Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I (6 page)

Although increasingly Frankish in culture and politics, the Normans were proud of their Scandinavian past, for the Nordic people were among the most feared warriors in Europe. They continued to use Scandinavian names and some elements of the language, their legal system was rooted in that of their homeland, and there was a strong tradition of Nordic folklore. On several occasions, Duke Richard II, a formidable
warrior who ruled the province from 996 to 1026, showed himself willing to assist the marauding Scandinavians as they harried parts of England and France. In 1000, for example, he permitted a Viking fleet to spend the winter sheltering in Normandy before crossing the Channel to raid England the following spring. As a result of this identification with their Viking past, the Normans developed a much stronger sense of national identity than any other Frankish territory.

Richard II was the first ruler to regularly use the title Duke of the Normans. Until then, the leader of the territory had variously styled himself count, marquis, prince, or duke. Under Richard’s authority, Rouen, which remained the principal town, became a major trading center, and the territory as a whole was quite prosperous by the standards of the day. By this time, Normandy had become an independent principality, owing only nominal allegiance to the French king. The same was true of other major territories, notably Anjou, Brittany, and parts of neighboring Flanders. In fact, what we know as France today was little more than a patchwork of territories over which the king exercised only theoretical control beyond his own immediate domain, a small region around Paris and Orléans. This, together with the fact that the frontiers of these principalities were ill-defined, created a highly volatile situation in which ruthless, power-hungry rulers waged incessant wars.

It was into this turbulent, dangerous world that the future conqueror of England was born, around 1027 or 1028.
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Known to contemporaries as Guillaume le Bâtard, William was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert I, the younger son of Duke Richard II. Robert’s elder brother, Richard III, had been confidently expected to rule for many years. However, he died barely a year after assuming the duchy in 1026. The suddenness of his death led many to suspect foul play on the part of his brother—variously called “the Magnificent” and “the Devil”—who had rebelled against him and was now quick to seize the reins of power.
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It is likely that by this time, William had already been conceived. Shortly before his death, Robert’s father had conferred upon him the title of Count of Hiésmois, an area in southern Normandy.
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The principal town was Falaise, from where Robert had launched his rebellion against
his elder brother in 1027. It was also here that he met and fell in love with a young woman named Herleva,
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the daughter of Fulbert, a local tradesman. Although Fulbert is most commonly believed to have been a tanner (the tanneries at Falaise were famed throughout the duchy), inconsistent sources and ambiguous translations make it possible that he was an undertaker, furrier, or apothecary.
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According to popular legend, Robert first spotted Herleva from the castle at Falaise while she was washing clothes in a stream. Unless he had been gifted with exceptional eyesight, this is unlikely, for the castle was situated some considerable distance above the stream. Writing almost one hundred years after the event, William of Malmesbury took a different stance, claiming that Robert saw Herleva dancing and fell instantly and passionately in love.
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The truth is that we know little of their relationship: indeed, if not for the son that it produced, it would probably have escaped notice altogether. After all, there was nothing remarkable about a member of the aristocracy taking a local girl to his bed.

At the time of their meeting, Robert was in his mid-twenties. Herleva’s age is not recorded, but the date of her death suggests that she was of a similar age to her lover. That there was genuine affection between them is suggested by the fact that Robert did not abandon Herleva when she fell pregnant: indeed, he showed great favor to both her and her relatives, appointing them to prestigious positions in his court.

Legends flourished around the Conqueror’s birth. One of the most quoted was by Malmesbury, who claimed that even before William was born, it was clear that he was destined for greatness. According to this account, Herleva had dreamed that her “inward parts” were stretched out to cover Normandy and England—a clear sign that the child she was carrying would rule both domains.
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As soon as William was born, he made it apparent that he would fulfill the prophecy. Malmesbury described how the infant was left on the floor of Herleva’s room while she recovered from the trauma of the birth. To the astonishment of the midwife standing by, the tiny baby grabbed at the rushes covering the floor with such strength that it was obvious he would become a mighty man, ready to acquire everything within his reach, “and that which he acquired he would with a strong hand steadfastly maintain against all challengers … The gossiping women received this as a portent with cries of joy,
and the midwife, greeting the good omen, acclaimed the boy to be king.”
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This account owes more to Malmesbury’s imagination than to any real evidence. The truth is that William’s birth was accorded no mention in reliable contemporary sources. He was, after all, the bastard offspring of an apparently casual liaison between the duke’s younger brother and a low-born girl with no connections. At the time, not even the most far-sighted of political observers could have predicted that he would go on to rule Normandy—let alone England. As well as his own illegitimacy, there was the fact that his father was not expected to inherit the dukedom. Even when Robert did become duke, it was expected that he would marry and beget legitimate heirs. His bastard son would surely soon be forgotten.

But Robert chose not to marry, instead seeming content to remain with his mistress, Herleva. Malmesbury claims that he “loved her above all others, and for some time kept her in the position of a lawful wife.”
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According to the chronicler Robert of Torigny, they had another child, Adeliza (or Adelaide), who went on to make three prestigious marriages.
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Herleva later married one of Robert’s favorite noblemen, Herluin de Conteville. Some accounts claim that her lover arranged this match as a selfless act to ensure her future because she was of too lowly a status to become his own wife.
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Another theory is that she married Herluin after Robert’s death. What is certain is that this marriage produced two sons: Odo and Robert.
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Both men would play a hugely significant part in the later history of their half-brother, William.

Duke Robert consistently recognized William as his son throughout his reign and seemed to be immensely proud of the boy, who from a young age showed remarkable military prowess. Shortly before embarking upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in January 1035, Robert showed William the ultimate favor by naming him his heir. This may seem surprising—even shocking—but illegitimacy did not carry quite the same stigma then as it would in later centuries. Christian marriage was still being regularized, and William’s grandfather, Duke Richard II, had been the first of his line to make such a formal union. Many rulers contented themselves with concubines rather than taking a wife. Although William became widely known as “the Bastard,” this was not as insulting
as might be supposed. Orderic Vitalis claimed that “as a bastard [he] was despised by the native nobility,” but he was writing at a time when social mores had changed significantly.
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Yet William himself certainly seems to have been sensitive on the subject of his birth; the fact that his “official” chroniclers, Jumièges and Poitiers, omitted to mention his beginnings suggests that he was ashamed of them—but this perhaps owed more to his mother’s lowly status than to his illegitimacy per se.
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By contrast, his origins were seized upon by writers who were more sympathetic to the English, notably William of Malmesbury, who described him rather dismissively as “the child of a mistress.”
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Nevertheless, Duke Robert knew that he was taking a risk by leaving his domain to a boy whose claim could be called into question, particularly as there were several rival claimants, notably the duke’s half-brothers, Archbishop Mauger of Rouen and Count William of Arques, who were untainted by bastardy. In an attempt to negate the threat of civil war while he was on his crusade, Robert “presented” his son William, then just seven or eight years old, to the powerful Norman magnates and “besought them to choose him as their lord in his place and to accept him as military leader.”
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According to Jumièges, “everyone in the town rejoiced in his encouragement and in accordance with the duke’s decree readily and unanimously acclaimed him their prince and lord and pledged him fealty with inviolable oaths.”
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But Duke Robert was not satisfied. As a further precaution, he secured formal recognition of his son’s new status from Henry I. The French king was pleased to return the favor that Robert had shown him two years earlier when he had been driven out of his domains by rebels and the duke had offered him refuge. Apparently content that he had done everything in his power to protect his young heir, Duke Robert duly took his leave for the Holy Land.

According to Jumièges, Robert succeeded in reaching Jerusalem, and soon afterward embarked upon his return journey. However, he made it only as far as Nicaea in Turkey, where he died suddenly at the beginning of July 1035. As with his brother’s demise, foul play was suspected, but nothing was ever proved.
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His son, William, was genuinely grieved upon hearing the news, and he revered his father’s memory throughout his life.
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But in the immediate aftermath of Robert’s death, he was faced with a more urgent matter—namely, the battle to hold on to his inheritance.
As Malmesbury recounts: “Soon everyone was fortifying his own towns, building his towers, collecting stores of grain, and on the lookout for pretexts to plan a break with the child as soon as possible.”
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The fact that William was a minor served to inflame the situation even more, as did his bastard status, which strengthened the claim of the descendants of Dukes Richard I and II—the so-called Richardides. Jumièges tells how one adversary, Roger of Tosny, who could trace his descent back to Rollo, “hearing that the young William had succeeded his father in the duchy … became very indignant and arrogantly refused to serve him, saying that as a bastard William should not rule him and the other Normans.”
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It was a familiar cry. Those same power-hungry nobles whom Robert had tried to rein in quickly forgot their oath of allegiance to his young heir and seized the opportunity that the accession of a minor brought in its wake. In this bloodthirsty, lawless land, the race was on to see who could murder the boy first.

William had scant resources to draw upon in this most one-sided of conflicts, and his chances of survival seemed remote indeed. The guardians who had been appointed to protect him soon fell by the wayside. The archbishop of Rouen died in 1037, followed by Count Alan of Brittany in 1040. The latter’s replacement, Gilbert of Brionne, was murdered by assassins a few months later as he was out riding, along with another guardian, Lord Turold. Security around the boy was tightened as a result, and he was often concealed in peasants’ houses for safety. William himself later recalled: “Many times, for fear of my kinsmen, I was smuggled secretly at night by my uncle Walter out of the chamber in the castle, and taken to cottages and hiding-places of the poor, to save me from discovery by traitors who sought my death.”
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His steward, Lord Osbern, took to sleeping in the same room with him—a precaution that cost him his life. Orderic Vitalis tells how Osbern “unexpectedly had his throat cut one night … while he and the Duke were sound asleep in the Duke’s chamber at Vaudreuil.”
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The perpetrators had evidently been disturbed or William had awoken in time to escape the same fate.