William at Eu.
He goes back to England. August, 1091. passage for himself and his garrison. William, already tired of a siege in which he had made little progress and which had cost him many men and horses,[1] gladly accepted the terms. Henry, still Ætheling, though no longer Count, marched forth from his island stronghold with all the honours of war.[2] We are to suppose that, according to the terms of the treaty, the King took possession of the Mount itself, and the Duke of the rest of Henry's former county. William stayed on the mainland, in the parts of Normandy which had been ceded to him, for full six months, having his head-quarters at Eu.[3] In August the affairs of his island kingdom called him back again; and, strange to say, both his brothers went with him as his guests and allies.[4]
Fortunes of Henry.
His presence in England in 1091.
At this moment the past and the future alike lead us
to look with more interest on the fates of the dispossessed
Ætheling than on those of any other of the actors
in our story. But there is at first sight some little difficulty
in finding out what those fates were. From our
English authorities we could only gather that Henry
was in England before the end of the year in which the
siege took place, and that three years later he was again
beyond sea, in favour with William and at enmity with
Robert. From other writers we get a version, which
- ↑ Flor. Wig. 1091. "Frequenter cum eo prœlium commiserunt, et homines et equos nonnullos perdiderunt. At rex, cum obsidionis diutinæ pertæsus fuisset, impacatus recessit."
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 697 A. "Liberum sibi sociisque suis exitum de monte ab obsidentibus poposcit. Illi admodum gavisi sunt, ipsumque cum omni apparatu suo egredi honorifice permiserunt." On the honours of war, see above, p. 86. See Appendix N.
- ↑ Ib. "Rex in Neustria usque ad Augustum permansit, et dissidentes qui eidem adquiescere voluerunt regali auctoritate pacavit." So in 693 C he mentions the lands of Eu, Gournay, and Conches, and adds, "ubi præfatus rex a Januario usque ad kal. Augusti regali more cum suis habitavit." I assume Eu as his actual head-quarters, as it was before and after.
- ↑ Ib. D. See the next chapter.
