Roger of Montgomery held the earldoms of Shrewsbury and Sussex, and Waltheof to his midland earldom of Northampton and Huntingdon now added the rule of distant Northumberland.  The men who had fought most stoutly against William were the men whom he most willingly received to favour.  Eadric and Hereward were honoured; Waltheof was honoured more highly.  He ranked along with the greatest Normans; his position was perhaps higher than any but the King’s born kinsmen.  But the whole tale of Waltheof is a problem that touches the character of the king under whom he rose and fell.  Lifted up higher than any other man among the conquered, he was the one man whom William put to death on a political charge.  It is hard to see the reasons for either his rise or his fall.  It was doubtless mainly his end which won him the abiding reverence of his countrymen.  His valour and his piety are loudly praised.  But his valour we know only from his one personal exploit at York; his piety was consistent with a base murder.  In other matters, he seems amiable, irresolute, and of a scrupulous conscience, and Northumbrian morality perhaps saw no great crime in a murder committed under the traditions of a Northumbrian deadly feud.  Long before Waltheof was born, his grandfather Earl Ealdred had been killed by a certain Carl.  The sons of Carl had fought by his side at York; but, notwithstanding this comradeship, the first act of Waltheof’s rule in Northumberland was to send men to slay them beyond the bounds of his earldom.  A crime that was perhaps admired in Northumberland and unheard of elsewhere did not lose him either the favour of the King or the friendship of his neighbour Bishop Walcher, a reforming prelate with whom Waltheof acted in concert.  And when he was chosen as the single exception to William’s merciful rule, it was not for this undoubted crime, but on charges of which, even if guilty, he might well have been forgiven.

The sojourn of William on the continent in 1072 carries us out of England and Normandy into the general affairs of Europe.  Signs may have already showed themselves of what was coming to the south of Normandy; but the interest of the moment lay in the country of Matilda.  Flanders, long the firm ally of Normandy, was now to change into a bitter enemy.  Count Baldwin died in 1067; his successor of the same name died three years later, and a war followed between his widow Richildis, the guardian of his young son Arnulf, and his brother Robert the Frisian.  Robert had won fame in the East; he had received the sovereignty of Friesland—­a name which takes in Holland and Zealand—­and he was now invited to deliver Flanders from the oppressions of Richildis.  Meanwhile, Matilda was acting as regent of Normandy, with Earl William of Hereford as her counsellor.  Richildis sought help of her son’s two overlords, King Henry of Germany and King Philip of France.  Philip came in person; the German succours were too late.  From Normandy came Earl William with a small party of knights.  The kings had been asked for armies; to the Earl she offered herself, and he came to fight for his bride.  But early in 1071 Philip, Arnulf, and William, were all overthrown by Robert the Frisian in the battle of Cassel.  Arnulf and Earl William were killed; Philip made peace with Robert, henceforth undisputed Count of Flanders.