14 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. record. Constance added brutality to the cmelty of the act by striking out the eye of her old confessor with her iron-tipped staff as he passed her on his way to the hut in which he and his companion yere shut up while it was burned over their heads. The last years of Robert's reign were darkened by the dissensions of his sons. The eldest was imbecile, and when he wished to crown Henry, the next brother, Constance set up her favourite, Robert, in opposition, but Henry prevailed, and was crowned in 1027. 6. Henry I., 1031. — When, in 1031, Henry I. succeeded to the throne, his mother and brother made war on him, and he only prevailed by the aid of Robert, Duke of the Normans, called the Magnificent. He bought off his brother Robert with the Duchy of Burgundy, which had returned to the crown on the death of his uncle in 1003. Three bad harvests caused, in 1032, such a famine all over the continent as had seldom been known. Mul- titudes died, all sorts of carrion were eaten, and a man was even seized in the market-place of Toniierre selling human flesh. Wolves prowled about, devouring the un- buried corpses and attacking the living who were too weak to defend themselves from them, and though the bishops sold the church plate to gain supplies for the poor, the scarcity was such that money hardly was of use, until, in 1033, a wonderful crop, equal to five ordinary harvests, put an end to the general distress. 7. The Truce of God. — While the remembrance of the famine was fresh, Richard, bishop of Verdun, together with many of the other bishops, abbots, and other clergy throughout Aquitaine, Burgundy, and France began to preach peace on earth and to denounce the horrible vio- lences that were continually being committed. Synods were convoked, at which rules were drawn up which were enforced on the nobles under pain of excommunication. They were made to swear to strike no blow in a private quarrel, to attack no unarmed, person, to pemiit no robbery or violence. Thus the Church tried to make up for the weakness of the law, and her threats were so much dreaded that, when Hui^h, Count of Rodez, first set the example, i^w refused to swear to this Peace of God. But five years trial showed that ferocity could not be entirely repressed, and that a broken oath only made recklessness worse. So for it was substituted the Truce of God, which forbade all figliting from Thursday
