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21 - Normans in Europe by Arthur Henry Johnson · Normans in Europe

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty one of the Normans in Europe by Arthur
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  Speaker 1: Henry Johnson. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Pamelinagami, Chapter fourteen, End of Reign of William
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  Speaker 1: the first ten seventy three to ten eighty seven. We
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  Speaker 1: must now return to the year ten seventy one, the
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  Speaker 1: date of the final conquest of the country. William was
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  Speaker 1: not fated to enjoy a lengthy peace, and no sooner
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  Speaker 1: were the Anglo Saxon revolts crushed than troubles arose from
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  Speaker 1: different quarters. The conquest of Maine had been accomplished just
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  Speaker 1: before William's invasion of England, but his rule was most
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  Speaker 1: distasteful to the people of that province, and they now
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  Speaker 1: took the opportunity of his absence to abandon their allegiance.
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  Speaker 1: They first appealed to one of the daughters of their
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  Speaker 1: last count, Herbert, who came north with her husband Otso,
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  Speaker 1: Marquis of Este, and occupied the country. This, however, did
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  Speaker 1: not satisfy the townsmen of Limmeau, the capital. They had
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  Speaker 1: long suffered from the arbitrary rule of their petty feudal lords,
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  Speaker 1: and were anxious to establish their liberties on some more
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  Speaker 1: secure basis. Accordingly, they formed themselves into a municipality or commune,
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  Speaker 1: bound themselves to maintain their new born freedom, and again
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  Speaker 1: fell back upon their old overlord, the Count of Anjou,
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  Speaker 1: who thus once more ruled in Maine. The news at
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  Speaker 1: once brought William across the channel. Fulk was tardy in
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  Speaker 1: his assistance, and the rebels, to escape the wasting of
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  Speaker 1: their lands, surrendered the town and acknowledged Robert, William's eldest
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  Speaker 1: son as their count. Still, William dared not crush out
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of municipal freedom. He promised to observe their privileges,
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  Speaker 1: and Limmud, losing her independence, retained her civic rights to
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  Speaker 1: become one of the earliest privileged communes of northern France.
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  Speaker 1: At the Treaty of Blanchelande, which followed between Fulk and William,
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  Speaker 1: Robert consented to hold the county as a fief of Anjou.
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  Speaker 1: From this petty quarrel on the continent, William was recalled
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  Speaker 1: by an outbreak of his feudal barons at home in
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  Speaker 1: ten seventy five. Their rebellion opens a new phase of
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  Speaker 1: English history. It was the first of those attempts on
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  Speaker 1: the part of the feudal nobles to throw off the
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  Speaker 1: stern rule of their new found kings, which troubled England
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  Speaker 1: till the reign of Henry the Second. The actual companions
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  Speaker 1: of William and his invasion had submitted to him, but
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  Speaker 1: they were now fast dying out, and it is their
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  Speaker 1: sons who now rebel against the stern rule of the conqueror.
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  Speaker 1: The earldom of Hereford was now in the hands of
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  Speaker 1: Roger de Bretoy, the son of William's trusted adviser and justiciary,
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  Speaker 1: William fitz Osborne. That of Norfolk was in the hands
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  Speaker 1: of Ralph Guader. These two earls, in common with many
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  Speaker 1: of the Norman nobles, had long chafed under the strict
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  Speaker 1: rule of William and longed to establish their feudal independence
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  Speaker 1: in England. William, moreover, had forbidden a marriage between Ralph
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  Speaker 1: and Roger's sister, probably because he feared the result of
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  Speaker 1: such an alliance. This filled up the measure of their discontent.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of William's refusal, they solemnized the marriage at
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  Speaker 1: the bridal feast. They entered into a conspiracy and gained
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  Speaker 1: the assistance of Walthioff, Earl of Northampton, the only remaining
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  Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon earl, who had been treated kindly by William
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  Speaker 1: and given the King's niece Judith in marriage. Their intentions
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  Speaker 1: are clearly seen from the agreement made between them. England
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  Speaker 1: was to be restored to the condition it was in
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  Speaker 1: during King Edward's reign. One of the three conspirators should
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  Speaker 1: be king, the other two earls, who of course would
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  Speaker 1: enjoy practical independence. The attempt, however, entirely failed. The Anglo
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  Speaker 1: Saxons knew their interests too well to join the rebellion,
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  Speaker 1: and it was speedily suppressed. Ralph fled to Brittany, and
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  Speaker 1: Roger was taken prisoner to end his days in captivity.
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  Speaker 1: The fate of waltheof was more tragic. It does not
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  Speaker 1: appear that he gave more than a tacit acquiescence to
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  Speaker 1: the conspiracy. Indeed, when the rebellion broke out, he betrayed
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  Speaker 1: the plot de Lanfranc and was for the moment pardoned.
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  Speaker 1: But soon after the accusation was again revived and he
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  Speaker 1: was put to death, some said at the instigation of
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  Speaker 1: his unnatural wife. This the only political execution of William's
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  Speaker 1: reign has been bitterly laid to his account. It was cruel,
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  Speaker 1: it was perhaps hardly just, but no doubt William was
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  Speaker 1: prompted to the act by political motives. It was an
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  Speaker 1: act of policy to destroy the last chief of the
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  Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon race, the last leader to whom they could look.
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  Speaker 1: But waltheof was looked upon as a national saint by
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  Speaker 1: the conquered people, and the later troubles of William's reign
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  Speaker 1: were by them considered as the vengeance of God upon
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  Speaker 1: the king's tyranny. For here the prosperity of William's reign ceased.
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  Speaker 1: Hitherto he had been successful in all his wars and
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  Speaker 1: in every scheme he undertook. From this date, failures began
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  Speaker 1: to thicken around him, while his character darkened. As life
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  Speaker 1: drew to a close, his temper waxed harsher, his yoke
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  Speaker 1: lay heavier on his subjects, his craving for money grew,
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  Speaker 1: and England suffered greatly. Next year followed the revolt of
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  Speaker 1: his son Robert, which again assumed the character of a
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  Speaker 1: rebellion of the feudal nobles ten seventy seven to ten
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  Speaker 1: eighty before invading England, William had promised to resign Normandy
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  Speaker 1: to his eldest son in the event of his success.
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  Speaker 1: This he probably did to allay the jealousy of Philip
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  Speaker 1: of France, but it was only a nominal promise, and
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  Speaker 1: when Robert claimed its fulfillment, William curtly answered that he
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  Speaker 1: did not intend to throw off his clothes till he
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  Speaker 1: went to bed. On this, Robert rose in arms, and
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  Speaker 1: was aided by Philip of France and many of the
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  Speaker 1: young nobility, who seized the opportunity once more to establish
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  Speaker 1: their independence. Robert of Belem, son of Roger Montgomery of Shrewsbury,
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  Speaker 1: and William of Bretoy, son of William Fitzosborne and brother
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  Speaker 1: of the old conspirator Roger, were two most important men,
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  Speaker 1: both sons of William's most trusted advisers. In the action
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  Speaker 1: which ensued at Giersbernois, William, unhorsed and wounded by his son,
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  Speaker 1: was forced to seek a reconciliation, to which Robert, who
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  Speaker 1: was struck with horror at his own deed, consented. William's
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  Speaker 1: half brother Odo next disturbed the realm in ten eighty two.
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  Speaker 1: To this man, Bishop of Bayeux had been given the
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  Speaker 1: county Palatine of Kent, but even this did not satisfy
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  Speaker 1: his ambitious spirit. He aimed at becoming pope and prepared
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  Speaker 1: an army in England to enforce his claim. His turbulent
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  Speaker 1: and cruel conduct had long caused trouble to William, and
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  Speaker 1: now he was arrested. This arrest might have been considered
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  Speaker 1: an encroachment on the privileges of ecclesiastics, who claimed to
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  Speaker 1: be tried in their own courts granted them by William himself.
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  Speaker 1: William therefore declared him arrested not as bishop but as earl,
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  Speaker 1: and did not release him till he himself was on
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  Speaker 1: his death bed. In ten eighty five, William was threatened
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  Speaker 1: by danger from another quarter. The kings of Norway and
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  Speaker 1: Denmark had looked with jealousy upon the success of the Norman.
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  Speaker 1: William Olaf of Norway might still have remembered the compact
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  Speaker 1: between Tostig and Harold Hardrada, while Canute, who then ruled
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  Speaker 1: in Denmark, though allied by marriage with William through his wife,
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  Speaker 1: the daughter of Robert le Frison, Count of Flanders, had
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  Speaker 1: already made settlements in England. Canute, now prepared for a
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  Speaker 1: last attempt, and gaining the aid of Oloff and the
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  Speaker 1: Count of Flanders, threatened William with a formidable coalition. William,
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  Speaker 1: to meet the danger, hastily levied foreign mercenaries, and to
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  Speaker 1: secure the fidelity of his subjects, exacted the famous oath
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  Speaker 1: of homage from all his subjects at the Council of Serum. Fortunately, however,
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  Speaker 1: the expedition was checked by contrary winds. Olaff was bribed
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  Speaker 1: by William, and in the following year Canute fell a
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  Speaker 1: victim to a rebellion of his own subjects, caused by
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  Speaker 1: discontent at his hasty innovations. From this time the Danes
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  Speaker 1: lost the command of the sea. The reforms inaugurated by
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  Speaker 1: Canute brought their institutions into conformity with the rest of Europe,
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  Speaker 1: and Denmark troubled her no more. The Danish invasion probably
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  Speaker 1: hastened the completion of the Doomsday Survey, one of the
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  Speaker 1: most important acts of William's reign. This great work completes
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  Speaker 1: the organization of William. One. It was intended to serve
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  Speaker 1: as the basis of taxation, two as the authority by
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  Speaker 1: which all disputes concerning land might be settled three as
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  Speaker 1: a muster roll of the nation. As a census, it
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  Speaker 1: is not exhaustive. The three northern counties and parts of Westmoreland,
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  Speaker 1: Lancashire and Monmouthshire, probably on account of their disturbed state,
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  Speaker 1: are not mentioned, nor are London and Winchester, and a
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  Speaker 1: few other towns, probably because of charters of immunity previously granted.
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  Speaker 1: But as far as it goes, it is very exact
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  Speaker 1: and correct. From its pages the conqueror could at a
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  Speaker 1: glance discover the state of his revenues, the wealth the
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  Speaker 1: consequence of every personage in his kingdom. No nation in
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  Speaker 1: Europe possesses such a monument of its early state, nor
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  Speaker 1: can later times point to me many achievements like it.
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  Speaker 1: The means by which the information was to be collected
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  Speaker 1: were these commissioners went forth into every shire, and there,
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  Speaker 1: calling the sheriffs, the parish priests, the reeves of the townships,
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  Speaker 1: and men of each manner before them, required them on
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  Speaker 1: their oath to answer these questions, what is the name
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  Speaker 1: of your township? Who was lord thereof bishop or abbot
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  Speaker 1: in the days of good King Edward? How many thanes,
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  Speaker 1: how many freemen, how many villains are there, how many acres?
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  Speaker 1: And what their value in King Edward's time? What their value? Now?
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  Speaker 1: What has each freeman? How many oxen, how many cows,
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  Speaker 1: how many sheep, how many swine? The information thus collected
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  Speaker 1: was then put into a shape and called the Domesday Book.
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  Speaker 1: And with such activity was the work carried on that
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  Speaker 1: it was completed within a year. Loud were the complaints
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  Speaker 1: throughout the land, and in some places riots ensued. The
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  Speaker 1: people considered it an arbitrary invasion of their rights. It
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  Speaker 1: is a shame, they said, that the King should pry
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  Speaker 1: into each man's means, a shame even to tell of
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  Speaker 1: such tyranny, though the King thought no shame in it.
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  Speaker 1: Such is always the cry of the opponents of order
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  Speaker 1: and the independence of the English, resented, as they have
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  Speaker 1: ever done, the interference of government. But their complaints were
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  Speaker 1: ill founded. It was no tyranny, but the work of
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  Speaker 1: a great organization, the essential preliminary and accompaniment of strong government.
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  Speaker 1: On its completion, a great assembly was held in Salisbury
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  Speaker 1: Plain when the ordinance before mentioned was passed, ordering each
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  Speaker 1: freeman to take an oath of allegiance directly to the
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  Speaker 1: King himself in the following year ten eighty seven, a
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  Speaker 1: quarrel broke out with Philip for the possession of the Vexin.
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  Speaker 1: This had been granted by Henry the First to William's
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  Speaker 1: father in return for the aid given by the Norman
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  Speaker 1: dukes to Henry when fighting for his crown, but Philip
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  Speaker 1: now invaded it. William, irritated by a coarse jest of
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  Speaker 1: the French king, ravaged the country and burnt the town
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  Speaker 1: of Mont. As he proudly rode over the ruins of
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  Speaker 1: the town, his horse stumbled on some hot ashes, and
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  Speaker 1: the rider, thrown violently on the pommels, sustained a fatal injury.
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  Speaker 1: Carried to rule, he lingered long enough to declare his wishes.
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  Speaker 1: Robert was given Normandy and the lands which William had
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  Speaker 1: gained by inheritance. William Rufus, his second son, he named
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  Speaker 1: as successor to those lands which he had gained himself,
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  Speaker 1: while to Henry, his third son, he left a present
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  Speaker 1: of five thousand pounds of silver, with the prophetic promise
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  Speaker 1: that he, becoming greater than either of his brothers, would
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  Speaker 1: one day possess far greater and ampler power. Then, turning
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  Speaker 1: to his confessor, he deplored the evils of his past
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  Speaker 1: life no tongue can tells, said he, the deeds of
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  Speaker 1: wickedness I have perpetrated in my weary pilgrimage of toil
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  Speaker 1: and care. He deplored his birth, born to warfare, polluted
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  Speaker 1: with bloodshed from his earliest years, his trials, the base
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  Speaker 1: ingratitude he had met with. He also extolled his own virtues,
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  Speaker 1: praised his conscientious appointments in the church and his alms,
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  Speaker 1: and then freeing all the state captives, with the prophecy
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  Speaker 1: of the ills that odo by his ambition, would bring
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  Speaker 1: upon his country, passed away at the hour of prime.
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  Speaker 1: Thus the great Conqueror was at last at rest. The
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  Speaker 1: scene of his death was a sad satire on the
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  Speaker 1: power of man. His son's, eager only to gain their
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  Speaker 1: appointed shares, departed before their father's eyes were closed. Rufus
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  Speaker 1: to England, Robert to Normandy, Henry to seize the treasure
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  Speaker 1: and the corpse of the strong man, who, but a
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  Speaker 1: few minutes before struck fear into all who angered him,
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  Speaker 1: was now shamefully dis spoiled and stripped, and hurried almost
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  Speaker 1: without decent burial, into its unkingly grave. The owner of
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  Speaker 1: the soil, demanding his price before he allowed the body
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  Speaker 1: to be buried. A great man thus passed away, a
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  Speaker 1: man who did great things for England. In William, the
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  Speaker 1: Norman character found its greatest representative. To the consummate powers
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  Speaker 1: of a general, he added the subtle skill of a
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  Speaker 1: diplomatist and the foresight of a statesman. Born at Bastard
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  Speaker 1: and left fatherless at an early age, he triumphed over
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  Speaker 1: all his foes in Normandy and strongly organized as Dukedom. Then,
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  Speaker 1: passing from Normandy to England, he changed the name of
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  Speaker 1: Bastard for that of Conqueror, and in welding the Saxon
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  Speaker 1: and Norman institutions together, he illustrated the Norman talent for adaptation.
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  Speaker 1: By his wise and thoughtful policy, he reorganized our whole
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  Speaker 1: political life, saved England from the ills which were eating
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  Speaker 1: at its corps, gave it unity and strength, and first
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  Speaker 1: made it a great power in Europe. Yet these great
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  Speaker 1: qualities of his were stained by great blemishes. William was
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  Speaker 1: an irresponsible despot, and his people found him so. To
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  Speaker 1: the Anglo Saxons, although he continued the old national and
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  Speaker 1: constitutional forms and left to the people the enjoyment of
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  Speaker 1: their own law. He was stark and stern. The form
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  Speaker 1: of their government remained, but the spirit was changed. And
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  Speaker 1: many are the complaints on account of the fiscal and
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  Speaker 1: other oppressions. His rule was that of a wise and wary,
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  Speaker 1: a strong and resolute, an arbitrary, though not a wanton despot.
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  Speaker 1: He marked out his goal, and no scruples of conscience
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  Speaker 1: or mercy stadium from attaining it. There was nothing which
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  Speaker 1: he would not do to gain his end, and much
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  Speaker 1: was the suffering he thereby brought on both Anglo Saxon
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  Speaker 1: and Norman. He was a man born to be feared,
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  Speaker 1: not to be loved. And when life had departed and
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  Speaker 1: the great Conqueror's hand lay cold, the indignities which mean
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  Speaker 1: wretches heaped upon the lifeless corpse bore witness to the
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  Speaker 1: fact that fear, once gone, hatred arose and drove out
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  Speaker 1: even the sentiment of respect. End of Section twenty one