will, claims the right to shut out a weaker prince or people from the seaboard which nature has designed for them.
William demands Saint Michael's Mount.
Money paid to Robert.
The lost dominions of the Conqueror to be restored to Robert.
Projected recovery of Maine.
Besides Cherbourg, the Red King demanded the island
fortress of Saint Michael's Mount, the abbey in peril of
the sea. Otherwise he seems to have claimed nothing
in the west of Normandy. Robert might reign, if he
could, over the lands which his father had brought into
submission on the day of Val-ès-Dunes. Nor were
the great cessions which Robert made to be wholly
without recompence. It might be taken for granted
that the Duke whose territories were thus cut off was
to have some compensation in another shape out of the
wealth of England. So it was; vast gifts were given
by the lord of the hoard at Winchester to the pauper
prince at Rouen.[1] But he was not to be left without
territorial compensation also. William not only undertook
to bring under Robert's obedience all those who
were in arms against him throughout Normandy; he
further undertook to win back for him all the dominions
which their father had ever held, except those
lands which, by the terms of the treaty, were to fall to
William himself. This involved a very considerable
enlargement of Robert's dominions, besides turning his
nominal rule into a reality in the lands where he was
already sovereign in name. It was aimed at lands both
within and without the bounds of the Norman duchy.
Maine, city and county, was again in revolt against its
Norman lords.[2] By this clause of the treaty William
bound himself to recover Maine for Robert. This obligation
he certainly never even attempted to fulfil. He
did not meddle with Maine till the Norman lord and the
English King were again one. Then the recovery of
