Note 779 — Chapter V · THE DANISH CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.[464] 975–1016. (continued 3)

“Strenui militis et boni imperatoris officia simul exsequebatur” (so Il. iii. 179, ἀμφότερον βασιλεύς τ’ ἀγαθὸς κρατερός τ’ αἰχμητής), says Florence, who grows eloquent on Eadmund’s exploits. This praise must have been common to every general of those days who deserved to be called a general at all; yet it is often recorded to the special honour of particular commanders, as we shall find it in a very marked way of both Harold and William. William of Malmesbury (Hist. Nov. ii. 34) speaks in the same way of Earl Robert of Gloucester; “Ubicumque commode fieri posse videbat, et militis et ducis probe officium exequebatur.” Yet Abbot Suger, in his life of Lewis the Fat (c. 20; Duchesne, Scriptt. Franc. iv. 304), blames his own hero because “ultra quam deceret majestatem, miles emeritus militis officio, non regis, singulariter decertabat.” So Orderic (885 D) says of William of Flanders, “ipse ducis et militis officio plerumque fungebatur unde a caris tutoribus pro illo formidantibus crebro redarguebatur.”