1075-1078 and was received by Bonifazio, Marquis of Montferrat. Boniface of The dominions of Boniface extended from the foot of the Alps to the shore of the Riviera; from Vercelli to Savona; and Parma and Cremona and Piacenza, all owned him as their Lord. The mother of Boniface, Helena, was an English Princess. The Italians call her Helen, daughter of a Duke of Gloucester; possibly of some Anglo-Saxon Earl of Mercia, who assumed the softer name to please the Italian ear. Robert courted the daughter of Boniface, and as it is said, with the wish to obtain the aid of this prince against his father. The manner in which Albert Azzo attempted to possess himself of Maine, shews, that, notwithstanding the distance and the difficulty of the journey, there might have been a possibility of exciting the Lombard to such an adventure; and there was such a general epidemic fermentation and unsettlement of men's minds at this period, that there was a chance for Refuses his any desperate enterprize. But Robert was unsuccessful. The hand of Adelicia, a name which, even in this case, one is fain to consider as a title or an epithet, was reserved for Roger Guiscard. daughter to Robert. From the compassion or the policy of the princes and nobles whom he sought, Robert frequently obtained ample pecuniary aid; but the gifts and donations bestowed by their generosity or extorted by his importunity, were lavished with unprincipled rapidity. Robert's debauch eries kept him miserably poor, and he was fre- 1075–1078 quently reduced to the greatest distress: to borrow from the usurer, or to beg, when the usurer would not lend. Matilda's heart was constantly turned towards her absent and degraded child: knowing his exigencies, she constantly endeavoured to relieve him, and transmitted to him from time to time large sums of money, by the hands of Sampson, the Breton, a trusty and experienced messenger, who must have had to make his journeys with much peril as well as skill. These acts of tenderness she carefully concealed from her husband: he discovered them by chance, and burst out into a paroxysm of fury, accusing her of supporting his bitter enemy. Matilda fully acknowledged her act. "If Robert, my son, were buried seven feet below the ground, and I could bring him to life again by my heart's blood, how gladly would I shed it, to restore him to the light of day." William became yet paler with anger, and gave William's orders that the eyes of Sampson should be Matilda, plucked out. He was enabled to escape, and fled to St. Evreul, where, taking the cowl, he lived to a good old age: the companion of the youth of that historian who constitutes our main guide through this period of our history. 28. Robert, when he returned from Lombardy, which seems to have been his extreme point, renewed his applications to Philip, who received him zealously, and placed him in a position where wrath with 1078 Gerberoi: he could most successfully annoy his father, in the castle of Gerberoi. This was a very strong border fortress in the Beaucassin, near the Norman frontier, and about five miles from Gournay. All such March fortresses were usually sufficiently lawless, but Gerberoi had, in this respect, as it were, a peculiar franchise. It was the privilege of Gerberoi that all outlaws or fugitives might be received there as a sanctuary. Helias the Vidam, welcomed the reckless Robert; and what locality could better suit him and his desperate fortune? Here he established his head quarters, and gathered round him a band of freebooters, making large promises, and giving them present payment, by permitting them to ravage Normandy, his own country, the country which he claimed. Unprincipled as this predatory warfare might be, the treachery by which it was accompanied rendered it the more base. Many of the Normans of the higher ranks, outwardly the most loyal to William, were in secret communication with his son, betraying and selling their own countrymen and their own kindred to the outlaws. Such a state of affairs was equally affronting to the monarch Besieged by and to the father. William collected his forces, and accompanied by Rufus and by Beauclerc, occupied the adjoining territory and laid siege to the castle. Gerberoi was defended with great obstinacy. Three weeks elapsed, during which no progress was made by the besiegers. William fought in person amongst the besiegers, and it is William. man. MISFORTUNES OF WILLIAM. 539 1078 William remarkable that his body squire was an EnglishThe siege was ended by a decided battle. Rufus was wounded. William, engaged in single Robert and conflict with a knight belonging to the adverse fight. party, was exposed to the utmost danger. His horse was killed under him: the esquire, bringing up another, was transpierced by a javelin. William himself was cut so desperately, that the agony extorted a cry of anguish. Robert, his assailant, stayed his hand. Baffled, humiliated, and full of sorrow, it seemed as if William's genius had fled, and the defeated Conqueror retreated from the single donjon tower of Gerberoi within the distant walls of Rouen. The disorders of the country still continued and the Proceres now proffered their help, for the purpose of ending this most unnatural conflict. William received Proposals their proposals with angry grief. Roger de tion. Montgomery, Hugh Lupus, Hugh de Gournay, Grantesmesnil, and Beaumont, with his sons, were the principal mediators. Of some the loyalty was ambiguous. The clergy added their influence; so also did Hubert the Cardinal Legate; and Pope Gregory himself addressed the undutiful son. Peace was concluded. Normandy was again assured to Robert by William : and the prelates and barons confirmed the compact. But William had yielded to necessity grudgingly and angrily; anxious as he was to secure the succession to his progeny, he could for family reconcilia 1079 Troubles Walchere. not forgive the indignity which he had received: and from the same lips which made the donation proceeded that fatal imprecation which sought to make it void. For William in the bitterness of his heart had cursed his son, and the father's ban was fulfilled in the child's destruction. 29. No peace, no rest, no tranquillity was Vouchsafed to William. Fresh troubles had arisen in England. After the execution of Waltheof, the unsettled right to the great Northumbrian earldom ought perhaps to have passed to Liulph, whose birth and possessions well entitled him to the designation of the Noble Thane: and whose excellence of character, his truth, his honesty, and piety, gave him a higher claim to dignity. William however granted the earldom, or perhaps the government of it, to Walchere of Lorraine, the Bishop of Durham. The word bought is used: but we must not take this word in its more technical sense. The rights of the bishop over the patrimony of St. Cuthbert were unquestionable; but if we consider the powers of government as being what are commonly termed feudal, we know that even the heir by blood, in such cases, as the accession of a new lord, was compelled to bargain with the sovereign for the restoration of his inheritance. Walchere, who had enjoyed the friendship of the martyred Waltheof, was of a kind and benignant disposition, yet weak and unstable, and timid and slack in his rule. Hence his retainers had |