470 – Tough Treaty

Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie, and this is episode 470: Tough Treaties.

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As I've mentioned a few times, we're discussing one of those periods of history where everything was kind of happening all at once.

Now, this presents a challenge when trying to create a clear narrative that you can follow, while also trying to stay true to the order of events.

And that's assuming that there is a clear order of events.

Unfortunately, this period of history is also poorly recorded, so creating a correct timeline is really difficult in some cases.

Consequently, it's probably best to think of the last several episodes as happening concurrently with each other.

And that includes the first part of this episode, because while Malcolm was finally kicking the bucket and those French knights were rolling down steep Welsh hills to their doom, Duke Robert and King Rufus were also out there, being terrible brothers and even worse rulers.

And to start with, it's possible that Rufus was shopping for another war.

Gerald of Wales tells us Rufus made a trip to St.

David's at right around this point in time, and thanks to the clear weather, he was able to see Ireland.

Spying the Emerald Isle, he stated what would become a tradition amongst English English nobility, and declared that he would, quote, make a bridge with my ships to that land and conquer it, end quote.

When the King of Munster heard this, he was actually pretty unfussed.

Rufus was basically godless in his estimation, and so the King of Munster was pretty sure that the Almighty would come down on his side if it ever came to an attempted invasion.

And while I don't know if Gerald's story is true or not, one thing I do know is that that Rufus did not conquer Ireland, though that may have been less the work of God and more the result of Norman politics, which, to give the King of Munster credit, also seemed pretty godless.

You see, the interesting thing about Rufus is that he was very good at advancing English military goals, you know, so long as he was actually focused on English military goals.

In the two years that he was in England and actually doing his job as king, the Norman barons had managed to seize huge portions of Welsh territory, and the throne of Scotland was now occupied by a Norman-aligned puppet.

So that's pretty impressive.

However, the trick with Rufus is that, well,

He was a pretty typical member of the House of Normandy.

Meaning, while he was the king of England, England was not where his mind was.

Rufus had his eyes and ears trained to the continent.

And honestly, you can kind of see why.

There were a lot of continental nobles who not only wanted him booted off the throne of England, but had already actually tried.

So just ignoring what was going on across the channel would have been foolish.

In fact, those two years where he was actually focused focused on English affairs and, you know, fighting off that mystery illness, well, they may have resulted in English political and military successes, but those wins also meant that continental affairs were being neglected.

And things in France were getting spicy.

Recently, the Count of Ou had died, and that was quite a blow for Rufus.

You see, it was the support of figures like the Count of Ou that had tipped the scales in his favor during the king's last campaign in Normandy.

In fact, Rufus saw control or at least fealty of O as an absolute requirement for any future Norman ambitions that he held.

And when that treaty of Rouen had been hammered out between Duke Robert and King Rufus, O was one of the territories that had been ceded to him.

That's how much of a sticking point O was for him.

But then the Count died, and his son, William, became the new Count of O.

And William was not like his father.

He did not like Rufus.

In fact, he had been one of the rebels who fought Rufus in 1088.

And upon taking the county, he swore homage not to Rufus, but to Duke Robert.

Now this wasn't just embarrassing.

It was potentially a breach of the Treaty of Rouen and a cause for war.

And Count William of O wasn't alone.

Ralph of Mortimer, another rebel of 1088, also joined Duke Robert's court at around this point.

I should also note that while many opposing nobles had made peace with Rufus over the last handful of years, Count Eustace of Boulogne had not, which made him a continuing potential threat as well.

So, this situation was getting tense.

And that is likely why Rufus took the extraordinary step of reviving an old alliance with Flanders at around this time.

Now, this alliance had lapsed during the days of the Conqueror.

It had been dead for years by now.

And yet, Rufus, despite still recovering from that nasty illness, traveled down to Dover to meet with the Count of Flanders.

Now, we don't have the document from this meeting, but historians think that the terms were likely similar to the terms of the treaty when it was renewed about a decade later.

And we do have a copy of that one.

So, Rufus likely promised to make a payment of 400 pounds a year, which is an enormous sum.

But if the terms were the same as the later treaty when it was renewed, then what he got in exchange was worth it.

The Count of Flanders agreed to guarantee the safety of Rufus and to protect England from all threats.

The only exception was in instances when the Count owed fealty to the King of France.

So this was serious business.

If Rufus came under attack, the Count had 40 days to appear in person and provide a defense.

The treaty even spells out that he'd have to appear even if travel was difficult with very few exceptions.

And if it was the King of France who was attacking, then the Count would be duty-bound to try and talk him out of it.

And if that failed, and he was instead summoned to the French army, then he was to respond with only a minimum number of soldiers.

And even then, the Count would still need to provide Rufus with a thousand knights ready to sail in the event of an attack.

There are also a bunch of stipulations regarding what to do if the King of France attacked Rufus in Normandy or Maine.

And gee, I wonder what was on Rufus' mind when he included those terms.

And then, to ensure that no one would back out of this, they each provided 12 hostages.

So, this wasn't just some opening trade deal for wool and cloth.

The terms are as specific as they are enormous.

Rufus was seeing an existential threat building on the continent, and he was willing to pay handsomely to blunt the danger.

And the Count of Flanders wasn't the only one getting paid to play bodyguard.

Rufus was also courting none other than William, the new Count of O,

and he was doing it in a big way.

We're told that he capitalized on the Count's greed, avarice, and pride.

And in exchange for fabulous cash and prizes, he convinced the Count to abandon Robert and join Rufus, becoming part of his court.

The scribes recording this turn of event refer to Rufus as Seductor Maximus, the great seducer.

And it's in this context that Duke Robert of Normandy sent that messenger to King Rufus's Christmas court, carrying a letter declaring that his brother was a lying liar who lies and that he better get ready for war if he didn't shape up.

But But now we know that Rufus had been preparing for this.

So Rufus didn't send a messenger to Robert and attempt to heal the breach.

Instead, he had some other words in mind.

Fighting words.

Once the messenger departed, the king began calling upon his feudal vassals, demanding their service.

He wanted to muster an army and campaign in Normandy against his brother.

But he didn't just want troops.

According to Edmur, he was also demanding enormous sums of cash.

And as this played out, Archbishop Anselm watched and he talked it over with his advisors.

The churchmen realized that it was only a matter of time before Rufus demanded that the Archbishop pony up some cash as well.

So they decided they were going to get out ahead of it and have Anselm offer the king 500 pounds before he even asked.

Presumably, the intent here was to flatter and charm the king by looking extra loyal and supportive.

So that's what they did, and it totally worked.

Well,

it worked at first.

But then the king and some unnamed counselors, probably Ranalph Lambard, realized that the Archbishop seemed pretty eager to offer that 500 pounds.

So the thinking was that if he wanted to give 500, then he'd probably be willing to give quite a bit more, especially if he got squeezed by the world's greatest negotiator.

So Rufus squeezed.

He demanded the Archbishop hand over £2,000.

But here's the thing.

Anselm didn't even want to pay him the originally promised 500 pounds.

He only promised him that amount because he thought it would get him out of this mess, which it clearly hadn't.

And besides, they already had a deal.

And this guy had a reputation for skipping out on the bill once it came due.

So it's quite likely that if Anselm agreed to pay this new amount, Rufus would just come back demanding even more.

So the Archbishop refused.

And Rufus said, okay, how about a thousand?

And Anselm told the king that he should just be happy with what he's got.

Which is hilarious, because that is exactly what I tell my five-year-old when he asks for ice cream when he's already holding a popsicle.

And I think Anselm's tone here was on purpose.

I think he was trying to antagonize the famously unstable king.

Because amazingly, he went even further and started delivering a homily on the importance of free will and the evils of compulsory service, which, you know, was the thing that Rufus was doing to the whole kingdom right now.

And Rufus caught onto this diss track right away and exploded, screaming, quote, you can keep your money.

I've got enough of my own.

Clear off, end quote.

And so, in the space of a few minutes, Rufus lost the money that he started out with, destroyed any goodwill that he might have had, and instead was sitting in public humiliation.

This was a diplomatic disaster.

But Rufus was too angry to care, and later accounts claim that it was at this moment that Rufus decided to basically make it his personal mission to ruin Anselm's life.

The next day, Anselm realized that he might have just made an enemy out of the most dangerous man in England.

And so he trotted himself back down to court and told the king that he was sorry if he had accidentally offended him and said he would love to return to the king's good graces.

The king responded, You want me to forgive you?

Why should I?

Now, Anselm took this as a request for money, but he also took it as a request that he admit fault.

And he was willing to do neither, because this was Anselm, the only guy in England who was just as ridiculous as Rufus.

The fact was, there was no way that Anselm was going to apologize.

Sorry you were offended was the most that the king could hope for.

And like he said during that homily yesterday, the king should just be happy with what he has.

Upon discovering this, Rufus blew up again.

Now, you might recall that despoiling church property was something that Anselm had expressly forbade, saying that if anyone violated that rule, they would actually be cursed by him.

So, naturally, Rufus went straight after that property.

He declared that he was going to give some of Lanfrank's old estates to his knights.

And Anselm snapped back that those lands belonged to the church, which means literally to God himself.

And Rufus responded, no, no, that is Thane land, and it was granted in exchange for military service, so shove it, Anselm, this is happening.

And to hammer home how serious and also how vindictive and petty Rufus was, he also granted church property to Anselm's direct rival, Ranolph Lombard.

And he did it right there in court before Anselm left.

which meant that Anselm had to witness the charter and sign his name at the bottom of the document where those lands were being granted away.

The Red King was basically daring Anselm to curse him.

According to Edmer, the next day the bishops realized that this was getting really out of hand, and so they decided to get involved and try and de-escalate the situation.

They asked Rufus what it would take to resolve this conflict.

And Rufus told them, he's not letting this go, and he wasn't going to forgive a goddamn thing.

And the bishops, obviously, assumed that this meant the king wanted a bribe.

So they told Anselm to just pay the king the 500 pounds, and then raise another 500 pounds from his vassals and pay him that as well.

Anselm refused.

And they argued about this for a while, and Anselm tried to do his religious lawyering thing that he loved to do.

But it soon became apparent that this guy was just not going to back down, nor would he ever admit fault.

And not a single person there should have been surprised.

If you remember back, part of Anselm's demands for becoming archbishop was that no one was allowed to question him.

So hitting this brick wall, the bishop said, okay, okay.

Well, at least give him the original 500 pounds.

I mean, you promised him that much.

And Anselm said, yeah, sorry, fellas, that cash is gone.

The bishops were shocked and wanted to know what happened.

And he's like, oh yeah, yeah, no,

I gave it to the poor.

Which is hilarious and exactly the kind of thing that I would expect out of this sort of conflict.

Because some people only know how to escalate a conflict.

And it seems like Rufus and Anselm were that type of person.

Now, granted, one of them was a self-righteous pedant and the other was an aggressive bully.

But at the end of the day, they were both arrogant jerks who wouldn't know how to amicably resolve a conflict if their lives depended on it.

And so, upon hearing Anselm's latest provocation, the bishops returned to the king and delivered the bad news.

And after listening to their report, Rufus said,

Yesterday I hated him.

Today I hate him even more.

Tell him that from now on, I will hate him more and more day by by day.

No longer will I recognize him as my father and archbishop, and as for his prayers and benedictions, I will spit them back in his face.

⁇ End quote.

That is a direct quote, which, of course, the bishops dutifully carried back to Anselm.

At this point, they are acting like a mutual friend in the middle of a school fight.

Now, upon hearing the king's mood, Anselm and Edmer decided to leave court.

And I'm not saying they were dismissed.

They weren't.

They just left.

I'm starting to think that Anselm read Turn the Other Cheek, and he interpreted it as instructing him to show his other sets of cheeks.

Because god damn.

But as infuriating as Anselm was, and while Rufus hadn't gotten any of the money or forces that he wanted out of that cranky old archbishop, this backyard spat between two fully grown men was a distraction from his real issue and the reason why he was raising money and troops in the first place.

His brother, Duke Robert of Normandy.

And so, in early February, King Rufus rode south to Hastings, intent on crossing to Normandy.

But the weather was shit because it was frigging February.

And whatever it looked like they might be able to cross, the channel just kicked right back up again.

So, while they waited, Rufus and an assembly of churchmen went to Battle Abbey and dedicated the church there.

Which, you have to imagine, would have only irritated Rufus more, as he had to sit through God knows how many Latin-based liturgies and rituals.

And he was a knight.

not a cleric.

Even worse, when we look at what scant records we have of this gathering and the subsequent events, Rufus doesn't seem to have gathered a large army to him at Hastings.

Instead, it seems like it was mostly his household troops and some of his baronial courtiers.

Now, this may have been intentional, and maybe the king was intending to seek a diplomatic resolution with his brother.

But I find that unlikely, since other records report that upon being called out by Robert at his Christmas court, Rufus immediately sent out messengers to his barons demanding military service.

So, to me at least, it looks like the barons weren't eager to go to war in winter, especially not at the same time that they were dealing with uncertainty in Wales and Scotland.

And also, they were probably still recovering from Rufus' disastrous campaign of 1091.

So, my guess is that as the bad weather dragged things out, and as the barons expressed their lack of interest in another winter war, the planned military campaign morphed into a diplomatic mission, which finally managed to launch on March 19th of 1094.

When they arrived in Normandy, Duke Robert sent a messenger to his brother's camp and suggested that they meet together in peace.

Rufus agreed.

Now we're not told what they talked about, but chances are Robert pressed upon him the seriousness of his situation.

Southern Normandy was a mess.

Robert of Boulem wasn't just cruel and vicious, he was also outright treasonous.

Only a couple years earlier, he had tried to convince the king of France to accept him as a vassal.

Meanwhile, their little brother Henry was riding around with his own private army, accepting absolutely no lord and acting like a goddamn bandit king.

Robert needed help, and Rufus had promised to provide that help.

So that's my guess as to what they talked about.

But whatever it was, it appears that the meeting between the two men was peaceful, maybe even amicable.

And that might have also been because Robert had a plan.

After a little while, The two men were joined by all the men who had been present when the Treaty of Rouen had first been hammered out.

Now Rufus probably felt a bit disquieted at this point.

I mean this kind of attention to detail wasn't very Robert.

In fact, he seemed to be taking this little meeting very,

very

seriously.

Then it got worse.

The assembled witnesses all went under oath, and they took the time to go over the old treaty and confirm the terms of that treaty.

Then they all confirmed that Rufus had broken the terms of that treaty.

The king had been caught dead to rights.

This was the medieval version of a guilty verdict.

Now, I don't know how many counts of treaty breaking there were, but given the size of this thing, it was probably a lot.

You know, for the sake of the story, let's just say 34.

And faced with this damning conviction of 34 counts, Rufus just denied it.

No matter what they accused him of, Rufus just kept denying it.

The dude took the it wasn't me position so staunchly that I've got to assume Shaggy was his chief counselor.

And stunned by this absolute lack of honor and respect for norms, the assembled nobility asked if he was going to at least abide by the terms of the treaty going forward.

And Rufus, I presume, grabbed his junk at this point and said, I got your treaty right here, before leaving for his fortress at O.

Robert and the assembled noblemen were outraged, and so was King Philip of France.

Now, it's not clear whether or not the King of France was actually present at this meeting.

We do know that he had an interest in the affair and that he attempted to get Bishop Ivo and a group of knights to accompany him, which the bishop refused, because apparently bishops just do whatever they want now, I guess.

So for historians, it's an open question whether or not the king decided to attend without the added protection, or if he just stayed home and read about it later.

But either way, he was not happy with how this went down.

I mean, Philip wasn't a fan of Rufus at the best of times, but this level of oath-breaking went well beyond the pale.

Unfortunately, while Robert and his allies were saying, can you believe this guy?

You're not allowed to do that, Rufus was over in Ooh doing the thing he did best, escalating and creating chaos.

He was busy hiring mercenaries, and he was promising to pay them large sums of money.

And then he was making that same offer to any Norman barons who wanted to switch sides and join him in the war.

What war, you ask?

Well, the war he was about to begin, of course.

Mercs, knights, barons, and even entire castles were switching sides, lured by the pull of Rufus' bribes.

The king and his newly hired army moved quickly.

They surged southwards, capturing the castle of Burris Ombray, and at the same time capturing a number of Robert's men as prisoners, some of which he sent back to England in chains.

But after that victory, he kind of stalls out.

And it's possible that that was linked to a number of things that were happening across the channel.

Because at around this point, Wales was fully kicking off, which no doubt limited the amount of support that he could have hoped to gain from figures like Hugh Lupus.

Even worse, Earl Roger de Montgomery had died at Shrewsbury in July.

Now, we've had a lot of Rogers and Roberts in our story, but this Roger was the powerful cross-channel lord who was the father of Robert of Bolem.

And considering Robert of Bolem's reputation and general demeanor, not to mention his history of fighting rebellions against Rufus, well, Rufus had absolutely no interest in allowing the Earl's lands to pass to Belem.

So instead, the king granted the English estates to the Earl's second son, Hugh, who had been serving as his father's second in command during their Welsh campaigns.

And this?

Well, this couldn't have sat well with Balem.

And I'm sure it's no coincidence that suddenly we see Duke Robert and King Philip of France commanding forces from Balem's territories and attacking northwest into the regions of Normandy that had aligned with King Rufus.

Shortly thereafter, Roger of Poitou, one of Rufus' most powerful continental allies, was forced to surrender his entire army to King Philip.

Meanwhile, a castle held by William Peveril, another of Rufus' allies, came under siege and was also forced to surrender.

This was looking bad.

And so, in response, Rufus sent word to Bishop Flambard in England, and he ordered him to assemble a force of 20,000 soldiers at Hastings.

That's a gigantic army.

And remember, he had just tried to raise a force in England months earlier and ended up scrapping those efforts and just crossing over with a diplomatic force instead.

So it's an open question whether Rufus, much less Bishop Flambard, had the ability to actually gather and deploy 20,000 troops.

But that's what he ordered, so Flambard was going to give it his best shot.

And something to remember about this age of warfare is that in general, it's not about single battles and quick victories, especially when you're dealing with powerful nobles who are operating from fortresses far behind the front lines.

These wars are about attrition.

And while William's advance had stalled out, that didn't mean he wasn't active.

He kept himself busy ravaging the lands that he couldn't manage to occupy.

And this didn't just increase the amount of pain he was able to inflict upon his brother.

He was also acquiring loot, and he was gathering prisoners that he could ransom.

And those were two things he very much needed, because all of those mercenaries and all of those bribes were pretty damn expensive, and he needed cash.

Meanwhile, back in England, Bishop Flambard had actually managed to gather those troops at Hastings.

I'm not sure how he did it, though considering Flambard's reputation, I wouldn't be surprised if threats were involved.

But either way, the force was assembled.

Unfortunately, gathering the soldiers was only half of the task.

The real trick would be getting all 20,000 of them across the channel.

And I have no idea how Flambard intended on doing that.

Though, it turns out he really didn't need to worry, because perhaps realizing he was more in need of funds than he was in need of soldiers, Rufus sent word that actually,

he had changed his mind.

Those soldiers, they could stay home.

Though, since they were being relieved of their duty, it was only fair that they each pay him 10 shillings in support of the cause.

Now, keep in mind, we've had nearly a thousand years of inflation since those days.

So, while 10 shillings might not sound like a lot, it was a hell of a lot.

And so here we have 20,000 Englishmen who had just been pulled off their farms, forced to get kitted up, had to travel all the way down to Hastings at their expense, encamp for God knows how long, and now they'd need to travel all the way home again, and they were each being taxed a massive amount of money for the privilege.

And that wasn't the only tax that the English were being hit with.

The scribes of the Chronicle report that the public was getting pummeled by new tax policies leveraged by the king.

And they were imposed so he could fund this war that, as far as I can tell, was being waged purely for the sake of his pride.

And the impact of these taxes hit almost immediately, as many of them were targeted specifically at food.

The scribes report widespread famine breaking out in England.

And in the the face of all that starvation, it shouldn't surprise you at all that that in turn was followed by a brutal plague.

We're told that so many people fell sick that there was no one to care for them.

And that so many people died that bodies were left unburied because there was no one left to bury them.

Now, these taxes are among those that Edmur was so outraged by.

And if you remember, he said these taxes were necessary because the king was spending lavishly on absolute nonsense, things like fancy shoes and the like.

And as you might recall, I didn't buy the shoe story.

And this is partly why.

Rufus was spending lavishly, true.

And while money is something that's very much a concern for most people in the world, for the ultra-wealthy, like Rufus, it's just a vehicle for their actual interests and concerns.

King Rufus, and most monarchs for that matter, don't rule with an eye towards profit.

In fact, whenever we do have a monarch who does do that, they usually get a reputation for being miserly and weird.

Now, kings are much more focused on things like power, feuds, politics, and I think this is an important one for us right now:

fun.

And for Rufus, conflict was fun.

So I think you can argue that Edmur was right that the king's spending was needless and frivolous.

But it wasn't on shoes.

It was on a war that had no strategic benefit and no economic benefit, but one that he actively sought out and started.

Almost certainly because he simply liked conflict.

And perhaps he felt like he needed it to feel important or or relevant in some way.

Meanwhile, back on the continent, Duke Robert and King Philip had amassed a massive army, and they had begun to march towards Eu,

intent on taking the fortress and kicking King Rufus out of the country.

But then, all of a sudden, Philip abandoned the campaign and withdrew his forces.

And we're not told why.

All we're told is that it was, quote, as a result of intrigue, end quote.

Weird.

But, considering the bribes Rufus was throwing everywhere, it wouldn't be crazy if he sent bribes to Robert's primary supporter.

And if I had to guess, I'm guessing that was the intrigue.

Either way, though, the French army was disbanded, and the Anglo-Norman stalemate continued, all while the people of England, taxed into oblivion for this conflict, continued to starve.

But even with that immediate threat removed, I suspect that the army had given Rufus a bit of the heebie-jeebies, and he might have started to remember that while the family always made fun of Robert, Robert was the only one of them to have defeated the conqueror on the field of battle.

So this was actually a formidable opponent.

And consequently, Rufus decided to call in some support.

He sent word to Earl Hugh Lupus of Chester and summoned him to Ooh.

Now, Hugh really should have been focusing on Wales at this point, as that territory was exploding into a full-blown rebellion and rapidly throwing off their Norman oppressors.

But Rufus' interests weren't focused in Britain.

So, England and Wales could go hang for all he cared.

He mostly cared about Normandy.

And that's where Hugh needed to be.

Rufus also reached out to his brother, Henry, who over the last couple years had acquired quite a bit of experience thanks to all that raiding and warfare he'd engaged in.

And Rufus was hoping to benefit from that.

And while they hadn't always seen eye to eye, the two brothers could usually find common ground when it came to irritating or outright humiliating their eldest brother, Robert.

So, Rufus invited Henry to join him in that favorite family pastime once more.

And Henry agreed.

But he did ask Rufus to provide him with some ships so he could sail to Eu, since marching through Normandy would have been far too dangerous given the number of loyalist forces in the area.

And this was a reasonable request, so the ships were immediately dispatched.

But then, Henry didn't arrive at Eu,

and neither did Hugh Lupus.

Instead, the pair of them arrived at Southampton and immediately headed to London, arriving on November 1st.

Now, we're not given the reason for this change in itinerary, but it's hard to imagine that anyone but the king could have made this change.

So chances are, with winter on his doorstep and with the war going not well, and also with Wales breaking free, well, he thought it'd be better to have them in England, perhaps to hold down the kingdom and gather future taxes, you know, to pay for this war.

Either way, though, this ridiculous war, which could have been resolved by simply being true to his word, was continuing to grind on.

Meanwhile, up in Scotland, Rufus's puppet, King Duncan II, was finding that being an occupying king wasn't nearly as fun as it had sounded at first.

Everyone up here was mad at him.

He was surrounded by rebellious locals.

Very few people actually spoke French, and I'm guessing that he was beginning to really miss the comparatively mild Norman weather.

And as a cherry on top, anytime he and his men let their guard down, they'd get attacked, or have their stuff nicked, or get waylaid, or some other mischief.

It was getting out of hand, hand, and in an effort to soothe local tensions, King Duncan negotiated with the rebels.

And the rebels were enraged by the foreign occupation, so the concession was soon made to send a sizable chunk of his occupying Anglo-Norman forces home.

Now, I wouldn't be surprised if those soldiers were already being called back by Rufus due to all the problems in Normandy and Wales.

If that is how that all played out, Duncan might have realized that he could take that strategic weakness and turn it into a diplomatic olive branch by just reframing it.

Either way, though, King Duncan II was ruling over a kingdom who largely saw him as a foreign conqueror.

And now he lacked most of the soldiers that had actually done the conquering.

And a lot of people wanted the crown to return to Duncan's uncle, the former King Donald III.

And at this point, the northern record gets pretty murky.

The scribes all have their own differing takes, but they all agree that on November 12th of 1094, King Duncan II was killed, probably through some sort of treachery or ambush.

And the annals of Ulster report that it was done on the orders of his uncle, King Donald III, as well as his half-brother, Edmund, son of Malcolm Canmore.

With Duncan dead, Donald then resumed his post as King Donald III, and according to Malmsbury, Edmund began serving as a sort of underking or designated heir.

Shortly thereafter, messengers arrived at Eu, informing Rufus that he hadn't just lost control of Wales this year, he'd also lost control of Scotland, and all the while, England was rapidly turning into a charnel house.

And the king looked across the battlefield and realized that his war in Normandy had completely stalled out, and they couldn't even get a fun siege going at this point.

This was getting depressing, so Rufus decided to call it a day.

He handed off command of Ooh to his lieutenants and boarded a ship bound for Wissant, then crossed to England.

He was going to spend Christmas with Henry in London, and presumably raise some some more taxes.

I mean, campaigning season was right around the corner.

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