Henry's firm rule. the rule of him who was one day to be called the Lion of Justice, there was a nearer approach to peace and order than could be found in other parts of Normandy. The young Count governed his county well and firmly; no such doings went on in the lands of Coutances and Avranches as went on in the rest of the duchy under the no-rule of Duke Robert.[1]
Henry goes to England. Summer, 1088.
William promises him the lands of Matilda.
Henry, Ætheling on one side of the sea and now
Count on the other side,[2] next thought of crossing the
channel to seek for those estates in his native land
which he claimed in right of his mother.[3] These lands,
in Cornwall, Buckinghamshire, and specially in Gloucestershire,
had mostly formed a part of the forfeited possessions
of Brihtric, the man whose name legend has so
strangely connected with that of Matilda.[4] Henry
must have reached England about the time when the
rebellion had been put down, and when the new King
might be expected to be in a mood inclined either to
justice or to generosity. William received his brother
graciously, and granted, promised, or pretended to grant,
the restitution of the lands of their mother.[5] Henry,
already a ruler on one side of the sea, a sharer in his
father's inheritance, went back to his peninsula in a, Constantiniensis comes" in Orderic,
672 D; "comes Henricus" in Will. Gem. viii. 3.]deditione citra mare personuit."]
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 665 C. "Constantiniensem provinciam bene gubernavit, suamque juventutem laudabiliter exercuit." He was hardly twenty years old. So 689 C; "Constantinienses Henricus clito strenue regebat."
- ↑ He is "Henricus clito [Ætheling
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 672 D. "In Angliam transfretavit et a fratre suo terram matris suæ requisivit." The date is fixed by the words "postquam certus rumor de Rofensis [oppidi
- ↑ See N. C. vol. iv. pp. 164, 759.
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 672 D. "Rex Guillelmus benigniter eum, ut decuit fratrem, suscepit, et quod poterat fraterne concessit. Deinde, peractis pro quibus ierat, in autumno regi valefecit." An actual possession of something seems implied in the words of Orderic, 689 C, "Regi Angliæ hostis erat pro terra matris suæ, qua rex eumdem in Anglia dissaisiverat, et Roberto Haimonis filio dederat."
