A.D. 1088.] CONSPIRACY AGAINST WILLIAM RUFL'S. 355 of all his children who was present, and when the owner of the land where the king's body was buried made a difficulty about it, Henry pacified his anger by paying him a hundred marks of silver. Meanwhile, William, at a distance in England, was neither slow nor sparing in distributing money; he brought to light all the treasure of his father which was accumulated at Winchester ; he apportioned gold to the monasteries ; to parochial churches he assigned five shillings of silver ; and to each province he charitably gave one hundred pounds to be distributed amongst the poor ; in course of time, too, he conspicuously ornamented the tomb of his father with a large quantity of silver and gold and with glittering jewels ; and having thus arranged things, William was soon acknowledged by the willing dispositions of the inhabitants of the provinces, subdued the whole of England at will, and received the keys of all the late king's treasures. Lanfranc the archbishop also came into favour with him, because he had brought him up and made him a soldier whilst his father was alive ; and by his advice he took the crown of England on the day of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damimi, and passed the rest of the winter favourably. Nevertheless, almost all the nobles of the kingdom, each in his province, were, not without perjuring themselves, exciting wars against the king, although crowned, and adopting his first-born brother Robert to the kingdom. In the same year the Spanish Saracens, after raging against the Christians, were soon after compelled by Alphonso king of Gallicia to return to their own country, and lost some cities which they formerly possessed. At this time Cnut king of the Danes was slain by his subjects. Λ conspiracy of the nobles against king William. A.D. 1088. At Christmas king William held his court at London ; and afterwards, at the beginning of the spring, he made war against his uncle Odo, bishop of Bayeux ; for he, on being released from imprisonment, and after confirming his nephew Robert in the duchy of Normandy, came to England, and received the county of Kent as a gift from the king ; but seeing that all the affairs of the kingdom were not arranged as formerly, according to his will, he grew jealous and left the king, infusing into many others the same spirit of discontent. He said that the kingdom was suited to the A A 2