“Plebe coacta in favorem, tyrannum suscepit ex necessitate, non ducem ex lege: in susceptum studia simulavit, non exhibuit. Fidem reperit in ea, quia superior. Consul vero tanto gravius dominatus est quanto brevius. Miles ejus simulatis usus injuriis, eos scelerum judicavit expertes quos rerum. Et quia non parcit populis regnum breve, finem rapinis inopia posuit, non voluntas.”
This certainly reads most like a description of the reign of Hugh; but in what follows we surely see the events of 1098 and 1099;
“Ea clades usque ad sanctuarium Domini pervagata est, et primo quidquid extra muros nostræ fuerat potestatis, vel evanuit in favillas vel dissipatum est in rapinam. Deinde similibus cecidere præjudiciis episcopales domus et ecclesiæ non paucæ. In reliquis quibus ignis pepercit æque periclitata est et facultas pauperum et reverentia sacerdotum. Omnia confracta sunt, omnia direpta, omnia contaminata. Nihil eorum manus evasit qui gratis ad flagitium discurrunt, ad honestum nec pretio.”
To what does all this refer? It reads most like a description of the Red King’s harryings at Coulaines in 1098 (see [p. 234]); but no one is mentioned, whereas the “Rex Anglicus” and his “tyrannis” are openly spoken of further on in the letter. And it is strange, if in all this there is no reference to the fire of 1099. Did Hildebert attribute the fire to Helias, and does that account for any enmity towards him? Yet the version of the Biographer as clearly makes the fire the work of the Normans as the version of Orderic. Helias is not mentioned by name, nor is any recorded act of his distinctly mentioned. The passage is obscure, most likely purposely obscure. It might be so construed as to attribute all mischief to Helias; it might be so construed as not to lay any particular act to his charge. But in any case Helias would at least come under the general condemnation which is pronounced upon all the counts of Maine, be they six or fewer. No friend of Helias could have so spoken; and it is plain that, when Bishop Hildebert wrote the letter, he was—very naturally—not a little angry, if not with Helias in particular, yet at least with a class of men among whom Helias must be reckoned.
Of the rest of the letter I shall have to speak in another Note.
NOTE LL. [Vol. ii. p. 238.]
The Surrender of Le Mans to William Rufus.
It is not very easy at first sight to reconcile our accounts of the negotiations which led to the surrender of Le Mans in August 1098. Yet there seems to be no direct contradiction of any moment. It seems not impossible that the difference is merely one of those cases where one writer gives prominence to some feature in the story which another writer leaves out.
According to all accounts, Le Mans was at this time in the possession of Fulk of Anjou. Orderic (see [p. 237]) makes him personally present in the city; the Biographer of the Bishops does not say whether he was there or not. But in any case the city had admitted his authority in May and had not yet thrown it off. Fulk was therefore fully in a position to negotiate with William, while Helias, who was a prisoner in William’s hands, was not strictly in a position to negotiate with anybody. Yet the Biographer makes no mention of Fulk as an actor or a party to the treaty, but only as one of whose devices Helias was afraid. In his version Bishop Hildebert and some of the chief men of Le Mans first, by the King’s leave, visit the captive Count, and agree on terms with him; then they draw up a treaty with the King according to those terms. The tale runs thus (Vet. An. 306);
“Helias timens ne Fulco comes proscriptioni ejus intenderet, manduvit ad se episcopum et quosdam ex primoribus civitatis ex consensu regis, et cœpit agere cum eis, eosque suppliciter deprecari, quatenus casibus illius condolentes, modis omnibus niterentur, qualiter civitatem regi traderent, ipsumque a vinculis liberarent. Timebat enim quod Fulco comes, regis deceptus muneribus, cum eo pacem faceret, atque civitate tradita perpetuo damnaretur exsilio. Episcopus autem et qui cum eo venerant, ejus angustias miserantes, cum rege de ejus liberatione locuti, cum eo tale pactum fecerunt, ut si eorum consilio atque ingenio sibi civitas traderetur, ipse Heliam comitem quietum et liberum abire permitteret.”