His rise under Rufus. did the Conqueror need a minister, in the sense of needing one who should in some sort fill his place and exercise his powers. The elder William could rule his kingdom himself, or at most with the advice of the special counsellor whom ancient custom gave him in the person of Lanfranc. But the younger William, sultan-like in his mood, needed, like other sultans, the help of a vizier. And he found the fittest of all viziers for his purpose in the supple clerk from the Bessin.
His alleged new Domesday.
His official position.
The reign of Flambard seems to have begun as soon as
Lanfranc was gone. He thoroughly suited the Red King's
views. He was ready to gather in wealth for his master
from every quarter; he knew how to squeeze the most
out of rich and poor; when a tax of a certain amount
was decreed, he knew how to make it bring in double
its nominal value.[1] He alone thoroughly knew his art;
no one else, said the laughing King, cared so little whose
hatred he brought on himself, so that he only pleased
his master.[2] He stands charged in one account of his
deeds with declaring the Great Survey to be drawn up
on principles not favourable enough to the royal hoard,
and with causing it to be supplanted by a new inquisition
which made the Red King richer than his father.[3]
This story is very doubtful; but it is thoroughly in
character. In any case Flambard rose to the highest
measure both of power and of official dignity that was
open to him. His office and its duties are described
in various ways; in that age official titles and functions
- ↑ Will. Malms. iv. 314. "Is, si quando edictum regium processisset ut nominatum tributum Anglia penderet, duplum adjiciebat."
- ↑ Ib. "Subinde, cachinnantibus quibusdam ac dicentibus, solum esse hominem qui sciret sic agitare ingenium nec aliorum curaret odium dummodo complacaret dominum." This is one of the passages where William of Malmesbury thought it wise to soften what he first wrote. For "cachinnantibus quibusdam ac dicentibus" some manuscripts read "cachinnante rege ac dicente."
- ↑ See Appendix U.
