Among the new customs introduced by the Conqueror was the curfew (couvre feu, i.e. cover fire). Every night a bell was rung at eight o'clock, at which time all fires and candles were to be extinguished. This was not merely a device to prevent the people from holding secret meetings for conspiracy, but was intended to preserve good order and regular habits throughout the community.

William erected the Tower of London, and many other castles, and made regulations by which the Cinque Ports— then Hastings, Hythe, Romney, Dover, and Sandwich-should furnish within forty days, if required, a certain number of ships for the naval defence of the country.

Death. After the king's injury at Mantes he was conveyed to Rouen, and died in the abbey of St. Gervais in its suburbs, on the 9th of September, 1087. He was carried to Caen to be buried in the church of St. Stephen; but when his body was placed on the bier, and the funeral oration pronounced, one Asselin Fitz-Arthur cried out, "He whom you have praised is a robber. The very land on which you stand is mine. By violence he took it from my father, and in the name of God I forbid you to bury him in it!" As it was found that his claim was just, sixty shillings were paid him for the grave, and the ceremony was concluded without further disturbance.

WILLIAM II (Rufus).

Reigned from 1087 to 1100.

Birth.-William, who, either from the colour of his hair or the floridness of his complexion, was surnamed Rufus, or the Red, was born about 1060.

Descent. He was the third son of William I.

Important Events.-William hastened from the bed of his dying parent to England; and by the exertions of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, the English were induced to recognise him as king. His coronation took place, Sept. 26, 1087.

In the spring of the ensuing year, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, William, Bishop of Durham, Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, and several other barons, who were anxious that the king's brother, Robert, Duke of Normandy, should become sovereign of England, entered into a conspiracy against William; but their efforts were unavailing, as the king, by promising that the Anglo-Saxon population should be equitably governed, secured their aid. The two prelates were expelled the kingdom, and the lands of most of the conspirators were confiscated.

In 1090 William made war upon his brother, and attempted, though unsuccessfully, the capture of Rouen; but hostilities were at last terminated by a treaty agreed to at Caen, by which the king obtained several towns and castles in Normandy, while he, on his part, promised to restore the forfeited estates to the late conspirators (1091).

Shortly after the treaty of Caen, Robert and William, having disagreed with their brother Henry, who had taken refuge in the castle of Mount St. Michael, a lofty rock on the coast of Normandy, besieged him there; and the want of water compelled him to agree to a surrender (1091).

Two years later (1093) Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland, invaded the north of England; and, being attacked unawares in the neighbourhood of ALNWICK, by Robert Mowbray, both he and his eldest son were slain. His queen, Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, on receiving the sad tidings became seriously ill, and died in a few days.

The conquest of Palestine by the Turks, and their illtreatment of the pilgrims at this period, aroused the attention of the christians in Europe; and, mainly through the persevering endeavours of Peter the Hermit, a council was held at Clermont, in Auvergne, under the presidency of Pope Urban II, where it was agreed that a crusade should be undertaken (1095). The chief leaders were Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse, Hugh of Vermandois, Stephen of Chartres, Bohemond of Tarentum, his nephew Tancred, and Robert of Normandy,

who mortgaged his duchy to his brother William for five years in consideration of the sum of 10,000 marks. More than 600,000 armed fanatics, not to mention women and children, set out on the crusade; but a great portion of them perished before reaching the Holy Land. Jerusalem, however, was captured by the remnant (1099); and the heroic Godfrey was made the first sovereign of the new kingdom of which that city was the capital. It remained in the hands of the Christians till 1187.

In 1098, Magnus, King of Norway, after conquering the Orkneys and the Isle of Man, ravaged Anglesea, but was repulsed by Hugh, Earl of Shrewsbury. This is the last recorded instance of the Scandinavians making an attempt upon England.

Lanfranc died in 1089, but his see was not filled up till 1093, when a serious illness under which William laboured led him to appoint Anselm. On his restoration to health, he refused to grant the archbishop the temporalities of the see; and further disputes led Anselm to withdraw from the country. During a considerable part of the reign, Ralph, surnamed the Flambard (destructive torch), was the king's chief minister; and in 1099 this notoriously profligate priest was consecrated Bishop of Durham.

William built a wall round the tower, and a bridge over the Thames. He also erected Westminster Hall upon the site of the present noble edifice. During his reign structures of unusual magnificence arose in all parts of the realm; and the most wealthy proprietors sought to distinguish themselves by the castles which they erected, and the monasteries which they founded.

Death. He met with his death in the New Forest, August 2, 1100. William of Malmesbury tells us that he was accidentally shot by his special favourite, Sir Walter Tyrrel, while hunting; but it is equally probable that the arrow came from a hostile bow. "The king," says the Saxon chronicle,

D

66 was hated by almost all his people, and abhorred by God, as his end showeth, in that he died in his unrighteousness, without repentance or any reparation for his evil deeds."

HENRY I (BEAUCLERK).

Reigned from 1100 to 1135.

Birth.-Henry, "the scholar, as flattering historians named was born at Selby, in Yorkshire, about 1070.

him,"

Descent. He was the brother of William II, and youngest son of William I.

Marriage. His first wife was Matilda, or Maud, the daughter of Malcolm Canmore, by his wife, Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling; his second wife was Adelicia of Louvain.

Children.-William, and Matilda, who married Henry V, Emperor of Germany, and, on his death, Geoffrey of Anjou.

Important Events.-Robert, whose claim to the throne of England was superior to that of Henry, returned from the crusades shortly after the death of William; and in 1101 he invaded the country; but a compromise was effected without recourse to arms, it being arranged that Robert should resign his pretensions to the English crown, and should receive instead thereof a yearly pension of 3000 marks. Henry soon violated the treaty by punishing his brother's late adherents on various pretexts; and on the duke coming to England to remonstrate, he found that he had endangered his security thereby, and was glad to purchase his liberty by surrendering his pension (1103). Three years after, Henry, taking advantage of his brother's indolence and mal-administration, invaded Normandy, and Robert was captured at the battle of TENCHEBRAI (1106). He was brought to England and kept in confinement till his death, which occurred at Cardiff Castle in 1135.

Brougham's "British Constitution."

Robert's son, William, a child six years old, on his father's capture, was entrusted to Hélie de St. Saen, who, when Henry afterwards sought to get the young prince into his own hands, withdrew from Normandy, and solicited the help of some of the continental barons on behalf of his ward. As the prince grew towards man's estate, Louis VI of France, Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, and Fulk, of Anjou, espoused his cause, and endeavoured to conquer Normandy for him, but without success; and in 1119, Louis was defeated by Henry at the battle of BRENVILLE. This defeat led to an accommodation between the two monarchs, and Louis renounced his connexion with William; but after a time he renewed the alliance, and gave him his sister-in-law in marriage (1127). On the death of the Earl of Flanders, which occurred in the next year, Louis put him in possession of the earldom to which he had pretensions as the eldest lineal descendant of his grandmother, Matilda, wife of the Conqueror; but William did not long enjoy his good fortune, for in a skirmish at ALOST with the landgrave of Alsace, who also claimed Flanders, he was wounded in the hand; and the injury being neglected, mortification ensued, which caused his death (1128).

Henry's son, William, died about eight years before his cousin. He was coming from Normandy in the " White Ship," and the mariners, being mad with drink, heedlessly ran the vessel on a rock, when all perished except Berold, a butcher, of Rouen. It is said that the king was never afterwards seen to smile.

On the death of his son, and the failure of issue by his queen, Adelicia, Henry anxiously sought to secure the succession for his daughter, to whom the barons were induced to swear fealty as their future queen.

In this reign a colony of Flemings was established at Ross, in Pembrokeshire. A new standard of measure was adopted, the yard measure being determined by the length of Henry's arm. The coin, which was so debased and clipped that hardly