their prince, still made a vigorous resistance, he tried a
stratagem, which was very delicate in its management,
but which seemed adviseable in his desperate situation,
where, if he gained not a decisive victory, he was totally
undone: He commanded his troops to make a hasty re-
treat, and to allure the enemy from their ground by the
appearance of flight. The artifice succeeded against
those unexperienced soldiers, who, heated by the action,
and sanguine in their hopes, precipitately followed the
Normans into the plain. William gave orders, that at
once the infantry should face about upon their pursuers,
and the cavalry make an assault upon their wings, and
both of them pursue the advantage, which the surprise
and terror of the enemy must give them in that critical
and decisive moment. The English were repulsed with
great slaughter, and driven back to the hill; where, being
rallied by the bravery of Harold, they were able, notwith-
standing their loss, to maintain the post, and continue
the combat. The duke tried the same stratagem a second
time with the same success; but even after this double
advantage, he still found a great body of the English,
who, maintaining themselves in firm array, seemed de-
termined to dispute the victory to the last extremity. He
ordered his heavy armed infantry to make an assault
upon them; while his archers, placed behind, should gall
the enemy, who were exposed by the situation of the
ground, and who were intent on defending themselves
against the swords and spears of the assailants. By this
disposition he at last prevailed: Harold, was slain by an
arrow, while he was combating with great bravery at the
head of his men: His two brothers shared the same fate:
And the English, discouraged by the fall of those princes,
gave ground on all sides, and were pursued with great
slaughter by the victorious Normans.
A few troops,

however, of the vanquished, had still the courage to turn
upon their pursuers; and attacking them in deep and
miry ground, obtained some revenge for the slaughter
and dishonour of the day. But the appearance of the
duke obliged them to seek their safety by flight; and
darkness saved them from any farther pursuit by the
enemy,

CHAP.

ΠΙ.

THUS was gained by William, duke of Normandy, the great and decisive victory of Hastings, after a battle which was fought from morning till sunset, and which seemed worthy, by the heroic valour displayed by both armies, and by both commanders, to decide the fate of a mighty kingdom. William had three horses killed under him; and there fell near fifteen thousand men on the side of the Normans: The loss was still more considerable on that of the vanquished; besides the death of the king and his two brothers. The dead body of Harold was brought to William, and was generously restored without ransom to his mother. The Norman army left not the field of battle without giving thanks to Heaven in the most solemn manner for their victory: And the prince, having refreshed his troops, prepared to push to the utmost his advantage against the divided, dismayed, and discomfited English.

APPENDIX I.

THE ANGLO-SAXON GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.

First Saxon Government-Succession of the kings-The
Wittenagemot―The aristocracy—The several orders of
men-Courts of justice-Criminal law-Rules of proof
-Military force-Public revenue-Value of money
Manners.

I.

THE government of the Germans, and that of Appendix all the northern nations, who established themselves on the ruins of Rome, was always extremely free; and those fierce people, accustomed to independence and inured to arms, were more guided by persuasion than authority, in the submission which they paid to their princes. The military despotism, which had taken place in the Roman empire, and which, previously to the irruption of those conquerors, had sunk the genius of men, and destroyed every noble principle of science and virtue, was unable to resist the vigorous efforts of a free people; and Europe, as from a new epoch, rekindled her ancient spirit, and shook off the base servitude to arbitrary will and autho rity under which she had so long laboured. The free constitutions then established, however impaired by the encroachments of succeeding princes, still preserve an air of independence and legal administration, which distinguish the European nations; and if that part of the globe. maintain sentiments of liberty, honour, equity, and valour, superior to the rest of mankind, it owes these advantages chiefly to the seeds implanted by those generous barbarians.

on govern

THE Saxons who subdued Britain, as they enjoyed First Saxgreat liberty in their own country, obstinately retained ment VOL. I. Z

170

1.

Appendix that invaluable possession in their new settlement; and they imported into this island the same principles of independence, which they had inherited from their ancestors. The chieftains (for such they were, more properly than kings or princes) who commanded them in those military expeditions, still possessed a very limited authority; and as the Saxons exterminated, rather than subdued, the ancient inhabitants, they were indeed transplanted into a new territory, but preserved unaltered all their civil and military institutions. The language was pure Saxon; even the names of places, which often remain while the tongue entirely changes, were almost all affixed by the conquerors; the manners and customs were wholly German; and the same picture of a fierce and bold liberty, which is drawn by the masterly pencil of Tacitus, will suit those founders of the English government. The king, so far from being invested with arbitrary power, was only considered as the first among the citizens; his authority depended more on his personal qualities than on his station; he was even so far on a level with the people, that a stated price was fixed for his head, and a legal fine was levied upon his murderer, which, though proportionate to his station, and superior to that paid for the life of a subject, was a sensible mark of his subordination to the community.

Succession of the

kings.

It is easy to imagine, that an independent people, so little restrained by law and cultivated by science, would not be very strict in maintaining a regular succession of their princes. Though they paid great regard to the royal family, and ascribed to it an undisputed superiority; they either had no rule, or none that was steadily observed, in filling the vacant throne; and present convenience, in that emergency, was more attended to than general principles. We are not, however, to suppose that the crown was considered as altogether elective; and that a regular plan was traced by the constitution for supplying, by the suffrages of the people, every vacancy made by the demise of the first magistrate. If any king left a son of an age and capacity fit for government, the young prince naturally stepped into the throne: If he was a minor, his uncle, or the next prince of the blood, was pro

I.

noted to the government, and left the sceptre to his pos- Appendix terity: Any sovereign, by taking previous measures with the leading men, had it greatly in his power to appoint his successor: All these changes, and indeed the ordinary administration of government, required the express concurrence, or at least the tacit acquiescence of the people; but possession, however obtained, was extremely apt to secure their obedience, and the idea of any right, which was once excluded, was but feeble and imperfect. This is so much the case in all barbarous monarchies, and occurs so often in the history of the Anglo-Saxons, that we cannot consistently entertain any other notion of their government. The idea of an hereditary succession in anthority is so natural to men, and is so much fortified by the usual rule in transmitting private possessions, that it must retain a great influence on every society, which does not exclude it by the refinements of a republican constitution. But as there is a material difference between government and private possessions, and every man is not as much qualified for exercising the one, as for enjoying the other, a people, who are not sensible of the general advantages attending a fixed rule, are apt to make great leaps in the succession, and frequently to pass over the person, who, had he possessed the requisite years and abilities, would have been thought entitled to the sovereignty. Thus, these monarchies are not, strictly speaking, either elective or hereditary; and though the destination of a prince may often be followed in appointing his successor, they can as little be regarded as wholly testamentary. The states by their suffrage may sometimes. establish a sovereign; but they more frequently recognize the person whom they find established: A few great men take the lead; the people, overawed and influenced, acquiesce in the government; and the reigning prince, provided he be of the royal family, passes undisputedly for the legal sovereign.

IT is confessed, that our knowledge of the Anglo- The WitSaxon history and antiquities is too imperfect to afford us tenagemot. means of determining, with certainty, all the prerogatives of the crown and privileges of the people, or of giving an exact delineation of that government. It is probable