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guarded their wild beasts by denouncing death against those who interfered with them. On some occasions, when the turbulence of their barons compelled them to attempt to conciliate their English subjects, they promised an amelioration of their forest code, but uniformly retracted their concessions when the danger was overe.

Between people thus treated, and their rulers, no cordiality could exist, and it appeared necessary to the safety of the latter that no Englishman should hold any place of importance. The powers of government were entrusted to such rapacious adventurers as Ralph Flambard and William of Ypres, Saxon bishops were replaced by Norman abbots, and an absurd attempt was made to supersede the language of the country by the Norman dialect, which, though long employed for official and court purposes, never gained ground with the mass of the people; indeed, the change ran in the contrary direction, and the second or third generation of the victors at Hastings spoke in common a language which was

e William I. usually bears the whole odium of the afforestation which proved so grievous to the English people; but it appears from the charter of Stephen, that William II. and Henry I. had also added to the royal forests: these latter Stephen promises to restore to the owners, in terms which seem to imply that they had been forcibly seized.

Ralph, a Norman chaplain, of vile character, was by William Rufus made bishop of Durham, but by Henry I. deprived of his see, and imprisoned; he escaped, and went into exile, but returned .some years after, and held his bishopric till his death. William of Ypres, a Fleming, was Stephen's general, and received from him the earldom of Kent, but was so unpopular, that on the king's death he fled from England, and entered a monastery, where he died in 1162.

g One Norman monk, however, Guitmond, had the virtue to refuse such preferment, and the courage to reproach the spoilers with their barbarous usage of the vanquished; he afterwards became bishop of Aversa. His eloquent letter to William has been preserved by Orderic.

much more intelligible to their Saxon countrymen than to their Norman kindred.

In fact, the Saxon and Danish races, though borne down for a while, were not crushed; and when the death of the last of the Norman kings left the throne vacant, the young Henry of Anjou was received as the lineal representative of "the right royal race," the descendants of Cerdic.

Armour of the Norman era. From the Seal of Alexander I. of Scotland (c. 1110.)

William 1.

from his Great seal.

WILLIAM I.

Arms ascribed to William I.

WILLIAM, the illegitimate son of Robert, sixth duke of Normandy, was born at Falaise about the end of the year 1027. In 1035 his father died, but William only obtained full possession of the duchy after several contests with his neighbour and the king of France, in 1056. His father's aunt, Emma, being mother to Edward the Confessor, William alleged that that prince had named him heir to the crown of England, and he successfully asserted his claim at the battle of Hastings, after gaining which, on the 14th October, 1066, he advanced on London and was crowned king at Westminster on the following Christmas-day; the troubled character of his reign being aptly foreshadowed by a tumult on the occasion, in which some houses were burnt, and many people slain.

William's reign was passed, after a brief attempt at conciliation at his first coming, in a systematic endeavour to crush his new subjects. Churches and towns were destroyed, and whole districts laid waste, sometimes to

He granted charters to several towns, among them to London, in which he promised that each man should be "law worthy" as in King Edward's days, and that no one should do them wrong, but forcibly resumed most of them a few years after. See p. 192.

punish unsuccessful revolt, sometimes to provide against hostile invasion, and sometimes to furnish scope for the chase, though it appears from Domesday Book that this latter matter has been much exaggerated1. His wars with France were not altogether successful, and his latter years were embittered by the rebellions of his sons. He died Sept. 8 or 93, 1087, at Rouen, from an accidental injury, and was buried at Caen. The splendid monument raised to his memory by his son William was destroyed in the religious wars in France in the 16th centuryk.

In 1054 William married his cousin, Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V., count of Flanders, by whom he had a family of four sons and five (perhaps six) daughters. Matilda died Nov. 2, 1083, and was buried at Caen. Their children were :—

1. Robert, known as Courthose, born probably about 1056, who became duke of Normandy, went to the Crusade, was twice defeated in his claim on the crown of England, and at length, being made prisoner by his brother Henry, died at Cardiff Castle, Feb. 10, 1135, after a captivity of 28 years. The tale of his having been blinded by his brother Henry's order, does not rest on satisfactory authority. He outlived his two sons, who both met violent deaths; William, count of Flanders, being killed at Alost in 1128, and Henry, in May, 1100, whilst hunting in the New Forest.

2. Richard, known as duke of Bernay', was killed by

i See page 195.

"On the day after the Nativity of St. Mary," says the Saxon Chronicle, i.e., on the 9th of September.

The spot is now marked by a grey marble slab in the pavement before the high altar.

A place in the bailliage of Alençon, in Normandy.

a stag in the New Forest, or perhaps died from a fever contracted there, before the death of his father.

3. WILLIAM, and 4, HENRY, became kings of England. 5. Cecilia became a nun at Fecamp, at Easter, 1075, and afterwards abbess of Holy Trinity, Caen, where she died, in July 1126.

6. Adeliza died young.

7. Matilda, betrothed to Alphonso of Castile, died on her journey to Spain, about 1079.

8. Constance, married to Alan, duke of Bretagne, died in 1090.

9. Adela, married to Stephen of Blois. She governed his dominions during his absence on the Crusade, and, at length taking the veil, died in 1137.

Gundred, who became the wife of William Warrenne, and died in 1085, is often stated to have been a daughter of William I., but the fact is not to be regarded as fully ascertained.

William Peverel, a natural son of the king, received large estates in Derbyshire and elsewhere.

The arms ascribed to William I. are those of his duchy of Normandy: "Gules, two lions passant gardant in pale, or."

The Norman writers praise William as a wise and pious king, but the Saxon Chronicler, who, as he himself declares, "had often looked upon him, and lived some time in his court," has drawn a character far less favourable". William, he says, was wise and rich, mild

m

With the main features of this agrees the character given in the Heimskringla, or Chronicle of the Sea-kings of Norway: "Earl William was stouter and stronger than other men, a great horseman and warrior, but stern; and a very wise man, but not considered a man to be trusted."

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