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Home England under Foreign Kings England under Foreign Kings; Part 7 |
England under Foreign Kings; Part 7We may pass over the reigns of William Rufus and Henry I somewhat briefly. One important class of events which we have neglected in William I's reign we will continue to set on one side; that is, the dealings of these kings with the Church. Church affairs are best treated as a whole, leading up to the great quarrel between Henry II and Becket. Apart from these, neither William II nor Henry I calls up anything very striking. Both kings continued the policy of their father. Both had troubles with rebellious barons, and succeeded in overcoming them; both were at least as much interested in affairs in Normandy as in England.The Conqueror had left the duchy of Normandy to his eldest son, Robert, and gave England to his second son, William. Here was a ready ground for quarrel, since Robert had looked to succeeding his father in both countries. As many of the barons held lands both in Normandy and England, they owed allegiance to both William and Robert; when war broke out they would have to make a choice which they would obey; and as Robert was easy-going and good-natured, while William soon showed himself to be as stern as his father, and was especially vigorous in exacting money in every way he could, a large number of barons took Robert's side. They were especially angered by what they regarded as the exactions of Ranulf Flambard, the king's Justiciar, that is to say, the officer who represented the king when he was absent from the kingdom. Ranulf, who was also Bishop of Durham, was careful to enforce the full payment of all the dues which belonged to the king under the feudal system; and the most profitable of these dues came when an estate passed to a minor or an heiress. Flambard used to seize for the king all the profits of the estate till the minor came of age or the heiress married; he scrupulously collected the fines or payments due on coming into an estate. These exactions were legal enough (Save in the case of the Church), but Flambard's activity made them very burdensome. He made the king, it was said, "every man's heir". Thus, to guard against his discontented barons, and to help him against his brother, William was forced to make friends with his English subjects. Foreigner and Norman though he was, he had to rely on what he called his "brave and honourable English". With their help he triumphed over his enemies. Odo of Bayeux, Roger Montgomery, Robert of Belleme his son, Roger Mowbray, all rose against him, stirred up by the Duke of Normandy. William defeated them all. He beat back a Welsh invasion, and by promising to his barons any land they might conquer from the Welsh, he encouraged a set of warlike adventurers who would keep his frontier safe in order to secure their own lands. He captured Cumberland from the Scots and built Carlisle Castle to overawe the country; the King of Scots, invading Northumberland out of revenge, was surprised and slain at Alnwick. William even turned the tables on his brother Robert, by leading an army in Normandy. The quarrel between the brothers was patched for the time. Duke Robert soon after fell in with the fashion of his time and made up his mind to join the Crusades. To find money to equip himself and his followers, he pledged his duchy to William for 10,000 merks, without reflecting that he was not at all likely to be either able to repay the money, or eject his brother from the duchy when once he had got a hold on it. |
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