foreign Birth yet so far gained the general Affections and Satisfaction of the Commoners of the Realm who ask nothing but Security in their Estates and Properties that no Commotions afterwards raised by the Nobles and Clergy against his Government though in Favour of a better Right and Title were ever supported by the Commons who compose the Mass and Bulk of a Nation and whose general good or ill Humour Satisfaction or Discontent will ever have the most forcible Influence for the Preservation or Ruin of any State Besides the good and profitable Institutions and Orders of this King already mentioned so generally approved and so grateful to the Commonalty of the Realm there were others of a different Nature and which had a contrary Effect by distasting and disobliging many of the chief Nobility and most or all of the Clergy though some were so cautious as not to lose their Dignities or Revenues by expressing their Resentments The Offences taken by these last were first the abrogating or surceasing the Judiciary Power exercised by the Bishops during the Saxon Times in each County where Justice was administred and the Bishop with the Alderman or Earl of each Shire sate as Judges in those Courts which encreased not only their Authority but their Revenues too by a Share they had with the King in all Fines rais'd from the Issue of Causes there determined But all this was abolished by the King's Institution of Justiciaries to administer Justice upon all Pleas of the Crown and others among Subjects at four Terms of the Year This gave particular Offence to the Bishops but another to the whole Clergy for whereas before they held all their Land by Franc Almonage and subject to no Duties or Impositions but such as they laid upon themselves in their Ecclesiastical Assemblies This Prince finding above a third Part of the Lands of the Kingdom in Possession of the Clergy and the Forces of the Crown which consisted in Knights Service lessened in Proportion by their Immunity He reduced all their Lands to the common Tenure of Knights Fees and Baronage and thereby subjected them to the Attendance upon the King in his Wars and to other Services anciently due and sometimes raised upon all Lands that held in fee from the Crown This Innovation touched not only the Bishops but all the Abbots throughout the Kingdom many of whom were endowed with so great Lands and Revenues that in Right thereof they were upon the regular Constitutions of Parliaments allowed Session with the Bishops as Barons in the House of Lords The whole Clergy exclaimed against this new Institution not only as an Indignity and Injustice but as an Impiety too and Violation of the sacred Rights of the holy Church but their Complaints were without Redress though not without ill Consequence The Discontents among many of the great Nobles arose chiefly from two Occasion The first was the Rigor of the Forrest Laws and of their Execution And the other was the King 's too apparent Partiality to his Normans To know the Ground or Pretence of these Forrest Laws it will be necessary to run up to their Original In the first Seisures and Distributions made of the British Lands by the conquering Saxons besides those reserved to the Kings or divided among the People and held by the Tenures either of Knights Service or of book-Book-land as it was termed among the Saxons and thereby distinguish'd from that of Villenage There were many great Tracts of barren wild or woody Lands left undisposed and in a manner waste so great Numbers of British Inhabitants having been extinguish'd by the Wars or retired into Wales Cornwal Britanny and Scotland and the new Saxons not content to share among them any Lands but such as were fruitful and fit to be cultivated These were enclosed or improved as well as inhabited by the new Proprietors and the others left wast as well as undisposed to any certain Owners The whole Country was as has been observed very full of all Sorts of wild Game in the Time of the Britains who lived at large without any Inclosures little Property and subsisted much upon Hunting Fishing and Fowling which they had all in common Upon the enclosing or cultivating of the fruitful Lands by the Saxons the wild Beasts naturally afraid of Neighbours whom they found to be all Enemies fled into the wild woody and desolate Tracts of Land where they found Shelter and fed though hardly yet out of common Sight and Noise And hereby all those Parts became replenish'd with all Sorts of Game especially with Red and Fallow-Deer and made all those several Extents of Ground which were afterwards called Forrests The Saxon Kings esteemed these to belong to the Crown by their Right to all Possessions that have no certain Owner and by their never having been disposed upon the first Divisions of Land in the Saxon Kingdoms nor afterwards by any Grants of the Crown This Right was not disputed nor any Use of it made further than for the King's Pleasure which yet was not by them restrained from the Nobles or Knights that were Borderers upon the Forrests who were so moderate in those more simple Ages as to commit no Excesses or destroy the Game which it was their Interest to preserve both for their Sport and the Quarry and for some use made of it for common Pasturage among all the bordering Neighbours William the Conqueror not only seised upon all these Forrests as Part of his own Demesns but made a very large one in Hampshire besides those he found by laying wast and leaving uninhabited great Extents of Land which he pretended to be fallen to the Crown by ancient Succession or by new Forfeitures and this he called the new Forrest which Name after so long a Course of Ages it still retains In all these Forrests he pretended an absolute Right and Dominion and in Pursuance thereof instituted new and arbitrary Laws of his own unused and unknown before in this Kingdom and very different from the Moderation of the Saxon Government He confined all hunting or fowling in these Forrests to himself or such as should have Right to it by his Concessions or Permissions He imposed Fines upon all Trespasses committed in them according to his own Pleasure and which seemed much to exceed the Fault or Value of the thing These he caused to be levied with great Rigor and Exaction and thereby debarred not only his Commoners but his Nobles too from a Liberty they had before always enjoy'd Though he took care not to provoke the Commoners by leaving Pasturage free for such of the Neighbours who lived most upon their Stock and thereby took no greeat Offence at the Restraint from their Sport which they had not Time from their Labour much to follow yet the Nobles and Knights who valued their Sports more than common Gains and made use of their Riches but for Encrease of their Pleasures resented this Restraint as a sensible Injury as an Invasion
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
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
distance fell again to their Arrows with one of which Harold was shot quite through the Head and fell to the Ground And by his Death gave the Victory and the Field to the Normans which had hitherto continued doubtful on both sides and seemed thus far to have been Fought with equal Courage and with equal Loss But the Flight of the English upon Harold's Fall soon determined it and was followed by a long and bloody pursuit of the Normans which continued till Night and left mighty Numbers of the English slain in their Flight that had been safe in the Battel and the rest of them wholly dispersed though covered by the Night So different are the effects of Courage and of Fear and so Just the Rewards of both the first which seeks dangers often avoids them the other often runs into them by endeavouring to escape them Much greater numbers falling in all Battels by the pursuit of those that fly than by the Slaughter of those that Fight Nothing seems to show the greatness of England so much at this time as that Harold should be able to assemble so mighty an Army to oppose this Invasion And find above Threescore Thousand Men Brave enough not only to Fight but to lose their Lives in his defence For so many are agreed to have been slain of the English at this Battel of Hastings where he lost his Crown and his Life together and left the Field with the Kingdom to this brave Norman Conquerour This was the Man These the Forces and such the Circumstances that contributed to so famous an Enterprise by which the Fate of England was determined in or about the Year 1066. The Duke after this famous Victory resolved not to lose the Fruits and Advantages he had thereby gained which is often done for want of Speed or Vigour in the Prosecution wherein Celerity is sometimes of more Consequence than Force Therefore after the Pursuit of his broken Enemies and a short Refreshment of his own Army He began immediately his March towards London where was all the Strength then left in the Kingdom believing if he could be Master of the Head the rest of the Body would follow without more Struggle or Resistance In his March he is said to have exercised much Cruelty towards all he found in Arms with great Rigour and Oppression upon the other Inhabitants and Spoil of the Countries where he passed till entring into a Woody Part of Kent and advancing with his Vanguard before the rest of his Army he found himself almost environed with mighty Numbers of the Kentish Men who had concealed themselves in the Wood by carrying every Man a great Bough of a Tree like a Shield in his Hand But when they saw the Norman Troops and the Duke at the Head of them within their Danger they began on a sudden to march like a moving Wood till approaching their Enemies they threw down their Boughs and discovered on all Sides a Multitude of brave armed Men ready to charge the Normans that stood surprised and amazed at the Strangeness of the Sight which appeared as if a Wood had been by some Enchantment transformed into an Army But the Kentish Men approaching made a Halt and sent the Abbot of St. Austins to tell the Duke that all the Men of that Province were there assembled to defend their Country and their Liberties or to sell their Lives as dear as they could that if he would swear to preserve them in those ancient Laws and Customs under which they and their Ancestors had so long lived they were all ready to lay down their Arms and become his Subjects if not he must prepare to fight with Men that had resolved to lose their Lives rather than their Liberties and Laws The Duke finding he was too far advanced to joyn the Body of his Army before he engaged and unwilling to venture all his Fortunes and Hopes against such numerous Bands as these appeared and of so desperate Men granted to all the Inhabitants of the Province of Kent the Preservation and free Enjoyment of all their ancient Laws and Customs under the Saxon Reigns swore the Observance of his Grant received their Homage and so pursued his March This is represented as a forc'd Prelude to a subsequent voluntary Act of this Prince whereby he made or confirmed the same Concession in general to all the rest of the Kingdom And though this Adventure of the Kentish Men be not recorded with great Evidence of Truth or Agreement of Circumstances or of Time for some Writers place it before his first Arrival at London others after and upon an Expedition to reduce the Castle of Dover yet it is related by so many Authors and is so generally received by vulgar Tradition that it seems not to be omitted But when or however it happened or whether at all or no is not material to the History of this Prince or to the following Actions or Institutions of his Reign In the City of London besides the great Numbers and Riches of the Inhabitants were retired most of the great Nobles of the Kingdom both Ecclesiastical and Secular who had not been engaged in Action of either Side and attended what would be the Issue of this strong and violent Convulsion of the State Upon Decision of the last Battel they all consulted together with the Citizens what was best to be advised and done for their common Interest and Safety as well as of the whole Kingdom which was like to run their Fate by following their Example Many of the secular Nobles were for collecting what Forces they could and making a stand either in the Field or in the Town and thereby trying their Fortunes or at the worst making Conditions for they could not bear that their great Possessions and Lands should lie at the Mercy of a Prince whose Will might be as boundless as his Power and who had so great a Train to be rewarded at their Cost and by the Spoils if he pleased of the whole Kingdom The Citizens feared the hostile Entrance of an incensed Army upon a weak Resistance and the sudden Loss of their Possessions which consisting chiefly in Moveables might be seized in a Day and dissipated past any Recovery by the very Grace of the Prince or succeeding Composition between him and the rest of the Kingdom They thought no Forces could be collected either in Time upon so sudden an Approach or with Strength enough to make Opposition in a Body that had lost so much Blood and without a Head to command them or upon any Treaty to manage their common Interests to the best Advantage and so they were disposed to submit to what they esteemed the Fate of the Kingdom The Arch-bishops Bishops and the rest of the Clergy were a sort of State apart within the State it self having a Jurisdiction independent as they pretended and were usually allowed in that Age upon the secular Power they held their Lands and Possessions in the Kingdom
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