Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/67

 *

of Worcester is specially mentioned. At this meeting too appeared Odo of Bayeux, who received again from his nephew his earldom of Kent. Released from his bonds by the pardon which had been so hardly wrung from the dying Conqueror, he already filled the first place in the councils of the new Duke of the Normans, and he hoped to win the like power over the mind of his other nephew in England. But before long events came about which showed how true had been the foresight of William the Great, when he had said that mighty evils would follow if his brother should be set free from his prison.

It is certainly something unusual in those times for a king thus to make his way to his crown by virtue, as it were, of an agreement between a dead king and a living bishop, without either the nobles or the nation at large either actively supporting or actively opposing his claim. It is clear that men of both races had very decided views about the matter; but they gave no open expression to them at the time. The discussion of the succession came after the coronation, among men who had already acknowledged the new King. It may be that all parties were taken by surprise. The accessionof Exeter, William of Thetford, Robert of Chester, William of Durham, as also "Wlnod [sic] episcopus sanctus Wirecestriæ." On the presence of Odo, see Appendix B. Robert of Torigny (1087) writes "Vulnof." I cannot see much in his editor's suggestion that the Geoffrey spoken of is the Bishop of Coutances, because the so-called Bromton, of all people, has made a blunder about him; X Scriptt. 984.]