it was beyond his power to fulfil. But his engagement to Anselm was of another kind. To say nothing of Anselm being the old friend of his father, his engagement to him was strictly personal. If it was not exactly done in the character of a good knight, it was done as the act of a man to a man. It was like a safe-conduct; it touched, not so much William's kingly duty as his personal honour. William's honour did not keep him back from annoying and insulting Anselm, or from haggling with him about money in a manner worthy of the chivalrous Richard himself. But it did keep him back from any attempt to undo his own personal act and promise. He had prayed Anselm to take the archbishopric; he had forced the staff, as far as might be, into Anselm's unwilling hand. From that act he would not draw back, though he was quite ready to get any advantage for himself that might be had in the way of carrying it out.
Events of March-December, 1093.
Affairs of England and Wales.
But we must not fancy that the affairs of Anselm and
of the see to which he had been so strangely called
were the only matters which occupied the mind of
England during this memorable year. The months which
passed between the first nomination of Anselm and his
consecration to the archbishopric, that is, the months
from March to December, were a busy time in affairs of
quite another kind than the appointment of pastors of
the Church. The events of those months chiefly concerned
the relations of England to the other parts of the
island, Welsh and Scottish, and I shall speak of them at
length in another chapter. Here it is enough to say
that the very week of the Easter Gemót was marked
by striking events in Wales,[1] and that during the whole
- ↑ Florence notices the death of Rhys ap Twdwr in the Easter week, of which I shall have much to say in the next chapter.
