The king was with his court at Gloucester at Christmas, 1092, and Anselm, then abbot of the famous monastery of Bec in Normandy, was in England at that time; partly to comfort his friend, Earl Hugh of Chester, who was sick, and partly to attend to the English affairs of his monastery. Anselm was known as the friend of Lanfranc. He had been a welcome guest at the court of the Conqueror and in the cloisters at Canterbury. His character stood high above all contemporaries in England or Normandy. Anselm was surely the right man to be made archbishop, and so put an end to a state of things which even to the turbulent barons was discreditable to the country. The Red King bade Anselm come to his court, and received him with great display of honour. Then came a private interview, and Anselm at once told the king how men spoke ill of his misrule: “Openly or secretly things were daily said of him by nearly all the men of his realm which were not seemly for the king’s dignity.” They parted, and Anselm was busy for some time in England. When the abbot wished to return to Bec William refused him leave to quit the country. At the beginning of Lent, March, 1093, the king was lying sick at Gloucester. It was believed the sickness was mortal. Certainly the king thought himself dying. Anselm was summoned to minister to him, and on his arrival bade the king “make a clean confession of all that he knows that he has done against God, and promise that, should he recover, he will without pretence amend in all things. The king at once agreed to this, and with sorrow of heart engaged to do all that Anselm required, and to keep justice and mercy all his life long. To this he pledged his faith, and made his bishops witnesses between himself and God, sending persons in his stead to promise his word to God on the altar. An Edict was written and sealed with the king’s seal that all prisoners should be set free in all his dominions, all debts forgiven, all offences heretofore committed pardoned and forgotten for ever. Further, good and holy laws were promised to the whole people, and the sacred upholding of right and such solemn inquest into wrongdoing as may deter others.” Thus Eadmer. Florence of Worcester puts the matter more briefly. “When the king thought himself about to die he vowed to God, as his barons advised him, to amend his life, to sell no more churches nor farm them out, but to defend them by his kingly might, and to end all bad laws and to establish just laws.” There was still the vacant archbishopric to be filled, and the king named Anselm for Canterbury. In vain Anselm pleaded that he was an old man--he was then sixty--and unfit for so great a responsibility, that he was a monk and had shunned the business of the world.