A.D. 1001 The Danes again land and ravage the whole country; they are paid 24,000l. to depart. The Dane-geld becomes permanent. 1002 Ethelred marries Emma, the Flower of Normandy, the sister of Duke Richard. Nov. 13. The Danes throughout England are massacred in the feast of St. Brice; Sweyn invades England; lands near Exeter, which city he plunders and ravages Wiltshire. Bryan the Brave, king of Ireland, begins to reign. 1004 The Danes return to the Baltic. 1006 Sweyn again ravages the kingdom, and is paid 36,000l. to retire. 1008 A large fleet is built and equipped, but rendered useless by treachery of the comman- 1009, The Danes called "Thurkill's host" land in England and ravage the country; Alphege, Thurkill accepts 48,000l. and the cession of some counties, and enters the service of The Danes under Sweyn sail up the Humber, and landing, devastate the country; 1013 Sweyn is declared "Full King of England." He dies suddenly at Gainsborough, and 1014 Bryan the Brave, king of Ireland, is killed by the Danes at the battle of Clontarf. 1017 Canute succeeds to the whole kingdom of England; murders all the Saxon princes he 1019 Compels the Cumbrians and Scots to submit. 1020 Eadulf cedes to Malcolm, king of Scots, part of his dominions called Lodonia. 1030 Canute goes on a pilgrimage to Rome; visits Denmark; and after two years' absence returns to England. 1038 Malcolm II., king of Scots, dies, and is succeeded by Duncan. 1034 Robert, Duke of Normandy, dies. 1035 Canute dies and is buried at Winchester. The Wittenagemote declare that the kingdom shall be divided between Harold and Hardicanute remains in Denmark; Edward lands, but returns to Normandy; Alfred Harold is declared full king over all the Island. 1039 Duncan, king of Scots, is murdered at Bothgouanan by Macbeth, who succeeds to the throne. 1040 Harold dies and is buried at Westminster. Hardicanute arrives in England, and is accepted as king. 1042 He dies at a feast, and is buried at Winchester. Accession of Edward the Confessor. He marries Editha, the daughter of Earl Godwin. 1043 The Danes, under King Magnus, threaten to invade England, but retire. 1044 Sweyn II., son of Earl Godwin, violates an abbess and is exiled; he becomes a pirate and murders his cousin Beorn; he is pardoned and restored to his government. 1051 A retainer of Eustace, Count of Bologne, kills an Englishman at Dover, and the count and his followers are driven out; Earl Godwin is disgraced; he flies to Flanders; his sons Harold and Leofwin go to Ireland. A.D. Edward seizes the jewels and money of his queen Editha, and confines her in the monastery of Wherwell; William, Duke of Normandy, visits England at the king's invitation. 1052 Earl Godwin lands on the south coast; he and his sons Harold and Leofwin sail up the Thames and stop at Southwark; the Normans and French are banished; the queen set at liberty; Wilnot, one of the sons, and Haco, a grandson of the earl, are given as hostages, and sent to Normandy; Sweyn is banished and goes on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; the Saxon authority is rendered supreme. Earl Godwin dies at Windsor, and is succeeded in his titles and possessions by Harold, his eldest son. 1054 Siward, Earl of Northumbria, defeats Macbeth near Dunsinane. 1056 Dec. 5. Macduff and Malcolm defeat and slay Macbeth. 1057 April 3. Lulach, successor of Macbeth, is defeated and slain at the battle of Eassie by Malcolm III. 1063 Harold with his brother Tostig overcome the Welch, who decapitate their king Griffith, and send his head to Harold; the Welch give hostages and engage to pay the ancient tribute. Edward, the outlaw, arrives in London and dies soon after, and is buried in St. Paul's. 1005 Harold is wrecked on the French coast; is taken prisoner; is ransomed by the Duke of Normandy; Harold swears to aid William to get possession of the English crown after Edward's death. Tostig is expelled from Northumbria, and Morcar is appointed Earl in his stead; he flies to Bruges. Nov. 30. Harold arrives in London. 1066 Jan. 5. Edward the Confessor dies and is buried at Westminster. Harold is proclaimed king; the foreign favourites are dismissed; Duke William demands by his ambassadors the fulfilment of Harold's oath; he refuses; the Pope sanctions the invasion of England. Tostig ravages the Isle of Wight and the coast of Lincolnshire; sails up the Humber, but is beaten off; Hardrada, king of Norway, invades England, and with Tostig defeats Earls Morcar and Edwin, and takes York; Harold fights and beats them at Stamford bridge, and Hardrada and Tostig are slain. Sept. 28. The Normans land at Bulverhithe, march to Hastings, and form a fortified camp. They ravage the surrounding country. Harold arrives in London from the north, and in six days marches against the Oct. 14. The battle of Hastings; Harold is slain. BOOK III. WILLIAM I. TO HENRY III. 35. THE CONQUEROR'S MARCH TO LONDON. THIERRY. WHILST the army of the king of the Anglo-Saxons, and that of the invader were confronting each other, a fresh detachment of vessels from Normandy had crossed the channel to rejoin the great fleet stationed in the roads of Hastings. Their commanders landed, by mistake, several miles farther north, at a place called Rumen-ey, now Romney. The inhabitants of the coast received the Normans as enemies, and a battle took place, in which the foreigners were vanquished. William learnt their defeat, a few days after his victory, and, to spare a similar misfortune to the recruits that he still expected from across the strait, he resolved, first of all, to secure possession of the south-eastern coast. Instead, therefore, of advancing towards London, he marched back to Hastings, and remained there for some time, in order to try if his presence might not induce the people of the neighbouring country to submit themselves voluntarily. But, receiving no peaceful advances, the conqueror resumed his march, with the remains of his army, and the fresh troops which had arrived, in the interval, from Normandy. He proceeded along the shore, from south to north, devastating all in his course. At Romney he avenged the defeat of his soldiers by burning the houses and massacreing the inhabitants. From Romney he marched towards Dover, the strongest place on the coast, of which he had formerly attempted to obtain peaceful possession by means of the oath which he extorted from Harold. The fortress of Dover, recently finished by the son of Godwin, under happier auspices, was situated on a rock which naturally rose precipitously from the sea that washed its base, and on which much pains and labour had been expended, in trimming it on all sides, so as to render it as smooth as a wall. The details of the seige by the Normans are not known; all that we learn from historians is, that the town of Dover was burnt down, and that, influenced either by terror or treason, the garrison of the fortress surrendered it. William passed eight days at Dover, in constructing new walls and works of defence; then, changing his route, and discontinuing his course along the coast, he marched towards the metropolis. The Norman army advanced by the great Roman way, called by the English Wetlinga-street, the same which had so often served as a common boundary in the divisions of territory between the Saxons and the Danes. This road led from Dover to London through the middle of the province of Kent; the conquerors traversed a portion of it without their passage being disputed; but in one place, where the road approached the Thames, on the border of a forest well adapted for an ambustade, a large body of armed Saxons suddenly appeared. They were commanded by two priests, Egelsig, abbot of the monastery of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, And the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stigand, the same who had crowned king Harold. It is not exactly known what occurred in this encounter, whether there was a battle, followed by a treaty between the two armies, or whether the capitu lation was concluded without fighting. It appears, however, that the army of Kent stipulated for all the inhabitants of that province, who engaged to offer no further resistence to the conquerors, on condition that they should remain as free, after the conquest, as they had been before it. In thus treating for themselves, and separating their own fate from that of their country, the men of Kent, (if indeed it be true that they entered into this compact), acted in a manner more hurtful to the common cause than advantageous to themselves; for no edict of the time gives any evidence that the foreigner kept faith with them, or distinguished them from the rest of the English in his oppressive measures and laws. Archbishop Stigand, either having joined in this capitulation, or vainly opposed it (which is the most probable conjecture, considering his proud and intrepid character), quitted the province which had laid down its arms and repaired to London, where submission had not yet been thought of. The inhabitants of this great town, and the chiefs who were assembled there, had resolved to fight a second battle, which, well ordered and ably commanded, would be, to all appearance, more fortunate than the first. But a supreme commander was needed, under whom all the troops and all volunteers might rally, and the national council, which ought to have named this commander, delayed making a decision, agitated and divided as it was by divers intrigues and pretensions. Neither of the brothers of the late king, who were men capable of worthily filling his place, had survived the battle of Hastings. Harold had left two sons, who were still very young, and too little known to the people; it does not appear that they were then proposed as claimants to the throne. Amongst all the candidates, the most powerful from their wealth and renown were Edwin and Morkar, brothers-in-law of Harold, the chiefs of Northumbria and Mercia. They had the suffrages of all the men of the north of England; but the citizens of London, the inhabitants of the south, and some others, set up in opposition to them, Young Edgar, the nephew of king Edward, who was surnamed Ætheling, or the illustrious, on account of his descent from several kings. This young man, feeble minded, and without any acquired reputation, had been unable, a year before, to stand against the popularity of Harold; but he now outweighed that of the sons of Alfgar, and was supported against them by Stigand himself, and by Eldred, Archbishop of York. Among the rest of the bishops there were several who were neither in favour of Edgar nor of his competitors, but demanded that submission should be made to him who had brought the pope's bull and the consecrated standard. Some of these men were influenced by a sentiment of blind obedience to ecclesiastical power, others by political cowardice; and others, of foreign origin, and bought beforehand by the foreign pretender, played the part for which they had been paid either in money, or in promises. They did not, however, prevail, the majority of the great national council fixed their choice on a Saxon, but on the one least fit to command in these trying circumstances, the young nephew of Edward. He was proclaimed king, after long hesitation, during which much previous time was lost in useless disputes. His accession did not conduce to rally the unsettled spirits of the nation; Edwin and Morkar, who had engaged to put themselves at the head of the troops assembled in London, retracted their promise, and retired to their governments in the north, taking with them the soldiers of these countries, over whom they had entire influence. They vainly hoped to be able to defend the northern provinces distinct from the rest of England. Their departure weakened and discouraged those who remained in London with the new king; depression, the fruit of civil discord, succeeded the first ebullition of spirit and enthusiasm excited by the foreign invasion. Meantime, the Norman troops were approaching at several points, and traversing in all directions the provinces of Surrey, Sussex, and Hants, plundering and burning the towns and hamlets, and massacreing the men, whether armed or unarmed. Five hundred horse advanced as far as the southern suburb of London, came to an engagement with a body of Saxons who opposed them, and in retreating, burnt all the buildings on the right bank of the Thames. William, judging from this proof, that the citizens had not yet renounced all intention of defending themselves, instead of approaching and laying siege to London, proceeded towards the west, and passed the Thames at the ford of Wallingford, in the province of Berks. He established an intrenched camp in this place, and left troops there, to intercept any succours from the western provinces: then, directing his course towards the northeast, he himself encamped at Berkhamstead, in Hertfordshire, to cut off in the same manner all communication between London and the north, and to prevent the return of the sons of Alfgar, in case they should repent of their inaction. By this manœuvre the Saxon metropolis was hemmed in on all sides; numerous foraging parties ravaged the environs, and intercepted the supplies, without engaging in any decisive battle. More than once the Londoners gave battle to the Normans; but by degrees they were wearied out, and succumbed, not so much to the strength of the enemy, as to the fear of famine, and to the discouraging thought that they were cut off from all succour. King Edgar, the Archbishops Stigand and Eldred, Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester, several other priests, chiefs of high rank, and the principal citizens of the town, obeying necessity, says a contemporary Saxon Chronicle, repaired to the Norman camp, at Berkhamstead, and there tendered their submission, to the misfortune of their country. They gave hostages to the foreigner, and took the oaths of peace and fidelity to him, and, in return, he promised to be kind and clement towards them. Then he marched towards London, and, regardless of his promise, permitted everything in his course to be devastated. 36.-THE CORONATION OF THE CONQUEROR. THIERRY. Upon the road from Berkhamstead to London there was a rich monastery called the Abbey of St. Alban, situated near the vast ruins of an ancient Roman municipal town. On approaching the estates of this convent, William observed with surprise large trunks of trees, arranged so as to intercept his passage, or render it difficult. He had Frithric, the Abbot of St. Albans, brought before him; "Why," demanded the conqueror, "hast thou had thy timber felled in this manner ?"--"I have done my duty," replied the Saxon monk; "and if all those of my order had acted in the same way, as they might and should have done, perhaps thou would'st not have penetrated so far into our country." William did not go on to London, but stopping some miles distant, he sent forward a strong detachment of soldiers with orders to erect a fortress in the heart of the city, for his residence. Whilst these works were rapidly proceeding, the Norman council of war were discussing, in the camp near London, the means of completing the conquest, so successfully commenced. The intimate friends of William said, that, in order to render the inhabitants of the yet unsubdued provinces less stubborn in their resistance, it was desirable that, previous to any further invasion, the chief of the conquest should take the title of king of the English. This proposition was, undoubtedly, the most agreeable to the Duke of Normandy, but, always politic, he feigned indifference to it, and concealed his own wishes, for fear of appearing to his companions in fortune too ambitious of a dignity which would give him the pre-eminence over them, as well as over the |