changed. Henry may well have found that it was not sound policy to foster the growth of one whose blows might easily be extended from Counts to Kings. The campaign which followed is dwelt on at great length by our Norman authorities and is cut significantly short by the Angevins. In its course, we are told, William gained the highest reputation. The troops of Normandy surpassed in number the united contingents of the King and of all his other vassals.1 The Duke's courage and conduct were preeminent, and they won him the first place in the King's counsels. But on one point Henry had to remonstrate with his valiant ally. He was forced, says the panegyrist, to warn both William himself and the chief Norman leaders against the needless exposure of so precious a life.3 William never shrank from danger at any time of his life, and we may be sure that, at this time of his life especially, he thoroughly enjoyed the practice of war in all its forms. But William's impulses were already under the control of his reason. He knew, no doubt, as well as any man that to plunge himself into needless dangers, and to run the risk of hairbreadth scapes, was no part of the real duty of a prince or a general. But he also knew that it was mainly by exploits of this kind that he must dazzle the minds of his own generation, and so obtain that influence over men which was needful for the great schemes of his life. In any other point of view, one would say that it was unworthy of William's policy to win the reputation of a knight-errant at the expense of making for himself a lasting and dangerous enemy in the Count of Anjou. The undisputed dominions of the two princes nowhere touched each other. But between them lay a country closely connected both with Normandy and with Anjou, and over which both William and Geoffrey asserted rights. This was the County of Maine, a district which was always said to have formed part of the later acquisitions of Rolf, but of which the Norman Dukes had never taken practical possession. The history of the Cenomannian city and province will be more fittingly sketched at another stage of William's career; it is WAR OF ALENÇON AND DOMFRONT. 185 enough to say here that Geoffrey was now practical sovereign of Maine, in the character of protector, guardian, or conqueror of the young Count Hugh, the son of the famous Herbert, surnamed Wakethe-dog.1 William and Geoffrey thus became immediate neighbours, and Geoffrey, with the craft of his house, knew how to strike a blow where William was weakest. Two chief fortresses guarded the frontier between Maine and Normandy. Each commanded its own valley, its own approach into the heart of the Norman territory; each watched over a stream flowing from Norman into Cenomannian ground. These were Domfront towards the western, and Alençon towards the eastern, portion of the frontier. Domfront commanded the region watered by the Mayenne and its tributaries, while Alençon was the key of the valley of the Sarthe, the keeper of the path which led straight to the minster of Seez and to the donjon of Falaise. Of these two strongholds, Alençon stood on Norman, Domfront on Cenomannian soil. But Norman writers maintained that Domfront, no less than Alençon, was of right a Norman possession, both fortresses alike having been reared by the licence of Richard the Good. But even Alençon, whatever may have been its origin, was at this time far from being a sound member of the Norman body politic. As a lordship of William Talvas, it shared in the ambiguous character, half Norman, half French, which attached to all the border possessions of the house of Belesme. And, as events presently showed, its inhabitants shared most fully in the spirit in which the Lord of Alençon had cursed the Bastard in his cradle. We are told also that the citizens both of Alençon and of Domfront disliked the rule of William, on account of the strict justice which he administered and the checks which he put on their marauding practices. This complaint sounds rather as if it came from turbulent barons than from burghers; yet it is quite 1 Gesta Dom. Ambasiens. ap. D'Achery, tis Andegavorum, obsidione coronavit." iii. 273. "Quidam Comes pernimium So also Roman de Rou, 9382; juvenis Herbertus, cognomento Evigilans Canem." See Palgrave, iii. 240. 2 One might fancy from the words of William of Jumièges (vii. 18), "Coepit Normanniam rapinis vehementer demoliri, intra Danfrontis castrum seditiosis custodibus immissis," that Domfront was now Norman. But is clear from William of Poitiers (86) that it was, as a town of Maine, in Geoffrey's possession at the beginning of the war; Willelmus . . adibat cum exercitu terram Andegavensem, ut reddens talionem primo abalienaret Gaufredo Damfrontum, post reciperit Alentium." So William of Malmesbury (iii. 231), "Damfruntum, quod erat tunc comi 66 66 Alençon ert de Normendie E Danfronz del Maine partie." 3 Will. Pict. 89. "Perhibent homines antiquioris memoriæ, castra hæc ambo Comitis Ricardi concessu esse fundata, unum intra alterum, proxime fines Normanniæ." 4 See above, p. 122. So William of Malmesbury (iii. 231), "Pronis in perfidiam habitatoribus." 5 Will. Pict. 87. "Deferre haudquaquam volebant dominum sub quo licenter quæstum latrociniis contraherint: quali caussâ fuerant seducti inhabitantes Alentium." He then goes on with one of his panegyrics on William's stern justice. 2 possible that the burghers of a frontier town, especially on a frontier which was very doubtful and ill-defined, may have indulged in those breaches of the peace which it was William's greatest praise, both in Normandy and in England, to chastise without mercy. At any rate the people of Alençon were thoroughly disloyal to Normandy, and they willingly received the Angevin Count and his garrison.1 William returned the blow of Geoffrey's hammer in kind. Leaving Alençon for a while to itself, he crossed the frontier, Angevin or Cenomannian as we may choose to call it, and laid siege to Domfront. On his march he found that treason was not wholly extinguished, even among his own troops. He had gone on a foraging or plundering party with fifty horse; a traitor, a Norman noble, sent word of his whereabout to the defenders of the town, who sent forth, we are told, three hundred horse and seven hundred foot to attack the Duke unexpectedly. It sounds like romance when we read that William at once charged and overthrew the horseman nearest to him, that the rest were seized with a sudden panic and took to flight, that the Duke and his little band chased them to the gates of Domfront, and that William carried off one prisoner with his own hands. Such stories are no doubt greatly exaggerated; the details may often be pure invention; but, as contemporary exaggerations and inventions, they show the kind of merit which Normans then looked for in their rulers, and they show the kind of exploit of which William himself was thought capable. And the perfectly casual mention of the traitor in the Norman camp is instructive in another way. It is no doubt merely an example of what often happened, and the way in which treason is spoken of as an everyday matter sets vividly before us the difficulties with which William, even now after the victory of Val-ès-dunes, had still to contend at every step.* William now laid siege to Domfront. The town was strong both by its fortifications and by its natural position. The spirit of the citizens was high, and they were further strengthened by the presence of a chosen body of Angevin troops sent by Count Geoffrey. An assault was hopeless where two steep and narrow paths were the only ways by which the fortress could be approached even on foot.5 1 Will. Pict. 86. "Inhabitatores ad se ierit, et quam paucis comitatus, atque hunc pronos reppererat." esse qui mortem fugæ præferret." 3 lb. 66 Captum suis unum manibus re 2 Ib. 87. "Ubi approximabatur Danfronto, cum equitibus divertit quinquaginta, acceptum quæ stippendium augerent. But this curious euphemism for what one would have thought in those days hardly needed apology is explained in the next sentence, "Prædæ autem index castellanis prodidit ipsum quidam ex Normannis majoribus, intimans quo aut cur tinuit." Compare, on the chances of treason near William's person, those remarkable expressions of William of Jumièges (vii. 4) which have been already quoted in p. 131. 5 Will. Pict. 87. "Celerem irruptionem situs oppidi denegabat omni robori sive peritiæ; quum scopulorum asperitas pedites WILLIAM AND GEOFFREY BEFORE DOMFRONT. 187 3 William surrounded the town with four towers,' and the Norman army sat down before it. The Duke was foremost in every attack, in every ambush, in every night march to cut off the approach of those who sought to bring either messages or provisions to the besieged town.2 Yet we are told that he found himself so safe in the enemy's country that he often enjoyed the sports of hunting and hawking, for which the neighbouring woods afforded special opportunities. The siege had continued for some time (1048-1049) in this way, and it was now seemingly winter, when news was brought that Count Geoffrey was advancing with a large force to the relief of the town. A tale of knight-errantry follows, the main substance of which, coming as it does from a contemporary writer, we have no ground for disbelieving, even though some details may have been heightened to enhance the glory of William. The story is worthy of attention as showing that, amidst all the apparent rudeness of the times, some germs of the later follies of chivalry had already begun to show themselves. As the Angevin army approached, William sent a message to Geoffrey by the hands of two of his chosen friends, two youths who had grown up along with him, and who were destined to share with him in all his greatest dangers and greatest successes. Both were men who lived to be famous in English history, Roger of Montgomery, the son-in-law of the terrible Talvas, and William, the son of that Osbern who had lost his life through his faithfulness to his master. These two trusty companions were sent to see Count Geoffrey, and to get from him an explanation of his purpose. Geoffrey told them that, at daybreak the next morning, he would come and beat up William's quarters before Domfront. There should be no mistake about his person; he would be known by such a dress, such a shield,' such a coloured horse. The Norman messengers answered that he need not trouble himself to come so far as the Norman quarters; he whom he sought would come and visit him etiam deturbaret, præter qui angustis itineribus duobus atque arduis accederent." There is here something of the Norman trust in cavalry; there a feeling as if a place where horsemen were of no use had some unfairness about it. 1 Will. Pict. 87. "Castella circumponit quatuor." 2 Ib. 66 Aliquando perdius et pernox equitans, vel in abditis occultus explorat, si qui offendantur aut commeatum advectantes, aut in legatione directi, aut pabulatoribus suis insidiantes." 3 Ib. "Est regio illa silvis abundans ferarum feracissimis. Sæpe falconum, sæpissime accipitrum volatu oblectatur." "Accipiter," so Mr. Dimock explains to me, is the goshawk. From the point of view of the small birds, the distinction is probably of no great importance. 4 Ib. 5 See above, pp. 120, 122. 7 Will. Pict. 88. "Præsignat qualem in prælio equum sit habiturus, quale scutum, qualem vestitum." The device on the shield was therefore still left to the fancy of the wearer. Had the Counts of Anjou already possessed hereditary armorial bearings, the Normans could hardly have needed to be told what kind of shield Geoffrey would carry. nearer home. Duke William would be ready for battle, with such a horse, such a dress, such manner of weapons.1 The Normans appeared the next morning, eager for fight, and their Duke the most eager among them.2 But no enemy was there to await them; before the Normans came in sight, the Count of Anjou and his host had decamped. Geoffrey doubtless, like some later generals, retired only for strategical reasons; but the Norman writers can see no nobler motive for his conduct than his being seized with a sudden panic.3 Here, and throughout the war, the lions stand in need of a painter, or rather their painters suddenly refuse to do their duty. We have no Angevin account of the siege of Domfront to set against our evidently highly-coloured Norman picture. The whole country now lay open for William to harry; but he knew better than to waste time and energy on mere useless ravages.* He determined rather to strike another sudden blow. Leaving a force before Domfront, he marched all night, through the enemy's country, along the course of the Mayenne, passing by Mehendin, Pointel, and Saint-Samson.5 He thus suddenly appeared before Alençon with the morning light. A bridge over the Sarthe, strongly fortified with a ditch and a palisade, divided the Norman from the Cenomannian territory. This bridge now served as a barrier against 7 2 The reason given by William of Poitiers (u. s.) for the Duke's special zeal is one of the most amazing things that I ever came across. Omnium acerrimus ipse Dux inurget accelerantes. Tyrannum fortasse absumi desiderabat adolescens piissimus; quod ex omnibus præclaris factis pulcerrimum judicavit Senatus Latinus et Atheniensis." The instances of Tyrannicide collected by Jean Petit (see Hist. Fed. Gov. i. 383) are strange enough, but the idea of William gaining the honours of a Timoleon by slaying Geoffrey in battle beats them all. 3 Will. Pict. 88. "Subitaneo terrore consternatus Gaufredus, adversâ acie necdum conspectâ, profugio salutem suam cum agmine toto committit." Wace (9601) makes him make a little show of preparation for battle, but he presently yields to the wiser advice of a knight who counsels flight. Wace (9527-9628) puts this whole story later, after the taking of Alençon. He adds a third to the two messengers in William of Poitiers, namely William FitzThierry (9539). 4 Will. Pict. u. s. "Novit esse prudentium victoriæ temperare, atque non satis potentem esse qui semet in potestate ulsciscendi continere non possit.' William of Jumièges (vii. 18) adds another reason; "Ecce adsunt exploratores, Alencium castrum absque suorum detrimento eum capere posse nuntiantes." This is his first mention of Alençon. 5 Roman de Rou, 9436 et seqq. 6 Will. Gem. u. s. "Totâ nocte equi tans diluculo Alencium venit." 7 William of Jumièges (vii. 18) merely says, "In quodam municipio trans flumen posito." Wace is much fuller (9440 et seqq.); |