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Robert the Magnificent had joined one of the crusades to the Holy Land when William was only seven years old, but before he left Normandy, he had made it known that he wished the boy to succeed him. For twenty years there was civil war between the greater barons and the supporters of the heir, but in the end William showed himself sufficiently strong to establish his power.
William then took a step which illustrates again the extent of his power and his arbitrary use of it. He ordered a levy of ten thousand men from England to be sent him in Normandy, and when they had assembled at Hastings, Ranulf Flambard, by the king's orders we are told, took from them the ten shillings which each man had been furnished for his expenses, and sent them home.
The intrusion even of a friend was too much for this catastrophe, and we saw little more of the Brownings until years after, when other and many changes of fortune had come over us, and we met again in Italy. Out of a quiet and happy life in Normandy I was aroused by the complications of our Civil War.
Rudolph remembered that the estate of Aubiers, where M. d'Orbigny resided, was situated in Normandy. There could be no doubt the quack was going to see the father of Clemence for no good purpose. "It is the departure of M. Bradamanti that will finely provoke old Seraphin!" said Madame Pipelet.
In 1183 they called for help from Flanders, France, and Normandy, and a general revolt seemed on the point of breaking out, like that of ten years before. Henry II. was forced to march himself into Aquitaine. But in a war with his sons he was no longer the same man as when he fought with French king or rebel barons.
And when the courtly and luxurious Chancellor held out, in Normandy, the skirts of his gilded and embroidered garments to show how unfit he was for an archbishop, Henry ought to have perceived that a future estrangement was a probability. Better for Henry had Becket remained in the civil service. But Henry, with all his penetration, had not fathomed the mind of his favorite.
The really instructive part of the story deals with two border fortresses on the march of Normandy and Maine. Alencon lay on the Norman side of the Sarthe; but it was disloyal to Normandy. Brionne was still holding out for Guy of Burgundy.
Suddenly he cried: "Ah, you will soon see something comical Father Matthew's chapel. That is a sweet morsel, my boy." I looked at him in surprise. He continued: "I will give you a whiff of Normandy that will stay by you. Father Matthew is the handsomest Norman in the province and his chapel is one of the wonders of the world, nothing more nor less.
William was descended from a great pirate who had come from the North, many years before, and had compelled the King of France to give him part of his dominions for himself and his followers to settle in. Ever since then, this part of France has been called Normandy; and the descendants of these Northmen are living there to this day.
Whatever king or noble or knight-at-arms lived in this house, his women-folk had to drag their brocaded trains up and down steep twisting stone staircases, and also to be content with very little light and air in many of their elegant rooms. The rich Angevin bourgeoisie built these half-timbered houses, which are somewhat like those that one sees so often in Normandy.
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