CHAPTER IX--ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE SECOND, CALLED RUFUS
William the Red, in breathless haste, secured the three great forts ofDover, Pevensey, and Hastings, and made with hot speed for Winchester,where the Royal treasure was kept. The treasurer delivering him thekeys, he found that it amounted to sixty thousand pounds in silver,besides gold and jewels. Possessed of this wealth, he soon persuaded theArchbishop of Canterbury to crown him, and became William the Second,King of England.
Rufus was no sooner on the throne, than he ordered into prison again theunhappy state captives whom his father had set free, and directed agoldsmith to ornament his father's tomb profusely with gold and silver.It would have been more dutiful in him to have attended the sickConqueror when he was dying; but England itself, like this Red King, whoonce governed it, has sometimes made expensive tombs for dead men whom ittreated shabbily when they were alive.
The King's brother, Robert of Normandy, seeming quite content to be onlyDuke of that country; and the King's other brother, Fine-Scholar, beingquiet enough with his five thousand pounds in a chest; the King flatteredhimself, we may suppose, with the hope of an easy reign. But easy reignswere difficult to have in those days. The turbulent Bishop ODO (who hadblessed the Norman army at the Battle of Hastings, and who, I dare say,took all the credit of the victory to himself) soon began, in concertwith some powerful Norman nobles, to trouble the Red King.
The truth seems to be that this bishop and his friends, who had lands inEngland and lands in Normandy, wished to hold both under one Sovereign;and greatly preferred a thoughtless good-natured person, such as Robertwas, to Rufus; who, though far from being an amiable man in any respect,was keen, and not to be imposed upon. They declared in Robert's favour,and retired to their castles (those castles were very troublesome tokings) in a sullen humour. The Red King, seeing the Normans thus fallingfrom him, revenged himself upon them by appealing to the English; to whomhe made a variety of promises, which he never meant to perform--inparticular, promises to soften the cruelty of the Forest Laws; and who,in return, so aided him with their valour, that ODO was besieged in theCastle of Rochester, and forced to abandon it, and to depart from Englandfor ever: whereupon the other rebellious Norman nobles were soon reducedand scattered.
Then, the Red King went over to Normandy, where the people sufferedgreatly under the loose rule of Duke Robert. The King's object was toseize upon the Duke's dominions. This, the Duke, of course, prepared toresist; and miserable war between the two brothers seemed inevitable,when the powerful nobles on both sides, who had seen so much of war,interfered to prevent it. A treaty was made. Each of the two brothersagreed to give up something of his claims, and that the longer-liver ofthe two should inherit all the dominions of the other. When they hadcome to this loving understanding, they embraced and joined their forcesagainst Fine-Scholar; who had bought some territory of Robert with a partof his five thousand pounds, and was considered a dangerous individual inconsequence.
St. Michael's Mount, in Normandy (there is another St. Michael's Mount,in Cornwall, wonderfully like it), was then, as it is now, a strong placeperched upon the top of a high rock, around which, when the tide is in,the sea flows, leaving no road to the mainland. In this place,Fine-Scholar shut himself up with his soldiers, and here he was closelybesieged by his two brothers. At one time, when he was reduced to greatdistress for want of water, the generous Robert not only permitted hismen to get water, but sent Fine-Scholar wine from his own table; and, onbeing remonstrated with by the Red King, said 'What! shall we let our ownbrother die of thirst? Where shall we get another, when he is gone?' Atanother time, the Red King riding alone on the shore of the bay, lookingup at the Castle, was taken by two of Fine-Scholar's men, one of whom wasabout to kill him, when he cried out, 'Hold, knave! I am the King ofEngland!' The story says that the soldier raised him from the groundrespectfully and humbly, and that the King took him into his service. Thestory may or may not be true; but at any rate it is true thatFine-Scholar could not hold out against his united brothers, and that heabandoned Mount St. Michael, and wandered about--as poor and forlorn asother scholars have been sometimes known to be.
The Scotch became unquiet in the Red King's time, and were twicedefeated--the second time, with the loss of their King, Malcolm, and hisson. The Welsh became unquiet too. Against them, Rufus was lesssuccessful; for they fought among their native mountains, and did greatexecution on the King's troops. Robert of Normandy became unquiet too;and, complaining that his brother the King did not faithfully perform hispart of their agreement, took up arms, and obtained assistance from theKing of France, whom Rufus, in the end, bought off with vast sums ofmoney. England became unquiet too. Lord Mowbray, the powerful Earl ofNorthumberland, headed a great conspiracy to depose the King, and toplace upon the throne, STEPHEN, the Conqueror's near relative. The plotwas discovered; all the chief conspirators were seized; some were fined,some were put in prison, some were put to death. The Earl ofNorthumberland himself was shut up in a dungeon beneath Windsor Castle,where he died, an old man, thirty long years afterwards. The Priests inEngland were more unquiet than any other class or power; for the Red Kingtreated them with such small ceremony that he refused to appoint newbishops or archbishops when the old ones died, but kept all the wealthbelonging to those offices in his own hands. In return for this, thePriests wrote his life when he was dead, and abused him well. I aminclined to think, myself, that there was little to choose between thePriests and the Red King; that both sides were greedy and designing; andthat they were fairly matched.
The Red King was false of heart, selfish, covetous, and mean. He had aworthy minister in his favourite, Ralph, nicknamed--for almost everyfamous person had a nickname in those rough days--Flambard, or theFirebrand. Once, the King being ill, became penitent, and made ANSELM, aforeign priest and a good man, Archbishop of Canterbury. But he nosooner got well again than he repented of his repentance, and persistedin wrongfully keeping to himself some of the wealth belonging to thearchbishopric. This led to violent disputes, which were aggravated bythere being in Rome at that time two rival Popes; each of whom declaredhe was the only real original infallible Pope, who couldn't make amistake. At last, Anselm, knowing the Red King's character, and notfeeling himself safe in England, asked leave to return abroad. The RedKing gladly gave it; for he knew that as soon as Anselm was gone, hecould begin to store up all the Canterbury money again, for his own use.
By such means, and by taxing and oppressing the English people in everypossible way, the Red King became very rich. When he wanted money forany purpose, he raised it by some means or other, and cared nothing forthe injustice he did, or the misery he caused. Having the opportunity ofbuying from Robert the whole duchy of Normandy for five years, he taxedthe English people more than ever, and made the very convents sell theirplate and valuables to supply him with the means to make the purchase.But he was as quick and eager in putting down revolt as he was in raisingmoney; for, a part of the Norman people objecting--very naturally, Ithink--to being sold in this way, he headed an army against them with allthe speed and energy of his father. He was so impatient, that heembarked for Normandy in a great gale of wind. And when the sailors toldhim it was dangerous to go to sea in such angry weather, he replied,'Hoist sail and away! Did you ever hear of a king who was drowned?'
You will wonder how it was that even the careless Robert came to sell hisdominions. It happened thus. It had long been the custom for manyEnglish people to make journeys to Jerusalem, which were calledpilgrimages, in order that they might pray beside the tomb of Our Saviourthere. Jerusalem belonging to the Turks, and the Turks hatingChristianity, these Christian travellers were often insulted and illused. The Pilgrims bore it patiently for some time, but at length aremarkable man, of great earnestness and eloquence, called PETER THEHERMIT, began to preach in various places against the Turks, and todeclare that it was the duty of good Christians to drive away thoseunbelievers from the tomb of Our Saviour, and to take possession of it,and protect it. An excitement such as the world had never known beforewas created. Thousands and thousands of men of all ranks and conditionsdeparted for Jerusalem to make war against the Turks. The war is calledin history the first Crusade, and every Crusader wore a cross marked onhis right shoulder.
All the Crusaders were not zealous Christians. Among them were vastnumbers of the restless, idle, profligate, and adventurous spirit of thetime. Some became Crusaders for the love of change; some, in the hope ofplunder; some, because they had nothing to do at home; some, because theydid what the priests told them; some, because they liked to see foreigncountries; some, because they were fond of knocking men about, and wouldas soon knock a Turk about as a Christian. Robert of Normandy may havebeen influenced by all these motives; and by a kind desire, besides, tosave the Christian Pilgrims from bad treatment in future. He wanted toraise a number of armed men, and to go to the Crusade. He could not doso without money. He had no money; and he sold his dominions to hisbrother, the Red King, for five years. With the large sum he thusobtained, he fitted out his Crusaders gallantly, and went away toJerusalem in martial state. The Red King, who made money out ofeverything, stayed at home, busily squeezing more money out of Normansand English.
After three years of great hardship and suffering--from shipwreck at sea;from travel in strange lands; from hunger, thirst, and fever, upon theburning sands of the desert; and from the fury of the Turks--the valiantCrusaders got possession of Our Saviour's tomb. The Turks were stillresisting and fighting bravely, but this success increased the generaldesire in Europe to join the Crusade. Another great French Duke wasproposing to sell his dominions for a term to the rich Red King, when theRed King's reign came to a sudden and violent end.
You have not forgotten the New Forest which the Conqueror made, and whichthe miserable people whose homes he had laid waste, so hated. Thecruelty of the Forest Laws, and the torture and death they brought uponthe peasantry, increased this hatred. The poor persecuted country peoplebelieved that the New Forest was enchanted. They said that in thunder-storms, and on dark nights, demons appeared, moving beneath the branchesof the gloomy trees. They said that a terrible spectre had foretold toNorman hunters that the Red King should be punished there. And now, inthe pleasant season of May, when the Red King had reigned almost thirteenyears; and a second Prince of the Conqueror's blood--another Richard, theson of Duke Robert--was killed by an arrow in this dreaded Forest; thepeople said that the second time was not the last, and that there wasanother death to come.
It was a lonely forest, accursed in the people's hearts for the wickeddeeds that had been done to make it; and no man save the King and hisCourtiers and Huntsmen, liked to stray there. But, in reality, it waslike any other forest. In the spring, the green leaves broke out of thebuds; in the summer, flourished heartily, and made deep shades; in thewinter, shrivelled and blew down, and lay in brown heaps on the moss.Some trees were stately, and grew high and strong; some had fallen ofthemselves; some were felled by the forester's axe; some were hollow, andthe rabbits burrowed at their roots; some few were struck by lightning,and stood white and bare. There were hill-sides covered with rich fern,on which the morning dew so beautifully sparkled; there were brooks,where the deer went down to drink, or over which the whole herd bounded,flying from the arrows of the huntsmen; there were sunny glades, andsolemn places where but little light came through the rustling leaves.The songs of the birds in the New Forest were pleasanter to hear than theshouts of fighting men outside; and even when the Red King and his Courtcame hunting through its solitudes, cursing loud and riding hard, with ajingling of stirrups and bridles and knives and daggers, they did muchless harm there than among the English or Normans, and the stags died (asthey lived) far easier than the people.
Upon a day in August, the Red King, now reconciled to his brother, Fine-Scholar, came with a great train to hunt in the New Forest. Fine-Scholarwas of the party. They were a merry party, and had lain all night atMalwood-Keep, a hunting-lodge in the forest, where they had made goodcheer, both at supper and breakfast, and had drunk a deal of wine. Theparty dispersed in various directions, as the custom of hunters then was.The King took with him only SIR WALTER TYRREL, who was a famoussportsman, and to whom he had given, before they mounted horse thatmorning, two fine arrows.
The last time the King was ever seen alive, he was riding with Sir WalterTyrrel, and their dogs were hunting together.
It was almost night, when a poor charcoal-burner, passing through theforest with his cart, came upon the solitary body of a dead man, shotwith an arrow in the breast, and still bleeding. He got it into hiscart. It was the body of the King. Shaken and tumbled, with its redbeard all whitened with lime and clotted with blood, it was driven in thecart by the charcoal-burner next day to Winchester Cathedral, where itwas received and buried.
Sir Walter Tyrrel, who escaped to Normandy, and claimed the protection ofthe King of France, swore in France that the Red King was suddenly shotdead by an arrow from an unseen hand, while they were hunting together;that he was fearful of being suspected as the King's murderer; and thathe instantly set spurs to his horse, and fled to the sea-shore. Othersdeclared that the King and Sir Walter Tyrrel were hunting in company, alittle before sunset, standing in bushes opposite one another, when astag came between them. That the King drew his bow and took aim, but thestring broke. That the King then cried, 'Shoot, Walter, in the Devil'sname!' That Sir Walter shot. That the arrow glanced against a tree, wasturned aside from the stag, and struck the King from his horse, dead.
By whose hand the Red King really fell, and whether that hand despatchedthe arrow to his breast by accident or by design, is only known to GOD.Some think his brother may have caused him to be killed; but the Red Kinghad made so many enemies, both among priests and people, that suspicionmay reasonably rest upon a less unnatural murderer. Men know no morethan that he was found dead in the New Forest, which the suffering peoplehad regarded as a doomed ground for his race.