Great leaders: Historic portraits from the great historians

Biography

It was, in fact, this vigorous personality of William which proved the
chief safeguard of his throne. “Stark he was,” says the English
chronicler, “to men that withstood him. Earls that did aught against his
bidding he cast into bonds; bishops he stripped of their bishoprics,
abbots of their abbacies. He spared not his own brother; first he was in
the land, but the king cast him into bondage. If a man would live and
hold his lands, need it were that he should follow the king’s will.”
But, stern as his rule was, it gave peace to the land. Even amid the
sufferings which necessarily sprang from the circumstances of the
Conquest itself, from the erection of castles, or the inclosure of
forests, or the exactions which built up the great hoard at Winchester,
Englishmen were unable to forget “the good peace he made in the land, so
that a man might fare over his realm with a bosom full of gold.” Strange
touches of a humanity far in advance of his age contrasted with the
general temper of his government. One of the strongest traits in his
character was his aversion to shed blood by process of law; he formally
abolished the punishment of death, and only a single execution stains
the annals of his reign. An edict yet more honorable to him put an end
to the slave-trade which had till then been carried on at the port of
Bristol. The pitiless warrior, the stern and awful king was a tender and
faithful husband, an affectionate father. The lonely silence of his
bearing broke into gracious converse with pure and sacred souls like
Anselm. If William was “stark” to rebel and baron, men noted that he was
“mild to those that loved God.”




ROBERT GUISCARD.

BY EDWARD GIBBON.

     [Born about 1015, died 1085. This Norman adventurer, the sixth son
     of a small baron, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in Italy by
     conquest, and founded the Kingdom of Naples, which existed till
     1860. Equally distinguished by personal prowess, generalship, and
     diplomatic astuteness, he filled a large figure in the affairs of
     his time, and was one of the stoutest bulwarks against Saracenic
     aggression.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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History

Great leaders: Historic portraits from the great historians

Biography

It was, in fact, this vigorous personality of William which proved the
chief safeguard of his throne. “Stark he was,” says the English
chronicler, “to men that withstood him. Earls that did aught against his
bidding he cast into bonds; bishops he stripped of their bishoprics,
abbots of their abbacies. He spared not his own brother; first he was in
the land, but the king cast him into bondage. If a man would live and
hold his lands, need it were that he should follow the king’s will.”
But, stern as his rule was, it gave peace to the land. Even amid the
sufferings which necessarily sprang from the circumstances of the
Conquest itself, from the erection of castles, or the inclosure of
forests, or the exactions which built up the great hoard at Winchester,
Englishmen were unable to forget “the good peace he made in the land, so
that a man might fare over his realm with a bosom full of gold.” Strange
touches of a humanity far in advance of his age contrasted with the
general temper of his government. One of the strongest traits in his
character was his aversion to shed blood by process of law; he formally
abolished the punishment of death, and only a single execution stains
the annals of his reign. An edict yet more honorable to him put an end
to the slave-trade which had till then been carried on at the port of
Bristol. The pitiless warrior, the stern and awful king was a tender and
faithful husband, an affectionate father. The lonely silence of his
bearing broke into gracious converse with pure and sacred souls like
Anselm. If William was “stark” to rebel and baron, men noted that he was
“mild to those that loved God.”




ROBERT GUISCARD.

BY EDWARD GIBBON.

     [Born about 1015, died 1085. This Norman adventurer, the sixth son
     of a small baron, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in Italy by
     conquest, and founded the Kingdom of Naples, which existed till
     1860. Equally distinguished by personal prowess, generalship, and
     diplomatic astuteness, he filled a large figure in the affairs of
     his time, and was one of the stoutest bulwarks against Saracenic
     aggression.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Great leaders: Historic portraits from the great historians

Great leaders: Historic portraits from the great historians

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