Chapter IX - England Under William the Second, Called Rufus

by Charles Dickens

　　William the Red, in breathless haste, secured the three great fortsof Dover, Pevensey, and Hastings, and made with hot speed forWinchester, where the Royal treasure was kept. The treasurerdelivering him the keys, he found that it amounted to sixtythousand pounds in silver, besides gold and jewels. Possessed ofthis wealth, he soon persuaded the Archbishop of Canterbury tocrown him, and became William the Second, King of England.

　　Rufus was no sooner on the throne, than he ordered into prisonagain the unhappy state captives whom his father had set free, anddirected a goldsmith to ornament his father's tomb profusely withgold and silver. It would have been more dutiful in him to haveattended the sick Conqueror when he was dying; but England itself,like this Red King, who once governed it, has sometimes madeexpensive tombs for dead men whom it treated shabbily when theywere alive.

　　The King's brother, Robert of Normandy, seeming quite content to beonly Duke of that country; and the King's other brother, Fine-Scholar, being quiet enough with his five thousand pounds in achest; the King flattered himself, we may suppose, with the hope ofan easy reign. But easy reigns were difficult to have in thosedays. The turbulent Bishop Odo (who had blessed the Norman army atthe Battle of Hastings, and who, I dare say, took all the credit ofthe victory to himself) soon began, in concert with some powerfulNorman nobles, to trouble the Red King.

　　The truth seems to be that this bishop and his friends, who hadlands in England and lands in Normandy, wished to hold both underone Sovereign; and greatly preferred a thoughtless good-naturedperson, such as Robert was, to Rufus; who, though far from being anamiable man in any respect, was keen, and not to be imposed upon.They declared in Robert's favour, and retired to their castles(those castles were very troublesome to kings) in a sullen humour.The Red King, seeing the Normans thus falling from him, revengedhimself upon them by appealing to the English; to whom he made avariety of promises, which he never meant to perform - inparticular, promises to soften the cruelty of the Forest Laws; andwho, in return, so aided him with their valour, that Odo wasbesieged in the Castle of Rochester, and forced to abandon it, andto depart from England for ever: whereupon the other rebelliousNorman nobles were soon reduced and scattered.

　　Then, the Red King went over to Normandy, where the people sufferedgreatly under the loose rule of Duke Robert. The King's object wasto seize upon the Duke's dominions. This, the Duke, of course,prepared to resist; and miserable war between the two brothersseemed inevitable, when the powerful nobles on both sides, who hadseen so much of war, interfered to prevent it. A treaty was made.Each of the two brothers agreed to give up something of his claims,and that the longer-liver of the two should inherit all thedominions of the other. When they had come to this lovingunderstanding, they embraced and joined their forces against Fine-Scholar; who had bought some territory of Robert with a part of hisfive thousand pounds, and was considered a dangerous individual inconsequence.

　　St. Michael's Mount, in Normandy (there is another St. Michael'sMount, in Cornwall, wonderfully like it), was then, as it is now, astrong place perched upon the top of a high rock, around which,when the tide is in, the sea flows, leaving no road to themainland. In this place, Fine-Scholar shut himself up with hissoldiers, and here he was closely besieged by his two brothers. Atone time, when he was reduced to great distress for want of water,the generous Robert not only permitted his men to get water, butsent Fine-Scholar wine from his own table; and, on beingremonstrated with by the Red King, said 'What! shall we let our ownbrother die of thirst? Where shall we get another, when he isgone?' At another time, the Red King riding alone on the shore ofthe bay, looking up at the Castle, was taken by two of Fine-Scholar's men, one of whom was about to kill him, when he criedout, 'Hold, knave! I am the King of England!' The story says thatthe soldier raised him from the ground respectfully and humbly, andthat the King took him into his service. The story may or may notbe true; but at any rate it is true that Fine-Scholar could nothold out against his united brothers, and that he abandoned MountSt. Michael, and wandered about - as poor and forlorn as otherscholars have been sometimes known to be.

　　The Scotch became unquiet in the Red King's time, and were twicedefeated - the second time, with the loss of their King, Malcolm,and his son. The Welsh became unquiet too. Against them, Rufuswas less successful; for they fought among their native mountains,and did great execution on the King's troops. Robert of Normandybecame unquiet too; and, complaining that his brother the King didnot faithfully perform his part of their agreement, took up arms,and obtained assistance from the King of France, whom Rufus, in theend, bought off with vast sums of money. England became unquiettoo. Lord Mowbray, the powerful Earl of Northumberland, headed agreat conspiracy to depose the King, and to place upon the throne,Stephen, the Conqueror's near relative. The plot was discovered;all the chief conspirators were seized; some were fined, some wereput in prison, some were put to death. The Earl of Northumberlandhimself was shut up in a dungeon beneath Windsor Castle, where hedied, an old man, thirty long years afterwards. The Priests inEngland were more unquiet than any other class or power; for theRed King treated them with such small ceremony that he refused toappoint new bishops or archbishops when the old ones died, but keptall the wealth belonging to those offices in his own hands. Inreturn for this, the Priests wrote his life when he was dead, andabused him well. I am inclined to think, myself, that there waslittle to choose between the Priests and the Red King; that bothsides were greedy and designing; and that they were fairly matched.

　　The Red King was false of heart, selfish, covetous, and mean. Hehad a worthy minister in his favourite, Ralph, nicknamed - foralmost every famous person had a nickname in those rough days -Flambard, or the Firebrand. Once, the King being ill, becamepenitent, and made Anselm, a foreign priest and a good man,Archbishop of Canterbury. But he no sooner got well again than herepented of his repentance, and persisted in wrongfully keeping tohimself some of the wealth belonging to the archbishopric. Thisled to violent disputes, which were aggravated by there being inRome at that time two rival Popes; each of whom declared he was theonly real original infallible Pope, who couldn't make a mistake.At last, Anselm, knowing the Red King's character, and not feelinghimself safe in England, asked leave to return abroad. The RedKing gladly gave it; for he knew that as soon as Anselm was gone,he could begin to store up all the Canterbury money again, for hisown use.

　　By such means, and by taxing and oppressing the English people inevery possible way, the Red King became very rich. When he wantedmoney for any purpose, he raised it by some means or other, andcared nothing for the injustice he did, or the misery he caused.Having the opportunity of buying from Robert the whole duchy ofNormandy for five years, he taxed the English people more thanever, and made the very convents sell their plate and valuables tosupply him with the means to make the purchase. But he was asquick and eager in putting down revolt as he was in raising money;for, a part of the Norman people objecting - very naturally, Ithink - to being sold in this way, he headed an army against themwith all the speed and energy of his father. He was so impatient,that he embarked for Normandy in a great gale of wind. And whenthe sailors told him it was dangerous to go to sea in such angryweather, he replied, 'Hoist sail and away! Did you ever hear of aking who was drowned?'

　　You will wonder how it was that even the careless Robert came tosell his dominions. It happened thus. It had long been the customfor many English people to make journeys to Jerusalem, which werecalled pilgrimages, in order that they might pray beside the tombof Our Saviour there. Jerusalem belonging to the Turks, and theTurks hating Christianity, these Christian travellers were ofteninsulted and ill used. The Pilgrims bore it patiently for sometime, but at length a remarkable man, of great earnestness andeloquence, called Peter the Hermit, began to preach in variousplaces against the Turks, and to declare that it was the duty ofgood Christians to drive away those unbelievers from the tomb ofOur Saviour, and to take possession of it, and protect it. Anexcitement such as the world had never known before was created.Thousands and thousands of men of all ranks and conditions departedfor Jerusalem to make war against the Turks. The war is called inhistory the first Crusade, and every Crusader wore a cross markedon his right shoulder.

　　All the Crusaders were not zealous Christians. Among them werevast numbers of the restless, idle, profligate, and adventurousspirit of the time. Some became Crusaders for the love of change;some, in the hope of plunder; some, because they had nothing to doat home; some, because they did what the priests told them; some,because they liked to see foreign countries; some, because theywere fond of knocking men about, and would as soon knock a Turkabout as a Christian. Robert of Normandy may have been influencedby all these motives; and by a kind desire, besides, to save theChristian Pilgrims from bad treatment in future. He wanted toraise a number of armed men, and to go to the Crusade. He couldnot do so without money. He had no money; and he sold hisdominions to his brother, the Red King, for five years. With thelarge sum he thus obtained, he fitted out his Crusaders gallantly,and went away to Jerusalem in martial state. The Red King, whomade money out of everything, stayed at home, busily squeezing moremoney out of Normans and English.

　　After three years of great hardship and suffering - from shipwreckat sea; from travel in strange lands; from hunger, thirst, andfever, upon the burning sands of the desert; and from the fury ofthe Turks - the valiant Crusaders got possession of Our Saviour'stomb. The Turks were still resisting and fighting bravely, butthis success increased the general desire in Europe to join theCrusade. Another great French Duke was proposing to sell hisdominions for a term to the rich Red King, when the Red King'sreign came to a sudden and violent end.

　　You have not forgotten the New Forest which the Conqueror made, andwhich the miserable people whose homes he had laid waste, so hated.The cruelty of the Forest Laws, and the torture and death theybrought upon the peasantry, increased this hatred. The poorpersecuted country people believed that the New Forest wasenchanted. They said that in thunder-storms, and on dark nights,demons appeared, moving beneath the branches of the gloomy trees.They said that a terrible spectre had foretold to Norman huntersthat the Red King should be punished there. And now, in thepleasant season of May, when the Red King had reigned almostthirteen years; and a second Prince of the Conqueror's blood -another Richard, the son of Duke Robert - was killed by an arrow inthis dreaded Forest; the people said that the second time was notthe last, and that there was another death to come.

　　It was a lonely forest, accursed in the people's hearts for thewicked deeds that had been done to make it; and no man save theKing and his Courtiers and Huntsmen, liked to stray there. But, inreality, it was like any other forest. In the spring, the greenleaves broke out of the buds; in the summer, flourished heartily,and made deep shades; in the winter, shrivelled and blew down, andlay in brown heaps on the moss. Some trees were stately, and grewhigh and strong; some had fallen of themselves; some were felled bythe forester's axe; some were hollow, and the rabbits burrowed attheir roots; some few were struck by lightning, and stood white andbare. There were hill-sides covered with rich fern, on which themorning dew so beautifully sparkled; there were brooks, where thedeer went down to drink, or over which the whole herd bounded,flying from the arrows of the huntsmen; there were sunny glades,and solemn places where but little light came through the rustlingleaves. The songs of the birds in the New Forest were pleasanterto hear than the shouts of fighting men outside; and even when theRed King and his Court came hunting through its solitudes, cursingloud and riding hard, with a jingling of stirrups and bridles andknives and daggers, they did much less harm there than among theEnglish or Normans, and the stags died (as they lived) far easierthan the people.

　　Upon a day in August, the Red King, now reconciled to his brother,Fine-Scholar, came with a great train to hunt in the New Forest.Fine-Scholar was of the party. They were a merry party, and hadlain all night at Malwood-Keep, a hunting-lodge in the forest,where they had made good cheer, both at supper and breakfast, andhad drunk a deal of wine. The party dispersed in variousdirections, as the custom of hunters then was. The King took withhim only Sir Walter Tyrrel, who was a famous sportsman, and to whomhe had given, before they mounted horse that morning, two finearrows.

　　The last time the King was ever seen alive, he was riding with SirWalter Tyrrel, and their dogs were hunting together.

　　It was almost night, when a poor charcoal-burner, passing throughthe forest with his cart, came upon the solitary body of a deadman, shot with an arrow in the breast, and still bleeding. He gotit into his cart. It was the body of the King. Shaken andtumbled, with its red beard all whitened with lime and clotted withblood, it was driven in the cart by the charcoal-burner next day toWinchester Cathedral, where it was received and buried.

　　Sir Walter Tyrrel, who escaped to Normandy, and claimed theprotection of the King of France, swore in France that the Red Kingwas suddenly shot dead by an arrow from an unseen hand, while theywere hunting together; that he was fearful of being suspected asthe King's murderer; and that he instantly set spurs to his horse,and fled to the sea-shore. Others declared that the King and SirWalter Tyrrel were hunting in company, a little before sunset,standing in bushes opposite one another, when a stag came betweenthem. That the King drew his bow and took aim, but the stringbroke. That the King then cried, 'Shoot, Walter, in the Devil'sname!' That Sir Walter shot. That the arrow glanced against atree, was turned aside from the stag, and struck the King from hishorse, dead.

　　By whose hand the Red King really fell, and whether that handdespatched the arrow to his breast by accident or by design, isonly known to God. Some think his brother may have caused him tobe killed; but the Red King had made so many enemies, both amongpriests and people, that suspicion may reasonably rest upon a lessunnatural murderer. Men know no more than that he was found deadin the New Forest, which the suffering people had regarded as adoomed ground for his race.