Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/36

22 Jam duce juvenili robore vigente, transcensis annis adolescentiæ, cœperunt optimates ejus de successione prolis cum eo attentius tractare. Audiens autem Balduinum Flandriæ comitem quandam habere filiam regali ex genere descendentem, nomine Mathildem, corpore valde elegantem animoque liberalem, hanc, suorum consultu, missis legatis, a patre petiit uxorem. Ex ejus proposito animo Balduinus Satrapa admodum gavisus, non modo petitam dari decrevit, verum etiam cum muneribus innumeris eam ad usque Oucense castrum adduxit; ubi Dux, militum stipatus catervis, advenit, illamque sibi jure conjugali despondit, et cum maximo tripudio ac honore Rotomagi mœnibus intulit. Genuit autem ex ea procedente tempore filios quatuor, Robertum, qui post eum ducatum Normanniæ aliquamdiu tenuit, et Willelmum, qui regno Angliæ tredecim annos præfuit et Richardum, qui juvenis decessit, et Henricum, qui fratribus, tam Regi quam Duci, successit et filias quatuor; de quibus omnibus, tam viris quam feminis liber subsequens, qui de gestis nobilissimi Regis Henrici inscribitur pro modulo nostro, Deo iuvante, pertractabit.

As regards these last sentences they are an obvious interpolation by the monk of Bee, as William of Jumieges did not survive more than a year the decease of the Conqueror, to whom his work was dedicated. William of Poictiers, another contemporary writer, merely describes the marriage in similar terms;

Marchio hic, fascibus et titulis amplior quam strictim sit explicabile, natam suam, nobis acceptissimam dominam, in Pontivo ipse præsentavit socerus generoque digne adductam. Introductioni hujus sponsæ civitas Rotomagensis vacabat jocundans.

The Chronicle of Tours alone fixes the time of this marriage in the course of the year 1053, but no record has come down to us as to the name of the prelate or priest who, in defiance of the prohibition of the Pope, ventured to perform the ceremony. The archbishop of Rouen, Malger, uncle of Duke William, boldly launched the thunders of excommunication against the offending parties; and his pretext for so doing has been imputed to the nearness of kindred between the married couple, inasmuch as her grandmother was a daughter of Duke Richard the Second of Normandy, and aunt of William the Conqueror. But it is doubtful if this was the original motive which induced the prohibition, and the peculiarity of the birth of William the Conqueror, as being illegitimate, certainly forbids such a conclusion, coupled with the silence of the Pope at the council of Rheims. There is, on the contrary, the clearest testimony that Matilda was already a