A Child's History of England

by Dickens, Charles

  numerous than ever when he arrived with his retinue, and held in

  still greater honour at court than before, became more and more

  haughty towards the people, and were more and more disliked by

  them.

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  Dickens, Charles - A Child's History of England

  The old Earl Godwin, though he was abroad, knew well how the people

  felt; for, with part of the treasure he had carried away with him,

  he kept spies and agents in his pay all over England.

  Accordingly, he thought the time was come for fitting out a great

  expedition against the Norman-loving King. With it, he sailed to

  the Isle of Wight, where he was joined by his son Harold, the most

  gallant and brave of all his family. And so the father and son

  came sailing up the Thames to Southwark; great numbers of the

  people declaring for them, and shouting for the English Earl and

  the English Harold, against the Norman favourites!

  The King was at first as blind and stubborn as kings usually have

  been whensoever they have been in the hands of monks. But the

  people rallied so thickly round the old Earl and his son, and the

  old Earl was so steady in demanding without bloodshed the

  restoration of himself and his family to their rights, that at last

  the court took the alarm. The Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, and

  the Norman Bishop of London, surrounded by their retainers, fought

  their way out of London, and escaped from Essex to France in a

  fishing-boat. The other Norman favourites dispersed in all

  directions. The old Earl and his sons (except Sweyn, who had

  committed crimes against the law) were restored to their

  possessions and dignities. Editha, the virtuous and lovely Queen

  of the insensible King, was triumphantly released from her prison,

  the convent, and once more sat in her chair of state, arrayed in

  the jewels of which, when she had no champion to support her

  rights, her cold-blooded husband had deprived her.

  The old Earl Godwin did not long enjoy his restored fortune. He

  fell down in a fit at the King's table, and died upon the third day

  afterwards. Harold succeeded to his power, and to a far higher

  place in the attachment of the people than his father had ever

  held. By his valour he subdued the King's enemies in many bloody

  fights. He was vigorous against rebels in Scotland - this was the

  time when Macbeth slew Duncan, upon which event our English

  Shakespeare, hundreds of years afterwards, wrote his great tragedy;

  and he killed the restless Welsh King GRIFFITH, and brought his

  head to England.

  What Harold was doing at sea, when he was driven on the French

  coast by a tempest, is not at all certain; nor does it at all

  matter. That his ship was forced by a storm on that shore, and

  that he was taken prisoner, there is no doubt. In those barbarous

  days, all shipwrecked strangers were taken prisoners, and obliged

  to pay ransom. So, a certain Count Guy, who was the Lord of

  Ponthieu where Harold's disaster happened, seized him, instead of

  relieving him like a hospitable and Christian lord as he ought to

  have done, and expected to make a very good thing of it.

  But Harold sent off immediately to Duke William of Normandy,

  complaining of this treatment; and the Duke no sooner heard of it

  than he ordered Harold to be escorted to the ancient town of Rouen,

  where he then was, and where he received him as an honoured guest.

  Now, some writers tell us that Edward the Confessor, who was by

  this time old and had no children, had made a will, appointing Duke

  William of Normandy his successor, and had informed the Duke of his

  having done so. There is no doubt that he was anxious about his

  successor; because he had even invited over, from abroad, EDWARD

  THE OUTLAW, a son of Ironside, who had come to England with his

  wife and three children, but whom the King had strangely refused to

  see when he did come, and who had died in London suddenly (princes

  were terribly liable to sudden death in those days), and had been

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  buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. The King might possibly have made

  such a will; or, having always been fond of the Normans, he might

  have encouraged Norman William to aspire to the English crown, by

  something that he said to him when he was staying at the English

  court. But, certainly William did now aspire to it; and knowing

  that Harold would be a powerful rival, he called together a great

  assembly of his nobles, offered Harold his daughter ADELE in

  marriage, informed him that he meant on King Edward's death to

  claim the English crown as his own inheritance, and required Harold

  then and there to swear to aid him. Harold, being in the Duke's

  power, took this oath upon the Missal, or Prayer-book. It is a

  good example of the superstitions of the monks, that this Missal,

  instead of being placed upon a table, was placed upon a tub; which,

  when Harold had sworn, was uncovered, and shown to be full of dead

  men's bones - bones, as the monks pretended, of saints. This was

  supposed to make Harold's oath a great deal more impressive and

  binding. As if the great name of the Creator of Heaven and earth

  could be made more solemn by a knuckle-bone, or a double-tooth, or

  a finger-nail, of Dunstan!

  Within a week or two after Harold's return to England, the dreary

  old Confessor was found to be dying. After wandering in his mind

  like a very weak old man, he died. As he had put himself entirely

  in the hands of the monks when he was alive, they praised him

  lustily when he was dead. They had gone so far, already, as to

  persuade him that he could work miracles; and had brought people

  afflicted with a bad disorder of the skin, to him, to be touched

  and cured. This was called 'touching for the King's Evil,' which

  afterwards became a royal custom. You know, however, Who really

  touched the sick, and healed them; and you know His sacred name is

  not among the dusty line of human kings.

  CHAPTER VII - ENGLAND UNDER HAROLD THE SECOND, AND CONQUERED BY THE

  NORMANS

  HAROLD was crowned King of England on the very day of the maudlin

  Confessor's funeral. He had good need to be quick about it. When

  the news reached Norman William, hunting in his park at Rouen, he

  dropped his bow, returned to his palace, called his nobles to

  council, and presently sent ambassadors to Harold, calling on him

  to keep his oath and resign the Crown. Harold would do no such

  thing. The barons of France leagued together round Duke William

  for the invasion of England. Duke William promised freely to

  distribute English wealth and English lands among them. The Pope

  sent to Normandy a consecrated banner, and a ring containing a hair

  which he warranted to have grown on the head of Saint Peter. He

  blessed the enterprise; and cursed Harold; and requested that the

  Normans would pay 'Peter's Pence' - or a tax to himself of a penny

  a year on every house - a little more regularly in future, if they

  could make i
t convenient.

  King Harold had a rebel brother in Flanders, who was a vassal of

  HAROLD HARDRADA, King of Norway. This brother, and this Norwegian

  King, joining their forces against England, with Duke William's

  help, won a fight in which the English were commanded by two

  nobles; and then besieged York. Harold, who was waiting for the

  Normans on the coast at Hastings, with his army, marched to

  Stamford Bridge upon the river Derwent to give them instant battle.

  He found them drawn up in a hollow circle, marked out by their

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  shining spears. Riding round this circle at a distance, to survey

  it, he saw a brave figure on horseback, in a blue mantle and a

  bright helmet, whose horse suddenly stumbled and threw him.

  'Who is that man who has fallen?' Harold asked of one of his

  captains.

  'The King of Norway,' he replied.

  'He is a tall and stately king,' said Harold, 'but his end is

  near.'

  He added, in a little while, 'Go yonder to my brother, and tell

  him, if he withdraw his troops, he shall be Earl of Northumberland,

  and rich and powerful in England.'

  The captain rode away and gave the message.

  'What will he give to my friend the King of Norway?' asked the

  brother.

  'Seven feet of earth for a grave,' replied the captain.

  'No more?' returned the brother, with a smile.

  'The King of Norway being a tall man, perhaps a little more,'

  replied the captain.

  'Ride back!' said the brother, 'and tell King Harold to make ready

  for the fight!'

  He did so, very soon. And such a fight King Harold led against

  that force, that his brother, and the Norwegian King, and every

  chief of note in all their host, except the Norwegian King's son,

  Olave, to whom he gave honourable dismissal, were left dead upon

  the field. The victorious army marched to York. As King Harold

  sat there at the feast, in the midst of all his company, a stir was

  heard at the doors; and messengers all covered with mire from

  riding far and fast through broken ground came hurrying in, to

  report that the Normans had landed in England.

  The intelligence was true. They had been tossed about by contrary

  winds, and some of their ships had been wrecked. A part of their

  own shore, to which they had been driven back, was strewn with

  Norman bodies. But they had once more made sail, led by the Duke's

  own galley, a present from his wife, upon the prow whereof the

  figure of a golden boy stood pointing towards England. By day, the

  banner of the three Lions of Normandy, the diverse coloured sails,

  the gilded vans, the many decorations of this gorgeous ship, had

  glittered in the sun and sunny water; by night, a light had

  sparkled like a star at her mast-head. And now, encamped near

  Hastings, with their leader lying in the old Roman castle of

  Pevensey, the English retiring in all directions, the land for

  miles around scorched and smoking, fired and pillaged, was the

  whole Norman power, hopeful and strong on English ground.

  Harold broke up the feast and hurried to London. Within a week,

  his army was ready. He sent out spies to ascertain the Norman

  strength. William took them, caused them to be led through his

  whole camp, and then dismissed. 'The Normans,' said these spies to

  Harold, 'are not bearded on the upper lip as we English are, but

  are shorn. They are priests.' 'My men,' replied Harold, with a

  laugh, 'will find those priests good soldiers!'

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  'The Saxons,' reported Duke William's outposts of Norman soldiers,

  who were instructed to retire as King Harold's army advanced, 'rush

  on us through their pillaged country with the fury of madmen.'

  'Let them come, and come soon!' said Duke William.

  Some proposals for a reconciliation were made, but were soon

  abandoned. In the middle of the month of October, in the year one

  thousand and sixty-six, the Normans and the English came front to

  front. All night the armies lay encamped before each other, in a

  part of the country then called Senlac, now called (in remembrance

  of them) Battle. With the first dawn of day, they arose. There,

  in the faint light, were the English on a hill; a wood behind them;

  in their midst, the Royal banner, representing a fighting warrior,

  woven in gold thread, adorned with precious stones; beneath the

  banner, as it rustled in the wind, stood King Harold on foot, with

  two of his remaining brothers by his side; around them, still and

  silent as the dead, clustered the whole English army - every

  soldier covered by his shield, and bearing in his hand his dreaded

  English battle-axe.

  On an opposite hill, in three lines, archers, foot-soldiers,

  horsemen, was the Norman force. Of a sudden, a great battle-cry,

  'God help us!' burst from the Norman lines. The English answered

  with their own battle-cry, 'God's Rood! Holy Rood!' The Normans

  then came sweeping down the hill to attack the English.

  There was one tall Norman Knight who rode before the Norman army on

  a prancing horse, throwing up his heavy sword and catching it, and

  singing of the bravery of his countrymen. An English Knight, who

  rode out from the English force to meet him, fell by this Knight's

  hand. Another English Knight rode out, and he fell too. But then

  a third rode out, and killed the Norman. This was in the first

  beginning of the fight. It soon raged everywhere.

  The English, keeping side by side in a great mass, cared no more

  for the showers of Norman arrows than if they had been showers of

  Norman rain. When the Norman horsemen rode against them, with

  their battle-axes they cut men and horses down. The Normans gave

  way. The English pressed forward. A cry went forth among the

  Norman troops that Duke William was killed. Duke William took off

  his helmet, in order that his face might be distinctly seen, and

  rode along the line before his men. This gave them courage. As

  they turned again to face the English, some of their Norman horse

  divided the pursuing body of the English from the rest, and thus

  all that foremost portion of the English army fell, fighting

  bravely. The main body still remaining firm, heedless of the

  Norman arrows, and with their battle-axes cutting down the crowds

  of horsemen when they rode up, like forests of young trees, Duke

  William pretended to retreat. The eager English followed. The

  Norman army closed again, and fell upon them with great slaughter.

  'Still,' said Duke William, 'there are thousands of the English,

  firms as rocks around their King. Shoot upward, Norman archers,

  that your arrows may fall down upon their faces!'

  The sun rose high, and sank, and the battle still raged. Through

  all the wild October day, the clash and din resounded in the air.

  In the red sunset, and in the white moonlight, heaps upon heaps of

  dead men lay strewn, a dreadful spectacle, all over the ground.

  King Harold, wounded
with an arrow in the eye, was nearly blind.

  His brothers were already killed. Twenty Norman Knights, whose

  battered armour had flashed fiery and golden in the sunshine all

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  day long, and now looked silvery in the moonlight, dashed forward

  to seize the Royal banner from the English Knights and soldiers,

  still faithfully collected round their blinded King. The King

  received a mortal wound, and dropped. The English broke and fled.

  The Normans rallied, and the day was lost.

  O what a sight beneath the moon and stars, when lights were shining

  in the tent of the victorious Duke William, which was pitched near

  the spot where Harold fell - and he and his knights were carousing,

  within - and soldiers with torches, going slowly to and fro,

  without, sought for the corpse of Harold among piles of dead - and

  the Warrior, worked in golden thread and precious stones, lay low,

  all torn and soiled with blood - and the three Norman Lions kept

  watch over the field!

  CHAPTER VIII - ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE FIRST, THE NORMAN

  CONQUEROR

  UPON the ground where the brave Harold fell, William the Norman

  afterwards founded an abbey, which, under the name of Battle Abbey,

  was a rich and splendid place through many a troubled year, though

  now it is a grey ruin overgrown with ivy. But the first work he

  had to do, was to conquer the English thoroughly; and that, as you

  know by this time, was hard work for any man.

  He ravaged several counties; he burned and plundered many towns; he

  laid waste scores upon scores of miles of pleasant country; he

  destroyed innumerable lives. At length STIGAND, Archbishop of

  Canterbury, with other representatives of the clergy and the

  people, went to his camp, and submitted to him. EDGAR, the

  insignificant son of Edmund Ironside, was proclaimed King by

  others, but nothing came of it. He fled to Scotland afterwards,

  where his sister, who was young and beautiful, married the Scottish

  King. Edgar himself was not important enough for anybody to care

  much about him.

  On Christmas Day, William was crowned in Westminster Abbey, under

  the title of WILLIAM THE FIRST; but he is best known as WILLIAM THE

  CONQUEROR. It was a strange coronation. One of the bishops who

  performed the ceremony asked the Normans, in French, if they would