The Bastard King (44 page)

It was William's wish that all those whom he had imprisoned should be set free with the exception of Bishop Odo. ‘For,' he said, ‘he was my brother and he owed all to me, yet he worked against me for his own gain. Let him remain in his dungeon.'

But his other half-brother, Robert of Mortain, fell to his knees at the bedside and implored William to reconsider his decision.

‘He has sinned,' said Robert of Mortain, ‘but he is our brother. For the sake of the mother who bore us all, do not, when you are on the point of facing your Maker, deny this act of mercy.'

William could not, in face of such pleading, refuse to be lenient; so Odo was freed on his brother's request.

‘Though,' said William, ‘this man will do no good wherever he is and it is weak of me to give in to you.'

Then he called his son to come closer.

‘My son Robert,' he said, ‘has been a traitor to me. Yet I promised him the Duchy of Normandy and shall not break my promise. He will not rule well. He is selfish, arrogant and lacks the qualities of a ruler. Yet he is my first-born, greatly loved of his mother, and I gave him my promise. To you, my son William . . . to you, Rufus, I leave the crown of England. And Henry, where is Henry? Ah, my son Henry. I have no land to leave you for your elder brothers have it. But I will give you five thousand pounds in silver.'

Henry looked dismayed. It was hard to understand that Robert, who had been his father's enemy, should have Normandy and he, who had striven to be a good son, no land at all.

‘What shall I do with the money if I have no land?' asked Henry.

‘Come close to me, Henry,' said William. ‘Be content and trust in the Lord. Wait. I tell you Robert will have Normandy and William England. But in time you will have all my
possessions and you will be greater in power and wealth than either of your brothers.'

There was hushed silence in the chamber. It was as though a prophet had spoken.

Death was elusive and the pain was great.

He lay on his bed waiting for the end. He was not always lucid in his mind, which ranged back over the past.

Once he thought he lay in bed with a brave man who had guarded him and that he awoke and found a bloodstained corpse beside him. Often he believed Matilda was with him. Then a smile of tenderness would curve his lips.

But again and again he was brought back to the chamber of death by the violence of his pain.

Through a haze he saw Rufus.

‘What do you here?' he cried. ‘You should be claiming your kingdom.'

His mind wandered again. I have lived a long time, he thought. It is nearly sixty years. I have achieved much and men will remember me. I shall stand beside my ancestors. ‘Rollo,' men will say, ‘Richard the Fearless, William the Conqueror'; and in the halls of Valhalla they would not be ashamed of me.

But he was a Christian and he could hear the bells of Rouen.

Soon they would be tolling for him.

‘I commend myself to Holy Mary, Mother of God,' he said, ‘that by her prayers she may reconcile me with her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.'

It was the 9th of September of the year 1087, twenty-one years since he had landed at Pevensey Bay.

My life is ebbing fast, he told himself. The pain is nearly over. This is farewell to my power, to my conquests, to all earthly glories. Soon I shall be with God . . . and Matilda.

Aubrey, William Hickman Smith
 
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Barlow, Frank
William land the Norman Conquest

Brooke, Christopher
From Alfred to Henry III

Brown, R. Allen
The Normans and the Norman Conquest

Compton, Piers
Harold the King

Coryn, M.
The Acquirer, Life of William the Conqueror

Davis, H. W. C.
England under the Normans and Angevins

Delarue-Mardrus, Lucie (translated by Colin Shepherd)
William the Conqueror

Evans, R. B. D. Wilson
King William the Conqueror

Guizot, M. (translated by Robert Black)
History of France

Linklater, Eric
The Conquest of England

Lloyd, Allan
The Year of the Conquest

Loyn, H. R.
Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest

Lytton, Lord
Harold

Matthew, D. T. M.
The Norman Conquest

Page, R. I.
Life in Anglo-Saxon England

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From Doomsday Book to Magna Carta

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William the Conqueror

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Anglo-Saxon England

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William the Conqueror

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