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CHAPTER IX.

ENGLAND DURING THE REIGN OF WILLIAM THE Conqueror, A. D. 1066-1087.

1. MORE than a century and a half had elapsed since Rollo, the sea-king, had received baptism at the hands of the Archbishop of Rouen, and been acknowledged vassal to his father-in-law, Charles the Simple, for the country afterwards called Normandy, from the northern origin of its conquerors, A. D. 912. The fifth descendant from Rollo was Robert II., surnamed the Devil, on whose death his son William had acquired great renown by defending against numerous enemies the inheritance transmitted to him by his father, notwithstanding his illegitimacy; and now the victory of Senlac or Hastings appeared to have crowned all his wishes. William's first care after the battle was to secure his communications with the continent; and therefore, instead of advancing to London, he moved towards Dover, spreading devastation as he went. The strong fortress of Dover Castle was treacherously surrendered, and the conqueror, now assured of retreat in case of reverse, for the Saxons had not given up all for lost, marched direct to London. Here the witenagemot had assembled; but unfortunately there were several competitors for the crown, and much precious time was lost ere it was agreed on to elect Edgar Atheling, the son of Edmund Ironside, to the vacant throne. When William appeared before the capital, he found the gates closed and the inhabitants prepared for resistance. After burning the suburb of Southwark, he marched to Wallingford; while detachments of his soldiery committed the most ferocious ravages in Surrey, Sussex, Hants, and Berkshire, the smoking ruins of towns and villages marking the course of his army. He next moved to Berkhampstead, thus interrupting all communication with the north. London now began to suffer from William's skilful though desolating policy, and the citizens, losing heart, sent a submissive deputation to swear allegiance to the Conqueror. The duke formally accepted the crown thus offered to him, and announced that

the coronation should take place at the approaching festival of Christmas; but he would not enter the city until a fortress (afterwards the Tower) was built for his reception.

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2. The new king took numerous precautions to secure the throne he had gained by his sword. He disarmed the citizens of London and of the chief cities in the kingdom, built castles to overawe them, or repaired those which . already existed, and garrisoned them with Norman soldiers. To recompense his followers, he began the most extraordinary and unjust act of spoliation upon record. Royal commissioners were appointed to draw up an exact inventory every kind of property, whether belonging to the state or to private individuals. They were further instructed to set down the names of all the English who were or who should have been present at the battle of Hastings, and divide them into three classes: 1st, The killed; 2d, The wounded, fugitives, and prisoners; 3d, Those who were not present at the battle. As soon as this list was complete, all the possessions of the obnoxious persons were seized. In the first place, the children and relations of the slain were disinherited for ever. The lives of all in the second class were spared, but they also were utterly despoiled. The members of the third class lost every thing, but they were promised that, after long years of subserviency to the new dynasty, their descendants might perhaps receive from the royal gratitude some small portion of the inheritance of which they had been deprived.

The produce of this confiscation was immense. The king first seized upon Harold's treasure, which was considerable he then despoiled the churches and convents of their silver and jewels, and forced the merchants to give up their rarest and most valuable merchandise. He liberally rewarded the churches and monasteries of Normandy that had prayed for the success of his expedition, and sent the pope a number of rich presents, with the English standard taken at Hastings. To gratify his rapacious followers, he distributed among them not only domains and manors, but castles, towns, and cities. Women of high birth, widows of those who had bravely fallen in battle against the invaders, and wealthy heiresses, were given in marriage to those of his companions who had stipulated for

the hands of princesses; while large sums of money were granted to such as desired no other reward for their services. In some places the inhabitants were distributed as booty; and the king received, like his followers, wealthy burghers, who became his property, and who annually paid him a certain rent. One Norman had for his share a castle, twenty houses in the town, and one hundred and fifty-nine manorial dwellings surrounded with land in a state of cultivation: another dispossessed thirty Saxon proprietors, who became serfs attached to the glebe. The English who attempted to defend the honour of their daughters, or the bread necessary to their existence, were hung as rebels, and the revolting details of their spoliation leave on the mind a deep feeling of detestation for the ruthless conqueror.

3. England was not yet subdued, and only six months had elapsed since the battle of Hastings, when William revisited Normandy, where he was received with the greatest enthusiasm. During his absence, the Saxons, already bitterly exasperated by spoliation and ill treatment, were driven to revolt by the tyranny of the regent Odo; but though several popular outbreaks took place, they were not of a formidable character, and were easily suppressed. After an absence of eight months, the conqueror returned, and in 1068 extended his power over all the south-western portion of England, everywhere building fortresses and distributing estates among his followers. The dispossessed Saxons became outlaws, and fled into the woods, where they supported themselves by the spoils of the surrounding country.

William's next campaign was undertaken for the subjugation of the central and northern provinces, and presented greater difficulties and dangers than he had yet encountered. The Earls Morcar and Edwin, Harold's brothers-in-law, had raised the standard of independence on the north of the Humber, a river which had not hitherto been crossed by a Norman soldier. Their followers were brave and determined; but the conqueror came upon them unawares, and the city of York was taken by storm. Still the Normans were not safe beyond the walls of that fortress; and, in 1069, it became necessary for them to extend their frontiers farther north.

Now

came the fiercest struggle of all. Aided by a strong auxiliary body of Danes, the Saxon army recaptured York, and when William marched to its recovery, the natives everywhere rose in his rear. After an obstinate resistance the city fell once more, and the Normans entered Northumbria, devastating the cultivated fields, burning towns and villages, and massacring indiscriminately men, women, and children. "From York to Durham," wrote William of Malmesbury about eighty years after, "not an inhabited village remained. Fire, slaughter, and desolation made a vast wilderness there, which continues to this day." Language can but faintly describe the horrors of this "dismal slaughter," as a contemporary calls it, who adds that more than 100,000 victims perished.

Famine

and its attendant pestilence followed in the conqueror's train; and when the dead horses of the Normans no longer afforded -sustenance, the Northumbrians are reported to have fed on human flesh.

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It would be a tedious and a melancholy task to recount the tale of England's woes during the long period that elapsed between the battle of Hastings and the firm establishment of the Norman rule. Although the nation offered no combined resistance to the progress of the conqueror, yet there were patriots in many quarters who took advantage of the natural difficulties of the country to oppose William's victorious career. Of these Hereward, England's darling," was the chief, who in the camp of refuge, in the fens of Ely, and afterwards in the marshes of Lincolnshire, withstood all the forces the Normans could bring against him. He fell at last by treachery; but such was his reputation, that it became a popular saying among both Saxons and Normans, that if there had been four like him in England the French would never have entered it, and that, if he had not been killed, he would, one day or another, have expelled them all.

4. Although Saxon England was now quiet and subdued, William's reign was by no means one of tranquillity. His subjects in Maine rebelled, and it was principally by the assistance of a Saxon army that they were reduced to submission. Nor were the Normans in England entirely obedient to the conqueror's rule, for, in 1075, they entered

into a conspiracy to dethrone him; but their designs being betrayed, the chiefs suffered the penalty of their treason. In his domestic life, also, William experienced much unhappiness. Robert, his eldest son, revolted, and in a skirmish nearly slew his father: Richard, his second son, was gored to death by a stag in the New Forest; and his two favourites, William and Henry, were with difficulty restrained from quarrelling with each other.

But William's end was approaching. In 1086, he prepared for war against France for the possession of the city of Mantes and the adjoining territory. Temporary indisposition retarded the course of hostilities, which, on the king's recovery, were renewed with ferocious violence, in consequence of a coarse jest uttered by Philip of France. Mantes was taken and burnt to the ground; and as the conqueror rode up to view the havoc he had caused, his horse put his feet on some burning embers, which made him plunge so violently, that the corpulent monarch was bruised against the high pummel of the saddle. William lingered in great pain during six weeks, and died near Rouen on the 9th of September 1087. No sooner had he breathed his last sigh than all his attendants deserted him to look after their own interests, not forgetting to strip the royal apartments of everything they could carry away -arms, plate, linen, and even the kingly robes. For nearly three hours the dead body of the once powerful monarch lay almost naked on the bare floor; until the monks of Saint Gervas, in whose convent he had expired, came to pray over his dishonoured corpse.

5. DOMESDAY-BOOK.-While William was tyrannical to the Saxon people, he was resolved also to keep his own Norman followers in awe. As soon as he found that his new vassals were encroaching on the rights of the crown, he showed an intention of treading in the footsteps of the great Alfred. For this purpose he nominated a commission of inquiry, whose labours extended over six years. The book in which its results were recorded is A. D. } 1080-1086. known as the Domesday-book, and contains a tolerably accurate account of the change of property throughout thirty counties. When this inquisition was completed, he assembled at Winchester all who had assisted in the con