CHAP. VIII. and how he who fought against his natural lord had no right to fief or honour. On the other hand the Viscounts Neal and Randolf pressed him to stand firmly by them, and promised great rewards as the price of his adherence. For a while he stood doubtful, keeping his troop apart from either army. We are told how the King and the Duke marked them as they stood, and how William told Henry that he knew them for the men of Ralph of Tesson, that their leader had no grudge against him, and that he believed that they would all soon be on his side. Presently the arguments of his own knights prevailed with Ralph; he bade them halt, and he himself spurred across the field, shouting as his war-cry the name of his lordship of Thury.2 He rode up to the Duke, he struck him with his glove, and so performed his oath to smite William wherever he found him. The Duke welcomed the returning penitent, and Ralph rode back to his men. His detachment stood aside for a space till the two hosts were engaged in the thick of the battle. He then watched his opportunity, and made a vigorous charge on the side of the Duke. 3 Roman de Rou, 9050; Véant sun pere et sun barnage ; The feudal scruple is stronger in the minds of the inferior tenants, a point worth noticing, whether the tale be trustworthy in detail or not. This agrees with Wace's former statement that, even in the revolted provinces, the popular feeling was on William's side. The poor gentleman might need the protection of the common sovereign hardly less than the peasant. 2 I wish I could believe, with Thierry (i. 150) and Pluquet (Wace, ii. 32, 528), that this war-cry was an invocation of Thor, “Thor aie,” as opposed to the "Dex aie" of the French Normans. But I fear we must see in it nothing more profound or venerable than the lordship of Thury. See Prevost, Wace, p. 528, and Taylor, 21; Palgrave, iii. 216. 3 Examples of entrapping men to destruction by the literal fulfilment of an oath are common enough. This opposite case may be compared with Aurelian's way of discharging his oath when besieging Thyana ; "Canem in hoc oppido non relinquam." The city was taken, and the Emperor slew all the dogs. Vopiscus, Aurelian, 22, 23 (Hist. Aug. ii. 472). CHARACTER OF THE BATTLE. of the 255 mere com Such an auspicious reinforcement might well stir up the CHAP. VIII. spirits of the young Duke and his followers. Every man Character was eager for battle. A fierce combat of cavalry began. battle; a We have heard of the infantry of the communes as appear- bat of ing at the ducal muster, but we hear nothing of them in cavalry. the battle. We hear nothing of the Norman archers, who were to win so terrible a renown upon a later field. All is one vast tourney; it is a struggle between two companies of mounted knights charging one another with shield, sword, and lance. The first great battle of William, like the first great battle of Alexander,1 was truly a battle of chivalry in every sense of the word, a hand to hand personal fight between mounted nobles on either side. On pressed the Duke, sword in hand, seeking out the perjured Viscounts, and shouting the war-cry of Normandy, "Dex aie." On the same side rose the shout of "Montjoye-Saint-Denys," the national war-cry of the French Kingdom. From the rebel host arose the names of various local saints, patrons of the castles and churches of the revolted leaders, Saint Sever, Saint Amand, and others of less renown.4 On the rebel left rode the men of the Bessin, on the right those of the Côtentin. The men of the peninsula thus came face to face with the royal troops; the King of the French, as in the old days of Lewis and Harold, had to meet in close fight with the 2 993 1 Arrian, vi. 11. 9. ̓Αλλὰ πρὸς Γρανίκῳ μὲν ξυνέβη μαχὴ ἱππική. iv. 8. 11. ἡ ἱππομαχία ἡ ἐπὶ Γρανίκῳ. 2 Roman de Rou, 9074; "Willame va par la campaigne; Des Normanz meine grant compaigne, 3 Ib. 9094; "Cil de France crient, Montjoie; Ceo lor est bel ke l'en les oie; See Taylor, 22. Li dui Viscuntes vait quérant, Willame cri, Dex aie; C'est l'enseigne de Normendie." 5 See vol. i. p. 217. Wace seems rather to delight in opposing his own province to the French. 9108; "El Rei de France et as Franceiz Si vint ensemb Costentineiz." Personal exertions of King Henry. CHAP. VIII. fiercest and most unconquerable warriors of the Norman name. And well and bravely did King Henry do his duty on that one day of his life. Even in the Norman picture, it is around the King, rather than around the Duke, that the main storm of battle is made to centre. The knights now met on each side, lance to lance, and, when their lances were shivered, sword to sword. There was no difference of tactics, no contrast between one weapon and another; the fight of Val-ès-dunes was the sheer physical encounter of horse and man, the mere trial of personal strength and personal skill in knightly exercises. The King, as in such a fight any man of common courage could not fail to do, exposed himself freely to danger; but as far as his personal adventures went, the royal share in the battle was somewhat unlucky. Once, if not twice, the King of the French, the over-lord of Normandy, was hurled from his horse by the thrust of a Norman lance. A knight of the Côtentin first overthrew him by a sudden charge. The exploit was long remembered in the rimes of his warlike province,1 but the hero of it purchased his renown with his life. The King was unhurt, but the report of such an accident might easily spread confusion among his army. Like more renowned warriors before and after, like Eadmund at Sherstone, like William at Senlac,2 it was needful that he should show himself to his followers, and wipe out the misfortune by fresh exploits. Henry was therefore soon So 9128; "Constentineiz è Franceiz sunt Li uns as altres contrestunt." Roman de Rou, 9144; "De ço distrent li païsant, E dient encore en gabant: De Costentin iessi la lance I have found the rime remembered in a Norman cottage, close by the field of Val-ès-Dunes. See vol. i. p. 384; iii. 482. Cf. vol. i. p. 272. William's overthrow was real, though his death was imaginary; in the case of Eadmund all was an invention of Eadric. But the effect on the army would be the same in all three cases. OVERTHROW OF KING HENRY. 257 again in the thickest of the fight; but less fortunate than CHAP. VIII. either Eadmund or William, the like mishap befell him a second time.1 The King presently encountered one of the three great chiefs of the rebellion; another thrust, dealt by the lance of Hamon, again laid Henry on the ground; but a well-timed stroke from a French knight more than avenged this second overthrow; the Lord of Thorigny was carried off dead on his shield like an old Spartan.2 The King honoured his valiant adversary, and, by his express order, Hamon was buried with all fitting splendour before the Church of Our Lady at Esquai on the Orne.3 The King is thus made decidedly the most prominent figure in the picture, and, somewhat inglorious as were Henry's personal experiences that day, it is to him and his Frenchmen that the Norman poet does not scruple to attribute the victory. The fight appears throughout as 1 The narrative in the Roman de Rou (9134-9207) clearly implies that Henry was overthrown twice, first by a nameless knight of the Côtentin, secondly by Hamon himself. At the same time there certainly is, as Mr. Taylor (p. 25) says, a certain confusion in the way of telling the story, and one might be tempted to believe that the one overthrow was a mere repetition of the other. But each story seems to receive a certain amount of corroborative evidence. The first overthrow is supported by the Côtentin rime, the second by the independent testimony of William of Malmesbury (iii. 230); "Haimo in acie casus, cujus insignis violentia laudatur, quod ipsum Regem equo dejecerit; quare a concurrentibus stipatoribus interemtus." 2 Roman de Rou, 9199. "Mez sor l'escu fu mort levé." 3 Will. Malms. u. s. Pro fortitudinis miraculo Regis jussu tumulatus est egregie." Wace (9200) mentions the place. He is buried "devant l'iglise," seemingly not in the church. Roman de Rou, 9258; "Néel se cumbati cum pros; Si tiex les trovast li Reis tos, Mar i fussent Franceiz venuz, So again, 9280; "Mais ço sai ke li Reis veinki." It is not wonderful that this line should be still more emphatically taken by a French writer (Duchesne, iv. 97); “Anno denique Incarnationis Dominicæ MXLVII. sæpe nominatus Rex Henricus cum tribus tantum millibus armatorum commisit bellum cum xxx. millibus Normannorum, eosque VOL. II. S CHAP. VIII. a fight between Normans and Frenchmen.1 Exploits and good fortune of William. But the Duke of the Normans himself was not idle. If his royal ally was personally unlucky, it was on this day that William began that career of personal success, of good fortune in the mere tug of battle, which, till the clouded evening of his life, was as conspicuous as the higher triumphs of his military genius and his political craft. Men loved to tell how the young Duke slew with his own hand the beloved vassal of Randolf, Hardrez, the choicest warrior of Bayeux; how the veteran champion, in the pride of his might, rode defiant in the front rank; how the Duke rode straight at him, not justing with his lance as in a mimic tourney, but smiting hand to hand with the sword. The poet rises to an almost Homeric flight, when he tells us how William smote the rebel below the chin, how he drove the sharp steel between the throat and the chest, how the body fell beneath his stroke and the soul passed away.3 2 superavit, et venerabilem adolescentem Willelmum, magni Normannorum Principis Roberti filium, eis vi superposuit, quem exhæreditare volebant." So in Abbot Hugh's Chronicle (Pertz, viii. 402); Willelmus, fraude suorum Normanniâ pulsus, Robertum Francorum expetivit Regem, qui, bello et manu validâ congressus, victis et prostratis Normannis, de traditoribus judicio dato, comitatum ei restituit." 1 Roman de Rou, 9173; So 9266; "E Franceiz Normans envaïr, E Normanz torner è guenchir." Normanz décheient è décreissent." We must remember that all the local feelings of Wace, a native of Jersey and Canon of Bayeux, would be on the side of the rebels, however much they might be balanced by loyalty to the memory of the Great William. 2 Benoit, 33660; "Hardrez uns chevalier hardiz, The anatomical precision of Wace (9222) is quite in the style of the Iliad ; "Willame verz li s'eslessa, Li fist passer le fer trenchant ; |
