proceeded thence to
practise every species of extortion on his defenceless subjects. The
barons, whom a severe administration alone could have restrained,
gave way to their unbounded rapine upon their vassals, and inveterate
animosities against each other; and all Normandy, during the reign of
this benign prince, was become a scene of violence and depredation.
The Normans at last, observing the regular government which Henry,
notwithstanding his usurped title, had been able to establish in
England, applied to him, that he might use his authority for the
suppression of these disorders and they thereby afforded him a pretence
for interposing in the affairs of Normandy. Instead of employing his
mediation to render his brother's government respectable, or to redress
the grievances of the Normans, he was only attentive to support his
own partisans, and to increase their number by every art of bribery,
intrigue, and insinuation. Having found, in a visit which he made to that
duchy, that the nobility were more disposed to pay submission to him
than to their legal sovereign, he collected, by arbitrary extortions on
England a great army and treasure, and returned next year to Normandy,
in a situation to obtain, either by violence or corruption, the dominion
of that province. {1105.} He took Baieux by storm, after an obstinate
siege; he made himself master of Caen, by the voluntary submission of
the inhabitants; but being repulsed at Falaise, and obliged, by the
winter season, to raise the siege, he returned into England; after
giving assurances to his adherents, that he would persevere in
supporting and protecting them.

{1106.} Next year he opened the campaign with the siege of Tenchebray;
and it became evident, from his preparations and progress, that he
intended to usurp the entire possession of Normandy. Robert was at last
roused from his lethargy; and being supported by the earl of Mortaigne
and Robert de Belesme, the king's inveterate enemies, he raised a
considerable army, and approached his brother's camp, with a view of
finishing, in one decisive battle, the quarrel between them. He was
now entered on that scene of action in which alone he was qualified to
excel; and he so animated his troops by his example, that they threw the
English into disorder, and had nearly obtained the victory,[*] when the
flight of Belesme spread a panic among the Normans, and occasioned their
total defeat. Henry, besides doing great executio