The King, upon his return from Normandy, made an unsuccessful expedition against the Welsh, who upon the advantages of his absence had, according to their usual custom, made cruel inroads upon the adjoining counties of Chester, Shrewsbury, and Hereford. Upon the King's approach they fled into their fastnesses among the mountains, where he pursued them for some time with great rage and vexation, as well as the loss of great numbers of his men, to no purpose. From hence he was recalled by a more formidable enemy nearer home: for Robert Earl of Northumberland, overrating his late services against the Scots, as much perhaps and as unjustly as they were undervalued by the King, refused to come to his court, which, in those days, was looked on as the first usual mark of discontent in a nobleman; and was often charged by princes as a formal accusation. The earl having disobeyed the King's summons, and concerted matters with other accomplices, broke out into open rebellion, with intentions to depose King William, and set up Stephen Earl of Albemarle, son of a sister to William the Conqueror: but all was prevented by the celerity of this active prince; who, knowing that insurrections are best quelled in their beginnings, marched with incredible speed, and surprised the rebels at Newcastle, took the castles of Tynemouth and Bamburgh; where the obstinacy of the defendants provoked him, contrary to his nature, to commit cruelties upon their persons, by cutting off their hands and ears, and other the like inhumanities. The earl himself was taken prisoner as he endeavoured to make his escape; but suffered no other punishment than to be confined for the rest of his life.[11] [Footnote 11: Which was thirty years. [D.S.]] About this time began the Holy War for recovering of Palestine; which having not been the enterprise of any one prince or state, but that wherein most in Christendom had a share, it cannot with justice be silently passed over in the history of any nation. Pope Urban the Second, in a council at Clermont, made a pathetic exhortation, shewing with what danger and indignity to Christendom the Turks and Saracens had, for some ages, not only overrun all Asia and Africa, where Christianity had long flourished; but had also made encroachments into Europe, where they had entirely subdued Spain, and some other parts; that Jerusalem, the holy city, where our Saviour did so many miracles, and where His sepulchre still remained, to the scandal of the Christian name, lay groaning under the tyranny of infidels; that the swords which Christian princes had drawn against each other, ought to be turned against the common enemy of their name and religion; that this should be reckoned an ample satisfaction for all their past sins; that those who died in this expedition should immediately go to Heaven, and the survivors would be blessed with the sight of our Lord's sepulchre.