Young Folks History of England | Page 9

the English, and only his strong hand kept
them in order. They rode about in armor--helmets on their heads, a shirt
of mail, made of iron linked together, over their bodies, gloves and
boots of iron, swords by their sides, and lances in their hands--and thus
they could bear down all before them. They called themselves knights,
and were always made to take an oath to befriend the weak, and poor,
and helpless; but they did not often keep it towards the poor English.
William had four sons--Robert, who was called Court-hose or
Short-legs; William, called Rufus, because he had red hair; Henry,
called Beau- clerc or the fine scholar; and Richard, who was still a lad
when he was killed by a stag in the New Forest.
Robert, the eldest, was a wild, rude, thoughtless youth; but he fancied
himself fit to govern Normandy, and asked his father to give it up to
him. King William answered, "I never take my clothes off before I go
to bed," meaning that Robert must wait for his death. Robert could not
bear to be laughed at, and was very angry. Soon after, when he was in
the castle court, his two brothers, William and Henry, grew riotous, and
poured water down from the upper windows on him and his friends. He

flew into a passion, dashed up-stairs with his sword in his hand, and
might have killed his brothers if their father had not come in to protect
them. Then he threw himself on his horse and galloped away,
persuaded some friends to join him, and actually fought a battle with
his own father, in which the old king was thrown off his horse, and hurt
in the hand; but we must do the prince the justice to say that when he
recognized his father in the knight whom he had unseated, he was filled
with grief and horror, and eagerly sought his pardon, and tenderly
raised him from the ground. Then Robert wandered about, living on
money that his mother, Queen Matilda, sent him, though his father was
angry with her for doing so, and this made the first quarrel the husband
and wife had ever had.
Not long after, William went to war with the King of France. He had
caused a city to be burnt down, and was riding through the ruins, when
his horse trod on some hot ashes, and began to plunge. The king was
thrown forward on the saddle, and, being a very heavy, stout man, was
so much hurt, that, after a few weeks, in the year 1087, he died at a
little monastery, a short way from Rouen, the chief city of his dukedom
of Normandy.
He was the greatest man of his time, and he had much good in him; and
when he lay on his death-bed he grieved much for all the evil he had
brought upon the English; but that could not undo it. He had been a
great church-builder, and so were his Norman bishops and barons. You
always know their work, because it has round pillars, and round arches,
with broad borders of zig-zags, and all manner of patterns round them.
In the end, the coming of the Normans did the English much good, by
brightening them up and making them less dull and heavy; but they did
not like having a king and court who talked French, and cared more for
Normandy than for England.

CHAPTER VIII
.
WILLIAM II., RUFUS. A.D. 1087-1100.
William the Conqueror was obliged to let Normandy fall to Robert, his
eldest son; but he thought he could do as he pleased about England,
which he had won for himself. He had sent off his second son, William,

to England, with his ring to Westminster, giving him a message that he
hoped the English people would have him for their king. And they did
take him, though they would hardly have done do if they had known
what he would be like when he was left to himself. But while he was
kept under by his father, they only knew that he had red hair and a
ruddy face, and had more sense than his brother Robert. He is
sometimes called the Red King, but more commonly William Rufus.
Things went worse than ever with the poor English in his time; for at
lest William the Conqueror had made everybody mind the law, but now
William Rufus let his cruel soldiers do just as they pleased, and spoil
what they did not want. It was of no use to complain, for the king
would only laugh and make jokes. He did not care for God or man;
only for being powerful, for feasting, and for hunting.
Just at this time there was a great