V.

their factions. All of it, that was his own, was CHAP. good. He was careful of the privileges of his subjects; and took care to have a body of the A. D. Saxon laws, very favourable to them, digested and 1066. enforced. He remitted the heavy imposition called Danegelt, amounting to £.40,000 a year, which had been constantly collected after the occasion had ceased; he even repaid to his subjects what he found in the treasury at his accession. In short there is little in his life, that can call his title to sanctity in question; though he can never be reckoned among the great kings.

CHAP. VI.

Harold II.—Invasion of the Normans-Account of that People, and of the state of England at the time of the Invasion.

THOUGH Edgar Atheling had the best title to CHAP. the succession, yet Harold, the son of Earl Good- VI. win, on account of the credit of his father, and his Harold II. 1066. own great qualities, which supported and extended the interest of his family, was by the general voice set upon the throne. The right of Edgar, young, and discovering no great capacity, gave him little disturbance in comparison of the violence of his own brother Tosti, whom for his infamous oppression he had found himself obliged to banish. This man, who was a tyrant at home, and a traitor

abroad,

BOOK abroad, insulted the maritime parts with a piratical II. fleet, whilst he incited all the neighbouring princes A. D. to fall upon his country. Harold Harfager, King 1066. of Norway, after the conquest of the Orkneys, with a powerful navy hung over the coasts of England. But nothing troubled Harold so much as the pretensions and the formidable preparation of William Duke of Normandy, one of the most able, ambitious and enterprising men of that age. We have mentioned the partiality of King Edward to the Normans, and the hatred he bore to Goodwin and his family. The Duke of Normandy, to whom Edward had personal obligations, had taken a tour into England, and neglected no means to improve these dispositions to his own advantage. It is said, that he then received the fullest assurances of being appointed to the succession, and that Harold himself had been sent soon after into Normandy to settle whatever related to it. This is an obscure transaction; and would, if it could be cleared up, convey but little instruction. So that whether we believe, or not, that William had engaged Harold by a solemn oath to secure him the kingdom, we know, that he afterwards set up a will of King Edward in his favour, which, however, he never produced, and probably never had to produce. In these delicate circumstances Harold was not wanting to himself. By the most equitable laws, and the most popular behaviour, he sought to secure

the

the affections of his subjects; and he succeeded so CHAP. well, that when he marched against the King of_VI. Norway, who had invaded his kingdom and taken A. D. York, without difficulty he raised a numerous army 1066. of gallant men, zealous for his cause and their country. He obtained a signal and decisive victory over the Norwegians. The King Harfager, and the traitor Tosti, who had joined him, were slain in the battle; and the Norwegians were forced to evacuate the country. Harold had however but little time to enjoy the fruits of his victory.

Scarce had the Norwegians departed, when William Duke of Normandy landed in the southern part of the kingdom with an army of 60,000 chosen men, and struck a general terrour through all the nation, which was well acquainted with the character of the commander, and the courage and discipline of his troops.

The Normans were the posterity of those Danes, who had so long and so cruelly harassed the British Islands, and the shore of the adjoining Continent. In the days of King Alfred a body of these adventurers, under their leader Rollo, made an attempt upon England; but so well did they find every spot defended by the vigilance and bravery of that great monarch, that they were compelled to retire. Beaten from these shores, the stream of their impetuosity bore towards the northern parts of France, which had been reduced

to

BOOK to the most deplorable condition by their former II. ravages. Charles the Simple then sat on the A. D. throne of that kingdom; unable to resist this torrent

of barbarians, he was obliged to yield to it; he agreed to give up to Rollo the large and fertile province of Neustria, to hold of him as his feudatory. This province, from, the new inhabitants, was called Normandy. Five princes succeeded Rollo, who maintained with great bravery, and cultivated with equal wisdom, his conquests. The ancient ferocity of this people was a little softened by their settlement; but the bravery, which had made the Danes so formidable, was not extinguished in the Normans, nor the spirit of enterprise. Not long before this period, a private gentleman of Normandy, by his personal bravery, had acquired the kingdom of Naples. Several others followed his fortunes, who added Sicily to it. From one end of Europe to the other the Norman name was known, respected and feared. Robert, the sixth Duke of Normandy, to expiate some crime, which lay heavy upon his conscience, resolved, according to the ideas of that time, upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was in vain, that his nobility, whom he had assembled to notify this resolution to them, represented to him the miserablé state, to which his country would be reduced, abandoned by its prince, and uncertain of a legal successor, The Duke was not to be moved from

his resolution, which appeared but the more meri- CHAP. torious from the difficulties, which attended it. He VI. presented to the States William, then an infant, A. D. born of an obscure woman, whom, notwithstanding, he doubted not to be his son; him he appointed to succeed; him he recommended to their virtue and loyalty; and then solemnly resigning the government in his favour, he departed on the pilgrimage, from whence he never returned. The States, hesitating some time between the mischiefs, that attend the allowing an illegitimate succession, and those, which might arise from admitting foreign pretensions, thought the former the least prejudicial, and accordingly swore allegiance to William; but this oath was not sufficient to establish a right so doubtful. The Dukes of Burgundy and Britanny, as well as several Norman noblemen, had specious titles. The endeavours of all these disquieted the reign of the young prince with perpetual troubles. In these troubles he was formed early in life to vigilance, activity, secrecy, and a conquest over all those passions, whether bad or good, which obstruct the way to greatness. He had to contend with all the neighbouring princes; with the seditions of a turbulent and unfaithful nobility, and the treacherous protection of his feudal lord the King of France. All of these in their turns, sometimes all of these together, distressed him. m. But with the most unparalleled good fortune and

conduct