born jealousy of the Kings newly chosen counsellor, Odo had a long standing hatred against the other prelate who had so long watched over the King, and whose advice the King was bound by oath to follow.[1] He bore the bitterest grudge against the Primate Lanfranc, as the inventor of that subtle distinction between the Bishop of Bayeux and the Earl of Kent which had cost the Earl five years of imprisonment.[2]
Action of Odo.
March 1, 1088.
Gatherings of the rebels.
Arguments on behalf of Robert.
Of the two personages who might thus be joined or
separated at pleasure, it is the temporal chief with
whom we have now to deal. Lent was now come. Of
the spiritual exercises of the Bishop of Bayeux during
the holy season we have no record; the Earl of
Kent spent the time plotting with the chief Normans
in England how the King might be killed or handed
over alive to his brother.[3] We have more than one
vigorous report of the oratory used in these seditious
gatherings. According to some accounts, they went on
on both sides of the sea, and we are admitted to hear the
arguments which were used both in Normandy and in
England.[4] Both agree in maintaining the claims of
Robert, as at once the true successor, and the prince
best fitted for their purpose. But it is on Norman
ground that the necessity for an union between Normandy
and England is set forth most clearly. The main
- [Footnote: Cf. Ann. Wint. 1088. "Episcopus Willelmus Dunelmensis, qui paulo ante
quasi cor regis erat."]odium anhelans, quod ejus consilio a fratre se in vincula conjectum asserebat."]
- ↑ Will. Malms, iv. 306 "Immortale in eum [Lanfrancum
- ↑ See N. C. vol. iv. p. 680.
- ↑ Chron. Petrib. 1088. "And þæs unræd wearð gewesen innan þam Lengtene." So Florence; "Pars nobiliorum Normannorum favebat regi Willelmo, sed minima; pars vero altera favebat Roberto comiti Normannorum, et maxima; cupiens hunc sibi adsciscere in regnum, fratrem vero aut fratri tradere vivum aut regno privare peremptum." Here is the end of a hexameter.
- ↑ See Appendix B.
