schooled for the conquest and the rule of a greater dominion.
William had the gifts of a born ruler, and he was in no way
disposed to abuse them. We know his rule in Normandy only through
the language of panegyric; but the facts speak for themselves. He
made Normandy peaceful and flourishing, more peaceful and
flourishing perhaps than any other state of the European mainland.
He is set before us as in everything a wise and beneficent ruler,
the protector of the poor and helpless, the patron of commerce and
of all that might profit his dominions. For defensive wars, for
wars waged as the faithful man of his overlord, we cannot blame
him. But his main duty lay at home. He still had revolts to put
down, and he put them down. But to put them down was the first of
good works. He had to keep the peace of the land, to put some
cheek on the unruly wills of those turbulent barons on whom only an
arm like his could put any cheek. He had, in the language of his
day, to do justice, to visit wrong with sure and speedy punishment,
whoever was the wrong-doer. If a ruler did this first of duties
well, much was easily forgiven him in other ways. But William had
as yet little to be forgiven. Throughout life he steadily
practised some unusual virtues. His strict attention to religion
was always marked. And his religion was not that mere lavish
bounty to the Church which was consistent with any amount of
cruelty or license. William's religion really influenced his life,
public and private. He set an unusual example of a princely
household governed according to the rules of morality, and he dealt
with ecclesiastical matters in the spirit of a true reformer. He
did not, like so many princes of his age, make ecclesiastical
preferments a source of corrupt gain, but promoted good men from
all quarters. His own education is not likely to have received
much attention; it is not clear whether he had mastered the rarer