CHARACTER OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR AND OF HIS REIGN.
Source.—The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Thorpe, vol. i., p. 353. (Rolls Series.)
After the birth-tide of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand and seven and eighty winters, in the one and twentieth year that William ruled and governed England, as God permitted him, there befel a most heavy and most pestilent year in this land. Such a sickness came on men that wellnigh every other man was in the worst evil, that is with the fever, and that so sorely that many men died of the evil. Afterwards there came, through the great tempests which befel, as we told before, a very great famine over all England, so that many hundred men woefully met their death through that famine. Ah! how woeful and how rueful a time was then, when the wretched men lay driven full nigh to death, and thereafter came the sharp hunger and destroyed them withal. Whom can such times not touch? and who is so hard of heart that he cannot weep for such misfortune? But such things befal for a folk’s sins, because they will not love God and righteousness; so it was in those days that little righteousness was in this land with any man, but with the monks only, where they fared well. The king and the chief men loved much and overmuch the getting of gold and of silver, and cared not how sinfully it were gotten, if only it came to them. The king granted his land for as dear a rent as he could; then came some other and offered more than the other gave before, and the king let it to the man who offered him more; then came a third and offered yet more, and the king let it to the man who offered him most of all; and he cared not how sinfully the reeves got it from poor men, nor how many unlawful things they did, but the more men spake of right laws, the more unlawful things they did. They gathered unjust tolls, and many other unjust things they did, which are hard to number.
And in the same year before harvest the holy minster of St. Paul, the bishop’s see in London, was burned, and many other minsters, and the greatest and fairest part of all that borough. So also, at the same time, wellnigh every chief town in all England was burned. Ah! a rueful and sorrowful time was that year, which brought forth so many misfortunes. Also in the same year before the Assumption of St. Mary (15 August) king William went from Normandy into France with a host and made war upon his own lord, Philip the king, and slew a great part of his men, and burned the borough of Mantes and all the holy monasteries that were within the borough; and two holy men, who served God dwelling in a hermitage, were there burned. This so done, king William turned again to Normandy. A rueful thing he did, and a more rueful thing befel him. How more rueful? He fell sick and was sorely stricken. What can I say? Sharp death that passes by neither mighty men nor humble, took him. He died in Normandy on the day next after the Nativity of St. Mary (9 September), and he was buried at Caen in the monastery of St. Stephen, which he had formerly built and afterwards richly endowed. Ah! how false and how unstable is the wealth of this world. He who was before a mighty king and lord of many a land had then of all his land but a seven foot strip, and he who was once decked with gold and with gems lay then covered over with mould....
If any one will know what sort of a man he was, or what worship he had, or of how many lands he was lord, then will we write of him as we understood him, who looked upon him and at another time dwelt in his court. King William, of whom we speak, was a very wise man and very mighty, and worthier and stronger than were any of his predecessors. He was gentle to the good men who loved God, and beyond all measure severe to the men who withstood his will. On the same spot where God granted to him that he should conquer England, he built a noble monastery and set monks there and well endowed it. In his days was built the noble monastery at Canterbury, and also full many others over all England. Yea! this land was filled with monks, and they lived their life after the rule of St. Benedict, and Christianity was such in his day that every man that would followed what belonged to his degree. Also he was full worshipful; thrice he bare his crown each year as oft as he was in England; at Easter he bare it in Winchester, on Whitsunday at Westminster, at Midwinter in Gloucester. And then there were with him all the mighty men over all England, archbishops and bishops, abbots and earls, thegns and knights. So also was he a full stern and cruel man, so that none durst do anything against his will. He had earls in his bonds who had done against his will; bishops he put away from their bishoprics, and abbots from their abbeys, and thegns he put in prison, and at last he spared not his own brother Odo. He was a very great bishop in Normandy, at Bayeux was his bishop’s see, and he was the foremost man beside the king. He had an earldom in England, and when the king was in Normandy, then was he the mightiest in this land; and him he put in prison.
Among other things is not to be forgotten the good peace that he made in this land, so that a man who himself were aught might fare unhurt throughout his realm with his bosom full of gold. And no man durst slay another man, how much evil soever he had done to the other.... He reigned over England and by his wisdom so well surveyed it, that there was not a hide of land in England that he knew not who had it, or what it was worth, and afterwards set it in his book. Wales was in his lordship, and he wrought castles therein and ruled over that race of men withal. So also he subdued Scotland to him by his great strength. The land of Normandy was his by heritage, and he ruled over the county called Maine, and if he might have lived yet two years more, he would have won Ireland by his valour, and without any weapons.
Truly in his time men had much hardship and full many troubles. He caused castles to be built and poor men to be sore oppressed. The king was so very stern and took from his subjects many a mark of gold and more hundred pounds of silver, which he took by weight and with much unright from his people for little need. He was fallen upon covetousness and greed he loved withal. He planted a great deer forest and laid down laws for the same that whosoever slew hart or hind should be blinded. He forbade that the harts and also the boars be slain; so much he loved the high deer, as he had been their father. Also he ordained for the hares, that they should go free. His mighty men grieved and the poor men murmured thereat, but he was so hard that he cared not for the hatred of them all, and they must follow the king’s will withal, if they would live or hold land or chattels, or even have his peace. Ah! that any man should be so haughty and lift himself up and count himself above all men. May God Almighty shew his soul lovingkindness and forgive him his sins. These things we have written of him, both the good and the evil, that good men may follow after the good and altogether eschew the evil, and go in the way that leads us to the kingdom of heaven.
FORESTS AND THE ROYAL LOVE OF HUNTING.
Source.—Richard, son of Nigel, Dialogus de Scaccario, ed. Hughes, Crump, and Johnson, p. 105.