by the English, notwithstanding the dislike they had conceived to Harold. In this engagement William had three horses killed under him, and a great number of his Normans slain; and Harold lost his life, together with the lives of many of the nobility, and about sixty thousand soldiers.

Historians tell us, that the loss of this battle was, in a great measure, owing to a long peace which the English had enjoyed, and in which they had neglected the military arts, and abandoned themselves to luxury and idleness; and to this, we may suppose the licentiousness of the clergy, the effeminacy, gluttony, and oppression of the nobility, and the drunkenness and dissolute behavior of the common people, did not a little contribute.

It is likewise to be observed that the Normans had the advantage of the long bows, of the use of which the English were then ignorant. But notwithstanding these, the English with bills, their ancient weapons, kept so close to gether, that they were impregnable; and the Normans would never have obtained the vic tory, had they not pretended to fly, and by that means brought the English into great disorder.

CHAP. XV.

Institutions and Laws of William the Conqueror.

HAROLD being slain in battle, William, who was about 40 years of age, marched to London, where he claimed the crown by the testament of king Edward the Confessor. On his way to that city, he was met by a large body of the men of Kent, each with a bough or limb of a tree in his hand. The army was headed by Stigand the archbishop, who made a speech to the conqueror, in which he boldly demanded the preservation of their liberties, and let him know, that they were resolved rather to die, than to part with their laws, and live in bondage.

William thought proper to grant their demands; and suffered them to retain their ancient customs.

Upon his coronation at Westminster, he was sworn to govern by the laws of the realm; and though he introduced some new forms, yet he preserved to the English their trials by juries, and the borough law. He instituted the courts of Chancery and Exchequer; but at the same time disarmed his English subjects, and forbid their having any light in their houses after eight o'clock at night, when the bell was rung called Curfew, or cover fire, at the sound of which all were obliged to put out their fires and candles. He conquered several powers who invaded England; obliged the Scots to preserve the peace they had broken; compelled the Welsh to pay

him tribute; refused to pay homage to the Pope; built the tower of London; and had all public acts made in the Norman tongue. He caused a general survey of all the lands of England to be made, and an account to be taken of the inhabitants and stock upon each estate; all which were recorded in a book, called Doomsday-Book, which is now kept in the Exchequer.

But the repose of this fortunate and victorious king was disturbed in his old age, by the rebellion of his eldest son Robert, who had been appointed governor of Normandy, but now assumed the government as sovereign of that province, in which he was favored by the king of France. And here we have the rise of the wars between England and France; which have continued longer, drawn more noble blood, and been attended with more memorable atchieyments, than any other nation we read of, in ancient or modern history.

William seeing a war inevitable, entered upon it with his usual vigor, and, with incredible celerity, transporting a brave English army, in-vaded France, where he was every where victo-rious, but died before he had finished the war, in the year 1087, in the sixty-first year of his age, and twenty-first of his reign in England, and was buried in his own abbey at Caen in Normandy.

D.2

CHAP. XVI.

Consequences of the Norman Conquest.

BY the Norman conquest, England not only. lost the true line of her ancient Saxon kings, but also her principal nobility, who either fell in battle, in defence of their country and liberties, or fled to foreign countries, particularly Scotland, where being kindly received by king Malcolm, they established themselves; and what is very remarkable, introduced the Saxon or English, which has been the prevailing language of the Lowlands of Scotland to this day.

On the other hand, England, by virtue of the conquest, became much greater both in dominion and power, 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 the large and fertile dukedom of Normandy, which became a province to this crown. England likewise gained much by the increase of naval power, and multitude of ships, wherein Nor. mandy then abounded. This, with the perpetual intercourse between England and the continent, gave us an increase of trade and commerce, and of treasure to the crown and kingdom, as ap peared soon afterwards.

England, by the conquest, gained likewise a natural right to the dominion of the Channel, which had before been acquired only by the great naval power of Edgar, and other Saxon kings.

But the dominion of the narrow seas seems naturally to belong, like that of rivers, to those who possess the banks or coasts on both sides, and so to have strengthened the former title by so long a coast, as that of Normandy on one side, and of England on the other side of the Channel. This dominion of the Channel, though we have long ago lost all our possessions in France, we continue to defend and maintain by the bravery of our seamen, and the superior strength of our navy to any other power.

CHAP. XVII.

The Character of William the Conqueror, by Lord Littleton.

THE character of this prince has seldom been set in its true light; some eminent writers having been dazzled so much by the more shining parts of it, that they have hardly seen his faults; while others, out of a strong detestation of tyranny, have been unwilling to allow him the praise he deserves.

He may with justice be ranked among the greatest generals any age has produced. There was united in him, activity, vigilance, intrepidity, caution, great force of judgment, and neverfailing presence of mind. He was strict in his discipline, and kept his soldiers in perfect obedience; yet preserved their affection. Having been from his very childhood, continually in