to the English he was indeed a conqueror, and a very hard conqueror as well. William keeps a strong rule over the Barons. The English might think their new position a bad one, and so indeed it was, but it might have been worse; we shall see that it became so when the strong hand of William and his sons was removed. The fact was that William ruled sternly, but he ruled all alike. He had been himself a feudal vassal before he became a feudal king. As Duke of Normandy he had been so strong in his own dominions that he could disobey his superior, the King of France, altogether. He was not willing to let his barons be as troublesome to him in England as he himself had been to the King of France. So he did three very wise things. First: He had to give his barons much land, but he gave them it in scattered estates, not all together. Thus, if a baron wished to rebel against the king, he could not collect his forces in one place; and he had always jealous neighbours round him, who would keep a watch on what he did. Secondly: William assembled all his tenants at Salisbury, and made them swear that they would obey Oath at the king first and their lords after; thus, if Salisbury. some lord wished to lead an army of his followers against the king, they would reply that their first duty was to obey the king. And thirdly: William caused a great inquiry to be made, in which was set down all the land of England and who owned it, and what it was worth, Domesday. so that he might know exactly what was due to him, and so that no one should be able to dispute over it. This inquiry was called the Domesday Survey, and it was so thorough, that it even tells us how many villeins, and oxen, and sheep, and pigs, and mills, and fish-ponds there were on every estate in England. Many people thought it was unworthy of a king to inquire into things like these. One writer says "it is shame to be telling of, but he did not think it shame to be doing it". William, however, did not feel any shame in finding out all about his kingdom, in order to rule it well. Yet with all the care he took William could not escape trouble. The English rebelled against him, and his Norman barons rebelled against William's him, and even his eldest son allied himself Troubles. with the King of France against him. So William spent much of his time in fighting, which was after all what he loved best. For kings and barons in those days thought that the chief business of life was fighting. They despised those who stayed peaceably at home. At last, as William was watching his men burn the French town of Mantes, the horse on which he was riding was frightened by a blazing beam which fell near it, and reared. The king was thrown so hard against the pommel of his saddle that he suffered injuries of which he died a few days after. William II., who is called Rufus-the Red-from his appearance, was a stern, hard man like his father, but far less just. He made his chancellor, Ranulf Flambard, take much money from his people, who got to hate him and his chancellor; and William II., indeed the next king put Ranulf Flambard 1087-1099. to death. William Rufus quarrelled also with the Church. It happened that he fell ill, and as he thought he was dying, he wished to try to atone for his sins; so he appointed Anselm to the Archbishopric Quarrel with of Canterbury, a see which he had been Anselm. keeping vacant in order to get its revenues for him (M 595) self. Anselm was a good, gentle monk, and to those who brought the news of his appointment he said, "Will you couple me, a poor weak old sheep, to that fierce young bull the King of England?" Yet when he was once made archbishop, he soon showed that he would not submit to the king when the king was acting wrongly. He refused to pay the king for giving him the archbishopric, and rebuked him for his ill-deeds so sharply, that at last the king grew furious, and would have murdered him had he dared. So, having provoked his subjects and his barons and the Church by his severity and greediness after money, he was not regretted when he was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest. Henry I., who followed Rufus, was also a strong king, and not a merciful one. He kept his elder Henry I., brother, Duke Robert of Normandy, in 1099-1135. prison till he died. Once when he thought the men who coined his money were cheating him, he ordered the right hand of every one of them to be cut off. His barons rebelled against him, but he always overcame them. He kept such strict order in England that he was called the Lion of Justice. This alone would have made his English subjects like him, but they were still more pleased when he married Matilda of Scotland, who was descended from the old kings of Wessex. The Norman barons laughed at the king, who, they thought, was lowering himself by marrying a Saxon, one of the race they despised. They nicknamed the royal pair "Farmer Godric and his cummer Godgifu”. But when a Norman king could marry a Saxon wife, it was clear that the two races would not remain separated much longer. VI. THE WORST EVILS OF FEUDALISM, AND THE RESTORATION OF ORDER. the King to be strong. In the last chapter we have seen England conquered, we might even say enslaved. It seems strange that after the first few years the People want English made no effort to get free. It was the Norman barons who made the rebellions. "But", we are tempted to ask ourselves, "if the people hated a king as they hated William Rufus, why did not they combine with the barons to drive him out?" It would have been easy, of course; why was it not done? The answer is, that Englishmen feared the Norman barons much more than they disliked the king. And they were right. Rufus might be bad, but a rule of the barons would be far worse. Maud. Henry I.'s son had been drowned as he was trying to save his sister from off the wreck of the White Ship, which a drunken steersman had run on the Casquets. The king wished to secure the throne for his daughter Maud, and during his lifetime had made his barons swear to be faithful to her. But Maud had married Geoffrey of Anjou, who was hated as a foreigner. And, besides, no one then ever thought a woman to be a fit person to rule the kingdom. Thus, when Henry died the barons made Stephen king. Stephen was a grandson of William the Conqueror, so he had some claim. He was also, the chronicler tells us, "a mild man", so that it Stephen, 1135-1154; might be hoped that he would make his Character. a good king. But the throne was no place for a mild man at this time. What was wanted was a strong man who could keep order. |