chapel at Caen. The queen had caused these portraits to be pain when this magnificent endowment was founded.1 Matilda took gr delight in pictorial memorials; and if we may judge by the engravi from her portrait, preserved in Montfauçon, it were a pity that so mu grace and beauty should fade from the earth without remembran Her costume is singularly dignified and becoming. The robe simp gathered round the throat, a flowing veil falling from the back of head on the shoulders, is confined by an elegant circlet of gems. face is beautiful and delicate; the hair falls in waving tresses rou her throat; with one hand she confines her drapery, and holds a boo she extends her sceptre with the other, in an attitude full of grace a dignity. Montfauçon declares that this painting was actually copi from the wall, before the room in which it was preserved was pull down. The elegance of the design and costume ought not to rai doubts of its authenticity, for it is well known that all works of a were much better executed before the destruction of Constantinople tha after that period. Matilda's costume was extremely graceful; the nob circlet, the flowing transparent veil, the natural curls parted on ead side the brow, the vestal stole, drawn round the neck in regular fold the falling sleeves, the gemmed zone, confining the plaits of a garmen that swept the ground in rich fulness, altogether formed a costum which would not have disgraced a Grecian statue. Matilda bore ten children to her royal spouse; namely, four sons an six daughters. Robert, surnamed Courthose, her eldest son, succeede his father as duke of Normandy. This darling son of Matilda's hear is thus described in the old chronicler's lines: "He was y-wox [grown] ere his fader to England came, Thick man he was enow, but not well long; Square was he, and well made for to be strong. Before his fader, once on a time he did sturdy deed, When he was young, who beheld him, and these words said: The Courthose, my young son, a stalwart knight sall be ;'- And he might never after this name lose. He was quiet of counsel and speech, and of body strong, After the death of Matilda, Robert broke out in open revolt against hi royal father once more: and the Conqueror, in his famous death-be speech and confession, alluded to this conduct with great bitterness "The dukedom of Normandy," said the dying monarch, “before fought in the vale Sanguclac, with Harold, I granted unto my SOL Robert, for that he is my first begotten; and having received the 1' Montfauçon's Monumens de la Monarchie Françoise.' 65 1087.] The family of Matilda and William the Conqueror. homage of his baronage, that honour given cannot be revoked. Yet I know that it will be a miserable reign which is subject to the rule of his government, for he is a foolish, proud knave, and is to be punished with cruel fortune." Robert acquired the additional cognomen of the Unready, from the circumstance of being always out of the way when the golden opportunity of improving his fortunes occurred. Robert, though an indifferent politician, was a gallant knight and a skilful general. He joined the crusade under Godfrey of Boulogne, and so greatly distinguished himself at the taking of the holy city, that of all the Christian princes, his fellow-crusaders, he was judged most deserving of the crown of Jerusalem. This election was made on the Easter-eve as they all stood at the high altar in the temple, each holding an unlighted wax-taper in his hand, and beseeching God to direct their choice; when the taper which duke Robert held becoming ignited without any visible agency, it was regarded by the rest of the Croises as a miraculous intimation in his favour, and he was entreated to accept the kingdom, but he declined it, under the idea that he should obtain the crown of England. Richard, the second son of William the Conqueror and Matilda, died in England in the lifetime of his parents. William, their third son, surnamed Rufus, or Rous, from the colour of his hair, and called by the Saxon historians"the Red King," succeeded to the crown of England after his father's death. Henry, the fourth and youngest son of William and Matilda, won the surname of Beauclerc by his scholastic attainments, and succeeded to the throne of England after the death of William Rufus. There is great confusion among historians and genealogists respecting the names of the daughters of Matilda and the Conqueror, and the order of their birth. William of Malmesbury, who wrote in the reign of Henry I., when enumerating the daughters of the Conqueror, says, "Cecilia, the abbess of Caen, still survives." The generality of historians mention Constance, the wife of Alan, duke of Bretagne, as the second daughter of this illustrious pair. Ordericus Vitalis, a contemporary, calls her the third, and Agatha the second daughter. Of Agatha he relates the following interesting particulars: "This princess, who had been formerly affianced to Harold, was demanded of her father in marriage by Alphonso, king of Galicia, but manifested the greatest repugnance to this alliance." She told her father "that her heart was devoted to her first spouse, and that she should consider it an abomination if she gave her hand to another. She had seen and loved her Saxon betrothed, and she revolted from a union with the foreign monarch whom she had never seen;" and bursting into tears, she added with passionate emoSee death-bed speech of the Conqueror, 344 Après William Bastardus regna Will, in Speed's Chronicle. le Rous."-Fitz-Stephen's Chronicle. Ord. Vit. Wm. of Malms, 2 Ord. Vit. VOL. I. tion, "that she prayed that the Most High would rather take her to himself, than allow her ever to be transported into Spain." Her praye: was granted, the reluctant bride died on her journey to her unknown lord. Her remains were conveyed to her native land, and interred at Bayeux, in the church of St. Mary the perpetual Virgin.1 Sandford calls this princess the sixth daughter. If so, she could not have been the betrothed of Harold, but of earl Edwin; and, indeed, if we reflect on the great disparity in age between Harold and the younger daughters of William of Normandy, and take into consideration the circumstances of his breach of contract with the little Norman lady by wedding Algitha, it is scarcely probable that his memory could have been cherished with the passionate fondness Ordericus Vitalis attributes to the lady Agatha; whereas Edwin was young, and remarkable for his beauty. The breach of William's promise too, was the cause of Edwin's revolt, which implies that the youthful thane was deeply wounded at the refusal; and it is at least probable, that to the princess who had innocently been made a snare to him by her guileful sire, he might have become an object of the tenderest affection. Malmesbury, speaking of this princess, says, 66 Agatha, to whom God granted a virgin death, was so devoted to the exercises of religion, that after her decease it was discovered that her knees had become hard, like horn, with constant kneeling." Adela, or Adelicia, generally classed as the fourth daughter of William and Matilda, Orderious Vitalis places as the fifth, and says, "She was sought in marriage by Stephen, earl of Blois, who was desirous of allying himself with the aspiring family of the Conqueror, and by the advice of William's councillors she was united to him. This princess was a learned woman, and possessed of considerable diplomatic talents. She had four .sons: William, an idiot; Thibaut, surnamed the great earl of Champagne; Stephen de Blois, who succeeded to the English throne after the death of Henry I.; and Henry bishop of Winchester. After the death of the count de Blois, her husband, the countess Adela took the veil at Marigney." Gundred, or Gundreda, the sixth and youngest daughter of the Coqueror and Matilda, was married to William de Warren, a powerful Norman noble, and the first earl of Surrey in England. By him the lady Gundred had two sons. Gundred only survived her royal mother two years. She died, anno 1085, in child-bed at Castleacre in Norfolk, and is buried in the chapter-house of St. Pancras church, within the priory, at Lewes in Sussex. Gundred his wife, and for the soul of king for the health also of queen Mand, mother of his wife, and for the health of king William her son, who made him earl of Surrey.-Horsfield's Hist, of the Antiquities 1087.] Matilda much lamented. 67 The death of his beloved queen Matilda afflicted the Conqueror very deeply. He wept excessively for many days after her decease; and to testify how keenly he felt her loss, he renounced his favourite amusement of hunting, and all the boisterous sports in which he formerly delighted. To the honour of Matilda, it has been asserted by some of the historians of the period, that she used her influence over the mind of her mighty lord for the mitigation of the sufferings of the people whom he had subjugated to his yoke. Thomas Rudborne, the author of the Annals of Winton, says, "King William, by the advice of Matilda, treated the English kindly as long as she lived, but after her death he became a thorough tyrant." It is certainly true, that after Matilda left England, in 1070, the condition of the people became infinitely worse, and it is possible that it might have been aggravated by her death. Not only the happiness, but the worldly prosperity of William appeared sensibly diminished during his widowed state. In the course of the four years that he survived his consort, he experienced nothing but trouble and disquiet.2 William met with the accident which caused his death, at the storming of the city of Mantes. He had roused himself from a sick bed to execute a terrible vengeance on the French border, for the ribald joke which his old antagonist, the king of France, had passed on his malady; and in pursuance of his declaration "that he would set all France in a blaze at his uprising," he had ordered the city to be fired. While he was, with savage fury, encouraging his soldiers to pursue the work of destruction to which he had incited them, his horse, chancing to set his foot on a piece of burning timber, started, and occasioned his lord so severe an injury from the pummel of the saddle, as to bring on a violent access of fever. Being unable to remount his horse, after an accident which must have appeared to him like a retributive chastisement for the barbarous deed in which he was engaged, he was conveyed in a litter to Rouen, where, perceiving he drew near his end, he began to experience of Sussex, p. 232. Warren, though one of the most ferocious and rapacious of William's followers, was tenderly attached to his wife, whom he scarcely survived three years. The remains of both were discovered, October 28th, 1845, by the workmen in forming a cutting for the Lewes and Brighton railroad through the grounds of St. Pancras priory, in two leaden coffins, with the simple inscrip 1 Ord. Vit. tion of GUNDRADA on the one, and WILHELMUS on the other. They are now deposited in Southover church, together with a tablet, previously discovered, which preserves part of the mutilated monastic verses that commemorated her virtues. They have been thus beautifully translated into modern English rhymes by the learned historian of Lewes : "Gundred, illustrious branch of princely race, To generous deeds she gave her virtuous mind. O holy Pancras! keep, with gracious care, A mother who has made thy sons her heir." 2 Wm. of Malms. Ord. Vit. 3 Wm. of Malms. Higdon. some compunctious visitings of conscience for the crimes and oppressions of which he had been guilty, and endeavoured to make some selfdeceiving reparation for his wrongs. In the first place, he ordered large sums to be distributed to the poor, and likewise for the building of churches, especially those which he had recently burnt at Mantes; next he set all the Saxon prisoners at liberty whom he had detained in his Norman prisons; among them were Morcar, and Ulnoth, the brother of Harold, who had remained in captivity from his childhood, when he was given in hostage by earl Godwin to Edward the Confessor. The heart of the dying monarch being deeply touched with remorse, he confessed that he had done Morcar much wrong: he bitterly bewailed the blood he had shed in England, and the desolation and woe he had caused in Hampshire for the sake of planting the New Forest, protesting "that having so misused that fair and beautiful land, he dared not appoint a successor to it, but left the disposal of that matter in the hands of God." He had, however, taken some pains, by writing a letter to Lanfranc expressive of his earnest wish that William Rufus should succeed him in his regal dignity, to secure the crown of England to this his favourite son,-for whom he called as soon as he had concluded his death-bed confessions,—and sealing the letter with his own seal, he put it into the hands of the prince, bidding him hasten to England with all speed, and deliver it to the archbishop, blessed him with a farewell kiss, and dismissed him. When the Conqueror had settled his temporal affairs, he caused himself to be removed to Hermentrude, a pleasant village near Rouen, that he might be more at liberty to prepare himself for death. On the 9th of September the awful change which he awaited took place. Hearing the sound of the great bell in the metropolitan church of St. Gervase, near Rouen, William, raising his exhausted frame from the supporting pillows, asked "What it meant ?" One of his attendants replying "that it then rang prime to Our Lady," the dying monarch lifting his eyes to heaven, and spreading abroad his hands, exclaimed, "I commend myself to that blessed lady, Mary the mother of God, that she by her holy intercession may reconcile me to her most dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ;" and with these words he expired, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, 1087, after a reign of fifty-two years in Normandy, and twenty-one in England. His eldest son, Robert, was absent in Germany at the time of his death; William was on his voyage to England; Henry, who had taken charge of his obsequies, suddenly departed on some self-interested business; and all the great officers of the court having dispersed themselves, some to offer their homage to Robert, and others to William, the 1 See William's death-bed confession in Speed. 2 Eadmer. 3 Ord. Vit. Wm. of Malms. 4 Ord. Vit. Brompton. |