Among the learned men of William's court were Ingulphus, abbot of Croyland, his secretary, who wrote a history of that monastery, interspersed with records of the English kings; and William of Poitiers, his chaplain, who has left an account of the Norman revolution.

There is a work of the Conqueror which has lasted to our times, and is a proof of his wisdom and ability. This is a book called Doomsday Book; in which is contained an account of all the landed property throughout a great part of the kingdom, given after an accurate survey.

The latter years of his life were embittered by the quarrels and undutiful behaviour of his sons, and also by the death of his queen, Matilda, a lady of remarkable piety and sweetness of character. His younger sons, William and Henry, on one occasion, threw some dirty water over Robert, their eldest brother, who drew his sword, and would have struck his brothers in his fury. Not obtaining the satisfaction he expected for this boyish folly, which he took as a studied affront, he withdrew from the court, and afterwards revolted against his father, demanding to be at once invested with the duchies of Normandy and Maine. The Conqueror replied to this demand, that it was not his custom to strip till he went to bed. In one of the encounters in this unnatural contest, it is said that the father and son, unknown to each other, were engaged in deadly combat; and Robert was on the point of dispatching his own father, when William raised his vizor, and Robert was surprised and shocked to see his father's face. He thanked God for saving him from so great a crime; and begging his father to forgive him, he mounted him on his own horse, as the king's had been killed in the fight. The king died in Normandy, from a hurt received from the pommel of his saddle, and was buried at Caen, between the towers of the noble cathedral which he had founded. His funeral was disturbed by one who declared that that very spot had been unrighteously taken from his father, and summoned the departed king before the tribunal of God to answer for that act of oppression. How many a similar appeal might have been made by his English subjects! His mere passion for the chase had been indulged to such excess, that he had turned out the miserable peasants from a wide tract of country in Hants, still called the New Forest, in order to

convert it into a royal domain; and by his laws, a man who killed a stag or a hare was punished with the most relentless cruelty. By his will his Norman dominions were left to Robert; and William, (called Rufus or the Red, from the colour of his hair,) his second son, ascended the throne of England, A. D. 1087.

CHAPTER VII.

WILLIAM (RUFus).

Born in Normandy. Buried in Winchester Cathedral. Reigned from A.D. 1087 to A.D. 1100, thirteen years.

Archbishops of Canterbury.

Lanfranc, A.D. 1070-1089.

Anselm, A.D. 1093-1107.

(Vacancy five years.)

THE accession of William Rufus was unwelcome to the Norman barons. They would rather have had Robert for their king, who was a prince of an indolent and easy character, and at the same time brave, generous, and sincere ; whereas William was known to be as keen and shrewd as he was violent, grasping, and unbridled by any fear of God, or feeling for man. He had the cunning to court his Saxon subjects, in order to win their aid in quelling the revolt which was raised by the nobles in favour of his brother; and when he had gained his point, he forgot his promises, and oppressed the English with a lawlessness more unbearable than his father's rigour. After the death of Lanfranc, who alone held him in any check, he seized the revenues of his see, and kept them for five years, together with those of many other abbeys and bishoprics; nor was it till his conscience was alarmed by a dangerous illness that he appointed Anselm to the primacy, who had been closely connected with Lanfranc, and who accepted the office most unwillingly. When William was recovered of his illness, he continued to set God and man at defiance, and met the remonstrances of Anselm with such fury, that that prelate (who has gained the title of saint from his holiness and zeal in withstanding the un

righteous claims of earthly rulers), was forced to withdraw himself from England.

Not satisfied with his English dominions, William endeavoured to wrest even Normandy from his elder brother. He succeeded in gaining possession of it as a security for a sum of money advanced to that prince, who shared the zeal which was then kindled from one end of Europe to the other, for the recovery of Jerusalem from the Turks, who had succeeded the Saracens in the possession of Judea. The former people had no objection to pilgrims visiting the Holy Sepulchre, provided they paid a moderate tribute; but the Turks conquered Jerusalem in A.D. 1065, and after that time the pilgrims were treated with the greatest cruelty. From this circumstance the most intense desire was felt throughout Christendom, for a period of about one hundred and fifty years, to expel the infidels from that sacred land. Vast armies were led to Palestine by the greatest kings, and no act of devotion was thought so meritorious as to enlist in these expeditions, which were called Crusades, from the cross adopted as a badge by all the soldier-pilgrims. It was the first and most successful of these expeditions, which commenced in A.D. 1096, at the instigation of Peter the Hermit, that Robert was now desirous of joining; nor did any prince make such sacrifices for the sake of what was thought due to the memory of our blessed Saviour. Not only did he mortgage his dukedom for the sum that was wanted to enable him to set forth, but, being absent in Italy at the time of William's death, he lost the season (which was seized by his brother Henry) for asserting his claims to the English crown.

William was shot unintentionally by Sir Walter Tyrrel (A.D. 1100), while hunting in the New Forest; and when men recollected the means by which that district became a royal chase, they were not backward to ascribe this event to the righteous judgment of God.

It may be remarked that Westminster Hall was built by William Rufus, though very few portions of his original work are now remaining. Many parish churches, and parts of some of our cathedrals, were constructed during his reign; as, for instance, of Worcester, Durham, and Norwich. But we cannot think that the Church was much indebted in this respect, or in any other, to King William. His sacrilegious

appropriation of the revenues of the see of Canterbury, and ill-treatment of Anselm, have been already noticed. Generally speaking, the state of the Church in his reign was very low. Bishoprics and livings were to be bought for money1. The Bishops were frequently men of scanty education and warlike habits. The feudal system had made their bishoprics baronies, and liable to furnish soldiers for the king's service; and they not unfrequently themselves forgot their calling, and fell in with the spirit of the times.

CHAPTER VIII.

HENRY I. (BEAU-CLERC.)

Born at Selby in Yorkshire. Buried in the Abbey at Reading. Reigned 35 years. From A.D. 1100 to A.D. 1135.

Archbishops of Canterbury.

Anselm, A.D. 1093-1107. (Vacancy five years.)

Ralph, A.D. 1112-1122.

William of Corboil, A.D. 1122-1136.

WHEN William was thus slain, his brother Henry (surnamed Beauclerc, on account of his scholarship) was hunting with him, and rode at once to Winchester, where he seized the royal treasure. He then hastened to London, and was, indeed, crowned at Westminster within sixty-six hours of William's death. Feeling himself in need of every support to the throne which he had usurped, he began by reforming abuses; and gave charters to his people, by which he engaged to abstain from the oppressive acts of power, from which they had suffered in the times of his brother and father. He also married Matilda, daughter of Malcolm, king of Scotland, by Margaret, sister to Edgar Atheling; and by these popular measures prepared himself to meet his brother Robert, who, on his return, took possession of Normandy, and soon landed at Portsmouth to make good his claims on England. Through the mediation, however, of St. Anselm, (who had now returned from Rome,) he was induced to give up his claims to Henry,

1 This is called Simony, from the sin of Simon Magus, "who thought that the gift of God might be purchased for money." Acts viii. 20.

retaining his Norman dukedom, and on condition that if either prince should die without issue, the survivor should succeed to his dominions.

The fate of Robert is the greatest stain on Henry's memory. Easily finding a pretext for invading Normandy, Henry gained (after sundry transactions) a great battle at Tenchebrai, in which Robert was taken prisoner, with many other nobles, A.D. 1117. Being brought to England, he was confined for the remainder of his life, which lasted twenty-eight years, in Cardiff Castle; a warning that many noble qualities will not make up for that indolence which was his ruin, and which he carried to such excess, that he lay in bed whole days for want of clothes, of which he suffered his servants to plunder him.

Henry thus became master of Normandy; but the revolts in favour of William, the son of Robert, (a gallant prince, who at length was slain before Alost, in the Netherlands,) gave him unceasing trouble; and in crossing on one occasion from Normandy, he was overtaken by a storm, in which William, his only legitimate son, was lost. The crew of the ship in which Prince William had embarked were drunken and riotous, and steered the vessel on a rock. The prince and some others got into a little boat; but, hearing the cries of his sister, who was left in the wreck, he gave orders to return, that he might take her in. So many got into the boat with her, that it sunk under the weight, and all on board perished. One man, who clung to the mast of the ship, was saved by some fishermen the next day. The captain had clung to the mast in the same way; but when he found that the prince was drowned, he let go his hold, and so shared the fate of his young master. This affliction must have made Henry feel some of that anguish which he had caused to his brother, but we do not hear that the severity with which that prince was treated was at all mitigated. The king now took every means to secure the succession for his daughter Matilda, generally termed the empress Maud, who had been married to the Emperor Henry V., and after his death to Geoffrey, count of Anjou, called Plantagenet from the sprig of broom (genista) which he wore. As this princess was descended by her mother from the Saxon kings, the prospect of her succession was welcome to the English.