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112 fail to draw from the English chroniclers a charge of engaging in shameless speculation, taking pay from one party for his help and from the other for his withdrawal. In 1076 we find him as far off as Poitiers collecting an army to go to the relief of Dol which William the Conqueror is besieging; then, in 1077 or 1078, he welcomes Robert Curthose and procures his entrance into the stronghold of Gerberoy, on the borders of Beauvaisis and Normandy; he seems ready to help him against his father, when, in 1079, he suddenly changes sides, and goes with William to besiege Gerberoy. A few years later Robert is again at the French king's court, and hostilities are once more begun between the latter and William. In 1087 the people of Mantes having committed depredations on Norman soil, the Conqueror formulates his complaint, and demands that Philip shall hand over to him not only Mantes, but also Pontoise and Chaumont, that is to say, the whole of the Vexin, which, formerly ceded to Robert the Magnificent by Henry I, had since fallen afresh under the suzerainty of the king of France, and had then, as we have seen, been re-conquered by him in 1077. Promptly proceeding from claims to action, William invaded the territory, took Mantes, entered it and set it on fire. It does not appear, however, that he was able to push his advantages much further, for, having suddenly fallen sick, he was forced to have himself brought back to Normandy where, not long after, he died (9 September 1087).

The Conqueror's death made Robert Curthose Duke of Normandy, while his brother, William Rufus, received the English inheritance. A party was at once formed to substitute Robert for his brother on the throne of England; whereupon, as a return stroke, William invaded Normandy. Philip hastened to further a movement which could not fail to injure both brothers, and as William was marching against Robert, he went to the help of the latter prince. Practical as usual, however, Philip contrived to get his support paid for by some fresh concession. In 1089, for instance, as the price of his co-operation in the siege of La Ferté-en-Brai which had gone over to the king of England, he had the domain of Gisors ceded to him; on other occasions he preferred ready money.

His church policy bears the impress of the same character, and is what has chiefly earned for him the bitterest censures of the chroniclers, all of whom belong to the clergy. Reform was in the air, the idea of it was permeating the Church, and its ultimate consequences would have been nothing less than to deprive princes of all power in ecclesiastical appointments. Shocking abuses, indeed, prevailed; the process of appointment had become for princes a regular traffic in ecclesiastical offices. Philip I, notably, had no hesitation in practising simony on a vast scale. But the claims of the reforming party which the Popes, since Gregory VII, had made their own, would have brought about a real political revolution, since kings would have been stripped of all rights