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      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Normans; told chiefly in relation to their conquest of England, by Sarah Orne Jewett.
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<body>
<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44920 ***</div>

<div class="transnote">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:

<div>Original spelling and grammar has mostly been retained. Figures were moved
from within paragraphs to between paragraphs. Footnotes were re-indexed
and moved to the ends of the corresponding paragraphs. The original page
numbers are embedded in square brackets, e.g. "[Pg135]".</div>

<div>More details are located in the <a
href="#TRANSCRIBERS_ENDNOTE">TRANSCRIBER'S ENDNOTE</a>.</div>
</div>

<div id="coverpage" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<img src="images/coverpage.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="" />
</div>

<div class="front">
<div class="fsize1 center">THE NORMANS<br /><br /></div>
</div>

<div class="front">
<div class="figcenter" style="width: 138px;">
<img src="images/i002.png" width="138" height="139" alt="G.P. Putnam Emblem" />
<div class="caption"><br /><br /></div>
</div>
</div>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<div><a id="Frontispiece"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i004.png" width="600" height="354" alt="" />
<div class="caption"><i>Frontispiece.</i> BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM THE
CONQUEROR. FALAISE.</div></div>

<div class="front">

<div class="fsize2">THE STORY OF THE NATIONS</div>

<hr class="tb" />

<h1>THE NORMANS<br />
<span style="font-size:0.7em">TOLD CHIEFLY IN RELATION TO THEIR CONQUEST
OF ENGLAND</span></h1>

<div class="fsize4"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />BY</div>

<div class="fsize2">SARAH ORNE JEWETT</div>

<hr class="tb" />

<div class="fsize3"><br /><br /><br />NEW YORK<br />
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br />
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN<br />
1898
</div></div>

<div class="front">
<div class="fsize4"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1886</span>
<br />BY<br />
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</div>
<div class="fsize4"><br /><br /><br />
<span class="gothic">The Knickerbocker Press, New York</span></div>
</div>

<div class="front"><div class="fsize3">TO<br />
MY DEAR GRANDFATHER<br />
<span class="smcap">Doctor WILLIAM PERRY, of Exeter</span>
</div></div>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<div><a id="EuropeAtTheCloseofthe11th"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i008.png" width="600" height="430" alt="" />
<div class="caption">EUROPE AT THE CLOSE <span class="smcap">OF THE</span> 11<sup>TH</sup> CENTURY</div>
</div>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 392px;">
<img src="images/i010.png" width="392" height="106" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>

<table id="toc" summary="table of contents">
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">I.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td></td>
 <td class="right">PAGE</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#I">The Men of the Dragon
 Ships</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg001">1</a>-<a href="#pg029">29</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">The ancient Northmen, <a href="#pg001">1</a>-<a
 href="#pg003">3</a> — Manner of life,
 <a href="#pg004">4</a>-<a href="#pg006">6</a> — Hall-life and hospitality, <a href="#pg007">7</a> — Sagamen, <a href="#pg008">8</a> — Sea-kings
 and vikings, <a href="#pg009">9</a> — Charlemagne and the vikings,<a href="#pg011">11</a>— Viking
 voyages and settlements, <a href="#pg012">12</a>-<a href="#pg022">22</a> — The Northmen in France, <a href="#pg023">23</a>-<a href="#pg027">27</a>
 — Modern inheritance from the Northmen, <a href="#pg028">28</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">II.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#II">Rolf the Ganger</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg030">30</a>-<a href="#pg051">51</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Harold Haarfager, <a href="#pg030">30</a> — Jarl Rögnwald, <a href="#pg032">32</a> — Rolf's outlawry,
 <a href="#pg033">33</a> — Charles the Simple, <a href="#pg035">35</a> — The Archbishop of Rouen, <a href="#pg037">37</a> — Hasting,
 <a href="#pg038">38</a> — Siege of Bayeux, <a href="#pg040">40</a> — Rolf's character, <a href="#pg041">41</a> — The
founding of Normandy, <a href="#pg043">43</a> — The king's grant, <a href="#pg045">45</a> — Rolf's
christening, <a href="#pg046">46</a> — Law and order, <a href="#pg048">48</a> — Rolf's death, <a href="#pg050">50</a>.</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">III.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#III">William Longsword</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg052">52</a>-<a href="#pg065">65</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">French influences; Charlemagne; Charles the Fat, <a href="#pg052">52</a>-<a href="#pg054">54</a> — Feudalism,
 <a href="#pg055">55</a> — The Franks, <a href="#pg055">55</a> — Norman loyalty to France,
 <a href="#pg057">57</a> — Longsword's politics, <a href="#pg060">60</a> — The Bayeux Northmen, <a href="#pg061">61</a> — Longsword's
love of the cloister, <a href="#pg063">63</a> — Longsword's character, <a href="#pg064">64</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">IV.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#IV">Richard the Fearless</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"> <a href="#pg066">66</a>-<a href="#pg089">89</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Longsword's son, <a href="#pg066">66</a> — A Norman castle, <a href="#pg067">67</a> — News of
Longsword's death, <a href="#pg069">69</a> — His funeral, <a href="#pg070">70</a> — Richard made
duke, <a href="#pg070">70</a> — The guardianship of Louis of France, <a href="#pg072">72</a> — Detention
of Richard and escape from Laon, <a href="#pg073">73</a>-<a href="#pg075">75</a> — Hugh of
Paris, <a href="#pg076">76</a> — Louis at Rouen, <a href="#pg077">77</a> — Norman plots, <a href="#pg080">80</a> — Harold
Blaatand, <a href="#pg081">81</a> — Normandy against France, <a href="#pg082">82</a> — Independence
of Normandy, <a href="#pg084">84</a> — Normandy and England, <a href="#pg085">85</a> — Gerberga,
 <a href="#pg085">85</a> — Alliance with Hugh of Paris; with Hugh Capet,
 <a href="#pg086">86</a>-<a href="#pg088">88</a> — Death of Richard, <a href="#pg089">89</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">V.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#V">Duke Richard the Good</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"> <a href="#pg090">90</a>-<a href="#pg114">114</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Richard the Good's succession, <a href="#pg090">90</a> — French influences, <a href="#pg091">91</a> — Lack
of records, <a href="#pg091">91</a> — Prosperity of the duchy, <a href="#pg092">92</a> — Richard's
love of courtliness and splendor, <a href="#pg092">92</a> — Wrongs of the
common people; their complaint, <a href="#pg093">93</a>-<a href="#pg095">95</a> — Raoul of Ivry,
 <a href="#pg096">96</a> — The Flemish colony; the Falaise fair; Richard's
brother William, <a href="#pg097">97</a>, <a href="#pg098">98</a> — Robert of France, <a href="#pg099">99</a> — Richard's
marriage, <a href="#pg101">101</a> — Æthelred the Unready, <a href="#pg102">102</a> — The Danes in
England, <a href="#pg103">103</a> — Emma of Normandy, <a href="#pg105">105</a>; Trouble with
Burgundy, <a href="#pg107">107</a> — The lands of Dreux, <a href="#pg109">109</a> — The Count-Bishop
of Chalons, <a href="#pg110">110</a>; Norman chroniclers, <a href="#pg112">112</a> — Ermenoldus;
the third Richard and his murder, <a href="#pg112">112</a>-<a href="#pg114">114</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">VI.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#VI">Robert the Magnificent</a></span></td>
 <td class="nowrap"><a href="#pg115">115</a>-<a href="#pg129">129</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Power and wealth of Normandy, <a href="#pg115">115</a> — The English princes,
 <a href="#pg118">118</a> — Cnut of England and Queen Emma, <a href="#pg119">119</a> — Robert's
lavishness; Baldwin of Flanders, <a href="#pg120">120</a>-<a href="#pg122">122</a> — The tanner's
daughter, <a href="#pg122">122</a> — Norman pride and Robert's defiance of public
opinion, <a href="#pg124">124</a> — Robert's pilgrimage to Jerusalem, <a href="#pg125">125</a> — His
death at Nicæa, <a href="#pg129">129</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">VII.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#VII">The Normans in Italy</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg130">130</a>-<a href="#pg148">148</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Hasting the pirate, <a href="#pg130">130</a> — Early Norman colonies in the
south of Europe, <a href="#pg132">132</a> — The Norman character, <a href="#pg134">134</a> — Tancred
de Hauteville, <a href="#pg135">135</a> — Serlon de Hauteville, <a href="#pg136">136</a> — Sicily,
 <a href="#pg139">139</a> — Pope Leo the Tenth, <a href="#pg140">140</a> — Robert Guiscard, <a href="#pg141">141</a> — Rapid
progress of the Norman-Italian States and their
prosperity, <a href="#pg142">142</a> — Norman architecture in Sicily, <a href="#pg145">145</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">VIII.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#VIII">The Youth of William the Conqueror</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg149">149</a>-<a href="#pg170">170</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Typical character of William, <a href="#pg149">149</a> — Loneliness of his childhood,
 <a href="#pg151">151</a> — William de Talvas, <a href="#pg152">152</a> — The feudal system,
 <a href="#pg153">153</a> — Christianity and knighthood, <a href="#pg156">156</a> — Ceremonies at the
 making of a knight, <a href="#pg157">157</a> — The oaths of knighthood, <a href="#pg161">161</a> — The
 Truce of God, <a href="#pg166">166</a>-<a href="#pg170">170</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">IX.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#IX">Across the Channel</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg171">171</a>-<a href="#pg194">194</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Changes in England, <a href="#pg171">171</a> — Æthelred, <a href="#pg172">172</a> — The Danegelt,
 <a href="#pg173">173</a> — The Danes again, <a href="#pg175">175</a> — Swegen, <a href="#pg177">177</a> — Cnut, <a href="#pg178">178</a> — Eadmund
Ironside, <a href="#pg180">180</a> — Cnut's pilgrimage, <a href="#pg181">181</a> — Godwine,
 <a href="#pg184">184</a> — Eadward the Confessor, <a href="#pg187">187</a> — The Dover quarrel, <a href="#pg189">189</a> — Normans
in England, <a href="#pg192">192</a> — Castles, <a href="#pg193">193</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">X.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#X">The Battle of Val-ès-Dunes</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg195">195</a>-<a href="#pg214">214</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Roger de Toesny, <a href="#pg196">196</a> — William's boyhood, <a href="#pg198">198</a> — Escape
from Valognes, <a href="#pg199">199</a> — The Lord of Rye, <a href="#pg200">200</a> — Guy of Burgundy,
 <a href="#pg201">201</a> — Rebellion, <a href="#pg202">202</a> — Val-ès-Dunes, <a href="#pg204">204</a> — Ralph of
Tesson, <a href="#pg206">206</a> — Neal of St. Saviour, <a href="#pg208">208</a> — William's leniency,
 <a href="#pg211">211</a> — His mastery, <a href="#pg213">213</a> — The siege of Alençon, <a href="#pg213">213</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">XI.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XI">The Abbey of Bec</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg215">215</a>-<a href="#pg231">231</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Cloistermen, <a href="#pg215">215</a> — Soldiery and scholarship, <a href="#pg216">216</a> — Building
of religious houses, <a href="#pg218">218</a> — Cathedrals, <a href="#pg220">220</a> — Benedictines,
 <a href="#pg222">222</a> — Herluin and his abbey, <a href="#pg223">223</a> — Lanfranc, <a href="#pg226">226</a> — His
influence in Normandy, <a href="#pg229">229</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">XII.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XII">Matilda of Flanders</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg232">232</a>-<a href="#pg254">254</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Flanders, <a href="#pg232">232</a> — Objections to William's marriage, <a href="#pg234">234</a> — Marriage
of William and Matilda at Eu, <a href="#pg236">236</a> — Mauger, <a href="#pg237">237</a> — Rebuilding
of churches, <a href="#pg239">239</a> — William's early visit to
England, <a href="#pg242">242</a> — Godwine's return, <a href="#pg244">244</a> — His death, <a href="#pg245">245</a> — Jealousy
of France, <a href="#pg246">246</a> — The French invasion of Normandy,
 <a href="#pg247">247</a> — Battle of Mortemer, <a href="#pg248">248</a> — The curfew bell,
 <a href="#pg251">251</a> — Battle of Varaville, <a href="#pg252">252</a> — Harold of England's visit,
 <a href="#pg254">254</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">XIII.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XIII">Harold the Englishman</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg255">255</a>-<a href="#pg274">274</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Causes and effects of war, <a href="#pg255">255</a> — Relations of William and
Harold, <a href="#pg256">256</a> — Harold's unfitness as a leader of the English,
 <a href="#pg257">257</a> — His shipwreck on the coast of Ponthieu, <a href="#pg260">260</a> — William's
palace in Rouen, <a href="#pg261">261</a> — News of Harold's imprisonment
by Guy of Ponthieu, <a href="#pg262">262</a> — Harold's release, <a href="#pg264">264</a> — His
life in Normandy, <a href="#pg265">265</a> — His oath, <a href="#pg267">267</a> — Eadward's last illness,
 <a href="#pg269">269</a> — Harold named as successor, <a href="#pg272">272</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">XIV.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XIV">News from England</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg275">275</a>-<a href="#pg294">294</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Harold made king, <a href="#pg275">275</a> — William hears the news, <a href="#pg276">276</a> — The
Normans begin to plan for war, <a href="#pg278">278</a> — William's embassy,
 <a href="#pg280">280</a> — The council at Lillebonne, <a href="#pg280">280</a> — The barons
hold back, <a href="#pg282">282</a> — Lanfranc's influence at Rome, <a href="#pg286">286</a> — Tostig,
 <a href="#pg287">287</a> — Harold's army, <a href="#pg290">290</a> — Harold Hardrada, <a href="#pg291">291</a> — The
battle of Stamford Bridge, <a href="#pg293">293</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">XV.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XV">The Battle of Hastings</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"> <a href="#pg295">295</a>-<a href="#pg311">311</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Normandy makes ready for war, <a href="#pg295">295</a> — The army at St.
Valery, <a href="#pg297">297</a> — William crosses the Channel, <a href="#pg298">298</a> — The camp
at Hastings, <a href="#pg300">300</a> — Harold of England, <a href="#pg302">302</a> — Senlac, <a href="#pg304">304</a> — The
battle array, <a href="#pg306">306</a> — The great fight, <a href="#pg308">308</a> — The Norman
victory, <a href="#pg310">310</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">XVI.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XVI">William the Conqueror</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg312">312</a>-<a href="#pg344">344</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Norman characteristics, <a href="#pg312">312</a> — William's coronation, <a href="#pg314">314</a> — His
plan of government, <a href="#pg316">316</a> — Return to Normandy, <a href="#pg320">320</a> — Caen,
 <a href="#pg322">322</a> — The Bayeux tapestry, <a href="#pg323">323</a> — Matilda crowned
queen, <a href="#pg325">325</a> — Difficulties of government, <a href="#pg327">327</a> — The English
forests, <a href="#pg330">330</a> — Decay of learning in Eadward's time, <a href="#pg331">331</a> — William's
laws against slavery, <a href="#pg332">332</a> — His son Robert, <a href="#pg333">333</a> — The
queen's death, <a href="#pg335">335</a> — Odo's plot, <a href="#pg335">335</a> — William's injury
at Mantes, <a href="#pg337">337</a> — His illness and death, <a href="#pg339">339</a> — Description
from <i>Roman de Rou</i>, <a href="#pg341">341</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">XVII.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XVII">Kingdom and Dukedom</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"> <a href="#pg345">345</a>-<a href="#pg358">358</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">William Rufus, <a href="#pg345">345</a> — Robert of Normandy, <a href="#pg346">346</a> — William
Rufus in England, <a href="#pg349">349</a> — Duke Robert goes on pilgrimage,
 <a href="#pg351">351</a> — Murder of William Rufus, <a href="#pg353">353</a> — Henry Beauclerc
seizes the English crown, <a href="#pg355">355</a> — Death of Prince William,
 <a href="#pg358">358</a>.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td colspan="2" class="center">XVIII.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XVIII">Conclusion</a></span></td>
 <td class="right"><a href="#pg359">359</a>-<a href="#pg366">366</a></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td class="subhead">Development of Norman character, <a href="#pg360">360</a> — Northern influences,
 <a href="#pg362">362</a> — The great inheritance, <a href="#pg365">365</a>.</td></tr>
</table>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 206px;">
<img src="images/i014.png" width="206" height="39" alt="" />
</div>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 441px;">
<img src="images/i016.png" width="441" height="117" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"
 id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>

<table id="ListIllustrations" summary="List of illustrations">
<tr>
 <td></td>
 <td class="right">PAGE</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#Frontispiece">BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. FALAISE.</a></td>
 <td class="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#EuropeAtTheCloseofthe11th">MAP—EUROPE AT CLOSE OF ELEVENTH CENTURY</a></td>
 <td class="right">1</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#IRON-SPEAR-AND-CHISEL">IRON SPEAR AND CHISEL</a></td>
 <td class="right">5</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#VIKING-SHIP">VIKING SHIP</a></td>
 <td class="right">13</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#VIKING">VIKING</a></td>
 <td class="right">17</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#NORSE_BUCKLE_WITH_BYZANTINE">NORSE BUCKLE</a></td>
 <td class="right">21</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#A_NORWEGIAN_FIORD">NORWEGIAN FIORD</a></td>
 <td class="right">31</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#Flails-as-military-weapons">FLAILS AS MILITARY WEAPONS</a></td>
 <td class="right">77</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#ABBEY_CHURCH_OF_ST_OUEN">ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN. (ROUEN)</a></td>
 <td class="right">87</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#QUEEN-EMMA">QUEEN EMMA OR ÆLFGIFU</a></td>
 <td class="right">105</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#NORMAN_COSTUMES">NORMAN COSTUMES</a></td>
 <td class="right">117</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#ROBERT_DUKE_OF_NORMANDY">ROBERT, DUKE OF NORMANDY, CARRIED IN A LITTER TO JERUSALEM</a></td>
 <td class="right">127</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#A_NORMAN_PLOUGHMAN">NORMAN PLOUGHMAN</a></td>
 <td class="right">153</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#ARMING_A_KNIGHT">ARMING A KNIGHT</a></td>
 <td class="right">157</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#CONFERRING_KNIGHTHOOD_ON_THE_FIELD_OF_BATTLE">CONFERRING KNIGHTHOOD ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE</a></td>
 <td class="right">167</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#KING_CNUT">KING CNUT</a></td>
 <td class="right">179</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#DOORWAY_OF_CATHEDRAL_CHARTRES">DOORWAY OF CATHEDRAL, CHARTRES</a></td>
 <td class="right">217</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#CANTERBURY_CATHEDRAL">CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL</a></td>
 <td class="right">221</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#CRYPT_OF_MOUNT_ST_MICHEL">CRYPT OF MOUNT ST. MICHEL</a></td>
 <td class="right">241</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#A_NORMAN_ARCHER">NORMAN ARCHER</a></td>
 <td class="right">253</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#GUY_COUNT_OF_PONTHIEU">GUY, COUNT OF PONTHIEU</a></td>
 <td class="right">259</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#MOUNT_ST_MICHEL">MOUNT ST. MICHEL</a></td>
 <td class="right">263</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#OLD_HOUSES_DOL">OLD HOUSES, DÔL</a></td>
 <td class="right">265</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#FUNERAL_OF_EADWARD_THE_CONFESSOR">FUNERAL OF EADWARD THE CONFESSOR</a></td>
 <td class="right">273</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#STIGAND_ARCHBISHOP_OF_CANTERBURY">STIGAND, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY</a></td>
 <td class="right">277</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#NORMANDY_IN_1066">MAP—NORMANDY IN 1066</a></td>
 <td class="right">281</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#ENGLAND">MAP—ENGLAND</a></td>
 <td class="right">289</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#NORMAN_VESSEL_FROM_BAYEUX_TAPESTRY">NORMAN VESSEL</a></td>
 <td class="right">297</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#WILLIAM_THE_CONQUEROR_BAYEUX_TAPESTRY">WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR</a></td>
 <td class="right">301</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#A_NORMAN_MINSTREL">NORMAN MINSTREL</a></td>
 <td class="right">305</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#SOLDIER_IN_CLOAK">SOLDIER IN CLOAK</a></td>
 <td class="right">309</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#DEATH_OF_HAROLD_BAYEUX_TAPESTRY">DEATH OF HAROLD</a></td>
 <td class="right">325</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#NORMAN_LADY_COTTON_MSS">NORMAN LADY</a></td>
 <td class="right">326</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#BATTLE_AXES_BAYEUX_TAPESTRY">BATTLE-AXES</a></td>
 <td class="right">329</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td><a href="#ODO_BISHOP_OF_BAYEUX">ODO, BISHOP OF BAYEUX</a></td>
 <td class="right">335</td>
</tr>
</table>

<p>The ten illustrations in this volume which are from designs by
Thomas Macquoid, have been reproduced (through the courtesy of
Messrs. Chatto &amp; Windus) from Mrs. Macquoid's "Pictures and
Legends from Normandy and Brittany," the American edition of
which was published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 176px;">
<img src="images/i017.png" width="176" height="60" alt="" />
</div>

<hr class="chap" />

<h2 class="pgbkbefr">Descendants of ROLF <br />(DUKES OF THE NORMANS)</h2>

<table id="geneology" summary="Descendants of ROLF">
<tr>
 <th>Parent</th>
 <th>Child</th>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td style="width:10em;">ROLF, First Duke of the Normans, r. 911-927.</td>
 <td>WILLIAM <span class="smcapsm">LONGSWORD</span>, r. 927-943.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>WILLIAM <span class="smcapsm">LONGSWORD</span>, r. 927-943.</td>
 <td>RICHARD <span class="smcapsm">THE FEARLESS</span>, r. 943-996.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td rowspan="2">RICHARD <span class="smcapsm">THE FEARLESS</span>, r. 943-996.</td>
 <td>RICHARD <span class="smcapsm">THE GOOD</span>, r. 996-1026.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap">Emma</span>, m. 1. Æthelred II. of England; m. 2. Cnut of England and Denmark.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td rowspan="2">RICHARD <span class="smcapsm">THE GOOD</span>, r. 996-1026.</td>
 <td>RICHARD III, r. 1026-1028.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>ROBERT <span class="smcapsm">THE MAGNIFICENT</span>, r. 1028-1035.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>ROBERT <span class="smcapsm">THE MAGNIFICENT</span>, r. 1028-1035.</td>
 <td>WILLIAM <span class="smcapsm">THE CONQUEROR</span> r. 1035-1087.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td rowspan="4">WILLIAM <span class="smcapsm">THE CONQUEROR</span>, r. 1035-1087.</td>
 <td>ROBERT II., r. 1087-1096 (from 1096 to 1100 the Duchy was held by his brother William), and 1100-1106 (when he was overthrown at Tinchebrai by his brother Henry).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>WILLIAM <span class="smcapsm">RUFUS</span>, r. 1096-1100.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>HENRY I., r. 1106-1135.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap">Adela</span>, m. Stephen, Count of Blois.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap">Adela</span>, m. Stephen, Count of Blois.</td>
 <td>STEPHEN <span class="smcapsm">OF BLOIS</span>, s. 1135.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>HENRY I., r. 1106-1135.</td>
 <td><span class="smcap">Matilda</span>, m. GEOFFRY <span class="smcapsm">COUNT OF ANJOU AND MAINE</span> (who won the Duchy from Stephen).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td><span class="smcap">Matilda</span>, m. GEOFFRY <span class="smcapsm">COUNT OF ANJOU AND MAINE</span> (who won the Duchy from Stephen).</td>
 <td>HENRY II., invested with the Duchy, 1150, d. 1189.</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td rowspan="2">HENRY II., invested with the Duchy, 1150, d. 1189.</td>
 <td>RICHARD <span class="smcapsm">THE LION-HEART</span>, r. 1189-1199.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>JOHN, r. 1199-1204 (when Normandy was conquered by France).</td>
</tr>
</table>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 437px;">
<div><a id="DukesOfTheNormans"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i018a.png" width="437" height="800" alt="" />
<div class="caption">DUKES OF THE NORMANS.</div>
</div>

<p><span class="xxpgno"><a name="pg001" id="pg001"></a>[Pg001]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 374px;">
<img src="images/i020.png" width="374" height="91" alt="" />
</div>

<p class="fsize2 center"><a name="THE_STORY_OF_THE_NORMANS"
 id="THE_STORY_OF_THE_NORMANS"></a><b>THE STORY OF THE NORMANS</b>.</p>

<hr class="tb" />

<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.<br />
THE MEN OF THE DRAGON SHIPS.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i6">"Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,<br /></span>
<span class="i6">Survey our empire and behold our home."—<span class="smcap">Byron.</span><br /></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>, <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
The gulf stream flows so near to the southern
coast of Norway, and to the Orkneys and Western
Islands, that their climate is much less severe than
might be supposed. Yet no one can help wondering
why they were formerly so much more populous
than now, and why the people who came westward
even so long ago as the great Aryan migration, did
not persist in turning aside to the more fertile countries
that lay farther southward. In spite of all their
disadvantages, the Scandinavian peninsula, and the
sterile islands of the northern seas, were inhabited
by men and women whose enterprise and intelligence
ranked them above their neighbors.</p>

<p>Now, with the modern ease of travel and transportation,
these poorer countries can be supplied
from other parts of the world. And though the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg002" name="pg002"></a>[Pg002]</span>
summers of Norway are misty and dark and short,
and it is difficult to raise even a little hay on the bits
of meadow among the rocky mountain slopes, commerce
can make up for all deficiencies. In early
times there was no commerce except that carried
on by the pirates—if we may dignify their undertakings
by such a respectable name,—and it was
hardly possible to make a living from the soil
alone. The sand dunes of Denmark and the cliffs
of Norway alike gave little encouragement to tillers
of the ground, yet, in defiance of all our ideas of successful
colonization, when the people of these countries
left them, it was at first only to form new settlements
in such places as Iceland, or the Faroë or
Orkney islands and stormiest Hebrides. But it does
not take us long to discover that the ancient Northmen
were not farmers, but hunters and fishermen.
It had grown more and more difficult to find food
along the rivers and broad grassy wastes of inland
Europe, and pushing westward they had at last
reached the place where they could live beside waters
that swarmed with fish and among hills that
sheltered plenty of game.</p>

<p>Besides this they had been obliged not only to
make the long journey by slow degrees, but to fight
their way and to dispossess the people who were already
established. There is very little known of
these earlier dwellers in the east and north of Europe,
except that they were short of stature and
dark-skinned, that they were cave dwellers, and, in
successive stages of development, used stone and
bronze and iron tools and weapons. Many relics of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg003" name="pg003"></a>[Pg003]</span>
their home-life and of their warfare have been discovered
and preserved in museums, and there are
evidences of the descent of a small proportion of
modern Europeans from that remote ancestry. The
Basques of the north of Spain speak a different language
and wear a different look from any of the surrounding
people, and even in Great Britain there are
some survivors of an older race of humanity, which
the fairer-haired Celts of Southern Europe and Teutons
of Northern Europe have never been able in the
great natural war of races to wholly exterminate and
supplant. Many changes and minglings of the inhabitants
of these countries, long establishment of
certain tribes, and favorable or unfavorable conditions
of existence have made the nations of Europe
differ widely from each other at the present day, but
they are believed to have come from a common
stock, and certain words of the Sanscrit language
can be found repeated not only in Persian and Indian
speech to-day, but in English and Greek and
Latin and German, and many dialects that have
been formed from these.</p>

<p>The tribes that settled in the North grew in time
to have many peculiarities of their own, and as their
countries grew more and more populous, they needed
more things that could not easily be had, and a fashion
of plundering their neighbors began to prevail.
Men were still more or less beasts of prey. Invaders
must be kept out, and at last much of the industry
of Scandinavia was connected with the carrying on
of an almost universal fighting and marauding.
Ships must be built, and there must be endless
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg004" name="pg004"></a>[Pg004]</span>
supplies of armor and weapons. Stones were easily
collected for missiles or made fit for arrows and
spear-heads, and metals were worked with great
care. In Norway and Sweden were the best places
to find all these, and if the Northmen planned to
fight a great battle, they had to transport a huge
quantity of stones, iron, and bronze. It is easy to
see why one day's battle was almost always decisive
in ancient times, for supplies could not be quickly
forwarded from point to point, and after the arrows
were all shot and the conquered were chased off the
field, they had no further means of offence except
a hand-to-hand fight with those who had won the
right to pick up the fallen spears at their leisure.
So, too, an unexpected invasion was likely to prove
successful; it was a work of time to get ready for a
battle, and when the Northmen swooped down upon
some shore town of Britain or Gaul, the unlucky citizens
were at their mercy. And while the Northmen
had fish and game and were mighty hunters, and
their rocks and mines helped forward their warlike
enterprises, so the forests supplied them with ship
timber, and they gained renown as sailors wherever
their fame extended.</p>

<p>There was a great difference, however, between
the manner of life in Norway and that of England
or France. The Norwegian stone, however useful
for arrow-heads or axes, was not fit for building
purposes. There is hardly any clay there, either,
to make bricks with, so that wood has usually been
the only material for houses. In the Southern countries
there had always been rude castles in which

<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg006" name="pg006"></a>[Pg006]</span> the people could shelter themselves, but the Northmen
could build no castles that a torch could not
destroy. They trusted much more to their ships
than to their houses, and some of their great captains
disdained to live on shore at all.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 436px;">
<div><a id="IRON-SPEAR-AND-CHISEL"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i024.png" width="436" height="779" alt="" />
<div class="caption">Top Right: IRON CHISEL FOUND IN AAMOT
PARISH, OESTERDALEN. <br />Left and bottom:
IRON POINT OF A SPEAR WITH INLAID WORK OF SILVER,
FOUND AT NESNE, IN NORDLAND.</div>
</div>

<p>There is something refreshing in the stories of old
Norse life; of its simplicity and freedom and childish
zest. An old writer says that they had "a hankering
after pomp and pageantry," and by means of
this they came at last to doing things decently and
in order, and to setting the fashions for the rest of
Europe. There was considerable dignity in the
manner of every-day life and housekeeping. Their
houses were often very large, even two hundred
feet long, with the flaring fires on a pavement
in the middle of the floor, and the beds built next
the walls on three sides, sometimes hidden by wide
tapestries or foreign cloth that had been brought
home in the viking ships. In front of the beds were
benches where each man had his seat and footstool,
with his armor and weapons hung high on the wall
above. The master of the house had a high seat on
the north side in the middle of a long bench; opposite
was another bench for guests and strangers,
while the women sat on the third side. The roof
was high, there were a few windows in it, and those
were covered by thin skins and let in but little light.
The smoke escaped through openings in the carved,
soot-blackened roof, and though in later times the
rich men's houses were more like villages, because
they made groups of smaller buildings for store-houses,
for guest-rooms, or for workshops all around,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg007" name="pg007"></a>[Pg007]</span>
still, the idea of this primitive great hall or living-room
has not even yet been lost. The later copies of it in
England and France that still remain are most interesting;
but what a fine sight it must have been at
night when the great fires blazed and the warriors
sat on their benches in solemn order, and the skalds
recited their long sagas, of the host's own bravery
or the valiant deeds of his ancestors! Hospitality
was almost made chief among the virtues. There
was a Norwegian woman named Geirrid who went
from Heligoland to Iceland and settled there. She
built her house directly across the public road, and
used to sit in the doorway on a little bench and invite
all travellers to come in and refresh themselves
from a table that always stood ready, spread with
food. She was not the only one, either, who gave
herself up to such an exaggerated idea of the duties
of a housekeeper.</p>

<p>When a distinguished company of guests was
present, the pleasures of the evening were made
more important. Listening to the sagas was the
best entertainment that could be offered. "These
productions were of very ancient origin and entirely
foreign to those countries where the Latin language
prevailed. They had little or nothing to do with
either chronology or general history; but were limited
to the traditions of some heroic families, relating
their deeds and adventures in a style that was
always simple and sometimes poetic. These compositions,
in verse or prose, were the fruit of a wild
Northern genius. They were evolved without models,
and disappeared at last without imitations; and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg008" name="pg008"></a>[Pg008]</span>
it is most remarkable that in the island of Iceland, of
which the name alone is sufficient hint of its frightful
climate, and where the very name of poet has almost
become a wonder,—in this very island the
skalds (poets) have produced innumerable sagas and
other compositions during a space of time which
covers the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries."<a
name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1"
class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>

<div class="footnote"> <a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Depping:
"Maritimes Voyages des Normands."</div>

<p>The court poets or those attached to great families
were most important persons, and were treated
with great respect and honor. No doubt, they often
fell into the dangers of either flattery or scandal, but
they were noted for their simple truthfulness. We
cannot help feeling such an atmosphere in those
sagas that still exist, but the world has always been
very indulgent towards poetry that captivates the
imagination. Doubtless, nobody expected that a
skald should always limit himself to the part of a literal
narrator. They were the makers and keepers of
legends and literature in their own peculiar form of
history, and as to worldly position, ranked much
higher than the later minstrels and troubadours or
trouvères who wandered about France.</p>

<p>When we remember the scarcity and value of
parchment even in the Christianized countries of the
South, it is a great wonder that so many sagas were
written down and preserved; while there must have
been a vast number of others that existed only in
tradition and in the memories of those who learned
them in each generation.</p>

<p>If we try to get the story of the Northmen from
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg009" name="pg009"></a>[Pg009]</span>
the French or British chronicler, it is one long, dreary
complaint of their barbarous customs and their heathen
religion. In England the monks, shut up in
their monasteries, could find nothing bad enough to
say about the marauders who ravaged the shores of
the country and did so much mischief. If we believe
them, we shall mistake the Norwegians and their
companions for wild beasts and heathen savages.
We must read what was written in their own language,
and then we shall have more respect for the
vikings and sea-kings, always distinguishing between
these two; for, while any peasant who wished could
be a viking—a sea-robber—a sea-king was a king indeed,
and must be connected with the royal race of
the country. He received the title of king by right
as soon as he took command of a ship's crew, though
he need not have any land or kingdom. Vikings
were merely pirates; they might be peasants and
vikings by turn, and won their name from the inlets,
the viks or wicks, where they harbored their ships.
A sea-king must be a viking, but naturally very few
of the vikings were sea-kings.</p>

<p>When we turn from the monks' records, written
in Latin, to the accounts given of themselves by the
Northmen, in their own languages, we are surprised
enough to find how these ferocious pagans, these
merciless men, who burnt the Southern churches
and villages, and plundered and killed those of the
inhabitants whom they did not drag away into slavery,—how
these Northmen really surpassed their
enemies in literature, as much as in military achievements.
Their laws and government, their history
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg010" name="pg010"></a>[Pg010]</span>
and poetry and social customs, were better than those
of the Anglo-Saxons and the Franks.</p>

<p>If we stop to think about this, we see that it
would be impossible for a few hundred men to land
from their great row-boats and subdue wide tracts of
country unless they were superior in mental power,
and gifted with astonishing quickness and bravery.
The great leaders of armies are not those who can
lift the heaviest weights or strike the hardest blow,
but those who have the mind to plan and to organize
and discipline and, above all, to persevere and be
ready to take a dangerous risk. The countries to
the southward were tamed and spiritless, and bound
down by church influence and superstition until they
had lost the energy and even the intellectual power
of their ancestors five centuries back. The Roman
Empire had helped to change the Englishmen and
many of the Frenchmen of that time into a population
of slaves and laborers, with no property in the
soil, nothing to fight for but their own lives.</p>

<p>The viking had rights in his own country, and
knew what it was to enjoy those rights; if he could
win more land, he would know how to govern it,
and he knew what he was fighting for and meant to
win. If we wonder why all this energy was spent
on the high seas, and in strange countries, there are
two answers: first, that fighting was the natural
employment of the men, and that no right could be
held that could not be defended; but beside this,
one form of their energy was showing itself at home
in rude attempts at literature. It is surprising
enough to find that both the quality and the quantity
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg011" name="pg011"></a>[Pg011]</span>
of the old sagas far surpass all that can be
found of either Latin or English writing of that time
in England. These sagas are all in the familiar
tongue, so that everybody could understand them,
and be amused or taught by them. They were
not meant only for the monks and the people who
lived in cloisters. The legends of their ancestors'
beauty or bravery belonged to every man alike, and
that made the Norwegians one nation of men, working
and sympathizing with each other—not a mere
herd of individuals.</p>

<p>The more that we know of the Northmen, the
more we are convinced how superior they were in
their knowledge of the useful arts to the people
whom they conquered. There is a legend that
when Charlemagne, in the ninth century, saw some
pirate ships cruising in the Mediterranean, along
the shores of which they had at last found their
way, he covered his face and burst into tears. He
was not so much afraid of their cruelty and barbarism
as of their civilization. Nobody knew better
that none of the Christian countries under his rule
had ships or men that could make such a daring
voyage. He knew that they were skilful workers in
wood and iron, and had learned to be rope-makers
and weavers; that they could make casks for their
supply of drinking-water, and understood how to
prepare food for their long cruises. All their
swords and spears and bow-strings had to be made
and kept in good condition, and sheltered from the
sea-spray.</p>

<p>It is interesting to remember that the Northmen's
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg012" name="pg012"></a>[Pg012]</span>
fleets were not like a royal navy, though the king
could claim the use of all the war-ships when he
needed them for the country's service. They were
fitted out by anybody who chose, private adventurers
and peasants, all along the rocky shores.
They were not very grand affairs for the most part,
but they were all seaworthy, and must have had a
good deal of room for stowing all the things that
were to be carried, beside the vikings themselves.
Sometimes there were transport vessels to take the
arms and the food and bring back the plunder.
Perhaps most of the peasants' boats were only thirty
or forty feet long, but when we remember how
many hundreds used to put to sea after the small
crops were planted every summer, we cannot help
knowing that there were a great many men who
knew how to build strong ships in Norway, and how
to fit them out sufficiently well, and man them and
fight in them afterward. You never hear of any
fleets being fitted out in the French and English
harbors equalling these in numbers or efficiency.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<div><a id="VIKING-SHIP"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i032.png" width="600" height="435" alt="" />
<div class="caption">VIKING SHIP.</div>
</div>

<p>When we picture the famous sea-kings' ships to
ourselves, we do not wonder that the Northmen
were so proud of them, or that the skalds were
never tired of recounting their glories. There were
two kinds of vessels: the last-ships, that carried cargoes;
and the long-ships, or ships-of-war. Listen to
the splendors of the "Long Serpent," which was
the largest ship ever built in Norway. A dragon-ship,
to begin with, because all the long ships had a
dragon for a figure-head, except the smallest of
them, which were called cutters, and only carried

<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg014" name="pg014"></a>[Pg014]</span> ten or twenty rowers on a side. The "Long Serpent"
had thirty-four rowers' benches on a side, and
she was a hundred and eleven feet long. Over the
sides were hung the shining red and white shields
of the vikings, the gilded dragon's head towered
high at the prow, and at the stern a gilded tail went
curling off over the head of the steersman. Then,
from the long body, the heavy oars swept forward
and back through the water, the double thirty-four
of them, and as it came down the fiord, the "Long
Serpent" must have looked like some enormous centipede
creeping out of its den on an awful errand,
and heading out across the rough water toward its
prey.</p>

<p>The crew used to sleep on the deck, and ship-tents
were necessary for shelter. There was no deep
hold or comfortable cabin, for the ships were built
so that they could be easily hauled up on a sloping
beach. They had sails, and these were often made of
gay colors, or striped with red and blue and white
cloths, and a great many years later than this we
hear of a crusader waiting long for a fair wind at the
Straits of the Dardanelles, so that he could set all
his fine sails, and look splendid as he went by the
foreign shores.</p>

<p>To-day in Bergen harbor, in Norway, you are
likely to see at least one or two Norland ships that
belong to the great fleet that bring down furs and
dried fish every year from Hammerfest and Trondhjem
and the North Cape. They do not carry the
red and white shields, or rows of long oars, but they
are built with high prow and stern, and spread a great
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg015" name="pg015"></a>[Pg015]</span>
square brown sail. You are tempted to think that
a belated company of vikings has just come into
port after a long cruise. These descendants of the
long-ships and the last-ships look little like peaceful
merchantmen, as they go floating solemnly along the
calm waters of the Bergen-fiord.</p>

<p>The voyages were often disastrous in spite of much
clever seamanship. They knew nothing of the mariner's
compass, and found their way chiefly by the aid
of the stars—inconstant pilots enough on such foggy,
stormy seas. They carried birds too, oftenest ravens,
and used to let them loose and follow them toward
the nearest land. The black raven was the vikings'
favorite symbol for their flags, and familiar enough
it became in other harbors than their own. They
were bold, hardy fellows, and held fast to a rude
code of honor and rank of knighthood. To join
the most renowned company of vikings in Harold
Haarfager's time, it was necessary that the champion
should lift a great stone that lay before the king's
door, as first proof that he was worth initiating.
We are gravely told that this stone could not be
moved by the strength of twelve ordinary men.</p>

<p>They were obliged to take oath that they would not
capture women and children, or seek refuge during
a tempest, or stop to dress their wounds before a
battle was over. Sometimes they were possessed by
a strange madness, caused either by a frenzy of rivalry
and the wild excitement of their rude sports or by
intoxicating liquors or drugs, when they foamed at
the mouth and danced wildly about, swallowing burning
coals, uprooting the very rocks and trees, destroying
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg016" name="pg016"></a>[Pg016]</span>
their own property, and striking indiscriminately
at friends and foes. This berserker rage seems to
have been much applauded, and gained the possessed
viking a noble distinction in the eyes of his companions.
If a sea-king heard of a fair damsel anywhere
along the neighboring coast, he simply took
ship in that direction, fought for her, and carried her
away in triumph with as many of her goods as he
was lucky enough to seize beside. Their very gods
were gods of war and destruction, though beside
Thor, the thunderer, they worshipped Balder, the
fair-faced, the god of gentle speech and purity, with
Freyr, who rules over sunshine and growing things.
Their hell was a place of cold and darkness, and
their heaven was to be a place where fighting went
on from sunrise until the time came to ride back
to Valhalla and feast together in the great hall.
Those who died of old age or sickness, instead of
in battle, must go to hell. Odin, who was chief of
all the gods, made man, and gave him a soul which
should never perish, and Frigga, his wife, knew the
fate of all men, but never told her secrets.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 472px;">
<div><a id="VIKING"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i036.png" width="472" height="649" alt="" />
<div class="caption">VIKING.</div>
</div>

<p>The Northmen spread themselves at length over
a great extent of country. We can only wonder
why, after their energy and valor led them to found
a thriving colony in Iceland and in Russia, to even
venture among the icebergs and perilous dismal
coasts of Greenland, and from thence downward to
the pleasanter shores of New England, why they did
not seize these possessions and keep the credit of
discovering and settling America. What a change
that would have made in the world's history! Historians

<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg018" name="pg018"></a>[Pg018]</span> have been much perplexed at the fact of
Leif Ericson's lack of interest in the fertile Vinland,
New England now, which he visited in 986 and
praised eloquently when he left it to its fate. Vinland
waited hundreds of years after that for the hardy
Icelander's kindred to come from old England to
build their houses and spend the rest of their lives
upon its good corn-land and among the shadows of
its great pine-trees. There was room enough for all
Greenland, and to spare, but we cannot help suspecting
that the Northmen were not very good
farmers, that they loved fighting too well, and would
rather go a thousand miles across a stormy sea to
plunder another man of his crops than to patiently
raise their own corn and wool and make an honest
living at home. So, instead of understanding what
a good fortune it would be for their descendants, if
they seized and held the great western continent
that stretched westward from Vinland until it met
another sea, they kept on with their eastward
raids, and the valleys of the Elbe and the Rhine, of
the Seine and Loire, made a famous hunting-ground
for the dragon ships to seek. The rich seaports and
trading towns, the strongly walled Roman cities, the
venerated abbeys and cathedrals with their store of
wealth and provisions, were all equally exposed to
the fury of such attacks, and were soon stunned and
desolated. What a horror must have fallen upon a
defenceless harbor-side when a fleet of the Northmen's
ships was seen sweeping in from sea at daybreak!
What a smoke of burning houses and
shrieking of frightened people all day long; and as
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg019" name="pg019"></a>[Pg019]</span>
the twilight fell and the few survivors of the assault
dared to creep out from their hiding-places to see
the ruins of their homes, and the ships putting out
to sea again loaded deep with their possessions!—we
can hardly picture it to ourselves in these quiet
days.</p>

<p>The people who lived in France were of another
sort, but they often knew how to defend themselves
as well as the Northmen knew how to attack. There
are few early French records for us to read, for the
literature of that early day was almost wholly destroyed
in the religious houses and public buildings
of France. Here and there a few pages of a poem
or of a biography or chronicle have been kept, but
from this very fact we can understand the miserable
condition of the country.</p>

<p>In the year 810 the Danish Norsemen, under their
king, Gottfried, overran Friesland, but the Emperor
Charlemagne was too powerful for them and drove
them back. After his death they were ready to try
again, and because his huge kingdom had been
divided under many rulers, who were all fighting
among themselves, the Danes were more lucky, and
after robbing Hamburg several times they ravaged
the coasts and finally settled themselves as comfortably
as possible at the mouth of the Loire in France.
Soon they were not satisfied with going to and fro
along the seaboard, and took their smaller craft and
voyaged inland, swarming up the French rivers by
hundreds, devastating the country everywhere they
went.</p>

<p>In 845 they went up the Seine to Paris, and plundered
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg020" name="pg020"></a>[Pg020]</span>
Paris too, more than once; and forty years
later, forty thousand of them, led by a man named
Siegfried, went up from Rouen with seven hundred
vessels and besieged the poor capital for ten months,
until they were bought off at the enormous price of
the whole province of Burgundy. See what power
that was to put into the hands of the sea-kings'
crews! But no price was too dear, the people of
Paris must have thought, to get rid of such an army
in the heart of Gaul. They could make whatever
terms they pleased by this time, and there is a tradition
that a few years afterward some bands of Danish
rovers, who perhaps had gone to take a look at
Burgundy, pushed on farther and settled themselves
in Switzerland.</p>

<p>From the settlements they had made in the province
of Aquitania, they had long before this gone
on to Spain, because the rich Spanish cities were too
tempting to be resisted. They had forced their way
all along the shore of the sea, and in at the gate of
the Mediterranean; they wasted and made havoc as
they went, in Spain, Africa, and the Balearic islands,
and pushed their way up the Rhone to Valence. We
can trace them in Italy, where they burned the cities
of Pisa and Lucca, and even in Greece, where at last
the pirate ships were turned about, and set their sails
for home. Think of those clumsy little ships out on
such a journey with their single masts and long oars!
Think of the stories that must have been told from
town to town after these strange, wild Northern foes
had come and gone! They were like hawks that
came swooping down out of the sky, and though
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg021" name="pg021"></a>[Pg021]</span>
Spain and Rome and Greece were well enough
acquainted with wars, they must have felt when the
Northmen came, as we should feel if some wild beast
from the heart of the forest came biting and tearing
its way through a city street at noontime.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 551px;">
<div><a id="NORSE_BUCKLE_WITH_BYZANTINE"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i040.png" width="551" height="478" alt="" />
<div class="caption">NORSE BUCKLE WITH BYZANTINE DECORATION.</div>
</div>

<p>The whole second half of the ninth century is taken
up with the histories of these invasions. We must
follow for a while the progress of events in Gaul, or
France as we call it now, though it was made up
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg022" name="pg022"></a>[Pg022]</span>
then of a number of smaller kingdoms. The result
of the great siege of Paris was only a settling of
affairs with the Northmen for the time being; one
part of the country was delivered from them at the
expense of another. They could be bought off and
bribed for a time, but there was never to be any such
thing as their going back to their own country and
letting France alone for good and all. But as they
gained at length whole tracts of country, instead of
the little wealth of a few men to take away in their
ships as at first, they began to settle down in their
new lands and to become conquerors and colonists
instead of mere plunderers. Instead of continually
ravaging and attacking the kingdoms, they slowly
became the owners and occupiers of the conquered
territory; they pushed their way from point to point.
At first, as you have seen already, they trusted to
their ships, and always left their wives and children
at home in the North countries, but as time went on,
they brought their families with them and made new
homes, for which they would have to fight many a
battle yet. It would be no wonder if the women had
become possessed by a love for adventure too, and
had insisted upon seeing the lands from which the
rich booty was brought to them, and that they had
been saying for a long time: "Show us the places
where the grapes grow and the fruit-trees bloom,
where men build great houses and live in them
splendidly. We are tired of seeing only the long
larchen beams of their high roofs, and the purple and
red and gold cloths, and the red wine and yellow
wheat that you bring away. Why should we not go
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg023" name="pg023"></a>[Pg023]</span>
to live in that country, instead of your breaking it to
pieces, and going there so many of you, every year,
only to be slain as its enemies? We are tired of our
sterile Norway and our great Danish deserts of
sand, of our cold winds and wet weather, and our
long winters that pass by so slowly while the fleets
are gone. We would rather see Seville and Paris
themselves, than only their gold and merchandise and
the rafters of their churches that you bring home for
ship timber." One of the old ballads of love and
valor lingers yet that the women used to sing:
"<i>Myklagard and the land of Spain lie wide away
o'er the lee</i>." There was room enough in those far
countries where the ships went—why then do they
stay at home in Friesland and Norway and Denmark,
crowded and hungry kingdoms that they were, of the
wandering sea-kings?</p>

<p>As the years went on, the Northern lands themselves
became more peaceful, and the voyages of the
pirates came to an end. Though the Northmen still
waged wars enough, they were Danes or Norwegians
against England and France, one realm against
another, instead of every man plundering for himself.</p>

<p>The kingdoms of France had been divided and
weakened, and, while we find a great many fine
examples of resistance, and some great victories
over the Northmen, they were not pushed out and
checked altogether. Instead, they gradually changed
into Frenchmen themselves, different from other
Frenchmen only in being more spirited, vigorous,
and alert. They inspired every new growth of the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg024" name="pg024"></a>[Pg024]</span>
religion, language, or manners, with their own splendid
vitality. They were like plants that have grown
in dry, thin soil, transplanted to a richer spot of
ground, and sending out fresh shoots in the doubled
moisture and sunshine. And presently we shall
find the Northman becoming the Norman of history.
As the Northman, almost the first thing we
admire about him is his character, his glorious energy;
as the Norman, we see that energy turned into
better channels, and bringing a new element into
the progress of civilization.</p>

<p>The Northmen had come in great numbers to settle
in Gaul, but they were scattered about, and so it
was easier to count themselves into the population,
instead of keeping themselves separate. Some of
these settlements were a good way inland, and everywhere
they mixed their language with the French
for a time, but finally dropped it almost altogether.
In a very few years, comparatively speaking, they
were not Danes or Norwegians at all; they had forgotten
their old customs, and even their pagan gods
of the Northern countries from which their ancestors
had come. At last we come to a time when we begin
to distinguish some of the chieftains and other
brave men from the crowd of their companions.
The old chronicles of Scandinavia and Denmark and
Iceland cannot be relied upon like the histories of
Greece or Rome. The student who tries to discover
when this man was born, and that man died, from a
saga, is apt to be disappointed. The more he
studies these histories of the sea-kings and their
countries, the more distinct picture he gets of a
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg025" name="pg025"></a>[Pg025]</span>
great crowd of men taking their little ships every
year and leaving the rocky, barren coasts of their
own country to go southward. As we have seen,
France and England and Flanders and Spain were
all richer and more fruitful, and they would go ashore,
now at this harbor, now that, to steal all they could,
even the very land they trod upon. Now and then
we hear the name of some great man, a stronger and
more daring sailor and fighter than the rest. There
is a dismal story of a year of famine in France, when
the north wind blew all through the weeks of a leafless
spring, the roots of the vines were frozen, and
the fruit blossoms chilled to the heart. The wild
creatures of the forest, crazed with hunger, ventured
into the farms and villages, and the monks fasted
more than they thought best, and prayed the more
heartily for succor in their poverty. But down from
the North came Ragnar Lodbrok, the great Danish
captain, with his stout-built vessels, "ten times
twelve dragons of the sea," and he and his men, in
their shaggy fur garments, went crashing through
the ice of the French rivers, to make an easy prey
of the hungry Frenchmen—to conquer everywhere
they went. And for one Ragnar Lodbrok, read fifty
or a hundred; for, though there are many stories
told about him, just as we think that we can picture
him and his black-sailed ships in our minds, we are
told that this is only a legend, and that there never
was any Ragnar Lodbrok at all who was taken by
his enemies and thrown into a horrible dungeon
filled with vipers, to sing a gallant saga about his
life and misdeeds. But if there were no hero of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg026" name="pg026"></a>[Pg026]</span>
this name, we put together little by little from one
hint and another legend a very good idea of those
quarrelsome times, when to be great it was necessary
to be a pirate, and to kill as many men and steal as
much of their possession as one possibly could.
These Northmen set as bad an example as any
traveller since the world began. More than ninety
times we can hear of them in France and Spain and
the north of Germany, and always burning and ruining,
not only the walled cities, but all the territory
round about. Shipload after shipload left their
bones on foreign soil; again and again companies
of them were pushed out of France and England
and defeated, but from generation to generation
the quarrels went on, and we begin to wonder
why the sea-coasts were not altogether deserted, until
we remember that the spirit of those days was warlike,
and that, while the people were plundered one
year, they succeeded in proving themselves masters
the next, and so life was filled with hope of military
glory, and the tide of conquest swept now north,
and now south.</p>

<p>From the fjords of Norway a splendid, hardy race
of young men were pushing their boats to sea every
year. Remember that their own country was a very
hard one to live in with its long, dark winters, its
rainy, short summers when the crops would not
ripen, its rocky, mountainous surface, and its natural
poverty. Even now if it were not for the fishing the
Norwegian peasant people would find great trouble
in gaining food enough. In early days, when the
tilling of the ground was less understood, it must
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg027" name="pg027"></a>[Pg027]</span>
have been hard work tempting those yellow-haired,
eager young adventurers to stay at home, when they
could live on the sea in their rude, stanch little
ships, as well as on land; when they were told great
stories of the sunshiny, fruitful countries that lay to
the south, where plenty of food and bright clothes
and gold and silver might be bought in the market
of war for the blows of their axes and the strength
and courage of their right arms. No wonder that it
seemed a waste of time to stay at home in Norway!</p>

<p>And as for the old men who had been to the
fights and followed the sea-kings and brought home
treasures, we are sure that they were always talking
over their valiant deeds and successes, and urging
their sons and grandsons to go to the South. The
women wished their husbands and brothers to be as
brave as the rest, while they cared a great deal for
the rich booty which was brought back from such
expeditions. What a hard thing it must have seemed
to the boys who were sick or lame or deformed, but
who had all the desire for glory that belonged to any
of the vikings, and yet must stay at home with the
women!</p>

<p>When we think of all this, of the barren country,
and the crowd of people who lived in it, of the
natural relish for a life of adventure, and the hope of
splendid riches and fame, what wonder that in all
these hundreds of years the Northmen followed their
barbarous trade and went a-ravaging, and finally took
great pieces of the Southern countries for their own
and held them fast.</p>

<p>As we go on with this story of the Normans, you
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg028" name="pg028"></a>[Pg028]</span>
will watch these followers of the sea-kings keeping
always some trace of their old habits and customs.
Indeed you may know them yet. The Northmen
were vikings, always restless and on the move, stealing
and fighting their way as best they might, daring,
adventurous. The Norman of the twelfth century
was a crusader. A madness to go crusading against
the Saracen possessed him, not alone for religion's
sake or for the holy city of Jerusalem, and so in all
the ages since one excuse after another has set the
same wild blood leaping and made the Northern
blue eyes shine. Look where you may, you find
Englishmen of the same stamp—Sir Walter Raleigh
and Lord Nelson, Stanley and Dr. Livingstone and
General Gordon, show the old sea-kings' courage
and recklessness. Snorro Sturleson's best saga
has been followed by Drayton's "Battle of Agincourt"
and Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade"
and "Ballad of Sir Richard Grenville." I
venture to say that there is not an English-speaking
boy or girl who can hear that sea-king's ballad this
very day in peaceful England or America without a
great thrill of sympathy.</p>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i6">"At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,<br /></span>
<span class="i6">And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far away:<br /></span>
<span class="i6">'Spanish ships of war at sea! We have sighted fifty-three.'"—<br /></span>
</div>

<p>Go and read that; the whole of the spirited story;
but there is one thing I ask you to remember first in
all this long story of the Normans: that however
much it seems to you a long chapter of bloody wars
and miseries and treacheries that get to be almost
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg029" name="pg029"></a>[Pg029]</span>
tiresome in their folly and brutality; however little
profit it may seem sometimes to read about the
Norman wars, yet everywhere you will catch a gleam
of the glorious courage and steadfastness that have
won not only the petty principalities and dukedoms
of those early days, but the great English and American
discoveries and inventions and noble advancement
of all the centuries since.</p>

<p>On the island of Vigr, in the Folden-fiord, the
peasants still show some rude hollows in the shore
where the ships of Rolf-Ganger were drawn up in
winter, and whence he launched them to sail away
to the Hebrides and France—the beginning of as
great changes as one man's voyage ever wrought.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 184px;">
<img src="images/i048.png" width="184" height="100" alt="" />
</div>

<p><span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg030" name="pg030"></a>[Pg030]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 355px;">
<img src="images/i049.png" width="355" height="75" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.
<br />ROLF THE GANGER.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i6">"Far had I wandered from this northern shore,<br /></span>
<span class="i7">Far from the bare heights and the wintry seas,<br /></span>
<span class="i7">Dreaming of these<br /></span>
<span class="i6">&#160;No more."<span class="rightsiginl">&#160;&#160;&#160;—A. F.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
Toward the middle of the ninth century Harold
Haarfager did great things in Norway. There had
always been a great number of petty kings or jarls,
who were sometimes at peace with each other, but
oftener at war, and at last this Harold was strong
enough to conquer all the rest and unite all the
kingdoms under his own rule. It was by no means
an easy piece of business, for twelve years went by
before it was finished, and not only Norway itself,
but the Orkneys, and Shetlands, and Hebrides, and
Man were conquered too, and the lawless vikings
were obliged to keep good order. The story was
that the king had loved a fair maiden of the North,
called Gyda, but when he asked her to marry him
she had answered that she would not marry a jarl;
let him make himself a king like Gorm of Denmark!
At this proud answer Harold loved her more than
ever, and vowed that he would never cut his hair
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg031" name="pg031"></a>[Pg031]</span>
until he had conquered all the jarls and could claim
Gyda's hand.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 431px;">
<div><a id="A_NORWEGIAN_FIORD"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i050.png" width="431" height="534" alt="" />
<div class="caption">A NORWEGIAN FIORD.</div>
</div>

<p>The flourishing shock of his yellow hair became
renowned; we can almost see it ourselves waving
prosperously through his long series of battles.
When he was king at last he chose Jarl Rögnwald of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg032" name="pg032"></a>[Pg032]</span>
Möre to cut the shining locks because he was the
most valiant and best-beloved of all his tributaries.</p>

<p>Jarl Rögnwald had a family of sons who were
noted men in their day. One was called Turf-Einar,
because he went to the Orkney islands and discovered
great deposits of peat of which he taught the
forestless people to make use, so that they and
their descendants were grateful and made him their
chief hero. Another son was named Rolf, and he
was lord of three small islands far up toward the
North. He followed the respected profession of sea-robber,
but though against foreign countries it was
the one profession for a jarl to follow, King Harold
was very stringent in his laws that no viking should
attack any of his own neighbors or do any mischief
along the coasts of Norway. These laws Rolf was
not careful about keeping.</p>

<p>There was still another brother, who resented
Haarfager's tyrannies so much that he gathered a
fine heroic company of vikings and more peaceable
citizens and went to Iceland and settled there. This
company came in time to be renowned as the beginners
of one of the most remarkable republics the
world has ever known, with a unique government
by its aristocracy, and a natural development of literature
unsurpassed in any day. There, where there were
no foreign customs to influence or pervert, the Norse
nature and genius had their perfect flowering.</p>

<p>Rolf is said to have been so tall that he used to
march afoot whenever he happened to be ashore,
rather than ride the little Norwegian horses. He
was nicknamed Gang-Roll (or Rolf), which means
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg033" name="pg033"></a>[Pg033]</span>
Rolf the Walker, or Ganger. There are two legends
which give the reason why he came away from Norway—one
that he killed his brother in an unfortunate
quarrel, and fled away to England, whither he was
directed by a vision or dream; that the English
helped him to fit out his ships and to sail away again
toward France.</p>

<p>The other story, which seems more likely, makes
it appear that the king was very angry because Rolf
plundered a Norwegian village when he was coming
home short of food from a long cruise in the Baltic
Sea. The peasants complained to Harold Haarfager,
who happened to be near, and he called the great
Council of Justice and banished his old favorite for
life.</p>

<p>Whether these stories are true or not, at any rate
Rolf came southward an outlaw, and presently we
hear of him in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland,
where a company of Norwegians had settled after
King Harold's conquests. These men were mostly
of high birth and great ability, and welcomed the
new-comer who had so lately been their enemy.
We are not surprised when we find that they banded
together as pirates and fitted out a famous expedition.
Perhaps they did not find living in the
Hebrides very luxurious, and thought it necessary to
collect some merchandise and money, or some slaves
to serve them, so they fell back upon their familiar
customs.</p>

<p>Rolf's vessels and theirs made a formidable fleet,
but although they agreed that there should not be
any one chosen as captain, or admiral, as we should
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg034" name="pg034"></a>[Pg034]</span>
say nowadays, we do not hear much of any of the
confederates except Rolf the Ganger, so we may be
sure he was most powerful and took command
whether anybody was willing or not.</p>

<p>They came round the coast of Scotland, and made
first for Holland, but as all that part of the country
had too often been devastated and had become very
poor, the ships were soon put to sea again. And
next we find them going up the River Seine in
France, which was a broader river then than it is
now, and the highway toward Paris and other cities,
which always seemed to offer great temptations to
the vikings. Charles the Simple was king of France
by right, but the only likeness to his ancestor Charlemagne
was in his name, and to that his subjects had
added the Simple, or the Fool, by which we can tell
that he was not a very independent or magnificent
sort of monarch. The limits of the kingdom of
France, at that time, had just been placed between
the Loire and the Meuse, after many years of fighting
between the territories, and Charles was still contesting
his right to the crown. The wide empire of
Charlemagne had not been divided at once into distinct
smaller kingdoms, but the heirs had each taken
what they could hold and fought for much else beside.
Each pretended to be the lawful king and was ready
to hold all he could win. So there was naturally
little good-feeling between them, and not one could
feel sure that his neighbor would even help him
to fight against a common enemy. It was "Every one
for himself, and devil take the hindmost!" to quote
the old proverb, which seldom has so literal an
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg035" name="pg035"></a>[Pg035]</span>
application. King Charles the Simple, besides defending
himself from his outside enemies, was also much
troubled by a pretender to the crown, and was no
doubt at his wit's end to know how to manage the
province of Neustria, lately so vexed by the foreign
element within its borders. It might be easy work
for the troop of Northmen that had followed Rolf.
Besides the fact that they need not fear any alliance
against them, and had only Charles the Simple for
their enemy, one of his own enemies was quite likely
to form a league with them against him.</p>

<p>The fleet from the Hebrides had come to anchor
on its way up the Seine at a town called Jumièges,
five leagues from Rouen. There was no army near
by to offer any hindrance, and the work of pillaging
the country was fairly begun without hindrance
when the news of the incursion was told in Rouen.
There the people were in despair, for it was useless
to think of defending their broken walls; the city
was already half ruined from such invasions. At any
hour they might find themselves at the mercy of
these new pirates. But in such dreadful dismay the
archbishop, a man of great courage and good sense,
whom we must honor heartily, took upon himself
the perilous duty of going to the camp and trying to
save the city by making a treaty. He had heard
stories enough, we may be sure, of the cruel tortures
of Christian priests by these Northern pagans, who
still believed in the gods Thor and Odin and in Valhalla,
and that the most fortunate thing, for a man's
life in the next world, was that he should die in
battle in this world.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg036" name="pg036"></a>[Pg036]</span></p>

<p>There was already a great difference in the hopes
and plans of the Northmen: they listened to the
archbishop instead of killing him at once, and Rolf
and his companions treated him and his interpreter
with some sort of courtesy. Perhaps the bravery of
the good man won their hearts by its kinship to their
daring; perhaps they were already planning to seize
upon a part of France and to forsake the Hebrides
altogether, and Rolf had a secret design of founding
a kingdom for himself that should stand steadfast
against enemies. When the good priest went back
to Rouen, I think the people must have been surprised
that he had kept his head upon his shoulders,
and still more filled with wonder because he was
able to tell them that he had made a truce, that he
had guaranteed the assailants admission to the city,
but that they had promised not to do any harm
whatever. Who knows if there were not many
voices that cried out that it was only delivering them
to the cruel foe, with their wives and children
and all that they had in the world. When the
ships came up the river and were anchored before
one of the city gates near the Church of St. Morin,
and the tall chieftain and his comrades began to
come ashore, what beating hearts, what careful peeping
out of windows there must have been in Rouen
that day!</p>

<p>But the chiefs had given their word of honor, and
they kept it well; they walked all about the city, and
examined all the ramparts, the wharves, and the supply
of water, and gave every thing an unexpectedly
kind approval. More than this, they said that Rouen
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg037" name="pg037"></a>[Pg037]</span>
should be their head-quarters and their citadel.
This was not very welcome news, but a thousand
times better than being sacked and ravaged and
burnt, and when the ships had gone by up the river,
I dare say that more than one voice spoke up for
Rolf the Ganger, and gratefully said that he might
not prove the worst of masters after all. Some of
the citizens even joined the ranks of the sea-king's
followers when they went on in quest of new adventure
up the Seine.</p>

<p>Just where the river Eure joins the Seine, on the
point between the two streams, the Norwegians
built a great camp, and fortified it, and there they
waited for the French army. For once King Charles
was master of his whole kingdom, and he had made
up his mind to resist this determined invasion. Pirates
were bad enough, but pirates who were evidently
bent upon greater mischief than usual could
not be sent away too soon. It was not long before
the French troops, under the command of a general
called Regnauld, who bore the title of Duke of
France, made their appearance opposite the encampment,
on the right bank of the Eure.</p>

<p>The French counts had rallied bravely; they made
a religious duty of it, for were not these Norwegians
pagans? and pagans deserved to be killed, even if
they had not come to steal from a Christian country.</p>

<p>There was one count who had been a pagan himself
years before, but he had become converted, and
was as famous a Christian as he had been sea-king.
He had declared that he was tired of leading a life
of wild adventure, and had made peace with France
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg038" name="pg038"></a>[Pg038]</span>
twenty years before this time; and the kingdom had
given him the county of Chartres—so he must have
been a powerful enemy. Naturally he was thought
to be the best man to confer with his countrymen.
There was a council of war in the French camp, and
this Hasting (of whom you will hear again by and
by) advised that they should confer with Rolf before
they risked a battle with him. Perhaps the old sea-king
judged his tall successor by his own experience,
and thought he might like to be presented with a
county too, as the price of being quiet and letting
the frightened Seine cities alone. Some of the other
lords of the army were very suspicious and angry
about this proposal, but Hasting had his way, and
went out with two attendants who could speak
Danish.</p>

<p>The three envoys made their short journey to the
river-side as quickly as possible, and presently they
stood on the bank of the Eure. Across the river
were the new fortifications, and some of the sea-kings'
men were busy with their armor on the other
shore.</p>

<p>"Gallant soldiers!" cries the Count of Chartres;
"what is your chieftain's name?"</p>

<p>"We have no lord over us," they shouted back
again; "we are all equal."</p>

<p>"For what end have you come to France?"</p>

<p>"To drive out the people who are here, or make
them our subjects, and to make ourselves a new
country," says the Northman. "Who are you?—How
is it that you speak our own tongue?"</p>

<p>"You know the story of Hasting," answers the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg039" name="pg039"></a>[Pg039]</span>
count, not without pride—"Hasting, the great pirate,
who scoured the seas with his crowd of ships,
and did so much evil in this kingdom?"</p>

<p>"Aye, we have heard that, but Hasting has made
a bad end to so good a beginning"; to which the
count had nothing to say; he was Lord of Chartres
now, and liked that very well.</p>

<p>"Will you submit to King Charles?" he shouts
again, and more men are gathering on the bank to
listen. "Will you give your faith and service, and
take from him gifts and honor?"</p>

<p>"No, no!" they answer; "we will not submit to
King Charles—go back, and tell him so, you messenger,
and say that we claim the rule and dominion of
what we win by our own strength and our swords."</p>

<p>But the Frenchmen called Hasting a traitor when
he brought this answer back to camp, and told his
associates not to try to force the pagan entrenchments.
A traitor, indeed! That was too much for
the old viking's patience. For all that, the accusation
may have held a grain of truth. Nobody knows the
whole of his story, but he may have felt the old fire
and spirit of his youth when he saw the great encampment
and heard the familiar tones of his countrymen.
It may be wrong to suspect that he went
to join them; but, at all events, Count Chartres left
the French camp indignantly, and nobody knows
where he went, either then or afterward, for he forsook
his adopted country and left it to its fate.
They found out that he had given good advice to
those proud comrades of his, for when they attacked
the enemy between the rivers they were cut to
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg040" name="pg040"></a>[Pg040]</span>
pieces; even the duke of France, their bold leader,
was killed by a poor fisherman of Rouen who had
followed the Northern army.</p>

<p>Now there was nothing to hinder Rolf, who begins
to be formally acknowledged as the leader, from going
up the Seine as fast or as slow as he pleased, and
after a while the army laid siege to Paris, but this
was unsuccessful. One of the chiefs was taken
prisoner, and to release him they promised a year's
truce to King Charles, and after a while we find them
back at Rouen again. They had been ravaging the
country to the north of Paris, very likely in King
Charles's company, for there had been a new division
of the kingdom, and the northern provinces no longer
called him their sovereign. Poor Charles the Simple!
he seems to have had a very hard time of it
with his unruly subjects, and his fellow-knights and
princes too, who took advantage of him whenever they
could find a chance.</p>

<p>By this time we know enough of Rolf and his
friends not to expect them to remain quiet very long
at Rouen. Away they went to Bayeux, a rich city,
and assaulted that and killed Berenger, the Count of
Bayeux, and gained a great heap of booty. We
learn a great deal of the manners and fashions of
that early day when we find out that Berenger had
a beautiful daughter, and when the treasure was
divided she was considered as part of it and fell to
Rolf's lot. He immediately married her with apparent
satisfaction and a full performance of Scandinavian
rites and ceremonies.</p>

<p>After this the Northmen went on to Evreux and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg041" name="pg041"></a>[Pg041]</span>
to some other cities, and their dominion was added
to, day by day. They began to feel a certain sort of
respect and care for the poor provinces now that
they belonged to themselves. And they ceased to
be cruel to the unresisting people, and only taxed
them with a certain yearly tribute. Besides this,
they chose Rolf for their king, but this northern
title was changed before long for the French one of
duke. Rolf must have been very popular with his
followers. We cannot help a certain liking for him
ourselves or being pleased when we know that his
new subjects liked him heartily. They had cursed
him very often, to be sure, and feared his power
when he was only a pirate, but they were glad
enough when they gained so fearless and strong a
man for their protector. Whatever he did seemed
to be with a far-sightedness and better object than
they had been used to in their rulers. He was a man
of great gifts and uncommon power, and he laid his
plans deeper and was not without a marked knowledge
of the rude politics of that time—a good governor,
which was beginning to be needed more in
France than a good fighter even.</p>

<p>Fighting was still the way of gaining one's ends,
and so there was still war, but it was better sustained
and more orderly. These Northerners, masters now
of a good piece of territory, linked themselves with
some of the smaller scattered settlements of Danes
at the mouth of the river Loire, and went inland on
a great expedition. They could not conquer Paris
this time either, nor Dijon nor Chartres. The great
walls of these cities and several others were not to
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg042" name="pg042"></a>[Pg042]</span>
be beaten down, but there is a long list of weaker
towns that fell into their hands, and at last the
French people could bear the sieges no longer, and
not only the peasants but the nobles and priests
clamored for deliverance. King Charles may have
been justly called the Simple, but he showed very
good sense now. "We shall starve to death," the
people were saying. "Nobody dares to work in the
field or the vineyard; there is not an acre of corn
from Blois to Senlis. Churches are burnt and people
are murdered; the Northmen do as they please.
See, it is all the fault of a weak king!"</p>

<p>King Charles roused himself to do a sensible thing;
he may have planned it as a stroke of policy, and
meant to avail himself of the Northmen's strength
to keep himself on his throne. He consulted his
barons and bishops, and they agreed with him that
he must form a league with their enemies, and so
make sure of peace. As we read the story of those
days, we are hardly sure that Rolf was the subject
after this rather than the king. He did homage
to King Charles, and he received the sovereignty
over most of what was to be called the dukedom of
Normandy. The league was little more than an obligation
of mutual defence, and King Charles was lucky
to call Rolf his friend and ally. The vigorous Norwegian
was likely to keep his word better than the
French dukes and barons, who broke such promises
with perfect ease. Rolf's duty and his interest led
him nearly in the same path, but he was evidently
disposed to do what was right according to his way
of seeing right and wrong.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg043" name="pg043"></a>[Pg043]</span></p>

<p>All this time he had been living with his wife
Popa, the daughter of Count Berenger, who was slain
at Bayeux. They had two children—William, and a
daughter, Adela. According to the views of King
Charles and the Christian church of that time, the
marriage performed with Scandinavian rites was no
marriage at all, though Rolf loved his wife devotedly
and was training his son with great care, so that
he might by and by take his place, and be no inferior,
either, of the young French princes who were his
contemporaries. As one historian says, the best had
the best then, and this young William was being
made a scholar as fast as possible.</p>

<p>For all this, when the king's messenger came to
Rolf and made him an offer of Gisla, the king's
daughter, for a wife, with the seigneury of all the
lands between the river Epte and the border of Brittany,
if he would only become a Christian and live
in peace with the kingdom, Rolf listened with pleasure.
He did not repeat now the words that Hasting
heard on the bank of the Eure, "We will obey no
one!" while with regard to the marriage he evidently
felt free to contract a new one.</p>

<p>It was all a great step upward, and Rolf's clear
eyes saw that. If he were not a Christian he could
not be the equal of the lords of France. He was
not a mere adventurer any longer, the leader of a
band of pirates; other ambitions had come to him
since he had been governor of his territory. The
pagan fanaticism and superstition of his companions
were more than half extinguished already; the old
myths of the Northern gods had not flourished in
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg044" name="pg044"></a>[Pg044]</span>
this new soil. At last, after much discussion and
bargaining about the land that should be given, Rolf
gave his promise once for all, and now we may begin
to call him fairly the Duke of Normandy and his
people the Normans; the old days of the Northmen
in France had come to an end. For a good many
years the neighboring provinces called the new dukedom
"the pirate's land" and "the Northman's
land," but the great Norman race was in actual
existence now, and from this beginning under Rolf,
the tall Norwegian sea-king, has come one of the
greatest forces and powers of the civilized world.</p>

<p>I must give you some account of the ceremonies
at this establishment of the new duke, for it was a
grand occasion, and the king's train of noblemen
and gentlemen, and all the Norman officers and
statesmen went out to do honor to that day. The
place was in a village called St. Claire, on the river
Epte, and the French pitched their tents on one
bank of the river and the Normans on the other.
Then, at the hour appointed, Rolf came over to
meet the king, and did what would have astonished
his father Rögnwald and his viking ancestors very
much. He put his hand between the king's hands
and said: "From this time forward I am your vassal
and man, and I give my oath that I will faithfully
protect your life, your limbs, and your royal honor."</p>

<p>After this the king and his nobles formally gave
Rolf the title of duke or count, and swore that they
would protect him and his honor too, and all the
lands named in the treaty. But there is an old
story that, when Rolf was directed to kneel before
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg045" name="pg045"></a>[Pg045]</span>
King Charles and kiss his foot in token of submission,
he was a rebellious subject at once. Perhaps
he thought that some of his French rivals had revived
this old Frankish custom on purpose to humble
his pride, but he said nothing, only beckoned quietly
to one of his followers to come and take his place.
Out steps the man. I do not doubt that his eyes
were dancing, and that his yellow beard hid a
laughing mouth; he did not bend his knee at all, but
caught the king's foot, and lifted it so high that the
poor monarch fell over backward, and all the pirates
gave a shout of laughter. They did not think much
of Charles the Simple, those followers of Rolf the
Ganger.</p>

<p>Afterward the marriage took place at Rouen, and
the high barons of France went there with the bride,
though it was not a very happy day for Gisla, whom
Rolf never lived with or loved. He was a great
many years older than she, and when she died he
took Popa, the first wife back again—if, indeed, he
had not considered her the true wife all the time.
Then on that wedding-day he became a Christian
too, though there must have been more change of
words and manner than of Rolf's own thoughts. He
received the archbishop's lessons with great amiability,
and gave part of his lands to the church before
he divided the rest among his new-made nobles.
They put a long white gown or habit on him, such
as newly baptized persons wore, and he must have
been an amusing sight to see, all those seven days
that he kept it on, tall old seafarer that he was, but
he preserved a famous dignity, and gave estates to
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg046" name="pg046"></a>[Pg046]</span>
seven churches in succession on each day of that
solemn week. Then he put on his every-day clothes
again, and gave his whole time to his political affairs
and the dividing out of Normandy among the Norwegian
chieftains who had come with him on that
lucky last voyage.</p>

<p>It is said that Rolf himself was the founder of the
system of landholding according to the custom of
feudal times, and of a regular system of property
rights, and customs of hiring and dividing the landed
property, but there are no state papers or charters
belonging to that early time, as there are in England,
so nobody can be very sure. At any rate, he is said to
have been the best ruler possible, and his province was
a model for others, though it was the most modern
in Gaul. He caused the dilapidated towns and cities
to be rebuilt, and the churches were put into good
repair and order. There are parts of some of the
Rouen churches standing yet, that Rolf rebuilt.</p>

<p>There is a great temptation to linger and find out
all we can of the times of this first Count of Normandy—so
many later traits and customs date back
to Rolf's reign; and all through this story of the Normans
we shall find a likeness to the first leader, and
trace his influence. His own descendants inherited
many of his gifts of character—a readiness of thought
and speech; clear, bright minds, and vigor of action.
Even those who were given over to ways of vice and
shame, had a cleverness and attractiveness that made
their friends hold to them, in spite of their sins and
treacheries. A great deal was thought of learning
and scholarship among the nobles and gentle folk of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg047" name="pg047"></a>[Pg047]</span>
that day, and Rolf had caught eagerly at all such
advantages, even while he trusted most to his Northern
traditions of strength and courage. If he had
thought these were enough to win success, and had
brought up his boy as a mere pirate and fighter, it
would have made a great difference in the future of
the Norman people and their rulers. The need of a
good education was believed in, and held as a sort of
family doctrine, as long as Rolf's race existed, but
you will see in one after another of these Norman
counts the nature of the sea-kings mixed with their
later learning and accomplishments.</p>

<p>We cannot help being a little amused, however,
when we find that young William, the grandson of
old Rögnvald, loved his books so well that he begged
his father to let him enter a monastery. The wise,
good man Botho, who was his tutor, had taught him
to be proud of his other grandfather, Count Berenger,
who belonged to one of the most illustrious
French families, and taught him also to follow the
example of the good clergymen of Normandy, as
well as the great conquerors and chieftains. By and
by we shall see that he loved to do good, and to do
works of mercy, though his people called him William
Longsword, and followed him to the wars.</p>

<p>Normandy was wild enough when Rolf came to
rule there, but before he died the country had
changed very much for the better. He was very
careful to protect the farmers, and such laws were
made, and kept, too, that robbery was almost unknown
throughout the little kingdom. The peasants
could leave their oxen or their tools in the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg048" name="pg048"></a>[Pg048]</span>
field now, and if by chance they were stolen, the
duke himself was responsible for the loss. A pretty
story is told of Rolf that has also been told of other
wise rulers. He had gone out hunting one day, and
after the sport, while he and his companions were
resting and having a little feast as they sat on the
grass, Rolf said he would prove the orderliness and
trustiness of his people. So he took off the two
gold bracelets which were a badge of his rank, and
reached up and hung them on a tree close by, and
there they were, safe and shining, a long time
afterward, when he went to seek them. Perhaps
this story is only a myth, though the tale is
echoed in other countries—England, Ireland, and
Lombardy, and others beside. At any rate, it gives
an expression of the public safety and order, and
the people's gratitude to their good kings. Rolf
brought to his new home some fine old Scandinavian
customs, for his own people were knit together with
close bonds in Norway. If a farmer's own servants
or helpers failed him for any reason, he could demand
the help of his neighbors without paying
them, and they all came and helped him gather his
harvest. Besides, the law punished nothing so severely
as the crime of damaging or stealing from a
growing crop. The field was said to be under God's
lock, with heaven for its roof, though there might be
only a hedge for its wall. If a man stole from
another man's field, and took the ripe corn into his
own barn, he paid for it with his life. This does not
match very well with the sea-kings' exploits abroad,
but they were very strict rulers, and very honest
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg049" name="pg049"></a>[Pg049]</span>
among themselves at home. One familiar English
word of ours—hurrah,—is said to date from Rolf's
reign. <i>Rou</i> the Frenchmen called our Rolf; and
there was a law that if a man was in danger himself,
or caught his enemy doing any damage, he could
raise the cry <i>Ha Rou!</i> and so invoke justice in Duke
Rolf's name. At the sound of the cry, everybody
was bound, on the instant, to give chase to the offender,
and whoever failed to respond to the cry of
<i>Ha Rou!</i> must pay a heavy fine to Rolf himself.
This began the old English fashion of "hue and
cry," as well as our custom of shouting Hurrah!
when we are pleased and excited.</p>

<p>We cannot help being surprised to see how quickly
the Normans became Frenchmen in their ways of
living and even speaking. There is hardly a trace
of their Northern language except a few names of
localities left in Normandy. Once settled in their
new possessions, Rolf and all his followers seem to
have been as eager for the welfare of Normandy as
they were ready to devastate it before. They were
proud not of being Norsemen but of being Normans.
Otherwise their country could not have done what
it did in the very next reign to Rolf's, nor could
Rouen have become so much like a French city
even in his own lifetime. This was work worthy of
his power, to rule a people well, and lift them up
toward better living and better things. His vigor
and quickness made him able to seize upon the best
traits and capabilities of his new countrymen, and
enforce them as patterns and examples, with no
tolerance of their faults.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg050" name="pg050"></a>[Pg050]</span></p>

<p>From the viking's ships which had brought Rolf
and his confederates, all equal, from the Hebrides,
it is a long step upward to the Norman landholders
and quiet citizens with their powerful duke in his
palace at Rouen. He had shared the lands of Normandy,
as we have seen, with his companions, and
there was a true aristocracy among them—a rule of
the best, for that is what aristocracy really means.
No doubt there was sin and harm enough under the
new order of things, but we can see that there was
a great advance in its first duke's reign, even if we
cannot believe that all the fine stories are true that
his chroniclers have told.</p>

<p>Rolf died in 927, and was a pious Christian according
to his friends, and had a lingering respect
for his heathen idols according to his enemies. He
was an old man, and had been a brave man, and he
is honored to this day for his justice and his courage
in that stormy time when he lived. Some say that
he was forty years a pirate before he came to Normandy,
and looking back on these days of seafaring
and robbery and violence must have made
him all the more contented with his pleasant fields
and their fruit-trees and waving grain; with his
noble city of Rouen, and his gentle son William, who
was the friend of the priests.</p>

<p>Rolf became very feeble in body and mind, and
before his death he gave up the rule of the duchy to
his son. He lingered for several years, but we hear
nothing more of him except that when he lay dying
he had terrible dreams of his old pirate days, and
was troubled by visions of his slaughtered victims
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg051" name="pg051"></a>[Pg051]</span>
and the havoc made by the long-ships. We
are glad to know that he waked from these sorrows
long enough to give rich presents to the church and
the poor, which comforted him greatly and eased his
unhappy conscience. He was buried in his city of
Rouen, in the cathedral, and there is his tomb still
with a figure of him in stone—an old tired man with
a furrowed brow; the strength of his fourscore years
had become only labor and sorrow, but he looks like
the Norseman that he was in spite of the ducal robes
of French Normandy. There was need enough of
bravery in the man who should fill his place. The
wars still went on along the borders, and there must
have been fear of new trouble in the duchy when
this old chieftain Rolf had lain down to die, and his
empty armor was hung high in the palace hall.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 130px;">
<img src="images/i070.png" width="130" height="103" alt="" />
</div>

<p><span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg052" name="pg052"></a>[Pg052]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 436px;">
<img src="images/i071.png" width="436" height="100" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.<br />
WILLIAM LONGSWORD.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"For old, unhappy, far-off things<br /></span>
<span class="i9">&#160;And battles long ago."<span
class="rightsiginl">—<span
class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span></span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
Before we follow the fortunes of the new duke,
young William Longsword, we must take a look at
France and see what traditions and influences were
going to affect our colony of Northmen from that
side, and what relations they had with their neighbors.
Perhaps the best way to make every thing
clear is to go back to the reign of the Emperor
Charlemagne, who inherited a great kingdom, and
added to it by his wars and statesmanship until he
was crowned at Rome, in the year 800, emperor not
only of Germany and Gaul, but of the larger part of
Italy and the northeastern part of Spain. Much of
this territory had shared in the glories of the Roman
Empire and had fallen with it. But Charlemagne
was equal to restoring many lost advantages, being
a man of great power and capacity, who found time,
while his great campaigns were going on, to do a
great deal for the schools of his country. He even
founded a sort of normal school, where teachers
were fitted for their work, and his daughters were
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg053" name="pg053"></a>[Pg053]</span>
busy in copying manuscripts; the emperor himself
was fond of being read to when he was at his meals,
and used to get up at midnight to watch the stars.
Some of the interesting stories about him may not
be true, but we can be sure that he was a great
general and a masterly governor and lawgiver, and a
good deal of a scholar. Like Rolf, he was one of
the men who mark as well as make a great change
in the world's affairs, and in whose time civilization
takes a long step forward. When we know that it
took him between thirty and forty years to completely
conquer the Saxons, who lived in the northern
part of his country, and we read the story of the
great battle of Roncesvalles in which the Basque
people won; when we follow Charlemagne (the
great Charles, as his people love to call him) on
these campaigns which take up almost all his history,
we cannot help seeing that his enemies fought
against the new order of things that he represented.
It was not only that they did not want Charlemagne
for their king, but they did not wish to be Christians
either, or to forsake their own religion and their own
ideas for his.</p>

<p>When he died he was master of a great association
of countries which for years yet could not come together
except in name, because of their real unlikeness
and jealousy of each other. Charlemagne
had managed to rule them all, for his sons and
officers, whom he had put in command of the various
provinces, were all dictated to by him, and were not
in the least independent of his oversight. His fame
was widespread. Embassies came to him from
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg054" name="pg054"></a>[Pg054]</span>
distant Eastern countries, and no doubt he felt that he
was establishing a great empire for his successors.
Thirty years after he died the empire was divided
into three parts, and thirty-four years later it was all
broken up in the foolish reign of his own great-grandson,
who was called Charles also, but instead of
Charles the Great became known as Charles the Fat.
From the fragments of the old empire were formed
the kingdoms of France, of Italy, and of Germany,
with the less important states of Lorraine, Burgundy,
and Navarre. But although the great empire
had fallen to pieces, each fragment kept something
of the new spirit that had been forced into it
by the famous emperor. For this reason there was
no corner of his wide domain that did not for many
years after his death stand in better relation to
progress, and to the influence of religion, the most
potent civilizer of men.</p>

<p>All this time the power of the nobles had been increasing,
for, whereas, at first they had been only
the officers of the king, and were appointed to or
removed from their posts at the royal pleasure, they
contrived at length to make their positions hereditary
and to establish certain rights and privileges.
This was the foundation of the feudal system, and
such a growth was sure to strike deep root. Every
officer could hope to become a ruler in a small way,
and to endow his family with whatever gains and
holdings he had managed to make his own. And as
these feudal chiefs soon came to value their power,
they were ready to fight, not only all together for
their king or over-lord, but for themselves; and one
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg055" name="pg055"></a>[Pg055]</span>
petty landholder with his dependents would go out
to fight his next neighbor, each hoping to make the
other his tributary. France proper begins to make
itself heard about in these days.</p>

<p>If you have read "The Story of Rome," and "The
Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire," you can trace
the still earlier changes in the old province of Gaul.
The Franks had come westward, a bold association
of German tribes, and in that fifth century when the
Roman rule was overthrown, they swarmed over the
frontiers and settled by hundreds and thousands in
the conquered provinces. But, strange to say, as
years went on they disappeared; not because they
or their children went away again and left Gaul to
itself, but because they adopted the ways and
fashions of the country. They were still called
Franks and a part of the country was called France
even, but the two races were completely mixed together
and the conquerors were as Gallic as the conquered.
They even spoke the new language; it
appears like an increase or strengthening of the
Gallic race rather than a subjugation of it, and the
coming of these Franks founded, not a new province
of Germany, but the French nation.</p>

<p>The language was changed a good deal, for of
course many Frankish or German words were added,
as Roman (or Romance) words had been added before,
to the old Gallic, and other things were changed
too. In fact we are not a bit surprised when we
find that the German kings, Charlemagne's own descendants,
were looked upon as foreigners, and some
of the French leaders, the feudal lords and princes,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg056" name="pg056"></a>[Pg056]</span>
opposed themselves to their monarchs. They were
brave men and ready to fight for what they wanted.
Charles the Fat could not keep himself on his unsteady
throne, and in Rolf's day France was continually
at war, sometimes at home, and almost always
with the neighboring provinces and kingdoms.
Rolf's contemporary, Charles the Simple, lost his
kingship in 922, when his nobles revolted and put
another leader in his place, who was called Hugh the
Great, Count of Paris. Charles the Simple was kept
a prisoner until he died, by a Count of Vermandois,
of whom he had claimed protection, and whose
daughter William Longsword had married.</p>

<p>There was a great deal of treachery among the
French nobles. Each was trying to make himself
rich and great, and serving whatever cause could
promise most gain. There was diplomacy enough,
and talking and fighting enough, but very little
loyalty and care for public welfare. In Normandy,
a movement toward better things showed itself more
and more plainly; instead of wrangling over the
fragments of an old dismembered kingdom, Rolf
had been carefully building a strong new one, and
had been making and keeping laws instead of breaking
laws, and trying to make goodness and right
prevail, and theft and treachery impossible. We
must not judge those days by our own, for many
things were considered right then that are wrong
now; but Rolf knew that order and bravery were
good, and that learning was good, and so he kept
his dukedom quiet, though he was ready enough to
fight his enemies, and he sent his son William
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg057" name="pg057"></a>[Pg057]</span>
Longsword to school, and made him a good
scholar as well as soldier. This was as good training
as a young man could have in those stormy
times.</p>

<p>Under Rolf, Normandy had held faithfully to the
king, but under his son's rule we find a long chapter
of changes, for William was constantly transferring
his allegiance from king to duke. When he succeeded
his father, Normandy and France were at
war—that is, Rolf would not acknowledge any king
but Charles, who was in prison, while the usurper,
Rudolph of Burgundy, was on the French throne.
It is very hard to keep track of the different parties
and their leaders. Everybody constantly changed
sides, and it is not very clear what glory there was
in being a king, when the vassals were so powerful
that they could rebel against their sovereign and
make war on him as often as they pleased. Yet
they were very decided about having a king, if only
to show how much greater they were by contrast.
Duke Hugh of Paris takes the most prominent place
just at this time, and with his widespread dominions
and personal power and high rank, we cannot help
wondering that he did not put himself at the head
of the kingdom. Instead of that he chose to remain
a subject, while he controlled the king's actions and
robbed him of his territory and kept him in personal
bondage. He had no objection to transferring his
strange loyalty from one king to another, but he
would always have a king over him, though at three
different times there was nothing except his own
plans to hinder him from putting the crown of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg058" name="pg058"></a>[Pg058]</span>
France upon his own head. He had a stronger
guiding principle than some of his associates, and
seems to have been a better man.</p>

<p>From Charles the Simple had come the lands of
Normandy, and to him the first vow of allegiance had
been made, and so both Rolf and William took his
part and were enemies to his usurper and his foes.
When William came into possession of his dukedom,
one of his first acts was to do homage to his father's
over-lord, and he never did homage to Rudolph the
usurper until Charles was dead, and even then waited
three years; but Rudolph was evidently glad to be
friends, and presented Longsword with a grant of
the sea-coast in Brittany. The Norman duke was a
formidable rival if any trouble should arise, and the
Normans themselves were very independent in their
opinions. One of Rolf's followers had long ago
told a Frenchman that his chief, who had come to
Neustria a king without a kingdom, now held his
broad lands from the sun and from God. They kept
strange faith with each other in those days. Each
man had his own ambitious plans, and his leagues
and friendships were only for the sake of bringing
them about. This was not being very grateful, but
Rolf's men knew that the Breton lands were the
price of peace and alliance, and not a free gift for
love's sake by any means.</p>

<p>As we try to puzzle out a distinct account of
William's reign, we find him sometimes the enemy
of Rudolph and in league with Hugh of Paris, sometimes
he was in alliance with Rudolph, though he
would not call him king, and oftener he would have
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg059" name="pg059"></a>[Pg059]</span>
nothing to do with either. It is very dull reading,
except as we trace the characters of the men themselves.</p>

<p>Most of the Normans had accepted Christianity
many years before, in the time of Rolf, and had been
christened, but a certain number had refused it and
clung to the customs of their ancestors. These
people had formed a separate neighborhood or
colony near Bayeux, and after several generations,
while they had outwardly conformed to the prevailing
observances, they still remained Northmen at
heart. They were remarkable among the other
Normans for their great turbulence and for an
almost incessant opposition to the dukes, and some
of them kept the old pagan devices on their shields,
and went into battle shouting the Northern war-cry
of "<i>Thor aide!</i>" instead of the pious "<i>Dieu aide!</i>"
or "<i>Dex aide!</i>" of Normandy.</p>

<p>Whatever relic of paganism may have clung to
Rolf himself, it is pretty certain that his son, half
Frenchman by birth, was almost wholly a Frenchman
in feeling. We must remember that he was not the
son of Gisla the king's sister, however, but of Popa of
Bayeux. There was a brother or half-brother of hers
called Bernard de Senlis, who in spite of his father's
murder and the unhappy beginning of their acquaintance
with Rolf, seems to have become very friendly
with the Norse chieftain.</p>

<p>The fortunes of war were so familiar in those days
and kept so many men at fierce enmity with each
other, that we are half surprised to come upon this
sincere, kindly relationship in the story of the early
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg060" name="pg060"></a>[Pg060]</span>
Normans. Even Rolf's wife's foolish little nickname,
"Popa," under cover of which her own name has
been forgotten,—this name of puppet or little doll,
gives a hint of affectionateness and a sign of home-likeness
which we should be very sorry to miss. As
for Bernard de Senlis, he protected not only the
rights of Rolf's children and grandchildren, but their
very lives, and if it had not been for his standing
between them and their enemies Rolf's successors
would never have been dukes of Normandy.</p>

<p>With all his inherited power and his own personal
bravery, William found himself in a very hard place.
He kept steadfastly to his ideas of right and might,
and one thinks that with his half French and half
Northman nature he might have understood both of
the parties that quickly began to oppose each other
in Normandy. He ruled as a French prince, and he
and his followers were very eager to hold their place
in the general confederacy of France, and eager too
that Normandy should be French in religion,
manners, and customs. Yet they did not wish Normandy
to be absorbed into France in any political
sense. Although there were several men of Danish
birth, Rolf's old companions, who took this view of
things, and threw in their lot with the French party,
like Botho, William's old tutor, and Oslac, and Bernard
the Dane, of whom we shall hear again, there
was a great body of the Normans who rebelled and
made much trouble.</p>

<p>William's French speech and French friends were
all this time making him distrusted and even disliked
by a large portion of his own subjects. There still
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg061" name="pg061"></a>[Pg061]</span>
remained a strong Northern and pagan influence in
the older parts of the Norman duchy; while in the
new lands of Brittany some of the independent
Danish settlements, being composed chiefly of the
descendants of men who had forced their way into
that country before Rolf's time, were less ready for
French rule than even the Normans. Between these
new allies and the disaffected Normans themselves a
grand revolt was organized under the leadership of
an independent Danish chief from one of the Breton
provinces. The rebels demanded one concession after
another, and frightened Duke William dreadfully; he
even proposed to give up his duchy and to beg the
protection of his French uncle, Bernard de Senlis.
We are afraid that he had left his famous longsword
at home on that campaign, until it appears that his
old counsellor, Bernard the Dane, urged him to go
back and meet the insurgents, and that a great victory
was won and the revolt ended for that time.
The account of William's wonderful success is made
to sound almost miraculous by the old chronicles.</p>

<p>The two Norman parties held separate territories
and were divided geographically, and each party
wished to keep to itself and not be linked with the
other. The Christian duke who liked French speech
and French government might keep Christian Rouen
and Evreux where Frenchmen abounded, but the
heathen Danes to the westward would rather be independent
of a leader who had turned his face upon the
traditions and beliefs of his ancestors. For the time
being, these rebellious subjects must keep their
grudges and bear their wrongs as best they might,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg062" name="pg062"></a>[Pg062]</span>
for their opponents were the masters now, and
William was free to aim at still greater influence in
French affairs as his dominion increased.</p>

<p>Through his whole life he was swayed by religious
impulses, and, as we have known, it was hard work
at one time to keep him from being a monk. Yet
he was not very lavish in his presents to the church,
as a good monarch was expected to be in those days,
and most of the abbeys and cathedrals which had
suffered so cruelly in the days of the pirates were
very poor still, and many were even left desolate.
His government is described as just and vigorous,
and as a general thing his subjects liked him and
upheld his authority. He was very desirous all the
time to bring his people within the bounds of Christian
civilization and French law and order, yet he
did not try to cast away entirely the inherited speech
or ideas of his ancestors. Of course his treatment of
the settlements to the westward and the Danish party
in his dominion must have varied at different times
in his reign. Yet, after he had made great efforts to
identify himself with the French, he still found himself
looked down upon by his contemporaries and
called the Duke of the Pirates, and so in later years
he concerned himself more with his father's people,
and even, so the tradition goes, gave a new Danish
colony direct from Denmark leave to settle in Brittany.
His young son Richard was put under the
care, not of French priests, but his own old tutor,
Botho the Dane, and the boy and his master were
sent purposely to Bayeux, the very city which young
Richard's grandfather, Rolf, had helped to ravage.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg063" name="pg063"></a>[Pg063]</span>
At Rouen the Northman's language was already
almost forgotten, but the heir to the duchy was sent
where he could hear it every day, though his good
teacher had accepted French manners and the religion
of Rome. William Longsword had become
sure that there was no use in trying to be either
wholly Danish or wholly French, the true plan for a
Duke of Normandy was to be Dane and Frenchman
at once. The balance seems to have swung toward
the Danish party for a time after this, and after a
troubled, bewildering reign to its very close, William
died at the hands of his enemies, who had lured him
away to hold a conference with Arnulf, of Flanders,
at Picquigny, where he came to a mysterious and
sudden death.</p>

<p>The next year, 943, was a marked one in France
and began a new order of things. There was a birth
and a death which changed the current of history.
The Count of Vermandois, the same man who had
kept the prison and helped in the murder of Charles
the Simple, was murdered himself—or at least died
in an unexplained and horrible way, as men were apt
to do who were called tyrants and were regicides beside.
His dominion was divided among his sons,
except some parts of it that Hugh of Paris seized.
This was the death, and the birth was of a son and
heir to Hugh of Paris himself. His first wife was an
Englishwoman, Eadhild, but she had died childless,
to his great sorrow. This baby was the son of his
wife Hadwisa, the daughter of King Henry of Germany,
and he was called Hugh for his father; Hugh
Capet, the future king. After this Hugh of Paris
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg064" name="pg064"></a>[Pg064]</span>
changed his plans and his policy. True enough, he
had never consented to being a king himself, but it
was quite another thing to hinder his son from
reigning over France by and by. Here the Frenchman
begins to contrast himself more plainly against
the Frank, just as we have seen the Norman begin
to separate himself from the Northman. Under
Rolf Normandy had been steadily loyal to King
Charles the Simple; under William it had wavered
between the king and the duke; under Richard we
shall see Normandy growing more French again.</p>

<p>Under William Longsword, now Frenchman, now
Northman was coming to the front, and everybody
was ready to fight without caring so very much what
it was all about. But everywhere we find the
striking figure of the young duke carrying his great
sword, that came to be the symbol of order and
peace. The golden hilt and long shining blade are
familiar enough in the story of William's life.
Somehow we can hardly think of him without his
great weapon. With it he could strike a mighty blow,
and in spite of his uncommon strength, he is said to
have been of a slender, graceful figure, with beautiful
features and clear, bright color like a young girl's.
His charming, cheerful, spirited manners won friendship
and liking. "He had an eye for splendor,"
says one biographer; "well spoken to all, William
Longsword could quote a text to the priest, listen
respectfully to the wise sayings of the old, talk merrily
with his young friends about chess and tables,
discuss the flight of the falcon and the fleetness of
the hound."
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg065" name="pg065"></a>[Pg065]</span></p>

<p>When he desired to be a monk, he was persuaded
that his rank and duties would not permit such a
sacrifice, and that he must act his part in the world
rather than in the cloister, for Normandy's sake, but
in spite of his gay life and apparent fondness
for the world's delights and pleasures, when he
died his followers found a sackcloth garment and
scourge under his splendid clothes. And as he lay
dead in Rouen the rough haircloth shirt was turned
outward at the throat so that all the people could
see. He had not the firmness and decision that a
duke of Normandy needed; he was very affectionate
and impulsive, but he was a miserly person, and had
not the power of holding on and doing what ought
to be done with all his might.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 142px;">
<img src="images/i084.png" width="142" height="128" alt="" />
</div>

<p><span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg066" name="pg066"></a>[Pg066]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 393px;">
<img src="images/i085.png" width="393" height="108" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.
<br />RICHARD THE FEARLESS.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"By many a warlike feat<br /></span>
<span class="i9">&#160;Lopped the French lilies."—<span
class="smcap">Drayton.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
Around the city of Bayeux, were the head-quarters
of the Northmen, and both Rolf's followers
and the later colonists had kept that part of the
duchy almost free from French influence. There
Longsword's little son Richard (whose mother was
Espriota, the duke's first wife, whom he had married
in Danish fashion), was sent to learn the Northmen's
language, and there he lived yet with his teachers and
Count Bernard, when the news came of the murder
of his father by Arnulf of Flanders, with whom
William had gone to confer in good faith.</p>

<p>We can imagine for ourselves the looks of the
little lad and his surroundings. He was fond even
then of the chase, and it might be on some evening
when he had come in with the huntsmen that he
found a breathless messenger who had brought the
news of Lonsgword's death. We can imagine the low
roofed, stone-arched room with its thick pillars, and
deep stone casings to the windows, where the wind
came in and made the torches flare. At each end of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg067" name="pg067"></a>[Pg067]</span>
the room would be a great fire, and the servants
busy before one of them with the supper, and there
on the flagstones, in a dark heap, is the stag, and
perhaps some smaller game that the hunters have
thrown down. There are no chimneys, and the fires
leap up against the walls, and the smoke curls along
the ceiling and finds its way out as best it can.</p>

<p>One end of the room is a step or two higher than
the other, and here there is a long table spread with
drinking-horns and bowls, and perhaps some
beautiful silver cups, with figures of grapevines
and fauns and satyrs carved on them, which the
Norse pirates brought home long ago from Italy.
The floor has been covered with rushes which the
girls of the household scatter, and some of these
girls wear old Norse ornaments of wrought silver,
with bits of coral, that must have come from
Italy too. The great stag-hounds are stretched
out asleep after their day's work, and the little Richard
is tired too, and has thrown himself into a tall
carved chair by the fire.</p>

<p>Suddenly there comes the sound of a horn, and
everybody starts and listens. Was the household to
be attacked and besieged? for friends were less
likely visitors than enemies in those rough times.</p>

<p>The dogs bark and cannot be quieted, and again
the horn sounds outside the gate, and somebody
has gone to answer it, and those who listen hear the
great hinges creak presently as the gate is opened
and the sound of horses' feet in the courtyard.
The dogs have found that there is no danger and
creep away lazily to go to sleep again, but when the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg068" name="pg068"></a>[Pg068]</span>
men of the household come back to the great hall
their faces are sadly changed. Something has happened.</p>

<p>Among them are two guests, two old counts
whom everybody knows, and they walk gravely with
bent heads toward the boy Richard, who stands by
the smaller fire, in the place of honor, near his father's
chair. Has his father come back sooner than he
expected? The boy's heart must beat fast with
hope for one minute, then he is frightened by the
silence in the great hall. Nobody is singing or talking;
there is a dreadful stillness; the very dogs are
quiet and watching from their beds on the new-strewn
rushes. The fires snap and crackle and throw
long shadows about the room.</p>

<p>What are the two counts going to do—Bernard
Harcourt and Rainulf Ferrières? They are kneeling
before the little boy, who is ready to run away, he
does not know why. Count Bernard has knelt before
him, and says this, as he holds Richard's small
hand: "Richard, Duke of Normandy, I am your
liegeman and true vassal"; and then the other count
does and says the same, while Bernard stands by and
covers his face with his hands and weeps.</p>

<p>Richard stands, wondering, as all the rest of the
noblemen promise him their service and the loyalty
of their castles and lands, and suddenly the truth
comes to him. His dear father is dead, and he must
be the duke now; he, a little stupid boy, must take
the place of the handsome, smiling man with his
shining sword and black horse and purple robe and
the feather with its shining clasp in the high ducal
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg069" name="pg069"></a>[Pg069]</span>
cap that is as splendid as any crown. Richard must
take the old counts for his playfellows, and learn
to rule his province of Normandy; and what a long,
sad, frightened night that must have been to the
fatherless boy who must win for himself the good
name of Richard the Fearless!</p>

<p>Next day they rode to Rouen, and there, when the
nobles had come, the dead duke was buried with
great ceremony, and all the people mourned for him
and were ready to swear vengeance on his treacherous
murderer. After the service was over Richard
was led back from the cathedral to his palace, and
his heavy black robes were taken off and a scarlet
tunic put on; his long brown hair was curled, and
he was made as fine as a little duke could be, though
his eyes were red with crying, and he hated all the
pomp and splendor that only made him the surer
that his father was gone.</p>

<p>They brought him down to the great hall of the
palace, and there he found all the barons who had
come to his father's burial, and the boy was told to
pull off his cap to them and bow low in answer to
their salutations. Then he slowly crossed the hall,
and all the barons walked after him in a grand procession
according to rank—first the Duke of Brittany
and last the poorest of the knights, all going to the
Church of Notre Dame, the great cathedral of
Rouen, where the solemn funeral chants had been
sung so short a time before.</p>

<p>There were all the priests and the Norman bishops,
and the choir sang as Richard walked to his
place near the altar where he had seen his father sit
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg070" name="pg070"></a>[Pg070]</span>
so many times. All the long services of the mass
were performed, and then the boy-duke gave his
promise, in the name of God and the people of Normandy,
that he would be a good and true ruler,
guard them from their foes, maintain truth, punish
sin, and protect the Church. Two of the bishops
put on him the great mantle of the Norman dukes,
crimson velvet and trimmed with ermine; but it was
so long that it lay in great folds on the ground. Then
the archbishop crowned the little lad with a crown so
wide and heavy that one of the barons had to hold
it in its place. Last of all, they gave him his father's
sword, taller than he, but he reached for the hilt and
held it fast as he was carried back to his throne,
though Count Bernard offered to carry it. Then all
the noblemen did homage, from Duke Alan of Brittany
down, and Richard swore in God's name to be
the good lord of every one and to protect him from
his foes. Perhaps some of the elder men who had
followed Rolf the Ganger felt very tenderly toward
this grandchild of their brave old leader, and the
friends of kind-hearted Longsword meant to be loyal
and very fatherly to his defenceless boy, upon whom
so much honor, and anxiety too, had early fallen.</p>

<p>See what a change there was in Normandy since
Rolf came, and what a growth in wealth and orderliness
the dukedom had made. All the feudal or
clannish spirit had had time to grow, and Normandy
ranked as the first of the French duchies. Still it
would be some time yet before the Danes and Norwegians
of the north could cease to think of the
Normans as their brothers and cousins, and begin to
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg071" name="pg071"></a>[Pg071]</span>
call them Frenchmen or Welskes, or any of the
other names they called the people in France or
Britain. It was sure to be a hard dukedom enough
for the boy-duke to rule, and all his youth was spent
in stormy, dangerous times.</p>

<p>His father had stood godfather—a very close tie—to
the heir of the new king of France, who was
called Louis, and he was also at peace with Count
Hugh of Paris. Soon after Longsword's death King
Louis appeared in Rouen at the head of a body of
troops, and demanded that he should be considered
the guardian and keeper of young Richard during
his minority. He surprised the counts who were in
Rouen, and who were just then nearly defenceless.
It would never do for them to resist Louis and his
followers; they had no troops at hand; and they
believed that the safest thing was to let Richard go,
for a time at any rate. It was true that he was the
king's vassal, and Normandy had always done homage
to the kings of France. And with a trusty
baron for protection the boy was sent away out of
pleasant Normandy to the royal castle of Laon.
The Rouen people were not very gracious to King
Louis, and that made him angry. Indeed, the
French king's dominion was none too large, and
everybody knew that he would be glad to possess
himself of the dukedom, or of part of it, and that he
was not unfriendly to Arnulf, who had betrayed
William Longsword. So the barons who were
gathered at Rouen, and all the Rouen people, must
have felt very anxious and very troubled about
Richard's safety when the French horsemen
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg072" name="pg072"></a>[Pg072]</span>
galloped away with him. From time to time news
came that the boy was not being treated very well.
At any rate he was not having the attention and care
that belonged to a duke of Normandy. The dukedom
was tempestuous enough at any time, with its
Northman party, and its French party, and their
jealousies and rivalries. But they were all loyal to
the boy-duke who belonged to both, and who could
speak the pirate's language as well as that of the
French court. If his life were brought to an untimely
end what a falling apart there would be among
those who were not unwilling now to be his subjects.
No wonder that the old barons were so eager to get
Richard home again, and so distrustful of the polite
talk and professions of affection and interest on
King Louis's part. Louis had two little sons of his
own, and it would be very natural if he sometimes
remembered that, if Richard were dead, one of his
own boys might be Duke of Normandy instead—that
is, if old Count Hugh of Paris did not stand in the way.</p>

<p>So away went Richard from his pleasant country
of Normandy, with its apple and cherry orchards
and its comfortable farms, from his Danes and his
Normans, and the perplexed and jealous barons. A
young nobleman, named Osmond de Centeville, was
his guardian, and promised to take the best of care
of his young charge, but when they reached the
grim castle of Laon they found that King Louis'
promises were not likely to be kept. Gerberga, the
French queen, was a brave woman, but eager to
forward the fortunes of her own household, and
nobody took much notice of the boy who was of so
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg073" name="pg073"></a>[Pg073]</span>
much consequence at home in his own castle of
Rouen. We cannot help wondering why Richard's
life did not come to a sudden end like his father's,
but perhaps Osmond's good care and vigilance gave
no chance for treachery to do its work.</p>

<p>After a while the boy-duke began to look very pale
and ill, poor little fellow, and Osmond watched him
tenderly, and soon the rest of the people in the
castle had great hopes that he was going to die.
The tradition says that he was not sick at all in
reality, but made himself appear so by refusing to
eat or sleep. At any rate he grew so pale and feeble
that one night everybody was so sure that he could
not live that they fell to rejoicing and had a great
banquet. There was no need to stand guard any
longer over the little chief of the pirates, and nobody
takes much notice of Osmond even as he goes to
and from the tower room with a long face.</p>

<p>Late in the evening he speaks of his war-horse
which he has forgotten to feed and litter down, and
goes to his stable in the courtyard with a huge
bundle of straw. The castle servants see him, but
let him pass as usual, and the banquet goes on, and
the lights burn dim, and the night wanes before anybody
finds out that there was a thin little lad, keeping
very still, in the straw that Osmond carried, and
that the two companions were riding for hours in the
starlight toward the Norman borders. Hurrah! we
can almost hear the black horse's feet clatter and
ring along the roads, and take a long breath of relief
when we know that the fugitives get safe to Crecy
castle within the Norman lines next morning.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg074" name="pg074"></a>[Pg074]</span></p>

<p>King Louis was very angry and sent a message
that Richard must come back, but the barons refused,
and before long there was a great battle.
There could really be no such thing as peace between
the Normans and the kingdom of France,
and Louis had grown more and more anxious to rid
the country of the hated pirates. Hugh the Great
and he were enemies at heart and stood in each
other's way, but Louis made believe that he was
friendly, and granted his formidable rival some new
territory, and displayed his royal condescension in
various ways. Each of these rulers was more than
willing to increase his domain by appropriating Normandy,
and when we remember the two parties in
Normandy itself we cannot help thinking that Richard's
path was going to be a very rough one to
follow. His father's enemy, Arnulf of Flanders, was
the enemy of Normandy still, and always in secret
or open league with Louis. The province of Brittany
was hard to control, and while William Longsword
had favored the French party in his dominions he
had put Richard under the care of the Northmen.
Yet this had not been done in a way to give complete
satisfaction, for the elder Danes clung to their
old religion and cared nothing for the solemn rites
of the Church, by means of which Richard had been
invested with the dukedom. They were half insulted
by such silly pageantry, yet it was not to the leaders
of the old pirate element in the dukedom, but to the
Christianized Danes, whose head-quarters were at
Rouen, that the guardianship of the heir of Normandy
had been given. He did not belong to the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg075" name="pg075"></a>[Pg075]</span>
Christians, but to the Norsemen, yet not to the
old pagan vikings either. It was a curious and perhaps
a very wise thing to do, but the Danes little
thought when Longsword promised solemnly to put
his son under their charge, that he meant the Christian
Danes like Bernard and Botho. There was one
thing that all the Normans agreed upon, that they
would not be the vassals and lieges of the king of
France. They had promised it in their haste when
the king had come and taken young Richard away
to Laon, but now that they had time to consider,
they saw what a mistake it had been to make Louis
the boy-duke's guardian. They meant to take fast
hold of Richard now that he had come back, and so
the barons were summoned, and when Louis appeared
again in Normandy, with the spirit and
gallantry of a great captain, to claim the guardianship
and to establish Christianity, as well as to
avenge the murder of Longsword, if you please!—he
found a huge army ready to meet him.</p>

<p>Nobody can understand how King Louis managed
to keep such a splendid army as his in good condition
through so many reverses. He had lost heavily
from his lands and his revenues, and there were no
laws, so far as we know, that compelled military
service, but the ranks were always full, and the
golden eagle of Charlemagne was borne before the
king on the march, and the banner of that great emperor,
his ancestor, fluttered above his pavilion when
the army halted. As for the Danes (which means
simply the Northern or Pirate party of Normandy),
they were very unostentatious soldiers and fought
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg076" name="pg076"></a>[Pg076]</span>
on foot, going to meet the enemy with sword and
shield. Some of them had different emblems on their
shields now, instead of the old red and white stripes
of the shields that used to be hung along the sides
of the long-ships, and they carried curious weapons,
even a sort of flail that did great execution.</p>

<p>We must pass quickly over the long account of a
feigned alliance between Hugh of Paris and King
Louis, their agreement to share Normandy between
themselves, and then Hugh's withdrawal, and
Bernard of Senlis's deep-laid plot against both the
enemies of Normandy. It was just at this time that
there was a great deal of enmity between Normandy
and Brittany, and the Normans seem to be in a more
rebellious and quarrelsome state than usual. If
there was one thing that they clung to every one of
them, and would not let go, it was this: that Normandy
should not be divided, that it should be kept
as Rolf had left it. Sooner than yield to the plots
and attempted grasping and divisions of Hugh and
Arnulf of Flanders, and Louis, they would send to
the North for a fleet of dragon ships and conquer
their country over again. They knew very well that
however bland and persuasive their neighbors might
become when they desired to have a truce, they always
called them filthy Normans and pirates behind
their backs, and were always hoping for a chance to
push them off the soil of Normandy. There was no
love lost between the dukedoms and the kingdom.</p>

<div class="figright" style="width: 166px;">
<div><a id="Flails-as-military-weapons"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i096a.png" width="166" height="737" alt="" />
<div class="caption">FLAIL AS A MILITARY WEAPON (2).</div>
</div>

<div class="figleft" style="width: 188px;">
<img src="images/i096b.png" width="188" height="362" alt="" />
<div class="caption">FLAIL AS A MILITARY WEAPON (1).</div>
</div>

<p>After some time Louis was persuaded again that
Normandy desired nothing so much as to call him
her feudal lord and sovereign. Bernard de Senlis
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg077" name="pg077"></a>[Pg077]</span>
assured him, for the sake of peace, that they
were no longer in doubt of their unhappiness
in having a child for a ruler,
that they were anxious to return to
the old pledge of loyalty that Rolf
gave to the successor of Charlemagne.
He must be the over-lord
again and must come and occupy his humble
city of Rouen. They were tired of being harried,
their land was desolated, and they would
do any thing to be released from the sorrows
and penalties of war. Much to our surprise,
and very likely to his own astonishment too, we
find King Louis presently going to Rouen, and
being received there with all manner of civility
and deference. Everybody
hated him just as
much as ever, and distrusted
him, and no
doubt Louis returned
the compliment, but to
outward view he was beloved
and honored by
his tributaries, and the
Norman city seemed
quiet and particularly
servile to its new ruler
and his bragging troops.
Nobody understood exactly
why they had won
their ends with so little
trouble, and everybody
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg078" name="pg078"></a>[Pg078]</span>
was on the watch for some amazing counterplot, and
dared not trust either friend or foe. As for Louis,
they had shamed and tormented him too much to
make him a very affectionate sovereign now. To be
sure he ruled over Normandy at last, but that brought
him perplexity enough. In the city the most worthless
of his followers was putting on the airs of a
conqueror and aggravating the Norman subjects unbearably.
The Frenchmen who had followed the
golden eagle of Charlemagne so long without any
reward but glory and a slender subsistence, began to
clamor for their right to plunder the dukedom and
to possess themselves of a reward which had been
too long withheld already.</p>

<p>Hugh, of Paris, and King Louis had made a bold
venture together for the conquest of Normandy,
and apparently succeeded to their heart's content.
Hugh had besieged Bayeux; and the country, between
the two assailants, had suffered terribly. Bernard
the Dane, or Bernard de Senlis either, knew no
other way to reëstablish themselves than by keeping
Louis in Rouen and cheating him by a show of complete
submission. The Normans must have had
great faith in the Danish Bernard when they submitted
to make unconditional surrender to Louis.
Could it be that he had been faithless to the boy-duke's
rights, and allowed him to be contemptuously
disinherited?</p>

<p>Now that the king was safely bestowed in Rouen,
his new liegemen began to say very disagreeable
things. Louis had made a great fool of himself at a
banquet soon after he reached Rolf's tower in the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg079" name="pg079"></a>[Pg079]</span>
Norman city. Bernard the Dane, had spread a famous
feast for him and brought his own good red
wine. Louis became very talkative, and announced
openly that he was going to be master of the Normans
at last, and would make them feel his bonds,
and shame them well. But Bernard the Dane left
his own seat at the table and placed himself next the
king. Presently he began, in most ingenious ways, to
taunt him with having left himself such a small
share of the lands and wealth of the ancient province
of Neustria. He showed him that Hugh of Paris
had made the best of the bargain, and that he had
given up a great deal more than there was any need
of doing. Bernard described in glowing colors the
splendid dominions he had sacrificed by letting his
rival step in and take first choice. Louis had not
chosen to take a seventh part of the whole dukedom,
and Hugh of Paris was master of all Normandy
beyond the Seine, a beautiful country watered
by fine streams whose ports were fit for commerce
and ready for defence. More than this; he had let
ten thousand fighting men slip through his hands and
become the allies of his worst enemy. And so
Bernard and his colleagues plainly told Louis that he
had made a great mistake. They would consent to
receive him as their sovereign and guardian of the
young duke, but Normandy must not be divided; to
that they would never give their consent.</p>

<p>Louis listened, half dazed to these suggestions,
and when he was well sobered he understood that he
was attacked on every side. Hugh of Paris had declared
that if Louis broke faith with him now he
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg080" name="pg080"></a>[Pg080]</span>
would make an end to their league, and Louis knew
that he would be making a fierce enemy if he listened
to the Normans; yet if he refused, they
would turn against him.</p>

<p>On the other hand, if he permitted Hugh to keep
his new territory, he was only strengthening a man
who was his enemy at heart, and who sooner or later
would show his antagonism. Louis's own soldiers
were becoming very rebellious. They claimed over
and over again that Rolf had had no real right to
the Norman lands, but since he had divided them
among his followers, all the more reason now that
the conquerors, the French owners of Normandy,
should be put into possession of what they had won
back again at last. They demanded that the victors
should enforce their right, and not only expressed a
wish for Bernard the Dane's broad lands, but for his
handsome young wife. They would not allow that
the Normans had any rights at all. When a rumor
of such wicked plans began to be whispered through
Rouen and the villages, it raised a great excitement.
There would have been an insurrection at once, if
shrewd old Bernard had not again insisted upon
patience and submission. His wife even rebelled,
and said that she would bury herself in a convent;
and Espriota, young Richard's mother, thriftily resolved
to provide herself with a protector, and married
Sperling, a rich miller of Vaudreuil.</p>

<p>Hugh of Paris was Bernard's refuge in these
troubles, and now we see what the old Dane had
been planning all the time. Hugh had begun to believe
that there was no use in trying to hold his new
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg081" name="pg081"></a>[Pg081]</span>
possessions of Normandy beyond the Seine, and
that he had better return to his old cordial alliance
with the Normans and uphold Rolf the Ganger's
dukedom. So the Danish party, Christians and pagans,
and the Normans of the French party, and
Hugh of Paris, all entered into a magnificent plot
against Louis. The Normans might have been contented
with expelling the intruders, and a renunciation
of the rights Louis had usurped, but Hugh the
Great was very anxious to capture Louis himself.</p>

<p>Besides Hugh of Paris and the Norman barons
who upheld the cause of young Richard, there was
a third very important ally in the great rebellion
against King Louis of France. When Gorm a
famous old king of Denmark had died some years
before, the successor to his throne was Harold
Blaatand or Bluetooth, a man of uncommonly fine
character for those times—a man who kept his
promises and was noted for his simplicity and good
faith and loyalty to his word. Whatever reason may
have brought Harold to Normandy at this time, there
he was, the firm friend of the citizens of the Bayeux
country, and we find him with his army at Cherbourg.</p>

<p>All Normandy was armed and ready for a grand
fight with the French, though it appears that at first
there was an attempt at a peaceful conference. This
went on very well at first, the opposing armies being
drawn up on either side of the river Dive, when who
should appear but Herluin of Montreuil, the insolent
traitor who was more than suspected of having
caused the murder of William Longsword. Since
then he had ruled in Rouen as Louis's deputy and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg082" name="pg082"></a>[Pg082]</span>
stirred up more hatred against himself, but now he
took a prominent place in the French ranks, and
neither Normans nor Danes could keep their tempers
any longer. So the peaceful conference was abruptly
ended, and the fight began.</p>

<p>Every thing went against the French: many counts
were killed; the golden eagle of Charlemagne and the
silk hangings and banners of the king's tent had only
been brought for the good of these Normans, who
captured them. As for the king himself, he was
taken prisoner; some say that he was led away from
the battle-field and secreted by a loyal gentleman of
that neighborhood, who hid him in a secluded
bowery island in the river near by, and that the poor
gentleman's house and goods were burnt and his wife
and children seized, before he would tell anything
of the defeated monarch's hiding-place. There is
another story that Harold Blaatand and Louis met
in hand-to-hand combat, and the Dane led away the
Frank as the prize of his own bravery. The king
escaped and was again captured and imprisoned
in Rouen. No bragging now of what he would do
with the Normans, or who should take their lands
and their wives. Poor Louis was completely beaten,
but there was still a high spirit in the man and in
his brave wife Gerberga, who seems to have been his
equal in courage and resource. After a while Louis
only regained his freedom by giving up his castle of
Laon to Hugh of Paris, and the successor of Charlemagne
was reduced to the pitiful poverty of being
king only of Compiegne. Yet he was still king, and
nobody was more ready to give him the title than
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg083" name="pg083"></a>[Pg083]</span>
Hugh of Paris himself, though the diplomatic treacheries
went on as usual.</p>

<p>Harold had made a triumphant progress through
Normandy after the great fight was over, and all the
people were very grateful to him, and it is said that
he reëstablished the laws of Rolf, and confirmed the
authority of the boy-duke. We cannot understand
very well at this distance just why Harold should
have been in Normandy at all with his army to make
himself so useful, but there he was, and unless one
story is only a repetition of the other, he came back
again, twenty years after, in the same good-natured
way, and fought for the Normans again.</p>

<p>Poor Louis certainly had a very hard time, and
for a while his pride was utterly broken; but he was
still young and hoped to retrieve his unlucky fortunes.
Richard, the young duke, was only thirteen
years old when Normandy broke faith with France.
He had not yet earned his title of the Fearless,
which has gone far toward making him one of the
heroes of history, and was waiting to begin his real
work and influence in the dukedom. Louis had
sympathy enough of a profitless sort from his German
and English neighbors. England sent an embassy
to demand his release, and Hugh of Paris
refused most ungraciously. Later, the king of the
Germans or East Franks determined to invade
Hugh's territory, and would not even send a message
or have any dealings with him first; and when he
found that the German army was really assembling,
the Count of Paris yielded. But, as we have already
seen, Louis had to give up a great piece of his
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg084" name="pg084"></a>[Pg084]</span>
kingdom. As far as words went, he was king again. He
had lost his authority while he was in prison, but it
was renewed with proper solemnity, and Hugh was
again faithful liegeman and homager of his former
prisoner. The other princes of Europe, at least those
who were neighbors, followed Hugh's example—all
except one, if we may believe the Norman historians.
On the banks of the Epte, where Rolf had first done
homage to the French king, the Norman duchy was
now set free from any over-lordship, and made an independent
country. The duke was still called duke,
and not king, yet he was completely the monarch of
Normandy, and need give no tribute nor obedience.</p>

<p>Before long, however, Richard, or his barons for
him—wily Bernard the Dane, and Bernard de
Senlis, and the rest—commended the lands and men
of Normandy to the Count of Paris, benefactor and
ally. The Norman historians do not say much about
this, for they were not so proud of it as of their
being made free from the rule of France. We are
certain that the Norman soldiers followed Hugh in
his campaigns, for long after this during the reign of
Richard the Fearless there were some charters and
state papers written which are still preserved, and
which speak of Hugh of Paris as Richard's over-lord.</p>

<p>There are so few relics of that time that we
must note the coinage of the first Norman money in
Richard's reign. The chronicles follow the old
fashion of the sagas in sounding the praises of one
man—sometimes according to him all the deeds of
his ancestors besides; but, unfortunately, they refer
little to general history, and tell few things about the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg085" name="pg085"></a>[Pg085]</span>
people. We find Normandy and England coming
into closer relations in this reign, and the first mention
of the English kings and of affairs across the
Channel, lends a new interest to our story of the
Normans. Indeed, to every Englishman and American
the roots and beginnings of English history are
less interesting in themselves than for their hints and
explanations of later chapters and events.</p>

<p>Before we end this account of Duke Richard's
boyhood, we must take a look at one appealing fragment
of it which has been passed by in the story of
the wars and tumults and strife of parties. Once
King Louis was offered his liberty on the condition
that he would allow the Normans to take his son
and heir Lothair as pledge of his return and good
behavior. No doubt the French king and Queen
Gerberga had a consciousness that they had not been
very kind to Richard, and so feared actual retaliation.
But Gerberga offered, not the heir to the
throne, but her younger child Carloman, a puny,
weak little boy, and he was taken as hostage instead,
and soon died in Rouen. Miss Yonge has written a
charming story called "The Little Duke," in which
she draws a touching picture of this sad little exile.
It makes Queen Gerberga appear very hard and
cruel, and it seems as if she must have been to let the
poor child go among his enemies. We must remember,
though, that these times were very hard, and
one cannot help respecting the poor queen, who was
very brave after all, and fought as gallantly as any
one to keep her besieged and struggling kingdom
out of the hands of its assailants.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg086" name="pg086"></a>[Pg086]</span></p>

<p>We must pass over the long list of petty wars between
Louis and Hugh. Richard's reign was stormy
to begin with, but for some years before his death
Normandy appears to have been tolerably quiet.
Louis had seen his darkest times when Normandy
shook herself free from French rule, and from that
hour his fortunes bettered. There was one disagreement
between Otto of Germany and Louis, aided by
the king of Burgundy, against the two dukes, Hugh
and Richard, and before Louis died he won back
again the greater part of his possessions at Laon.
Duke Hugh's glories were somewhat eclipsed for a
time, and he was excommunicated by the Archbishop
of Rheims and took no notice of that, but by and by
when the Pope of Rome himself put him under a
ban, he came to terms. The Normans were his
constant allies, but there is not much to learn about
their own military enterprises. The enthusiastic
Norman writers give a glowing account of the failure
of the confederate kings to capture Rouen, but say
less about their marauding tour through the duchies
of Normandy and Hugh's dominions. Rouen was a
powerful city by this time, and a famous history belonged
to her already. There are some fragments
left still of the Rouen of that day, which is very
surprising when we remember how battered and
beleaguered the old town was through century after
century.</p>

<p>Every thing was apparently prospering with the
king of France when he suddenly died, only thirty-three
years of age, in spite of his tempestuous reign
and always changing career. He must have felt like a
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg087" name="pg087"></a>[Pg087]</span>
very old man, one would think, and somehow one
imagines him and Gerberga, his wife, as old people
in their Castle of Laon. Lothair was the next king,
and Richard, who so lately was a child too, became
the elder ruler of his time. Hugh of Paris died two
years later, and the old enemy of Normandy, Arnulf
of Flanders, soon followed him. The king of Germany,
Otto, outlived all these, but Richard lived
longer than he or his son.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 433px;">
<div><a id="ABBEY_CHURCH_OF_ST_OUEN"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i106.png" width="433" height="450" alt="" />
<div class="caption">ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN (ROUEN).</div>
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg088"
name="pg088"></a>[Pg088]</span></p>

<p>The duchy of France, Hugh's dominion, passed
to his young son, Hugh Capet, a boy of thirteen.
When this Hugh grew up he did homage to Lothair,
but Richard gave his loyalty to Hugh of Paris's son.
The wars went on, and before many years went over
Hugh Capet extinguished the succession of Charlemagne's
heirs to the throne of France, and was
crowned king himself, so beginning the reign of
France proper; as powerful and renowned a kingdom
as Europe saw through many generations. By
throwing off the rule of German princes, and achieving
independence of the former French dynasty,
an order of things began that was not overthrown
until our own day. Little by little the French
crown annexed the dominions of all its vassals, even
the duchy of Normandy, but that was not to be for
many years yet. I hope we have succeeded in
getting at least a hint of the history of France from
the time it was the Gaul of the Roman empire;
and the empire of Charlemagne, and later, of the fragments
of that empire, each a province or kingdom
under a ruler of its own, which were reunited in one
confederation under one king of France. All this
time Europe is under the religious rule of Rome, and
in Richard the Fearless's later years we find him the
benefactor of the Church, living close by the Minster
of Fécamp and buried in its shadow at last. There
was a deep stone chest which was placed by Duke
Richard's order near one of the minster doors, where
the rain might fall upon it that dropped from the
holy roof above. For many years, on Saturday
evenings, the chest was filled to the brim with
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg089" name="pg089"></a>[Pg089]</span>
wheat, a luxury in those days, and the poor came
and filled their measures and held out their hands
afterward for five shining pennies, while the lame
and sick people were visited in their homes by the
almoner of the great church. There was much talk
about this hollowed block of stone, but when Richard
died in 996 at the end of his fifty-five years' reign,
after a long, lingering illness, his last command was
that he should be buried in the chest and lie "there
where the foot should tread, and the dew and the
waters of heaven should fall." Beside this church
of the Holy Trinity at Fécamp he built the abbey of
St. Wandville, the Rouen cathedral, and the great
church of the Benedictines at St. Ouen. New structures
have risen upon the old foundations, but
Richard's name is still connected with the places of
worship that he cared for.</p>

<p>"Richard Sans-peur has long been our favorite
hero," says Sir Francis Palgrave, who has written
perhaps the fullest account of the Third Duke; "we
have admired the fine boy, nursed on his father's
knee whilst the three old Danish warriors knelt and
rendered their fealty. During Richard's youth,
adolescence, and age our interest in his varied,
active, energetic character has never flagged, and we
go with him in court and camp till the day of his
death."</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 208px;">
<img src="images/i108.png" width="208" height="50" alt="" />
</div>

<p><span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg090" name="pg090"></a>[Pg090]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 398px;">
<img src="images/i109.png" width="398" height="92" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.
<br />DUKE RICHARD THE GOOD.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"Then would he sing achievements high<br /></span>
<span class="i9">&#160;And circumstance of chivalry."—<span
class="smcap">Scott.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
Richard the Fearless had several sons, and
when he lay dying his nobles asked him to say who
should be his successor. "He who bears my name,"
whispered the old duke, and added a moment later:
"Let the others take the oaths of fealty, acknowledge
Richard as their superior; and put their hands
in his, and receive from him those lands which I
will name to you."</p>

<p>So Richard the Good came to his dukedom, with
a rich inheritance in every way from the father who
had reigned so successfully, and his brothers Geoffry,
Mauger, William, and Robert, accepted their portions
of the dukedom, to which Richard added more
lands of his own accord.</p>

<p>During this reign there were many changes, some
very gradual and natural ones, for Normandy was
growing more French and less Scandinavian all the
time, and the relationship grew stronger and stronger
between vigorous young Normandy and troubled,
failing England. Later we shall see how our
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg091" name="pg091"></a>[Pg091]</span>
Normans gave a new impulse to England, but already
there are signs and forebodings of what must come
to pass in the days of Richard the Good's grandson,
William the Conqueror.</p>

<p>We first hear now of many names which are great
names in Normandy and England to this day. "It
seems as if there were never any region more
peopled with men of known deeds, known names,
known passions and known crimes," says Palgrave;
and the Norman annals abound with historical titles
"rendered illustrious by the illusions of time and
blazonry which imagination imparts." It is very
strange how few records there are, among the
state papers in France, of all this period. Every
important public matter in England was carefully
recorded long before this, but with all the proverbial
love of going to law, and all the well-ordered priesthood,
and good education of the upper classes, there
are only a few scattered charters until Normandy is
really merged in France. This almost corresponds
to the absence, in the literary world, of papers
relating to Shakespeare, which is such a puzzle
to antiquarians. Here was a man well-known and
beloved both in his native village and the world of
London, a man who must have covered thousands
of pages with writing, and written letters and signed
his name times without number, and yet not one of
his manuscripts and very few signatures can be found.
Only the references to him in contemporary literature
remain to give us any facts at all about the
greatest of English writers. Of far less noteworthy
men, of his time and before that, we can make up
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg092" name="pg092"></a>[Pg092]</span>
reasonably full biographies. And Normandy is
known only through the records of other nations,
and the traditions and reports of romancing chroniclers.
There are no long lists of men and money, and
no treasurer or general of Rolf's, or Longsword's
time has left us his accounts. Rolf's brother, who
went to Iceland while Rolf came to Normandy,
in the tyrannical reign of Harold Haarfager, established
in that storm-bound little country a nation
of scholars and record-makers. Perhaps it was easier
to write there where the only enemies were ice and
snow and darkness and the fury of the sea and wind.</p>

<p>Yet we can guess at a great deal about the condition
of Normandy. There was so much going to
and fro, such a lively commerce and transportation
of goods, that we know the old Roman roads had
been kept in good repair, and that many others must
have been built as the population increased. The
famous fairs which were held make us certain that
there was a large business carried on, and besides the
maintenance and constant use of a large army, in
some years there was also a thrifty devotion to mercantile
matters and agriculture. Foreign artisans
and manufacturers were welcomed to the Norman
provinces, and soon formed busy communities like
the Flemish craftsmen, weavers and leather-makers,
at Falaise. The Normans had an instinctive liking
for pomp and splendor; so their tradesmen flourished,
and their houses became more and more elegant,
and must be carved and gilded like the dragon ships.</p>

<p>A merry, liberal duke was this Richard; fond of
his court, and always ready to uphold Normandy's
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg093" name="pg093"></a>[Pg093]</span>
honor and his own when there was any fighting to
be done. He had a great regard for his nobles, and we
begin to find a great deal said about gentlemen; the
duke would have only gentlemen for his chosen followers,
and the aristocrats make themselves felt
more distinctly than before. The rule of the best is
a hard thing to manage, it sinks already into a rule
of the lucky, the pushing, or the favored in the Rouen
court. The power and reign of chivalry begins to
blossom now far and wide.</p>

<p>We begin to hear rumors too on the other side
that there were wrong distinctions between man and
man, and tyranny that grew hard to bear, and one
Norman resents the truth that his neighbor is a
better and richer man than he, and moreover has the
right to make him a servant, and to make laws for
him. The Norman citizens were equal in civil rights—that
is to say, they were not taxed without their
own consent, need pay no tolls, and might hunt and
fish; all could do these things except the villeins<a
name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2"
class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and peasants, who really composed the mass
of the native population, the descendants of those who lived in
Normandy before Rolf came there. Even the higher clergy did not form
part of the nobility and gentry at first, and in later years there
was still a difference in rank and privileges between the priests of
Norwegian and Danish race and the other ecclesiastics.</p>

<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Farm laborers;
countrymen.</div>

<p>Before Richard the Good had been long on his
throne there was a great revolt and uprising of the
peasantry, who evidently did not think that their new
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg094" name="pg094"></a>[Pg094]</span>
duke deserved his surname at all. These people
conceived the idea of destroying the inequality of
races, so that Normandy should hold only one nation,
as it already held one name. We cannot help
being surprised at the careful political organization
of the peasantry, and at finding that they established
a regular parliament with two representatives from
every district. In all the villages and hamlets, after
the day's work was over, they came together to talk
over their wrongs or to listen to some speaker more
eloquent than his fellows. They "made a commune,"
which anticipates later events in the history of France
in a surprising way. Freeman says that "such a constitution
could hardly have been extemporized by
mere peasants," and believes that the disturbance was
founded in a loyalty to the local customs and rights
which were fast being trampled under foot, and that
the rebels were only trying to defend their time-honored
inheritance. The liberty which they were
eager to grasp might have been a great good,
scattered as it would have been over a great extent
of country, instead of being won by separate cities.
The ancient Norman constitutions of the Channel
Islands, Jersey and Guernsey and the rest, antiquated
as they seem, breathe to-day a spirit of freedom
worthy of the air of England or Switzerland or Norway.</p>

<p>The peasants clamored for their right to be equal
with their neighbors, and no doubt many a small landholder
joined them, who did not wish to swear fealty
to his over-lord. In the <i>Roman de Rou</i>, an old chronicle
which keeps together many traditions about early
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg095" name="pg095"></a>[Pg095]</span>
Normandy that else might have been forgotten, we
find one of these piteous harangues. Perhaps it is
not authentic, but it gives the spirit of the times so
well that it ought to have a place here:</p>

<p>"The lords do nothing but evil; we cannot obtain
either reason or justice from them; they have all,
they take all, eat all, and make us live in poverty and
suffering. Every day with us is a day of pain; we
gain nought by our labors, there are so many dues
and services. Why do we allow ourselves to be thus
treated? Let us place ourselves beyond their power;
we too are men, we have the same limbs, the same
height, the same power of endurance, and we are a
hundred to one. Let us swear to defend each other;
let us be firmly knit together, and no man shall be
lord over us; we shall be free from tolls and taxes,
free to fell trees, to take game and fish, and do as
we will in all things, in the wood, in the meadow, on
the water!"</p>

<p>At this time the larger portion of Normandy was
what used to be called forest. That word meant
something more than woodland; it belonged then
to tracts of wild country, woodland and moorland
and marshes, and these were the possession of the
crown. The peasants had in the old days a right, or
a custom at any rate, of behaving as if the forests
were their own, but more and more they had been
restricted, and the unaccustomed yoke galled them
bitterly. Besides their being forbidden to hunt and
fish in the forests, the water-ways were closed from
them, taxes imposed, and their time and labor demanded
on the duke's lands. There had been grants
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg096" name="pg096"></a>[Pg096]</span>
of these free tracts of country to the new nobility,
and with the lands the new lords claimed also the
service of the peasantry.</p>

<p>The people do not appear to have risen against
the duke himself, so much as against their immediate
oppressors, and it was one of these who was to
be their punisher. You remember that Richard the
Fearless' mother, Espriota, married, in the troublous
times of his boyhood, a rich countryman called
Sperling. They had a son called Raoul of Ivry,
who seems to have been high in power and favor
with the second Richard, his half-brother, and who
now entered upon his cruel task with evident liking.
He had been brought up among the country-folk,
although he stood at this time next to the duke in
office.</p>

<p>He was very crafty, and sent spies all through
Normandy to find out when the Assembly or Parliament
was to be held, and then dispersed his troops
according to the spies' report, and seized upon all the
deputies and these peasants who were giving oaths of
allegiance to their new commanders. Whether from
design or from anger and prejudice Raoul next treated
his poor prisoners with terrible cruelty. He maimed
them in every way, putting out their eyes, cutting
off their hands or feet; he impaled them alive, and
tortured them with melted lead. Those who lived
through their sufferings were sent home to be paraded
through the streets as a warning. So fear
prevailed over even the love of liberty in their brave
hearts, for the association of Norman peasants was
broken up, and a sad resignation took the place, for
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg097" name="pg097"></a>[Pg097]</span>
hundreds of years, of the ardor and courage which
had been lighted only to go out again so quickly.</p>

<p>There was another rebellion besides this, of which
we have some account, and one man instead of a
whole class was the offender. One of Richard's
brothers, or half-brothers, the son of an unknown
mother, had received as his inheritance the county
of Exmes, which held three very rich and thriving
towns. These were Exmes, Argentan, and Falaise
in which we have already learned that there was a
colony of Flemings settled, skilful, industrious
weavers and leather-makers and workers in cloth
and metals. Falaise itself was already very old
indeed, and there remain yet the ruins of an old
Roman camp, claimed to belong to the time of
Julius Cæsar, beside the earliest specimen of that
square gray tower which is really of earlier date
though always associated with Norman feudalism.
The Falaise Fair, which was of such renown in the
days of the first dukes, is supposed to be the survival
of some pagan festival of vast antiquity. The
name of Guibray, the suburb of Falaise which gave
its name to the Fair, is said to be derived from the
Gaulish word for mistletoe, and wherever we hear of
mistletoe in ancient history it reminds us, not of
merry-makings and Christmas holidays, but of the
grim rites and customs of the Druids.</p>

<p>William, Duke Richard's brother, does not seem
to have been grateful for these rich possessions, and
before long there is a complaint that he fails to respond
to the royal summons, and that he will not
render service or do homage in return for his holding.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg098" name="pg098"></a>[Pg098]</span>
Raoul of Ivry promptly counselled the Duke
to take arms against the offender.</p>

<p>It was not long before William found himself a
prisoner in the old tower of Rolf at Rouen. He
was treated with great severity, and only avoided
being hanged by making his escape in most romantic
fashion. A compassionate lady contrived to supply
him with a rope, and he came down from his high
tower-window to the ground hand over hand. Luckily
he found none of his keepers waiting for him, and
succeeded in getting out of the country. Raoul had
been hunting his partisans, and now he had the
pleasure of hunting William himself, by keeping
spies on his track and forcing him from one danger
to another until he was tired of his life, and boldly
determined to go to his brother the Duke and beg
for mercy. He was very fortunate, for Richard not
only listened to him, and was not angry at being
stopped on a day when he had gone out to amuse
himself with hunting, but he pardoned the suppliant
and pitied his trials and sufferings, and more than
all, though he did not give back the forfeited county
of Exmes, he did give him the county of Eu. We
hear nothing of what Raoul thought of such a
pleasant ending to the troubles after he had shown
such zeal himself in pursuing and harassing the
Duke's enemy.</p>

<p>We must take a quick look at the relations between
Richard the Good and Hugh Capet, Hugh of
Paris's successor, and Robert of France, Hugh Capet's
son, who was trying to uphold the fading dignities
and power of the Carlovingian throne. Truly
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg099" name="pg099"></a>[Pg099]</span>
Charlemagne's glories were almost spent, and the
new glories of the great house of the Capets were
growing brighter and brighter. Our eyes already
turn toward England and the part that the Norman
dukes must soon play there, but there is something
to say first about France.</p>

<p>Robert and Richard were great friends; they had
many common interests, and were bound by solemn
oaths and formal covenants of loyalty toward and
protection of each other. Robert was a very honorable
man; his relation to his father was a most
curious one, for they seem to have been partners in
royalty and to have reigned together over France.
Richard the Fearless had done much to establish the
throne of the Capets, and there was a firm bond between
the second Richard and young Robert, to
whom he did homage. There were several powerful
chiefs and tributaries, but Richard the Good outranks
them all, and takes his place without question
as the first peer of France. The golden lilies of
France are already in flower, and though history is
almost silent through the later years of Hugh Capet's
life, there are signs of great activity within the kingdom
and of growing prosperity. There is an old
proverb: "Happy is that nation which has no history!"
and whenever we come to a time that the
historians pass over or describe in a few sentences,
we take a long breath and imagine the people busy
in their homes and fields and shops, blest in the
freedom from war and disorder.</p>

<p>Robert of France was a famous wit and liked to
play tricks upon his associates. He was a poet too,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg100" name="pg100"></a>[Pg100]</span>
and wrote some beautiful Latin rhymes which are
still sung in the churches. There is a good story
about his being at Rome once at a solemn church
festival. When he approached the altar he held a
chalice in his hands with great reverence, and everybody
could see that it held a roll of parchment.</p>

<p>There could be no doubt that the king meant to
bestow a splendid gift upon the church, perhaps,
a duchy or even his whole kingdom; but after the
service was over, and the pope and cardinals, full of
expectation, hurried to see what prize was put into
their keeping, behold! only a copy of Robert's
famous chant "<i>Cornelius Centurio!</i>" It was a sad
disappointment indeed when they looked at this
unexpected offering!</p>

<p>But Robert was more than a good comrade, he
was a remarkably good king, as kings went; he kept
order and was brave, decided, and careful. It was
true that he had fallen heir to a prosperous and well-governed
kingdom, but it takes constant effort and
watchfulness and ready strength to keep a kingdom
or any lesser responsibilities up to the right level.
He had one great trial, for his wife Bertha, being his
first cousin, should not have been his wife according
to the laws of the Roman Church. For the first time
there was a pope of Rome who was from beyond the
Alps, a German; and Robert and he were on bad
terms, which resulted in the excommunication of the
king of France and the queen, and at one time they
were put so completely under the ban that even
their servants forsook them and the whole kingdom
was thrown into confusion. The misery became so
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg101" name="pg101"></a>[Pg101]</span>
great that the poor queen presently had to be separated
from her husband, and this was the more
grievous as she had no children, and so Robert was
obliged to put her away from him and marry again
for the sake of having an heir to the throne. Bertha's
successor was very handsome, but very cross, and in
later years King Robert used to say: "There are
plenty of chickens in the nest, but my old hen pecks
at me!"</p>

<p>In spite of the new queen's bad temper there
are a good many things to be said in her praise.
She was much better educated than most women of
her day, and she had a great admiration for Robert's
poetry, and these things must have gone far to make
up for her faults.</p>

<p>Duke Richard's marriage was a very fortunate
one. His sister Hawisa, of whom he was guardian,
was asked in marriage by Duke Godfrey of Brittany,
and this was a very welcome alliance, since it bound
the two countries closer together than ever before,
and made them forget the rivalries which had sometimes
caused serious trouble. Especially this was
true when a little later Richard himself married
Godfrey's sister Judith, who was distinguished for
her wisdom. They had a most splendid wedding at
the Abbey of St. Michael's Mount, and in course of
time one of their daughters married the Count of
Burgundy and one the Count of Flanders.</p>

<p>In spite of much immorality and irregularity in
those days, there was enough that was proper and
respectable in the alliances of the noble families,
and we catch many a glimpse of faithful lovers and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg102" name="pg102"></a>[Pg102]</span>
gallant love-making. It was often said that Normandy's
daughters did as much for the well-being of
the country as her sons, and when we read the lists
of grand marriages we can understand that the
dukes' daughters won as many provinces by their
beauty as the sons did by their bravery in war.</p>

<p>It is hard to keep the fortunes of all these races
and kingdoms clear in our minds. We cannot help
thinking of England, and looking at all this early history
of the Normans and their growth in relation to
it. Then we must keep track of the Danes and
Northmen, who have by no means outgrown their
old traits and manners, though their cousins in Normandy
have given up privateering and the long ships.
The history of France makes a sort of background
for Normandy and England both.</p>

<p>These marriages of which I have just told you
greatly increased the magnificence and the power of
the Norman duchy and widened the territory in
every way. The Norman dukes could claim the
right to interfere in the affairs of those states to
which they were allied, and they improved their opportunities.
But the most important of all the alliances
has not been spoken of at all—the marriage of
Richard the Fearless' daughter Emma to Æthelred
the Unready of England.</p>

<p>Æthelred himself was the black sheep of his illustrious
family—a long line of noble men they were
for the most part. In that age much of the
character of a nation's history depended upon its
monarch, and it is almost impossible to tell the fortunes
of a country except by giving the biographies
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg103" name="pg103"></a>[Pg103]</span>
of the reigning king. This Æthelred seems to have
had energy enough, but he began many enterprises
and never ended them, and wasted a great deal of
strength on long, needless expeditions, and does not
appear to have made effective resistance to the enemies
who came knocking at the very gates of England.
He had no tact and little bravery, and was
given to putting his trust in unworthy and treacherous
followers. Æthelred was the descendant of good
King Ælfred and his noble successors, but his own
kingdom was ready to fall to pieces before he reigned
over it very long, and his reign of thirty-eight years
came near to being the ruin of England. There
were two or three men who helped him in the evil
work, who were greater traitors at heart than Æthelred
himself, and we can hardly understand why they
were restored to favor after their treason and selfishness
were discovered. As one historian says, if
we could only have a few of the private letters, of
which we have such abundance two or three centuries
later, they would be the key to many difficulties.</p>

<p>The Danes were nibbling at the shores of England
as rats would gnaw at a biscuit. They grew
more and more troublesome. Over in Normandy,
Richard the Good was treating these same Danes
like friends, and allowing them to come into his
harbors to trade with the Norman merchants. In
the Côtentin country they found a people much like
themselves, preserving many old traditions, and
something of the northern speech. The Côtentin
lands were poor and rocky, but the hills were crowded
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg104" name="pg104"></a>[Pg104]</span>
with castles, well armed and well fortified, and the men
were brave soldiers and sailors, true descendants of
the old vikings. They sought their fortunes on the
sea too, and we can trace the names of these Côtentin
barons and their followers through the army of
William the Conqueror to other castles in the broad
English lands that were won in less than a hundred
years from Æthelred's time. Very likely some of
these Côtentin Normans were in league with the
northern Danes who made their head-quarters on
the Norman shores, and went plundering across the
Channel. Soon Æthelred grew very angry, which
was to be expected, and he gathered his fleets at
Portsmouth, and announced that he should bring
Duke Richard back a captive in chains, and waste
the whole offending country with fire, except the
holy St. Michael's Mount.</p>

<div class="figright" style="width: 217px;">
<div><a id="QUEEN-EMMA"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i124.png" width="217" height="485" alt="" />
<div class="caption">QUEEN EMMA OR ÆLFGIFU (FROM
THE REGISTER OF HYDE ABBEY).</div>
</div>

<p>The fleet obeyed Æthelred's foolish orders, and
went ashore at the mouth of the river Barfleur,
only to find the Normans assembled from the whole
surrounding country—not a trained army by any
means, but an enraged peasantry, men and women
alike, armed with shepherds' crooks, and reaping-hooks
and flails, and in that bloody battle of Sanglac,
they completely routed the English. All the
invaders who escaped crowded into six of their
vessels and abandoned the rest, and hurried away as
fast as they could go. This was a strong link in the
chain that by and by would be long enough to hold
England fast, and put her at the mercy of the Normans
altogether. There was peace made before
very long, though the Normans considered themselves
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg105" name="pg105"></a>[Pg105]</span>
to have been grievously insulted, and laughed
at the English for being so well whipped. Perpetual
peace, the contract unwisely promises, and the pope
interfered between the
combatants, to prevent the
shedding of innocent
blood. After the promises
were formally made, Æthelred
tried to make the
alliance even closer. He
had children already—one,
the gallant Eadmund
Ironside, who might have
saved the tottering kingdom
if he had only held
the authority which was
thrown away in his father's
hands. The name of Æthelred's
first queen has been
lost, but she was "a
noble lady, the daughter of
Thored, an Ealdorman,"
and had been some time
dead, so with great diplomacy
King Æthelred the
Unready, "by the grace
of God Basileus of Albion,
King and Monarch of all the British Nations, of the
Orkneys and the surrounding Islands," as he liked to
sign himself, came wooing to Normandy. Emma,
the duke's sister, married him and went to England.</p>

<p>Æthelred gave her a splendid wedding-present of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg106" name="pg106"></a>[Pg106]</span>
wide domains in the counties of Devon and Hants,
part of which held the cathedral cities of Winchester
and Exeter, the pride and defence of Southern
Britain. Queen Emma gave the governorship of
Exeter to her chief adviser and officer, Hugh the
Norman, and her new subjects called her the Gem
of Normandy, and treated her with great deference.
She had the beauty of her race and of Rolf's descendants,
and her name was changed to Ælfgifu,
because this sounded more familiar to the English
ears. At least that is the explanation which has
come down to us.</p>

<p>Things were in a very bad way in England—the
Anglo-Saxon rule of that time was founded upon
fraud and violence, and the heavy misfortunes which
assailed the English made them fear worse troubles
later on. The wisest among them tried to warn
their countrymen, but the warnings were apparently
of little use. The make-believe rejoicings at Queen
Emma's coming were quickly over with, and soon we
hear of her flight to Normandy. Many reasons were
given for this ominous act. Some say that Æthelred
disgusted her by his drunkenness and lawlessness,
and others that Hugh the Norman was treacherous,
and betrayed his trust to the Danes, and that the
queen was a partner in the business. There is still
another story, that Æthelred was guilty of a shocking
massacre, and that Emma fled in the horror and
confusion that it made. Yet later she returned to
England as the queen of Cnut the Dane.</p>

<p>Now we must change from England to France
altogether for a few pages, and see how steadily the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg107" name="pg107"></a>[Pg107]</span>
power of the Normans was growing, and how widely
it made itself felt. We must see Richard the Good
as the ally of France in the warfare waged by King
Robert against Burgundy, which was the most important
event of Robert's reign. Old Hugh of Paris
had carefully avoided any confusion between the
rights of Burgundy and the rights of France when
he established the foundation of his kingdom. He
was a wise politician, and understood that it would
not do to conflict with such a power as Burgundy's,
which held the Low Countries, Spain, and Portugal
and Italy within its influence. Since his day Burgundy
had been divided, but it was still distinguished
for its great piety and the number of its religious
institutions. Robert's uncle was Duke of Burgundy,
and he was a very old man; so Robert himself had
high hopes of becoming his successor. His chief
rival was the representative of the Lombard kings in
Italy—Otho William, who was son of Adalbert, a
pirate who had wandered beyond the Alps, and Gerberga,
the Count of Chalons' daughter. After Adalbert
died Gerberga married old Duke Henry of
Burgundy, and prevailed upon him to declare her
son as his successor. This was illegal, but Otho
William was much admired and beloved, and the
great part of the Burgundians upheld his right.</p>

<p>Behold, then, Richard the Good and his Norman
soldiery marching away to the wars! Duke Henry
was dead, and King Robert made haste to summon
his ally. Thirty thousand men were mustered under
the Norman banner, and the black raven of war went
slowly inland. What an enterprise it was to transport
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg108" name="pg108"></a>[Pg108]</span>
such a body of men and horses across country!
Supplies could not be hurried from point to point as
readily as in after-times, and the country itself must
necessarily be almost devastated as if a swarm of
locusts had crept through it. Normandy was overflowing
with a military population anxious for something
to do, with a lingering love for piracy and
plundering. They made a swift journey, and Richard
and his men were at the gates of the city of
Auxerre almost as soon as the venerable duke was
in his grave.</p>

<p>There was a tremendous siege; Robert's rival
had won the people's hearts, and in the natural
strongholds of the mountain slopes they defended
themselves successfully. Besides this brave opposition
of the Burgundians, the Normans were fought
against in a more subtle way by strange phenomena
in the heavens. A fiery dragon shot across the sky,
and a thick fog and darkness overspread the face of
the earth. Auxerre was shrouded in night, and the
Norman archers could not see to shoot their arrows.
Before long the leagued armies raised the siege of
the border city and marched on farther into the
country up among the bleak, rocky hills. Only one
of the Burgundian nobles—Hugh, Count of Chalons
and Bishop of Auxerre—was loyal to the cause of
King Robert of France. Presently we shall see him
again under very surprising circumstances for a
count, not to speak of a bishop! The country was
thoroughly ravaged, but some time passed before it
was finally conquered. At last there was a compromise,
and Robert's son was elected duke. His
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg109" name="pg109"></a>[Pg109]</span>
descendants gave France a vast amount of trouble
in later years, and so Burgundy revenged herself
and Otho William's lost cause.</p>

<p>Richard of Normandy had kept his army well
drilled in this long Burgundian campaign, but before
his reign was over he had another war to fight with
the Count of Dreux. The lands of Dreux were
originally in the grant made to Rolf, but later they
were held by a line of counts, whose last representative
disappeared in Richard the Fearless' reign. We
find the country in Richard's possession without any
record of war, so it had probably fallen to the
crown by right. There was a great Roman road
through the territory like the Watling Street that ran
from Dover to Chester through England, and this
was well defended as the old Roman roads always
were. Chartres was joined to Dreux by this road,
and Chartres was not at peace with Normandy. So
a new fort and a town sprung up on the banks of
the river to keep Chartres in check: Tillières, or the
Tileries, which we might call the ancestor of the
famous Tuileries of modern Paris.</p>

<p>There were several fierce battles, and sometimes
gaining and sometimes losing, the Normans found
themselves presently in a hard place. We are rather
startled to hear of the appearance of king Olaf of Norway
and the king of the Swedes as Richard's allies.
The French people had not wholly outgrown their
hatred—or fear and distrust either—of the pirates,
and when the news came that bands of Northmen
were landing in Brittany there was a wild excitement.
Richard and the Chartres chieftain were making
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg110" name="pg110"></a>[Pg110]</span>
altogether too much of their quarrel, and King Robert,
as preserver of the public peace, was obliged to
interfere. After this episode everybody was more
afraid of Normandy than ever, and Chartres was the
gainer by the town of Dreux, with its forest and
castle, that being the king's award. We cannot help
wondering why Richard was persuaded to yield so
easily, with all his Northmen eager enough to fight—but
they disappear for the time being, and many
stories were told of their treacherous warfare in
Brittany; of the pitfalls covered with branches into
which they tempted their mounted enemies on the
battle-field of Dôl. All this seems to have been a
little private diversion on their way to the Norman
capital, where they were bidden for the business with
Chartres.</p>

<p>Then there was a fight with the bishopric of
Chalons, which interests us chiefly because Richard's
son and namesake first makes his appearance. Renaud,
the son of Otho William, who had lost the
dukedom of Burgundy, had married a Norman damsel
belonging to the royal family of Rolf. This
Renaud was defeated and captured by the Count-Bishop
of Chalons, of whom we know something
already. He was loyal to King Robert of France,
you remember, in the war with Burgundy, and now
he treated Renaud with terrible severity, and had
broken his vows, moreover, by getting married.</p>

<p>King Robert gave the Normans permission to
march through his dominions, and seems to have
turned his back upon the Count-Bishop. There was
a succession of sieges, and the army burned and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg111" name="pg111"></a>[Pg111]</span>
destroyed on every side as it went through Burgundy,
and finally made great havoc in one of the chief
towns, called Mirmande in the chronicles, though
no Mirmande can be heard of now in that part of the
world, and perhaps the angry Normans determined
to leave no trace of it for antiquarians and geographers
to discover. The Count-Bishop flees for his life
to Chalons, and when he was assailed there, he was
so frightened that he put an old saddle on his back
and came out of the city gates in that fashion to
beg for mercy. The merry historian who describes
this scene adds that he offered Richard a ride and
that he rolled on the ground at the young duke's
feet in complete humiliation. One might reasonably
say that the count made a donkey of himself in
good earnest, and that his count's helmet and his
priestly, shaven crown did not go very well together.</p>

<p>The third Richard covered himself with glory in
this campaign, however, and went back to Normandy
triumphant, to give his old father great pleasure by
his valor. But Richard the Good was very feeble
now, and knew that he was going to die; so, like
Richard the Fearless, he went to Fécamp to spend
his last days.</p>

<p>When he had confessed to the bishops, he called
for his faithful barons, and made his will. Richard
was to be his successor, and his courage and honesty
deserved it; but the old father appears to have had
a presentiment that all would not go well, for he
begged the barons to be loyal to the good youth.
Robert, the second son, fell heir to the county of
Exmes, upon the condition that he should be faithful
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg112" name="pg112"></a>[Pg112]</span>
to his brother. There was another son, Mauger, a
bad fellow, who had no friends or reputation, even
at that early day. He was a monk, and a very low-minded
one; but later he appears, to our astonishment,
as Archbishop of Rouen. No mention is
made of his receiving any gift from his father; and
soon Richard the Good died and was buried in the
Fécamp Abbey. In after years the bones of Richard
the Fearless were taken from the sarcophagus outside
the abbey door, and father and son were laid in
a new tomb near the high altar.</p>

<p>All this early history of Normandy is told mainly
by two men, the saga-writers of their time—William
of Jumiéges, who wrote in the lifetime of William
the Conqueror, and Master Wace, of Caen, who was
born on the island of Jersey, between thirty and
forty years after the conquest of England. His
"Roman de Rou" is most spirited and interesting,
but, naturally, the earlier part of it is not always
reliable. Both the chroniclers meant to tell the
truth, but writing at a later date for the glory of
Normandy, and in such a credulous age, we must
forgive them their inaccuracies.</p>

<p>They have a great deal more to say about Richard
the Good than about his two sons, Richard and
Robert. Richard was acknowledged as duke by all
the barons after his father's death, and then went in
state to Paris to do homage to King Robert. This
we learn from the records of his contract of marriage
with the king's daughter, Lady Adela, who was a
baby in her cradle, and the copy of the settlements
is preserved, or, at least, the account of the dowry
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg113" name="pg113"></a>[Pg113]</span>
which Richard promised. This was the <i>seigneurie</i>
of the whole Côtentin country, and several other
baronies and communes; Cherbourg and Bruot and
Caen, and many cities and lands besides. Poor little
Lady Adela! and poor young husband, too, for that
matter; for this was quite a heartless affair of state,
and neither of them was to be any happier for all
their great possessions.</p>

<p>In the meantime Robert, the Duke's brother, was
not in the least satisfied, and made an outcry because,
though he was lord of the beautiful county of
Exmes, the city of Falaise was withheld from him.
There was a man from Brittany who urged him to
resent his wrongs, and made trouble between the
brothers; Ermenoldus he was called, <i>the theosophist</i>;
and there is a great mystery about him which the
old writers stop to wonder over. He was evidently
a sort of magician, and those records that can be
discovered give rise to a suspicion that he had
strayed far eastward with some pirate fleet toward
Asia, and had learned there to work wonders and to
compass his ends by uncanny means.</p>

<p>There was a siege of Falaise, which Robert seized
and tried to keep by main strength; but Richard's
army was too much for him, and at last he sued for
peace. The brothers went back to Rouen apparently
the best of friends; but there was a grand
banquet in Rolf's old castle, and Richard was suddenly
death-struck as he sat at the head of the feast,
and was carried to his bed, where he quickly breathed
his last. The funeral bell began to toll while the
banquet still went on, and the barons made themselves
merry in the old hall.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg114" name="pg114"></a>[Pg114]</span></p>

<p>There was great lamentation, for Richard was already
much beloved, and nobody doubted that he
had been poisoned. So Robert came to the throne
of Normandy with a black stain upon his character,
and during all the rest of his life that stain was not
overlooked nor forgotten.</p>

<p>As for the baby-widow, she afterward became the
wife of the Count of Flanders, Baldwin de Lisle, and
she was the mother of Matilda, who was the wife of
William the Conqueror.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 351px;">
<img src="images/i133.png" width="351" height="164" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg115"
name="pg115"></a>[Pg115]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 387px;">
<img src="images/i134.png" width="387" height="95" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.
<br />ROBERT THE MAGNIFICENT.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i7">"What exile from himself can flee?"—<span
class="smcap">Byron.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
Before we begin the story of the next Duke of
Normandy whose two surnames, the Devil, and the
Magnificent, give us a broad hint of his character,
we must take a look at the progress of affairs
in the dukedom. There is one thing to be remembered
in reading this history, or any other, that
history is not merely the story of this monarch or
that, however well he may represent the age in
which he lived and signify its limitations and development.</p>

<p>In Normandy one cannot help seeing that a power
has been at work bringing a new Northern element
into the country, and that there has been a great
growth in every way since Rolf came with his
vikings and besieged the city of Jumièges. Now
the dukedom that he formed is one of the foremost
of its day, able to stand on equal ground
with the royal kingdom and duchy of France, for
Robert's homage is only the homage of equals and
allies. Normandy is the peer of Burgundy and of
Flanders, and every day increases in strength, in
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg116" name="pg116"></a>[Pg116]</span>
ambition, in scholarship and wealth. The influence
and <i>prestige</i> of the dukedom are recognized everywhere,
and soon the soldiers of Normandy are going
to take hold of English affairs and master them with
unequalled strength. Chivalry is in the bloom of its
youth, and the merchants of Falaise, and Rouen,
and their sister cities, are rich and luxurious. The
women are skilled in needlework and are famous for
their beauty and intelligence. Everywhere there
are new castles and churches, and the land swarms
with inhabitants who hardly find room enough,
while the great army hardly draws away the overplus
of men from the farms and workshops. There
are whole districts like the Côtentin peninsula, that
are nearly ready to pour out their population into
some new country, like bees when they swarm in
early summer, and neither the fashion of going on
pilgrimage to the holy shrines, nor the spirit that
leads to any warlike adventure, are equal to the need
for a new conquest of territory, and a general
emigration.</p>

<p>There are higher standards everywhere in law and
morals and customs of home-life. The nobles are
very proud and keep up a certain amount of state in
their high stone castles. In the Côtentin alone the
ruins of more than a hundred of these can yet be
seen, and all over Normandy and Brittany are relics of
that busy, prosperous time. The whole territory is
like a young man who has reached his majority, and
who feels a strength and health and ambition that
make him restless, and make him believe himself
capable of great things.</p>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg117"
name="pg117"></a>[Pg117]</span></p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<div><a id="NORMAN_COSTUMES"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i136.png" width="600" height="307" alt="" />
<div class="caption"><div>NORMAN COSTUMES.</div>
<div>1. Herdsman. 2. Man of rank. 3. Pilgrim. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Warriors. 9. Man of rank. 10. Lady of rank.</div></div>
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg118"
name="pg118"></a>[Pg118]</span></p>

<p>From followers of the black ravens and worshippers
of the god Thor, the Normans have become Christians
and devout followers of the Church of Rome.
They go on pilgrimage to distant shrines and build
churches that the world may well wonder at to-day
and try to copy. They have great houses for monks
and nuns, and crowds of priests and scholars, and it
would not be easy to find worshippers of the old
faith unless among old people and in secluded neighborhoods.
There is little left of the old Northman's
fashions of life but his spirit is as vigorous as ever,
and his courage, and recklessness, his love of a fight
and hatred of cowardice, his beauty and shapeliness,
are sent down from generation to generation, a surer
inheritance than lands or money. We grow eager,
ourselves, to see what will come of this leaven of
daring and pride of strength. There is no such
thing for Normandy now, as tranquillity.</p>

<p>Duke Robert's story is chiefly interesting to us
because he was the father of William the Conqueror,
and in most of the accounts of that time it is hard
to find any thing except various versions of his
course toward his more famous son. But in reality
he was a very gifted and powerful man, and strange
to say, the conquest of England was only the carrying
out of a plan that was made by Duke Robert
himself.</p>

<p>The two young sons of Emma and Æthelred
were still in Normandy, and the Duke thought it was
a great pity that they were neglected and apparently
forgotten by their countrymen. He undertook to
be their champion, and boldly demanded that King
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg119" name="pg119"></a>[Pg119]</span>
Cnut of England should consider their rights. He
sent an embassy to England and bade Cnut "give
them their own," which probably meant the English
crown. Cnut disdained the message, as might have
been expected, and Duke Robert armed his men
and fitted out a fleet, and all set sail for England to
force the Dane to recognize the young princes. It
sounds very well that the Normans should have been
so eager to serve the Duke's cousins, but no doubt
they were talking together already about the possibility
of extending their dominions across the Channel.
They were disappointed now, however, for
they were beaten back and out of their course by
very bad weather, and had to put in at the island of
Jersey. From there they took a short excursion to
Brittany, because Robert and his cousin Alan were
not on good terms, Alan having refused to do homage
to Normandy. There was a famous season of
harrying and burning along the Breton coast, which
may have reconciled the adventurers to their disappointment,
but at any rate the conquest of England
was put off for forty years. One wonders how
Cnut's Queen Emma felt about the claims of her
sons. It was a strange position for her to be put
into. A Norman woman herself who had virtually
forsaken her children, she could hardly blame her
brother for his efforts to restore them to their English
belongings, and yet she was bound to her new
English interests, and must have different standards
as Danish Cnut's wife from those of Saxon Æthelred's.
There is an announcement in one of the Norman
chronicles that Cnut sent a message to the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg120" name="pg120"></a>[Pg120]</span>
effect that he would give the princes their rights
at his death. This must have been for the sake of
peace, but it is not very likely that any such thing
ever happened.</p>

<p>A new acquaintance between the countries must
have grown out of the banishment of some of the
English nobles in the early part of Cnut's reign, and
they no doubt strengthened the interest of the Normans,
and made their desire to possess England
greater than ever before. We shall be conscious of it
more and more until the time of the Conquest comes.
The Normans plotted and planned again and again,
and their intrigues continually grew more dangerous
to England. It is plain to see that they were always
watching for a chance to try their strength,
and were not unwilling to provoke a quarrel. Eadward,
one of the English princes, was ready to claim
his rights, but he had learned to be very fond of
Normandy, and his half-heartedness served his
adopted country well when he came at last to the
English throne. For the present we lose sight of
him, but not of Ælfred his brother, who ventured to
England on an expedition which cost him his life,
but that failure made the Norman desire for revenge
burn hotter and deeper than before, though the
ashes of disappointment covered it for a time.</p>

<p>Duke Robert's reign began with a grand flourish,
as if he wished to bribe his subjects into forgetfulness
of his brother Richard's death. There were
splendid feasts and presents of armor and fine clothes
for his retainers, and he won his name of the Magnificent
in the very face of those who whispered
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg121" name="pg121"></a>[Pg121]</span>
that he was a murderer. He was very generous, and
seems to have given presents for the pleasure it gave
himself rather than from any underhand motives of
gaining popularity. We are gravely told that some
of his beneficiaries died of joy, which strikes one as
being somewhat exaggerated.</p>

<p>The old castle of Rolf at Rouen was forsaken for
the castle of Falaise. No doubt there were unpleasant
associations with Rolf's hall, where poor Richard
had been seized with his mysterious mortal illness.
Falaise, with its hunting-grounds and pleasant woods
and waters and its fine situation, was Robert's favorite
home forever after. There he brought his wife Estrith,
Cnut's sister, who first had been the wife of
Ulf the Danish king, and there he lived in a free
companionship with his nobles and with great condescension
towards his inferiors, with whom he was
often associated in most familiar terms.</p>

<p>There were chances enough to show his valor.
Once Baldwin the elder, of Flanders, was attacked by
his son Baldwin de Lisle, who had put himself at the
head of an army, and the poor Count was forced to
flee to Falaise for shelter and safety. Any excuse
for going to war seems to have been accepted in
Normandy; the country was brimming over with
people. There was almost more population than the
land could support, and Robert led his men to Flanders
with great alacrity, and settled the mutiny so
entirely that there was no more trouble. Flanders
was brought to a proper state of submission, as if in
revenge for old scores. At last the noblemen who
had upheld the insurrection all deserted the leader of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg122" name="pg122"></a>[Pg122]</span>
it, and both they and young Baldwin besought Robert
to make the terms of peace. After this, Flanders
and Normandy were very friendly together,
and before long they formed a most significant alliance
of the royal houses.</p>

<p>In Robert's strolls about Falaise, perhaps in disguise,
like another Haroun al Raschid, his beauty-loving
eyes caught sight one day of a young girl
who was standing bare-footed in a shallow brook,
washing linen, and making herself merry with a
group of busy young companions. This was Arlette,
or Herleva, according as one gives her the Saxon or
the Norman name; her father was a brewer and tanner,
who had been attracted to Falaise from Germany
by the reputation of its leather manufactures
and good markets. The pastures and hunting-grounds
made skins very cheap and abundant, but
the trade of skinning of beasts was considered a most
degrading one, and those who pursued it in ancient
times were thought less of than those who followed
almost any other occupation. If we were not sure of
this, we might suspect the Norman nobles of casting
undue shame and reproach upon this man Fulbert.</p>

<p>Duke Robert seems to have quite forgotten his
lawful wife in his new love-making with Herleva.
Even the tanner himself objected to the duke's notice
of his daughter, but who could withstand the
wishes of so great a man? Not Fulbert, who accepted
the inevitable with a good grace, for later in
the story he shows himself a faithful retainer and
household official of his lord and master. Robert
never seems to have recovered from his first
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg123" name="pg123"></a>[Pg123]</span>
devotion to the pretty creature who stood with slender,
white feet in the brook, and turned so laughing a
face toward him. They showed not long ago the
very castle-window in Falaise from which he caught
his first sight of the woman who was to rule his life.
He did not marry her, though Estrith was sent
away; but they had a son, who was named William,
who himself added the titles of the Great and The
Conqueror, but who never escaped hearing to his
life's end the shame and ignominy of his birth.
We cannot doubt that it was as mean an act then as
now to taunt a man with the disgrace he could not
help; but of all the great men who were of illegitimate
birth whom we know in the pages of history,
this famous William is oftenest openly shamed
by his title of the Bastard. He won much applause;
he was the great man of his time, but from
pique, or jealousy, or prejudice, perhaps from some
faults that he might have helped, he was forever accused
of the shame that was not his. The Bastard,—the
Tanner's Grandson; he was never allowed to
forget, through any heroism or success in war, or furthering
of Norman fortunes, that these titles belonged
to him.</p>

<p>The pride of the Norman nobles was dreadfully
assailed by Duke Robert's shameful alliance with
Herleva. All his relations, who had more or less
right to the ducal crown, were enraged beyond control.
Estrith had no children, and this beggarly little
fellow who was growing plump and rosy in the tanner's
house, was arch-enemy of all the proud lords and
gentlemen. There was plenty of scandal and mockery
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg124" name="pg124"></a>[Pg124]</span>
in Falaise, and the news of Robert's base behavior
was flying from village to village through Normandy
and France. The common people of Falaise
laughed in the faces of the barons and courtiers as
they passed in the street, and one day an old
burgher and neighbor of the tanner asked William
de Talvas, the head of one of the most famous Norman
families, to go in with him to see the Duke's
son. The Lord of Alençon was very angry when he
looked at the innocent baby-face. He saw, by some
strange foreboding and prevision, the troubles that
would fall upon his own head because of this vigorous
young life, and, as he cursed the unconscious
child again and again, his words only echoed the fear
that was creeping through Normandy.</p>

<p>Robert was very bold in his defiance of public
opinion, and before long the old tanner sheds his
blouse like the cocoon of a caterpillar, and blooms
out resplendent in the gay trappings of court chamberlain.
Herleva was given the place as duchess
which did not legally belong to her, and this hurt the
pride of the ladies and gentlemen of the court and
the country in a way that all Robert's munificence
and generosity could not repay or cure. The age
was licentious enough, but public opinion demanded
a proper conformity to law and etiquette. All the
aristocratic house of Rolf's descendants, the valor
and scholarship and churchmanship of Normandy,
were insulted at once. The trouble fermented more
and more, until the Duke's uncle, the Archbishop of
Rouen, called his nephew to account for such open
sin and disgrace of his kindred, and finally
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg125" name="pg125"></a>[Pg125]</span>
excommunicated him and put all Normandy under a
ban.</p>

<p>Somehow this outbreak was quieted down, and
just then Robert was called upon, not only to settle
the quarrel in Flanders above mentioned, but to uphold
the rights of the French king. For his success
in this enterprise he was granted the district of the
Vexin, which lay between Normandy and France,
and so the Norman duchy extended its borders to
the very walls of Paris. Soon other questions of
pressing importance rose up to divert public comment;
it was no time to provoke the Duke's anger,
and there was little notice taken of Herleva's aggravating
presence in the ducal castle, or the untoward
growth and flourishing of her son.</p>

<p>At length Duke Robert announced his intention
of going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He wished
to show his piety and to gain as much credit as possible,
so the long journey was to be made on foot.
The Norman barons begged him not to think of
such a thing, for in the excited condition of French
and Norman affairs nothing could be more imprudent
than to leave the dukedom masterless. "By my
faith!" Robert answered stoutly, "I do not mean to
leave you without a lord. Here is my young son,
who will grow and be a gallant man, by God's help;
I command you to take him for your lord, for I make
him my heir and give him my whole duchy of
Normandy."</p>

<p>There was a stormy scene in the council, and however
we may scorn Robert's foolish, selfish present-giving
and his vulgarity, we cannot help pitying him
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg126" name="pg126"></a>[Pg126]</span>
as he pleads with the knights and bishops for their
recognition of his innocent boy. We pity the Duke's
shame, while his natural feeling toward the child
wars with his disgust. With all his eloquence, with
all his authority, he entreats the scornful listeners
until they yield. They have warned him against the
danger of the time, and of what he must expect, not
only if he goes on pilgrimage and leaves the dukedom
to its undefended fate, but also if he further
provokes those who are already his enemies, and who
resent the presence of his illegitimate child. But he
dares to put the base-born lad over the dukedom of
Normandy as his own successor. He even goes to
the king of France and persuades him to receive
the unworthy namesake of Longsword as vassal and
next duke, and to Alan of Brittany, who consents to
be guardian. Then at last the unwilling barons do
homage to the little lord—a bitter condescension
and service it must have been!</p>

<p>After all the ceremonies were finished, Robert lost
no time in starting on his pilgrimage. He sought
the shrine of Jerusalem, many a weary mile away,
over mountain and fen, past dangers of every sort.
Nothing could be more characteristic than his performance
of his penance or his pleasure journey—whichever
he called it—for although he went on
foot, he spent enormous sums in showering alms
upon the people who came out to greet him. Heralds
rode before him, and prepared his lodging and
reception, and the great procession of horses and
grooms and beasts of burden grew longer and longer
as he went on his way. Once they blocked up the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg127" name="pg127"></a>[Pg127]</span>
gateway of a town, and the keeper fell upon the
pilgrim Duke, ignorantly, and gave him a good
thrashing to make him hurry on with his idle crowd.
Robert piously held back those of his followers who
would have beaten the warder in return, and said
that it was well for him to show himself a pattern of
humility and patience, and such suffering was meant
for the good of one's soul.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 452px;">
<div><a id="ROBERT_DUKE_OF_NORMANDY"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i146.jpg" width="452" height="465" alt="" />
<div class="caption">ROBERT, DUKE OF NORMANDY, CARRIED IN A
 LITTER TO JERUSALEM. <div>(FROM AN OLD ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT.)</div></div>
</div>

<p><span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg128"
name="pg128"></a>[Pg128]</span></p>

<p>The Duke did a great many foolish things; for
one, he had his horses shod with silver shoes, held
on by only one nail, and gave orders that none of
his servants should pick up the shoes when they
were cast, but let them lie in the road.</p>

<p>At last the pilgrims reached Constantinople, and
Robert made a great display of his wealth, not to
speak of his insolent bad manners. The emperor,
Michael, treated his rude guests with true Eastern
courtesy, and behaved himself much more honorably
than those who despised him and called him names.
He even paid all the expenses of the Norman procession,
but, no doubt, he was anxious not to give
any excuse for displeasure or disturbance between
the Northerners and his own citizens. When the
visit was over, and Robert moved on toward Jerusalem,
his already feeble health, broken by his bad
life, grew more and more alarming, and at last he
could not take even a very short journey on foot, and
was carried in a litter by negroes. The Crusades
were filling the roads with pilgrims and soldiers, and
travellers of every sort. One day they met a Côtentin
man, an old acquaintance of Robert's. The Duke
said with grim merriment that he was borne like a
corpse on a bier. "My lord," asked the Crusader,
who seems to have been sincerely shocked and doleful
at the sight of the Duke's suffering; "my lord,
what shall I say for you when I reach home?" "That
you saw me carried toward Paradise by four devils,"
said the Duke, readier at any time to joke about life
than to face it seriously and to do his duty. He kept
up the pretence of travelling unknown and in
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg129" name="pg129"></a>[Pg129]</span>
disguise, like a humbler pilgrim, but his lavishness
alone betrayed the secret he would really have been
sorry to keep. Outside the gates of Jerusalem there
was always a great crowd of people who were not
able to pay the entrance-fee demanded of every pilgrim;
but Robert paid for himself and all the rest
before he went in at the gate. The long journey was
almost ended, for on the way home, at the city of
Nicæa, the Duke was poisoned, and died, and was
buried there in the cathedral with great solemnity
and lamentation. He had collected a heap of relics
of the saints, and these were brought safely home to
Normandy by Tostin, his chamberlain, who seems to
have served him faithfully all the way.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 255px;">
<img src="images/i148.png" width="255" height="92" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg130"
name="pg130"></a>[Pg130]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 401px;">
<img src="images/i149.png" width="401" height="96" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.
<br />THE NORMANS IN ITALY.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"And therefore must make room<br /></span>
<span class="i9">&#160;Where greater spirits come."—<span
class="smcap">Marvell.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
There is a famous old story about Hasting, the
viking captain. Once he went adventuring along the
shores of the Mediterranean, and when he came in
sight of one of the Tuscan cities, he mistook it for
Rome. Evidently he had enough learning to furnish
him with generous ideas about the wealth of the
Roman churches, but he had brought only a handful
of men, and the city looked large and strong from
his narrow ship. There was no use to think of such
a thing as laying siege to the town; such a measure
would do hardly more than tease and provoke it: so
he planned a sharp stroke at its very heart.</p>

<p>Presently word was carried from the harbor side, by
a long-faced and tearful sailor, to the pious priests of
the chief church, that Hasting, a Northman, lay sick
unto death aboard his ship, and was desirous to repent
him of his sins and be baptized. This was
promising better things of the vikings, and the good
bishop visited Hasting readily, and ministered eagerly
to his soul's distress. Next day word came that
the robber was dead, and his men brought him early
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg131" name="pg131"></a>[Pg131]</span>
to the church in his coffin, following him in a defenceless,
miserable group. They gathered about
the coffin, and the service began; the priests stood
in order to chant and pray, their faces bowed low or
lifted heavenward. Suddenly up goes the coffin-lid,
out jumps Hasting, and his men clutch at the shining
knives hidden under their cloaks. They strip the
jewelled vestments from the priests' backs; they
shut the church doors and murder the poor men like
sheep; they climb the high altar, and rob it of its
decorations and sacred cups and candlesticks, and
load themselves with wealth. The city has hardly
time to see them dash by to the harbor side, to hear
the news and give them angry chase, before the evil
ships are standing out to sea again, and the pirates
laugh and shout as they tug at the flashing oars.
No more such crafty converts! the people cry, and
lift their dead and dying priests sorrowfully from the
blood-stained floor. This was the fashion of Italy's
early acquaintance with the Northmen, whose grandchildren
were to conquer wide dominions in Apulia,
in Sicily, and all that pleasant country between the
inland seas of Italy and Greece.</p>

<p>It must have seemed almost as bad to the Romans
to suffer invasion of this sort as it would to us to
have a horde of furious Esquimaux come down to
attack our coasts. We only need to remember the
luxury of the Italian cities, to recall the great names
of the day in literature and art, in order to contrast
the civilization and appearance of the invader and
the invaded. Yet war was a constant presence then,
and every nation had its bitter enemies born of race
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg132" name="pg132"></a>[Pg132]</span>
prejudice and the resentment of conquest. To be a
great soldier was to be great indeed, and by the time
of the third of the Norman dukes the relation of
the Northmen and Italians was much changed.</p>

<p>Yet there was not such a long time between the
time of Hasting the pirate, and that of Tancred
de Hauteville and Robert Guiscard. Normandy had
taken her place as one of the formidable, respectable
European powers. The most powerful of the fiefs
of France, she was an enemy to be feared and honored,
not despised. She was loyal to the See of
Rome; very pious and charitable toward all religious
establishments; no part of Southern Europe had
been more diligent in building churches, in going on
pilgrimage, in maintaining the honor of God and her
own honor. Her knights prayed before they fought,
and they were praised already in chronicle and song.
The troubadours sung their noble deeds from hall to
hall. The world looked on to see their bravery and
valor, and when they grew restless and went a-roving
and showed an increasing desire to extend their possessions
and make themselves lords of new acres, the
rest of the world looked on with envy and approval.
Unless the Normans happened to come their way;
that of course was quite a different thing.</p>

<p>We cannot help thinking that the readiness of the
Englishman of to-day to form colonies and to adapt
himself to every sort of climate and condition of foreign
life, was anticipated and foreboded in those
Norman settlements along the shores of the Mediterranean
sea. Perhaps we should say again that
the Northmen of a much earlier date were the true
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg133" name="pg133"></a>[Pg133]</span>
ancestors of all English colonists with their roving
spirit and love of adventure, but the Normandy of
the early part of the eleventh century was a type of
the England of to-day. Its power was consolidated
and the territory became too narrow for so much
energy to be pent up in. The population increased
enormously, and the familiar love of conquest and
of seeking new fortunes was waked again. The bees
send out new swarms when summer comes, and, like
the bees, both Normans and Englishmen must have
a leader and centralization of the general spirit, else
there is scattering and waste of the common force.</p>

<p>We might go on with this homely illustration of
the bees to explain the way in which smaller or
larger groups of pilgrims, and adventurers of a less
pious inclination, had wandered southward and eastward,
toward the holy shrines of Jerusalem, or the
rich harvest of Oriental wealth and luxury. Not
much result came from these enterprises, though as
early as 1026, we find the Duke of Naples allowing a
company of Norman wanderers to settle at Aversa,
and even helping them to build and fortify the town,
and to hold it as a kind of out-post garrison against
his enemies in Capua. They were understood to be
ready for all sorts of enterprises, and the bitter flowers
of strategy and revolt appeared to yield the
sweetest honey that any country-side could offer.
They loved a fight, and so they were often called in
by the different Italian princes and proved themselves
most formidable and trustworthy allies in
case of sudden troubles. This is what an historian of
that time says about them:
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg134" name="pg134"></a>[Pg134]</span></p>

<p>"The Normans are a cunning and revengeful people;
eloquence and dissimulation appear to be their
hereditary qualities. They can stoop to flatter; but
unless they are curbed by the restraint of law they
indulge the licentiousness of nature and passion, and
in their eager search for wealth and dominion they
despise whatever they possess and hope whatever
they desire. Arms and horses, the luxury of dress,
the exercises of hawking and hunting, are the delight
of the Normans; but on pressing occasions they can
endure with incredible patience the inclemency of
every climate, and the toil and abstinence of a military
life."</p>

<p>How we are reminded of the old vikings in this
striking description! and how we see certain changes
that have overlaid the original Norse and Danish
nature. There are French traits now, like a not very
thick veneering of more delicate and polished wood
upon the sturdy oak.</p>

<p>Aversa was quickly made of great importance to
that part of the world. The Norman colony did
good missionary work, and Robert Guiscard, the
chief Norman adventurer and founder of the kingdom
of Naples, was leader and inspirer of great
enterprises. In following the history of the time
through many volumes, it is very disappointing to
find such slight reference to this most interesting
episode in the development of Norman civilization.</p>

<p>In one of the green valleys of the Côtentin, near
a small stream that finds its way into the river Dove,
there are still standing the crumbling walls of an
ancient Norman castle. The neighboring fields still
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg135" name="pg135"></a>[Pg135]</span>
keep their old names of the Park, the Forest, and
the Dove-Cot; and in this way, if in no other, the
remembrance is preserved of an old feudal manor-house.
Not long ago some huge oaks were clustered
in groups about the estate, and there was a little
church of very early date standing in the shade of a
great cedar tree. Its roof had a warlike-looking
rampart, and a shapely tower with double crosses
lifted itself high against the sky.</p>

<p>In the early years of the eleventh century there
lived in this quiet place an old Norman gentleman
who was one of Duke Richard the Good's best
soldiers. He had wandered far and wide in search
of gain and glory. The Duke had given him command
of ten armed men who formed his body-guard,
and after a long service at court this elder Tancred
returned to his tranquil ancestral home to spend the
rest of his days. He was poor, and he had a very
large family. His first wife, Muriel, had left several
children, and their good step-mother treated them all
with the same tenderness and wise helpfulness that
she had shown to her own flock. The young de
Hautevilles had received such education as gentlemen
gave their children in those days, and, above
every thing else, were expert in the use of arms and
of horses and the pleasures of the chase. They
trained their falcons, and grew up brave and strong.
There were twelve sons, all trained to arms. Three
of the elder family were named William, Drogo, and
Humphrey, and the sixth, their half-brother, was
Robert, who early won for himself the surname of
Guiscard, or the Wise. Tall fellows they were, these
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg136" name="pg136"></a>[Pg136]</span>
sons of the Chevalier de Hauteville. One of the old
French historians tells us that they had an air of
dignity, and even in their youth great things were
expected of them; it was easy to prophesy their
brilliant future.</p>

<p>While they were still hardly more than boys,
Serlon, their eldest brother, who had already gone
to court, killed one of Duke Robert's gentlemen who
had offered him some insult, and was banished to
England where he spent some time in the dreariness
of exile, longing more and more to get back to
Normandy. This brought great sorrow to the
household in the Côtentin valley; it was most likely
that a great deal depended upon Serlon's success, and
the eager boys at home were looking to him for their
own advancement. However, the disappointment
was not very long-lived, for at the time when Henry
of France was likely to lose his throne through the
intrigues of his brother and his mother, Constance
of Provence, and came to the Duke of Normandy for
aid, Serlon came home again without being asked,
and fought like a tiger at the siege of Tillières. You
remember that this siege lasted a long time, and it
gives us a good idea of the warfare of that age to
discover that every day there came out of the city
gate an awesome knight who challenged the conqueror
to single combat. The son of brave old
Tancred was not frightened by even the sight of
those unlucky warriors who lay dead under the
challenger's blows, and one morning Serlon went to
the gate at daybreak and called the knight out to
fight with him.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg137" name="pg137"></a>[Pg137]</span></p>

<p>The terrible enemy did not wait; he presently
appeared in glistening armor and mounted upon a
fiery steed. He asked Serlon who he was, and as if
he knew by instinct that he had met his match at
last, counselled the champion of Normandy to run
away, and not try to fight with him.</p>

<p>Nobody had recognized the banished man, who
carefully kept the visor of his helmet down over his
face, and when the fight was over and the enemy's
head was off and borne at the head of his victorious
lance, he marched silently along the ranks of the
Norman knights, who were filled with pride and
glory, but for all their cheering he was still close-helmeted.
Duke Robert heard the news of this
famous deed, and determined that such a valiant
knight must not hide himself or escape, so he sent
a messenger to command the stranger to make himself
known. When he found that Serlon himself
had been the hero, he ran to meet him, and embraced
him and held him to his heart, and still more, gave
back to him all the lands and treasures which had
come to him by his marriage and which had been
confiscated when he was sent into exile. All these
glories of their elder brother made the other sons
more eager now than ever to show their prowess,
but there was slight chance in Normandy, for the
war lasted but little longer. But when Robert had
put the French king on his throne again, he determined,
as we have seen already, to go on a pilgrimage.
There was not much prospect of winning
great fame at home while young William the heir
was so unpopular and Alan of Brittany was his careful
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg138" name="pg138"></a>[Pg138]</span>
guardian. The de Hautevilles were impatient at
the prospect of years of petty squabbles and treacherous
intrigues; they longed for a broader field for
their energies. There was no such thing as staying
at home and training the falcons; their hungry young
brothers and sisters were pushing their way already,
and the ancient patrimony was growing less and less.
So William and Drogo and Humphrey went away
to seek their fortunes like fairy-book princes, and
hearing vague rumors of Rainulf's invitation to his
countrymen, and of his being made count of the
new possessions in Aversa, they turned their faces
towards Italy. We cannot help lingering a moment
to fancy them as they ride away from the door of
their old home—the three brave young men together.
The old father looks after them wistfully, but his
eyes are afire, and he lives his own youth over again
and wishes with all his heart that he were going too.
The little sisters cry, and the younger brothers long
for the day when their turn will come to go adventuring.
The tame falcons flutter and peck at their
hoods, there where they stand on their perches with
fettered claws; the grass runs in long waves on the
green hill-sides and dazzles the eyes that look after
the sons as they ride towards the south; and the
mother gives a little cry and goes back into the dark
hall and weeps there until she climbs the turret
stairs to see if she cannot catch one more look at
the straight backs and proud heads of the young
knights, or even one little glint of their horses'
trappings as they ride away among the orchard
leaves.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg139" name="pg139"></a>[Pg139]</span></p>

<p>They would have to fight their way as best they
could, and when they reached Apulia at last they
still found work enough for their swords. South
of Rome were the territories of the independent
counts of Naples and the republic of Amalfi. South
of these the Greek possessions of Lombardy, which
had its own governor and was the last remnant of
the Eastern empire.</p>

<p>The beautiful island of Sicily had been in the
hands of the Moslems and belonged to the African
kingdom of Tunis. In 1038 the governor of Lombardy
believed he saw the chance that he had long
been waiting for, to add Sicily to his own dominions.
The Arabs were fighting among themselves and were
split up already into several weak and irreconcilable
factions, and he begged the Normans to go and help
his own army to conquer them. After a while Sicily
was conquered, but the Normans were not given
their share of the glory of the victories; on the contrary,
the Lombard governor was too avaricious and
ungrateful for his own good, and there was a grand
quarrel when the spoils were divided. Two years
afterwards the indignant Normans came marching
back to attack Apulia, and defeated the Greeks at
Cannæ so thoroughly that they were only left in
possession of a few towns.</p>

<p>This was in 1043, and we cannot help feeling a
great satisfaction at finding William de Hauteville
president of the new republic of Apulia. Had not
the three brothers shown their bravery and ability?
Perhaps they had only remembered their old father's
wise talk, and profited by his advice, and warning
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg140" name="pg140"></a>[Pg140]</span>
lest they should spend their strength by being great
in little things instead of aiming at nobler pieces of
work. All the high hopes which filled their hearts
as they rode away from Normandy must have come
true. They were already the leaders in Apulia, and
had been foremost in the organization of an aristocratic
republic. Twelve counts were elected by
popular suffrage, and lived at their capital of Melfi,
and settled their affairs in military council. And
William, as I have said, was president.</p>

<p>Presently from East and West envious eyes began
to look at this powerful young state. Europe knew
well enough what had come from giving these Normans
foothold in Gaul not so very long ago, and the
Pope and the emperors of the West and East formed
a league to chase the builders of this new Normandy
out of their settlements. The two emperors, however,
were obliged to hurry back to defend their own
strongholds, and Leo the Tenth was left to fight his
neighbors alone, with the aid of some German soldiers,
a mere handful, whom Henry the Third had left.
The Normans proposed fair terms to his Holiness,
but he ventured to fight the battle of Civitella, and
was overpowered and beaten, and taken prisoner
himself. Then the shrewd Normans said how grieved
they had been to fight against the Father of the
Church, and implored him, captive as he was, to
receive Apulia as a fief of the Holy See. This
seems very puzzling, until we stop to think that the
Normans would gain an established position among
the Italian powers, and this amounted to an alliance
with the power of the papal interests.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg141" name="pg141"></a>[Pg141]</span></p>

<p>William de Hauteville died, and the office of president,
or first count, passed to his next brother,
Drogo, and after him to Humphrey. One day, while
Drogo was count, a troop of pilgrims appeared in
Amalfi, with their wallets and staves. This was no
uncommon sight, but at the head of the dusty company
marched a young man somewhere near twenty-five
years of age, and of remarkable beauty. The
high spirit, the proud nobility in his face, the tone
of his voice even, showed him to be an uncommon
man; his fresh color and the thickness of his blond
hair gave nobody a chance to think that he had
come from any of the Southern countries. Suddenly
Drogo recognized one of his step-brothers, whom he
had left at home a slender boy—this was Robert,
already called Guiscard. He had gathered a respectable
little troop of followers—five knights and
thirty men-at-arms made his escort,—and they had
been forced to put on some sort of disguise for their
journey, because the court of Rome, jealous of the
growing power of the Normans in Italy, did every
thing to hinder their project, and refused permission
to cross their territories to those who were coming
from the North to join the new colony. Humbert de
Hauteville was with Robert—indeed the whole
family, except Serlon, went to Italy sooner or later
after the old knight Tancred died; even the mother
and sisters.</p>

<p>Robert arrived in time for the battle of Civitella,
and distinguished himself amazingly. Indeed he
was the inspirer and leader of the Norman successes
in the South, and to him rather than to either of his
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg142" name="pg142"></a>[Pg142]</span>
elder brothers belongs the glory of the new Normandy.</p>

<p>His frank, pleasant manners won friends and followers
without number, who loved him dearly, and
rallied to his standard. He was well furnished with
that wiliness and diplomacy which were needed to
cope with Southern enemies, and his wild ambition
led him on and on without much check from feelings
of pity, or even justice. Like many other Normans,
he was cruel, and his acts were those of a man who
sees his goal ahead, and marches straight toward it.
While William the Conqueror was getting ready to
wear the crown of England, Robert Guiscard was
laying his plans for the kingdom of the two Sicilies.</p>

<p>After a while Drogo was assassinated, and then
Humphrey was put in his place, but he and Robert
were always on bad terms with each other apparently.
Robert's faults were the faults of his time, and yet
his restlessness and ambition seem to have given his
brother great disquietude; perhaps Humphrey feared
him as a rival, but at any rate he seems to have kept
him almost a prisoner of state. The Guiscard gained
the votes of the people before long, when the count
died and left only some young children, and in 1054
he was made Count of Apulia and general of the
republic. We need not be surprised to find his
title much lengthened a little later; he demanded
the ducal title itself from Pope Nicholas, and styles
himself "by the grace of God and St. Peter, Duke
of Apulia, Calabria, and hereafter of Sicily." The
medical and philosophical schools of Salerno, long
renowned in Italy, added lustre to his kingdom, and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg143" name="pg143"></a>[Pg143]</span>
the trade of Amalfi, the earliest of the Italian commercial
cities, extending to Africa, Arabia, India,
with affiliated colonies in Constantinople, Antioch,
Jerusalem, and Alexandria, enriched his ample domain.
Excelling in the art of navigation, Amalfi is
said to have discovered the compass. Under her
Norman dukes, she held the position of the queen
of Italian commerce, until the rise of the more famous
cities of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice.<a name="FNanchor_3"
id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3"
class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>

<div class="footnote">
<a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a
 href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>
 A. H. Johnson: "The Normans in Europe."</div>

<p>Roger de Hauteville, the youngest brother of all,
who was much like Robert in every way, was the
conqueror of Sicily, and the expedition was piously
called a crusade against the unbelievers. It was
thirty years before the rich island was added to the
jurisdiction of Rome, from which the Mussulmans
had taken it. Roger was given the title of count,
but his dominion was on a feudal basis instead of
being a republic. This success induced Robert to
make a campaign against the Eastern empire, and
the invasions continued as long as he lived. They
were not very successful in themselves, but they
were influential in bringing about great changes.
The first crusade was an outcome of these plans of
Robert's, and all the altered relations of the East
and West for years afterward.</p>

<p>We must go far ahead of the slow pace of our story
of the Normans in Normandy and England to give this
brief sketch of the Southern dukedoms. The story of
the de Hautevilles is only another example of Norman
daring and enterprise. The spirit of adventure, of
conquest, of government, of chivalry, and personal
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg144" name="pg144"></a>[Pg144]</span>
ambition shines in every page of it, and as time goes
on we watch with joy a partial fading out of the
worse characteristics of cruelty and avarice and
trickery, of vanity and jealous revenge. "Progress
in good government," says Mr. Green in his preface to
A Short History of England, "is the result of social
developments." The more we all think about that,
the better for us and for our country. No doubt the
traditions of Hasting the Northman and his barbarous
piracies had hardly died out before the later
Normans came, first in scattered groups, and then in
legions, to settle in Italy. One cannot help feeling
that they did much to make amends for the bad
deeds of their ancestors. The south of Italy and
the Sicilian kingdom of Roger were under a wiser
and more tolerant rule than any government of their
day, and Greeks, Normans, and Italians lived together
in harmony and peace that was elsewhere
unknown. The people were industrious, and all sorts
of trades flourished, especially the silk manufacture.
Perhaps the soft air and easy, luxurious fashion of life
quieted the Norman restlessness a little. Who can tell?</p>

<p>Yet we get a hint of a better explanation of the
prosperity of the two Sicilies in this passage from an
old chronicle about King Roger: "He was a lover
of justice and most severe avenger of crime. He
abhorred lying; did every thing by rule, and never
promised what he did not mean to perform. He
never persecuted his private enemies, and in war
endeavored on all occasions to gain his point without
shedding of blood. Justice and peace were universally
observed throughout his dominions."
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg145" name="pg145"></a>[Pg145]</span></p>

<p>A more detailed account of the reigns of the De
Hautevilles will be found in the "Story of Sicily," but
before this brief review of their conquests is ended, it
is only fair to notice the existing monuments of
Norman rule. The remains of Norman architecture,
dating back to their time, may still be seen in
Palermo and other cities, and give them a romantic
interest. There are ruins of monasteries and convents
almost without number, and many churches
still exist, though sometimes more or less defaced by
modern additions and ignorant restoration. The
Normans raised the standard of Western forms of
architecture here as they did elsewhere, and their
simpler buildings make an interesting contrast with
Eastern types left by the Saracens. Outside the
large cities almost every little town has at least some
fragments of Norman masonry, and in Aderno—to
note only one instance of the sort—there is a fine
Norman castle in excellent preservation, which is
used as a prison now. At Troina, a dreary mountain
fortress, there is a belfry and part of the wall of
a cathedral that Roger I. built in 1078. It was in
Troina that he and his wife bravely established their
court fifteen years earlier, and withstood a four
months' siege from the Saracens. Galfridus, an old
chronicler, tells sadly that the young rulers only had
one cloak between them, and grew very hungry and
miserable; but Eremburga, the wife, was uncomplaining
and patient. At last the count was so distressed
by the sight of her pallor and evident
suffering, that he rallied his men and made a desperate
charge upon his foes, and was happily
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg146" name="pg146"></a>[Pg146]</span>
victorious. Galfridus says of that day: "The single hand
of Roger, with God's help, did such execution that
the corpses of the enemy lay around him on every
side like the branches of trees in a thick forest when
strewn by a tempest." Once afterward, when Roger
was away fighting in Calabria, Eremburga was formally
left in command, and used to make the round
with the sentinels on the walls every night.</p>

<p>We must look in Palermo for the noblest monuments
of Norman days, and beside the churches and
palaces, for the tombs of the kings and archbishops in
San Rosario Cathedral. There lies Roger himself,
"mighty Duke and firstKing of Sicily." Mr. Symonds says<a name="FNanchor_4"
id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>:
"Very sombre and stately are these porphyry resting-places of princes
born in the purple, assembled here from lands so distant, from the
craggy heights of Hohenstauffen, from the green orchards of Côtentin,
from the dry hills of Aragon. They sleep and the centuries pass by.
Rude hands break open the granite lids of their sepulchres to find
tresses of yellow hair, and fragments of imperial mantles embroidered
with the hawks and stags the royal hunter loved. The church in which
they lie changes with the change of taste in architecture and the
manners of successive ages. But the huge stone arks remain unmoved,
guarding their freight of mouldering dust beneath gloomy canopies
of stone, that tempers the sunlight as it streams from the chapel
windows."</p>

<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "Studies in
Southern Italy."</div>

<p>And again at Venosa, the little town where the
poet Horace was born, and where William de Hauteville
with his brothers Drogo, Humphrey, and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg147" name="pg147"></a>[Pg147]</span>
Robert Guiscard are buried, we cannot do better
than quote the same charming writer:</p>

<p>"No chapter of history more resembles a romance
than that which records the sudden rise and brief
splendor of the house of Hauteville. In one generation
the sons of Tancred de Hauteville passed from
the condition of squires in the Norman vale of Côtentin
to Kinghood in the richest island of the
Southern Sea. The Norse adventurers became
sultans of an Oriental capital. The sea-robbers
assumed, together with the sceptre, the culture
of an Arabian court ... lived to mate their
daughters with princes and to sway the politics
of Europe with gold.... What they wrought,
whether wisely or not, for the ultimate advantage
of Italy, endures to this day, while the
work of so many emperors, republics, and princes,
has passed and shifted like the scenes in a pantomime.
Through them the Greeks, the Lombards,
and the Moors were extinguished in the South. The
Papacy was checked in its attempt to found a province
of St. Peter below the Tiber. The republics
of Naples, Caëta, Amalfi, which might have rivalled
perchance with Milan, Genoa, and Florence, were
subdued to a master's hand. In short, to the Norman,
Italy owed that kingdom of the two Sicilies,
which formed one third of her political balance; and
which proved the cause of all her most serious
revolutions."</p>

<p>Much has been lost of the detailed history of the
Norman-Italian states, and lost especially to English
literature. If the development of Southern Italy
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg148" name="pg148"></a>[Pg148]</span>
had gone steadily forward to this time, with the
eagerness and gathering force that might have been
expected from that vigorous impulse of the eleventh
century, no doubt there would have been a permanent
factor in history rather than a limited episode.
The danger of the climate, to those born
and reared in Northern or Western Europe, was undoubtedly
in the way of any long-continued progress.
To-day the Norman buildings look strangely
different from their surroundings, and are almost
the only evidence of the once brilliant and prosperous
government of the Normans in the South.
One enthusiastic historian, who wrote before the
glories of the de Hautevilles had faded, would have
us believe that "there was more security in the
thickets of Sicily than in the cities of other kingdoms."</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 115px;">
<img src="images/i167.png" width="115" height="77" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg149"
name="pg149"></a>[Pg149]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 387px;">
<img src="images/i168.png" width="387" height="107" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.
<br />THE YOUTH OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"One equal temper of heroic hearts<br /></span>
<span class="i9">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will<br /></span>
<span class="i9">To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."<br /></span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Tennyson.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
There was one man, famous in history, who more
than any other Norman seemed to personify his race,
to be the type of the Norman progressiveness, firmness,
and daring. He was not only remarkable among
his countrymen, but we are forced to call him one of
the great men and great rulers of the world. Nobody
has been more masterful, to use a good old Saxon
word, and therefore he came to be master of a powerful,
venturesome race of people and gathered wealth
and widespread territory. Every thing would have
slipped through his fingers before he was grown to
manhood if his grasp had not been like steel and his
quickness and bravery equal to every test. "He was born
to be resisted," says one writer;<a name="FNanchor_5"
id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
"to excite men's jealousy and to awaken their life-long animosity,
only to rise triumphant above them all,
and to show to mankind the work that one man
can do—one man of fixed principles and resolute
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg150" name="pg150"></a>[Pg150]</span>
will, who marks out a certain goal for himself,
and will not be deterred, but marches steadily
towards it with firm and ruthless step. He was a
man to be feared and respected, but never to be
loved; chosen, it would seem, by Providence ...
to upset our foregone conclusions, and while opposing
and crushing popular heroes and national sympathies,
to teach us that in the progress of nations
there is something required beyond popularity,
something beyond mere purity and beauty of character—namely,
the mind to conceive and the force
of will to carry out great schemes and to reorganize
the failing institutions and political life of states.
Born a bastard, with no title to his dukedom but the
will of his father; left a minor with few friends and
many enemies, with rival competition at home and a
jealous over-lord only too glad to see the power of
his proud vassal humbled, he gradually fights his
way, gains his dukedom, and overcomes competition
at an age when most of us are still under tutors and
governors; extends his dominions far beyond the
limits transmitted to him by his forefathers, and then
leaves his native soil to seek other conquests, to win
another kingdom, over which again he has no claim
but the stammering will of a weak king and his own irresistible
energy, and what is still more strange, securing
the moral support of the world in his aggression,
and winning for himself the position of an aggrieved
person recovering his just and undoubted rights.
Truly the Normans could have no better representative
of their extraordinary power."</p>

<div class="footnote"> <a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Johnson: "The
Normans in Europe."</div>

<p>William was only seven years old or a little more
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg151" name="pg151"></a>[Pg151]</span>
when his father left him to go on pilgrimage. No
condition could have appeared more pitiable and
desperate than his—even in his childhood we become
conscious of the dislike his character inspired. Often
just and true to his agreements, sometimes
unexpectedly lenient, nothing in his nature made
him a winner and holder of friendship, though he
was a leader of men and a controller of them, and an
inspirer of faithful loyalty besides the service rendered
him for fear's sake. His was the rule of force
indeed, but there is one thing to be particularly
noted—that in a licentious, immoral age he grew up
pure and self-controlled. That he did not do some
bad things must not make us call him good, for a
good man is one who does do good things. But his
strict fashion of life kept his head clearer and his
hands stronger, and made him wide-awake when
other men were stupid, and so again and again he
was able to seize an advantage and possess himself
of the key to success.</p>

<p>While his father lived, the barons paid the young
heir unwilling respect, and there was a grim acquiescence
in what could not be helped. Alan of Brittany
was faithful to his trust, and always able to check
any dissensions and plots against his ward. The old
animosity between him and Robert was quite forgotten,
apparently; but at last Alan was poisoned.
Robert's death was the signal for a general uprising
of the nobles, and William's life was in peril for a
dozen years. He never did homage to the king of
France, but for a long time nobody did homage to
him either; the barons disdained any such
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg152" name="pg152"></a>[Pg152]</span>
allegiance, and sometimes appear to have forgotten their
young duke altogether in their bitter quarrels, and
murders of men of their own rank. We trace William
de Talvas, still the bastard's fierce enemy,
through many plots and quarrels;—it appears as if
he were determined that his curse should come true,
and made it the purpose of his life. The houses of
Montgomery and Beaumont were linked with him
in anarchy and treachery; it was the Montgomeries'
deadly mischief to which the faithful Alan fell victim.
William himself escaped assassination by a
chance, and several of his young followers were not
so fortunate. They were all in the strong castle of
Vaudreuil, a place familiar to the descendants of
Longsword, since it was the home of Sperling, the
rich miller, whom Espriota married. The history of
the fortress had been a history of crime, but Duke
Robert was ready to risk the bad name for which it
was famous, and trust his boy to its shelter. There
had never been a blacker deed done within those
walls than when William was only twelve years old,
and one of his playmates, who slept in his chamber,
was stabbed as he lay asleep. No doubt the Montgomery
who struck the cruel blow thought that he
had killed the young duke, and went away well satisfied;
but William was rescued, and carried away and
hidden in a peasant's cottage, while the butchery of
his friends and attendants still went on. The whole
country swarmed with his enemies. The population
of the Côtentin, always more Scandinavian than
French, welcomed the possibility of independence,
and the worst side of feudalism began to assert itself
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg153" name="pg153"></a>[Pg153]</span>
boldly. Man against man, high rank against low
rank, farmer against soldier,—the bloody quarrels
increased more and more, and devastated like some
horrible epidemic.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 522px;">
<div><a id="A_NORMAN_PLOUGHMAN"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i172.png" width="522" height="324" alt="" />
<div class="caption">A NORMAN PLOUGHMAN.</div>
</div>

<p>There were causes enough for trouble in the state
of feudalism itself to account for most of the uproar
and disorder, let alone the claim of the unwelcome
young heir to the dukedom. It is very interesting
to see how, in public sentiment, there was always an
undertone of resentment to the feudal system, and
of loyalty to the idea, at least, of hereditary monarchy.
Even Hugh the Great, of France, was governed
by it in his indifference to his good chances
for seizing the crown years before this time; and
though the great empire of Charlemagne had long
since tottered to its fall and dismemberment, there
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg154" name="pg154"></a>[Pg154]</span>
was still much respect for the stability and order of
an ideal monarchical government.</p>

<p>The French people had already endured some
terrible trials, but it was not because of war and
trouble alone that they hated their rulers, for these
sometimes leave better things behind them; war
and trouble are often the only way to peace and
quietness. They feared the very nature of feudalism
and its political power. It seemed to hold them
fast, and make them slaves and prisoners with its
tangled network and clogging weights. The feudal
lords were petty sovereigns and minor despots, who
had certain bonds and allegiances among themselves
and with each other, but they were, at the same time,
absolute masters of their own domain, and their subjects,
whether few or many, were under direct control
and surveillance. Under the great absolute
monarchies, the very extent of the population and
of the country would give a greater security and less
disturbance of the middle and lower classes, for a
large army could be drafted, and still there would be
a certain lack of responsibility for a large percentage
of the subjects. Under the feudal system there
were no such chances; the lords were always at war,
and kept a painfully strict account of their resources.
Every field and every family must play a part in the
enterprises of their master, and a continual racking
and robbing went on. Even if the lord of a domain
had no personal quarrel to settle, he was likely to be
called upon by his upholder and ally to take part
with him against another. In the government of a
senate or an ecclesiastical council, the common people
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg155" name="pg155"></a>[Pg155]</span>
were governed less capriciously; their favor was
often sought, even in those days, by the different
factions who had ends to gain, and were willing to
grant favors in return; but the feudal lords were
quite independent, and could do as they pleased
without asking anybody's advice or consent.</p>

<p>This concerns the relation of the serfs to their
lords, but among the lords themselves affairs were
quite different. From the intricate formalities of obligation
and dependence, from the necessity for each
feudal despot's vigilant watchfulness and careful preparation
and self-control and quick-sighted decision,
arose a most active, well-developed class of nobles.
While the master of a feudal castle (or robber-stronghold,
whichever we choose to call it) was absent on
his forays, or more determined wars, his wife took
his place, and ruled her dependents and her household
with ability. The Norman women of the
higher classes were already famous far and wide
through Europe, and, since we are dealing with the
fortunes of Normandy, we like to picture them in
their castle-halls in all their dignity and authority,
and to imagine their spirited faces, and the beauty
which is always a power, and which some of them
had learned already to make a power for good.</p>

<p>No matter how much we deplore the condition of
Normandy and the lower classes of society, and
sympathize with the wistfulness and enforced patience
of the peasantry; no matter how perplexed we
are at the slowness of development in certain directions,
we are attracted and delighted by other aspects.
We turn our heads quickly at the sound of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg156" name="pg156"></a>[Pg156]</span>
martial music. The very blood thrills and leaps
along our veins as we watch the Norman knights
ride by along the dusty Roman roads. The spears
shine in the sunlight, the horses prance, the robber-castles
clench their teeth and look down from the
hills as if they were grim stone monsters lying in
wait for prey. The apple-trees are in blossom, and
the children scramble out of the horses' way; the
flower of chivalry is out parading, and in clanking armor,
with flaunting banners and crosses on their
shields, the knights ride by to the defence of Jerusalem.
Knighthood was in its early prime, and in this
gay, romantic fashion, with tender songs to the ladies
they loved and gallantly defended, with a prayer to
the Virgin Mary, their patroness, because they reverenced
the honor and purity of womanhood, they
fought through many a fierce fight, with the bitter,
steadfast courage of brave men whose heart is in
their cause. It was an easy step from their defiance
of the foes of Normandy to the defence of the
Church of God. Religion itself was the suggester
and promoter of chivalry, and the Normans forgot
their lesser quarrels and petty grievances when the
mother church held up her wrongs and sufferings to
their sympathy. It was to Christianity that the
mediæval times owed knighthood, and, while historians
complain of the lawlessness of the age, the
crimes and violence, the social confusion and vulgarity,
still the poetry and austerity and real beauty of
the knightly traditions shine out all the brighter.
Men had got hold of some new suggestions; the
best of them were examples of something better than
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg157" name="pg157"></a>[Pg157]</span>
the world had ever known. As we glance over the
list of rules to which a knight was obliged to subscribe,
we cannot help rejoicing at the new ideal of
christian manhood.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 470px;">
<div><a id="ARMING_A_KNIGHT"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i176.png" width="470" height="301" alt="" />
<div class="caption">ARMING A KNIGHT.</div>
</div>

<p>Rolf the Ganger had been proud rather than
ashamed of his brutal ferocity and selfishness. This
new standard demands as good soldiery as ever; in
fact, a greater daring and utter absence of fear, but
it recognizes the rights of other people, and the single-heartedness
and tenderness of moral strength. It is a very high ideal.</p>

<p>A little later than the time of William the Conqueror's
youth, there were formal ceremonies at the
making of a knight, and these united so surprisingly
the poet's imaginary knighthood and the customs of
military life and obligations of religious life, that we
cannot wonder at their influence.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg158" name="pg158"></a>[Pg158]</span></p>

<p>The young man was first stripped of his clothes
and put into a bath, to wash all former contaminations
from body and soul—a typical second baptism,
done by his own free will and desire. Afterward, he
was clothed first in a white tunic, to symbolize his
purity; next in a red robe, a sign of the blood he
must be ready to shed in defending the cause of
Christ; and over these garments was put a tight
black gown, to represent the mystery of death which
must be solved at last by him, and every man.</p>

<p>Then the black-robed candidate was left alone to
fast and pray for twenty-four hours, and when evening
came, they led him to the church to pray all
night long, either by himself, or with a priest and his
own knightly sponsors for companions. Next day
he made confession; then the priest gave him the
sacrament, and afterward he went to hear mass and
a sermon about his new life and a knight's duties.
When this was over, a sword was hung around his
neck and he went to the altar, where the priest took
off the sword, blessed it, and put it on again. Then
the candidate went to kneel before the lord who was
to arm him, and was questioned strictly about his
reasons for becoming a knight, and was warned that
he must not desire to be rich or to take his ease, or
to gain honor from knighthood without doing it
honor; at last the young man solemnly promised to
do his duty, and his over-lord to whom he did homage
granted his request to be made a knight.</p>

<p>After this the knights and ladies dressed him in
his new garments, and the spurs came first of all
the armor, then the haubert or coat of mail; next
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg159" name="pg159"></a>[Pg159]</span>
the cuirass, the armlets, and gauntlets, and, last of all,
the sword. Now he was ready for the <i>accolade</i>; the
over-lord rose and went to him and gave him three
blows with the flat of the sword on his shoulder or
neck, and sometimes a blow with the hand on his
breast, and said: "In the name of God, of St. Michael
and St. George, I make thee knight. Be valiant and
fearless and loyal."</p>

<p>Then his horse was led in, and a helmet was put
on the new knight's head, and he mounted quickly
and flourished his lance and sword, and went out of
the church to show himself to the people gathered
outside, and there was a great cheering, and prancing
of horses, and so the outward ceremony was
over, and he was a dubbed knight, as the old phrase
has it—adopted knight would mean the same thing
to-day; he belonged to the great Christian brotherhood
of chivalry. We have seen how large a part
religion played in the rites and ceremonies, but we
can get even a closer look at the spirit of knighthood
if we read some of the oaths that were taken by
these young men, who were the guardians and
scholars of whatever makes for peace, even while
they chose the ways of war and did such eager, devoted
work with their swords. M. Guizot, from
whose "History of France" I have taken the greater
part of this description, goes on to give twenty-six
articles to which the knights swore, not that these
made a single ritual, but were gathered from the accounts
of different epochs. They are so interesting,
as showing the steady growth and development of
better ideas and purposes, that I copy them here.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg160" name="pg160"></a>[Pg160]</span>
Indeed we can hardly understand the later Norman
history, and the crusades particularly, unless we
make the knights as clear to ourselves as we tried to
make the vikings.</p>

<p>We must thank the clergymen of the tenth and eleventh
centuries for this new thought about the duties
and relationships of humanity,—men like Abelard
and St. Anselm, and the best of their contemporaries.
It is most interesting to see how the church
availed herself of the feudal bonds and sympathies
of men, and their warlike sentiment and organization,
to develop a better and more peaceful service of
God. Truthfulness and justice and purity were
taught by the church's influence, and licentiousness
and brutality faded out as the new order of things
gained strength and brightness. Later the pendulum
swung backward, and the church used all the
terrors of tyranny, fire, and sword, to further her
ends and emphasize her authority, instead of the
authority of God's truth and the peace of heavenly
living. The church became a name and cover for
the ambitions of men.</p>

<p>Whatever the pretences and mockeries and rivalries
and thefts of authority may be on the part of
unworthy churchmen, we hardly need to remind
ourselves that in every age the true church exists,
and that true saints are living their holy, helpful
lives, however shadowed and concealed. Even if
the harvest of grain in any year is called a total loss,
and the country never suffered so much before from
dearth, there is always enough wheat or corn to plant
the next spring, and the fewer handfuls the more
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg161" name="pg161"></a>[Pg161]</span>
precious it is sure to seem. In this eleventh century,
a century which in many ways was so disorderly
and cruel, we are always conscious of the presence
of the "blameless knights" who went boldly
to the fight; the priests and monks of God who hid
themselves and prayed in cell and cloister. "It was
feudal knighthood and Christianity together," says
Guizot, "which produced the two great and glorious
events of that time—the Norman conquest of England,
and the Crusades."</p>

<p>These were the knight's promises and oaths as
Guizot repeats them, and we shall get no harm from
reading them carefully and trying to keep them ourselves,
even though all our battles are of another
sort and much duller fights against temptations. It
must be said that our enemies often come riding
down upon us in as fine a way and break a lance with
us in as magnificent a fashion as in the days of the
old tournaments. But our contests are apt to be
more like the ancient encounters with cruel treachery
of wild beasts in desert places, than like those at
the gay jousts, with all the shining knights and
ladies looking on to admire and praise.</p>

<p>The candidates swore: "First, to fear, reverence,
and serve God religiously, to fight for the faith with
all their might, and to die a thousand deaths rather
than renounce Christianity;</p>

<p>To serve their sovereign prince faithfully, and to
fight for him and fatherland right valiantly;</p>

<p>To uphold the rights of the weaker, such as
widows, orphans, and damsels, in fair quarrel, exposing
themselves on that account according as need
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg162" name="pg162"></a>[Pg162]</span>
might be, provided it were not against their own
honor or against their king or lawful princes.</p>

<p>That they would not injure any one maliciously,
or take what was another's, but would rather do battle
with those who did so.</p>

<p>That greed, pay, gain, or profit should never constrain
them to do any deed, but only glory and virtue.</p>

<p>That they would fight for the good and advantage
of the common weal.</p>

<p>That they would be bound by and obey the orders
of their generals and captains, who had a right to
command them.</p>

<p>That they would guard the honor, rank, and order
of their comrades, and that they would, neither by
arrogance nor by force, commit any trespass against
any one of them.</p>

<p>That they would never fight in companies against
one, and that they would eschew all tricks and
artifices.</p>

<p>That they would wear but one sword, unless they
had to fight against two or more enemies.</p>

<p>That in tourney or other sportive contests, they
would never use the point of their swords.</p>

<p>That being taken prisoner in a tourney, they
would be bound on their faith and honor to perform
in every point the conditions of capture, besides
being bound to give up to the victors their arms and
horses, if it seemed good to take them, being also
disabled from fighting in war or elsewhere without
their victor's leave.</p>

<p>That they would keep faith inviolably with all the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg163" name="pg163"></a>[Pg163]</span>
world, and especially with their comrades, upholding
their honor and advantage wholly in their absence.</p>

<p>That they would love and honor one another, and
aid and succor one another whenever occasion offered.</p>

<p>That having made vow or promise to go on any
quest or adventure, they would never put off their
arms save for the night's rest.</p>

<p>That in pursuit of their quest or adventure, they
would not shun bad and perilous passes, nor turn
aside from the straight road for fear of encountering
powerful knights, or monsters, or wild beasts, or
other hindrance, such as the body and courage of a
single man might tackle.</p>

<p>That they would never take wage or pay from any
foreign prince.</p>

<p>That in command of troops or men-at-arms, they
would live in the utmost possible order and discipline,
and especially in their own country, where they
would never suffer any harm or violence to be done.</p>

<p>That if they were bound to escort dame or damsel,
they would serve, protect, and save her from all
danger and insult, or die in the attempt.</p>

<p>That they would never offer violence to any dame
or damsel, though they had won her by deeds of
arms.</p>

<p>That being challenged to equal combat, they
would not refuse without wound, sickness, or other
reasonable hindrance.</p>

<p>That, having undertaken to carry out any enterprise,
they would devote to it night and day, unless
they were called away for the service of their king
and country.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg164" name="pg164"></a>[Pg164]</span></p>

<p>That, if they made a vow to acquire any honor,
they would not draw back without having attained
it or its equivalent.</p>

<p>That they would be faithful keepers of their word
and pledged faith, and that, having become prisoners
in fair warfare, they would pay to the uttermost the
promised ransom, or return to prison at the day and
hour agreed upon, on pain of being proclaimed infamous
and perjured.</p>

<p>That, on returning to the court of their sovereign,
they would render a true account of their adventures,
even though they had sometimes been worsted, to
the king and the registrar of the order, on pain of
being deprived of the order of knighthood.</p>

<p>That, above all things, they would be faithful,
courteous, and humble, and would never be wanting
to their word for any harm or loss that might accrue
to them."</p>

<p>It would not do to take these holy principles, or
the pageant of knight-errantry, for a picture of
Normandy in general. We can only remind ourselves
with satisfaction that this leaven was working
in the mass of turbulent, vindictive society. The
priests worked very hard to keep their hold upon
their people, and the authority of the church proved
equal to many a subtle weakness of faith and quick
strain of disloyalty. We should find it difficult to
match the amazing control of the state by the
church in any other country,—even in the most
superstitiously devout epochs. When the priesthood
could not make the Normans promise to keep
the peace altogether, they still obtained an astonishing
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg165" name="pg165"></a>[Pg165]</span>
concession and truce. There was no fighting
from Wednesday evening at sunset until Monday
morning at sunrise. During these five nights and
four days no fighting, burning, robbing, or plundering
could go on, though for the three days and two
nights left of the week any violence and crime were
not only pardonable, but allowed. In this Truce of
God, not only the days of Christ's Last Supper,
Passion, and Resurrection were to remain undesecrated,
but longer periods of time, such as from the
first day of Advent until the Epiphany, and other
holy seasons. If the laws of the Truce were broken,
there were heavy penalties: thirty years' hard penance
in exile for the contrite offender, and he must
make reparation for all the evil he had committed,
and repay his debt for all the spoil. If he died unrepentant,
he was denied Christian burial and all the
offices of the church, and his body was given to wild
beasts and the fowls of the air.</p>

<p>To be sure, the more ungodly portion of the citizens
fought against such strict regulations, and
called those knights whom the priests armed, "cits
without spirit," and even harder names, but for
twelve years the Truce was kept. The free days for
murder and theft were evidently made the most of,
and from what we can discover, it appears as if the
Normans used the Truce days for plotting rather
than for praying. Yet it was plain that the world
was getting ready for great things, and that great
emergencies were beginning to make themselves
evident. New ideas were on the wing, and in
spite of the despotism of the church, sometimes by
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg166" name="pg166"></a>[Pg166]</span>
very reason of it, we can see that men were breaking
their intellectual fetters and becoming freer and
wiser. A new order of things was coming in; there
was that certain development of Christian ideas, which
reconciles the student of history in every age to the
constant pain and perplexity of watching misdirected
energies and hindering blunders and follies.</p>

<p>"It often happens that popular emotions, however
deep and general, remain barren, just as in the
vegetable world many sprouts come to the surface
of the ground, and then die without growing any
more or bearing any fruit. It is not sufficient for
the bringing about of great events and practical
results, that popular aspirations should be merely
manifested; it is necessary further that some great
soul, some powerful will, should make itself the
organ and agent of the public sentiment, and bring it to fecundity,
by becoming its type—its personification."<a name="FNanchor_6"
id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>

<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Guizot.</div>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 593px;">
<div><a id="CONFERRING_KNIGHTHOOD_ON_THE_FIELD_OF_BATTLE"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i186.png" width="593" height="550" alt="" />
<div class="caption">CONFERRING KNIGHTHOOD ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE.</div>
</div>

<p>In the middle of this eleventh century, the time of
William the Conqueror's youth, the opposing elements
of Christian knighthood, and the fighting
spirit of the viking blood, were each to find a champion
in the same leader. The young duke's early
years were a hard training, and from his loveless
babyhood to his unwept death, he had the bitter
sorrows that belong to the life of a cruel man and
much-feared tyrant. It may seem to be a strange
claim to make for William the Conqueror—that he
represented Christian knighthood—but we must remember
that fighting was almost the first duty of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg167" name="pg167"></a>[Pg167]</span>
man in those days, and that this greatest of the
Norman dukes, with all his brutality and apparent
heartlessness and selfishness, believed in his church,
and kept many of her laws which most of his comrades
broke as a matter of course. We cannot
remind ourselves too often that he was a man of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg168" name="pg168"></a>[Pg168]</span>
pure life in a most unbridled and immoral age, if we
judge by our present standards of either purity or
immorality. There is always a temptation in reading
or writing about people who lived in earlier times, to
rank them according to our own laws of morality
and etiquette, but the first thing to be done is to get
a clear idea of the time in question. The hero of
Charlemagne's time or the Conqueror's may prove
any thing but a hero in our eyes, but we must take
him in relation to his own surroundings. The great
laws of truth and justice and kindness remain, while
the years come and go; the promises of God endure,
but while there is, as one may say, a common law of
heavenly ordering, there are also the various statute
laws that vary with time and place, and these forever
change as men change, and the light of civilization
burns brighter and clearer.</p>

<p>In William the Conqueror's lifetime, every landed
gentleman fortified his house against his neighbors,
and even made a secure and loathsome prison in his
cellar for their frequent accommodation. This seems
inhospitable, to say the least, and gives a tinge of
falseness to such tender admonitions as prevailed in
regard to charity and treatment of wayfarers. Yet
every rich man was ambitious to go down to fame
as a benefactor of the church; all over Normandy
and Brittany there was a new growth of religious
houses, and those of an earlier date, which had lain
in ruins since the Northmen's time, were rebuilt
with pious care. There appears to have been a new
awakening of religious interest in the year 1000,
which lasted late into the century. There was a
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg169" name="pg169"></a>[Pg169]</span>
surprising fear and anticipation of the end of the
world, which led to a vast number of penitential
deeds of devotion, and it was the same during the
two or three years after 1030, at the close of the life
of King Robert of France.</p>

<p>Normandy and all the neighboring countries were
scourged by even worse plagues than the feudal
wars. The drought was terrible, and the famine
which followed desolated the land everywhere. The
trees and fields were scorched and shrivelled, and the
poor peasants fought with the wild beasts for dead
bodies that had fallen by the roadside and in the
forests. Sometimes men killed their comrades for
very hunger, like wolves. There was no commerce
which could supply the failure of one country's crops
with the overflow of another's at the other side of the
world, but at last the rain fell in France, and the
misery was ended. A thousand votive offerings were
made for very thankfulness, for again the people had
expected the end of the world, and it had seemed
most probable that such an arid earth should be near
its final burning and desolation.</p>

<p>In the towns, under ordinary circumstances, there
was a style of living that was almost luxurious. The
Normans were skilful architects, and not only their
minsters and monasteries, but their houses too, were
fit for such proud inhabitants, and rich with hangings
and comfortable furnishings. The women were
more famous than ever for needlework, some of it
most skilful in design, and the great tapestries are
yet in existence that were hung, partly for warmth's
sake, about the stone walls of the castles.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg170" name="pg170"></a>[Pg170]</span>
Sometimes the noble ladies who sat at home while their
lords went out to the wars, worked great pictures on
these tapestries of various events of family history,
and these family records of battles and gallant
bravery by land and sea are most interesting now
for their costume and color, beside their corroboration
of historical traditions.</p>

<p>We have drifted away, in this chapter, from William
the Conqueror himself, but I believe that we
know more about the Normandy which he was to
govern, and can better understand his ambitions, his
difficulties, and his successes. A country of priests
and soldiers, of beautiful women and gallant men;
a social atmosphere already alive with light, gayety,
and brightness, but swayed with pride and superstition,
with worldliness and austerity; loyal to Rome,
greedy for new territory, the feudal lords imperious
masters of complaining yet valiant serfs; racked
everywhere by civil feuds and petty wars and instinctive
jealousies of French and foreign blood—this
was Normandy. The Englishmen come and go and
learn good manners and the customs of chivalry,
England herself is growing rich and stupid, for
Harthacnut had introduced a damaging custom of
eating four great meals a day, and his subjects had
followed the fashion, though that king himself had
died of it and of his other habit of drinking all
night long with merry companions.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg171" name="pg171"></a>[Pg171]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 435px;">
<img src="images/i190.png" width="435" height="112" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.
<br />ACROSS THE CHANNEL.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"——————One decree<br /></span>
<span class="i6">Spake laws to them, and said that, by the soul<br /></span>
<span class="i6">Only, the nations should be great and free."</span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
It is time to take a closer look at England and at
the shameful degradations of Æthelred's time. The
inroads of the Danes read like the early history of
Normandy, and we must take a step backward in the
condition of civilization when we cross to the other
side of the Channel. There had been great changes
since Ælfred's wise and prosperous reign, or even
since the time of Æthelred's predecessor, Eadgar,
who was rowed in his royal-barge at Chester by
eight of his vassal kings—Kenneth of Scots, Malcolm
of Cumberland, Maccus of the Isles, and five
Welsh monarchs. The lord of Britain was gracious
enough to do the steering for so noble a company of
oarsmen, and it was considered the proudest day
that ever had shone upon an English king.</p>

<p>We must remind ourselves of the successive waves
of humanity which had overspread England in past
ages, leaving traces of each like less evident geologic
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg172" name="pg172"></a>[Pg172]</span>
strata. From the stone and bronze age people,
through the Celts with their Pictish and Scottish
remnant, through the Roman invasion, and the
Saxon, more powerful and enduring than any from
our point of view, we may trace a kinship to our
Normans across the water. But the English descendants
of Celts, Danes, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
needed to feel a new influence and refreshing of their
better instincts by way of Normandy.</p>

<p>Perhaps each one of the later rulers of Britain
thought he had fallen upon as hard and stormy
times and had as much responsibility as anybody
who ever wielded a sceptre, but in the reign of
the second Æthelred, there are much greater dramas
being played, and we feel, directly we get a
hint of it, as children do who have been loitering
among petty side-shows on their way to a great play.
Here come the Danes again, the kings of Denmark
and the whole population of Norway one would
think, to read the records, and this time they attack
England with such force and determination that
within less than forty years a Danish king is master
of Britain.</p>

<p>If Æthelred had been a better man this might
never have happened, but among all the Saxon
kings he seems to have been the worst—thoroughly
bad, weak, cowardly, and cruel. He was sure to do
things he had better have left alone, and to neglect
his plain duty. Other kings had fallen on as hard,
perplexing times as he, but they had been strong
enough to keep some sort of control of themselves at
any rate. Dunstan the archbishop warned the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg173" name="pg173"></a>[Pg173]</span>
people, when Æthelred was crowned, that they had no
idea of the trouble that was coming, and through
the whole reign things went from bad to worse.
Dreadful things happened which we can hardly blame
the silly king for—like a plague among cattle, and
the burning of London in 982; and a few years afterward
there was a terrible invasion of the Norwegians,
and we have seen that aid and comfort were ready for
them over in Bayeux and the pirate cities of Normandy.</p>

<p>Now we first hear of the Danegelt, great sums of
money, always doubling and increasing, that were
paid the Northmen as bribes to go away and leave
England in peace. The paying of this Danegelt became
a greater load than the nation could carry, for
the pirates liked nothing better than to gather a
great fleet of ships every few months and come to
anchor off the coast, sending a messenger to make
the highwayman's favorite request, your money or
your life! One of the first sums boldly demanded
of Æthelred's aldermen was ten thousand pounds.
We can see how rapidly the wealth of England
had increased, for in Ælfred's time the fine for
killing a king was a hundred and twenty shillings,
and this was considered a great sum of money; the
penalty for taking a peasant's life was only five
shillings, which makes us understand, without any
doubt, the scarceness and value of money. Here
are some extracts from the English chronicle, which
had been kept since Bede's time and for many years
after this, which will show how miserably every thing
was going on:
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg174" name="pg174"></a>[Pg174]</span></p>

<p>1001. "The army [the Danes of course] went
over the land and did as was their wont. Slew and
burned ... it was sad in every way for they
never ceased from their evil."</p>

<p>1002. "In this year the king and his witan resolved,
that tribute would be paid and peace made with
them, on condition that they should cease from their
evil." This they accepted and were paid, £24,000.</p>

<p>1006. "At midwinter the Winchester folk might
see an insolent and fearless army as they went by
their gate to the sea, and fetched them food and
treasure over fifty miles from the sea. Then was
there so great awe of the army that no one could
think or devise how they should be driven from the
country. Every shire in Wessex had they cruelly
marked with burning and with harrying. The king
began then with his witan earnestly to consider what
might seem most advisable to them all, so that the
country might be protected ere it were at last undone."
This time the tribute was £36,000, and another
time the ships put to sea with a Danegelt of
£48,000.</p>

<p>England grew more and more miserable and
shamefully unable to defend herself, the captains
of her fleet were incapable or treacherous, and
at last, when some of the ships had been wrecked
and there had been some sad disasters at sea, the
chronicle has a more despairing tone than ever. "It
was as if all counsel had come to an end," the writer
says, "and the king and aldermen and all the high
witan went home, and let the toil of all the nation
lightly perish."
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg175" name="pg175"></a>[Pg175]</span></p>

<p>Æthelred the Unready won for himself, in his
reign of thirty-eight years, the hearty contempt and
distrust of all his people. There is a temptation to
blame him for the misery of England, and to attribute
it all to his faults and to the low aims and
standards of his character, to his worthless ambitions.
But, in a general way, the great men, or notorious
men of history, who stand out before a dim and half-forgotten
background, are only typical of their time
and representative of it. One very good man, or
bad man, cannot be absolutely a single specimen of
his kind; there must be others who rank with him,
and who have been his upholders and influencers. So
while the story of any nation is in its early chapters,
and seems to be merely an account of one ruler or
statesman after another, we must not forget that
each symbolized his day and generation,—a brave
leader of a brave race, or a dull or placid or serene
representative of a secure, inactive age.</p>

<p>Although there was blundering enough and
treachery in Æthelred's reign, there was a splendid
exception in the victories and steadfastness of the
city of London, which was unsuccessfully attacked
again and again by the Danes. The heathen, as
the English called their enemies, were lucky in their
two leaders, the king of Norway, and the king of
Denmark. Olaf, the first-named, was converted
after a while, and going from the islands of Orkney
to England, he was baptized there, and the English
bishops were very kind to him, and Æthelred gave
him some presents, and made him promise that he
would not come plundering to England any more.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg176" name="pg176"></a>[Pg176]</span>
We are quite surprised to hear that the promise was
kept. Swegen the Dane promised too, but he appeared
again after a while, and Æthelred thought he
would improve upon the fashion of paying Danegelt
by ordering a general massacre of all the Danes
instead. Afterward somebody tried to excuse such
a piece of barbarianism by saying that the Danes had
plotted against the king, but even if they had,
Æthelred showed a wretched spirit. It was a time
of peace, but he sent secret messengers all through
the country, and as the English were only too glad
to carry out such orders, there was a terrible
slaughter of men, women, and children.</p>

<p>Next year Swegen came back to avenge the wrong,
all the more readily because his own sister and her
husband and son were among the murdered, and the
poor woman had made a prophecy, as she fell, dying,
that misery and vengeance should fall upon the English
for their sins. For a long time afterward the
Danes were very fierce and kept England in fear and
disorder. Once they laid siege to Canterbury, and
when it had fallen into their hands they demanded
Danegelt from the Archbishop, a very good old
man. He had a heart full of pity for his poor
people already so abominably taxed and oppressed
in every way, and was brave enough to squarely refuse,
so the Danes slew him with horrible torture;
one might tell many such stories of the cruelty
and boldness of the invaders. Æthelred was perfectly
helpless or else cowardly and indifferent, and
presently Swegen, who had gone back to the North
returned with a great fleet and a swarm of followers,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg177" name="pg177"></a>[Pg177]</span>
and not long afterward he conquered every sort of
opposition, even that of the brave Londoners, and
was proclaimed king of England. Here was a
change indeed! the silly Saxon king and his wife
and children fled across the sea to Normandy, and
Swegen sat upon the throne. He began to reign in
splendid state; he had the handsomest ships afloat,
all decked out with figures of men and birds and
beasts wrought in silver and amber and gold, and
fine decorations of every sort. No doubt he had
made fine plans and meant to do great deeds, but he
died suddenly within a very short time, and the people
believed he was frightened to death by a vision.</p>

<p>Æthelred was in Normandy at the court of Richard
the Fearless. You remember that Richard's sister
Emma went over to England to marry the unready
king. Æthelred had one older son, Eadmund
Ironside, beside the two boys who were Emma's
children, and the hearts of the English turned to
their old king, and at last they sent for him to come
back, in spite of his faults. He made many fine
promises, and seems to have done a great deal better
most of the time during the last two years that he
lived. Perhaps he had taken some good lessons from
the Norman court. But Cnut, Swegen's son, came
back to England, just before he died, as fearless as a
hawk, and led his men from one victory to another,
and Æthelred faded out of life to everybody's relief.
When he was dead at last, the witan chose Cnut
for king in his stead, but the Londoners, who were
rich and strong, and who hated the Danes bitterly—the
Londoners would have none of the pirates to
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg178" name="pg178"></a>[Pg178]</span>
reign over them, and elected young Eadmund Ironside,
a valiant soldier and loyal-hearted fellow who
feared nothing and was ready to dare every thing.
The two young kings were well matched and fought
six great battles, in most of which Ironside gained
the advantage, but at last the Danes beat him back—and
though everybody was ready for a seventh battle,
the witan showed their wisdom for once and forbade
any more fighting, and somehow managed to
proclaim peace. The young kings treated each other
most generously, and called each other brother, and
were very cordial and good-natured. They agreed
to divide the kingdom, so that Eadmund Ironside had
all England south of the Thames—East Anglia and
Essex and London. Cnut took all the northern
country and owned Eadmund for his over-lord, but
within the year Cnut reigned alone. Eadmund
died suddenly—some say that he was murdered, and
some that he had worn himself out with his tremendous
activity and anxiety. It is a great temptation
to follow out the story of such a man, and especially
because he lived in such an important time, but we
must hurry now to the point where Norman and
English history can be told together, and only stop
to explain such things as will make us able to understand
and take sides in the alliance of the two vigorous,
growing nations.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 306px;">
<div><a id="KING_CNUT"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i198.png" width="306" height="500" alt="" />
<div class="caption">KING CNUT.
<div>(From the Register of Hyde Abbey.)</div></div>
</div>

<p>Cnut's life, too, is endlessly interesting. He began
by behaving like a pirate, and the latter part
of his reign was a great reform and a very comfortable
time for England, so scarred and spoiled by war.
In the beginning there was a great question about
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg179" name="pg179"></a>[Pg179]</span>
the kingship. In those days it was a matter of great
importance that the king should be able to rule and
able to fight, and the best and most powerful member
of the royal family was the proper one to choose.
The English for a long time had elected their kings,
and Cnut, though he held half the country, was
very careful not to seize the rest by force. We
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg180" name="pg180"></a>[Pg180]</span>
watch with great interest his wielding of rude politics
before the witan; he called them into council
and laid his claim before them.</p>

<p>Eadmund Ironside had left two little sons, but nobody
thought of their being his successors. Indeed
Cnut showed a great fear of the royal family, and
took care that his rivals should be disposed of; he
knew that the witan and everybody else were tired
of the everlasting war and bloodshed. He was fierce
and downright in his demands, and in the end the
heirs of Ironside were all passed over—the Athelings
or princes were all set aside, and Cnut the Dane
was king of England.</p>

<p>Ironside's brother, Eadwy, of whom the best things
are said, was outlawed, and died within a few months
under very suspicious circumstances. The two little
boys, Ironside's sons, were sent out of the country
to Cnut's half-brother, the king of Sweden, with
orders that they should be put out of the way. The
king felt such pity for the innocent children, that he
sent them away to Hungary instead of having them
murdered. The Hungarian king, Stephen, was a
saint and a hero, and he was very kind to the poor
exiles, and brought them up carefully. One died
young, but we shall hear again about the other.</p>

<p>Cnut did a very surprising thing next. He sent
for Queen Emma to come back again from the Norman
court to marry him. She must have been a
good deal older than he, but she was still a beautiful
woman, and marked with the famous Norman
dignity and grace. Cnut promised that if they
should ever have a son born, he should be the next
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg181" name="pg181"></a>[Pg181]</span>
king of England. Emma's two elder sons, Ælfred
and Eadward, were left in Normandy, and there they
grew up quite apart from their mother, and thinking
much more of their Norman descent and belonging
than of their English heritage.</p>

<p>Cnut now appears in the light of a model sovereign
for those days. He had renounced all his
pagan ideas, and been christened and received into
the Church. We might expect that he would have
pushed his own countrymen forward and all the Danish
interests, but it was quite the other way. At
the beginning of his reign he had executed several
powerful English nobles whose influence and antagonism
he had reason to fear; but now he favored the
English in a marked way, and even ordered his ships
and all the pirates and fighting men back to the
North. It seems very strange, now, that a king of
England ever reigned over Sweden and Denmark,
and Norway beside, but it seems as if Cnut were
prouder of being king of England than of all his
other powers and dignities. He was not only very
gracious and friendly with his English subjects at
home, but he sent them abroad to be bishops, and
displeased the Danish parishes by such arrangements.</p>

<p>We all know the story of the rising tide, and
Cnut's reproof to his courtiers on the sea-shore.
As we read about him we are reminded a little of
Rolf the Ganger, and his growth from pirate fashions
to a more gentle and decent humanity. The two
men were not so very unlike after all, but I must
confess that I think with a good deal of sympathy
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg182" name="pg182"></a>[Pg182]</span>
of Cnut's decision to go on a pilgrimage to Rome.
It was expecting a good deal of the young sea-rover
that he should stay quietly at home to rule his kingdom.
The spirit of adventure stirred in his veins,
and we may be sure that he enjoyed his long and
perilous overland journey to Italy. He made the
road safer for his countrymen who might also have
a pious desire to worship at the famous foreign
shrines. He complained to the emperor and the
priests at Rome about the robber-chiefs who pounced
down upon travellers from their castles in the Alps,
and they promised to keep better order. The
merchants and pilgrims were often laden with rich
offerings for the churches, besides goods which they
wished to sell, and the robbers kept watch for them.
Their ruined fortresses are still perched along the
Alpine passes, and one cannot help hoping that
Cnut had some exciting disputes with his enemies,
and a taste of useful fighting and proper discipline
among the bold marauders.</p>

<p>He wrote a famous letter about his pilgrimage,
directed to the archbishops, and bishops, the great
men, and all the people. He tells whom he saw in
Rome—the Pope, and the German Emperor, and
other great lords of the earth; and says, with pride,
that every one has treated him handsomely, and what
fine presents he has had given him to carry home.
He had come to Rome for the good of his people,
and for the salvation of his own soul, he tells them
seriously; and one thing he did for England was to
complain of the heavy taxes the church had put
upon it, and the Pope promised that such injustice
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg183" name="pg183"></a>[Pg183]</span>
should not happen any more. There is something
very touching in the way that he says he had made
a great many good resolves about his future life, and
that he is not ashamed to own that he has done
wrong over and over again, but he means, by God's
help, to amend entirely. He vows to Heaven that
he will govern his life rightly, and rule his kingdom
honestly and piously, and that neither rich nor poor
shall be oppressed or hardshipped. There never
was a better letter, altogether, and Cnut kept his
promises so well that the old Anglo-Saxon chronicle,
which aches with stories of war and trouble, grows
quite dull now in the later years of his reign. There
was nothing to tell any more, the monks thought
who kept the record; but we know, for that very
reason, that the English farms flourished, and the
wheat fields waved in the summer wind, the towns
grew rich, and the merchants prosperous; and when
the English-Northman king died, it was a sad day
for England. Cnut was only forty years old, but
that was a long time for a king to live. His son,
Harold Harefoot, reigned in his stead, and many
of the old troubles of the country sprang up
at once, as if they had only been asleep for a
little while, and were by no means out-grown or
ended.</p>

<p>Harold Harefoot was not in the least pious, and
behaved himself with most unreasonable folly, and
fortunately died at the close of four years of insult
and unworthiness. Then Harthacnut, the younger
brother, was made king, and he promptly demanded
a Danegelt, the most hateful of taxes, and did
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg184" name="pg184"></a>[Pg184]</span>
a great many things which only reopened the breach
between Dane and Englishman, though it had seemed
to be smoothed over somewhat in his father's time.
Harold had done one brutal thing that towered
above all the rest. The two princes who had been
living in Normandy thought there might be some
chance of their gaining a right to the throne, and the
younger one, Ælfred, had come over to England with
his knights and gentlemen. Harold seized them and
was most cruel; he first blinded his half-brother and
then had him put to death. This made a great
noise in Normandy, and there is one good thing to
be said about Harthacnut, that he was bitterly angry
with his brother, and also with Earl Godwine, a famous
nobleman, who was the most powerful man in
England next the king. He was Cnut's favorite
and chief adviser, but Harthacnut suspected that he
had a hand in Ælfred's murder. Nobody has ever
been quite clear about the matter. Godwine and all
his lords swore that he was innocent, and gave the
king a magnificent ship with all sorts of splendors
belonging to it, besides nearly a hundred men in full
armor, and gold bracelets to make them as grand as
could be. So the king accepted Godwine's oath in
view of such a polite attention, but he asked Eadward
to leave the Norman court and come over to live
with him. Eadward came, and in two years he was
king of England, Harthacnut having died a wretched
drunken death.</p>

<p>So again there was a descendant of Ælfred the
Great and the house of Cerdic on the throne. Eadward
was the last of the line, and in his day began
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg185" name="pg185"></a>[Pg185]</span>
the most exciting and important chapter of English
history—the Norman Conquest.</p>

<p>We have come quickly along the line of Danish
kings, and now it is time to stop and take a more
careful look at the state of manners and customs in
England, and make ourselves sure what the English
people of that time were like, how they lived in their
houses, and what changes had come to the country
in general. There were certain hindrances to civilization,
and lacks of a fitting progress and true
growth. Let us see what these things were, and
how the greater refinement of the Normans, their
superior gifts and graces, must come into play a little
later. There was some deep meaning in the fusion
of the two peoples, and more than one reason why
they could form a greater nation together than either
Normans or Englishmen could alone.</p>

<p>First, the dwellers on English soil had shown a
tendency, not yet entirely outgrown, to fall back into
a too great indulgence in luxurious living. When
the storm and strain of conquest, of colonization, had
spent itself, the Englishmen of Eadward's and Cnut's
time betook themselves to feasting and lawlessness,
of the sort that must undermine the vigor of any
people. The fat of the land tempted them in many
ways, and they sank under such habits as quickly as
they had risen under the necessities that war makes
for sacrifices and temperance. They were suffering,
too, from their insularity; they were taken up with
their own affairs, and had kept apart from the progress
of the rest of Europe. There was a new wave
and impulse of scholarship, which had not yet reached
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg186" name="pg186"></a>[Pg186]</span>
them. It was ebb-tide in England in more ways
than one; and time for those Normans to appear
who, to use the words of one of their historians,
"borrow every thing and make it their own, and
their presence is chiefly felt in increased activity and
more rapid development of institutions, literature,
and art. Thus ... they perfect, they organize
every thing, and everywhere appear to be the master
spirits of their age."</p>

<p>The English people had become so impatient of
the misrule of Cnut's sons, that the remembrance
of Cnut's glories was set aside for the time being,
and no more Danish kings were desired. "All folk
chose Eadward to king," says the chronicle, and evidently
the hearts of the people were turned, full of
hope and affection, to the exiled son of Æthelred and
Emma, who had been since his childhood at the
Norman court. His murdered brother Ælfred had
been canonized by the romantic sympathy of his
English friends; he was remembered now as a saintly
young martyr to English patriotism, and the disreputable
reign of Cnut's sons had made the virtues
of the ancient race of English kings very bright
by comparison. The new king must be of English
blood and a link with past prosperity. The son of
Eadmund Ironside was an exile also in the distant
court of Hungary, but Eadward, a gentle, pious man,
was near at hand, and there were a thousand voices
ready to shout for him even while Harthacnut lay
unburied in the royal robes and trappings.</p>

<p>There was an opposition on the part of the Danes,
who were naturally disinclined to any such change,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg187" name="pg187"></a>[Pg187]</span>
and when the formal election and consecration of the
new king took place, some months after this popular
vote, all Earl Godwine's power and influence were
brought to bear before certain important votes
could be won. Indeed, at first Eadward himself was
apparently hard to persuade to accept his high office.
He seems to have been much more inclined to a
religious life than to statesmanship, but between
much pushing from behind in Normandy and the
eager entreaties of his English friends, he was forced
to make his way again across the Channel. There
are interesting accounts, which may or may not be
true, of his conversations with Godwine; but the
stronger man prevailed. The very promise he made
to uphold the new king's rights might make Eadward
feel assured and hopeful of some stability and quietness
in his reign. England was far behind Normandy
in social or scholarly progress; to reign over Englishmen
did not appear the most rewarding or alluring
career to the fastidious, delicate, cloister-man. The
rough-heartiness and red-cheeked faces of his subjects
must have contrasted poorly with his Norman
belongings, so much more refined and thoughtful,
not to say adroit and dissembling. England was
still divided into four parts, as Cnut had left it.
His scheme of the four great earldoms had proved a
bad one enough, for it had only made the nation
weaker, and kept up continual rivalries and jealousies
between the lords of Northumbria, Mercia, East
Anglia, and Wessex. The northern territory was
chiefly Danish in its traditions, and though there was
a nominal subjection to the king, Northumbria was
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg188" name="pg188"></a>[Pg188]</span>
almost wholly independent of any over-rule. In
Mercia, Lady Godiva and Earl Leofric were spending
their lives and their great wealth, chiefly in furthering
all sorts of religious houses and good works of
the churches.</p>

<p>The greatest earl of all was Godwine of Wessex,
the true leader of the English and a most brave and
loyal man. Cnut had trusted him, and while there
were enough jealous eyes to look at his kingly prosperity,
and malicious tongues ready to whisper about
his knowledge of young Ælfred's murder, or his favor
and unrighteous advancement of his own family to
places of power, Godwine still held the confidence
of a great faction among the English people. His
son Harold was earl of East Anglia, and they were
lawful governors, between them, of the whole southern
part of the kingdom. It was mainly through
Godwine's influence that Eadward was crowned king,
and we may look to the same cause for his marriage
with the earl's daughter Edith, but the line of English
princes, of whom Godwine hoped to be ancestor,
never appeared, for the king was childless, and soon
made an enemy of his father-in-law. Some people
say that Godwine did not treat his royal son with
much respect having once put him on the throne.
Eadward too never was able to forget the suspicion
about Ælfred's murder, so the breach between him and
the great earl was widened year by year. Eadward was
not the sturdy English monarch for whom his people
had hoped; he was Norman at heart, as a man
might well be who had learned to speak in the foreign
tongue, and had made the friendships of his
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg189" name="pg189"></a>[Pg189]</span>
boyhood and manhood in the duke's court and cloisters.
Priestcraft was dearer to him than statecraft,
and his name of The Confessor showed what almost
saintly renown he had won from those who were his
friends and upholders.</p>

<p>It did not suit very well that one Norman gentleman
after another came to London to fill some high
official position. Eadward appeared to wish to surround
himself wholly with Normans, and the whole
aspect of the English court was changed little by
little. The king proved his own weakness in every
way—he was as like Æthelred the Unready as a good
man could be like a bad one.</p>

<p>Godwine grew more and more angry, and his determination
to show that England could do without
the crowds of interlopers who were having every
thing their own way worked him disaster for a time.
There was a party of the king's friends journeying
homeward to Normandy, who stopped overnight in
the city of Dover and demanded its hospitality in insolent
fashion. The Dover men would not be treated
like slaves, and a fight followed in which the Frenchmen
were either killed or driven out of the town.
Eadward of course sided with his friends, and was
very indignant; he sent orders to Earl Godwine, who
was governor of the region, to punish the offenders,
but Godwine refused squarely unless the men should
have been fairly tried and given a chance to speak
for themselves. This ended in a serious quarrel, and
the king gained a victory without any battle either,
for there was a sudden shifting of public feeling in
Eadward's favor—Godwine's own men forsook him
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg190" name="pg190"></a>[Pg190]</span>
and were loyal to the crown, and the great earl was
banished for conscience sake, he and all his family,
for the king even sent away his own wife, though he
kept all her lands and treasures, which was not so
saint-like and unworldly as one might have expected.
One of Godwine's sons had proved himself a very
base and treacherous man, and the earl had shielded
him; this was one reason why his defence of English
liberty was so overlooked by his countrymen,
but the Normans had a great triumph over this defeat,
and praised the pious king and told long stories
of his austere life, his prayers, and holy life. After
he was canonized these stories were lengthened still
more, but while he was yet without a halo some of
his contemporaries charge him with laziness and incapacity.
He certainly was lacking in kingly qualities,
but he gained the respect and love of many of
his subjects, and was no doubt as good as so
weak a man could be. After his death Englishmen
praised him the more because they liked William the
Conqueror the less, and as for the Normans they
liked anybody better than Harold, who had been a
much more formidable opponent in his claim to the
English crown. Mr. Freeman says: "—————— The
duties of secular government ... were ...
always something which went against the grain.
His natural place was not on the throne of England,
but at the head of a Norman abbey.... For
his virtues were those of a monk; all the real man
came out in his zeal for collecting relics, in his
visions, in his religious exercises, in his gifts to
churches and monasteries, in his desire to mark his
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg191" name="pg191"></a>[Pg191]</span>
reign as its chief result, by the foundation of his
great abbey of Saint Peter at Westminster. In a
prince of the manly piety of Ælfred things of this
sort form only a part, a pleasing and harmonious part,
of the general character. In Eadward they formed
the whole man."</p>

<p>The chronicler who writes most flatteringly of him
acknowledges that he sometimes had shocking fits
of bad temper, but that he was never betrayed into
unbecoming language. On some occasions he was
hardly held back by Godwine or Harold from civil
war and massacre; though he was conscientious within
the limit of his intelligence, and had the art of giving
a gracious refusal and the habit of affability and good
manners. William of Malmesbury, the chronicler,
tells us that he kept his royal dignity, but that he
took no pleasure in wearing his robes of state, even
though they were worked for him by his affectionate
queen. Like his father, he was ever under the dominion
of favorites, and this was quickly enough
discovered and played upon by Norman ecclesiastics
and Norman and Breton gentlemen in search of adventure
and aggrandizement. It makes a great
difference whether we read the story of this time in
English or in French records. Often the stories are
directly opposite to each other, and only the most
careful steps along the path keep one from wandering
off one way or the other into unjust partisanship.
Especially is this true of Godwine, the confessor's
great contemporary. He seems, at any rate, to
have been a man much ahead of his time in knowledge
of affairs and foresight of the probable effects
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg192" name="pg192"></a>[Pg192]</span>
from the causes of his own day. His brother earls
were jealous of him; the Church complained of his
lack of generosity; even his acknowledged eloquence
was listened to incredulously; and his good government
of his own provinces, praised though it was, did
not gain him steady power. His good government
made him, perhaps more than any thing else, the foremost
Englishman of his time, and presently we shall
see how deep a feeling there was for him in England,
and how much confidence and affection were
shown in his welcome back from exile, though he
had been allowed to go away with such sullen disapproval.
Godwine's wife, Gytha, was a Danish woman,
which was probably a closer link with that
faction in the northern earldom than can be clearly
understood at this late day. Lord Lytton's novel,
called "Harold," makes this famous household seem
to live before our eyes, and the brief recital of its
fortunes and conditions here cannot be more than a
hint of the real romance and picturesqueness of the
story.</p>

<p>The absence of Godwine in Flanders—a whole
year's absence—had taught his countrymen what it
was to be without him. They were sadly annoyed
and troubled by the king's continued appointment
of Normans to every place of high honor that fell
vacant. Bishoprics and waste lands alike were
pounced upon by the hangers-on at court, and castles
were lifting their ugly walls within sight of each
other almost, here and there in the quiet English
fields. Even in London itself the great White
Tower was already setting its strong foundations;
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg193" name="pg193"></a>[Pg193]</span>
a citadel for the town, a fort to keep the borderers
and Danes at bay were necessary enough to a country,
but England was being turned into another
Normandy and Brittany, with these new houses that
were built for war, as if every man's neighbor were
his enemy. The square high towers were no fit
places for men to live in who tilled the soil and
tended their flocks and herds. There were too many
dark dungeons provided among the foundation
stones beside, and the English farmers whispered
together about their new townsfolk and petty lords,
and feared the evil days that were to come.</p>

<p>The ruined Roman houses and strange tall stones of
the Druid temples were alike thrown down and used
to build these new castles. Men who had strayed
as far as the Norman coasts had stories enough to
tell; what landmarks of oppression these same castles
were in their own country, and how the young Duke
William had levelled many of them to the ground in
quarrelsome Normandy. There was no English
word for this awesome new word—<i>castles!</i> The
free and open halls of the English thanes were a
strange contrast to the new order of dwelling-places.
Robert of Jumièges had been made Archbishop of
Canterbury, and a host of his countrymen surrounded
the king more and more closely and threatened
to deprive the English of their just rights. It was
this monk Robert who had "beat into the king's
head" that his brother Ælfred had come to his
death through Earl Godwine.</p>

<p>It is very easy to tell the story of the Normans
from the English side. Let us cross the Channel again
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg194" name="pg194"></a>[Pg194]</span>
to Rouen and see what effect the condition of English
affairs was having upon the young duke. It would
not be strange if his imagination were busy with
some idea of enlarging his horizon by a look at his
neighbors. Eadward had no heir, they had talked
together oftentimes, perhaps, about the possibility of
making one noble great kingdom by the joining of
England and Normandy. Every day more stories
reached his ears of the wealth and fruitfulness of
the Confessor's kingdom.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 187px;">
<img src="images/i213.png" width="187" height="101" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg195"
name="pg195"></a>[Pg195]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 440px;">
<img src="images/i214.png" width="440" height="112" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.
<br />THE BATTLE OF VAL-ÈS-DUNES.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i6">"Who stood with head erect and shining eyes,<br /></span>
<span class="i6">As if the beacon of some promised land<br /></span>
<span class="i6">Caught his strong vision, and entranced it there."</span>
<span class="rightsig">—A. F.</span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
The Viking's grandchildren had by no means lost
their love for journeying by land or sea. As in old Norway
one may still find bits of coral and rudely shaped
precious stones set in the quaintly wrought silver
ornaments made by the peasants, so in Normandy
there are pieces of Spanish leather and treasures from
the east and from the south, relics of the plundering of
a later generation. Roger de Toesny, one of William's
fiercest enemies, does not become well-known
to us until we trace out something of his history as
a wanderer before he came to join Talvas in a well-planned
rebellion.</p>

<p>In Duke Richard the Good's time there was a
restless spirit of adventure stirring in Norman
hearts, and the foundations were laid of the Southern
kingdoms which made such a change in Europe.
A Norman invasion of Spain came to nothing in
comparison with those more important settlements,
but in 1018 Roger de Toesny carried the Norman
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg196" name="pg196"></a>[Pg196]</span>
arms into the Spanish peninsula. A long time before
this Richard the Fearless had persuaded a large
company of his Scandinavian subjects to wander that
way, being pagan to the heart's-core and hopelessly
inharmonious. Roger followed them on a grand
crusade against the infidel Saracen, and also hoped
to gain a kingdom for himself. He was of the
noblest blood in Normandy, of Rolf the Ganger's
own family, and well upheld the warlike honor of
his house in his daring fights with the infidel. Almost
unbelievable stories are told of his cannibal-like
savagery with his captives, but the very same
stories are told of another man, so we will not stop to
moralize upon Roger's wickedness. He married the
Spanish countess of Barcelona, who did homage to
the king of France, and every thing looked prosperous
at one time for his dominion, but it never really
took root after all, and de Toesny went back again
to Normandy, and blazed out instantly with tremendous
wrath at the pretentions of William the Bastard.
He could not believe that the proud Norman barons
and knights would ever submit to such a degradation.
De Talvas was only too glad to greet so sympathetic
an ally, and the opposition to the young duke
took a more formidable shape than ever before.</p>

<p>All through William's earliest years the feudal
lords spent most of their strength in quarrelling with
each other, but de Toesny's appearance gave the
signal for a league against the ruler whom they despised.
William was no longer a child, and rumors
of his premature sagacity, and his uncommon strength
and quickness in war, were flying about from town
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg197" name="pg197"></a>[Pg197]</span>
to town and warned his enemies that they had no time
to lose if they meant to crush him down. He was a
noble-looking lad and had shown a natural preference
for a soldier's life; at fifteen he had demanded
to be made a knight of the old Norman tradition
in which lurked a memory of Scandinavian ceremonies.
None save Duke William could bend Duke
William's bow, and while these glowing accounts
of him were written from a later standpoint, and his
story might easily be read backward, as a fulfilment
of prophecy, we can be sure, at least, that his power
asserted itself in a marked way, and that he soon
gained importance and mustered a respectable company
of followers as the beginning of a brilliant and
almost irresistible court and army. Even King
Henry of France was jealous of his vassal's rising
fame and popularity, and felt obliged to pay William
a deference that his years did not merit. All
through the first twelve years men felt that the boy
William's life was in danger, and that, whatever respect
Henry paid him, was likely to be changed to
open animosity and disdain the moment that there
was a good excuse. We have a glimpse now and
then of the lonely lad at his sport in the forest about
Falaise and Valognes, where he set apart preserves
for hunting. We follow him from Alan of Brittany's
wardship, to the guardian he chose himself, who held
the place of tutor with that of captain-general of the
Norman army, but, guardian or no guardian, he
pushed forward single-handed, and mastered others,
beside himself, in a way that the world never will
cease to wonder at.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg198" name="pg198"></a>[Pg198]</span></p>

<p>Roger de Toesny refused allegiance to begin with,
and with loud expressions of his scorn of the Bastard,
began to lay waste his neighbors' lands as if
they, too, had been Saracens and merited any sort
of punishment. We first hear the name of De Beaumont,
famous enough ever since, in an account of a
battle which some of Roger's outraged victims waged
against him. Grantmesnil, too, is a name that we
shall know very well by and by, when William has
gone over to England with his Norman lords. Normandy
never got over its excitement and apparent
astonishment at William's presence and claims; but
even in his boyhood he was the leader of a party.
"So lively and spirited was he, that it seemed to all
a marvel," says one of the old chroniclers, with
enthusiasm. When he began to take deep interest
in his affairs, the news of revolts and disorderliness
in the country moved him to violent fits of irritation,
but he soon learned to hide these instinctively, and
the chronicle goes on to say that he "had welling up
in his child's heart all the vigor of a man to teach
the Normans to forbear from all acts of irregularity."
In this outbreak against de Toesny he found an irresistible
temptation to assert his mastery, and boy as
he was, he really made himself felt; De Toesny was
killed in the fierce little battle, and his death gave a
temporary relief from such uprisings; but William
comes more and more to the front, and all Normandy
takes sides either for or against him. This was no
insignificant pretender, but one to be feared; his
guardians and faithful men who had held to him for
good or bad reasons, were mostly put out of the way
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg199" name="pg199"></a>[Pg199]</span>
by their enemies, and there was nobody at last who
could lead the Bastard's men to battle better than he
could himself.</p>

<p>Henry of France had been biding his time, and
now Guy of Burgundy, the son of William's cousin,
whom he had welcomed kindly at his feudal court,
puts in a claim to the dukedom of Normandy. He
helped forward a conspiracy, and one night, while
William was living in his favorite castle at Valognes,
the jester came knocking with his bauble, and crying
at the chamber door, begging him to fly for his life:
"They are already armed; they are getting ready;
to delay is death!" cried poor Golet the fool; and
his master leaped out of bed, seized his clothes, and
ran to the stables for his horse. Presently he was
galloping away toward Falaise for dear life, and to
this day the road he took is called the Duke's road.
This was in 1044, and William was nineteen years
old. He was not slow to understand that the rebels
had again risen, and that the conspiracy was more
than a conspiracy; it was a determined insurrection.
All the night long, as he rode across the country in
the bright moonlight, he was thinking about his
plans, no doubt, and great energies and determinations
were suddenly waked in his heart. This was
more than a dislike of himself and the tan-yard inheritance;
it was the old rivalry of the Frenchmen
and Northmen. The old question of supremacy and
race prejudice was to be fought over once more and
for the last time with any sort of distinctness. This
was not the petty animosity of one baron or another;
it was almost the whole nobility of Normandy against
their duke.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg200" name="pg200"></a>[Pg200]</span></p>

<p>There was one episode of the duke's journey which
is worth telling: He had ridden for dear life, and
had forded many a stream, and one, more dangerous,
tide inlet where the rivers Oune and Vire flowed out
to sea; and when he got safe across, he went into
the Church of St. Clement, in the Bayeux district,
to kneel down and say his prayers.</p>

<p>As the sun rose, he came close to the church and
castle of Rye, and the Lord of Rye was standing at
the castle gate in the clear morning air. William
spurred his horse, and was for hurrying by, but this
faithful vassal, whose name was Hubert, knew him,
and stopped him, and begged to be told the reason
of such a headlong journey. The Lord of Rye was
very hospitable, and the tired duke dismounted, and
was made welcome in the house; and presently a
fresh horse was brought out for him, and the three
brave sons of the loyal house were mounted also to
ride by his side to Falaise. This hospitality was not
forgotten. Later, in England, their grateful guest
set them in high places, and favored them in princely
fashion. Guy, of Burgundy had been brought up
with William as a friend and kinsman, and had been
treated with great generosity. He was master of
some great estates, and one of these was a powerful
border fortress between Normandy and France. His
friends were many, and he found listeners enough
to his propositions. Born of the princely houses of
Burgundy and Normandy, he claimed the duchy as
his inherited right; and while so many in court and
camp were ashamed of their lawful leader, and ready
to deny his authority, came Guy's opportunity.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg201" name="pg201"></a>[Pg201]</span></p>

<p>William was cautious, and not without experience.
When he was only a baby he had caught at the straw
on which he lay, and would not let go his hold, and
this sign of his future power and persistence had been
proved a true one. The quarrelsome, lawless lords
felt that their days of liberty for themselves, and
oppression of everybody else, would soon be over if
they did not strike quickly. They dreaded so strong
and stern a master, and rallied to the standard of
the Bastard's rival, Guy of Burgundy.</p>

<p>There were some of the first nobles of the Côtentin
who forsook their young duke for this rival who
was hardly Norman at all, as they usually decided
such points. His Norman descent was on the spindle
side rather than the sword, to use the old distinction,
and his mother's ancestors would not have
prevented him in other days from being called almost
a Frenchman. There is a tradition that Guy
promised to divide the lands of Normandy with his
allies, keeping only the old French grant to Rolf for
himself, and this must have been the cause of the
treason of the descendants of Rolf's and William
Longsword's loyal colonists. It would amaze us to
see the change in the life and surroundings of the
feudal lords even in the years of William's minority.
The leader of the barons in the revolt was the
Viscount of Coutances, the son of that chief who had
defeated Æthelred of England and his host nearly
half a century before. He lived in a castle on the
river Oune, near which he afterward built his great
St. Saviour's Abbey. This was the central point of
the insurrection, and from his tower Neal of St.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg202" name="pg202"></a>[Pg202]</span>
Saviour could take a wide survey of his beautiful
Côtentin country with its plough-land and pastures
and forests, the great minster of Lessay, and the
cliffs and marshes; the sturdy castles of his feudal
lords scattered far and wide. There came to Saint
Saviour's also Randolf of Bayeux, and Hamon of
Thorigny and of Creuilly, and Grimbald of Plessis,
and each of them made his fortress ready for a siege,
and swore to defend Guy of Burgundy and to use
every art of war and even treachery to subdue and
disgrace William. I say "even treachery," but that
was the first resort of these insurgents rather than
the last. They had laid the deep plot to seize and
murder him at Valognes, and Grimbald was to have
struck the blow.</p>

<p>King Henry of France was another enemy at
heart. It is difficult at first to understand his course
toward his young neighbor. He never had fairly
acknowledged him, and William on his part had
never put his hands into the king's and announced
with the loyal homage of his ancestors that he was
Henry's man. While Normandy was masterless in
William's youth, there was a good chance, never
likely to come again in one man's lifetime, for the
king to assert his authority and to seize at least part
of the Norman territory. The discontent with the
base-born heir to the dukedom might not have been
enough by itself to warrant such usurpation, but
then, while the feudal lords were in such turmoil
and so taken up with, for the most part, merely
neighborhood quarrels; while they had so little national
and such fierce sectional feeling, would have
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg203" name="pg203"></a>[Pg203]</span>
been the time for an outsider to enrich himself at
their expense. It was not yet time for Normandy
to be provoked into a closer unification by any outside
danger. The French and Scandinavian factions
were still distinct and suspicious of each other, but
it was already too late when King Henry at last,
without note or warning, poured his soldiers across
the Norman boundary and invaded the Evreçin; too
late indeed in view of what followed, and in spite
of the temporary blazing up of new jealousies
and the revival of old grievances and hatreds.
Henry won a victory and triumph for the time
being; he demanded the famous border castle of
Tillières and insisted that it should be destroyed,
and though the brave commander held out for
some time even against William's orders, he finally
surrendered. Henry placed a strong garrison there
at once, and after getting an apparently strong hold
on Normandy there followed a time of peace. The
king seemed to be satisfied, but no doubt the young
duke's mind was busy enough with a forced survey
of his enemies, already declared or still masked by
hypocrisy, and of his own possible and probable resources.
A readiness to do the things that must be
done was making a true man of Duke William even
in his boyhood. For many years he had seen revolt
and violence grow more easy and more frequent in
his dukedom; the noise of quarrels and fighting
grew louder and louder. In his first great battle at
Val-ès-dunes the rule of the Côtentin lords and Guy
of Burgundy, or the rule of William the Bastard,
struggled for the mastery.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg204" name="pg204"></a>[Pg204]</span></p>

<p>It was a great battle in importance rather than in
numbers. William called to his loyal provinces for
help, and the knights came riding to court from the
romance-side of Normandy, while from the Bessin
and the Côtentin the rebels came down to meet
them. It seems strange that, when William represents
to us the ideal descendant of the Northmen,
the Scandinavian element in his dukedom was the
first to oppose him. For once King Henry stood
by his vassal, and when William asked for help in
that most critical time, it was not withheld. Henry
had not been ashamed to take part with the Norman
traitors in past times, and now that there was a
chance of breaking the ducal government in pieces
and adding a great district to France, we are more
than ever puzzled to know why he did not make the
most of the occasion. Perhaps he felt that the rule
of the dukes was better than the rule of the mutinous
barons of the Côtentin, and likely, on the whole, to
prove less dangerous. So when William claimed
protection, it was readily granted, and the king came
to his aid at the head of a body of troops, and helped
to win the victory.</p>

<p>We hear nothing of the Norman archers yet in the
chronicler's story of the fight. They were famous
enough afterward, but this battle was between
mounted knights, a true battle of chivalry. The
place was near the river Orne, and the long slopes of
the low hills stretched far and wide, covered with
soft turf, like the English downs across the Channel,
lying pleasantly toward the sun. Master Wace
writes the story of the day in the "Roman de Rou,"
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg205" name="pg205"></a>[Pg205]</span>
and sketches the battle-field with vivid touches of
his pen. Mr. Freeman says, in a note beneath his
own description, that he went over the ground with
Mr. Green, his fellow-historian, for company, and
Master Wace's book in hand for guide. In the
"Roman de Rou" there is a hint that not only the
peasantry, but the poorer gentlemen as well, were
secretly on William's side, that the prejudice and
distrust toward the feudal lords was very great, and
that there was more confidence in a sovereign than
in the irksome tyranny of less powerful lords.</p>

<p>The barons of Saxon Bayeux and Danish Coutances
were matched against the loyal burghers of
Falaise, Romanized Rouen, and the men of the
bishop's cities of Liseux and Evreux. King Henry
stopped at the little village of Valmeray to hear
mass, as he came up from the south with his followers,
and presently the duke joined them in the
great plain beyond. The rebels are there too; the
horses will not stand in place together, they have
caught the spirit of the encounter, and the bright
bosses of the shields; the lances, tied with gay ribbons,
glitter and shine, as the long line of knights
bends and lifts and wavers like some fluttering gay
decoration,—some many-colored huge silken splendor
all along the green grass. The birds fly over swiftly,
and return as quickly, puzzled by the strange appearance
of their country-side. Their nests in the grass
are trampled under foot—the world is alive with
men in armor, who laugh loudly and swear roundly,
and are there for something strange, to kill each
other if they can, rather than live, for the sake of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg206" name="pg206"></a>[Pg206]</span>
Normandy. Far away the green fields stretch into
the haze, the cottages look like toys, and the sheep
and cattle feed without fear in the pastures. Church
towers rise gray and straight-walled into the blue
sky. It is a great day for Normandy, and her best
knights and gentlemen finger their sword-hilts, or
buckle their saddle-girths, and wait impatiently for
the battle to begin on that day of Val-ès-dunes.</p>

<p>Among the Côtentin lords was Ralph of Tesson,
lord of the forest of Cinquelais and the castle of
Harcourt-Thury. Behind him rode a hundred and
twenty knights, well armed and gallant, who would
follow him to the death. He had sworn on the holy
relics of the saints at Bayeux to smite William
wherever he met him, yet he had no ground for
complaint against him. His heart fell when he saw
his rightful lord face to face. A tanner's grandson,
indeed, and a man whose father and mother had
done him wrong; all that was true, yet this young
Duke William was good to look upon, and as brave a
gentleman as any son of Rolf's, or the fearless Richard's.
Ralph Tesson (the Badger they called him),
a man both shrewd and powerful, stood apart, and
would not rank himself and his men with either faction,
and his knights crowded round him, to remind
him that he had done homage once to William, and
would fight against his natural lord. The Côtentin
lords were dismayed and angry, they promised him
great rewards, but nothing touched him, and he
stood silent, a little way from the armies. The
young duke and the king noticed him, and the six-score-and-six
brave knights in his troop, all with their
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg207" name="pg207"></a>[Pg207]</span>
lances raised and trimmed with their ladies' silk
tokens. William said that they would come to his
aid; neither Tesson nor his men had any grudge
against him.</p>

<p>Suddenly Tesson put spurs to his horse, and came
dashing across the open field, and all the lords and
gentlemen held their breath as they watched him.
"Thury! Thury!" he shouted as he came, and
"Thury! Thury!" the cry echoed back again from
the distance. He rode straight to the duke; there
was a murmur from the Côtentin men; he struck the
duke gently with his glove. It was but a playful
mockery of his vow to the saints at Bayeux; he had
struck William, but he and his knights were William's
men again; the young duke said, "Thanks to
thee!" and the fight began, all the hotter for the anger
of the deserted barons and their desire for revenge.
The day had begun with a bad omen for
their success. "<i>Dexaide!</i>" the old Norman war-cry,
rang out, and those who had followed the lilies of
France cried "<i>Montjoie Saint Denis!</i>" as they
fought.</p>

<p>Nowadays, a soldier is a soldier, and men who
choose other professions can keep to them, unless in
their country's extremity of danger, but in that day
every man must go to the wars, if there were need
of him, and be surgeon or lawyer, and soldier too;
yes, even the priests and bishops put on their swords
and went out to fight. It would be interesting to
know more names on the roll-call that day at Val-ès-dunes,
but we can almost hear the shouts to the
patron saints, and the clash of the armor. King
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg208" name="pg208"></a>[Pg208]</span>
Henry fought like a brave man, and the storm of
the battle raged fiercest round him. The knights
broke their lances, and fought sword to sword.
There was no play of army tactics and manœuvring,
but a hand-to-hand fight, with the sheer strength of
horse and man. Once King Henry was overthrown
by the thrust of a Côtentin lance, and sprang up
quickly to show himself to his men. Again he was
in the thickest of the encounter, and was met by
one of the three great rebel chiefs and thrown upon
the ground, but this Lord of Thorigny was struck, in
his turn, by a loyal French knight, and presently his
lamenting followers carried him away dead on his
shield like any Spartan of old. And the king honored
his valor and commanded that he should be
buried with splendid ceremonies in a church not far
from the battlefield. Long afterward the Norman
men and women loved to sing and to tell stories
about the young Duke William's bravery and noble
deeds of arms in that first great fight that made him
duke from one end of Normandy to the other. He
slew with his own hand the noblest and most daring
warrior of Bayeux. Master Wace, the chronicler,
tells us how William drove the sharp steel straight
through his hardy foe, and how the body fell beneath
his stroke and its soul departed. Wace was a
Bayeux man himself, and though he was a loyal
songster and true to his great duke, he cannot help
a sigh of pride and sorrow over Hardrez' fate.</p>

<p>Neal of St. Saviour fought steadily and cheered his
men eagerly as the hour went on, but Randolf of
Bayeux felt his courage begin to fail him. Hamon
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg209" name="pg209"></a>[Pg209]</span>
was dead. Their great ally, Hardrez, had been the
flower of his own knights, and he was lying dead of
a cruel sword-thrust there in plain sight. He lost
sight of Neal, perhaps, for he was suddenly afraid of
betrayal, and grieved that he had ever put his helmet
on. There is a touching bit of description in the "Roman
de Rou" just now. The battle pleased him no
more, is told in the quaint short lines. He thought
how sad it was to be a captive, and sadder still to be
slain. He gave way feebly at every charge; he
wandered to and fro aimlessly, a thing to be stumbled
over, we fancy him, now in the front of the
fight, now in the rear; at last he dropped his lance
and shield. "He stretched forth his neck and rode
for his life," says Master Wace, quite ashamed of his
countryman. But we can see the poor knight's
head drooping low, and his good, tired horse—the
better man of the two—mustering all his broken
strength to carry his master beyond the reach of
danger. All the cowards rode after him pell-mell,
but brave Saint Saviour fought to the last and held
the field until his right arm failed and he could not
strike again. The French pressed him hard, the
Norman men looked few and spent, and the mighty
lord of the Côtentin knew that all hope was lost.
There on the rising ground of Saint Lawrence the
last blow was struck.</p>

<p>Away went the rebels in groups of three or four—away
for dear life every one of them, riding this way
and that, trying to get out of reach of their enemies
and into some sort of shelter. The duke chased
them like a hound on the track of hares on, on
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg210" name="pg210"></a>[Pg210]</span>
toward Bayeux, past the great Abbey of Fontenay and
the Allemagne quarries, until they reached the river
Orne with its deep current. Men and horses floundered
in the water there, and many hot wounds
tinged it with a crimson stain. They were drowned,
poor knights, and poor, brave horses too. They
went struggling and drifting down stream; the banks
were strewn with the dead; and the mill-wheels of
Borbillon, a little farther down, were stopped in
their slow turning by the strange wreck and floating
worthless fragments of those lords and gentlemen
who had lost the battle of the Val-ès-dunes.</p>

<p>And William was the conqueror of Normandy.
Guy of Burgundy was a traitor to his friends, and
won a heritage of shame for his flight from the field.
We hear nothing of him while the fight went on,
only that he ran away. It appears that he must have
been one of the first to start for a place of safety,
because they blame him so much; there is nothing
said about all the rebels running away together a
little later. That was the fortune of war and inevitable;
not personal cowardice, they might tell us.
Guy of Burgundy was the man who had led the three
Côtentin lords out by fair promises and taunts about
their bastard duke, and he should have been brave
and full of prowess, since he undertook to be the
rival of so brave a man. He did not go toward the
banks of the fateful river, but in quite another
direction to his own castle of Brionne, and a troop
of his vassals escaped with him and defended themselves
there for a long time, until William fairly
starved them out like rats in a hole. They held
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg211" name="pg211"></a>[Pg211]</span>
their own bravely, too, and no man was put to death
when they surrendered, while Guy was even allowed
to come back to court. Master Wace stoutly maintains
that they should have been hung, and says long
afterward that some of those high in favor at court
were the traitors of the great rebellion.</p>

<p>Strange to say, nobody was put to death. Mr.
Freeman says of this something that gives us such
a clear look at William's character that I must copy
it entire. "In those days, both in Normandy and
elsewhere, the legal execution of a state criminal
was an event that seldom happened. Men's lives
were recklessly wasted in the endless warfare of the
times, and there were men, as we have seen, who
did not shrink from private murder, even in its basest
forms. But the formal hanging or beheading of a
noble prisoner, so common in later times, was, in the
eleventh century, a most unusual sight. And, strange
as it may sound, there was a sense in which William
the Conqueror was not a man of blood. He would
sacrifice any number of lives to his boundless ambition;
he did not scruple to condemn his enemies to
cruel personal mutilations; he would keep men for
years as a mere measure of security, in the horrible
prison-houses of those days; but the extinction of
human life in cold blood was something from which
he shrank."</p>

<p>At the time of the first great victory, the historian
goes on to say, William was of an age when men
are commonly disposed to be generous, and the
worst points of his character had not begun to show
themselves. Later in life, when he had broken the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg212" name="pg212"></a>[Pg212]</span>
rule, or perhaps we must call it only his prejudice
and superstition, we find that the star of his glory is
already going down, pale and spent, into the mists of
shame and disappointment.</p>

<p>None of the traitors of the Val-ès-dunes were
treated harshly, according to the standard of the
times. The barons paid fines and gave mortgages,
and a great many of them were obliged to tear down
their robber castles, which they had built without
permission from the duke. This is the reason that
there are so few ruins in Normandy of the towers of
that date. The Master of St. Saviour's was obliged
to take himself off to Brittany, but there was evidently
no confiscation of his great estates, for we find
him back again at court the very next year, high in
the duke's favor and holding an honorable position.
He lived forty-four years after this, an uncommon
lifetime for a Norman knight, and followed the Conqueror
to England, but he got no reward in lands
and honor, as so many of his comrades did. Guy of
Burgundy stayed at court a little while, and then
went back to his native province and devoted himself
to making plots against his brother, Count William.
Grimbald de Plessis fared the worst of all the conspirators;
he was taken to Rouen and put into prison
weighted down with chains, and given the poorest of
lodgings. He confessed that he had tried to murder
William that night at Valognes, when the court
jester gave warning, and said that a knight called
Salle had been his confederate. Salle denied the
charge stoutly and challenged De Plessis to fight a
judicial combat, but before the day came the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg213" name="pg213"></a>[Pg213]</span>
scheming, unlucky baron from the Saxon lands was found
dead in his dungeon. The fetters had ground their
way into his very bones, and he was buried in his
chains, for a warning, while his estates were seized
and part of them given to the church of Bayeux.</p>

<p>Now, at last, the Norman priests and knights knew
that they had a master. For some time it was surprisingly
quiet in Normandy, and the country was
unexpectedly prosperous. The great duchy stood
in a higher rank among her sister kingdoms than
ever before, and though there was another revolt
and serious attacks from envious neighbors, yet the
Saxons of the Bessin and the Danes of the Côtentin
were overthrown, and Normandy was more unitedly
Norman-French than ever. There had been a long
struggle that had lasted from Richard the Fearless'
boyhood until now, but it was ended at last, to all
intents and purposes. Even now there is a difference
between the two parts of Normandy, though so
many years have passed; but the day was not far
off after this battle of Val-ès-dunes when the young
conqueror could muster a great army and cross the
channel into England. "The Count of Rouen,"
says Freeman, "had overcome Saxons and Danes
within his own dominions, and he was about to weld
them into his most trusty weapons, wherewith to
overcome Saxons and Danes beyond the sea."</p>

<p>Perhaps nothing will show the barbarous cruelty of
these times or William's fierce temper better than the
story of Alençon and its punishment. William Talvas,
the young duke's old enemy, formed a rebellious
league with Geoffry of Anjou, and they undertook
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg214" name="pg214"></a>[Pg214]</span>
to hold Alençon against the Normans. When William
came within sight of the city, he discovered
that they had sufficient self-confidence to mock at
him and insult him. They even spread raw skins
over the edge of the city walls, and beat them vigorously,
yelling that there was plenty of work for the
tanner, and giving even plainer hints at what they
thought of his mother's ancestry.</p>

<p>William was naturally put into a great rage, and
set himself and his army down before the walls his
enemies thought so invincible. He swore "by the
splendor of God" that he would treat them as a man
lops a tree with an axe, and, sure enough, when the
siege was over, and Alençon was at the Conqueror's
mercy, he demanded thirty-two captives of war, and
nose, hands, and feet were chopped off, and presently
thrown back over the walls into the town.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 129px;">
<img src="images/i233.png" width="129" height="101" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg215"
name="pg215"></a>[Pg215]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 434px;">
<img src="images/i234.png" width="434" height="112" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.
<br />THE ABBEY OF BEC.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i7">"He heard across the howling seas,<br /></span>
<span class="i7">Chime convent bells on wintry nights."<br /></span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Matthew Arnold.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
The only way of escaping from the obligations of
feudalism and constant warfare was by forsaking the
follies of the world altogether for the shelter of a
convent, and there devoting one's time and thought
to holy things. A monastic life often came to be
only an excuse for devotion to art or to letters, or
served merely to cover the distaste for military pursuits.
It was not alone ecclesiasticism and a love
for holy living and thoughts of heaven that inspired
rigid seclusion and monkish scorn of worldliness.
Not only popular superstition or recognition of true
spiritual life and growth of the Church made up the
Church's power, but the presence of so much secular
thought and wisdom in the fold. Men of letters,
of science, and philosophy made it often more than
a match for the militant element of society, the soldiery
of Normandy, and the great captains, who
could only prove their valor by the strength of their
strategy and their swords. William was quick to
recognize the vast strength of the clergy and the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg216" name="pg216"></a>[Pg216]</span>
well-protected force of cloistered public opinion. A
soldier and worldly man himself, he arrayed himself
on the side of severe self-repression and knightly
chastity and purity of life, and kept the laws of the
convent in high honor; while he mixed boldly with
the rude warfare of his age. He did not think himself
less saintly because he was guilty of secret crimes
against his rivals. A skilful use of what an old
writer calls "the powder of succession" belonged as
much to his military glory as any piece of field-tactics
and strategy. He was anxious to stand well in
the Pope's estimation, and the ban and malediction
of the Church was something by all means to be
avoided. The story of his marriage shows his bold,
adventurous character and determination in a marked
way, and his persistence in gaining his ends and winning
the approval of his superior, in spite of obstacles
that would have daunted a weaker man. To gain a
point to which the Church objected he must show
himself stronger than the Church.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 402px;">
<div><a id="DOORWAY_OF_CATHEDRAL_CHARTRES"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i236.png" width="402" height="452" alt="" />
<div class="caption">DOORWAY OF CATHEDRAL, CHARTRES.</div>
</div>

<p>So there were two great forces at work in Normandy:
this military spirit, the love of excitement,
of activity, and adventure; and this strong religious
feeling, which often made the other its willing servant,
and was sometimes by far the most powerful of
the two. Whether superstition or true, devout acceptance
and unfolding of the ideas of the Christian
religion moved the Normans and their contemporaries
to most active service of the Church, we will not
stop to discuss. The presence of the best scholars
and saints in any age is a leaven and inspiration of
that age, and men cannot help being more or less
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg217" name="pg217"></a>[Pg217]</span>
influenced by the dwelling among them of Christ's
true disciples and ministers. That there was a large
amount of credulity, of superstitious rites and observances,
we cannot doubt, neither can we question
that these exercised an amazing control over
ignorant minds. Standing so near to a pagan ancestry,
the people of large, and, relatively speaking,
remote districts of Normandy, were no doubt confused
by lingering vestiges of the older forms of
belief. As yet, religion, in spite of the creeds of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg218" name="pg218"></a>[Pg218]</span>
knighthood, showed itself more plainly in stone and
mortar, in vestments, and fasts, and penances, and
munificent endowments, than in simple truth and
godliness of life. A Norman nobleman, in the time
of the Conqueror, or earlier, thought that his estate
would lack its chief ornament if he did not plant a
company of monks in some corner of it. It was the
proper thing for a rich man to found a monastery or
religious house of some sort or other, and this was a
most blessed thing for the scholars of their time.
The profession of letters was already becoming dignified
and respectable, and the students of the Venerable
Bede, and other noble teachers from both
north and south, had already scattered good seeds
through the states of Europe. It was in this time
that many great schools were founded, and in the
more peaceful years of the early reign of the Conqueror,
religion and learning found time to strike a
deeper root in Normandy than ever before. There
was more wealth for them to be nourished with,
the farms were productive, and the great centres of
industry and manufacture, like Falaise, were thriving
famously. It was almost as respectable to be a monk
as to be a soldier. There is something very beautiful
in these earlier brotherhoods—a purer fashion of
thought and of life, a simplicity of devotion to the
higher duties of existence. But we can watch here, as in
the later movements in England and Italy, a gradual
change from poverty and holiness of life, to a love
of riches and a satisfaction with corrupt ceremonies
and petty authority. The snare of worldliness finds
its victims always, and the temptation was easy then,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg219" name="pg219"></a>[Pg219]</span>
as it is easy now, to forget the things that belong to
the spirit. We have seen so much of the sword and
shield in this short history that we turn gladly away
for a little space to understand what influences were
coming from the great abbeys of Bec and Saint
Evreuil, and to make what acquaintance we can
with the men who dwelt there, and held for their
weapons only their mass-books and their principles
of education and of holy living. Lanfranc we must
surely know, for he was called the right-hand man of
the Conqueror; and now let us go back a little way
and take a quick survey of the founding of the Abbey
of Bec, and trace its history, for that will help
us to understand the monastic life, and the wave of
monasticism that left so plain a mark upon the
headlands and valleys of Normandy. Both in England
and Norman France, you can find the same red-roofed
villages clustered about high square church
towers, with windows in the gray stone walls that
look like dim fret-work or lace-work. The oldest
houses are low and small, but the oldest minsters
and parish churches are very noble buildings.</p>

<p>The first entrance into one of the old cathedrals is
an event in one's life never to be forgotten. It
grows more beautiful the longer one thinks of it; that
first impression of height and space, of silence and
meditation; the walls are stored with echoes of
prayers and chanting voices; the windows are like
faded gardens, with their sober tints and gleams of
brighter color. The saints are pictured on them
awkwardly enough, but the glory of heaven beams
through the old glass upon the worn tombstones in
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg220" name="pg220"></a>[Pg220]</span>
the floor; the very dust in the rays of sunlight that
strike across the wide, solemn spaces, seems sacred
dust, and of long continuance. We shut out this
busy world when we go into the cathedral door,
and look about us as if this were a waiting-room
from whence one might easily find conveyance to
the next world. There is a feeling of nearness to
heaven as we walk up the great aisle of what our
ancestors called, reverently enough, God's house.
One is suddenly reminded of many unseen things
that the world outside gives but little chance to
think about. We are on the journey heavenward
indeed. There where many centuries have worn
away the trace of worldliness and the touch of
builders' tools, so that the building itself seems almost
to have grown by its own life and strength,
you think about the builders and planners of such
dignity and splendor more than any thing, after all.
Who were the men that dared to lift the roof and
plant the tall pillars, and why did they, in those
poor, primitive times, give all they had to make this
one place so rich and high. The bells ring a lazy,
sweet chime for answer, and if you catch a glimpse
of some brown old books in the sacristy, and even
spell out the quaint records, you are hardly satisfied.
We can only call them splendid monuments of the
spirit of the time (almost uncivilized, according to
our standard) when nevertheless there was a profound
sentiment of worship and reverence.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 558px;">
<div><a id="CANTERBURY_CATHEDRAL"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i240.png" width="558" height="448" alt="" />
<div class="caption">CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.</div>
</div>

<p>Besides this, we are reminded that the lords of
church and state were able, if it pleased them, to
command the entire service of their vassals. All the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg222" name="pg222"></a>[Pg222]</span>
liberties and aids and perquisites that belonged to
rank ceased where the lowest rank ended, at the
peasant. He was at anybody's command and mercy
who chanced to be his master; he had but precious
few rights and claims of his own. When Christ
taught his disciples that whosoever would be
chief among them must become as a servant, he
suggested a truth and order of relationship most astonishing
and contrary to all precedent. He that
would be chief among Hebrews or Normans, chief,
alas, even in our own day, is still misled by the old
idea that the greatest is the master of many men.
Worldly power and heavenly service are always apt to
be mistaken for each other.</p>

<p>In an age when every man claimed the right of
private war against every other man, unless he were
lord or vassal, we naturally look for ferocity, and understand
that the line between private war and simple
robbery and murder was not very clearly kept.
Those who were comparatively unable to defend
themselves were the chief sufferers, and of course
many peace-loving men were obliged to take on the
appearance of fighters, and be ready for constant
warfare in all its shapes. There was only the one alternative—first
to the universal dissension of a
nationality of armed men, and later to the more orderly
and purposeful system of knighthood,—simply
to retreat from the world altogether and lead a strictly
religious life. The famous order of the Benedictine
monks was built up in Normandy with surprising
devotion. A natural love and respect for learning,
which had long been smouldering half-neglected,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg223" name="pg223"></a>[Pg223]</span>
now burst into a quick blaze in the hearts of many
of the descendants of the old Norse skalds and Sagamen.
While the Augustinian order of monks is
chiefly famous for building great cathedrals, and the
mendicant friars have left many a noble hospital as
their monuments, so the Benedictines turned their
energies toward the forming of great schools. The
time has passed when the Protestant world belittled
itself by contemptuously calling the monks lazy,
sensual, and idle, and by seeing no good in these ancient
communities. Learning of every sort, and the
arts, as well, would have been long delayed in their
development, if it had not been for such quiet retreats,
where those men and women who chose
could turn their thoughts toward better employments
than the secular world encouraged or even allowed.
The Benedictines were the most careful fosterers of
scholarship; their brethren of monastic fame owed
them a great deal in every way.</p>

<p>There was a noble knight named Herluin, who
lived in the time of Duke Robert the Devil, and who
was for thirty-seven years a knight-at-arms. He was
a descendant of one of Rolf's companions, his lineage
was of the very best, and his estates made part of
the original grant of Charles the Simple. Herluin
was vassal to Count Gilbert of Brionne, and had
proved himself a brave and loyal knight, both to his
overlord and the duke. He was high in favor, and
unusually tender-hearted and just to those in trouble.
We cannot help wishing that it had seemed possible
to such a man that he should stay in the world and
leaven society by his example, but to a thoughtful
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg224" name="pg224"></a>[Pg224]</span>
and gentle soul like Herluin the cloister offered
great temptations. There was still great turbulence
even among ecclesiastics—the worst of them "bore
arms and lived the life of heathen Danes....
The faith of Herluin nearly failed him when he saw
the disorder of one famous monastery, but he was
comforted by accidentally beholding the devotions
of one godly brother, who spent the whole night in
secret prayer. He was thus convinced that the salt of the earth
had not as yet wholly lost its savor."<a name="FNanchor_7"
id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>

<div class="footnote"> <a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>Freeman.</div>

<p>Our pious knight forsook the world, and with
a few companions devoted himself to building a
small monastery on his own estate at Burneville,
near Brionne. The church was consecrated, and
its founder received benediction from his bishop,
who ordained him a priest and made him abbot
of the little community. Herluin was very diligent
in learning to read, and achieved this mighty
task without neglecting any of the work which he
imposed upon himself day by day. Soon he grew
famous in all that part of Normandy for his sanctity
and great wisdom in explaining the Bible. But it
was discovered that the site of his flourishing young
establishment was not well chosen; an abbey must
possess supplies of wood and water, and so the
colony was removed to the valley of a small stream
that flows into the Lisle, near the town of Brionne. In
the old speech of the Normans this brook was called
a beck; we have the word yet in verse and provincial
speech; and it gave a name to the most famous and
longest remembered perhaps of all the Norman
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg225" name="pg225"></a>[Pg225]</span>
monasteries. Mr. Freeman says: "The hills are
still thickly wooded; the beck still flows through
rich meadows and under trees planted by the waterside,
by the walls of what was once the renowned
monastery to which it gave its name. But of the
days of Herluin no trace remains besides these imperishable
works of nature. A tall tower, of rich
and fanciful design, one of the latest works of
mediæval skill, still attracts the traveller from a distance;
but of the mighty minster itself, all traces,
save a few small fragments, have perished....
The truest memorial of that illustrious abbey is now
to be found in the parish church of the neighboring
village. In that lowly shelter is still preserved the
effigy with which after-times had marked the resting-place
of the founder. Such are all the relics which
now remain of the house which once owned Lanfranc
and Anselm as its inmates.</p>

<p>"In this valley it was that Herluin finally fixed his
infant settlement, devoting to it his own small
possession."</p>

<p>"By loving this world," he said, when he pleaded
for his poor peasants in Gilbert of Brionne's court—"By
loving this world and by obeying man I have
hitherto much neglected God and myself. I have
been altogether intent on training my body, and I
have gained no education for my soul. If I have
ever deserved well of thee, let me pass what remains
of life in a monastery. Let me keep thy affection
and with me give to God what I had of thee."</p>

<p>Herluin was not left alone in his enterprise; one
companion after another joined him, and presently
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg226" name="pg226"></a>[Pg226]</span>
there was a busy company of monks at Bec. They
subjected themselves to all sorts of self-denials and
privations, working hard at building their new home,
at ditching, gardening, or wood-cutting, and chanting
their prayers with entire devotion. Herluin
allowed himself one scanty meal a day, and went
about his work poorly dressed, but serving God in
most humble fashion. This was the story of many
small religious houses and their founders, but we
cannot help tracing the beginning of the abbey of
Bec with particular interest for the sake of Lanfranc,
who has kept its memory alive and made it famous
in Norman and English history.</p>

<p>The story of this friar of Bec, who came to be
archbishop of Canterbury, and whose influence and
power were only second, a few years later, to
William the Conqueror's own, reads like a romance,
as indeed does many another story of that romantic
age. He was born at Pavia, the City of the Hundred
Towers, in Lombardy, and belonged to an
illustrious family. He was discovered in early boyhood
to be an uncommon scholar, and even in his
university course he became well known by his brilliant
talents and fine gift of oratory. He was looked
upon as almost invincible in debate while he was
still a school-boy, and when he left college it was
supposed that he would give the benefit of his
attainments and growth to his native city. For
a little while he did stay there, and began his career,
but he appears to have been made restless by a love
of change and adventure, and a desire to see the
world, and next we find him going northward with a
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg227" name="pg227"></a>[Pg227]</span>
company of admiring scholars, as if on pilgrimage,
but in the wrong direction! The enthusiastic little
procession crossed the St. Bernard pass into France
and for some reason went to Avranches, where Lanfranc
taught a school and quickly became celebrated.
In spite of the more common profession or trade of
fighting, there was never a time when learning or the
profession of letters was more honored, and the
Normans yielded to none of their contemporaries in
the respect they had for scholars.</p>

<p>Lanfranc became dissatisfied with the honor and
glory of his success at Avranches; and presently, in
quest of something more deep and satisfying—more
in accordance with the craving of his spiritual nature,
left his flourishing school and again started northward.
The country was very wild and unsafe for
a solitary wayfarer; and presently, so the tradition
runs, he was attacked by a band of robbers, beaten,
and left tied to a tree without food or money or any
prospect of immediate release. The long hours of
the night wore away and he grew more and more
desperate; at last he bethought himself of spiritual
aid as a last resort, and tried to repeat the service
of the church. Alas! he could not remember the
prayers and hymns, and in his despair he vowed
a pious vow to God that he would devote himself to
a holy life if his present sufferings might be ended.
In good season some charcoal burners played the
welcome part of deliverers and Lanfranc, yet aching
with the pinch of his fetters and their galling knots,
begged to know of some holy house near by, and
was directed to Herluin's hermitage and the humble
brotherhood of Bec.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg228" name="pg228"></a>[Pg228]</span></p>

<p>The little colony of holy men was all astir that
day. Soldiers and sober gentlemen were tilling the
soil and patiently furthering their rural tasks. Herluin
himself, the former knight-at-arms, was clad in
simple monkish garb, and playing the part of master-mason
in the building of a new oven. Out from the
neighboring thicket comes a strange figure, pale yet
from his uncomforted vigil, and prays to be numbered
with those who give their lives to the service of
God. "This is surely a Lombard!" says Herluin,
wonderstruck and filled with sympathy; and when
he discovers the new brother's name and eager
devotion, he kneels before him in love and reverence.
It was a great day for the abbey of Bec.</p>

<p>Such learning and ability to teach as Lanfranc's
could not be hidden; indeed the church believed in
using a man's great gifts, and each member was bound
to give of his bounty in her service. The brothers
who could till the ground and hew timber and build
ovens kept at their tasks, and all the while Lanfranc,
the theologian and teacher, the man of letters,
gathered a company of scholars from far and wide.
Bec became a famous centre of learning, and even
from Italy and Greece young men journeyed to his
school, and, as years went by, he was venerated more
and more. His quick understanding and cleverness
saved him many a disaster, and we recognize in him
a charming inheritance of wit and good humor. He
had the individuality and characteristics of his Italian
ancestry, while he was that rare man in any social
circle of his age, or even a later age,—a true man of
the world. A Norman of the Normans in his adopted
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg229" name="pg229"></a>[Pg229]</span>
home, he was yet able to see Normandy, not as the
world itself, but only a factor in it, and to put it and
its ambitions and possessions in their true relation to
wider issues. There was no such churchman-statesman
as Lanfranc in the young duchy, and his fame
and glory were felt more and more. William the
duke himself might well set his wits at work to
conquer this formidable opponent of his marriage,
and win him over to his following, and the first attack
was not by conciliatory measures. Lanfranc received
a formidable order to quit the country and leave his
abbey of Bec on penalty of worse punishment.</p>

<p>The future archbishop of English Canterbury
meekly obeyed his temporal lord, and set out through
the forest with a pitiful straggling escort affectingly
futile in its appearance. He himself was mounted
on the worst old stumbling horse in the despoiled
abbey stables, and presently they meet the duke out
hunting in most gallant array with a lordly following
of knights and gentlemen. It looks surprisingly
as if shrewd Lanfranc had arranged the scene beforehand.
Along he comes on his feeble steed, limping
slowly on the forest path; he, the greatest prior and
book-man of Normandy, turned out of the house and
home that his own learning had made famous through
Christendom. "Under Lanfranc," says the chronicler,
"the Normans first fathomed the art of letters,
for under the six dukes of Normandy scarce any one
among the Normans applied himself to liberal
studies, nor was there any learning found till God,
the provider of all things, brought Lanfranc to Normandy."
All this, no doubt, flashed through
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg230" name="pg230"></a>[Pg230]</span>
William's mind, and the prior of Bec's Italian good-humor
proved itself the best of weapons. "Give me
a better horse," he cried, "and you shall see me go
away faster." The duke laughed in spite of himself,
and Lanfranc won a chance of pleading his cause.
Before they parted they were sworn friends, and the
prior's knowledge of civil law and of theology and of
human nature (not least by any means of his famous
gifts) were for once and all at the duke's service. He
supported the cause of the unlawful marriage, and
even won a dispensation from the Pope, long desired
and almost hopeless, in William's favor.</p>

<p>But the abbey of Bec was a great power for good
in its time, and carried a wonderful influence for
many years. In the general scarcity of books in
those days before printing, the best way of learning
was to listen to what each great scholar had to say,
and the students went about from school to school,
and lingered longest at places like Bec, where the
best was to be found. The men here were not only
the patrons of learning and the guarders of their
own copies of the ancient classics, but they taught the
children of the neighborhood, and sheltered the rich
and poor, the old people and the travellers, who wandered
to their gates. They copied missals, they cast
bells for churches, they were the best of farmers,
of musicians, of artists. While Lanfranc waged his
great battle with Berengarius about the doctrine of
the Eucharist, and came out a victorious champion
for the church, and won William's cause with the
Pope with most skilful pleading of the value of Norman
loyalty to the See of Rome, his humbler brethren
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg231" name="pg231"></a>[Pg231]</span>
tended their bees and ploughed straight furrows and
taught the country children their letters. Such a
centre of learning and of useful industry as Bec was
the best flower of civilization. Lanfranc himself
was true to his vow of humility. We catch some
delightful glimpses of his simple life, and one in particular
of his being met on a journey by some reverential
pilgrims to his school. He was carefully carrying
a cat behind him on the saddle, comfortably
restrained from using her claws, and Lanfranc explained
that he had sometimes been grievously annoyed
by mice at his destination, and had provided
this practical ally. One can almost see the twinkle
in the good man's eyes, and the faces of the surprised
scholars who had been looking forward with
awe and dread to their first encounter with so renowned
a man.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 129px;">
<img src="images/i250.png" width="129" height="99" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg232"
name="pg232"></a>[Pg232]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 452px;">
<img src="images/i251.png" width="452" height="110" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.
<br />MATILDA OF FLANDERS.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i7">"It had been easy fighting in some plain,<br /></span>
<span class="i7">Where victory might hang in equal choice;<br /></span>
<span class="i7">But all resistance against her is vain."<br /></span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Marvell.</span><br /></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
We have occasionally had a glimpse of Flanders
and its leading men in the course of our Norman
story; but now the two dukedoms were to be linked
together by a closer tie than either neighborhood,
or a brotherhood, or antagonism in military affairs.
While Normandy had been gaining new territory
and making itself more and more feared by the
power of its armies, and had been growing richer and
richer with its farms and the various industries of the
towns, Flanders was always keeping pace, if not
leading, in worldly prosperity.</p>

<p>Flanders had gained the dignity and opulence of a
kingdom. Her people were busy, strong, intelligent
craftsmen and artists, and while her bell-towers
lifted themselves high in the air, and made their
chimes heard far and wide across the level country,
the weavers' looms and the women's clever fingers
were sending tapestries to the walls of the Vatican,
and frost-like laces to the ladies of Spain.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg233" name="pg233"></a>[Pg233]</span></p>

<p>The heavy ships of Flanders went and came with
the richest of freights from her crowded ports; her
picture-painters were at work, her gardens were green,
and her noblemen's houses were filled with whatever
a luxurious life could demand or invent. As the
country became overcrowded, many of the inhabitants
crossed over to Scotland, and gained a foothold,
sometimes by the sword, and oftener by the
plough and spade and weaver's shuttle. The Douglases
and the Leslies, Robert Bruce and all the families
of Flemings, took root then, and, whether by art
or trade, established a right to be called Scotsmen,
and to march in the front rank when the story is
told of many a brave day in Scottish history.</p>

<p>The Count of Flanders was nominally vassal of
both Rome and France, but he was practically his
own man. Baldwin de Lisle, of the Conqueror's
time, was too great a man to need anybody's help,
or to be bought or sold at will by an over-lord. He
stood well as the representative of his country's
wealth and dignity. A firm alliance with such a
neighbor was naturally coveted by such a far-seeing
man as the young duke; and besides any political
reasons, there was a closer reason still, in the love that
had sprung up in his heart for Matilda, the count's
daughter. In 1049, he had been already making suit
for her hand, for it was in that year when the Council
of Rheims forbade the banns, on some plea of relationship
that was within the limit set by the Church.
William's whole existence was a fight for his life, for
his dukedom, for his kingdom of England, and he
was not wanting in courage in this long siege of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg234" name="pg234"></a>[Pg234]</span>
church and state, when the woman he truly loved
was the desired prize. If history can be trusted, she
was a prize worth winning; if William had not loved
her, he would not have schemed and persisted for
years in trying to win her in spite of countless hindrances
which might well have ended his quest if he
had been guided only by political reasons for the
alliance.</p>

<p>His nobles had eagerly urged him to marry. Perhaps
they would have turned their eyes toward England
first if there had been a royal princess of Eadward's
house, but failing this, Flanders was the best
prize. The Norman dukedom must not be left without
an heir, and this time there must be no question
of the honesty of the heir's claim and right to succession.
Normandy had seen enough division and dissension,
and angry partisanship during the duke's
own youth, and now that he had reached the age of
twenty-four, and had made himself master of his possessions,
and could take his stand among his royal
neighbors, everybody clamored for his marriage, and
for a Lady of Normandy. He was a pure man in
that time of folly and licentiousness. He was already
recognized as a great man, and even the daughter
of Baldwin of Flanders might be proud to marry
him.</p>

<p>Matilda was near the duke's own age, but she had
already been married to a Flemish official, and had
two children. She was a beautiful, graceful woman,
and it is impossible to believe some well-known old
stories of William's rude courtship of her, since her
father evidently was ready to favor the marriage, and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg235" name="pg235"></a>[Pg235]</span>
she seems to have been a most loyal and devoted
wife to her husband, and to have been ready enough
to marry him hastily at the end of a most troublesome
courtship. The great Council of Rheims had
forbidden their marriage, as we have already seen,
and the pious Pope Leo had struck blows right and
left among high offenders of the Church's laws; a
whole troop of princes were excommunicated or put
under heavy penances, and the Church's own officials
were dealt justly with according to their sins. When
most of these lesser contemporaries were properly
sentenced, a decree followed, which touched two
more illustrious men: the Count of Flanders was
forbidden to give his daughter to the Norman duke
for a wife, and William, in his turn, was forbidden to
take her. For four long years the lovers—if we may
believe them to be lovers—were kept apart on the
Pope's plea of consanguinity. There is no evidence
remaining that this was just, yet there truly may
have been some relationship. It is much easier to
believe it, at any rate, than that the count's wife
Adela's former child-marriage to William's uncle
could have been put forward as any sort of objection.</p>

<p>We must leave for another chapter the affairs of
Normandy and William's own deeds during the four
years, and go forward with this story of his marriage
to a later time, when in the course of Italian affairs,
a chance was given to bring the long courtship to a
happy end. Strangely enough this came by means
of the De Hautevilles and that Norman colony whose
fortunes we have already briefly traced. In the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg236" name="pg236"></a>[Pg236]</span>
conflict with Pope Leo, when he was forced to yield to
the Normans' power and to recognize them as a
loyal state, William either won a consent to his wedding
or else dared to brave the Pope's disapproval.
While Leo was still in subjection the eager duke
hurried to his city of Eu, near the Flemish border,
and met there Count Baldwin and his daughter.
There was no time spent in splendid processions
and triumphal pageants of the Flemish craftsmen;
some minor priest gave the blessing, and as the duke
and his hardly-won wife came back to the Norman
capital there was a great cheering and rejoicing all
the way; and the journey was made as stately and
pompous as heart could wish. There was a magnificent
welcome at Rolf's old city of Rouen; it was
many years since there had been a noble lady, a
true duchess, on the ducal throne of Normandy.</p>

<p>But the spirit of ecclesiasticism held its head too
high in the pirates' land to brook such disregard of
its canons, even on the part of its chief ruler. There
was an uncle of William's, named Mauger, who was
primate of the Norman church. He is called on
every hand a very bad man—at any rate, his faults
were just the opposite of William's, and of a sensual
and worldly stamp. He was not a fit man for the
leader of the clergy, in William's opinion. Yet Mauger
was zealous in doing at least some of the duties
of his office—he did not flinch from rebuking his
nephew! All the stories of his life are of the worst
sort, unless we give him the credit of trying to do
right in this case, but we can too easily remember
the hatred that he and all his family bore toward the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg237" name="pg237"></a>[Pg237]</span>
bastard duke in his boyhood, and suspect at least
that jealousy may have taken the place of scorn and
despising. One learns to fear making point-blank
decisions about the character of a man so long dead,
even of one whom everybody blamed like Mauger.
His biographers may have been his personal enemies,
and later writers have ignorantly perpetuated an unjust
hue and cry.</p>

<p>Perhaps Lanfranc may be trusted better, for he too
blamed the duke for breaking a holy law,—Lanfranc
the merry, wise Italian, who loved his fellow-men,
and who was a teacher by choice and by gift of God.
All Normandy was laid under a ban at this time for
the wrong its master had done. Lanfranc rebuked
the assumed sinner bravely, and William's fierce stern
temper blazed out against him, and ordered a vicious
revenge of the insult to him and to his wife. The
just William, who kept Normandy in such good
order, who stood like a bulwark of hewn stone between
his country and her enemies, was the same
William who could toss severed hands and feet over
the Alençon wall, and give orders to burn the grain
stacks and household goods of the abbey of Bec.
We have seen how the duke and the abbot met, and
how they became friends again, and Lanfranc made
peace with Pope Leo and won him the loyalty of
Normandy in return. Very likely Lanfranc was glad
to explain the truth and to be relieved from upholding
such a flimsy structure as the church's honor
demanded. At any rate, William gladly paid his
Peter's pence and set about building his great abbey
of St. Etienne, in Caen, for a penance, and made
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg238" name="pg238"></a>[Pg238]</span>
Lanfranc its prelate, and Matilda built her abbey of
the Holy Trinity, while in four of the chief towns of
Normandy hospitals were built for the old and sick
people of the duchy. We shall see more of these
churches presently, but there they still stand, facing
each other across the high-peaked roofs of Caen;
high and stately churches, the woman's tower and
the man's showing characteristics of boldness and of
ornament that mark the builders' fancy and carry us
in imagination quickly back across the eight hundred
years since they were planned and founded. Anselm,
Maurilius, and Lanfranc, these were the teachers and
householders of the great churches, and one must
have a new respect for the young duke and duchess
who could gather and hold three such scholars and
saintly men to be leaders of the church in Normandy.</p>

<p>There were four sons and three daughters born to
William and Matilda, and there is no hint of any
difference or trouble between the duke and his wife
until they were unable to agree about the misconduct
of their eldest son. Matilda's influence for
good may often be traced or guessed at in her husband's
history, and there are pathetic certainties of
her resignation and gentleness when she was often
cruelly hurt and tried by the course of events.</p>

<p>Later research has done away with the old idea of
her working the famous Bayeux tapestry with the
ladies of her court to celebrate the Conqueror's great
deeds; but he needed no tribute of needle-work, nor
she either, to make them remembered. They have
both left pictures of themselves done in fadeless
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg239" name="pg239"></a>[Pg239]</span>
colors and living text of lettering that will stand while
English words are spoken, and Norman trees bloom
in the spring, and Norman rivers run to the sea, and
the towers of Caen spring boldly toward the sky.</p>

<p>We cannot be too thankful that so much of these
historic churches has been left untouched. When it
is considered that at five separate times the very
fiends of destruction and iconoclasm seem to have
been let loose in Normandy, it is a great surprise
that there should be so many old buildings still in
existence. From the early depredations of the
Northmen themselves, down to the religious wars of
the sixteenth century and the French revolution of
the eighteenth, there have been other and almost
worse destroying agencies than even the wars themselves.
Besides the natural decay of masonry and
timber, there was the very pride and growing wealth
of the rich monastic orders and the large towns, who
liked nothing better than to pull down their barns
to build greater and often less interesting ones.
The most prosperous cities naturally build the best
churches, as they themselves increase, and naturally
replace them oftenest, and so retain fewest that are
of much historical interest in the end. The most
popular weapon in the tenth and eleventh centuries
was fire; and the first thing that Norman assailants
were likely to do, was to throw burning torches over
the walls into the besieged towns. Again and again
they were burnt—houses, churches, and all.</p>

<p>The Normans were constantly improving, however,
in their fashions of building, and had made a
great advance upon the Roman architecture which
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg240" name="pg240"></a>[Pg240]</span>
they had found when they came to Neustria. Their
work has a distinct character of its own, and perhaps
their very ignorance of the more ornate and less effective
work which had begun to prevail in Italy,
gave them freedom to work out their own simple
ideas. Instead of busying themselves with petty ornamentation
and tawdry imagery, they trusted for
effect to the principles of height and size. Their
churches are more beautiful than any in the world;
their very plainness and severity gives them a beautiful
dignity, and their slender pillars and high arches
make one think of nothing so much as the tall pine
forests of the North. What the Normans did with
the idea of the Roman arch, they did too in many
other ways. They had a gift of good taste that was
most exceptional in that time, and especially in that
part of Europe; and whatever had been the power
and efficiency of the last impulse of civilization from
the South, this impulse from the North did a noble
work in its turn. Normandy herself, in the days of
William and Matilda, was fully alive and pervaded
with dreams of growth and expansion.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 466px;">
<div><a id="CRYPT_OF_MOUNT_ST_MICHEL"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i260.jpg" width="466" height="745" alt="" />
<div class="caption">CRYPT OF MOUNT ST. MICHEL.</div>
</div>

<p>Nobody can tell how early the idea of the conquest
of England began to be a favorite Norman dream.
In those days there was always a possibility of some
day owning one's neighbor's land, and with weak
Eadward on the throne of England, only too ready to
listen to the suggestions and demands of his Norman
barons and favorite counsellors, it must have seemed
always an easier, not to say more possible, thing to
take one step farther. There was an excellent antechamber
across the Channel for the crowded court
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg242" name="pg242"></a>[Pg242]</span>
and fields of Normandy, and William and Eadward
were old friends and companions. In 1051, when
Normandy was at peace, and England was at any
rate quiet and sullen, submissive to rule, but lying
fast, bound like a rebellious slave that has been sold
to a new master, William and a fine company of
lords and gentlemen went a-visiting.</p>

<p>All those lords and gentlemen kept their eyes very
wide open, and took good notice of what they saw.</p>

<p>It was not a common thing by any means, for a
great duke to go pleasuring. He was apt to be too
busy at home; but William's affairs were in good
order, and his cousin of England was a feeble man
and more than half a Norman; besides, he had no
heir, and in course of time the English throne would
lack a proper king. The idea of such a holiday
might have pleased the anxious suitor of Matilda of
Flanders, too, and have beguiled the hard time of
waiting. Nobody stopped to remember that English
law gave no right of succession to mere inheritance
or descent. Ralph the Timid was Æthelred's grandson;
but who would think of making him king instead
of such a man as William? The poor banished
prince at the Hungarian court, half a world away,
was not so much as missed or wished for. Godwine
was banished, Harold was in Ireland; besides, it
must be urged that there was something fine in the
notion of adding such a state as Normandy to England.
England was not robbed, but magnificently
endowed by such a proposal.</p>

<p>Eadward was amiably glad to see this brave Duke
of the Normans. There was much to talk over
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg243" name="pg243"></a>[Pg243]</span>
together of the past; the present had its questions,
too, and it was good to have such a strong arm to
lean upon; what could have been more natural than
that the future also should have its veil drawn aside,
not too rashly or irreverently? When Eadward had
been gathered to his fellow saints, pioneered by visions
that did not fade, and panoplied by authentic
relics—nay, when the man of prayers and cloistered
quietness was kindly taken away from the discordant
painfulness of an earthly kingdom, what more easy
than to dream of this warlike William in his place;
William, a man of war and soldiery, for whom the
government of two great kingdoms in one, would
only harden and employ the tense muscles and heavy
brain; would only provide his own rightful business?
And, while Eadward thought of this plan, William
was Norman, too, and with the careful diplomacy of
his race, he joined the daring and outspokenness of
old Rolf the Ganger; he came back with his lords
and gentlemen to Normandy, weighed down with
presents—every man of them who had not stayed
behind for better gain's sake. He came back to
Normandy the acknowledged successor to the English
crown. Heaven send dampness now and bleak
winds, and let poor Eadward's sufferings be short!
There was work for a man to do in ruling England,
and Eadward could not do it. The Englishmen were
stupid and dull; they ate too much and drank too
much; they clung with both hands to their old notions
of state-craft and government. It was the old
story of the hare and the tortoise, but the hare was
fleet of foot and would win.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg244" name="pg244"></a>[Pg244]</span></p>

<p>Win? Yes, this race and that race; and yet the
tortoise was going to be somehow made over new,
and keep a steady course in the right path, and learn
speed, and get to be better than the old tortoise as
the years went on and on.</p>

<p>Eadward had no right to will away the kingship of
England; but this must have been the time of the
promise that the Normans claimed, and that their
chroniclers have recorded. All Normandy believed
in this promise, and were ready to fight for it in after
years. It is most likely that Eadward was only too
glad, at this date, to make a private arrangement
with the duke. He was on the worst of terms just
then with Godwine and his family, and consequently
with the displeased English party, who were their
ardent upholders. Indeed, a great many of these
men were in Ireland with Harold, having turned their
backs upon a king and court that were growing more
friendly to Normandy and disloyal to England day
by day.</p>

<p>The very next year after William's triumphal visit
the Confessor was obliged to change his course in the
still stormier sea of English politics. The Normans
had shown their policy too soon, and there was a
widespread disapproval, and an outcry for Godwine's
return from exile. Baldwin of Flanders, and King
Henry of France, had already been petitioning for
his pardon, and suddenly Godwine himself came sailing
up the Thames, and London eagerly put itself
under his control. Then Eadward the Confessor consented
to a reconciliation, there being no apparent
alternative, and a troop of disappointed and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg245" name="pg245"></a>[Pg245]</span>
displaced foreigners went back to Normandy. Robert
of Jumièges, was among them. The Anglo-Saxon
chronicle tells us gravely, that at Walton-on-the-Naze,
"they were lighted on a crazy ship, and the
archbishop betook himself at once over the sea, leaving
behind him his pall and all his christendom here
in the land even as God willed it, because he had
taken upon him that worship as God willed it not."
The plea for taking away his place was "because he
had done more than any to cause strife between
Godwine and the king"; and Godwine's power was
again the strongest in England.</p>

<p>The great earl lived only a few months longer,
and when he died his son Harold took his place.
Already the eyes of many Englishmen were ready to
see in him their future king. Already he stands out
a bold figure, with a heart that was true to England,
and though the hopes that centred in him were
broken centuries ago, we cannot help catching something
of the hope and spirit of the time. We are almost
ready to forget that this brave leader, the
champion of that elder English people, was doomed
to fall before the on-rushing of a new element of
manhood, a tributary stream that came to swell the
mighty channel of the English race and history.
William the Norman was busy at home, meanwhile.
The old hostility between Normandy and Flanders,
which dated from the time of William Longsword's
murder, was now at a certain end, by reason of the
duke's marriage. Matilda, the noble Flemish lady,
the descendant of good King Ælfred of England, had
brought peace and friendliness as not the least of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg246" name="pg246"></a>[Pg246]</span>
her dowry, and all fear of any immediate antagonism
from that quarter was at an end.</p>

<p>By the alliance with the kings of France, the Norman
dukes had been greatly helped to gain their
present eminence, and to the Norman dukes the
French kings, in their turn, owed their stability upon
their own thrones; they had fought for each other
and stood by each other again and again. Now,
there was a rift between them that grew wider and
wider—a rift that came from jealousy and fear of the
Normans' wealth and enormous growth in strength.
They were masters of the Breton country, and had
close ties of relationship, moreover, with not only
Brittany, but with Flanders and the smaller county
of Ponthieu, which lay between them and the Flemings.
Normandy stretched her huge bulk and
strength between France and the sea; she commanded
the French rivers, the French borders; she
was too much to be feared; if ever her pride were to
be brought down, and the old vassalage insisted
upon, it could not be too soon. Henry forgot all
that he owed to the Normans' protection, and provoked
them by incessant hostilities—secret and
open treacheries,—and the fox waged war upon the
lion, until a spirit of enmity was roused that hardly
slept again for five hundred years.</p>

<p>There were other princes ready enough to satisfy
their fear and jealousy. The lands of the conspirators
stretched from Burgundy to the Pyrenees. Burgundy,
Blois, Ponthieu, Aquitaine, and Poictiers all
joined in the chase for this William the Bastard, the
chief of the hated pirates. All the old gibes and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg247" name="pg247"></a>[Pg247]</span>
taunts, and contemptuous animosity were revived;
now was the time to put an end to the Norman's
outrageous greed of power and insolence of possession,
and the great allied army divided itself in two
parts, and marched away to Normandy.</p>

<p>King Henry's brother, Odo, turned his forces toward
Rouen, and the king himself took a more southerly
direction, by the way of Lisieux to the sea.
They meant, at any rate, to pen the duke into his
old Danish region of the Côtentin and Bessin districts;
all his eastern lands, the grant from Charles
the Simple, with the rest, were to be seized upon and
taken back by their original owners.</p>

<p>Things had changed since the battle of Val-ès-dunes.
There was no division now among the Norman
lords, and as the word to arm against France
was passed from one feudal chieftain to another,
there was a great mustering of horse and foot. So
the king had made up his mind to punish them, and
to behave as if he had a right to take back the gift
that was unwillingly wrung from Charles the Simple.
Normandy is our own, not Henry's, was the angry
answer; and Ralph of Tesson, and the soldiers of
Falaise, the Lord of Mortain, the men of Bessin, and
the barons of the Côtentin were ready to take the
field, and stand shoulder to shoulder. There had
been a change indeed, in Normandy; and from one
end of it to the other there was a cry of shame
and treachery upon Henry, the faithless ally and
overlord. They had learned to know William as a
man not against their interests but with them, and
for them and the glory of Normandy; and they had
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg248" name="pg248"></a>[Pg248]</span>
not so soon forgotten the day of Val-ès-dunes and
their bitter mistake.</p>

<p>The king's force had come into the country by
the frontier city of Aumale, and had been doing
every sort of damage that human ingenuity could invent
between conqueror and vanquished. It was
complained by those who escaped that the French
were worse than Saracens. Old people, women, and
children were abused or quickly butchered; men were
taken prisoners; churches and houses were burnt or
pulled to pieces. There was a town called Mortemer
which had the ill-luck to be chosen for the
French head-quarters, because it was then a good
place for getting supplies and lodging, though now
there is nothing left of it but the remains of an ancient
tower and a few dwellings and gardens. Here
the feasting and revelry went on as if Normandy
were already fallen. All day there were raids in the
neighboring country, and bringing in of captives, and
plunder; and William's spies came to Mortemer, and
went home to tell the duke the whole story of the
hateful scene. There was a huge army collected
there fearless of surprise; this was the place to strike
a blow, and the duke and his captains made a rapid
march by night so that they reached Mortemer before
daylight.</p>

<p>There was no weapon more cherished by the pirates'
grandchildren than a blazing fire-brand, and the
army stole through the town while their enemies still
slept, stupid with eating and drinking, or weary from
the previous day's harrying. They waked to find
their houses in flames, the roofs crackling, a horrid
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg249" name="pg249"></a>[Pg249]</span>
glare of light, a bewilderment of smoke and shouts;
the Normans ready to kill, to burn, to pen them
back by sturdy guards at the streets' ends. There
was a courageous resistance to this onslaught, but
from early morning until the day was well spent the
fight went on, and most of the invaders were cut to
pieces. The dead men lay thick in the streets, and
scattered everywhere about the adjacent fields.
"Only those were spared who were worth sparing
for the sake of their ransom. Many a Norman soldier,
down to the meanest serving-man in the ranks,
carried off his French prisoner; many a one carried
off his two or three goodly steeds with their rich
harness. In all Normandy there was not a prison
that was not full of Frenchmen."<a name="FNanchor_8"
id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
All this was done with scarcely any loss to the Normans, at least
so we are told, and the news came to William that
same evening, and made him thank God with great
rejoicing. It would seem as if only a God of battles
could be a very near and welcome sovereign to this
soldier-lord of Normandy.</p>

<div class="footnote"> <a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Freeman.</div>

<p>The victor had still another foe to meet. The
king's command was still to be vanquished, and perhaps
it might be done with even less bloodshed.
The night had fallen, and he chose Ralph of Toesny,
son of that Roger who sought the Spanish kingdom,
the enemy of his own ill-championed childhood, to
go as messenger to the king's tent. The two chieftains
cannot have been encamped very far apart, for
it was still dark when Ralph rode fast on his errand.
He crept close to where the king lay in the darkness,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg250" name="pg250"></a>[Pg250]</span>
and in the glimmer of dawn he gave a doleful shout:
"Wake, wake, you Frenchmen! You sleep too long;
go and bury your friends who lie dead at Mortemer";
then he stole away again unseen, while the
startled king and his followers whispered together
of such a terrible omen. Ill news travels apace;
they were not long in doubt; a panic seized the
whole host. Not for Rouen now, or the Norman
cities, but for Paris the king marched as fast as he
could go; and nobody gave him chase, so that before
long he and his counts were safe at home again
with the thought of their folly for company. Craft
is not so fine a grace as courage; but craft served the
Normans many a good turn; and this was not the
least glorious of William's victories, though no blood
was spilt, though the king was driven away and no
sword lifted to punish him. The Normans loved a
bit of fun; we can imagine how well they liked to
tell the story of spoiling half an army with hardly a
scratch for themselves, and making the other half
take to its heels at the sound of Ralph de Toesny's
gloomy voice in the night. There were frequent
hostilities after this along the borders, but no more
leagues of the French counts; there was a castle of
Breteuil built to stand guard against the king's castle
of Tillières, and William Fitz-Osbern was made
commander of it; there was an expedition of the
Count of Maine, aided by Geoffrey Martel and a
somewhat unwilling Breton prince, against the southern
castle of Ambrières. But when William hastened
to its relief the besiegers took to flight, except
the Lord of Maine, who was captured and put into
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg251" name="pg251"></a>[Pg251]</span>
prison until he was willing to acknowledge himself
the duke's vassal; and after this there were three
years of peace in Normandy.</p>

<p>It had grown to be a most orderly country. William's
famous curfew bell was proved to be an efficient
police force. Every household's fire was out at
eight o'clock in winter, and sunset in summer, and
its lights extinguished; every man was in his own
dwelling-place then under dire penalty; he was a
strict governor, but in the main a just one—this son
of the lawless Robert. He upheld the rights of the
poor landholders and widows, and while he was feared
he was respected. It was now that he gave so much
thought to the rights of the Church, or the following
out of his own dislike, in the dismissal of his Uncle
Mauger, the primate of the duchy.</p>

<p>There is still another battle to be recorded in this
chapter,—one which for real importance is classed
with the two famous days of Val-ès-dunes and Hastings,—the
battle fought at Varaville, against the
French king and his Angevine ally, who took it into
their silly heads to go a-plundering on the duke's
domain.</p>

<p>Bayeux and Caen were to be sacked, and all the
surrounding country; besides this, the allies were
going to march to the sea to show the Bastard that
he could not lock them up in their inland country
and shake the key in their faces. William watched
them as a cat watches a mouse and lets the poor
thing play and feast itself in fancied security. He
had the patience to let the invaders rob and burn,
and spoil the crops; to let them live in his towns,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg252" name="pg252"></a>[Pg252]</span>
and the French king himself hold a temporary court
in a fine new abbey of the Bessin, until everybody
thought he was afraid of this mouse, and that all the
Normans were cowards; then the quick, fierce paw
struck out, and the blow fell. It is a piteous story of
war, that battle of Varaville!</p>

<p>There was a ford where the French, laden with
their weight of spoils, meant to cross the river Dive
into the district of Auge. On the Varaville side the
land is marshy; across the river, and at no great distance,
there is a range of hills which lie between the
bank of the Dive and the rich country of Lisieux.
The French had meant to go to Lisieux when they
started out on their other enterprise. But William
had waited for this moment; part of the army under
the king's command had crossed over, and were even
beginning to climb the hills. The rear-guard with
the great baggage trains were on the other bank,
when there was a deplorable surprise. William, with
a body of trained troops, had come out from Falaise;
he had recruited his army with all the peasants of the
district; armed with every rude weapon that could
be gathered in such haste, they were only too ready
to fall upon the French mercilessly.</p>

<div class="figright" style="width: 206px;">
<div><a id="A_NORMAN_ARCHER"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i_272.png" width="206" height="313" alt="" />
<div class="caption">A NORMAN ARCHER.</div>
</div>

<p>The tide was flowing in with disastrous haste, and
the Frenchmen had not counted upon this awful foe.
Their army was cut in two; the king looked down
in misery from the height he had thoughtlessly
gained. Now we hear almost for the first time of
that deadly shower of Norman arrows, famous enough
since in history. Down they came with their sharp
talons; the poor French were huddling together at
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg253" name="pg253"></a>[Pg253]</span>
the river's brink; there was no shelter; the bowmen
shot at them; the peasants beat them with flails and
scythes; into the rushing water they went, and
floated away writhing. There was not a man left
alive in troop after troop, and there were men enough
of the Normans who knew the puzzling, marshy
ground to chase and capture those other troopers
who tried to run away.
Alas for the lilies of France!
how they were trailed in
the mire of that riverside at
Varaville! It was a massacre
rather than a battle,
and Henry's spirit was humbled.
"Heavy-hearted, he
never held spear or shield
again," says the chronicle.
There were no more expeditions
against Normandy
in his time; he sued
for a truce, and paid as
the price for it, the castle
of Tillières, and so that
stronghold came back to its rightful lords again.
Within two years he died, being an old man, and we
can well believe a disappointed one. Geoffrey Martel
died too, that year, the most troublesome of the
Bastard's great neighbors. This was 1060; and it
was in that year that Harold of England first came
over to Normandy—an unlucky visit enough, as time
proved. His object was partly to take a look at the
political state of Gaul; but if he meant to sound the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg254" name="pg254"></a>[Pg254]</span>
hearts of the duke's neighbors in regard to him, as
some people have thought, he could not have chosen
a more unlucky time. If he meant to speak for support
in case William proved to be England's enemy
in days to come, he was too late; those who would
have been most ready to listen were beyond the
reach of human intrigues, and their deaths had the
effect of favoring William's supremacy, not disputing
it.</p>

<p>There is no record of the great earl's meeting the
Norman duke at all on this first journey. If we had
a better account of it, we might solve many vexed
questions. Some scholars think that it was during
this visit that Harold was inveigled into taking oath
to uphold William's claim to the English crown,
but the records nearly all belong to the religious
character of the expedition. Harold followed King
Cnut's example in going on a pilgrimage to Rome,
and brought back various treasures for his abbey of
Waltham, the most favored religious house of his
earldom. He has suffered much misrepresentation,
no doubt, at the hands of the monkish writers, for he
neglected their claims in proportion as he favored
their secular brethren, for whom the abbey was designed.
A monk retired from the world for the benefit
of his own soul, but a priest gave his life in teaching
and preaching to his fellow-men. We are told
that Harold had no prejudice against even a married
priest, and this was rank heresy and ecclesiastical
treason in the minds of many cloistered brethren.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg255" name="pg255"></a>[Pg255]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 447px;">
<img src="images/i274.png" width="447" height="116" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.
<br />HAROLD THE ENGLISHMAN.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i7">"The languid pulse of England starts<br /></span>
<span class="i7">&#160;And bounds beneath your words of power."</span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Whittier.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
Just here we might well stop to consider the true
causes and effects of war. Seen in the largest way
possible, from this side of life, certain forces of development
are enabled to assert themselves only by
outgrowing, outnumbering, outfighting their opposers.
War is the conflict between ideas that are
going to live and ideas that have passed their maturity
and are going to die. Men possess themselves
of a new truth, a clearer perception of the affairs of
humanity; progress itself is made possible with its
larger share of freedom for the individual or for nations
only by a relentless overthrowing of outgrown
opinions. It is only by new combinations of races,
new assertions of the old unconquerable forces,
that the spiritual kingdom gains or rather shows its
power. When men claim that humanity can only
move round in a circle, that the world has lost many
things, that the experience of humanity is like
the succession of the seasons, and that there is reproduction
but not progression, it is well to take a
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg256" name="pg256"></a>[Pg256]</span>
closer look, to see how by combination, by stimulus
of example, and power of spiritual forces and God's
great purposes, this whole world is nearer every year
to the highest level any fortunate part of it has ever
gained. Wars may appear to delay, but in due time
they surely raise whole nations of men to higher
levels, whether by preparing for new growths or by
mixing the new and old. Generals of battalions
and unreckoned camp-followers alike are effects of
some great change, not causes of it. And no war
was ever fought that was not an evidence that one
element in it had outgrown the other and was bound
to get itself manifested and better understood. The
first effect of war is incidental and temporary; the
secondary effect makes a link in the grand chain of
the spiritual education and development of the
world.</p>

<p>We grow confused in trying to find our way
through the intricate tangle of stories about the
relation of Harold and William to each other, with
their promises and oaths and understanding of each
other's position in regard to the throne of England.
Of course, William knew that Harold had a hope of
succeeding the Confessor. There was nobody so fit
for it in some respects as he—nobody who knew and
loved England any better, or was more important
to her welfare. He had fought for her; he was his
father's son, and the eyes of many southern Englishmen
would turn toward him if the question of the
succession were publicly put in the Witanagemôt.
He might have defamers and enviers, but the Earl of
the West Saxons was the foremost man in England.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg257" name="pg257"></a>[Pg257]</span>
He had a right to expect recognition from his countrymen.
The kingship was not hereditary, and Eadward
had no heirs if it had been. Eadward trusted
him; perhaps he had let fall a hint that he meant to
recommend his wise earl as successor, even though
it were a repetition of another promise made to
William when Harold was a banished man and the
house of Godwine serving its term of disgrace and
exile.</p>

<p>It appears that Eadward had undergone an intermediate
season of distrusting either of these two
prominent candidates for succession. But the memory
of Eadward Ironside was fondly cherished in
England, and his son, Eadward the Outlaw, the lawful
heir of the crown, was summoned back to his
inheritance from Hungary. There was great rejoicing,
and the Atheling's wife and his three beautiful
children, a son and two daughters, were for a time
great favorites and kindled an instant loyalty all too
soon to fade. Alas! that Eadward should have returned
from his long banishment to sicken and die in
London just as life held out such fair promises; and
again the Confessor's mind was troubled by the
doubtful future of his kingdom.</p>

<p>On the other hand, if we trust to the Norman
records now,—not always unconfirmed by the early
English historians,—we must take into account many
objections to, as well as admissions of, Harold's
claim. Eadward's inclination seems often to swerve
toward his Norman cousin, who alone seemed able
to govern England properly or to hold her jealous
forces well in hand. The great English earls were
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg258" name="pg258"></a>[Pg258]</span>
in fact nearly the same as kings of their provinces.
There was much opposition and lack of agreement
between them; there was a good deal of animosity
along the borders in certain sections, and a deep race
prejudice between the Danes of Northumberland
and the men of the south. The Danes from oversea
were scheming to regain the realm that had belonged
to their own great ruler Cnut, and so there
was a prospect of civil war or foreign invasion which
needed a strong hand. Harold's desire to make
himself king was not in accordance with the English
customs. He was not of the royal house; he was
only one of the English earls, and held on certain
grounds no better right to pre-eminence than they.
Leofric and Siward would have looked upon him as
an undeserving interloper, who had no right to rule
over them. "The grandsons of Leofric, who ruled
half England," says one historian, "would scarcely
submit to the dominion of an equal.... No
individual who was not of an ancient royal house
had ever been able to maintain himself upon an
Anglo-Saxon throne."</p>

<p>Before we yield too much to our natural sentiment
over the story of this unfortunate "last of the
Saxon kings," it is well to remember the bad and
hindering result to England if Harold had conquered
instead of fallen on the battle-field of Hastings.
The weakness of England was in her lack of unity
and her existing system of local government.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 351px;">
<div><a id="GUY_COUNT_OF_PONTHIEU"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i278.png" width="351" height="469" alt="" />
<div class="caption">GUY, COUNT OF PONTHIEU. BAYEUX TAPESTRY.</div>
</div>

<p>There are two or three plausible stories about
Harold's purpose in going to Normandy. It is
sometimes impossible in tracing this portion of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg259" name="pg259"></a>[Pg259]</span>
history through both English and Norman chronicles
to find even the same incidents mentioned. Each
historian has such a different proof and end in view,
and it is only by the closest study, and a good deal of
guesswork beside, that a reasonable account of Harold's
second visit, and the effects of it, can be made
out. We may listen for a moment to the story of
his being sent by Eadward to announce that the English
crown was to be given to the Norman duke by
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg260" name="pg260"></a>[Pg260]</span>
Eadward's own recommendation to the council, or we
may puzzle our way through an improbable tale that
Godwine's son, Wolfnoth, and grandson, Hakon,
were still held by William as hostages between
Eadward and Godwine, though Godwine's family
had long since been formally reinstated and re-endowed.
Harold is supposed to have gone over to
demand their release, though Eadward mournfully
warned him of danger and treachery.</p>

<p>The most probable explanation is that Harold
was bound on a pleasure excursion with some of his
family either to Flanders or some part of his own
country, and was shipwrecked and cast ashore on the
coast of Ponthieu. All accounts agree about this,
though they differ so much about the port he meant
to make and his secret purpose.</p>

<p>In those days wrecking was a sadly common practice,
and the more illustrious a rescued man might
be, the larger ransom was demanded. When we reflect
that much of the brutal and lawless custom of
wrecking survived almost if not quite to our own
time in England, we cannot expect much from the
leniency of the Count of Ponthieu's subjects, or indeed
much clemency from that petty sovereign himself.
Harold was thrown into prison and suffered
many things there before the Duke of Normandy
could receive his message and come to his relief.</p>

<p>We might imagine for ourselves now a fine historical
picture of William the Conqueror seated in his
palace at Rouen, busy with affairs of church and
state. He has grown stouter, and his face shows
marks of thought and care which were not all there
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg261" name="pg261"></a>[Pg261]</span>
when he went to England. His hair is worn thin
by his helmet, and the frank, courteous look of his
youth has given place to sternness and insistance,
though his smile is ready to be summoned when occasion
demands. He is a man who could still be
mild with the gentle, and pleasantry was a weapon
and tool if it were not an unconscious habit. Greater
in state and less in soul, says one historian, who
writes of him from an English standpoint at this
hour in his career. A Norman gentleman lived delicately
in those days; he was a worthy successor of
a Roman gentleman in the luxurious days of the
empire, but not yet enfeebled and belittled by ease
and extravagance—though we do listen with amusement
to a rumor that the elegant successors of Rolf
the Ganger were very dependent upon warm baths,
and a good sousing with cold water was a much
dreaded punishment and penance. The reign of the
valet had become better assured than the reign (in
England) of the offspring of Woden and the house
of Cerdic.</p>

<p>But we forget to watch the great Duke of the Normans
as he sits in his royal chamber and listens to a
messenger from the prisoned Earl of the West
Saxons. It is a moment of tremendous significance,
for by the assistance of winds and waves Harold has
fallen into his power. He must tread carefully now
and use his best cleverness of strategy and treacherous
artifice. How the bystanders must have watched
his face, and listened with eager expectation for his
answer. The messenger pleads Harold's grievous
condition; hints of famine, torture, and death itself
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg262" name="pg262"></a>[Pg262]</span>
have been known to escape this brutal Count of Ponthieu
who keeps the great Englishman in his dungeon
as if he were a robber. Perhaps he only wishes
to gain a greater ransom, perhaps he acts in traitorous
defiance of his Lord of Normandy's known friendship
for England.</p>

<p>William replies at last with stern courtesy. He is
deeply grieved, we can hear him say, for the earl's
misfortune, but he can only deal in the matter as
prince with prince. It is true that Guy of Ponthieu
is his vassal and man, but Guy is governor of his
coast, and makes his own laws. It will cost great
treasure to ransom this noble captive, but the matter
must be carefully arranged, for Guy is hot-tempered
and might easily be provoked into sending Harold's
head to Rouen without his body. Yet half the
Norman duchy shall be spent if need be for such
a cause as the English earl's release.</p>

<p>Fitz-Osbern, the duke's seneschal and Malet de
Graville, and the noble attendants of the palace murmur
a pleased assent as the half-satisfied messenger
is kindly dismissed. They detect an intrigue worthy
of the best Norman ability, and know by William's
face that he has unexpectedly gained a welcome
control over events.</p>

<p>The liberation of Harold was effected after much
manœuvring, necessary or feigned, and when he appeared
before William it was as a grateful man who
was in debt not only for his release from danger and
discomfort, but for a great sum of money and a tract
of valuable landed property.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<div><a id="MOUNT_ST_MICHEL"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i282.jpg" width="600" height="364" alt="" />
<div class="caption">MOUNT ST. MICHEL.</div>
</div>

<p>It is impossible not to suspect that Guy of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg264" name="pg264"></a>[Pg264]</span>
Ponthieu and William were in league with each other,
and when the ransom was paid, the wrecker-count
became very amiable, and even insisted upon riding
with a gay company of knights to the place where
the Norman duke came with a splendid retinue to
meet his distinguished guest. William laid aside
the cumbrous forms of court etiquette and hurried
to the gates of the Chateau d'Eu to help Harold to
dismount, and greeted him with cordial affection, as
friend with friend. Harold may well have been
dazzled by his reception at the most powerful court
in that part of the world. To have a welcome that
befitted a king may well have pleased him into at
least a temporary acknowledgment of his entertainer's
majestic power and rights. No doubt, during
that unlucky visit it seemed dignity enough to be
paraded everywhere as the great duke's chosen
companion and honored friend and guest. At any
rate, Harold's visit seems to have given occupation
to the court, and we catch many interesting glimpses
of the stately Norman life, as well as the humble,
almost brutal, condition of the lower classes, awed into
quietness and acquiescence by the sternness and
exactness of William's rule. It must be acknowledged
that if the laws were severe they prevented much disorder
that had smouldered in other times in the lower
strata of society; men had less power and opportunity
to harm each other or to enfeeble the state.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 443px;">
<div><a id="OLD_HOUSES_DOL"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i284.jpg" width="443" height="318" alt="" />
<div class="caption">OLD HOUSES, DÔL.</div>
</div>

<p>No greater piece of good luck could have befallen
the duke than to win the post of Harold's benefactor,
and he played the part gallantly. Not only the
duke but the duchess treated their guest with
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg265" name="pg265"></a>[Pg265]</span>
uncommon courtesy, and he was admitted to the
closest intimacy with the household. If Harold had
been wise he would have gone back to England as
fast as sails could carry him, but instead of that he
lingered on, equally ready to applaud the Norman
exploits in camp and court, and to show his entertainers
what English valor could achieve. He went
with the duke on some petty expedition against the
rebellious Britons, but it is hard to make out a
straight story of that enterprise. But there is a characteristic
story of Harold's strength in the form of a
tradition that when the Norman army was crossing
the deep river Coesnon, which pours into the sea under
the wall of Mount St. Michel, some of the
troops were being swept away by the waves, when
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg266" name="pg266"></a>[Pg266]</span>
Harold rescued them, taking them with great ease,
at arm's length, out of the water.</p>

<p>There is a sober announcement in one of the old
chronicles, that the lands of Brittany were included
in Charles the Simple's grant to Rolf, because Rolf
had so devastated Normandy that there was little
there to live upon. At the time of William's expedition,
Brittany itself was evidently taking its turn
at such vigorous shearing and pruning of the life of
its fertile hills and valleys. The Bretons liked nothing
so well as warfare, and when they did not unite
against a foreign enemy, they spent their time in
plundering and slaughtering one another. Count
Conan, the present aggressor, was the son of Alan
of Brittany, William's guardian. Some of the
Bretons were loyal to the Norman authority, and
Dôl, an ancient city renowned for its ill luck, and
Dinan were successively vacated by the rebels.
Dinan was besieged by fire, a favorite weapon in
the hands of the Normans; but later we find that
both the cities remained Breton, and the Norman
allies go back to their own country. There is a hint
somewhere of the appearance of an army from
Anjou, to take the Bretons' part, but the Norman
chroniclers ignore it as far as they can.</p>

<p>It is impossible to fix the date of this campaign;
indeed there may have been more than one expedition
against Brittany. Still more difficult is it to
learn any thing that is undisputed about the famous
oath that Harold gave to William, and was afterward
so completely punished for breaking. Yet,
while we do not know exactly what the oath was,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg267" name="pg267"></a>[Pg267]</span>
Harold's most steadfast upholders have never been
able to deny that there was an oath, and there is no
contradiction, on the English side, of the whole
affair. His best friends have been silent about it.
The most familiar account is this, if we listen to the
Norman stories: Harold entered into an engagement
to marry one of William's daughters, who
must have been very young at the time of the visit
or visits to Normandy, and some writers claim that
the whole cause of the quarrel lay in his refusal to
keep his promise. There is a list beside of what
appears to us unlikely concessions on the part of the
English earl. Harold did homage to the duke, and
formally became his man, and even promised to acknowledge
his claim to the throne of England at the
death of the Confessor. More than this, he promised
to look after William's interest in England, and to
put him at once into possession of the Castle of
Dover, with the right of establishing a Norman garrison
there. William, in return, agreed to hold his
new vassal in highest honor, giving him by and by
even the half of his prospective kingdom. When this
surprising oath was taken, Harold was entrapped into
swearing upon the holiest relic of Norman saints
which had been concealed in a chest for the express
purpose. With the superstitious awe that men of
his time felt toward such emblems, this not very respectable
act on William's part is made to reflect
darkly upon Harold. Master Wace says that "his
hand trembled and his flesh quivered when he
touched the chest, though he did not know what was
in it, and how much more distressed he was when he
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg268" name="pg268"></a>[Pg268]</span>
found by what an awful vow he had unwittingly
bound his soul."</p>

<p>So Harold returned to England the duke's vassal
and future son-in-law, according to the chronicles,
but who can help being suspicious, after knowing how
Harold was indebted to the duke and bound with
cunningly contrived chains until he found himself a
prisoner? William of Poitiers, a chronicler who
wrote in the Conqueror's day, says that Harold was
a man to whom imprisonment was more odious than
shipwreck. It would be no wonder if he had made
use of a piece of strategy, and was willing to make
any sort of promise simply to gain his liberty.</p>

<p>The plot of the relic-business put a different face
upon the whole matter, and yet, even if Harold was
dazzled for the time being by William's power and
splendor, one must doubt whether he would have
given up all his ambition of reigning in England. He
was already too great a man at home to play the subject
and flatterer with much sincerity, even though
his master were the high and mighty Duke of the
Normans, and he had come from a ruder country to
the fascination and elegance of the Norman court.
Whatever the oath may have been that Harold gave
at Bayeux, it is certain that he broke it afterward,
and that his enemies made his failure not only an
affair of state, but of church, and waged a bitter war
that brought him to his sad end.</p>

<p>Now, the Norman knights might well look to it
that their armor was strong and the Norman soldiers
provide themselves with arrows and well-seasoned
bows. It was likely that Harold's promise was no
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg269" name="pg269"></a>[Pg269]</span>
secret, and that some echo of it reached from one
end of the dukedom to the other. There were great
enterprises on foot, and at night in the firelight
there was eager discussion of possible campaigns,
for though the great Duke William, their soldier of
soldiers, had bent the strength of his resistless force
upon a new kingdom across the Channel and had
won himself such a valuable ally, it was not likely
that England would be ready to fall into his hand
like a ripe apple from the bough. There was sure
to be fighting, but there was something worth fighting
for; the petty sorties against the provincial
neighbors of Normandy were hardly worth the notice
of her army. Men like the duke's soldiers were
fit for something better than such police duty. Besides,
a deep provocation had not been forgiven by
those gentlemen who were hustled out of England
by Godwine and his party, and many an old score
would now stand a chance of repayment.</p>

<p>Not many months were passed before the news
came from London that the holy king Eadward was
soon to leave this world for a better. He was
already renowned as a worker of miracles and a seer
of visions, and the story was whispered reverently
that he had given his ring to a beggar who appeared
before him to ask alms in the middle of a crowd assembled
at the dedication of a church. The beggar
disappeared, but that very night some English pilgrims
on their way to Jerusalem are shelterless and
in danger near the holy city. Suddenly a company
of shining acolytes approach through the wilderness,
carrying two tapers before an old man, as if he were
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg270" name="pg270"></a>[Pg270]</span>
out on some errand of the church. He stops to
ask the wondering pilgrims whence they come and
whither they are going, and guides them to a city
and a comfortable lodging, and next morning tells
them that he is Saint John the Evangelist. More
than this, he gives them the Confessor's ring, with a
message to carry back to England. Within six
months Eadward will be admitted to paradise as a
reward for his pure and pious life. The message is
carried to the king by miraculous agency that same
night, and ever since he prays and fasts more than
ever, and is hurrying the builders of his great Westminster,
so that he may see that holy monument of
his piety dedicated to the service of God before he
dies.</p>

<p>The Norman lords and gentlemen who listened to
this tale must have crossed themselves, one fancies,
and craved a blessing on the saintly king, but the
next minute we fancy also that they gave one another
a glance that betokened a lively expectation of
what might follow the news of Eadward's translation.</p>

<p>Twice in the year, at Easter and Christmas, the
English king wore his crown in the great Witanagemôt
and held court among his noblemen. In this
year the midwinter Gemôt was held at the king's court
at Westminster, instead of at Gloucester, to hallow
the Church of St. Peter, the new shrine to which so
much more of the Confessor's thought had gone than
to the ruling of his kingdom.</p>

<p>But in the triumphant days to which he had long
looked forward, his strength failed faster and faster,
and his queen, Edith, the daughter of Godwine, had
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg271" name="pg271"></a>[Pg271]</span>
to take his place at the ceremonies. The histories of
that day are filled with accounts of the grand building
that Eadward's piety had reared. He had given a
tenth part of all his income to it for many years, and
with a proud remembrance of the Norman churches
with which he was familiar in his early days, had
made Westminster a noble rival of them and the
finest church in England. The new year was hardly
begun, the Witan had not scattered to their homes,
before Eadward the Confessor was carried to his
tomb—the last of the sons of Woden. He had
reigned for three and twenty years, and was already
a worn old man.</p>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i7">"Now, in the falling autumn, while the winds<br /></span>
<span class="i7">&#160;Of winter blew across his scanty days<br /></span>
<span class="i7">&#160;He gathered up life's embers——"</span>
</div>

<p>But as he lay dying in the royal palace at Westminster
everybody was less anxious about the king, than
about the country's uncertain future. Harold had
been a sort of under-king for several years, and had
taken upon himself many of the practical duties of
government. He had done great deeds against the
Welsh, and was a better general and war-man than
Eadward had ever been. Nobody had any hope of
the Confessor's recovery, and any hour might find the
nation kingless. The Atheling's young son was a
feeble, incompetent person, and wholly a foreigner;
only the most romantic and senseless citizen could
dream of making him Lord of England in such a
time as that. There were a thousand rumors afloat;
every man had his theory and his prejudice, and at
last there must have been a general feeling of relief
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg272" name="pg272"></a>[Pg272]</span>
when the news was told that the saint-king was dead
in his palace and had named Harold as his successor.
The people clung eagerly to such a nomination; now
that Eadward was dead he was saint indeed, and
there was a funeral and a coronation that same day
in the minster on the Isle of Thorney; his last word
to the people was made law.</p>

<p>No more whispering that Harold was the Duke of
the Normans' man, and might betray England again
into the hands of those greedy favorites whom the
holy king had cherished in his bosom like serpents.
No more fears of Harold's jealous enemies among
the earls; there was a short-sighted joy that the
great step of the succession had been made and
settled fast in the consent of the Witan, who still
lingered; to be dispersed, when these famous days
were at an end, by another king of England than he
who had called them together.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<div><a id="FUNERAL_OF_EADWARD_THE_CONFESSOR"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i292.png" width="600" height="367" alt="" />
<div class="caption">FUNERAL OF EADWARD THE CONFESSOR.
 (FROM THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY.)</div>
</div>

<p>The king had prophesied in his last hours; he had
seen visions and dreamed dreams; he had said that
great sorrows were to fall upon England for her sins,
and that her earls and bishops and abbots were but
ministers of the fiend in the eye of God; that within
a year and a day the whole land would be harried
from one end to another with fire and slaughter.
Yet, almost with the same breath, he recommends
his Norman friends, "those whom in his simplicity
he spoke of as men who had left their native land
for love of him," to Harold's care, and does not seem
to suspect their remotest agency in the future harrying.
True enough some of the Norman officers were
loyal to him and to England. This death-bed scene
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg273" name="pg273"></a>[Pg273]</span>
is sad and solemn. Norman Robert the Staller
was there, and Stigand, the illegal archbishop;
Harold, the hope of England, and his sister, the
queen, who mourns now and is very tender to her
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg274" name="pg274"></a>[Pg274]</span>
royal husband, who has given her a sorry lot with his
cold-heartedness toward her and the dismal exile
and estrangement he has made her suffer. He loves
her and trusts her now in this last day of life, and her
woman's heart forgets the days that were dark between
them. He even commends her to Harold's
care, and directs that she must not lose the honors
which have been hers as queen.</p>

<p>There is a tradition that when Eadward lay dying
he said that he was passing from the land of the
dead to the land of the living, and the chronicle
adds: "Saint Peter, his friend, opened to him the
gates of Paradise, and Saint John, his own dear one,
led him before the Divine Majesty." The walls that
Eadward built are replaced by others; there is not
much of his abbey left now but some of the foundation
and an archway or two. But his tomb stands
in a sacred spot, and the prayers and hymns he
loved so devoutly are said and sung yet in his own
Westminster, the burying-place of many another
king since the Confessor's time.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 261px;">
<img src="images/i293.png" width="261" height="87" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg275"
name="pg275"></a>[Pg275]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 445px;">
<img src="images/i294.png" width="445" height="109" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.
<br />NEWS FROM ENGLAND.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"Great men have reaching hands."</span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
So Harold was crowned king of England. Our
business is chiefly with what the Normans thought
about that event, and while London is divided between
praises of the old king and hopes of the new
one, and there are fears of what may follow from
Earl Tostig's enmity; while the Witan are dispersing
to their homes, and the exciting news travels
faster than they do the length and breadth of the
country, we must leave it all and imagine ourselves
in Normandy.</p>

<p>Duke William was at his park of Quevilly, near
Rouen, and was on his way to the chase. He had
been bending his bow—the famous bow that was
too strong for other men's hands—and just as he
gave it to the page who waited to carry it after him,
a man-at-arms came straight to his side; they went
apart together to speak secretly, while the bystanders
watched them curiously and whispered that
the eager messenger was an Englishman.</p>

<p>"Eadward the king is dead," the duke was told,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg276" name="pg276"></a>[Pg276]</span>
but that not unexpected news was only half the
message. "Earl Harold is raised to the kingdom."</p>

<p>There came an angry look into the duke's eyes,
and the herald left him. William forgot his plans
for the hunt; he strode by his retainers; he tied and
untied his mantle absent-mindedly, and presently
went down to the bank of the Seine again and
crossed over in a boat to his castle hall. He entered
silently, and nobody dared ask what misfortune had
befallen him. His companions followed him and
found him sitting on a bench, moving restlessly to
and fro. Then he became quieter; he leaned his
head against the great stone pillar and covered his
face with his mantle. Long before, in the old Norse
halls, where all the vikings lived together, if a man
were sick or sorry or wished for any reason to be undisturbed,
he sat on his own bench and covered his
head with his cloak; there was no room where he
could be alone; and after the old custom, in these
later days, the knights of William's court left him
to his thoughts. Then William Fitz-Osbern, the
"bold-hearted," came into the quiet hall humming a
tune. The awe-struck people who were clustered
there asked him what was the matter; then the
duke looked up.</p>

<p>"It is in vain for you to try to hide the news," said
the Seneschal. "It is blazing through the streets
of Rouen. The Confessor is dead, and Harold holds
the English kingdom."</p>

<p>The duke answered gravely that he sorrowed both
for the death of Eadward and for the faithlessness of
Harold.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg277" name="pg277"></a>[Pg277]</span></p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 343px;">
<div><a id="STIGAND_ARCHBISHOP_OF_CANTERBURY"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i296.png" width="343" height="531" alt="" />
<div class="caption">STIGAND, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.</div>
</div>

<p>"Arise and be doing," urges Fitz-Osbern. "There
is no need for mourning. Cross the sea and snatch
the kingdom out of the usurper's hand," and in this
way stern thought and dire purpose were thrown
into the duke's holiday. The messenger had brought
a lighted torch in his hand that was equal to kindling
great plans that winter day in Normandy.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg278" name="pg278"></a>[Pg278]</span></p>

<p>William and all his men, from the least soldier to
the greatest, knew that if they wished for England
the only way to get it was to fight for it. There had
never been such a proof of their mettle as this
would be. The Normans who went to Italy had
no such opponents as Harold and the rest of the
Englishmen fighting on their own ground for their
homes and their honor; but Norman courage shone
brightest in these days. This is one of the places
where we must least of all follow the duke's personal
fortunes too closely, or forget that the best of the
Normans were looking eagerly forward to the possession
of new territory. Many of their cleverest
men, too, were more than ready to punish the
English for ejecting them from comfortable positions
under Godwine's rule, and were anxious to reinstate
themselves securely. There was no such perilous
journey before the army as the followers of the
Hautevilles had known, while their amazing stories
of gain and glory incited the Normans at home to win
themselves new fortunes. It is a proof that civilization
and the arts of diplomacy were advancing, when
we listen (and the adventurers listened too) while
excuse after excuse was tendered for the great
expedition. The news of Harold's accession was
simply a welcome signal for action, but the heir of
Rolf the Ganger was a politician, an astute wielder of
public opinion, and his state-craft was now directed
toward giving his desire to conquer England and
reign over it a proper aspect in the eyes of other
nations.</p>

<p>The right of heritage was fast displacing
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg279" name="pg279"></a>[Pg279]</span>
everywhere the people's right to choose their kings. The
feudal system was close and strong in its links, but
while Harold had broken his oath of homage to
William, that alone was not sufficient crime. Such
obligations were not always unbreakable, and were
too much a matter of formality and temporary expediency
to warrant such an appeal to the common
law of nations as William meant to make. As nearly
as we can get at the truth of the matter, the chief
argument against Harold the Usurper was on religious
grounds—on William's real or assumed promise
of the succession from Eadward, and Harold's vow
upon the holy relics of the saints at Rouen. This at
least was most criminal blasphemy. The Normans
gloried in their own allegiance to the church. Their
duke was blameless in private life and a sworn defender
and upholder of the faith, and by this means
a most formidable ally was easily won, in the character
of Lanfranc the great archbishop.</p>

<p>Lanfranc and William governed Normandy hand
in hand. In tracing the history of this time the
priest seems as familiar with secular affairs, with the
course of the state and the army and foreign relations,
as the duke was diligent in attending ecclesiastical
synods and church services. It was a time of
great rivalry and uncertainty for the papal crown;
there was a pope and an anti-pope just then who
were violent antagonists, but Archdeacon Hildebrand
was already the guide and authority of the
Holy See. Later he became the Pope famous in
history as Gregory VII. We are startled to find
that the expedition against England was made to
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg280" name="pg280"></a>[Pg280]</span>
take the shape of a crusade, even though England
was building her own churches, and sending pilgrims
to the Holy Land, and pouring wealth most generously
into the church's coffers. "Priests and prelates
were subject to the law like other men," that
was the trouble; and "a land where the king and
his Witan gave and took away the staff of the bishop
was a land which, in the eyes of Rome, was more
dangerous than a land of Jews or Saracens." "It
was a policy worthy of William to send to the threshold
of the apostles to crave their blessing on his intended
work of reducing the rebellious land, and it
was a policy worthy of one greater than William
himself, to make even William, for once in his life,
the instrument of purposes yet more daring, yet
more far-sighted, than his own. On the steps of the
papal chair, and there alone, had William and Lanfranc
to cope with an intellect loftier and more
subtle than even theirs."<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a
href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>

<div class="footnote"> <a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Freeman: "The
Norman Conquest."</div>

<p>William sent an embassy to Harold probably very
soon after the receipt of the news of his coronation.
The full account of both the demand and its reply
have been forgotten, but it is certain that whatever
the duke's commands were they were promptly
disobeyed, and certain too that this was the result
that William expected and even desired. He could
add another grievance to his list of Harold's wrongdoings,
and now, beside the original disloyalty, William
could complain that his vassal had formally refused
to keep his formal promise and obligation.
Then he called a council of Norman nobles at Lillebonne
and laid his plans before them.</p>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg281"
name="pg281"></a>[Pg281]</span></p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 464px;">
<div><a id="NORMANDY_IN_1066"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i300.png" width="464" height="658" alt="" />
<div class="caption">NORMANDY (IN 1066).</div>
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg282"
name="pg282"></a>[Pg282]</span></p>

<p>It was a famous company of counsellors and made
up of the duke's oldest friends. There were William
Fitz-Osbern, and the duke's brother Odo of Bayeux,
whose priesthood was no hindrance to his good
soldiery; Richard of Evreux, the grandson of Richard
the Fearless; Roger of Beaumont and the three
heroes of Mortemer; Walter Giffard; Hugh de
Montfort and William of Warren; the Count of
Mortain and Roger Montgomery and Count Robert
of Eu. All these names we know, and familiar as
they were in Normandy, they were, most of them, to
strike deeper root in their new domain of England.
We do not find that they objected now to William's
plans, but urged only that they had no right to
speak for the whole country, and that all the Norman
barons ought to be called together to speak for
themselves.</p>

<p>This was a return to the fashions of Rolf's day,
when the adventurers boasted on the banks of the
Seine that they had no king to rule over them, and
were all equal; that they only asked for what they
could win with their swords. We do not find any
other record of a parliament in Normandy; perhaps
nothing had ever happened of late which so closely
concerned every armed man within the Norman borders.
The feudal barons had a right to speak now
for themselves and their dependants, and in the
great ducal hall of the castle at Lillebonne William
duke told them his story and called upon them
for help. He had a great wish to revenge Harold's
treatment of him by force of arms, and asked the
noble company of barons what aid they would
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg283" name="pg283"></a>[Pg283]</span>
render; with how many men and how many ships and
with what a sum of money they would follow him
and uphold the weighty and difficult enterprise.</p>

<p>Now we find many of the barons almost unwilling;
even doubtful of the possibility of conquering such
a kingdom as England. After insisting that they
had longed to go plundering across the Channel, and
that the old love for fighting burned with as hot a
fire as ever within their breasts, the chronicles say
that this Norman parliament asked for time to talk
things over in secret before the duke should have any
answer. We are given a picture of them grouped
around this and that pleader for or against the duke,
and are told that they demurred, that they objected
to crossing the sea to wage war, and that they feared
the English. For a moment it appears as if the
whole mind of the assembly were opposed to the
undertaking. They even feared if they promised
unusual supplies of men and treasure that William
would forever keep them up to such a difficult standard
of generosity. I must say that all this does not
ring true or match at all with the Norman character
of that time. It would not be strange if there were
objectors among them, but it does not seem possible
when they were so ready to go adventuring before
and after this time; when they were after all separated
by so short a time from Rolf the Ganger's
piracies, that many could have been so seriously
daunted by the prospect of such limited seafaring
as crossing the Channel. It appears like an ingenious
method of magnifying the greatness and splendor
of the Norman victory, and the valiant leadership of
the duke and his most trusted aids.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg284" name="pg284"></a>[Pg284]</span></p>

<p>William Fitz-Osbern was chosen to plead with
the barons, and persuade them to follow the duke's
banner. He reminded them that they were William's
vassals, and that it would be unwise to disappoint
him. William was a stern man and fearful as
an enemy. If any among them loved their ease, and
wished to avoid their lawful tribute of service, let
them reflect that they were in the power of such a
mighty lord and master. What was their money
worth to them if the duke branded them as faithless
cowards, and why did they wish to disgrace their
names and take no part in this just and holy war
against the usurper?</p>

<p>These were the arguments we can fancy brave
Fitz-Osbern giving them one by one if indeed they
hung back and were close-fisted or afraid. They
commissioned him at last to speak for them at the
next hearing, and when he boldly promised for each
man double his regular fee and allotment—for the lord
of twenty knights forty knights, and "for himself, of
his love and zeal, sixty ships armed and equipped
and filled with fighting men," the barons shouted
at first "No, no!" and the hall at Lillebonne echoed
with the noise.</p>

<p>But it was all settled finally, and we are told that
the duke himself talked with his barons one by one,
and that at last they were as eager as he. The whole
objection seems to have been made for fear that
their doubled and extraordinary tribute should be
made a precedent, but the duke promptly gave his
word of honor that it should not be so, and their
estates should not be permanently weighted beyond
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg285" name="pg285"></a>[Pg285]</span>
their ability. The scribes took down the record of
the knights and soldiers that each baron had promised,
and from this time there was a hum and stir of
war-making in Normandy, and that spring there were
more women than men in the fields tending the
growing crops.</p>

<p>The duke set himself seriously to work. All the
barons of his duchy and all their men were not
enough to depend upon for the overthrowing of
England. William must appeal to his neighbors for
help, and in this he was aided by the Pope's approval,
and the blessing that was promised to those who
would punish Harold and his countrymen, traitors
to the Holy Church. The spoils of England were
promised to all who would win a share in them, and
adventurers flocked from east, north, and south to
enroll themselves in the Norman ranks. Alan of
Brittany was ready to command his forces in person
and to come to William's assistance, and so was
Eustace of Boulogne, but the French nobles who
gathered about their young King Philip, still under
Baldwin of Flanders's guardianship, were by no means
willing to help forward any thing that would make
their Norman rivals any more powerful than they
were already. From Flanders there were plenty of
adventurers, and some high noblemen who needed
little urging to join their fortunes to such an expedition,
and William sent embassies to more distant
countries still, with better or worse results. There
is a tradition that even the Normans of Sicily came
northward in great numbers.</p>

<p>The most important thing, next to carrying a
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg286" name="pg286"></a>[Pg286]</span>
sufficient force into England, was to leave the Norman
borders secure from invasion. If they were repulsed
in England and returned to find they had lost part of
Normandy, that would be a sorry fate indeed, and
the duke exerted himself in every way to leave his
territory secure.</p>

<p>The most powerful alliance was that with the
papal court at Rome. Here Lanfranc could serve
his adopted country to good effect. Hildebrand's
power was making itself felt more and more, and it
was he who most ardently desired and fostered the
claim of the Church to a mastery of all the crowns
of Christendom. "The decree went forth, which
declared Harold to be a usurper and William to be
the lawful claimant of the English crown. It would
even seem that it declared the English king and all
his followers to be cut off from the communion of
the faithful. William was sent forth as an avenger
to chastise the wrong and perjury of his faithless
vassal. But he was also sent forth as a missionary,
to guide the erring English into the true path, to
teach them due obedience to Christ's vicar, and to
secure a more punctual payment of the temporal
dues of his apostle. The cause of the invasion was
blessed, and precious gifts were sent as the visible
exponents of the blessing. A costly ring was sent,
containing a relic, holier, it may be, than any on
which Harold had sworn—a hair of the prince of the
apostles. And with the ring came a consecrated banner."<a
name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10"
class="fnanchor">[10]</a> These were, after all, more
formidable weapons than the Norman arrows. They inspired <span
class="xxpgno"><a id="pg287" name="pg287"></a>[Pg287]</span>
not only courage, but a sense of duty and of righteous
service of God. Alas for poor humanity that
lends itself so readily to wrongdoing, and even hopes
to win heaven by making this earth a place of bloodshed
and treachery. Now, William had something
besides English lands and high places for knight and
priest alike on conquered soil—he could give security
and eminence in the world to come. Heaven itself
had been promised by its chief representative on
earth to those who would fight for the Duke of Normandy
against England. Hildebrand had made a
last appeal to the holy assembly of cardinals when he
told the story of the profaned relics and Harold's
broken oath, and had urged the willing fathers of
the church to consider how pious and benevolent it
would be to Christianize the barbarous and heathen
Saxons. Nobody took pains to remember that the
priesthood of England owned a third of the English
lands, and ruled them with a rod of iron. So long as
England would not bend the knee to Rome, what
did all that matter?</p>

<div class="footnote"> <a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a
href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Freeman, "The
Norman Conquest."</div>

<p>One significant thing happened at this time. Who
should make his appearance at the duke's court but
Tostig, the son of Godwine, eager, no doubt, to plot
against Harold, and to take a sufficient revenge for the
banishment and defeat by means of which he was
then an outcast. He did not linger long, for the
busy duke sent him quickly away, not uncommissioned
for the war that was almost ready to begin.</p>

<p>Harold also had set himself at work to gather his
forces and to be in readiness for an attack which was
sure to come. Another enemy was first in the field,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg288" name="pg288"></a>[Pg288]</span>
for in the spring Tostig appeared in the Isle of
Wight, the captain of a fleet of ships that were
manned by Flemish and Norman men. He had received
aid from William, and proceeded to wreak
his vengeance upon the Kent and Sussex villages
over which his father had once ruled. He does not
appear to have gained any English allies, except at
the seaport of Sandwich, where he probably hired
some sailors; then he went northward from there
with sixty ships and attacked the coast of Godwine's
earldom. He made great havoc in the shore towns,
but Eadwine and Morkere of Northumberland hurried
to meet him with their troops and drove him away,
so that with only twelve ships left he went to Scotland,
where Malcolm, the Scottish king received him
with a hearty welcome, and entertained him politely
the rest of the summer. They had lately been sworn
enemies, but now that Tostig was fighting against
England, Malcolm put aside all bygone prejudice.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 456px;">
<div><a id="ENGLAND"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i308.png" width="456" height="642" alt="" />
<div class="caption">ENGLAND.</div>
</div>

<p>In the summer of that eventful year, Tostig first
proposed to the king of Denmark that he should
come to England and help him to recover his earldom.
Swegen had the good sense to refuse, and then the
outlaw went on to Norway to make further proposals
to Harold Hardrada, who also listened incredulously,
but when Tostig suggested that Harold should be
king of England, and that he would only ask to be
under-king of the northern territory, that he would
do homage to Harold and serve him loyally, the great
Norwegian chieftain consented to make ready for
an expedition. He seems to have been much like
Rolf the Ganger, and a true, valiant viking at heart.

<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg290" name="pg290"></a>[Pg290]</span> The old saga whence the story comes makes us forget
the plottings and claims of Rome and the glories
of Norman court life; the accounts of Harold Hardrada's
expedition are like a breath of cold wind
from the Northern shores, and the sight of a shining
dragon-ship stealing away between the high shores
of a fiord, outward-bound for a bout of plundering.
But the saga records also the fame and prowess of
that other Harold, the son of Godwine, and magnifies
the power of such an enemy.</p>

<p>Perhaps the English king trusted at first in the
ability of the northern earls to take care of their
own territory, and only tried to stand guard over the
southern coast.</p>

<p>He gathered an army and kept it together all the
latter part of the summer, a most unprecedented and
difficult thing in those days; and with help from the
local forces, or what we should call the militia, his
soldiers kept guard along the shores of Sussex and
Kent. We cannot estimate what a troublesome step
forward in the art of warfare this was for Englishmen,
who were used to quick forced marches and decisive
battles, and a welcome dispersion after the
cessation of whatever exciting cause or sudden summons
had gathered them.</p>

<p>Harold's ships patrolled the Channel and the footsoldiers
paced the downs, but food, always hard to obtain,
became at last impossible, and in September the
army broke ranks. Harold himself went back to London,
whither the fleet was also sent, but on the way
it met with disaster, and many of the ships were lost
and many more began to leak and were reluctantly
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg291" name="pg291"></a>[Pg291]</span>
judged unseaworthy. The whole southern coast was
left undefended; it was neither the king's fault nor
the subjects' fault. Both had done their best,—but
the crops must be gathered then or not at all, and at
any rate, the army was weakened by famine and a
growing belief in the uncertainty of attack.</p>

<p>Alas for Harold's peace of mind! In those very
days William the Norman's host was clustering and
gathering like bees just ready to swarm, on the coast
of Normandy, and from the mouth of the Bergen
fiord came Harold Hardrada with a great company,
with a huge mass of treasure, such as had not for
years and years floated away from a Northern haven.
It seems as if he had determined to migrate, to crush
the English usurper, and then to establish himself as
Cnut had done in the richer southern kingdom.
There must have been some knowledge in Norway of
the state of things in England and Normandy, but
this famous old adventurer was ready to fight whoever
he met, and the Black Raven was flying at his
masthead. Bad omens cast their shadows over this
great expedition of the last of the sea-kings, but
away he sailed to the Shetland Islands and left his
wife and daughters there, while he gained new allies;
and still farther south, Tostig came to meet him
with a new army which he had gathered in Flanders.
An Irish chieftain and a great lord from Iceland
were there too, and down they all came upon the
defenceless country that was marked as their prey,
burning and destroying church and castle and humble
homestead, daring the Englishmen to come out and
fight and drive them away again. We have no time
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg292" name="pg292"></a>[Pg292]</span>
to trace their lawless campaign. The two northern
earls summoned their vassals, but in a few days after
the Northmen had landed they had taken, without
much trouble it appears to us, the city of York, and
news was hurriedly sent to the king of England.</p>

<p>What a grievous message! Harold, the son of
Godwine, was ill, his southern coast was undefended,
still he could not forget the message that William
had sent to him late in the summer by a spy who had
crossed to Normandy, that the Normans would soon
come and teach him how many they were and what
they could do. But a holy abbot consoled the king
by telling him that Eadward the Confessor had shown
himself in a vision and assured his successor of certain
victory.</p>

<p>The prophecy was proved to be true; the king summoned
his strength and his soldiers and marched
to York. There King Harold was to set up his new
kingdom; he had not the desire for revenge that
filled Tostig's breast, and was anxious to prove himself
a generous and wise ruler. As he came toward
the walls which had been so easily won, the rival
Harold's army comes in sight—first a great cloud of
dust like a whirlwind, and next the shining spears
prick through and glitter ominously. A little later
Harold of England sends a message to his brother
Tostig. He shall have again his kingdom of Northumberland
if he will be loyal; and Tostig sends back
a message in his turn to ask what shall be the portion
of Harold Hardrada. "Seven feet of English ground
for his grave," says the other Harold, and the fight
begins.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg293" name="pg293"></a>[Pg293]</span></p>

<p>Alas for the tall Northman, the winner of eighty
castles from the Saracens, the scourge of Moslem
and robber in Palestine; the ally of Sicily, of Russia,
and the Greeks! Alas for the kingdom he had
lightly lost in Norway! Alas for the wife and
daughters who were watching all through those
shortening September days in the Orkneys for the
triumphant return of the fleet—for Harold the saga-man
and sea-king, who built his hopes too high. He
may be fierce with the old rage of the Berserkers, and
lay sturdily about him with his heavy two-handed
sword; he may mow down great swaths of Englishmen
like grain, but the moment comes when an
arrow flies with its sharp whistle straight at his
throat, and he falls dead, and his best fighters fall in
heaps above him; the flag of the Black Raven of
Norway is taken. Tostig is dead, and Harold of
England is winner of that great day at Stamford
Bridge, the last great victory that he and his men
would ever win, the last fight of England before the
Conquest. Out of the crowd of ships that had come
from the North only four and twenty sailed away
again, and Harold made peace with the Orkney-men
and the Icelanders and the rest. Since that day
there has been peace between England and the countries
of the Northern Seas. Harold's last victory
was with the past, one might say, with the Northmen
of another age and time, as if the last tie of his
country were broken with the old warfare and earlier
enemies. New relationships were established, the
final struggle for mastery was decided. The battle
of Stamford Bridge might have been called a deadly
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg294" name="pg294"></a>[Pg294]</span>
game at jousting, and the English knight receives
the prize and rides home the victor of the tournament.
Yet that very day of triumph saw the approach
of a new foe—the Norman ships full of horses
and men are ready to put out for the English shore.
Harold must fight another battle and lose it, and a
new order of things must begin in Britain. The
Northmen and the Normans; it is a long step between
the two, and yet England's past and her future
meet; the swordsmen's arms that ache from one
battle must try their strength again in another; but
the Normans bring great gifts at the point of their
arrows—without them "England would have been
mechanical, not artistic; brave, not chivalrous; the
home of learning, not of thought."</p>

<p>Three days after the fight Harold sits at a splendid
banquet among his friends, and a breathless messenger
comes in fleet-footed with bad news. Muster
your axemen and lances, Harold, King of the English;
the Normans have come like a flight of locusts
and are landing on the coast of Kent.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 238px;">
<img src="images/i313.png" width="238" height="59" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg295"
name="pg295"></a>[Pg295]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 443px;">
<img src="images/i314.png" width="443" height="120" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.
<br />THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"I see thy glory, like a shooting star,<br /></span>
<span class="i9">&#160;Fall to the base earth from the firmament!<br /></span>
<span class="i9">&#160;Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west."</span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
Early in the summer there was a sound of wood-chopping
and a crash of falling trees in the forests of
Normandy, and along her shores in the shipyards
the noise of shipwrights' mallets began, and the
forging of bolts and chains. The hemp-fields enlarge
their borders, and catch the eye quickly with their
brilliant green leafage. There is no better trade now
than that of the armorer's, and many a Norman knight
sees to it that the links of his chain-mail jerkin and
helmet are strongly sewn, and that he is likely to be
well defended by the clanking habit that he must
buckle on. Horses and men are drilling in the
castle yards, and every baron gathers his troop, and
is stern in his orders and authority. The churches
are crowded, the priests are urging the holy cause,
and war is in everybody's mind. The cherry blossoms
whiten and fall, the apple-trees are covered
with rosy snow, mid-summer sees the young fruit
greaten on the boughs, the sun rides high in the sky,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg296" name="pg296"></a>[Pg296]</span>
and the soldiers' mail weighs heavy; through the
country-lanes go troops of footmen and horsemen.
You can see the tips of their unstrung bows moving
above the hedges, and their furled banners with
heraldic device or pious seal. They are all going
toward the sea, toward the mouth of the river Dive.
The peasant women and children stand in their cottage
doors and watch the straggling processions on
their way. It is indeed a cause to aid with one's
prayers, this war against the heathen English.</p>

<p>All summer long, armed men were collecting at
William's head-quarters from every part of Normandy,
or wherever his summons had wakened a favorable
response. If we can believe the chroniclers, the army
was well paid and well fed and kept in good order.
It became a question which army would hold its
ground longest; Harold's, on the Sussex downs, or
William's, by the Dive. At last, news was brought
that the Englishmen were disbanded, then the Frenchmen—as
we begin to hear our Normans called,—the
Frenchmen begin to make ready for their expedition.
There may have been skirmishes by sea in the hot
weather, but it was not until early autumn that William
gave orders to embark. There are different stories
about the magnitude of the force. The defeated
party would have us believe that they were enormously
overpowered, and so set the numbers very
high; the conquerors, on the other hand, insist that
they had not quantity so much as quality to serve
them in the fight, and that it was not the size of
their army but the valor of it that won the day.
We are told that there were six hundred and ninety-six
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg297" name="pg297"></a>[Pg297]</span>
ships and fourteen thousand men; we are told
also that there were more than three thousand ships
and sixty thousand men, all told; and other accounts
range between these two extremes.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 483px;">
<div><a id="NORMAN_VESSEL_FROM_BAYEUX_TAPESTRY"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i316.png" width="483" height="287" alt="" />
<div class="caption">NORMAN VESSEL. (FROM BAYEUX TAPESTRY.)</div>
</div>

<p>For a month the Norman army waited at the
mouth of the Dive for a south wind, but no south
wind blew, while an adverse storm scattered them
and strewed the shore with Norman bodies. At last,
the duke took advantage of a westerly breeze and
set sail for St. Valery, off the coast of Ponthieu, from
whence he hoped to go more easily over to England.
At the famous abbey of St. Valery he was saying his
prayers and watching the weather-cocks for fifteen
days, and he and his captains made generous offerings
at the holy shrines. The monks came out at
last in solemn procession bearing their sacred relics,
and the Norman host knelt devoutly and did homage.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg298" name="pg298"></a>[Pg298]</span>
At Caen, in June, the two great minsters had been
dedicated, and William and Matilda had given their
young daughter Cecily to the service of God, together
with rich offerings of lands and money.
In their own churches, therefore, and at many another
Norman altar beside, prayer and praise never
ceased in those days while Harold was marching to
Stamford Bridge.</p>

<p>At last, on Wednesday, the twenty-seventh of
September, the wind went round to the southward,
and the great fleet sailed. The soldiers believed
that their prayers had been answered, and that they
were the favorites of heaven. They crowded on
board the transport-ships, and were heedless of every
thing save that they were not left behind, and had
their armor and weapons ready for use. The trumpets
were playing, their voices cried loud above the
music that echoed back in eager strains from the
shore. The horsemen shouted at their horses, and
the open ships were plainer copies of the dragon-ships
of old; they carried gayly dressed gentlemen,
and shining gonfanons, and thickets of glittering
spears. The shields were rich with heraldic blazoning,
and the golden ship, Mora, that the Duchess
Matilda had given to the duke, shone splendid on
the gray water, as just at evening William himself
set sail and turned the gilded figure of a boy blowing
an ivory trumpet, like some herald of certain victory,
toward the shore of Kent. The Pope's sacred
banner was given to the welcome breeze, and William's
own standard, figured with the three lions of
Normandy, fluttered and spread itself wide. The
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg299" name="pg299"></a>[Pg299]</span>
colored sails looked gay, the soldiers sang and
cheered, and away they went without a fear, these
blessed Normans of the year 1066. On the Mora's
masthead blazed a great lantern when the darkness
fell. It was a cloudy night.</p>

<p>In the early morning, the Mora being lighter-laden
than the rest, found herself alone on the sea, out of
sight of either land or ships, but presently the loitering
forest of masts rose into view. At nine o'clock
William had landed at Pevensey on the Sussex
shore. As he set foot for the second time on English
soil, he tripped and fell, and the bystanders
gave a woful groan at such a disastrous omen. "By
the splendor of God," cried the duke, in his favorite
oath, "I have taken seizin of my kingdom; see the
earth of England in my two hands!" at which ready
turn of wit a soldier pulled a handful of thatch from
a cottage roof and gave it to his master for a further
token of proprietorship. This also was seizin of all
that England herself embraced.</p>

<p>There was nobody to hinder the Normans from
landing or going where they pleased. At Pevensey
they stayed only one day for lack of supplies, and
then set out eastward toward Hastings. In the
Bayeux tapestry, perhaps the most reliable authority
so far as it goes, there is an appealing bit of work
that pictures a burning house with a woman and
little child making their escape. The only places of
safety, we are told elsewhere, were the churchyards
and the churches. William's piety could hardly
let him destroy even an enemy's sacred places of
worship.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg300" name="pg300"></a>[Pg300]</span></p>

<p>The next few days were filled with uncertainty
and excited expectancy. Clearly there was no army
in the immediate neighborhood of Hastings; the
Normans had that part of the world to themselves
apparently, and hours and days went by leaving
them undisturbed. Many a voice urged that they
might march farther into the country, but their
wary leader possessed his soul in patience, and at
last came the news of the great battle in the north,
of Harold's occupation of York, and the terrible disaster
that had befallen the multitude of Harold
Hardrada and Tostig, with their allies. Now, too,
came a message to the duke from Norman Robert
the Staller, who had stood by the Confessor's death-bed,
and who kept a warm heart for the country of
his birth, though he had become a loyal Englishman
in his later years. Twenty thousand men have been
slain in the north, he sends word to William; the
English were mad with pride and rejoicing. The
Normans were not strong enough nor many enough
to risk a battle; they would be like dogs among
wolves, and would be worse than overthrown. But
William was scornful of such advice—he had come
to fight Harold, and he would meet him face to
face—he would risk the battle if he had only a sixth
part as many men as followed him, eager as himself
for his rights.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<div><a id="WILLIAM_THE_CONQUEROR_BAYEUX_TAPESTRY"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i320.png" width="600" height="402" alt="" />
<div class="caption">WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. (BAYEUX TAPESTRY.)</div>
</div>

<p>Harold had bestirred his feasting and idle army,
and held council of his captains at York. Normans
and French and the men of Brittany had landed at
Pevensey in numbers like the sand of the sea and
the stars of heaven. If only the south wind had

<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg302" name="pg302"></a>[Pg302]</span> blown before, so that he might have met these invaders
with his valiant army, too soon dispersed!
To have beaten back William and then have marched
north to Stamford Bridge, that, indeed, would have
been a noble record. Now the Normans were burning
and destroying unhindered in the south; what
should be done? And every captain-baron of the
English gave his word that he would call no man
king but Harold the son of Godwine; and with little
rest from the battle just fought, they made ready to
march to London. They knew well enough what
this new invasion meant; a prophetic dread filled
their hearts, for it was not alone out of loyalty to
Harold, but for love of England, that these men of
different speech and instincts must be pushed off
the soil to which they had no lawful claim.</p>

<p>The fame of the northern victory brought crowds
of recruits to the two banners, the Dragon of Wessex
and Harold's own standard, the Fighting Man, as
they were carried south again. Nothing succeeds
like success; if Harold could conquer the great Hardrada,
it were surely not impossible to defeat the
Norman duke. So the thanes and churchmen alike
rallied to the Fighting Man. The earls of the north
half promised to follow, but they never kept their
word; perhaps complete independence might follow
now their half-resented southern vassalage. At
least they did not mean to fight the battles of Wessex
until there was no chance for evasion. But while
Harold waited at London, men flocked together from
the west and south, and he spent some days in his
royal house at Westminster, heavy-hearted and full
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg303" name="pg303"></a>[Pg303]</span>
of care in his great extremity. He was too good a
general, he had seen too much of the Norman soldiery
already to underrate their prowess in battle;
he shook his head gloomily when his officers spoke
with scorn of their foes. One day he went on a pilgrimage
to his own abbey at Waltham, and the
monks' records say that, while he prayed there before
the altar and confessed his sins and vowed his
fealty to God, who reigns over all the kingdoms
of the earth; while he lay face downward on the
sacred pavement, the figure of Christ upon the cross
bowed its head, as if to say again, "It is finished."
Thurkill, the sacristan, saw this miracle, and knew
that all hope must be put aside, and that Harold's
cause was already lost.</p>

<p>Next, the Norman duke sent a message to Westminster
by a monk from the abbey of Fécamp, and
there was parleying to and fro about Harold's and
William's rival claims to the English crown. It
was only a formal challenging and a final provocation
to the Englishmen to come and fight for their leader,
there where the invaders had securely entrenched and
established themselves. "Come and drive us home
if you dare, if you can!" the Normans seemed to say
tauntingly, and Harold saw that he must make haste
lest the duke should be strengthened by reinforcements
or have time to make himself harder to dislodge.
William's demand that he should come down
from the throne had been put into insolent words,
and the Kentish people were being pitifully distressed
and brought to beggary by the host of
foreigners. Yet Gyrth, the son of Godwine, begged
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg304" name="pg304"></a>[Pg304]</span>
his royal brother to stay in London; to let him go
and fight the Normans; and the people begged Harold,
at the last moment, to listen to such good
counsel. But Harold refused; he could never play
coward's part, or let a man who loved him fight a
battle in his stead; and so when six days were spent
he marched away to the fight where the two greatest
generals the world held must match their strength
one against the other, hand to hand. The King of
England had a famous kingdom to lose, the Duke
of Normandy had a famous kingdom to win.</p>

<div class="figright" style="width: 220px;">
<div><a id="A_NORMAN_MINSTREL"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i324.png" width="220" height="503" alt="" />
<div class="caption">A NORMAN MINSTREL.</div>
</div>

<p>On the night before the fourteenth of October, the
armies stood before each other near Hastings, on the
field of Senlac, now called Battle. They made their
camps hastily; for hosts of them the rude shelters
were a last earthly dwelling-place and habitation of
earthly hopes or fears. Through the Norman encampment
went bands of priests, and the Normans
prayed and confessed their sins. The Bishop of
Coutances and Duke William's half-brother Odo,
Bishop of Bayeux, both these high officials of the
Church were there to stay the hands of their parishioners,
and uphold the devout fighters in this crusade.
Odo made the soldiers promise that whoever
survived the morrow's battle would never again eat
meat on Saturday; by such petty means he hoped
to gain success at the hands of God who rules battles
on a larger scope, and who, through the quarrels
and jealousies of men, brings slowly near the day
when justice shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.
They sang hymns; the watch-fires flickered and
faded; the gray morning dawned, and there in the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg305" name="pg305"></a>[Pg305]</span>
dim light stood the English on a hillside that jutted
like a promontory into the marshy plain. A woodland
lay behind them, as if the very trees of the English
soil had mustered with the men; in the thickest
of the ranks was Harold's
royal banner, the Fighting
Man, and Harold himself
stood close beside it with
his brothers. The awful
battle-axes, stained yet
with the blood of those
who died at Stamford
Bridge, were in every
man's hand, and every
man was sheltered by
his shield and kept silence.
The Normans
saw their foes stand waiting
all together shoulder
to shoulder, yet there was
silence—an awful stillness
in which to see so vast a
host of men, and yet not
hear them speak. The
English had feasted that
night, and sung their
songs, and told the story
of the northern fight.
How their battle-axes looked gray and cold as the
light dawned more and more! The Normans knew
that they might feel the bitter edges and the cleaving
steel of them ere the day was spent.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg306" name="pg306"></a>[Pg306]</span></p>

<p>Archers first, behind them the lancers, and behind
all, the horsemen; so the Normans were placed, high-hearted
and bold with their great errand. To gain is
better than to keep; by night this England might be
theirs in spite of the battle-axes. While the day
was yet young, Taillefer, the minstrel, went riding
boldly out from the ranks singing the song of Roland
and Charlemagne at Roncesvalles, tossing his sword
lightly and fast into the air and catching it deftly
as he galloped to the English lines. There sat the
duke on his horse that was a present from the king
of Spain. His most holy relics were hung about his
neck; as he glanced from Taillefer along his army
front he could see the Côtentin men, led by Neal of
Saint Saviour, and his thoughts may have gone back
quickly to the battle of his early youth at Val-ès-dunes.
What a mighty host had gathered at his
summons! All his Norman enemies were his followers
now; he had won great championship, and if this
day's fortune did not turn against him, the favor of
the Holy Mother Church at Rome, the church of the
apostles and martyrs, was won indeed; and no gift in
Christendom would be more proudly honored than
this kingdom of England made loyal to the papal
crown. William the Bastard, the dishonored, insulted
grandson of a Falaise tanner,—William, the
Duke of proud Normandy, at the head of a host,
knocking at the gates of England; nay, let us set the
contrast wider yet, and show Rolf the Ganger, wet
by salt spray on the deck of his dragon-ship, steering
boldly southward, and William, Duke of the Normans,
rich and great, a master of masters, and soon
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg307" name="pg307"></a>[Pg307]</span>
to be king of a wide and noble land, and winner
of a great battle, if the saints whom he worshipped
would fight upon his side.</p>

<p>Taillefer has killed his two men, and been killed
in his turn; his song has ended, and his sword has
dropped from his hand. The Normans cry "<i>Dex
aide! Dex aide! Ha Rou!</i>" and rush boldly up the
hill to Harold's palisades. The arrows flew in showers,
but the English stand solid and hew at the
horsemen and footmen from behind their shields.
Every man, even the king, was on foot; they shouted
"Out! out!" as the Normans came near; they cried
"God Almighty!" and "Holy Cross!" and at this
sound Harold must have sadly remembered how the
crucifix had bowed its head as he lay prone before
it. And the fight grew hotter and hotter, the Normans
were beaten back, and returned again fiercely
to the charge, down the hill, now up the hill over
the palisades, like a pouring river of men, dealing
stinging sword-thrusts—dropping in clumsy heaps of
javelin-pricked and axe-smitten lifelessness; from
swift, bright-eyed men becoming a bloody mass to
stumble over, or feebly crying for mercy at the feet
that trampled them; so the fight went on. Harold
sent his captains to right and left, and William
matched his captains against them valiantly. The
Norman arrows were falling blunted and harmless from
the English shields, and he told the archers to shoot
higher and aim so that the arrows might fall from
above into the Englishmen's faces. There was no
sound of guns or smoke of powder in that day, only
a fearful wrangling and chopping, and a whir of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg308" name="pg308"></a>[Pg308]</span>
arrow and lance and twang of bowstring. Yes, and
a dolorous groaning as closer and closer the armies
grappled with each other, hand to hand.</p>

<p>Hour after hour the day spent itself, and the fight
would never be done. There was a cry that the
duke was dead, and he pulled off his helmet and hurried
along the lines to put new courage into his men.
The arrows were dropping like a deadly rain, the
axemen and lancers were twisted and twined together
like melted rock that burns and writhes its way
through widening crack and crevice. The hot
flood of Normans in chain-mail and pointed helmets
sweeps this way, and the English with their leathern
caps and their sturdy shoulders mailed like their
enemies, swinging their long-handled weapons, pour
back again, and so the day draws near its end, while
the races mix in symbolic fashion in the fight as they
must mix in government, in blood, in brotherhood,
and in ownership of England while England stands.</p>

<p>Harold has fallen, the gleaming banner of the
Fighting Man, with its golden thread and jewelry, is
stained with blood and mire. An arrow has gone
deep into the king's eye and brain; he has fallen,
and his foes strike needless blows at his poor body,
lest so valiant a spirit cannot be quieted by simple
death. The English have lost the fight, there is a
cry that they are flying, and the Normans hear it and
gather their courage once more; they rally and give
chase. All at once there is a shout that thrills them
through and through—a glorious moment when they
discover that the day is won. William the Bastard
is William the Conqueror, a sad word for many
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg309" name="pg309"></a>[Pg309]</span>
English ears in days to come; to us the sign of
great gain that was and is England's—of the further
advance of a kingdom already noble and strong.
The English are strongest, but the Normans are quickest.
The battle has been given to Progress, and the
Norman, not the Saxon, had the right to lead the way.</p>

<div class="figright" style="width: 264px;">
<div><a id="SOLDIER_IN_CLOAK"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i328.png" width="264" height="533" alt="" />
<div class="caption">SOLDIER IN CLOAK.</div>
</div>

<p>But the field of
Senlac makes a sad
and sorry sight as the
light of the short October
day is fading
and the pale stars
shine dimly through
the chilly mist that
gathers in from the
sea. It is not like
the bright Norman
weather; the slow
breeze carries a faint,
heavy odor of fallen
leaves, and the very
birds give awesome
cries as they fly
over the battle-field.
There are many of
the victors who think
of the spoils of England,
but some better
men remember that
it is in truth a mighty
thing to have conquered
such a country. What will it mean in very
truth that England is theirs?
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg310" name="pg310"></a>[Pg310]</span></p>

<p>Later, William the Conqueror and his knights are
resting and feasting and bragging of their deeds,
there where Harold's standards were overthrown and
the banner of the Three Lions of Normandy waves in
the cool night wind. The living men look like
butchers from the shambles, and the dead lie in
heavy heaps; here and there a white face catches a
ray of light and appeals for pity in its dumb loneliness.
There are groans growing ever fainter, and
cries for help now and then, from a soldier whose
wits have come back to him, though he lay stunned
and maimed among those who are forever silent.
There go weeping men and women with litters—they
cannot find the king, and they must lead the woman
who loved him best of all the earth, Edith the Swan-throated,
through this terrible harvest-field to discover
his wounded body among the heaps of slain.
He must be buried on the sea-shore, the Norman
duke gives command to William Malet, and so guard
forever the coast he tried to defend.</p>

<p>The heralds of victory set sail exultantly across
the brown water of the Channel; the messengers of
defeat go mourning to London and through the sorrowful
English towns. Harold the son of Godwine,
and his brother, Gyrth the Good—yes, and the flower
of all Southern England; no man of Harold's own
noble following lived to tell the story and to bewail
this great defeat. There were some who lived to
talk about it in after days;—and there was one good
joy in saying that as the Normans pursued them
after the day was lost, they hid in ambush in the
fens and routed their pursuers with deadly,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg311" name="pg311"></a>[Pg311]</span>
unexpected blows. But the country side looked on with
dismay while William fought his way to London,
not without much toil and opposition, but at last the
humbled earldoms willingly or unwillingly received
their new lord. Since Eadgar the underwitted Atheling
was not fit for the throne, and the house of Godwine
had fallen, William the Norman was made monarch
of England, and there was a king-crowning in
Westminster at Christmas-tide.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 158px;">
<img src="images/i330.png" width="158" height="108" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg312"
name="pg312"></a>[Pg312]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 452px;">
<img src="images/i331.png" width="452" height="124" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.
<br />WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i7">"Then in his house of wood with flaxen sails<br /></span>
<span class="i7">&#160;She floats, a queen, across the fateful seas."</span>
<span class="rightsig">—A. F.</span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
Rather than follow in detail the twenty-one
years of William's English reign, we must content
ourselves with a glance at the main features of it.
We cannot too often remind ourselves of the resemblance
between the life and growth of a nation
and the life and growth of an individual; but while
William the Conqueror is in so many ways typical of
Normandy, and it is most interesting to follow his
personal fortunes, there are many developments of
Norman character in general which we must not
overlook. William was about forty years old when
the battle of Hastings was fought and won; Normandy,
too, was in her best vigor and full development
of strength. The years of decadence must
soon begin for both; the time was not far distant
when the story of Normandy ends, and it is only in
the history of France and of England that the
familiar Norman characteristics can be traced. Foremost
in vitalizing force and power of centralization
and individuality, while so much of Europe was
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg313" name="pg313"></a>[Pg313]</span>
unsettled and misdirected toward petty ends, this
duchy of Rolf the Ganger seems, in later years, like
a wild-flower that has scattered its seed to every
wind, and plants for unceasing harvests, but must
die itself in the first frost of outward assailment
and inward weakness.</p>

<hr class="tb" />

<p>The march to London had been any thing but a
triumphant progress, and the subjects of the new
king were very sullen and vindictive. England was
disheartened, her pride was humbled to the dust, and
many of her leaders had fallen. In the dark winter
weather there was sorrow and murmuring; the later
law of the curfew bell, a most wise police regulation,
made the whole country a prison.</p>

<p>A great deal of harrying had been thought necessary
before the people were ready to come to William
and ask him to accept the crown. William had a
great gift for biding his time, and in the end the
crown was proffered, not demanded. We learn that
the folk thought better of their conqueror at last,
that Cnut was remembered kindly, and the word
went from mouth to mouth that England might do
worse than take this famous Christian prince to rule
over her. Harold had appealed to heaven when
the fight began at Senlac, but heaven had given the
victory to other hands. The northern earls had forsaken
them, and at any rate the Norman devastations
must be stopped. If William would do for
England what he had done for his own duchy and
make it feared for valor and respected for its prosperity
like Normandy, who could ask more? So the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg314" name="pg314"></a>[Pg314]</span>
duke called a formal council of his high noblemen
and, after careful consideration, made known his
acceptance! There was a strange scene at the coronation
in Westminster. Norman horsemen guarded
the neighboring streets, a great crowd of spectators
filled the church, and when the question was put to
this crowd, whether they would accept William for
their king, there was an eager shout of "Yea! yea!
King William!" Perhaps the Normans had never
heard such a noisy outcry at a solemn service.
Again the shout was heard, this time the same question
had been repeated in the French tongue, and
again the answer was "Yea! yea!"</p>

<p>The guards outside thought there was some
treachery within, and feared that harm might come to
their leader, so, by way of antidote or revenge, they
set fire to the buildings near the minster walls. Out
rushed the congregation to save their goods or, it
might be, their lives, while the ceremony went on
within, and the duke himself trembled with apprehension
as he took the solemn oath of an English
king, to do justice and mercy to all his people.
There was a new crown to be put on,—what had become
of the Confessor's?—but at last the rite was
finished and William, king of the English, with his
priests and knights, came out to find a scene of ruin
and disorder; it was all strangely typical—the makeshift
splendors, the new order of church and state,
the burning hatred and suspicions of that Christmas-tide.
Peace on earth, good-will to men! alas, it was
any thing but that in the later years of William's
reign.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg315" name="pg315"></a>[Pg315]</span></p>

<p>No doubt he built high hopes and made deep
plans for good governance and England's glory. He
had tamed Normandy to his guiding as one tames a
wild and fiery horse, and there seemed to be no
reason why he could not tame England. In the beginning
he attempted to prove himself lenient and
kind, but such efforts failed; it was too plain that
the Normans had captured England and meant to
enjoy the spoils. The estates belonging to the
dead thanes and ealdormen, who fought with Harold,
were confiscated and divided among the Normans:
this was the fortune of war, but it was a bitter
grievance and injustice. O, for another Godwine!
cried many a man and woman in those days. O,
for another Godwine to swoop down upon these
foreign vultures who are tearing at England's heart!
But even in the Confessor's time there was little
security for private property. We have even seen
the Confessor's own wife banished from his side
without the rich dowry she had brought him, and
Godwine's estates had been seized and refunded again,
as had many another man's in the reign of that pious
king whom everybody was ready to canonize and
deplore.</p>

<p>After the king had given orders to his army
to stop plundering and burning, there was a good
deal of irregular depredation for which he was hardly
responsible. He was really king of a very small part
of England. The army must not be disbanded, it
must be kept together for possible defence, but the
presence of such a body of rapacious men, who
needed food and lodging, and who were not content
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg316" name="pg316"></a>[Pg316]</span>
unless they had some personal gain from the rich
country they had helped to win, could not help
being disastrous. Yet there is one certain thing—the
duke meant to be master of his new possessions,
and could use Englishmen to keep his Norman followers
in check, while he could indulge his own
countrymen in their love of power and aggrandizement
at England's expense. There are touching
pictures of his royal progress through the country in
the early part of his reign; the widows of thanes
and the best of the churls would come out with their
little children, to crave mercy and the restitution of
even a small part of their old estates to save them
from beggary. Poor women! it was upon them that
the heaviest burden fell; the women of a war-stricken
country suffer by far the most from change and
loss; not the heroes who die in battle, or the
heroes who live to tell the story of the fight, and
who have been either victors or vanquished. Men
are more reasonable; they have had the recompense
of taking part in the struggle. If they have been in
the wrong or in the right, great truths have come
home to them as they stood sword in hand.</p>

<p>The Norman barons, who had followed their
leader beyond the Channel, had been won by promises,
and these promises must be kept. They were
made rich with the conquered lands, and given
authority, one would think, to their heart's content.
They were made the king's magistrates and counsellors,
and as years went by there was more and more
resentment of all this on the part of the English.
They hated their Norman lords; they hated the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg317" name="pg317"></a>[Pg317]</span>
taxes which the king claimed. The strong point of
the Saxon civilization was local self-government and
self-dependence; but the weak point was the lack of
unity and want of proper centralization and superintendence.
William was wise in overcoming this;
instead of giving feudalism its full sway and making
his Norman barons petty monarchs with right of
coinage and full authority over their own dominion,
he claimed the homage and loyalty, the absolute
allegiance of his subjects. But for his foresight in
making such laws, England might have been such
a kingdom as Charles the Simple's or Hugh Capet's,
and hampered with feudal lords greater than their
monarch in every thing but name.</p>

<p>In England, at last, every man held his land
directly from the king and was responsible to him.
The Witanagemôt was continued, but turned into
a sort of feudal court in which the officials of the
kingdom, the feudal lords, had places. The Witan
became continually a smaller body of men, who were
joined with those officers of the royal power higher
than they. It must be remembered that the Conqueror
did not make his claim to the throne because
he had won his right by the sword. He always
insisted that he was the lawful successor to
Eadward, and the name of Harold the Usurper
was omitted from the list of English kings. Following
this belief or pretence he was always careful
to respect the nationality of the country, and made
himself as nearly as possible an Englishman. His
plans for supplanting the weakness and insularity of
many English institutions by certain Continental
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg318" name="pg318"></a>[Pg318]</span>
fashions, wrought a tremendous change, and put the
undeveloped and self-centred kingdom that he had
won, on a footing with other European powers. The
very taxes which were wrung from the unwilling
citizens, no doubt, forced them to wider enterprise
and the expansion of their powers of resource. Much
of England's later growth has sprung from seed
that was planted in these years—this early springtime
of her prosperity, when William's stern hands
swept from field and forest the vestiges of earlier
harvests, and cleared the garden grounds into leafless
deserts, only to make them ready for future crops.</p>

<p>The very lowest classes were more fortunate under
William's rule than they had been in earlier times.
Their rights and liberties were extended, and they
could claim legal defence against the tyrannies of
their masters. But the upper ranks of people were
much more dissatisfied and unhappy. The spirit of
the laws was changed; the language of the court
was a foreign language; and the modified feudalism
of the king put foreigners in all high places, who
could hold the confiscated estates, and laugh at the
former masters now made poor and resourceless.
The folk-land had become <i>Terra Regis</i>; England
was only a part of Normandy, and the king was
often away, busier with the affairs of his duchy
than of his kingdom. Yet, as had often happened
before in this growing nation's lifetime, a sure process
of amalgamation was going on, and though the fire
of discontent was burning hot, the gold that was
England's and the gold that was Normandy's were
being melted together and growing into a greater
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg319" name="pg319"></a>[Pg319]</span>
treasure than either had been alone. We can best
understand the individuality and vital force of the
Norman people by seeing the difference their coming
to England has made in the English character. We
cannot remind ourselves of this too often. The
Norman of the Conqueror's day was already a man
of the world. The hindering conditions of English
life were localism and lack of unity. We can see almost
a tribal aspect in the jealousies of the earldoms,
the lack of sympathy or brotherhood between the
different quarters of the island. William's earls were
only set over single shires, and the growth of independence
was rendered impossible; and his greatest
benefaction to his new domain was a thoroughly organized
system of law. As we linger over the accounts
of his reign, harsh and cruel and unlovable
as he appears, it is rather the cruelty of the surgeon
than of a torturer or of a cut-throat. The presence
of the Normans among the nations of the earth must
have seemed particularly irritating and inflammatory,
but we can understand, now that so many centuries
have smoothed away the scars they left, that the
stimulus of their energy and their hot ambition
helped the rest of the world to take many steps
forward.</p>

<p>While we account for the deeds of the fighting
Normans, and their later effects, we must not forget
their praying brethren who stood side by side with
them, lording it over the English lands and reaching
out willing hands for part of the spoils. We must
thank them for their piety and their scholarship, and
for the great churches they founded, even while we
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg320" name="pg320"></a>[Pg320]</span>
laugh at the greed and wordliness under their monkish
cloaks. Lanfranc was made bishop of Canterbury,
and wherever the Conqueror's standard was
planted, wherever he gained foothold, as the tide of
his military rule ebbed and flowed, he planted
churches and monasteries. Especially he watched
over his high-towered Battle Abbey, which marked
the spot where the banner of the Fighting Man was
defeated and the banner of the Three Lions of
Normandy was set up in its place.</p>

<p>Before we go further we must follow the king back
to his duchy in the spring after that first winter in
England. Three Englishmen were chosen to attend
his royal highness, and although they might easily
guess that there was something more than mere
compliment in this flattering invitation, these
northern earls, Eadwine, Morkere, and Waltheof
(the Bear's great-grandson), were not anxious to
hurry forward the open quarrel which William himself
was anxious to avoid. Nothing could have been
more unsafe in the unsettled condition of England
than to have left these unruly leaders to plot and
connive during his absence; besides, it would be a
good thing to show such rough islanders the splendours
of the Norman court.</p>

<p>The Norman chroniclers are not often willing to
admit that England was in any respect equal to
their own duchy, but when they have to describe
William's triumphant return, they forget their prudence
and give glowing accounts of the treasure of
gold and silver that he brings with him, and even
the magnificent embroideries, tapestries and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg321" name="pg321"></a>[Pg321]</span>
hangings, and clerical vestments,—though they have so
lately tried to impress upon their readers that heathen
squalor of social life across the Channel which
the Christian had sought to remedy. Church after
church was richly endowed with these spoils, and
the Conqueror's own Church of St. Stephen at Caen
fared best of all. Beside the English wealth we
must not forget the goods of Harold Hardrada,
which had been brought with such mistaken confidence
for the plenishing of his desired kingdom.
There is a tradition of a mighty ingot of gold won
in his Eastern adventures, so great that twelve
strong youths could scarcely carry it. Eadwine and
Morkere of Northumberland must have looked at
that with regretful eyes.</p>

<p>Whatever the English prejudice might have
been, the Normans had every reason to be proud
of their seventh duke. He had advanced their fortunes
in most amazing fashion, and they were proud
of him indeed on the day when he again set his
foot on Norman ground. The time of year was
Lent. Spring was not yet come, but it might have
been a summer festival, if one judged by the way
that the people crowded from the farthest boundaries
of the country to the towns through which William
was to pass. It was like the glorious holidays of
the Roman Empire. The grateful peasants fought
and pushed for a sight of their leader. The world is
never slow to do honor to its great soldiers and conquerors.
The duke met his wife at Rouen, and that
was the best moment of all; Matilda had ruled
Normandy wisely and ably during his five or six
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg322" name="pg322"></a>[Pg322]</span>
months' absence, with old Roger de Beaumont for
her chief counsellor.</p>

<p>The royal procession trailed its gorgeous length
from church to church and from city to city about
the duchy; the spoils of England seemed inexhaustible
to the wondering spectators, and those who
had made excuse to lag behind when their bows and
lances were needed, were ready enough now to clutch
their hands greedily in their empty pockets and follow
their valiant countrymen. William himself was
not slow in letting the value of his new domain be
known; the more men the better in that England
which might be a slippery prize to hold. He had
many a secret conference with Lanfranc, who had
been chief adviser and upholder of the invasion.
The priest-statesman seems almost a greater man
than the soldier-statesman; many a famous deed of
that age was Lanfranc's suggestion, but nobody
knew better than these two that the conquest of
England was hardly more than begun, and long and
deep their councils must have been when the noise
of shouting in the streets had ended, and the stars
were shining above Caen.</p>

<p>No city of Normandy seems more closely connected
with those days than Caen. As one walks
along its streets, beneath the high church towers and
gabled roofs of the houses, it is easy to fancy that
more famous elder generation of Normans alive
again, to people Caen with knights and priests and
minstrels of that earlier day. The Duchess Matilda
might be alive yet and busy with her abbey church
of Holy Trinity and her favorite household of nuns;
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg323" name="pg323"></a>[Pg323]</span>
the people shout her praises admiringly, and gaze at
her lovingly as she passes through the street with
her troop of attendants. Caen is prosperous and gay.
"Large, strong, full of draperies and all sorts of
merchandise; rich citizens, noble dames, damsels,
and fine churches," says Froissart years afterwards.
Even this very year one is tempted to believe that
one sees the same fields and gardens, the same
houses, and hears the same bells that William the
Conqueror saw and heard in that summer after he
had become king of England.</p>

<p>And in Bayeux, too, great portions of the ancient
city still remain. There where the Northmen made
their chief habitation, or in Rouen or Falaise, we can
almost make history come to life. Perhaps the great
tapestry was begun that very summer in Bayeux;
perhaps the company of English guests, some of
those noble dames well-skilled in "English work"
of crewel and canvas, were enticed by Bishop Odo
into beginning that "document in worsted" which
more than any thing else has preserved the true history
of the Conquest of England. Odo meant to
adorn his new church with it, and to preserve the
account of his own part in the great battle and its
preliminaries, with the story of Harold's oath and
disloyalty, and William's right to the crown. There
is an Italian fashion of drawing in it—the figures are
hardly like Englishmen or Normans in the way they
stand or make gestures to each other in the rude
pictures. Later history has associated the working
of these more than fifteen hundred figures with
Matilda and her maidens, as a tribute to the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg324" name="pg324"></a>[Pg324]</span>
Conqueror's valor, but there are many evidences to the
contrary. The old idea that the duchess and her
women worked at the tapestry, and said their
prayers while the army had gone to England, seems
improbable the more one studies the work itself.
Yet tradition sometimes keeps the grain of truth in
its accumulation of chaff. There is no early record
of it, and its historical value was rediscovered only
in 1724 by a French antiquary. The bright worsteds
of it still keep their colors on the twenty-inches wide
strip of linen, more than two hundred feet in length.
Odo is said to have given it to his chapter at
Bayeux, and it has suffered astonishingly little from
the ravages of time.</p>

<p>But we must return to Norman affairs in England.
Odo himself and William Fitz-Osbern had been
made earls of the Counties Palatine of Kent and
Hereford, and were put in command in William's
absence. The rapacity of these Norman gentlemen
was more than their new subjects could bear. The
bishop at least is pretty certain to have covered his
own greedy injustice by a plea that he was following
out the king's orders. Revolt after revolt troubled
the peace of England. Harold's two sons were
ready to make war from their vantage-ground in
Ireland; the Danes and Scots were also conspiring
against the new lord of the English. At last some
of the Normans themselves were traitorous and
troublesome, but William was fully equal to such
minor emergencies as these. He went back to England
late in 1067, after spending the summer and
autumn in Normandy, and soon found himself busy
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg325" name="pg325"></a>[Pg325]</span>
enough in the snarl of revolt and disagreement. One
trouble followed another as the winter wore away.
The siege of Exeter was the most conspicuous event,
but here too William was conqueror, and Southwestern
England was forced to submit to his rule.
At Easter-tide a stately embassy was sent to bring
over the Duchess Matilda from Normandy, and when
it returned she was hallowed as Queen by Ealdred
the archbishop. Let us hope that, surrounded by
her own kindred and people, she did not see the sorrowful
English faces of those women who had lost
husband and home together, and who had been bereft
of all their treasures that strangers might be enriched.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 497px;">
<div><a id="DEATH_OF_HAROLD_BAYEUX_TAPESTRY"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i344.png" width="497" height="341" alt="" />
<div class="caption">DEATH OF HAROLD. BAYEUX TAPESTRY.</div>
</div>

<p>There is a curious tradition that a little while after
this, much woe was wrought because those other Norman
ladies, whose lords had come over to England to
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg326" name="pg326"></a>[Pg326]</span>
fight and remained to plunder, refused to join them,
because they were not fond of the sea, and thought
that they were not likely to find better fare and
lodging. Very likely the queen's residence in her
new possessions had
a good effect, but
some of the Norman
men were obliged to
return altogether,
their wives having
threatened to find
new partners if they
were left alone any
longer. It may have
been an excuse or a
jest, because so many
naturally desired to
see their own country
again.</p>

<div class="figleft" style="width: 259px;">
<div><a id="NORMAN_LADY_COTTON_MSS"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i345.png" width="259" height="473" alt="" />
<div class="caption">NORMAN LADY. COTTON MSS.</div>
</div>

<p>Both Saxons and
Normans paid great
deference to the instinctive
opinions of
women. When such
serious matters as going
to war were before
them, a woman's unreasoning prejudice or favor of
the enterprise was often taken into account. They
seem to have almost taken the place of the ancient
auguries! However, it is not pleasant to feminine
conceit to be told directly that great respect was also
paid to the neighing of horses!
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg327" name="pg327"></a>[Pg327]</span></p>

<p>Henry, the king's youngest son, was born not
long after the queen's arrival, and born too in
Northern England the latest and hardest won at that
time of the out-lying provinces. The very name that
was given to the child shows a desire for some degree
of identification with new interests. William and
Matilda certainly had England's welfare at heart, for
England's welfare was directly or indirectly their own,
and this name was a sign of recognition of the hereditary
alliance with Germany; with the reigning king
and his more famous father. There is nothing more
striking than the traditional slander and prejudice
which history preserves from age to age. Seen by
clearer light, many reported injustices are explained
away. If there was in England then, anything like the
present difficulty of influencing public opinion to quick
foresight and new decisions, the Conqueror and Baldwin
of Flanders' daughter had any thing but an easy
path to tread. Selfish they both may have been, and
bigoted and even cruel, but they represented a better
degree of social refinement and education and enlightenment.
Progress was really what the English of
that day bewailed and set their faces against, though
they did not know it. William and Matilda had to
insist upon the putting aside of worn-out opinions,
and on coming to England had made the strange
discovery that they must either take a long step
backward or force their subjects forward. They
were not conscious reformers; they were not infallibly
wise missionaries of new truth, who tried actually
to give these belated souls a wider outlook
upon life, but let us stop to recognize the fact that no
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg328" name="pg328"></a>[Pg328]</span>
task is more thankless than his who is trying to go in
advance of his time. Men have been burnt and hanged
and disgraced and sneered at for no greater crime; in
fact, there is nothing that average humanity so much
resents as the power to look ahead and to warn others
of pitfalls into which ignorant shortsightedness is
likely to tumble. Nothing has been so resented and
assailed as the thorough survey of England, and the
record of its lands and resources in the Domesday
Book. Yet nothing was so necessary for any sort of
good government and steady oversight of the nation's
affairs. We only wonder now that it was not
made sooner. The machinery of government was of
necessity much ruder then. No doubt William's tyranny
swept its course to and fro like some Juggernaut
car regardless of its victims, yet for England a
unified and concentrated force of government was
the one thing to be insisted upon; Harold and his
rival earls might have been hindering, ineffectual
rulers of the country's divided strength and jealous
partisanship.</p>

<p>Yet the future right direction and prosperity of
England was poor consolation to the aching hearts
of the women of that time, or the landless lords who
had to stand by and see new masters of the soil take
their places. What was won by William's sword
must be held by his sword, and the more sullen and
rebellious the English grew, the more heavily they
were taxed and the faster the land was rid of them.
They were chased into the fens, and pursued with
fire and bloodshed. "England was made a great
grave," says Dickens, "and men and beasts lay dead
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg329" name="pg329"></a>[Pg329]</span>
together." The immediate result of the Conqueror's
rule was like fire and plough and harrow in a piece
of new land.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 435px;">
<div><a id="BATTLE_AXES_BAYEUX_TAPESTRY"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i348.png" width="435" height="365" alt="" />
<div class="caption">BATTLE AXES. BAYEUX TAPESTRY.</div>
</div>

<p>It was a sad and tiresome lifetime, that of the
Conqueror; just or unjust toward his new subjects,
they hated him bitterly; his far-sighted plans
for the country's growth and development gave as
much displeasure as the smallest of his personal
prejudices or selfish whims. Every man's hand was
against him, and hardly an eye but flashed angrily at
the sight of the king. Eadward the Confessor, pious
ascetic, and relic-worshipper, had loved the chase as
well as this warlike successor of his ever loved it,
and had been very careful of his royal hunting-grounds,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg330" name="pg330"></a>[Pg330]</span>
but nobody raised an outcry against his unsaintly
love of slaughtering defenceless wild creatures,
or thought him the less a meek and gentle
soul, beloved by angels and taught by them in
visions. But ever since, the Conqueror's love of
hunting has been an accusation against him as if he
were the only man guilty of it, and his confiscation
of the Hampshire lands to make new forest seemed
the last stroke that could be borne. The peasants'
cottages were swept away and the land laid waste.
Norman was master and Englishman was servant.
The royal train of horses and dogs and merry huntsmen
in gay apparel clattered through the wood, and
from hiding-places under the fern men watched them
and muttered curses upon their cruel heads. There
were already sixty-eight royal forests in different
parts of the kingdom before New Forest was begun.
Everybody thought that England had never seen
such dark days, but so everybody thought when the
Angles and Saxons and Jutes came, and even so
vigorous a pruning and digging at the roots as this
made England grow the better.</p>

<p>Large tracts of the hunting-grounds had been unfit
for human habitation, and it was better to leave
them to the hares and deer. Wide regions of the
country, too, were occupied by the lowest class of
humanity, who lived almost in beastly fashion, without
chance of enlightenment or uplifting. They
were outlaws of the worst sort who could not be
brought into decent order or relationship with respectable
society, and it was better for these to be
chased from their lairs and forced to accept the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg331" name="pg331"></a>[Pg331]</span>
companionship of townsfolk. With these, however, there
were many who suffered undeserved. Among the
rank weeds of England there were plucked many
blooming things and useful growths of simple, long-established
home-life and domestic affection. When
fire was leaping high at the city gates it is impossible
not to regret its enmity against dear and noble
structures of the past, even though it cleared the
way for loftier minsters and fairer dwelling-places.
In criticising and resenting such a reign as William
the Norman's over England, we must avoid a danger
of not seeing the hand of God in it, and the evidences
of an overruling Providence, which works in
and through the works of men and sees the end of
things from the beginning as men cannot. There
may be overstatement in William of Malmesbury's
account of the bad condition of the country at the
time of the Conquest, but the outlines of it cannot
be far from right. "In process of time," he says,
"the desire after literature and religion had decayed
for several years before the arrival of the Normans.
The clergy, contented with a very slight degree of
learning, could scarcely stammer out the words of
the sacraments, and a person who understood grammar
was an object of wonder and astonishment. The
nobility were given up to luxury and wantonness.
The commonalty, left unprotected, became a prey
to the most powerful, who amassed fortunes by either
seizing on their property or selling their persons into
foreign countries; although it be an innate quality
of this people to be more inclined to revelling than
to the accumulation of wealth. Drinking was a
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg332" name="pg332"></a>[Pg332]</span>
universal practice, in which they passed whole nights, as
well as days. They consumed their whole substance
in mean, despicable houses, unlike Normans and
French, who, in noble and splendid mansions, lived
with frugality." "There cannot be a doubt," says
Mr. Bruce in his interesting book about the Bayeux
tapestry, "that by the introduction of the refinements
of life the condition of the people was improved,
and that a check was given to the grosser
sensualities of our nature. Certain it is that learning
received a powerful stimulus by the Conquest. At
the period of the Norman invasion a great intellectual
movement had commenced in the schools on the
Continent. Normandy had beyond most other parts
profited by it. William brought with him to England
some of the most distinguished ornaments of
the school of his native duchy; the consequence of
this was that England henceforward took a higher
walk in literature than she had ever done before."
One great step was the freeing of the lower classes;
there was one rank of serfs, the churls, who were attached
to the land, and were transferred with it,
without any power of choosing their employer or
taking any steps to improve their condition. Another
large class, the thews, were the absolute property of
their owners. William's law that every slave who
had lived unchallenged a year and a day in any city
or walled town in the kingdom should be free forever,
was, indeed, "a door of hope to many," besides
the actual good effects of town life, the natural
rivalry and promotion of knowledge, the stimulus
given to the cultivation and refinements of social
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg333" name="pg333"></a>[Pg333]</span>
life. He protected the early growth of a public
sentiment, which was finally strong enough to venture
to assert its rights and to claim recognition.
He relentlessly overthrew the flourishing slave-trade
of the town of Bristol and no doubt made many
enemies by such an act.</p>

<p>Whatever may have been the king's better nature
and earlier purposes in regard to his kingdom and
duchy, as he grew older one finds his reputation
growing steadily worse. He must have found the
ruling of men a thankless task, and he apparently
cared less and less to soften or control the harshness
of his underrulers and officers. His domestic
relations had always been a bright spot in his stern,
hard life, but at length even his beloved wife Matilda
no longer held him first, and grieved him by favoring
their troublesome son Robert, who was her darling
of all their children. Robert and his mother had been
the nominal governors of Normandy when he was
still a child and his father was away in England.
They seem to have been in league ever afterward,
for when Robert grew up he demanded Normandy
outright, which made his father angry, and the instant
refusal provoked Master Curt-hose to such an extent
that he went about from court to court in Europe
bewailing the injustice that had been shown him.
He was very fond of music and dancing, and spent a
great deal of money, which the queen appears to
have been always ready to send him. He was gifted
with a power of making people fond of him, though
he was not good for very much else.</p>

<p>After a while William discovered that there was a
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg334" name="pg334"></a>[Pg334]</span>
secret messenger who carried forbidden supplies to
the rebellious prince, and the messenger happily had
time to betake himself to a convenient convent and
put on the dress and give, let us hope, heart-felt
vows of monkhood. This is what Orderic Vitalis
reports of a meeting between the king and queen:
"Who in the world," sighs the king, "can expect to
find a faithful and devoted wife? The woman whom
I loved in my soul, and to whom I entrusted my
kingdom and my treasures, supports my enemies;
she enriches them with my property; she secretly
arms them against my honor—perhaps my life."
And Matilda answered: "Do not be surprised, I
pray you, because I love my eldest born. Were
Robert dead and seven feet below the sod, and my
blood could raise him to life, it should surely flow.
How can I take pleasure in luxury when my son is
in want? Far from my heart be such hardness!
Your power cannot deaden the love of a mother's
heart." The king did not punish the queen, we are
assured gravely; and Robert quarrelled with his
brothers, and defied his father, and won his mother's
sympathy and forbearance to the end. He found
the king of France ready to uphold his cause by
reason of the old jealousy of William's power, and
while he was ensconced in the castle of Gerberoi,
and sallying out at his convenience to harry the
country, William marched to attack him, and the
father and son fought hand to hand without knowing
each other until the king was thrown from his
horse. Whereupon Robert professed great contrition,
and some time afterward, the barons having
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg335" name="pg335"></a>[Pg335]</span>
interceded and Matilda having prayed and wept,
William consented to a reconciliation, and even
made his son his lieutenant over Normandy and
Brittany.</p>

<p>In 1083 the queen died, and there was nobody to
lift a voice against her prudence and rare virtue, or
her simple piety. There was no better woman in any
convent cell of Normandy, than the woman who had
borne the heavy weight of the Norman crown, and
who had finished the sorry
task as best she could,
of reigning over an alien,
conquered people. The
king's sorrow was piteous
to behold, and not long
afterward their second
son, Richard, was killed in
the New Forest, a place
of misfortune to the royal
household. Another
trouble quickly followed,
which not only hurt the
king's feelings, but made
him desperately angry.</p>

<div class="figright" style="width: 223px;">
<div><a id="ODO_BISHOP_OF_BAYEUX"></a><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">Go to Illus. List</a></div>
<img src="images/i354.png" width="223" height="329" alt="" />
<div class="caption">ODO, BISHOP OF BAYEUX.</div>
</div>

<p>William had been very
kind to all his kinsfolk on his mother's side, and
especially to his half-brother, Odo, the Bishop of
Bayeux. He had loaded him with honors, and
given him, long ago, vice-regal authority in England.
Even this was not enough for such an aspiring ecclesiastic,
and, under the pretence of gathering tax-money
(no doubt insisting that it was to serve
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg336" name="pg336"></a>[Pg336]</span>
the miserliness and greed of the king), he carried
on a flourishing system of plundering. After a
while it was discovered that he had an ambition
to make himself Pope of Rome, and was using
his money for bribing cardinals and ingratiating
himself with the Italian nobles. He bought himself
a palace in Rome and furnished it magnificently,
and began to fit out a fleet of treasure-ships at the
Isle of Wight. One day when they were nearly
ready to set sail, and the disloyal gentlemen who
were also bound on this adventure were collected
into a comfortable group on shore, who should appear
among them but William himself. The king sternly
related what must have been a familiar series of circumstances
to his audience: Odo's disloyalty when
he had been entirely trusted, his oppression of England,
his despoiling of the churches and the confiscation
of their lands and treasures, lastly that he had
even won away these knights to go to Rome with
him; men who were sworn to repulse the enemies
of the kingdom.</p>

<p>After Odo's sins were related in detail, he was
seized, but loudly lamented thereat, declaring that
he was a clerk and a minister of the Most High, and
that no bishop could be condemned without the
judgment of the Pope. The people who stood by
murmured anxiously, for nobody knew what might
be going to happen to them also. Crafty William
answered that he was seizing neither clerk, nor prelate,
nor Bishop of Bayeux, only his Earl of Kent,
his temporal lieutenant, who must account to him
for such bad vice-regal administration, and for four
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg337" name="pg337"></a>[Pg337]</span>
years after that Odo was obliged to content himself
with close imprisonment in the old tower of Rouen.</p>

<p>Those four years were in fact all that remained of
the Conqueror's earthly lifetime, and dreary years
they were. In 1087 William returned to Normandy
for the last time. The French king was making
trouble; some say that the quarrel began between
the younger members of the family, others that
Philip demanded that William should do homage for
England. Ordericus Vitalis, the most truthful of
the Norman historians, declares that the dispute was
about the proprietorship of the French districts of
the Vexin.</p>

<p>The Conqueror was an old man now, older than
his years; he had never quite recovered from his
fall when Robert unhorsed him at the castle of
Gerberoi; besides he had suffered from other illness,
and had grown very stout, and the doctors at Rouen
were taking him in charge. The king of France
joked insolently about his illness, and at the end of
July William started furiously on his last campaign,
and no doubt took vast pleasure in burning the city
of Mantes. When the fire was down he rode through
the conquered town, his horse stepped among
some smouldering firebrands and reared, throwing
his clumsy rider suddenly forward against the
high pommel of the saddle, a death-blow from
which he was never to recover. He was carried
back to Rouen a worse case for the doctors' skill
than ever, and presently fever set in, and torture followed
torture for six long weeks. The burning fever,
the midsummer heat, the flattery or neglect of his
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg338" name="pg338"></a>[Pg338]</span>
paid attendants; how they all reminded him and
made him confess at last his new understanding and
sorrow for the misery he had caused to many another
human being! Yet we can but listen forgivingly as
he says: "At the time my father went of his own
will into exile, leaving to me the Duchy of Normandy,
I was a mere child of eight years, and from
that day to this I have always borne the weight
of arms."</p>

<p>The three sons, Rufus William, Robert Curt-hose,
and Henry Beauclerc, were all eager to claim their
inheritance, but the king sends for Anselm, the holy
abbot, and puts them aside while he makes confession
of his sins and bravely meets the prospect
of speedy death. He gives directions concerning the
affairs of England and Normandy, gives money and
treasure to poor people and the churches; he even
says that he wishes to rebuild the churches which
were so lately burnt at Mantes. Then he summons
his sons to his bedside and directs those barons and
knights who were present to be seated, when, if we
may believe Ordericus the Chronicler, the Conqueror
made an eloquent address, reviewing his life and
achievements and the career of many of his companions.
The chronicle writers had a habit of
putting extremely pious and proper long speeches
into the mouths of dying kings, and as we read
these remarks in particular we cannot help a suspicion
that the old monk sat down in his cell some
time afterward and quietly composed a systematic
summary of what William would have said, or ought
to have said if he could. Yet we may believe in the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg339" name="pg339"></a>[Pg339]</span>
truth of many sentences. We do not care for what he
expressed concerning Mauger or King Henry, the
battle of Mortemer or Val-ès-dunes, but when he
speaks of his loyalty to the Church and his friendship
with Lanfranc, and Gerbert, and Anselm, of his
having built seventeen monasteries and six nunneries,
"spiritual fortresses in which mortals learn
to combat the demons and lusts of the flesh";
when he tells his sons to attach themselves to men
of worth and wisdom and to follow their advice, to
follow justice in all things and spare no effort to
avoid wickedness, to assist the poor, infirm, and
honest, to curb and punish the proud and selfish, to
prevent them from injuring their neighbors, devoutly
to attend holy church, to prefer the worship of God
to worldly wealth;—when he says these things we
listen, and believe that he was truly sorry at last for
the starving homeless Englishmen who owed him
their death, for even the bitter resentment he
showed for the slaughter of a thousand of his brave
knights within the walls of Durham. He dares not
give the ill-gotten kingdom of England to anybody
save to God, but if it be God's will he hopes that
William Rufus may be his successor. Robert may
rule Normandy. Henry may take five thousand
pounds' weight of silver from the treasury. It is
true that he has no land to dwell in, but let him rest
in patience and be willing that his brothers should
precede him. By and by he will be heir of everything.</p>

<p>At last the king unwillingly gives permission for
Odo's release along with other prisoners of state.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg340" name="pg340"></a>[Pg340]</span>
He prophesies that Odo will again disturb the peace
and cause the death of thousands, and adds that the
bishop does not conduct himself with that chastity
and modesty which become a minister of God. For
a last act of clemency he gives back to Baudri, the
son of Nicolas, all his lands, "because without permission
he quitted my service and passed over into
Spain. I now restore them to him for the love
of God; I do not believe that there is a better
knight under arms than he, but he is changeable and
prodigal, and fond of roving into foreign countries."</p>

<p>On the morning of the eighth of September the
great soul took its flight. The king was lying in restless,
half-breathless sleep or stupor when the cathedral
bells began to ring, and he opened his eyes and
asked what time it was. They told him it was the
hour of prime. "Then he called upon God as far
as his strength sufficed, and on our holy lady, the
blessed Mary, and so departed while yet speaking,
without any loss of his senses or change of speech."</p>

<p>"At the time when the king departed this world,
many of his servants were to be seen running up and
down, some going in, others coming out, carrying off
the rich hangings and the tapestry, and whatever
they could lay their hands upon. A whole day
passed before the corpse was laid upon its bier, for
they who were wont before to fear him now left him
lying alone. But when the news spread much people
gathered together, and bishops and barons came in
long procession. The body was well tended and
carried to Caen as he had before commanded. There
was no bishop in the province, nor abbot, nor noble
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg341" name="pg341"></a>[Pg341]</span>
prince, who did not go to the burying if he could,
and there were besides many monks, priests, and
clerks."</p>

<p>So writes Master Wace in his long rhyme of the
Conquest; but the rhyme does not end as befits the
Conqueror's fame. The chanting monks had hardly
set the body down within the church, at the end of
its last journey, when there was a cry of fire without,
and all the people ran away and left the church
empty save for the few monks who stayed beside
the bier. When the crowd returned the service
went on again, but just as the grave was ready a
vavasour named Ascelin, the son of Arthur, pushed
his way among the bishops and barons, and mounted
a stone to make himself the better heard—"Listen
to me, ye lords and clerks!" he cries; "ye shall not
bury William in this spot. This church of St.
Stephen is built on land that he seized from me and
my house. By force he took it from me, and I claim
judgment. I appeal to him by name that he do me
right."</p>

<p>"After he had said this he came down. Forthwith
arose great clamor in the church, and there
was such tumult that no one could hear the other
speak. Some went, others came; and all marvelled
that this great king, who had conquered so much
and won so many cities and so many castles, could
not call so much land his own as his body might be
covered in after death."</p>

<p>We cannot do better than end with reading the
Saxon chronicle, which is less likely to be flattering
than the Norman records.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg342" name="pg342"></a>[Pg342]</span></p>

<p>"Alas, how false and unresting is this earth's
weal! He that erst was a rich king, and lord of
many lands; had then of all his lands but seven feet
space; and he that was once clad with gold and
gems, lay overspread with mold! If any one wish
to know what manner of man he was, or what worship
he had, or of how many lands he was the lord,
then will we write of him as we have known him;
for we looked on him and somewhile dwelt in his
herd.</p>

<p>"This King William that we speak about was a
very wise man and very rich; more worshipped, and
stronger than any of his foregangers were. He was
mild to the good men that loved God, and beyond
all metes stark to those who withsaid his will. On
that same ground where God gave him that he should
win England, he reared a noble minster and set
monks there and well endowed it.</p>

<p>"Eke he was very worshipful. Thrice he wore
his king-helm (crown), every year as oft as he was in
England. At Easter he wore it at Winchester; at
Pentecost at Westminster; at midwinter at Gloucester,
and then were with him all the rich men over
all England: archbishops and diocesan bishops; abbots
and earls; thanes and knights. Truly he was
so stark a man and wroth that no man durst do any
thing against his will. He had earls in his bonds
who had done against his will. Bishops he set off
their bishoprics, and abbots off their abbacies, and
thanes in prison. And at last he did not spare his
brother Odo; him he set in prison. Betwixt other
things we must not forget the good peace that he
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg343" name="pg343"></a>[Pg343]</span>
made in this land, so that a man that was worth
aught might travel over the kingdom unhurt with
his bosom full of gold. And no man durst slay
another man though he had suffered never so mickle
evil from the other.</p>

<p>"He ruled over England, and by his cunning he
had so thoroughly surveyed it, that there was never
a hide of land in England that he wist not both who
had it and what its worth was, and he set it down in
his writ. Wales was under his weald, and therein
he wrought castles; and he wielded Manncynn withal.
Scotland he subdued by his mickle strength.
Normandy was his by kin—and over the earldom
that is called Mans he ruled. And if he might have
lived yet two years he had won Ireland, and without
any armament.</p>

<p>"Truly in his time men had mickle taxing and many
hardships. He let castles be built, and poor men
were sorely taxed. The king" (we might in justice
read oftener the king's officers)—"The king was so
very stark, and he took from his subjects many
marks of gold and many hundred pounds of silver,
and that he took of his people some by right and
some by mickle unright, for little need. He was
fallen into covetousness, and greediness he loved
withal.</p>

<p>"The king and the head men loved much, and over
much, the getting in of gold and silver, and recked
not how sinfully it was got so it but came to
them....</p>

<p>"He set many deer-friths and he made laws therewith,
that whosoever should slay hart or hind, him
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg344" name="pg344"></a>[Pg344]</span>
man should blind. And as he kept to himself the
slaying of the harts, so eke did he the boars. He
loved the high deer as much as if he were their
father. Eke he set as to the hares that they should
go free. His rich men bemoaned, and his poor men
murmured, but he recked not the hatred of them all,
and they must follow the king's will if they would
have lands or goods or his favor.</p>

<p>"Wa-la-wa! that any man should be so moody, so
to upheave himself and think himself above all other
men! May God Almighty have mild-heartedness
on his soul and give him forgiveness of his sins!
These things we have written of him both good and
evil, that men may choose the good after their goodness,
and withal flee from evil, and go on the way
that leadeth all to heaven's kingdom."</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 241px;">
<img src="images/i363.png" width="241" height="62" alt="" />
</div>

<p> <span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg345"
name="pg345"></a>[Pg345]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 447px;">
<img src="images/i364.png" width="447" height="121" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.
<br />KINGDOM AND DUKEDOM.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i7">"Yes, while on earth a thousand discords ring,<br /></span>
<span class="i7">&#160;Man's senseless uproar mingling with his toil,<br /></span>
<span class="i7">&#160;Still do thy quiet ministers move on."</span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Matthew Arnold.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
William Rufus hurried away to claim the kingdom
of England before his father died. Robert was
at Abbeville, some say, with his singers and jesters,
making merry over the prospect of getting the dukedom.
Henry had put his five thousand pounds of
silver into a strong box and gone his ways likewise.
Normandy was in the confusion that always befell a
country in those days while one master had put off
his crown and the next had not put it on. There
were masses being said in the Norman churches for
the good of the Conqueror's soul, and presently, as
the autumn days flew by and grew shorter and
shorter, news was received that the English had
received William Rufus and made him king with
great rejoicing. There was always much to hope
from the accession of a new monarch; he was sure
to make many promises, and nobody knew that he
would not keep every one of them.</p>

<p>But neither in England nor Normandy did the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg346" name="pg346"></a>[Pg346]</span>
outlook promise great security. Robert was made
duke, and Robert had plenty of friends, whose love
and favor were sure to last as long as his money held
out. He had a better heart than his brothers, but
he was not fit for a governor. "Robert, my eldest-born,
shall have Normandy and Maine," the Conqueror
had told his barons on his death-bed. "He
shall serve the king of France for the same. There
are many brave men in Normandy; I know none
equal to them. They are noble and valiant knights,
conquering in all lands whither they go. If they
have a good captain, a company of them is made to
be dreaded, but if they have not a lord whom they
fear, and who governs them severely, the service
they render will soon be but poor. The Normans
are worth little without strict justice; they must be
bent and bowed to their ruler's will, and whoso holds
them always under his foot and curbs them tightly,
may get his business well done by them. Haughty
are they and proud, boastful and arrogant; difficult
to govern, and needing to be at all times kept under,
so that Robert will have much to do and to provide
in order to manage such a people."</p>

<p>The dying king may have smiled grimly at the
thought that Robert's ambition knew not what it
asked. The gay gentleman had given his father
trouble enough, but the weight of Normandy should
be his to carry. The red prince, William, had been
a dutiful son, and he wished him joy of England.
He was order-loving, and had a head for governing.
"Poor lads!" the old father may have sighed more
than once. It was all very well to be princes and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg347" name="pg347"></a>[Pg347]</span>
knights and gay riders and courtiers, but the man
who has a kingdom to govern must wend his ways
alone, with much hindrance and little help.</p>

<p>The two courts bore little likeness to the Conqueror's
as time went on, and there was endless dissension
among the knights. In England the Normans
complained greatly of the division of the
kingdom and the duchy. Odo, who had regained
his earldom of Kent, was full of mischievous, treacherous
plans, and had no trouble in persuading other
men that they stood no chance of holding their
lands or keeping their rights under Rufus; it
would be much better to overthrow him and to do
homage to Robert of Normandy in the old fashion.
Robert was careless and easy, and William was
strong and self-willed. Robert was ready to favor
this party at once, and after a while William discovered
what was going on, and found the rebels
under Odo were fortifying their castles and winning
troops of followers to their side—in fact, England
was all ready for civil war. The king besieged Odo
forthwith in the city of Rochester, and there was a
terrible end to the revolt. Robert had been too lazy
or too inefficient to keep his promise of coming to
the aid of his allies, and disease broke out in the garrison
and raged until Odo sent messengers to ask
forgiveness, and to promise all manner of loyalty and
penitence. The king was in a state of fury, and
meant to hang the leaders of the insurrection and
put the rest to death by the most ingenious tortures
that could be invented. At last, however, his own
barons and officers made piteous pleas for the lives
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg348" name="pg348"></a>[Pg348]</span>
of their friends and relatives, and in the end they
were driven out and deprived of their English
estates, and Odo was altogether banished from the
country. No longer an earl, he went back much
humbled to his bishopric of Bayeux, which Robert
had been foolish enough to restore to him. But the
intrigues went on. The Norman barons in England
were separated from their hereditary possessions in
Normandy, and William Rufus owed the safety of
his crown to the upholding of the English. Presently
he went over to Normandy, where things were getting
worse and worse under Robert's rule, and announced
his intention of seizing the silly duke's
dominions. Robert had already sold the Côtentin
to Henry for a part of the five thousand pounds in
the strong box, and after a good deal of dissension,
and a prospect of a long and bloody war, which the
nobles on both sides did every thing they could to
prevent, the brothers made up their quarrel. They
signed an agreement that the one who outlived the
other should inherit all the lands and wealth, and
then they made a league to go and fight Henry
Beauclerc, who was living peaceably enough on his
honestly-got Côtentin possessions. They chased him
out of the country to the French Vexin, where he
spent a forlorn year or two; but he could afford to
wait for his inheritance, as the Conqueror had told
him long before.</p>

<p>William Rufus went back to England, and in the
course of time there was a war with the Scotch, who
were defeated again and again and finally made
quiet. Then the Welsh rebelled in their turn and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg349" name="pg349"></a>[Pg349]</span>
were much harder to subdue. Robert got the king
of France to join forces with him soon afterward, and
that war was only avoided by the payment to France
by Rufus of an enormous sum of money.</p>

<p>All this time William Rufus was doing some good
things for his kingdom and a great many more bad
ones that there is not time to describe. After Lanfranc's
death the king grew worse and worse; he
was apparently without any religious principle, and
there was always a quarrel between him and the
priests about the church money, which both of them
wanted. When bishops and abbots died the king
would not appoint their successors, and took all the
tithes for himself. His chief favorite was a low-born,
crafty, wicked man named Ralph Flambard, and the
two were well matched. William Rufus had little of
the gift for business that made his father such a
practical statesman and organizer, and, in fact, his
boisterous, lawless, indecent manner of living shocked
even the less orderly of his subjects. He had the
lower and less respectable of the Norman qualities,
and something of the rudeness of the worst of his
more remote ancestry crops out in his conduct.
Once when he was very ill and was afraid that he
was going to die with all his sins on his head, he sent
for Anselm, the holy prior, his father's friend and
counsellor, and appointed him to the archbishopric
of Canterbury, which had been vacant ever since
Lanfranc's death four years before. Rufus' guilty
conscience was quieted, and the people of England
were deeply thankful for such a prelate, but before
long the king and Anselm naturally did not find
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg350" name="pg350"></a>[Pg350]</span>
each other harmonious, and after a brave fight for
what he believed to be the right, Anselm appealed to
Rome and left England with orders never to return.</p>

<p>Robert was the same careless man that he had
been in his youth; through war and peace, danger
and security, he lived as if there were no to-morrow
to provide for and no future to be dreaded. I have
sketched the course of affairs as briefly as possible in
both England and Normandy, as if the only men
within their borders were these two incompetent
brothers who so ill became the Conqueror's "kingly
helm," as Master Wace loves to call the crown. But
the church builders were still at work like ants busy
with their grains of sand, towers were rising, knights
were fighting and parading, ladies were ordering their
households, the country men and women were tilling
the green fields of both countries and gathering in
their harvests year by year. There had been trouble
now and then, as we have just seen, between the
kingdom and the duchy, between both of them and
their border foes, but almost ten years went by, and
the children who had played with their toys and
sighed over their horn books the summer that William
the Conqueror died were now men and women
grown. It would not seem like the old Normandy
if the news of some new great enterprise did not run
like wildfire through the towns and country lanes.
The blood of the Northmen was kindled with the
blood of all Christendom at the story of the Turks'
capture of the Holy Sepulchre and the blessed city
of Jerusalem. The knights of Sicily were already on
their journey by sea and shore; the mother church
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg351" name="pg351"></a>[Pg351]</span>
at Rome called to her children in every land to
defend her holiest shrines against the insolence of
the heathen.</p>

<p>Duke Robert was most zealous. To go on pilgrimage
had been many a knight's ambition, but this
was the greatest pilgrimage of all. Robert, as usual,
had no money, but to his joy he succeeded in making
a bargain with his more thrifty English brother, and
pledged Normandy to William Rufus for five years
for the sum of something less than seven thousand
pounds. Away he went with his lords and gentlemen;
they wore white crosses on their right shoulders,
and sang hymns as they marched along. Not
only lords and gentlemen made up this huge procession
of thousands and thousands, but men of every
station—from the poor cottages and stately halls
alike. If any better persuasion had been needed
than the simple announcement that the Turks had
taken Jerusalem, it had come by way of Peter the
Hermit's preaching. This had created a religious
frenzy that the world had never known; from town
to town the great preacher had gone with an inexhaustible
living stream of persuasive eloquence always
at his lips. Women wept and prayed and gave
their jewels and rich garments, and men set their
teeth and clenched their hands, armed themselves
and followed him.</p>

<p>England did not listen at first, and William Rufus
chuckled over his good bargain, and taxed his unwilling
subjects more heavily than ever to get the
money to pay his crusader brother. England would
listen by and by, but in this first crusade she took
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg352" name="pg352"></a>[Pg352]</span>
little part, while the Normans and Frenchmen and
all their neighbors spent three years of fearful suffering
and hardship in the strange countries of the
East; at last they won the Holy Sepulchre. The
Turks were still fighting to win it back again; they
were dangerous enemies, and the Christian host was
dwindling fast. The cry was sent again through
Europe for more soldiers of the Holy Cross.</p>

<p>Here we come face to face again with the old viking
spirit: under all the fast-increasing luxury that
threatened to sap and dull the life of Normandy, the
love of adventure and fierce energy of character were
only sleeping. The most sentimental and pleasure loving
of Robert's knights could lightly throw off
his ribbons and gay trappings, and buckle on his
armor when the summons came. Quickly they
marched and fiercely they fought in the holy wars,
and so it came about that the Norman banners were
planted at the gates of Jerusalem and Antioch, and
new kingdoms were planted in the East. This is not
the place to follow the Crusaders' fortunes, or the
part that the Norman Sicilians played in the great
enterprise of the Middle Ages. At least it must
make but an incident in my scheme of the Story of
the Normans.</p>

<hr class="tb" />

<p>There is a familiar modern sound in the bewailings
of our old chroniclers over their taxes. Resentment
and pathos were blended then as they are now in
such complaints, but though William Rufus was not
the least of such extortionate offenders, he gave
much of the money back in fine buildings; the
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg353" name="pg353"></a>[Pg353]</span>
famous Great Hall of Westminster was built in his
day, and the stout wall that surrounded his father's
Tower of London, besides a noble bridge across the
Thames.</p>

<p>When people expected unfailing generosity and gold
thrown to the crowd oftener than in these days, it is
difficult to see how the king could satisfy popular
expectation without preliminary taxation. Yet the
wails of the chroniclers go up like the chirp of the
grasshopper. There was one mistaken scheme of
benevolence in the endowment of charities, which
have borne bitter fruit of pauperism ever since, for
which taxation might well have been spared.</p>

<p>William Rufus died in the year 1100, in the New
Forest. The peasants believed that it was enchanted
and accursed, and that evil spirits flew about among
the trees on dark and stormy nights. There was a
superstition that it was a fated place to those who
belonged to the Conqueror's line. Another prince
had been killed there, named Richard, too—the son
of Duke Robert of Normandy.</p>

<p>The last year of the Red King's reign had been
peaceful. The Witan gathered to meet him at Westminster
and Winchester and Gloucester, and he
reigned unchallenged from Scotland to Maine, and
there was truce with the French king at Paris. One
August morning he went out to the chase after a jolly
night at one of the royal hunting-lodges. The party
scattered in different directions, and the king and Sir
Walter Tyrrel, a famous sportsman, were seen riding
away together, and their dogs after them. That
night a poor forester, a lime-burner, was going
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg354" name="pg354"></a>[Pg354]</span>
through the forest with his clumsy cart, and stumbled
over the king's body, which lay among
the ferns with an arrow deep in the breast. He
lifted it into the cart and carried it to Winchester,
where it was buried next day with little sorrow.
There were few bells tolled and few prayers said, for
the priests owed little to any friendliness of William
Rufus.</p>

<p>There were many stories told about his death.
Tyrrel said that the arrow was shot by an unknown
hand, and that he had run away for fear that people
should accuse him of the murder, which they certainly
did! Others said that Tyrrel shot at a stag
and the arrow glanced aside from an oak, but nobody
knows now, and in those days too many people were
glad that the king was dead, to ask many questions
or to try to punish any one.</p>

<p>Robert might have claimed the kingdom now
because of the old agreement, but he was still in the
East fighting for Jerusalem. Henry Beauclerc had
been one of the huntsmen that fatal morning, so he
hurried to Winchester and claimed the crown. He
made more good promises than any of his predecessors,
and the people liked him because he was
English-born, and so they made another Norman
king. Henry Beauclerc reigned over England thirty-five
years, and won himself another name of the
Lion of Justice. He did not treat his brother
Robert justly, however he may have deserved his
title in other ways; but he had a zoölogical garden
and brought wild beasts from different quarters of
the earth, and he fostered a famous love of learning,
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg355" name="pg355"></a>[Pg355]</span>
and put Ralph Flambard in the Tower as soon as he
possibly could, and more than all, chose an excellent
woman for his wife, Maud, the good daughter of the
Scottish King Malcolm. He was an untruthful man,
but a great man for all that, and made a better king
than some that England had already endured. In
many ways his reign was a gain to England. There
was a distinct advance in national life, and while the
English groaned under his tyranny they could not
help seeing that he sought for quietness and order
and was their best champion against the worse
tyranny of the nobles. Mr. Freeman believes that
the Saxon element was the permanent one in English
history, and that the Norman conquest simply
modified it somewhat and was a temporary influence
brought to bear for its improvement. It is useless
to argue the question with such odds of learning and
thought as his against one, but the second invasion
of Northmen by the roundabout way of Normandy,
seems as marked a change as the succession of the
Celts to the Britons, or the Saxons to the Danes.
The Normans had so distinctly made a great gain in
ideas and civilization, that they were as much foreigners
as any Europeans could have been to the Anglo-Saxons
of that eleventh century, and their coming
had a permanent effect, besides a most compelling
power. It seems to me that England would have
disintegrated without them, not solidified, and a
warring handful of petty states have been the result.</p>

<p>Yet undoubtedly through many centuries of history
writing the English of the Conqueror's day have
been made to take too low a place in the scale of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg356" name="pg356"></a>[Pg356]</span>
civilization. As a nation, they surely responded
readily to the Norman stimulus, but the Normans
had never found so good a chance to work out their
own ideas of life and achievement as on English soil
in the first hundred years after the Conquest. In
many respects the Saxon race possesses greater and
more reliable qualities than any other race; stability,
perseverance, self-government, industry are all theirs.
Yet the Normans excelled them in their genius for
great enterprises and their love of fitness and elegance
in social life and in the arts. Indeed we cannot
do better than to repeat here what has been
quoted once already. "Without them England
would have been mechanical, not artistic; brave, not
chivalrous; the home of learning, not of thought."</p>

<p>It has also been the fashion to ignore the influence
of five hundred years' contact between Roman civilization
and the Saxon inhabitants of Great Britain.
Surely great influences have been brought to bear
upon the Anglo-Saxon race. That the making of
England was more significant to the world and more
valuable than any manifestation of Norman ability,
is in one way true, but let us never forget that
much that has been best in English national life has
come from the Norman elements of it rather than
the Saxon. England the colonizer, England the
country of intellectual and social progress, England
the fosterer of ideas and chivalrous humanity,
is Norman England, and the Saxon influence has
oftener held her back in dogged satisfaction and
stubbornness than urged her forward to higher
levels. The power of holding back is necessary to
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg357" name="pg357"></a>[Pg357]</span>
the stability, of a kingdom, but not so necessary as
the</p>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i9">"Glory of going on and still to be——"</span>
</div>

<p>The conjunction of Norman and Saxon elements has
made England the great nation that she is.</p>

<p>It is too easy as we draw near the end of this
story of the Normans to wander into talk about the
lessons of Norman history and to fall into endless
generalizations. Let us look a little longer at Henry
Beauclerc's time while Robert, under the shadow of
his name of duke, spends enough dreary blinded
years in prison to give him space to remember again
and again the misspent years of his youth and his
freedom; while Henry plots and plans carefully for
the continuance of his family upon the throne of
England and Normandy, only to be disappointed at
every turn. His son is coming from France with
a gay company and is lost in the White Ship with
all his lords and ladies, and the people who hear the
news do not dare to tell the king, and at last send a
weeping little lad into the royal presence to falter
out the story of the shipwreck. What a touch of humanity
is there! The king never smiled afterward,
but he plotted on and went his kingly ways, "the last
of those great Norman kings who, with all their
vices, their cruelty, and their lust, displayed great
talents of organization and adaptation, guided England
with a wise, if a strong, hand through the days
of her youth, and by their instinctive, though selfish,
love of order paved the way for the ultimate rise of
a more stable, yet a freer government."</p>

<p>The last Norman Duke of Normandy was really
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg358" name="pg358"></a>[Pg358]</span>
that young Prince William, who was drowned in the
White Ship off the port of Barfleur, whom Henry
had invested with the duchy and to whom the
nobility had just done homage. After his death, the
son of Robert made claim to the succession, and the
greater proportion of the Normans upheld his claim,
and the king of France openly favored him, but
he died of a wound received in battle, and again
Henry, rid of this competitor, built an elaborate
scheme upon the succession of his daughter Matilda,
whom he married to Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of
the Count of Anjou. But for all this, after the king's
death, the law of succession was too unsettled to
give his daughter an unquestioned claim. Hereditary
title was not independent yet of election by the
nobles, and Matilda's claims were by many people
set aside. There were wars and disorders too intricate
and dreary to repeat. Stephen, Count of Boulogne,
son of that Count Stephen of Blois who
married the Conqueror's daughter Adela, usurped
the throne of England, and there was a miserable
time of anarchy in both England and Normandy.
And as the government passed away in
this apparently profitless interregnum to the houses
of Blois and of Anjou, so Normandy seems like
Normandy no longer. Her vitality is turned into
different channels, and it is in the history of England
and of France and of the Low Countries that we
must trace the further effect of Norman influence.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg359" name="pg359"></a>[Pg359]</span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 442px;">
<img src="images/i378.png" width="442" height="118" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.
<br />CONCLUSION.</h2>

<div class="poem">
<span class="i6">"I looked: aside the dust-cloud rolled,—<br /></span>
<span class="i7">The Waster seemed the Builder too;<br /></span>
<span class="i6">&#160;Upspringing from the ruined Old</span>
<span class="i9">I saw the New."</span>
<span class="rightsig">—<span class="smcap">Whittier.</span></span>
</div>

<p><span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span>
It will be clearly seen that there is great apparent
disproportion between certain parts of this sketch of
the rise and growth of the Norman people. I have
not set aside the truth that Normandy was not reunited
to France until 1204, and I do not forget that
many years lie between that date and the time when
I close my account of the famous duchy. But the
story of the growth of the Normans gives one the
key to any later part of their history, and I have
contented myself with describing the characters of
the first seven dukes and Eadward the Confessor, who
were men typical of their time and representative of
the various types of national character. Of the
complex questions in civic and legal history I am
not competent to speak, nor does it seem to me
that they properly enter into such a book as this.
With Mr. Freeman's learned and exhaustive work at
hand as a book of reference, the readers of this story
of Normandy will find all their puzzles solved.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg360" name="pg360"></a>[Pg360]</span></p>

<p>But I hope that I have made others see the Normans
as I have seen them, and grow as interested in
their fortunes as I have been. They were the foremost
people of their time, being most thoroughly
alive and quickest to see where advances might be
made in government, in architecture, in social life.
They were gifted with sentiment and with good
taste, together with fine physical strength and intellectual
cleverness. In the first hundred years of
the duchy they made perhaps as rapid progress in
every way, and had as signal influence among their
contemporaries, as any people of any age,—unless
it is ourselves, the people of the young republic
of the United States, who might be called the
Normans of modern times. For with many of the
gifts and many of the weaknesses (and dangers, too)
of our viking ancestry, we have repeated the rapid
increase of power which was a characteristic of our
Norman kindred; we have conquered in many fights
with the natural forces of the universe where they
fought, humanity against humanity. Much of what
marked the Northman and the Norman marks us
still.</p>

<p>The secret of Normandy's success was energetic
self-development and apprehension of truth; the
secret of Normandy's failures was the secret of all
failures—blindness to the inevitable effects of certain
causes, and unwillingness to listen to her best and
most far-seeing teachers. Carlyle said once to a
friend: "There has never been a nation yet that did
any thing great that was not deeply religious." The
things that are easy and near are chosen, instead of
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg361" name="pg361"></a>[Pg361]</span>
the things that make for righteousness. When
luxury becomes not the means, but the end of life,
humanity's best weapons grow rusty, and humanity's
best intelligence is dulled and threatens to disappear.
The church forgets her purpose and invites worshippers
of the church instead of worshippers of God.
The state is no longer an impersonated administrator
of justice and order, but a reservoir from which to
plunder and by which to serve private ends.</p>

<p>I am not able to speak of the influence of the
Normans upon the later kingdom of France, the
France of our day, as I confess the writer of such a
book as this should have been, but there is one
point which has been of great interest as the southward
course of the Northmen has been eagerly
followed.</p>

<p>It has been the common impression that there was
a marked growth of refinement and courtliness, of
dignified bearing and imaginative literature connected
with the development of the French men
and women of early times, to the gradual widening
of which the modern world had been indebted for
much of its best social attainment.</p>

<p>I think that a single glance at the France of the
ninth and tenth centuries will do away with any belief
in its having been the sole inspirer or benefactor.
The Franks were products of German development,
and were not at that time pre-eminent for social
culture. They were a ruder people by far than the
Italians or even the people of Spain, less developed
spiritually, and wanting in the finer attributes of
human instinct or perception. Great as they already
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg362" name="pg362"></a>[Pg362]</span>
were, no one can claim that quickness of tact or
special intolerance of ill-breeding came from their
direction. Dante speaks, a little later than this, of
the "guzzling Germans," and though we must make
allowance for considerable race prejudice, there was
truth, too, in his phrase. Not from the Franks,
therefore, but from among the very rocks and
chasms of the viking nature, sprang a growth of
delicate refinement that made the yellow-haired
jarls and the "sea-kings' daughters" bring a true,
poetical, and lovely spirit to Normandy, where
they gave a soul to the body of art and letters
that awaited them. Each nation had something to
give to the other, it is true, but it was the Northern
spirit that made the gifts of both available and fruitful
to humanity.</p>

<p>It may rightly be suggested that the standard of
behavior was low everywhere in the tenth century,
according to our present standards, but it is true that
there was a re-kindling of light in the North, which
may be traced in its continued reflections through
Norway to Normandy, and thence to France and
England and the world. We have only to remind
ourselves of the development of literature in Iceland
and the building of governmental and social strength
and dignified individuality, to see that the Northmen
by no means owed every thing to the influence of
French superiority and precedence. We have only
to compare the tenth century with the eleventh, to
see what an impulse had been given. The saga-lovers
and the clear-eyed people of the North were
gifted with a spark of grace peculiarly their own.
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg363" name="pg363"></a>[Pg363]</span></p>

<p>There is a pretty story told by an English traveller
in Norway, who met a young woman leading an old
blind beggar through the street of a poor, plain
village. She was descended from one of the noble
families of ancient times; it was her pleasure and
duty to serve the friendless old man. But the traveller
insists that never, among the best people he
has met, has he found such dignity and grace as this
provincial woman wore, who knew nothing of courts
or the world's elegance. There was a natural nobility
in her speech and manner which the courtliest might
envy, and which might adorn the noblest palace and
be its most charming decoration. It is easy to write
these words with sympathy, and perhaps the traveller's
half-forgotten story has been embellished unconsciously
with the memory in my mind of kindred
experiences in that country of the North. Plainness
and poverty make gentle blood seem more gracious
still, and the green mountain-sides and fresh air of
old Norway have not yet ceased to inspire simple,
unperverted souls, from whose life a better and
higher generation seems more than possible.</p>

<p>The impulses that make toward social development
are intermittent. There is the succession of
growing time and brooding time, of summer and
winter, in the great ages of the world. If we look
at the Normans as creatures of a famous spring
where Europe made a bold and profitable advance
in every way, I think that we shall not be far from
right.</p>

<p>In telling their story in this imperfect way I have
not been unmindful of the dark side of their
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg364" name="pg364"></a>[Pg364]</span>
character, but what they were is permanent, while what
they were not was temporary. The gaps they left
were to be filled up by other means—by the slow
processes by which God in nature and humanity
evolves the best that is possible for the present with
something that forestalls the future. The stones
that make part of a cathedral wall are shaped also
with relation to the very dome.</p>

<p>Here, at the beginning of the Norman absorption
into England, I shall end my story of the founding
and growth of the Norman people. The mingling
of their brighter, fiercer, more enthusiastic, and
visionary nature with the stolid, dogged, prudent,
and resolute Anglo-Saxons belongs more properly
to the history of England. Indeed, the difficulty
would lie in not knowing where to stop, for one may
tell the two races apart even now, after centuries of
association and affiliation. There are Saxon landholders,
and farmers, and statesmen in England yet—unconquered,
unpersuaded, and un-Normanized.
But the effect on civilization of the welding of the
two great natures cannot be told fairly in this or any
other book—we are too close to it and we ourselves
make too intimate a part of it to judge impartially.
If we are of English descent we are pretty sure to
be members of one party or the other. Saxon yet
or Norman yet, and even the confusion of the two
forces renders us not more able to judge of either,
but less so. We must sometimes look at England as
a later Normandy; and yet, none the less, as the great
leader and personified power that she is and has been
these many hundred years, drawing her strength
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg365" name="pg365"></a>[Pg365]</span>
from the best of the Northern races, and presenting
the world with great men and women as typical of
these races and as grandly endowed to stand for the
representatives of their time in days to come, as the
men and women of Greece were typical, and live yet
in our literature and song. In the courts and stately
halls of England, in the market-places, and among
followers of the sea or of the drum, we have seen the
best triumphs and glories of modern humanity, no
less than the degradations, the treacheries, and the
mistakes. In the great pageant of history we can
see a nation rise, and greaten, and dwindle, and disappear
like the varying lifetime of a single man, but
the force of our mother England is not yet spent,
though great changes threaten her, and the process
of growth needs winter as well as summer. Her life
is not the life of a harborless country, her fortunes
are the fortunes of her generosity. But whether the
Norman spirit leads her to be self-confident or headstrong
and wilful, or the Saxon spirit holds her back
into slowness and dulness, and lack of proper
perception in emergencies or epochs of necessary
change, still she follows the right direction and
leads the way. It is the Norman graft upon the
sturdy old Saxon tree that has borne best fruit among
the nations—that has made the England of history,
the England of great scholars and soldiers and
sailors, the England of great men and women, of
books and ships and gardens and pictures and
songs! There is many a gray old English house
standing among its trees and fields, that has sheltered
and nurtured many a generation of loyal and
<span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg366" name="pg366"></a>[Pg366]</span>
tender and brave and gentle souls. We shall find
there men and women who, in their cleverness and
courtliness, their grace and true pride and beauty,
make us understand the old Norman beauty and
grace, and seem to make the days of chivalry alive
again.</p>

<p>But we may go back farther still, and discover
in the lonely mountain valleys and fiord-sides of
Norway even a simpler, courtlier, and nobler dignity.
In the country of the sagamen and the rough sea-kings,
beside the steep-shored harbors of the viking
dragon-ships, linger the constantly repeated types of
an earlier ancestry, and the flower of the sagas
blooms as fair as ever. Among the red roofs and
gray walls of the Norman towns, or the faint, bright
colors of its country landscapes, among the green
hedgerows and golden wheat-fields of England, the
same flowers grow in more luxuriant fashion, but
old Norway and Denmark sent out the seed that has
flourished in richer soil. To-day the Northman, the
Norman, and the Englishman, and a young nation
on this western shore of the Atlantic are all kindred
who, possessing a rich inheritance, should own the
closest of kindred ties.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 288px;">
<img src="images/i385.png" width="288" height="50" alt="" />
</div>

<p><span class="xxpgno"><a id="pg367"
name="pg367"></a>[Pg367]</span>
<span class="linksleft"><a href="#CONTENTS">TOC</a>,
 <a href="#INDEX">INDX</a></span></p>

<hr class="chap" />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 438px;">
<img src="images/i386.png" width="438" height="116" alt="" />
</div>

<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2>

<ul id="index-list">
<li>A</li>

<li>Adela, <a href="#pg112">112</a></li>

<li>Ælfred, the Confessor's brother, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a></li>

<li>Ælfred the Great, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>;
fines, <a href="#pg173">173</a></li>

<li>Ælfgifu, see Emma of Normandy</li>

<li>Æthelred the Unready, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>;
<ul>
<li class="li2">English contempt for, <a href="#pg175">175</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">flees to Normandy, <a href="#pg177">177</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Alan of Brittany, <a href="#pg070">70</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg137">137</a>;
<ul>
<li class="li2">death of, <a href="#pg151">151</a></li></ul></li>

<li>Alençon, siege of, <a href="#pg213">213</a>;
<ul>
<li class="li2">Lord of, see William de Talvas</li>
</ul></li>

<li>Ambrières, <a href="#pg250">250</a></li>

<li>Anglo-Saxons, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a></li>

<li>Anjou, <a href="#pg358">358</a></li>

<li>Anselm, <a href="#pg238">238</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a></li>

<li>Apulia, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">allegiance to Rome, <a href="#pg140">140</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Architecture, <a href="#pg239">239</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a></li>

<li>Argentan, <a href="#pg097">97</a></li>

<li>Arlette, <a href="#pg122">122</a></li>

<li>Arnulf of Flanders, <a href="#pg063">63</a>, <a href="#pg071">71</a>, <a href="#pg087">87</a></li>

<li>Arrows, <a href="#pg252">252</a>, <a href="#pg307">307</a></li>

<li>Ascelin, <a href="#pg340">340</a></li>

<li>Aumale, <a href="#pg248">248</a></li>

<li>Auxerre, <a href="#pg108">108</a></li>

<li>Aversa, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a></li>

<li>Avranches, <a href="#pg248">248</a></li>

<li>B</li>

<li>Baldwin of Flanders, <a href="#pg121">121</a></li>

<li>Battle, <a href="#pg304">304</a></li>

<li>Baudri, <a href="#pg340">340</a></li>

<li>Bayeux, Northmen in, <a href="#pg040">40</a>, <a href="#pg059">59</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">Richard the Fearless educated in, <a href="#pg062">62</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">description of, <a href="#pg323">323</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Bayeux tapestry, <a href="#pg238">238</a>, <a href="#pg299">299</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a></li>

<li>Beaumont, house of, <a href="#pg152">152</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a></li>

<li>Bec, abbey of, <a href="#pg219">219</a></li>

<li>Benedictines, <a href="#pg222">222</a></li>

<li>Berengarius, <a href="#pg230">230</a></li>

<li>Berenger, Count of Bayeux, <a href="#pg040">40</a></li>

<li>Bergen, <a href="#pg014">14</a>, <a href="#pg291">291</a></li>

<li>Bernard the Dane, <a href="#pg060">60</a>, <a href="#pg061">61</a>, <a href="#pg075">75</a></li>

<li>Bernard Harcourt, <a href="#pg068">68</a></li>

<li>Bernard de Senlis, <a href="#pg059">59</a>, <a href="#pg061">61</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">plot of, <a href="#pg076">76</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Bertha, wife of Robert of France, <a href="#pg100">100</a></li>

<li>Bessin, <a href="#pg247">247</a></li>

<li>Blaatand Harold, <a href="#pg081">81</a></li>

<li>Borbillon, <a href="#pg210">210</a></li>

<li>Botho the Dane, <a href="#pg047">47</a>, <a href="#pg060">60</a>, <a href="#pg075">75</a></li>

<li>Breteuil, castle of, <a href="#pg250">250</a></li>

<li>Brionne, <a href="#pg224">224</a></li>

<li>Brittany, <a href="#pg058">58</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">Danish settlements in, <a href="#pg061">61</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">enmity between Normandy and, <a href="#pg076">76</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">tributary to Normandy, <a href="#pg246">246</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">William's expedition against, <a href="#pg265">265</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">aids William, <a href="#pg285">285</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Bruce, Robert, <a href="#pg233">233</a></li>

<li>Burgundy, <a href="#pg054">54</a>, <a href="#pg246">246</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">king of, <a href="#pg086">86</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Henry of, <a href="#pg106">106</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Burneville, <a href="#pg224">224</a></li>

<li>C</li>

<li>Caen, <a href="#pg113">113</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">William builds Church of St. Stephen in, <a href="#pg237">237</a>; <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg321">321</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg340">340</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Canterbury, archbishop of, <a href="#pg176">176</a></li>

<li>Carloman, <a href="#pg085">85</a></li>

<li>Carlyle, <a href="#pg360">360</a></li>

<li>Cathedrals, <a href="#pg219">219</a></li>

<li>Celts, <a href="#pg172">172</a></li>

<li>Chalons, Hugh, Count of, <a href="#pg108">108</a>, <a href="#pg110">110</a></li>

<li>Charlemagne, <a href="#pg011">11</a>, <a href="#pg019">19</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">empire of, <a href="#pg034">34</a>, <a href="#pg052">52</a>, <a href="#pg088">88</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Charles the Fat, <a href="#pg054">54</a>, <a href="#pg056">56</a></li>

<li>Charles the Simple, <a href="#pg034">34</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">resists Rolf's invasion, <a href="#pg037">37</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">captivity of, <a href="#pg056">56</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Chartres, Count of, <a href="#pg038">38</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">siege of, <a href="#pg041">41</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Chivalry, Norman, <a href="#pg093">93</a>, <a href="#pg116">116</a></li>

<li>Civitella, battle of, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a></li>

<li>Cloister life, <a href="#pg215">215</a></li>

<li>Cnut the Dane, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg119">119</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">banishment of English nobles, <a href="#pg120">120</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">chosen king, <a href="#pg177">177</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">his improvement and England's, <a href="#pg178">178</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">pilgrimage to Rome, <a href="#pg182">182</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">letter of, <a href="#pg182">182</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">death, <a href="#pg183">183</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Côtentin, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg113">113</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">castles of, <a href="#pg116">116</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">over-population of, <a href="#pg116">116</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">home of the Hautevilles, <a href="#pg134">134</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">rebellions, <a href="#pg152">152</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">designs of Henry of France toward, <a href="#pg247">247</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">men at Hastings, <a href="#pg306">306</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">sold by Robert of Normandy, <a href="#pg348">348</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Coutances, bishop of, <a href="#pg304">304</a></li>

<li>Crusades, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a></li>

<li>Curfew bell, <a href="#pg251">251</a></li>

<li>D</li>

<li>Danegelt, the, <a href="#pg173">173</a></li>

<li>Danes in Bayeux, <a href="#pg074">74</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">in England, <a href="#pg103">103</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">inheritance from, in Northern England, <a href="#pg187">187</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">schemes for regaining England, <a href="#pg258">258</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Dante, <a href="#pg362">362</a></li>

<li>Dickens' "Child's History of England," <a href="#pg328">328</a></li>

<li>Dinan, <a href="#pg266">266</a></li>

<li>Dive, river, <a href="#pg297">297</a></li>

<li>Dôl, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg266">266</a></li>

<li>Domesday Book, <a href="#pg328">328</a></li>

<li>Douglas, Scottish family of, <a href="#pg233">233</a></li>

<li>Drayton, <a href="#pg028">28</a></li>

<li>Dreux, county of, <a href="#pg109">109</a></li>

<li>Dunstan, <a href="#pg172">172</a></li>

<li>Durham, <a href="#pg339">339</a></li>

<li>E</li>

<li>Eadgyth (or Edith), the Confessor's wife, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a></li>

<li>Eadgyth the Swan-throated, <a href="#pg310">310</a></li>

<li>Eadmund Ironside, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg177">177</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">poisoned, <a href="#pg178">178</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Eadward the Confessor, <a href="#pg184">184</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">pious character of, <a href="#pg186">186</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">weakness of, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">likeness to Æthelred, <a href="#pg189">189</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">preference for Normans, <a href="#pg191">191</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">promises the crown to William, <a href="#pg242">242</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">also to Harold, <a href="#pg257">257</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">illness and death, <a href="#pg269">269</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">love of hunting, <a href="#pg329">329</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Eadward the Outlaw, <a href="#pg257">257</a></li>

<li>Eadwine, Earl of Mercia, <a href="#pg320">320</a></li>

<li>Eadwy, <a href="#pg180">180</a></li>

<li>Emma of Normandy (or Ælfgifu), <a href="#pg102">102</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">marriage to Æthelred, <a href="#pg105">105</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">flight to Normandy of, <a href="#pg106">106</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">sons of, <a href="#pg118">118</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">marries Cnut of England, <a href="#pg180">180</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>England, Danes in, <a href="#pg103">103</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">low condition of, <a href="#pg106">106</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">under misrule of Æthelred, <a href="#pg173">173</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">election of kings in, <a href="#pg179">179</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">same king as Denmark and Scandinavia, <a href="#pg181">181</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">under Cnut, <a href="#pg181">181</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">behind Norman civilization, <a href="#pg185">185</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">division into earldoms, <a href="#pg187">187</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">building of castles in, <a href="#pg193">193</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">conquest of, planned in Normandy, <a href="#pg240">240</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Harold made king, <a href="#pg272">272</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">conquest of, by William, <a href="#pg308">308</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">English character, <a href="#pg365">365</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Epte, St. Claire on, <a href="#pg044">44</a></li>

<li>Eremburga, <a href="#pg145">145</a></li>

<li>Ericson, Leif, <a href="#pg018">18</a></li>

<li>Ermenoldus, <a href="#pg113">113</a></li>

<li>Espriota, <a href="#pg066">66</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">second marriage, <a href="#pg080">80</a>, <a href="#pg096">96</a>, <a href="#pg152">152</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Estrith, <a href="#pg121">121</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a></li>

<li>Eu, <a href="#pg236">236</a></li>

<li>Eustace of Boulogne, <a href="#pg285">285</a></li>

<li>Evreux, <a href="#pg040">40</a></li>

<li>Exeter, siege of, <a href="#pg325">325</a></li>

<li>Exmes, <a href="#pg097">97</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg113">113</a></li>

<li>F</li>

<li>Falaise, <a href="#pg092">92</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">industries of, <a href="#pg097">97</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Robert in, <a href="#pg121">121</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">the Conqueror in, <a href="#pg197">197</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Fécamp, <a href="#pg089">89</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a></li>

<li>Feudal system, <a href="#pg054">54</a>, <a href="#pg154">154</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">in England, <a href="#pg316">316</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Fitz-Osbern; see William Fitz-Osbern.</li>

<li>Flails used as weapons, <a href="#pg076">76</a></li>

<li>Flanders, Baldwin of, <a href="#pg121">121</a></li>

<li>Flanders, civilization of, <a href="#pg232">232</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">aids William, <a href="#pg285">285</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Fleming, Scottish families of, <a href="#pg233">233</a></li>

<li>Forests, Norman, <a href="#pg095">95</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">English, <a href="#pg330">330</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>France, <a href="#pg054">54</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a></li>

<li>Franks, <a href="#pg055">55</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a></li>

<li>Freeman's (E. A.) History of the Norman Conquest, <a href="#pg190">190</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg224">224</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg280">280</a>, <a href="#pg286">286</a>, <a href="#pg355">355</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a></li>

<li>Froissart, <a href="#pg323">323</a></li>

<li>Fulbert the Tanner, <a href="#pg122">122</a></li>

<li>G</li>

<li>Gaul, <a href="#pg020">20</a></li>

<li>Geirrid the Norsewoman, <a href="#pg007">7</a></li>

<li>Geoffrey Martel, <a href="#pg250">250</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">dies, <a href="#pg252">252</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Geoffrey Plantagenet, <a href="#pg358">358</a></li>

<li>Gerberga, <a href="#pg072">72</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">courage of, <a href="#pg082">82</a>-<a href="#pg085">85</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Gerberoi, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a></li>

<li>Germany, <a href="#pg054">54</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">sympathy for Louis Outremer, <a href="#pg083">83</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Gisla, <a href="#pg043">43</a></li>

<li>Godfrey of Brittany, <a href="#pg101">101</a></li>

<li>Godiva, Lady, <a href="#pg188">188</a></li>

<li>Godwine, Earl of Wessex, <a href="#pg184">184</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">character and gifts, <a href="#pg188">188</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">a king-maker, <a href="#pg188">188</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">influence in England and banishment, <a href="#pg192">192</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">returns, <a href="#pg244">244</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">remembrance of, in England, <a href="#pg315">315</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Golet the Fool, <a href="#pg199">199</a></li>

<li>Gorm of Denmark, <a href="#pg030">30</a>, <a href="#pg081">81</a></li>

<li>Gottfried, <a href="#pg019">19</a></li>

<li>Grantmesnil, <a href="#pg198">198</a></li>

<li>Greece, typical characters of, <a href="#pg365">365</a></li>

<li>Greenland, <a href="#pg016">16</a>, <a href="#pg018">18</a></li>

<li>Gregory VII., (or Hildebrand), <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg285">285</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a></li>

<li>Grimbald of Plessis, <a href="#pg202">202</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">imprisonment of, <a href="#pg212">212</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Guizot's history of France, <a href="#pg159">159</a></li>

<li>Guy of Burgundy, <a href="#pg199">199</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">pretends to the ducal crown, <a href="#pg200">200</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">beaten at Val-ès-dunes, <a href="#pg210">210</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Gyda, <a href="#pg030">30</a></li>

<li>Gytha, Godwine's wife, <a href="#pg192">192</a></li>

<li>Gyrth, son of Godwine, <a href="#pg303">303</a></li>

<li>H</li>

<li>Haarfager, Harold, <a href="#pg015">15</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">kingdom and marriage, <a href="#pg030">30</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">tyrannies of, <a href="#pg032">32</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Haman of Thorigny, <a href="#pg202">202</a></li>

<li>Harold Blaatand <a href="#pg081">81</a>, <a href="#pg082">82</a></li>

<li>Harold Hardrada, <a href="#pg288">288</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>, <a href="#pg294">294</a></li>

<li>Harold, son of Godwine, <a href="#pg192">192</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">in Ireland, <a href="#pg242">242</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">in Normandy, <a href="#pg253">253</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">desires to succeed Eadward, <a href="#pg256">256</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">shipwrecked in Ponthieu, <a href="#pg260">260</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">received by William of Normandy, and visits him, <a href="#pg264">264</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">at Mt. St. Michel, <a href="#pg265">265</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">promises to marry one of William's daughters, <a href="#pg267">267</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">oath on the relics, <a href="#pg267">267</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">again in Normandy, <a href="#pg267">267</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">made king of England, <a href="#pg272">272</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">battle of Hastings, <a href="#pg300">300</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li><i>Ha Rou</i>, <a href="#pg049">49</a></li>

<li>Harthacnut, <a href="#pg170">170</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">becomes king, <a href="#pg183">183</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">dies, <a href="#pg184">184</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Hasting the pirate, <a href="#pg038">38</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">Italian robberies, <a href="#pg130">130</a>-<a href="#pg144">144</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Hastings, battle of, <a href="#pg299">299</a></li>

<li>Hauteville, Drogo of, <a href="#pg138">138</a></li>

<li>Hauteville, Humbert of, <a href="#pg141">141</a></li>

<li>Hauteville, Humphrey of, <a href="#pg138">138</a></li>

<li>Hauteville, Roger of, <a href="#pg143">143</a></li>

<li>Hauteville, Serlon of, <a href="#pg136">136</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">bravery of, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Hauteville, Tancred of, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a></li>

<li>Hauteville, William of, president of Apulia, <a href="#pg139">139</a></li>

<li>Hautevilles, Family of the, <a href="#pg236">236</a></li>

<li>Hebrides, <a href="#pg002">2</a>, <a href="#pg029">29</a>, <a href="#pg050">50</a></li>

<li>Henry Beauclerc, <a href="#pg327">327</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">his father's legacy, <a href="#pg339">339</a>, <a href="#pg348">348</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">seizes the English crown, <a href="#pg354">354</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">death of his son, <a href="#pg357">357</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Henry of Burgundy, <a href="#pg137">137</a></li>

<li>Henry of France, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">William's enemy, <a href="#pg202">202</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Godwine's partisan, <a href="#pg244">244</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Herleva (or Arlette), <a href="#pg122">122</a></li>

<li>Herluin of Bec, <a href="#pg223">223</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">becomes prior, <a href="#pg224">224</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Herluin of Montreuil, <a href="#pg081">81</a></li>

<li>Hildebrand, archdeacon, see Gregory VII.</li>

<li>Hugh Capet, <a href="#pg063">63</a>, <a href="#pg088">88</a>, <a href="#pg098">98</a></li>

<li>Hugh the Great, Count of Paris, <a href="#pg056">56</a>, <a href="#pg063">63</a>, <a href="#pg153">153</a></li>

<li>I</li>

<li>Iceland, colonization of, <a href="#pg016">16</a>, <a href="#pg032">32</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">expedition to England from, <a href="#pg291">291</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">literature, <a href="#pg032">32</a>, <a href="#pg092">92</a>, <a href="#pg362">362</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Italy, <a href="#pg054">54</a></li>

<li>J</li>

<li>Jersey, island of, <a href="#pg093">93</a></li>

<li>Jerusalem, Robert's pilgrimage to, <a href="#pg126">126</a></li>

<li>Jumièges, <a href="#pg035">35</a></li>

<li>K</li>

<li>Kent, <a href="#pg288">288</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a></li>

<li>Knighthood, <a href="#pg156">156</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">oaths of, <a href="#pg161">161</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>L</li>

<li>Land-holding, Norman system of, <a href="#pg046">46</a></li>

<li>Lanfranc, <a href="#pg219">219</a>, <a href="#pg226">226</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">met by pilgrims, <a href="#pg231">231</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">brings about William's marriage, <a href="#pg237">237</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">William's ally, <a href="#pg279">279</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Bishop of Canterbury, <a href="#pg320">320</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Laon, castle of, <a href="#pg072">72</a></li>

<li>Leo, Pope of Rome, <a href="#pg235">235</a>, <a href="#pg236">236</a></li>

<li>Leofric, <a href="#pg188">188</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">grandsons of, <a href="#pg258">258</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Leslies, Scottish family of, <a href="#pg233">233</a></li>

<li>Lillebonne, <a href="#pg282">282</a></li>

<li>Lisieux, <a href="#pg247">247</a>, <a href="#pg252">252</a></li>

<li>Lisle, Baldwin de, <a href="#pg233">233</a></li>

<li>London, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg192">192</a>, <a href="#pg302">302</a></li>

<li>Long Serpent, <a href="#pg012">12</a></li>

<li>Longsword, see William Longsword.</li>

<li>Lorraine, <a href="#pg054">54</a></li>

<li>Lothair, <a href="#pg086">86</a></li>

<li>Louis Outremer, <a href="#pg071">71</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">in Rouen, <a href="#pg077">77</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">loses the battle with Normandy, <a href="#pg082">82</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">death of, <a href="#pg086">86</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>M</li>

<li>Maine, Count of, <a href="#pg280">280</a></li>

<li>Malcolm, <a href="#pg288">288</a></li>

<li>Mantes, <a href="#pg337">337</a></li>

<li>Matilda of Flanders, <a href="#pg233">233</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">marries William of Normandy, <a href="#pg237">237</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">builds Church of the Holy Trinity in Caen, <a href="#pg238">238</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">influence in Normandy, <a href="#pg245">245</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">gives William a ship, <a href="#pg298">298</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">rules Normandy in his absence, <a href="#pg325">325</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">favors her son Robert, <a href="#pg334">334</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">dies, <a href="#pg335">335</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Mauger, <a href="#pg090">90</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">Archbishop of Rouen, <a href="#pg112">112</a>, <a href="#pg124">124</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">opposition to William and Matilda's marriage, <a href="#pg236">236</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">dismissal of, by William, <a href="#pg251">251</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Mauritius, <a href="#pg238">238</a></li>

<li>Mercia, <a href="#pg187">187</a></li>

<li>Michael, Emperor of Constantinople, <a href="#pg128">128</a></li>

<li>Mirmande, <a href="#pg111">111</a></li>

<li>Monasticism, <a href="#pg215">215</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">value of, to Normandy, <a href="#pg230">230</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Montgomery, house of, <a href="#pg152">152</a></li>

<li>Morkere, <a href="#pg288">288</a>, <a href="#pg320">320</a></li>

<li>Mortain, Count of, <a href="#pg282">282</a></li>

<li>Mortemer, battle of, <a href="#pg248">248</a></li>

<li>Mount St. Michel, <a href="#pg265">265</a></li>

<li>N</li>

<li>Navarre, <a href="#pg054">54</a></li>

<li>Neal of St. Saviour, <a href="#pg201">201</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">at Val-ès-dunes, <a href="#pg208">208</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">goes to Brittany, <a href="#pg202">202</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">at Hastings, <a href="#pg306">306</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Neustria, <a href="#pg035">35</a>, <a href="#pg079">79</a></li>

<li>Normandy, Rolf's voyage to, <a href="#pg029">29</a>, <a href="#pg034">34</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">formerly called Neustria, <a href="#pg035">35</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">independence of, <a href="#pg044">44</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">division of, <a href="#pg046">46</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">improvement of, <a href="#pg047">47</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">loyalty to France, <a href="#pg057">57</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">relations with France, <a href="#pg060">60</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">holds its own against Louis Outremer, <a href="#pg082">82</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">first money coined in, <a href="#pg084">84</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">the Norman character, <a href="#pg091">91</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">manufactures of, <a href="#pg092">92</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">chivalry in, <a href="#pg093">93</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">attacked by Æthelred, <a href="#pg103">103</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">changes in, <a href="#pg115">115</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Christianity in, <a href="#pg118">118</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">social progress of, <a href="#pg132">132</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">colonies in Southern Italy, <a href="#pg133">133</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">feudalism in, <a href="#pg153">153</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">knighthood of, <a href="#pg156">156</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">churches of, <a href="#pg168">168</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">plague in, <a href="#pg169">169</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Æthelred escapes to, <a href="#pg177">177</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">state of religion in, <a href="#pg217">217</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">architecture, <a href="#pg239">239</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">enmity between Flanders and, <a href="#pg245">245</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">victory at Mortemer, <a href="#pg248">248</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">craftiness of, <a href="#pg250">250</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">victory at Varaville, <a href="#pg252">252</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Harold in, <a href="#pg268">268</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">governed by William and Lanfranc, <a href="#pg279">279</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">preparation for war in, <a href="#pg295">295</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">wins the battle of Hastings, <a href="#pg300">300</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">influence of Norman character, <a href="#pg356">356</a>-<a href="#pg360">360</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Norman women, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg326">326</a></li>

<li>Northmen, voyages of, <a href="#pg004">4</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">literature of, <a href="#pg009">9</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">arts of the, <a href="#pg011">11</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">ship-building of, <a href="#pg012">12</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">in Bayeux, <a href="#pg059">59</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Norway, coast of, <a href="#pg001">1</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">metals in, <a href="#pg004">4</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">home-life in, <a href="#pg006">6</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">reputation of, <a href="#pg009">9</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">ships of, <a href="#pg012">12</a>-<a href="#pg014">14</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">colonies of, <a href="#pg019">19</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">women in, <a href="#pg023">23</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">pirates, <a href="#pg026">26</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Haarfager's government of, <a href="#pg030">30</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>O</li>

<li>Odo of Bayeux, <a href="#pg282">282</a>, <a href="#pg304">304</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">made Earl of Kent, <a href="#pg324">324</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Italian plot, <a href="#pg336">336</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">release from prison, <a href="#pg339">339</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">plots of, <a href="#pg347">347</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Odo of France, <a href="#pg247">247</a></li>

<li>Olaf of Norway, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a></li>

<li>Ordericus Vitalis, chronicle of, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a></li>

<li>Orkneys, <a href="#pg001">1</a>, <a href="#pg030">30</a>, <a href="#pg293">293</a></li>

<li>Oslac, <a href="#pg060">60</a></li>

<li>Osmond de Centeville, <a href="#pg072">72</a></li>

<li>Otho William, <a href="#pg107">107</a></li>

<li>Otto of Germany, <a href="#pg086">86</a></li>

<li>P</li>

<li>Palermo, <a href="#pg146">146</a></li>

<li>Palgrave, Sir Francis, <a href="#pg089">89</a>, <a href="#pg091">91</a></li>

<li>Paris, plundering of, <a href="#pg019">19</a>, <a href="#pg040">40</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">borders of Normandy near, <a href="#pg125">125</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Pavia, Lanfranc born in, <a href="#pg226">226</a></li>

<li>Peasantry, Norman, <a href="#pg093">93</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">complaint of, <a href="#pg095">95</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">parliament of and commune, <a href="#pg096">96</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">in England, <a href="#pg330">330</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Peter the Hermit, <a href="#pg351">351</a></li>

<li>Pevensey, <a href="#pg299">299</a></li>

<li>Philip, King of France, <a href="#pg337">337</a></li>

<li>Poictiers, <a href="#pg246">246</a></li>

<li>Ponthieu, <a href="#pg246">246</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">Harold shipwrecked in, <a href="#pg260">260</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">William's ships sail for, <a href="#pg297">297</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Popa, <a href="#pg043">43</a>, <a href="#pg045">45</a>, <a href="#pg060">60</a></li>

<li>Pyrenees, <a href="#pg246">246</a></li>

<li>Q</li>

<li>Quevilly, <a href="#pg275">275</a></li>

<li>R</li>

<li>Ragnar Lodbrok, <a href="#pg025">25</a></li>

<li>Rainulf of Ferrières, <a href="#pg068">68</a></li>

<li>Ralph Flambard, <a href="#pg349">349</a></li>

<li>Ralph of Tesson, <a href="#pg206">206</a></li>

<li>Ralph of Toesny, <a href="#pg249">249</a></li>

<li>Randolph of Bayeux, <a href="#pg202">202</a></li>

<li>Raoul of Ivry, <a href="#pg096">96</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">against the peasants, <a href="#pg097">97</a>, <a href="#pg098">98</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Ravens, black, <a href="#pg015">15</a></li>

<li>Renaud, <a href="#pg110">110</a></li>

<li>Richard of Evreux, <a href="#pg282">282</a></li>

<li>Richard the Fearless, <a href="#pg062">62</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">boyhood of, <a href="#pg066">66</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">made duke, <a href="#pg068">68</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">sent to Laon, <a href="#pg071">71</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">charters of, <a href="#pg084">84</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">death of, <a href="#pg089">89</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Richard the Good, <a href="#pg090">90</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">character of, <a href="#pg092">92</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">unruly subjects of, <a href="#pg096">96</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">first peer of France, <a href="#pg099">99</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">marriage of, <a href="#pg101">101</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">war with Burgundy, <a href="#pg106">106</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">war with Dreux, <a href="#pg108">108</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">death at Fécamp, <a href="#pg111">111</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Richard the Third Duke, <a href="#pg110">110</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">becomes duke, <a href="#pg112">112</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">is poisoned, <a href="#pg113">113</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Robert Curt-hose, <a href="#pg333">333</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">inherits Normandy, <a href="#pg339">339</a>, <a href="#pg345">345</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">his character, <a href="#pg350">350</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">goes on pilgrimage, <a href="#pg351">351</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">imprisonment, <a href="#pg357">357</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Robert of Eu, <a href="#pg282">282</a></li>

<li>Robert of France, <a href="#pg098">98</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">wit of, <a href="#pg099">99</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Robert Guiscard, <a href="#pg134">134</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">reaches Amalfi, <a href="#pg141">141</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">becomes duke, <a href="#pg142">142</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Robert of Jumièges, <a href="#pg193">193</a></li>

<li>Robert the Magnificent, <a href="#pg112">112</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">bad name of, <a href="#pg114">114</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">enemy of England, <a href="#pg118">118</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">marries the tanner's daughter, <a href="#pg122">122</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">goes on pilgrimage, <a href="#pg125">125</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">dies, <a href="#pg129">129</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Robert the Staller, <a href="#pg273">273</a>, <a href="#pg300">300</a></li>

<li>Roger of Beaumont, <a href="#pg282">282</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a></li>

<li>Roger of Toesny, <a href="#pg195">195</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">colony in Spain, <a href="#pg196">196</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Rögnwald, Jarl, of Möre, <a href="#pg031">31</a>, <a href="#pg044">44</a></li>

<li>Rolf Ganger, ships, <a href="#pg029">29</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">profession, <a href="#pg032">32</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">siege of Rouen, <a href="#pg035">35</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">good government, <a href="#pg041">41</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">made duke, <a href="#pg042">42</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">christened, <a href="#pg045">45</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">married Gisla, <a href="#pg045">45</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">death, <a href="#pg050">50</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">tomb at Rouen, typical character, <a href="#pg053">53</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">tower in Rouen, <a href="#pg078">78</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">hall in Rouen, <a href="#pg121">121</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Cnut's likeness to, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg278">278</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a>, <a href="#pg306">306</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Romance language, <a href="#pg055">55</a></li>

<li><i>Roman de Rou</i>, <a href="#pg094">94</a>, <a href="#pg112">112</a>, <a href="#pg204">204</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg340">340</a></li>

<li>Roman roads, <a href="#pg092">92</a></li>

<li>Rome, Church of, <a href="#pg118">118</a></li>

<li>Rouen, <a href="#pg020">20</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">siege of, <a href="#pg035">35</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Rolf's wedding in, <a href="#pg045">45</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Rolf's palace in, <a href="#pg050">50</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Richard the Fearless' coronation in, <a href="#pg069">69</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">ruins in, <a href="#pg086">86</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">reception of William and Matilda in, <a href="#pg236">236</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Rudolph of Burgundy, <a href="#pg057">57</a></li>

<li>Rye, castle of, <a href="#pg200">200</a></li>

<li>S</li>

<li>Sagamen, <a href="#pg008">8</a></li>

<li>Sandwich, <a href="#pg288">288</a></li>

<li>Salle, <a href="#pg212">212</a></li>

<li>Sanglac, battle of, <a href="#pg104">104</a></li>

<li>Saxons, <a href="#pg287">287</a></li>

<li>Scandinavian peninsula, <a href="#pg001">1</a>-<a href="#pg003">3</a></li>

<li>Sea-kings, <a href="#pg009">9</a></li>

<li>Senlac, <a href="#pg304">304</a>, <a href="#pg309">309</a></li>

<li>Shakespeare, <a href="#pg091">91</a></li>

<li>Sicily, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">Norman ruins in, <a href="#pg145">145</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">aids William, <a href="#pg285">285</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">crusades of, <a href="#pg350">350</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Siward of Northumberland, <a href="#pg258">258</a></li>

<li>Slavery, William's suppression of, <a href="#pg332">332</a></li>

<li>Spain, <a href="#pg020">20</a>, <a href="#pg025">25</a>, <a href="#pg306">306</a></li>

<li>Sperling, <a href="#pg080">80</a>, <a href="#pg152">152</a></li>

<li>Stamford Bridge, battle of, <a href="#pg293">293</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg305">305</a></li>

<li>Stephen of Blois, <a href="#pg358">358</a></li>

<li>Stephen of Boulogne, <a href="#pg358">358</a></li>

<li>Stigand, <a href="#pg273">273</a></li>

<li>St. Michel's Mount, <a href="#pg101">101</a></li>

<li>Sturlesson, Snorro, <a href="#pg028">28</a></li>

<li>St. Valery, <a href="#pg297">297</a></li>

<li>Sussex, <a href="#pg288">288</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>, <a href="#pg299">299</a></li>

<li>Swegen, King of Denmark, <a href="#pg175">175</a></li>

<li>T</li>

<li>Taillefer the minstrel, <a href="#pg306">306</a></li>

<li>Taxes, <a href="#pg352">352</a></li>

<li>Tennyson, Lord, <a href="#pg028">28</a></li>

<li><i>Terra Regis</i>, <a href="#pg318">318</a></li>

<li>Thurkill the sacristan, <a href="#pg303">303</a></li>

<li>Tillières, <a href="#pg109">109</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">siege of, <a href="#pg136">136</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">castle of, <a href="#pg250">250</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Tostig, <a href="#pg287">287</a>, <a href="#pg292">292</a></li>

<li>Truce of God, <a href="#pg165">165</a></li>

<li>Turf-Einar, <a href="#pg032">32</a></li>

<li>V</li>

<li>Val-ès-dunes, battle of, <a href="#pg205">205</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">changes since, <a href="#pg247">247</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Valmeray, <a href="#pg205">205</a></li>

<li>Valognes, William's escape from, <a href="#pg199">199</a></li>

<li>Varaville, battle of, <a href="#pg251">251</a></li>

<li>Vaudreuil, <a href="#pg152">152</a></li>

<li>Venerable Bede, the, <a href="#pg218">218</a></li>

<li>Venosa (tomb of the Hautevilles), <a href="#pg146">146</a></li>

<li>Vermandois, Count of, <a href="#pg056">56</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">death of, <a href="#pg063">63</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>Vexin, district of the, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>, <a href="#pg348">348</a></li>

<li>Vigr, island of, <a href="#pg029">29</a></li>

<li>Vikings, <a href="#pg009">9</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a></li>

<li>Vinland, <a href="#pg018">18</a></li>

<li>W</li>

<li>Wace, Master, <a href="#pg112">112</a>, see <i>Roman de Rou</i>.</li>

<li>Walter Giffard, <a href="#pg282">282</a></li>

<li>Walter Tyrrel, <a href="#pg353">353</a></li>

<li>Waltham, abbey of, <a href="#pg254">254</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a></li>

<li>Waltheof, <a href="#pg320">320</a></li>

<li>Westminster, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>, <a href="#pg302">302</a>, <a href="#pg311">311</a>, <a href="#pg314">314</a>, <a href="#pg353">353</a></li>

<li>Wight, isle of, <a href="#pg288">288</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">Odo's rendezvous in, <a href="#pg336">336</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>William the Conqueror, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">father of, <a href="#pg116">116</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">mother of, <a href="#pg122">122</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">homage of barons to, <a href="#pg126">126</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">typical character of, <a href="#pg149">149</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">purity of life, <a href="#pg167">167</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Roger of Toesny an enemy to, <a href="#pg196">196</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">Guy of Burgundy's rebellion, <a href="#pg199">199</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">not a man of blood in a certain sense, <a href="#pg211">211</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">mastery in Normandy, <a href="#pg213">213</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">revenge upon Alençon, <a href="#pg214">214</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">meets Lanfranc, <a href="#pg229">229</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">marries Matilda, <a href="#pg237">237</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">goes to England, <a href="#pg242">242</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">receives news of Harold's shipwreck, <a href="#pg260">260</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">at Chateau d'Eu, <a href="#pg264">264</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">hears of Harold's coronation, <a href="#pg275">275</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">embassy to Harold, <a href="#pg280">280</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">council at Lillebonne, <a href="#pg282">282</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">at Hastings, <a href="#pg299">299</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">march to London, <a href="#pg313">313</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">coronation at Westminster, <a href="#pg314">314</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">government of England, <a href="#pg316">316</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">returns to Normandy in triumph, <a href="#pg321">321</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">at Mantes, <a href="#pg337">337</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">last illness and death, <a href="#pg337">337</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>William Fitz-Osbern, <a href="#pg250">250</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">at Rouen palace, <a href="#pg262">262</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">at Quevilly, <a href="#pg277">277</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">at Lillebonne, <a href="#pg284">284</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">made Count of Hereford, <a href="#pg324">324</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>William of Jumièges, <a href="#pg112">112</a></li>

<li>William Longsword, his youth, <a href="#pg043">43</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">education of, <a href="#pg056">56</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">his wife, <a href="#pg056">56</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">lands in Brittany, <a href="#pg058">58</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">politics of, <a href="#pg060">60</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">government of, <a href="#pg062">62</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">death, <a href="#pg063">63</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">character of, <a href="#pg064">64</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">lingering enmity toward Flanders caused by his murder, <a href="#pg245">245</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>William Malet, <a href="#pg310">310</a></li>

<li>William of Malmesbury, <a href="#pg331">331</a></li>

<li>William Rufus, <a href="#pg338">338</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">inherits the English crown, <a href="#pg339">339</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">goes to England, <a href="#pg345">345</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">is murdered, <a href="#pg353">353</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">is buried at Winchester, <a href="#pg353">353</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>William, son of Richard the Fearless, <a href="#pg097">97</a></li>

<li>William de Talvas, <a href="#pg124">124</a>;
<ul><li class="li2">the bastard's enemy, <a href="#pg152">152</a>;</li>
<li class="li2">rebels against William, <a href="#pg213">213</a></li>
</ul></li>

<li>William of Warren, <a href="#pg282">282</a></li>

<li>Witanagemôt, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg275">275</a>, <a href="#pg280">280</a>, <a href="#pg317">317</a>, <a href="#pg353">353</a></li>

<li>Women of Normandy, <a href="#pg101">101</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg326">326</a></li>

<li>Y</li>

<li>Yonge, Miss (Story of <i>The Little Duke</i>), <a href="#pg085">85</a></li>

<li>York, <a href="#pg292">292</a></li>
</ul>

<hr />

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width: 486px;">
<img src="images/i394.png" width="486" height="123" alt="" />
</div>

<p class="fsize2 center"><a name="The_Story_of_the_Nations"
id="The_Story_of_the_Nations"><br /><br />The Story of the Nations.</a></p>

<hr class="tb" />

<p><span class="smcap">Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</span> take pleasure in
announcing that they have in course of publication, in
co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of London, a
series of historical studies, intended to present in a graphic
manner the stories of the different nations that have
attained prominence in history.</p>

<p>In the story form the current of each national life is
distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy
periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their
philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal
history.</p>

<p>It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to
enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them
before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and
struggled—as they studied and wrote, and as they amused
themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with
which the history of all lands begins, will not be overlooked,
though these will be carefully distinguished from
the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted
historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions.</p>

<p>The subjects of the different volumes have been planned
to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive
epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will
present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in
the great <span class="smcap">Story of the Nations</span>; but it is, of course,
not always practicable to issue the several volumes in
their chronological order.</p>

<p>The "Stories" are printed in good readable type, and
in handsome 12mo form. They are adequately illustrated
and furnished with maps and indexes. Price, per vol.,
cloth, $1.50. Half morocco, gilt top, $1.75.</p>

<p>The following are now ready:</p>

<ul>
<li>GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison.</li>

<li>ROME. Arthur Gilman.</li>

<li>THE JEWS. Prof. James K.
Hosmer.</li>

<li>CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin.</li>

<li>GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould.</li>

<li>NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen.</li>

<li>SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan
Hale.</li>

<li>HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vámbéry.</li>

<li>CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J.
Church.</li>

<li>THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman.</li>

<li>THE MOORS IN SPAIN.
Stanley Lane-Poole.</li>

<li>THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne
Jewett.</li>

<li>PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin.</li>

<li>ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo.
Rawlinson.</li>

<li>ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE.
Prof. J. P. Mahaffy.</li>

<li>ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin.</li>

<li>THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley.</li>

<li>IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless.</li>

<li>TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole.</li>

<li>MEDIA, BABYLON, AND
PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin.</li>

<li>MEDIÆVAL FRANCE. Prof.
Gustave Masson.</li>

<li>HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold
Rogers.</li>

<li>MEXICO. Susan Hale.</li>

<li>PHŒNICIA. Geo. Rawlinson.</li>

<li>THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen
Zimmern.</li>

<li>EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfree
J. Church.</li>

<li>THE BARBARY CORSAIRS.
Stanley Lane-Poole.</li>

<li>RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill.</li>

<li>THE JEWS UNDER ROME.
W. D. Morrison.</li>

<li>SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh.</li>

<li>SWITZERLAND. R. Stead
and Mrs. A. Hug.</li>

<li>PORTUGAL. H. Morse Stephens.</li>

<li>THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
C. W. C. Oman.</li>

<li>SICILY. E. A. Freeman.</li>

<li>THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS.
Bella Duffy.</li>

<li>POLAND. W. R. Morfill.</li>

<li>PARTHIA. Geo. Rawlinson.</li>

<li>JAPAN. David Murray.</li>

<li>THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY
OF SPAIN. H. E.
Watts.</li>

<li>AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tregarthen.</li>

<li>SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo.
M. Theal.</li>

<li>VENICE. Alethea Wiel.</li>

<li>THE CRUSADES. T. S.
Archer and C. L. Kingsford.</li>

<li>VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin.</li>

<li>BOHEMIA. C. E. Maurice.</li>

<li>CANADA. J. G. Bourinot.</li>

<li>THE BALKAN STATES.
William Miller.</li>

<li>BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
R. W. Frazer.</li>

<li>MODERN FRANCE. André
Le Bon.</li>

<li>THE BUILDING OF THE
BRITISH EMPIRE. Alfred
T. Story.
</li>
</ul>

<div class="figcenter pgbkbefr" style="width:485px;">
<img src="images/i396.png" width="485" height="119" alt="" />
</div>

<p class="fsize2 center"><a name="Heroes_of_the_Nations"
id="Heroes_of_the_Nations"><br /><br />Heroes of the Nations.</a></p>

<p class="fsize4 center"><br /><small>EDITED BY</small></p>
<p class="fsize3 center">EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A.,</p>
<p class="fsize4 center"><span class="smcap">Fellow of Balliol
College, Oxford.</span></p>

<hr class="tb" />

<p>A series of biographical studies of the lives and work
of a number of representative historical characters about
whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations
to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in
many instances, as types of the several National ideals.
With the life of each typical character will be presented
a picture of the National conditions surrounding him
during his career.</p>

<p>The narratives are the work of writers who are recognized
authorities on their several subjects, and, while
thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque
and dramatic "stories" of the Men and of the events connected
with them.</p>

<p>To the Life of each "Hero" will be given one duodecimo
volume, handsomely printed in large type, provided
with maps and adequately illustrated according to
the special requirements of the several subjects. The
volumes will be sold separately as follows:</p>

<table summary="book prices"
 style="width:30em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;
 font-family:monospace;">
<tr>
 <td>Large 12°, cloth extra </td>
 <td>$1&#160;50</td></tr>
<tr>
 <td>Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top</td>
 <td>&#160;1&#160;75</td></tr>
</table>

<p>The following are now ready:</p>

<ul>
<li><b>Nelson, and the Naval Supremacy of England.</b> By W. Clark Russell, author of
"The Wreck of the Grosvenor," etc.</li>

<li><b>Gustavus Adolphus and the Struggle of Protestantism for Existence.</b> By C. R.
L. Fletcher, M.A., late Fellow of All Souls College.</li>

<li><b>Pericles, and the Golden Age of Athens.</b> By Evelyn Abbott, M.A.</li>

<li><b>Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion of Civilisation.</b> By Thomas
Hodgkin, author of "Italy and Her Invaders," etc.</li>

<li><b>Sir Philip Sidney, and the Chivalry of England.</b> By H. R. Fox Bourne, author
of "The Life of John Locke," etc.</li>

<li><b>Julius Cæsar, and the Organisation of the Roman Empire.</b> By W. Ward
Fowler, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.</li>

<li><b>John Wyclif, Last of the Schoolmen and First of the English Reformers.</b> By
Lewis Sergeant, author of "New Greece," etc.</li>

<li><b>Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler, and the Military Supremacy of Revolutionary
France.</b> By W. O'Connor Morris.</li>

<li><b>Henry of Navarre, and the Huguenots of France.</b> By P. F. Willert, M.A., Fellow
of Exeter College, Oxford.</li>

<li><b>Cicero, and the Fall of the Roman Republic.</b> By J. L. Strachan-Davidson, M.A.,
Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.</li>

<li><b>Abraham Lincoln, and the Downfall of American Slavery.</b> By Noah Brooks.</li>

<li><b>Prince Henry (of Portugal) the Navigator, and the Age of Discovery.</b> By C. R.
Beazley, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.</li>

<li><b>Julian the Philosopher, and the Last Struggle of Paganism against Christianity.</b>
By Alice Gardner.</li>

<li><b>Louis XIV., and the Zenith of the French Monarchy.</b> By Arthur Hassall,
M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford.</li>

<li><b>Charles XII., and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire, 1682-1719.</b> By R. Nisbet
Bain.</li>

<li><b>Lorenzo de' Medici, and Florence in the 15th Century.</b> By Edward Armstrong,
M.A., Fellow of Queens's College, Oxford.</li>

<li><b>Jeanne d'Arc. Her Life and Death.</b> By Mrs. Oliphant.</li>

<li><b>Christopher Columbus. His Life and Voyages.</b> By Washington Irving.</li>

<li><b>Robert the Bruce, and the Struggle for Scottish Independence.</b> By Sir Herbert
Maxwell, M.P.</li>

<li><b>Hannibal, Soldier, Statesman. Patriot; and the Crisis of the Struggle between
Carthage and Rome.</b> By W. O'Connor Morris, Sometime Scholar of Oriel College,
Oxford.</li>

<li><b>Ulysses S. Grant, and the Period of National Preservation and Reconstruction,
1822-1885.</b> By Lieut.-Col. William Conant Church.</li>

<li><b>Robert E. Lee, and the Southern Confederacy, 1807-1870.</b> By Prof. Henry
Alexander White, of the Washington and Lee University.</li>

<li><b>The Cid Campeador, and the Waning of the Crescent in the West.</b> By H.
Butler Clarke, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford.</li>
</ul>

<p><i>To be followed by</i>:</p>

<ul>
<li><b>Moltke, and the Military Supremacy of Germany.</b> By Spencer Wilkinson, London
University.</li>

<li><b>Bismarck. The New German Empire, How it Arose and What it Displaced.</b>
By W. J. Headlam, M.A., Fellow of King's Collage.</li>

<li><b>Judas Maccabæus, the Conflict between Hellenism and Hebraism.</b> By Israel
Abrahams, author of the "Jews of the Middle Ages."</li>

<li><b>Henry V., the English Hero King.</b> By Charles L. Kingsford, joint-author of the
"Story of the Crusades."
</li>
</ul>

<p class="fsize2 center">G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. <span class="smcap">New
York and London</span>.</p>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
<img src="images/endmark.jpg" width="600" height="5" alt="end of book" />
</div>

<div class="transnote pgbkbefr"><a name="TRANSCRIBERS_ENDNOTE"
id="TRANSCRIBERS_ENDNOTE">TRANSCRIBER'S ENDNOTE.</a>

<div>In the List of Illustrations, corrected the page number for "OLD
HOUSES, DÔL" to "265", and for the entry "FUNERAL OF EADWARD THE
CONFESSOR", to "273".</div>

<div>A new table showing the Descendants of Rolf (r. 911-927) has
been inserted, to supplement an image of the chart of the Dukes of
the Normans on page xv of the printed book.</div>

<div>Page 32: "literture" to "literature".</div>

<div>Page 40: "whenever-they" to "whenever they".</div>

<div>Page 101: "separted" to "separated".</div>

<div>Page 142: the beginning quotation mark removed from "The medical
and philosophical schools ..."</div>

<div>Page 145: "almosts without number," to "almost without
number,".</div>

<div>Page 161: opening quotation mark inserted before "First" in "The
candidates swore: First,".</div>

<div>Page 174: the close quotation mark is missing from the paragraph
beginning '1002. "In this year ...'. It is not entirely clear where
it belongs; perhaps after 'evil.', where it has been placed.</div>

<div>Page 178: The passage "all England south of the Thames—East
Anglia and Essex and London" seems wrong, as these areas are mostly
north of the Thames.</div>

<div>Page 183: "out-grown" is retained, although "outgrown" appears
in five places.</div>

<div>Page 222: "wordly" to "worldly".</div>

<div>Page 247: "chieftan" to "chieftain".</div>

<div>Page 320: "wordliness" to "worldliness".</div>

<div>Page 325: changed comma to period after "as the winter
wore away", and period to comma after "was the most conspicuous
event".</div>

<div>Page 370: the page number for "Mantes" is changed to 337.</div>

<div>Page 371: "victory ta Varaville" changed to "victory at
Varaville".</div>

<div>Page 372: "war with Burgundy, 106, with Dreux, 108;" to "war
with Burgundy, 106; war with Dreux, 108;". Also changed "Cnut's
likeness to, 157; 278. 282, 306" to "Cnut's likeness to, 157, 278,
282, 306".</div>

<div>Page 373: "character, of, 64;" to "character of, 64;".</div>
<div><a href="#CONTENTS">Return to Table of Contents</a>.</div>
</div>

<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44920 ***</div>
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