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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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nation
of William. In that deed Arnmulf no doubt was
the prime over; the actual assassin was, probably, one of the old Breton
rebels who had the blood of relatives to avenge. It seems that Hugh also
secretly favored it. The plot being laid, William was treacherously
invited to a negotiation with Arnulf of the Somme at Pecquigny,
separated from adherents, and basely murdered on the Flemish side of the
river, on the eighteenth day of December, 942.
William
Longsword is one of those characters to whom history
has accorded unmerited honor. He found a place among the acknowledged
heroes of France.
To the clergy he has been as though he were a martyr. The fame of the
Norman name, the partiality of the Norman historians who wrote for
Richard, his son, his tragic death, the romantic interest which surrounds
the early life of his devoted son, his own attractive character, all have
contributed to throw an unreal glamour round his name. In him we find the
weaknesses, and the strength of his double nationality. His winning,
gracious manners, his ready wit, and versatility, he gained from his
gentle mother Popa. His bright features, his
bravery, his rough sense of justice, his personal vigor, were the gifts
of his father Rollo; and these earned him the love of his fellowmen. But
the fair traits were shaded by darker tints. Fickleness and
faithlessness, these were the faults of his mother's race, and of his
age, and these he shared with the rest of his contemporaries. A creature
of impulse, his justice seems to have had no firmer basis than that of
natural inclination. Often seriously wishing to abandon his ducal throne
for the seclusion of the cloister, he yet showed scanty regard for the
things of Holy
Church, and was
niggardly in his endowments. The monasteries were the one redeeming
element in those distracted times, and these, with one exception, he
carelessly neglected. The paganism of his father seems in him hardly to
have been eradicated, and, following his impulse and not his conscience,
he was led by circumstances, from one shift to another, to the fatal
meeting on the banks of the Somme. Had
he pursued one consistent policy and remained true to his word, he would
have been at least respected, if not loved, and the wicked coalition
against his life might never have been formed. As it was, he was snatched
away in the midst of a changeable, aimless life; and the existence of his
race and name in France
was endangered by the long rule of a minor.
But
strange as it may seem, his last change of heart was the very act needed
to insure the continuance of his line, as it raised powerful, loyal
friends for his otherwise helpless infant son, Richard.
William,
like his father Rollo, was buried in the Cathedral at Rouen. A few words concerning this
church may prove to be interesting.
The
first church at Rouen was built about the
year 270; three hundred and thirty years subsequently, this edifice was
succeeded by another, the joint work of St. Romain
and St. Ouen, which was burned in the
incursions of the Normans,
about the year 842. Seventy years of paganism succeeded; at the
expiration of which period, Rouen
saw once more within its walls, by the munificence of the conqueror, a
place of Christian worship. Richard 1st, grandson of Rollo, and his son
Robert, the archbishop, enlarged the edifice in the middle of the tenth
century; but it was still not completed till 1063, when, according to
Ordericus Vitalis, it was dedicated by the Archbishop Maurilius with
great pomp, in the presence of
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