Conan's defiance. 1060-1066 cate his rights by the sword, interposed and attempted to deter him. The shame of his illegitimacy was not sufficient. Conan denied that William was entitled to assert even this title; he was not even a Bastard. "And when Robert was about to depart for Jerusalem, he conveyed all his inheritance to Alan, my father and his cousin, but you and your accomplices invaded his land, I being too young to defend my rights, and against all justice. What right could or can you, as a bastard, claim? Return to me that Normandy which thou owest. Delay will ensure thee condign vengeance." Murder of Brittany teemed with a wild and martial population; but Conan, though ruling ably and strenuously, had not yet been able to bring his troops into the field; whilst the border forces which William raised, and was raising, contributed to repel the Breton invasion. Amongst the Bretons there was one who was an ambidexter, owing fealty to both Counts and not faithful to either, bearing messages between them. Conan was his master, and he acted as his valet. Conan, at this period, was quarrelling with Anjou, and was besieging Chateau Gonthier in Anjou, of which a detachment of knights constituted the garrison. In these wretched times, to repose confidence was to suggest treachery; and the recreants surrendered the fortress, or, if you choose, sold their services to William. Conan's valet poisoned ENGLAND AND NORMANDY. 279 the inside of his master's horn, and whilst the 1060-1066 young and ardent prince was preparing for triumph, he suddenly sickened and died. The Bretons raged: William was vituperated as a robber and a murderer; no son of the late Magnifico, he,-not so much as a bastard-a changeling! and no one doubted the popular report that Conan had been poisoned by William's agency,- rumour accumulating crime upon injustice. see p. 175. succession in England. 218. [The thread which links the history of Normandy and England must now be again taken up. The last event noted, was the abortive circa 1028, attempt of Duke Robert against Canute. After Canute's death, and during the contested succession which closed in the assumption of sove- Contested reignty by Harold Harefoot, Edward and Alfred, the children of Ethelred and Emma, by the assistance of their friends, fitted out a fleet and sailed to England. Edward approached the port of Southampton,] where he found the inhabitants in arms, not to aid him in his enterprise, but prepared for the most strenuous resistance. Either they were really hostile to the son of the unpopular Ethelred, or they feared to draw down upon themselves the vengeance of the brutal Harold. Edward, therefore, had no choice; and abandoning the inhospitable shore, he returned to his place of refuge in Normandy. Soon afterwards, an affectionate letter was addressed, in the name of Emma, to Alfred and Death of 1060-1066 Edward, urging one of them, at least, to return to England for the purpose of recovering the kingdom from the tyrant. Alfred obeyed the summons; and with a few trusty followers, whom he retained in Flanders, he proceeded to England, where he was favourably received by Earl Godwin, at London, and thence conducted to Guildford. The plot was now revealed. Alfred was seized by the accomplices and satellites of the tyrant, blinded, and conducted as a captive to Ely, where death soon closed his sufferings. Godwin was very generally accused of the murder. The epistle had perhaps been forged by the direction of Harold. Rumour is always busy in these foul transactions; and Emma herself does not escape vehement suspicion; but nothing is known for certain, except the fate of the miserable victim and of his companions, who suffered an agonizing death. Death of 1042 Harold expired after a short and inglorious reign. Upon his death, the Proceres or nobles, Danes as well as English, invited Hardicanute, [son to Canute, by Emma, after Ethelred's death,] to return to Britain, and receive the sceptre of the kingdom, [which he held for two years.] 19. Edward the Atheling, the only surviving son of Ethelred, had been invited to England by Hardicanute, from whom he received great kindness. Hardicanute had no children, and the easy and quiet disposition of his half-brother averted all suspicion or anxiety. Confessor [With some difficulty he was persuaded by Godwin 1060-1066 to claim the throne.] Within a few days after the body of Hardicanute had been consigned to Edward the the earth, the prelates and great men of the succeeds. Anglo-Saxon realms assembled at London, and accepted Edward as their king. William, Duke of Normandy, aided Edward by his influence; and it was intimated to the English, that if they refused to recognize the son of Emma, they would experience the weight of the Norman power. Yet the act of recognition was mainly owing to the exertions of the Earl of Wessex, and to the consequence which he possessed in the assembly. As soon as Edward was settled upon the throne, he invited over from Normandy many of those who had been his friends during his exile. [This divided the English chieftains. The prepotent Godwin family took the lead against the Norman courtiers; Leofric of Coventry and Siward of Northumbria supported them.] unpopular in England. It is certain that the Norman party began to Normans conduct themselves in such a manner as to occasion much disgust amongst the nation at large. Edward, during his residence in Normandy, had become partial to the customs of that country, and introduced many such usages into England. The Norman hand-writing was thought handsomer, by Edward, than the Anglo-Saxon; and he established the mode of testifying his assent to official documents by adding an impression of his great 1060-1066 seal, which was appended to the parchment, in addition to the mark of the cross, according to the Anglo-Saxon custom which I have before noticed. Norman customs Hitherto the Anglo-Saxon kings never used a introduced. seal for the purpose of authenticating their charters. But the custom had been long established in France. And from the Frankish Monarchs Edward borrowed the practice, though the seal itself, exhibiting his effigy, surrounded by the legend 'Sigillum Eaduuardi Anglorum Basilei,' seems rather to have been copied from the patterns afforded by the Greek Emperors. Growth of the Chancery It may appear that this innovation was no great grievance; but, upon examining the matter, it will be found connected with more important consequences. The adoption of these forms gave the king an additional reason for retaining about his person the 'Clerks,' whom he had brought from France, and by whom all his writing business was performed. They were his domestic chaplains, and the keepers of his conscience; and, in addition to these influential functions, they were his law advisers and also his Secretaries of State and as such they seem to have formed a bench in the Witenagemot. The chief of these was his Arch-Chaplain or Chancellor; and through them, judging from the practice both of the French and English courts, it was the custom to prefer all petitions and requests to the king. One suitor was desirous of obtaining a grant of land-another, mayhap, required a 'writ' to |