eyes," was made Archbishop of Canterbury. Earl Godwin however, who at the beginning of the reign was the King's chief adviser, kept the foreigners in check as much as he could. A wise and eloquent statesman, Godwin in the main served his country well, but at the same time had a keen eye to his own interests. His possessions, acquired by grants from successive kings, were enormous; his daughter Edith was married to the King, and his two elder sons and his nephew were provided with earldoms. Naturally he was regarded with jealousy by the other great Earls, and still more so by the French favourites, who at last found an opportunity to overthrow him. In 1051 Eustace, Count of Boulogne, the husband of King Edward's sister, being on his way home from a visit to the English court, had a brawl with the burghers of Dover, arising out of his own insolent conduct. Godwin refused to inflict any punishment upon the Dover men, who belonged to his Earldom, before they had been heard in their own defence; and the quarrel which consequently arose between him and the King ended in Godwin and all his sons being outlawed. The next year he came back from Flanders at the head of a fleet, and the Norman knights and priests were glad to get away as fast as they could. Archbishop Robert, and Ulf, the Norman Bishop of Dorchester, with their followers, forced their way through the east gate of London, and fled over sea. Earl Godwin died not long after, being seized with a fit while dining with the King; but his Earldom and his power passed to his son Harold, who in fact ruled the kingdom, and who gained great credit by his victories over the Welsh.

2. The Northern Earldoms.-In 1055 died the Earl of the Northumbrians, Siward "the Strong," a fierce and stalwart Dane, familiar to us by name as figuring in Shakspere's play of Macbeth. Of his last moments a tale is told, which, whatever may be its

truth, shows what was supposed to be the spirit of a Northern hero. When he felt his end drawing nigh, he exclaimed against the shame, as he deemed it, of dying, not in battle, but of disease-"the death of Cows." So he had his armour put on, and his axe placed in his hand, that he might at least die in warrior's garb. Tostig, a younger brother of Harold, was appointed in his stead; but the new Earl's rule proved so harsh that in 1065 the Northcountrymen revolted, and setting up a Mercian noble, Morcar, as their Earl, succeeded in getting Tostig outlawed. Morcar's elder brother Edwin was already Earl of the Mercians, and the dream of the two throughout life seems to have been to form their governments into an independent kingdom.

3. Death of Edward.-King Edward died in 1066, having lived just long enough to finish the building of an abbey on the spot where Sæbert, first Christian King of the East-Saxons, had founded a small monastery to St. Peter, called the West-Minster. In the thirteenth century King Henry III. and his successor replaced Edward's work by the more magnificent church now standing. On his deathbed the childless Edward recommended Earl Harold for his successor; though, according to the Normans, he had promised that their Duke, William, should reign after him. Indeed, it is said that Harold himself, being once at the Norman court, had, willingly or unwillingly, sworn to support William. In that age an ordinary oath of homage (that is, the oath by which one man made himself the vassal of another) was broken with little scruple; and therefore, according to one tale, the wily Duke had entrapped his guest into unwittingly swearing on all the holiest relics in Normandy. King Edward was soon honoured as a saint; for, though he neglected his duties as a ruler, he was pious after his fashion, and the miseries the people endured under his foreign successors led

them to look back upon him with regret. In later days the title of Confessor, which the Church was wont to bestow upon those who were noted for their holy life and death, was conferred upon him.

4. House of Godwin. Harold II., Jan. 6— Oct. 14, 1066.-On the day of Edward's death, Earl Harold, though not of the Royal house, was elected. King by the Witan; the next morning the late King was buried, and the new one crowned, in the WestMinster. On hearing of this, Duke William of Normandy was speechless with rage. He resolved to appeal to the sword; but as it did not suit him to appear a wrongful aggressor, he did his best to make Europe believe he was in the right. He sent to Rome to crave a blessing upon his enterprise, and found there an ally in the Archdeacon Hildebrand (afterwards Pope Gregory VII.), who eagerly seized the opportunity for bringing the Church of England into more complete obedience to Rome. Under Hildebrand's influence the Pope, Alexander II., declared William the lawful claimant, and sent a consecrated banner to hallow the attack upon England.

Mean

The

5. Invasion of Harold Hardrada. while the North of England was invaded by Harold, the King of the Norwegians, a gigantic warrior, surnamed, from the harshness of his government, Hardrada, that is, Stern-in-counsel. He was joined by the exiled Tostig; and Icelanders and Orkneyinen, Scots and Irish Danes, flocked together under the "LandWaster," as the Norwegian standard was called. invader had already received the surrender of York, when Harold of England came suddenly upon the Norwegian army at Stamford Bridge, Sept. 25th. In Scandinavian legend the English King is represented as offering Tostig a third of the kingdom if he would return to his allegiance; Tostig asked what his brother would give Hardrada "for his toil in coming hither?" "Seven feet of the ground of England, or more

perchance, seeing he is taller than other men." But there can have been no time for such parley. The English gained a complete victory, Hardrada and Tostig being among the slain.

6. Battle of Hastings or Senlac.-The King was holding the customary victory-feast at York, when a thane of Sussex entered with the tidings that the Normans had landed at Pevensey. Duke William, after waiting more than six weeks for a south wind, had at last set sail, had landed unresisted on the defenceless Sussex shore, Sept. 28th, and occupied Hastings. With the utmost speed, Harold marched to London, calling all to his standard-a summons which was readily obeyed, save by the half-hearted Edwin and Morcar, who delayed bringing up their forces. From thence he again set out, and pitched his camp on the height called Senlac, about seven miles from Hastings. The eve of battle, so the Normans averred, was spent by the English in drinking and singing, and by the invaders in prayer and confession. On the 14th October the armies joined battle. The combat was long and doubtful, but the impatience of some of the shire levies, who, despite Harold's previous orders, broke their ranks and rushed down the hill in pursuit of some retreating enemies, gave the first advantage to the Normans, whose archers did the rest. An arrow pierced the eye of the English King, who, falling, was hacked in pieces by four French knights, of whom Eustace of Boulogne was one. The thanes and housecarls were slaughtered almost to a man around the fallen standard of their King. On the morrow the aged Gytha craved the body of her son Harold, but the Duke refused to permit it Christian burial. Even to find the mangled corpse was no easy task, and two canons of Waltham, who had followed the English army, made search for it without success, until they brought a former favourite of Harold's, Edith "of the Swan's Neck," to aid them.

7. Coronation of William.-The Londoners, together with such of the great men as were at hand, now elected to the throne the young Etheling Edgar, the grandson of Edmund Ironside. But though Edwin and Morcar, who on the news of Harold's fall had hastened their march, consented to the youth's election, they were cold in his cause, and soon betook themselves home with their forces. Thus left unsupported, those in London ere long tendered the crown to the Norman Duke, then at Berkhamstead. On Christmas Day, William the Norman-the Conqueror, as he is called in history -was crowned King at Westminster.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS

The Old-English (1)—the ordeal (2)—the slave-trade (3) -London (4)-language (5)—literature (6)—the Normans; the Bayeux Tapestry (7)—castles; churchbuilding (8)-feudal tenures; fealty, homage, and service; knights and barons; decay of feudalism; villainage (9) -government (10)—the towns; the gilds (11).

1. The Old-English.-The English appear to have been a well-favoured race, from the days of Pope Gregory's "Angels" to the time when King William, returning to Normandy after his coronation, carried in his train the Ætheling Edgar and other young Englishmen, on whose "girlish grace" and flowing hair the French and Normans gazed with admiration. Yet young Earl Waltheof, one of those whose beauty is thus praised, attained to giant strength, and proved that he was no degenerate son of his father, Earl Siward the Strong. The ancient English