ple were louder and more fincere. The monks spoke the fenfe of the whole nation, when they deplored him in these words: "We have loft a father, who governed us in peace "We lived under him in fecurity; for he did not opprefs, or fuffer oppreffion. We loved him, and there was nobody whom he feared."

66

Henry I. fucceeded to the crown of his father at the age of twenty-feven, poffeffing the vigour of youth with the prudence and wifdom of mature years. His mother, Constance, during the late reign, had acquired a confiderable party in the flate, and, as the hated Henry, the withed to transfer his crown to her younger fon, Robert.

The count of Flanders, and the turbulent Eudes, count of Champagne, were her chief abettors. Both of them had interested views in the part they acted; but the queen was willing to gratify their ambition, provided the could gratify her own revenge. She promifed to Eudes half the towns of Sens, which, together with Melun and Soifions, he immediately reduced. This ftruck the neighbouring places with fuch confternation, that they threw open their gates upon his approach. Confounded, and unable to relift this fudden torrent of ill fortune, Henry, forfaken by his tubjects, fled with only twelve attendants into Normandy; where he fought and found a generous friend and fupporter in duke Robert, whofe treafures and forces were employed in his caufe. While the duke in perfon led on the Normans to conqueft on one fide of the kingdom, the king appeared on the other, and thrice defeated the count of Champagne, who with difficulty efcaped with his life. Peace was at length restored by the mediation of Fulk, count of Anjou; Conftance fell a victim to the violence of her difappointed paffions; prince Robert received the duchy of Burgundy; and the fubmiffion of the counts of Flanders and Champagne was followed by that of the reft of the nobles. Henry repaid the fervices of the duke of Normandy, by the duchies of Gifors, Chaumont, and Pontoife, and, by that portion of the Vexin which had till now belonged to France; and though this gift was an honourable teftimony of his gratititude it effected a lamentable reduction of the dominions of the crown.

Though the fettlement of the Normans in France had been of infinite fervice to the princes both of the Carlovingian and Capetine lines; yet most of them would have been glad of a fpecious pretext for reuniting that great duchy to their crown; nor could Henry, notwithstanding the powerful obligations he lay under to the blood of Rollo, refift the temptation. Robert duke of Normandy, fwayed by the idle fuperftitions

fuperftitions of the age, had gone on a pilgrimage to the holy land, and had prevailed with the ftates of his duchy, before his departure, to receive and recognize as his fucceffor, William, his natural fon; and put him under the tuition of Henry, and Alain duke of Bretagne: the diffatisfaction which this ftep gave was general, and the affairs of the duchy fell into the greatest diforder, fo that had not William, young as he was, exerted prodigies of valour in his own defence, he muft have funk under the rebellion. Alain endeavoured to serve him, but was obliged to return to his own eftate, where he foon after died, not without fufpicion of flow poison. Henry, far from attempting to protect William, or to quell thofe commotions, invaded the frontiers, took poffeffion of the caftle of Thuileries, to which he pretended to have a right, and burnt the town of Argenton. Perceiving, however, that he could not obtain the fucceffion, he liftened to the minifters of young William, with whom he joined his troops, and engaging the rebel lords, completely defeated them in the valley of Dunes, and thus eftablished the duke of Normandy in his dominions. In this battle the king, thrown from his horfe in the fury of the charge, was faved only by the immediate affiftance of his attendants.

Henry married a princefs of Ruffia; the daughter of Jaraflan, duke of Mufcovy; a circumftance fomewhat fingular, in an age when the intercourfe between nations was fo little familiar. His chief motive for this matrimonial alliance feems to have been, that the Pope might have no pretext for perfecuting him on account of confanguinity, which, if he had married an European princefs, it would have been almoft impoffible for him to have avoided, as it reached to the feventh degree of kindred. By this lady he had three fons; and the eldeft, Philip, though but feven years of age, was, in an affembly of the ftates, and with their unanimous. confent, folemnly crowned king by the archbishop of Rheims. Henry being at this time infirm, appointed Baldwin, count of Flanders, to be guardian to his fon in cafe of A. D. 1060. his deccafe, which happened foon after; fome fay by poison, and others by the indifcreet ufe of

medicine.

The character of this monarch, diftinguished for prudence and intrepidity, is fhaded by his attacks against the feeble youth of William, duke of Normandy, whofe genius foon rofe fuperior to that of any prince of his age.

CHAP.

CHA P. LIX.

Philip I.Regency of Baldwin. The Rage for Crufading breaks out, which is of great fervice to the French crown. Lewis VI.-His Character contrafted with that of Philip. Lewis VII. or the Young-St. Bernard, with fome Account of the fecond Crufade. Two Kings hold the Stirrups of Pope Alexander on Horseback.

PHILIP

HILIP at the time of his acceffion to the throne of France, was about eight years of age; and Henry had wifely committed him to the care of Baldwin the Pious, count of Flanders, his brother-in-law, in preference to his. queen, who was a weak woman; or his brother, the duke of Burgundy, who was an ambitious prince. Henry's choice does honour to his memory. Baldwin had all the abilities, and, what is more extraordinary, all the virtues, that were requifite for the faithful difcharge of his truft. Though we can fcarcely fuppofe a juncture more delicate than that of a minority amidst a barbarous, but ambitious, nobility; and a fuperftitious, but defigning, clergy; yet Baldwin kept both in awe, without lofing the efteem and affection of either.

His adminiftration, however, did not wholly escape cenfure. He was condemned for fuffering fo formidable a neighbour as the duke of Normandy to enlarge his domi-.. nions, and atchieve the conqueft of England. Whatever might be his motives for this conduct, it was productive of fatal confequences, and a series of deftructive wars.

The period is now approaching which united England with Normandy; and as the affairs of France and England were after that event involved in one complicated fyftem, it is neceffary to give a flight fketch of the circumftances which illuftrate the conqueft of England.

On the diffolution of the Roman government in Britain, the ifland was fucceffively haraffed by the Scots, the Picts, the Danes, and the Saxons. Of thefe, the conquefts of the latter were permanent, and the Saxon heptarchy was founded. The feven independent thrones that compofed this heptarchy were united, in little more than three centuries under Egbert; and when William firft afpired to the throne, it was occupied by Edward, furnamed the Confeffor, whose partiality for him might affift the report that he had bequeathed him his crown. Emma, the fifter of Richard of Normandy, was the mother of Edward; and, when the Danes compelled the British prince to fice, he found a fhelter in the court of Normandy. Attached by the tics of blood

blood and gratitude to his protector, it is reafonable to fuppofe he would have preferred him to an afpiring fubject, whofe father had imbrued his hands in the royal blood of his brother, and whofe own popularity encreased the enmity of the king. But William was abfent in Normandy when Edward expired; and Harold, the fon of earl Goodwin, immediately afcended the throne. William difdained to difguife his fenfe of the injury, or to yield his lofty hopes; and the refufal of the fceptre, which he demanded in a formal embaffy, was the fignal of war. While Harold was in the north, repelling the invafion of Harpager, king of Norway, William landed at Pevenfey in Suffex. Harold was recalled from a glorious victory to oppofe this formidable enemy, The fatal battle of Haftings, which was fought on the fourteenth of October, and in which the native valour of the English was very unequal to the difcipline and artful manœuvres of the Normans, eftablished the dominion of William, Harold fell in the engagement, pierced in the brain by a random arrow; and thus the British crown, which had been fucceffively worn by a Saxon for five hundred years, was in one day transferred to a Norman,

On the death of the count of Flanders, which happened foon after the conqueft of England. Philip, in the fifteenth year of his age, affumed the peaceable government of his kingdom,

His reign is not fo remarkable for any thing, as his marriage with Bertrand de Montford, duchefs of Anjou, while her husband and his queen were both alive. For this irregularity he was excommunicated by Urban II. in the famous council of Clermont, where the first cruA. D. 1095. fade was preached for the recovery of the holy land, of which I have already given a particu

lar account.

The rage for crufading, which now broke out, was of infinite fervice to the French crown in two refpects. In the first place, it carried off hundreds of thousands of its turbulent fubjects, and their leaders, who were almost independent of the king; and in the next, the king fucceeded to the eftates of numbers of the nobility, who died abroad without heirs.

In his wars with William the Conqueror, Philip was very fuccefsful. Hoftilities were fufpended for fome time, when a jeft of the French monarch was the caufe of their being renewed. The king of England being very fat, was incommoded by his corpulency, and obliged for fome time to keep his bed. Philip naturally witty, faid one day to his Courtiers, "When will this big man be brought to-bed?" William, being informed of this, was enraged. "I will go,'

faid he," and make my churching at Notre-Dame, in Paris, "with ten thousand fpears, instead of wax tapers *."

William foon after rigorously fulfilled his word. He landed with a numerous army in France, poffeffed himself of the town of Mantes, and configned it to the flames; but, as he withdrew from the heat of the fire, his horse, in leaping over a ditch, threw him on the pommel of the faddle, and a contufion he received proved fatal.

In confequence of the death of the queen of France, and Pope Urban II. Philip, who ftill continued to live with the countess of Anjou, was abfolved by the new Pope, from the fentence of excommunication denounced in the council of Clermont. But although this abfolution quieted in fome measure his domeftic troubles, his authority, which the thunder of the church, together with his indolent and licentious course of life, had ruined, was far from being reftored. The nobility more and more affected independence, infulted him every hour, and plundered his fubjects.

In order to remedy thefe evils, Philip affociated his fon Lewis in the government; or, at least, declared

him, with the confent of the nobility, his fuc- A. D. 1100. ceffor. This young prince was, in all refpects,

the reverse of his father. Philip, befides being indolent, was deficient in the virtues of the heart. His vices were not thofe of a noble mind, but the mean and odious propenfities of a treacherous and avaricious nature. Lewis, on the other hand, was active, vigorous, affable, generous, and free from the vices incident to youth. He demolished the caftles of the nobility, compelled them to make reftitution to fuch as they had pillaged, and thus reftored order to the flate.

When this prince was about thirty years of age, his father died, and he fucceeded without A. D. 11e8. the least oppofition. He is generally called, by

the old historians, Lewis the Grofs, from his great fize, and was the fixth Lewis that fat on the throne of France. Soon after his coronation, he engaged in a war against Henry I. of England, a powerful vaffal, whom it was his intereft to humble. The war was carried on with a variety of fortunes, during the greateft part of this reign, but without producing any remarkable event.

Whilft Lewis was devoting himfelf to the regulation of the inferior polity of his kingdom, he fell a facrifice to the corpulency of his perfon. On his death-bed he ordered his fon to be called to him, and gave him the following excel-. lent advice. "By this fign," faid he, drawing the ring

*Abbé Millor.

from