himself on this happy termination of his foreign wars and internal disquiets, and prepared to enjoy the happiness of wedded life, when a new cause of annoyance arose, which had been little anticipated.1

Mauger, the archbishop of Rouen, an illegitimate uncle of the young duke, who had taken great pains to prevent his marriage with Matilda of Flanders, finding all the obstacles which he had raised against it were unavailing, proceeded to pronounce sentence of excommunication against the newly-wedded pair, under the plea of its being a marriage within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity, and therefore unlawful in the sight of man, and abominable to God.

William indignantly appealed to the Pope against this sentence, who, on the parties submitting to the usual fines, nullified the archbishop's ecclesiastical censures, and granted the dispensation for the marriage, on condition of the young duke and duchess each building and endowing an abbey at Caen, and an hospital for the blind. It is said that Lanfranc, afterwards the celebrated archbishop of Canterbury, but at that time an obscure individual, to whom William had extended his protection and patronage, was entrusted with this negotiation, which he conducted with such ability as to secure to himself the favour and confidence both of William and Matilda, by whom he was, in after years, advanced to the office of tutor to their royal offspring, and finally to the highest ecclesiastical rank and power.

1 Chronicle of Normandy. Rapin.

2 Chronicle of Normandy. Matilda was the granddaughter of Eleanor of Normandy, William's aunt.

William and Matilda cheerfully submitted to the conditions on which the dispensation for their marriage had been granted, by founding the sister abbeys of St. Stephen and the Holy Trinity. That of St. Stephen was built and endowed by William for a fraternity of monks, of which he made Lanfranc abbot. Matilda founded and endowed that of the Holy Trinity for nuns. It should appear that the ground on which these holy edifices were erected was not very honestly obtained, as we shall have occasion to show hereafter.1

All that Mauger gained by his impertinent interference with the matrimonial concerns of his royal nephew, was the exposure and punishment of his own evil deeds; for William, highly exasperated at the archbishop's attempt to separate him from his bride, retaliated upon him by calling a convocation of all the bishops in Normandy at Lisieu, before whom he caused Mauger to be accused of several crimes and misdemeanors, especially of selling consecrated chalices, and other articles of church-plate, to supply his luxury. Mauger, being convicted of these mal-practices, was deposed from his office, and Maurilliers was elected in his room.3

All things being now tranquilly settled, William next proceeded to build a royal palace within the precincts of St. Stephen's Abbey for his own residence and that of his young duchess. The great hall or council chamber of this palace was one of the most magnificent apartments at that time in Europe. The marble floor was

Montfauçon. Malmsbury.

2 Rapin.

This council was held at Lisieu anno 1055. Vide Sir Harris Nicholas's Chronology of History.

emblazoned with the arms of all the peers of Normandy, and every part of the structure was designed in the grandest style of architecture.

Matilda inheriting from her father, Baldwin of Lille, a taste for architecture, took great delight in the progress of these stately buildings, and her foundations are among the most splendid relics of Norman grandeur. She was a munificent patroness of the arts, and afforded great encouragement to men of learning, and co-operated with her husband most actively in all his paternal plans for the advancement of trade, the extension of commerce, and the general happiness of the people committed to their charge. In this they were most successful. Normandy, so long torn with contending factions, and impoverished with foreign warfare, began to taste the blessings of repose, and, under the wise government of her energetic sovereign, soon experienced the good effects of his enlightened policy.

At his own expense William built the first pier that ever was constructed at Cherbourg. He superintended the building and organization of fleets, traced out commodious harbours for his ships, and in a comparatively short time rendered Normandy a very considerable maritime power, and finally the mistress of the Channel.

Under his auspices, the wine trade, too, which had been suffered to fall into decay, revived, and the wines of Normandy, which were considered by the luxurious Romans so excellent that they were immortalized by the pen of Horace, regained some portion of their 1 Henderson's Life of William the Conqueror.

ancient fame, and became once more a source of national wealth and prosperity. Meantime the domestic happiness which William enjoyed with his beautiful duchess appears to have been very great. All historians have agreed that they were a most attached pair, and that whatever might have been the previous state of Matilda's affections, they were unalterably and faithfully fixed upon her cousin from the hour she became his wife, and with reason, for William was the most devoted of husbands, and always allowed her to take the ascendant in the matrimonial scale. The confidence he reposed in her was unbounded, and very shortly after their marriage he entrusted the reins of government to her care, when he crossed over to England, to pay a visit to his friend and kinsman, Edward the Confessor. By his marriage with Matilda, William had strengthened this connexion, and added a nearer tie of relationship to the English sovereign; and he was perhaps willing to remind the childless monarch of that circumstance, and to recal to his memory the hospitality he had received, both at the Flemish and the Norman courts, during the period of his adversity.1

Edward "received him very honourably, and presented him with hawks and hounds, and many other fair and goodly gifts," says Wace, "as tokens of his love." The young Duke William had chosen his time for this visit during the exile of Godwin and his sons, and it is probable that he availed himself of their absence to obtain from Edward the promise of being adopted as his successor to the English throne, and also to commence

1 Higden Polychronicon.

a series of political intrigues connected with that mighty project which fourteen years afterwards he carried into effect.

In pursuing the broad stream of history, how few writers take the trouble of tracing the under currents by which the tide of events is influenced! The marriage. of Tostig, the son of Godwin, with Judith of Flanders, the sister of Matilda, wife of William of Normandy, was one great cause of the treacherous and unnatural conduct on his part which decided the fate of Harold, and transferred the crown of England to the Norman line. During the period of their exile from England, Godwin and his family sought refuge at the court of the Earl of Flanders, Tostig's father-in-law, from whom they received friendly and hospitable entertainment, and were treated by the Duke and Duchess of Normandy with all the marks of friendship that might reasonably be expected, in consideration of the family connexion to which we have alluded.1

Nine months after her marriage, Matilda gave birth to a son, whom William named Robert after his father, thinking that the name of a prince whose memory was so dear to Normandy would ensure the popularity of his heir. The happiness of the royal pair was greatly increased by this event. In fact, nothing could exceed the terms of affection and confidence in which they lived. They were at that period reckoned the handsomest and most tenderly united couple in Europe. The fine natural talents of both had been improved by a degree of mental cultivation very unusual in that age, and there Wace. Ingulphus. Eadmer. 2 Malmsbury. Wace.