King William Rufus then ruled over Normandy and England too, and behaved as a much worse tyrant than his father.
I must tell you a story about William and his two brothers, Robert and Henry. Robert, the eldest, as I told you, became Duke of Normandy, when William made himself King of England, but they neither of them thought of giving anything to Henry; so he got a good many soldiers together, and went to live in a castle on the top of a high rock, called St. Michael’s Mount, close to the sea-shore of Normandy, and he and his soldiers used to come out and plunder the fields of both Robert and William, whenever they had an opportunity. This was wrong in Henry in every way, but chiefly because he robbed and frightened people who had never done him any harm, and had nothing to do with the unkindness of his brothers.
Well, Robert and William collected an army, and went to his castle, to drive him out, and they contrived to keep him so closely confined, that neither he nor his people could get out to fetch water. Robert and William heard of this, and that the people in the castle were dying of thirst. William was very glad, because he said they would soon get the castle; but Robert, who was much more generous, immediately gave his brother Henry leave to send and get as much water as he wanted; and besides that, Robert sent him some of the best of his own wine. Henry soon after gave up the castle.
This story shows you how cruel William was to his own brother; so you may think he did not behave better to his subjects, and that they were not very sorry when he was killed by accident. Some tell the story of his death in this manner:—One day when he was hunting in the New Forest, made by his father, which you read about in the last chapter, he had a gentleman named Walter Tyrrel with him, who was reckoned skilful in shooting with a bow and arrow. This gentleman, seeing a fine deer run by, wished to show the king how well he could shoot; but he was a little too eager, and his arrow, instead of going straight to the deer, touched a tree, which turned it aside, and it killed the king, who was standing near the tree. But the truth is that it was never known who shot the arrow that killed the wicked king.
Some poor men found William’s body lying in the forest, and carried it to Winchester, where it was buried.
William Rufus does not deserve to be remembered for many things, yet we must not forget that he built a good bridge over the river Thames, just where the old London bridge stood, till it was taken down, when the fine new bridge was finished; besides that, he built Westminster Hall, very near the Abbey, and when you walk to Westminster you will see part of the very wall raised by him. But its large and beautiful roof was built three hundred years later by Richard II.
CHAPTER XVI.
HENRY I.—1100 to 1135.
How Henry the First married the English Princess Maude; how his son William was drowned, and how he desired that his daughter Maude should be Queen after his own death.
As soon as the nobles and bishops knew that William Rufus was dead, they determined that his younger brother, Henry, should be king, because Robert, the eldest, was too busy about the wars in the Holy Land, which I mentioned before.
Now Henry was brave and clever, like his father, but he was not quite so cruel.