Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066 -- Sources
They were afterwards reconciled on this condition, that Duncan
should never more bring English or Frenchmen into that country.
1094.
This year, at Christmas, King William held his Court at Gloucester: and
there came messengers to him out of Normandy from his brother Robert,
and they said that his brother renounced all peace and compact if the
King would not perform all that they had stipulated in the treaty;
moreover they called him perjured and faithless unless he would perform
the conditions, or would go to the place where the treaty had been
concluded and sworn to, and there clear himself. Then at Candlemas the
King went to Hastings, and whilst he waited there for a fair wind, he
caused the monastery on the field of battle to be consecrated; and he
took the staff from Herbert Losange, Bishop of Thetford.--After this,
in the middle of Lent, he went over sea to Normandy. When he came
thither he and his brother Earl Robert agreed that they would meet in
peace, and they did so, to the end that they might be reconciled. But
afterwards, when they met attended by the same men who had brought
about the treaty, and had sworn to see it executed, these charged all
the breach of faith upon the King; he would not allow this, neither
would he observe the treaty, on which they separated in great enmity.
And the King then seized the castle of Bures and took the Earl’s men
who were in it, and he sent some of them over to this country. And on
the other hand the Earl with the assistance of the King of France,
took the castle of Argentses (Argentan) in which he seized Roger the
Poitevin and 700 of the King’s soldiers; and he afterwards took the
castle of Hulme; and frequently did each burn the towns and take
captive the people of his rival. Then the King sent hither and ordered
out 20,000 Englishmen to aid him in Normandy, but when they reached the
sea, they were desired to return, and to give to the King’s Treasury
the money that they had received; this was half a pound for each man,
and they did so. And in Normandy, after this, the Earl with the King
of France and all the troops that they could collect, marched towards
Eu, where King William then was, purposing to besiege him therein, and
thus they proceeded until they came to Longueville, and there the King
of France turned off through treachery, and on this the whole army
dispersed. In the mean time King William sent for his brother Henry who
was in the castle of Domfront, and because he could not pass through
Normandy in security, he sent ships for him, with Hugo Earl of Chester.
And when they should have made for Eu, where the king was, they
directed their course instead to England, and landed at Southampton on
the eve of All Saints’ day; and they then remained in this country,
and were in London at Christmas. The same year also the Welsh gathered
themselves together, and made war upon the French in Wales, or in
the neighbouring parts, where they had been before deprived of their
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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