THE PREPARATIONS.
A.D. 1066
Harold's brother Tostig.--He brings intelligence of Harold's
accession.--William's strength and dexterity.--His
surprise.--Fitzosborne.--His interview with William.--The great council
of state.--The embassy to Harold.--Harold reminded of his promises.--His
replies.--Return of the messenger.--William prepares for war.--William
calls a general council.--Want of funds.--Means of raising
money.--Adverse views.--Various opinions.--Confusion and disorder.--Plan
of Fitzosborne.--It is adopted by William.--Success of Fitzosborne's
plan.--Supplies flow in liberally.--Embassage to the pope.--Its
success.--Reasons why the pope favored William's claims.--The banner
and the ring.--Excitement produced by their reception.--William's
proclamations.--Their effects.--William's promises.--Naval
preparations.--Philip, king of France.--William's visit to
him.--William's interview with Philip.--Philip opposes his
plans.--Council of nobles.--Result of their deliberations.--William's
return.--Final preparations.--Matilda made duchess regent.--William's
motives.--Republican sentiments.--Hereditary sovereigns.--Enthusiasm of
the people.--The two-tailed comet.
The messenger who brought William the tidings of Harold's accession to
the throne was a man named Tostig, Harold's brother. Though he was
Harold's brother, he was still his bitterest enemy. Brothers are seldom
friends in families where there is a crown to be contended for. There
were, of course, no public modes of communicating intelligence in those
days, and Tostig had learned the facts of Edward's death and Harold's
coronation through spies which he had stationed at certain points on the
coast. He was himself, at that time, on the Continent. He rode with all
speed to Rouen to communicate the news to William, eager to incite him
to commence hostilities against his brother.
[Illustration: WILLIAM RECEIVING TOSTIG'S TIDINGS.]
When Tostig arrived at Rouen, William was in a park which lay in the
vicinity of the city, trying a new bow that had been recently made for
him. William was a man of prodigious muscular strength, and they gave
him the credit of being able to use easily a bow which nobody else
could bend. A part of this credit was doubtless due to the etiquette
which, in royal palaces and grounds, leads all sensible courtiers to
take good care never to succeed in attempts to excel the king. But,
notwithstanding this consideration, there is no doubt that the duke
really merited a great portion of the commendation that he received for
his strength and dexterity in the use of the bow. It was a weapon in
which he took great interest. A new one had been made for him, of great
elasticity and strength, and he had gone out into his park, with his
officers, to try its powers, when Tostig arrived. Tostig followed him to
the place, and there advancing to his side, communicated the tidings to
him privately.
William was greatly moved by the intelligence. His arrow dropped upon
the ground. He gave the bow to an attendant. He stood for a time
speechless, tying and untying the cordon of his cloak in his
abstraction. Presently he began slowly to move away from the place, and
to return toward the city. His attendants followed him in silence,
wondering what the exciting tidings could be which had produced so
sudden and powerful an effect.
William went into the castle hall, and walked to and fro a long time,
thoughtful, and evidently agitated. His attendants waited in silence,
afraid to speak to him. Rumors began at length to circulate among them
in respect to the nature of the intelligence which had been received. At
length a great officer of state, named Fitzosborne, arrived at the
castle. As he passed through the court-yard and gates, the attendants
and the people, knowing that he possessed in a great degree the
confidence of his sovereign, asked him what the tidings were that had
made such an impression. "I know nothing certain about it," said he,
"but I will soon learn." So saying, he advanced toward William, and
accosted him by saying, "Why should you conceal from us your news? It is
reported in the city that the King of England is dead, and that Harold
has violated his oaths to you, and has seized the kingdom. Is that
true?"
William acknowledged that that was the intelligence by which he had been
so vexed and chagrined. Fitzosborne urged the duke not to allow such
events to depress or dispirit him. "As for the death of Edward," said
he, "that is an event past and sure, and can not be recalled; but
Harold's usurpation and treachery admits of a very easy remedy. You
have the right to the throne, and you have the soldiers necessary to
enforce that right. Undertake the enterprise boldly. You will be sure to
succeed."
William revolved the subject in his mind for a few days, during which
the exasperation and anger which the first receipt of the intelligence
had produced upon him was succeeded by calm but indignant deliberation,
in respect to the course which he should pursue. He concluded to call a
great council of state, and to lay the case before them--not for the
purpose of obtaining their advice, but to call their attention to the
crisis in a formal and solemn manner, and to prepare them to act in
concert in the subsequent measures to be pursued. The result of the
deliberations of this council, guided, doubtless, by William's own
designs, was, that the first step should be to send an embassy to Harold
to demand of him the fulfillment of his promises.
The messenger was accordingly dispatched. He proceeded to London, and
laid before Harold the communication with which he had been intrusted.
This communication recounted the three promises which Harold had made,
namely, to send his daughter to Normandy to be married to one of
William's generals; to marry William's daughter himself; and to maintain
William's claims to the English crown on the death of Edward. He was to
remind Harold, also, of the solemnity with which he had bound himself to
fulfill these obligations, by oaths taken in the presence of the most
sacred relics of the Church, and in the most public and deliberate
manner.
Harold replied,
1. That as to sending over his daughter to be married to one of
William's generals, he could not do it, for his daughter was dead. He
presumed, he said, that William did not wish him to send the corpse.
2. In respect to marrying William's daughter, to whom he had been
affianced in Normandy, he was sorry to say that that was also out of
his power, as he could not take a foreign wife without the consent of
his people, which he was confident would never be given; besides, he
was already married, he said, to a Saxon lady of his own dominions.
3. In regard to the kingdom: it did not depend upon him, he said, to
decide who should rule over England as Edward's successor, but upon the
will of Edward himself, and upon the English people. The English barons
and nobles had decided, with Edward's concurrence, that he, Harold, was
their legitimate and proper sovereign, and that it was not for him to
controvert their will. However much he might be disposed to comply with
William's wishes, and to keep his promise, it was plain that it was out
of his power, for in promising him the English crown, he had promised
what did not belong to him to give.
4. As to his oaths, he said that, notwithstanding the secret presence of
the sacred relics under the cloth of gold, he considered them as of no
binding force upon his conscience, for he was constrained to take them
as the only means of escaping from the duress in which he was virtually
held in Normandy. Promises, and oaths even, when extorted by necessity,
were null and void.
The messenger returned to Normandy with these replies, and William
immediately began to prepare for war.
His first measure was to call a council of his most confidential friends
and advisers, and to lay the subject before them. They cordially
approved of the plan of an invasion of England, and promised to
co-operate in the accomplishment of it to the utmost of their power.
The next step was to call a general council of all the chieftains and
nobles of the land, and also the _notables_, as they were called, or
principal officers and municipal authorities of the _towns_. The main
point of interest for the consideration of this assembly was, whether
the country would submit to the necessary taxation for raising the
necessary funds. William had ample power, as duke, to decide upon the
invasion and to undertake it. He could also, without much difficulty,
raise the necessary number of men; for every baron in his realm was
bound, by the feudal conditions on which he held his land, to furnish
his quota of men for any military enterprise in which his sovereign
might see fit to engage. But for so distant and vast an undertaking as
this, William needed a much larger supply of _funds_ than were usually
required in the wars of those days. For raising such large supplies, the
political institutions of the Middle Ages had not made any adequate
provision. Governments then had no power of taxation, like that so
freely exercised in modern times; and even now, taxes in France and
England take the form of _grants_ from the people to the kings. And as
to the contrivance, so exceedingly ingenious, by which inexhaustible
resources are opened to governments at the present day--that is, the
plan of borrowing the money, and leaving posterity to pay or repudiate
the debt, as they please, no minister of finance had, in William's day,
been brilliant enough to discover it. Thus each ruler had to rely, then,
mainly on the rents and income from his own lands, and other private
resources, for the comparatively small amount of money that he needed in
his brief campaigns. But now William perceived that ships must be built
and equipped, and great stores of provisions accumulated, and arms and
munitions of war provided, all which would require a considerable
outlay; and how was this money to be obtained?
The general assembly which he convened were greatly distracted by the
discussion of the question. The quiet and peaceful citizens who
inhabited the towns, the artisans and tradesmen, who wished for nothing
but to be allowed to go on in their industrial pursuits in peace, were
opposed to the whole project. They thought it unreasonable and absurd
that they should be required to contribute from their earnings to enable
their lord and master to go off on so distant and desperate an
undertaking, from which, even if successful, they could derive no
benefit whatever. Many of the barons, too, were opposed to the scheme.
They thought it very likely to end in disaster and defeat; and they
denied that their feudal obligation to furnish men for their sovereign's
wars was binding to the extent of requiring them to go out of the
country, and beyond the sea, to prosecute his claims to the throne of
another kingdom.
Others, on the other hand, among the members of William's assembly, were
strongly disposed to favor the plan. They were more ardent or more
courageous than the rest, or perhaps their position and circumstances
were such that they had more to hope from the success of the enterprise
than they, or less to fear from its failure. Thus there was great
diversity of opinion; and as the parliamentary system of rules, by which
a body of turbulent men, in modern times, are kept in some semblance of
organization and order during a debate, had not then been developed, the
meeting of these Norman deliberators was, for a time, a scene of uproar
and confusion. The members gathered in groups, each speaker getting
around him as many as he could obtain to listen to his harangue; the
more quiet and passive portion of the assembly moving to and fro, from
group to group, as they were attracted by the earnestness and eloquence
of the different speakers, or by their approval of the sentiments which
they heard them expressing. The scene, in fact, was like that presented
in exciting times by a political caucus in America, before it is called
to order by the chairman.
Fitzosborne, the confidential friend and counselor, who has already been
mentioned as the one who ventured to accost the duke at the time when
the tidings of Edward's death and of Harold's accession first reached
him, now seeing that any thing like definite and harmonious action on
the part of this tumultuous assembly was out of the question, went to
the duke, and proposed to him to give up the assembly as such, and make
the best terms and arrangements that he could with the constituent
elements of it, individually and severally. He would himself, he
said, furnish forty ships, manned, equipped, and provisioned; and he
recommended to the duke to call each of the others into his presence,
and ask them what they were individually willing to do. The duke adopted
this plan, and it was wonderfully successful. Those who were first
invited made large offers, and their offers were immediately registered
in form by the proper officers. Each one who followed was emulous of the
example of those who had preceded him, and desirous of evincing as much
zeal and generosity as they. Then, besides, the duke received these
vassals with so much condescension and urbanity, and treated them with
so much consideration and respect, as greatly to flatter their vanity,
and raise them in their own estimation, by exalting their ideas of the
importance of the services which they could render in carrying so vast
an enterprise to a successful result. In a word, the tide turned like a
flood in favor of granting liberal supplies. The nobles and knights
promised freely men, money, ships, arms, provisions--every thing, in
short, that was required; and when the work of receiving and registering
the offers was completed, and the officers summed up the aggregate
amount, William found, to his extreme satisfaction, that his wants were
abundantly supplied.
There was another very important point, which William adopted immediate
measures to secure, and that was obtaining the _Pope's_ approval of his
intended expedition. The moral influence of having the Roman pontiff on
his side, would, he knew, be of incalculable advantage to him. He sent
an embassage, accordingly, to Rome, to lay the whole subject before his
holiness, and to pray that the pope would declare that he was justly
entitled to the English crown, and authorize him to proceed and take
possession of it by force of arms. Lanfranc was the messenger whom he
employed--the same Lanfranc who had been so successful, some years
before, in the negotiations at Rome connected with the confirmation of
William and Matilda's marriage.
Lanfranc was equally successful now. The pope, after examining William's
claims, pronounced them valid. He decided that William was entitled to
the rank and honors of King of England. He caused a formal diploma to be
made out to this effect. The diploma was elegantly executed, signed with
the cross, according to the pontifical custom, and sealed with a round
leaden seal.[J]
[Footnote J: The Latin name for such a seal was _bulla_. It is on
account of this sort of seal, which is customarily affixed to them, that
papal edicts have received the name of _bulls_.]
It was, in fact, very natural that the Roman authorities should take a
favorable view of William's enterprise, and feel an interest in its
success, as it was undoubtedly for the interest of the Church that
William, rather than Harold, should reign over England, as the accession
of William would bring the English realm far more fully under the
influence of the Roman Church. William had always been very submissive
to the pontifical authority, as was shown in his conduct in respect to
the question of his marriage. He himself, and also Matilda his wife, had
always taken a warm interest in the welfare and prosperity of the
abbeys, the monasteries, the churches, and the other religious
establishments of the times. Then the very circumstance that he sent his
embassador to Rome to submit his claims to the pontiff's adjudication,
while Harold did not do so, indicated a greater deference for the
authority of the Church, and made it probable that he would be a far
more obedient and submissive son of the Church, in his manner of ruling
his realm, if he should succeed in gaining possession of it, than Harold
his rival. The pope and his counselors at Rome thought it proper to take
all these things into the account in deciding between William and
Harold, as they honestly believed, without doubt, that it was their
first and highest duty to exalt and aggrandize, by every possible means,
the spiritual authority of the sacred institution over which they were
called to preside.
The pope and his cardinals, accordingly, espoused William's cause very
warmly. In addition to the diploma which gave William formal authority
to take possession of the English crown, the pope sent him a banner and
a ring. The banner was of costly and elegant workmanship; its value,
however, did not consist in its elegance or its cost, but in a solemn
benediction which his holiness pronounced over it, by which it was
rendered sacred and inviolable. The banner, thus blessed, was forwarded
to William by Lanfranc with great care.
It was accompanied by the ring. The ring was of gold, and it contained a
diamond of great value. The gold and the diamond both, however, served
only as settings to preserve and honor something of far greater value
than they. This choice treasure was a hair from the head of the Apostle
Peter! a sacred relic of miraculous virtue and of inestimable value.
When the edict with its leaden seal, and the banner and the ring arrived
in Normandy, they produced a great and universal excitement. To have
bestowed upon the enterprise thus emphatically the solemn sanction of
the great spiritual head of the Church, to whom the great mass of the
people looked up with an awe and a reverence almost divine, was to seal
indissolubly the rightfulness of the enterprise, and to insure its
success. There was thenceforward no difficulty in procuring men or
means. Every body was eager to share in the glory, and to obtain the
rewards, of an enterprise thus commended by an authority duly
commissioned to express, in all such cases, the judgment of Heaven.
Finding that the current was thus fairly setting in his favor, William
sent proclamations into all the countries surrounding Normandy, inviting
knights, and soldiers, and adventurers of every degree to join him
in his projected enterprise. These proclamations awakened universal
attention. Great numbers of adventurous men determined to enter
William's service. Horses, arms, and accoutrements were everywhere in
great demand. The invasion of England and the question of joining it
were the universal topics of conversation. The roads were covered with
knights and soldiers, some on horseback and alone, others in bands,
large or small, all proceeding to Normandy to tender their services.
William received them all, and made liberal promises to bestow rewards
and honors upon them in England, in the event of his success. To some
he offered pay in money; to others, booty; to others, office and power.
Every one had his price. Even the priests and dignitaries of the Church
shared the general enthusiasm. One of them furnished a ship and twenty
armed men, under an agreement to be appointed bishop of a certain
valuable English diocese when William should be established on his
throne.
While all these movements were going on in the interior of the country,
all the sea-ports and towns along the coast of Normandy presented a very
busy scene of naval preparation. Naval architects were employed in great
numbers in building and fitting out vessels. Some were constructed and
furnished for the transportation of men, others for conveying provisions
and munitions of war; and lighters and boats were built for ascending
the rivers, and for aiding in landing troops upon shelving shores.
Smiths and armorers were occupied incessantly in manufacturing spears,
and swords, and coats of mail; while vast numbers of laboring men and
beasts of burden were employed in conveying arms and materials to and
from the manufactories to the ships, and from one point of embarkation
to another.
As soon as William had put all these busy agencies thus in successful
operation, he considered that there was one more point which it was
necessary for him to secure before finally embarking, and that was the
co-operation and aid of the French king, whose name at this time was
Philip. In his character of Duke of Normandy the King of France was
his liege lord, and he was bound to act, in some degree, under an
acknowledgment of his superior authority. In his new capacity, that is,
as King of England, or, rather, as heir to the English kingdom, he was,
of course, wholly independent of Philip, and, consequently, not bound
by any feudal obligation to look to him at all. He thought it most
prudent, however, to attempt, at least, to conciliate Philip's favor,
and, accordingly, leaving his officers and his workmen to go on with
the work of organizing his army and of building and equipping the fleet,
he set off, himself, on an expedition to the court of the French king.
He thought it safer to undertake this delicate mission himself, rather
than to intrust it to an embassador or deputy.
He found Philip at his palace of St. Germain's, which was situated at a
short distance from Paris. The duke assumed, in his interview with the
king, a very respectful and deferential air and manner. Philip was a
very young man, though haughty and vain. William was very much his
superior, not only in age and experience, but in talents and character,
and in personal renown. Still, he approached the monarch with all the
respectful observance due from a vassal to his sovereign, made known his
plans, and asked for Philip's approbation and aid. He was willing, he
said, in case that aid was afforded him, to hold his kingdom of England,
as he had done the duchy of Normandy, as a dependency of the French
crown.
Philip seemed not at all disposed to look upon the project with favor.
He asked William who was going to take care of his duchy while he was
running off after a kingdom. William replied, at first, that that was a
subject which he did not think his neighbors need concern themselves
about. Then thinking, on reflection, that a more respectful answer would
be more politic, under the circumstances of the case, he added, that he
was providentially blessed with a prudent wife and loving subjects, and
that he thought he might safely leave his domestic affairs in their
hands until he should return. Philip still opposed the plan. It was
Quixotic, he said, and dangerous. He strongly advised William to abandon
the scheme, and be content with his present possessions. Such desperate
schemes of ambition as those he was contemplating would only involve him
in ruin.
Before absolutely deciding the case, however, Philip called a council of
his great nobles and officers of state, and laid William's proposals
before them. The result of their deliberations was to confirm Philip in
his first decision. They said that the rendering to William the aid
which he desired would involve great expense, and be attended with great
danger; and as to William's promises to hold England as a vassal of the
King of France, they had no faith in the performance of them. It had
been very difficult, they said, for many years, for the kings of France
to maintain any effectual authority over the dukes of Normandy, and when
once master of so distant and powerful a realm as England, all control
over them would be sundered forever.
Philip then gave William his final answer in accordance with these
counsels. The answer was received, on William's part, with strong
feelings of disappointment and displeasure. Philip conducted the duke to
his retinue when the hour of departure arrived, in order to soothe, as
far as possible, his irritated feelings, by dismissing him from his
court with marks of his honorable consideration and regard. William,
however, was not in a mood to be pleased. He told Philip, on taking
leave of him, that he was losing the most powerful vassal that any lord
sovereign ever had, by the course which he had decided to pursue. "I
would have held the whole realm of England as a part of your dominions,
acknowledging you as sovereign over all, if you had consented to render
me your aid, but I will not do it since you refuse. I shall feel bound
to repay only those who assist me."
William returned to Normandy, where all the preparations for the
expedition had been going on with great vigor during his absence, and
proceeded to make arrangements for the last great measure which it was
necessary to take previous to his departure; that was, the regular
constitution of a government to rule in Normandy while he should be
gone. He determined to leave the supreme power in the hands of his wife
Matilda, appointing, at the same time, a number of civil and military
officers as a council of regency, who were to assist her in her
deliberations by giving her information and advice, and to manage,
under her direction, the different departments of the government. Her
title was "Duchess Regent," and she was installed into her office in a
public and solemn manner, at a great assembly of the estates of the
realm. At the close of the ceremonies, after William had given Matilda
his charge, he closed his address by adding, "And do not let us fail to
enjoy the benefit of your prayers, and those of all the ladies of your
court, that the blessing of God may attend us, and secure the success of
our expedition."
We are not necessarily to suppose, as we might at first be strongly
inclined to do, that there was any special hypocrisy and pretense in
William's thus professing to rely on the protection of Heaven in the
personal and political dangers which he was about to incur. It is
probable that he honestly believed that the inheritance of the English
crown was his right, and, that being the case, that a vigorous and manly
effort to enforce his right was a solemn duty. In the present age of the
world, now that there are so many countries in which intelligence,
industry, and love of order are so extensively diffused that the mass of
the community are capable of organizing and administering a government
themselves, republicans are apt to look upon hereditary sovereigns
as despots, ruling only for the purpose of promoting their own
aggrandizement, and the ends of an unholy and selfish ambition. That
there have been a great many such despots no one can deny; but then, on
the other hand, there have been many others who have acted, in a greater
or less degree, under the influence of principles of duty in their
political career. They have honestly believed that the vast power with
which, in coming forward into life, they have found themselves invested,
without, in most cases, any agency of their own, was a trust imposed
upon them by divine Providence, which could not innocently be laid
aside; that on them devolved the protection of the communities over
which they ruled from external hostility, and the preservation of peace
and order within, and the promotion of the general industry and welfare,
as an imperious and solemn duty; and they have devoted their lives
to the performance of this duty, with the usual mixture, it is true,
of ambition and selfishness, but still, after all, with as much
conscientiousness and honesty as the mass of men in the humbler walks of
life evince in performing theirs. William of Normandy appears to have
been one of this latter class; and in obeying the dictates of his
ambition in seeking to gain possession of the English crown, he no doubt
considered himself as fulfilling the obligations of duty too.
However this may be, he went on with his preparations in the most
vigorous and prosperous manner. The whole country were enthusiastic in
the cause; and their belief that the enterprise about to be undertaken
had unquestionably secured the favor of Heaven, was confirmed by an
extraordinary phenomenon which occurred just before the armament was
ready to set sail. A comet appeared in the sky, which, as close
observers declared, had a double tail. It was universally agreed that
this portended that England and Normandy were about to be combined, and
to form a double kingdom, which should exhibit to all mankind a
wonderful spectacle of splendor.