he spoke of his
brother Robert, whose dissoluteness, whose inactivity, whose unsteady
temper, nay, whose very virtues, threatened nothing but ruin to any
country which he should govern. The people received this popular
harangue, delivered by a prince whose person was full of grace and
majesty, with shouts of joy and rapture. Immediately they rush to the
house where the council is held, which they surround, and with clamor
and menaces demand Henry for their king. The nobility were terrified by
the sedition; and remembering how little present Robert had been on a
former occasion to his own interests, or to those who defended him, they
joined their voice to that of the people, and Henry was proclaimed
without opposition. The treasure which he seized he divided amongst
those that seemed wavering in his cause; and that he might secure his
new and disputed right by every method, he proceeded without delay to
London to be crowned, and to sanctify by the solemnity of the unction
the choice of the people. As the churchmen in those days were the
arbiters of everything, and as no churchman possessed more credit than
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been persecuted and banished
by his brother, he recalled that prelate, and by every mark of
confidence confirmed him in his interests. Two other steps he took,
equally prudent and politic: he confirmed and enlarged the privileges of
the city of London, and gave to the whole kingdom a charter of
liberties, which was the first of the kind, and laid the foundation of
those successive charters which at last completed the freedom of the
subject. In fine, he cemented the whole fabric of his power by marrying
Maud, daughter of Malcolm, King of Scotland, by the sister of Edgar
Atheling,--thus to insure the affection, of the English, and, as he
flattered himself, to have a sure succession to his children.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1101.]

The Crusade being successfully finished by the taking of Jerusalem,
Robert returned into Europe. He had acquired great reputation in that
war, in which he had no interest; his real and valuable rights he
prosecuted with languor. Yet such was the respect paid to his title, and
such the attraction of his personal accomplishments, that, when he had
at last taken possession of his Norman territories, and entered England
with an army to assert his birthright, he found most of the Norman
barons, and many of the English, in readiness to join him. But the
diligence o