wicked with a fearful wickedness. "Never day dawned," says a writer of the time, "but he rose a worse man than he had lain down; never sun set but he lay down a worse man than he had risen."

He kept within bounds while Lanfranc lived, but after the death of the archbishop there was no one

to check him. For William did not appoint any one instead of Lanfranc: it was his plan, when bishops or abbots had died, to leave their places open, and to take unto himself the estates which should have gone to the successors.

6

fearing his end was at hand, he repented him of his wicked deeds. His friends persuaded him to appoint an archbishop of Canterbury, and he chose Anselm.

Anselm was born at 'Aosta, but in early manhood left his native city and entered the monastery of Bec, where his fellow-countryman, Lanfranc, was then prior. He was very learned, but simple as a child, and of a tender, loving nature. An English monk who knew him well says, "There was no count or countess or powerful person but thought it a great misfortune not to have had a chance of doing him some service." Still he was a man of unbending will, and nothing could make him agree to what he believed wrong.

Anselm happened to be in England at the time of the king's illness. He was very unwilling to be made archbishop; he used afterwards to say that, had it been the will of God, he would rather have died. When bishops came to fetch him, that he might receive from William the 10 crozier which was the sign of his new office, he would not go, and had to be dragged. Even then he would not take the staff, though all the people present fell at his feet and besought him. At last he was seized and taken to the king's bedside, where the crozier was pressed against his clenched fist.

Rufus got well, and the sorrow he had felt for his sins passed away with his sickness. Then his rule was as cruel and his life as wicked as before. Anselm reproved him, and a bitter quarrel followed.

Anselm left the country "because the vile king would allow nothing good to remain in it."

Three years afterwards William died. His end

was strange and sudden. One night, sleeping in his hunting-lodge in the New Forest, he had a dreadful dream, which filled his soul with terror. He spent a great part of the next day in drunkenness and 11 gluttony, hoping thus to drive away remembrance of his fears. As afternoon was draw

ing to a close he and his companions rode out to hunt. After a little while they separated. When next seen William, pierced by an arrow, was lying amid the ruins of a church his father had destroyed. It was never known who shot him. Some said

Sir Walter Tyrrel did so accidentally, while others said one of the peasants who had been driven away when the Forest was enclosed did so purposely. Rufus' stone now marks the spot where he fell.

The king died where he lay. His courtiers and servants hastened away to look after their own interests. The deserted body was found by a passing charcoal-burner, placed on a cart, and dragged into Winchester.

3

6

Rufus is a Latin word 4 Channel, the English

successor, one who comes

1 Father, William the Conqueror. meaning red. prefer, to like better. Channel. to over-burden. oppress, after. 7 Aosta, at the foot of the Pennine Alps in the northwest of Italy. prior, the man next in rank below an abbot. • misfortune, ill luck. crozier, a kind of staff shaped like a shepherd's crook. It is a bishop's sign of office. gluttony, over-eating. 12 accidentally, by chance.

11

THE GOVERNMENT OF HENRY I.

cir'-cuits

gal'-ley

ex-cit'-ed

in-sens'-i-ble

AMONG those hunting in the New Forest when the unknown archer sped the arrow which killed William Rufus was the Conqueror's youngest son, Henry. Leaving his dead brother to the care of a chance passer-by, Henry hurried to Winchester, secured the royal treasure, and persuaded the barons who happened to be in the neighbourhood to choose him for king. Then he hastened to London, and was crowned.

Knowing that many of the nobles were in favour of his eldest brother, Robert, then in Italy, Henry tried to get the people on his side. He granted a