The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 16/The Reign of William Rufus
THE REIGN OF
AT the time of the Conqueror's death, his eldest son Robert, upon some discontent with his father, being absent in France; William the second son, made use of this juncture, and without attending his father's funeral, hastened, to England; where, pursuant to the will of the deceased prince, the nobility, although more inclined to favour Robert, were prevailed with to admit him king; partly by his promises to abate the rigour of the late reign, and restore the laws and liberties which had been then abolished, but chiefly by the credit and solicitations of Lanfranc; for that prelate had formerly a share in his education, and always a great affection, for his person. At Winchester he took possession of his father's treasure[1]: in obedience to whose command, as well as to ingratiate himself with the people, he distributed it among churches and religious houses, and applied it to the redeeming of prisoners, and other acts of popularity.
In the mean time Robert returned to Normandy, took possession of that duchy, with great applause and content of his people; and, spited at the indignity done him by his father, and the usurpation of his brother in consequence thereof, prepared a great fleet and army to invade England; nor did there want any occasion to promote his interest, if the slowness, the softness, and credulity of his nature, could have suffered him to make a right improvement of it.
Odo bishop of Baieux, of whom frequent mention is made in the preceding reign, a prelate of incurable ambition, either on account of his age or character being restored to his liberty and possessions in England, grew into envy and discontent, upon seeing Lanfranc preferred before him by the new king in his favour and ministry. He therefore formed a conspiracy with several nobles of Norman birth to depose the king, and sent an invitation to Robert to hasten over. Mean time the conspirators in order to distract the king's forces, seized on several parts of England at once; Bristol, Norwich, Leicester, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Bath, and Durham, were secured by several noblemen: Odo himself seized Rochester, reduced the coasts of Kent, and sent messages to Robert to make all possible speed.
The king, alarmed at these many and sudden defections, thought it his best course to begin his defence by securing the good will of the people. He redressed many grievances, eased them of certain oppressive taxes and tributes, gave liberty to hunt in his forest, with other marks of indulgence, which, however forced from him by the necessity of the time, he had the skill or fortune so to order as they neither lost their good grace nor effect; for immediately after he raised great forces both by land and sea, marched into Kent, where the chief body of his enemies was in arms, recovered Tunbridge and Pevensey, in the latter of which Odo himself was taken prisoner, and forced to accompany the king to Rochester. This city refusing to surrender at the king's summons, Odo undertook to prevail with the obstinacy of the inhabitants; but being admitted into the town, was there detained, either by a real or seeming force; however, the king provoked at their stubbornness and fraud, soon compelled them to yield, retook his prisoner, and forcing him for ever to abjure England, sent him into Normandy.
By these actions, performed with such great celerity and success, the preparations of duke Robert were wholly disappointed; himself, by the necessity of his affairs, compelled to a treaty with his brother, upon the terms of a small pension, and a mutual promise of succeeding to each other's dominions on failure of issue, forced to resign his pretensions, and return with a shattered fleet to Normandy.
About this time died archbishop Lanfranc; by whose death, the king, loosed from that awe and constraint he was under, soon began to discover those irregularities of his nature, which till then he had suppressed and disguised, falling into those acts of opppression and extortion that have made his name and memory infamous. He kept the see of Canterbury four years vacant, and converted the revenues to his own use, together with those of several other bishopricks and abbeys, and disposed of all church preferments to the highest bidder. Nor were his exactions less upon the laity, from whom he continually extorted exorbitant fines for pretended transgression of certain penal laws, and entertained informers to observe men's actions, and bring him intelligence.
It is here worth observation, that these corrupt proceedings of the prince have, in the opinion of several learned men, given rise to two customs, which are a long time grown to have the force of laws. For, first the successors of this king, continuing the custom of seizing on the accruing rents in the vacancy of sees and abbeys, it grew in process of time to be exacted as a right or acknowledgment to the king as founder; whence the revenues of vacant bishopricks belong at this day to the crown. The second custom had an original not unlike. Several persons, to avoid the persecutions of the king's informers, and other instruments of oppression, withdrew themselves and their effects to foreign countries; upon which the king issued a proclamation, forbidding all men to leave the kingdom without his licences from whence, in the judgment of the same authors, the writ ne exeat regno had its beginning.
By these, and the like arbitrary methods, having amassed great treasures, and finding all things quiet at home, he raised a powerful army to invade his brother in Normandy; but upon what ground or pretext, the writers of that age are not very exact; whether it were from a principle frequent among unjust princes, That old oppressions are best justified by new; or, whether having a talent for sudden enterprises, and justly apprehending the resentment of duke Robert, he thought it the wiser course to prevent injuries, than to revenge them. In this expedition he took several cities and castles from his brother, and would have proceeded farther, if Robert had not desired and obtained the assistance of Philip king of France, who came with an army to his relief. King William, not thinking it safe or prudent to proceed farther against his enemy, supported by so great an ally, yet loth to lose the fruits of his time and valour, fell upon a known and old expedient, which no prince ever practised oftener, or with greater success, and that was, to buy off the French king with a sum of money. This had its effect; for that prince, not able to oppose such powerful arms, immediately withdrew himself and his forces, leaving the two brothers to concert the measures of a peace.
This was treated and agreed with great advantages on the side of king William; for he kept all the towns he had taken, obliged his brother to banish Edgar Atheling out of Normandy, and for a farther security brought over with him to England the duke himself to attend him in his expedition against Malcolm king of Scotland, who, during his absence, had invaded the borders. The king, having raised great forces both by sea and land, went in person to repel the inroads of the Scots; but the enterprise was without success; for the greatest part of his fleet was destroyed by a tempest, and his army very much diminished by sickness and famine, which forced him to a peace of little honour; by which, upon the condition of homage from that prince, the king of England agreed to deliver him up those twelve towns (or manors) in England which Malcolm had held under William the Conqueror; together with a pension of twelve thousand marks.
At this time were sown the seeds of another quarrel between him and duke Robert, who soliciting the king to perform some covenants of the last peace, and meeting with a repulse, withdrew in great discontent to Normandy.
King William, in his return from Scotland, fell dangerously sick at Glocester, where, moved by the seasonable exhortations of his clergy, or rather by the fears of dying, he began to discover great marks of repentance, with many promises of amendment and retribution, particularly for his injuries to the church. To give credit to which good resolutions, he immediately filled several vacant sees, giving that of Canterbury to Anselm, a foreigner of great fame for piety and learning. But as it is the disposition of men who derive their vices from their complexions, that their passions usually beat strong and weak with their pulses, so it fared with this prince; who upon recovery of his health, soon forgot the vows he had made in his sickness, relapsing with greater violence into the same irregularities of injustice and oppression, whereof Anselm, the new Archbishop, felt the first effects. This prelate, soon after his promotion, offered the king a sum of money by way of present; but took care it should be so small, that none might interpret it to be a consideration of his late preferment. The king rejected it with scorn; and as he used but little ceremony in such matters, insisted in plain terms for more. Anselm would not comply; and the king enraged, sought all occasions to make him uneasy; until at length the poor archbishop, tired out with perpetual usurpations (or at least what was then understood to be such) upon his jurisdiction, privileges, and possessions, desired the king's licence for a journey to Rome; and upon a refusal, went without it. As soon as he was withdrawn, the king seized on all his revenues, converting them to his own use, and the archbishop continued an exile until the succeeding reign.
The particulars of this quarrel between the king and archbishop, are not, in my opinion, considerable enough to deserve a place in this brief collection, being of little use to posterity, and of less entertainment; neither should I have mentioned it at all, but for the occasion it gives me of making a general observation, which may afford some light into the nature and disposition of those ages. Not only this king's father and himself, but the princes for several successions, of the fairest character, have been severally taxed for violating the rights of the clergy, and perhaps not altogether without reason. It is true, this character has made the lighter impression, as proceeding altogether from the party injured, the contemporary writers being generally churchmen: and it must be confessed, that the usurpations of the church and court of Rome, were in those ages risen to such heights, as to be altogether inconsistent either with the legislature or administration of any independent state; the inferiour clergy, both secular and regular, insisting upon such immunities as wholly exempted them from the civil power; and the bishops removing all controversies with the crown by appeal to Rome: for they reduced the matter to this short issue, That God was to be obeyed rather than men; and consequently the bishop of Rome, who is Christ's representative, rather than an earthly prince. Neither does it seem improbable, that all Christendom would have been in utter vassalage, both temporal and spiritual, to the Roman see, if the Reformation had not put a stop to those exorbitancies, and in a good measure opened the eyes of those princes and states, who still adhere to the doctrines and discipline of the church.
While the king continued at Gloucester, Malcolm king of Scotland came to his court, with intentions to settle and confirm the late peace between them. It happened that a controversy arose about some circumstances relating to the homage which Malcolm was to pay; in the managing whereof king William discovered so much haughtiness and disdain, both in words and gestures, that the Scottish prince, provoked by such unworthy treatment, returned home with indignation; but soon came back at the head of a powerful army, and, entering Northumberland with fire and sword, laid all waste before him. But as all enterprises have in the progress of them a tincture of those passions by which they were spirited at first, so this invasion, begun upon private revenge, which is a blind ungovernable passion, was carried on with equal precipitation, and proved to be ruinous in the event; for Robert Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, to prevent the destruction of his own country where he had great possessions, gathering what forces he could suddenly raise, and without waiting any directions from the king, marched against the Scots, who were then set down before Alnwick castle: there, by an ambush, Malcolm and his eldest son Edward were slain, and the army, discouraged by the loss of their princes, entirely defeated. This disaster was followed in a few days by the death of queen Margaret, who, not able to survive her misfortunes, died for grief. Neither did the miseries of that kingdom end, till, after two usurpations, the surviving son of Malcolm, who had fled to England for refuge, was restored to his crown by the assistance of king William.
About this time the hidden sparks of animosity between the two brothers, buried, but not extinguished, in the last peace, began to flame out into new dissensions: duke Robert had often sent his complaints to the king for breach of articles, but without redress; which provoked him to expostulate in a rougher manner, till at length he charged the king in plain terms with injustice and perjury; but no men are found to endure reproaches with less temper than those who most deserve them: the king, at the same time filled with indignation, and stung with guilt, invaded Normandy a second time, resolving to reduce his brother to such terms as might stop all farther complaints. He had already taken several strong holds, by force either of arms or of money, and intending intirely to subdue the duchy, gave orders to have twenty thousand men immediately raised in England, and sent over to him. The duke, to defend himself against these formidable preparations, had recourse again to his old ally the king of France, who very readily advanced with an army to his assistance, as an action wherein he could every way find his own account; for, beside the appearance of glory and justice by protecting the injured, he fought indeed his own battle, by preserving his neighbouring state in the hands of a peaceful prince, from so powerful and restless an enemy as the king of England; and was largely paid for his trouble into the bargain: for king William, either loth to engage in a long and dangerous war, or hastened back by intelligence of some troubles from Wales, sent officers to his army, just ready to embark for Normandy, that upon payment of ten shillings a man they might have leave to return to their own homes. This bargain was generally accepted; the money was paid to the king of France, who immediately withdrew his troops; and king William, now master of the conditions, forced his brother to a peace upon much harder terms than before.
In this passage there are some circumstances which may appear odd, and unaccountable to those who will not give due allowance for the difference of times and manners; that an absent prince, engaged in an unjust war with his own brother, and ill-beloved at home, should have so much power and credit, as by his commisslon to raise twenty thousand men on a sudden, only as a recruit to the army he had already with him; that he should have a fleet prepared ready, and large enough to transport so great a number; that upon the very point of embarking he should send them so disgraceful an offer; and that so great a number of common soldiers should be able and willing to pay such a sum of money, equal to at least twelve times as much in our times, and that after being thus deluded and spoiled at once, they should peaceably disband and retire to their several homes. But all this will be less difficult to comprehend, when we reflect on the method of raising and supporting armies, very different from ours, which was then in use, and so continued for many ages after. All men who had lands in capite were bound to attend the king in his wars, with a proportioned number of soldiers, who were their tenants on easy rents in consideration of military service. This was but the work of a few days, and the troops consisted of such men as were able to maintain their own charges either at home or abroad: neither was there any reason to apprehend that soldiers would ever become instruments for introducing slavery, who held so great a share in the property.
The king, upon his return from Normandy, made an unsuccessful expedition against the Welsh, who upon the advantages of his absence had, according to their usual custom, made cruel inroads upon the adjoining counties of Chester, Shrewsbury, and Hereford. Upon the king's approach they fled into their fastnesses among the mountains, where he pursued them for some time with great rage and vexation, as well as the loss of great numbers of his men, to no purpose. From hence he was recalled by a more formidable enemy nearer home: for Robert, earl of Northumberland, overrating his late services against the Scots, as much perhaps and as unjustly as they were undervalued by the king, refused to come to his court, which, in those days, was looked on as the first usual mark of discontent in a nobleman; and was often charged by princes as a formal accusation. The earl having disobeyed the king's summons, and concerted matters with other accomplices, broke out into open rebellion, with intentions to depose king William, and set up Stephen earl of Albemarle, son of a sister to William the Conqueror: but all was prevented by the celerity of this active prince; who, knowing that insurrections are best quelled in their beginnings, marched with incredible speed, and surprised the rebels at Newcastle, took the castles of Tinmouth and Bamburgh; where the obstinacy of the defendants provoked him, contrary to his nature, to commit cruelties upon their persons, by cutting off their hands and ears, and other the like inhumanities. The earl himself was taken prisoner as he endeavoured to make his escape; but suffered no other punishment than to be confined for the rest of his life[2].
About this time began the Holy War for the recovering of Palestine; which having not been the enterprise of any one prince or state, but that wherein most in Christendom had a share, it cannot with justice be silently passed over in the history of any nation.
Pope Urban the second, in a council at Clermont, made a pathetick exhortation, showing with what danger and indignity to Christendom, the Turks and Saracens had, for some ages, not only overrun all Asia and Africa, where Christianity had long flourished; but had also made encroachments into Europe, where they had entirely subdued Spain, and some other parts; that Jerusalem, the holy city, where our Saviour did so many miracles, and where his sepulchre still remained, to the scandal of the Christian name, lay groaning under the tyranny of infidels; that the swords which Christian princes had drawn against each other, ought to be turned against the common enemy of their name and religion; that this should be reckoned an ample satisfaction for all their past sins; that those who died in this expedition should immediately go to Heaven, and the survivors would be blessed with the sight of our Lord's sepulchre.
Moved by these arguments, and the influence of the person who delivered them, several nobles and prelates immediately took upon them the cross; and the council dissolving in this high fit of zeal, the clergy, upon their return home, prevailed so far in their several countries, that in most parts of Europe some great prince or lord became a votary for the Holy Land; as Hugh the Great, brother to the king of France; Godfrey duke of Lorrain; Reimond count of Toulouse; Robert duke of Normandy, and many others. Neither ought it to be forgotten, that most of these noble and generous princes, wanting money to maintain the forces they had raised, pawned their dominions to those very prelates who had first engaged them in this enterprise: doubtless a notable mark of the force of oratory in the churchmen of those ages, who were able to inspire that devotion into others, whereof they seemed so little sensible themselves.
But a great share in the honour of promoting this religious war, is attributed to the zeal and industry of a certain French priest, commonly called Peter the Hermit; who being at Jerusalem upon pilgrimage some time before, and entering often into private treaty with the patriarch of that city, came back fully instructed in all the measures necessary for such a war: to these was joined the artifice of certain dreams and visions that might pass for divine admonition: all which, added to the piety of his exhortations, gave him such credit with the pope, and several princes of Christendom, that he became in his own person the leader of a great army against the infidels, and was very instrumental for engaging, many others in the same design.
What a spirit was thus raised in Christendom among all sorts of men, cannot better be conceived than from the vast numbers of these warlike pilgrims; who, at the siege of Nice, are said to have consisted of 600,000 foot, and 1000,000 horse: and the success at first was answerable to the greatness of their numbers, the valour of their leaders, and the universal opinion of such a cause; for, beside several famous victories in the field, not to mention the towns of less importance, they took Nice, Antioch, and at last Jerusalem, where duke Godfrey was chosen king without competition. But zeal, with a mixture of enthusiasm, as I take this to have been, is a composition only fit for sudden enterprises, like a great ferment in the blood, giving double courage and strength for the time, until it sink and settle by nature into its old channel: for, in a few years, the piety of these adventurers began to slacken, and give way to faction and envy, the natural corruptions of all confederacies: however, to this spirit of devotion there succeeded a spirit of honour, which long continued the vein and humour of the times; and the Holy Land became either a school, wherein young princes went to learn the art of war; or a scene wherein they affected to show their valour, and gain reputation, when they were weary of peace at home.
The Christians held possession of Jerusalem above eighty years, and continued their expeditions to the Holy Land almost as many more, with various events; and after they were entirely driven out of Asia, the popes have almost in every age endeavoured in vain to promote new croisadoes; neither does this spirit seem quite extinct among us even to this day; the usual projects of sanguine men for uniting Christendom against the Turk, being without doubt a traditional way of talk derived to us from the same fountain.
Robert, in order to furnish himself out for this war, pawned his duchy to the king for 10,000 marks of gold[3]; which sum was levied with so many circumstances of rigour and exaction, toward the church and laity, as very much increased the discontents of both against the prince.
1099. I shall record one act of this king's, which being chiefly personal, may pass rather for a part of his character, than a point of history.
As he was hunting one day in the New Forest, a messenger express from Normandy, brought him intelligence that Helie, count de la Fleche, had laid close siege to Mans, and expected to carry the town in a few days. The king leaving his chace, commanded some about him to point whereabout Mans lay; and so rode straight on without reflection, until he came to the coast. His attendants advised him to wait until he had made preparations of men and money; to which he only returned: "They that love me will follow me." He entered the ship in a violent storm; which the mariners beholding with astonishment, at length in great humility gave him warning of the danger; but the king commanded them instantly to put off to sea, and not be afraid; for he had never in his life heard of any king that was drowned. In a few days he drove the enemy from before the city, and took the count himself prisoner; who, raging at his defeat and captivity, exclaimed[4], "That this blow was from Fortune; but Valour could make reprisals, as he should show, if ever he regained his liberty." This being told the king, he sent for the count, let him understand that he had heard of his menaces; then gave him a fine horse, bid him begone immediately, and defied him to do his worst.
It would have been an injury to this prince's memory, to let pass an action, by which he acquired more honour than from, any other in his life, and by which it appeared that he was not without some seeds of magnanimity, had they been better cultivated, or not overrun by the number or prevalency of his vices.
I have met with nothing else in this king's reign that deserved to be remembered; for; as to an unsuccessful expedition or two against Wales, either by himself or his generals, they were very inconsiderable both in action and event, nor attended with any circumstances that might render a relation of them of any use to posterity, either for instruction or example.
His death was violent and unexpected, the effect of casualty; although this perhaps is the only misfortune of life to which the person of a prince is generally less subject than that of other men. Being at his beloved exercise of hunting, in the New Forest in Hampshire, a large stag crossed the way before him; the king, hot on his game, cried out in haste to Walter Tyrrel, a knight of his attendants, to shoot; Tyrrel immediately let fly his arrow, which glancing against a tree, struck the king through the heart, who fell dead to the ground without speaking a word. Upon the surprise of this accident, all his attendants, and Tyrrel among the rest, fled different ways; until the fright being a little over, some of them returned; and causing the body to be laid in a collier's cart, for want of other conveniency, conveyed it in a very unbecoming contemptuous manner to Winchester, where it was buried the next day without solemnity; and which is worse, without grief.
I shall conclude the history of this prince's reign, with a description and character of his body and mind, impartially, from the collections I have made; which method I shall observe likewise in all the succeeding reigns.
He was in stature somewhat below the usual size, and big-bellied; but he was well and strongly knit. His hair was yellow or sandy; his face red, which got him the name of Rufus; his forehead flat; his eyes were spotted, and appeared of different colours; he was apt to stutter in speaking, especially when he was angry; he was vigorous and active, and very hardy to endure ratigues, which he owed to a good constitution of health, and the frequent exercise of hunting; in his dress he affected gayety and expense, which having been first introduced by this prince into his court and kingdom, grew, in succeeding reigns, an intolerable grievance. He also first brought in among us the luxury and profusion of great tables. There was in him, as in all other men, a mixture of virtues and vices, and that in a pretty equal degree; only the misfortune was, that the latter, although not more numerous, were yet much more prevalent than the former. For, being entirely a man of pleasure, this made him sacrifice all his good qualities, and gave him too many occasions of producing his ill ones. He had one very singular virtue for a prince, which was that of being true to his word and promise; he was of undoubted personal valour, whereof the waiters in those ages produce several instances; nor did he want skill and conduct in the process of war. But, his peculiar excellency, was that of great dispatch; which, however usually decried, and allowed to be only a happy temerity, does often answer all the ends of secrecy and counsel in a great commander, by surprising and daunting an enemy when he least expects it; as may appear by the greatest actions and events upon the records of every nation.
He was a man of sound natural sense, as well as of wit and humour, upon occasion. There were several tenets in the Romish church he could not digest; particularly that of the saints' intercession; and living in an age overrun with superstition, he went so far into the other extreme, as to be censured for an atheist. The day before his death, a monk relating a terrible dream, which seemed to forebode him some misfortune, the king being told the matter, turned it into a jest; said, The man was a monk, and dreamt like a monk, for lucre sake; and therefore commanded Fitzhamon to give him a hundred shillings, that he might not complain he had dreamt to no purpose.
His vices appear to have been rather derived from the temper of his body, than any original depravity of his mind; for, being of a sanguine complexion, wholly bent upon his pleasures, and prodigal in his nature, he became engaged in great expenses. To supply these, the people were perpetually oppressed with illegal taxes and exactions; but that sort of avarice which arises from prodigality and vice, as it is always needy, so it is much more ravenous and violent than the other; which put the king and his evil instruments (among whom Ralph, bishop of Durham, is of special infamy) upon those pernicious methods of gratifying his extravagances by all manner of oppression; whereof some are already mentioned, and others are too foul to relate. He is generally taxed by writers for discovering a contempt of religion in his common discourse and behaviour; which I take to have risen from the same fountain, being a point of art, and a known expedient for men who cannot quit their immoralities, at least to banish all reflection that may disturb them in the enjoyment, which must be done either by not thinking of religion at all; or, if it will obtrude, by putting it out of countenance.
Yet there is one instance that might show him to have some sense of religion as well as justice. When two monks were outvying each other in canting the price of an abbey, he observed a third at some distance, who said never a word; the king demanded why he would not offer; the monk said, he was poor, and besides, would give nothing if he were ever so rich; the king replied, then you are the fittest person to have it, and immediately gave it him. But this is, perhaps with reason enough, assigned more to caprice than conscience; for he was under the power of every humour and passion that possessed him for the present; which made him obstinate in his resolves, and unsteady in the prosecution.
He had one vice or folly that seemed rooted in his mind, and of all others, most unbefitting a prince; This was a proud disdainful manner, both in his words and gesture: and having already lost the love of his subjects by his avarice and oppression, this finished the work, by bringing him into contempt and hatred among his servants, so that few among the worst of princes have had the luck to be so ill-beloved, or so little lamented.
He never married, having an invincible abhorrence for the state, although not for the sex.
He died in the thirteenth year of his reign, the forty-third of his age, and of Christ 1100, August 2.
His works of piety were few, but in buildings he was very expensive, exceeding any king of England before or since; among which Westminster-Hall, Windsor castle, the tower of London, and the whole city of Carlisle, remain lasting monuments of his magnificence.
- ↑ Which was sixty thousand pounds in silver, beside gold, jewels, and plate. Brompton.
- ↑ Which was thirty years.
- ↑ Equal to 1,400,400l. as money passes now.
- ↑ There is so much pleasantry and humour, as well as spirit and heroism in this story, as we have it recorded by William de Malmesbury, who represents the menace as thrown out in the king's presence, that I shall make no apology for setting down his words at length. "Author turbarum Helias capitur; cui ad se adducto rex ludibundus, 'Habeo te, magister, inquit.' At ille, cujus alta nobilitas nesciret etiam in tanto periculo sapere; 'Fortuitò inquit, me cepisti: si possum evadere, novi quid facerem.' Tunc Willielmus, præ furore ferè extra se profitus, & obtuens Heliam, 'Tu inquir, nebulo, tu quid faceres! Discede; abi; fuge. Concedo tibi ut facias quicquid poteris: et per vultum de Luca, "nihil si me viceris, nihil pro hac veniâ tecum paciscar." i.e. By the face of St. Luke, if thou shouldst have the fortune to conquer me, I scorn to compound with thee for my release.