860. Will. Pict. 87. “Deferre haudquaquam volebant dominum sub quo licenter quæstum latrociniis contraherint: quali caussâ fuerant seducti inhabitantes Alentium.” He then goes on with one of his panegyrics on William’s stern justice.
861. Ib. 86. “Inhabitatores ad se pronos reppererat.”
862. Ib. 87. “Ubi approximabatur Danfronto, cum equitibus divertit quinquaginta, acceptum quæ stippendium augerent.” But this curious euphemism for what one would have thought in those days hardly needed apology is explained in the next sentence, “Prædæ autem index castellanis prodidit ipsum quidam ex Normannis majoribus, intimans quò aut cur ierit, et quàm paucis comitatus, atque hunc esse qui mortem fugæ præferret.”
863. Will. Pict. 87. “Captum suis unum manibus retinuit.”
864. Compare, on the chances of treason near William’s person, those remarkable expressions of William of Jumièges (vii. 4) which have been already quoted in p. 200.
865. Will. Pict. 87. “Celerem irruptionem situs oppidi denegabat omni robori sive peritiæ; quum scopulorum asperitas pedites etiam deturbaret, præter qui angustis itineribus duobus atque arduis accederent.” There is here something of the Norman trust in cavalry; there is a feeling as if a place where horsemen were of no use had some unfairness about it.
866. Ib. “Castella circumponit quatuor.”
867. Will. Pict. 87. “Aliquando perdius et pernox equitans, vel in abditis occultus explorat, si qui offendantur aut commeatum advectantes, aut in legatione directi, aut pabulatoribus suis insidiantes.”
868. Ib. “Est regio illa silvis abundans ferarum feracissimis. Sæpe falconum, sæpissimè accipitrum volatu oblectatur.” The distinction between the use of falcons and that of hawks—did William stoop to the sparrow-hawk?—is worth the notice of those who are versed in the minuter technicalities of animal torture.
869. Ib. “Non loci difficultas, aut sævitia hiemis,” &c.
870. See above, pp, 185, 196.
872. Will. Pict. 88. “Præsignat qualem in prœlio equum sit habiturus, quale scutum, qualem vestitum.” The device on the shield was therefore still left to the fancy of the wearer. Had the Counts of Anjou already possessed hereditary armorial bearings, the Normans could hardly have needed to be told what kind of shield Geoffrey would carry.
873. Ib. “Illi contra opus non esse respondent instituto eum itinere longiùs fatigari. Nam continuò propter quem vadit adfore. Equum vicissim domini sui præsignant, vestitum, et arma.” Here, it may be remarked, is no special mention of the shield; it comes under the general head of “arma.”
It is almost profanation to compare warfare of this sort with the patriot struggle at Maldon, yet there is in all this something analogous to Brihtnoth’s over-chivalry in allowing the Northmen to cross the river. See vol. i. p. 300. But Brihtnoth may after all have had a reason for his conduct. Cf. Herod. v. 118.
874. The reason given by William of Poitiers (u. s.) for the Duke’s special zeal is one of the most amazing things that I ever came across. “Omnium acerrimus ipse Dux inurget accelerantes. Tyrannum fortasse absumi desiderabat adolescens piissimus; quod ex omnibus præclaris factis pulcerrimum judicavit Senatus Latinus et Atheniensis.” The instances of Tyrannicide collected by Jean Petit (see Hist. Fed. Gov. i. 383) are strange enough, but the idea of William gaining the honours of a Timoleôn by slaying Geoffrey in battle beats them all.
875. Will. Pict. u. s. “Subitaneo tenore consternatus Gaufredus, adversâ acie necdum conspectâ, profugio salutem suam cum agmine toto committit.” Wace (9601) makes him make a little show of preparation for battle, but he presently yields to the wiser advice of a knight who counsels flight. Wace (9527–9628) puts this whole story later, after the taking of Alençon. He adds a third to the two messengers in William of Poitiers, namely William Fitz-Thierry (9539).
876. Will. Pict. 88. “Novit esse prudentium victoriæ temperare, atque non satis potentem esse qui semet in potestate ulsciscendi continere non possit.” William of Jumièges (vii. 18) adds another reason; “Ecce adsunt exploratores, Alencium castrum absque suorum detrimento eum capere posse nuntiantes.” This is his first mention of Alençon.
877. Roman de Rou, 9436 et seqq.
878. Will. Gem. u. s. “Totâ nocte equitans diluculo Alencium venit.”
879. William of Jumièges (u. s.) merely says, “In quodam municipio trans flumen posito.” Wace is much fuller (9440 et seqq.);
He then goes on to describe the bridge and its defences.
880. Will. Gem. vii. 18. “Pelles enim et renones ad injuriam Ducis verberaverant, ipsumque pelliciarium despectivè vocitaverant, eò quod parentes matris ejus pelliciarii exstiterant.” So Wace, 9458;
Wace seems to wish to evade the Duke’s actual kindred with the professors of the unsavoury craft.
881. Annales Angliæ et Scotiæ, ap. Riley, Rishanger, p. 373. The words were,
Cf. Peter Langtoft, ii. 272. Hearne. Compare William’s indignation at the insults offered to him at Exeter (Will. Malms. iii. 248), though he seems to have been in a much less savage mood there than that at Alençon. Compare also the indignation of James the Second, at the indignities offered to him by the fishermen (Macaulay, i. 569), and that of William the Third at Sir John Fenwick’s impertinence to the Queen (Ib. iv. 34).
882. Roman de Rou, 9466;
883. This very expressive formula comes from Wace, 9468;
884. Roman de Rou, 9477.
885. Will. Gem. vii. 18. “Illusores verò, coram omnibus infra Alencium consistentibus, manibus privari jussit et pedibus. Nec mora, sicut jusserat, triginta duo debilitati sunt.” So Roman de Rou, 9489 et seqq. William of Poitiers is silent altogether both as to the vengeance and as to the insult. Neither subject was perhaps altogether agreeable to a professed panegyrist. But William cuts the whole story of Alençon very short.
886. Roman de Rou, 9493;
887. Will. Gem. vii. 18. “Custodes autem castelli tam severam austeritatem Ducis cognoscentes timuerunt, et ne similia paterentur, ilicò portas aperuerunt, Ducique castellum reddiderunt, malentes illud reddere quàm cum suorum periculo membrorum tam gravia tormenta tolerare.” Wace (9500) makes the terms
So William of Malmesbury (iii. 231); “Alentini se dedidere, pacti membrorum salutem.” But he had not mentioned the mutilation.
888. Will. Pict. 89. “Oppidum enim naturâ, opere, atque armaturâ munitissimum adeò currente proventu in ejus manum venit ut gloriari his verbis liceret, Veni, Vidi, Vici.”
889. Will. Pict. 89. “Percutit citissimè hic rumor Danfrontinos. Diffidentes itaque alius clipeo se liberandos post fugam famosissimi bellatoris Gaufredi Martelli,” &c.
890. Roman de Rou, 9624.
891. Ib. 9625;
892. Will. Gem. vii. 18. Roman de Rou, 9631.
893. This Moretolium or Moretonium must be carefully distinguished from Mauritania, Moretonia, or Mortagne-en-Perche, in the Diocese of Seez.
894. William of Jumièges (vii. 19) merely calls him “Willelmus cognomento Werlencus, de stirpe Richardi Magni.” Orderic (660 B) calls him “Guillelmum cognomento Werlengum, Moritolii Comitem, filium Malgerii Comitis,” and Malger appears as an uncle of Duke Robert in Will. Gem. vi. 7.
895. Will. Gem. u. s. “Quidam tiro de familiâ suâ nomine Robertus Bigot.” The name Bigod or Bigot, which we have already seen (see above, p. 201) applied as a term of contempt for the Normans, has been connected with Rolf’s “English” (see vol. i. p. 191) oath, “Ne se bigoth.” Chron. Tur. ap. Duchèsne, iii. 360.
896. For the famous dialogue between Edward the First and the Earl Marshal Roger Bigod, see Walter of Hemingburgh, ii. 121 (ed. Hamilton). Could we suppose that either King or Earl spoke English (doubtless both understood it), one might see in the King’s oath (“Per Deum, Comes, aut ibis aut pendebis”) and the Earl’s retort (“Per idem juramentum, O Rex, nec ibo nec pendebo”) an allusion to the punning derivation of the name Bigod just mentioned.
898. Will. Gem. vii. 19. “Per Richardum Abrincatensem cognatum suum familiaritatem Ducis consequutus est.”
899. Ib. “Seditiosis tumultibus Normanniam perturbare decrevisti, et contra me rebellans me nequiter exhæredare disposuisti, ideoque rapacitatis tempus egeno militi promisisti. Sed nobiscum, cum dono Creatoris, ut indigemus, maneat pax perennis.”
900. Will. Gem. vii. 19. “Sic tumidos sui patris parentes asperè prostravit, humilesque matris suæ propinquos honorabiliter exaltavit.”
901. The whole story is highly coloured by Sir F. Palgrave, iii. 224. William of Mortain may very likely have been guilty, but the evidence was very weak.
902. Will. Gem. u. s. “Nec negare potuit, neque intentionem dicti declarare præsumpsit.”
903. Ord. Vit. 534 B. “Ipse Guillelmum Guarlengum Moritolii Comitem pro uno verbo exhæredavit et de Neustriâ penitus effugavit.” This comes in the speech at the famous bride-ale of 1076, but the historian afterwards says in his own person (660 B), “Guillelmum cognomento Werlengum ... pro minimis occasionibus de Neustriâ propulsaverat.”
904. The grand old Teutonic name of Machthild had by this time become in Latin Mathildis, and in French mouths and in the mouths of Englishmen pronouncing French names, it became Mahtild, Mahault, Molde, Maud, and so forth. The name is familiar to students of Saxon history, and to the students, if there be any, of our own Æthelweard.
905. Concilia, ed. Labbe and Coss. ix. 1092. Stapleton, Arch. Journal, iii. 20. “Interdixit etiam Balduino Comiti Flandrensi ne filiam suam Wilielmo Nortmanno nuptui daret, et illi ne eam acciperet.” On this Council, see above, p. 112.
906. Chron. Wig. 1052. “Ða sone com Willelm Eorl fram geondan sǽ, mid mycclum werode Frenciscra manna; and se cyning hine underfeng, and swa feola his geferan swa him to onhagode, and let hine eft ongean.” See also Roman de Rou, 10539 et seqq., where however the journey is put much too late.
907. Flor. Wig. 1051. “His gestis Nortmannicus Comes Willelmus cum multitudine Nortmannorum Angliam venit, quem Rex Eadwardus et socios ejus honorificè suscepit, et magnis multisque donatum muneribus ad Nortmanniam remisit.” Roman de Rou, 10548;
908. According to modern laws of succession, the heir of Eadward was undoubtedly Walter of Mantes, the son of his sister Godgifu, and elder brother of Ralph of Hereford. The Ætheling Eadward, it must always be remembered, was not, according to our notions, the heir of the King, but the King was the heir of the Ætheling. But, as female descent had never been recognized, one can hardly suppose that the children of Godgifu were looked on as Æthelings, or as at all entitled to any preference in disposing of the Crown. I am therefore justified in saying that Eadward had neither apparent nor presumptive heir. This is a principle to which I shall have to refer again.
909. See the Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles, and Florence of Worcester, under 1066.
911. When we come to Florence’s account of Harold’s election and coronation, we shall see how carefully every word is weighed, with the obvious intention of excluding some Norman misrepresentation or other. The fables about Harold seizing the crown, about his crowning himself, his being crowned by Stigand, and so forth, are all implicitly denied; so is Eadward’s alleged last bequest to William; but there is not a word to exclude either an earlier promise on the part of Eadward or an oath on the part of Harold, Both these subjects are avoided.
913. I shall deal with these stories in my third volume.
914. See Appendix A.
917. I am indebted for the suggestion of Matilda’s descent from Ælfred as a possible element in William’s calculations to Lord Lytton’s romance of Harold. It is highly probable in itself, though I do not remember to have seen it put forward by any ancient writer. Matilda was lineally descended from Ælfthryth, daughter of Ælfred, wife of Count Baldwin the Second, and mother, I am sorry to say, of the wicked Arnulf.
918. I suppose that this would have occurred to every one as the obvious explanation of the difficulty, had not a passage of the false Ingulf been held to settle the question another way; “De successione autem regni spes adhuc aut mentio nulla facta inter eos fuit.” (Gale, i. 65.) Now certainly this strong negative assertion is one of those passages which for a moment suggest the idea that the forger had some materials before him which we have not. But so vague a possibility can hardly be set against the whole probability of the case. It is curious to see Lappenberg (ii. 251 Thorpe, 511 of the German) swaying to and fro between the obvious probability and the supposed authority of Ingulf. Before him, Prevost (Roman de Rou, ii. 100) had ventured, in the teeth of Ingulf, to connect William’s visit with Eadward’s alleged bequest.
920. Chronn. Ab. Cant. 1051. Wig. Petrib. 1052. I need hardly remind any reader that the Old Minster is Winchester Cathedral. The bones of Cnut and Emma were among those which were so strangely exalted by Bishop Fox in the chests which surround the presbytery. Between him, Henry of Blois, and the Puritans, it is now impossible to distinguish the bones of Cnut from those of William Rufus.
921. There is nothing specially to remark on the authorities for this period, which are substantially the same as those for the seventh Chapter. We have still to look, just in the same way as before, to the Chronicles, the Biographer, and Florence, to William of Malmesbury and the other subsidiary writers. Just as before, when Norman affairs are at all touched on, the Norman writers should be compared with the English. During these years we have little to do with Scandinavian affairs, so that the Sagas are of little moment. Welsh affairs, on the other hand, are of unusual importance, and the two Welsh Chronicles, the Annales Cambriæ and the Brut y Tywysogion, or Chronicle of the Princes, must be carefully compared with our own records.
922. At the same time, it is worth considering whether the whole of the estates set down in Domesday as belonging to Godwine and his sons were always their private property, and whether some parts may not have been official estates attached to their Earldoms. Still, after any possible deductions, their wealth was enormous.
923. Vita Eadw. 404. “Et quoniam suprà diximus eum ab omnibus Anglis pro patre coli, subitò auditus discessus ejus exterruit cor populi. Ejus absentiam sive fugam habuere perniciem suam, interitum gentis Anglicæ, excidium insuper totius patriæ.”
924. Vita Eadw. 404. “Felicem se putabat qui post eum exsulari poterat.”
925. Ib. “Quidam post eum vadunt, quidam legationes mittunt, paratos se, si velit reverti, eum cum violentiâ in patriâ suscipere, pro eo pugnare, pro eo, si necesse sit, velle se pariter occumbere.”
926. Ib. “Et hoc accitabatur non clam vel privatim, sed in manifesto et publicè, et non modo à quibusdam, sed penè ab omnibus indigenis patriæ.”
927. Chron. Petrib. 1052. “Gerædde se cyng and his witan.” Abingdon and Worcester do not mention the Witan.
929. Chronn. Ab. Wig. Petrib. The number of the ships, “xl. snacca,” comes from Worcester; the names of the commanders from Peterborough, “and setton Raulf Eorl and Oddan Eorl to heafodmannum þærto.” Florence seems to put these preparations later, after Harold’s landing at Porlock. But surely the choice made both by Gruffydd and by Harold of their points for attack, shows that the Earls of those districts were already absent with the fleet.
930. Chron. Wig. and Flor. Wig. 1052. This incursion seems not to be mentioned in the Welsh Chronicles. Its perpetrator is described only as “Griffin se Wylisca cing;” “Walensium Rex Griffinus;” but the King intended must be the Northern Gruffydd.
931. The Worcester Chronicle says, “þæt he com swyþe neah to Leomynstre.” Florence speaks of the harrying, but does not mention the place.
932. Chron. Wig. “And men gadorodon ongean, ægðer ge landes men ge Frencisce men of ðam castele.” So Florence, “Contra quem provinciales illi et de castello quamplures Nortmanni ascenderunt.” “The castle” is doubtless Richard’s Castle. Florence, who had mistaken the meaning of the Chronicler in the entry of the former year (see above, p. 142), now that he had got among Herefordshire matters, understood the description. Here again the expressions witness to the deep feeling awakened by the building of this castle.
933. Chron. Wig. 1052. “And man þær ofsloh swyþe feola Engliscra godra manna, and eac of þam Frenciscum.” (The French get no honourable epithet.) All this evaporates in Florence’s “multis ex illis occisis.”
935. I infer this from the way in which Harold’s expedition is spoken of as happening almost immediately (“sona,” “parvo post hoc tempore”) after Gruffydd’s victory, as if the two things had some connexion with each other.
936. Vita Eadw. 405. “Mittit tamen adhuc pacem et misericordiam petere a Rege domino suo [cynehlaford], ut sibi liceat cum ejus gratiâ ad se purgandum legibus venire coram eo.” See above, p. 142, and vol. i. p. 573.
937. Ib. “Hoc quoque pro ejus dilectione et suo officio missis legatis suis, Rex petit Francorum, et ipsum cum quo hiemabat idem persuadebat Marchio Flandrensium.”
938. See above, p. 17. Eadward and Baldwin had a common ancestor, though certainly a very remote one, in the great Ælfred. See above, p. 304.
939. Vita Eadw. 405. “Sed et illi hoc suggerebant satis frustra; obstruxerat enim pias Regis aures pravorum malitia.”
940. Ib. “Mediante proximâ æstate.”
943. Leofwine is not mentioned in the Chronicles, but his name is given by Florence, and the Biographer (405) speaks of “duo prædicti filii.”
944. The language of the Biographer is here remarkable. He had just before spoken of the people of the East and South of England as “Orientales sive Australes Angli.” He now calls the point where Harold landed “Occidentalium Britonum sive Anglorum fines.” So marked a change of expression cannot be accidental; it must point to the still debateable character of large parts of Somerset and Devon, neither purely Welsh nor purely English. Compare the significant use of the word “Britanni” by Thietmar, commented on in vol. i. p. 422.
945. I do not remember any mention in any ancient writer of this submarine forest on the Somersetshire coast; but a forest of the same kind on the other side of the British Channel is spoken of by Giraldus, Exp. Hib. i. 36 (vol. V. p. 284 Dimock). In the year 1171 a violent storm laid it bare.
946. The Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles (1052) have simply “neh Sumersǽtan gemæran and Dafenascíre” (see the same forms in the entries for the last year, and Appendix G); so Florence, “in confinio Sumersetaniæ et Dorsetaniæ” this last word being a mistake for Domnaniæ, as appears from the next sentence. The Peterborough Chronicle gives the name of the spot, “and com þa úp æt Portlocan.”
947. See Appendix R.
948. The Worcester and Abingdon Chronicles (1052) give the numbers; “And þær ofsloh má þonne xxx. godera þegena (“nobilibus ministris,” Flor.) butan oðrum folce.”
949. Chronn. Ab. and Wig. “Ægðer ge of Sumersǽton ge of Defenescíre.”
950. Chron. Petrib. “And nam him on orfe and on mannum and on æhtum, swa him gewearð.” Were these captives dealt with as conscripts or galley-slaves, or, considering whence the fleet came, were they intended for the Irish slave-trade?
951. Chronn. Ab. and Wig. “And sona æfter þan for abutan Penwiðsteort.” Chron. Petrib. “And gewende him þa eastweard to his feder.”
952. Vita Eadw. 405. See Appendix R.
953. On the narratives of Godwine’s return, see Appendix S.
954. Chron. Petrib. 1052. “Ða gewende Godwine eorl út fram Brycge mid his scipum to Yseran;” so the Biographer (405), “paratâ multiplici classe in fluvio Hysarâ.” It is clearly not Gesoriacum or Boulogne, as Mr. Earle makes it in his Glossary.
955. Chron. Petrib. “And let út ane dæge ær midsumeres mæsse æfene [“mediante æstate,” Vit. Eadw.] þæt he com to Næsse, þe is be suðan Rumenea.”
956. William of Malmesbury (ii. 199) makes Eadward himself present; “Nec segnem sensit Regem illa necessitas quin ipse in navi pernoctaret, et latronum exitus specularetur, sedulo explens consilio quod manu nequibat præ senio.” Eadward was now fifty at the most, and his presence is hardly possible, according to the authentic narratives. Eadward’s presence with the fleet is distinctly marked in 1049 (see above, p. 99), but not now.
957. Chron. Petrib. “And wearð þæt wæder swiðe strang þæt þa eorlas ne mihton gewitan hwet Godwine eorl gefaren hæfde.” The ignorance could hardly fail to be mutual. So William of Malmesbury (u. s.); “Quum cominùs ventum esset, et jam penè manus consererentur, nebula densissima repente coorta furentum obtutus confudit, miseramque mortalium audaciam compescuit.” William had just got one of his fits of fine writing upon him.
958. Chron. Ab. “He [Godwine] heom ætbærst, and him sylfan gebearh þær þær he þa mihte.” So Florence; “Quo in loco potuit se occultavit.” But Peterborough says expressly, “And gewende þa Godwine eorl út agean þæt he com eft to Brycge;” and so William of Malmesbury; “Denique Godwinus ejusque comites eo unde venerant vento cogente reducti.” Mark the cadence of an hexameter.
959. Chron. Petrib. “And sceolde man setton oðre eorlas and oðre hasæton to þam scipum.” Mr. Thorpe translates “hasæton” by “chief officers,” Mr. Earle by “rowers.” I commonly bow to Mr. Earle’s authority on such matters; but the other version seems to make better sense.
961. See Appendix R.
962. Vita Eadw. 405.
964. “Eallne þæne east ende,” says the Abingdon Chronicle (cf. the words “ofer ealne þisne norð ende” in the Worcester Chronicle, 1052 or 1051), which Florence translates by “East-Saxones.”
965. Chron. Ab. “Þa cwædon ealle þæt hi mid him woldon licgan and lybban.” I transfer these emphatic words hither from the earlier place which they have in the Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles, and in Florence. See Appendix S.
966. That hostages should have been taken from such a friendly population is a speaking comment on the inveterate custom of taking hostages on all occasions.