Presently (14513) he is “li reis Ros.” The use of the nickname in this way was the more easy, because Rufus was a real name which had been borne by other men, while nobody had ever been called Curthose. See on the name Martel, N. C. vol. ii. p. 280; vol. v. p. 569.
I do not know that any one except Matthew Paris has turned the Red King into a Red Dragon. He does so twice. Hist. Angl. i. 97, “Rex Willelmus, qui a multis rubeus draco cognominabatur;” and again, i. 167, “Rex Willelmus, draco rubeus—sic enim eum appellabant propter tyrannidem.”
[400] M. Gaston le Hardy, the apologist of Duke Robert (Le Dernier des Ducs Normands, Caen, 1880, p. 41), refers to the Monasticon and Orderic for the statement that William Rufus was called “comes” in his father’s life-time. But I cannot find the places. Has he got hold of any signature of Earl William Fitz-Osbern?
[401] Will. Malms. iv. 305. “Emensa pueritia, in militari exercitio adolescentiam egit; equitari, jaculari, certare cum primævis obsequio, cum æquævis officio. Jacturam virtutis putare si forte in militari tumultu alter eo prior arma corriperet, et nisi primus ex adverso provocaret, vel provocantem dejiceret.”
[402] Ib. “Genitori in omnibus obsequelam gerens, ejus se oculis in bello ostentans, ejus lateri in pace obambulans. Spe sensim scaturiente, jam successioni inhians, maximum post abdicationem fratris majoris, cum et tirocinium minoris nonnihil suspiceret.”
[403] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 644.
[404] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 629.
[405] A great part of the description of Tiberius given by Tacitus (Ann. vi. 51) applies to William Rufus; only we cannot make out quite so many stages in the moral downfall of the Red King. “Egregium vita famaque quoad privatus vel in imperiis sub Augusto fuit; occultum et subdolum fingendis virtutibus donec Germanicus ac Drusus superfuere: idem inter bona malaque mixtus, incolumi matre.” These are words of almost the same meaning as some of the expressions of Eadmer and William of Malmesbury. See specially Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 14; “Confestim [after Lanfranc’s death] rex foras expressit quod in suo pectore, illo vivente, confotum habuit.” In any case we may say, “postremo in scelera simul ac dedecora prorupit, postquam, remoto pudore et metu, suo tantum ingenio utebatur.” The change in William after Lanfranc’s death is most strongly brought out by Matthew Paris, Hist. Angl. i. 38.
[406] This is well drawn out by Dean Church, Anselm, 156, 157.
[407] Ord. Vit. 680 A. “Tenacis memoriæ, et ardentis ad bonum seu malum voluntatis erat.” Nearly to the same effect are the words of the Hyde writer (299); “Erat quidem operibus levis, sed verbis, ut aiunt, in tantum stabilis ut, si cui bonum vel malum promisisset, certus inde satis exsistere posset.”