Born: Louis XIII of
France, 1601, Fontainebleau; Jacques Bonigne Bossuet,
eminent preacher and controversialist, 1627, Dijon.
Died: Marco Girolamo
Vida, author of Latin poems, &c., 1566, Alba; St.
Vincent de Paul, eminent philanthropist, 1660; Pope
Innocent XII, 1700; Dr. Thomas Burnet, author of the
Sacred Theory of the Earth, 1715, Charterhouse,
London; Admiral Rene Duguay-Trouin, French naval
commander, 1736, Paris; James Brindley, celebrated
engineer, 1772, Turnhurst, Staffordshire.
Feast Day: Saints Cosmas and
Damian, martyrs, about 303. St. Elzear, Count of
Arian, and his wife, St. Delphina, 14th century.
ROBERT, DUKE OF
NORMANDY
By the battle of Tinchebrai,
fought this day in 1106, was decided the destiny of
the dukedom of Normandy, and of its unfortunate ruler
Robert, the eldest son of
William the Conqueror.
Carried away by the
impetuosity of his character, and deceived by evil
counsellors, Robert brought trouble into his
dominions, and discord into the house of his father,
who forgave him only on his dying bed. Leaving to his
brother William the care of his Norman subjects, he
yielded to the religious and chivalric spirit of the
times, and with the choicest of the nobility set out
to show his valour on the plains of Syria, where he
was one of the chiefs of the first Crusade.
We can only praise the courage
and military exploits of Duke Robert in the east;
they were so extraordinary as to obtain him the offer
of the crown of Jerusalem, which, on his refusal, was
given to Godfrey of Bouillon. A few flags which he had
taken from the enemy, were all he brought back from
his victories, and these he presented to, the Abbey of
the Holy Trinity at Caen. During his absence, his
brother Henry had seized on the vacant throne of
England, and, though deep in debt, Robert was led into
further expenses in the vain hope of recovering his
lost inheritance. After this, reconciliation between
the brothers became impossible, and want of order and
economy were the ruin of Robert. He had recourse to
arbitrary taxes, not only imposed upon the provinces,
but upon the citizens, merchants, and rich people,
thus causing general discontent. Numerous and powerful
factions were formed; Henry I was only too ready to
obey their call, and arrived in Normandy at the head
of his army. His gold bought many partizans; the
towns of Bayeux and Caen alone remained faithful to
Duke Robert; and after a long siege the first was
carried by assault and burned, whilst a conspiracy
broke out in Caen, scarcely leaving the unfortunate
duke time to escape. A few gallant chevaliers,
faithful to their oaths and the principles of
legitimacy, rallied round him ; but the battle of
Tinchebrai was gained by the king, and the duke was
taken prisoner.
Become master of his brother,
Henry imprisoned him in the castle of Cardiff. For
greater security, the eyes of the unhappy duke were
put out. His detention lasted from 1106 to 1135, when
he died, and it was during this long period that he
endeavoured to soothe his weariness by becoming a
poet. The songs of the Welsh bards were tried to
alleviate his sorrows, and the deep distress he felt
at being separated from his only child, whose
prospects he had blighted. Forced to learn the
language of his jailers, he made use of it to compose
several pieces in Welsh, one of which remains, a sort
of plaintive elegy. The prince looked on an old
oak-tree rising above the forest, which covered the
promontory of Penarth, on the Bristol Channel, and
from the depths of his prison he thus mournfully
addresses it, following the custom of the Welsh bards,
who repeat the name of the person or thing they
address in each stanza:
Oak, born on these heights,
theatre of carnage, where
blood has rolled in streams:
Misery to those who quarrel about words over wine.
Oak, nourished in the midst
of meadows covered with
blood and corpses:
Misery to the man who has become an object of
hatred.
Oak, grown up on this green
carpet, watered with the
blood of those whose heart was pierced by the sword:
Misery to him who delights in discord.
Oak, in the midst of the
trefoil and plants which
whilst surrounding thee have stopped thy growth
and hindered the thickening of thy trunk:
Misery to the man who is in the power of his
enemies.
Oak, placed in the midst of
woods which cover the
promontory from whence thou see'st the waves
of the Severn struggle against the sea:
Misery to him who sees that which is not death.
Oak, which has lived through
storms and tempests
in the midst of the tumult of war and the ravages of death:
Misery to the man who is not old enough to die.
He died at Cardiff, in 1135,
in his eightieth year.
EXPENSE OF A DECENT LODGING IN LONDON IN 1710
Swift thus writes from London
to his friend Stella, 27th September 1710: 'I lodge in
Bury Street [St James's], where I removed a week ago.
I have the first floor, a dining-room, and
bed-chamber, at eight shillings per week; plaguy deep,
but I spend nothing for eating, never go to a tavern,
and very seldom in a coach; yet, after all, it will be
expensive:� Works, Scott's edition, ii. 28.
What seemed to Swift in Anne's
days so 'plaguy deep,' would now be found considerably
deeper ; certainly it would not be less than
forty-eight shillings a week.