which only submitted after a long siege. The northern counties for a long time resisted, and again and again rose in revolt against the Normans. The Danish inhabitants of the north-east implored assistance from their kinsmen; but William, in 1069, after bribing the Danish king to withdraw the help he brought them, proceeded to take a terrible vengeance on the Saxons. For a hundred miles round York and Durham he left not a house standing; villages and towns were burnt by his troops, their inhabitants slain, or driven into Scotland, while pestilence and famine completed the ruin the Normans had begun. It is estimated that, in this way, nearly 100,000 persons perished.

Every movement of the Saxons was followed by new confiscations, and in a few years hardly a Saxon was left in possession of the lands his fathers had held for centuries. Many Saxons fled to Scotland, where they were kindly received by Malcolm the king; and bands of youth took service with the Emperor of Constantinople, and, under the name of Ingloi, became the brave defenders of the eastern empire against the Normans of Italy.

A determined band of outlaws collected in the fens of Lincolnshire, round Hereward, a noble Saxon; and in the almost inaccessible marshes of Ely, maintained for many years a desultory warfare against the Normans, till their leader, the noble Hereward, in 1072, was treacherously betrayed, and slain when resisting his captors. The name and deeds of this patriot were long remembered in the stories and ballads of the oppressed Saxons.

The

William did not spare the Saxon Church. greater part of the bishops and abbots were deposed, and their sees and monasteries given to French bishops and monks. This was done under various pretexts; one was, that the Saxon clergy were ignorant and dissolute; and it must be confessed that there was some truth in the charge. The Norman prelates and priests appointed in their places were more learned perhaps, but they spoke a language unintelligible to the people they were bound to instruct. Lanfranc, William's teacher, who was made Archbishop of Canterbury, was the most learned churchman of his time, and he endeavoured to promote morality and learning among his clergy.

William, in 1072, engaged in war with Malcolm of Scotland, and, after marching with a large army through that country, forced the king to sue for peace. His own sons, however, were undutiful, and gave great trouble during the latter years of his reign, by combining with the King of France and others of their father's enemies.

Towards the close of his reign his government of the Saxons became more rigorous; and his example was imitated by his barons, who, in their strong castles which they built throughout the country, ruled like petty kings. To keep down the subject-race, two institutions were revived and rendered more oppressive: one was the curfew-bell, which in Saxon times was used as a precaution against fire, and when rung at eight o'clock in the evening, warned all to extinguish their fires. William rigorously enforced this custom, that he might prevent all meetings of the Saxons at night, lest they should plot against his go

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vernment. The ancient institution of Frank-pledge was turned into what was called Presentment of Englishry. Any man found assassinated was considered as French, unless the hundred could prove that he was of Saxon birth. If they were unable to do so to the satisfaction of Norman judges, a large fine was imposed on them. William also re-imposed the hateful Dane-gelt.

In 1081, he issued a commission to certain persons, to make a survey of the whole kingdom, showing the extent, divisions, and nature of the landed property in each county; the tenants-in-chief, undertenants, burgesses of towns, freeholders, and serfs; and the rents and revenues of each person. The object of this was probably to facilitate the collection of taxes, and the raising of a due proportion of soldiers for the king. The book in which these accounts are contained is called Domesday-Book, and is now preserved in the Tower of London. It appears from it, that the total population of the country, about the time of the Conquest, was not more than two millions. The forest lands of England were large, and William was so great a lover of sport, that he added to their extent, by enclosing a large area in Hampshire, at the cost of great hardship to the poor inhabitants. This he called the New Forest.

In 1087, when the king was engaged in war with France, he captured the small town of Mantes, in Normandy, and ordered it to be burned to the ground for resisting him. When riding among the still smoking ruins, his horse stumbled and threw its rider. This accident hastened his death; and being carried

to Rouen, he expired there on the 9th of September, 1087, in the twenty-first year of his reign.

The treatment of his body aids us in forming a striking picture of the social condition of the time. His deathbed was deserted by all his friends and attendants, who all hastened to secure their own property from the tumult they anticipated would ensue. The great king's body lay sometime naked on the ground. At length the archbishop ordered it to be interred at Caen; and Herluin, a knight, out of compassion conveyed it, at his own expense, to that city. When about to be placed in the grave, a voice from the crowd exclaimed, "In the name of God, I forbid you to bury him; the ground whereon you stand is mine; William took it by violence from my father." After some debate, the bishop paid the man sixty shillings for the grave, and promised that he should receive the full value of his land. The ceremony was then continued, and the king's body buried.

THE Conqueror had three sons living at his death: Robert, William, and Henry. His favourite son was William, surnamed Rufus, from his ruddy complexion, or the colour of his hair. William was at Calais when

his father died, and immediately on hearing of this, set out for England, and seized the principal fortresses in the south, and especially the royal treasury at Winchester, where his father had stored up great wealth. Archbishop Lanfranc was favourable to the pretensions of Rufus; and by bribery, and other means, a considerable number of the barons of England were gained over to his party. Lanfranc crowned him at Westminster. His elder brother, Robert, learning how he had been deprived of his right, appeared in Normandy, where he had many friends, and proclaimed war against William. The Normans, who possessed estates both in England and Normandy, were at a loss what to do; for whichever side they took, they were in danger of losing some part of their possessions. William, by liberal promises of redress of grievances and amelioration of their condition, engaged many of the Saxons in his interest; and with an army, composed in part of them, besieged and took Rochester Castle, with its defender, his uncle, the warlike bishop of Bayeux, who had declared for Robert. Robert's natural indolence soon made him weary of the war, and he made peace with his brother, on condition of being left in quiet possession of Normandy during his life, and of succeeding to the throne of England if William should die childless, No sooner was the danger over, than the king faithlessly revoked the promises he had made to the axons, and instead of becoming better, their condition grew worse. The Conqueror had some sense of justice; his son had none. In 1089 Lanfranc died, and William, greedily seizing the vast revenues of the vacant see, refused