his own subjects, many of whom came over to the king's army, he soon followed in person with more; took several towns; and placing garrisons therein, came back to England, designing with the first pretext or opportunity to return with a more potent army, and wholly subdue the duchy to his obedience. Robert, now grown sensible of his weakness, became wholly dispirited; and following his brother into England, in a most dejected manner begged for a peace: but the king, now fully determined upon his ruin, turned away in disdain, muttering at the same time some threatening words. This indignity roused up once more the sinking courage of the duke; who, with bitter words, detesting the pride and insolence of Henry, withdrew in a rage, and hasting back to Normandy, made what preparations he could for his own defence. The king observing his nobles very ready to engage with him in this expedition; and being assured that those in Normandy would, upon his approach, revolt from the duke, soon followed with a mighty army, and the flower of his kingdom. Upon his arrival he was attended, according to his expectation, by several Norman lords; and, with this formidable force, sat down before Tinchebray: the duke, accompanied by the two exiled earls, advanced with what strength he had, in hopes to draw the enemy from the siege of so important a place, although at the hazard of a battle. Both armies being drawn out in battalia, that of the king's, trusting to their numbers, began the charge with great fury, 1106. but without any order. The duke, with forces far inferior, received the enemy with much firmness; and, finding they had spent their first heat, advanced very regularly against their main body, before they could recover themselves from the confusion they were in. He attacked them with so much courage, that he broke their whole body, and they began to fly on every side. The king, believing all was lost, did what he could by threats and gentle words to stop the flight of his men, but found it impossible: then he commanded two bodies of horse which were placed on either wing, to join, and wheeling about, to attack the enemy in the rear. The duke, who thought himself so near a victory, was forced to stop his pursuit; and ordering his men to face about, began the fight anew; mean time the scattered parts of the main body, which had so lately fled, began to rally, and pour in upon the Normans behind, by which duke Robert's army was almost encompassed: yet they kept their ground awhile, and made several charges, until at length, perfectly overborn by numbers, they were utterly defeated. There duke Robert, doing all the parts of a great captain, was taken prisoner, together with the earl of Mortain, and almost his whole army; for, being hemmed in on all sides, few of them could make their escape. Thus, in the space of forty years, Normandy subdued England, 1107. and England, Normandy; which are events perhaps hardly to be paralleled in any other ages or parts of the world. The king, having staid awhile to settle the state of Normandy, returned with his brother into England, whom he sent prisoner to Cardiff castle, with orders that he should be favourably used, which, for some time, were duly observed; until being accused of attempting to make his escape (whether it were real or feigned) he had his eyes put out with a burning basin, by the king's express com mands; in which miserable condition he lived for six and twenty years. It is believed the king would hardly have engaged in this unnatural and invidious war, with so little pretence or provocation, if the pope had not openly approved and sanctified his cause, exhorting him to it as a meritorious action: which seems to have been but an ill return from the vicar of CHRIST, to a prince who had performed so many brave exploits for the service of the church, to the hazard of his person, and ruin of his fortune. But the very bigotted monks, who have left us their accounts of those times, do generally agree in heavily taxing the Roman court for bribery and corruption. And the king had promised to remit his right of investing bishops, which he performed immediately after his reduction of Normandy, and was a matter of much more service to the pope than all the achievements of duke Robert in the Holy Land: whose merits, as well as pretensions, were now antiquated and out of date. 1109. About this time the emperor Henry V. sent to desire Maude the king's daughter in marriage, who was then a child about eight years old: that prince had lately been embroiled in a quarrel with the see of Rome, which began upon the same subject of investing bishops, but was carried to great extremities: for, invading Italy with a mighty army, he took the pope prisoner, forced him to yield to whatever terms he thought fit to impose, and to take an oath of fidelity to him between his hands however, as soon as Henry had withdrawn his forces, the pope, assembling a council, revoked all his concessions, as extorted by compulsion, and raised great troubles in Germany against the emperor, who, in order to secure himself, sought this alliance with the king. About this time likewise died archbishop Anselm, a prelate of great piety and learning; whose zeal for the see of Rome, as well as for his own rights and privileges, should in justice be imputed to the errors of the time, and not of the man. After his death, the king, following the steps of his brother, held the see vacant five years, contenting himself with an excuse, which looked like a jest, That he only waited until he could find another so good a man as Anselm. In the fourteenth year of this king's reign, the Welsh, after their usual manner, invaded the Marches with great fury and destruction; but the king, hoping to put a final end to those perpetual troubles and vexations given to his kingdom by that unquiet people, went in person against them with a powerful army; and to prevent their usual stratagem of retreating to their woods and mountains, and other fastnesses, he ordered the woods to be cut down, beset all their places of security, and hunting them like wild beasts, made so terrible a slaughter, that at length observing them to fling down their arms, and beg for quarter, he commanded his soldiers to forbear; then receiving their submissions, and placing garrisons where he thought necessary, he returned, in great triumph and satisfaction, to London. 1114. The princess Maude being now marriageable, was delivered to the emperor's ambassador; and for a portion to the young lady a tax was imposed of three shillings upon every hide of land in England, which grew afterward into a custom, and was in succeeding times confirmed by acts of parliament, under the name of "Reasonable Aid for marrying the king's daughter," although levied after a different manner. As the institution of parliaments in England is agreed by several writers to be owing to this king, so the date of the first has been assigned by some to the fifteenth year of his reign: which however is not to be affirmed with any certainty: for great councils were convoked not only in the two preceding reigns, but for time immemorial by the Saxon princes, who first introduced them into this island, from the same original with the other Gothic forms of government in most parts of Europe. These councils or assemblies were composed according to the pleasure of the prince who convened them, generally of nobles and bishops, sometimes were added some considerable commoners; but they seldom met, except in the beginning of a reign, or in times of war, until this king came to the crown; who being a wise and popular prince, called these great assemblies upon most important affairs of his reign, and ever followed their advice; which, if it proved successful, the honour and advantage redounded to him; and if otherwise, he was free from the blame: thus when he chose a wife for himself, and a husband for his daughter, when he designed his expedition against Robert, and even for the election of an archbishop to the see of Canterbury, he proceeded wholly by the advice of such general assemblies, summoned for the purpose. But the style of these conventions, as delivered by several authors, is very various; sometimes it is comites, barones, et cleri ;* his marriage was agreed on, consilio majorum natu et magnatum terræ. One author† calls it consilium principium, sacerdotum, et reliqui populi. And for the election of an archbishop, the Saxon Chronicle says, That he commanded by letters all bishops, * Brompton. + Polydore Virgil. |