From this time onward William lived generally in Normandy, leaving England to the care of Lanfranc and Odo of Bayeux. The great success of his reign had indeed been reached, and the remaining years were disturbed by constant disputes with his sons and with his suzerain the King of France. Already, when pursuing Ralph of Gwader on his retreat into Brittany, and besieging him in the town of Dol, he had found himself checked by the union of Philip of France with Alan Fergant of Brittany, and had found it advisable to marry his daughter Constance to that nobleman as the price of peace. So, too, to lessen the jealousy the King of France might naturally have felt at his vassal’s great aggrandisement, he had made the Norman barons swear fealty to his son Robert as his heir, and had caused him to do homage in his place for Maine. Robert desired to make this nominal position real; and, as a part of the same feudal movement perhaps which produced the conspiracy of 1075, he demanded Normandy and Maine of his father. His demand was refused; and when, during an expedition of William against the Count of Mortagne, an accidental quarrel arose between Robert and his brothers, in company with many of the younger nobility he broke into open rebellion. With these, after an unsuccessful attempt at Rouen, he fled to Hugh of Neufchâtel. Beaten thence, he wandered from court to court, assisted by his mother Matilda, against William’s will. At length he found an ally in Philip, who established him in 1079 in Gerberoi, near the borders of Normandy. It was there that father and son met face to face, and that William was unhorsed by Robert. The siege of Gerberoi had to be raised, and William underwent the humiliation of seeking a reconciliation with his son, a reconciliation which was of short duration, as in 1080 Robert again fled from court. [Sidenote: Odo’s oppressive government.]