Edgar Atheling leaves his court, and goes abroad, "for he received not much honour from him ;" his sister Christina becomes a nun at Romsey.

"A very sorrowful year in England, from tempests, and blight, and murrain among the cattle."

A.D. 1087. A very great fire in London; St. Paul's burnt.

"In the same year also, before the Assumption of St. Mary (Aug. 15), King William went from Normandy into France with an army, and made war upon his own lord, Philip the king, and slew many of his men, and burned the town of Mantes, and all the holy minsters that were in the town; two holy men that served God, leading the life of anchorites, were burned therein.”

William returns to Normandy, falls sick and dies, at the priory of St. Gervase, near Rouen, Sept. 9. He is buried at Caen, in St. Stephen's minster.

"Alas! how false and how uncertain is this world's weal! He that was before a rich king, and lord of many lands, had not then of all his land more than a space of seven feet! and he that was whilome enshrouded in gold and gems, lay there covered with mould !"

The Emperor Henry IV. makes his submission to the

Even this small space, according to the account of Orderic, was purchased at the time of his funeral, from a knight whose patrimony had been seized for the site of the abbey, and who interrupted the ceremony by a formal demand of justice.

William II. from his Great Seal.

Arms ascribed to William II.

WILLIAM II.

THIS, the third son of William I., was born about 1060. He appears to have attached himself more closely to his father than did his elder brothers, being his constant companion in war, and receiving the gift of the kingdom of England from him. He fulfilled his father's directions by setting at liberty several prisoners of consequence, but he experienced little gratitude from them, as they mostly joined the party of his brother Robert. His reign was passed in turmoil, arising from frequent conspiracies among his Norman nobles, but he triumphed over them by the aid of the English, to whom he promised good government. This promise, however, he took no pains to keep. His principal adviser was a Norman chaplain, named Ralph, but better known "Flambard" (Firebrand), who acted as his chief justiciary, and travelled about the country practising every extortion. William at length met a violent death, Aug. 2, 1100, but whether by accident or design is uncertain a.

as

The dreams of the king and others, said to portend his death, recorded by Orderic and William of Malmesbury, need no remark; but there is a singular statement on the subject in Eadmer. "Anselm, the exiled archoishop of Canterbury, being with Hugo, the abbot of Cluny, the conversation turned on King William, when the abbot observed, -'Last night that king was brought before God; and by a deliberate judgment incurred the sorrowful sentence of damnation.' How he came to know this, he neither exp'ained at the time, nor did any of his hearers ask;

His well-known appellation of Rufus, or "the Red King," was bestowed in consequence of his light hair and ruddy complexion. He pursued the chase with ardour, and although when his Norman nobles conspired against him he promised an alleviation of the forest laws, he never granted it; he affected extravagant apparel, and led a most depraved life. He was never married, and is, not known to have left any illegitimate issue.

William, like his father, has ascribed to him the arms of Normandy, "Gules, two lions passant gardant in pale, or."

His contemporaries speak most unfavourably of this king. They describe him as harsh and severe, formidable to his neighbours, and avaricious, yet both prodigal and profligate; fierce and overbearing in his manner in public, but coarsely jocular with his intimate associates. "God's Church he humbled; he held bishoprics in his hand;" the revenues of the sees of Canterbury, Salisbury, and Winchester, and of eleven abbeys were received by his officers in the year that he died". "He was loathed by nearly all his people, and odious to God, as his end testified."

A.D. 1087. William hastens to England, is received as king, and is crowned at Westminster by Lanfranc, Sept. 26.

nevertheless, out of respect to his piety, not a doubt of the truth of his words remained on the minds of any present. Hugo led such a life, had such a character, that all regarded his discourse, and venerated his advice, as though an oracle from heaven had spoken.' From this, some comparatively modern writers have concluded that William was the victim of a conspiracy which was known to Hugo.

b"On the deaths of Baldwin of St. Edmundsbury, and Simeon of Ely, and other abbots, the royal officers seized the monasteries throughout England, and issuing a slender allowance of food and clothing to their inmates, paid the surplus into the treasury. After a while the king bestowed the dignities on certain ecclesiastics about his court, not for their fitness for such posts, but for their services rendered in secular affairs." (Ordericus Vitalis, lib. x. c. 2.) Ralph, the justiciary, is said to have been the king's adviser in these proceedings.

• The years of his reign are reckoned from this day.

Robert is acknowledged as duke in Normandy.

William repairs to Winchester, distributes much of his father's treasure for masses for his soul to each monastery and parish church, and releases many prisoners, agreeably to his dying wish.

The Welsh make an incursion, and ravage the country as far as Worcester.

A.D. 1088. Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William de S. Carileph, bishop of Durham, Roger, earl of Shrewsbury, and other Norman nobles, conspire against William, at Lent. They raise troops and burn his farms and kill his men.

William obtains aid from the English, by promising them good government. He captures Rochester Castle, the stronghold of his brother Robert's partisans, drives the two bishops from the kingdom, and confiscates the estates of the nobles.

Godred Cronan dies.

A.D. 1089. Archbishop Lanfranc dies, May 24. The king keeps the see vacant four years.

A great earthquake in England, Aug. 13.

Robert quarrels with his brother Henry, and imprisons him; but after a short time sets him free.

Jestyn, lord of Glamorgan, rebels against Rhys ap Tudor, prince of Dynevor, but is defeated.

A.D. 1090. William makes war on Robert in Normandy, and gains most of the strong places, but is foiled in an attempt on Rouen, Nov. 3.

Jestyn procures Norman aid, and defeats and kills

d Among them Florence of Worcester enumerates Odo, bishop of Bayeux, (reluctantly pardoned by his dying brother,) the earl Morcar, Roger Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, Siward Barn, Alfgar the brother, and Wulfnoth the son, of Harold; Morcar and Wulfnoth, however, were shorly after again imprisoned; when the former was killed by some of his own people, and the latter became a monk.

Odo never returned to England, but William was reinstated in 1091, and held his see until his death, Jan. 1, 1096.

f This was mainly owing to help given to Robert by Henry, who having captured Conan, the leader of William's partisans, with his own hands cast him from a high tower, killing him on the spot.

It was obtained for him by Einion, the son of the lord of Dyved mbroke), who had served in the Norman armies, and consisted of

Rhys ap Tudor. "With him," says Caradoc of Llancarvan, "fell the glory of Dynevor, the land being afterwards rent in pieces and divided by the Norman captains."

Jestyn quarrels with Einion, who then makes a new compact with the Normans; they drive Jestyn from Glamorgan, establish themselves on the sea coast, and bestow the interior on Einion.

The king grants lands in Wales to such of his knights as choose to attempt their conquest. In consequence, Bernard of Neufmarché subdues Brecknock; Henry of Neufbourg, earl of Warwick, seizes on Gower; Roger, earl of Shrewsbury, captures Baldwin's castle h and Cardigan; and Hugh, earl of Chester, ravages the sea-shore by Conway, and occupies Anglesey.

A.D. 1091. William passes over to Normandy, in January. A treaty is concluded between him and Robert. Robert surrenders many towns and castles 'to William, in return for which his partisans have their forfeited estates restored.

Edgar Atheling, deprived by William's wish of some estates in Normandy, goes to Scotland.

Henry (afterwards king) is besieged in Mont St. Michel by William and Robert in concert, and driven into exile. Malcolm of Scotland invades England, in May, but is repulsed.

William, accompanied by Robert, returns to England in August, marches against Malcolm, and compels him to do homage1.

Edgar Atheling has restoration of his Norman lands.
Robert, seeing the agreement badly kept by William,

Robert Fitzhamon and twelve other knights, and 3,000 men. The Normans erected their conquest into the Honour of Glamorgan, built eighteen castles in it, and divided it into thirty-six knights' fees; it was the first of the palatine districts which were governed by the lords marchers.

This fortress, built in 1067, had been soon after surprised by the Welsh ; the captor gave it his own name, Montgomery, which it still bears.

i See A.D. 1072.