offered to mortgage his dukedom in Normandy to his brother Rufus for a ftipulated fum of money. This fum, which was no greater than ten thousand marks, was readily promifed by Rufus, whofe ambition was upon the watch to feize every advantage.

But though the ceffation of Maine and Normandy, greatly increased the king's territories, they added but little to his real power, as his new fubjects were composed of men of independent fpirits, more ready to dispute than to obey his commands. Many were the revolts and infurrections which he was obliged to quell in perfon; and no fooner was one confpiracy fuppreffed than another rofe to give him freth difquietude.

However Rufus proceeded, careless of approbation or cenfure; and only intent upon extending his dominions, either by purchase or conqueft. The earl of Poitiers and Guienne, enflamed with a defire of going upon the Crufade, had gathered an immense multitude for that expedition, but wanted money to forward his preparations. He had recourse, therefore, to Rufus; and offered to mortgage all his dominions, without much confidering what would become of his unhappy fubjects that he thus difpofed of. The king accepted this offer with his ufual avidity; and had prepared a fleet, and an army, in order to take poffeffion of the rich provinces thus configned to his truft. But an accident put an end to all his ambitious projects; he was fhot by an arrow that Sir Walter Tyrrel discharged at a deer in the New Foreft, which glancing from a tree, ftruck the king to the heart. He dropt dead inftantaneously; while the innocent author of his death,. terrified at the accident, put fpurs to his horfe, haftened to the fea-fhore, embarked for France, and joined the Crufade that was then fetting out for Jerufalem.

CHAP.

H

HENRY I. furnamed BEAU CLERC..

ENRY, the late king's younger brothers

who had been hunting in the New Foreft, when Rufus was flain, took the earneft advantage of the occafion, and hastening to Winchester, refolved to fecure the royal treafure, which he knew to be the beft affiftant in feconding his aims. The barons, as well as the people, acquiefced in a claim which they were unprovided to refift, and yielded obedience, from the fears of immediate danger.

Henry, to ingratiate himself with the people, ex÷ pelled from court all the minifters of his brother's debauchery and arbitrary power. One thing only remained to confirm his claims without danger of a rival. The English remembered their Saxon monarchs with gratitude, and beheld them excluded the throne with regret. There ftill remained some of the defcendants of that favourite line; and, among others, Matilda, the niece of Edgar Atheling, which lady, having declined all pretenfions to royalty, was bred up in a convent, and had actually taken the veil. Upon her Henry first fixed his eyes as a proper confort, by whofe means, the long breach between the Saxon and Norman interefts would be finally united. It only remained to get over the fcruple of her being a nun; but this a council, devoted to his interefts, readily admitted; and Matilda being pronounced free to marry, the nuptials were celebrated with great pomp and folemnity.

It was at this unfavourable juncture, that Robertreturned from abroad, and after taking poffeffion of

his

his native dominions, laid his claim to the crown of England. But, propofals for an accommodation being made, it was ftipulated, that Robert, upon the payment of a certain fum, fhould refign his pretenfions to England; and that if either of the princes died without iffe, the other fhould fucceed to his dominions. This treaty being ratified, the armi son each fide were disbanded; and Robert, having lived two months in the utmoft harmony with his brother, returned in peace to his own dominions.

But Robert's indiscretion foon rendered him unfit to govern any ftate: he was totally averfe to business, and only ftudious of the more fplendid amusements or employments of life. His fervants pillaged himwithout compunction; and he is defcribed as lying whole days a bed for want of cloaths, of which they had robbed him. His fubjects were treated still more deplorably, for being under the command of petty and rapacious tyrants, who plundered them without: mercy, the whole country was become a scene of vio-lence and depredation. It was in this miferable exigence, that the Normans at length had recourfe to Henry, from whose wife administration of his own dominions, they expected a fimilitude of profperity, fhould he take the reins of theirs. Henry very readily promifed to redrefs their grievances, as he knew it would be the direct method to fecond his own ambition. The year enfuing, therefore, he landed in Normandy with a ftrong army, took some of the principal towns; and a battle ensuing, Robert's forces were totally overthrown, and he himself taken prifoner, with near ten thousand of his men, and all the confiderable barons who had adhered to his misfortunes. This victory was followed by the final reduction of Normandy, while Henry returned in triumph to England, leading with him his captive brother, who, after a life of bravery, generofity, and truth, now found himfelf not only

deprived of his patrimony and his friends, but also of his freedom. Henry, unmindful of his brother's former magnanimity with regard to him, detained him a prifoner during the remainder of his life, which was no less than twenty-eight years; and he died in the caftle of Cardiff, in Glarniorganfhire. It is even faid by fome, that he was deprived of his fight by a redhot copper bafon applied to his eyes; while his brother attempted to ftifle the reproaches of his confcience, by founding the abbey of Reading, which was then confidered as a fufficient atonement for every degree of barbarity.

Fortune now feemed to fmile upon Henry, and promife a long fucceffion of felicity. He was in peaceable poffeffion of two powerful ftates, and had a fon who was acknowledged undifputed heir, arrived. at his eighteenth year, whom he loved moft tenderly. His daughter, Matilda, was alfo married to the emperor Henry V. of Germany, and the had been sent to. that court while yet but eight years old, for her education. All his profpects, however, were at onceclouded by unforeseen misfortunes and accidents, which tinctured his remaining years with mifery. The king, from the facility with which he ufurped the crown, dreading that his family might be fubverted with the fame ease, took care to have his fon recognized as his fucceffor by the ftates of England, and carried him over to Normandy to receive the homage, of the barons of that duchy. After performing this requifite ceremony, Henry, returning triumphantly to England, brought with him a numerous retinue of the chief nobility, who feemed to fhare in his fuccef-, fes. In one of the veflels of the fleet, his fon, and feveral young noblemen, the companions of his pleafures, went together to render the paffage more agreeable. The king fet fail for Barfleur, and was foon. carried by a fair wind out of fight of land. The prince was detained by fome accident; and his failors, as

weil

well as their captain, Fitz-Stephen, having spent the interval in drinking, became fo difordered, that they ran the fhip upon a rock, and immediately it was dafhed to pieces. The prir ce was put into the boat, and might have escaped, had he not been called back by the cries of Maude, his natural fifter. He was at first conveyed out of danger himself, but could not leave a perfon fo dear to perish without an effort to save her. He, therefore, prevailed upon the failors to row, back and take her in. The approach of the boat, giving feveral others, who had been left upon the wreck, the hopes of faving their lives, numbers leaped in, and the whole went to the bottom. Above an hundred and forty young noblemen of the principal families of England and Normandy, were loft on this occafion. A butcher of Rouen was the only perfon on board who escaped; he clung to the maft, and was taken up the next morning by fome fishermen. FitzStephen, the captain, while the butcher was thus buffetting the waves for his life, fwam up to him, and enquired if the prince was yet living; when being told that he had perifhed, then I will not out-live him, faid the captain, and immediately funk to the bottom.. The fhrieks of thefe unfortunate people were heard from the fhore, and the noife even reached the king's fhip, but the caufe was then unknown. Henry entertained hopes for three days, that his fon had put into fome diftant port in England; but when certain intelligence of the calamity was brought him, he fainted away, and was never feen to fmile from that moment to the day of his death, which followed fome time after at St. Dennis, a little town in Normandy, from eating too plentiful of lampreys, a dish he was particularly fond of. He died in the fixty-feventh year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his reign, leaving by will his daughter Matilda, heirefs of all his dominions. CHAP.