The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-06-11
A KINGDOM FOR A JEST.
How William II Fool Got the Title OF
King Of Yvetot.

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How william II Fool Got the Title Of
King Of Yvetot.
Gerald Brennan writes for st. Nicholas
an article on 1.-THE Kingdom Of Yvetot. I"
After telling Of tho bare facts Of history to
be gathered from legal papers Mr.. Brennan
says:
Now for tradition as unearthed by M.
d'Hauteriye from many musty tome or
taken down by the good cure of tho village
from the lips Of old parishioners. This
"Ansfred, styled 10 drole, or the humor-
GUS, twas, 1t seems, mono other than Will
liam rs court jester, and his stone image,
In cap and bells arraycd, STOOD in the din
ing hall of the Chateau d'Yvetot until
those terrible fellows the revolutionary
soldiers, pulled down both house and
statue.
Those who love to stray In history's by
ways will remember that when William
the Conqueror landed on the English coast
he tripped and fell with extended arms
upon the strand. Most of his followers
would have regarded this as bad omen
had not the monarch, with rare presence
Of mind, quieted their fears by exolaiming
that he was "Srasping the soil Of England
III hio 4>oN eAouAeioh IA \ Nctoo
has it that the person who whispered this
cunning reply into tho car Of the PROSTATE
William YVES our witty acquaintance, the
court jester Ansfred.
When England had been won, the story
goes that the king remembered his hum.
bic jcster's timely whisper and, calling to
him to tho foot Of tho throne, bado him
ask boon by way of reward. Ansfred
jcstingly replied "Ah, my good king,
havo an ambition too lofty for you to
gratifyl''
Greatly piqued at this speech even from
such u privileged joker as his court fool, 4"
William insisted upon knowing what the
ambition was which tho sovereign of Eng.
land and Normandy could not make good,
whevupon, jingling his golden bells gay
ly, Ansfred said: TN sooth, friend Will
linn, desire to become king, like your.
self. Nothing less can satisfy me"
At this the mobiles of the court set up
mighty shout of laughter, looking upon
the affair as another of Ansfrod's sallies,
but the king laughed louder than them
all. Recovering from his mirth, he cried
out: "Ansfred shall havo his wish. When
we got back to Normandy we will give
him a kingdom Of his own" Then, sum.
moning his chancellor, he demanded tho
name of "tho very last place in all his do.
minions, the most barren and waterless
waste In his possession" The chancellor
consulted his great books and found that
tho last place mentioned was the hamlet
Of Yvetot. Moreover, this hamlet stood In
the trccless springless plain of Caux and
was an extraordinarily desolate spot, little
thought Of by the abbey of st. Wandrille,
to whose monks it belonged
William laughed again when he heard
Of Yvctot, and in pursuance of his pledge
when he returned to Normandy he took
Yyetot away from the abbey and gave 1T
to Ansfred, the jester. In the nearby vii.
lago Of Bolbec, amid great mcrrimont,
Ansfred was formally crowned "king Of
Yvetot" Everybody looked on tho coro.
nation as jokc-ovcrybody but Ansfred
himself AS was often tho case with these
testers, tho folly of this "fool" was only
on the exterior. No sooner had he acquir-
cd possession of his small kingdom than
he built himself tower there and sot
about planting the wastes around. Tho
trees grew but King Ansfrcd could think
of no plan that would supply Yvctot with
water. Always till no died, Ansfred re-
tanned the tito of "king," and, William
the Conqucror's sons being busy with their
wars, mono tried to take it from him.
Ansfred's son and heir, Richard, second
king Of Yvetot, went to the crusades in
1905 md fought with great bravery.