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Brief Contents
part one Introduction 1
1 SuperVision for Successful Schools 3
9 Collaborative Behaviors 150
10 Nondirective Behaviors 160
11 Developmental Supervision 172
vii
17 Group Development 302
18 Professional Development 325
19 Curriculum Development 338
22 Addressing Diversity 411
23 Building Community 439
References 467
Name Index 497
Subject Index 502
part two
Knowledge 21
ix
Professional Development 42
Positive Learning Climate 43
Authentic Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment 44
Democracy 46
Inquiry 47
Cultural Responsiveness 48
Partnerships and Networks 49
Beyond Newtonianism: The Quantum Paradigm and Dynamic Schools 54
Closing Question 61
Reflective Exercise 61
part three
Interpersonal Skills111
9 Collaborative Behaviors 150
Characteristics of Teachers Best Matched with Collaborative Behaviors 151
Collaborative Sequence of Behaviors 152
Issues in Collaborative Supervision 156
When to Use Collaborative Behaviors 157
Moving from Collaborative Toward Nondirective Behaviors 158
Reflective Exercise 159
10 Nondirective Behaviors 160
Characteristics of Teachers Best Matched with Nondirective Behaviors 161
Nondirective Sequence of Behaviors 162
Initiating Nondirective Supervision 166
Nondirective, Not Laissez-Faire, Supervision 167
Issues with Nondirective Supervision 168
When to Use Nondirective Behaviors 169
Reflective Exercise 171
11 Developmental Supervision 172
Phase 1: Choosing the Best Approach 173
Phase 2: Applying the Chosen Approach 175
Phase 3: Fostering Teacher Development 176
Not Algorithms, but Guideposts for Decisions 177
Case Studies in Developmental Supervision 178
Reflective Exercise 188
part four
Technical Skills191
12 Observing Skills 193
Quantitative Observations 196
part five
Technical Tasks of Supervision265
16 Evaluation of Teaching 284
The New Wave of Evaluation Systems: From the Frying Pan to the Fire? 286
Summative and Formative Evaluation 288
Suggestions for Summative Evaluation 293
Suggestions for Formative Evaluation 295
Beyond Evaluation of Individual Teaching 300
Reflective Exercise 301
17 Group Development 302
Stages of Group Development 303
Characteristics of Effective Groups 306
Group Member Roles 307
Applying Developmental Supervision to Groups 314
Resolving Conflict 316
Preparing for Group Meetings 320
Reflective Exercise 324
18 Professional Development 325
Characteristics of Successful Professional Development Programs 327
Integrating Schoolwide, Group, and Individual Professional Development 328
Alternative Professional Development Formats 329
Stages of Professional Development 331
Evaluating Professional Development 332
Teachers as Objects or Agents in Professional Development 333
Reflective Exercise 337
19 Curriculum Development 338
Legislated Learning 340
Curriculum Development as a Vehicle for Enhancing Collective Thinking About
Instruction 342
The Curriculum and Cultural Diversity 357
Curriculum Mapping—and Remapping 359
Developing Curriculum Units: Understanding by Design 363
Reflective Exercise 366
part six
Cultural Tasks of Supervision387
21 Facilitating Change 389
Chaos Theory 392
Postmodern Theory 395
Education Change Theory 398
Making Connections 407
Changing the Conditions of Teaching 407
Reflective Exercise 410
22 Addressing Diversity 411
Achievement Gaps Among Economic, Racial, and Ethnic Groups 412
Gender Equity 428
Equity for Sexual and Gender Minorities 430
Equity for Students with Disabilities 433
Overarching Patterns 437
Connecting the Technical Tasks of Supervision to Cultural Responsiveness 437
Reflective Exercise 438
23 Building Community 439
Democratic Community 442
Moral Community* 444
Professional Learning Community 449
Community of Inquiry 451
Engagement with the Larger Community 452
Five Attributes, One Community 455
Conclusion 456
Reflective Exercise 458
References 467
Name Index 497
Subject Index 502
SuperVision for
Successful Schools
T ake a walk with us. First, let’s step into Finnie Tyler High School, with a student
body of 1,200, in a lower- to middle-class urban neighborhood. A sign by the entrance
tells all visitors to report to the office. In the halls, we see students milling around,
boys and girls talking in groups, couples holding hands, one couple intertwined
romantically in a corner. The bell rings and students scurry to the next class. We find
the school office and introduce ourselves to the secretary and school principal, who
are expecting our visit. They welcome us and assure us that we may move around the
school and talk to students, teachers, and other staff. The school population has been
notified of our visit and understands that we have come to see how Tyler High School
operates. The principal tells us we will find Tyler a pleasant place. Equipped with a
floor plan of classrooms and other facilities, we continue on our way.
The principal’s description is accurate: Students seem happy and uninhibited,
socializing easily with each other even during instruction time. Teachers joke with
students. In the faculty lounge, we hear laughter that rises, falls, and then rises again.
Several teachers have told us about the traditional Friday after-school gatherings at
the local pizza parlor, where teachers and administrators socialize over a drink.
Classrooms vary considerably from each other; teachers tell us they can teach how-
ever they wish. Most teachers stand at the front of the room, lecturing, asking ques-
tions, and assigning seatwork. Some, however, take a less structured approach, allowing
students to work alone or in small groups. There is an unhurried atmosphere. Students
move at a leisurely pace, and classes seldom start on time. Teachers of the same subjects
use the same textbooks but otherwise seem to have discretion to function as they please.
As one seven-year veteran teacher at this school sums it up: “We have an ideal situation.
We like each other, and the administration leaves us alone. I am observed once a year.
I have one faculty meeting a month to attend. I love the other teachers and we have a
great time together. The kids are fine, not as academic as they should be, but this school
is a nice place for them. I wouldn’t want to teach anyplace else.”
Now let’s drive across town to Germando Elementary School, with 600 students,
located in a wealthy, suburban part of the city. Again, we follow the sign to the office.
A few students are standing with their noses against the wall by their classroom doors.
Otherwise, the halls are vacant and still; all classroom doors are shut. In the principal’s
office sit two students with tears in their eyes, obviously fearful of their impending
conference with the principal. The principal welcomes us and hands us a preplanned
schedule of times to visit particular teachers. She tells us not to visit any classroom dur-
ing instructional time. “I think you will find that I run a tight ship,” she says. “Teachers
and students know exactly what is expected of them and what the consequences are for
ignoring those expectations. Teachers are here to teach, and I see to it that it happens.”
Moving down the halls, we are struck by the similarity of the classrooms. The
desks are in rows; the teacher is in front; the school rules are posted on the right of the
chalkboard. At the first recess time, the students seem to erupt onto the playground.
Expecting to find a group of teachers in the faculty lounge, we are surprised to find
only two people. One is knitting and the other is preparing a cup of coffee. All the
other teachers have remained in the classrooms, either alone or with one other teacher.
Continuing our observation after recess, we find that teachers at each grade level
not only work with the same textbooks but are on the same pages as well. When we
ask about this, one teacher tells us that the principal has standardized the entire cur-
riculum and knows what is being taught in every classroom at each moment of the
day. At the first faculty meeting in August, the principal lays out materials, schedules,
and time lines developed by the central office. We ask how the principal can enforce
such procedures, and the teacher replies, “She asks for weekly lesson plans, visits my
room at least once every two weeks, and has other central office personnel visit and
report back to her.”
In the classrooms we visit, students are generally quiet but restless. They appear
attentive; those who are not are disciplined. Teachers are mostly businesslike; some
show warmth toward their students, others do not. We conclude our visit with three
separate interviews of teachers. It seems that teaching in Germando is perceived as
a job to do. Whether one likes them or not, the principal’s rules and regulations are
to be followed. Teachers mention that when they have attempted to make modest
changes in their instruction, they have been told to drop the changes and return to the
school plan. All three mention the teacher who last year refused to follow the reading
textbook and was subsequently forced to resign.
Finnie Tyler High School and Germando Elementary School are examples of real
schools. Which is the successful school? Which has better attendance, attitudes, and
achievement? Neither does! Both are ineffective, mediocre schools. The successful
schools in the same system are quite different from either. Our first conclusion might
be that these schools are very different. Tyler High School appears to have little super-
vision of instruction, whereas Germando has too much. According to the definition of
instructional supervision presented in this book, however, neither school has effective
instructional supervision. It also might appear that Tyler meets teachers’ individual
needs, whereas Germando meets organizational goals set by the principal. In successful
schools, however, individual needs are fulfilled through organizational goals. In these
two schools, neither need is being met. Finally, the working environments in these two
schools only appear to be dissimilar; soon we will see how similar they really are.
The last school on our tour is Progress Middle School. Our first stop at Progress is
the school office, where we are informed by the school secretary that the principal will
meet with us at the end of the period. The principal is teaching Mr. Simmons’s class
while Simmons observes another teacher as part of a peer-coaching program involving
a number of teachers. The secretary invites us to wait for the principal in the teach-
ers’ lounge, where several teachers are spending their preparation period. As we relax
with a soda, we listen to an animated discussion among the teachers concerning an
interdisciplinary unit of instruction they are planning. The teachers are brainstorming
alternative teaching and assessment strategies for the unit and discussing how these
strategies could be connected to the unit’s theme.
Soon the principal joins us and invites us on a tour of the school. During the tour,
we note that classroom environments are work oriented, as well as warm and support-
ive. In some classrooms, students are involved in hands-on inquiry. In other classrooms,
cooperative learning is taking place. In still others, teachers are challenging students to
reflect on lesson content by using higher-level questioning and inviting student opinions
on the lesson topic. A commonality across all classrooms is students engaged in active
learning. Teachers give students feedback on their performance and provide alternative
learning opportunities and special attention to those experiencing difficulties.
After school, we attend a meeting of the school leadership council, made up pri-
marily of teachers. The council is considering action research proposals submitted by
faculty liaison groups. Each proposal is focused on improvement of curriculum and
instruction. Much of the debate among council members is concerned with whether
or not the proposed research will assist in meeting the school’s vision, mission, and
goals agreed on two years earlier by the entire faculty. At times the debate becomes
heated. Clearly the council is taking its decision making seriously. The principal is a
voting member of the council but does not have veto power over council decisions,
which are made by majority rule.
Germando Elementary is an example of a conventional school—characterized
by dependency, hierarchy, and professional isolation. Finnie Tyler is an example of a
congenial school—characterized by friendly social interactions and professional isola-
tion. A successful school like Progress Middle School is a collegial school—charac-
terized by purposeful adult interactions about improving schoolwide teaching and
learning. Professional respect is a byproduct of discussing issues with candor, accept-
ing disagreements as integral to change, and respecting the wisdom and care of all for
arriving at educational decisions for students.
Collegial schools establish learning goals for all students consistent with the
responsibility of education in a democratic society. These schools are always study-
ing teaching and learning, setting common priorities, making decisions about internal
changes and resource allocations, and assessing effects on student learning (Ser-
giovanni, 2006). These schools are driven by (1) a covenant of learning—mission,
vision, and goals; (2) a charter for schoolwide, democratic decision making; and
(3) a critical study process for informing decisions and conducting action research
Glickman, 1993, 2003). In effect, successful schools create a “SuperVision” of
(
instruction, democratically derived and studied, that gives purpose and direction to
the common world of adults.
Leadership is shared with teachers, and it is cast in coaching, reflection, collegial investiga-
tion, study teams, explorations into the uncertain, and problem solving. It is position-free
supervision wherein the underlying spirit is one of expansion, not traditional supervision.
Alternatives, not directives or criticism, are the focus, and the community of learners per-
form professional—indeed, moral—service to students (cited in Gordon, 1995; see also
Printy, Marks, & Bowers, 2009).
Video Illustration
In this video, a supervisor is being interviewed about his work with teachers
during his first year as principal. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 representing no
commitment and 10 representing the highest possible commitment, how would
you rate the principal’s commitment to collegial supervision? What information
from the video supports your rating?
Given the fact that the historic role of supervision has been inspection and con-
trol, it is not surprising that most teachers do not equate supervision with collegiality.
When teachers have been asked to make word associations with the term instructional
supervision, most of the associations have been negative, as indicated by the following
list (Gordon, 1997, p. 118):
Control Directive
Step-by-step Irrelevant
Lack of creativity Waste of time
Lack of free choice Restricting
Evaluation Rules
Negative Dog and pony show
Nonexistent Big brother
Jumping through hoops Intimidating
Boring Constantly under watch
Paperwork Anxiety
Bureaucrat Boss
Monitoring instruction Stress
Guidelines for testing Need for detailed lesson plans
Authority Micromanagement
Unrealistic Yuck!
*To avoid awkwardness of writing, from here on we will use the spelling SuperVision only in particular headings. But
the point is that SuperVision and instructional leadership are integrated and interchangeable concepts.
Note D.
THE DESCENDANTS OF HERBERT WAKE-DOG.
Note F.
THE MARRIAGE OF GEOFFREY AND MATILDA.
The date of this marriage is commonly given as 1127. A
comparison of evidence seems however to lead to the conclusion
that its true date is 1128.
1. The Angevin chronicles never mention the marriage at all. The
Gesta Cons., Will. Jumièges and several other writers mention it
without any kind of date. The English Chronicle, Sim. Durh., Will.
Malm. and Hen. Hunt. give no distinct date, but imply that the
proposal was immediately followed by the wedding. They speak as if
Robert and Brian had taken Matilda over sea and married her to
Geoffrey without more ado.
2. Orderic mentions the marriage in two places. In the first
(Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt., p. 763) he gives no clue to the date;
in the second (ib. p. 889) he dates it 1129.
3. The Chron. Fiscannense (Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. xii. p. 778)
dates it 1127.
4. A charter of agreement between the bishop of Séez and the
convent of Marmoutier (printed in Gilles Bry’s Hist. de Perche, p.
106) has “signum Henrici Regis quando dedit filiam suam Gaufredo
comiti Andegavensi juniori.” It is dated “anno ab Inc. Dom. 1127,
Indictione VI.”
5. The last witness is John of Marmoutier, the author of the
Historia Gaufredi Ducis. From him we might have expected a distinct
and authentic statement; but he does not mention the year at all. He
says that Geoffrey was knighted on Whit-Sunday and married on its
octave, and that he was then fifteen years of age (Hist. Gaufr. Ducis,
Marchegay, Comtes, pp. 236, 233). Afterwards, in speaking of the
birth of Henry Fitz-Empress, he says that it took place in the fourth
year of his parents’ marriage (ib. pp. 277, 278). Henry was born on
Mid-Lent Sunday, March 5, 1133; if therefore the writer reckoned
backwards from the Whitsuntide of that year, his words ought to
mean that the marriage was in 1129. But as he goes on to state that
Matilda’s third son was born in the sixth year of her marriage, and
that Henry I. died “anno eodem, ab Incarnatione videlicet Domini
1137,” it is impossible to say what he did mean. Whether he is
collecting the traditions of the ancient counts or writing the life of his
own contemporary sovereign, John’s chronology is pursued by the
same fate; whenever he mentions a date by the year, he is almost
certain to make it wrong. But that he should have done the like in his
reckoning of days, or even of his hero’s age, by no means follows.
To consider the latter point first: Geoffrey the Handsome was born on
August 24, 1113 (Chron. S. Albin. ad ann., Marchegay, Eglises, p.
32). Therefore, if John meant that he was past fifteen at his
marriage, it must have been in 1129. But if he only meant “in his
fifteenth year,” it would be 1128. In that year the octave of Pentecost
fell on June 17; Geoffrey then lacked but two months to the
completion of his fifteenth year; and considering Matilda’s age, it is
no wonder that the panegyrist tried to make her husband out as old
as possible. It is in fact plain that such was his intention, for though
he places Geoffrey’s death in the right year, 1151, he gives his age
as forty-one instead of thirty-eight (Hist. Gaufr. Ducis, Marchegay,
Comtes, p. 292).
The most important matter, however, is John’s statement that the
wedding took place on the octave of Pentecost. The date in this case
is not one casually slipped in by the writer in passing; it comes in a
detailed account of the festivities at Rouen on the occasion of
Geoffrey’s knighting, which is expressly said to have occurred at
Pentecost, and to have been followed by his marriage on the octave.
Now this leaves us on the horns of a dilemma fatal alike to the date
in the Chron. Fiscann., 1127, and to that of Orderic, 1129. For, on the
one hand, Will. Malm. (Hist. Nov., l. i. c. 3, Hardy, p. 692) says that
Matilda did not go to Normandy till after Whitsuntide [1127]; and Hen.
Hunt., l. vii. c. 37 (Arnold, p. 247), adds that the king followed her in
August (Sim. Durh., ed. Arnold, vol. ii. pp. 281, 282, really witnesses
to the same effect; for his chronology of the whole story is a year in
advance). Consequently, as Mrs. Everett Green remarks, “the union
could not have taken place before the spring of the following year,
1128” (Princesses of England, vol. i. pp. 107, 108). On the other
hand, it is plain that Fulk was present at his son’s wedding; but
before Whitsuntide 1129 Fulk was himself married to the princess of
Jerusalem (Will. Tyr., l. xiii. c. 24).
From all this it results: 1. If Geoffrey and Matilda were married in
1127, it cannot have been earlier than September, i.e. at least three
months after Whitsuntide. 2. If they were married in 1129, it must
have been quite at the beginning of the year, and Orderic must, on
this occasion at least, have made his year begin in English fashion,
at Christmas. 3. If they were married at Whitsuntide, it can only have
been in 1128.
We have in short to choose one out of three authorities: the
Chronicle of Fécamp, Orderic and John of Marmoutier—for the Séez
charter, as Mrs. Everett Green remarks (Princesses, vol. i. p. 108),
proves nothing more than that the betrothal had taken place in 1127.
Of these three, the first is certainly of least account. Orderic, on the
other hand, is on most other subjects a far better authority than
John. But his chronology is very little better than John’s, at any rate
towards the close of his work; his whole account of Henry’s later
years is sketchy and confused; while John is Geoffrey Plantagenet’s
own special biographer, writing within sixty years of the event, from
materials furnished by personal followers of his hero. I cannot but
regard him as our primary authority on this subject, and believe on
his testimony that the real wedding-day of Geoffrey and Matilda was
the octave of Pentecost, June 17, 1128.
CHAPTER V.
GEOFFREY PLANTAGENET AND STEPHEN OF
BLOIS.
1128–1139.
All the mental and bodily gifts wherewith nature had endowed the
most favoured members of the Angevin house seemed to have been
showered upon the eldest son of Fulk V. and Aremburg of Maine.
The surname by which he is most generally known, and which an
inveterate usage has attached to his descendants as well as to
himself, is in its origin and meaning curiously unlike most historical
surnames; it seems to have been derived simply from his boyish
habit of adorning his cap with a sprig of “planta-genista,” the broom
which in early summer makes the open country of Anjou and Maine
a blaze of living gold. With a fair and ruddy countenance, lit up by the
lightning-glance of a pair of brilliant eyes; a tall, slender, sinewy
frame, made for grace no less than for strength and activity:—[628] in
the unanimous opinion of his contemporaries, he was emphatically
“Geoffrey the Handsome.” To this prepossessing appearance were
added the charms of a gracious manner and a ready, pleasant
speech;[629] and beneath this winning exterior there lay a
considerable share of the quick wits of his race, sharpened and
developed by such a careful education as was given to very few
princes of the time. The intellectual soil was worthy of the pains
bestowed upon it, and brought forth a harvest of, perhaps, somewhat
too precocious scholarship and sagacity. Geoffrey’s fondness for the
study of the past seems to have been an inheritance from Fulk
Rechin; the historian-count might have been proud of a grandson
who carried in his memory all the battles fought, all the great deeds
done, not only by his own people but also in foreign lands.[630] Even
Fulk the Good might have approved a descendant who when still a
mere boy could shine in serious conversation with such a “lettered
king” as Henry I.;[631] and Fulk the Black might not have been
ashamed of one who in early youth felt the “demon-blood” within him
too hot to rest content in luxury and idleness, avoided the corrupting
influences of mere revelry, gave himself up to the active exercises of
military life,[632] and, while so devoted to letters that he would not
even go to war without a learned teacher by his side,[633] turned his
book-learning to account in ways at which ruder warriors and more
unworldly scholars were evidently somewhat astonished.[634] Like
his ancestor the Black Count, Geoffrey was one of those men about
whom their intimate associates have a fund of anecdotes to tell. The
“History” of his life put together from their information, a few years
after his death, is chiefly made up of these stories; and through the
mass of trite moralizing and pedantic verbiage in which the compiler
has imbedded them there still peeps out unmistakeably the peculiar
temper of his hero. Geoffrey’s readiness to forgive those who threw
themselves upon his mercy is a favourite theme of his biographer’s
praise; but the instances given of this clemency indicate more of the
vanity and display of chivalry in its narrower sense than of real
tenderness of heart or generosity of soul. Such is the story of a
discontented knight whose ill-will against his sovereign took the
grotesque form of a wish that he had the neck of “that red-head
Geoffrey” fast between the two hot iron plates used for making a
wafer-cake called oublie. It chanced that the man whose making of
oublies—then, as now, a separate trade—had suggested the wish of
this knight at St.-Aignan shortly afterwards made some for the eating
and in the presence of Count Geoffrey himself, to whom he related
what he had heard. The knight and his comrades were presently
caught harrying the count’s lands; and the biographer is lost in
admiration at Geoffrey’s generosity in forgiving not only their
depredations, but the more heinous crime of having, in a fit of ill-
temper after dinner, expressed a desire to make a wafer of him.[635]
On another occasion we find the count’s wrath averted by the
charms of music and verse, enhanced no doubt by the further charm
of a little flattery. Four Poitevin knights who had been taken captive
in one of the skirmishes so common on the Aquitanian border won
their release by the truly southern expedient of singing in Geoffrey’s
hearing a rime which they had composed in his praise.[636] A touch
of truer poetry comes out in another story. Geoffrey, with a great train
of attendants and noble guests, was once keeping Christmas at Le
Mans. From his private chapel, where he had been attending the
nocturnal services of the vigil, he set out at daybreak at the head of a
procession to celebrate in the cathedral church the holy mysteries of
the festival. At the cathedral door he met a poorly-dressed young
clerk, whom he flippantly saluted: “Any news, sir clerkling?”—“Ay, my
lord, the best of good news!”—“What?” cried Geoffrey, all his
curiosity aroused—“tell me quick!”—“‘Unto us a Child is born, unto
us a Son is given!’” Abashed, Geoffrey asked the youth his name,
bade him join the other clergy in the choir, and as soon as mass was
over went straight to the bishop: “For the love of Him Who was born
this day, give me a prebend in your church.” It was no sooner
granted than taking his new acquaintance by the hand, he begged
leave to make him his substitute, and added the further gift of a stall
in his own chapel, as a token of gratitude to the poor clerk whose
answer to his thoughtless question had brought home to him,
perhaps more deeply than he had ever felt them before, the glad
tidings of Christmas morning.[637] From another of these anecdotes
Geoffrey seems, as far as we can make out, to have been the
original hero of an adventure which has since, in slightly varying
forms, been attributed to several other princes, from Charles the
Great down to James the Fifth of Scotland, and which indeed may
easily have happened more than once. Led away by his ardour in
pursuit of the chase—next to literature, his favourite recreation—the
count one day outstripped all his followers, and lost his way alone in
the forest of Loches. At last he fell in with a charcoal-burner, who
undertook to conduct him back to the castle. Geoffrey mounted his
guide behind him; and as they rode along, the peasant, ignorant of
his companion’s rank, and taking him for a simple knight, let himself
be drawn into conversation on sundry matters, including a free
criticism on the government of the reigning count, and the
oppressions suffered by the people at the hands of his household
officers. When they reached the gates of Loches, the burst of joy
which greeted the wanderer’s return revealed to the poor man that
he had been talking to the count himself. Overwhelmed with dismay,
he tried to slip off the horse’s back; but Geoffrey held him fast, gave
him the place of honour at the evening banquet, sent him home next
day with a grant of freedom and a liberal gift of money, and profited
by the information acquired from him to institute a thorough reform in
the administration of his own household.[638]
[640] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt.), pp. 886, 887.
To King Henry the birth of his grandson was the crowning of all his
hopes. The greatest difficulty which had hitherto stood in the way of
his scheme for the descent of the crown—the objection which was
sure to be made against Matilda on account of her sex—would lose
more than half its force now that she could be regarded as regent for
her infant son; and Henry at once summoned another great council
at which he again made the archbishops, bishops, earls and barons
of his realm swear fealty to the Empress “and also to her little son
whom he appointed to be king after him.”[650] All things seemed as
safe as human foresight could make them when in the beginning of
August he crossed over to Normandy.[651] Signs and wonders in
earth and sky, related afterwards as tokens of coming evil,
accompanied his voyage;[652] but nearly two years passed away
before the portents were fulfilled. In the spring Matilda joined her
father at Rouen, and there, shortly before Whitsuntide, her second
son was born.[653] The old king’s pleasure in his two little
grandchildren was great enough to keep him lingering on in
Normandy with them and their mother, leaving England to the care of
Bishop Roger, till the middle of the following year,[654] when there
came tidings of disturbance on the Welsh border which made him
feel it was time he should return.[655] His daughter however set
herself against his departure. Her policy is not very clear; but it
seems impossible to acquit her of playing a double game and
secretly instigating her husband to attack her father while the latter
was living with her in unsuspecting intimacy and confidence.
Geoffrey now suddenly put forth a claim to certain castles in
Normandy which he asserted had been promised to him at his
marriage.[656] Henry denied the claim; the Angevin temper burst
forth at once; Geoffrey attacked and burned the castle of Beaumont,
whose lord was like himself a son-in-law of Henry, and altogether
behaved with such insulting violence that the king in his wrath was
on the point of taking Matilda, who was with him at Rouen all the
while, back with him to England. But he now found it impossible to
leave Normandy. The land was full of treason; many barons who
only disguised their real feelings from awe of the stern old king had
been gained over in secret to the Angevin cause; among those
whose fidelity was most suspected were Roger of Toëny and William
Talvas the lord of Alençon, who had been restored to the forfeited
estates of his family at the intercession of Geoffrey’s father in 1119.
Roger’s castle of Conches was garrisoned by the king; William
Talvas was summoned to Rouen more than once, but the conscious
traitor dared not shew his face; at last Henry again seized his
estates, and then, in September, Talvas fled across the border to be
received with open arms by the count of Anjou.[657] The countess
pleaded warmly with her father for the traitor’s pardon, but in vain.
When she found him inexorable, she suddenly threw off the mask
and shewed on which side her real sympathies lay by parting from
the king in anger and going home to her husband at Angers.[658]
Father and daughter never met again. In the last week of November
Henry fell sick while hunting in the Forest of Lions; feeling his end
near, he sent for his old friend Archbishop Hugh of Rouen to receive
his confession and give him the last sacraments. His son Earl Robert
of Gloucester hurried to the spot at the first tidings of his illness; his
daughter made no sign of a wish for reconciliation; yet when the earl
and the primate asked for his final instructions concerning the
succession to the crown, he remained true to his cherished purpose
and once more bequeathed all his dominions on both sides of the
sea to Matilda and her heirs for ever.[659] He died on the night of
December 1, 1135.[660]