and so much Power to punish and revenge them which serves to make up that Character of Clemency of Nature that is allowed this Prince among his other Virtues even by those Writers who are severest upon his Memory Both the Danes and the Irish Fleets were upon the English Coasts when they first received the News of their Cenfederates Discovery and Disasters upon which they returned to Denmark and to Ireland and after this Time the Danes never again attempted any Invasion upon England nor was this Conqueror any more infested or disturbed by any of his English Subjects during the rest of his Reign finding the Conspiracy wholly suppressed and the Kingdom in perfect Tranquility upon his Return which he had yet hastened out of Normandy upon the Intelligence of his Danger in England and Ignorance how deep it was rooted or where it might end Nor was it easie to conjecture since it was believed by wise Men in that Age that the Weakness and ill Success of this Conspiracy proceeded chiefly from the Want of some popular Pretension that might have raised a Commotion of the People in Favour of the Lords and that if this had been designed in Defence of Edgar's known Rights to the Crown and spirited by that Prince at the Head of so many English and Norman Lords as were engaged in it the Throne had been endangered by this last Shake. But the unfortunate Prince Edgar had made his first Pretensions too late and his last Submissions too soon and the Danish Title was hated by the Commons of England though favoured by many of the Nobles and thereby wanted the Foundation proper and necessary to raise any firm Building Thus the Infelicity of some Princes may be occasioned only by ill timing their Councils when to attempt and when to desist in the justest Endeavours and the Greatness of others may be raised and preserved by unforeseen Accidents where the greatest Reach of Foresight and Conduct might have failed For had Edgar been at Liberty to pursue his Rights upon this Conjunction of the English and Norman Nobility he might probably have gained the Crown and had not some of the chief Complices discovered the Conspiracy the Conqueror might as probably have lost it However these Fortunes came to attend him thus far of his Reign yet here the Curtain may be drawn over the happy Scenes of this Prince's Life for the next that must open will represent him in the Decline of his Age imbroiled in Domestick Quarrels which could neither end in Glory nor in Gains assaulted by his own Children opposed by his Native Subjects forced to use Strangers to reduce them to Duty and Obedience after two dangerous Revolts and when these Troubles were appeased after much Anguish of Mind and many Dangers engaged by a trivial Accident and without any Design in a foreign War with a powerful Prince which though pursued with his usual Vigor and Fortune it first cost him his Health and at last his Life William the Conqueror had by his Wife Matild Daugter to Baldwin Count of Flanders four Sons Robert Richard William and Henry besides several Daughters Richard was a Prince of the greatest Hopes but unfortunately killed by a Stag while he was hunting in the new Forrest his untimely Fall was much lamented by the King but less by the People who interpreted it as a Judgment upon him for the mighty Wasts he had made to extend the Bounds of that Forrest and for the Rigor and Oppression of the Forrest Laws The other three survived their Father but with very different Fortunes as well as Merits and very unequally distributed The King before his Expedition into England had promised his eldest Son Robert the Dukedom of Normandy in case he conquered the Kingdom he then pretended this Promise was made before the King of France and challenged by Robert after the King 's first Establishment upon the English Throne But the King though he denied not the Promise he had made yet long delayed the Performance upon Pretence of his unsettled State in England from the Discontents of his Nobles and the Scotch Invasions which made it necessary for him to keep Normandy as a Retreat upon any great Misfortune or Revolution in England Duke Robert seemed content with these Reasons whilst they were justified by the Appearances of any Dangers in England but perceiving they were ceased and yet the Delays continued he grew at length impatient and about the fourteenth Year of the King's Reign assumed the Government of Normandy as sovereign and in his own Right caused the Barons to swear Fealty to him as to the Duke and not as his Father's Lieutenant and was received and obeyed by the Normans who grew weary of a subordinate Government and thought they deserved the Presence of their Prince among them which they had enjoyed since the first Establishment of their Possessions in France Besides Robert was generally beloved as a Prince courteous generous and brave though withal ambitious unquiet and uncertain yet these Dispositions both of Prince and People had not alone induced him to engage in so bold a Resolution with such a Breach of his Duty and his Trust without the Practises and Instigations of the King of France who grown jealous of King William's Greatness and envious of his Felicity found no better way of lessening both than to kindle this Fire in his own House and thereby the most sensibly to disquiet his Mind as well as to disjoynt his State and divide his Power He therefore not only encouraged Robert but combined with him in this Attempt and engaged to support him with his Forces if his Father disputed longer the Justice of his Claim The King though at first discomposed at the News of this Insolence in his Son yet believing it had no deeper Root but what would soon wither or be cut off by his Presence in Normandy gathered immediately what Forces he could raise and with an Army of his English Subjects sailed over now to invade Normandy as he had done before to invade England with his Normans A strange Revolution to befal one Prince in so short a Period of Time and which made as great a Change in his Dispositions as his Fortunes for the great Alacrity and Faithfulness which the English expressed towards him in this Expedition gained so far upon his Affections and Confidence that in the rest of his Reign and his succeeding Wars he seemed to place his chief Trust in the Courage and Loyalty of his English Subjects Duke Robert informed of his Father's Preparations neglected not his own and though surprised at the Suddenness of his Arrival to which the Winds had conspired he could not oppose his Landing yet soon after he was in the Field at the Head of a brave Norman Army and of two thousand Men at Arms which the King of France had sent to his Assistance With these Forces he marched against the King fell upon his Vanguard and by the Success of an Ambush
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
is over That the King having passed some Months here in the Cares and for the Settlement of his new Dominions in England made a Journy to visit his old in Normandy about the beginning of the Summer having been crowned at Westminster on Christmas-Day Whether this was undertaken upon any Necessity of his Affairs on that side or to settle them so as not to interrupt him here where he intended to reside is not known or whether he took a Pleasure and a Pride to show both his Subjects and his Neighbours Princes how secure he esteemed himself in his new acquired Dominions but it looks like a Strain of his usual Boldness and fearless Temper and succeeded well like the rest of his Counsels and Resolutions yet was not this Journy undertaken without Prudence and Caution in the Choice of those Hands with whom he left the Government in his Absence and of those Persons he engaged to accompany him in the Voyage He committed the Rule of the Kingdom to his Brother Odon Bishop of Bayeux and to Fitz Aubar his near Kinsman whom he had lately made Earl of Hereford He took with him into Normandy Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury who though a great Instrument in his easie and peaceable Admission to the Crown yet had been discontented at his Coronation which had been perfomed by the Archbishop of York upon Pretence of some Fault or Question about the other's Investiture with him he took several other Bishops the Earls Edwin and Morchar two Persons of great Power and Dependances with many other English Noblemen of whose Faith or Affections he was the least confident and besides these he took with him a greater and much more considerable Hostage for the Quiet of England though under Color of honouring him or being honoured by his Company This was Edgar surnamed Atheling Nephew to Edward the Confessor and designed by him for Successor as was divulged among those of his Subjects that neither favoured the Right or Pretensions of Harold or the Norman Duke He had many Disadvantages to ballance and weigh down his Right which was undisputed as his foreign Birth and Breeding which was in Hungary during his Father's Exile under the Reign of Hardy-Cnute The Persecution and Hatred of his Grandmother Emma a Woman celebrated in her Time for the Suspicion and clearing of her Chastity by the Saxon Trial of Fire Ordeal but who having married Hardy-Cnute after the Death of her first Husband had ever after more Inclination to the Danish than the Saxon Race Bedsies Edgar though of so good and virtuous Dispositions as made him be stiled England's Darling yet they were such as seemed to become an excellent private Person rather than a Prince or at least to have adorned an easie and peaceful Possession of a Crown rather than to force his Way to a legal Right through the Difficulties and Opposition of two powerful Pretenders However an undisputed Right which they say never dies had left him so many Friends in the Kingdom that the King thought it not safe to leave him behind upon his going into Normandy nor wise to tempt either him or his new English Subjects with such an Opportunity of raising any Commotions upon so fair a Pretence Besides these Cautions he took with him most of his French Adventurers into Normandy finding they were not very agreeable here either to the English or to the Normans and pretending he was not able to clear his Accounts with all that assisted him out of the Revenues or Forfeitures here and that he would find out Ways of satisfying them either in Normandy or by his Credit and Recommendations to other Princes where his own Bounty or Abilities could not reach During his Stay in Normandy which was no less than the whole Summer his new Government in England continued quiet and peaceable though one Erick called the Forester endeavoured to disturb it by calling in some loose Forces of the Welsh his Neighbours into Herefordshire but he was soon suppressed and they easily forced back into their own Mountains by the Vigilance of the Governours and the Vigour of those Forces he had left here disposed with such Order into the several Countries as to give Way or Time to no growing Dangers that should arise in any one Corner or from any single Discontent while the general Humour of the People was calm and either satisfied with the Change or at a Gaze how this new World was like to end So that the King after having settled his Affairs in Normandy to his Mind returned before Winter to enjoy the Fruits of so many Dangers and Toils as his Life had been engaged in resolving to spend the remainder of it in England as the nobler Scene and greater Dominion and to cultivate with Care an Acquisition he had gained himself with much Hazard and Pains and with greater Glory The King at his Return into England finding his new Dominion had continued calm and peaceable under the Authority of his Brother and Council had Reason to believe it would be easily preserved so under his own For as the Absence of an ill Prince seldom fails of raising Disquiets and Commotions among the People in a Government which is obeyed only from Fear so nothing contributes more to the Satisfaction and Obedience of Subjects than the Presence of a good King and this is the Reason why all distant Provinces governed by Commissions or subordinate Authorities are so subject to frequent Seditions and Revolts how lawfully soever they are inherited or how well soever they are established after any new Conquest or Acquisition the Force and Influence of Authority growing still weaker by the Change of Hands and Distance of Place This disposed the new King to the Resolution he took at this time of making England the Seat of his Person as well as Empire and governing Normandy by his Lieutenants thereby forcing the common Affections of Birth or Education and Custom to yield and comply with Reasons of State and preferring a foreign to his natural Soil though perhaps seated in a better Climate and at that time more adorned and civilized by the Commerce of France and other Countries upon the Continent With this Resolution and in this Security he applied himself at his Return to the Arts of Peace and the Orders of his State wherein he as well excelled as in those of War and was framed not only for a great Prince but for a good to which he was inclined by the Bounty and Clemency of his natural Dispositions by the Strength and Soundness of his Judgment and by the Experience of his Age His first Care was to provide for the due Administration and Execution of Laws and Justice throughout his Realm and the next was to introduce Order into the common Course of his Revenue and manage it with so great Proportion of his Expence to his Receipts as might neither leave the Crown in Necessities nor the Subjects in Fears of new or lawless Exactions and Oppressions
English Nobles residing in Scotland and Intelligence with others discontented in England married the Lady Margaret eldest Sister of Edgar and thereby became newly engaged in the Interests and Family of this noble but unfortunate Prince The Fame of this Adventure was no sooner divulged in England than it raised a great though different Motion in the Minds of all Men there who were either well or ill affected to the new King filling one Party with new Hopes ' and the other with new Fears and reasonably enough in both from all common Appearances Many Persons of great Note and Authority in England repaired immediately upon it into Scotland some by easie Passages out of the Northern Counties and others out of the remoter Parts of the Realm by more difficult Escapes either by Sea or Land Among these were the Earls Edwin Morchar Hereward Seward Gospatrick Men of great Estates and Power as was believed in England with many other Nobles and Gentlemen But that which seemed yet of greater Influence and Authority was the Repair of Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury and Alred of York with divers other Bishops and Prelates who having been the chief Instruments in making Way for the easie Accession of Duke William to the Crown and for the general Submission of the English to his Reign were presumed now likely to prove of as great Moment and Importance for the Restoration and Support of a just English Title in Edgar as they had been for the Admission and Establishment of one disputed and forreign of the Norman Dukes Besides the Clergy being accounted the wise and learned Men of that Age were esteemed most likely to judge best of the Rights and best to foresee the Events in Disputes of the Crown and unlikely to embark themselves in a Bottom unsound upon either the Regards of Justice or Success Edgar exalted with such a Concourse of Nobles out of England and the Hopes they gave him of a greater from the People there when he should appear among them resolved to lay claim to that Crown and with stronger Arguments than those of a bare Title or Right of Succession how just soever For the Scotch King had now assisted him with a great Army being induced to engage openly in his Quarrel not only by the Charms of his Wife or Compassion of her Brothers hard Fortune but by Reasons of State as well as of Justice and Affection he feared the dangerous Neighbourhood of so powerful aspiring and fortunate a Prince and apprehended his Ambition would not cease with the Conquest of England but extend it to that of Scotland too and reducing the whole Island of Britain under one Dominion for which it seemed by Nature to have been framed he thought it both wise and necessary to give some Stop to this growing Power before it became too well setled at home and thereby prepared for new Enterprises abroad and that it was better carrying a War into England than expecting it in Scotland He was glad of so fair an Occasion to justifie his Quarrel and by advancing the Fortunes of Edgar to secure his own he had taken Measures with Swayn King of Denmark to enter the Humber with a powerful Navy whilst he with his Army entred the Northern Provinces by Land and with the Sons of Harold at the same Time to invade the West by the Assistance of Forces to be furnished by Drone King of Ireland to whom they had fled upon the Norman Victory He presumed upon great Insurrections among the English in Favour of Edgar and by the Authority of the Nobles his Associates who had represented the common Discontents in England to be as great as their own These Hopes were not ill grounded nor the Designs ill laid for the Danish Fleet was ready to sail and the Sons of Harold with their Irish Forces landed and raised a Commotion in the West at the same Time that Edgar with those out of Scotland invaded the North where he found at first no Opposition but instead of Enemies met with many Friends prepared to receive him and increase his Strength He made himself Master of Northumberland Cumberland and the Bishoprick of Durham by the Defeat of Robert Count of Mortain who was there slain with seven hundred Normans From thence he marched without Resistance as far as York which was defended by a strong Garrison of Norman Soldiers He besieged this City the Capital and Defence of all the Northern Counties and assaulted it with that Fury that he carried the Town by Storm where all the Normans were put to the Sword by the Rage and Revenge of the English Nobles in his Army many in the Heat of the Assault and the rest after they were entred and found no more Resistance After this Success Edgar remained some time at York to refresh his Army after so long a March and so warm an Action which had cost him the Lives of many brave Men and the Wounds of many more Besides he expected here to see his Army soon increased by the Repair of many Friends and Discontents out of the Southern Provinces of England and by the Arrival of the Danish Fleet in the Humber according to the Concert before agreed and for which he knew all had been prepared King William thus surrounded with Dangers from the West and North and with Jealousies of his new Subjects of whose Affections he had yet made no Trial further than some few Years Submission to his Government was yet undaunted at the News of all these Attempts nor any ways distracted by such various either Dangers or Fears He applied himself to those which were nearest by sending the Forces he had ready immediately into the West under experienced Commanders and prepared a greater Army both of English and Normans to march himself into the North after the Commotions in the West should be appeased This happened to be easier and sooner than he expected for the Attempt of Harold's Sons with their Irish Forces proved weak and faint though successful in the first Encounter wherein Ednoth a brave Commander on the King's side was slain with several of his Followers but the Sons of Harold being defeated in a second Engagement and failing of any considerable Recourse or Insurrection of the English there upon which they had grounded their chief Hopes much disappointed and thereby discouraged were easily broken by the brave Norman Troops and forced to return with the Remainder of their Irish Forces into Ireland King William upon the happy End of this Adventure after the best Orders taken for the Security of the Southern Parts in his Absence marched at the Head of a brave Army in the North engaged the Forces of Edgar in a set Battel and by the Valour of his Troops the Discipline and Order of his Army and his own excellent Conduct defeated entirely the united Strength of his Enemies sieged and took again the City of York defended by Waltheof Son to the Earl Syward a young Gentleman of great Valour and
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND BY Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE BARONET Nescio quâ natale solum dulcedine tangit Humanos animos LONDON Printed for Richard Simpson at the Three Trouts and Ralph Simpson at the Harp in St. Paul's Church-yard 1695. THE PREFACE I Have often complained that so ancient and noble a Nation as ours so renowned by the Fame of their Arms and Exploits abroad so applauded and envied for their wise and happy Institutions at home so flourishing in Arts and Learning and so adorned by excellent Writers in other Kinds should not yet have produced one good or approved general History of England That of France has been composed with great Industry by des Serres with Iudgment and Candor by Mezeray That of Spain with great Diligence and eloquent Stile by Mariana That of the Empire with much Pains and good Order as well as Learning by Pedro de Mexia but ours have been written by such mean and vulgar Authors so tedious in their Relations or rather Collections so injudicious in the Choice of what was fit to be told or to be let alone with so little Order and in so wretched a Style that as it is a Shame to be ignorant in the Affairs of our own Country so 't is hardly worth the Time or Pains to be informed since for that End a Man must read over a Library rather than a Book and after all must be content to forget more than he remembers 'T is true some Parcels or short Periods of our History have been left us by Persons of great Worth and Learning much honoured or esteemed in their Times as Part of Edward the fourth and Richard the third by Sir Thomas Moor Henry the soventh by Sir Francis Bacon Henry the eighth by the Lord Herbert Edward the sixth by Sir John Haywood and Queen Elizabeth by Mr. Camden There are besides these many voluminous Authors of ancient Times in Latin and of modern in English with some Forreigners as Froissart and Polidore Virgil out of all which might be framed a full and just Body of our general History if collected with Pains and Care and digested with good Order for the Architect is only wanting and not the Materials for such a Building I will confess I had it in my Thoughts at one Time of my Life and the most proper for such a Work to make an Abridgment of our English Story having observed that Mezeray's Abrege of his own was more esteemed and much more read than his larger Volume but those Thoughts were soon diverted by other Imployments wherein I had the Hopes as well as the Intentions of doing some greater Sevices to my Country I have since endeavoured to engage some of my Friends in the same Design whom I thought capable of atchieving it but have not prevailed some pretending Modesty and others too much valuing Ease Therefore to invite and encourage some worthy Spirit and true Lover of our Country to pursue this Attempt I have consented to the publishing of this Introduction to the History of England wherein I have traced a short Account of this Island the Names the Inhabitants and Constitutions thereof from the first Originals as far as I could find any Ground of probable Story or of fair Conjecture since Philosophers tell us that none can be said to know things well who does not know them in their Beginnings I have further deduced it through the great and memorable Changes of Names People Customs and Laws that passed here until the End of the first Norman Reign which made the last and great Period of this Kingdom leaving the Successions and Constitutions since that Time so fixed and Established as to have lasted for the Space of above six hundred Years withont any considerable Alteration from so long a Course of Time or such Variety of Events as have since arrived in the World I have hereby beaten through all the rough and dark Ways of this Iourney the rest lies fair and easie through a plain and open Country and I should think my self happy to see it well pursued by some abler Hand for the Honour of our Nation and the Satisfaction of our own as well as forreign Readers who shall be curious to know our Story I wish it may be performed with the same good Intentions and with much better Success than this small Endeavour of mine AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND BRitain was by the Ancients accounted the greatest Island of the known World and for ought is yet certain may be so still notwithstanding the later Discoveries of Madagascar and Iapan which are by some brought into Competition It extends from North to South about ten Degrees and about two hundred Miles in the Breadth of its most extended Angles It was anciently called Albion which seems to have been softned from Alpion the word Alp in some of the Original Western Languages signifying generally very high Lands or Hills as this Isle appears to those who approach it from the Continent But of those Times there is no Certainty remains in Story more than that it was so called and very little known to the rest of the World By the Romans and some time before Cesar it was called Britannia concerning which Name very much Debate and no Agreement has been among the modern Learned of our Country or of others After raking into all the Rubbish of those Authors That which seems to me most probable is that the Strangers who came over into this Island upon the score of Traffick from the Coasts of Gaul or Germany called the Inhabitants by one common Name of Briths given them from the Custom among them of painting their naked Bodies and small Shields with an azure Blew which by them was called Brith and distinguish'd them from Strangers who came among them From this Name of the Inhabitants the Romans upon their Invasions Conquests and Colonies establish'd in Gaul which brought them first acquainted with this Island called it Britannia by giving a Latin termination to a barbarous Name and the same which appears to have been usual with them by the Appellations of many other Countries that fell under their Commerce or Conquests as Mauritania Lusitania Aquitania and several others commonly known The curious may observe this Care of the Romans in giving their own Terminations to many barbarous Countries and forming easie and pleasant Sounds out of the harshest and most offensive to such elegant Tongues and Ears as theirs I shall instance only in three among many more that are obvious to such as please themselves with these Speculations The Province of Britain in France was called among the Natives Al Mor which signisied Ad mare or near the Sea from this the Romans called it Armorica The Isle between the Branches of the Rhine which divide for some distance before they fall into the Sea was called by the Old Germans Vat awe which signifies fat or fruitful Earth and from this was framed the Latin word
or agreement of Times or Actions by the few and mean Authors of those barbarous and illiterate Ages and perhaps the rough course of those lawless Times and Actions would have been too ignoble a Subject for a good Historian About the Year 8 o. after many various Events and Revolutions between the several Races of the Heptarchy Ecbert descended from the West-Saxon Kings having inherited most of the Successions from the Prowess and Exploits of his Ancestors and acquired others by his own became the first sole King or Monarch of England as it now was distinguished from the Principality of Wales possessed by the old Britains and from that part of the Island to the North of Tweed possessed by the Picts and Scots and by the Saxons stiled by one common Name of Scotland This famous Adventure of the Saxons in England was atchieved by the Force and Confluence of such Multitudes from the Coasts of Germany which lie between the Belgick and Baltick Shores that some Parts of their Native Countries were left almost dispeopled to fill again by new Swarms from the great Northern Hive and the Number of Saxons and Angles Iutes and other Nations that came over were not only sufficient to Conquer and Wast this whole Province but even to Plant and People it soon again with numerous and new Inhabitants So as by them succeeded in this Island not only a Change of Government as by the Roman Arms but a Change of the very People or Nation that inhabited or possessed the Lands of this whole Province This induced a Change likewise of Names of Language of Customs of Laws of Arms of Discipline of Possessions of Titles of Religion and even of the whole Face of Nature through this whole Kingdom So as we may justly date the Original of all these amongst us as well as our Nation it self from these our Saxon Ancestors Britain which was before a Roman Province was now grown a Saxon Kingdom and instead of its former Name was called England The Language which was either Latin or British was now grown wholly Saxon or English The Land that was before divided into Roman Colonies or Governments was so now into Shires with Names given to them by the Saxons as they first possessed or afterwards thought fit to distinguish them The Habits in Peace and Arms in War the Titles of Officers in both as well as of great Counsellors to their Kings or great Proprietors of Lands came to be all according to the Saxon Forms and Usage The Laws of this Country which before were Roman changed now into Old Saxon Customs or Constitutions Their Princes or Leaders of their several Nations became Konings or Kings of the Territories they had subdued They reserved part of the Lands to themselves for their Revenue and shared the rest among their chief Commanders by great Divisions and among their Soldiers by smaller shares The first who had the great Divisions were called Earls or Barons those of the smaller were Knights and the smallest of all were Freemen who possessed some Proportions of free Lands and were thereby distinguished from the Villens that held nothing but at the Will of the Landlord In this universal Transformation Religion it self had a share like all the rest and received new Forms and Orders with the new Inhabitants whilst all that was Roman or British expired together in this Country The Britains began early to receive the Christian Faith and as is reported from some of the Disciples themselves And this was so propagated among them that when the Romans left the Province they were generally Christians and had their Priests and Bishops from the ancient and Apostolick Institution The Saxons were a sort of Idolatrous Pagans that worshipped several Gods peculiar to themselves among whom Woden Thor and Frea were the chief which left their Memory still preserved by the common names of three days in the Week This Religious Worship they introduced with them and continued long in England till they subdued the Britains reduced it under their Heptarchy of Saxons Kings persecuted the British Christians and drove them with their Religion into Wales where they continued under their Primitive Priests and Bishops who with their Monks were all under the Surintendance of one Arch-Priest or Bishop of Carleon or Chester the Bound of the British Principality About the year 600. or soon after Pope Boniface sent Austin the Monk to Preach the Gospel in England to the Heathen Saxons who landing at Dover was received with Humanity by Ethelbert King of the South Saxons and being admitted with four or five of his Companions as well-meaning Men to teach and explain the Doctrin and Mysteries of Christianity among these ignorant and barbarous People they so well succeeded that they converted at first great numbers of the common sort and at length the King himself whose example gave easie way for introducing the Christian Faith into his whole Kingdom which from thence spread into all the Countries subject to the Saxon Heptarchy Thus Religion came to be Establish'd in England under the Rites and Forms and Authority of the Roman Church by which Austin was instituted chief Bishop in England and seated by the Saxon King at Canterbury But his Jurisdiction though admitted in all the Saxon Territories was not received by the British Priests or People in Wales though endeavoured by many missions from Austin and his Successors and even by Wars and Persecutions of the Saxons upon the Old British Christians at the instigation of the New Romish Priests in one of which near Carleon Twelve Hundred of the poor British Monks are said to have been slaughtered while they were apart in the Field at their Prayers for the success of the British Army With this Account of a new face and state of Persons and of Things both Natural Civil and Religious establish'd in England I return to the Period I left of the Saxon Heptarchy which being extinguish'd by long and various Revolutions among themselves made way for the Reign of Ecbert the first sole King or Monarch of England about the year 830. It might have been reasonably expected that a wise and fortunate Prince at the Head of so great a Dominion and so brave and numerous a People as the English after the Expulsion of the Picts and Scots out of his Country into the rough Northern Parts and of the Britains into the North-west Corners of the Island should not only have enjoyed the Fruits of Peace and Quiet but left much Felicity as well as greatness to many succeeding Generations both of Prince and People Yet such is the instability of Human Affairs and the weakness of their best Conjectures That Ecbert was hardly warm in his united Throne when both he and his Subjects began to be alarmed and perplexed at the approach of new and unknown Enemies and this Island exposed to New Invasions About this time a mighty Swarm of the Old Northern Hive who had possessed the Seats about the Baltick
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
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
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
by another Tenure than the Laiety pretended and feared not to lose them under any Prince that was a Christian which made them more indifferent of what Race or by what Title he held the Crown and so more easie to fall in with the Stream of any Changes or new Revolutions Besides they were possess'd with the Fame of this Prince's Piety and the Opinion of his Right having been determined by the Pope's approving and assisting it with his Benediction They thought as well as the Citizens that this Torrent was not to be resisted that a faint and fruitless Opposition would but exasperate the Duke and make him 〈◊〉 continue as well as begin his Reign like a Conqueror and therefore esteemed the wisest Part was to acknowledg his Right and thereby tempt or perswade him into a safer and easier Form of Government both for himself and his Subjects as a just and lawful King The Clergy was in very great Authority at this Time and among all sorts of People in the Kingdom having enjoyed and exercised it here during the whole Course of the Saxon Reigns after those Kings became Christians in this Island nor could any other Authority rise so high and spread so far as growing from so many Roots They were allowed to be the Guides and Instructors of Mankind in all spiritual Worship and Divine Service and even the Dispencers of those Graces and Forfeitures upon which depended the Rewards or Punishments of a future State which being greater and longer than those of this Life gave them more Influence upon the Minds of Men than any secular Jurisdiction that can extend no further They had mighty Possessions in Lands throughout the Kingdom as well as other Riches from the Bounty of pious Princes of devout and innocent People and from many others who thought to expiate Crimes or cover ill Lives by these kinds of Donation to the Church These Possessions were esteemed sacred and as much went into this Stock every Age so nothing ever went out and all the Lands in the Kingdom might in the Course of Ages have held of the Church if this Current had not been stopped by the Statute of Mortmain in the Time of Edward the first 'T is recorded that of sixty two thousand Knights Fees that were reckoned in England during the Reign of this first Norman King there were in that of King Iohn twenty eight thousand in the Hands of the Church This gave the Clergy by the Dependances of those that held under them in so great Numbers a secular Power annexed to their Ecclesiastical Authority They had besides all the little Learning which was in those ignorant Ages and passes for Wisdom among those who want both gives a Faculty at least of discoursing though perhaps not of judging better than others and gains more Attention and easier Applause from vulgar Auditors Lastly they were united more than any other State upon one common Bottom and in pursuit of one common Interest which was always pretended to be the Greatness of the holy Church but indeed was their own and the Honours Power and Riches of the Church-men rather than of the Church By these Circumstances and the Advantage of such a complicated Strength the Clergy came to such an Authority that they were Arbiters if not of all Affairs at least of all Contests in the Kingdom and turned the Ballance which way soever they fell in were still applied to by the weaker and often by the unjuster Side had the chief Sway and were the chiefest Instruments in all those many Revolutions of State irregular Successions and even Usurpations of the Crown that happened between the Time of the Conquest and the Reign of Henry the third which may easily be observed and cannot easily be wondered at by all who read the Story of those Reigns and consider what has been said upon this Subject important enough to excuse this Digression But to return to our Conqueror upon his March to London and the Consultations there how to receive him The Opinions and Councils of the Bishops and Ecclesiasticks easily prevailed and seem to have had more Reason as well as Authority than the rest So it was unanimously resolved not only to submit to a Power they could not oppose but to acknowledge a Title they would not dispute The Duke upon his Approach to the City was received with open Gates and open Arms at least without the Appearance of any Reluctance or Discontent any more than of Resistance He claimed the Crown at his Arrival by the Testament of King Edward the Confessor without any mention of Conquest which was infinitely grateful to all the Nobles and Commons of the Realm whether it was a Strain of his own Prudence and good natural Sense or a Perswasion of those English who had either assisted or invited his Invasion or Apprehension of so great and brave a People if offended by the Name of Conquest and irritated by the Dangers or Fears of a lawless Arbitrary Power to which they had not yet their Hearts or Strength broken enough easily to submit He was crowned King at Westminster by the Arch-bishop of York who with Stigand Arch-bishop of Canterbury had been the great Promoters of those Councils by which he entred upon so peaceable a Beginning of his Reign At his Coronation he took the Oath usual in the Times both of the Saxon and Danish Kings which was To protect and defend the Church to observe the Laws of the Realm and to govern his People justly After which he caused Fealty to be sworn to him by all the Bishops Barons and Nobles with the Magistrates of the City who had assisted or attended at his Coronation and thereupon found himself on a sudden settled in a calm and quiet Possession of a Crown he had so long aspired to and so lately won by one single though violent Blow This King was about two and Fifty Years old upon his Accession to this Crown and is perhaps the only Instance found in Story either before or since in this Island or the rest of the World that began and atchieved any great and famous Enterprise after that Age Whether the Decline of Nature leaves not Vigor enough for such Designs or Actions or Fortune like her Sex have no Kindness left for old Men how much soever she favoured them when they were young But the Talents of Age which are Prudence and Moderation learnt best in the School of Experience and seldom joyned if consistent with the warm Passions of Youth were now as necessary to this Prince for the Conservation of his Kingdom as his long industrious Application and bold Execution had been for acquiring it and how much he excelled in these Qualities will be seen by the Sequel of his Reign He considered very wisely that though he had gained the Crown by the Assistance of foreign Forces and by the Decision of Arms yet these might not always be so prosperous if too often tried and the Number or
Justice being the very Foundation of Government as Treasure is said to be the Sinew of War For the first As he had sworn at his Coronation to govern by the Laws of the Realm so he continued the ancient Customs and Liberties of the People that were called the common Law of the Kingdom which he caused to be in Substance observed both in what concerned the Crown and the Subject though he introduced several new Forms in the Administration or Execution of them Besides the ancient Laws or Customs that concerned the Descent of private Inheritances or the Penalties upon several Crimes There were two fundamental Laws of the Saxon or English Kingdom The Trial by Juries of twelve Men wherein consisted the chief Safety of Mens Properties and Lives And the Burrough Law which was the greatest Security that had been invented by the Wisdom of our Saxon Ancestors for the Peace and Order of the Realm The first I know is by some Authors mentioned as having been introduced by this Norman King out of the Laws of that Country But I think it evident to have been an Institution very ancient among the Saxons and to have been derived and observed during the whole Succession of the English Kings and even in the Danish Reigns without any Interruption Nor does there want some Traces or Appearance of it from the very Institutions of Odin the first great Leader of the Asiatick Goths or Getae into Europe and the Founder of that mighty Kingdom round the Baltick Sea from whence all the Gothick Governments in these Northwest Parts of the World were derived by the spreading Conquests of those Northern Races 'T is recorded that upon the beginning of his Expedition he ordained a Council of twelve Men who should judge and decide all Matters that came in Question and there being then no other Laws establisht among those vast Numbers of rough People going to seek out new Conquests and thereby Seats to inhabit It is probable these twelve Men judged all Cases upon Evidence or matter of fact and then gave their Sentence and appointed Penalties according to what they esteemed most agreeable to Justice and Equity so as the twelve Men were at first both Jurors and Judges Their Judgments in Causes both real and criminal being generally approved as just and equitable grew into President to succeeding Judges and being received by general Submission introduced the Custom of certain Sentences being pronounced in certain Causes and certain Punishments being usually inflicted upon certain Crimes In Process of Time and Multiplicity of Business the matter of Fact continued to be tried by twelve Men but the Adjudgment of the Punishment and the Sentence thereupon came to be given by one or two or more Persons chosen out of such as were best versed in the Knowledge of what had been usual in former Judgments upon like Cases and as the first Part was left to the Equals or Neighbours of the Persons accused as most likely to do Justice to one of their own Rank or Acquaintance so the other was committed to Persons of Learning or Knowledge in the ancient Customs Records or Traditions of what had long passed in the Course of Justice among that Nation Thus we find it evident that in the Saxon Reigns in England Causes were adjudged by the Aldermen and Bishop of the several Shires with the Assistance of twelve Men of the same County who are 〈◊〉 said to have been Judges or Assistants to the two first by such as affirm or pretend this manner of Trial to have been drawn by the Conqueror himself out of Normandy who is thereby said to have introduced in this as well as some other Forms the Norman Laws into the common Law of England 'T is true that the same Custom or Trial was used in Normandy before the Conquest and it is most probable that neither the English received it from the Normans nor these from the English but that both Nation deriving their Original from those ancient Goths agreed in several Customs or Institutions deduced from their common Ancestors which made this Trial by Juries continue uninterrupted in England not only by the Normans but by the Danes also who were but another Swarm of that great Northern Hive 'T is true the Terms of Jury and Verdict were introduced by the Normans with many others in the Stile and Practice of our Laws but the Trials by twelve Men with that essential Circumstance of their unanimous Agreement was not only used among the Saxons and Normans but is known to have been as ancient in Sweden as any Records or Traditions of that Kingdom which was the first Seat of the Gothick Dominions in the Northwest Parts of Europe and it still remains in some Provinces of that Country However King William caused this to be observed as the common Law of the Kingdom and thereby gave great and universal Satisfaction to the Body of the People both English and Normans The Burrough Law had been likewise anciently establish'd among the Saxons whereby every Shire was divided into so many Hundreds or Burroughs consisting at first of one hundred Families therein usually inhabiting every Hundred into so many Tithings consisting of ten Families If any Person committed or were accused of any Crime the Tithing to which he belonged was bound to produce him to Justice before the Court of the Hundred or County If he fled they were to swear they were not Complices of the Fact and that they would procure the Criminal whenever they could find him if this failed in a certain time they would discover all the Goods he was possess'd of within their Tithing to satisfie the Damage done to a Subject or a Fine to the King upon such an Offence If neither Person nor Estate appeared then the Tithing was answerable to a certain Proportion and if that were not sufficient then it was laid upon the Hundred By this means it became every Man's Interest as well as Duty to prevent all Crimes and Misdemeanors among their Neighbours and to discover the Criminals since they were otherwise to share in the Penalty and as the rest of the Tithing was bound for the Behavior of every Freeman among them so every Lord or Master was bound to answer in the same manner for their Servants I know not whether any Constitution of Government either ancient or modern ever invented and instituted any Law or Order of greater Wisdom or of greater Force to preserve the Peace and Safety of any State and of equal Utility to the Prince and People making Virtue and Innocence of Life so necessary by the easie Apprehension or Discovery and certain Punishment of Offenders This Law the King caused likewise to be severely observed during his Reign finding therein his own Interest as well as his Peoples and the great Security of his new settled Government He confirmed all Mens Properties Inheritances and Successions invading none either for his own Benefit or Reward of his Norman Forces or Friends
much admired in this Action being said to have stood firm at a Breach made in the Wall and with his Sword to have cut of the Heads of many Normans as they pressed to enter and could do it but one by one by the Narrowness of the Breach so bravely defended After this Defeat and the Surrender of York Edgar retired into Scotland with those of his Dependants who were most desperate and impatient of the Norman Conquest The rest of the English Nobles who had escaped the Battel submitted themselves to the King and came in upon publick Faith took a new Oath of Allegiance and were thereupon all pardoned and many restored not only to their Estates but to Favour with the King who had found Erick the Forrester that had first rebelled against him after his Coronation express great Fidelity after his Pardon obtained and perform good Service in this Northern Expedition He made Gospatrick Earl of Northumberland and employed him against the Dangers and Incursions he apprehended from the Scotch He was so charmed with the Valour and Constancy that Waltheof had shewed in the Defence of York though so much to his Cost and the Loss of so many Normans by his Sword that he resolved to gain him at what Rate soever he valued himself showing the Nobleness of his own Courage and Virtue by loving and honouring them in his Enemies He married this young Gentleman to Iudith his Niece gave him great Possessions besides those to which he was Heir and used him with much Confidence which was for some time returned with Service and with Faith Most of the other Nobles that came in upon Pardon of their Lives he despoiled of their Estates and Offices and bestowed them upon his Norman Friends and Followers some he kept Prisoners whom he thought most dangerous as the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and Edwin a Man of the greatest Power and Dependences whose Earldom and great Possessions in Yorkshire were given to Alain Earl of Britain as were those of several others at the same time to others of his Kindred or Friends In the room of Stigand he made Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury an Italian born but an Abbot in Normandy a Person of great Wisdom and Temper as well as Learning Thomas his Chaplain he made Archbishop of York and obtained the Approbation of the Pope for their Succession in those Sees during the Lives of the other two upon Representation of other Crimes or at least Vices besides their Rebellion against a King whose Title had been confirmed by the Pope as well as encouraged 'T is not agreed at what Time the Danish Fleet arrived upon the Coasts but 't is certain they entered Humber with about two hundred Sail some write that they returned again without making any Attempt upon the Shore that their Commanders were enriched with great presents from the King and their Soldiers supplied with Provisions and all treated rather like Friends than Enemies whether their Arrival out of Time made them despair of any Success and whether that were occasioned by cross Winds at Sea or cross Purposes in the Danish Court is not well known For William the Conqueror after he was seated in the Throne feared no Insult from abroad but by Danish Powers and Pretensions they had still upon England and the Preparations as was divulged abroad of Swain their King for invading it with a Navy of a thousand Ships Hereupon he endeavoured to ward this Blow by slight rather than Force thinking his Safety on that side better purchased with Treasure than with Blood He practised private Intelligences in the Danish Court and by Force of Presents and Pensions gained to his Devotion some Persons of Credit and among the rest Adelbert Archbishop of Hamburg a Man of great Authority in those Parts and whose Advices were much used and esteemed by the Danish King It was believed the Artifices and Practices of these Men eluded the first great Design of a mighty Invasion changed it into an Assistance of the discontented here with smaller Forces delayed them till the Time was past and disposed their Commanders to return without Action and their Master to receive their Excuses with Approbation or at least with Impunity Yet there are other Writers who say the Danes landed in England made great Spoils joyned Prince Edgar's Forces wintered in this Kingdom and returned in the Spring by the King 's private Practices and Rewards among the Commanders as well as Bounty to the Soldiers The King after having established his Affairs in the North returned triumphant to London where the first Action he performed was to take a new personal Oath before Lanfranc the new Archbishop and all the Lords then present in that City to observe the ancient Laws of the Realm established by the Kings of England his Predecessors and particularly those of Edward the Confessor This Action of the Kings was the more applauded and the better accepted by the English because it was unconstrained by any Necessity of his Affairs or Appearance of any new Dangers against which he might have Reason to provide And 't is certain his Oath taken at his Coronation of preserving the ancient Laws of the Realm had been the chief Occasion of his Safety in the late and dangerous Convulsion of the State together with the ill chosen Time of the Scotch Invasion and the Revolt of the Lords in Favour of Edgar For if such Attempts had been made soon after the Conquest while the Minds of the People were generally in Motion and in Fear of what might succeed to the Danger of their Properties and their ancient Liberties upon that new Revolution his Throne had not been only shaken but in evident Danger of being overthrown by such a violent Concussion But the People having lived quietly some Years under the Protection of their ancient Laws and in an equal Course of known and common Justice grew indifferent to the Change which had been made in the Rights or Succession of the Crown or to any new one that might succeed Besides though they were well affected to Edgar yet they disliked the Company with which he came attended and hated the Entrance of a Scotch Army into England more than they loved Edgar They thought if he succeeded the Dominion would fall under the Scotch whilst he only retained the Name and if they must be governed by Strangers the best was to have those they were already used to and so feared least The common Subjects of a Kingdom are not so apt to trouble themselves about the Rights and Possession of a Crown as about their own and seldom engage in the Quarrels of the first but upon some general and strong Apprehensions that the last are in Danger So the Discontents and Insurrections of the Nobles in England though encouraged and supported by forreign Forces yet failed of Success against this new King and his Government because they were not followed by any general Commotion or Sublevation of the People
which left all safe and quiet in the Southern Parts and main Body of the Kingdom whilst he marched with his Army against his Enemies in the North Nor is the Safety of a Prince so firm and well established upon any other Bottom as the general Safety and thereby Satisfaction of the common People which make the Bulk and Strength of all great Kingdoms whenever they conspire and unite in any common Passion or Interest For the Nobles without them are but like an Army of Officers without Soldiers and make only a vain Show or weak Noise unless raised and encreased by the Voice of the People which for this Reason is in a common Latin Proverb called the Voice of God No Prince ever made greater or happier Experience of this Truth than William the Conqueror both in the Events of the last and formidable Dangers which he so easily surmounted and in the whole Course of his subsequent Reign which was infested by many new Troubles either in England or in Normandy that would have proved fatal to him if he had been distracted by the common Discontents or Insurections of his English Subjects for his present Calm was not of long Continuance the Clouds soon gathered again and threatned another Storm and from the same Winds by which the last had been raised Malcolm King of Scotland still persisted in the Envy and Fear of his neighbouring Power and Greatness still esteemed it his own Interest to joyn with those of Edgar and his Dependants in England and thereby weaken the Force or disturb the Quiet of the Norman Government in England before it should by the Favour of Time and calm Seasons take too deep Root to be afterwards shaken He raised a greater Army than before with which he threatned again to invade England and led them himself though still in Favour only of Edgar's Title and Advancement to the Crown He entered into new Practises with several of the English Nobles who had followed him though unfortunately in the last Expedition and were resolved to repair their former Losses by venturing greater rather than give over the Game Nor could the Hopes of the discontented English ever die while the Root was alive and they were fomented by the Malice and encouraged by the Forces of so powerful a Neighbour joyned with so just Pretensions as those of Edgar were generally esteemed When the Preparations in Scotland and Intelligences in England were ripe for Execution the Earl Edwin made his Escape and fled towards the North but was by the Way murdered by some of his own Retinue The Earls Morchar and Hereward who were already upon the Wing for the same Flight discouraged by this Misadventure durst not pursue it but yet already engaged too far to make a Retreat they made Way to possess themselves of the Isle of Ely fortified there the best they could and hoped the Scotch Invasion would divert the King's Forces from attempting them before Winter and that the Season and Scituation together would there cover them for some Time On the contrary the Scotch King was discouraged from beginning his March by the News of these Disasters among his Confederates in England and chose rather to send the Bishop of Durham and Earl Syward out of Scotland to relieve and animate those Lords retired to the Isle of Ely than to enter England without Hopes of their making some Diversion But the King who never feared or slighted any Dangers and knew they were like Diseases to be taken in time marched immediately with his Forces to the Isle of Ely beset it upon one side with a great Number of flat bottom Boats and on another made a Bridge of two Miles long with incredible Diligence and Labour and with such Speed as both surprised and terrified his Enemies within So as despairing of further Resistance they all submitted to the King's Mercy except Hereward who with some few Followers escaped through the Fens and through many Dangers arrived safe in Scotland The rest of the Lords were sent Prisoners to several Parts of the Kingdom where some remained during the King's Life and others dyed be-before him with whom they could not be content to live The King after this small Adventure so happily atchieved and the present Peace of his Kingdom restored yet considering the Root of all his Dangers was in Scotland and unwilling to take up present Quiet and Safety at too great an Interest of Dangers to come resolved to march into Scotland with a powerful Army and endeavour to secure himself on that Side either by a Peace or Victory He first sent Roger a Norman then Gospatrick Earl of Northumberland with Part of his Forces into the North to oppose the Scotch Army that was already entred those Provinces with great Spoils and Ravages of the Country and to keep them at a Bay till the King came up with the rest of his Army In the mean time he assembled his Forces at York with the best Choice of Men and Officers and such Numbers as he judged necessary for such an Expedition composed of English and Normans whose Emulation he encouraged with Promises of Reward and Hopes of establishing their common Safety by the Success of this Enterprise From York to Durham he met with many Hardships and Difficulties from the Wants of his Army in a Country which had been so lately wasted by the Scotch Forces and his own and with which he was then contented to prevent another Invasion But having surmounted all by his own Care and the Patience of his Men from the Example of their Leaders he marched near the Borders without any Opposition though common Fame had made him expect the Scotch would give him Battle in England and not the Trouble of so long a March. But Malcolm their King now destitute of Hopes or Assistances from any forreign Confederates or any Insurrections in England after the late Disasters of the discontented Lords began to cool the Heats of his Blood and instead of further invading England changed his Counsels and resolved only upon a defensive War At the News of King William's Entrance into the Northern Provinces he quitted Northumberland and with good Order retreated back to the Borders and there encamped his Army to the best Advantage without making any further Incursions into the English Territories either to secure his Provisions or not to provoke his Enemies and render all Terms of Reconcilement desperate or not to endanger his Retreat in Case of any Disaster The King of England approaching the Borders and thereby the Scotch Army thought fit likewise to encamp his own both to refresh his Soldiers harassed by so long and difficult a March as also to discover the Forces of the Enemy observe their Countenance their Order and their Motions and thereby judge of their Designs and direct his own to the best Advantage So that for some Days the two Armies stood at a Bay seeming both prepared for a fierce Encounter and yet both content to delay it
from a mutual Respect they had for one anothers Forces and Dispositions They were indeed not much unequal in Numbers nor in the Bravery and Order of their Troops both Kings were valiant and wise having been trained up in Arms inured to Dangers and much embroiled at home in the Beginning of their Reigns They were now animated to a Battle by their own Courage as well as their Soldiers but yet both considered the Event in the Uncertainty and the Consequence the Loss of a Battle might prove the Loss of a Crown and the Fortune of one Day determine the Fate of a Kigdom and they knew very well that whoever fights a Battle with what Number and Forces what Provisions and Orders or Appearances soever of Success yet at the best runs a Venture and leaves much at the Mercy of Fortune from Accidents not to be foreseen by any Prudence or governed by any Conduct or Skill These Reflections began to dispose both Kings to the Thoughts of ending their Quarrel by a Peace rather than a Battle and though both had the same Inclination yt each of them was unwilling first to discover it least it might be interpreted to proceed from Apprehensions of Weakness or Fears and thereby dishearten their own Soldiers or encourage their Enemies The Scotch at length began the Overture which was received by King William with a Show of Indifference but with a concealed Joy and the more reasonable as having the greater Stake the less to win and the more to lose by the Issue of a Battle The first Parley was followed by a Treaty and this after some Debate by a Peace concluded as between equal Forces so upon equal Conditions each King to content himself with the ancient Bounds of their several Kingdoms whereof the Borders were agreed Neither to invade one anothers Dominions nor to assist the Enemies or receive and protect the Rebels of each other Prisoners in the last or this War to be on both sides released and Subjects who desired to return to be on both sides restored to their Country and Possessions Edgar the Principal or most appearing Cause of the War was included and provided for in this Treaty to return into England make his Submission to the King renounce any further Claim to the Crown and thereupon not only to be restored to his own Possessions with his Friends and Followers but to be provided of a large and honourable Maintenance from the King during his Life And thus this Storm which threatned both Kingdoms with such fatal Dangers and long Consequences was of a sudden blown over a general Calm restored in the whole Island of Britain and the two Kings returned to enjoy the Fruits of a Peace to which they had both contributed by their equal Temper and Prudence as well as by their equal Preparations for a War Soon after the King's Return Edgar repaired into England where he was very favourably received and all Conditions of the Treaty performed and ever after observed with great Faith and Sincereness on both Parts He had his Provisions and Revenues agreed by the Treaty fairly established but being desirous to go to the Wars of the Holy Land which was the common Humour of idle or devout Princes in that Age He was furnished by the King with great Sums of Money to prepare and maintain a noble Equipage for that Journey He there gained much Honour and Esteem after which returning into England he passed the rest of his whole Life in the Ease and Security of a large but private Fortune and perhaps happier than he might have done in the Contests and Dangers of Ambition however they might have succeeded A rare Example of Moderation in Prince Edgar and of Magnanimity as well as Justice and Clemency in this King and very different from several of his Successors who defamed their Reigns by the Death of innocent Princes for having only been born to just Rights of the Crown without any appearing Means or Attempts to pursue them or endanger the Possessors thereby staining their Memories with the Blots both of Cruelty and Fear For as Clemency is produced by Magnanimity and Fearlessness of Dangers so is Cruelty by Cowardise and Fear and argues not only a Depravedness of Nature but also a Meanness of Courage and Imbecillity of Mind for which reason it is both hated by all that are within its Reach and Danger and despised by all that are without The King upon his Return began again to apply himself to the Arts of Peace which consist chiefly in the preventing of future as those of War in the surmounting of present Dangers And as nothing raises the Power of a Crown so much as weak and private Conspiracies against it rashly undertaken by some few Discontents unsupported by any general Defections of the People faintly pursued and ending without Success so this Prince found his Throne and Authority more firmly established in all Appearance by the happy Issue of the two late Wars and the unfortunate Events of his revolted Nobles And now esteemed himself more at Liberty from those Regards of his English Subjects and their Laws which his unsettled State had made necessary upon his first Accession to the Crown He was provoked by the Rebellions of so many of the greatest English Nobles after their Fealty sworn to him He was perswaded of the general Disaffection of the rest and that the late Insurrections would have been found much deeper rooted and farther spread if they had been attended with any Success He thought the English Lords and Bishops had too great Dependance of their Tenants and Vassals upon them and had themselves too little upon the Prince Since they esteemed themselves neither bound to attend him in the Wars unless they pleased nor to furnish the Expences unless by their own Consent in their general Assemblies nor was he satisfied to have them judge of his Necessities whom he thought likeliest to encrease them or at least to desire them He believed the English in general would as long as they retained the Saxon Laws and Forms of Government ever be affected to the Race of their Saxon Kings And for this Reason he was thought to have encouraged the Voyage of Edgar for the Holy Land by so large Supplies of Treasure under Pretence of that Prince's Honour but from true Intentions of his own Safety Besides he found his Treasures exhausted by the great Charges of his two last Expeditions and the just Rewards he had promised both his Normans and those of the English who had well and faithfully served in them Though he had once or twice for 't is left in doubt levied the Tax of Dane-gelt upon the Threats of a Danish Invasion and by an ancient Prerogative of the Saxon Kings pretended or exercised upon that Occasion yet he found it was not raised without great Murmur and Reluctancy of the People as well as the Nobles who pretended to ancient Liberties of paying no Taxes imposed without the Consent
between the Accuser and Accused and were usual in Actions both real and criminal where no evident Proof of Fact appeared from Witnesses or other Circumstances The Victor was acquitted and the Vanquished if not killed upon the Field was condemned These were performed with great Solemnities and either in Presence of the King who granted the Combat or of certain Judges by him appointed for that particular Case Both these Sorts of Trials this King abolished as unchristian and unjust and reduced all Causes to the Judgment of Equals or of a Jury of twelve Neighbours and by legal Forms Yet the last was some few times used in succeeding Reigns In the Beginnings of his Reign the Kingdom had been much infested by Outlaws and by Robbers and many Normans were secretly murthered by the Hatred of the English as they passed alone upon the Ways or the Fields especially in the Night To remedy this last Mischief he imposed a heavy Fine upon the Hundred where the Body of any Norman should be found slain whether any Discovery were made or no of the Author or Complices of the Fact For all Rapes and Robberies he caused them to be punished so severely by cruel Mutilations of Members and Hardships of Labour as left them miserable Spectacles or Warnings of their Crimes during the rest of their Lives By the Rigour of these Courses and cutting off the chief Cause of such Offences which grow from Idleness and Expences he reduced the whole Realm to such Security that 't is recorded in his Time how a fair Maiden with a Purse of Gold in her Hand might have travelled through the Realm without any Danger offered to her Honour or her Money Besides to prevent any Crimes that might be committed by Favour or Encouragement of the Night He ordered a Bell to be rung in each Parish at eight a Clock in the Winter and nine in the Summer after which every Man was to cover his Fire and stir no more abroad that Night And this was for that Reason called the Corfew or Couvrefew Bell. For the Safety of his State he erected several Castles in many Places most convenient of the Kingdom among which was the Tower of London and New-Castle upon Tyne either built or by this King much enlarged and garrisoned them by Norman or English Soldiers but all such as he most trusted and who were ready in Arms upon all Occasions Yet these Forts were look'd upon by the English as unnecessary in the Times of Peace and as Bridles upon the Liberties of the People rather than Preventions of Dangers of the Crown After these Institutions he applied himself to the Increase Order and Establishment of his Revenue and having as he believed satisfied the People in general by the Confirmation of their ancient and beloved Laws he thought he might be bolder with the Clergy whom he knew to be generally his Enemies and whose Clamours he the less feared from his own known Piety in frequenting Divine Worship in building and endowing several Monasteries in Presents to many Churches both in England and Normandy but especially in great Treasures which he sent frequently to Rome Therefore upon Pretence of his Enemies in the two last Revolts and such as were designed to be their Complices having conveyed their Plate Money and Jewels into the several Monasteries throughout the Kingdom he caused all the rich Abbies to be searched their Money Plate and Jewels which were not necessary or of common Use in Divine Service to be seized and thereby brought at once a mighty Treasure into his Coffers but an inveterate Hatred of the Clergy upon his Person and Reign and this was the last of those Actions that by the envenomed Pens of the Monkish Writers of that Age left such a Charge upon the Memory of this Prince by the Imputation of Cruelty Oppression Violence Exaction and the Breach or Change of Laws of the Kingdom either Human or Divine though the same Authors little consider how ill this agrees with the high Characters they themselves give of his Personal Qualities and Virtues Nor is it probable that so vicious Actions should proceed from so virtuous Dispositions or that so noble and excellent Qualities of any Prince should be esteemed by the present Age or celebrated to Posterity which had been accompanied by cruel infamous or depraved Actions during his Life Having with these Spoils of the Clergy as well as by the many Forfeitures of the revolted Nobles replenished his Coffers for the present he extended the Care of his Revenue not only to what might arrive in his own Life but also in the Times of succeeding Kings To this End he sent Commissioners into all the several Counties of the whole Realm who took an exact Survey and described in a Censual Roll or Book all the Lands Titles and Tenures throughout the whole Kingdom In this were distinctly set down not only every Barony each Knight's Fee every Plow-land but also what Owners by what Tenures at what Rents or Duties they held and what Stock they were possessed of and how many Villans upon their respective Estates All Lands that held anciently of the Crown or were by this King disposed upon Forfeitures he subjected to the usual Tenures of Baronies or Knight's Fees reserving in all the Dominion in chief to himself some Quitrents or Fines upon Death and Alienation and likewise the Custody of all Heirs of such Lands as were left under Age and the Disposal of their Fortunes besides what was assigned for their Maintenance till they came to Years of disposing their Estates and themselves This Book was composed after two old Examples of the same kind in the Times of Ethelbert and Alfred and was laid up as sacred in the Church of Winchester and for that Reason as graver Authors say was called Liber Domus Dei and by Abbreviation Domesday Book The vulgar Account is that the Name was derived from the Nature and so called because every Man was to receive his Doom by that Book upon any Dispute about the Value Tenure Payments or Services of his Lands upon Collection of the King 's ordinary Revenue or the raising of any extraordinary Taxes or Impositions And to make a President for the future or to satisfie the great Expences the King had been at for the compiling this great Roll of the Kingdom six Shillings was raised upon every Plow-land which made the Design of it less agreeable to the People though every Man's Right thereby received a new Evidence and no Injustice was complained of in the Digestion of so difficult a Work and of so various a Nature By this means the King came to an easie and exact Knowledge of his whole constant Revenue and so proportioned it to his Expences and the necessary Cares of having always a Fond or Reserve of present Treasure in his Coffers that after this Time we never find him plunged in any Difficulties for want of Money to supply many great Occasions that ensued in his
Reign nor tempted to impose any Taxes upon his Subjects or other Duties than what were common and known and paid without Pressure or Discontent among the Commonalty of the Realm so as after all these Institutions he passed several Years in great Tranquility at home as well as Honour from all his Neighbour Princes About the thirteenth Year of his Reign he went into Normandy leaving his Brother Odon Bishop of Bayeux and created Earl of Kent his Vice-gerent in England and little apprehending any Storm after so long a Fit of fair weather or that He had left any ill Blood behind him that was like to gather to a Head with such an Inflamation and so dangerous Symptoms as soon after appeared But no Condition of Human Life is ever perfectly secure nor any Force of Greatness or of Prudence beyond the Reach of Envy and the Blows of Fortune Princes as well as private Men are often in most Danger at those Times and in those Parts they think themselves the safest as strong Towers are sometimes taken on those sides that are thought impregnable and so left undefended or little regarded This conquering King esteemed himself now at Ease for the remainder of his Life and not only safe in his own Strength but the Satisfaction of his Subjects The English he had pleased in general by the Preservation of their ancient Laws the bravest and warmest Blood of their Nobles was drawn in the Battle of Hastings or the Wars with Scotland their Power was weakened by so many Confiscations and the Retreat of many more into Scotland and Ireland The Normans were strong and numerous in England and were his own by Birth and by Interest the Ballance of these two Parties seemed the Safety of the whole and it was not to be imagined that both should combine in any Danger to the Crown Besides there was left no Pretension of any better Right or Title than his own since Edgar had laid down his not only in Shew but with firm Resolutions never to resume them But many of the English Nobles still hated the Name of a Conquest resented the Change of Forms and Language in their Laws the Introduction of any new Customs but especially the Rigor of the Forrest Laws which they knew to be arbitrary and esteemed not only a restraint of their innocent Liberties but an Indignity in particular to themselves Some of the chief Norman Lords who had obtained great Possessions by the King's Bounty and the Confiscations of the English being now invested in their Lands and their Titles began to grow fond of their Laws as the safest Tenure and though they had gained their great Estates by the Favour of the King yet they were not willing to hold them at his Pleasure and so joyned with the English Nobles in the Complaints of too great Power exercised by the King and the Jealousies of greater yet designed to the Prejudice of the ancient Constitutions of the Kingdom and Diminution of the Authority or Dependances of the Nobles Some of both Nations and equally ambitious Spirits who had been most favoured and advanced by the King yet valuing their own Merits too high or their Rewards too low thought they had nothing because they had not all they pretended esteemed the King's Favour or Bounty to any others as Injury to themselves and were as unsatisfied with what they had gained as others with what they had lost These Dispositions floating at first in the Minds of several great Nobles both English and Norman and enflamed by such of the Ecclesiasticks who had Credit in the great Families of both Nations grew at length to downright Conspiracy of dispossessing the King of his Crown and introducing the Danes who were allied to many great Lords in England and were esteemed by the Normans of the same Race with their Ancestors The chief of this Conspiracy were the Earls of Norfolk and Suffolk of greatest Power among the English Nobility Fitz-Auber a Norman of near Kindred to the King and who had assisted him with forty Ships upon his English Expedition and been recompenced with mighty Possessions in England and created Earl of Hereford The Earl Waltheof who had been pardoned his Revolt upon the Scotch Invasion married to the King's Niece and ever since intimately trusted as well as favoured by the King These entred secretly into Intelligence with Swain King of Denmark and with Harold's Sons who were still refuged in Ireland The first ingaged to invade the Northern Parts with a Navy of three hundred Sail the last by the Assistance of Drone King of Ireland to attempt the Western Coasts with sixty Ships and the discontented Lords to make a strong Insurrection in some of the Northern Provinces upon Approach of the Danish Fleet which was concerted to be soon after the Kings intended Journey into Normandy These Measures were laid with such Caution and pursued with such Secrecy that all was ready to be executed before the King in Normandy or his Ministers in England had either Notice or Suspicion of any such Dangers or Designs Fitz-Auber had asked the King's Leave some Months before his Norman Iourney to marry his Sister to the Earl of Norfolk and pretended some small Discontent at his Refusal Not long after his Departure he declared the Marriage and the Day appointed to consummate it in Norfolk with great Solemnity and the Recourse of the nearest Relations and most intimate Friends on both sides among whom were the Earl Waltheof and Eustace Earl of Bologne who came over on Purpose to assist at the Consultations here designed At this meeting all was agreed in what Parts of the Kingdom under what Leaders the several Insurrections should be made upon what Pretences and the Time appointed to be when the Danish Fleet should appear upon the Coast. But some Delays intervening which are fatal to all Conspiracies that are trusted into many Hands this was discovered some Days before the Danes arrived but by whom of the Accomplices is left uncertain though some write that it was by Earl Waltheof upon the Conscience of so great an Ingratitude to the King After the full and particular Discovery of the whole Plot and all the chief Conspirators Odon the Vice-gerent with the Assistance and Advice of the King's Council immediately dispatched away several Parties of the King 's best Troops into the several Parts where the Insurrections were intended to begin seised upon many of the Conspirators before others had Notice of the Discovery broke the rest before they could draw to a Head took Earl Waltheof and Fitz-Auber Prisoners who were beheaded upon this Occasion and many others imprisoned Whether this Execution was by the King's Command out of Normandy or by the Rigor of his Brother Odon and upon Pretence of Necessity in so dangerous a Conjuncture is not recorded but 't is agreed that these two were the only Nobles that were executed in England during the Reign of William the Conqueror notwithstanding so many Revolts
he had laid in an advantageous Pass he broke them killed some and put the rest to Flight then he advanced against the main Body where the King commanded and by an unnatural Chance he charged his old Father with such Fury that by the Stroak of his Launce he wounded him in the Arm and overthrew him to the Ground The King calling out upon his Fall his Son immediately knew his Voice and stung upon the sudden with the Conscience of his Crime and his Duty he leaped from his Horse raised his Father up from the Ground fell down upon his Knees begged Pardon of his Offence with Offers upon it to return to his Duty and Obedience The King moved by the same Force of Nature received his Submissions forgave him and embracing him ended an Adventure in Tears of Joy which had begun in Blood The Armies were as easily reconciled as their Leaders and all together marched to Rouen where the King was received with all Demonstrations of Joy and the Duke compliplimented upon his happy Reconcilement with his Father nor were those the last in this Croud of Rejoycers who had been the chief in promoting the Quarrel between them The King made no long Stay in Normandy dissembling the Knowledge or Resentment of what Part the French King had played in this Affair but after having re-established the Quiet and Order of the Province returned with his whole Forces into England left his Son in the Government of Normandy trusting to his Duty and the Loyalty of his Subject there as if nothing had passed to give him the least Suspicions of either A true Strain of the noble and fearless Nature of this Prince who was rather made to surmount all Dangers he encountred by brave Actions and judicious Councils than either to invite or anticipate his Misfortunes by Distrust and vain Apprehensions which are but the Distractions of weak and timorous Minds Yet this Sincereness and Confidence of the King had not the Return they deserved for Duke Robert having once tasted the Sovereign Power could not long digest any Dependance upon another Will and lying still open to the Practises of France upon his Levity and Ambition relapsed the next Year into his former Distemper and assumed again the Sovereignty of Normandy and as Duke thereof in his own Right which was again acknowledged and obeyed by the Normans The King upon the News of this second Defection in his Son and his Subjects fell into great Passion and in it is said to have cursed his Son and the Hour wherein he begat him but soon returning to himself with his usual Judgment and Composure of Mind gave present Orders for preparing a much greater Army and Navy than he had used in last Years Expedition and though both were shattered by great Storms he met with at Sea yet upon his Arrival in Normandy either the Fame of his Forces or the Lightness of his Son's Dispositions or Remorse of his Duty prevailed with Duke Robert to offer again his Submissions and Obedience to his Commands The King again received them pardoned both his Son and his revolted Subjects but forced now to more Caution than he had used before after having settled once more the Peace and Quiet of Normandy and placed the Government in safer Hands he took his Son with him into England and imployed him in the hard rough Wars of Scotland against Malcolm who upon the King's Absence and Confidence of being long detained by the Norman Revolt and Diversion of France had taken Occasion to pass the Borders with an Army and ravage the Northern Provinces of England Though Duke Robert gained no great Honour by this Expedition yet the King gained his End For the Scotch disheartned by his unexpected Return and more by his perfect Reconcilement with his Son returned home upon the Approach of the English Army and renewed the Peace which lasted the rest of the two Kings Lives About the same time incensed against the Welsh for many Inroads and Spoils upon the Frontier Counties he sent an Army against them subdued the plain and accessible Parts of their Country drove them to the fast Holds of their Mountains forced them to sue for Peace which he granted upon Homage done him by their Prince and upon Hostages given for Performance of the other Conditions This fortunate and victorious King seemed now to have passed all the tempestuous Seasons of his Life and secure of Repose for what remained which was necessary or most agreeable to the great Decline of his Age. He was at Peace with all his Neighbours obeyed and honoured by his Subjects feared by his Enemies and the Troubles of his Family were wholly appeased so that it was hard for any Man to conjecture from what Side any new Storm should arise But the Decrees of Heaven are wrapped up in the Clouds and the Events of future things hidden in the Dark from the Eyes of Mortal Men. The wisest Councils may be discomposed by the smallest Accidents and the securest Peace of States and Kingdoms may be disturbed by the lightest Passions as well as the deep Designs of those who govern them For though the wise Reflections of the best Historians as well as the common Reasonings of private Men are apt to ascribe the Actions and Councils of Princes to Interests or Reasons of State yet whoever can trace them to their true Spring will be often forced to derive them from the same Passions and personal Dispositions which govern the Affairs of private Lives as will be evident in the Sequel of this King's Reign The Normans were desirous to have a Prince of their Race reside among them the King was unwilling to venture again the ill Consequences of his Son Robert's Ambition or Inconstancy and therefore sent him over into Normandy but joyned in Commission with his youngest Son Henry whose Duty and Affection he most relied on both to observe the Actions and temper the Levity of his eldest Brother These two Princes agreed better than is usual to Associates in Power and governing the Province with Moderation and Prudence reduced Affairs there to such Order and Tranquility that having little Business at home they went to seek some Diversion abroad and made a Visit to the King of France then at Constance who received them with great Honour and Kindness and as was thought not without Design of renewing old Practises with Duke Robert to his Father's Prejudice Whatever Affairs might busie the Thoughts of that King and the Duke those of Lewis the young Dauphin and Prince Henry were taken up with the common Entertainments of Youth and of Leisure Love Hunting Play and other such Divertisements wherein the Similitude of Age and of Customs made them constant Companions It happened one Evening that the Dauphin playing at Chess at the Prince's Lodging lost a great many Games and much Money to Prince Henry and grew thereupon first into ill Humour and at length into ill Language which being returned by the
Prince the Dauphin fell into Passion called him Son of a Bastard and threw some of the Chessmen at his Head Upon which Prince Henry enraged took up the Chess-board and struck the Dauphin with such Fury on the Head that he laid him bleeding on the Ground and had killed him if his Brother Robert had not retained him and made him sensible how much more it concerned him to make his Escape than pursue his Revenge and thereupon they went down immediately took Horse and by the Help of their Speed or their own good Fortune got safe to Pontoise before they could be reached by the French that pursued them The King of France exasperated by this Accident and Indignity to his Son which revived an inveterate Malice or Envy he had against King William first demanded Satisfaction but at the same time prepared for Revenge both by raising an Army to invade Normandy and taking private Measures with Duke Robert to divest his Brother Henry of his Share in the Government and leave the Dominion of that Dutchy to the Duke according to his former Pretensions grounded upon his Father's Promise wherein the King of France as a Witness still pretended to be concerned The King of England seeing the War inevitable enters upon it with his usual Vigor and with incredible Celerity transporting a brave English Army invades France and takes several Towns in Poictou whilst the French took the City of Vernon by which Hostilities on both sides the first War began between England and France which seemed afterwards to have been entailed upon the Posterity and Successors of these two Princes for so many Generations to have drawn more noble Blood and been attended with more memorable Atchievements than any other National Quarrel we read of in any ancient or modern Story King William after taking of several Towns and spoiling much Country in Poictou and Xantonge returned to Rouen where by the Benignity of his own Nature and Levity of his Son 's he was the third time reconciled to Duke Robert and thereby disappointed those Hopes the King of France had conceived from his Practises with that Prince and as some write with his Brother Henry too and defeated his Pretext of assisting his Right in the Dominion of Normandy But Philip bent upon this War by other Incentives than those which appeared from the Favour of Duke Robert's Pretensions or Revenge of the Dauphin's Injury and moved both with the Jealousie of the King's Greatness and the Envy of his Glory and Felicity resolved to prosecute obstinately the Quarrel he had rashly begun and not esteeming the sudden though violent Motions of a youthful Heat between the two Princes a Ground sufficient to bear the Weight of a formal and declared War upon the News and Spight of Duke Robert's Reconciliation with his Father he sent to the King to demand Homage of him both for Normandy and England King William answered that he was ready to do him the Homage accustomed for Normandy but would do him none for England which he held only of God and his Sword The French King hereupon declared open War against him which was begun and pursued with great Heats and Animosities on both sides with equal Forces but unequal Fortune which favoured either the Justice of the King's Cause the Valour of his Troops or the Conduct of their Leader upon all Encounters He marched into France took Nantes and burnt it with many Villages about it saying That to destroy the Wasps their Nests must be burnt In the Heat of this Action and by that of the Fires which he too near approached he fell into a Distemper which forced him to retire his Army and return to Rouen where he lay sick for some time with ill Symptoms that gave his Friends Apprehension and Hopes to his Enemies During the Expectation of this Event both sides were quiet by a sort of tacit and voluntary Truce between them The King of France talking of his Sickness and mocking at the Corpulency to which he was grown of late Years said King William was gone only to lay his great Belly at Rouen and that he doubted he must be at Charge to set up Lights at his uprising The King of England being told this Scoff sent King Philip Word That he was ready to sit up after his lying in and that when he was churched he would save him the Charge of setting up Lights and come himself and light a thousand Fires in France No Injuries are so sensible to Mankind in general as those of Scorn and no Quarrels pursued between Princes with so much Sharpness and Violence as those which arise from personal Animosities or private Passions to which they are subject like other Mortal Men. The King recovered gathers the greatest Forces he could raise both of English and Normans marches into the Isle of France with Fire and Spoil where-ever he came approaches within Sight of Paris where that King was retired There King William sent him word that he was up and abroad and would be glad to see him abroad too But the French King resolved to let this Fury pass and appeared not in the Field which was left to the Mercy and Ravage of his Enemies The King riding about to observe his Advantages and give his Orders and straining his Horse to leap a Ditch in his Way bruised the Bottom of his Belly against the Pommel of his Saddle with such a Weight and so much Pain as gave him a Relapse of his Illness so lately recovered forced him to march his Army back into Normandy and to go himself to Rouen Here his Bruise turned to a Rupture and his Sickness encreasing with the Anguish of his Wound gave too soon and true Apprehensions of his Danger Yet he languished for some time which he made use of to do many Acts of great Charity and give other Testimonies of Piety and Resignation to the Will of God as well as to dispose the Succession and Affairs of his State leaving by his Testament the Dutchy of Normandy to his eldest Son Robert the Kingdom of England to William his second Son and all his Treasures which were very great to Henry his third After this he ended his Life in the full Career of Fortune and Victory which attended him to his Grave through the long Course of more than threescore Years Reign For he began that in Normandy about ten Years old and continued it above fourty Years before his English Expedition after which he reigned above twenty Years in England and died in or about the seventy second Year of his Age and the Year of our Lord 1087. Several Writers show their ill Talent to this Prince in making particular Remarks how his Corps was immediately forsaken by all his Friends and Followers as soon as he expired how the Monks of an Abbey he had founded were thereby induced to come of Charity and take the care of his Body and his Burial which he had ordered to be at Caen
having never lost but one which was Fitz-Auber He was a Prince deep in his Designs bold in his Enterprises firm in his Prosecution excelling in the Order and Discipline of his Armies and choice in his Officers both of his Army and his State But admirable in Expedition and Dispatch of Civil as well as Military Affairs never deferring till to Morrow what should be done to Day Above all he was careful and prudent in the Management of his Treasure and finding a Temper between the Bounty of his own Nature and the Necessity of his Affairs proportioning always the Expences of his Gifts his Buildings his Enterprizes to the Treasure he was master of for defraying them designing nothing out of his Compass and thereby compassing all he seemed to design He was religious in frequenting Divine Service giving much Alms building Abbies and endowing them sending Presents of Crosses of Gold rich Vestures and Plate to many other Churches and much Treasure to Rome He was a great Lover of Learning and though he despised the loose ignorant Saxon Clergy he found in England yet he took Care and Pleasure to fill Ecclesiastical Dignities here with Persons of great Worth and Learning from abroad as Lanfranc Durand Anselm with many more He was a Lover of Virtue in others and Hater of Vice for being naturally very kind to his half Brother Odon Bishop of Bayeux having made him Earl of Kent given him great Revenues entrusted him in his Absence with the Government of the Realm yet finding him a Man of incurable Ambition Avarice Cruelty Oppression and Prophaneness he at length wholly disgraced him and kept him in Prison during all the rest of his Reign which seems to have been a just Punishment of his Crimes and Sacrifice to the English he had cruelly oppressed in the King's Absence rather than a greediness of his Treasures as some envious Writers would make it appear Yet by the Consent of them all and the most partial or malicious to his Memory as well as others He is agreed to have been a Prince of great Strength Wisdom Courage Clemency Magnificence Wit Courtesie Charity Temperance and Piety This short Character and by all agreed is enough to vindicate the Memory of this noble Prince and famous Conqueror from the Aspersions or Detractions of several malicious or partial Authors who have more unfaithfully represented his Reign than any other Period of our English History Having taken a full View of this King in his Actions and his Person it remains only that we consider the Consequences that both of them had upon the Condition of this Kingdom which will be best discovered by the Survey of what it lost what it preserved and what it gained by this famous Conquest England thereby must be confessed to have lost first very great Numbers of brave English Men who fell in the Battle of Hastings and in two Wars afterwards by the Revolt of the Nobles and Invasion of the Scots in Favor of Edgar Atheling Likewise many Nobles and Gentlemen who disdaining all Subjection to a forreign and conquering Power retired into Scotland Ireland Denmark and after the Extinction of their Hopes by the Suppression of all Endeavours in Favour of Edgar's Right never returned but left their Families habituated in those Countries choosing if they must live under a forreign Dominion to do it rather abroad than at home In the next Place England lost the true Line of their ancient Saxon Kings who were a Race of just good and pious Princes governed by such known Laws and with such Moderation and were so beloved of their People as makes it observed by Writers that no popular Insurrection ever happened in any of the Saxon Reigns Lastly England by the Conquest lost in a great Measure the old Plainness and Simplicity of the Saxon Times and Customs of Life who were generally a People of good Meaning plain Dealing contended with their own little coveting or imitating their Neighbours and living frugally upon the Product of their own fruitful Soil For the Profusion of Meats at our English Tables came in with the Danes and the Luxury of them was introduced first by the Normans and after encreased by the more frequent Use of Wines upon the Accession of Guienne to this Crown What we preserved is remarkable in three Particulars not usual upon great Conquests for first we preserved our Name which was lost by the Saxon Invasions but that of England then succeeding the other of Britain has ever since continued Next we preserved our Language or the old English Tongue which has made the Body and Substance of what still remains though much enlarged and polished since those Times by the transplanting many Words out of forreign Languages especially Latin and French In the last Place we preserved our Forms of Government our Laws and Institutions which have been so much celebrated by ancient Writers and have been so obstinately defended by our Ancestors and are by Chancellor Fortescue who writ in the Time of Henry the Sixth averred to have been preserved through the five several Governments in this Island of Normans Danes Saxons Romans and Britains and so to have continued for a longer Course of Time than those of Rome or Venice or any other Nation known in Story But this I doubt is not so easily proved as affirmed though it may be with more Certainty of the three first which is sufficient to illustrate the Antiquity of our Constitutions without Recourse to strained or uncertain Allegations For what we gained by our Loss in this Conquest though it seems a Contradiction yet it may be observed in many more Particulars than the other two First England grew much greater both in Dominion and Power abroad and also in Dignity and State at home by the Accession of so much Territory upon the Continent For though the Normans by the Conquest gained much of the English Lands and Riches yet England gained Normandy which by it became a Province to this Crown Next it gained greater Strength by the great Numbers of Normans and French that came over with the Conqueror and after his Establishment here and incorporated with the English Nation joyning with them in the same Language Laws and Interests Then we gained much by the great Encrease of our Naval Power and Multitude of Ships wherein Normandy then abounded by the Advantage of more and better Havens than in later Ages This with the perpetual Intercourse between England and Normandy and other Parts of the Continent gave us a mighty Encrease of Trade and Commerce and thereby of Treasure to the Crown and Kingdom which appeared first in so great a Mass as was left by the Conqueror to Prince Henry his younger Son England by the Conquest gained likewise a natural Right to the Dominion of the narrow Seas which had been before acquired only by the great Naval Power of Edgar and other Saxon Kings But the Dominion of narrow Seas seems naturally to belong like that of
Rivers to those who possess the Banks or Coasts on both sides And so to have strengthened the former Title by so long a Coast as that of Normandy of one side and of England on the other side of the Channel Besides by this Conquest we gained more Learning more Civility more Refinement of Language Customs and Manners from the great Resort of other Strangers as well as Mixture of French and Normans And lastly we gained all our Consideration abroad by carrying our Arms so often and so gloriously as well as extending our Dominions into forreign Countries so that whereas our Saxon Kings were little known abroad further than by the Fame of their Devotion and Piety or their Journeys Gifts and Oblations made to Rome after the Conquest the Crown of England grew first to be feared by our Neighbours to have constant Intercourse with other forreign Princes to take Part and be considered in all the Affairs of Christendom and by the following Accessions of Anjou and Guien came in a short time to be esteemed without Controversie while they possessed those Dominions the greatest Power of any Kingdom then in Christendom as appears by so many glorious Adventures and Successes of their Arms in France Spain Brittany Flanders Sicily and the Holy Land From all these happy Circumstances of this Famous Conquest all the succeding Kings of England seem justly to have done this Conqueror the Honor of dating from him the first great Period of their Reigns by which those of the Saxons and other preceding Dominions or Governments here are left us in Story but like so many antique broken or defaced Pictures which may still represent something of the Customs and Fashions of those Ages though little of the true Lines Proportions or Resemblance But all that has succeeded since this King's Reign though not drawn by any one skilful Hand or by the Life yet is represented in so clear a Light as leaves very little either obscure or uncertain in the History of our Kingdom or the Succession of our Kings FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Richard Simpson at the Three Trouts and Ralph Simpson at the Harp in St. Paul's Church-Yard MIscellanea the second Part in Four Essays I. Upon Ancient and Modern Learning II. Upon the Gardens of Epicurus III. Upon Heroick Vertue IV. Upon Poetry By Sir William Temple Baronet In Octavo The Young Man's Duty A Discourse shewing the Necessity of seeking the Lord betimes as also the Danger and Unreasonableness in trusting to a late or Death-Bed Repentance Designed especially for Young Persons before they are debauched by evil Company and evil Habits The sixth Edition By Richard Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells The Life of Monsieur Des Cartes containing the History of his Philosophy and Works As also the most remarkable things that befel him during the whole Course of his Life Translated from the French by S. R. Naval Speculations and Maritime Politicks being a modest and brief Discourse of the Royal Navy of England Of its Oeconomy and Government and a Project for an everlasting Seminary of Seamen by a Royal Maritime Hospital with a Project for a Royal Fishery also necessary Measures in the present War with France c. By Henry Maydman An Account of several new Inventions and Improvements now necessary for England in a Discourse by way of Letter to the Earl of Marlborough relating to building of our English Shipping planting of Oaken Timber in the Forrests apportioning of publick Taxes The Conservacy of all our Royal Rivers in particular that of the Thames the Surveys of the Thames c. Herewith is also published at large the Proceedings relating to the Mill'd-Lead-sheathing and the Excellency and Cheapness of Mill'd-Lead in preference to cast Sheet-Lead for all other Purposes whatsoever Also a Treatise of Naval Philosophy written by Sir William Petty The whole is submitted to the Consideration of our English Patriots in Parliament assembled