future insurrections. His first step was, to order the county of Northumberland to be laid waste, 'the houses to be burned, the instruments of húsbandry to be destroyed, and the inhabitants to seek new habitations. By this order, it is said, that above one hundred thousand persons perished either by the sword or famine, and the country is supposed, even at this day, to bear the marks of its ancient depopulation. He next proceeded to confiscate all the estates of the English gentry, and to grant them liberally to his Norman followers. Thus, all the ancient and honourable families were reduced to beggary, and the English found themselves entirely excluded from every road that led . either to honour or preferment. They had the cruel mortification to find, that all his power only tended to their depression, and that the scheme of their subjection was attended with every circumstance of insult and indignity. He was not yet, however, sufficiently arbitrary to change all the laws then in being, for those of He only made several innovaand ordered the law-pleas in the several courts to be made in the Norman language. Yet, with all his endeavours to make the French the popular language, the English still gained ground; and what deserves remark, it had adopted much more of the French idiom for two or three reigns before, than during the whole line of the Norman kings succeeding.

his own country.

ons,

The feudal law had been before introduced into England by the Saxons, but this monarch reformed it, according to the model of that practised in his native dominions. He divided all the lands of England, except the royal demesne, into baronies, and conferred those, upon certain military conditions, on the most considerable of his followers. These had a power of sharing their grants to infe

rior tenants, who were denominated knights, or vassals, who paid their lord the same duty that he paid the sovereign. To the first class of these baronies the English were not admitted and the few who were permitted still to retain their landed property, were content to be received in the second. The Barons exercised all kinds of jurisdiction within their own manors, and held courts in which they administered justice to their own vassals. This law extended not only to the laity, but also to the bishops and clergy. They had usurped a power during the Saxon succession, of being governed within themselves, but William restrained them to the exercise of their ecclesiastical power only, and subjected them to a similitude of duties with the rest of their fellow subjects. This they at first regarded as a grievous imposition; but the king's authority was established, by a power, that neither the clergy nor the pope could intimidate. But, to keep the clergy as much as possible in his interests, he appointed none but his own countrymen to the most considerable church-dignities, and even displaced Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, upon some frivolous pretences. His real motive was, that such

a dignity was too exalted for a native to possess. While he was thus employed in humbling the clergy, he was no less solicitous to repress many of those superstitious practices to which they had given countenance. He endeavoured to abolish trials by Ordeal, and Camp-fight; the ordeal trial, which had been originally of Pagan institution, and was still held in veneration by the SaxonChristians, was either by fire or water. It was used in criminal cases, where the suspicions were strong, but the proofs not evident. In that of fire, the person accused was brought into an open plain, and several plough-shares, heated red-hot, were placed at e

qual intervals before him, over these he was to walk blindfolded, and if he escaped unhurt, he was acquitted of the charge. In the trial by water, the person accused was thrown, bound hand and foot, into the water: if he sunk, he was declared innocent, if he swam, he was executed, as being thus miraculously convicted. The trial by camp-fight was performed by single combat, in lists appointed for that purpose, between the accuser and the accused. He that, in such a case, came of victorious, was deemed innocent; and he that was conquered, if he survived his antagonist's resentment in the field, was sure to suffer as a malefactor some time after. Both these trials William abolished, as unchristian and unjust, and he reduced all causes to the judgment of twelve men, of a rank nearly equal to that of the prisoner. This method of trial by jury, was common to the Saxons, as well as the Normans, long before; but it was now confirmed by him, with all the sanction of undisputed authority.

A. D.

While William was thus employed, in rewarding his associates, punishing the 1071. refractory, and giving laws for the benefit

of all, he was threatened with an insurrection in his dominions on the continent, which he thought his. presence necessary to suppress. Unwilling, however, to draw off his Norman forces from England, he carried over a considerable army, composed almost entirely of English; and, by those brave troops he soon reduced the revolters to submission. Thus we see a whimsical vicissitude of fortune; the inhabitants of Normandy brought over for the conquest of the English, and the English sent back to conquer the Normans. However, William had not time to enjoy his success unmolested; for accounts were quickly brought him from England,

that a new conspiracy was formed, more dreadful in being supported by the jint efforts of the Normans as well as the English. The adventurers who had followed the fortunes of William into England, had been bred in authority and independence at home, and were ill able to endure the absolute authority which this monarch had for some time assumed. The discontents were therefore become very general among these haughty nobles, and some wanted only the opportunity of his absence to break out into open rebellion. Among the number was Roger, earl of Hereford, son and heir to Fitzosborne, who had been the king's principal favourite. This nobleman had, either by way of compliment to the king, or in compliance with some obligation of the feudal law, solicited William's consent to permit the marriage of his sister with Ralph de Guader, earl of Norfolk; but he was flatly refused. Nevertheless, he proceeded to solemnize the nuptials with great magnificence, assembling all his friends, and those of Guader upon the occasion. As the parents of the new married couple were well acquainted with the character of William, whose resentment they had every reason to dread, they took the opportunity, while the company was heated with wine, to introduce that as a subject of conversation. They inveighed against the severity of his government; they observed that by means of his excessive impositions, he had taken with one hand what he had given with the other; they affected to commiserate the English, whom he had reduced to beggary, and aggravated the defects in his disposition, which they represented as haughty and unforgiving. The guests were ready enough at any time to concur in their complaints; but now, warmed by the jollity of the engagement, they put no bounds to their zeal. They unanimously entered into a conspiracy

1

to shake off his yoke; and earl Waltheoff himself whom we have already seen pardoned upon a for-mer insurrection, was among the foremost on this occasion. But it was not without the greatest anxiety, that he reflected in his cooler intervalsupon an engagement made in the ardour of intoxication, big with the most fatal consequences both to himself and his country. In this state of perturbation, he had recourse to his wife, the niece of the king, and unbosomed himself to her, as he had the most firm reliance on her fidelity. But he was deceived, for she was in love with another, and only wanted an opportunity of getting rid of her husband at any rate. She, therefore, instantly found means to communicate the whole affair to the king, taking care to represent her husband's conduct in the most disadvantageous point of light. In the mean time. Waltheoff himself gave way to his internal remorse, and confessed the whole conspiracy to Lanfranc, who exhorted him, by all means, to reveal it to the king; which he was at last persuaded to do; but it was not till the whole affair had been divulged by his faithless consort. William coolly thanked him for his fidelity, but the former account of his perfidy sunk deep in the king's mind, and he secretly resolved to punish it.

During this interval, the conspirators being informed that Waltheoff was gone over to Normandy, justly concluded that their designs were betrayed, and flew to arms before their schemes were ripe for execution. The earl of Hereford was checked by Walter de Lacy, a great Baron, in the king's interest. The earl of Norfolk was defeated by Odo, the king's brother, and the prisoners who were taken had each the right foot cut off, in order to deter others from a similitude of treason. The earl himself retired to Denmark; so that William, upon his arrival in England, found that nothing re