Brionne, which had cost him no small pains to win or to recover, passed away from his son without a thought. Robert gave to every man everything that he asked for, to the impoverishment of himself and to the strengthening of every other man against him.[1]
The Ætheling Henry.
He claims his mother's lands.
Lavish waste of Robert.
In one corner only of the duchy was there a better
state of things to be seen. The Ætheling Henry had
received from his dying father a bequest in money, but
no share in his territorial dominions.[2] He claimed however
the English lands which had been held by his
mother Matilda, but which the late King had kept in his
own hands after her death.[3] This claim had not as yet
been made good, and Henry's possessions still consisted
only of his five thousand pounds in money. With part
of this he was presently to make a splendid investment.
While Henry had money but no lands, Robert
had wide domains, but his extravagance soon left him
without money. The Norman portion of the Conqueror's
hoard was presently scattered broadcast among
his mercenary soldiers and other followers. Of these
he kept a vast number; men flocked eagerly to a prince
who was so ready to give; but before long he wasnixus." Wace also says (14484),
"E Henris out des déniers asez
Ke sis peres li out donez,
Partie out del tresor son pere
E grant partie out de sa mere."
]
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 664 C. "Cunctis placere studebat, cunctisque quod petebant aut dabat aut promittebat vel concedebat. Prodigus dominium patrum suorum quotidie imminuebat, insipienter tribuens unicuique quod petebat, et ipse pauperescebat, unde alios contra se roborabat."
- ↑ See N. C. vol. iv. p. 709.
- ↑ The passages from Orderic which set forth Henry as the heir of his mother have been discussed in N. C. vol. iv. p. 854 (cf. pp. 320, 629), as also the expression of William of Malmesbury (v. 392) which implies that the Conqueror bequeathed Matilda's lands to Henry, or directed that Matilda's earlier bequest should take effect. The same writer also just before speaks (v. 391) of Henry, after his father's death, as "paterna benedictione et materna hæreditate simul et multiplicibus thesauris ["gersuman unateallendlice" in the Chronicle
