other
of these sovereigns.[198] Their immediate successor, Richard Sans-Peur,
is stated to have made considerable additions to the works of the place,
which, in the early part of the following century, under Richard III.
the fifth of the Norman dukes, was unquestionably one of the strongest
holds of the province. Not long afterwards, Falaise rose into new
importance, as the residence of Robert, father to the Conqueror, and the
birth-place of that sovereign himself, to whom it rendered acceptable
service during his youth, upon the occasion of the formidable conspiracy
of the Norman barons, headed by Guy de Bourgogne, in 1046. The prince,
then at Valognes, escaped with difficulty from the poniards of the
assassins to Falaise, where he was received with open arms. Falaise was
at that time the capital of the Hiemois. In the reign of Henry II. of
England, the castle was used as a state prison, and was selected as the
place of confinement of Robert, Earl of Leicester, when taken prisoner
in 1173, commanding the French forces in England. At a subsequent, but
not far distant period, Brito, the poetical chronicler of the deeds of
Philip-Augustus, in speaking of the final subjection of Normandy to that
king, mentions the town of Falaise and its capture, in the following
verses:--

"Vicus erat scabra circumdatus undique rupe,
Ipsius asperitate loci Falaesa vocatus,
Normannae in medio regionis, cujus in alta
Turres rupe sedent et moenia, sic ut ad illam
Jactus nemo putet aliquos contingere posse.
Hunc rex innumeris circumdedit undique signis,
Perque dies septem varia instrumenta parabat,
Moenibus ut fractis villa potiatur et arca:
Verum burgenses et praecipue Lupicarus,
Cui patriae curam dederat rex Anglicus omnem,
Elegere magis illaesum reddere castrum,
Omni re salva cum libertatis honore,
Quam belli tentare vices et denique vinci."

The foregoing was the fourth of the nine sieges that have rendered the
name of Falaise memorable in Norman history. The first of them had taken
place in 1027, when Falaise presumed to shelter Robert, the father of
the Conqueror, during his rebellion against his brother, Duke Richard
III. In point of importance, none of the sieges were equal to those of
1417 and 1589. Upon the former of those occasions, Henry V. flushed by
the success that had unremittingly attended his arms, since his glorious
victory at Agincourt, led his troops in person again