own dominions. He collected a large army, and entering into Normandy, he
began a war, at first with great success, on account of a difference
between the Duke and his brother Henry. But their common dread of
William reconciled them; and this reconciliation put them in a condition
of procuring an equal peace, the chief conditions of which were, that
Robert should be put in possession of certain seigniories in England,
and that each, in case of survival, should succeed to the other's
dominions. William concluded this peace the more readily, because
Malcolm, King of Scotland, who hung over him, was ready upon every
advantage to invade his territories, and had now actually entered
England with a powerful army. Robert, who courted action, without
regarding what interest might have dictated, immediately on concluding
the treaty entered into his brother's service in this war against the
Scots; which, on the king's return, being in appearance laid asleep by
an accommodation, broke out with redoubled fury the following year. The
King of Scotland, provoked to this rupture by the haughtiness of
William, was circumvented by the artifice and fraud of one of his
ministers: under an appearance of negotiation, he was attacked and
killed, together with his only son. This was a grievous wound to
Scotland, in the loss of one of the wisest and bravest of her kings, and
in the domestic distractions which afterwards tore that kingdom to
pieces.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1094.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1096.]

No sooner was this war ended, than William, freed from an enemy which
had given himself and his father so many alarms, renewed his ill
treatment of his brother, and refused to abide by the terms of the late