threats into effect, Philip, as we are told, observed, that the king of England was lying-in at Rouen. On hearing this, the latter swore by God's splendour, that, when he went to mass after his delivery, he would offer a hundred thousand candles in the kingdom of France. The new flight of his eldest son added to his exasperation, and shortly after, he made an inroad into the Vexin, and surprised Mantes, which, together with its churches, he reduced to ashes. While, exulting in his vengeance, he was riding over the ruins, his horse trod on some of the burning materials, and plunging cast its rider on the pommel. A dangerous rupture was the consequence. William was conveyed to Rouen; but afterwards, on account of the noise in so populous a city, he desired to be removed to the church of St. Gervais in one of the suburbs'. The danger he was in was not concealed from him, and he strove to overcome the fear of death by tranquillizing his conscience. Great donations were without delay sent for the restoration of the ruined churches of Mantes; by a last testament, drawn up by notaries, he distributed treasures to cloisters, churches, ecclesiastics, and the poor. The unfortunate Anglo-Saxons, Morkere, Siward Barn, and king Harold's brother Wulfnoth, who had long been languishing in prison, also Roger, the son of his friend, William of Breteuil, he ordered to be restored to liberty 2. To the valiant knight Balderic fitz Nicholas, whose estates he had confiscated, because he had, without permission, deserted the king's service for the sake of fighting against the Mohammedans in Spain, he restored his fee and inheritance3. Last of all, and not without much opposition, and yielding only to the conviction that, after his death, it would be done by others, he also liberated his brother, bishop Odo, from confinement. To his eldest son Robert, who was at that time sojourning

1 Rom. de Rou, vv. 14181 sqq. Bromton, col. 979.

2 According to Malmesbury (p. 430) the order was not obeyed.-T. 3 Ord. Vital. p. 660. Of the feats of individual Normans in Spain, see more at p. 44.

in the dominions of the king of France, even if he was not in arms against his native country', he left his paternal inheritance of Normandy, with his other possessions and rights in France. To William, his second son, he bequeathed his realm of England. Henry, his youngest son, had only a legacy of five thousand pounds of silver2; but, on the prince complaining that he had received no land, his father, as we are told, assured him that, on the death of his brothers, he would inherit the dominions of both. Both were at the time childless. According to Orderic, William's revenue amounted to no less than the incredible sum of a thousand and sixtyone pounds, ten shillings and three half-pence sterling per day, exclusive of royal gifts, fines, or commutations, etc.; which, as in the Conqueror's reign the pound sterling was a pound weight of silver, contained more than thrice as much as a pound sterling at this day. Therefore the king's revenue must have been 365 times £3185, or £1,162,525 3."

66

3

William died early in the morning of the 9th September, 1087, while his physicians were regarding the tranquil night

1 Flor. Wigorn. a. 1087. Ord. Vital. p. 659. W. Malm. p. 460.

2 Of William's rapacity the chronicle makes repeated mention, as, a. 1086: "According to his custom, he collected a very large sum from his people, either justly or otherwise, if he could find any pretext." And a. 1087: "The king and the head men loved much and over much covetousness in gold and in silver, and recked not how sinfully it was gotten, provided it came to them. The king sold his land as dearly as he possibly could. Then would a second come and bid more than the other had before given, and the king let him have it who had bidden more. Then would a third come and bid yet more, and the king would let him have it who bade most of all."-T.

3 See Baron Maseres's note, p. 258, who adds: "If we suppose the value of money at this time to have been only about 20 times as great as it is in the present year 1787, so that an ounce of silver would have bought only twenty times as much bread, or corn, or meat, as it will at this day (which I take to be a very reasonable and moderate supposition, and rather under than over the true difference of the value of money then and now,) this revenue will have been equivalent to a revenue of 20 times £1,162,525, or £23,250,500 a year at this day," exclusive of that arising from escheats, forfeitures, mulcts, wardships, &c.-T.

he had passed as a sign of his recovery. On hearing the sound of a bell, he inquired the occasion of it, and on being informed that it was tolling the hour of prime, he said, stretching forth his arms, "Then I commend my soul to my Lady, the mother of God, that by her holy prayers she may reconcile me to her Son, my Lord Jesus Christ," and immediately expired. The treatment of his corpse aids us in forming a striking picture of the social condition of the time, and a still more striking and more instructive one, for all times, of the vanity of earthly greatness. The bishops, physicians, and others belonging to the court, on hearing of his unexpected death, lost all self-command: those among them who possessed any property, instantly throwing themselves on their horses, hastened to their habitations, for the purpose of protecting or concealing themselves and all belonging to them. Those of a lower grade, finding themselves relieved from all restraint, rushed to the palace, and plundered it of all they could find of clothing, vessels, and royal furniture. The body of the king, the mightiest commander of his age, when scarcely cold, was left for many hours on the floor almost in a state of nakedness. The citizens of Rouen, apprehensive of a general pillage, hurried in all directions in the utmost confusion; of William's sons not one was on the spot to take charge of the government, or pay the last duties to their parent. The eldest was still among his father's adversaries; of the two younger one had already hastened to England, to assume the government, the other was gone to get possession of his treasure. At length, some considerate monks assembled together to form a procession, for the purpose of performing a mass, in the church of St. Gervais, for the soul of the departed; and the archbishop of Rouen gave orders for the removal of the body to the abbey of St. Stephen, that had been founded by the king. But no one appeared on whom this duty should devolve. Of the brothers, the relatives, the courtiers of the king, even of his body guard, not

one was to be seen. At last, a simple knight, dwelling in the neighbourhood, named Herluin, for the honour of God and the Norman name, resolved to provide for the costs of the conveyance, hired a carriage and the requisite people, had the body borne to the Seine, put on board a vessel, and then accompanied it himself by land to Caen. There the clergy of the abbey were prepared to give it an honourable reception; but the funeral service had scarcely begun, when a fire broke out in one of the houses of the city, and both clergy and laity hurried away to extinguish the wide-spreading flames. Thus was this solemnity, like that of his coronation at Westminster, attended with a conflagration, and brought to a conclusion by a few monks. When at length the interment of the body in the abbey-church was about to take place, many ecclesiastics of distinction had there assembled, the stone coffin was already sunk in the earth, and the corpse lying on the bier was ready to be placed in it, Gilbert, bishop of Evreux, held a funeral discourse, which, after extolling the virtues of the deceased monarch, he closed by beseeching those present to pray for the soul of the departed, and if he had done injury to any one among them, to grant him forgiveness. At this moment a vavassor, named Ascelin fitz Arthur, pressed forward and declared that the ground on which the assembled multitude was standing had been the property of his father, of which he had been robbed by the king, that he solemnly demanded its restitution, and forbade, in the name of God, the interment of the king in that place. The justice of this charge was so incontestably proved by the neighbours, that the prelates assembled resolved to pay immediately to Ascelin sixty shillings for the burial spot, and to guarantee him a sufficient indemnity for the land1. The

1

1 According to Malmesbury (p. 461), prince Henry, who was present at the funeral, was content to pay the claimant a hundred pounds of silver. His words are: "Quocirca volente Henrico filio, qui solus ex liberis aderat, centum libræ argenti litigatori persolutæ audacem calumniam compescuere.”—T.

corpse was now lifted, for the purpose of being deposited in the vault; but another mishap was to follow. The grave, lined with masonry, was too narrow to admit the corpse, which, in the act of pressing it, burst and filled the bystanders with the most insupportable exhalation of corruption: the officiating priests could with difficulty perform their duty to its conclusion1.

William possessed an extraordinary degree of bodily strength. His bow, which no other could bend on foot, he was able to draw while riding at full speed. For the savage diversion of the chase his passion knew no bounds, and his recklessness and barbarity in its gratification were as boundless. The numerous forests of Normandy and England were insufficient for him. A district of seventeen thousand acres, comprising above sixty parishes, in the most thriving part of England, lying between Winchester and the coast, he assigned for the enlargement of the ancient forest of Ytene, and the formation of the New Forest; and the royal hunter mercilessly caused churches and villages to be burnt down within its circuit. He also enlarged Windsor Forest3. His chaseand forest-laws were barbarous to an extreme. If any one slew a hart or hind, his eyes were put out. He forbade the killing of even wild boars and hares. "He loved the high game," said his contemporaries, 66 as if he were their fa

ther 4."

What distinguishes William from all similar characters, is the security in which he placed his acquisitions, although the means employed by him for that end always created him new enemies among both his nobles and the people. The severity

1 Ord. Vital. pp. 660 sq. Eadmer, p. 13.

2 Flor. Wigorn. a. 1099. W. Gemmet. viii. c. 9. Ellis, Introd. i. pp. 105-110, who has, however, overlooked Ord. Vital. p. 781.

3 MS. apud Ellis, Introd. p. 107.

4 Sax. Chron. a. 1087. [This year the cathedral of St. Paul, with many monasteries and the greater and best part of London, were destroyed by fire. Sax. Chron. Flor. Wigorn.-T.]