to prepare the Way for the great After-work intended And having done much Mischeif on the Coast of Kent Harold with strong Navy forced him to draw towards the North parts where seeking to Land he was repulsed by the Earls Morcar and Edwin and forced to look Aid of the Scots and after of the King of Norway whom he induced to invade this Kingdom with great store of Men and Shipping These landing at Tinmouth and discomfiting their first Encounterers marched into the heart of England without Resistance But being come near to Stamford King Harold with a mighty army met them and after long Fight with the Loss of much Bloud and his best Men he finished that Action with the Death of Tosty and the King of Norway § 10. But from hence was he called with his wearied and broken Forces to a more fatal Business in the South For now William Duke of Normandy pretending a Right to the Crown of England both by the Testament of the late King Edward and also by Parentage upon the Advantage of the Time and the Disfurnishment of those parts Landed at Hastings Near to which Place was Fought that bloudy Battle wherein Harold Valianty Fighting amidst his Enemies Ended his Life and Reign which was scarce of one Year and the English with the loss of 20000. Men and the Flower of the Kingdom became the miserable Prey of the Normans § 11. But how so great a State as this could be with one Blow subdued by so small a Province in such sort as it could never after come to make any general Head against the Conqueror may seem strange and considerable But the Circumstances with the Disposition of that Time as may be Collected from the Writers that lived near it may somewhat though not altogether satisfy us in that point For they say the People of the Kingdom were by their being secure from their Foreign Enemies the Danes and their long Peace which had held in a manner from the Death of Edmon Ironside the space of fifty Years grown neglective of Arms and generally debauched with Luxury and Idlenesse The Clergy licentious and only Literaturâ tumultuariâ contenti Scholae non vitae discebant saith Malmesbury the Nobility given to Gluttony Venery and Oppression the Common sort to Drunkenness and all Disorder And they say that in the last Action of Harold at Stamford the bravest Men perished And himself growing insolent after the Victory retaining the Spoils without Distribution to the Souldiers made them discontent and unruly Or peradventure being not inured to be Commanded by Martial Discipline they were of themselves unmanageable and that coming to the Battle of Hastings with many mercenary Men and a discontented Army there was not that Valour and Resolution shewed as was meet in so important an Occasion Besides the Normans had a peculiar Militia or Fight with Bowes and Arrowes wherein they were Excellently practised and the English unacquainted with that Weapon were altogether unprovided for the Defence And thus they excuse the shame of our Nation THE REIGN OF WILLIAM the I. Anno I. § 12. BY these Advantages William the base Son of Robert Duke of Normandie having gotten the Victory in the Battle near Hastings Marched without any opposition towards London Where the Earls Edwin and Morcar Brothers of eminent Dignity and Respect in the Kingdom laboured with all their Power in solliciting the People for the Conservation of the State And to have Established Edgar Etheling next of the Royal Issue in the Soveraignty whereunto the rest of the Nobility had likewise consented had they not seen the Bishops averse or wavering And all Men generally transported with Fear or corrupted with new Hopes runing from themselves and their endanger'd Country and striving who should be first to entertain the present Fortune sought to preoccupate each other For streight upon his Approach to London the Gates was set all open the Archbishop of Canterbury Stigand with other Bishops the Nobility Magistrates and People all rendred themselves and their Obedience unto him and he returning plausible Promises of his future Goverment was within a short Time after Crowned at Westminster by Aldred Archbishop of York for that Stigand was not held Canonically Invested in that See and yet was thought to have been a principal Adherent to this Enterprise § 13. Here according to the accustomed Form in his Coronation the Bishops and Barons of the Realm took their Oath to be his true and Loyal Subjects and he reciprocally being required thereunto by the Archbishop of York made his personal Oath before the Altar of Saint Peter to defend the holy Church of God and the Rectors of the same to govern the universal people subject unto him justly with care to establish equal Laws for the preservation of Justice and upright Judgment to be used amongst them and taking Hostages for his more Security and Order for the Defence and Government of his Kingdome § 14. At the opening of the Spring then next following he returns into Normandy so to settle his Affairs there as they might not distract him from his Business in England which required his whole powers And to leave all sure behind him he committed the Rule of the Kingdom in his Absence to Odo Bishop of Bayeux his half-Brother by the Mothersside and to his cozen Fitz-Osborn whom he had made Earl of Hereford taking with him the chiefest Men Natives of the State who were likeliest to be Heads to a Revolt as the Arch-Bishop Stigand lately discontented Edgar Atheling a Titular Edwin and Morcar with many other Bishops and Noblemen In his Absence which was all that whole Summer nothing was here attempted against him but only that Edric surnamed the Forrester in the County of Hereford called in the Kings of the Welch to his Aid and Forraged onely the remote Boders of that Country The rest of the Kingdome stood quiet expecting what would become of that new World wherein as yet they found no great Alteration their Lawes and Liberties remaining still the same they did and might hope by this Accession of a new Province the State of England would be inlarged in Dominion abroad and not impaired in profit at home by reason the Nation was but small and being a plentifull and not over-peopled Country they were not likely to impester them § 15. The King now grown to this power soon settled his Estate in Normandy which in his Youth he had alwayes found turbulent within and overhardly neighboured abroad and secured him of that side of the World wherein he was much advantaged by the Time For Philip the first then King of France was a Child who otherwise would never have suffered the Normans being so stubborn and little affectionate to that Crown to have grown to such Greatness and besides was under the Curature of Baudovin Earl of Flanders his Uncle by the Mother whose Daughter King William of England had to wife which Alliance indeed gave him the greatest Means to
defraud him of it § 22. Most of the Lords after this great Defeat in the North came in upon Publick Faith given them and were conducted to Barkamstead by the Abbot Frederick Where some write that the King again took a personal Oath before the Archbishop Lanfranc and the Lords to observe the Antient Laws of the Realm Established by his Noble Predecessors the Kings of England and especially those of Saint Edward And all the Lords upon their Oath and submission were then reconciled unto him and thereupon held themselves quiet for a Time But whether it were that they found not their Entertainment such as they expected or that they had received Intelligence of new Hopes from abroad or that Edgar who was still in Scotland had sollicited them upon Promise of fresh Succours to aid him or howsoever it was many of them again Conspired contrary to their Oaths and went out The Earl Edwin making towards Scotland was Murthered by his own People by the way The Earls Morcar and Hereward betook them to the Isle of Ely meaning to make good that Place for that Winter whither also came the Earl Siward and the Bishop of Durham out of Scotland But the King who was no Time giver to growing Dangers beset all the Isle with flat Boats on the East and made a Bridge of a Mile long on the West and safely brought in his People upon the Enemy who seeing themselves surprised yielded them all to the King's Mercy Except Hereward a man of great Valour and Courage who with his Souldiers made a Retreat through the Fenns and Escaped into Scotland The Rest were sent to divers Prisons where they died or remayned during the King's Life § 23. We find that those Lords who remained Loyal upon their last Submission were all imployed and well graced by the King As Edric the Forrester that was the first Revolter in his Reign was held in especial Favour and Trust near about him Gospatric was made Earl of Northumberland and sent against Malcolm who in this time takes Advantage of subdue the Countries of Tisdall Cleveland and Cumberland Waltheof the Son of the Earl Siward he so highly Estemeed as he Married him to his Niece Iudith Though he were a Principal Actor in this last Commotion and in the Defence of the City of York against him and is said to have stricken off the Heads of divers Normans one by one as they entred upon a Breach to the great Admiration of all Men By which Valour of his he ransomed the Offence he had made and grew to that great Grace with the King who therein shewed a Noble and Magnanimous Nature to honour Vertue even in his Enemies § 24. And now there rested nothing for the general Quieting of the Kingdom but only the Suppression of Malcolm King of Scots the greatest Kindlefire of all these Conspiracies in the North parts and the only Fefuge for all that were discontented and mutinous in this State Against him the King led such mighty Forces both by Sea and Land as Malcolm rather then to adventure Battle was content to make his Peace and not only to give up Hostages for securing the same but also to do him Homage for the Kingdom of Scotland And so all his Home-Wars were ended Regni Anno 6. Saving only in Anno 15. he levied a Puissant Army and subdued Wales which Business held him not long For the Rest of his Government here he had no more to do here with the Sword though he had it always abroad during his whole Reign § 25. Now for the Doubt he might have of the great Men of the Kingdom who by Power or Love were aptest to disturb his Government it was in this sort taken away First by the Submission of Edgar Atheling who Anno 7. was restored into Grace and had a fair Maintenance which held him ever after quiet Then by those whom the Prisons kept from Attempting any more And lastly by the Revealing of a new Conspiracy contrived at a Marriage between Ralph de Waher Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk and his new Kinswoman the Sister of Roger the Young Earl of Hereford At which Solemnization in their Banquetting and Jollity the two Earls Normans with Waltheof and divers English Plotted to call in the Danes again and to make away the King Upon which Discovery they were all apprehended except the Earl of Norfolk who fled the Land and died some in Prison and some on the Scaffold § 26. The The Danes being on the Coasts with 200 Sail hearing how their Confederates had sped and the great Preparations the King had made after some spoils taken on the Coast of England and Flanders returned home and never after infested this Kingdom Though in Anno 20 of this King there was a great Rumour of their fresh Preparations for a new Invasion which made him entertain a great number of Frenchmen besides Normans which he brought into England about Harvest and held the most part of them all the Winter to the great Charge of the Kingdom But it came to nothing For the Wind held so long against the Danish Navy consisting of about 1000 Sail as it overthrew their intended Action and freed both the King and his Successors from future Fears that way for ever after § 27. The Forein Wars he had were all about his Dominions in France and raised by his own Son Robert whom he had left his Leiutenant Governour of the Dutchy of Normandy and the County of Maine Where by his Fathers Absence tasteing the Glory of Command he grew to assume into his own Power the Soveraign Rule of the Province caused the Barons there to do him Homage as Duke not as Leiutenant and put himself wholly under the Protection of the King of France who was not a little pleased to apprehend so good an Occasion to foster a Division in the House of so great and near a Neighbour who was now grown fearful and dangerous to all the Princes about him and therefore spared for uo Cost to set forward this Work The King understanding the Fire thus Kindled in his own House whilest he laboured to quench that himself had made in Others hasts with his Forces into Normandy to have surprised his Son Who advertised of his Coming furnished with 2000. Men at Arms by the King of France put himself in Ambush where his Father should pass and set upon him so Fiercely as he Defeited most of his People and in the Press happened to encounter with himself whom he unhorsed and wounded in the Arms with his Lance. But perceiving by his Voice it was his Father he hasted to lift him up again to his Horse craving most humble Pardon for his Offence which the King seeing in what Case he was easily granted and received him into Grace with whom and with his Son William who was likewise hurt in the Skirmish he retired to Roan and after being there cured of his Hurt returned again into England §
28. Where he was no sooner arrived but he heard that his Son was again Revolted Treated the Normans ill and renounced his Father's Soveraignty over that Province which caused his little Stay in England for that time but only to prepare for his Return into Normandy Whither passing he was by Tempest driven on the Coast of Spain and there is said to have Fought in Battle against the Sarasnis Afterwards arriving at Bourdeaux his Son Robert came and submitted himself the second time whom now he took with him into England to frame him to a better Obedience by imploying him here for a Season and then sent him back again with his Youngest Son Harry whom he more trusted into Normandy where he held himself quiet a while and gave his Father some small Breathing time to dispose of the Affairs of this Kingdom § 29. But it was not long e're new Occasions of greater Troubles grew up which took by this means The two Princes Robert and Henry went to Visit and salute the King of France at Couflans where being seasted certain Days upon an After-dinner Henry wan so much at Chess of Louis the King 's eldest Son that he grew so far into Choler as he called him the Son of a Bastard and threw the Chess in his Face Henry takes up the Chess-board and strook Louis with that Force as he drew Bloud and had killed him had it not been for his Brother Robert who came in in the mean time and interposed himself whereupon they suddainely took Horse and with much a do saved themselves at Pontoise from the King's People that pursued them § 30. This Quarrel arising upon the intermeeting of these Princes which is a thing that seldom breeds good Bloud amongst them reinkindled a Heat of more Rancor in the Fathers and set a mighty Fire between the two Kingdoms which made the first War the English and French had together whereupon followed many others For presently the King of France complots again with Robert enters into Normandy and takes the City of Vernon The King of England invades France subdues the Countrey on Xaintoign and Poitou and returns to Roan Where the third time his Son Robert is reconciled unto him which much disappointeth and vexeth the King of France Who hereupon Summons the King of England to come and do him Homage for the Kingdom of England Which he refused to do saying that he held it of none but of God and his Sword But yet offering to do him Homage for the Dutchy of Normandy it would not satisfie the King of France who was willing to make any Occasion the Motive to set upon him And again he invaded his Territories but which more loss than Profit In the End they conclude a little unperfect Peace together which held no longer than King William had recovered a Sickness whereinto by Reason of his Years Travel and Fatness he was lately fallen At which Time the King of France then Young and Lusty jesting at his great Belly whereof he said he lay in at Roan so irritated him as being recovered he gathered all his Forces entred into France in the Chiefest Time of their Fruits and came even before Paris spoiling and burning all in his way Where with Heat and Toil he fell into a Relapse returned to Roan and there made an End of his Wars and Life after he had held this Kingdom twenty years and ten Months § 31. Now concerning his Government in Peace and the Course he held in Establishing the Kingdom thus gotten first he examines the English Laws which were then composed of Merchenlage Danelage and Westfaxlage Whereof some he abrogated and some allowed adding other of Normandy especially such as made for the Preservation of the Peace which most imported him to look unto And these Laws thus reformed he caused to be all Translated and and Written into the Norman Tongue hereby to draw the People of the Kingdom to learn that Language for their own Need that the two Nations might the better grow together and become one seeing a difference of Speech would continue a difference of Affections Wherein he attained not his Desire nor ever was it in the Power of any Conquerour so to do without the universal Extirpation of the Land-bred People Who being so far in number as they were above the Invaders both carry the main of the Language and also in few Years make them to become theirs that subdued them But yet upon these Laws thus Established by so prudent a Prince this free and Fierce Nation was so well held in Peace and Obedience as his Successors with some Abatement of Rigour and Prerogative have ever since continued a most Glorious Soveraignty over the same § 32. And for that he would be well and certainly supplied with Treasure which his great Wars and Entertainments required he took a most provident Course for reforming the Fisque or Exchequer and the ordering and raising of his Revenues Endeavouring to make and know the utmost of his Estate And therefore he imployed a most discreet Choice of Men to survey the whole Kingdom and to take the Particulars of his own and every Man's Ability the quantity and nature of Lands and Possessions with the Discriptions Bounds and Divisions of Shires and Hundreds within the same And this was drawn into one Book and brought into his AErarium the Exchequer so called of the Table whereat the Officers sate before termed the Talce and the same intitled Doomesday-Book Liber Iudiciarius saith Gervasius the Judgement Book that was to decide all Doubts concerning these Particulars § 33. All the Forrests and Chases throughout the Kingdom he took into his proper Possession and exempted them from being under any other Law than his own Pleasure to serve as Penetralia Regnum the withdrawing Chambers of Kings to recreate them after their serious Labours in the State where none might presume to have to do and where all Punishments and Pardons of Delinquents were to be Disposed by himself absolutely and the former Customes abrogated And to make his Command the more he encreased the Number of them in all parts of the Land and on the South-Coast dispeopled the Country for above thirty Miles space making of old inhabited Possessions a new Forrest Inflicting great Punishments for Hunting his Dear whereby he much advanced his Revenue which was the greatest Act of Concussion and Tiranny he committed in his Government And the same Course held almost every King near the Conquest For Henry the first proceeded with such Violence as to make a Law that if any Man killed the Kings Deer in his own Woods he should forfeit his Woods to the King But King Stephen having need of the Peoples Favour repealed that Law And in the End this Grievance amongst others after much Bloodshed in the Kingdom was allayed by the Charter of Forrests granted by Henry III. For other Possessions he permitted those which held them before his Coming to continue them quietly in
Vortigern to establish the Kingdome in his own Line and as he thought to strengthen himself with these Strangers took to Wife Renix the daughter of Hengist his own Wife living and by his dotage on her being a beautiful Lady who knew to take the advantage of his love gave the Saxons those Preferments in the State as the Brittons neglected by him soon became a prey unto them This Alliance and the Fertility of the Land letting in so many of this populous and Warlike Nation that e're Men scarce perceived their danger they were undone And notwithstanding the Combination of the British Nobility with the deposing of Vortigern and Electing King his Son Vortimer a valiant Prince who gave them many stout Battles yet could they not prevail against the Saxons thus established but were forced to quit their Country and betake themselves to remote Mountains and Deserts leaving All to the Invaders Who after many Fortunes dividing the Land into seven Kingdomes extinguished both the Religion Language and even the Name thereof And in this Heptarchy it continued till Egbert K. of the West-Saxons An. 828. being three hundred fifty years after their Entrance subduing the other Kings obtained the whole Dominion to himself And to raze out the Memory of a Division Caused by an Edict the whole Kingdome to be called England of the Angles a people that possest the middle part of this Island § 6. But neither he nor his Successors quietly enjoyed it For the Danes having been first called in to aid the King of Northumberland against the other Kings sorely infested the Land and combining themselves with the Welch and Scots prevailed so much that from the raign of King Britric Anno 387. they continued to afflict the same the space of two hundred fifty five years and in the End by the negligent and ill Government of King Ethelred whose Luxury and Oppression had made way for Division they got the absolute Dominion of the Kingdom and held it twenty six years by three of their Kings successively Canutus governed it twenty years and left it to Harold who raigned two years Canutus the second succeeded his Brother Harold and at a Banquet at Lambeth either by Surfeit or Poison died in the Second year of his Reign When streight the People of the Land by a sudden and general Massacre redeemed themselves from that odious Yoke of a Foreign Subjection which was held to be the Third Dissolution of this State But I cannot see how it should be so accounted seeing that this Canutus never altered the Government but embraced the same Religion maintained the Laws he found and added many Constitutions for the good of the Kingdom And to get into the People's affections he married Emma sometimes Wife to King Ethelred and daughter to Richard Duke of Normandy to whom for his better strength he had likewise given his Sister to Wife And then the short Time of the Government in the Succession of his two Sons seems not to have bred any great Alteration in the state of the Kingdome but onely in the Change of the person of the Prince and the preferment of his Nation before ours which by reason of the long foregoing wars were made incompatible of each other § 7. But yet this gave the Cause to that great and last Mutation of State effected by the Norman For King Etheldred to make his party good against the Invasion of the Danes combined himself with Richard Duke of Normandy married his Sister Emma and by her had Issue Edward after King of England intitled the Confessor who with his Brother were there brought up out of the dangers of the Wars and by the assistance of the Duke reconveyed over after the death of the last Canutus and here invested in the Kingdom For which Offices of Kindness divers Preferments were in way of Gratification bestowed on the Normans as the Archbishoprick of Canterbury and other especial Places and Dignities Ecclesiastical in a manner throughout the whole Land which prepared an easier passage for the Invasion following when the death of this good King Edward without Issue to inherit left the Succession doubtful or else by the Iniquity of times made it seem so For Edgar surnamed Atheling sonne of Edward the Son of King Edmond Ironside had his Claim neglected Either in respect of his Youth which yet was no Barr to his Right or for want of Means and power to oppose against the ambition of others who having swaied the Fortune of the time under an easie-natured Prince had Opportunity enough to work for themselves Although the Worthiness of his Grandfather shewed in the Defence of his Country might seem to deserve to have his Issue remembred in their Right § 8. But the Earl Godwin what in respect that King Edward had matched with his Daughter and what with his own Greatness and popularity having long managed the State of the Kingdome made the Ascent easie for Harold his Son to get up to the Crown and by Crossing the right Line of Succession called up Destruction and Misery both upon his own Race and the whole Kingdome For though Harold had a shew of Title as being the Son of Thira sister to Canutus King of England yet seeing all the Land had received an Oath upon the Massacre and expulsion of the Danes never to have any King of that Nation to raign over them it might seem no lawful Claim But yet the Favour of the people which both his person and Valour had gotten with the Necessity of the Time that required a Man of Spirit and Courage to undertake the burden of war and the Trouble which the World they saw was like to grow into cast it upon him with hope to keep out the Misery of a foreign Subjection and the Insolency of Strangers § 8. But the whole Course of things being overcast and set for Storms and Alteration could not by any providence of Men be prevented Though this new King who is said to have crowned himself used all the Means that a wife and valiant Prince could do both for the well ordering of the State and all provisions for defence yet the disjointed Affections of Men tending to their private Ends and working several Wayes to get up to their Hopes either left the Ship of the State which contained them all to the mercy of the Waves and every Man cast to save himself where the greatest likelyhood of Mastery appeared or else distracted with the â—error of the approaching Mischief failed in their Spirits and courage to withstand it For the Diligence of Men becomes often dasht with their Fear in publick Tumults and with the very Cogitation of the Evil to come § 9. And the first Man which began to afflict his new Government was his own younger Brother Tosty who for a former conceived Hatred was easily set on by the Duke of Normandy and Baldwin Earle of Flanders whose Daughter he had married to assail the Isle of Wight and
his Conâ—uest Besides he had made the Pope most sure unto him by promising if hee subdued this Kingdome to hold it of the Church for which Alexander uppon his enterprize sent him a Banner and a Hair of Saint Peter He held strict Amity also with the Princes of France that bordered upon him and might interrupt his Affairs as with the Earls of Anjou Poictou Main Ponthieu Bologne and others to every one of whom he had promised Lands in England upon their Aids lent him And to keep fair with the State of France in general he ingaged himself to their King to hold this Kingdome from him and to do him homage for the same by which means he so strongly under set himself as made his Fortune such as it was § 16. And now having disposed his Affairs in Normandy he returns towards Winter into England Where he was to satisfie three sorts of men First the especial Adventurers in the Action Secondly those of his own People whose Merits or Nearness deserved Recompence whereof the Number being so great many must have their Expectations Fed though not satisfied Thirdly the People of this Kingdom by whom he must now subsist For being not able with his own Nation so to People the same as to defend it if he should proceed to a general Extirpation of the Natural Inhabitants he was likewise to give them Satisfaction Wherein he had more to do than in his Battle at Hastings seeing all Remunerations with discharge of Monies must be raised out of the Stock of the Kingdom which could not be pleasing to the State in general And all Preferments and Dignities conferred on his must be either by Vacancies or displacing others which needs must breed very feeling Grievances in particular And yet we find no great Men thrust out of their Rooms but such as put themselves out by their Revolting after his Establishment in the Crown § 17. In the second Year of his Reign no Exaction was made to raise Treasure for these Satisfactions so that it seems he contented himself and his for the time only with what he found here ready and with filling up their Places who were slain in these two last Battles or fled as many were out of the Kingdom with the Sons of Harold But the English Nobility incompatible of these new Concurrents found notwithstanding a Disproportion of Grace and a darkning of their Dignities by the Interposition of so many as must needs lessen their Light And doubting daily to be more impaired in Honour and Estate all the Chiefest of them conspired and fled some into Scotland some into Denmark to try if by Aid from abroad they might recover themselves and their Greatness again at home § 18. Amongst these the Cheifest was Edgar Atheling intitled Englands Darling with shewed the Peoples Zeal to his Bloud and with him besides his Mother Agatha and his two Sisters Christine and Margaret fled the Earls Edwin and Morcar Marleswin Hereward Gospatric and Siward and shortly after Stigand and Aldred the two Arch-Bishops with many other Noblemen and divers of the Clergy Those that fled into Scotland were all Hospitably received of King Malcolm whom it concerned to look to his own his Neighbour's House being thus on Fire and to succour a Party against so dangerous an Incommer Which made him not only to entertain them but to enter League with them for the Publick safety And to combine himself the more firmly he Married Margaret the Sister of Edgar by whom the Bloud of our antient Saxon Kings was conjoyned with the Norman in Henry the Second and so became English again § 19. These Noblemen with the Aid of the Scots and Danes in the third year of this King's Reign raised great Commotions in the North beyond Humber and wrought very valiantly themselves to recover their lost Country But now it being too late and the Occasion not taken before the settling of the Government whilest it was new and brandling they prevailed nothing but gave Advantage to the Conqueror to make himself more then he was for all Conspiracies of Subjects that succeed not advance the Soveraignty And nothing gave Root to the Normans planting here more then the petty Revolts made by scattered Troops in several parts begun without Order and weakly seconded without Resolution whereas nothing could be done for the general Recovery but by the general rising of the People which seldom we see to happen And for this the new King had taken good Order First by disarming them then by sorbidding them Assemblies and all secret Intercourse upon heavy Penalties that every Man at the closing of the Day by the Warning of a Bell should cover his Fire and go to bed by making them to be bound Pledges one for another to answer for their Obedience and Loyalty by building divers Fortresses in several parts of the Kingdom to awe the Country and to hold them in with many such like provisions § 20. So that these Lords though they did as they might hold him doing in the North and imbroil themselves in an unsuccessful Businesse yet he having all the South settled under his Power with well practised and prepared Forces could not but needs tire and consume them in the end and in the mean Time invest the Normans in their Rooms and possessions forfeited by this Attempt As the Earldom and all the Lands which Edwin held in Yorkshire were given to Alanus Earl of Brittain his Nephew the Archbishoprick of Canterbury conferred on Lanfranc an Italian That of York on Thomas his Chaplain a Norman and all the rest both of the Clergy and others which fled and were out had likewise their Places supplied by Normans § 21. And now the King having appeased the Commotion in the West where the Sons of Harold had landed with Forces out of Ireland and Wales and also represt the Rebellion of Oxford he takes his Journy in Person Northward with all Expedition least the Enemy there should grow too great in Heart and Opinion by the Defeat of his Lieutenant with 700 Normans at Durham and the great Slaughter of his People made at York Where at his first coming he so wrought as he corrupted the Generals of the Danes with Mony and sent them well contented away and then set upon the Army of the Earls weakened both in Strength and Hope by this Departure of their Confederates and put them to Flight Which done he utterly wasted and laid desolate all that goodly Country between York and Durham the space of Sixty Miles that it might be no more a Succour to the Revolter And the like Course he used on all the Coasts where any certain Landings were known thereby to prevent Invasions and so returned to London where he seized into his Hands all the Plate Jewels and Treasure within all the Monasteries of England pretending that the Rebels and their Assisters had conveyed their Riches into these Religious Houses as into Places Priviledged and free from Seizure to
the same maner and took none but from such as after his Possession of the Crown Rebelled against him or were slain in the Wars § 34. He imposed no new Taxations on the State and used those he found very moderately As Danegelt being a Tax raised by the former Kings of two Shillings upon every Hilde-Land to maintain the Wars against the Danes he would not have it made an Annual payment but only taken upon urgent Occasion And it was seldom gathered in his Time or his Successors Scutagium or Escuage which was also then an Imposition of Mony upon every Knight's Fee afterwards only imployed for the Service in Scotland was never Levied but in Like Occasions for Stipends and Donatives to Souldiers § 35. Only one Exaction he he was forced to raise to cure a Mischief which arose by his Means In the begining of this Reign the Rancor of the English towards the New-come Normans was such as finding them single in Woods and remote Places they secretly murthered them and the Deed doers for any the severest Courses taken could never be discovered Whereupon it was ordained that the Hundred wherein a Norman was found slain and the Murther not taken should be condemned to pay the King some thirty-six pounds and some twenty eight pounds according to the Quantity of the Hundred And this was done to the End the Punishment being generally inflicted it might particularly deter them and hasten the Discovery of the Malefactor by whom so many must otherwise be interessed This Mulct and the seizing into his Hands the Church Treasure before-noted though both were done by the especial commanding Warrant of Necessity were much taken to heart in the Kingdom both by the Clergy and Common People § 36. And yet otherwise was he to both very gratious and beneficial For upon petition made unto him he relieved the Oppression of such as were Tenants at will of their Lords which were a very great Number and began after this manner All those who were discovered to have had a Hand in any Rebellion and were pardoned only to injoy the Benefit of Life having all their Lively-hood taken from them became Vassails unto those Lords to whom the Possessions were given of all such Lands as were forfeited by Attainders And if by their diligent Service they could attain any Portion of Ground they held it but only so long as it pleased their Lords without having any Estate for themselves or their Children and were oftentimes miserably cast out upon the sudden contrary to Promise upon any small Displeasure Whereupon it was ordained that whatsoever they had obtained of their Lords by any obsequious Service or agreed for upon any Lawful Pact they should hold by an inviolable Law during their own Lives § 37. And for the Clergy other than in this one Act he maintained all their Immunities and Priviledges and they grew very much under him But this it seems was the Cause that made them so much disfigure his Worthiness and leave his Memory in so black Colours to Posterity as they did in delineating his Tyranny Rigor and Oppression when the Nature and Necessary Disposition of his Affairs do much excuse him therein and shew that he was a Prince of a most active Virtue whose Abilities of Nature were equal to his Undertakings of Fortune as preordained for so great a Work And though he might have some Advantage of the Time wherein we often see Men prevail more by the Imbecilities of others than their own Worth Yet let those Times be well examined his Strength and Eminency if we take his just Measure where of an exceeding Proportion Neither wanted he those Encounters and Concurrences of sufficient able Princes his Neighbours to put him to the Trial thereof having on one side the French to grapple withal on the other the Dane far mightier in People and Shipping than himself strongly sided in the Kingdom as greedy to recover their former Footing here as ever and as well or better prepared § 38. But this name of Conquest which ever imports Violience and Misery is of so harsh a found and so odious in nature as a people subdued seldom gives the Conquerour his due tho' never so worthy And especially to a Stranger whom only time must naturalize and let in by degrees into their Liking and good Opinion Wherein also this King was greatly advantaged by reason of his twenty years Government which had much impaired the Memory of former Customs in the younger sort and well inured the elder to the present Usances and Form of State Whereby the Rule was made more easy to his Sons who tho' they were far inferiour to him in Worth were a little better beloved then he and the rather for that they were content somewhat to unwrest the Sovereignty from the Height whereunto he had strained it which brought the State to a better proportion of Harmony § 39. Of those who were the especial Men of Employment in his Reign time has shut us out from the knowledge of many it being in the Fortune of Kings to have the Names and Memory of their Counsellors like Rivers in the Ocean Buried in their Glory Yet these we find principally mentioned in Stories First William Fitz-Osborne Earl of Hereford the especial Mover and Counsellor of this Voiage of England reported also to have furnished forty Ships at his own Charge for the Enterprise Odo Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent sometimes his Viceroy in England and seems also to have managed the Finances but of such excessive Avarice that he gathered so much Treasure as he went about to buy the Papacy and attempting to go to Rome about the same the King staid him at Home in a fair Prison and excused the matter upon Exclamation made in this sort that he only Imprisoned the Earl of Kent not the Bishop of Bayeux Beside he had Lanfranc a Man of universal Learning and an excellent Lawyer Born in Lumbardy who peradventure might introduce something of the Constitutions of that Province to the making up our Laws which in many things seem to participate with theirs And no doubt he had many others else For being of a strong Constitution of Judgment he could not but be strongly furnished in that kind seeing ever weak Princes have weak Sides and our most renowed Kings have been best underset with Counsel and happily served with the ablest Officers § 40. He had a fair issue by Maud his Wife Four Sons and Five Daughters To Robert his Eldest Son he left the Dutchy of Normandy to William the Kingdom of England and to Henry his Treasure with an Annual Pension of 8000. pounds to be paid him by his two Brothers Richard that was his Second Son Died in his Youth of a surfeit taken by Hunting in the New Forrest and began the fatal Misfortune that followed of that place by the Death of King William the Second there slain with an Arrow and of Richard the Son of Robert Duke of