Abbot Ralph, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.
His imprisonment by Henry. 1110. father which is one of the redeeming features in the character of the Red King. He underwent excommunication from the zeal of Bishop Serlo, and by the wrongs done by him to Abbot Ralph of Seez, which drove that prelate to seek shelter in England, he unwittingly gave England a worthy primate and Anselm a worthy successor.[1] One is inclined to wonder how such a man gained the special favour of the Conqueror, whose politic sternness had nothing in common with the fiendish brutality of Robert.[2] Perhaps, as in William Rufus, the worst features of his character may for a while have been hidden. It is less surprising that, in the days of William's sons, we find him in honour at the courts of England, Normandy, and France. But at last vengeance came upon him. When King Henry sent him to spend his days in prison, it was in a prison so strait and darksome that the outer world knew not whether he were dead or alive, nor was the time of his death set down in any record.[3]
Robert Count of Meulan and Earl of Leicester.
His father Roger of Beaumont.
The other Robert, the son of the other Roger, was a
man of a different mould, a man who would perhaps
seem more in place in some other age than in that in
which he lived. He was the son of the old and worthy
Roger of Beaumont, the faithful counsellor of princes,
who, like Gulbert of Hugleville, refused to share in
- ↑ See Ord. Vit. 707 D for the Bishop; ib. 678 A and Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 127 for the Abbot. With the bishopric there was a question of the right of advowson; "Episcopium contra jus et fas comprimebat, et Guillelmo Belesmensi avo ejus a Ricardo duce datum asserebat." Cf. on the bishopric of Le Mans, N. C. vol. iii. p. 194. From the Abbot too he demanded an oath of allegiance, "de sacramento et homagio abbatem exagitare." This was in Henry's time.
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 668 C. "Robertus Belesmensis qui patri tuo fuit valde dilectus, et multis honoribus olim ab ipso promotus." See above, p 84.
- ↑ Hen. Hunt. u. s. "Quem tantopere fama coluerat dum viveret, in carcere utrum viveret vel obisset, nescivit, diemque mortis ejus obmutescens ignoravit."
