CHAPTER VIII. THE CONQUEROR, FROM HASTINGS TO THE CORONATION. 1066 Anarchical position of the country. 1066. § 1. UPON Harold's death, the several component members of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy reverted to that species of constitutional independence, which in every case ensued upon the vacancy of the crown; but, of course, with the aggravation resulting from the previous condition of the realm. The community of interest, imperfect even in prosperous times, had been greatly diminished by adversity. Poverty weakens all moral authority, even the powers of affection and of love. Northumbria, which had gradually been drifting away from the Basileus, scarcely ever recognized the son of Godwin. In Mercia, loyalty was not ardent; and of Wessex, and that portion of the Danelagh annexed thereto, we can speak more positively. A large party amongst the English considered that they had obtained their liberation from a usurper; and the first immediate consequence resulting from the battle of Hastings, was, at least in appearance, the restoration of the right royal line. Whether Edwin and Morcar were actually Un- the Earls on the throne. engaged in the fatal conflict, cannot be ascer- 1066 tained. At all events, they drew off their forces immediately, and advanced to London. questionably the strength and importance of the city tended to protect its constitutional rights; but it is remarkable that the pre-eminence of the citizens, in having the right of making the first choice, does not seem to have been contested. Immediately upon their arrival, the earls, or one of them, for the details of their conduct are involved in perplexity, laboured to obtain the throne. Claims to the royal authority, as it has been held by the line of Cerdic, these Mercian Earls had none: like Harold, they would have been usurpers, and yet usurpers from necessity; but they were wise and valiant, fair to behold, and pleasant in speech, possessing the strong arm and the liberal hand, with some of the good, and many of the specious qualities which reap the immediate harvest of popularity. They tried their chance, but failed. Edgar Atheling was safe within the city. What Rival the age of the child was, we have no exact Edgar. account. We can ascertain, however, from authentic records, that distinguished, recognized, and respected by the Normans as the Atheling, he was alive ninety-three years after the date of the Conquest. At this period, therefore, could he be more than ten years old? Infant as he was, however, he was proclaimed Basileus of England by the authority of the claimant in 1066 The Atheling's party prevails. Rectores and Potentes then in the city; an obscure hint, but indicating, when compared with other conflicting accounts, the great difference of opinion which subsisted. It should seem that the Proceres, properly so called, in whose rank Edwin and Morcar were included, would have opposed the choice; but the Bishops, including the two Primates, Stigand of Canterbury and Aldred of York, as well as William the Bishop of London, all advocated the Atheling, and succeeded. In after life, Edgar exhibited a singular combination of courage and humility, of rashness and wisdom: but now what could he be otherwise than the shadow of a king? and the royal authority, at a time when, of all others, it required personal efficacy and energy, could only have been exercised by Regents in his name. Yet that name afforded the means of embodying the sentiments His popula of hope and expectation. The fragment of the old ballad calls him England's darling: it was the common belief that he would win the land; and, from the first moment of his proclamation, he was acknowledged, at least, throughout the whole of the Danelagh. Fidelity and unity of purpose might, humanly speaking, even still have averted the immediate subjugation of the English; but their measures were so unwise, so feeble, that even the black monks of Peterborough, that great stronghold of old English feeling, bear record with sorrow, that their fur rity. ther spirit of opposition to William was a visitation for their sins. Every effort they made to extricate themselves from the meshes of the net, only entangled them more and more. 1066 22. Military operations, always difficult por- Evidence for tions of historical narrative, if it be desired to give campaigns. a distinct and clear idea of their succession, are peculiarly so during the middle ages. Where a science exists, you may connect insulated facts, and correct discrepancies by its theory, but there was then no science of war. The predatory character of the warfare renders the line of march undefined. The want of accurate topographical knowledge in the Chroniclers, encreases the obscurity; for no one can clearly describe any transaction connected with topography, unless he clearly understands the country which he describes. derived. I shall, therefore, in this narrative, relate whence the military transactions of this reign, after instituting the best comparison I can effect between the different sources, some of which are evidently derived from oral tradition, proceeding from those who had engaged in the conflict; many of these warriors wore out their old age in the convent of St. Evroul; and we receive the tale as modified by the imperfect recollection of the old, and the ignorance, perhaps, of the youth by whom it was transmitted to us. Many points must remain open to doubt, and particularly as to the order of events; but their 1066 England not conquered by the victory. general nature seems to have been preserved with truth and sincerity. 23. It must have been very evident to William, from the first moment of success, that the defeat of Harold was not the conquest of the kingdom. He had no maps, no itineraries, no personal knowledge of the land, no friends whom he knew of amongst the English, no guides whom he could trust. All before him was lost in distance and darkness, but he fully appreciated his difficulties, and felt that, whether success or discomfiture awaited him, the first and most important step which he had to adopt, was to secure an easy access to Normandy, and, in particular, to and from the ports at his command; the river of Dieppe, (the town then not existing,) the mouth of the Seine, and Barfleur: the latter the most distant, but which has been found by experience to offer the readiest passage to the Isle of Wight, the outwork, as it William in were, to the continent Island of Britain. He, Sussex. therefore, immediately established a military position in Sussex; then, probably, at once devising that territorial division, whose aspect differs altogether from that prevailing in other portions of England. In the next place, ignorant as he was in other respects, of the resources of England, and, perhaps, even of its means of defence, he well knew that the great body of Harold's troops engaged in the conflict, had been drawn from Harold's own earldom, and |