traitors presented his head to William, who rewarded their services with a sentence of perpetual banishment. The fate of his brother Morcar was different. He fled to the protection of Hereward, who had presumed to rear the banner of independence amidst the fens and 'morasses of Cambridgeshire. 3. The memory of Hereward was long dear to the people of England. The recital of his exploits gratified their vanity and 'resentment; and traditionary songs transmitted his fame to succeeding generations. His father, the lord of Born in Lincolnshire, unable to restrain the 'turbulence of his temper, had obtained an order for his banishment from Edward the Confessor; and the exile had earned in foreign countries the praise of a hardy and fearless warrior. A.D. 4. He was in Flanders at the period of the Conquest; but when he heard that his father was dead, and that his mother had been dispossessed of the lordship of Born by a foreigner, he returned in haste, collected the 1066 *vassals of the family, and drove the Norman from his paternal estates. The fame of the 'exploit increased the number of his followers: every man anxious to avenge his own wrongs, or the wrongs of his country, hastened to the standard of Hereward; a fortress of wood was erected in the Isle of Ely for the protection of their treasures; and a small band of outlaws, 'instigated by revenge, and emboldened by despair, set at defiance the whole power of the Conqueror. 5. Hereward, with several of his followers, had received the sword of knighthood from his uncle Brand, abbot of Peterborough. Brand died before the close of the year 1069; and William gave the abbey to Turold, 1069 a foreign monk, who, with a guard of one hundred A.D. and sixty horsemen, proceeded to take possession. He had already reached Stamford, when Hereward resolved to plunder the 'monastery. The Danes, who had passed the winter in the Humber, were now in the Wash; and Sbern, their leader, consented to join the outlaws. The town of Peterborough was burned; the monks were 'dispersed; the treasures which they had concealed were discovered; and the abbey was given to the flames. Hereward retired to his asylum. Sbern sailed towards Denmark. 6. To remove these importunate enemies, Turold purchased the services of Ivo Tailbois, to whom the Conqueror had given the district of Hoyland. Confident of success, the abbot and the Norman commenced the expedition with a numerous body of cavalry. But nothing could elude the vigilance of Hereward. As Tailbois entered one side of a thick wood, the chieftain issued from the other, darted 'unexpectedly upon Turold, and carried him off with several other Normans, whom he confined in damp and unwholesome dungeons, till the sum of two thousand pounds had been paid for their ransom. 7. For a while the pride of William 'disdained to notice the efforts of Hereward; but when Morcar and most of the exiles from Scotland3 had joined that chieftain, 1071 prudence compelled him to crush the 'hydra before A.D. it could grow to 'maturity. He stationed his fleet in the Wash, with orders to observe every outlet from the fens to the ocean: by land he 'distributed his forces in such manner as to render escape almost impossible. Still the great difficulty remained to reach the enemy, who had retired to their fortress, situated in an expanse of water which in the narrowest part was more than two miles in breadth. 8. The King undertook to construct a solid road across the marshes, and to throw bridges over the channels of the rivers; a work of considerable labour and of equal danger, in the face of a vigilant and 'enterprising enemy. Hereward frequently dispersed the workmen; and his attacks were so sudden, so 'incessant, and so destructive, that the Normans attributed his success to the assistance of Satan. At the instigation of Tailbois, William had the weakness to employ a sorceress, who was expected, by the superior efficacy of her spells, to defeat those of the English magicians. She was placed in a wooden turret at the head of the work; but Hereward, who had watched his opportunity, set fire to the dry reeds in the neighbourhood; the wind rapidly spread the 'conflagration, and the enchantress with her gourds, the turret with the workmen, were enveloped and consumed in the flames. 9. These checks might irritate the King; they could not divert him from his purpose. In defiance of every 'obstacle, the work advanced: it was evident that in a few days the Normans would be in possession of the island, and the greater part of the outlaws 'voluntarily submitted to the royal mercy. Their fate was different. Of some he accepted the ransom; a few suffered death; many lost an eye, a hand, or a foot; and several, among whom were Morcar and the Bishop of Durham, were condemned to perpetual imprisonment. 10. Hereward alone could not brook the idea of submission. He escaped across the marshes, concealed himself in the woods, and as soon as the royal army had retired, resumed hostilities against the enemy. But the King, who had learned to respect his valour, was not averse to a ⚫reconciliation. The chieftain took the oath of allegiance, and was permitted to enjoy in peace the patrimony of his ancestors. Hereward was the last Englishman who had drawn the sword in the cause of independence. ab-stained', held back; forborne. dis-persed', scattered. JOHN LINGARD: History of England. dis-trib-at-ed, divided; spread out. e-lud-ing, avoiding; escaping. en-ter-pris-ing, bold; pushing. hy-dra, a monster with many heads. 1 The late disturbance, the ris- the English who were deprived of their ing of 1068-69, described above. 2 Ed/win and Mor'car, Earls of Mercia and Northumbria respectively. They were sons of Elfgar, Earl of the Mercians, whose daughter, Ealdgyth, was the wife of King Harold. 3 Exiles from Scot/land.-At the time of the Norman Conquest, many of lands took refuge in Scotland. These were the exiles from Scotland" who joined Hereward. Chief of them were the members of the Old English royal family. One of these, the Princess Margaret, a sister of Edgar the Ætheling, became Queen of Scotland, having married Malcolm III. 2.-WILLIAM RUFUS AND ANSELM. [William I. died in 1087. Two of his sons occupied the throne in succession,William II. and Henry I. During their reigns there arose a great struggle between the Crown and the Church, which troubled England for many a day. It originated in the attempt of Rufus to seize the property of the Church. When the see of Canterbury fell vacant by the death of Lanfranc in 1089, the king did not appoint a successor, but appropriated the revenues of the see. Four years later, in a fit of remorse caused by illness, William forced Anselm to accept the see, but quarrelled with him immediately afterwards. This quarrel is described in the following passage. The dispute was aggravated by Anselm's acknowledgment of Urban II. as pope, while William favoured the rival pope Guibert. In 1097 Anselm quitted England. Henry I. recalled him in 1100; but the quarrel was soon renewed, on the subject of investiture. Henry claimed the right of investing bishops and abbots with the badge of office, as well as of receiving homage from them. Anselm refused the former, and in 1103 again left England. He returned, however, in 1106, and then Henry gave up his right to investiture, but retained his right to homage.] 1093 A. D. 1. The storm which Anselm had looked for soon broke. 'Symptoms of it had shown themselves even before his 'consecration. On the very day of his enthronement at Canterbury, the joy of the people was disturbed by the appearance of the hateful and dreaded Ralph Flambard,1 who came to 'institute a suit against the archbishop in the king's name. And they were 'irreconcilably separated. Anselm, on his consecration, had with difficulty raised five hundred marks on his wasted estates in order to make William the customary present. The king thought the sum too small, and, as his wont was when he was offended, refused it. Anselm went to him and pressed him to take it: though small, it was offered freely, nor would it be the last; but he intimated plainly that he would not fall in with the king's system of 'extortion. 2. "As a friend," he said, "you may do what you like with me and mine: on the footing of a slave, neither me nor mine shall you have." "Keep your money and foul tongue to yourself; I have enough for myself: go, get you gone," was the king's answer, in his rough and broken way. Anselm left him. He thought, says Eadmer,3 of the words of the gospel, which had been read on the day when he first entered his cathedral, "No man can serve two masters." "No one now, at least," he said, can accuse me of simony. The present which I meant for him shall go now, not to him, but to Christ's poor, for the benefit of his soul." He tried, however, once more to regain the king's favour, but he was told that the only way was to double his present: about this he was firm, and he left the court in disgrace. 4 66 3. William was beyond measure 'irritated at this 'resolute opposition from a clergyman, an old feeble monk, one, too, whom he himself had in a moment of weakness placed in the position to annoy him; but nothing was done for the present to molest Anselm. He held on his course, discharging the duties of his office in the country, living among his tenants, and writing on theology; at court, preaching against its luxury and 'effeminate fashions, and refusing absolution to the disobedient: doing whatever he could to repair the mischiefs of the last six years. But his single efforts were vain against the frightful licence which prevailed, and the other bishops kept aloof from him. His only hope was a synod. Could a council be |