The Chronicle of the Norman Conquest Part 21

[Footnote 3: Romney. It is not here stated whether William's men had been sent from Hastings thither, or whether part of his fleet had gone astray in the voyage, and landed there. _Domesday_ says of Dover, 'In ipso primo adventu ejus in Angliam _fuit ipsa villa combusta_.']

[Footnote 4: Edwin and Morcar.]

[Footnote 5: Edgar Atheling.]

[Footnote 6: Wace had, in narrating Swain's success in overrunning England, i. 327, observed upon the facility afforded to an invader by the scarcity of fortified posts:

N'i aveit gaires fortelesce, Ne tur de pierre ne bretesce, Se n'esteit en vieille cite, Ki close fust d'antiquite.

Maiz li barunz de Normendie, Quant il orent la seignorie, Firent chastels e fermetez, Turs de pierre, murs e fossez.

[Footnote 7: _Benoit_ goes on to narrate at much greater length the events subsequent to the battle. Wace pa.s.ses very lightly over English internal affairs, of which he probably knew and cared little, and which were, moreover, foreign to the plan of his work. The _Saxon Chronicle_ says of the coronation: 'Then on Midwinter day archbishop Aldred hallowed him to king at Westminster, and gave him possession with the books of Christ; and also swore him, ere that he would set the crown upon his head, that he would as well govern this nation as any king before him best did, if they would be faithful to him.' See as to the chronology of William's life and age Sir Harris Nicolas's _Chronology of History_, 279.]

[Footnote 8: In the words of the original,

Dona chastels, dona citez, Dona maneirs, dona comtez, Dona terres, as vava.s.sors Dona altres rentes plusors.

[Footnote 9: By the supposed charter of William in _Rymer_, he thus declares: 'This also we command, that all have and hold the law of Edward the king in all things,--audactis hiis quas const.i.tuimus ad utilitatem Anglorum;' which his son Henry expresses thus: 'Lagam Edwardi regis vobis reddo, c.u.m illis emendationibus quibus pater meus eam emendavit, consilio baronum suorum.' See the laws of William in the Proofs and Ill.u.s.trations, p. lx.x.xix, to Palgrave's _Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth_, vol. i.]

[Footnote 10: William went first in March, 1067. It is to be regretted that Wace did not avail himself of the glowing description of the wealth and splendour of William's retinue, the joy of all cla.s.ses, the universal festival occasioned by his triumphal return to Normandy, as contained in _William of Poitiers_, p. 210.] [Footnote 11:

King William bithougt him also of that folke that was vorlorne, And slayn also through him in the battaile biforne; And ther as the bataile was, an abbey he let rere Of Seint Martin, for the soules that there slayn were; And the monkes well ynough feffed without fayle, That is called in Englonde ABBEY OF BATAILE.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

So far ROBERT OF GLOCESTER. William, speaking for himself in his foundation charter in Dugdale's _Monasticon_,(where see all the details of the foundation), gives the following account of his motives and proceedings. 'Notum facio omnibus, &c.--quod c.u.m in Angliam venissem, et in finibus Hastingiae, c.u.m exercitu applicuissem contra hostes meos, qui mini regnum Angliae injuste conabantur auferre, in procinctu belli, jam armatus, coram baronibus et militibus meis, c.u.m favore omnium, ad eorum corda roboranda, votum feci, ecclesiam quandam ad honorem Dei construere, pro communi salute, si per Dei gratiam obtinere possem victoriam. Quam c.u.m essemus adepti, votum Deo solvens, in honorem Sanctae Trinitatis, et beati Martini, confessoris Christi, ecclesiam construxi; pro salute animae meae et antecessoris mei regis Eadwardi, et uxoris meae Mathildis reginae, et successorum meorum in regno; et pro salute omnium quorum labore et auxilio regnum obtinui; et illorum maxime qui in ipso h.e.l.lo occubuerunt.' The _Chronicle_ of Battle Abbey (Cott. MS. Dom. A.

ii.) is precise as to the localities of the battle. It states that Harold came 'ad loc.u.m qui nunc BELLUM nuncupatur,'--and that William arrayed himself to oppose him, 'equitum cuneis circ.u.m septus'--'ad loc.u.m collis qui HETHELANDE dicitur, a parte Hastingarum situm.' Hethelande is afterwards mentioned as part of the abbey's possessions. In this Chronicle is contained one of the most curious historical and legal relics of the twelfth century; the record of a suit, as to jurisdiction, between the bishop of Chichester and the abbot of Battle, which has been printed in Palgrave's _Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth_.

One of the barons present observes of the battle, that William obtained his crown by it, 'nosque omnes opulentia maxima ditati sumus.']

[Footnote 12: This expedition took place at the end of July, 1087.]

[Footnote 13: Et quia strepitus Rotomagi, quae populosa civitas est, intolerabilis erat aegrotanti, extra urbem ipse rex praecepit se aufferi, ad ecclesiam Sancti Gervasii, in colle sitam occidentali; _Ordericus Vit._ vii. 656. A priory was attached to the church of St. Gervais, which furnishes probably the oldest ecclesiastical remain in Normandy.

The crypt, below the apsis represented in the cut at the foot of this chapter, is supposed to be Roman, and coeval with the earliest introduction of Christianity at Rouen. The apsis itself is probably a re-erection with the original materials, but anterior to Duke William.]

[Footnote 14: The anonymous continuer of _Wace's Brut_ gives a curious account of William's deliberation, at an earlier date, with his barons, as to the future state and fortunes of his sons. He is described as proving the qualities and tempers of his sons, by asking each what bird he would choose to be, if doomed to a.s.sume that form:

Si Dex, ki est tuit puissant, De vus eust fait oisel volant, De tuz icels ki pount voler Laquelle voldriez resembler?

Robert selects the esperver, and William the eagle, but Henry, 'k'en clergie esteit funde'--'mult sagement ad parle,' and chose the estornele. The whole story forms a curious and interesting apologue. The 'grantz clers de phylosophie, e los mestres de grant clergie, e les sages homes de son poer,' are described as a.s.sembled on this occasion, 'a un parlement;' and the king opens the session with a royal speech, perhaps the earliest of the sort on record:

Seignors! dist il, ki estes ici, De vostre venue mult vus merci.

De voz sens et vostre saver Ore endreit en ai mester; Pur ceo vus pri e requer K'entre vus voillez traiter, &c.

The story forms a distinct fabliau in the MSS. Cotton. Cleop. A. xii.]

[Footnote 15: _Orderic_ puts the same observation into William's mouth.

History fully proves its justice.]

[Footnote 16: This confession may appear to be an odd commentary on the tenor of Wace's preceding history of the events leading to the conquest.

It was perhaps in some quarters unpalatable here, for d.u.c.h.esne's MS.

reads directly the opposite:

'Engleterre ai cunquise a dreit.'

_Orderic_ gives the confession, but less explicitly, thus: 'Neminem Anglici regni const.i.tuo haeredem.... Fasces igitur hujus regni, quod c.u.m tot peccatis obtinui, nulli audeo tradere nisi Deo solo.' See the note on this pa.s.sage in _Lyttleton's Hen. II._ vol. i. 397. Possibly William's admission would not, in his day, be understood as being at variance with any of the details given by Wace and other Norman historians. Harold, as we have seen, is treated as a.s.suming with his brother Gurth the perfect moral and legal validity of his t.i.tle as against William, and yet as shrinking from a personal contest with one to whom he had de facto, though by stratagem, become bound in allegiance. And William might, in a similar train of reasoning, maintain all the facts a.s.serted by the Normans, bearing on the moral justice of the case as between him and Harold, and his personal right to punish treason in his man, and yet admit that Harold, having obtained by the gift of Edward, and by election and consecration, a strictly legal t.i.tle, his eviction was tortuous, and could give his conqueror no right except that of force--none that he could lawfully transmit. _Benoit_ states his t.i.tle by conquest, not in the mitigated sense in which that word has been used by some of our legal antiquaries, but in its harshest application:

Deu regne est mais la seignori As eirs estraiz de Normendie: CUNQUISE l'unt c.u.m chevalier Au FER TRENCHANT e al acier.

His account of William's speech is in our appendix.]

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CHAPTER XXVI.

HOW WILLIAM DIED, AND WAS BURIED AT CAEN.

William lay ill six weeks; his sickness was heavy and increased. He made confession of his sins to the bishops and abbots, and the tonsured priests, and afterwards received the CORPUS DOMINI. He dispossessed himself of his wealth, devising and apportioning it all: and caused his prisoners to be set free, giving them quittance of all claims. His brother Odo the bishop he also set at liberty; which he would not have done so soon, if he had thought he should live. He had arrested him in the Isle of Wic[1], and brought him and put him in prison at Rouen. He was said to be crafty and rapacious beyond all bounds; and when seneschal to the king, he was so cruel and treacherous to every one, that all England complained, rich and poor together. He had privily consulted his friends as to whether a bishop could be king, hoping to succeed should William die first; for he trusted in his great power, and the mult.i.tude of the followers that he had attached to himself by his large words and foolish boasts, and by the promises he made. The king therefore thought very ill of him, and held him in great suspicion.

When he had ordered him to be seized, for not rendering his account of the revenue that he had collected in England while he held it for the king, there was no baron who would touch him, or durst put forth his hand against him. Then the king himself sprang boldly forward, and seized him by the 'ataches,' and drew him forth out of the circle of his friends; "I arrest thee," said he, "I arrest thee." "You do me wrong,"

said Odo; "I am a bishop and bear crozier, and you ought not to lay hand on me." "By my head," quoth the king, "but I ought; I will seize the earl of Kent my bailiff and steward, who has not accounted to me for my kingdom that he has held." Thus was the bishop put in custody, and so remained for four years; for the ship was ready and the wind fair, and he was put on board, and carried by sea to Rouen, and kept in the tower there four years, and was not like to come out thence till the king should die.

On the morn of the eighth day of September the king died, and left this world as the hour of PRIME[2] struck; he heard it well, and asked what it was that was striking. Then he called upon G.o.d as far as his strength sufficed, and on our holy Lady, the blessed Mary, and so departed, while yet speaking, without any loss of his senses or change in speech.

Many a feat of arms had he done; and he had lived sixty and four years; for he was only seven years old when duke Robert took the cross and went to Jerusalem.

At the time when the king departed this world, many of his servants were to be seen running up and down, some going in, others coming out, carrying off the rich hangings and the tapestry, and whatever they could lay their hands upon. One whole day elapsed before the corpse was laid upon the bier; for they who were before wont to fear him, now left him lying alone.

But when the news spread, much people gathered together, and bishops and barons came in long procession; and the body was well tended, opened, anointed, embalmed, and carried to Caen as he had commanded. There was no bishop in the province, nor abbot, earl, or n.o.ble prince, who did not repair to the interment of the body, if he could; and there were besides many monks, priests, and clerks.

When they had duly arranged the body, they sang aloud 'LIBERA ME.' They carried it to the church[3], but the bier was yet outside the door when behold! a cry was heard which alarmed all the people, that the town was on fire; and every one rushed thither, save the monks who remained by the body. When the fire was quenched the people returned back, and they took the body within the church; and the clerks did their office, and all with good will chaunted 'REQUIEM ETERNAM.'

While they were yet engaged in preparing the grave where the corpse was to lie, and the bishops and the barons stood around, lo! a vava.s.sor, whose name was Acelin, the son of Arthur, came running and burst through the throng. He pressed boldly forward, and mounted aloft upon a stone, and turned towards the bier and appealed to the clerks and bishops, while all the people gazed upon him. "Lords," cried he aloud, "hearken unto me! I warn all and forbid ye, by Jesu the almighty, and by the apostle of Rome--by greater names I cannot adjure ye--that ye inter not William in the spot where ye are about to lay him. He shall not commit trespa.s.s on what is my right, for the greater part of this church is my right and of my fee, and I have no greater right in any of my lands. I neither sold nor pledged it, forfeited it, nor granted it away. He made no contract with me, and I received no price for it from him. By force he took it from me, and never afterwards offered to do me right. I appeal him therefore by name, that he do me right, in that judgment where all alike go, before him who lieth not. Before ye all I summon him by name, that he on that day render me justice for it!"

When he had said this, he came down. Forthwith arose great clamour in the church, and there was such tumult that no one could hear the other speak. Some went, others came; and all marvelled that this great king, who hsrd conquered so much, and won so many cities, and so many castles, could not call so much land his own as his body might lie within after death.

But the bishops called the man to them, and asked of the neighbours, whether what he had said were true; and they answered that he was right; that the land had been his ancestors' from father to son. Then they gave him money, to waive his claim without further challenge. Sixty sols gave they to him, and that price he took, and released his claim to the sepulchre where the body was placed. And the barons promised him that he should be the better for it all the days of his life[4]. Thus Acelin was satisfied, and then the body was interred.