If Maine was to have a master from outside, the lord of Anjou hardly promised better than the lord of Normandy.But men in despair grasp at anything.The strange thing is that Fulk disappears now from the story; William steps in instead.And it was at least as much in his English as in his Norman character that the Duke and King won back the revolted land.A place in his army was held by English warriors, seemingly under the command of Hereward himself.Men who had fought for freedom in their own land now fought at the bidding of their Conqueror to put down freedom in another land.They went willingly; the English Chronicler describes the campaign with glee, and breaks into verse--or incorporates a contemporary ballad--at the tale of English victory.Few men of that day would see that the cause of Maine was in truth the cause of England.If York and Exeter could not act in concert with one another, still less could either act in concert with Le Mans.Englishmen serving in Maine would fancy that they were avenging their own wrongs by laying waste the lands of any man who spoke the French tongue.On William's part, the employment of Englishmen, the employment of Hereward, was another stroke of policy.It was more fully following out the system which led Englishmen against Exeter, which led Eadric and his comrades into Scotland.For in every English soldier whom William carried into Maine he won a loyal English subject.To men who had fought under his banners beyond the sea he would be no longer the Conqueror but the victorious captain; they would need some very special oppression at home to make them revolt against the chief whose laurels they had helped to win.As our own gleeman tells the tale, they did little beyond harrying the helpless land; but in continental writers we can trace a regular campaign, in which we hear of no battles, but of many sieges.William, as before, subdued the land piecemeal, keeping the city for the last.When he drew near to Le Mans, its defenders surrendered at his summons, to escape fire and slaughter by speedy submission.The new COMMUNE was abolished, but the Conqueror swore to observe all the ancient rights of the city.
All this time we have heard nothing of Count Fulk.Presently we find him warring against nobles of Maine who had taken William's part, and leaguing with the Bretons against William himself.The King set forth with his whole force, Norman and English; but peace was made by the mediation of an unnamed Roman cardinal, abetted, we are told, by the chief Norman nobles.Success against confederated Anjou and Britanny might be doubtful, with Maine and England wavering in their allegiance, and France, Scotland, and Flanders, possible enemies in the distance.The rights of the Count of Anjou over Maine were formally acknowledged, and William's eldest son Robert did homage to Fulk for the county.Each prince stipulated for the safety and favour of all subjects of the other who had taken his side.Between Normandy and Anjou there was peace during the rest of the days of William; in Maine we shall see yet another revolt, though only a partial one.
William went back to England in 1073.In 1074 he went to the continent for a longer absence.As the time just after the first completion of the Conquest is spoken of as a time when Normans and English were beginning to sit down side by side in peace, so the years which followed the submission of Ely are spoken of as a time of special oppression.This fact is not unconnected with the King's frequent absences from England.Whatever we say of William's own position, he was a check on smaller oppressors.Things were always worse when the eye of the great master was no longer watching.
William's one weakness was that of putting overmuch trust in his immediate kinsfolk and friends.Of the two special oppressors, William Fitz-Osbern had thrown away his life in Flanders; but Bishop Ode was still at work, till several years later his king and brother struck him down with a truly righteous blow.
The year 1074, not a year of fighting, was pro-eminently a year of intrigue.William's enemies on the continent strove to turn the representative of the West-Saxon kings to help their ends.Edgar flits to and fro between Scotland and Flanders, and the King of the French tempts him with the offer of a convenient settlement on the march of France, Normandy, and Flanders.Edgar sets forth from Scotland, but is driven back by a storm; Malcolm and Margaret then change their minds, and bid him make his peace with King William.
William gladly accepts his submission; an embassy is sent to bring him with all worship to the King in Normandy.He abides for several years in William's court contented and despised, receiving a daily pension and the profits of estates in England of no great extent which the King of a moment held by the grant of a rival who could afford to be magnanimous.
