Greek Gods- Rome- Middle Ages- England

Hunting the Stag

He even drove whole villages from their homes, and destroyed houses and churches, in order to make a great New Forest for his Hunting.

One deed of William's, which seemed to his subjects an act of oppression, we now see was a wise and statesmanlike act. This was making the "Domesday Survey." He caused commissioners to go throughout the land, and prepare a census of all the lands, with the names of their owners, and their value.

"So very narrowly did he cause the survey to be made," says the writer of the Chronicle, "that there was not a single rood of land, nor—it is shameful to relate that which he thought it no shame to do—was there an ox, or a cow, or a pig passed by, and not set down in the accounts."

When the inquiry was finished, the results were set down in a great book, which still exists, and is called the "Domesday Book,"—perhaps because its entries were like those of the Last Judgment, which spare no man. William's object in taking this survey was to find out what taxes he could levy, and what men he could raise for England's defense in time of war. But the chief value of Domesday Book now is that it gives us so much information concerning the condition of England in that far off time.

A Portion of Domesday Book

Even after his conquest of England, William continued to be Duke of Normandy, and ruled that land as a vassal of the King of France. Quarrels between the French king and his too powerful vassal were frequent, and whenever a rebellion broke out against the Norman power the French King was sure to aid it.

Towards the close of William's life, his eldest son Robert asked to have Normandy as a fief of his own; and when William refused this, Robert joined the French King in making war. This war caused William's death, in 1087. William had captured and burned the city of Mantes, in France, and while he was riding about in the ruined city his horse stumbled in the hot ashes. The King was thrown violently against the pommel of his saddle. He was very fat and was already ill, and this injury was such that he never recovered from it.

Before his death, it is said that he bequeathed Normandy to Robert, and England to his second son, William.

"And what do you give me, father?" cried Henry, the youngest of his sons.

"Five thousand pounds weight of silver out of my treasury."

"But what can I do with silver, if I have no lands?" cried the boy.

"Be patient, my son," said the dying King, "and have trust in the Lord; let thine elders go before thee, and thy time will come."

And so it proved, for although William II. ruled England after his father's death, and Robert ruled Normandy, in the end both England and Normandy came into the hands of their younger brother Henry.

William II. (1087-1100) was called William "Rufus," or "the Red," because of his complexion. He had the bad qualities of his father, without the good traits. He was selfish, cruel, and wicked, and broke all his promises of good government. Even the good Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, was so persecuted that he fled from the kingdom, and he did not return until this reign was finished.

The Red King's death was as violent as his life was wicked. He was slain while hunting alone in the New Forest, which his father had made; and his dead body was found by a charcoal burner, with an arrow piercing his heart. Who shot the fatal arrow, and why, no man can tell.

William Rufus left no children, so his younger brother Henry I. (1100-1135) now secured the English crown, and kept it in spite of the claims of his older brother Robert. Henry I. was born in England, spoke English, and had an English wife; moreover, he issued a "charter" in which he promised the people good government. The English, therefore, came to his help when Robert attempted to secure the crown. With an English army, Henry later invaded Normandy, where he defeated Robert and his knights in a great battle. Robert was captured, and spent the rest of his life as a prisoner in an English castle, while Normandy was again united with the English crown. With the exception of this war, Henry's reign was a peaceful one. He ruled for thirty-five years, with such strictness and order that he was called "the Lion of Justice."

King Henry's only son was drowned while returning from Normandy. Henry then planned to leave his crown to his daughter, Matilda. Although England had never had a woman as ruler, he persuaded the barons to swear allegiance to Matilda as their future Queen, and he married her to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, in France.

After Henry's death, however, Matilda's cousin, Stephen of Blois, seized the crown. The London citizens and a majority of the barons supported him, but the others supported Matilda. The result was a civil war which continued throughout Stephen's reign. The suffering caused by this war was increased by the cruelty of the barons, whom neither party could control.

"The rich men," says the English Chronicle, "filled the land full of castles. They greatly oppressed the wretched people by making them work on these castles, and when the castles were finished they filled them with devils and evil men. Then they took those whom they suspected to have any goods, by night and by day, seizing both men and women, and they put them in prison for their gold and silver, and tortured them with pains unspeakable, for never were any martyrs tormented as these were. I can not, and I may not, tell of all the tortures that they inflicted upon the wretched men of this land; and this state of things lasted the nineteen years that Stephen was King, and ever grew worse and worse."