to appoint a successor to Lanfranc for some years, till the unanimous voice of the barons compelled him to select for the office, Anselm, the successor of Lanfranc, in learning and wisdom. So evil an opinion had Anselm of the king's character, that it was not till urgently entreated by his friends that he would accept the offered dignity. During the whole time the king lived, Anselm was engaged in a perpetual struggle to preserve the rights of the Church; and to protect the oppressed Saxons from the rapacity of the king and his courtiers. William led a dissolute life, and to supply his excesses the poor Saxons were still further humiliated and distressed by fines and confiscations. He forcibly employed the poor as labourers to erect his castles, and build a palace at Westminster, to which he added Westminster Hall, which still remains. Many of the English took refuge in the royal forests to escape from his outrages, and became outlaws, attacking on all occasions the wealthy Normans who came in their way.

In the year 1100, when William was pursuing his favourite sport of the chase in the New Forest, he was killed by an arrow from the bow, it is said, of Walter Tyrell, one of his attendants; but it seems very probable that he fell a victim to a conspiracy, either of Saxons, or of his brother Henry and the Norman nobles. His body lay for some time neglected on the ground, till it was taken up by a charcoal-burner, named Purkiss, and brought in a cart to Winchester. Henry seems very soon to have heard of his brother's death, and immediately hastened to Winchester, which still retained a kind of pre-eminence as the ancient capital of the West-Saxons. By a liberal distribution

of the treasure he found there, Henry secured his unopposed accession to the throne.

Thus was Robert a second time disappointed. He was now far away, engaged in the Crusades in Palestine, where he scaled the walls of Jerusalem, and assisted to place Godfrey de Bouillon on the Christian throne of the Holy City.

Henry gained the favour of the priesthood by many favours; and received from his flatterers among them the name of Beauclerc, or the good scholar. More prudent and honest than his brother, he made a sincere attempt to conciliate the Saxons, by marrying Maud, the daughter of King Malcolm of Scotland, and of Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling, the last Saxon claimant of the English throne. This step, as it excited joy among the Saxons, was as much disliked by the Normans, who saw in it a design to raise their serfs to an equality with themselves. Anselm, however, and the clergy, warmly supported the marriage, and the king had no reason to regret it; for when Duke Robert returned to Normandy, and made preparations to attack Henry, the English were ready to fight for the king, and contributed mainly to the victory of Tinchebray, in 1106, when Robert and his army were completely defeated by Henry. Robert was taken prisoner, and confined for life in Cardiff Castle, and some historians say, that Henry was so inhuman as to deprive him of his sight. Henry then took possession of Normandy, and reunited it to England. In 1112, a great calamity happened to him. His only son, William, was drowned on the passage from Normandy to England, with a great company of young Norman

nobles ; only one man, a butcher of Rouen, was saved from the wreck of the vessel. The Saxons were not sorry for the prince's death, as he had on many occasions given vent to hatred and contempt for their race, and threatened them with great severities when he came to the throne.

Maud, called by the Saxons the "good queen," soon after this died also; and Henry became melancholy and irritable. His daughter and heiress, Matilda, had been married to the Emperor of Germany; and she now returned a widow to her father's court, who in 1126, required all his barons and vassals to swear allegiance to her as his successor. Shortly after this, she married Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, and by him had a son called Henry. To this young prince the barons shortly before the king's death swore fealty. In 1135 King Henry died. He was a man of great natural ability; brave and ambitious; but suspicious and cruel. He seldom forgot an injury, and never rested till it was revenged.

Henry had hoped that the crown would descend without a contest to his daughter; but he was mistaken. The succession to the throne in those times was by no means so well defined as it is now; and Henry himself had set an example of successful usurpation. At a time when war was the chief occupation of the barons, they thought it disgraceful to be ruled by a woman, who could not lead their armies to battle; so, as soon as Henry was dead, Stephen, the young and warlike Count of Blois, was chosen by a majority of the nobles as king. He was the son of Adela, Henry's sister. Personally brave and open-hearted, he was a

great favourite with the Normans; and he increased his adherents by lavish grants of the lands which had been reserved by the Conqueror for the support and dignity of the crown. He was crowned king in 1135. But about the year 1137, Matilda had collected a party sufficiently powerful to attack Stephen; and the English saw their hated oppressors divided into two factions, who agreed in nothing but ill-treatment of the subject race. David, king of Scotland, espoused the cause of Matilda, and invaded England; but he was defeated at the battle of the Standard, fought near Northallerton. The battle received this name from the tall flag-staff, set on wheels, which was placed in the centre of Stephen's army.

In 1139, Matilda herself landed in England, and from that year till 1150 the history of England is little else than the story of petty skirmishes and sieges of castles, during the strife between the two Norman parties of Stephen and Matilda. In 1141, Stephen was taken prisoner by Robert, Earl of Gloucester, at the battle of Lincoln, and Matilda entered London in triumph; but she was of so haughty and imperious a disposition, and so tyrannical in her government, that her friends were soon disgusted, and she was forced to flee from the capital by an outbreak of popular fury. She fled to Oxford, and was so hotly pursued, that she escaped with a few attendants, clad in white, across the

snow.

Both parties were now ready to come to terms, and it was agreed that Stephen should remain in possession of the throne during his life, and that Henry, Matilda's son, should succeed him.

The mercenary troops, which were taken into pay by each party during this long contest, plundered and illtreated the English, whose condition during the whole period was most lamentable. The faithful Saxon Chronicle, kept in the monastery of Peterborough, is full of sad accounts of the sufferings of the subject

race.

Stephen died in 1154, and was succeeded by Henry the Second.

CHAP. IX.

NORMAN MANNERS.-THE FEUDAL SYSTEM, ETC.

THIS chapter is devoted to an account of the changes in constitution, laws, and customs, introduced into England by the Normans.

The most important change was the transfer of the greater part of the landed property to Normans, and the consequent introduction of that system of holding lands, called the Feudal System. To understand the state of England during the Norman period, the principal features of this system must be noticed. By it the king was regarded as the military leader of the nation, and he granted out the conquered lands to his soldiers. These lands were not given freely and for nothing, but were given to hold of the king, subject to the performance of certain military duties. The king, still considered as in some sort the proprietor, was called the lord paramount, and the services rendered by