Conspiracies against the King. 105 



resistance, but by his own prelates and barons.* His uncle Odo, 

 Bishop of Bayeux, headed the first rebellion against him, as soon 

 as he usurped the throne. William, Bishop of Durham, his 

 own Minister, conspired against him. Bishop Gosfrith, with 

 his nephew Robert, Earl of Northumberland, rebelled in the 

 west. Roger Montgomery rose on the Welsh Marches. Roger 

 Bigod in the eastern, and Hugo of Grentemesnil in the Midland 

 Counties hoisted the flag of revolt.t Such was England at the 

 beginning of his reign. In 1096, his own godfather, William of 

 Aldrey, justly or unjustly, was accused of treason, and died on 

 the gallows. I William, Count of Eu, kinsman to the King, 

 sufiered a worse fate for the same crime. His steward, William, 

 also a kinsman of the King's, was hung on a rood. Eudes, 

 Count of Champagne, forfeited his lands. Others not only 

 shared the same fate, but were deprived of their eyesight. § His 

 northern barons, headed by Robert of Mowbray, goaded to 

 desperation by the Forest Laws, rose in revolt. Roger of Yvery, 

 son of the Conqueror's favourite, led the Midland barons, and 

 was obliged to fly, and all his vast estates, close to the 

 New Forest, forfeited. Normandy, from whence Tiril had just 

 come, swarmed with outlawed enemies, both churchmen and 

 laymen. It was the nest where all the plots could be safely 

 hatched. 



Knowing all this, knowing, too, that the conspiracies became 

 more frequent as his tyranny increased, we can scarcely avoid 

 coming to but one conclusion as to his death. 



It might suit the policy of the times to throw the guilt 



* The Chronicle, Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 356. 



t William of Malmesbury, Ed. Hardy, torn, ii., lib. iv., sect. 30G, p. 488 



X The same, torn, ii., lib. iv., sect. 319, p. 502. 



§ The Chruniclc, Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 362 



P ^o.^ 



