[665] Chron. Petrib. 1090. “Se cyng Willelm of Englalande sende to Philippe Francena cynge, and he for his lufan oððe for his mycele gersuma, forlet swa his man þone eorl Rodbeard and his land, and ferde ongean to France, and let heom swa weorðan.” The spirit is lost in the Latin of Florence; “Quod cum regi Willelmo nuntiatum esset, non modica pecuniæ quantitati regi Philippo occulte transmissa, ut obsidione dimissa, domum rediret, flagitavit et imperavit.”
[666] Will. Malms. iv. 307. “Occurrerunt magna pollicenti nummi regis Angliæ, quibus infractus cingulum solvit et convivium repetiit.”
[667] Macaulay, Hist. Eng. iv. 265. “The Elector of Saxony … had, together with a strong appetite for subsidies, a great desire to be a member of the most select and illustrious orders of knighthood.” For this last passion there was as yet no room, but William Rufus did a good deal towards bringing about the state of things in which it arose.
[668] N. C. vol. ii. p. 318.
[669] So are the Norman reigns of Geoffrey Plantagenet and his son Henry. But their position in Normandy was quite different from Robert’s, while they claimed England in quite a different sense from the claims of Robert, and had—the son at least had—partisans there.
[670] N. C. vol. v. pp. 85, 95, 96.
[671] The character of this Count Geoffrey (son of the Rotrou who figures in the war of the Conqueror and his son, N. C. vol. iv. pp. 637, 639) as drawn by Orderic (675 D; see above, [p. 183]) is worth studying; “Erat idem consul magnanimus, corpore pulcher, et callidus, timens Deum et ecclesiæ cultor devotus, clericorum pauperumque Dei defensor strenuus, in pace quietus et amabilis, bonisque pollebat moribus.” Yet he was also “in bello gravis et fortunatus, finitimisque intolerabilis regibus et inimicus [cis?] omnibus.” Moreover “multas villas combussit multasque prædas hominesque adduxit.” The truth is that the curse of private warfare drew the best men, no less than the worst, into the common whirlpool; and, once in arms, they could not keep back their followers from the usual excesses, even if any such thought occurred to themselves. Cf. Ord. Vit. 890 B for another mention of Geoffrey.
[673] Ord. Vit. 685 A, B. This Gilbert is son of Eginulf, who died at Senlac (N. C. vol. iii. p. 503, note), and brother of Richer, who died before Sainte-Susanne (N. C. vol. iv. p. 659). His sister Matilda married Robert of Mowbray.
[674] Ib. 684 D, 685 C, D; Will. Gem. viii. 15. The offender, a man of Belial, was Ascelin surnamed Goel. The marriage was blessed or cursed with the birth of seven sons, all, according to both our authorities, of evil report.