William II

Had the Norman kings been able to hand on the crown without dispute from father to son, as the French kings were doing, the history of the English monarchy might have been different. But the weakness of the Normans lay in a disputed succession and in the quarrels to which it gave rise, and of this weakness the people of England were to take full advantage in their struggle to check the growing power of their kings.

William the Conqueror, at his death in 1087, left Normandy to his eldest son, Robert. To his second son, William, called Rufus, he left the English crown; and to his third son, Henry, he left a hoard of money. William Rufus, fearing an uprising of the Norman barons in favor of Robert, threw himself on the support of the English, and with the aid of Lanfranc, obtained a legal election in 1087. In return, he promised better laws and lighter taxes. But after Lanfranc's death, in 1089, he forgot his coronation oath and gave way to his evil passions. With Ranulf Flambard as his minister, he employed every device to obtain money, exercising mercilessly his feudal rights, and demanding exorbitant payments. He also kept vacant the see of Canterbury, and took the revenues himself for four years. Finally, in 1093, falling sick, he repented, and appointed as archbishop the saintly Anselm, who had been Lanfranc's successor at Bee. But recovering, he again forgot his oath, and continued his evil course. The burden of his feudal exactions fell chiefly upon the holders of great estates, who were in the main of Norman stock ; while his tampering with the management of the local courts, the buying and selling of justice, and the pardoning of criminals for a bribe, caused great hardship among the masses of the people, the native English. The great landholders, in their turn seeking from-their tenantry reimbursement for their losses, increased the popular distress. No one mourned when, in 1100, William was killed while hunting in the New Forest, which his father had created.

WILLIAM RUFUS.

From Vertue's engraving, based apparently on the rude coin-portraits of his reign.

Henry I

The reign of William Rufus was for the barons and the church an experience which stood them in good stead when Henry, the third son of William the Conqueror, came to the throne. In order to forestall the claims of his elder brother, Robert, Henry hastened to London and demanded the crown. After some opposition, he was elected king, August 5,1100. Then, in order to strengthen his position, he wrote a letter to Anselm, who had fled from William Rufus in 1097, calling him back to England. At the same time he promised to respect the laws of Eadward the Confessor, and most important of all, issued a charter of liberties from which we can obtain a pretty clear idea of the evil practices of William Rufus.

King Henry bound himself to respect the freedom of the church and to leave molested church revenues during a vacancy; to exact reasonable and just feudal dues; to establish peace and the laws of Eadward in the kingdom; and he demanded that his barons

HENRY I.
From engraving based on coin-portrait of the king.

should treat their vassals as he was treating them. He imprisoned Ranulf Flambard, whom Rufus had made bishop of Durham ; and in order to bind the English more closely to him, married Edyth, whom the Normans called Matilda, daughter of Malcolm of Scotland, the youngest and the last of the house of Alfred.