was careful to choose good men: Lanfranc, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, in particular, was a very Lanfranc. learned and excellent man. He and others of the new bishops founded good schools in many places; he also joined with the king and the only remaining English bishop in putting an end to the slave-trade at Bristol, which had gone on for so many years. But Lanfranc was made so miserable by the cruelty and oppression which he saw around him, that he longed to leave the country, and even wrote imploring the Pope to allow him to quit such scenes of wickedness and tyranny. The French were, as we know, far superior to the English in architecture, and the new-comers began to build splendid churches and abbeys in all parts. Many of the beautiful cathedrals were begun at this period, or very soon afterwards; some of the finest were Durham, Peterborough, Rochester, and Gloucester. They still used round arches and massive pillars, which were richly decorated, and gave a stately and solemn impression. The private life of William was excellent; he was a faithful husband, and a kind and indulgent father; indeed, it seems that this man, so fierce and unbending to all others, indulged and spoilt his children. His eldest son, Richard, was killed by a stag in the New Forest. In his latter years the next son, Robert, rebelled against him ; and he was engaged in wars both with him and the king of France during the last part of his life. End of the The Etheling Edgar, who was the last man of the old English royal blood, did not have a glorious end, Etheling but at the same time it was not an unhappy one. Edgar. After the disastrous failure in Northumberland he went back to the king and queen of Scotland. They "gave him and all his men great gifts and many treasures, in skins decked with purple, and in pelisses of marten skin, and weasel skin, and ermine skin, and in golden and silver vessels; "but they advised him at last to make peace with William, which he did. The king received him well; and he also gave him large presents. William of Malmesbury says that, "remaining at court for many years, he silently sunk into contempt through his indolence, or, more mildly speaking, his simplicity." He made friends with the king's son Robert, and afterwards went with him to Jerusalem. But he finally returned to England, received a pension, and when William of Malmesbury wrote "he was growing old in the country in privacy and quiet;" a great contrast to his grandfather Edmund, and so many others of his race, who lived such short but glorious lives. The disputes of William with his son Robert and the king of France, do not belong properly to the history of England, but it was during his war with the latter that his end 1087. came. He had taken and set on fire the town of Death of William. Mantes, and was riding through it when his horse, setting his foot on the red-hot ashes, stumbled, and threw him heavily against the saddle. He never recovered from the hurt. They carried him to Rouen, where he lay dying many weeks, during which time he made what arrangements he could for the disposal of the dominions and treasures which he had spent his life in gaining. He bequeathed the Duchy of Normandy to his eldest son, Robert, and the kingdom of England to the second. The youngest son, Henry, only received a sum of money, and no land or dominion at all; but his father, who well knew the characters of his children, foretold that the day would come when Henry would have all. He tried to make some reparation for the evil he had done, by ordering large sums of money to be given to churches. and monasteries, and particularly that the church of Mantes, which had been burnt down, should be rebuilt. He also commanded many of his prisoners to be set free. After all his triumphs, the great conqueror could barely find an honorable grave or a true mourner. At the moment when he was to be laid in a tomb in a church he had built at Caen, a certain knight stood forth, "loudly exclaiming against the robbery." The very land the church was built upon had belonged to him and to his father before him, and William had taken it by force to found this new church. It was not till a sum of money had been paid to appease this injured man that the funeral was proceeded with. And at most only one of the sons he had loved followed his father to the grave. CHAPTER XVII. THE CONQUEROR'S SONS. William Rufus. His brother Robert. The king and the barons. The English 1087. William Death of WILLIAM, the Conqueror's second son, who is generally called Rufus, from his red hair and complexion, lost no time in going over to England to take possession of the kingdom and his father's treasure. This treasure Rufus. was at Winchester, and the "Chronicle" "It was not to be expressed by any man how much was there gathered in gold, and in silver, and in vessels, and in robes, and in gems, and in many other precious things." "says, He was speedily crowned by Lanfranc, as his father had desired. He seems to have been one of the worst kings England ever had; more hated and detested far His char- than his father had been. William the Conqueror acter. had something grand and kingly about him, which people looked upon with awe and reverence as well as fear. William Rufus was brutal, coarse, irreligious, and ignorant, besides being, like his father, cruel, tyrannical, and avaricious. William of Malmesbury says that in public "he had a supercilious and threatening look, and a severe and ferocious voice; in private he liked jesting and levity." He tells us too that he "blushes to relate the crimes of so great a king;" but he relates quite enough to show what his opinion really was. "He feared God but little; man not at all." He outraged the people not only by his unjust taxes and oppression, but by his contempt shown toward all they held sacred. It appears to have been his custom "to come into church with menacing and insolent gestures," and to treat the bishops and clergy with shameful injustice. The value placed on "relics" in those times has been mentioned al ready. The bones of saints and other such things were placed in receptacles in the churches, ornamented with gold, silver, and jewels, and called "shrines," and they were regarded with a reverence that we in our days can hardly understand. When William Rufus wanted money, which he nearly always did, for he was a spendthrift as well as covetous, he called the relics "dead men's bones," and made the abbots and bishops give up the gold and silver from their shrines, and even their crucifixes and sacramental cups. The "Chronicle" says, "All that was hateful to God and oppressive to men was customary in this land in his time, and therefore he was most hateful to almost all his people, and odious to God." Moreover, he was perpetually quarreling with his brothers. As long as Archbishop Lanfranc lived he was kept in some kind of check, and the people were inclined to take his part. Almost as soon as the Conqueror was dead, the fierce lords, whom even he could hardly hold in check, began to rebel again. Robert. Robert, the eldest son, who was Duke of Normandy, would have liked to be king of England too. For these Frenchmen found England a very pleasant His brother place. It is very well, as Fuller remarks, to say that France is so much better than England, and when we have ale they have wine, and when we have oats they have wheat; in short, that France is a garden and England only a field. "But let such know," says patriotic Fuller, "that England in itself is an excellent country, too good for the unthankful people which live therein; and such foreigners who seemingly slight secretly love, and like the plenty thereof." Many of the great Norman lords took part with Robert; partly because he was of a much pleasanter disposition than William; partly also because they now had lands both in England and France, and if they did not like one master, far less would they like two. So they wished one man to be both king of England and Duke of Normandy, and that man to be Robert. William for his part would have had no objection to be Duke of Normandy, but he had no notion of giving up England. These disputes between the king and the barons turned out in the end very well for the English, because, as the barons were against him, the king had to throw himself upon the people and endeavor to win their confidence. In after times, when the kings grew strong, the barons had do the same; so the people rose in importance and were better treated. William's But William was faithless; he made excellent promises to the people again and again, but never kept them, promises. any more than he kept his coronation oath. Now being in this trouble with his brother Robert, he called the English together and begged them to help him. He promised, if they would aid him in his need, he would give them better laws of their own choosing; he would impose no more unjust taxes, and he would not enforce the laws of the chase with such cruelty. So the English agreed to stand by him, and fight for him. But William did not keep his word, and when Lanfranc died he went from bad to worse. After a few years he fell ill, and then, thinking he was going to die, he began to repent and made new promises. But as soon as he got well he behaved worse than ever. He did one good thing, for which it appears he was heartily sorry afterwards; that was, that he appointed a very good old man to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Lanfranc had been dead some years, yet the king had never filled his place, in order that he might keep the great income which belonged to the see for himself. The new Anselm. archbishop, whose name was Anselm, was very unwilling indeed to be settled in England near such a king as he knew William to be. He said, "the Church of England was a plough which ought to be drawn by two oxen of equal strength; would they then yoke him to it, an old feeble sheep, with a wild bull?" The king and the archbishop very soon fell out, as might have been expected. We must pass over the great dispute that went on through several reigns between the king and the church, and for the present only observe that William's violence was such that Anselm left the country. But before he went away he fell into a difficulty of another kind. He complained that the noblemen and gentlemen had begun to wear long, curling hair. The French had perhaps for once condescended to learn this fashion from the English, since they had admired Edgar the Etheling and the other young Englishmen with their flowing locks when William the Conqueror took them over to France. Nor |