another apartment, and calling to him the chiefs separately, he argued with them individually, declaring the present undertaking should not in future be considered a precedent, and that the fertile lands of England should reward their loyalty and generosity to him. He promised favours to all according to the extent of their services, and his ability to reward them. For a ship and twenty men at arms furnished by one Remi, of Fescamps, the reward was to be an English bishopric.

The prospect of remuneration assuaged the tempest.* The Barons having assented, and sworn to assist the Duke to the utmost of their power, the Norman states now vied with each other in supplying men, horses, and provisions. Every vessel was put in requisition; and many private individuals sought the favour of the Duke, by building ships at their own expense. All that were adventurers by profession, all the outcasts of western Europe, were found under the standard of William, whose proclamation of war was published in every part of the continent. Some of his followers stipulated for pay in money; others only for their passage and the booty they could make; many agreed, for land among the English, a demesne, a castle, or a town; while with others a rich Saxon woman would suffice.

It

At length in August, the powerful armament of William was assembled. amounted, according to the Saxon writers, to about 60,000 troops, with 3000 ships; but this is supposed to be greatly exaggerated. The chronicles of Normandy speak of only 900 large ships; and, in another place, of "400 ships with large masts and sails, and a thousand transport boats."

The departure of the Norman forces was delayed by several occurrences. For upwards of a month the vessels were detained by contrary winds; and when at last they got to sea, several were lost in a violent storm which obliged the fleet to put back. This disaster was severely felt by William, his barons evincing much dissatisfaction, some of them breaking their engagement with him, and withdrawing from the hazardous enterprize.

To exhilarate the drooping spirits of the soldiers, abundance of money, provisions, and liquors, were distributed among them. Above all, a successful appeal was made

* "No one had courage, thus singly interrogated in this interview with the Duke, to pronounce a refusal to the chief of their Country face to face; what they granted was immediately registered, and the example of the first determined him that came after. One subscribed for Vessels, another for Men at arms, many promised to attend in person. Priests gave their money, Merchants their stuffs, and the Country People their provisions." See Chron. de Normandie. tom. xiii. 226, 227.

says,

to their superstition. William of Poictiers, chaplain to the Conqueror, a most trustworthy and competent witness, who appears to have recorded everything connected with the conquest with that notarial precision for which Normandy was so celebrated, "To interest Heaven in their behalf, in the hope of obtaining a prosperous navigation, the body of St. Valery was carried in procession, the whole army joining in their devout supplications for a favourable breeze. At last their hopes were gratified: on the same evening, the eve of St. Michael, the patron saint of Normandy, the current of the atmosphere, from whatever cause, altered to the direction they wished. They instantly departed for the opposite coast."* So unequal was the speed, that on reaching the English shore the fleet was scattered over a line of twenty leagues; and not a single vessel was discoverable from the mast-head of the Conqueror's ship when he drew near land. But he cast anchor; and, apprehensive that fear might seize the crew, ordered a sumptuous repast to be prepared for them, with spiced wines.† A second sailor mounted, and saw four ships appearing in the horizon; and the heart of the warlike Duke swelled with joy when a third seaman, after a short interval, announced the waving streamers of a sailing forest. Without any material loss, the invaders reached Pevensey, where they quietly debarked on the 28th September, 1066.

On the other hand, Harold had been equally active, in preparing to repel the threatened invasion. He had assumed the crown without waiting for the due assembly and deliberation of the states; but he had gained the consent of all the Saxon chieftains who were near to the metropolis at the death of the Confessor, and the whole nation now appeared to acquiesce in his elevation to the throne. If any were averse to his holding the reins of government, they were obliged to conceal their sentiments, and he was thus enabled to command the entire resources of the kingdom. Fully aware that the embassies of William were only to afford the Normans more time to complete their preparations, Harold was using every effort to resist him. But William was not his only opponent; for his own brother Tostig had been actively employed in Flanders, levying forces to act in conjunction with Harold of Norway, whom he had excited to invade England. The Anglo-Saxon monarch had passed the entire summer on the southern coasts, opposite the shores of Normandy, having under his command a fleet of several hundred vessels. The delay of the Norman expedition gave rise to

*See Guil. Pict. 199, and Chronique de Normandie, 128. † Nec baccho pigmentato carens. Guil. Pict. 199.

an opinion it would not be ready before winter; and so short was Harold's supply of provisions that on the 8th of September he was obliged to disperse his fleet. On that day Harold marched with his troops for York to meet the Norwegians, whose forces, united with those of Tostig, had defeated the earls Edwin and Morcar, who commanded in the north. Harold reached the neighbourhood of York on the night of the day on which that city had surrendered to the Norwegians, whose troops were to take possession of it on the following morning. The invaders were astonished at his arrival, but they were not dismayed; instead of entering the city in triumph they boldly encountered the Saxon monarch, and an engagement took place between the hostile armies, which is considered to have been the most severe recorded in the annals of England. Late in the evening the battle terminated, with the death of the Norwegian monarch, of Tostig, and of every chieftain of any importance in the united army.

Two of the great antagonists of Harold had thus fallen. Had an interval elapsed sufficient to have recruited the diminished forces of Harold, before the arrival of the Norman invader, it is probable he would not have been more fortunate. But a singular fatality appears to have attended the fortunes of the Saxon monarch. Within three weeks after the fleet, that for months had been watching the preparations of his greet opponent, was dispersed,-within three short days after the important defeat of the Norwegians, a period almost too limited for refreshing the wearied troops of Harold and for taking possession of the fleet and camp they had captured,-William effected an undisturbed landing in Sussex.

Harold received intelligence of this inauspicious event at a banquet in York, where he was celebrating with festive triumph the victory he had so recently obtained; a victory which was, however, ultimately found to be more prejudicial than advantageous to his interest. He had lost in it many of his best officers and soldiers, and there is reason to believe that he subsequently offended many of his followers by his division of the plunder. It is certain that if the two powerful brothers, who ruled Mercia and Northumberland, did not literally desert his cause, they advanced so slowly towards his Norman foe that they arrived too late to join in the battle of Hastings,

It is stated that the ground, fifty years after the action, which was fought on the 25th September, 1066, was whitened with the bones of the slain. Snorre, 156, 165. Chron. Sax. 172. Order. Vital. 500.

and were among the first to give in their adhesion to the Conqueror.* Many of his veteran troops deserted him. All were averse to his encountering the Norman. His brother, the earl of Suffolk, in vain urged upon him the propriety of prolonging the war, rather than trust to the hazard of a single battle. His wife, the sister of Edwin and Morcar, abandoned him to his fate. His mother, sad, and weeping for the loss of her son Tostig, dissuaded him from meeting the forces of William; his chiefs reminded him of his oath of fealty, and that it would be perjury to fight against a prince to whom he had sworn submission and allegiance. But Harold was deaf to these considerations. Elated with his past success, he determined to meet the invader immediately, and in person. Leaving York in the first week of October, he hastened to Sussex without taking measures, or using exertion, to multiply his means of defence, attending to the suggestions of courage rather than those of prudence.

The hope of sparing his countrymen the misery of a protracted warfare, or perhaps the desire of making an unexpected attack upon the Normans, similar to that by which he had been successful against the Norwegians, determined him to meet the invader with forces vastly inferior to those which he had to encounter.

William, whose character prompted him on all occasions to leave no means unattempted, that would promote the advancement of his interests, took advantage of the unfavourable position in which he beheld his enemy, to renew his demands. He sent a monk, called Dom Hugues Maigrot, to demand from Harold that he should resign his royal dignity, and to leave to the arbitration of the Pope which should be the King, or otherwise to let that decision depend on the issue of a single combat. Harold abruptly replied, "I will not resign my title; I will not refer to the Pope; nor will I accept of single combat." Disregarding this positive refusal, William sent the Norman monk again to Harold, offering to establish him in Northumberland, and to give his brother all the lands that Godwin had held in Kent, at the same time declaring that if Harold refused these terms, then would he be excommunicated by the papal bull that William held. Maigrot delivered this in a solemn tone, and the English chieftains looked at each other, say the chroniclers of Normandy, when they heard the word excommunication, as if some great danger was impending. Yet they swore to Harold they would

* Sir Peter Leycester, (cap. 3, p. 101.) says, "Edwin, seventh and last Saxon earl of Chester, and his brother Morcar, stoully opposed the Conqueror:" most other writers have followed Sir Peter, who in this instance is incorrect.

I

neither make peace, or truce, or treaty, with the invader ; that they would either die, or expel the Normans.

An entire day, the eighteenth after the great battle at York, was occupied with these fruitless messages. Harold's rapid march had not permitted any large bodies of troops to join him. The two great earls of the north were either at London, or on their way thither, from York. The only accession he had had was some few townspeople, armed in haste, and some monks, who deserted their cloisters at the call of their country. Among the latter were Leofric, abbot of the great monastery of Peterborough, and the abbot of Hida, near Winchester, who brought with him twelve monks of his convent and twenty armed men, raised at his own expense."

The great contest, which terminated the short but eventful reign of Harold, took place on the 14th of October, the anniversary of his birth-day. The following animated detail of the battle of Hastings as it is generally though improperly called, -the scene of action being Sinlac, now generally known as Battle,-is extracted from Palgrave's History of the Anglo-Saxons, and will amply repay a perusal :

"The English were strongly fortified in their position by lines of trenches and palisadoes; and within these defences they were marshalled according to the Danish fashion, shield against shield, presenting an impenetrable front to the enemy. The men of Kent formed the vanguard, for it was their privilege to be the first in the strife. The burgesses of London, in like manner, claimed and obtained the honour of being the royal body-guard, and they were drawn up around the standard. At the foot of this banner stood Harold, with his brothers, Leofwin and Gurth, and a chosen body of the bravest thanes, all anxiously gazing on that quarter from whence they expected the advance of the enemy. Before the Normans began their march, and very early in the morning of the feast of St. Calixtus, William had assembled his barons around him, and exhorted them to maintain his righteous cause. As the invaders drew nigh, Harold saw a division advancing, composed of the volunteers from the county of Boulogne and from the Amiennois, under the command of William Fitz-Osbern and Roger Montgomery. 'It is the duke,'-exclaimed Harold and little shall I fear him. By my forces, will his be four times outnumbered!' Gurth shook his head, and expatiated on the strength of the Norman cavalry, as opposed to the foot soldiers

* De domo sua duodecim monachos, et viginti milites pro servitio. Dugdale's, Monast. Angl. vol. 1, p. 210.