go off. 1069 456 WILLIAM AGAIN CONQUEROR. at the northern metropolis. All had retreated: The Danes where was Jarl Osbern and his fierce compeers? They had abandoned the English to their fate, and the English had fled. And if we ask how this result had been effected, we shall read the answer in the future judgment of the Danish Law-moot. When Osbern returned to Denmark, he was outlawed. William had trusted as much to gold as to steel; and the bribes bestowed upon the false and greedy Northman had caused him to betray the trust which he owed, as well to his brother as to the nation whose resistance he had encouraged, and whom he now abandoned to the Conqueror's vengeance. Bribery. William's policy in the North. 19. William immediately repaired the castle, and put it in a state of defence. All the Danes had not been participators in the compact with Osbern, and with these dispersed forces William had yet to contend; and some opposition, but very fruitless, was offered by the English, who fought, as it were, in the agonies of death. Hitherto William had shewn himself a stern ruler and a pitiless warrior, but yet restrained by that feeling which we call the laws of war; but he now pursued a course hitherto entirely unprecedented in his age. However barbarous the warriors of the middle ages had been, none of them, even the most ferocious, the most savage, the most unchristian in nature, the heathen themselves, Dane or Goth or Vandal, had ever carried on that species of warfare LAYS WASTE THE NORTH. 457 1069 the country. which, in the language of Scripture, is called destroying the life of the country; and the same precept which forbade the destruction of the palm and the olive and the fig tree, in those countries where they furnish the sustenance of men, prevented them from forming the deliberate intent, not only of destroying by hunger the enemy they had before them, but of inflicting all the evil in their power, and of starving generations yet unborn. But William deter- He wastes mined to give the first example of a razzia, a term introduced in our age by one nation, but involving principles openly or tacitly adopted or tolerated by all who are joined by the bond of civilization. On every side the horizon was filled with smoke and smouldering flame: the growing crops were burned upon the field, the stores in the garner: the cattle houghed, and killed to feed the crow. All that had been given for the support and sustenance of human life was wasted and spoiled. All the habitations were razed, all the edifices which could give shelter to the people, were levelled with the ground: wandering and dispersed, the miserable inhabitants endeavoured to support life even by devouring the filthy vermin and the decaying carcase. Direful pestilence of course ensued. The same devastations were extended far beyond the Humber. During nine years subsequent, the whole tract between York and Durham continued idle and untilled. Of the former inhabi 1069 King at York. tants there would scarcely have been a trace, had it not been for the decaying corpse, lying by the road side, and some few, who, protected by the forests and rendered reckless by despair, occasionally attacked the new settlers. But so successful was William's policy, that even at the conclusion of his reign, many a wide and fertile tract still continued desolate, and York itself was surrounded by a wide circuit of ruins. 8 20. William continued at York in gloomy pomp, determined to shew himself the Sovereign. He caused the regalia of the Confessor to be 25 Dec., 1069. brought from Winchester, and solemnly wore his crown as king in Northumbria; thus manifesting William as his adherence to the antient constitutional principles of the British Empire; not the one kingdom of England, but an assemblage of States, ruled by one Imperial Sovereign. As upon his first coronation at Westminster, the moral effect of this ceremony soon became apparent, giving the English an excuse at least for submitting without dishonour. Edgar had retreated with Malcolm, his royalty entirely passed away; and whether in consequence of any specific act or declaration, or from the general tenor of his conduct, he was considered as having resigned his claims in favour of his sister Margaret and her descendants, who were thenceforth deemed the heirs of the old English crown. Great troubles still subsisted as yet William's labours were most imperfectly performed, and required every exertion of talent, ability and prowess. But he was prepared for all; and to this period we must assign many of those acts of which the fruit appeared subsequently. 1069 Normans. It was at York that he made the division of Grants to great part of the country to his followers : their dotations consisting in great measure of the possessions of Edwin and Morcar; thus destroying the power of his adversaries, and planting his own people as the superiors of the land. All Holdernesse was bestowed upon Drogo de Bevere, a knight of obscure lineage, but who at once took his surname from the great district which he obtained. To Roger de Busly was given the noble hall of Edwin at Loughton in Le Morthem, of which the traces still subsist, and from whence he could contemplate the rich territories which became his portion. A larger share of Edwin's lands and royalties was bestowed upon the Conqueror's nephew, Alan Fergant of Brittany, comprehending three entire wapentakes and more, which became the great honour of Richmond, the name given by the new possessor in Richmond. the new language, to the old English soke of Gillyng, a name without doubt harsh and inharmonious in the Frenchmen's ears; and where the lofty castle was raised which still attests the Norman power. A hundred and ninety-six manors were bestowed upon Robert of Mortaigne; a comparatively small share to William Mallet. Robert Bruce, from Bruix in the 1069 Côtentin, had a far larger measure. Other Barons received in proportion to their merits or their importunity. Archil, the Saxon Thane, who, after his revolt had again made his submission, received back three small manors, the remnants of about sixty which he had previously enjoyed. Some portions of Gospatric's lands were distributed, but many were reserved to induce or reward any future submission; and the whole of the possessions of Waltheof, he who had been so familiar with William, and so much loved and trusted by him, his hall of Hallam, now the industrious Sheffield, and his other large domains, were unappropriated, and might again be enjoyed by him. ? 21. As soon as the coronation was over, and the festival of the Nativity closed, William was again in march. It was not the Danes who had kept Danes linger. their Yule at York; but although they had been partly bought off and partly beat away from the Humber, yet they had not in anywise quitted the coast of England. They continued their depredations lower down the coast, towards the South, probably acting very much in independent expeditions and parties, plundering much, yet suffering from want of provisions, but formidable and giving much disturbance. Some returned to Denmark, and brought the ill-tidings of their unsuccessful operations in Yorkshire to Sweno, who immediately began to prepare another expedition. A dangerous centre of opposition was |