This was Lanfranc of Pavia, the lawyer, the scholar, the model monk, the ecclesiastical statesman, who, as prior of the newly founded abbey of Bec, was already one of the innermost counsellors of the Duke.As duke and king, as prior, abbot, and archbishop, William and Lanfranc ruled side by side, each helping the work of the other till the end of their joint lives.Once only, at this time, was their friendship broken for a moment.Lanfranc spoke against the marriage, and ventured to rebuke the Duke himself.William's wrath was kindled; he ordered Lanfranc into banishment and took a baser revenge by laying waste part of the lands of the abbey.But the quarrel was soon made up.Lanfranc presently left Normandy, not as a banished man, but as the envoy of its sovereign, commissioned to work for the confirmation of the marriage at the papal court.He worked, and his work was crowned with success, but not with speedy success.It was not till six years after the marriage, not till the year 1059, that Lanfranc obtained the wished for confirmation, not from Leo, but from his remote successor Nicolas the Second.The sin of those who had contracted the unlawful union was purged by various good works, among which the foundation of the two stately abbeys of Caen was conspicuous.
This story illustrates many points in the character of William and of his time.His will is not to be thwarted, whether in a matter of marriage or of any other.But he does not hurry matters; he waits for a favourable opportunity.Something, we know not what, must have made the year 1053 more favourable than the year 1049.We mark also William's relations to the Church.He is at no time disposed to submit quietly to the bidding of the spiritual power, when it interferes with his rights or even when it crosses his will.Yet he is really anxious for ecclesiastical reform; he promotes men like Maurilius and Lanfranc; perhaps he is not displeased when the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline, in the case of Malger, frees him from a troublesome censor.But the worse side of him also comes out.William could forgive rebels, but he could not bear the personal rebuke even of his friend.Under this feeling he punishes a whole body of men for the offence of one.To lay waste the lands of Bec for the rebuke of Lanfranc was like an ordinary prince of the time; it was unlike William, if he had not been stirred up by a censure which touched his wife as well as himself.But above all, the bargain between William and Lanfranc is characteristic of the man and the age.Lanfranc goes to Rome to support a marriage which he had censured in Normandy.But there is no formal inconsistency, no forsaking of any principle.Lanfranc holds an uncanonical marriage to be a sin, and he denounces it.He does not withdraw his judgement as to its sinfulness.He simply uses his influence with a power that can forgive the sin to get it forgiven.
While William's marriage was debated at Rome, he had to fight hard in Normandy.His warfare and his negotiations ended about the same time, and the two things may have had their bearing on one another.
William had now to undergo a new form of trial.The King of the French had never put forth his full strength when he was simply backing Norman rebels.William had now, in two successive invasions, to withstand the whole power of the King, and of as many of his vassals as the King could bring to his standard.In the first invasion, in 1054, the Norman writers speak rhetorically of warriors from Burgundy, Auvergne, and Gascony; but it is hard to see any troops from a greater distance than Bourges.The princes who followed Henry seem to have been only the nearer vassals of the Crown.Chief among them are Theobald Count of Chartres, of a house of old hostile to Normandy, and Guy the new Count of Ponthieu, to be often heard of again.If not Geoffrey of Anjou himself, his subjects from Tours were also there.Normandy was to be invaded on two sides, on both banks of the Seine.The King and his allies sought to wrest from William the western part of Normandy, the older and the more thoroughly French part.No attack seems to have been designed on the Bessin or the Cotentin.William was to be allowed to keep those parts of his duchy, against which he had to fight when the King was his ally at Val-es-dunes.
The two armies entered Normandy; that which was to act on the left of the Seine was led by the King, the other by his brother Odo.
Against the King William made ready to act himself; eastern Normandy was left to its own loyal nobles.But all Normandy was now loyal;the men of the Saxon and Danish lands were as ready to fight for their duke against the King as they had been to fight against King and Duke together.But William avoided pitched battles; indeed pitched battles are rare in the continental warfare of the time.
War consists largely in surprises, and still more in the attack and defence of fortified places.The plan of William's present campaign was wholly defensive; provisions and cattle were to be carried out of the French line of march; the Duke on his side, the other Norman leaders on the other side, were to watch the enemy and attack them at any favourable moment.The commanders east of the Seine, Count Robert of Eu, Hugh of Gournay, William Crispin, and Walter Giffard, found their opportunity when the French had entered the unfortified town of Mortemer and had given themselves up to revelry.Fire and sword did the work.The whole French army was slain, scattered, or taken prisoners.Ode escaped; Guy of Ponthieu was taken.The Duke's success was still easier.The tale runs that the news from Mortemer, suddenly announced to the King's army in the dead of the night, struck them with panic, and led to a hasty retreat out of the land.
