Page images
PDF
EPUB

BOOK than the actions, fortunes and character of this III. great man; whether we consider the grandeur of A. D. the plans he formed, the courage and wisdom, with 1087. which they were executed, or the splendour of that

success, which, adorning his youth, continued without the smallest reserve to support his age, even to the last moments of his life. He lived above seventy years, and reigned within ten years as long as he lived; sixty over his Dukedom, above twenty over England; both of which he acquired or kept by his own magnanimity, with hardly any other title than he derived from his arms; so that he might be reputed, in all respects, as happy as the highest ambition, the most fully gratified, can make a man. The silent inward satisfactions of domestick happiness he neither had, nor sought. He had a body suited to the character of his mind, erect, firm, large, and active; whilst to be active was a praise; a countenance stern, and which became command. Magnificent in his living, reserved in his conversation, grave in his common deportment, but relaxing with a wise facetiousness, he knew how to relieve his mind and preserve his dignity; for he never forfeited by a personal acquaintance that esteem he had acquired by his great actions. Unlearned in books, he formed his understanding by the rigid discipline of a large and complicated experience. He knew men much, and therefore generally trusted them but little; but when he knew any man to be good,

II.

A. D.

1087.

good, he reposed in him an entire confidence, CHAP. which prevented his prudence from degenerating into a vice. He had vices in his composition, and great ones; but they were the vices of a great mind ambition, the malady of every extensive genius; and avarice, the madness of the wise: one chiefly actuated his youth; the other governed his age. The vices of young and light minds, the joys of wine, and the pleasures of love, never reached his aspiring nature. The general run of men he looked on with contempt, and treated with cruelty when they opposed him. Nor was the rigour of his mind to be softened but with the appearance of extraordinary fortitude in his enemies, which, by a sympathy congenial to his own virtues, always excited his admiration, and ensured his mercy. So that there were often seen in this one man, at the same time, the extremes of a savage cruelty, and a generosity, that does honour to human nature. Religion too seemed to have a great influence on his mind from policy, or from better motives; but his religion was displayed in the regularity, with which he performed its duties, not in the submission he showed to its ministers, which was never more than what good government required. Yet his choice of a counsellor and favourite was, not according to the mode of the time, out of that order, and a choice, that does honour to his memory. This was Lanfranc, a man of great learning

for

III.

BOOK for the times, and extraordinary piety. He owed his elevation to William; but, though always inA. D. violably faithful, he never was the tool or flatterer 1087. of the power, which raised him; and the greater freedom he showed, the higher he rose in the confidence of his master. By mixing with the concerns of state he did not lose his religion and conscience, or make them the covers or instruments of ambition; but tempering the fierce policy of a new power by the mild lights of religion, he became a blessing to the country, in which he was promoted. The English owed to the virtue of this stranger, and the influence he had on the King, the little remains of liberty they continued to enjoy; and at last such a degree of his confidence, as in some sort counterbalanced the severities of the former part of his reign.

CHA P. III.

Reign of William the Second, surnamed Rufus.

CHAP. WILLIAM had by his Queen Matilda three III. sons, who survived him, Robert, William, and A. D. Henry. Robert, though in an advanced age at 1087. his father's death, was even then more remarkable

for those virtues, which make us entertain hopes of a young man, than for that steady prudence, which is necessary, when the short career we are to run

d

III.

A. D.

will not allow us to make many mistakes. He had CHAP.
indeed a temper suitable to the genius of the time
he lived in, and which therefore enabled him to
make a considerable figure in the transactions, which 1087.
distinguished that period. He was of a sincere,
open, candid nature; passionately fond of glory;
ambitious without having any determinate object in
view; vehement in his pursuits, but inconstant;
much in war, which he understood and loved. But
guiding himself both in war and peace solely by the
impulses of an unbounded and irregular spirit, he
filled the world with an equal admiration and pity
of his splendid qualities, and great misfortunes.

William was of a character very different. His
views were short, his designs few, his genius narrow,
and his manners brutal; full of craft, rapacious,
without faith, without religion; but circumspect,
steady and courageous for his ends, not for glory.
These qualities secured to him that fortune, which
the virtues of Robert deserved. Of Henry we shall
speak hereafter. We have seen the quarrels, to-
gether with the causes of them, which embroiled the
Conqueror with his eldest son Robert. Although
the wound was skinned over by several temporary
and palliative accommodations, it still left a sore-
ness in the father's mind, which influenced him, by
his last will, to cut off Robert from the inheritance
of his English dominions. Those, he declared, he
derived from his sword, and therefore he would

dispose

BOOK dispose of them to that son, whose dutiful behaIII. viour had made him the most worthy. To William A. D. therefore he left his Crown; to Henry he devised 1087. his treasures: Robert possessed nothing but the

[ocr errors]

Dutchy, which was his birthright. William had some advantages to enforce the execution of a bequest, which was not included even in any of the modes of succession, which then were admitted. He was at the time of his father's death in England, and had an opportunity of seizing the vacant Government, a thing of great moment in all disputed rights. He had also, by his presence, an opportunity of engaging some of the most considerable leading men in his interests; but his greatest strength was derived from the adherence to his 1088. cause of Lanfranc, a prelate of the greatest authority amongst the English as well as the Normans, both from the place he had held in the Conqueror's esteem, whose memory all men respected, and from his own great and excellent qualities. By the advice of this prelate the new monarch professed to be entirely governed. And as an earnest of his future reign he renounced all the rigid maxims of conquest, and swore to protect the Church and the people, and to govern by St. Edward's Laws, a promise extremely grateful and popular to all parties: for the Normans, finding the English passionately desirous of these Laws, and only knowing, that they were in general favourable to liberty, and conducive

« PreviousContinue »