NOTE XX. Vol. ii. p. 412.
The Treaty of 1101.
I do not know that there is any necessary contradiction between the detailed narrative of Orderic (788), who alone speaks of the personal interview between the brothers, and the shorter accounts of the other writers, who have more to say about the action of the wise men on each side. Nothing is more likely than that the terms of the treaty should be discussed by commissioners on both sides, and then finally agreed on in a personal meeting of the two princes. The only point of difficulty is that Orderic seems to imply that nobody on either side could be trusted, except the princes themselves. He begins with Henry’s message to ask why Robert had entered his kingdom (“cur Angliæ fines cum armato exercitu intrare præsumpserit”). Robert’s answer reminds one of the answer of Edward son of Henry the Sixth to Edward the Fourth (Hall, 301; Lingard, iv. 189). His words are; “Regnum patris mei cum proceribus meis ingressus sum, et illud reposco debitum mihi jure primogenitorum.”
The armies are now face to face, and the negotiations begin. In the Chronicle the reconcilation clearly seems to be the work of the head men; “Ac þa heafod men heom betwenan foran and þa broðra gesehtodan.” So Florence; “Sapientiores utriusque partis, habito inter se salubri consilio, pacem inter fratres composuere.” William of Malmesbury (v. 395) adds a special reason for peace; “Satagentibus sanioris consilii hominibus, qui dicerent pietatis jus violandum si fraterna necessitudo prælio concurreret, paci animos accommodavere; reputantes quod, si alter occumberet, alter infirmior remaneret, cum nullus fratrum præter ipsos superesset.” There is here nothing to throw any doubt on the good faith of anybody, and no negotiators are mentioned by name. It is Wace (15508 Pluquet, 10423 Andresen) who mentions negotiators on Robert’s side whom we certainly should not have looked for;
It is Orderic alone who implies that Henry asked for a personal interview, and gives his reason;
“Seditiosi proditores magis bellum quam pacem optabant. Et quia plus privatæ quam publicæ commoditati insistebant, versipelles veredarii verba pervertebant, et magis jurgia quam concordiam inter fratres serebant. Porro sagax Henricus istud advertit, unde fratris colloquium ore ad os petiit; et convenientes fraterni amoris dulcedo ambos implevit.”
He then goes on to describe the meeting of the brothers;
“Soli duo germani spectantis in medio populi collocuti sunt, et ore quod corde ruminabant sine dolo protulerunt. Denique post pauca verba mutuo amplexati sunt, datisque dulcibus basiis, sine sequestro concordes effecti sunt. Verba quidem hujus colloquii nequeo hic inserere, quia non interfui, sed opus, quod de tantorum consilio fratrum processit, auditu didici.”
He then gives the terms of the treaty, and adds;
“Remotis omnibus arbitris soli fratres scita sua sanxerunt, et, cunctis in circumitu eos cum admiratione spectantibus, decreverunt quod sese, ut decet fratres, invicem adjuvarent, et omnia patris sui dominia resumerent, scelestosque litium satores pariter utrinque punirent.”
The colouring of Orderic in these passages can hardly be reconciled with the other accounts. They clearly speak of the terms as agreed upon between the chief men of both sides, while Orderic implies that, on account of their untrustworthiness, the princes met and settled matters for themselves. But it is possible to accept Orderic’s fact without accepting his colouring. Or we may suppose that there were among the negotiators some who wished to hinder peace, but that those who laboured for it got the better in the end. Then, we may suppose, they agreed upon terms, and the King and the Duke met to ratify the treaty. As for the terms of the treaty, they are, as usual, given in the best and most formal way in the Chronicle. The brothers agree,
“On þa gerád þet se cyng forlet eall þæt he mid streangðe innan Normandig togeanes þam eorle heold, and þæt ealle þa on Englelande heora land ongean heafdon, þe hit ær þurh þone eorl forluron, and Eustaties eorl eac eall his fæderland her on lande, and þet se eorl Rotbert ælce geare sceolde of Englalande þreo þusend marc seolfres habban, and loc hweðer þæra gebroðra oðerne oferbide wære yrfeweard ealles Englalandes and eac Normandiges, buton se forðfarena yrfenuman heafde be rihtre æwe.”
Florence says nothing about the mutual succession of the two brothers, nor does he mention Eustace by name. He also leaves out the cession of Henry’s Norman dominions;
“Pacem inter fratres ea ratione composuere ut iii. mille marcas, id est MM. libras argenti, singulis annis rex persolveret comiti, et omnibus suos pristinos honores quos in Anglia pro comitis fidelitate perdiderant, restitueret gratuito, et cunctis quibus honores in Normannia causa regis fuerant ablati, comes redderet absque pretio.”
Nothing in the treaty seems to have struck William of Malmesbury, except the yearly payment of three thousand marks by the King to the Duke. And even that he brings in quite incidentally, as if to account for its being very shortly given up;
“Sed et trium millium marcarum promissio lenem comitis fallebat credulitatem, ut, procinctu soluto, de tanta pecunia menti blandiretur suæ, quam ille posteriori statim anno voluntati reginæ libens, quod illa peteret, condonavit.”
One is reminded of the story which William elsewhere (iii. 251) tells, without any date, of Robert’s friend Eadgar; “Quantula simplicitas ut libram argenti, quam quotidie in stipendio accipiebat, regi pro uno equo perdonaret.” No doubt in both cases the horse and the gift to the Queen were mere decent pretences for stopping the payment; but the gift to Matilda is quite of a piece with Robert’s conduct to her at Winchester (see p. 406). The Chronicler two years later (1103) records Robert’s surrender of his pension;
“Ðises geares eac com se eorl Rotbert of Normandig to sprecene wið þone cyng [the common Domesday form in English] her on lande, and ær he heonne ferde he forgeaf þa þreo þusend marc þe him seo cyng Heanrig be foreweard ælce geare gifan sceolde.”
Here we have no mention of Matilda, unless she anyhow lurks in the feminine article so oddly assigned to her husband.
Orderic helps us to the more distinct resignation by Robert of his claims on the English crown, which is however implied in all the other accounts—to the release of Henry from his homage to Robert—and to the stipulation about Domfront, which was naturally more interesting to him than it was to those who wrote in England. He does not mention the mutual heirship of the brothers. He also confounds marks and pounds;
“In primis Rodbertus dux calumniam quam in regno Angliæ ingesserat fratri dimisit, ipsumque de homagio, quod sibi jamdudum fecerat, pro regali dignitate absolvit. Henricus autem rex tria milia librarum sterilensium sese duci redditurum per singulos annos spopondit, totumque Constantinum pagum et quidquid in Neustria possidebat, præter Danfrontem, reliquit. Solum Danfrontem castrum sibi retinuit, quia Danfrontanis, quando illum intromiserunt, jurejurando pepigerat quod nunquam eos de manu sua projiceret, nec leges eorum vel consuetudines mutaret.”
I am glad to end with the mention of one of the noblest spots of which I have had to speak in my story, and with one of the most honourable features in the history of King Henry.