the chiefest time of their Fruits spoiling all before him till he came to Paris where the King of France then was to whom he sent to shew him of his upsiting From thence he marched to Mentz which he wholly sackt where he caught the occasion of his Death by the strain of his Horse amongst the breaches from whence he was conveighed sick to Roan Anno Christi 1078. King William before his going into Normandy the more to assure himself and his successors of the English Crown on the East side of London built a strongly fenced Castle or Magazine for his Warlike Amunition which he entrenched with a long and deep Ditch 〈◊〉 now called the Tower of London the Surveyor of which worke was Gundulphus Bishop of Rochester the mortar of it being tempered with the blood of Beasts Then to fill his Coffers he imposed great Subsidies upon the Land causing an exact survey to be taken of the whole kingdom yea and of every particular part and commodity thereof so that there was not a Hide of Land Lake Water or Wast but he knew the value the Owners and Possessors together with the Rents and profits therof As also of all Cities Towns Villages Monasteries and Religious Houses Causing all the People in England to be numbered their Names to be taken with notice what every one might dispend by the year their substance money and Bondmen were recorded How many yoak of Oxen and plough-lands were in the Realm and what services they owed that held of him in Fee All which was certified by Oaths of the Commissioners This done he caused six shillings to be paid him for every Hide of Land The Book that cōtained this Survey was called the Roule of Winchester as being kept there at first But ever since it hath been called Doomsday Book because of the General and inevitable censure thereof and since it hath been kept in the Kings Exchequer at Westminster This grievous exaction made the English miserably groan under their present State whereby the King and his Normans were daily more hated and he on the contrary loved them so little that he fought by all means to bring the English Name and Nation to ruine He gave also further offence both to God and Man by depopulating the fruitful Country lying South from Salisbury to the Sea pulling down Towns and Villages with thirty six Parish Churches and so laid open all the Country for thirty miles space for wild beasts for his own Game in Hunting which place hath ever since been called the New Forrest He also imposed such severe punishments upon such as offended in hunting his Game that he was called the Father of wild Beasts But God's severe Judgment pursued him for his wickedness for in this Forrest Richard his second Son was gored by a Deer whereof he dyed Rufus an other of his Sons being taken for a Deer was shot thorow with an Arrow and slain Henry his Grandson by Robert Curtoise his Eldest Son eagerly pursuing a Deer was by a bough struck into the jawes and left hanging till he died Although King William at his Coronation had taken an oath to observe the Laws of King Edward then in use which oath he renewed at Barkhamsted yet did he abbrogate many of them and brought in the Norman Laws written in French commanding that all Causes should be pleaded and all matters of Form dispatched in French either on purpose to entrap men through ignorance of the Language or else to make the Normans Language predominant in this Kingdom which yet he could never effect there being not so much as any footsteps of that Language remaining in the English Tongue Forms of Judgment by Fire and Water called Ordeal formerly much used were now antiquated and shortly after quite abolished by the Pope as savouring too much of Paganism That of Combat continued longer but was of no ordinary use Actions both Criminal and Real began now wholly to be judged by the verdict of twelve men called by the name of Enquest And whereas the Bishops formerly dealt in Secular Causes and shared with the King in many Mulcts imposed on Delinquents now the King confined all the Clergy within the compass of their own Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to meddle only in matters concerning mens Souls He set up Sheriffs in every Shire and Justices of Peace to punish Malefactors And lastly he ordainned his Councel of State his Chancery his Exchequer and his Courts of Justice which alwayes removed with his Court These places he furnished with Officers and assigned four Terms in the year for determining controversies amongst the People commonly held at Westminster As for his Provisionary Revenues his Tenants who held Lands of the Crown paid him no mony but only Corn and Victuals and a just note of the quality and quantity of everyman's ratement was taken through all the Shires of the Kingdom and leavied constantly for the maintenance of the Kings House One Law he made which was extreamly distastfull to the Gentry That whereas they might at their pleasure hunt take Deer which they found abroad in the woods now it was ordained that upon penalty of putting out their eyes none should presume to take or kill any of them the King preserving them for his own Game In the first year of his Reign he granted to the City of London their first Charter and Liberties in as Large a manner as they enjoyed them under King Edward the Confessor which he did at the request of William a Norman Bishop of London in grateful remembrance whereof the Lord Major and Aldermen upon their solemn days of their resort to Pauls do still walk to the Grave-stone where this Bishop lies interred Also this King was the first that brought the Jewes into England He also enacted a Law that whosoever forced a woman should lose his Genitals In his time the use of long Bows came first into England which as they were the weapons wherewith under this King France Conquered England so they were the weapons with which England under succeeding Kings conquered France This King also appointed a Constable at Dover Castle and a Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports In short He ordained such good Laws and had them so well executed that a Girle might carry a bag of money all the Country over without danger of being rob'd And in his time the setting of Seals to Bonds and writings was first used In King William's time Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury was removed from his See and kept Prisoner during his Life in the Castle of Winchester and Lanfranc an Italian succeeded him who in a Synod at London removed the Bishops Sees from small Towns to Cities as from Silliway to Chichester from Kyrton to Exeter from Wells to Bath From Sherborn to Salisbury from Dorcester to Lincolne and from Lichfield to Chester and from thence again to Coventry He founded the Abbey of Battel in Sussex where
he overcame Herald The Abbey of Selby in Yorkshire And a third near London called Saint Saviours He founded also the Priory of Saint Nicholas at Exeter and gave great Priviledges to Saint Martins Le Grand in London In Normandy he founded an Abby at Caen and he gave to the Church of Saint Stephens there two Mannors in Dorsetshire one in Devonshire an other in Essex much Land in Bark shire some in Norfolk an house in Woodstreet London with many Avowsions of Churches In his time Saint Pauls Church being burnt down Maurice Bishop of London began this which is now standing A work so admirable and stupendious that many thought it would never have been finished Towards the building of the East end of it the King gave the choice Stones of his Castle in the West end of the City in which place afterwards was founded a Monastery of Black Friers And after the death of Maurice Richard his next successor gave all the Rents of his Bishoprick towards the building of this Church yet the finishing of it was left to his successors About the same time William Bishop of Durham founded University Colledge in Oxford In the twentieth year of his Reign their happened so great a fire in London that from the West Gate to the East Gate it consumed all the Houses and Churches at which time as was said before Pauls Church was burnt down Burning Feavers also consumed the People Murrains devoured an infinite number of Cattel great Rains and Floods destroyed the Fruites of the Earth whence ensued a great Famine and by them the Hills were so softned and undermined that some of them fell and overwhelmed the Neighbouring Villages Tame Fowls as Hens Geese Peacocks c. fled into the Woods and Forests and turned wild Odo the Kings Brother Bishop of Bayeux hoping to obtain the Popedom had heaped up vast Treasures for the purchasing of it But as he was about to begin his journey he was seized upon by the King and imprisoned and his House being searched there were found such heaps of Gold as caused admiration in all that saw it and many of his Bags were drawn out of Rivers where they were laid full of Gold beaten to Powder King William wanting mony seized upon the Plate Jewels and Treasure within all the Monastries in England Pretending that the Rebels had conveyed their Riches into these Religous Houses as into Sanctuaries and priviledged places to defraud him thereof He made also all Bishopricks and Abbyes that held Baronies alwayes free before to contribute to his Wars and other occasions We left King William sick at Roan occasioned partly by heat and partly by the leap of his Horse which brake the inward Rim of his Belly And perceiving his approaching Death he made his Will wherein he commanded that all his Treasure should be distributed to Churches Ministers and the Poor appointing to each their several portions His Dukedom of Normandy he left to his eldest Son Robert to whom he had formerly given it His Kingdom of England he left to his second Son William And Henry his youngest Son surnamed Beauclark hearing himself neglected by his Father with tears said And what Father do you give me the King answered Five thousand pounds of Silver out of my Treasury But replied he what shall I do with the Treasure if I want an Habitation His Father answered Be patient my son and comfort thyself in God suffer quietly thy Elder Brothers to go before thee Robert shall have Normandy and William England but thou in time shalt have intirely all the honour that I have gotten and shalt excell thy Brethren in Riches and Power His Son William he sent away into England and by him Letters to Archbishop Lanfranc His Prisoners he commanded to be set at liberty and then dyed September the ninth in the fifty sixth year of his Dutchy the twenty first of his Kingdom and the sixty fourth of his age Anno Christi 1087. No sooner had this late Glorious Princes Soul left his Body but his Dead Corps was presently abandoned by his chiefest Followers who posted away every one to defend his own whilst his menial Servants despoiled him of his Armor Vessels Apparel and all princely furniture leaving his Dead Body naked upon the floor where it lay stinking till one Harluins a poor Country Knight at his own cost undertook to cary it to Caen unto Saint Stevens Church formerly founded by this King At his entrance into Caen the Monks came forth to meet him But at the very instant a sudden fire happening presently invaded a great part of the City whereupon his Hearse was forsaken by all every one applying himself to help to quench the fire After which being carried to Church and the Stone Coffin set ready which was to receive the Body one Ascelinus Fitz-Arthur stood up and forbad the burial saying This very place was the floor of my Fathers House which this dead Duke violently took from him and here upon part of my Inheritance founded this Church This ground therefore I challenge and in Gods behalf forbid that the Body of my Despoiler he covered in my Earth neither shall it be interred within the precincts of my right Whereupon they were forced to compound with him for a present sum of money and for one hundred pound weight of Silver afterwards to be paid and so the Exequies went forward But when the Corps came to be laid into the Tomb it proved too litle and the belly being pressed and not bowelled brake and with an intollerable stink so offended the by-standers that with great amazement they all hasted away and the poor Monks were left to shuffle up the Burial who also were glad when they gat to their Cells He was of an indifferent stature of a comly person of a good presence till his corpulency increasing with age made him unweildy of so strong a constitution that he was never sick till a litle before his Death His strength such that few men could draw his Bow Of wit ready and very Politick In Speech Eloquent Resolute in attempts In hazards valiant A great Souldier and very successful His Charters of an other tenour and very brief as may appear by one that run thus 1 William the third year of my Reign Give to thee Norman Hunter to me that art both leese and Deer The Hop and the Hopton and all the Bounds up and down Under Earth to Hell above the Earth to Heaven From me and mine to thee and thine As good and as faire as ever they mine wear To witness that this is sooth I bite the whitewax with my Tooth Before Jugg Maud and Marjery and my youngest Son Henry For a Bow and a broad Arrow when I come to hunt upon Yarrow His only wife was Mathilda or Maud Daughter to Baldwin the fifth surnamed the Gentle Earl of Flanders by whom he had Robert surnamed Curtois or Short Thighs who
way to Falaise the Gentleman knowing him humbly craved the cause of his so strange and untimely riding alone The Duke told it him and this Gentleman called Robert de Rie lent him a fresh Horse and sent his two sons with him to conduct him the next way to Falaise No sooner were they got out of sight but the Conspirators came posting after and enqured of the same Gentleman whether he saw the Duke He answered that he was gone a little before such away shewing them another path and offering his service to Count Bessin rode on with them but led them so about that the Duke had gotten into Falaise whereupon being disappointed they returned to their homes so strengthening themselves that the Duke thought fit to retreat into Roan and from thence to the King of France to crave his aid putting him in mind what faithfull service his Father had done for him That he was his Homager under his Protection and that he had no other sanctuary to flee unto for succour against his mutinous and unruly Nobility And he was so importunate that the King aided him in Person with a Royal Army against his Competitors whom they met in the Vale of Dunes as ready to resist them with as great a power and resolution as the other were to assault them The Battel was very fierce and bloody wherein the King of France and Duke William bestirred themselves lustily yet had not Ralfe de Tesson been false to his fellows to recover the favour of the Duke they had hardly carried the victory After this diverse of the Conspirators who had too great hearts to submit passed over the Alps into Italy where they grew very famous for their Valour But here ended not the Dukes troubles For Guy de Burgagne escaping by flight fortified the Castles of Briorne and Verneil yet in the end was forced to submit both them and himself to the Dukes mercy and now became his Pensioner who before was his Competitor This gentle act of the Dukes brought in many others to yield up themselves and had their Signiories redelivered to them but their Castles were demolished Shortly after our Duke was called into action again by Geffry Martel Earl of Anjou who usurped Alanson Damfront and Passais members of the Dutchy of Normandy to recover which the Duke raised an Army and first got Alanson where because he was opprobriously scorned by them and called the son of an Harlot he used extream cruelty Then laid he siege to Damfront to relieve which Count Martel came with a great Army and our Duke to discover his strength sent Roger de Montgomery and two other Knights to deliver this message to the Earl That if he came to victual Damfront he should there find him the Porter to keep him out Whereunto the Earl answered Tell your Duke that to morrow at break a day he shall have me there on a white Horse ready to give him the Combate and I will enter Damfront if I can And that he may know me I will wear a shield d'Or without any devise Roger replyed Sir You shall not need to take that paines for to morrow morning you shall have the Duke in this place mounted on a bay Horse and that you may know him he shall wear upon the point of his Launce a Streamer of Taffaty to wipe your face So returning each side prepared for the morning But the Earl busied in ordering his Battels was informed by two Horsmen that came crossing the field that Damfront was for certain surrendred to the Duke whereupon in a great rage he presently departed with his Army part whereof as they passed a streight were cut off by Vicount Neel who by that service redeemed his former offence and was restored to the Dukes favour whom ever after he served faithfully From Damfront the Duke with his Engines removed to Hambrieres a Frontier Town of Count Martels But by the way had he not discovered it himself he had been entrapped in an Ambush and overthrown yet before he could clear himself he lost many brave men wherewith he was so enraged that pressing into the midst of his Enemies he made at Count Martel strake him down with his Sword clave his helmet and cut off an eare yet he escaped out of the press though diverse of his men were taken and the rest routed But whilst he was thus contending with outward Enemies two of his own conspired against him William Guelan Earl of Mortagne and William Earl of Eu both pretenders to the Dutchy of Normandy But the first upon suspicion the second upon proof of intention were both banished And the Earldomes of Mortagne he gave to Robert and that of Eu to Odo both his Brethren by the Mothers side And all these difficulties he encountred withall before he was full twenty two years old Now the more to confirm and strengthen his Estate against future practices he assembled a Parlament of his Bishops Barons and Gentlemen causing them to take their Oath of Allegiance and to raze their Castles After which he married Matilda the Daughter of Baldwin the fifth Earl of Flanders but not without some opposition For his Uncle Mauger Archbishop of Roan excommunicated him for marrying her who was his Cosen German To expiate which offence though the Pope dispensed with it he was enjoyned to build some Hospitals for blind People and two Abbyes one for men and the other for women which were built at Caâ—n These his successes made him the object of envy to the French Court who incensed the King against him to abate his power and to find a quarrel which borderers easily may do to set upon him The King who was forward enough of himself to make his cause the fairer pretends to correct the insolencies of the Normans committed in his Territories and to relieve Count Martel oppressed by the Duke He alleadged also that it concerned him in honour and justice to have that Province which held of his Crown to be Governed by a Prince of lawfull blood wherefore he resolved utterly to extirpate Duke William and to settle a legitimate Prince in that Dutchy For which end he raised two Armies through all his Dominions whereof one he sent along the River Seine the other into the Countrey of Bessin meaning to encompass him The Duke hereupon divided his Forces also into two parts and sent the one under his Brother Odo Earl of Eu Walter Guiffard Earl of Longevil and others into the Countrey of Caux Himself with the other advanced toward Eureux to oppose the King who was at Mentz He also withdrew all the Cattel and Provisions out of the Countrey into Cities and Fortresses The Kings Army marching to Mortimer and finding the Countrey to abound with all plenty fell to makeing good cheer thinking that Duke William with his men was yet at Eureux which the Army of Odo understanding marched all night and at break
incensed King William that speedily raising an Army he entered Northumberland pittifully wasted by the Danes and made spoil of all and with a good summe of money purchased the departure of the Danes These devastations in sundry Counties made such a Dearth that the People were forced to eat Horses Dogs Cats Rats c. and between York and Durham for the space of sixty miles for nine years together there was such an utter desolation that neither House was left standing nor field tilled After this great defeat most of the Lords came in upon the publick Faith and were conducted to Barkhansted by the Abbot Frederick where upon their submission and Oath of Allegiance retaken they were restored to his favour and to give them satisfaction King William before the Archbishop Lankfranc and the Lords again sware to observe the antient Laws of the Realm established by his Noble Predecessors especialy those of Saint Edward Yet not long after these Lords upon new discontents brake out again But Earl Edwin making towards Scotland was murthered by the way by his own men The Lords Morchar and Hereward betook themselves to the Isle of Ely intending to secure themselves there for that Winter to whom also repaired Earl Syward and the Bishop of Durham out of Scotland But the King who was no time giver presently besieged them with flat Boats on the East and made a Bridge two miles long on the West and so brought his men upon them who seeing themselves surprised yielded to the Kings mercy Only Hereward desperatly marched with his People through the Fens and fled into Scotland the rest were sent to diverse Prisons where they dyed or remained during the Kings life Those Lords that continued Loyal upon the late submission were imployed and preferred by the King As Edric the Forrester And Gospatrice was made Earl of Northumberland and sent against King Malcolme who wasted the Countries of Tisdale Cleaveland and Cumberland Waltheoff the Son of Earl Syward he married to his Neece Judith a very valiant man shewing a Noble nature to love vertue even in his enemies And now King William finding Scotland to be a place of retreat for all his discontented Subjects and where his Competitor Edgar lived he entered the Kingdom with a great Army which encountring more with wants than Forces and both Kings considering the uncertain events of War upon fair overtures concluded a Peace agreeing upon the bounds of each Kingdom and Delinquents with their partakers were generally pardoned And shortly after Edgar Etheling came in volutarily and was restored to the Kings favour who allowed him a liberal maintenance which held him ever after quiet King William being now gone into Normandy there was amost dangerous Conspiracy begun against him by Ralph de Waher Earl of Suffolk and Norfolk Roger Fitz Aubre or Osburne Earl of Hereford Waltheoff Earl of Northumberland with Eustace Earl of Bulloine suborned as it was thought by the King of France there unto These Lords conspired to keep William in Normandy and to dispossess him of his Kingdom for which end they agreed to joyn theirs with the Danish Forces whom they intended to call in This was a dangerous Combination the King being in Normandy besieging the Castle of Dole in Britaine belonging unto Ralph Waher and defended against him by the King of France and at such a time when all his Neighbor Princes were jealous of him and ill affected to him The King of Scotland and the Princes of Wales ready to joyn with them at home Swaine King of Denmark with a Navy of two hundred sail ready to invade England to which Drone King of Ireland joyned sixty five ships And this did more distract and incense him because most of these great Lords were either his kinsmen or nearly allied to him This grand Conspiracy was discovered by Waltheoff to Archbishop Lankfranc who perswaded the Earl to go to the King and to inform him of the greatness of his danger Yet notwithstanding this discoverie Roger and Ralph proceed in their intentions and raise Forces But by the diligence of Odo Bishop of Baiaux the Kings Brother the Bishop of Worcester and the Abbot of Evesham they were so prevented that they could never unite their Forces Whereupon Ralph fled into France Roger was taken and imprisoned Waltheoff was beheaded and so this flame was extinct The greatest and last insurrection was in Normandy by King William's own Son Robert who by the instigation and assistance of Philip King of France envying Williams greatness entered Normandy and claimed it as his own right His Father indeed had promised him it long before but Robert impatient of delaies endeavored by a strong hand to wrest it from his Father King William hearing hereof passed with a strong Army over into Normandy where in a Battel meeting with his Son hand to hand he was by him unhorsed and hurt in the arm But his Son perceiving by his voice that it was his Father suddenly leaped off his Horse took him up in his armes fell down at his feet and humbly intreated his pardon which his Father easily granted embraced his Son and ever after they lived in mutual love After this King William sent this his Son Robert with an Army against Malcolm King of Scots who had invaded Northumberland who at the coming of Duke Robert retired At which time Duke Robert began to found a Castle upon the River of Tine whereof the Town of Newcastle did take its beginning and Name which formerly was called Moncaster These frequent Wars put the State to an infinite charge the King entertaining all this while besides Normans very many French Finding the English in respect of many great Families that were allied to the Danes rather to incline to that Nation than to the Normans In the fifteenth year of his Reign he subdued Wales and brought the King thereof to do him Homage And presently after quarrels arose between King William and the King of France The King of France invades Normandy and takes the City of Vernon The King of England invades France and subdued the Country of Xantoigne and Poicton and so returned to Roan Then did the King of France summon our King to do him Homage for England which he refused saying he held it of none but God and his sword But for the Dutchy of Normandy he offered him Homage which yet would not satisfie the King of France Whereupon he made a new invasion but with more loss than profit In the end they concluded a crazy Peace which held only till King William had recovered a sickness whereinto through his travel age and corpulency he was faln which occasioned the young and lusty King of France jeeringly to say that he lay in of his great belly in Roan This so irritated King William that so soon as he was recovered he gathered a very strong Army with which he entered France in