WILLIAM TILE CONQUEROR.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 1066.
NOTHING could exceed the consternation which seized
the English, when they received intelligence of the unfortunate battle of Hastings, the death of their king, the
slaughter of their principal nobility and of their bravest warriors, and the rout and dispersion of the remainder.
But though the loss which they had sustained in that fatal action was considerable, it might have been repaired
by a great nation, where the people were generally armed, and where there resided so many powerful noblemen in
every province, who could have assembled their retainers, and have obliged the Duke of Normandy to divide his army,
and probably to waste it in a variety of actions and encounters. It was thus that the kingdom had formerly resisted,
for many years, its invaders, and had been gradually subdued, by the continued efforts of the Romans, Saxons, and
Danes; and equal difficulties might have been apprehended by William in this bold and hazardous enterprise. But
there were several vices in the Anglo-Saxon constitution, which rendered it difficult for the English to defend
their liberties in so critical an emergency. The people had in a great measure lost all national pride and spirit,
by their recent and long subjection to the Danes; and as Canute had, in the course of his administration, much
abated the rigours of conquest, and had governed them equitably by their own laws, they regarded with the less
terror the ignominy of a foreign yoke, and deemed the inconveniences of submission less formidable than those of
bloodshed, war, and resistance. Their attachment also to the ancient royal family had been much weakened, by their
habits of submission to the Danish princes, and by their late election of Harold, or their acquiescence in his
usurpation. And as they had long been accustomed to regard Edgar Atheling, the only heir of the Saxon line, as
unfit to govern them even in times of order and tranquillity, they could entertain small hopes of his being able
to repair such great losses as they had sustained, or to withstand the victorious arms of the duke of Normandy.
That they might not, however, be altogether wanting to themselves in this extreme necessity, the English took some
steps towards adjusting their disjointed government, and uniting themselves against the common enemy. The two potent
earls, Edwin and Morcar, who had fled to London with the remains of the broken army, took the lead on this occasion:
in concert with Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, a man possessed of great authority and of ample revenues, they
proclaimed Edgar, and endeavoured to put the people in a posture of defence, and encourage them to resist the Normans.
But the terror of the late defeat, and the near neighbourhood of the invaders, increased the confusion inseparable
from great revolutions; and every resolution proposed was hasty, fluctuating, tumultuary, disconcerted by fear
or faction, ill planned, and worse executed.
William, that his enemies might have no leisure to recover from their consternation, or unite their counsels, immediately
put himself in motion after his victory, and resolved to prosecute an enterprise, which nothing but celerity and
vigour could render finally successful. His first attempt was against Romney, whose inhabitants he severely punished,
on account of their cruel treatment of some Norman seamen and soldiers, who had been carried thither by stress
of weather, or by a mistake in their course: and foreseeing that his conquest of England might still be attended
with many difficulties and with much opposition, he deemed it necessary, before he should advance further into
the country, to make himself master of Dover, which would both secure him a retreat in case of adverse fortune,
and afford him a safe landing-place for such supplies as might be requisite for pushing his advantages. The terror
diffused by his victory at Hastings was so great, that the garrison of Dover, thought numerous and well provided,
immediately capitulated; and as the Normans, rushing in to take possession of the town, hastily set fire to some
of the houses, William, desirous to conciliate the minds of the English by an appearance of lenity and justice,
made compensation to the inhabitants for their losses.
The Norman army, being much distressed with a dysentery, was obliged to remain here eight days; but the duke, on
their recovery, advanced with quick marches, towards London, and by his approach increased the confusions which
were already so prevalent in the English counsels. The ecclesiastics in particular, whose influence was great over
the people, began to declare in his favour; and as most of the bishops and dignified clergymen were even then Frenchmen
or Normans, the pope's bull, by which his enterprise was avowed and hallowed, was now openly insisted on as a reason
for general submission. The superior learning of those prelates, which, during the Confessor's reign, had raised
them above the ignorant Saxons, made their opinions be received with implicit faith; and a young prince like Edgar,
whose capacity was deemed so mean, was but ill qualified to resist the impression which they made on the minds
of the people. A repulse which a body of Londoners received from five hundred Norman horse, renewed in the city
the terror of the great defeat at Hastings; the easy submission of all the inhabitants of Kent was an additional
discouragement to them; the burning of Southwark before their eyes, made them dread a like fate to their own city;
and no man any longer entertained thoughts but of immediate safety and of self-preservation. Even the earls Edwin
and Morcar, in despair of making effectual resistance, retired with their troops to their own provinces; and the
people thenceforth disposed themselves unanimously to yield to the victor.
As soon as he passed the Thames at Wallingford,
and reached Berkhamstead, Stigand the primate made submissions to him: before he came within sight of the city,
all the chief nobility, and Edgar Atheling himself, the new-elected king, came into his camp, and declared their
intention of yielding to his authority. They requested him to mount their throne, which they now considered as
vacant; and declared to him, that as they had always been ruled by regal power, they desired to follow, in this
particular, the example of their ancestors, and knew of no one more worthy than himself to hold the reins of government.
Though this was the great object to which the duke's enterprise tended, he feigned to deliberate on the offer;
and being desirous, at first, of preserving the appearance of a legal administration, he wished to obtain a more
explicit and formal consent of the English nation: but Aimar of Aquitain, a man equally respected for valour in
the field and for prudence in council, remonstrating with him on the danger of delay in so critical a conjuncture,
he laid aside all further scruples, and accepted of the crown which was tendered him. Orders were immediately issued
to prepare everything for the ceremony of his coronation; but as he was yet afraid to place entire confidence in
the Londoners, who were numerous and warlike, he meanwhile commanded fortresses to be erected, in order to curb
the inhabitants, and to secure his person and government.
Stigand was not much in the duke's favour, both because he had intruded into the see on the expulsion of Robert
the Norman, and because he possessed such influence and authority over the English as might be dangerous to a new-established
monarch. William, therefore, pretending that the primate had obtained his pall in an irregular manner from pope
Benedict IX., who was himself an usurper, refused to be consecrated by him, and conferred this honour on Aldred,
archbishop of York. Westminster Abbey was the place appointed for that magnificent ceremony; the most considerable
of the nobility, both English and Norman, attended the duke on this occasion: [Dec. 26, 1066:] Aldred, in a short
speech, asked the former, whether they agreed to accept of William as their king; the bishop of Constance put the
same question to the latter; and both being answered with acclamations, Aldred administered to the duke the usual
coronation oath, by which he bound himself to protect the church, to administer justice, and to repress violence:
he then anointed him, and put the crown upon his head. (Malmesbury, p. 271, says, that he always promised to govern
the Normans and English by equal laws; and this addition to the usual oath seems not improbable, considering the
times.) There appeared nothing but joy in the countenance of the spectators: but in that very moment there burst
forth the strongest symptoms of the jealousy and animosity which prevailed between the nations, and which continually
increased during the reign of this prince. The Norman soldiers, who were placed without, in order to guard the
church, hearing the shouts within, fancied that the English were offering violence to their duke; and they immediately
assaulted the populace, and set fire to the neighbouring houses. The alarm was conveyed to the nobility who surrounded
the prince; both English and Normans, full of apprehensions, rushed out to secure themselves from the present danger;
and it was with difficulty that William himself was able to appease the tumult.
SETTLEMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 1067.
The king, thus possessed of the throne by a pretended
destination of king Edward, and by an irregular election of the people, but still more by force of arms, retired
from London to Berking in Essex; and there received the submissions of all the nobility who had not attended his
coronation. Edric, surnamed the Forester, grand-nephew to that Edric so noted for his repeated acts of perfidy
during the reigns of Ethelred and Edmond; earl Coxo, a man famous for bravery; even Edwin and Morcar, earls of
Mercia and Northumberland; with the other principal noblemen of England, came and swore fealty to him; were received
into favour, and were confirmed in the possession of their estates and dignities. Everything bore the appearance
of peace and tranquillity; and William had no other occupation than to give contentment to the foreigners who had
assisted him to mount the throne, and to his new subjects, who had so readily submitted to him.
He had got possession of the treasure of Harold, which was considerable; and being also supplied with rich presents
from the opulent men in all parts of England, who were solicitous to gain the favour of their new sovereign, he
distributed great sums among his troops, and by this liberality gave them hopes of obtaining at length those more
durable establishments which they had expected from his enterprise. The ecclesiastics, both at home and abroad,
had much forwarded his success; and he failed not, in return, to express his gratitude and devotion in the manner
which was most acceptable to them, He sent Harold's standard to the pope, accompanied with many valuable presents:
all the considerable monasteries and churches in France, where prayers had been put up for his success, now tasted
of his bounty: the English monks found him well disposed to favour their order: and he built a new convent near
Hastings, which he called Battle Abbey, and which, on pretence of supporting monks to pray for his own soul, and
for that of Harold, served as a lasting memorial of his Victory.( This convent way freed by him from all Episcopal
jurisdiction.)
He introduced into England that strict execution of justice for which his administration had been much celebrated
in Normandy; and even during this violent revolution, every disorder or oppression met with rigorous punishment.
His army, in particular, was governed with severe discipline; and notwithstanding the insolence of victory, care
was taken to give as little offence as possible to the jealousy of the vanquished. The king appeared solicitous
to smite, in an amicable manner, the Normans and the English, by intermarriages and alliances; and all his new
subjects who approached his person were received with affability and regard. No signs of suspicion appeared, not
even towards Edgar Atheing, the heir of the ancient royal family, whom William confirmed in the honours of earl
of Oxford, conferred on him by Harold, and whom he affected to treat with the highest kindness, as nephew to the
Confessor, his great friend and benefactor. Though he confiscated the estates of Harold, and of those who had fought
in the battle of Hastings on the side of that prince, Whom he represented as an usurper, he seemed willing to admit
of every plausible excuse for past opposition to his pretensions, and he received many into favour who had carried
arms against him, he confirmed the liberties and immunities of London and the other cities of England; and appeared
desirous of replacing everything on ancient establishments. In his whole administration he bore the semblance of
the lawful prince, not of the conqueror; and the English began to flatter themselves that they had changed, not
the form of their government, but the succession only of their sovereigns, a matter which gave them small concern.
The better to reconcile his new subjects to his authority, William made a progress through some parts of England;
and besides a splendid court and majestic presence, which overawed the people, already struck with his military
fame, the appearance of his clemency and justice gained the approbation of the wise, attentive to the first steps
of their new sovereign.
But amidst this confidence and friendship which he expressed for the English, the king took care to place all real
power in the hands of his Normans, and still to keep possession of the sword, to which be was sensible he had owed
his advancement to sovereign authority. He disarmed the city of London and other places, which appeared most warlike
and populous; and building citadels in that capital, as well as in Winchester, Hereford, and the cities best situated
for commanding the kingdom, he quartered Norman soldiers in all of them, and left nowhere any power able o resist
or oppose him. He bestowed the forfeited estates on the most eminent of his captains, and established funds for
the payment of his soldiers. And thus while his civil administration carried the face of a legal magistrate, his
military institutions were those of a master and tyrant; at least of one who reserved to himself whenever he pleased,
the power of assuming that character.
KING'S RETURN TO NORMANDY. 1067.
By this mixture, however, of vigour and lenity, he had so soothed the minds of the English, that he thought he might safely revisit his native country, and enjoy the triumph and congratulations of his ancient subjects. He left the administration in the hands of his uterine brother, Odo, bishop of Baieux, and of William Fitz-Osberne. [March, 1067.] That their authority might be exposed to less danger, he carried over with him all the most considerable nobility of England, who, while they served to grace his court by their presence and magnificent retinues, were in reality hostages for the fidelity of the nation. Among these were Edgar Atheling, Stigand the primate, the earls Edwin and Morcar, Waltheof, the son of the brave earl Siward, with others, eminent for the greatness of their fortunes and families, or for their ecclesiastical and civil dignities. He was visited at the abbey of Fescamp, where he resided during some time, by Rodulph, uncle to the king of France, and by many powerful princes and nobles, who, having contributed to his enterprise, were desirous of participating in the joy and advantages of its success. His English courtiers, willing to ingratiate themselves with their new sovereign, out-vied each other in equipages and entertainment's; and made a display of riches which struck the foreigners with astonishment. William of Poictiers, a Norman historian, who was present, speaks with admiration of the beauty of their persons, the size and workmanship of their silver plate, the costliness of their embroideries, an art in which the English then excelled; and he expresses himself in such terms, as tend much to exalt our idea of the opulence and cultivation of the people. (As the historian chiefly insists on the silver plate, his panegyric on the English magnificence shows only how incompetent a judge he was of the matter. Silver was then of ten times, the value, and was more than twenty times more rare them, at present; and. consequently, of all species of luxury plate must have been the rarest. But though everything bore the face of joy and festivity, and William himself treated his new courtiers with great appearance of kindness, it was impossible altogether to prevent the insolence of the Normans; and the English nobles derived little satisfaction from those entertainment's, where they considered themselves as led in triumph by their ostentatious conqueror.
In England affairs took still a worse turn during
the absence of the sovereign. Discontents and complaints multiplied everywhere; secret conspiracies were entered
into against the government; hostilities were already begun in many places ; and everything seemed to menace a
revolution as rapid as that which had placed William on the throne. The historian above mentioned, who is a panegyrist
of his master, throws the blame entirely on the fickle and mutinous disposition of the English, and highly celebrates
the justice and lenity of Odo's and Fitz-Osberne's administration. But other historians, with more probability,
impute the cause chiefly to the Normans, who, despising a people that had so easily submitted to the yoke, envying
their riches, and grudging the restraints imposed upon their own rapine, were desirous of provoking them to a rebellion,
by which they expected to acquire new confiscation's and forfeitures, and to gratify those unbounded hopes which
they had formed in entering on this enterprise.
It is evident, that the chief reason of this alteration in the sentiments of the English, must be ascribed to the
departure of William, who was alone able to curb the violence of his captains, and to overawe the mutinies of the
people. Nothing indeed appears more strange, than that this prince, in less than three months after the conquest
of a great, warlike, and turbulent nation, should absent himself; in order to revisit his own country, which remained
in profound tranquillity, and was not menaced by any of its neighbours; and should so long leave his jealous subjects
at the mercy of an insolent and licentious army. Were we not assured of the solidity of his genius, and the good
sense displayed in all other circumstances of his conduct, we might ascribe this measure to a vain ostentation,
which rendered him impatient to display his pomp and magnificence among his ancient subjects. It is therefore more
natural to believe, that in so extraordinary a step he was guided by a concealed policy; and that, though he had
thought proper at first to allure the people to submission by the semblance of a legal administration, he found
that he could neither satisfy his rapacious captains, nor secure his unstable government, without further exerting
the rights of conquest, and seizing the possessions of the English. In order to have a pretext for this violence,
he endeavoured, without discovering his intentions, to provoke and allure them into insurrections, which, he thought,
could never prove dangerous, while he detained all the principal nobility in Normandy, while a great and victorious
army was quartered in England, and while he himself was so near to suppress any tumult or rebellion. But as no
ancient writer as ascribed this tyrannical purpose to William, it scarcely seems allowable, from conjecture alone,
to throw such an imputation upon him.
But whether we are to account for that measure from
the king's vanity or from his policy, it was the immediate cause of all the calamities which the English endured
during this and the subsequent reigns, and gave rise to those mutual jealousies and animosities between them and
the Normans, which were never appeased till a long tract of time had gradually united the two nations, and made
them one people. The inhabitants of Kent, who had first submitted to the Conqueror, were the first that attempted
to throw off the yoke; and in confederacy with Eustace, count of Bologne, who had also been disgusted by the Normans,
they made an attempt, though without success, on the garrison of Dover. Edric the Forester, whose possessions lay
on the banks of the Severn, being provoked at the depredations of some Norman captains in his neighbourhood, formed
an alliance with Blethyn and Rowallan, two Welsh princes; and endeavoured, with their assistance, to repel force
by force. But though these open hostilities were not very considerable, the disaffection was general among the
English, who had become sensible, though too late, of their defenceless condition, and. began already to experience
those insults and injuries which a nation must always expect that allows itself to be reduced to that abject situation.
A secret conspiracy was entered into to perpetrate in one day a general massacre of the Normans, like that which
had formerly been executed upon the Danes; and the quarrel was become so general and national, that the vassals
of earl Coxo, having desired him to head them in an insurrection, avid finding him resolute in maintaining his
fidelity to William, put him to death as a traitor to his country.
The king, informed of these dangerous discontents, hastened over to England; (December 6;) and by his presence,
and the vigorous measures which he pursued, disconcerted all the schemes of the conspirators. Such of them as had
been more violent in their mutiny, betrayed their guilt by flying, or concealing themselves; and the confiscation
of their estates, while it increased the number of malcontents, both enabled William to gratify further the rapacity
of his Norman captains, and gave them the prospect of new forfeitures and attainders. The king began to regard
all his English subjects as inveterate and irreclaimable enemies; and thenceforth either embraced, or was more
fully confirmed in the resolution of seizing their possessions, and of reducing them to the most abject slavery.
Though the natural violence and severity of his temper made him incapable of feeling any remorse in the execution
of this tyrannical purpose, he had art enough to conceal his intention, and to preserve still some appearance of
justice in his oppressions. He ordered all the English, who had been arbitrarily expelled by the Normans during
his absence, to be restored to their estates (This fact is a full proof that the Normans had committed great injustice,
and were the real cause of the insurrection of the English) but at the same time he imposed a general tax on the
people, that of Danegelt, which had been abolished by the Confessor, and which had always been extremely odious
to the nation.
1068. As the vigilance of William overawed the malcontents, their insurrections were more the result of an impatient
humour in the people, than of any regular conspiracy, which could give them a rational hope of success against
the established power of the Normans. The inhabitants of Exeter, instigated by Githa, mother to king Harold, refused
to admit a Norman garrison, and betaking themselves to arms, were strengthened by the accession of the neighbouring
inhabitants of Devonshire and Cornwall. The king hastened with his forces to chastise this revolt; and on his approach,
the wiser and more considerable citizens, sensible of the unequal contest, persuaded the people to submit, and
to deliver hostages for their obedience. A sudden mutiny of the populace broke this agreement; and William, appearing
before the walls, ordered the eyes of one of the hostages to be put out, as an earnest of that severity which the
rebels must expect if they persevered in their revolt. The inhabitants were anew seized with terror, and surrendering
at discretion, threw themselves at the king's feet, and supplicated his clemency and forgiveness. William was not
destitute of generosity, when his temper was not hardened either by policy or passion: he was prevailed on to pardon
the rebels, and he set guards on all the gates, in order to prevent the rapacity and insolence of his soldiery.
Githa escaped with her treasures to Flanders. The malcontents of Cornwall imitated the example of Exeter, and met
with like treatment: and the king, having built a citadel in that city, which he put under the command of Baldwin,
son of earl Gilbert, returned to Winchester, and dispersed his army into their quarters. He was here joined by
his wife, Matilda, who had not before visited England, and whom he now ordered to be crowned by archbishop Aldred.
Soon after, she brought him an accession to his family by the birth of a fourth son, whom he named Henry. His three
elder Sons, Robert, Richard, and William, still resided in Normandy.
But though the king appeared thus fortunate, both in public and domestic life, the discontents of his English subjects
augmented daily; and the injuries committed and suffered on both sides, rendered the quarrel between them and the
Normans absolutely incurable. The insolence of victorious masters, dispersed throughout the kingdom, seemed intolerable
to the natives; and wherever they found the Normans, separate or assembled in small bodies, they secretly set upon
them, and gratified their vengeance by the slaughter of their enemies. But an insurrection in the north drew thither
the general attention, and seemed to threaten more important consequences Edwin and Morcar appeared at the head
of this rebellion; and these potent noblemen, before they took arms, stipulated for foreign succours, from their
nephew, Blethyn, prince of North Wales, from Malcolm, king of Scotland, and from Sweyn, king of Denmark. Besides
the general discontent which had seized the English, the two earls were incited to this revolt by private injuries.
William, in order to insure them to his interests, had, on his accession, promised his daughter in marriage to
Edwin; but either he had never seriously intended to perform this engagement, or, having changed his plan of administration
in England from clemency to rigour, he thought it was to little purpose, if he gained one family, while he enraged
the whole nation. When Edwin, therefore, renewed his applications, he gave him an absolute denial; and this disappointment,
added to so many other reasons of disgust, induced that nobleman and his brother to concur with their incensed
countrymen, and to make one general effort for the recovery of their ancient liberties. William knew the importance
of celerity in quelling an insurrection, supported by such powerful leaders, and so agreeable to the wishes of
the people; and having his troops always in readiness, he advanced by great journeys to the north. On his march
he gave orders to fortify the castle of Warwic, of which he left Henry de Beaumont governor, and that of Nottingham,
which he committed to the custody of William Peverill, another Norman captain. He reached York before the rebels
were in any condition for resistance, or were joined by any of the foreign succours which they expected, except
a small re-enforcement from Wales; and the two earls found no means of safety, but having recourse to the clemency
of the victor. Archil, a potent nobleman in those parts, imitated their example, and delivered his son as a hostage
for his fidelity; nor were the people, thus deserted by their leaders, able to make any further resistance. But
the treatment which William gave the chiefs was very different from that which fell to the share of their followers.
He observed religiously the terms which he had granted to the former, and allowed them for the present to keep
possession of their estates; but he extended the rigours of his confiscation's over the latter, and gave away their
lands to his foreign adventurers. These, planted throughout the whole country, and in possession of the military
power, left Edwin and Morcar, whom he pretended to spare, destitute of all support, and ready to fall, whenever
he should think proper to command their ruin. A peace which he made with Malcolm, who did him homage for Cumberland,
seemed at the same time to deprive them of all prospect of foreign assistance.
RIGOURS OF THE NORMAN GOVERNMENT.1068.
The English were now sensible that their final destruction
was intended; and that instead of a sovereign whom they had hoped to gain by their submissions, they had tamely
surrendered themselves, without resistance, to a tyrant and a conqueror. Though the early confiscation of Harold's
followers might seem iniquitous; being inflicted on men who had never sworn fealty to the duke of Normandy, who
were ignorant of his pretensions, and who only fought in a defence of the government which they themselves had
established in their own country: yet were these rigours, however contrary to the ancient Saxon laws, excused,
on account of the urgent necessities of the prince; and those who were not involved in the present ruin, hoped
that they should thenceforth enjoy, without molestation, their possessions and their dignities. But the successive
destruction of so many other families convinced them that the king intended to rely entirely on the support and
affections of foreigners; and they foresaw new forfeitures, attainder's, and acts of violence, as the necessary
result of this defective plan of administration. They observed that no Englishman possessed his confidence, or
was entrusted with any command or authority; and that the strangers, whom a rigorous discipline could but have
ill restrained, were encouraged in their insolence and tyranny against them. The easy submission of the kingdom
on its first invasion had exposed the natives to contempt; the subsequent proofs of their animosity and resentment
had made them the object of hatred; and they were now deprived of every expedient by which they could hope to make
themselves either regarded or beloved by their sovereign. Impressed with the sense of this dismal situation , many
Englishmen fled into foreign countries with an intention of passing their lives abroad, free from oppression, or
of returning on a favourable opportunity to assist. their friends in the recovery of their native liberties. Edgar
Atheling himself, dreading the insidious caresses of William, was persuaded by Cospatric, a powerful Northumbrian,
to escape with him into Scotland; and he carried thither his two sisters, Margaret and Christina. They were well
received by Malcolm, who soon after espoused Margaret the eldest sister; and partly with view of strengthening
his kingdom by the accession so many strangers, partly in hopes of employing them against the growing power of
William, he gave great countenance to all the English exiles. Many of them settled there; and laid the foundation
of families which afterwards made a figure in that Country.
While the English suffered under these oppressions even the foreigners were not much at their ease; but ending
themselves surrounded on all hands by enraged enemies, who took every advantage against them, and menaced them
with still more bloody effects of the public resentment, they began to wish again for the tranquillity and security
of their native country. Hugh de Grentmesnil, and Humphry de Teliol, though entrusted with great commands, desired
to-be dismissed the service; and some others imitated their example: a desertion which was highly resented by the
king, and which he punished by the confiscation of all their possessions in England. But William's bounty to his
followers could not fail of alluring many new adventurers into his service; and the rage of the vanquished English
served only to excite the attention of the king ad those warlike chiefs, and keep them in readiness to suppress
every commencement of domestic rebellion or foreign invasion.
It was not long before they found occupation for
their prowess and military conduct. Godwin, Edmond, and Magnus, three sons of Harold, had, immediately after the
defeat at Hastings, sought a retreat in Ireland; where, having met with a kind reception from Dermot and other
princes of that country, they projected an invasion on England, and they hoped that all the exiles from Denmark,
Scotland, and Wales, assisted by forces from these several countries, would at once commence hostilities, and rouse
the indignation of the English against their haughty conquerors. They landed in Devonshire, but found Brian, son
of the count of Britanny, at the head of some foreign troops, ready to oppose them; and being defeated in several
actions, they were obliged to retreat to their ships, and to return with great loss to Ireland. The efforts of
the Normans were now directed to the north, where affairs had fallen into the utmost confusion. The more inpatient
of the Northumbrians had attacked Robert de Comyn, who was appointed governor of Durham; and raining the advantage
over him from his negligence, they put him to death in that city, with seven hundred of his followers. This success
animated the inhabitants of York, who, rising in arms, slew Robert Fitz-Richard their governor; and besieged in
the castle William Mallet, on whom the command now devolved. A little after, the Danish troops landed from three
hundred vessels: Osberne, brother to king Sweyn, was entrusted with the command of these forces, and he was accompanied
by Harold and Canute, two sons of that monarch. Edgar Atheling appeared from Scotland, and brought along with him
Cospatrick, Waltheof, Siward, Bearne, Merleswain, Adelin, and other leaders, who, partly from the hopes which they
gave of Scottish succours, partly from their authority in those parts, easily persuaded the warlike and discontented
Northumbrians to join the insurrection. Mallet, that he might better provide for the defence of the citadel of
York, set fire to some houses which lay contiguous; but this expedient proved the immediate cause of his destruction.
The flames, spreading into the neighbouring streets, reduced the whole city to ashes: the enraged inhabitants,
aided by the Danes, took advantage of the confusion to attack the castle, which they carried by assault; and the
garrison, to the number of three thousand men, was put to the sword without mercy.
This success proved a signal to many other parts of England, and gave the people an opportunity of showing their
malevolence to the Normans. Hereward, a nobleman in East-Anglia, celebrated for valour, assembled his followers,
and taking shelter in the Isle of Ely, made inroads on all the neighbouring country. The English in the counties
of Somerset and Dorset rose in arms, and assaulted Montacute, the Norman governor; while the inhabitants of Cornwall
and Devon invested Exeter, which, from the memory of William's clemency, still remained faithful to him. Edric
the Forester, calling in the assistance of the Welsh, laid siege to Shrewsbury, and made head against earl Briant
and Fitz-Osberne, who commanded in those quarters. The English, everywhere repenting their former easy submission,
seemed determined to make by concert one great effort for the recovery of their liberties, and for the expulsion
of their oppressors.
William, undismayed amidst this scene of confusion, assembled his forces, and animating them with the prospect
of new confiscation's and forfeitures, he marched against the rebels in the north, whom he regarded as the most
formidable, and whose defeat he knew would strike a terror into all the other malcontents. Joining policy to force,
he tried before his approach to weaken the enemy, by detaching the Danes from them; and he engaged Osberne, by
large presents, and by offering him the liberty of plundering the sea-coast, to retire, without committing further
hostilities, into Denmark. Cospatric also, in despair of success, made his peace with the king, and paying a sum
of money as an atonement (or his insurrection, was received into favour, and even invested with the earldom of
Northumberland. Waltheof, who long defended York with great courage, was allured with this appearance of clemency;
and as William knew how to esteem valour, even in an enemy, that nobleman had no reason to repent of this confidence.
Even Edric, compelled by necessity, submitted to the Conqueror, and received forgiveness, which was soon after
followed by some degree of trust and favour. Malcolm, coming too late to support his confederates, was constrained
to retire; and all the English rebels in other parts, except Hereward, who still kept in his fastnesses, dispersed
themselves, and left the Normans undisputed masters of the kingdom. Edgar Atheling, with his followers, sought
again a retreat in Scotland from the pursuit of his enemies.
NEW RIGOURS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 1070.
But the seeming clemency of William towards the
English leaders proceeded only from artifice, or from his esteem of individuals: his heart was hardened against
all compassion towards the people; and he scrupled no measure, however violent or severe, which seemed requisite
to support his plan of tyrannical administration. Sensible of the restless disposition of the Northumbrians, he
determined to incapacitate them ever after from giving disturbance, and he issued orders for laying entirely waste
that fertile country, which for the extent of sixty miles lies between the Humber and the Tees. The houses were
reduced to ashes by the merciless Normans; the cattle seized and driven away; the instruments of husbandry destroyed;
and the inhabitants compelled either to seek for a subsistence in the southern parts of Scotland, or if they lingered
in England, from a reluctance to abandon their ancient habitations, they perished miserably in the woods from cold
and hunger. The lives of a hundred thousand persons are computed to have been sacrificed to this stroke of barbarous
policy, which, by seeking a remedy for a temporary evil, thus inflicted a lasting wound on the power and populousness
of the nation.
But William, finding himself entirely master of a people who had given him such sensible proofs of their impotent
rage and animosity, now resolved to proceed to extremities against all the natives of England, and to reduce them
to a condition in which they should no longer be formidable to his government. The insurrections and conspiracies
in so many parts of the kingdom had involved the bulk of the landed proprietors, more or less, in the guilt of
treason; and the king took advantage of executing against them, with the utmost rigour, the laws of forfeiture
and attainder. Their lives were indeed commonly spared; but their estates were confiscated, and either annexed
to the royal demesnes, or conferred with the most profuse bounty on the Normans and other foreigners. While the
king's declared intention was to depress, or rather entirely extirpate, the English gentry, it is easy to believe
that scarcely the form of justice would be observed in these violent proceedings; and that any suspicions served
as the most undoubted proofs of guilt against a people thus devoted to destruction. It was crime efficient in an
Englishman to be opulent, or noble, or powerful; and the policy of the king, concurring with the rapacity of foreign
adventurers, produced almost a total revolution in the landed property of the kingdom. Ancient and honourable families
were reduced to beggary; the nobles themselves were everywhere treated with ignominy and contempt; they had the
mortification of seeing their castles and manors possessed by Normans of the meanest birth and lowest stations;
and they found themselves carefully excluded from every road which led either to riches or preferment.
INTRODUCTION OF THE FEUDAL LAW.
As power naturally follows property, this revolution
alone gave great security to the foreigners; but William, by the new institutions which he established, took also
care to retain for ever the military authority in those hands which had enabled him to subdue the kingdom. He introduced
into England the feudal law, which he found established in France and Normandy, and which, during that age, was
the foundation both of the stability and of the disorders in most of the monarchical governments of Europe. He
divided all the lands of England, with very few exceptions, besides the royal demesnes, into baronies; and he conferred
these, with the reservation of stated services and payments, on the most considerable of his adventurers. These
great barons, who held immediately of the crown, shared out a great part of their lands to other foreigners, who
were denominated knights or vassals, and who paid their lord the same duty and submission in peace and war, which
he himself owed to his sovereign. The whole kingdom contained about seven hundred chief tenants, and sixty thousand
two hundred and fifteen knights-fees; and as none of the native English were admitted into the first rank, the
few who retained their landed property were glad to be received into the second, and, under the protection of some
powerful Norman, to load themselves and their posterity with this grievous burthen, for estates which they had
received free from their ancestors. The small mixture of English which entered into this civil and military fabric
(for it partook of both species) was so restrained by subordination under the foreigners, that the Norman dominion
seemed now to be fixed on the most durable basis, and to defy all the efforts of its enemies.
The better to unite the parts of the government, and to bind them into one system, which might serve both for defence
against foreigners, and for the support of domestic tranquillity, William reduced the ecclesiastical revenues under
the same feudal law; and though he had courted the church on his invasion and accession, he now subjected it to
services which the clergy regarded as a grievous slavery, and as totally unbefitting their profession. The bishops
and abbots were obliged, when required, to furnish to the king, during war, a number of knights or military tenants,
proportioned to the extent of property possessed by each see or abbey; and they were liable, in case of failure,
to the same penalties which were exacted from the laity. The pope and the ecclesiastics exclaimed against this
tyranny, as they called it; but the king's authority was so well established over the army, who held everything
from his bounty, that superstition itself, even in that age, when it was most prevalent, was constrained to bend
under his superior influence.
But as the great body of the clergy were still natives, the king had much reason to dread the effects of their
resentment: he therefore used the precaution of expelling the English from all the considerable dignities, and
of advancing foreigners in their place. The partiality of the Confessor towards the Normans had been so great,
that, aided by their superior learning, it had promoted them to many of the sees of England; and even before the
period of the conquest, scarcely more than six or seven of the prelates were natives of the country. But among
these was Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury; a man who, by his address and vigour, by the greatness of his family
and alliances, by the extent of his possessions, as well as by the dignity of his office, and his authority among
the English, gave jealousy to the king. Though William had on his accession affronted this prelate, by employing
the archbishop of York to officiate at his consecration, he was careful on other occasions to load him with honours
and caresses, and to avoid giving him further offence till the opportunity should offer of effecting his final
destruction. The suppression of the late rebellions, and the total subjection of the English, made him hope that
an attempt against Stigand, however violent, would be covered by his great successes, and be overlooked amidst
the other important revolutions which affected so deeply the property and liberty of the kingdom. Yet, notwithstanding
these great advantages, he did not think it safe to violate the reverence usually paid to the primate, but under
cover of a new superstition, which he was the great instrument of introducing into England.
INNOVATION IN ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT.
The doctrine which exalted the papacy above all
human power, had gradually diffused itself from the city and court of Rome; and was, during that age, much more
prevalent in the southern than in the northern kingdoms of Europe. Pope Alexander, who had assisted William in
his conquests, naturally expected that the French and Normans would import into England the same reverence for
his sacred character with which they were impressed in their own country; and would break the spiritual as well
as civil independency of the Saxons, who had hitherto conducted their ecclesiastical government with an acknowledgment
indeed of primacy in the see of Rome, but without much idea of its title to dominion or authority. As soon, therefore,
as the Norman prince seemed fully established on the throne, the pope dispatched Ermenfroy, bishop of Sion, as
his legate into England; and this prelate was the first that had ever appeared with that character in any part
of the British islands. The king, though he was probably led by principle to pay this submission to Rome, determined,
as is usual, to employ the incident as a means of serving his political purposes, and of degrading those English
prelates who were become obnoxious to him. The legate submitted to become the instrument of his tyranny; and thought
that the more violent the exertion of power, the more certainly did it confirm the authority of that court from
which he derived his commission. He summoned, therefore, a council of the prelates and abbots at Winchester; and
being assisted by two cardinals, Peter and John, he cited before him Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, to answer
for his conduct. The primate was accused of three crimes; the holding of the see of Winchester, together with that
of Canterbury; the officiating in the pall of Robert his predecessor; and the having received his own pall from
Benedict IX., who was afterwards deposed for simony, and for intrusion into the papacy. These crimes of Stigand
were mere pretences; since the first has been a practice not unusual in England, and was never anywhere subjected
to a higher penalty than a resignation of one of the sees; the second was a pure ceremonial; and as Benedict was
the only pope who then officiated, and his acts were never repealed, all the prelates of the church, especially
those who lay at a distance, were excusable for making their applications to him. Stigand's ruin, however, was
resolved on, and was prosecuted with great severity. The legate degraded him from his dignity: the king confiscated
his estate, and cast him into prison, where he continued in poverty and want during the remainder of his life.
Like rigour was exercised against the other English prelates: Agelric, bishop of Selesey, and Agelmare of Elmham,
were deposed by the legate, and imprisoned by the king. Many considerable abbots shared the same fate: Egelwin,
bishop of Durham, fled the kingdom: Wulstan of Worcester, a man of an inoffensive character, was the only English
prelate that escaped this general proscription, (Brompton relates that Wulstan was also deprived by the Synod;
but refusuing to deliver the pastoral staff and ring to any but the person front whom he first received it, he
went immediately to king Edward's tomb, and struck the staff so deeply into the stone, that none but himself was
able to pull it out; upon which he was allowed to keep his bishopric. This insistence may serve instead of many
as a specimen of the monkish miracles. See also the Annals of Burton, p. 284) and remained in possession of his
dignity. Aldred, archbishop of York, who had set the crown on William's head, had died a little before of grief
and vexation, and had left his malediction to that prince, on account of the breach of his coronation oath and
of the extreme tyranny with which he saw he was determined to treat his English subjects.
It was a fixed maxim in this reign, as well as in some of the subsequent, that no native of the island should ever
be advanced to any dignity, ecclesiastical, civil, or military. The king, therefore, upon Stigand's deposition,
promoted Lanfranc, a Milanese monk, celebrated for his learning and piety, to the vacant see. This prelate was
rigid in defending the prerogatives at his station; and after a long process before the pope, he obliged Thomas,
a Norman monk, who had been appointed to the see of York, to acknowledge the primacy of the archbishop of Canterbury.
Where ambition can be so happy as to cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of
principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of all human passions. Hence Lanfranc's seal in promoting the
interests of the papacy, by which he himself augmented his own authority, was indefatigable; and met with proportionable
success. The devoted attachment to Rome continually increased in England; and being favoured by the sentiments
of the conquerors, as well as by the monastic establishments formerly introduced by Edred and by Edgar, it soon
reached the same height at which it had, during some time stood in France and Italy. (Lanfranc wrote in defence
of the real presence against Berengarius; and in these ages of stupidity and ignorance, he was greatly applauded
for that performance.) It afterwards went much further; being favoured by that very remote situation which had
at first obstructed its progress; and being less checked by knowledge and a liberal education, which were still
somewhat more common in the southern countries.
The prevalence of this superstitions spirit became
dangerous to some of William's successors, and incommodious to most of them: but the arbitrary sway of this king
over the English, and his extensive authority over the foreigners, kept him from feeling any immediate inconveniences
from it. He retained the church in great subjection, as well as his lay subjects; and would allow none, of whatever
character, to dispute his sovereign will and pleasure. He prohibited his subjects from acknowledging any one for
pope whom he himself had not previously received: he required that all the ecclesiastical canons, voted in any
synod, should first be laid before him, and be ratified by his authority: even bulls or letters from Rome could
not legally be produced, till they received the same sanction: and none of his ministers or barons, whatever offences
they were guilty of, could be subjected to spiritual censures till he himself had given his consent to their excommunication.
These regulations were worthy of a sovereign, and kept united the civil and ecclesiastical powers, which the principles
introduced by this prince himself had an immediate tendency to separate.
But the English had the cruel mortification to find that their king's authority, however acquired or however extended,
was all employed in their oppression; and that the scheme of their subjection, attended with every circumstance
of insult and indignity, was deliberately formed by the prince, and wantonly prosecuted by his followers. William
had even entertained the difficult project of totally abolishing the English language; and for that purpose, he
ordered that in all schools throughout the kingdom the youth should be instructed in the French tongue; a practice
which was continued from custom till after the reign of Edward III.., and was never indeed totally discontinued
in England. The pleadings in the supreme courts of judicature were in French: the deeds were often drawn in the
same language: the laws were composed in that idiom: no other tongue was used at court: it became the language
of all fashionable company; and the English themselves, ashamed of their own country, affected to excel in that
foreign dialect. From this attention of William, and from the extensive foreign dominions long annexed to the crown
of England, proceeded that mixture of French which is at present to be found in the English tongue, and which composes
the greatest and best part of our language. But amidst those endeavours to depress the English nation, the king,
moved by the remonstrance's of some of his prelates, and by the earnest desires of the people, restored a few of
the laws of king Edward; which, though seemingly of no great importance towards the protection of general liberty,
gave them extreme satisfaction, as a memorial of their ancient government, and an unusual mark of complaisance
in their imperious conquerors.
1071. The situation of the two great earls, Morcar and Edwin, became now very disagreeable. Though they had retained
their allegiance during this general insurrection of their countrymen, they had not gained the king's confidence,
and they found themselves exposed to the malignity of the courtiers, who envied them on account of their opulence
and greatness, and at the same time involved them in that general contempt which they entertained for the English.
Sensible that they had entirely lost their dignity, and could not even hope to remain long in safety; they determined,
though too late, to share the same fate with their countrymen. While Edwin retired to his estate in the north,
with a view of commencing an insurrection, Morcar took shelter in the Isle of Ely with the brave Hereward, who,
secured by the inaccessible situation of the place, still defended himself against the Normans. But this attempt
served only to accelerate the ruin of the few English who had hitherto been able to preserve their rank or fortune
during the past convulsions. William employed all his endeavours to subdue the Isle of Ely; and having surrounded
it with flat-bottomed boats, and made a causeway through the morasses to the extent of two miles, he obliged the
rebels to surrender at discretion. Hereward alone forced his way, sword in hand, through the enemy; and still continued
his hostilities by sea against the Normans, till at last William, charmed with his bravery, received him into favour,
and restored him to his estate. Earl Morcar, and Egelwin, bishop of Durham, who had joined the malcontents, were
thrown into prison, and the latter soon after died in confinement. Edwin, attempting to make his escape into Scotland,
was betrayed by some of his followers, and was killed by a party of Normans, to the great affliction of the English,
and even to that of William, who paid a tribute of generous tears to the memory of this gallant and beautiful youth.
The king of Scotland, in hopes of profiting by these convulsions, had fallen upon the northern counties: but on
the approach of William he retired; and when the king entered his country, he was glad to make peace, and to pay
the usual homage to the English crown. To complete the king's prosperity, Edgar Atheling himself, despairing of
success, and weary of a fugitive life, submitted to his enemy; and receiving a decent pension for his subsistence,
was permitted to live in England unmolested. But these acts of generosity towards the leaders were disgraced, as
usual, by William's rigour against the inferior malcontents. He ordered the hands to be lopt off, and the eyes
to be put out, of many of the prisoners whom he had taken in the Isle of Ely: and he dispersed them in-that miserable
condition throughout the country, as monuments of his severity.
1073. The province of Maine in France had, by the will of Herbert the last count, fallen under the dominion of
William some years before his conquest of England; but the inhabitants, dissatisfied with the Norman government,
and instigated by Fulk, count of Anjou, who had some pretensions to the succession, now rose in rebellion, and
expelled the magistrates whom the king had placed over them. The full settlement of England afforded him leisure
to punish this insult on his authority; but being unwilling to remove his Norman forces from this island, he carried
over a considerable army, composed almost entirely of English; and joining them to some troops levied in Normandy,
he entered the revolted province. The English appeared ambitious of distinguishing themselves on this occasion,
and of retrieving that character of valour which had long been national among them; but which their late easy subjection
under the Normans had somewhat degraded and obscured. Perhaps too they hoped that, by their zeal and activity,
they might recover the confidence of their sovereign, as their ancestors had formerly, by like means, gained the
affections of Canute; and might conquer his inveterate prejudices in favour of his own countrymen. The kings military
conduct, seconded by these brave troops, soon overcame all opposition in Maine: the inhabitants were obliged to
submit, and the count of Anjou relinquished his pretensions.
INSURRECTION OF THE NORMAN BARONS 1074.
But during these transactions the government of
England was greatly disturbed; and that too by those very foreigners who owed everything to the king's bounty,
and who were the sole object of his friendship and regard. The Norman barons, who had engaged with their duke in
the conquest of England, were men of the most independent spirit; and though they obeyed their leader in the field,
they would have regarded with disdain the richest acquisitions, had they been required in return to submit, in
their civil government, to the arbitrary will of one man. But the imperious character of William, encouraged by
his absolute dominion over the English, and often impelled by the necessity of his affairs, had prompted him to
stretch his authority over the Normans themselves beyond what the free genius of that victorious people could easily
bear. The discontents were become general among those haughty nobles; and even Roger, earl of Hereford, son and
heir of Fitz-Osberne, the king's chief favourite, was strongly infected with them. This nobleman, intending to
marry his sister to Ralph de Guader, earl of Norfolk, had thought it his duty to inform the king of his purpose,
and to desire the royal consent; but meeting with a refusal, he proceeded nevertheless to complete the nuptials,
and assembled all him friends, and those of Guader, to attend the solemnity. The two earls, disgusted by the denial
of their request, and dreading William's resentment for their disobedience, here prepared measures for a revolt;
and during the gaiety of the festival, while the company was heated with wine, they opened the design to their
guests. They inveighed against the arbitrary conduct of the king; his tyranny over the English, whom they affected
on this occasion to commiserate; his imperious behaviour to his barons of the noblest birth; and his apparent intention
of reducing the victors and the vanquished to a like ignominious servitude. Amidst their complaints, the indignity
of submitting to a bastard was not forgotten ; (William was so little ashamed of his birth, that he assumed the
appellation of Bastard in some of his letters and charters. Spelm. Glos. in verb. Bastardus Camden in Richmondshire)
the certain prospect of success in a revolt, by the assistance of the Danes and the discontented English was insisted
on; and the whole company, inflamed with the same sentiments, and warmed by the jollity of the entertainment, entered,
by a solemn engagement, into the design of shaking off the royal authority. Even earl Waltheof who was present,
inconsiderately expressed his approbation of the conspiracy. and promised his concurrence towards its success.
This nobleman, the last of the English who, for some generations, possessed any power or authority, had after his
capitulation at York, been received into favour by the Conqueror; had even married Judith, niece to that prince;
and had been promoted to the earldoms of Huntingdon and Northampton. Cospatric, earl of Northumberland, having,
on some new disgust from William, retired into Scotland, where he received the earldom of Dunbar from the bounty
of Malcolm, Waltheof was appointed his successor in that important command, and seemed still to possess the confidence
and friendship of his sovereign. But as he was a man of generous principles, and loved his country, it is probable
that the tyranny exercised over the English lay heavy upon his mind, and destroyed all the satisfaction which he
could reap from his own grandeur and advancement. When a prospect, therefore, was opened of retrieving their liberty,
he hastily embraced it; while the fumes of the liquor, and the ardour of the company, prevented him from reflecting
on the consequences of that rash attempt. But after his cool judgment returned, he foresaw that the conspiracy
of those discontented barons was not likely to prove successful against the established power of William or if
it did, that the slavery of the English, instead of being alleviated by that event, would become more grievous
under a multitude of foreign leaders, factious and ambitious, whose union and whose discord would be equally oppressive
to the people. Tormented with these reflections, he opened his mind to his wife Judith, of whose fidelity he entertained
no suspicion; but who, having secretly fixed her affections on another, took this opportunity of ruining her easy
and credulous husband. She conveyed intelligence of the conspiracy to the king, and aggravated every circumstance
which she believed would tend to incense him against Waltheof, and render him absolutely implacable. Meanwhile
the earl, still dubious with regard to the part which he should act, discovered the secret in confession to Lanfranc,
on whose probity and judgment he had a great reliance: he was persuaded by the prelate that he owed no fidelity
to those rebellious barons, who had by surprise gained his consent to a crime; that his first duty was to his sovereign
and benefactor; his next to himself and his family; and that, if he seized not the opportunity of making atonement
for his guilt by revealing it, the temerity of the conspirators was so great, that they would give some other persons
the means of acquiring the merit of the discovery. Waltheof, convinced by these arguments, went over to Normandy;
but though he was well received by the king, and thanked for his fidelity, the account, previously transmitted
by Judith, had sunk deep into William's mind, and had destroyed all the merit of her husband's repentance.
The conspirators, hearing of Waltheof's departure, immediately concluded their design to be betrayed; and they
flew to arms before their schemes were ripe for execution; and before the arrival of the Danes, in whose aid they
placed their chief confidence. The earl of Hereford was checked by Walter de Lacy, a great baron in those parts,
who, supported by the bishop of Worcester and the abbot of Evesham, raised some forces, and prevented the earl
from passing the Severn, or advancing into the heart of the kingdom. The earl of Norfolk was defeated at Fagadun,
near Cambridge, by Odo, the regent, assisted by Richard de Bienfaite and William de Warrenne, the two justiciaries.
The prisoners taken in this action had their right foot cut off, as a punishment of their treason: the earl himself
escaped to Norwich, thence to Denmark; where the Danish fleet, which had made an unsuccessful attempt upon the
coast of England, soon after arrived, and brought him intelligence, that all his confederates were suppressed,
and were either killed, banished, or taken prisoners. (Many of the fugitive Norman, are supposed to have fled into
Scotland. where they were protected, as well an the fugitive English, by Malcolm. Whence come the many French and
Norman families which are found at present in that country.) Ralph retired in despair to Britanny, where he possessed
a large estate and extensive jurisdictions.
The king, who hastened over to England in order to suppress the insurrection, found that nothing remained but the
punishment of the criminals, which he executed with great severity. Many of the rebels were hanged; some had their
eyes put out; others their hands cut off. But William, agreeably to his usual maxims, showed more lenity to their
leader, the earl of Hereford, who was only condemned to a forfeiture if his estate, and to imprisonment during
pleasure. The king seemed even disposed to remit this last part of the punishment; had not Roger, by a fresh insolence,
provoked him to render his confinement perpetual. But Waltheof, being an Englishman, was not treated with so much
humanity; though his guilt, always much inferior to that of the other conspirators, was atoned for by an early
repentance and return to his duty. [1075.] William, instigated by his niece, as well as by his rapacious courtiers,
who longed for so rich a forfeiture, ordered him to be tried. condemned, and executed on the 29th of April. The
English, who considered this nobleman as the last resource of their nation, grievously lamented his fate, and fancied
that miracles were wrought by his relics, as a testimony of his innocence and sanctity. The infamous Judith, falling
soon after under the king's displeasure, was abandoned by all the world, and passed the rest of her life in contempt,
remorse, and misery.
Nothing remained to complete William's satisfaction but the punishment of Ralph de Guader; and he hastened over
to Normandy, in order to gratify his vengeance on that criminal. But though the contest seemed very unequal between
a private nobleman and the king of England, Ralph was so well supported both by the earl of Britanny and the king
of France, that William, after besieging him for some time in Dol, was obliged to abandon the enterprise, and make
with those powerful princes a peace, in which Ralph himself was included. England, during his absence, remained
in tranquillity; and nothing remarkable occurred, except two ecclesiastical synods, which were summoned, one at
London, another at Winchester. In the former, the precedency among the episcopal sees was settled, and the seat
of some of them was removed from small villages to the most considerable town within the diocese. In the second
was transacted a business of more importance.
DISPUTE ABOUT INVESTITURES. 1076.
The industry and perseverance are surprising with
which the popes had been treasuring up powers and pretensions during so many ages of ignorance; while each pontiff
employed every fraud for advancing purposes of imaginary piety, and cherished all claims which might turn to the
advantage of his successors, though he himself could not expect ever to reap any benefit from them. All this immense
store of spiritual and civil authority was now devolved on Gregory VII., of the name of Hildebrand, the most enterprising
pontiff that had ever filled that chair, and the least restrained by fear, decency, or moderation. Not content
with shaking off the yoke of the emperors, who had hitherto exercised the power of appointing the pope on every
vacancy, at least of ratifying his election, he undertook the arduous task of entirely disjoining the ecclesiastical
from the civil power, and of excluding profane laymen from the right which they had assumed, of filling the vacancies
of bishoprics, abbeys, and other spiritual dignities. The sovereigns, who had long exercised this power, and who
had acquired it, not by encroachments on the church, but on the people, to whom it originally belonged, made great
opposition to this claim of the court of Rome; and Henry IV., the reigning emperor, defended this prerogative of
his crown with a vigour and resolution suitable to its importance. The few offices, either civil or military, which
the feudal institutions left the sovereign the power of bestowing, made the prerogative of conferring the pastoral
ring and staff the most valuable jewel of the royal diadem; especially as the general ignorance of the age bestowed
a consequence on the ecclesiastical offices, even beyond the great extent of power and property which belonged
to them. Superstition, the child of ignorance, invested the clergy with an authority almost sacred; and as they
engrossed the little learning of the age, their interposition became requisite in all civil business; and a real
usefulness in common life was thus superadded to the spiritual sanctity of their character.
When the usurpation's, therefore, of the church had Rome to such maturity as to embolden her to attempt extorting
the right of investitures from the temporal power, Europe, especially Italy and Germany, was thrown into the most
violent convulsions, and the pope and the emperor waged implacable war on each other. Gregory dared to fulminate
the sentence of excommunication against Henry and his adherents, to pronounce him rightfully deposed, to free his
subjects from their oaths of allegiance; and instead of shocking mankind by this gross encroachment on the civil
authority, he found the stupid people ready to second his most exorbitant pretensions. Every minister, servant,
or vassal of the emperor, who received any disgust, covered his rebellion under the pretence of principle; and
even the mother of this monarch, forgetting all the ties of nature, was seduced to countenance the insolence of
his enemies. Princes themselves, not attentive to the pernicious consequences of those papal claims, employed them
for their present purposes: and the controversy spreading into every city of Italy, engendered the parties of Guelf
and Ghibbelin, the most durable and most inveterate factions that ever arose from the mixture of ambition and religious
zeal. Besides numberless assassinations, tumults, and convulsions to which they gave rise, it is computed that
the quarrel occasioned no less than sixty battles in the reign of Henry IV., and eighteen in that of his successor,
Henry V., when the claims of the sovereign pontiff finally prevailed.
But the bold spirit of Gregory, not dismayed with the vigorous opposition which he met with from the emperor, extended
his usurpation's all over Europe; and well knowing the nature of mankind, whose blind astonishment ever inclines
them to yield to the most impudent pretensions, he seemed determined to set no bounds to the spiritual, or rather
temporal monarchy which he had undertaken to erect. He pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Nicephorus,
emperor of the East; Robert Guiscard, the adventurous Norman who had acquired the dominion of Naples, was attacked
by the same dangerous weapon: he degraded Boleslas, king of Poland, from the rank of king; and even deprived Poland
of the title of a kingdom: he attempted to treat Philip, king of France, with the same rigour which he had employed
against the emperor: he pretended to the entire property and. dominion of Spain; and he parcelled it out amongst
adventurers, who undertook to conquer it from the Saracens, and to hold it in vassalage under the see of Rome:
even the Christian bishops, on whose aid he relied for subduing the temporal princes, saw that he was determined
to reduce them to servitude; and by assuming the whole legislative and judicial power of the church, to centre
all authority in the sovereign pontiff.
William the Conqueror, the most potent, the most haughty, and the most vigorous prince in Europe, was not, amidst
all his splendid successes, secure from. the attacks of this enterprising pontiff. Gregory wrote him a letter,
requiring him to fulfill his promise in doing homage for the kingdom of England to the see of Rome, and to send
him over that tribute which a his predecessors had been accustomed to pay to the vicar of Christ. By the tribute,
he meant Peter's pence; which, though at first a charitable donation of the Saxon princes, was interpreted, according
to the usual practice of the Romish court, to be a badge of subjection acknowledged by the kingdom. William replied,
that the money should be remitted as usual; but that neither had he promised to do homage to Rome, nor was it in
the least his purpose to impose that servitude on his state. And the better to show Gregory his independence, he
ventured, notwithstanding the frequent complaints of the pope, to refuse to the English bishops the liberty of
attending a general council which that pontiff had summoned against his enemies.
But though the king displayed this vigour in supporting the royal dignity, he was infected with the general superstition
of the age, and he did not perceive the ambitious scope of those institutions, which under colour of strictness
in religion, were introduced or promoted by time court of Rome. Gregory, while he was throwing all Europe into
combustion by his violence and impostures, affected an anxious care for the purity of manners; and even the chaste
pleasures of the marriage-bed were inconsistent, in his opinion, with the sanctity of the sacerdotal character.
He had issued a decree prohibiting the marriage of priests excommunicating all clergymen who retained their wives,
declaring such unlawful commerce to be fornication, and rendering it criminal in the laity to attend divine worship
when such profane priests officiated at the altar. This point was a great object in the politics of the Roman pontiffs;
and it cost them infinitely more pains to establish it, than the propagation of any speculative absurdity which
they had ever attempted to introduce. Many synods were summoned in different parts of Europe before it was finally
settled; and it was there constantly remarked, that the younger clergymen complied cheerfully with the pope's decrees
in this particular, and that the chief reluctance appeared in those who were more advanced in years: an event so
little consonant to men's natural expectations, that it could not fail to be glossed on, even in that blind and
superstitious age. William allowed the pope's legate to assemble, in his absence, a synod at Winchester, in order
to establish the celibacy of the clergy; but the church of England could not yet be carried the whole length expected.
The synod was content with decreeing that the bishops should not henceforth ordain any priests or deacons without
exacting from them a promise of celibacy; but they enacted that none, except those who belonged to collegiate or
cathedral churches, should be obliged to speparate from their wives.
The king passed some years in Normandy; but his
long residence there was not entirely owing to his declared preference of that dutchy: his presence was also necessary
for composing those disturbances which had arisen in that favourite territory, and which had even originally proceeded
from his own family. Robert, his eldest son, surnamed Gambaron or Courthose, from his short legs, was a prince
who inherited all the bravery of his family and nation; but without that policy and dissimulation, by which his
father was so much distinguished, and which, no less than his military valour, had contributed to his great successes.
Greedy of fame, impatient of contradiction, without reserve in his friendship; declared in his enmities, this prince
could endure no control even from his imperious father, and openly aspired to that independence, to which his temper,
as well as some circumstances in his situation, strongly invited him. When William fret received the submissions
of the province of Maine, he had promised the inhabitants that Robert should be their prince; and before he undertook
the expedition against England, he had, on the application of the French court, declared him his successor in Normandy,
and had obliged the barons of that dutchy to do him homage as their future sovereign. By this artifice he had endeavoured
to appease the jealousy of his neighbours, as affording them a prospect of separating England from his dominions
on the continent; but when Robert demanded of him the execution of those engagements, he gave him an absolute refusal,
and told him, according to the homely saying, that he never intended to throw off his clothes till he went to bed,
Robert openly declared his discontent; and was suspected of secretly instigating the king of France and the earl
of Britanny to the opposition which they made to William, and which had formerly frustrated his attempts upon the
town of Dol. And as the quarrel still augmented, Robert proceeded to entertain a strong jealousy of his two surviving
brothers, William and Henry, (for Richard was killed in hunting, by a stag,) who, by a greater submission and complaisance,
had acquired the affections of their father. In this disposition on both sides, the greatest trifle sufficed to
produce a rupture between them.
The three princes, residing with their father in the castle ef I'Aigle in Normandy, were one day engaged in sport
together; and after some mirth and jollity, the two younger took a fancy of throwing over some water on Robert
as he passed through the court on leaving their apartment; a frolic which he would natural have regarded as innocent,
had it not been for the suggestions of Alberic de Grentmesnil, son of that Hugh de Grentmesnil whom William had
formerly deprive of his fortunes, when that baron deserted him during his greatest difficulties in England. The
young man mindful of the injury, persuaded the prince that this action was meant as a public affront, which it
behoved him in honour to resent; and the choleric Robert drawing his sword, ran up stairs, with an intention of
taking revenge on his brothers. The whole castle was filled with tumult, which the king himself, who hastened from
his apartment, found some difficulty to appease. But he could by no means appease the resentment of his eldest
son, who complaining of his partiality, and fancying that no proper atonement had been made him for the insult,
left the court that very evening, and hastened to Rouen, with an intention of seizing the citadel of that place.
But being disappointed in this view by the precaution and vigilance of Roger de Ivery, the governor, he fled to
Hugh de Neufchatel, a powerful Norman baron, who gave him protection in his castles; and he openly levied war against
is father. The popular character of the prince, and similarity of manners, engaged all the young nobility of Normandy
and Maine, as well as of Anjou and Britanny, to take part with him; and it was suspected, that Matilda. his mother,
whose favourite he was, supported him in his rebellion by secret remittances of money, and by the encouragement
which she gave his partisans.
All the hereditary provinces of William, as well as us family, were, during several years, thrown into convulsions
by this war; [1079;] and he was at last obliged to have recourse to England, where that species of military government
which he had established gave him greater authority than the ancient feudal institutions permitted him to exercise
in Normandy. He called over an army of English under his ancient captains, who soon expelled Robert and his adherents
from their retreats, and restored the authority of the sovereign in all his dominions. The young prince was obliged
to take shelter in the castle of Gerberoy in the Beauvoisis, which the king of France, who secretly tormented all
these dissension's, had provided for him. In this fortress he was closely besieged by his father, against whom,
having a strong garrison, he made an obstinate defence. There passed under the walls of this place many reencounters,
which resembled more the tingle combats of chivalry, than the military actions of armies; but one of them was remarkable
for its circumstances and its event. Robert happened to engage the king, who was concealed by his helmet; and both
of them being valiant, a fierce combat ensued, till at last the young prince wounded his father in the arm, and
unhorsed him. On his calling out for assistance, his voice discovered him to his son, who, struck with remorse
for his past guilt, and astonished with the apprehensions of one much greater, which he had so nearly incurred,
instantly threw himself at his father's feet, craved pardon for his offences, and offered to purchase forgiveness
by any atonement. The resent by William was so implacable, that he did not immediately correspond to this dutiful
submission of his son with like tenderness; but giving him his malediction, departed for his own camp on Robert's
horse, which that prince had assisted him to mount. He soon after raised the siege, and marched with his army to
Normandy; where the interposition of the queen, and other common friends, brought about a reconcilement, which
was probably not a little forwarded by the generosity of the son's behaviour in this action, and by the returning
sense of his past misconduct. The king seemed so fully appeased, that he even took Robert with him into England;
where he entrusted him with the command of an army, in order to repel an inroad of Malcolm, king of Scotland, and
to retaliate by a like inroad into that country. The Welsh, unable to resist William's power, were, about the same
time, necessitated to pay a compensation for their incursions; and everything was reduced to full tranquillity
in this island.
This state of affairs gave William leisure to begin
and finish an undertaking which proves his extensive genius, and does honour to his memory: it was a general survey
of all the lands in the kingdom, their extent in each district, their proprietors, tenures, value; the quantity
of meadow, pasture, wood, and arable land which they contained; and in some counties the number of tenants, cottagers,
and slaves of all denominations, who lived upon them. He appointed commissioners for this purpose, who entered
every particular in their register by the verdict of juries; and after a labour of six years (for the work was
so long in finishing) brought him an exact account of all the landed property of his kingdom. (The more northern
counties were not comprehended in this survey; I suppose because of their wild uncultivated state.) This monument,
called Domesday-book, the most valuable piece of antiquity possessed by any nation, is still preserved in the Exchequer;
and though only some extracts of it have hitherto been published, it serves to illustrate to us, in many particulars,
the ancient state of England. The great Alfred had finished a like survey of the kingdom in his time, which was
long kept at Winchester, and which probably served as a model to William in this undertaking.
The king was naturally a great economist; and though no prince had ever been more bountiful to his officers and
servants, it was merely because he had rendered himself universal proprietor of England, and had a whole kingdom
to bestow. He reserved an ample revenue for the crown; and in the general distribution of land among his followers,
he kept possession of no less than fourteen hundred and twenty-two manors in different parts of England, which
paid him rent, either in money, or in corn, cattle, and the usual produce of the soil. An ancient historian computes,
that his annual fixed income, besides escheats, fines, relief's, and other casual profits to a great value, amounted
to near four hundred thousand pounds a year; a sum which, if all circumstances be attended to, will appear wholly
incredible. A pound in that age, as we have already observed, contained three times the weight of silver that it
does at present; and the same weight of silver, by the most probable computation, would purchase near ten times
more of the necessaries of life, though not in the same proportion of the finer manufactures. This revenue, therefore,
of William, would be equal to at least nine or ten millions at present; and as that prince had neither fleet nor
army to support, the former being only an occasional expense, and the latter being maintained, without any charge
to him, by his military vassals, we must thence conclude, that no emperor or prince, in any age or nation, can
be compared to the Conqueror for opulence and riches. This leads us to suspect a great mistake in the computation
of the historian; though, if we consider that avarice is always imputed to William, as one of his vices, and that
having by the sword rendered himself master of all the lands in the kingdom, he would certainly in the partition
retain a great proportion for his own share, we can scarcely be guilty of any error in asserting, that perhaps
no king of England was ever more opulent, was more able to support, by his revenue, the splendour and magnificence
of a court, or could bestow more on his pleasures, or in liberalities to his servants and favourites.
There was one pleasure to which William, as well
as all the Normans and ancient Saxons, was extremely addicted, and that was hunting: but this pleasure he indulged
more at the expense of his unhappy subjects whose interests he always disregarded, than to the lost or diminution
of his own revenue. Not content with those large forests which former kings possessed in all parts of England,
he resolved to make a new forest near Winchester, the usual place of his residence; and for that purpose he laid
waste the country in Hampshire for an extent of thirty miles, expelled the inhabitants from their houses, seized
their property, even demolished churches and convents, and made the sufferers no compensation for the injury. At
the same time, he enacted new laws, by which he prohibited all his subjects from hunting in any of his forests,
and rendered the penalties more severe than ever had been inflicted for such offences. The killing of a deer or
boar or even a hare, was punished with the loss of the delinquent's eyes; and that at a time when the killing of
a man could be atoned for by paying a moderate fine or composition.
The transactions recorded during the remainder of this reign, may be considered more as domestic occurrences, which
concern the prince, than as national events, which regarded England. Odo, bishop of Baieux, the king's uterine
brother, whom he had created earl of Kent, and entrusted with a great share of power, during his whole reign had
amassed immense riches; and, agreeably to the usual progress of human wishes, he began to regard his present acquisitions
but as a step to further grandeur. He had formed the chimerical project of buying the papacy; and though Gregory,
the reigning pope, was not of advanced years, the prelate had confided so much in the predictions of an astrologer,
that he reckoned upon the pontiff's death, and upon attaining, by his own intrigues and money, that envied state
of greatness. Resolving, therefore, to remit all his riches to Italy, he had persuaded many considerable barons,
and, among the rest, Hugh earl of Chester, to take the same course; in hopes that, when he should mount the papal
throne, he would bestow on them more considerable establishments in that country. The king, from whom all these
projects had been carefully concealed, at last got intelligence of the design, and ordered Odo to be arrested.
[1082.] His officers, from respect to the immunities which the ecclesiastics now assumed, scrupled to execute the
command, till the king himself was obliged in person to seize him; and when Odo insisted that he was a prelate,
and exempt from all temporal jurisdiction, William replied, that he arrested him not as bishop of Baieux, but as
earl of Kent. He was sent, prisoner to Normandy; and, notwithstanding the remonstrance's and menaces of Gregory,
was detained in custody during the remainder of this reign.
1083. Another domestic event gave the king much more concern: it was the death of Matilda, his consort, whom he
tenderly loved, and for whom he had ever preserved the most sincere friendship. Three years afterwards he passed
into Normandy, and carried with him Edgar Atheling, to whom he willingly granted permission to make a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land.
He was detained on the continent by a misunderstanding, which broke out between him and the king of France, and which was occasioned by inroads made into Normandy by some French barons on the frontiers. It was little in the power of princes at that time to restrain their licentious nobility; but William suspected that these barons durst not have provoked his indignation, had they not been assured of the countenance and protection of Philip. His displeasure was increased by the account he received of some raileries which that monarch had thrown out against him. William, who was become corpulent, had been detained in bed some time by sickness; upon which Philip expressed his surprise that his brother of England should be so long in being delivered of his big belly. The king sent him word, that, as soon as he was up, he would present so many lights at Notredame, as would perhaps give little pleasure to the king of France; alluding to the usual practice at that time of women after child-birth. Immediately on his recovery, he led an army into I' Isle de France, and laid everything waste with fire and sword. He took the town of Mante, which he reduced to ashes. But the progress of these hostilities was stopped by an accident, which soon after put an end to William's life. His horse starting aside of a sudden, he bruised his belly on the pommel of the saddle; and being in a bad habit of body, as well as somewhat advanced in years, he began to apprehend the consequences, and ordered himself to be carried in a litter to the monastery of St. Gervas. Finding his illness increase, and being sensible of the approach of death, he discovered at last the vanity of all human grandeur, and was struck with remorse for those horrible cruelties and acts of violence, which, in the attainment and defence of it, he had committed during the course of his reign over England. He endeavoured to make atonement, by presents to churches and monasteries; and he issued orders, that Earl Morcar, Siward Bearne, and other English prisoners should be set at liberty. He was even prevailed on, though not without reluctance, to consent, with his dying breath, to release his brother Ode, against whom he was extremely incensed. He left Normandy and Maine to his eldest son Robert: he wrote to Lanfranc, desiring him to crown William king of England; he bequeathed to Henry nothing but the possessions of his mother Matilda; but foretold that he would one day surpass both his brothers in power and opulence. He expired on the 9th of September, in the sixty-third year of his age, in the twenty-first year of his reign over England, and in the fifty-fourth of that over Normandy.
CHARACTER OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
Few princes have been more fortunate than this great
monarch, or were better entitled to grandeur and prosperity, from the abilities and the vigour of mind which he
displayed in all his conduct. His spirit was bold and enterprising, yet guided by prudence: his ambition, which
was exorbitant, and lay little under the restraints of justice, still less under those of humanity, ever submitted
to the dictates of sound policy. Born in an age when the minds of men were intractable and unacquainted with submission,
he was yet able to direct them to his purposes; and, partly from the ascendant of his vehement character, partly
from art and dissimulation, to establish an un-limited authority. Though not insensible to generosity, he was hardened
against compassion; and he seemed equally ostentatious and equally ambitious of show and parade in his clemency
and in his severity. The maxims of his administration were austere; but might have been useful, had they been solely
employed to preserve order in an established government: they were ill calculated for softening the rigours which,
under the most gentle management, are inseparable from conquest. His attempt against England was the last great
enterprise of the kind which, during the course of seven hundred years, has fully succeeded in. Europe; and the
force of his genius broke through those limits which first the feudal institutions, then the refined policy of
princes have fixed to the several states of Christendom. Though he rendered himself infinitely odious to his English
subjects, he transmitted his power to his posterity, and the throne is still filled by his descendants: a proof
that the foundations which he laid were firm and solid, and that, amidst all his violence, while he seemed only
to gratify the present passion, he had still an eye towards futurity.
Some writers have been desirous of refusing to this prince the title of Conqueror, in the sense which that term
commonly bears; and, on pretence that the word is sometimes in old books applied to such as make an acquisition
of territory by any means, they are willing to reject William's title by right of war, to the crown of England.
It is needless to enter into a controversy which, by the terms of it, must necessarily degenerate into a dispute
of words. It suffices to say that the duke of Normandy's first invasion of the island was hostile; that his subsequent
administration was entirely supported by arms; that in the very frame of his laws he made a distinction between
the Normans and English, to the advantage of the former; that he acted in everything as absolute master over the
natives, whose interests and afflictions he totally, disregarded; and that if there was an interval when he assumed
the appearance of a legal sovereign, the period was very short, and was nothing but a temporary sacrifice, which
he, as has been the case with most conquerors, was obliged to make, of his inclination to his present policy. Scarce
any of those revolutions which, oath in history and in common language, have always been denominated conquests,
appear equally violent, or were attended with so sudden an alteration both of power and property. The Roman state,
which spread its dominion over Europe, left the rights of individuals in a great measure untouched; and those civilized
conquerors, while they made their own country the seat of empire, found that they could draw most advantage from
the subjected provinces by securing to the natives the free enjoyment of their own laws and of their private possessions.
The barbarians who subdued the Roman empire, though they settled in the conquered countries, yet being accustomed
to a rude, uncultivated life, found a part only of the land sufficient to supply all their wants; and they were
not tempted to seize extensive possessions; which they knew neither how to cultivate nor enjoy. But the Normans
and other foreigners who followed the standard of William, while they made the vanquished kingdom the seat of government,
were yet so far advanced in arts as to be acquainted with the advantages of a large property, and having totally
subdued the natives, they pushed the rights of conquest (very extensive in the eyes of avarice and ambition, however
narrow in those of reason) to the utmost extremity against them. Except the former conquest of England by the Saxons
themselves, who were induced, by peculiar circumstances, to proceed even to the extermination of the natives, it
would be difficult to find in all history a revolution more destructive, or attended with a more complete subjection
of the ancient inhabitants. Contumely seems even to have been wantonly added to oppression; and the natives were
universally reduced to such a state of meanness and poverty, that the English name became a term of reproach; and
several generations elapsed before one family of Saxon pedigree was raised to any considerable honours, or could
so much as attain the rank of baron of the realm. (So late as the reign of king Stephen, the earl of Albemarle,
before the battle of the Standard, addressed the officers it his army in these terms. Proceres Angliæ clarissimi,
et geners Normanni &c. 4t. Brompton p. 1026 see further Abbas Rieval p.330 &c. All the barons and military
men of England still called themselves Normans.) These facts are so apparent from the whole tenor of the English
history, that none would have been tempted to deny or elude them, were they not heated by the controversies of
faction; while one party was absurdly afraid of those absurd consequences which they saw the other party inclined
to draw from this event. But it is evident that the present rights and privileges of the people, who are a mixture
of English and Normans, can never be affected by a transaction, which passed seven hundred years ago; and as all
ancient authors who lived nearest the time, and best knew the state of the country, unanimously speak of the Norman
dominion as a conquest by war and arms, no reasonable man, from the fear of imaginary consequences, will ever be
tempted to reject their concurring and undoubted testimony.
King William had issue, besides his three sons who survived him, five daughters; to wit,
(1.) Cicily, a nun in the monastery of Feschamp, afterwards abbess in the Holy Trinity at Caen, where she died
in 1127.
(2.) Constantia, married to Alan Fergent, earl of Brittany. She died without issue.
(3.) Alice, contracted to Harold.
(4.) Adela, married to Stephen, earl of Blois, by whom she had four sons, William, Theobald, Henry, and Stephen;
of whom the elder was neglected on account of the imbecility of his understanding.
(5,.) Agatha, who died a virgin, but was betrothed to the king of Gallicia. She died on her journey thither, before
she joined her bridegroom.