of the great Conqueror without a blow being struck or a dog moving his tongue against him.
Wealth of the treasury at Winchester.
Gifts to churches.
The first act of the uncrowned candidate for the kingly
office had been one of harshness—harshness which was
perhaps politic in the son, but which trod under foot
the last wishes of a repentant father. The first act of
the crowned King was one which might give good
hopes for the reign which was beginning, and which
certainly carried out his father's wishes to the letter.
From Westminster William Rufus went again to Winchester,
this time not to make fast the bars of his
father's prison-house, but to throw open the stores of
his father's treasury. Our native Chronicler waxes
eloquent on the boundless wealth of all kinds, far
beyond the powers of any man to tell of, which had
been gathered together in the Conqueror's hoard during
his one and twenty years of kingship. The Chronicler
had, as we must remember, himself lived in William's
court, and we may believe that his own eyes had
looked on the store of gold and silver, of vessels and
robes and gems and other costly things, which it was
beyond the skill of man to set forth.[1] These were the
spoils of England, and from them were made the gifts
which, in the belief of those days, were to win repose
in the other world for the soul of her despoiler. Every
minster in England received, some six marks of gold,
some ten, besides gifts of every kind of ecclesiastical
ornament and utensil, rich with precious metals and
precious stones, among which books for the use ofr gegaderode, þa
wæron unasecgendlice ænie man hu mycel þær wæs gegaderod, on golde and
on seolfre and on faton and on pællan and on gimman and on manige oðre
deorwurðe þingon þe earfoðe sindon to ateallene." Yet Henry of Huntingdon
(p. 211) knew the exact amount of the silver, sixty thousand pounds, one
doubtless for each knight's fee.]
- ↑ Chron. Petrib. 1087. "Ðisum þus gedone, se cyng ferde to Winceastre, and sceawode þæt madmehus, and þa gersuman þe his fæder ['æ
