Imperator, Imperator Augustus. Several questions at once arise. Are these titles mere outpourings of vanity, mere pieces of inflated rhetoric, mere specimens of the turgid style of the tenth century? Or do they imply a serious claim on the part of the English Kings to be looked upon as something more than mere kings, to be deemed the peers of the Lords of Imperial Rome, Old and New? And, if they do imply such a claim, from what was that claim understood to be derived? Did the Emperors of Britain in the tenth century inherit, or claim to inherit, their imperial rank from the provincial emperors who reigned in Britain in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries?... Or are we to see in these titles merely an imitation of the style of the contemporary Roman emperors, Eastern and Western? These questions have given rise to a large amount of controversy. My own belief, briefly to sum it up, is, that vanity and the love of sounding titles may well have had some secondary share in the matter, but yet that these titles were seriously meant as a distinct assertion of the imperial position of the English crown. But I do not believe that there was the least thought of any succession from the ancient provincial emperors, or from any phantom of imperial sovereignty which may have lingered on among the Welsh at the time of the English Conquest or afterwards. I believe that these titles were assumed in order at once to claim for the English crown an absolute independence of the Roman empire, ... to assert that the King of the English was not the homager but the peer alike of the Imperator of the West and of the Basileus of the East, and that Scots, Welsh, and Cumbrians owed no duty to Rome or to Byzantium, but only to their father and lord at Winchester. . . . It is, perhaps, worth notice that in all this we may see the beginning of a system which has gone on to our own day. From the days of Ecgberht onwards, the House of Cerdic has never been without its dependencies. Their sphere has gradually been enlarged; as nearer dependencies have been incorporated with the central state, another more distant circle of dependencies has arisen beyond them. Wessex held the supremacy over England; England held it over Britain; Britain held it over Ireland and a crowd of smaller islands and colonies; the United Kingdom holds it over colonies and dependencies

of every kind, from Man to New Zealand. Since the days of the Roman Republic no other country has had so large an experience of the relations between a central power and halfincorporated states of various kinds. In this sense England is now a more truly imperial power than any other in the world. Putting aside the local associations of Rome and Constantinople, no modern state comes so near to the notion of an empire as understood either by Æthelstan or by Otto. There is, therefore, an historical meaning in the familiar phrases of "the British Empire" and "the Imperial Parliament," whether any remembrance of ancient Bretwaldas and Basileis was or was not present to the minds of those who devised them.1

THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS.

A.D. 1066.

(From "Lives of the Kings of England,” by T. Roscoe, Esq.)

DUKE WILLIAM OF NORMANDY was hunting in the forest A. D. of Rouvray, near Rouen, at the moment when he heard of 1066. Harold's accession to the English throne. He was in the act, says his domestic chronicler, of discharging his bow, when a messenger arrived (January 1066) with tidings of the death of Edward, and the coronation of King Harold. This messenger was Tostig, the new monarch's brother, who, on ascertaining the fact from his spies at Calais and Boulogne, rode post with the express object of rousing the Duke to the invasion of England without delay. For some time William appeared much affected, and lost in thought. The King's sudden death, and the successful treachery, as he considered it, of Harold, pre-occupied his mind too painfully to enter into any schemes with the traitor brother at such a moment. It was not long, however, before he showed that he knew how to avail himself of the vindictive and irreconcileable hatred of

1 Abridged from chapters i. ii. iii. of vol. i.

this bad man, against the more generous and noble-minded Harold.

The Duke, it is added, unstringing the bow, which no one else could bend, pensively resumed his way through the forest towards the banks of the Seine, and, crossing the river, he retired to his palace at Rouen.... In great agitation he traversed the hall with rapid strides, suddenly stopping and changing his position and attitude, while not one of his attendants ventured to approach him. At length one of his aged seneschals, in whom he greatly confided, entering the room where the Duke's officers were assembled, they thronged around him, and anxiously inquired if he knew the cause of their master's extreme emotion. "I know nothing about it," was his cavalier reply; "but I soon shall," he muttered to himself, as he drew nigh and accosted William. "What is the use, my liege, of trying to conceal what everybody knows? You are troubled that the King of England is dead; and that Harold, violating his sacred engagements, has seized the kingdom!" "Of a truth," replied the Duke, "the death of King Edward and the injuries of Earl Harold touch me nearly."

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As they were speaking, William Fitzosborne1 made his appearance; he possessed considerable influence over the Duke's mind, and now employed it successfully to restore his equanimity and good humour. The advice he gave is too happy and philosophical to be passed over in silence. "No one," he began, ought to grieve and be angry at what he can remedy; and still less at that for which there is no remedy. Now there is no remedy for Edward's death; but there is with respect to Harold's life; for you have power to wipe out your injuries, and utterly to destroy him, you having justice upon your side. Have you not a noble host of followers, all prepared to obey your behests? What is there wanting but a bold heart? and a great undertaking once well begun may fairly be said to be half finished."

This cheering doctrine was extremely well-timed, for, though bent upon the assertion of his claims, the Duke knew how to

1 Then Count and Commander of Breteuil, and famous for his own exploits and those of his family, which he and his father raised to a degree of splendour inferior only to that which attached to the crown.

His

estimate enemies like Harold and the Anglo-Saxons. power of dissimulation was remarkable even at an early age; and it is evident that, in this studied passion, he was testing the disposition and sounding the real sentiments of those around him. His "emphasis of grief" was assumed to rouse the attention and enlist the sympathies of the Normans, to influence public opinion, and to prove how deeply he felt his presumed

wrongs.

When his well-feigned anger had exhausted itself, he called a council of his lords and prelates at Rouen, and with their concurrence despatched an embassy to England to remind Harold of the sacred promise he had made to support his ducal claims, and calling upon him to resign the crown.

During this mission William exhibited the same anxiety and impatience, though he must have anticipated the nature of the reply of Harold; and he was doubtless actuated by the same motive of keeping the public attention alive to his claims. He laid before his great council the reply of Harold, purporting that the King of England held himself in no manner responsible to the Duke of Normandy, but that he would willingly acknowledge him for his friend and ally provided he made no demands upon the crown, in which event he declared himself his mortal enemy.

In addition to this council, William now summoned a more special or privy council, consisting of his magnates, or chief vassals and prelates, all leading men devoted to his interests, including Odo, bishop of Bayeux, Robert, earl of Mortaine, the Count d'Eu, Roger de Montgomery, Fitzosborne of Breteuil, the Counts Longueville and Guiffard, Roger de Beaumont and his sons, with other intrepid and experienced leaders. The Duke entered into a full narrative of all that had passed between himself and Harold, at the close of which he affected to submit the question to their decision and to abide by a majority of voices. Sire," was the unanimous reply, “the affair cannot remain in its present state. With God's help prosecute the enterprise, and not one of us but will support you to the utmost with our swords and fortunes." This last assurance must have been not a little consolatory to the Duke, whose treasury, by dint of repeated wars and insurrections,

and the public works which he had carried on, was not at that moment in the most flourishing condition. Nor was the matter at issue a mere question of succession, but of a great and daring undertaking, calling for immense resources, such as Normandy in itself could not supply, and only to be accomplished by putting it into the tempting form of a grand territorial speculation, as well as of chivalrous adventure.

It was, as the Duke declared, solely by a combination of energies and means greater than any he had yet developed that they could hope for success. ... But his courage rose with the emergency; he saw that he must possess the sinews of war, for that by war alone he could become a king. Its requisitions could not be defrayed even by a general contribution of his own people. He would require foreign support; and, having obtained the consent of his council of chief prelates and barons, he convoked the general states as a preliminary step to this desirable object. These, too, met at Lillebonne, and the meeting was of a most stormy and dissentient character.

It seemed as if the proposition for pecuniary aid, made to notables of the towns, to be afforded in the shape of a new tax, had conjured up the spirit of discord, which put forth its most convincing arguments to repudiate the idea of paying for the conquest of England. Royal taxes, argued some of the citizens, were a vile and heathenish invention; but duke's taxes, levied for the conquest of new regions, were still more intolerable, and not to be entertained for a moment.

The Duke took all in good humour, and by his energy and eloquence succeeded in appeasing the tumult. It was then proposed to pay in kind instead of money; that is, to supply him with the various munitions of war, troops, and transports. The more refractory citizens suggested that they should find quite enough to do to defend their own shores; while others declared they had neither money nor means to pay in any shape; and a third party had an insurmountable objection to all foreign broils. The gallant Fitzosborne, blushing for the parsimony or pusillanimity of his fellow-subjects, and eager to set a better example, hit upon an expedient for reducing them to reason, declaring that he would himself supply forty ships, and suggesting that every one should subscribe something, have