to be built at Champigny-sur-Veude, which, by the way, Bartholomew seized and set on fire, taking the garrison prisoners.
Fulk was incapable of resisting so many rebels. Following the example of Philip I, he handed over his military powers to his son, Geoffrey Martel the Younger. Zealous, feared by the barons, in sympathy with churchmen, the young count entered boldly on the struggle with those who still held out. With his father he took La Chartre and burnt Thouars, and was about to lay siege to Candé. But he was killed in 1106, and with him disappeared the only man who might have proved a serious obstacle to baronial independence.
In the other provinces the situation seems to have been almost the same. In Normandy, on the accession of William the Bastard, the mutterings of revolt were heard. Defeated at Val-es-Dunes in 1047, the rebels were forced to submit, but on the smallest opportunity fresh defections occurred. Shut up in their castles, the rebellious vassals defied their sovereign. The revolt of William Busac, lord of Eu, about 1048, and above all, that of William of Arques in 1053 are, in this respect, thoroughly characteristic. The latter fortified himself on a height and awaited, unmoved, the arrival of the ducal army. It attempted in vain to storm his fortress; its position was inaccessible, and the duke was obliged to abandon the idea of taking it by force. In the end, however, he reduced it, because the King of France, hastening up to the relief of the rebel, allowed himself to be deplorably defeated. William of Arques, however, held out to the very last extremity and stood a siege of several weeks before he was reduced by famine.
In 1077, it was Robert Curthose, William the Conqueror's own son, who gave the signal for revolt. This spendthrift complained of want of money. "I have not even the means," he said to his father, "of giving largesse to my vassals. I have had enough of being in thy pay. I am determined now at length to enter into possession of my inheritance, so that I may reward my followers." He demanded that the Norman duchy should be handed over to him, to be held as a fief under his father. Enraged at the refusal he received, he abruptly quitted the Conqueror's court, drawing after him the lords of Bellême, Breteuil, Montbrai and Moulins-la-Marche, and wandered through France in quest of allies and succours. Finally he shut himself up in the castle of Gerberoy, in the Beauvaisis but on the borders of Normandy[1], welcoming all the discontented who came to him, and fortified in his donjon, he bade defiance to the wrath of his father. Once again a whole army had to be levied to subdue him. Philip I of France was called on to lend his aid. But the two allied kings met with the most desperate resistance; for three weeks they tried in vain to take the place by surprise. Robert, in the end, made a sortie; William the Conqueror, thrown from the
- ↑ See supra, p. 112.
