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Pearsall Surname Project
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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
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fought
against him. [The Norman Conquest, by Edward A. Freeman, vol. 1, page
132-135.]
William
again tired of warfare and the excitement of politics, and manifested his
disinclination for the cares of greatness, and followed his disposition
for ascetic life, by proposing to enter the monastery of Jumieges which he had just rebuilt. The Norman
seigneurs persuaded him to postpone the execution of this design, but he
still continued to wear the girdle of the order, and designated his only
son Richard as his successor. The Norman nobility made him send his son
Richard to Bayeux to be educated, because
the Danish or ancient language of the North was there still retained,
whilst the Roman or French was spoken at the ducal court at Rouen. [The History
of the Northmen, by Henry Wheaton.]
While
some parts of the Duchy had assumed the language and the manners of
Frenchmen, the lately acquired district round Bayeux formed the exception, and this now
became the nucelus for a strong Norse
settlement. Here collected those who thought it a shame to cast off their
old gods, their leaders to victory, and the language which they had
learnt at their mother's knee. Their connection with the Norse part of England, the fiords of Norway, and the coasts of Denmark had apparently by no means ceased,
and new comers in great numbers from the Scandinavian
peninsula fostered the old Northman spirit of independence.
[Normans in Europe,
by Rev. A. H. Johnson, page 47-52.]
William
was not unmindful of the trend of current events, therefore he could see
the growing dissatisfaction among his own noblemen, so just before the
end of his life, we notice another sudden change
of policy. A fresh incursion of Scandinavians had taken place. He
welcomed their arrival and allowed them to settle peaceably in the newly
acquired district of Cotentin. His son Richard, suddenly emerging from
obscurity, became the darling of his father, and, no doubt because the
Danes demanded it, was entrusted to William's old tutor, Botho, the Danish born, and to his uncle, Bernard of Senlis, surnamed the Dane, and returned to Bayeux to
be instructed in the Danish tongue. This change, we may well believe,
contributed to William's ruin, although it resulted in placing his son on
the throne of Normandy.
There had long been a bitter enmity between William and his jealous and
wicked neighbor Arnulf. The two rivals had married
sisters, daughters of Herbert of Vermandois,
but at that time such alliances served but to embitter the strife. The
Count of Flanders was not likely to look upon the nest of pirates, so
they called the Normans,
with a favorable eye. Already causes of jealousy had occurred. Arnulf had offered a refuge to the defeated Bretons
ten years before, and William in revenge had aided the Count of Ponthieu, whose dominions lay between Normandy and
Flanders, and whose country Arnulf had coveted.
Now William was openly allying himself with the Northmen
who were again stirring and troubling England
and Gaul by their renewed incursions.
They were evidently again becoming dangerous, and William, in league with
others, might well be preparing fresh troubles for Gaul.
A dangerous coalition was arising, so Arnulf
argued, and so the other princes thought, to which Louis was perhaps
lending himself, and of which William was the soul and center. One remedy
remained, a rude and decisive one; William must be murdered. Such,
probably, were the main causes which led to the mysterious assassi-
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