in possession of Denmark; and Harold succeeded his father on the English throne. To Harold succeeded his brother, Hardicanute, whose title was readily acknowledged both by the Danes and the English; and, upon his arrival from the continent, he was received with the most extravagant demonstrations of joy; but his violent and unjust government was of short duration; he died two years after his accession, in consequence of excess at the marriage of a Danish lord, which was celebrated at Lambeth. The disorders of the Danish monarchs once more induced the English to place a monarch of the Saxon line upon the throne; and, accordingly, Edward, surnamed the Confessor, was, by the general consent, crowned king; and having long groaned under a foreign yoke, they now set no bounds to their joy, at finding the line of their ancient monarchs restored. As he had been bred in the Norman court, he shewed, in every instance, a predilection for the customs, laws, and even the natives of that country; and among the rest of his faults, though he had married Editha, the daughter of Godwin, yet either from mistaken piety, or fixed aversion, during his whole reign he abstained from her bed. Thus having no legitimate issue, and being wholly engrossed during the continuance of a long reign, with the visions of superstition, he was at last surprised by sickness, which brought him to his end, on the 5th of January, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and twenty-fifth of his reign. Harold, the son of a popular nobleman, whose name was Godwin, and whose intrigues and virtues seemed to give a right to his pretensions, ascended the throne without any opposition. But neither his valour, his justice, nor his popularity, was able to secure him from the misfortunes attendant upon an ill-grounded title. His pretensions were opposed by William, Duke of Normandy, who insisted that the crown of right belonged to him, it being bequeathed to him by Edward the Confessor. William, who was afterwards called the Conqueror, was the natural son of Robert, duke of Normandy. His mother's name was Arlette, a beautiful maid of Falaize, whom Robert fell in love with as she stood gazing at the door whilst he passed through the town. William, who was the offspring of this amour, owed a part of his greatness to his birth, but still more to his own personal merit. His body was vigorous, his mind capacious and noble, and his courage not to be repressed by apparent danger. Upon coming to his dukedom of Normandy, though yet very young, he on all sides opposed his rebellious subjects, and repressed foreign invaders, while his valour and conduct prevailed in every action. The tran quillity which he had thus established in his dominions, induced him to extend his views; and some overtures made him by Edward the Confessor, in the latter part of his reign, who was wavering in the choice of a successor, inflamed his ambition with a desire of succeeding to the English throne. The pope himself was not behind the rest in favouring his preten-sions; and either influenced by the apparent justice of his claims, or by the hopes of extending the authority of the church, he immediately pronounced Harold an usurper. With such favourable incentives, William soon found himself at the head of a chosen army of sixty thousand men, all equipped in the most warlike and splendid manner. It was in the beginning of summer, that he embarked this powerful body on board a fleet of three hundred sail; and, after some small opposition from the weather, landed at Pevensey, on the coast.. of Essex, with resolute tranquillity. Harold, who seemed resolved. to defend his right to the crown, and retain that sovereignty which he had received from the people, who only had a right to bestow it, was now returning, flushed with conquest, from defeating the Norwegians, who had invaded the kingdom, with all the forces he had employed in that expedition, and all he could invite or collect in the country through which he passed. His army was composed of active and valiant troops, in high spirits, strongly attached to their king, and eager to engage. On the other hand, the army of William consisted of the flower of all the continent, and had been long inured to danger. The men of Bretagne, Bologne, Flanders, Poictou, Maine, Orleans, France and Normandy, were all voluntarily united under his command. England never before, nor ever since, saw two such armies, drawn up to dispute its crown. The day before the battle, William sent an offer to Harold to decide the quarrel between them by single combat, and thus to spare the blood of thousands; but Harold refused, and said, he would leave it to the God of armies to determine. Both armies, therefore, that night pitched in sight of each other, expecting the dawning of the next day with impatience. The English passed the night in songs and feasting; the. Normans in devotion and prayer. The next morning at seven, as soon as day appeared, both armies was drawn up in array against each other. Haroid appeared in the centre of his forces, leading on his army on foot, that his men might be more encouraged, by seeing their king exposed to an equality of danger. William fought on horesback, leading on his army that moved at once, sing- ing the song of Roland, one of the famous chiefs of their country. The Normans began the fight with their crossbows, which, at first, galled and surprised the English, and as their ranks were close, their arrows did great execution. But soon they came to closer fight, and the English with their bills, hewed down their adversaries with great slaughter. Confusion was spreading among the ranks, when William, who found himself on the brink of destruction, hastened with a select band to the relief of his forces. His presence restored the suspence of battle; he was seen in every place, endeav ouring to pierce the ranks of the enemy, and had three horses slain under him. At length, perceiving that the English line continued impenetrable, he pretended to give ground, which, as he expected, drew the enemy f.om their ranks, and he was instantly ready to take advantage of their disorder. Upon a signal given, the Normans immediately returned to the charge with greater fury than before, broke the English troops, and pursued them to a rising ground. It was in this extremity, that Harold was seen flying from rank to rank, rallying and inspiring his troops with vigour; and, though he had toiled all day, till near night-fall, in the front of his Kentishmen, yet he still seemed unabated in force or courage, keeping his men to the post of honour. Once more, therefore, the victory seemed to turn against the Normans, and they fell in great numbers, so that the fierceness and cbstinacy of this memorable battle was often renewed by the courage of the leaders, whenever that of the soldiers began to slacken. Fortune, at length, determined a victory that valour was unable to decide. Harold making a furious onset at the head of his troops, against the Norman heavy-armed infantry, was shot into the brains by an arrow; and his two valiant brothers, fighting by his side, shared the same fate. He fell with his sword in his hand, amidst heaps of slain; and after the battle the royal corpse could hardly be distinguished among the dead. This was the end of the Saxon monarchy in England, which had continued for more than six hundred years, A CHAP. IV. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. A. D. 1066-1087. S soon as William passed the Thames, at Wallingford, name of the clergy; and before he came within sight of the eity, all the chief nobility came into his camp, and declared an intention of yielding to his authority. William was glad of being thus peaceably put in possession of a throne which several of his predecessors had not gained without repeated victories. But in order to give his invasion all the sanction possible, he was crowned at Westminster by the archbishop of York, and took the oath usual in the times of the Saxon and Danish kings, which was, to protect and defend the church, to observe the laws of the realm, and to govern the people with impartiality. Having thus secured the government, and by a mixture of vigour and lenity, brought the English to an entire submission, he resolved to return to the continent, there to enjoy the triumph and congratulation of his ancient subjects; but the absence of the Conqueror in England produced the most fatal effects. His officers, being no longer controlled by his justice, thought this a fit opportunity for extortion; while the English, no longer awed by his presence, thought it the hap piest occasion for vindicating their freedom. The English had entered into a conspiracy to cut off their invaders, and fixed the day for their intended massacre, which was to be Ash-Wednesday, during the time of divine service, when all the Normans would-be unarmed as penitents, accord ing to the discipline of the times. But William's return quickly disconcerted all their schemes: and from that time he began to lose all confidence in his English subjects, and to regard them as inveterate and irreconcilable enemies. Having alrea dy raised such a number of fortresses in the kingdom, that he no longer dreaded the tumultuous or transient efforts of a discontented multitude; he determined to treat them as a conquered nation, to indulge his own avarice, and that of his followers, by numerous confiscations, and to secure his power by humbling all who were able to make any resistance. He proceeded to confiscate all the estates of the English gentry, and to grant them liberally to his Norman followers. Thus all the ancient and honourable families were reduced to beggary, and the English found themselves entirely excluded from every road that led either to honour or preferment; and, to keep the clergy as much as possible in his interests, he appointed none but his own countrymen to the most considerable church dignities, and even displaced Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, upon some frivolous pretences. William having crushed several conspiracies, and by punishing the malcontents, thus secured the peace of his dominions, now expected rest from his labours; and finding none either willing or powerful enough to oppose him, he hoped that the end of his reign would be marked with prosperity and peace. But such is the blindness of human hope, that he found enemies where he least expected them, and such, too, as served to embitter all the latter part of his life. His last troubles were excited by his own children, from the opposing of whom he could expect to reap neither glory nor gain. He had three sons, Robert, William, and Henry, besides several daughters. Robert, his eldest son, surnamed Curthose, from the shortness of his legs, was a prince who inherited all the bravery of his family and nation, but was rather bold than prudent; and was often heard to express his jealousy of his two brothers, William and Henry. These, by greater assiduity, had wrought upon the credulity and affections of the king, and consequently were the most obnoxious to Robert, whose mind, so well prepared for resentment, soon found or made a cause for an open rupture. The princes were one day in sport together, and in the idle petulance of play, took it into their head to throw water upon their elder brother, as he passed through the court, on leaving their apartment. Robert, all alive to suspicion, quickly turned this frolic into a studied indignity, and having these jealousies still farther inflamed by one of his favourites, he drew his sword, and ran up stairs with intent to take revenge. The whole castle was quickly filled with tumult, and it was not without some difficulty, that the king himself was able to appease it. But he could not allay the animosity which, from that moment, prevailed in his family. Robert, attended by several of his confederates, withdrew to Rouen that very night, hoping to surprize the castle, but his design was defeated by the governor. The flame being thus kindled, the popular character of the prince, and a sympathy of manners, engaged all the young nobility of Normandy and Maine, as well as of Anjou and Britanny, to espouse his quarrel; even his mother, it is said, supported him by secret remittances, and aided him in this obstinate resistance by private encouragement. This unnatural contest continued for several years to inflame the Norman state; and William was at last obliged to have recourse to England for supporting his authority against his son. Accordingly, drawing an army of Englishmen together, he led them over to Normandy, where he soon compelled Robert and his adherents to quit the field, and he was quickly reinstated in all his dominions. William had scarcely put an end to this transaction, when he felt a very severe blow in the death of Matilda, his queen; and, as misfortunes generally come together, he received in |