|
|
Home
Pearsall Surname Project
Number of Pearsalls By Location
Maps by Family
Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
|
|
Evreux
and Rouen.
His want of spirit excited the contempt and discontent of his Norman
subjects, who accused him of partiality for the Franks. His marriage with
the daughter of the Count of Senlis was
intended to allay this hostile feeling but nevertheless a confederacy of
Norman seigneurs was formed, who sought to expel him from the duchy. For
this purpose they marched upon Rouen,
and duke William retired from the town with his troops to a lofty hill,
from which he had a distinct view of the rebel army. The multitude of
their forces filled him with consternation, and he would have fled to Senlis, to seek an asylum with the Count, but the
severe reproofs of one of his chieftains, his brother-in-law, Bernard the
Dane, saved him from this disgraceful course, and he determined to give
battle to the rebels. [The Normans in Europe, by Rev. A. H. Johnson, M.A., page 48.
History of the Northmen, by Henry Wheaton.]
William
had encouraged the revolt as for a time he manifested the greatest
weakness. The terms which he had stooped to offer had been rejected and
he in despair, thought of leaving Normandy till, with that strange
changeableness which seems to have been with him a physical as well as a
moral failing, he suddenly became brave as a lion, pounced on the rebels,
and utterly routed them. The danger he had escaped seems to have had an
important influence on William's conduct, both in internal and external
affairs, and in fact to explain the inconsistencies of his later life.
This victory confirmed the authority of William over the duchy of Normandy. [Normans in Europe,
p. 41, by Rev. A. H. Johnson.]
The
question of succession was also involved in these rebellions, for there
seems to have been more than one.
Brittany
had been nominally granted to Rollo by Charles the Simple at the treaty
of Clair of Epte, but Charles in so doing had
granted that over which he had no power. The Bretons, proud of their Keltic descent, proud of having escaped the
all-embracing empire of Charles the Great, resented this act. The want of
unity between the various provinces had hitherto kept them quiet. They
had perforce submitted to the continued devastations of the Northmen from the sea, who were seeking to carve out
dependencies for themselves as Rollo had done, and to the galling yoke of
the Norman Duke. But now, roused by the change of rulers at Rouen, they rose
under two of their princes, Berenger and Alan,
massacred the Northmen in their country, and
invaded the Norman duchy. William, however, completely crushed the
revolt, Berenger submitted, Alan fled to the
court of Aethelstan, and when restored, on the
intercession of the latter, was forced to accept the terms imposed by the
conqueror at the first suppression of the rebellion. The result was an
important increase of the Norman territory by the acquisition of the
Cotentin and the Channel Islands, and the formal acknowledgment of the
Norman supremacy over the rest of Brittany.
The
door was thus opened to further conquests in the east and south, in Maine and Brittany.
Normandy, advanced to the seaboard on the west, gained a boundary,
important as well for its physical characteristics as for its two harbors;
the dangerous Harfleur to the east, and the
important Cherbourg to the west, marked out by the Romans as a
stronghold, from whence perhaps it gained its name, Caesaris
Burgus, and now the most important port of
Northern France. The district thus acquired formed the kernel of Norman
nationality which sent
|
|
