The History and Genealogy of The Pearsall Family - Chapter 4

forth in later times the conqueror of Apulia and Sicily, and many of the leaders in William the Conqueror's army. Through it all stands forth the one strong character, the brother-in-law of the Duke-Bernard of Senlis, surnamed the Dane, whose sturdiness and valor furnishes a bright background to the vacillating and at times weak spirit of the Ruler.

At first William strove to crush out the Danish party, and to become more thoroughly French than ever. Hence, perhaps, his adhesion given to Rudolph at this date, and his repudiation of the lovely Esprota, his first wife, whom he had married by Danish rite-that is, without the sanction of the Catholic Church-for Leutgarda, sister of Herbert of Vermandois, and his neglect of Richard, Esprota's son. His object then was to gain the favor of the Frankish nobles. To this we may perhaps also attribute his closer connection with the Church, and his foundation of the abbey of Jumieges. His vain attempts to gain lasting alliances in that faithless age did not succeed; nay, his own fickleness, his turn-coat policy, utterly prevented success. Thus, while he alienated the Danish party he had not succeeded in making friends amongst his allies and relations; they hated him as the captain of the Norse pirates, and he knew it. Later he returned to his first spouse and with the strong help of her family the Duchy became of greater force than ever in the counsels of the French nation. His conspicuous rank among the great vassals of the French crown induced him to take part in their quarrels respecting the succession. The Carlovingian line was now drawing to an end.

When William succeeded his father, Normandy was at war with France; that is, it was at war with Herbert of Vermandois, and Hugh of Paris, and with Rudolf of Burgundy, their king of the French. But Rollo, and after him William, acknowledged no king but the imprisoned Charles. From him Rollo had received his lands; to him Rollo had done homage; to him William repeated that homage on the earliest opportunity, and he never did homage to Rudolf till the death of Charles left the Burgundian Duke without a competitor for the kingly title. Peace was made and peace was again confirmed, without any acknowledgment of the usurper's claim. It was not until three years later (933), when Charles was dead, and when Rudolf, by his victory at Limoges, had shown himself worthy to reign, that William, seemingly of his own act and deed and without any special circumstances calling for such a course, did homage to Rudolf, and received from him a grant of the maritime province of Brittany. This grant probably included both a general confirmation of the superiority of Normandy over Brittany and a special confirmation of the transfer of Avranches and Coutances to the immediate dominion of the Norman Duke, which is an important incident in our family history, as later Avranches was conferred upon a descendant of Rolf Thurstan, who was first cousin of Duke William, and thus it later came by descent to Richard de Goz, father of Isabella, surnamed Lupus, who married Gilbert de Corbeil, they being also our ancestors. [The Norman Conquest, vol. 1, page 132-135, by Ed-ward Freeman.]

King Charles had been deposed and imprisoned, and his queen Edgiva fled to England, to her father, Edward the Elder. On his death, Edgiva and her infant son Louis, surnamed Outremer, remained at the Anglo-Saxon court as the

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Excursion Inlet, Alaska