hatred of rebellion. They even, we are told, called on their leader to study the history of past times, where he would see how faithful Englishmen had ever been to their kings.[1]
William's march.
English hatred of Odo.
At the head of this great and zealous host William
the Red set forth from London. He set forth at the
head of an English host, to fight against Norman
enemies in the Kentish and South-Saxon lands. And
in that host there may well have been men who had
marched forth from London on the like errand only
two-and-twenty years before. Great as were the changes
which had swept over the land, men must have been
still living, still able to bear arms, who had dealt their
blows in the Malfosse of Senlac amidst the last glimmerings
of light on the day of Saint Calixtus. The enemy
was nationally and even personally the same. The
work before all others at the present moment was to
seize the man whose spiritual exhortations had stirred
up Norman valour on that unforgotten day, and whose
temporal arm had wielded, if not the sword, at least
the war-club, in the first rank of the invaders. Odo,
the invader of old, the oppressor of later days, the
head and front of the evil rede of the present moment,
was the foremost object of the loyal and patriotic
hatred of every Englishman in the Red King's army.
Could he be seized, it would be easier to seize his
accomplices.[2] The great object of the campaign was
therefore to recover the castle of Rochester, the stronghold
where the rebel Bishop, with his allies from
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 667 A. "Solerter Anglorum rimare historias, inveniesque semper fidos principibus suis Angligenas." Fancy William Rufus sitting down to study the Chronicles, as his brother Henry may likely enough have done.
- ↑ Chron. Petrib. 1088. "Ferdon þa toweard Hrofeceastre and woldon þone bisceop Odan begytan, þohtan gif hi hæfdon hine, þe wæs ærur heafod to þam unræde, þæt hi mihton þe bet begytan ealla þa oðre."
