glanced at hereafter. Here, however, mention must be made of Tancred of Hauteville, a knight attached to the court of duke Richard, who, through the valour and might with which he slew a wild boar, acquired both that prince's favour and many valiant followers 1, but his greatest fame through those sons, whom he had formed after his own model, and to whom, as meeds of valour, no less prizes were awarded than Apulia, Calabria and Sicily. Robert Guiscard, William Iron-arm, and Roger, were the sons of this fortunate man. Thus, as Scandinavia had, a century before, been an inexhaustible receptacle of plunderers, threatening the well-being of the several European states, until Normandy afforded a home to those fierce and restless spirits, so was now Normandy itself in a similar condition, which threatened not only its own prince, and all the more flourishing states, but most of all France, with the greatest perils. Apulia was now the salvation of Normandy, Benevento afterwards saved Apulia, and, finally, England rescued France from the power of the Nor

mans.

Richard died (1026) while still in the flower of life, after a reign of thirty years 2 the vigour and wisdom of which needed not the panegyrics of the monks, but which the benevolent and pious disposition of the prince equally merited and received. The abbey of St. Wandrille, or Fontenelle, that had been destroyed by the Northmen, he caused to be rebuilt, and richly endowed it; he founded the abbey of St. Maurice at Evreux, and his wife, Judith3, that at Bernay. Foreign churches also received from him valuable donations. Monks from mount Sinai came annually to Rouen to fetch, from him as well as from his predecessors, costly presents. To

66

Gaufred. Malaterra, lib. i. c. 40.

2 Flor. Wigorn. a. 1026. Tigernach, a. 1027, where he is designated rex Francorum."

3 Monast. Angl. vi. pp. 1063, 1107. Bouquet, x. p. 235. See also d'Achery, Spicileg. i. p. 460.

the monks at the grave of the Saviour in Jerusalem he gave a hundred pounds in gold, and aided and protected all pious pilgrims on their journey thither'. Seeing the end of his days drawing nigh, he called to him his brother Robert, archbishop of Rouen, and the Norman barons, at Fécamp. With their counsel, he conferred Normandy on his eldest son, Richard, and the county of Hiesmes on Robert, his second son. Both these were his children by Judith, a daughter of Conan, count of Brittany, and sister of his brother-in-law, Geoffrey, by whose pilgrimage to Jerusalem and premature death (1008), the guardianship of his sons, Alan and Eudes, devolved on Richard, who, consequently, ruled over that province as his own3. In two other sons of Richard, the old predilection of the Norman counts for the clergy manifested itself in their choice of a vocation; of these, William died a monk at Fécamp, Mauger, the other, succeeded his uncle in the archbishopric of Rouen; but of which he proved so little worthy, that his deposition became a matter of necessity. Of Richard's daughters, one, the countess of Burgundy, has been already mentioned; another was married to Baldwin, count of Flanders. Mauger, and also a second William, count of Archies, were sons by a second wife named Papia, whom Richard espoused after the death of Judith in 10174.

RICHARD III.

THE reign of the youthful Richard III. was of short duration. His Burgundian campaign had afforded ground for the most favourable hopes, and he appears to have flattered him

1 Rad. Glaber, lib. i. c. 5.

2" Consulta sapientum." W. Gemmet. lib. v. c. 17.

3 The marriage contract of Richard and Judith is preserved in Martene, Anecdot. i. p. 122, and in extract in Scr. Fr. x. p. 188. She founded a cloister at Bernay near Lisieux, concerning which there is a charter of Richard II. cited in Scr. Fr. x. p. 235. According to the Gesta Cons. Andegav. Ibid. p. 255, Judith had been already married and was a widow. 4 Access. Rob. de Monte, ap. Scr. Fr. x. p. 270. Ord. Vitalis, lib. v. 45.

self with the idea that the king of France, Robert, would give him to wife his daughter, Adele, who had previously been promised to Baldwin count of Flanders'. The refractory spirit of his brother Robert compelled the count to besiege him in his town of Falaise; but a peace was concluded between them, and shortly after Richard died of poison2. The general suspicion fell upon Robert, as the perpetrator or instigator of the misdeed, on whom, after his brother's death (Aug. 6, 1028), the government of the state devolved 3. Richard left a very young son, named Nicholas, whom we must regard as illegitimate, it being hardly credible that the chroniclers of the time would have omitted all mention of Richard's lawful marriage. After his father's death he was placed in a monastery, and died as abbot of St. Ouen at Rouen in 1092. Illegitimacy would have been no bar to his pretensions to the succession of his father; but the cause of his exclusion is, perhaps, rather to be sought for in the principle which, setting minors aside, called the next relation of mature age to the government of the state.

ROBERT II.

SURNAMED THE DEVIL.

ROBERT appears to have been sufficiently designated by the surname of "The Devil," which was bestowed on him in an age when that name was not wont to be a subject for jesting. At the outset of his government he met with considerable opposition through and on the part of his uncle, the archbishop of Rouen, who maintained himself

1 A marriage contract of January 1027 is printed in d'Achery, Spicileg. iii. p. 390. Bouquet, x. p. 270. Richard here styles himself dux ; but in a charter of 1024, in Monast. Angl. vi. p. 1108: Ricardus filius comes.

2 W. Gemmet. lib. vi. c. 2. Ademar Caban. p. 161. The year of Richard's death cannot be 1027, as his successor, Robert, in November 1032, was in the fifth year of his reign. Monast. Angl. vi. 1073.

3 W. Malm. p. 294.

against him with arms in Evreux, and, after the capture of that place, fled to the king of France. Against William of Belesme, who had fortified himself in Alençon, Robert was more successful, that noble having made his submission in the most humiliating manner, bearing a saddle on his back, and barefooted; whereupon he was re-invested with his town1. Hugh, bishop of Bayeux, a son of Raoul, count of Ivry, a stepbrother of count Richard I., also ceased from the resistance he had offered to his authority, and laid down his arms. In the meanwhile the king of France had given his daughter, Adele, in marriage to the younger Baldwin of Flanders, who, feeling elated at his fortune, drove the count his father, the uncle of Robert, from his country. The old count took refuge in Rouen, where he was kindly received by his nephew, who performed the part of his avenger both willingly and vigorously. Robert's cousin also, Alan of Brittany, rose against him, over whom Robert is said to have gained a victory in Brittany, but which is liable to great doubt, as Alan had invaded Avranches, but from which county he was expelled by Néel of St. Sauveur and Auvrai-le-Géant2.

In his relations with the king of France, Robert followed in the footsteps of his forefathers. When, on the death of king Robert (1031), his widow, Constance, strove to place her son Robert on the throne, instead of Henry, her firstborn, the latter fled to the count of the Normans at Fécamp. Robert received his liege lord hospitably and honourably, assembled his forces under his uncle Mauger, established the king in his realm, and compelled his brother to be satisfied with the dukedom of Burgundy. Count Robert received, with the concurrence of count Drogo of Mantes, in recompense for his services, the Vexin with Pontoise and Chaumont. Corbeil was granted to the valiant Mauger".

1 W. Gemmet. lib. vi. c. 4, and Rom. de Rou, vv. 7591 sq.

2 Ibid. lib. vi. c, 8. Rom. de Rou, vv. 7755 sq.

3 Ibid. lib. vi. c. 7. Ord. Vital. p. 655. Rom. de Rou, vv. 7685-7752.

Less fortunate was Robert in his relations with England, as has been already related1. But nothing in his whole career appears more striking, and, at the same time, more completely characterizes the violent religious excitement of the time, than his resolve, in the company of a few knights, among whom was the brother-in-law of the English king Æthelred, Drogo of Mantes2, to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, leaving his duchy to his illegitimate son, William, of tender age, and his counsellors, and to the protection of the king of France 3. By the clergy, who were the cause of it, Robert's determination was loudly extolled. He died, on his return from Jerusalem, at Nice in Bithynia (July 22, 1035), poisoned, according to tradition, by Raoul, surnamed Mouin1; whereby Normandy was plunged into a state of most perilous confusion.

Robert's violent.passions, the suspicion, that hung over him, of fratricide, his penitence, his romantic pilgrimage, but, more than all, his renowned son, whom a concubine at Falaise had borne him, have made him a subject for many stories, the appreciation of which we leave to the historians of the country. In those characteristics, of which we are informed, his courage, his liberality, his love of jest and merriment, his sensuality, condescension, and readiness to serve his friends; above all his somewhat ostentatious contempt of money and possessions-in all this the model of a Norman hero is presented to us. But we may no longer linger over his portraiture, and will merely add, that the best panegyric on his reign is, that the country, which at first suffered under his many wars and follies, in his latter years again stood forth in its pristine might 5. His government was much under the guidance of ecclesiastics, among whom Richard, abbot of

4 W. Malm. p. 295. Chron. Fontan. App. ii. ap. d'Achery, Spicileg. iii. p. 264, edit. 4to.

5 Ibid. c. 7.