offered to mortgage his dukedom of Normandy to his brother Rufus for a ftipulated fum of money. This fum, which was s no greater than ten thousand marks, was readily promised by Rufus, whofe ambition was upon the watch to feize every advantage.

But though the ceffation of Maine and Normandy, greatly increased the king's territories, they added but little to his real power, as his new fubjects were composed of men of independent fpirits, more ready to dispute than to obey his commands. Many were the revolts and infurrections which he was obliged to quell in perfon; and no fooner was one confpiracy fuppreffed than another rofe to give him fresh difquietude.

a

However Rufus proceeded, careless of approbation or cenfure; and only intent upon extending his dominions, either by purchafe or conqueft. The earl of Poitiers and Guienne, enflamed with defire of going upon the Crusade, had gathered an immenfe multitude for that expedition, but wanted money to forward his preparations. He had recourfe, therefore, to Rufus; and offered to mortgage all his dominions, without much confidering what would become of his unhappy fubjects that he thus difpofed of. The king accepted this offer with his ufual avidity; and had prepared a feet, and an army, in order to take poffeffion, of the rich provinces thus configned to his truft. But an accident put an end to all his ambitious projects; he was hot by an arrow that Sir Walter Tyrrel difcharged at a deer in the New Foreft, which glancing from a tree, ftruck the king to the heart. He dropt dead inftantaneously; while the innocent author of his death, terrified at the accident, put fpurs to his horfe, haftened to the fea-fhore, embarked for France, and joined the Crusade that was then fetting out for Jeru. falem..

CHAP

CHA P. VI.

HENRY I. furnamed BEAUCLERC.

ENRY, the late king's younger brother,

who had been hunting in the New Foreft, when Rufus was flain, took the earlieft advantage of the occafion, and haftening to Winchefter, refolved to fecure the royal treafure, which he knew to be the beft affiftant in feconding his aims. The barons, as well as the people, acquiefced in a claim which they were unprovided to refift, and yielded obedience, from the fears of immediate danger.

Henry, to ingratiate himfelf with the people, expelled from court all the minifters of his brother's debauchery and arbitrary power. One thing only remained to confirm his claims without danger of a rival. The English ftill remembered their Saxon monarchs with gratitude, and beheld them excluded the throne with regret. There ftill remained fome of the defcendants of that favourite line; and, among others, Matilda, the niece of Edgar Atheling, which lady, having declined all pretenfions to royalty, was bred up in a convent, and had actually taken the veil. Upon her Henry firft fixed his eyes as a proper confort, by whofe means, the long breach between the Saxon and Norman interests would be finally united. It only remained to get over the fcruple of her being anun but this a council, devoted to his interefts, readily admitted; and Matilda being pronounced free to marry, the nuptials were celebrated with great pomp and folemnity.

It was at this unfavourable juncture, that Robert returned from abroad, and after taking poffeffion of

his

his native dominions, laid his claim to the crown of England. But, proposals for an accommodation being made, it was ftipulated, that Robert, upon the payment of a certain fum, fhould refign his pretenfions to England; and that if either of the princes died without iffue, the other should fucceed to his dominions. This treaty being ratified, the armies on each fide were difbanded; and Robert, having lived two months in the utmost harmony with his brother, re turned in peace to his own dominions.

But Robert's indifcretion foon rendered him unfit to govern any state: he was totally averse to business, and only studious of the more fplendid amufements or employments of life. His fervants pillaged him without compunction; and he is defcribed as lying whole days a-bed for want of cloaths, of which they had robbed him. His fubjects were treated ftill more deplorably, for being under the command of petty and rapacious tyrants, who plundered them without mercy, the whole country was become a fcene of vio lence and depredation. It was in this miferable exigence, that the Normans at length had recourse to Henry, from whose wife administration of his own dominions, they expected a fimilitude of profperity, fhould he take the reins of theirs. Henry very readily promifed to redress their grievances, as he knew it would be the direct method to fecond

his own ambition. The year enfuing, therefore, he landed in Normandy with a ftrong army, took fome of the principal towns; and a battle enfuing, Robert's forces were totally overthrown, and he himself taken prifoner, with near ten thousand of his men, and all the confiderable barons who had adhered to his misfortunes. This victory was fol lowed by the final reduction of Normandy, while Henry returned in triumph to England, leading with him his captive brother, who, after a life of bravery, generofity, and truth, now found himself not only deprived

deprived of his patrimony and his friends, but also of his freedom. Henry, unmindful of his brother's former magnanimity with regard to him, detained him a prifoner during the remainder of his life, which was no less than twenty-eight years; and he died in the caftle of Cardiff, in Glamorganfhire. It is even faid by fome, that he was deprived of his fight by a redhot copper bafon applied to his eyes; while his bro ther attempted to stifle the reproaches of his confcience, by founding the abbey of Reading, which was then confidered as a fufficient atonement for every degree of barbarity.

Fortune now feemed to fmile upon Henry, and promife a long fucceffion of felicity. He was in peaceable poffeffion of two powerful ftates, and had a fon who was acknowledged undifputed heir, arrived at his eighteenth year, whom he loved moft tenderly. His daughter, Matilda, was alfo married to the emperor Henry V. of Germany, and she had been fent to that court while yet but eight years old, for her education. All his profpects, however, were at once clouded by unforefeen misfortunes and accidents, which tinctured his remaining years with mifery. The king, from the facility with which he ufurped the crown, dreading that his family might be fubverted with the fame ease, took care to have his fon recognized as his fucceffor by the ftates of England, and carried him over to Normandy to receive the homage of the barons of that duchy. After performing this requifite ceremony, Henry, returning triumphantly. to England, brought with him a numerous retinue of the chief nobility, who feemed to fhare in his fucceffes. In one of the veffels of the fleet, his fon, and fe veral young noblemen, the companions of his pleafurcs, went together to render the paffage more agreeable. The king fet fail for Barfleur, and was foon carried by a fair wind out of fight of land. The prince was detained by fome accident; and his failors, as

well

well as their captain, Fitz-Stephen, having spent the interval in drinking, became fo disordered, that they ran the fhip upon a rock, and immediately it was dafhed to pieces. The prince was put into the boat, and might have efcaped, had he not been called back by the cries of Maude, his natural fifter. He was at firit conveyed out of danger himself, but could not leave a perfon fo dear to perifh without an effort to fave her. He, therefore, prevailed upon the failors to row back and take her in. The approach of the boat, giv-. ing feveral others, who had been left upon the wreck, the hopes of faving their lives, numbers leaped in, and the whole went to the bottom. Above an hundred and forty young noblemen of the principal families of England and Normandy, were loft on this occafion. A butcher of Rouen was the only person on board who escaped; he clung to the maft, and was taken up the next morning by fome fifhermen. FitzStephen, the captain, while the butcher was thus buffetting the waves for his life, fwam up to him, and enquired if the prince was yet living; when being told that he had perifhed, then I will not out-live him, faid the captain, and immediately funk to the bottom. The fhrieks of these unfortunate people were heard from the fhore, and the noife even reached the king's fhip, but the cause was then unknown. Henry entertained hopes for three days, that his fon had put into fome diftant port of England; but when cer tain intelligence of the calamity was brought him, he fainted away, and was. never feen to fmile from that moment to the day of his death, which followed some time after at St. Dennis, a little town in Normandy, from eating too plentiful of lampreys, a difh he was particularly fond of. He died in the fixty-feventh year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his reign, leaving by will, his daughther Matilda, heirefs of all his dominions.