peaceably inhabiting came to incorporate and make a part of the English Nation without any distinction Edward the Confessor Reigned long reduced the Laws of Edward Alfred and Edgar's Reigns into more Form and Order and governed by them His Wars were successful both in Scotland and Wales though managed by his Leaders and without his presence But being a Prince of a soft and easie Nature he gave way to the growing Power and Arrogance of Earl Godwin and his Sons who had been the chief Instruments of advancing him to the Throne upon the Condition of Marrying Earl Godwin's Daughter After he was settled in the Kingdom either upon gratitude and inclination to the People and Customs of a Country where he had lived long and been well received when he was banished from his own He invited many of his Norman Friends into England employ'd them in his greatest Offices either of Church or State and upon some quarrels between them and the English exprest too much partiality to the Normans This gave Godwin and his Son Harold occasion or pretence of raising and heading great Discontents of the English against the Norman Favorites and at last Insurrections against the King who soft in his Nature devout in his temper and now declined in his Age endeavoured rather to appease these troubles by Articles than by Arms and thereby left Harold too powerful for a Subject and aspiring to the Crown Edward had no Children and though he seemed desirous to leave the Crown to his Nephew yet distrusting his weakness to defend it against so powerful a Rival it does not appear or is not agreed among Authors whether he made any disposition of it at his Death or no or whether any such at least as was afterwards pretended Harald alledged that he was appointed by Edward the Confessor to succeed him was believed by some and allowed by more who followed his Power rather than his Right and was immediately after the King's Death elected or admitted to the Crown His first trouble was from his own Brother who being the Elder had obtained assistance from Norway to set up a Title or Pretence to the Kingdom though he could have no other but that his Brother had usurped it Harald having marched into the North overthrown his Brother and his Army of Strangers or Discontents with great slaughter at Stamford was suddenly recalled by a more dangerous and fatal Storm from the South For William Duke of Normandy surnamed the Conqueror was landed at Hastings with a mighty Army of stout Norman Soldiers to pursue a Right he pretended to the Succession of the Crown after the Death of Edward What this was is but obscurely proved or defended But the pretext was that Edward had by Testament left him Successor of the Crown and that Harald while he was last in Normandy had likewise assured him of his Assistance to advance him to the Kingdom upon the Death of the King and the Duke therefore sent to put him in mind of that Engagement But Harald was in possession and admitted neither of these Claims resolved to defend well what he had gotten ill since the apparent Right was in Edgar Atheling descended from the true Saxon Race and from a Brother of Edward the Confessor To decide these Disputes between the two powerful Pretenders while the just Right lay unregarded for want of Force to support it a fierce and bloody Battel was Fought near Hastings which continued for a whole day with great Bravery and Slaughter on both sides but ended with the Death of Harald most of the bravest Captains and above Sixty Thousand Soldiers of the English Nation who resolved to defend a Domestick Usurper against a Foreign Invader and by the loss of their Lives made easie way for the undisputed Succession of William the Conqueror to the Crown of England about the year 1066. or as some account 1068. This Norman Prince was Natural Son of Robert the Sixth Duke of Normandy by Arlette a very Beautiful Virgin of Falaize with whom he fell in Love as she stood gazing at her Door whilst he passed through that Town So that he was the Issue of a sudden and strong Inclination like a noble Plant raised in a hot Bed which gave it such Force and Vigour as made it prosper and grow to so great a Height Nor is it unlikely that the ancient Heroes derived themselves from some Gods to cover the Misfortunes or Follies the Rapes or Loves of some fair Maidens or else the Passions of some frail Wives who loved a Gallant better than a Husband And the force of such Encounters might have Part in the Constitution of a young Hero and give a Natural Vigour Spirit and Lustre to the Children from the Flames wherein they were conceived 'T is certain this young Conqueror owed his Greatness to his Birth and his Fortunes to his personal Merit from the strength of his Temper and vigour of his Mind For he had a Body of Iron as well as a Heart of Steel Yet his Intellectuals were at least equal to his other natural Advantages and he appears as Wise in his politick Institutions as he was Bold in his Enterprises or Brave and Fortunate in the Atchievment of his great Adventures His Father Robert growing Old fell into a Fit of Devotion frequent enough in that Age which made him resolve upon a Visit to the holy Sepulcher His Nobles used all Arguments they could to disswade him but chiefly from the want of lawful Issue and the Competition like to arise upon his Death between several great Pretenders which might prove dangerous to his Country and perhaps fatal to the Norman State But he persisted in the Design of his Journy and told them he had a young Son that he believed certainly to be his own and of whose Person and Disposition he had great Hopes and therefore resolved to leave him his Successor in the Dutchy recommended him to their Care and Loyalty and appointed the King of France to be his Guardian and the Duke of Britain his Governour who was one of the fairest Pretenders to the Succession of that Dutchy after the failing of Robert's Line An unusual Strain or Testimony of the good Faith and Meaning of that Age where Honour was so much more in Request than Interest that such a Prince could trust a Son of reproached Birth and disputed Right to a powerful Neighbour the likeliest to Invade him and to a Pretender that stood the fairest to contest his Title The Prince was not above Nine or Ten Years Old when Duke Robert caused his Nobles and Chief Norman Subjects to Swear Fealty to him and afterwards carried him to do Homage to Henry the First King of France for the Dutchy of Normandy according to the Custom of the former Dukes since their first Accords with that Crown after their Conquests and Establishments in that Part of France which was before called Neustry and took the Name of Normandy from those fierce Invaders These coming
out for new Adventures The Duke had gained and deserved so high Esteem and general Reputation by the wise Conduct of his Government both in Peace and in War by his Justice and Bounty his Valour and his Clemency that he was renowned not only among his Subjects and his Neighbours but in the remoter Regions of Germany and Italy and found a Concurrence in this Design from many Princes his Friends and some who had been his greatest Enemies He was favoured and assisted with Money or with Soldiers by the Dukes of Britain and of Brabant the Counts of Bologne and Flanders and his ancient Competitor the Earl of Anjou By many Princes of France the most considered in that Court as the Duke of Orleans Earls of Poitou and Maine excited by the Honour of the Enterprise or Fame of the Leader at a time when the Infancy of their King gave them no hopes of Action at home and left that Crown unconcerned in what passed abroad The Emperour sent some choice Troops and experienced Commanders to serve in this Expedition and the Pope induced by the Fame of this Duke 's great Virtues and Piety in the whole Course of his Reign which had now lasted above Forty years sent him a Banner he had blessed with several Reliques and thereby was esteemed according to the Devotion of those Times to have justified his Title and even sanctified his Arms. With all these Advantages this brave Duke began and finished his mighty Preparations by a general Concurrence of his own Nobles and Subjects and a Confluence of most of the bold adventurous Spirits in his Neighbour Provinces led by the Desires of Glory or of Gains The Princes trusted his Faith and his Promises which he had never forfeited The Knights and Soldiers relyed upon his Valour and his Fortune which had never failed in the long and happy course of his Reign What the Number was of the Army he brought over into England is not distinctly related or well agreed but must be concluded to have been very great by that of the Ships wherein they were imbarqued which were between Eight and Nine Hundred Besides they were all chosen and brave Troops excellently Disciplined Commanded by gallant Officers strongly united by the Love of their Prince and encouraged by the common hatred of Harold his Enemy both at home and abroad A known Usurper cruel in his Nature of Danish Extraction and thereby ungrateful to the English a Hater of his own Blood and who had never triumphed but over his own Brother and by a bloody Victory at Stamford had lost the bravest of his Troops as he had done before the Hearts of his Subjects The Duke Landed his Army at Hastings in Sussex about the begining of October and expecting a general Submission of the English to his Right and Title pretended from the Testament of Edward the Confessor or the Desertion of Harold as an Usurper by his own Army He made at first no show of invading a Hostile Countrey but rather of encamping in his own Forbidding all injuries to any of the Inhabitants and all Spoil of the Countrey about him And so continued with his whole Army in a quiet and peaceable manner for about a Fortnight either to refresh his Troops or to expect how his Claim to the Crown and Arrival upon it would be received in England But after this Time expired he was soon rouz'd by the Approach of Harold who returned from the Defeat of his Brother and his Danish Assistants with all the Forces he had employed in that Expedition and all he could invite or collect out of the Countrey as he passed The first were standing Troops Numerous and Brave which he kept for the defence of his Person and Title knowing they were both generally hated in England The last were ill disciplined and worse affected and served only to increase the number of his Army which was very great Upon approach of his Enemies he sent Spies into the Norman Camp who were taken and courteously used by the Duke carried through all his Troops showed their Discipline and Disposal and sent back with Rewards At their return they told Harold that the Normans looked rather like an Army of Priests than of Soldiers by their great Silence and Order in their Camp as well as by their Faces being all shaved 'T is said the Duke before the Battel sent an Offer to Harold to decide the Quarrel between them by single Combat and thereby spare their Subjects Blood Which Harold refused and said he would leave it to God to determine Upon which his Brother desired him that he would not be present at the Battel because he had formerly Sworn to Duke William to assist his Title upon King Edward's Death and rather leave it to them who had a juster Cause and should Fight only for Defence of their Countrey and without Breach of Oath But the Courage of Harold was more than his Conscience and so both parts disposed their Armies for a pitched Battel next Morning After the English had passed the Night in Songs and Feasting and the Normans in much Devotion The Fight began with great Fury and equal Bravery as well as Order on both sides The English were cruelly gauled by thick Showers of Arrows from the Norman long Bows before the Battle joyned which was a Weapon then unused in England and thereby the more surprising by Wounds coming from Enemies so far out of reach and not suddenly to be revenged But when they came up to close Fight the Normans were hewed down by the English Bills which of all Weapons gives the most ghastly and deplorable Wounds Besides their Points were so strong and so close together that no Charges of the Norman Horse could break the English Ranks though the Duke assaulted them so often and with so great Bravery that he had three Horses killed under him in the Attempt But finding them continue firm He at length by a Signal caused a sudden Flight to be feigned by his Normans that were most advanced Upon which the English easily deceived by their own Courage as well as Hopes began such an eager Pursuit as by it they dissolved their Ranks that had been otherwise impenetrable Upon this Incident before expected and soon discovered by the Duke and upon another Signal given the Normans returned with greater Fury than before broke into the disordered Body of the English routed and pursued them to a rising Ground where their broken Forces made a Stand fell again into Order and encouraged by the Speeches but more by the brave Example of Harold they renewed the Fight and made a mighty Slaughter of the Normans as they endeavoured to force them against the disadvantage of the Hill which they defended The Fierceness and Obstinacy of this memorable Battel was often renewed by the Courage of the Leaders where-ever that of the Souldiers began to faint till the Normans leaving the Assault of the Hill too obstinately defended and keeping a little
King of France lost the Flower of his Army the greatest part of his Nobles and hardly escaped himself in Person But that little availed this unfortunate Prince who was so sensible of the Loss and as he thought dishonour received by so unequal a Match that he had not the Heart to survive it long but died of Grief and thereby gave an end to this War and left Duke William a calm and peaceable Reign till he disturbed his own and his Neighbours Quiet by new and greater Adventures But to discover their Causes and judge better of the Events we must have recourse to the Accidents of the former Reigns both in England and Normandy and the great Commerce and Intelligences that were thereby grown for many years past between these two Courts and Nations Edward for his Piety surnamed the Confessor the last King of the Saxon Race in England had by the Persecution of his Enemies under the Reign of Harde-Cnute the Dane been forced to leave England and seek shelter in Normandy where he was kindly received nobly entertained by the Duke lived long there with many English who adhered to his Right followed his Fortunes and shared in the Causes and Reliefs of his Banishment some found Imployments others Alliances All favour and kind reception in Normandy These mutual good Offices produced so much kindness between the Givers and Receivers that 't is by some Writers reported King Edward during his Residence in the Norman Court promised Duke Robert that in case he recovered the Kingdom of England and died without Issue He would leave him the Crown The first happening and Edward restored by the Power of Earl Godwin or rather the general Discontents of the English against the Danish Race and Government 'T is certain King Edward after his Restoration or rather first Accession to the Crown ever appeared more favourable and partial to the Normans than was well resented by his English Subjects in general but Earl Godwin and his Son Harold were so offended that they made it the Cause or Pretence of a dangerous Insurrection and were forced upon the ill Success thereof to leave the Kingdom and fly into Flanders though after restored and received by the King rather by Force than any free and willing Consent Duke William after the end of his Wars with France had turned his Thoughts to the common Arts and Entertainments of Peace regulating the Abuses of his State and the Disorders introduced by a long Course of Wars and Violence adorning his Palaces and Houses of Pleasure building Churches and Abbies and endowing them with great Bounty and Piety After which he made a Journy into England where he was received and entertained by King Edward with the same Kindness himself had found in the Norman Court for which like a good Prince he was much pleased to make this Return of Gratitude as well as Justice In this Visit 't is said by some Authors that the Duke gained so far upon the Esteem and Kindness of the King that he then renewed to the Son in England the promise he had formerly made the Father in Normandy of leaving him the Crown by Testament in case he died without Issue Some time after the Duke's return Harold Son to Earl Godwin and Heir of his great Possessions and Dependances in England was forced by a Storm as he at least pretended upon the Coasts of Normandy and to refresh himself after the Toils and Dangers of his Sea Voyage went first to the Norman Court and after some stay there to that of France and was in both entertained like a Person known to be of so great Consideration and Power in England But his last Visit at Paris was thought designed only to cover the true Intention of his first in Normandy Where he engaged to assist that Duke with all his Friends and Force in his Claim to the Crown of England upon King Edward's Death which happening not long after William claimed the Crown by virtue of a Testament from that King and of an Engagement from Harold But he on the contrary denied any such Testament from the deceased Prince alledged an Appointment made by him at his Death for Harold to succeed him disowned any Promise made in Favour of the Duke and making the best use of the Credit and Authority gained by his Father and himself in a crasie and diseased State during the soft Reign of a weak though pious King Harold set up bodly for himself without any respect of Right beyond the Peoples submission interpreted for their Consent and was Elected King by those Nobles and Commons of his Friends or indifferent Persons who assembled at his Coronation leaving to Edgar Atheling an undoubted but yet unregarded Right of Succession and to William a disputed Plea from the alledged Testament of the deceased King The Duke fond of those ambitious Hopes he had framed early and nourished long and spighted at the perfidious dealing of Harold towards him and his Insolence towards the English Nation in seising the Crown and Government against all Justice or so much as Pretence of Right which is commonly made use of to cover the most lawless Actions assembles his Estates of Normandy exposes to them his Claim to England the Wrong done him by Harold his Resolutions of prosecuting both with his utmost Power The Glory as well as Justice of the Enterprise The hopes of Success from his own Right and the hatred in England of the Usurper as well as the Friends and Intelligences he had in that Kingdom The greatness of Spoils and Possessions by the Conquest of his Enemies and the Share he intended his Friends and Followers according to each Man's Merit and Contribution towards the Advancement of his Designs Though the generality of the Normans in this Assembly were not at first very much moved by these Discourses as either doubting the Right or Success of so hazardous an Adventure yet they could not discourage what they were unwilling to promote since they found the Prince had it so much at Heart who prevailed with several of the greatest Bishops and Nobles of Normandy to make him a voluntary Offer of what Moneys Men and Ships they would each of them furnish towards this Enterprise as well as of their own Personal Attendance upon him in so noble and just a Design This free and magnanimous Offer of the greatest among them in some Degree spirited not only the rest of the Assembly but had much Influence upon the People in general who grew Confident of the Success from the Greatness and Boldness of the Undertakers so as they fell into Emulation who should Engage soonest and Contribute furthest upon this Occasion The Duke assisted to his Expectation by his Subjects began to practice upon the Hopes and Ambition of his Neighbours who weary of the long Quiet they had lived in at home since the Part they had taken in the French and Norman Wars begun to grow fond of some new Action and to look
almost deserted by such numbers of Goths Vandals and Saxons as had issued out of them some Centuries before began under the Names of Danes and Normans to infest at first the Sea and at length the Lands of the Belgick Gallick and British Shores filling all where they came with Slaughters Spoils and Devastations The Normans first over-run the Belgick Provinces upon the Mouth of the Rhine and gave them new Names of Holland and Zealand to those parts adjacent to the Sea Afterwards they sailed with mighty Numbers into the Mouth of the Sean and with great fierceness subdued that Northern part of France which from them first received and ever since retained the Name of Normandy and became the State of a great Norman Duke and his Successors for several Generations In the mean time the Danes began their Inroads and furious Invasions upon the Coasts of England with mighty numbers of Ships full of fierce and barbarous People sometimes entring the Thames sometimes the Humber other times Coasting as far as Exeter Landing where-ever they found the Shores unguarded filling all with Ravage Slaughter Spoil and Devastations of the Country where they found any strong Opposition retiring to their Ships sailing home laden with Spoil and by such encouragements giving Life to new Expeditions the next Season of the Year The bravest Blood of the English had been exhausted in their own Civil Wars during the Contentions of the Heptarchy since those ended the rest were grown slothful with Peace and with Luxury softned with new Devotions of their Priests and their Monks with Pennances and Pilgrimages and great numbers running into Cloysters and grown as unequal a Match now for the Danes as the British had been for the Saxons before Yet this Century passed not without many various Successes between the two Nations many Victories and many Defeats on both sides so that twelve Battels are said to have been Fought between them in one Year The Danes divided their Force into several Camps removed them from one part of the Country to another as they were forced by necessity of Provisions or invited by hopes of new Spoils or the weakness and divisions of the English At length fortified Posts and Passages built Castles for defence of Borders one against the other which gave the beginning to those numerous Forts and Castles that were scattered over the whole Country and lasted so long as to remain many of them to this very Age. The English sometimes repulsed these Invasions sometimes purchased the Safety of their Provinces by great Sums of Money which occasioned great Exactions of their Kings upon the People and that great Discontents While the Danes encreasing still by new Supplies of Numbers and Force began to mingle among the Inhabitants of those parts they had subdued made Truces and Treaties and thereupon grew to live more peaceably under the Laws and Government of the English Kings Alfred to prevent the danger of New Invasions began to Build Ships for the Defence of his Coasts and Edgar a Prince of great Wisdom and Felicity in his Reign applying all his thoughts to the encrease and greatness of his Naval Forces as the true strength and safety of his Kingdom raised them to that height both of Numbers and Force and disposed them with that Order for the Guard of the Seas round the whole Island as proved not only sufficient to secure his own Coasts from any new Invasions but the Seas themselves from the Rovers and Spoilers of those Northern Nations who had so long infested them So that all Traders were glad to come under his Protection Which gave a rise to that Right so long claimed by the Crown of England to the Dominion of the Seas about the year 960. But these provisions for the safety of the Kingdom began to decline with the Life of Edgar and neglected in the succeeding Reigns made way for new Expeditions of the Danes who exacted new Tribute from the Kings and Spoils from the Subjects till Ethelred compounding with them for his own Safety and their peaceable living in England and fortifying himself by an Alliance with Richard Duke of Normandy laid a design for the general Massacre of the Danes spred abroad and living peaceably throughout the Realm which was carried on with that secrecy and concurrence of all the English that it was executed upon one day and the whole Nation of the Danes massacred in England about the year 1002. This cruel and perfidious Massacre of so many Thousands instead of ending the long miseries of this Kingdom from the Violences Invasions and Intrusions of the Danes made way for new and greater Calamities than before For Swane King of Denmark exasperated by the Slaughter of his Nation here and among them of his own Sister and animated by the Successes of so many private Expeditions soon after landed with great Forces formed several Camps of Danes in several parts of England filled all with Spoil and Slaughter forced Ethelred to fly for Relief into Normandy and though he returned again yet being a weak and cruel Prince and thereby ill beloved and ill obeyed by his Subjects he never recovered Strength enough to oppose the Forces and Numbers of the Danes to whom many of the English Nobles as well as Commoners had in his absence submitted Swane died before he could atchieve this Adventure but left his Son Canute in a Course of such prosperous Fortunes and the English so broken or divided that coming out of Denmark with new Forces in two hundred Ships he reduced Edmund Son of Ethelred first to a Division of the whole Kingdom between them and after his untimely Death was by the whole Nobility of the Realm acknowledged and received for King of England This fierce Prince cut off some of the Royal Line and forced others into Exile Reigned long and left the Crown for two Successions to his Danish Race who all swore to Govern the Realm by the Laws which had been established or rather digested by Edward the First and Edgar out of the Old Saxon Customs and Constitutions But Hardecaute last of the Danish Kings dying suddenly at a Feast in the year 1042. left the Race so hated by the Imposition and Exaction of several Tributes upon his People that Edward surnamed the Confessor and Grandson to Edgar coming out of Normandy where he had been long protected found an easie accession to the Crown by the general Concurrence both of Nobles and People and with great Applause restored the Saxon Race in the year 1043. Thus expired not only the Dominion but all Attempts or Invasions of the Danes in England which though continued and often renewed with mighty Numbers for above two hundred years yet left no change of Laws Customs Language or Religion nor other Traces of their Establishments here besides the many Castles they built and many Families they left behind them who after the Accession of Edward the Confessor to the Crown wholly submitting to his Government and
of their Liberties and even as an Affectation of an Arbitrary Power in this Particular and from the Exercise whereof he was only restrained by the Regards of his Safety and Interest in others of more Moment and Consequence The great Nobles resented it yet further as an Indignity by levelling their Privileges with the Liberties of the Commoners from whom they esteemed themselves distinguished by the usual Regards and Respects paid them from the Princes in their Degree as well as from the People Nor does it appear whether this violent Institution of the Forrest Laws proceeded from his passionate Love of hunting the only Pleasure to which this Prince was addicted or from his Avarice by so many Fines to encrease his Treasure or from a Desire of being absolute and arbitrary in one Part of his Government which he found he could not be with any Safety in the rest For his Partiality to the Normans though it was disguised or at least not evident in the common Forms of his Justice which run a free and even Course yet it was easily discovered in that of his Graces and Favour the Civil Offices Ecclesiastical Benefices Places of most Trust about his Person and in his Realm were conferred generally upon his Normans and besides these Advantages and those of the Forfeitures that fell upon his Entrance they appeared to have his Countenance his Conversation his Confidence so that whatsoever the English possessed of the Kingdom the Normans alone seemed to possess the King This might have been more excusable if the English had considered the King as much as themselves and many of his Circumstances as well as their own They were Strangers to him or but new Acquaintance they differed in Language in Manners in Customs they had very lately differed in Interest and from Enemies in War were indeed now become Subjects but rather as to a Conqueror than a lawful Prince The Normans spoke his Native Tongue were trained up in the same Customs acquainted with his Person from his Youth had attended him in his Court followed him in his Wars at Home and Abroad and thought it but just they should share in his Fortunes as they had in his Dangers However many of the great aspiring Spirits among the English Nobles could not bear this Partiality of the Kings They thought the Normans ought to be provided of Rewards or Honours in Normandy but those of England should be conferred upon English Besides they resented the common Testimonies of his Inclination to the Normans as much as they could have done Injuries to themselves like generous Lovers who are more jealous and spited to see their Rivals gain the Inclination of their Mistress than the Possession and had rather they should have her Body than her Heart Upon all these Causes the Discontents of many chief English Nobles and Prelates were grown to such a Height swelling more within the more they were suppressed that they wanted only a fair Occasion to draw them to a Head and make them break out with Violence and much Pain and Danger to the State This furnish'd them either by Fortune or Design in the third fourth or fifth Year of the Conqueror's Reign for the Authors are neither distinct nor agreed in assigning the Causes or the Times of this King's Actions in War or Institutions in Peace by which their true Nature and that of the Prince would have been best discovered whereas they content themselves to display their Eloquence or vent their Passions by relating general or particular Events what was done and what was suffered in his Reign by which some of the Norman Writers endeavonr to represent him as a God and some of the English like a Devil and both unjustly Edgar Atheling was Nephew to Edward the Confessor and the undisputed as well as undoubted Heir of the Kingdom from the Saxon Race It was generally thought that he had likewise been designed by King Edward a just and pious Prince to succeed him in the Throne and that his Declaration pretended by Harold or Testament by the Duke of Normandy were fictitious or at least neither of them evident from any clear and undoubted Writings or Testimonies Edgar was besides from the Bounty of his Nature the Excellence of his Temper the Prerogative of his Birth and the Compassion of his unjust Fortunes much and generally beloved and esteemed among all the English both Nobles and Commons yet he neither opposed Harold's Usurpation nor the Normans Conquest whether for want of Spirit to attempt so great an Adventure or upon Prudence not to oppose such Powers as he found unresistable and in which so many Circumstances had conspired choosing rather to content himself with the Shades of a private Condition out of Danger and Envy or at least to attend some future Occasions that might open a more probable Way to his Hopes and his Fortunes He was at London among many other Nobles when the famous and decisive Battle was fought at Hastings and the News brought of the Duke's Victory and of Harold's Death Those of the Nobles who were for opposing the Conqueror were for declaring Edgar Atheling King the Citizens of London were at first disposed to the same Resolution but the Bishops and Clergy who had the greatest Sway among both those Orders prevailed in this general Council for a general Submission to the Fate of the Kingdom In Pursuance of this Resolution Edgar Atheling with Stigand and Alred Archbishops of Canterbury and York Edwin and Morchar two of the greatest English Lords the rest of the Nobles and Bishops who had attended the Victorious Duke upon his Way to London was well received by him and treated with Bounty as well as Humanity so that the young Prince attended frequently at Court accompanied the King into Normandy returned with him into England and lived there for some time like one who had forgot his Birth and his Title though they were by the English well remembred But at length either weary of Rest or roused by other Spirits more unquiet than his own he resolved or at least pretended to make a Journey into Hungary where he was born during his Father's Exile had lived long and was much beloved He embarqued for Flanders with his two Sisters Margaret and Christine but forced by a Storm and contrary Winds or allured by fairer Hopes he was driven upon the Coasts of Scotland the first was given out but the last suspected from the Event of this Voyage He was received by Malcolm the King with great Kindness and Compassion of his Disasters both at Sea and Land was resorted to by all the Nobles and Gentlemen who had sheltered themselves in that Kingdom upon Hate or Fear of the Conquest in England and was by them acknowledged and honoured as the true lawful Heir of that Crown Soon after his Arrival the King of Scotland enflamed either with the Beauty of the young Lady or with the Hopes of her Brother's Fortunes or upon former Concert with the