e of France, Normandy had become a most loyal as well as powerful
fief of the crown. The tenth century witnessed also an attempt on the part
of the serfs of the Duchy to throw off something of the awful grip of the
feudal power. These peasants were the descendants of Celts, of Romans, and
of Franks, and their efforts to form a representative assembly bear a
pathetic resemblance to the movement towards a similar end in Russia of
to-day. The representatives of the serfs were treated with the most fearful
cruelty and sent back to their villages; but the movement did not fail to
have its effects, for the condition of the villains in Normandy was always
better than in other parts of France.

Broadly speaking, all the successors of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy,
governed the country with wisdom and ability, and although there was more
or less constant war, either with the French, who were always hoping to
regain the lost province, or with rebellious barons who disputed the
authority of the dukes, yet the country progressed steadily and became
prosperous. Abbeys and churches that the invaders had laid waste were
rebuilt on a larger scale. At Jumieges there are still to be seen some
remains of the church that William Longsword began to build for the
unfortunate monks who had been left homeless after their abbey had been
destroyed by the "Pirates." Richard I., who died in 996, had added to the
Cathedral at Rouen, and the abbey of St Ouen prospered greatly in the
religious revival that became so widespread during the eleventh century.
Duke Richard II. had been assisted on one occasion by Olaf, King of Norway,
and before his return to the north that monarch, impressed no doubt by the
pomp of the ceremonial, was in 1004 baptised in the cathedral at Rouen.

After Richard II. came Robert the Magnificent, who was called also
Robert the Devil by the people. It was he, who from the walls of his
castle at Falaise, if the legend be true, first saw Arlette the tanner's
daughter who afterwards became the Mother of William the Bastard. As a
boy William had a perilous life, and it is almost marvellous that he
survived to change his appellation to that of "Conqueror." Robert the
Magnificent had joined one of the crusades to the Holy Land when William
was only seven years old, but before he left Normandy, he had made it
known that he wished the boy to succeed him. For twenty years there was
civil war between the greater barons and the suppor