Young Folks' History of EnglandYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
Young Folks' History of England
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Great Britain -- History -- Juvenile literature
They had a very good man to lead them, named Godfrey de Buillon; and,
after many toils and troubles, they did gain Jerusalem, and could
kneel, weeping, at the Holy Sepulchre. It was proposed to make Robert
King of Jerusalem, but he would not accept the offer, and Godfrey was
made king instead, and staid to guard the holy places, while Duke
Robert set out on his return home.
In the meantime, the Red King had gone on in as fierce and ungodly a
way as ever, laughing good advice to scorn, and driving away the good
Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Anselm, and everyone else who tried to
warn him or withstand his wickedness. One day, in the year 1100, he
went out to hunt deer in the New Forest, which his father had wasted,
laughing and jesting in his rough way. By and by he was found under
an oak tree, with an arrow through his heart; and a wood-cutter took
up his body in his cart, and carried it to Winchester Cathedral, where
is was buried.
Who shot the arrow nobody knew, and nobody ever will know. Some
thought it must be a knight, named Walter Tyrrell, to whom the king
had given three long good arrows that morning. He rode straight away
to Southampton, and went off to the Holy Land; so it is likely that
he knew something about the king's death. But he never seems to have
told any one, whether it was only an accident, or a murder, or who
did it. Anyway, it was a fearful end, for a bad man to die in his
sin, without a moment to repent and pray.
CHAPTER IX.
HENRY I., BEAU-CLERC. A.D. 1100--1135.
Henry, the brother of William Rufus, was one of the hunting party; and
as soon as the cry spread through the forest that the king was dead, he
rode off at full speed to Winchester, and took possession of all his
brother's treasure. William Rufus had never been married, and left no
children, and Henry was much the least violent and most sensible of
the brothers; and, as he promised to govern according to the old laws
of England, he did not find it difficult to persuade the people to let
him be crowned king.
He was not really a good man, and he could be very cruel sometimes, as
well as false and cunning; but he kept good order, and would not allow
such horrible things to be done as in his brother's time. So the
English were better off than they had been, and used to say the king
would let no one break the laws but himself. They were pleased, too,
that Henry married a lady who was half English--Maude, the daughter of
Malcolm Greathead, King of Scotland, and of a lady of the old English
royal line. They loved her greatly, and called her good Queen Maude.
Robert came back to Normandy, and tried to make himself King of
England; but Henry soon drove him back. The brothers went on
quarreling for some years, and Robert managed Normandy miserably, and
wasted his money, so that he sometimes had no clothes to wear, and lay
in bed for want of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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