Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/125

A.D 1089.] ; gilt girdles, gilt spurs, with many other unseemly disorders in attire."



While such was the position of affairs in England, Robert, Duke of Normandy, was passing his days among dancers and jesters, flatterers and parasites. The province under his rule had fallen into a state of anarchy: the nobles defied the authority of their indolent sovereign, and, assuming style of independent princes, made war upon each other Some of the Anglo-Norman barons, alarmed for the security of their property, conspired together to place Rufus in possession of Normandy, as being better fitted than his brother to govern that turbulent duchy.

The Norman fortresses of Albemarle, St. Valley, and others, were obtained possession of by various means, and