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
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
Nations which under the Names of Goths and Vandals invaded the Roman Empire with infinite Numbers Fury and Danger to Rome it self all the Roman Legions were at last drawn out of Britain with most of the Britains that were fit for Military Service to relieve the Emperor who was pursued by the Goths into Piedmont and there besieged in a strong Passage or Town he pretended to Defend The Romans taking their last Leave of this Province here left the Britains to their own Government and Choice of their own Kings and Leaders with the best Instructions for the Exercise of their Arms and Discipline and the Repairs and Defence of the Wall or Rampart they had raised against their Northern Foes But these finding the whole Country deserted by the Roman Bands exhausted of their own bravest Youth and weakned by their new Divisions began to pour in greater Numbers than ever into the Northern Parts and ravaged all before them with greater Rage and Fury The poor Britains sent over their miserable Epistle for Relief still upon Record to the renowned Aetius who had by several famous Successes for a time repelled the Violence of the Gothick Arms which was addressed in these words To Aetius thrice Consul The Groans of the Britains and told him after other lamentable Complaints That the barbarous People drove them to the Sea and the Sea back to the barbarous People between which they had only left the Choice of these two Deaths either to be killed by the one or drowned by the other But having no Hopes given them by the Roman General of any Succours from that Side they began to consider what other Nation they might call over to their Relief The Saxons were one Branch of those Gothick Nations which swarming from the Northern Hive had under the Conduct of Odin possessed themselves anciently of all those mighty Tracts of Land that surround the Baltick Sea A Branch of these under the Name of Suevi from whom the Baltick was of old called Mare Suevicum had some time before Cesars Wars in Gaul invaded and subdued very large extended Territories in Germany from the Coast of the North-west Ocean to the South-eastern Parts whereof Suabia still retains the Memory and the Name These Suevi or Suabi were for their Strength and Valour grown so Formidable to all the German Nations they had Conquered and forced to seek new Seats That those upon the Rhine sending Embassadors to Cesar told him They would neither seek War with the Romans nor avoid it That they esteemed themselves as Valiant as any other Nation excepting only the Suevi for whom the very immortal Gods were not a Match These Suevi became afterwards divided into two several Nations and by Limits agreed between them Those towards the South-east of Germany were called Francs from their great Love of Liberty and their Valour in preserving it and never submitting to the Roman Subjection as many other German Nations had done These upon the fatal Decline of that Empire invaded Gaul under the leading of Pharamond and under the succeeding Kings of his Race conquered the whole Province and established that noble and ancient Kingdom of France The other Branch of the Suevi possessed themselves of all those Tracts of Land in Germany that lie between the Elve and the lower Rhine had extended their Seats all over the Coasts of the North-west Sea and from thence exercised their Arms and fierce Courages in all sorts of Spoils and Pyracies not only upon Merchants or Traders at Sea but upon the Maritime Coasts of Britain opposite to those Countries about the Mouth of the Rhine or thereunto adjacent These fierce People were called Saxons from a Weapon generally used among them and made like a Sythe with the Edge reversed which in in their Language were termed Seaxes To these Vortigern chosen King by the deserted and afflicted Britains made Address for Aid against the Picts and Scots who had now made Inroads as far as Trent Their desires of Relief and offers of Seats in Britain were soon accepted and granted by the Saxons who under the Conduct of Hengist and Horsa of the Race of Odin came over with great Numbers to the Assistance of the Britains in the year 450. They joyned with the Natives at first as Friends and Allies had the Isle of Thanet assigned them at their Landing and upon occasion of greater numbers the County of Kent for their Colony and Habitation They marched against the Picts and Scots and in Conjunction with the British Arms overthrew their Forces in several Battels or Encounters with those cruel Ravagers and beat them back into the most Northern Parts of the Province After this by Consent of the Britains Hengist and Horsa sent for their two Sons or near Kinsmen to come over with a new Army of Saxons by Sea into those Northern Parts who seated their Colony about Northumberland upon pretence of guarding that Frontier against the Picts and Scots and their Incursions upon the Britains which they did with great Bravery and Successes and thereby left those Nations contented or forced to bound their Territories with those rough and mountainous Countries that lye between the two Seas near the River Tweed and which ever since continued as the Borders between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland into which the Island came afterwards to be divided The Province now delivered and secured from their ancient Foes Dissentions began to arise between the Britains and their new Allies The Saxons valuing too high the assistance they had given and the Britains perhaps too low what they had received till the first allured by so fair a Prey and the fertile Soil of so sweet a Country inviting still greater numbers from the Continent establish'd two Saxon Kingdoms one in the Southern and t'other in the Northern Parts and from both these sides invaded the Britains who for some time defended themselves and their Liberties with various Successes and with the greater hatred and distinction the Saxons being all Pagans and the British generally Christians which Religion seems to have been planted here in the first Century but to have taken Root and spred chiefly under Constantius who was long Governour of the Roman Province here a great favourer of Christianity and Father of Constantine the Great In the time of these first Wars between the Saxons and Britains Ambrosius reigned over the last and either as General of his Armies or his Successor in the Kingdom Arthur so famous in the Traditions or rather in the Romances of succeeding Ages and who is said to have gained twelve Battels over the Saxons and to have left the Britains in the middle of the Province for some time to secure from these fierce Enemies till Peace and Luxury had again softned them and by new Dissentions among themselves exposed their whole Province to become an easie Prey to so fierce and numerous Invaders The time of King Arthur's Reign or Atchievments if any such there were must have been
from the Coasts of Norway in two several Expeditions with mighty Numbers of a Brave but Barbarous People had about Two Hundred Years before first ravaged the Coasts of Holland and Flanders then entred the Mouth of the Sein subjected the Country by unresisted Arms then taking the City of Rouen Capital of that Province upon Composition and made Inroads from thence into the Isle of France and near Paris it self with such Fury and Success that the King of France embroiled then at home thought fit to tame these Lyons rather than longer to oppose them and threw them that noble and fruitful Morsel of Normandy to asswage their Hunger yielding it up wholly to their Leader Roul upon Conditions of his turning Christian and his holding that Dutchy from the Crown of France for him and his Successors After these Ceremonies were past of the Homages received in Normandy and given in France the old Duke Robert delivered his young Son himself into the Hands and Tutelage of the French King upon the Confidence of great Services he had formerly done him in Disputes about the Crown and immediately after these Transactions began his Voyage into Asia where he lived not long and left his Son to be the Founder of his own Fortunes rather than Heir of his Fathers which he found exposed to all sorts of Dangers from the tenderness of his Age the reproach of his Birth a suspected Guardian a disputed Title and a distracted State After the News of Duke Robert's Decease the Nobles of Normandy by him intrusted with the Government during his Sons Minority found themselves soon involved in many Difficulties by the open Factions of some Nobles who envied their Greatness and by the private Practices of others who being derived from some of the former Dukes resolved to set up their Pretences to the Succession but masqued their Designs at first and herded with the common Discontents against the present Administration The Governours faithful to the Trust reposed in them by the Father and the Fealty they had sworn to the Son esteemed the Presence of the young Prince necessary to support their Authority and his Title and thereupon prevailed with the King of France to send him into Normandy which he did accordingly with great Honour to himself and Kindness to the young Duke as well as Satisfaction to all his Loyal Subjects but to the Disappointment of those who pretended their Discontents rather against the Governours than the Succession No Prince ever came so early into the Cares and Thorns of a Crown nor felt them longer engaged in Difficulties and Toils in Hardships and Dangers His Life exposed to the Arms of Enemies the Plots of Assassins His Reign embroiled by the Revolts of his Subjects the Invasions of his Neighbours and his whole Life though very long spent in the necessary and dangerous Defence of his own Title and Dominion or in the ambitious Designs of acquiring greater Yet none ever surmounted all with more Constancy of Mind Prudence of Conduct and Felicity of Fortune By all which he seems born to have been rather a great Prince than a happy Man His first Contests and Dangers arose from the declared Competition of the Pretenders to the Succession of the Dutchy who favoured by the Defects of his Birth and grounding their Title upon their own legitimate Descent found so many Followers at home and such Assistance from some neighbouring Princes that agreeing together against the present Possessor though disputing among themselves upon their own Rights they raised great Forces and constrained the young Duke to appear not only at the Head of his Counsels but of his Armies too by that time he was full seventeen Years old These civil Wars continued long with many various Successes bloody Encounters defeating and recruiting of Troops surprising sacking besieging relieving of Towns and wasting of Countries till at last the Duke by his Vigilance Prudence Courage and Industry subdued totally not only the Forces but the Hearts of all his Competitors and Enemies at home and forced them to quit both Normandy and France and seek new Fortunes or at least Protection in Italy under the Banners and Service of those Northern Princes who had first by assisting their Friends and then pursuing their own fortunes made themselves Masters of Apulia Calabria and Sicily So great was the Prowess and Conduct of those brave Norman Adventurers that from Pruhans as the French called them because they could not stay at home but left their own Country to seek Room in foreign and distant Regions they became Possessors and Sovereigns in less than two hundred Years of one noble Dutchy in France a great Kingdom in the best Parts of Italy and a greater yet and more renowned in the British Isle and thereby exchanged the savage Woods and barren Mountains of Norway for three of the fruitfullest fairest and most pleasant Countries in the Western Parts of Europe and which had been observed both before and since to produce the bravest Bodies and Courages of any Provinces among their Neighbour Nations The Defeats and final Overthrow of Competitors at home gave Duke William no long Quiet for another appeared from abroad more dangerous than any of the former This was Martel Earl of Anjou that was not only a Prince of great Possessions but yet more formidable by the Alliance and Assistance of the King of France who jealous of the Norman Greatness thought it both wise and just to prevent its further Growth and abate a Neighbour's Power before it grew too high and perhaps out of his Reach by the Conduct Ambition and Fortune of such an aspiring Prince To this end and upon small Pretences which never fail a strong Invader he encouraged if not set on foot the Earl of Anjou's Pretensions to the Dutchy of Normandy gave him first his Countenance and Assistance to justfie his Claim and pursue it by Arms but by degrees engaged in an open and declared War against the Duke this he prosecuted with much Passion and Violence imploying in it not only all the Forces he could raise but his own Person to command them attended by many the chief Nobles of his Kingdom and many great Persons of his Allies Duke William lost nothing of his Temper or Courage upon the Approaches of so great a Storm but prepared first for his Defence till flesht with Success in many Encounters and trusting to the Bravery and Affections of his Army though much inferior to the French he brought the Quarrel to the Decision of two fierce Battels in two pitched Fields The first ended in an entire Victory on the Duke's side with the Slaughter of three Parts of his Enemies amounting to above thirty thousand Men This Loss however rather enraged than discouraged the King of France who gave himself or his Enemies no Quiet till he engaged the Normans in a second Battel with greater Forces and Rage on both sides but with the same Success the former had ended In this Field the
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-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
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