bleman was astonished; but, dissembling his concern, he renewed the same professions, and was dismissed with all the marks of confidence by the Duke of Normandy, who promised to maintain him in all his possessions, and also to give him his daughter Adeliza in marriage.

§ 13. In what manner Harold observed this oath, which had been extorted from him by fear, and which, if fulfilled, might be attended with the subjection of his native country to a foreign power, we shall presently see. Meanwhile, he continued to practice every art of popularity; and fortune threw two incidents in his way by which he was enabled to acquire general favor and to increase the character, which he had already attained, of virtue and abilities. The first of these was the reduction of Wales. The second related to his brother Tosti, who had been created Duke of Northumberland, but had acted with such cruelty and injustice that the inhabitants, led by Morcar and Edwin, grandsons of the great duke Leofric, rose and expelled him (1065). To Harold, who had been commissioned by the king to reduce and chastise the Northumbrians, Morcar made so vigorous a remonstrance against Tosti's tyranny, accompanied with such a detail of wellsupported facts, that Harold found it prudent to abandon his brother's cause; and, returning to Edward, he persuaded him to pardon the Northumbrians and to confirm Morcar in the government to which they had elected him. He even married the sister

of that nobleman; and by his interest procured Edwin, the younger brother, to be elected into the government of Mercia. Tosti in rage departed the kingdom, and took shelter in Flanders with Earl Baldwin, his father-in-law.

By this marriage almost all England was engaged in the interests of Harold; and as he himself possessed the government of Wessex, Morcar that of Northumberland, and Edwin that of Mercia, he now openly aspired to the succession. Edward, broken with age and infirmities, saw the difficulties too great for him to encounter; and though his inveterate prepossessions kept him from seconding the pretensions of Harold, he took but feeble and irresolute steps for securing the succession to the Duke of Normandy. While he continued in this uncertainty he was surprised by sickness, which brought him to his grave on the 5th of January, 1066, in the 65th year of his age and 25th of his reign. By some authorities he is said, on his death-bed, to have appointed Harold his successor.

§ 14. This prince, who about a century after his death was canonized with the surname of "the Confessor," by a bull of Pope Alexander III., was the last of the Saxon line that ruled in England. Though his reign was peaceable and fortunate, he owed

A.D. 1057-1066.

ACCESSION OF HAROLD.

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his prosperity less to his own abilities than to the conjunctures of the times. The Danes, employed in other enterprises, attempted not those incursions which had been so troublesome to all his predecessors, and so fatal to some of them. The facility of his disposition made him acquiesce under the government of Godwin and his son Harold; and the abilities, as well as the power, of these noblemen enabled them, while they were intrusted with authority, to preserve domestic peace and tranquillity. The most commendable circumstance of Edward's government was his attention to the administration of justice, and his compiling, for that purpose, a body of laws, which he collected from the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and Alfred. This compilation, though now lost-for the laws that pass under Edward's name were composed afterward—was long the object of affection to the English nation. Edward was buried in Westminster Abbey, which was consecrated only a few days before his death. This church was erected by Edward and dedicated to St. Peter, in pursuance of the directions of Pope Leo IX., as the condition of his release from a pilgrimage to Rome. Its site was, as we have said, previously occupied by a church erected by Sebert, King of Essex, which had long gone to ruin. King Edward was the first sovereign who touched for the evil.

§ 15. HAROLD II., 1066.—Harold's accession to the throne was attended with as little opposition and disturbance as if he had succeeded by the most undoubted hereditary title. On the day after Edward's death he was crowned and anointed king by Aldred, Archbishop of York; and the whole nation seemed joyfully to acquiesce in his elevation. But in Normandy the intelligence of Harold's intrigues and accession had moved William to the highest pitch of indignation. He sent an embassy to England, upbraiding that prince with his breach of faith, and summoning him to resign immediately possession of the kingdom. Harold not only refused to comply with this demand, but also expelled all the Normans settled in England, whom King Edward had established in fiefs and castles. This answer was no other than William expected, and he had previously fixed his resolution on making an attempt upon England. He assembled a fleet of nearly 1000 vessels, great and small, and an army of 60,000 men. Several of the European princes declared in favor of his claim; but his most important ally was the Pope, Alexander II., who hoped that the French and Norman barons, if successful in their enterprise, might import into England a more devoted reverence to the holy see, and bring the English churches to a nearer conformity with those of the Continent. He pronounced Harold a perjured usurper; denounced excommunication against him and his adherents; and, the more to encourage the Duke of Normandy

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INVASION OF TOSTI-NORMAN INVASION. CHAP. IV.

in his enterprise, he sent him a consecrated banner, and a ring with one of St. Peter's hairs in it. Thus were all the ambition and violence of that invasion covered over safely with the broad mantle of religion.

The first blow was, however, struck by Harold's brother Tosti. That nobleman filled the court of his father-in-law Baldwin with complaints of the injustice which he had suffered, and engaged the interest of that family against his brother. In the spring of the year Tosti sailed with a considerable fleet from the Flemish ports, and committed some ravages on the southern and eastern coasts of England; but, being repulsed by earls Morcar and Edwin, took refuge with the Scottish king, Malcolm Kenmore. Here he entered into negotiations with Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, promising him half of England as the price of his assistance; but how far he was acting for himself alone, or in William's interests also, it appears uncertain. In the summer a Norwegian fleet of 300 sail appeared on the Yorkshire coast; Scarborough was taken and burned, and the earls Edwin and Morcar defeated in a bloody battle at Fulford on the Ouse, near Bishopsthorpe. Harold now hastened with a large army into the north; and as soon as he reached the enemy at Stanford Bridge, called afterward Battle Bridge, he found himself in a condition to engage them. A bloody but decisive action was fought on the 25th of September, which ended in the total rout of the Norwegians, together with the death of Tosti and Harold Hardrada. But Harold had scarcely time to rejoice for this victory when he received intelligence that the Duke of Normandy had landed with a great army in the south of England.

§ 16. The Norman fleet sailed from St. Valéry on the Somme on the 27th of September, and arrived safely at Pevensey, in Sussex, on the eve of the feast of St. Michael. The army quietly disembarked. The duke himself, as he leaped on shore, happened to stumble and fall; but had the presence of mind, it is said, to turn the omen to his advantage, by calling aloud that he had taken possession of the country.

Harold hastened by quick marches to reach this new invader; but though he was re-enforced at London and other places with fresh troops, he found himself also weakened by the desertion of his old soldiers, who, from fatigue and discontent at Harold's refusing to divide the Norwegian spoil among them, secretly withdrew from their colors. His brother Gurth, a man of bravery and conduct, began to entertain apprehensions of the event, and remonstrated with the king that it would be better policy to prolong the war; urging that, if the enemy were harassed with small skirmishes, straitened in provisions, and fatigued with the bad

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weather and deep roads during the winter season, which was approaching, they must fall an easy and a bloodless prey. Above all, he exhorted his brother not to expose his own person; but Harold was deaf to all these remonstrances; elated with his past prosperity, as well as stimulated by his native courage, he resolved to give battle in person, and for that purpose he drew near to the Normans, who had removed their camp and fleet to Hastings, where they fixed their quarters.

After some fruitless messages on both sides, the English and Normans prepared themselves for the combat. According to the monkish historians, the aspect of things on the night before the battle was very different in the two camps; the English spending the time in riot, and jollity, and disorder; the Normans in silence and in prayer, and in the other functions of their religion. In the morning the duke called together the most considerable of his commanders, and made them a speech suitable to the occasion. He next divided his army into three lines: the first consisted of archers and light-armed infantry; the second was composed of his bravest battalions, heavy armed and ranged in close order; his cavalry, at whose head he placed himself, formed the third line, and were so disposed that they stretched beyond the infantry, and flanked each wing of the army. He ordered the signal of battle to be given, and the whole army, moving at once, and singing the hymn or song of Roland, the famous peer of Charlemagne, advanced in order and with alacrity toward the enemy.

Harold had seized the advantage of a rising ground, and having likewise drawn some trenches to secure his flanks, he resolved to stand on the defensive. The Kentishmen were placed in the van, a post which they had always claimed as their due; the Londoners guarded the standard; and the king himself-accompanied by his two valiant brothers, Gurth and Leofwin-dismounting, placed himself at the head of his infantry, and expressed his resolution to conquer or to perish in the action. The battle raged for some time with doubtful success, till William commanded his troops to make a hasty retreat, and to allure the enemy from their ground by the appearance of flight. The English, heated by the action, and sanguine in their hopes, precipitately followed the Normans into the plain, when William ordering the infantry to face about upon their pursuers, and the cavalry to make an assault upon their wings, the English were repulsed with great slaughter; but, being rallied by the bravery of Harold, they were able still to maintain their post. The duke tried the same stratagem a second time with the same success; but even after this second advantage he still found a great body of the English who seemed determined 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. 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 valor displayed by both armies and by both commanders, to decide the fate of a mighty kingdom. It took place on the 14th of October, 1066. The loss was very great on both sides. The dead body of Harold was found among the slain, and was allowed by the Conqueror to be buried in the Abbey of Waltham, which was founded by the Saxon king. This is the more probable account, but other authorities relate that William, in scorn, ordered the corpse to be buried on the sea-shore.

*

Norman Knights at the Battle of Hastings. From the Bayeux Tapestry.

The battle of Hastings is depicted on the Bayeux tapestry,t from which the preceding illustration is taken. Two Norman knights are represented, clad in chain armor, the former bearing the chief banner of the army, and the latter a flag with five tongues

*Though this battle is commonly called the Battle of Hastings, the real field was at Senlac, about nine miles from that place.

This curious piece of needlework, 214 feet long and 19 inches broad, which is still preserved at Bayeux, represents the whole history of the expedition, as well as the battle. According to tradition, it was worked by Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror; but, though it is probably of later date, it may be regarded as a faithful representation of the costume of the period.