treme
reluctance, think of an increase of grandeur to a family which had risen
on the ruins of royal authority, and which, by the murder of Alfred, his
brother, had contributed so much to the weakening of the Saxon line. In
this uncertainty, he secretly cast his eye towards his kinsman, William
duke of Normandy, as the only person whose power, and reputation, and
capacity, could support any destination which he might make in his
favor, to the exclusion of Harold and his family.[*]

[* Irgulph. p. 68]

This famous prince was natural son of Robert, duke of Normandy, by
Harlotta, daughter of a tanner in Falaise,[**] and was very early
established in that grandeur, from which his birth seemed to have set
him at so great a distance.

[** Brompton, p. 910.]

While he was but nine years of age, his father had resolved to undertake
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; a fashionable act of devotion, which had
taken place of the pilgrimages to Rome, and which, as it was attended
with more difficulty and danger, and carried those religious adventurers
to the first sources of Christianity, appeared to them more meritorious.
Before his departure, he assembled the states of the duchy; and in
forming them of his design, he engaged them to swear allegiance to his
natural son, William, whom, as he had no legitimate issue, he intended,
in case he should die in the pilgrimage, to leave successor to his
dominions.[*] As he was a prudent prince, he could not but foresee
the great inconveniencies which must attend this journey, and this
settlement of his succession; arising from the perpetual turbulency
of the great, the claims of other branches of the ducal family and
the power of the French monarch; but all these considerations were
surmounted by the prevailing zeal for pilgrimages;[**] and probably the
more important they were, the more would Robert exult in sacrificing
them to what he imagined to be his religious duty.

[* W. Malms, p. 95.]

[** Ypod. Neust. p. 452.]

This prince, as he had apprehended, died in his pilgrimage; and the
minority of his son was attended with all those disorders which were
almost unavoidable in that situation. The licentious nobles, freed from
the awe of sovereign authority, broke out into personal animosities
against each other, and made the whole country a scene of war and
devastation.[***] Roger, count of Toni, and Alain, count of Brittany,
advanced claims to the dominion of the state;