Part 11

Multitudes made pilgrimages to King Edward's tomb, for the Pope had enrolled him among the saints. Even now a little band of devoted Catholics gather around his shrine every year. They go there to show their veneration for the virtues and the piety of a ruler who would have adorned a monastery, but had not breadth and vigor to fill a throne.

67. Harold becomes King (1066).

On his deathbed, King Edward, who had no children, recommended Harold, Earl of Wessex, as his successor (S65). But the Normans in France declared Edward had promised that his cousin William, Duke of Normandy (S65), should reign after him. The Witan, or National Council of England (S81), chose Harold. That settled the question, for the Council alone had the right to decide who should rule over the English people. Harold was soon afterward crowned (January 16, 1066).

68. Duke William prepares to invade England (1066).

William, Duke of Normandy, was getting ready for a hunting expedition when the news was brought to him of Harold's accession (S67). The old chronicler says that the Duke "stopped short in his preparations; he spoke to no man, and no man dared speak to him." Finally he resolved to appeal to the sword and take the English crown by force.

During the spring and summer of that year, he occupied himself in fitting out a fleet to invade England, and his smiths and armorers were busy making lances, swords, and coats of mail. The Pope favored the expedition and presented a banner blessed by himself, to be carried in the attack; "mothers, too, sent their sons for the salvation of their souls."

69. The Expedition Sails (1066).

William sailed on his great expedition in the autumn with a fleet of several hundred vesseles and a large number of transports. The Duke's ship, with the consecrated banner at the masthead, led the fleet.

His army consisted of archers and cavalry. Its strength has been variously estimated at from 14,000 men up to 60,000. They were partly his own subjects, and partly hired soldiers, or those who joined for the sake of plunder. William also carried a large force of smiths and carpenters, with timber ready cut and fitted to set up a wooden castle.

70. William lands at Pevensey.

The next day the fleet anchored at Pevensey, on the south coast of England, under the walls of an old Roman fortress which had stood, a vacant ruin, since the Saxons stormed it nearly six hundred years before. (See map facing p. 38.) Tradition says that as William stepped on shore he stumbled and fell flat with his face downward. "God preserve us!" cried one of his men; "this is a bad sign." But the Duke, grasping the pebbles of the beach with both his outstretched hands, exclaimed, "Thus do I seize the land!"

71. King Harold in the North.

There was, in fact, no power to prevent him from establishing his camp, for King Harold (S67) was in the north quelling an invasion headed by the King of the Norwegians and his brother Tostig, who hoped to secure the throne for himself. Harold had just sat down to a victory feast, after the battle of Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, when news was brought to him of the landing of William.

It was this fatal want of unity in England which made the Norman Conquest possible. If Harold's own brother, Tostig, had not turned traitorously against him, or if the north country had stood squarely by the south, Duke William might have found his fall on the beach an omen full of disaster.

72. What Duke William did after Landing.

As there was no one to oppose him, William made a fort in a corner of the old Roman wall at Pevensey (S70), and then marched to Hastings, a few miles farther east, where he set up a wooden castle on that hill where the ruins of a later stone castle may still be seen. Having done this, he pillaged the country in every direction.

73. Harold marches to meet William.

King Harold, having gathered what forced he could, marched to meet William at a place midway between Pevensey and Hastings, about five miles back from the coast. Harold had the advantage of a stockaded fort he had built; William, that of a body of cavalry and archers, for the English fought on foot with javelins and battle-axes mainly. The Saxons spent the night in feasting and song, the Normans in prayer and confession; both were eager to fight.

74. The Great Battle of Hastings, 1066.

On the morning of the 14th of October the fight began. It lasted until dark, with heavy loss on both sides. At length William's strategy carried the day, and Harold and his brave followers found to their cost that then, as now, it is "the thinking bayonet" which conquers. The English King was slain and every man of his chosen troops with him. A monk who wrote the history of the period of the Conquest, says that "the vices of the Saxons had made them effeminate and womanish, wherefore it came to pass that, running against Duke William, they lost themselves and their country with one, and that an easy and light, battle." Doubtless the English had fallen off in many ways from what hey had been generations earlier; but the record at Hastings shows that they had lost neither strength, courage, nor endurance, and a harder battle ws never fought on British soil.

75. Battle Abbey; Harold's Grave; the Beyeu^x Tapestry.

A few years later, the Norman Conqueror built the Abbey of Battle on the spot to commemorate the victory by which he gained his crown. He directed that the monks of the abbey should chant perpetual prayers over the Norman soldiers who had fallen there. Here, also, tradition represents him as having buried Harold's body, just after the fight, under a heap of stones by the seashore. Some months later, it is said that the friends of the English King removed the remains to Waltham, near London, and buried them in the church which he had built and endowed there. Be that as it may, his grave, wherever it is, is the grave of the old England. Henceforth a new people (though not a new race, for the Normans originally came from the same Germanic stock as the English did) (S62) will appear in the history of the island.

Several contemporary accounts of the battle exist by both French and English writers, but one of the best histories of it is that which was wrought in colors by a woman's hand. It represents the scenes of the famous contest on a strip of canvas known as the Bayeux Tapestry (S155), a name derived from the French town where it is still preserved.

76. Close of the Period; what the Saxon Conquest of Britain had accomplished.

The death of King Harold ends the Saxon or English period of history. Before entering upon the reign of William the Conqueror let us consider what that period had accomplished. We have seen that the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles (SS36, 37) invaded Britain at a critical period. Its original inhabitants had become cowed and enervated by the despotism and the worn-out civilization forced on them by the Romans (SS30-32).

The newcomers brought that healthy spirit of barbarism, that irrepressible love of personal liberty, which the country sorely needed. The conquerors were rough, ignorant, cruel; but they were vigorous, fearless, and determined.

These qualities were worth a thousand times more to Britain than the gilded corruption of Rome. But in the course of time the Saxons or English themselves lost spirit (S36). Their besetting sin was a stolidity which degenerated into animalism and sluggish content.

77. Fresh Elements contributed by the Danes or Northmen.