barons of the king's party, it was reserved for future consideration.
The consideration was not necessary in Henry's reign, for the clause in
John's charter remained in full operation ; and parliament, acting upon
its undoubted right, frequently refused the aids which the king requested.
Had Henry hesitated to acknowledge that right he would soon have been
174 POLITICAL SERIES. [SECOND
forced to the most unqualified admission of its existence an admission
to which Edward I., great and powerful as he was, found it necessary
to submit.
I. POLITICAL SERIES.
William tjjt Conqueror.
BORN A. D. 1024. DIED A. D. 1087.
THE witan had assembled in London immediately on the news of the
defeat and death of Harold, and by unanimous choice placed the ethel-
ing Edgar, the grandson of Edmond Ironside, on the throne. Had real
union marked the counsels of the Anglo-Saxon chieftains, their country
might yet have spurned from its soil the foot of the Norman invader,
for an armed force that filled seven hundred ships was still in the chan-
nel, waiting only a convenient opportunity to take the Normans in their
rear, 1 and the country was still full of men who only wanted leaders to
renew the array of Hastings against the further progress of the enemy.
William's victory also had been dearly purchased, and the slowness and
caution of his movements sufficiently indicated the sense he entertained
of the magnitude and difficulty of the enterprise yet before him. But
secret dissatisfaction prevailed among the English nobility; and among
the disaffected towards the new order of things were Edwin and Morcar,
the military commanders of Mercia and Northumberland, who drew off
their forces to their respective provinces, and awaited the issue of their
country's fate in a state of inactivity. The defection of these two
powerful earls left the capital almost defenceless; but William now pre-
ferred a more cautious line of policy than the desperate game he had
so lately played might have indicated. Instead of instantly laying siege
to the metropolis, he passed the Thames into Berkshire, and encamped
at Wallingford. By this movement he placed himself betwixt the capi-
tal and any forces which the earls of Mercia and Northumberland might
have been at last prevailed on to send to its relief; it also afforded him
time for negotiation with any party that might be disposed to offer it.
The people of Kent had already proffered fealty to him, on condition of
their province remaining as free after the conquest as it had been before
it ; z and their example was soon followed by various powerful indivi-
duals. Stigand, the metropolitan bishop, whose influence had mainly
contributed to the election of Edgar, was among the first to discover
the utter hopelessness of the cause, and to swear fealty to the Norman ; J
Edwin and Morcar soon afterwards presented themselves for the like
purpose; and finally a deputation from the citizens ofXondon, and the
clergy of the kingdom, made offer of the crown to the Conqueror.
William, at first affected to receive the proposal that he should assume
the title of king of 'England with indifference and even dislike; but his
Normans easily prevailed upon him to dismiss his scruples, and the ap-
| Guil. Pictav. 20l.-Ord. Vital. 600. Chron. Will. Thorn, p. 1786.
5>ee an array of authorities quoted by Lingard on the disputed question as to Sti-
gand's conduct at this crisis, vol. I. p. 385.
PERIOD.] WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 175
preaching Christmas-day was fixed for the coronation. Westminster
abbey was the place appointed for the ceremony. It was prepared and
decorated, to use the language of the Saxon chronicle, "as when, with
the free suffrages of the best men of England, the king of their choice
came and presented himself, there to receive the investment of the power
which they had confided to him." But the best and noblest adornment
of a coronation, a free and loyal people, was wanting on the present oc-
casion; and before the new sovereign dared to present himself among
his English subjects, he ordered the streets to be lined and the abbey
surrounded with bands of his Norman soldiery. The ceremony was
performed by Aldred, archbishop of York, for Stigand had already fal-
len into disgrace. That prelate put the question to the English, the
bishop of Constance to the Normans, whether they were willing that
William should be their sovereign. 4 The English expressed their as-
sent with loud shouts, which the Norman soldiery without mistook for
the signal of tumult in the assembly ; and thirsting for plunder, the for-
eign troops immediately began to fire the city and attack the inhabi-
tants. It was in the midst of the fearful tumult thus occasioned that
William received investiture of the crown of England from the hands of
Aldred, assisted by a band of trembling priests of both nations. The
service was completed with precipitation ; but the Conqueror took the
usual oath of the Saxon kings, with this addition, that he would govern
his new subjects as well and justly as they had been governed by the
best of his predecessors on the English throne. 5
William had hitherto been called ' the Bastard :' from this period he
received the name of ' the Conqueror,' a term which in that age did not
necessarily involve the idea of a subjugated people, but was often em-
ployed to denote a person who had vindicated for himself a just right.
Neither was the term ' bastard' of such opprobrious import at that time
as it has since become. William gave it to himself in many of his let-
ters. 6 The first policy of the new sovereign was liberal and wise ;
he distinguished his coronation by magnificent largesses; admonished
his barons to treat the natives with moderation and equity; affixed se-
vere punishment to every species of insult, rapine, and assault; and ex-
horted his English and Norman subjects generally to mutual good will
and inter-alliance. To the etheling Edgar also he behaved with great
generosity and show of affection, admitting him into the number of his
intimate friends, and investing him with an estate not unfitting the de-
scendant of an ancient race of kings. Still he found it necessary to
place his chief reliance on the attachment of his own Normans, whose
presence in his newly-acquired territory he could only secuVe by grants
of land to be holden by the tenure of military service. For this pur-
pose the royal demesnes were freely sacrificed ; and we have the unsus-
picious testimony of one of the sons of the Conqueror, 7 that when these
failed, the English were dispossessed in great numbers to make room for
Norman holders of the soil. One alone amongst all the warriors in the
4 The Norman historians clearly allow that William took the throne by election not
by conquest Guil. Pict, puts the question " whether they would consent," '' an consen-
tirent rum sibi dominum coronari," p. 205. Ord. Vital, has it, " whether they would
grant" *'an concederent Gulielmum regnare super sc.' 1 p. 503.
Chron. Lamb. ad. ann 1066. Ord. Vital. 503.
' Spelm. Archaiol. 77.
f Ricardtis Nigellus, Richard Lenoir or Noirot, bishop of Ely in the 12th century.
176 POLITICAL SERIES. [SECOND
Conqueror's train would accept of no part of the spoils of the van-
quished. He was named Guilbert son of Richard. He claimed neither
lands, nor gold, nor women. He said that he accompanied his liege lord
into England because such was his duty ; that he was not to be tempt-
ed by stolen property, but was content to return to his own Norman
patrimony, which, though small, sufficed for all his wants. 8 Another
precaution which William found it necessary to adopt, was the establish-
ment of garrisons in fortified ports throughout the kingdom. The pre-
sence and conduct of these bodies of soldiery greatly augmented the
dissatisfaction of the country.
Within the short space of three months after his coronation William,
returned to Normandy, leaving his seneschal William Fitz Osborne, and
his half-brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux, regents of England in his ab-
sence. His retinue consisted not only of many of the companions of
his victory, but also many English thanes and prelates, whom he aflect-
ed to honour by placing among his attendants, but who were in reality
only present as hostages for the tranquillity of their countrymen during
William's absence. Among these were Edgar, Stigand, Fritheric abbot
of St Albans, Edwin, Morcar, and Waltheof son of Siward. 9 William's
chaplain and biographer has left it on record, that the royal retinue
brought with them more gold and silver into Normandy on this occa-
sion than had ever before been seen in all Gaul. Speaking of the riches
brought from England, he says : " That land far surpasses Gaul in
abundance of the precious metals. If in fertility it may be termed the
granary of Ceres, in riches it should be called the treasury of Arabia.
The English women excel in the use of the needle, and in the embroi-
dery of gold: the men in every species of elegant workmanship. More-
over the best artists of Germany reside amongst them, and merchants
import into their island the most valuable foreign productions." 10 The
extreme beauty, and the long flowing hair 11 of the young English, also
captivated the admiration of the Normans. But while William was
making this display of his newly acquired wealth and grandeur to his
ancient subjects, he was putting the allegiance of his new ones to a
severe proof. Five months had passed away without any indication on
his part of returning to England. Meanwhile the rapacity of his soldiery,
and the apathy of his vice-gerents, were fast driving the English into
exile or open insurrection. One body of the natives bade adieu to their
country, and entered into the service of the Grecian emperor, under
whose banners they fought in every action from the siege of Durazzo
to the final retreat of their hated enemies the Normans, from the walls
of Larissa. 12 Another party sent deputies to Denmark to offer to
Sveno Tiuffveskeg, a crown which had already graced the brows of
two of his ancestors, Canute and Hardicanute. In the east the people of
Kent broke out into actual rebellion ; while in Herefordshire, a young
Saxon chief, aided by the W'elsh, raised the standard of independence,
and drove the Normans beyond the Severn. These proceedings roused
William from his supineness. He hastened across the channel, and in
Ord. Vital, p. 606. Guii. Pict. 209. w Ib. 211.
| Long hair was a mark of birth with the northern nations.
The descendants of these men for many generations served in the bod3'-guard of the
emperors. "They and their heirs," says Ordericus, "served faithfully the sacred
empire; and they remain till now among the Thracians with great honour, dear to the
people, the senate, and the sovereign." p.^508.
PEEIOD.] WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 177
a series of successful engagements reduced the malcontents 10 external
submission. But the spirit of resistance was still alive. The citizens
of Durham, aided by the surrounding peasantry, rose in a body and
massacred the Norman, Robert de Cumin and his followers, on whom
the king had conferred the ancient earldom of Cospatric ; the citizens of
York followed the example of the Durhamites, and rose upon the Nor-
man garrison ; and Edgar, who, with his mother and sisters, and many
'good men,' as the Saxon chronicle has it, had taken refuge at the
court of Malcolm of Scotland, hastened to make common cause with
his countrymen. The sword was now unsheathed between the king and
his people, and a spirit of deadly enmity henceforth marked the conduct
of his English and Norman subjects towards each other. To add to
William's embarrassment, the sons of Harold, who had taken refuge with
Dermot, one of the kings of Ireland, threatened the island on one side
with a fleet of sixty-one ships, while Canute son of Sveno of Denmark,
sister's son of Canute the Great, with a much larger armament hovered
off the other. The king was hunting in the forest of Dean when news
were brought him that all Northumbria was in revolt, and that his strong
city of York had been carried by assault and reduced to ashes. In the
first transports of his wrath, he swore to render Northumbria a desert,
and the dreadful oath was mercilessly performed. Marching against
the insurgents he defeated them at all points, and left the country be-
tween York and Durham without a single habitation, the refuge only
of wild beasts and robbers. 13 From causes which we cannot now de-
tail the Danish armament quitted the island without a struggle, and
thus relieved William from his most formidable difficulty. The Eng-
lish leaders now lost hope. Edgar, with the bishop of Durham, sailed
to Scotland; Cospatric solicited and obtained pardon; Waltheof, whose
matchless valour had long supported the spirits of his countrymen, and
even extorted the admiration of the Normans themselves, visited the
king on the banks of the Tees, and received from him the hand of his
niece, Judith, in marriage, with his former earldoms of Northampton
and Huntingdon!. But Malcolm of Scotland continued to perpetrate a
series of the most desolating ravages on the northern parts of William's
kingdom, and by his marriage with Margaret, the sister of Edgar, drew
closer his bands of alliance with the Saxons and their expatriated prince. 1 *
The heroic struggle maintained by Hereward Le Wake, the empeoinado
of his day, will be better detailed in a separate article. The fortunes
of the English church during this calamitous season will also be treated
of in the ecclesiastical section of this period
In our introductory remarks on the period of English history, we have
reviewed at some length the consequences of the Norman conquest, and
the system of things which grew out of that event. We shall not re-
capitulate ; but before proceeding with our rapid outline of the Con-
queror's transactions, we may here present the reader with a few details
selected from Thierry, in themselves perhaps scarcely worthy of notice,
but which may assist the reader to picture in his imagination some of
the scenes of the conquest, and fix on his memory a few curious traits
of the manners and habits of that age. England, after the conquest,
" Hoveden, 451. Ord. Vital. 514.
14 Simeon, 200. Flor. 636. Of the eight children of this marriage three were succes-
sively kings of Scotland, one was queen, and one was mother to a queen of England.
1. Z
178 POLITICAL SERIES. [SifcoND
presented the singular spectacle of a native population with a foreign
sovereign, a foreign hierarchy, and a foreign aristocracy. For a time
William succeeded in restraining the rapacity of his followers, but he soon
found himself obliged to yield to their incessant demands,, and to rob
the people for the gratification of their tyrannical superiors. At Peven-
sey, for instance, beginning with the first corner of land on which the
foreigner set foot, the Norman soldiers shared amongst them the houses
of the vanquished. The city of Dover, half-consumed by fire, was
given to the bishop of Bayeux, who distributed the houses among his
followers. Raoul de Courbespine received three of them, together with
a poor woman's field ; Guillaume, son of Geoffrey, had also three, to-
gether with the old town-house ; one rich Englishman put himself un-
der the protection of Norman Gualtier, who received him as a tributary,
and another became a serf-de-corps on the soil of his own field. In the
province of Suffolk, a Norman chief appropriated to himself the lands
of a Saxon woman named Edith the Fair, perhaps the same ' swan-
necked Edith ' who had been mistress to Harold. The city of Norwich
was reserved entire as the Conqueror's private domain ; it had paid to
the Saxon kings a tax of 30 livres 20 sols, but William exacted from it
an annual contribution of 70 livres, a valuable horse, 100 livres for his
queen, and 20 livres for the governor. A female juggler, named Ade-
line, figures on the partition rolls as having received fee and salary from
Roger, one of the Norman counts. Three Saxon warriors associated
together as brethren-in-arms, possessed a manor near St Alban's, which
they had received from the abbot of that establishment, on condition of
their defending it by the sword if necessary. They faithfully discharged
their engagements, only abandoning their domain when overpowered
by numbers, and returning again after a short space to assail, at the ex-
pense of their lives, the Norman knight who had settled himself down on
their property. After the siege of Nottingham, Guillaume Peverel re-
ceived, as his share of the conquest, fifty-five manors in the neighbour-
hood of the town, and the houses of forty-eight English tradesmen,
twelve warriors, and eight husbandmen. A large tract of land at the
eastern point of Yorkshire was given to Dreux Bruere, a captain of
Flemish auxiliaries. This man was married to a relative of the Con-
queror's, whom he killed in a fit of anger ; but before the report of her
death had got abroad, he hastened to the king, and begged that he
would give him money in exchange for his lands as he wished to return
into Flanders. William unsuspectingly ordered the sum which the
Fleming asked to be paid to him, and it was not until after his departure
that the real cause of it was discovered. Euder de Champagne had
married the Conqueror's sister by the mother's side. On the birth of
a son, he remarked to the king that his possession, the isle of Holderness
was not fertile, producing nothing but oats, and begged that he would
grant him a portion of land capable of bearing wheat wherewith the
child might be fed. William heard the request with due patience, and
gave him the entire town of Bytham in the province of Lincoln. From
the time that William's footing in England became sure, not young
soldiers alone, but whole families of men, women, and children, emigra-
ted from Gaul to seek their fortunes in the country of the English.
Geoffrey de Chaumont gave to his niece Denis all the lands which he
possessed in the country of Blois, and then departed to push new
PERIOD.] AILLIAM THE CONQL'EUOK. 179
fortunes for himself in England. " He afterwards returned to Chau-
mont," says the historian, " with an immense treasure, large sums of
money, a great number of artieles of rarity, and the titles of possessions
of more than one great and rich domain." William gave the county of
Chester to Hugh d'Avranche, sunmmed Le Loup, who built a fort at Kliud-
(llan, where he fought a murderous battle with the Welsh, the memory of
which is still preserved in a mournful Welsh air called Morfa-lthuddlan.
Le Loup invited over from Normandy one of his old friends named
Nigel, or Lenoir. Lenoir brought with him five brothers to share his
fortunes. He received for himself the town of Halton near the river
Mersey, and was made Le Loup's constable and hereditary marshal,
that is, wherever the count of Chester might war, Lenoir and his heirs
were bound to march at the head of the whole army in going forth to
battle, and to be the last in returning. Thej r had, as their share of the
booty, taken from the Welsh in plundering expeditions, the cattle of all
kinds. Their servants enjoyed the privilege of buying in the market
at Chester before any one else, except the count's servants. They had
the control of the roads and streets during fairs, the tolls of all markets
within the limits of Halton, and entire freedom from tax and toll, ex-
cepting on salt and horses. Hondard, the first of the five brothers,
became to Lenoir nearly what Lenoir was to Count Hugh, and received
for his services the lands of Weston and Ashton. He had also all the
bulls taken from the W'elsh, and the best ox as a recompense for the
man-at-arms who carried his banner. The other brothers received
domains from the constable ; and the fifth, who was a priest, obtained
the church of Runcone. These transactions, all the sharing of possessions
and offices -which took place in the province of Chester between the
Norman governor, his first lieutenant, and the lieutenant's five compa-
nions, give a true and faithful idea, says Thierry, of numerous transac-
tions of the same kind which were taking place at the same time in every
province of England. 15 It was thus that " the herdsmen of Normandy,
and the weavers of Flanders, with a little courage and good fortune,
soon became in England men of consequence, illustrious barons ; that
the man who had crossed the sea with the quilted cassock, and black
wooden bow of the foot-soldier, now appeared to the astonished eyes of
the new recruits who had come after him, mounted on a war-horse, and
invested with the military baldrick." Would you know, says an old
roll in the French language, what are the names of the great men who
came over the sea with the Conqueror, with Guillaume Batard a la
grande viguer? Here are their surnames as we find them written, but
without their Christian names being prefixed, for they are often wanting,
and often changed. They are Mandeville and Dandeville, Aufreville
and Domfreville, Bouteville and Estouteville, Mohun and Bohun, Bisset
and Basset, Malin and Malvoisin. The crowd of names that follow ap-
pear in the same arrangement of rude versification, so as to assist the
memory by the rhyme and alliteration. Several lists of the same kind,
and disposed with the same art, have come down to the present day,
having been found inscribed on large sheets of vellum in the archives of
the churches, and decorated with the title of ' Livre des Conquerans.'
In one of these lists the surnames are seen ranged in groupes of three,
'* Norman Conq. vol. i. p. 417.
180 POLITICAL SKKlti). [SECOND
thus : Bastard, Brassard, Baynard ; Bigot, Bagot, Talbot ; Toret, Trivet,
Bouet ; Lucy, Lacy, Percy. Another catalogue of the conquerors of
England, kept for a long time in the treasury of Battle- Abbey, contained
names of singularly low and fantastic formation, such as Bonvilain and
Bontevilain, Trousselot and Troussebout, L'Engayne and Longue-apee,
Ceil-de-Boeuf and Front-de-Bceuf. Several authentic acts designate as
Norman knights in England one Guillaume le charretier, one Hugues
le tailleur, one Guillaume le tambour ; and among the surnames of this
knighthood, gathered together from every corner of Gaul, we find a
great number of names belonging simply to towns and provinces : as
St Quentin, St Maur, St Denis, St Malo, Tournay, Verdun, Nismes,
Chalons, Etampes, Poclefort, La Rochelle, Cahors, Champagne, Gas-
cogne. Such were the men who brought into England the titles of
Noblemen and Gentlemen, and by force of arms established them for
themselves and their descendants." 16
To resume our historical outline : In 1075, William, now undisputed
sovereign of England, led an English army into Normandy to support
his interest in the province of Maine. During his absence a conspiracy
was formed against him among his own .Norman barons. The plot
failed ; and Waltheof being found guilty of misprision of treason, was
condemned and executed. The death of this popular Anglo-Saxon
noble, excited a deep sensation among his countrymen, who revered his
memory as that of a martyr, and secretly swore to revenge his fall. The
remaining years of William's life were spent amid continual tumult and
distraction. His half-brother Odo, openly aspiring to the papal dignity,
threatened to compromise him with a formidable foe ; the scheme was
defeated by William's activity and resolution, and Odo remained in
close confinement during the remainder of William's reign. Canute of
Denmark next renewed his project of invading England, and had col-
lected a fleet of one thousand vessels for this purpose at Haithably, but
William averted the storm from this quarter by secret negotiations with
the Danish chiefs. 17 This danger had scarcely subsided when his own
son Robert levied war upon his father, for refusing to invest him with
the duchy of Normandy, as he had promised to the French court when
meditating the invasion of England. William quickly drove his son
out of the field, and the interference of the nobles and clergy, aided by
the tears and entreaties of Queen Matilda, procured a termination to
this unnatural struggle.
William was now getting overgrown and infirm, but a clumsy jest of
a brother-monarch sufficed to awake his martial spirit, and plunge him
into a formidable war. The physicians had advised him to submit to a
tedious course of medicine, with the view of reducing his enormous
corpulency. Philip of France, in allusion to this circumstance, said to
some of his courtiers that the king of England was lying in at Rouen.