INTERFERENCE OF HAROLD BLUE-TOOTH. disinte 243 heathen Sea-King, utterly unlike most of his tribe, set CHAP. IV. an example of straightforward, honest, and disinterested Harold's dealing, which shines all the brighter from its contrast with rested conthe endless aggressions and backslidings of the selfish and duct in Normandy. faithless princes of France. Whatever brought Harold 945. into Normandy, he acted there as a disinterested friend of the Norman Duke and his subjects. He first ap- He occupeared in the Côtentin, which was most probably already Cotentin, occupied by recent settlers from the North,1 and he made his head-quarters at Cherbourg-the borough of Cæsar. pies the yeux. the Dive. He was next received at Bayeux,2 and now all Nor- and Bamandy rose in the cause of the deliverer. That Harold defeated Lewis in battle on the banks of the Dive is Battle by allowed on both sides; that the battle was preceded by a conference is allowed on both sides. But the French writers represent the battle as a treacherous attack made by the Danes on a prince who had come in all confidence to a peaceful meeting. The Normans, on the other hand, say that the fight was brought about by the imprudence or insolence of Herlwin of Montreuil.4 He who had caused, however innocently, the death of Wil 3 Dives, insignis, locuplesque, sollers Rex Haygrolde. Quamvis haut sis chrismate delibutus, 1 See above, p. 216. 2 Flod. A. 945. Richer, ii. 47. 'Haigroldus Nortmannus qui Baiocis præerat." So Flod. u. s. Richer, u. s. This last writer brings in Hugh the Great as an accomplice. "Dolus apud Ducem a transfugis paratus, qui ante latuerat, ortâ opportunitate ex raritate militum, in apertum erupit. Nam dum tempestivus adveniret, ab Hagroldo qui Baiocensibus præerat, per legationem suasoriam accersitus, Bajocas cum paucis ad accersientem, utpote ad fidelem quem in nullo suspectum habuerat, securus accessit. Barbarus vero militum inopiam intuitus cum multitudine armatorum Regi incautus aggreditur." * Dudo, 123 C, D. feated and soner. CHAP. IV. liam, he who had ruled in Rouen as the deputy of Lewis, now appeared prominently in the French ranks, and stirred up the wrath of Danes and Normans by his presence. This certainly seems a very lame story, and we may well believe that Harold, however faithful to his allies, might see no crime in practising a little of the usual Danish treachery towards an enemy. But Lewis de- the result of the battle is certain; the French were detaken pri- feated, and their King was taken prisoner.1 The Normans add that Harold and Lewis met, man to man and King to King, and that the Dane led away the Frank as the prize of his own personal prowess. Lewis however escaped; he was accompanied, perhaps betrayed, by a Norman in whom he trusted, and, on reaching Rouen, he was imprisoned by other Normans in whom he trusted also. The Danish King, if we can trust a settles the tale of such unparalleled generosity, had now done his the Duchy work. He passed through the land, confirming the authority of the young Duke, and restoring the Laws of Rolf.2 This last phrase is one which meets us constantly in our own history. After the Norman Conquest, the demand for the Laws of King Eadward is familiar to every one, and in earlier times we read of demands for the Laws of Eadgar or of Cnut, or whoever was the last King who was looked back to with any affection. What is really meant in all such cases is, not so much any actual enactments as good administration instead of bad, often native administration in Harold affairs of and returns to Den mark. The renewal of "Rolf's Law." 1 Flod. A. 945. "Rex solus fugam iniit, prosequente se Nortmanno quodam sibi fideli. Cum quo Rodomum veniens, comprehensus est ab aliis Nortmannis quos sibi fideles esse putabat, et sub custodiâ detentus." 2 Dudo, 125 D. "Jura legesque et statuta Rollonis Ducis tenere per omnia cogebat." 3 In Cnut's time (Chron. A. 1018) the Witan at Oxford renewed "Eadgar's Law;" so Harold, in answer to the demands of the Northumbrians in revolt against Tostig (Chron. A. 1065), "renewed Cnut's Law." IMPRISONMENT OF LEWIS. 245 stead of foreign. The renewal of Rolf's Law meant the CHAP. IV. wiping out of all traces of the French dominion. Harold then sailed away to his own islands; twenty years afterwards, unless the one story is a repetition of the other, he was equally able and willing to come again on the same errand.1 King Lewis was thus a prisoner, as his father had Lewis kept in prison been before him. After a certain amount of the usual by Hugh. treacherous diplomacy, he was transferred from the hands 945-6. of the Normans to those of their ally the Duke of the French. His wrongs called forth the indignation of his kinsmen in other lands. Queen Gerberga sought help alike from her own Old-Saxon brother and from her husband's West-Saxon uncle. Ethelstan the Glorious was no more, but he had handed on his sceptre to a worthy successor in Eadmund the Magnificent. An IntervenEnglish Embassy haughtily demanded the release of the tion of King, and received from Hugh as haughty a refusal. 946. The Duke of the French would do nothing for fear of the threats of the English. How Eadmund would have 1 I confess that, once or twice, in writing this paragraph, a doubt has crossed my mind whether "Haigrold who commanded at Bayeux" was not, after all, some much smaller person than Harold King of the Danes. The Northern writers, as far as I know, do not mention the expedition, the motive of which is not very obvious. But very little can be made out of the Northern stories in any case; the French writers always slur over everything Norman; and the fiction would seem almost too bold even for Norman invention. The details of course cannot be accepted in any case. Flod. A. 945. Richer, ii. 48. Widukind, ii. 39. "Hluthowicus Rex a ducibus suis [Hugh?] circumventus, et a Northmannis captus, consilio Hugonis Lugdunum [confusedly for Laudunum, which is itself an error] missus custodiæ publicæ traditur. Filium autem ejus natu majorem Karlomannum Northmanni secum duxerunt Rothun; ibi et mortuus est." On the hostages, see Flodoard and Richer. Richer, ii. 49, 50. "Ob minas Anglorum nil se facturum; ipsos, si veniant, quid in armis Galli valeant promptissime experturos ; quod si Eadmund. tion of Otto. 945. CHAP. IV. followed up this beginning it is hard to say; but the next year saw him cut off by the assassin's dagger, and his successor Eadred had enough to do in the renewed and final struggle with the Northumbrian Danes. The Interven application to Otto was more effectual. The King of the East-Franks at once determined to invade the Western Kingdom the next year. He refused a personal conference with Hugh, and the conference which he allowed him to have with Conrad of Lotharingia was fruitless.* At last, when the German army was actually assembling, Hugh found it necessary to come to terms with his Lewis ob- royal prisoner.3 Hugh's terms were simple-Freedom in exchange for Laôn. After a while, Lewis brought himliberty in exchange self to surrender his single stronghold, his own royal city, which was still held for him by his faithful and stout-hearted Queen. The Duke of the French took possession of the City of the Rock, and the King of the French was reduced to be little more than King of Compiègne. Most likely he hoped, through German and English help, soon to be again King, not only of Laôn, but of Paris and Rouen as well. And, as far as forms and words and outward homage went, his authority was presently restored over the whole Kingdom. Duke Hugh did not scruple to deprive his sovereign of liberty and tains his for the cession of Laôn. 946. Lewis' Kingship renewed. formidine tacti non veniant, pro arrogantiæ tamen illatione, Gallorum vires quandoque cognituros et insuper pœnam luituros. Iratus itaque legatos expulit." Flodoard, contrary to the remark made in p. 229, is less excited against insular intervention. 1 Widukind, ii. 39. "Audiens autem Rex, super fortunâ amici satis doluit, imperavitque expeditionem in Gallia contra Hugonem in annum secundum." 2 Flod. A. 945. "Qui Rex nolens loqui cum eo mittit ad eum Conradum Ducem Lothariensium. Cum quo locutus Hugo, infensus Othoni Regi revertitur." 3 Flod. A. 946. Richer, ii. 51. Richer clearly connects the liberation of Lewis with the negociations with Otto. Widukind (iii. 2) is still more explicit. "Certus autem factus de adventu Regis Huga, timore quoque perterritus, dimisit Hluthowicum." RENEWAL OF LEWIS' KINGSHIP. 247 the other 946. lute inde dominion, but he would never be a King himself, and he CHAP. IV. would always have a King over him. The royal dignity Hugh and -held, it would seem, to have fallen into abeyance Princes do through the King's imprisonment-was solemnly renewed, homage. and Hugh the Great once more became the faithful liegeman and homager of the King whom he had just before held in bonds.1 The other princes of the Kingdom followed his example; but, if the Norman writers are to be believed, there was one marked exception. On the banks The absoof the Epte, where the founder of the Norman state had pendence first done homage, the Duke of the Normans was formally of Normandy set free from all superiority on the part of the King of the asserted by the French.2 Richard still bore no higher title than that of Norman Duke, but he was a King, as far as complete authority within his own land, and absolute independence of all authority beyond its borders, could make him a King.3 The Prince who was thus acknowledged as perfectly independent was presently persuaded, like other allodial proprietors, to seek a Lord, and Richard, Duke of the Richard's Normans, forthwith commended himself and his domi- dation to nions to his neighbour and benefactor Hugh, Duke of Hugh. the French. Now the absolute independence of Nor 1 Flod. A. 946. "Qui Dux Hugo renovans Regi Ludowico regium honorem vel nomen, ei sese cum cæteris regni committit primoribus." Richer cuts the matter shorter (ii. 51). "Unde et dimissus, datâ Lauduno, Compendii sese recepit." * Dudo, 126 C. "Venit Rex supra fluvium Eptæ contra Northmannos, cum Magno Duce Hugone. . . . Propriis verbis fecit securitatem regni quod suus avus Rollo vi ac potestate, armis et præliis sibi acquisivit. Ipseque et omnes episcopi, comites, et abbates reverendi, principesque Franciæ regni Richardo puero innocenti, ut teneat et possideat, et nullis nisi Deo servitium ipse et successio ejus reddat, et si quis perversæ invasionis rixatione contra eum congredi, vel alicujus rixationis congressione invadere regnum, maluerit, fidissimus adjutor in omni adversæ inopportunitatis necessitate per omnia extituit." 3 See above, p. 193. For regnum as applied to Normandy by Dudo, see the last passage and many others. See above, p. 129. 5 Dudo, 128 D et seqq., gives a long account of the deliberations be writers. Commen |