the surrender of Brionne; and two other events, both
characteristic, one of them memorable, fill up the same time.
William now banished a kinsman of his own name, who held the great
county of Mortain, Moretoliam or Moretonium, in the diocese of
Avranches, which must be carefully distinguished from Mortagne-en-
Perche, Mauritania or Moretonia in the diocese of Seez. This act,
of somewhat doubtful justice, is noteworthy on two grounds. First,
the accuser of the banished count was one who was then a poor
serving-knight of his own, but who became the forefather of a house
which plays a great part in English history, Robert surnamed the
Bigod. Secondly, the vacant county was granted by William to his
own half-brother Robert. He had already in 1048 bestowed the
bishopric of Bayeux on his other half-brother Odo, who cannot at
that time have been more than twelve years old. He must therefore
have held the see for a good while without consecration, and at no
time of his fifty years' holding of it did he show any very
episcopal merits. This was the last case in William's reign of an
old abuse by which the chief church preferments in Normandy had
been turned into means of providing for members, often unworthy
members, of the ducal family; and it is the only one for which
William can have been personally responsible. Both his brothers
were thus placed very early in life among the chief men of
Normandy, as they were in later years to be placed among the chief
men of England. But William's affection for his brothers, amiable
as it may have been personally, was assuredly not among the
brighter parts of his character as a sovereign.

The other chief event of this time also concerns the domestic side
of William's life. The long story of his marriage now begins. The
date is fixed by one of the decrees of the council of Rheims held