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be king of England. They assented with loud acclamations, and in return he took an oath to treat the people as well as the best monarch they had ever chosen.

In after years Aldred repented his share in the coronation, and on one occasion burst into William's presence exclaiming, "Hear me, king William, I anointed thee king, I crowned thee with my own hands; but now I curse thee, because thou art the persecutor of God's church and the oppressor of his ministers!"

3. As soon as William had established himself on the throne, he rewarded his followers by distributing amongst them the confiscated estates of the Saxons.

Many striking illustrations of the mode of this partition are recorded. One baron received nearly the whole of Cheshire, and another nearly the whole of Shropshire. A French dancing girl, who had followed the army, received an estate in Hampshire.

4. After spending about six months in England, William returned for a time to Normandy. Odo, his half-brother, was left behind as regent; but his tyrannical conduct led the Saxons to revolt, and William was speedily obliged to return. War was recommenced, and for seven years was continuously waged against the Saxon patriots. In 1070 the Scotch and Danes invaded the north of England to assist them, but William bribed the Danes, and their allies were then obliged to submit. To prevent any further insurrections in this district, he laid waste the country for sixty miles north of York, thereby causing about 100,000 of his subjects to die of cold and hunger.

A writer who lived about sixty years afterwards says:"From York to Durham not an inhabited village remains; fire, slaughter, and desolation made it a waste, which it remains to this day." Another says "It was a frightful spectacle to see on the roads, in the public places, and at the doors of houses, the bodies of the dead; for there was no one left to throw a little earth over them."

This territory was then divided among the nobles. One of them received twenty-eight villages in Yorkshire alone, and another upwards of eighty manors.

5. The Saxons now retired to the Fen districts, and,

under a leader named Hereward, bravely defended themselves until 1072, when they were betrayed by the monks of Ely.

Hereward then made peace with William, but the Normans still remained suspicious of him. One day, while sleeping in the open air, he was surprised by a troop of them, and, after an heroic resistance, slain. According to tradition, sixteen of the Normans fell beneath his arm before he yielded himself prisoner, and it was a common saying long afterwards, that four such men as Hereward would have saved England from the Normans.

6. In 1074, William visited Normandy for the purpose of checking a rebellion there. During his absence an insurrection broke out in England, headed by some discontented Norman barons. It was speedily crushed, and Waltheof, a Saxon earl who had taken some slight part in it, was captured and executed.

He is said to have been betrayed by his wife Judith, who was a niece of the Conqueror. On his way to execution he begged the Norman soldiers, who guarded him, to allow him to kneel down and say the Lord's Prayer for himself and them. They consented, but when he came to the words "and lead us not into temptation," the executioner would stay no longer, and unsheathing a sword struck off his head at a single blow..

The Saxon cause was now completely crushed. Normans had been placed in all the high offices of church and state, and the native nobles and prelates had been nearly all either slain in war, degraded, or driven into exile.

A large body of the fugitive Saxons went to Constantinople, where they entered the service of the emperor. They were called by the Greeks "the barbarians from the island of Britain." In 1071, Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester, was the only prelate in England of Saxon descent; and soon after, at a council held in Westminster Abbey, he was called upon to resign his episcopal duties, on the ground that he could not speak French. Surprised at this demand, Wulfstan took up his pastoral staff, and, advancing to the tomb of Edward the Confessor, exclaimed, "Edward, from thee I received this staff, to thee therefore I return and confide it." Then turning to the Normans he

continued, "I received it from hands more worthy than yours; I have replaced it therein; if you have the power, take it therefrom!" The solemnity of this action so struck the council that the king allowed the old bishop to retain his office.

7. Between the years 1077 and 1079, William was involved in a war with his son Robert, who had tried to gain possession of the duchy of Normandy.

It appears that, before the battle of Hastings, William had promised Normandy to Robert; but when the latter demanded it, his father remarked that it was not his custom to throw off his clothes until he went to bed.

In the war which ensued William engaged unconsciously in a hand-to-hand conflict with his son, and was wounded by him in the arm. Robert, however, on recognizing his father's voice, spared his life, and, kneeling down, begged his pardon. Through the intercession of Matilda they afterwards became reconciled for a time, and the war ended.

8. On his return, William, who was passionately fond of hunting and "loved the tall deer as if he were their father," caused the New Forest to be enclosed as a royal hunting ground. It was a district of about 90,000 acres, lying between Salisbury and the sea.

In its formation sixty villages were destroyed, and their poor inhabitants driven from their homes without the slightest compensation. Laws were passed to prohibit the peasantry from hunting in it, and the slaughter of a deer or wild boar was punished by putting out the offender's eyes.

9. In 1084 William caused a survey of the kingdom to be made, the results of which were preserved in a volume, entitled Doomsday Book.

This record is still in existence. It is said to have derived its name from Domus Dei, the designation of the chamber at Winchester where it was kept.

10. Towards the close of his reign William invaded France, for the purpose of resenting some vulgar jest of the French king about his corpulence. Whilst riding through the city of Mantes, which he had caused to be set on fire, his horse trod on some hot ashes, and reared in such a manner as to give him a severe bruise

against the pommel of his saddle. Fever ensued, and he died soon after at Rouen. Shortly before his death he left Normandy to Robert, and 5,000 pounds of silver to Henry. "As for England," he said, "I leave it to no one, for I acquired it by force, and at the cost of blood: I leave it in the hands of God, only wishing my son William, who has been submissive to me in all things, may obtain it, and prosper in it.”

During his last illness William lamented his cruel oppressions, and ordered that large sums of money should be given to the poor, and that all Saxon prisoners in his dominions should be set free. As soon as he was dead, his body was deserted by all his attendants, and remained wholly neglected until a poor knight conveyed it for burial to Caen. Here the funeral was disturbed by a Norman gentleman, who forbad the burial of the body in ground which William had wrested from him and his family. He was prevailed on, however, to accept some compensation, and the rite then went on.

11. The Conqueror is described as being well-proportioned, and remarkably strong, brave in battle, but ambitious and cruel.

In this reign, the practice of ringing the Curfew Bell first comes prominently into notice. It was a signal for extinguishing all fires, and was rung about eight at night.

The object of it was, probably, to prevent the rebellious Saxons from meeting at night for treasonable purposes. The curfew bell is still rung at Exeter, Winchester, and many other English towns.

The Tower of London was commenced, 1066. Bishops were in this reign chosen by the king for the first time, having been previously elected by the body of the clergy. The Feudal System was also introduced with the Conquest. (See page 62.)

12. Contemporary Sovereigns, and Great Men.-Scotland, Malcolm III; France, Philip I; Edwin, Morcar, and Hereward, leaders of the Saxons; Lanfranc, a Lombard, archbishop of Canterbury; Edgar Atheling,

Edgar Atheling made several vain attempts to obtain pos session of England, but ultimately became a pensioner of William, and spent the latter part of his life at Rouen.

WILLIAM II., SURNAMED RUFUS, OR THE RED. Born A.D. 1060; Reigned 13 Years (1087-1100).

1. Family.-William Rufus was second son of the Conqueror. He was never married.

2. Chronicle. As soon as he heard the dying wish of his father, he hastened from Normandy to England; and, having assembled the Norman barons, informed them that William had named him as his successor to the throne. Lanfranc, the archbishop, immediately espoused his cause, and induced the chief nobles to follow his example. William was then crowned at Westminster, and the claims of Robert, who was at this time in Germany, were thus set aside.

Many of the Anglo-Norman barons were strongly opposed to William's accession, and a conspiracy was formed by them to depose him and elect Robert in his stead. William, however, secured the assistance of the Saxons, by promising to relax his father's tyrannical laws, and was thus enabled to crush the revolt.

Bishop Odo, who had headed it, was captured at Rochester and banished for life. He was specially hated by the Saxons for his cruelties in the late reign, and would doubtlessly have been murdered by his captors, if William, his nephew, had not interposed in his behalf. "O king!" they cried, "why dost thou let him go free? He is not worthy to live, the traitor, the murderer of so many thousand men!" He ultimately died at Palermo in a state of beggary.

William soon forgot his promises, and the odious laws of the Conqueror were again put in force.

The people were forbidden to carry arms or hunt in the royal forests, and compelled to pay the most unjust imposts.

3. A counter-attempt was now made to dethrone Robert, and to put Normandy in the possession of

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