Part 8 (2/2)

After what the Frenchmen said, still more and more opposing it, the king would not a.s.sist the duke, but rather hindered him all he could. I know not exactly what the king answered, but I know well that he failed him altogether. When the duke took leave of him, he said like a man who is wroth at heart, ”Sire, I will go, and will do the best I can. If G.o.d please, I will seek my right. If I win it (which G.o.d grant) you shall do me no harm; and if the English are able to defend themselves, so that I fail, I shall not lose heart or head on that account. All things shall be set in order[11]; my children shall have my land, and you shall not take any advantage of them; whether I die or live, whatever befall me, I fear the threats of no man.” Then William tried no more to persuade the king, but went his way.

He besought the count of Flanders[12] to go with him as his brother-in-law and friend; but the count answered, that if he would make sure of aid from him, he must first let him know what share of England he was to have, and what division he would make of the spoil.

The duke said that he would go and talk with his barons about the matter, and take their counsel, and afterwards state by letter what they advised him to do. So he went away without more ado, and did such a thing as no one ever did before; for he took a small piece of parchment which had neither letter nor writing upon it, sealed it up with wax, all blank as it was, and wrote upon the label that the count should have such part of England as the letter within stated.

Then he sent the letter to the count by a cunning varlet[13], who had long been with him; and the varlet delivered it to the count, who broke the seal, and opened the parchment, and looked within, but saw nothing.

So he shewed it to the messenger, and the shrewd varlet said to him off hand, ”Nought is there, and nought shalt thou have! therefore look for nothing! The honour that the duke seeks will be for your sister and nephews as much as for himself; and if he and they should win England, no one would have more advantage from their success than yourself. All theirs would in truth be yours. If G.o.d please, he will conquer it by himself, and seek none of your help.” What the count answered I know not, but the varlet thereupon went his way.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The duke determined to make his preparations prudently. He sent to the apostle, by clerks who could tell truly how Harold had used him; how he had broken his oath and lied; and how he would neither take his daughter, nor render him up the kingdom which Edward had given him, and Harold had guaranteed on oath. He said that perjury ought to be punished according to the rules of holy church; and that if by G.o.d's will he should conquer England, he would receive it of St. Peter, and do service for it to none but G.o.d. The apostle granted his request, and sent him a gonfanon[14], and a very precious, rich and fair ring, which, he said, had under the stone one of Saint Peter's hairs[15]. With these tokens he commanded, and in G.o.d's name granted to him, that he should conquer England, and hold it of Saint Peter.

Now while these things were doing, a great star appeared, s.h.i.+ning for fourteen days, with three long rays streaming towards the south; such a star as is wont to be seen when a kingdom is about to change its king. I have seen many men who saw it, men of full age at the time, and who lived many years after[16]. Those who discourse of the stars would call it a comet[17].

[Footnote 1: _Benoit de Sainte-More's_ account of William's council will be found in our appendix.]

[Footnote 2: Vimeu.]

[Footnote 3: As to ROGER DE MONTGOMERI, WALTER GIFFART, ODO, BISHOP OF BAYEUX, and ROBERT, COUNT OF MORTAIN--comes Moritolii--see our subsequent notes on the chiefs at the battle of Hastings.]

[Footnote 4: ROGER DE VIEILLES, not Villers,--nor Veules, as often written, owing to incorrect translation of the latin t.i.tle, de Vetulis,--son of Humfry of the same name, who is stated to have died at Preaux, 1074. Vieilles is a small commune in the canton of Beaumont, arrondiss.e.m.e.nt of Bernay; where the family appears to have been established before the building the castle, which still bears the name of Roger. Roger is below, and usually, stiled DE BEAUMONT or BELLOMONT.

He could not have been very old at the conquest, (if Wace is to be understood as so a.s.serting), for he lived till thirty years after. His son Robert became earl of Leicester on the grant of Hen. I.; having been adult, and distinguished himself at Hastings, according to _William of Poitiers_. See our subsequent note, and Ellis's _Domesday_, i. 380.]

[Footnote 5: Beaumont-le-Roger on the Rille.]

[Footnote 6: Historians have not mentioned an uterine sister of William, called Muriel. We remarked, at p. 45, their error as to Adelidis, usually so reckoned; but who, as we have seen, was of the _whole_ blood, and married Enguerran, count of Ponthieu; not Odo of Champagne, who, in fact, married her daughter. The mistakes. .h.i.therto prevailing as to Adelidis, render us less averse to suspect others of the same sort among the genealogists; and Wace's account of Muriel is confirmed from other sources. It would seem to have been to her, then a widow--ad Muriel sancti-monialem--sister of Odo, bishop of Bayeux--and therefore sister, or more properly half-sister of Adelidis, that the poet Serlon, the canon of Bayeux, (as to whom see _Wace_, ii. 235, 393) addressed his verses _de capta Bajocensium civitate_. The baron here called Iwun-al-Chapel seems to be EUDO DE CAPELLO--du manteau, or capuchon--son of Turstain Halduc and Emma his wife, and subscribing himself Eudo Haldub in a charter of 1074. _Mem. Ant. Norm_. viii. 436. He was dapifer to duke William; although not the Eudo dapifer of _Domesday_, who was son of Hubert de Rie. He was the head of the house of Haie-du-Puits in the Cotentin, and undoubtedly married a Muriel, as appears by the charters of Lessay, whether she were a daughter of Herluin or not. The estates of Eudo went to his nephew, which confirms Wace's account of his having no issue. See the Lessay charters in _Dugdale_ and _Gallia Christiana_, and our subsequent note on Haie.]

[Footnote 7: Wace does not name the place of meeting of this great council. _William of Malmesbury_ informs us that it was at Lillebonne; where the remains of the ancient castle still exist; see the roofless hall in our vignette above, at p. 101.]

[Footnote 8: This jealousy, which from the nature of the meeting may well be called parliamentary, characterized the a.s.semblies of the Norman estates much later. See Delafoy's _Const.i.tution du duchi de Normandie,_ p. 159. At the meeting in 1350, when an extraordinary supply was granted, the states stipulated expressly, and the king agreed, that no prejudicial consequences should follow; 'cette imposition ne portera prejudice aux gens du pays de Normandie, ne a leurs privileges ou chartes en aucune maniere, ou temps present ne a venir; et ne sera trait a consequence.']

[Footnote 9: See in M. Le Prevost's notes to Wace, vol. ii. 531, the curious list from Taylor's anon. MS. (supposed to be of the age of Hen.

I.) containing the proportions in which William's naval force was furnished. Fitz Osbero's number agrees with Wace's account of his promise. The same list, with some variations, (whence arising we know not) is printed in Turner's _History of the Anglo-Saxons_; and in Littleton's _History of Hen. II_. vol. i. See also Ellis, _Domesday_, i.

227.]

[Footnote 10: Saint Germer near Gournay. The king of France at this time was Philip, the successor of Henry, whose army was defeated at Mortemer.

Philip was a minor; Baldwin the fifth, William's father-in-law, being his guardian; but not, as Sismondi says, taking any active part in the management of French affairs. Philip, however, could personally have taken no conduct of such matters.]

[Footnote 11:

Son regne laisse si a.s.sis, E a si tres feeus amis, A sa femme, la proz, la sage, Que n'el en pot venir damage.

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