am, and the First Crusade 1095
Conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders 1099
Death of William II. 1100

1. =The Accession of the Red King. 1087.=--In Normandy the Conqueror
was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert. Robert was sluggish and
incapable, and his father had expressed a wish that England, newly
conquered and hard to control, should be ruled by his more energetic
second son, William. To the third son, Henry, he gave a sum of money.
There was as yet no settled rule of succession to the English crown,
and William at once crossed the sea and was crowned king of the
English at Westminster, by Lanfranc. William Rufus, or the Red King,
as men called him, feared not God nor regarded man. Yet the English
rallied round him, because they knew that he was strong-willed, and
because they needed a king who would keep the Norman barons from
oppressing them. For that very reason the more turbulent of the Norman
barons declared for Robert, who would be too lazy to keep them in
order. In the spring of =1088= they broke into rebellion in his name.
William called the English people to his help. He would not, he said,
wring money from his subjects or exercise cruelty in defence of his
hunting grounds. On this the English rallied round him. At the head of
a great army he marched to attack the rebels, and finally laid siege
to Rochester, which was held against him by his uncle Odo, Bishop of
Bayeux, whom he had released from the imprisonment in which the
Conqueror had kept him. William called upon yet greater numbers of the
English to come to his help. Every one, he declared, who failed him
now should be known for ever by the shameful name of _Nithing_, or
worthless. The English came in crowds. When at last Odo surrendered,
the English pleaded that no mercy should be shown him. "Halters, bring
halters!" they cried; "hang up the traitor bishop and his accomplices
on the gibbet." William, however, spared him, but banished him for
ever from England.

2. =The Wickedness of the Red King.=--William had crushed the Norman
rebels with English aid. When the victory was won he turned against
those who had helped him. It was not that he oppressed the English
because they were English, but that he oppressed English and Normans
alike, though the English, being the weaker, felt his cruelty most. He
broke all his promises. He gathered round him mercenary soldier