William II (Penguin Monarchs) by John Gillingham

Author:John Gillingham
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141978567
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2015-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

5

Normandy, Maine and Britain

Winning the war of 1088 did not mean that Rufus’s brother was no longer dangerous. Odo of Bayeux – that ‘fire-breathing dragon’, as Orderic called him1 – was once again at Robert’s side. Also at Robert’s court was Edgar Atheling, the last surviving male of the English royal dynasty, passed over in 1066 as too young to rule in turbulent times, but a potential threat of uncertain proportions to any Norman king of England. Rufus had cause to be nervous, but so too did Robert. When their brother Henry sailed back to Normandy after being rebuffed by Rufus (see p. 30), he travelled in the company of Robert of Bellême, lord of Alençon and Domfront, key strongholds on Normandy’s southern frontier with Maine. Robert suspected both of conspiring with Rufus against him, and arrested them when they landed. William of Malmesbury believed that the duke was too ready to listen to malicious gossip, but he was certainly right to be on his guard. They were eventually released, but not before Earl Roger had also returned to Normandy and put his castles in a state of war-readiness. The underlying political situation was just as unstable as before.

But in February 1091 Rufus met Robert in Rouen and struck a deal. Robert assigned him lordship over Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, Cherbourg, Fécamp, the counties of Eu and Aumale, and the castles belonging to Gerard de Gournay and Ralph of Conches. Rufus had achieved a decisive shift in the balance of power, and by what William of Malmesbury called ‘his usual methods’.2 According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1090,

by astuteness or by money he got hold of the castle at Saint-Valéry and the harbour, and in the same way he got Aumale and placed knights from his household in it, and they caused damage to the land around by ravaging and burning.

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