William's fortunate marriage with Matilda, a legitimate descendant of the royal line, strengthened his defective title to the throne of Normandy, and gained for him a powerful ally in the person of his father-in-law, the earl of Flanders. The death of Henry averted the storm that still loured over Normandy; and the young Philip of France, his son and successor, having been left during his minority under the guardianship of his aunt's husband, Baldwin of Flanders, Matilda's father, William found himself entirely relieved from all present fears of hostility on the part of France.1 Scarcely, however, was he preparing himself to enjoy the happiness of wedded life, when a fresh cause of annoyance arose.

Mauger, the archbishop of Rouen, an illegitimate uncle of the young duke, who had taken great pains to prevent his marriage with Matilda of Flanders, finding all the obstacles which he had raised against it were unavailing, proceeded to pronounce sentence of excommunication against the newly wedded pair, under the plea of its being a marriage within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity. William indignantly appealed to the pope against this sentence, who, on the parties submitting to the usual fines, nullified the archbishop's ecclesiastical censures, and granted the dispensation for the marriage, on condition of the young duke and duchess each building and endowing an abbey at Caen, and an hospital for the blind. Lanfranc, afterwards the celebrated archbishop of Canterbury, but at that time an obscure individual, to whom William had extended his protection and patronage, was entrusted with this negotiation, which he conducted with such ability as to secure to himself the favour and confidence both of William and Matilda, by whom he was in after years advanced to the office of tutor to their royal offspring, and finally to the highest ecclesiastical rank and power.

William and Matilda submitted to the conditions on which the dispensation for their marriage had been granted, by founding the sister abbeys of St. Stephen and the Holy Trinity. That of St. Stephen was built and endowed by William for a fraternity of monks, of which he made Lanfranc abbot. Matilda founded and endowed that of the Holy Trinity, for nuns. William, highly exasperated at the archbishop's attempt to separate him from his bride, retaliated upon him by calling a convocation of all the bishops of Normandy, at Lisieux, before whom he caused Mauger to be accused of several crimes and misdemeanours, especially of selling consecrated chalices, and other articles of church plate, to supply his luxury. Mauger, being convicted of these malpractices, was deposed from his office. The disgrace of the archbishop has been attributed to the resentment Matilda conceived against him on account of his impertinent attempt to invalidate her marriage.

Tranquillity being established, William proceeded to build a royal 1 St. Marthe. Wace. 2 Benoit's Normandy. Matilda was the grand-daughter of Eleanor of Normandy, William's aunt.

3 Mauntfauçon.

4 Wm. of Malmesbury.

1051.]

Happiness of Matilda and William.

25

palace within the precincts of St. Stephen's abbey, for his own residence and that of his young duchess. The great hall, or council-chamber, of this palace was one of the most magnificent apartments at that time in Europe.

Matilda, inheriting from her father, Baldwin of Lille, a taste for architecture, took great delight in the progress of these stately buildings; and her foundations are among the most splendid relics of Norman grandeur. She was a munificent patroness of the arts, and afforded great encouragement to men of learning, co-operating with her husband most actively in all his paternal plans for the advancement of trade, the extension of commerce, and the general happiness of the people committed to their charge. Normandy, so long torn with contending factions, and impoverished with foreign warfare, began to taste the blessings of repose; and, under the wise government of her energetic sovereign, soon experienced the good effects of his enlightened policy. At his own expense, William built the first pier that ever was constructed, at Cherbourg. He superintended the building and organization of fleets, traced out commodious harbours for his ships, rendered Normandy a very considerable maritime power, and finally the mistress of the Channel.

The domestic happiness which William enjoyed with his beautiful duchess appears to have been very great. All historians have agreed that they were a most attached pair, and that, whatever might have been the previous state of Matilda's affections, they were unalterably and faithfully fixed upon him from the hour she became his wife; and with reason, for William was the most devoted of husbands, and always allowed her to take the ascendant in the matrimonial scale. The confidence he reposed in her was unbounded, and very shortly after their marriage he intrusted the reins of government to her care, when he crossed over to England to pay a visit to his friend and kinsman, Edward the Confessor.

By his marriage with Matilda, William had added a nearer tie of relationship to the English sovereign; he was, perhaps, willing to remind the childless monarch of that circumstance, and to recall to his memory the hospitality he had received, both at the Flemish and the Norman courts, during the period of his adversity. Edward "received him very honourably, and presented him with hawks and hounds, and many other fair and goodly gifts," says Wace, "as tokens of his love." In pursuing the broad stream of history, how few writers take the trouble of tracing the under-currents by which the tide of events is influenced! The marriage of Tostig, the son of Godwin, with Judith of Flanders, the sister of Matilda, wife of William of Normandy, was one great cause of the treacherous and unnatural conduct, on his part, which decided the fate of Harold, and transferred the crown of England to the

Norman line. During the period of their exile from England, Godwin and his family sought refuge at the court of the earl of Flanders, Tostig's father-in-law, from whom they received friendly and hospitable entertainment, and were treated by the duke and duchess of Normandy with all the marks of friendship that might reasonably be expected, in consideration of the family connexion to which we have alluded.1

Nine months after her marriage, Matilda gave birth to a son, whom William named Robert, after his father, thinking that the name of a prince whose memory was dear to Normandy, would insure the popularity of his heir. The happiness of the royal pair was greatly increased by this event. They were at that period reckoned the handsomest and most tenderly united couple in Europe. The fine natural talents of both had been improved by a degree of mental cultivation very unusual in that age; there was a similarity in their tastes and pursuits which rendered their companionship delightful to each other in private hours, and gave to all their public acts that graceful unanimity which could not fail of producing the happiest effects on the minds of their subjects. The birth of Robert was followed in quick succession by that of Richard, William-Rufus, Cecilia, Agatha, Constance, Adela, and Gundred. During several years of peace and national prosperity, Matilda and her husband employed themselves in superintending the education of their lovely and numerous family.

No very remarkable event occurs in the records of Matilda's court, till the arrival of Harold in the year 1065. Harold, having undertaken a voyage to Normandy in an open fishing boat, was driven by stress of weather into the river Maye, in the territories of the earl of Ponthieu, by whom, with the intention of extorting a large ransom, he was seized, and immured in the dungeons of Beaurain. The duke of Normandy demanded the illustrious captive, and the earl of Ponthieu, understanding that Harold's brother was husband to the duchess of Normandy's sister, thought it most prudent to resign his prey to the family connexion by whom it was claimed. Harold was treated with apparent friendship by William and Matilda. They even offered to bestow one of their daughters upon him in marriage,-a young lady whose age did not exceed seven years; and to her Harold permitted himself to be affianced, though without any intention of keeping his plight. William then confided to his reluctant guest the tale of his own adoption by Edward the Confessor, for his successor, and proceeded to extort from him a solemn oath to render him all the assistance in his power, in furtherance of his designs on the crown of England.1 Harold, on his return to England, came to an open rupture with his brother Tostig. Probably he had, during his late visit to Normandy, discovered how entirely the latter was in the interest of his Flemish wife's con 1 Wace. Ing. Eadmer. 2 Wm. of Malms. Wace. 3 Wace. Wm. of Malms. Thierry.

1065.]

Saxons and Normans.

27

nexions. Tostig fled, with his wife and children, to the court of his father-in-law, the earl of Flanders, and devoted himself entirely to the cause of William of Normandy.

At this perilous crisis, when so dark a storm was slowly but surely gathering over England, a woful deterioration had taken place in the national character of the people, especially among the higher classes, who had given way to every species of luxury and licentious folly. William of Malmesbury draws the following quaint picture of their manners and proceedings at this period. "Englishmen," says he, "had then transformed themselves into the strange manners of the French, not only in their speech and behaviour, but in their deeds and characters. Their fashion in dress was to go fantastically appointed, with garments shortened to the knee. Their heads shorn, and their beards shaven all but the upper lip, on which they wore long moustaches. Their arms they loaded with massive bracelets of gold, carrying withal pictured marks upon their skins, pounced in with divers colours;" by which it is evident that the Anglo-Saxons had adopted the barbarous practice of tattooing their persons, like the rude aborigines of the island eleven centuries previous. "They were," continues our author, "accustomed to eat to repletion, and to drink to excess; while the clergy wholly addicted themselves to light and trivial literature, and could scarcely read their own breviaries." In a word, they had, according to the witness of their own chronicles, arrived at that pass of sensuality and folly, which is generally supposed to provoke a national visitation in the shape of pestilence or the sword.

66

"The Normans of that period," says Malmesbury, were proudly apparelled, delicate in their food, but not gluttonous; a race inured to war, which they could scarcely live without; fierce in rushing upon the foe, and, when unequal in force, ready to use stratagem or bribery to gain their ends. They live in large houses with economy; they wish to rival their superiors; they envy their equals, and plunder their inferiors, but not unfrequently intermarry with their vassals." Such were the general characteristics of the men whom William had rendered veterans in the art of war, and, both by precept and example, stimulated to habits of frugality, temperance, and self-control. A mighty sovereign and a mighty people, possessing within themselves the elements of every requisite that might insure the success of an undertaking, which, by every other nation in Europe, must have been considered as little short of madness.

When the intelligence of king Edward's death, coupled with the news of Harold's assumption of the regal dignity, reached the court of Normandy, William was struck speechless with indignation and surprise, and is said to have unconsciously tied and untied the rich cordon that

fastened his cloak several times, in the first tumults of his agitation and anger. He then gave vent to his wrath, in fierce animadversions on Harold's broken faith in causing himself to be crowned king of England, in defiance of the solemn cath he had sworn to him to support his claims. William also complained of the affront that had been offered to his daughter by the faithless Saxon, who, regardless of his contract to the little Norman princess, just before king Edward's death, strengthened his interest with the English nobles by marrying Edith or Algitha, sister to the powerful earls Morcar and Edwin, and widow to Griffith, prince of Wales. This circumstance is mentioned with great bitterness in all William's proclamations and reproachful messages to Harold.

When William first made known to his Norman peers his positive intention of asserting, by force of arms, his claims to the crown of England, on the plea of Edward the Confessor's verbal adoption of himself as successor to that realm, there were stormy debates among them on the subject. They were then assembled in the hall of Lillebon, where they remained long in council, but chiefly employed in complaining to one another of the warlike temper of their lord. There were, however, great differences of opinion among them, and they separated themselves into several distinct groups, because many chose to speak at once, and no one could obtain the attention of the whole assembly, but harangued as many hearers as could be prevailed on to listen to him. At last the contention among them became so fierce, that Fitz-Osborn, of Breuteuil, surnamed the Proud Spirit, stood forth and harangued the malcontent portion of the assembly in these words :-"Why should you go on wrangling with your natural lord, who seeks to gain honour? You owe him service for your fiefs, and you ought to render it with all readiness."—"Sir," replied they, "we fear the sea, and we are not bound to serve beyond it. But do you speak to the duke for us, for we do not seem to know our own minds, and we think you will decide better for us than we can do for ourselves."

Fitz-Osborn, thus empowered to act as their deputy, went to the duke at their head, and in their names made him the most unconditional proffers of their assistance and co-operation. "Behold," said FitzOsborn, "the loving loyalty of your lieges, my lord, and their zeal for your service. They will pass with you over sea, and double their accustomed service. He who is bound to furnish twenty knights, will bring forty; he who should serve you with thirty, will now serve you with sixty; and he who owes one hundred, will cheerfully pay two hundred." Here the dissentient barons interrupted him with a clamour of disapprobation, exclaiming, "That he might give as much as he pleased himself, but they had never empowered him to promise such