries where dukes exist, public sentiment
seems to tolerate pretty generally whatever dukes see fit to do.
Accordingly, as soon as Robert had arrived at the castle, he sent a
messenger from his retinue of attendants down to the village, to the
father of Arlotte, proposing that she should come to the castle. The
father seems to have had some hesitation in respect to his duty. It is
said that he had a brother who was a monk, or rather hermit, who lived
a life of reading, meditation and prayer, in a solitary place not far
from Falaise. Arlotte's father sent immediately to this religious
recluse for his spiritual counsel. The monk replied that it was right to
comply with the wishes of so great a man, whatever they might be. The
tanner, thus relieved of all conscientious scruples on the subject by
this high religious authority, and rejoicing in the opening tide of
prosperity and distinction which he foresaw for his family through the
baron's love, robed and decorated his daughter, like a lamb for the
sacrifice, and sent her to the castle.
Arlotte had one of the rooms assigned her, which was built in the
thickness of the wall. It communicated by a door with the other
apartments and inclosures within the area, and there were narrow windows
in the masonry without, through which she could look out over the broad
expanse of beautiful fields and meadows which were smiling below. Robert
seems to have loved her with sincere and strong affection, and to have
done all in his power to make her happy. Her room, however, could not
have been very sumptuously furnished, although she was the favorite in a
ducal castle--at least so far as we can judge from the few glimpses we
get of the interior through the ancient chroniclers' stories. One story
is, that when William was born, his first exploit was to grasp a handful
of straw, and to hold it so tenaciously in his little fist that the
nurse could scarcely take it away. The nurse was greatly delighted with
this infantile prowess; she considered it an omen, and predicted that
the babe would some day signalize himself by seizing and holding great
possessions. The prediction would have been forgotten if William had not
become the conqueror of England at a future day. As it was, it was
remembered and recorded; and it suggests to our imagination a very
different picture of the conveniences and comforts of Arlotte's chamber
from those presented to the eye in ducal palaces now, where carpets of
velvet silence the tread on marble floors, and favorites repose under
silken canopies on beds of down.
The babe was named William, and he was a great favorite with his father.
He was brought up at Falaise. Two years after his birth, Robert's father
died, and his oldest brother, Richard III., succeeded to the ducal
throne. In two years more, which years were spent in contention between
the brothers, Richard also died, and then Robert himself came into
possession of the castle in his own name, reigning there over all the
cities and domains of Normandy.
William was, of course, now about four years old. He was a bright and
beautiful boy, and he grew more and more engaging every year. His
father, instead of neglecting and disowning him, as it might have been
supposed he would do, took a great deal of pride and pleasure in
witnessing the gradual development of his powers and his increasing
attractiveness, and he openly acknowledged him as his son.
In fact, William was a universal favorite about the castle. When he was
five and six years old he was very fond of playing the soldier. He would
marshal the other boys of the castle, his playmates, into a little
troop, and train them around the castle inclosures, just as ardent and
aspiring boys do with their comrades now. He possessed a certain
vivacity and spirit too, which gave him, even then, a great ascendency
over his playfellows. He invented their plays; he led them in their
mischief; he settled their disputes. In a word, he possessed a
temperament and character which enabled him very easily and strongly to
hold the position which his rank as son of the lord of the castle so
naturally assigned him.
A few years thus passed away, when, at length, Robert conceived the
design of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This was a plan, not of
humble-minded piety, but of ambition for fame. To make a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land was a romantic achievement that covered whoever
accomplished it with a sort of sombre glory, which, in the case of a
prince or potentate, mingled with, and hallowed and exalted, his
military renown. Robert determined on making the pilgrimage. It was a
distant and dangerous journey. In fact, the difficulties and dangers of
the way were perhaps what chiefly imparted to the enterprise its
romance, and gave it its charms. It was customary for kings and rulers,
before setting out, to arrange all the affairs of their kingdoms, to
provide a regency to govern during their absence, and to determine upon
their successors, so as to provide for the very probable contingency of
their not living to return.
As soon, therefore, as Robert announced his plan of a pilgrimage, men's
minds were immediately turned to the question of the succession. Robert
had never been married, and he had consequently no son who was entitled
to succeed him. He had two brothers, and also a cousin, and some other
relatives, who had claims to the succession. These all began to maneuver
among the chieftains and nobles, each endeavoring to prepare the way for
having his own claims advanced, while Robert himself was secretly
determining that the little William should be his heir. He said nothing
about this, however, but he took care to magnify the importance of his
little son in every way, and to bring him as much as possible into
public notice. William, on his part, possessed so much personal beauty,
and so many juvenile accomplishments, that he became a great favorite
with all the nobles, and chieftains, and knights who saw him, sometimes
at his father's castle, and sometimes away from home, in their own
fortresses or towns, where his father took him, from time to time, in
his train.
At length, when affairs were ripe for their consummation, Duke Robert
called together a grand council of all the subordinate dukes, and earls,
and barons of his realm, to make known to them the plan of his
pilgrimage. They came together from all parts of Normandy, each in a
splendid cavalcade, and attended by an armed retinue of retainers. When
the assembly had been convened, and the preliminary forms and
ceremonies had been disposed of, Robert announced his grand design.
As soon as he had concluded, one of the nobles, whose name and title was
Guy, count of Burgundy, rose and addressed the duke in reply. He was
sorry, he said, to hear that the duke, his cousin, entertained such a
plan. He feared for the safety of the realm when the chief ruler should
be gone. All the estates of the realm, he said, the barons, the knights,
the chieftains and soldiers of every degree, would be all without a
head.
"Not so," said Robert: "I will leave you a master in my place." Then,
pointing to the beautiful boy by his side, he added, "I have a little
fellow here, who, though he is little now, I acknowledge, will grow
bigger by and by, with God's grace, and I have great hopes that he will
become a brave and gallant man. I present him to you, and from this time
forth I give him _seizin_[C] of the Duchy of Normandy as my known and
acknowledged heir. And I appoint Alan, duke of Brittany, governor of
Normandy in my name until I shall return, and in case I shall not
return, in the name of William my son, until he shall become of manly
age."
[Footnote C: Seizin, an ancient feudal term denoting the inducting of a
party to a legal possession of his right.]
The assembly was taken wholly by surprise at this announcement. Alan,
duke of Brittany, who was one of the chief claimants to the succession,
was pleased with the honor conferred upon him in making him at once the
governor of the realm, and was inclined to prefer the present certainty
of governing at once in the name of others, to the remote contingency of
reigning in his own. The other claimants to the inheritance were
confounded by the suddenness of the emergency, and knew not what to say
or do. The rest of the assembly were pleased with the romance of having
the beautiful boy for their feudal sovereign. The duke saw at once that
every thing was favorable to the accomplishment of his design. He took
the lad in his arms, kissed him, and held him out in view of the
assembly. William gazed around upon the panoplied warriors before him
with a bright and beaming eye. They knelt down as by a common accord to
do him homage, and then took the oath of perpetual allegiance and
fidelity to his cause.
Robert thought, however, that it would not be quite prudent to leave his
son himself in the custody of these his rivals, so he took him with him
to Paris when he set out upon his pilgrimage, with view of establishing
him there, in the court of Henry, the French king, while he should
himself be gone. Young William was presented to the French king, on a
day set apart for the ceremony, with great pomp and parade. The king
held a special court to receive him. He seated himself on his throne
in a grand apartment of his palace, and was surrounded by his nobles
and officers of state, all magnificently dressed for the occasion. At
the proper time, Duke Robert came in, dressed in his pilgrim's garb,
and leading young William by the hand. His attendant pilgrim knights
accompanied him. Robert led the boy to the feet of their common
sovereign, and, kneeling there, ordered William to kneel too, to do
homage to the king. King Henry received him very graciously. He embraced
him, and promised to receive him into his court, and to take the best
possible care of him while his father was away. The courtiers were
very much struck with the beauty and noble bearing of the boy. His
countenance beamed with an animated, but yet very serious expression,
as he was somewhat awed by the splendor of the scene around him. He
was himself then nine years old.