O'er India's climes our arms succeed, Our lovely Queen, with offspring bless'd, And Brunswick's line on England's throne 'Secur'd to ages yet unknown. Still o'er Old Albion's isle she reigns, Long may she reign, till call'd above, COMPRISING A SKETCH OF THE CHARACTER OF EACH MONARCH, AND A SUMMARY OF THE LEADING EVENTS IN EACH REIGN. CHARACTER OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. WILLIAM was a prince of great courage, capacity, and ambition; he was stern, obdurate, and revengeful; but of a vigorous and commanding spirit. He was fond of glory, and though not insensible to generosity, he was hardened against compassion; and he appeared ostentatious, and ambitious of show and parade, equally in his clemency and in his severity. His aspect was noble, his stature tall and portly, and his strength so great, that few men of that age could bend his bow or handle his arms. Though very far from being one of the best, he was probably one of the greatest of the English monarchs. HISTORICAL EVENTS. WILLIAM was the natural son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, by Arlotta, the daughter of a furrier in Falaise, and was very early established in that grandeur, from which his birth seemed to have set him at so great a distance. He was only ten years of age, when, upon the death of his father, in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in 1035, he succeeded to the duchy; having received the allegiance of the States, and been acknowledged successor to Robert, prior to that prince's departure. Some years afterwards he paid a visit to Edward the Confessor, who treated him with great respect, and made a tour with him through England. Edward the Confessor dying without issue, was said to have appointed him his heir; and William soon after landed at Pevensey, in Sussex, with a powerful army, and proceeded to Hastings. Harold, the reigning prince, marched to oppose him, and a severe battle ensued on the 14th of October, 1066, in which William obtained a complete victory, though he had three horses killed under him, and lost a great number of his troops. Harold was killed, with many of the nobility, and nearly 30,000 soldiers. William pretended that he came to revenge the death of Prince Alfred, brother to King Edward; to restore Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, to his see; and to obtain the crown as his right, it having been bequeathed to him by Edward the Confessor. The latter part of William's life was disturbed by a rebellion of his son Robert, who having been promised the dukedom of Normandy, demanded the fulfilment of this promise in his father's lifetime. William gave him a flat denial, observing that "it was not his custom to throw off his clothes till he went to bed." An open quarrel was the consequence; and after a contest of several years, Robert was besieged by his father in the castle of Gerberoy, in France. The garrison was strong; and many skirmishes took place. In one of these, the King and his son met, and, without knowing each other, engaged with fury. Robert wounded his WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. father in the arm, and unhorsed him the next blow would probably have been fatal, had not the King made himself known by calling for help. Robert, shocked at the dreadful crime he was on the point of committing, threw himself at his father's feet, and implored forgiveness. William sternly withdrew; but afterwards, moved by his son's conduct, restored him to favour. William's death happened while on an expedition against the King of France, who had offended him by invading Normandy, and privately supporting some of the rebellious nobility. It was occasioned by a bruise in the abdomen, against the pommel of his horse's saddle. He died in a village near Rouen, on the 9th of September, 1087, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, after reigning fifty-two years in Normandy, and twenty-one in England. He was interred at Caen; and a remarkable circumstance occurred at his funeral. As the body was being carried to the grave, a man who stood by, in a loud voice forbade its interment in a spot which the deceased had unjustly seized. "That very spot," he cried, "is the site of my father's house; and I summon the departed soul before the divine tribunal, to answer for the crime." All present were struck by this solemn appeal; and the man's charge being found to be just, he immediately received satisfaction for the wrong. LONDON'S FIRST CHARTER.-It is a remarkable fact, that the conditions on which the citizens of London consented to William's assumption of the crown of England, formed the subject of a written charter, the first they ever possessed. It consists of only four lines, on a bit of parchment six inches long and one broad. The following is a literal translation of this interesting |