William the Conqueror by Jacob Abbott

William the Conqueror by Jacob Abbott 1803-1879


PREFACE.


In selecting the subjects for the successive volumes of this series, it
has been the object of the author to look for the names of those great
personages whose histories constitute useful, and not merely
entertaining, knowledge. There are certain names which are familiar, as
names, to all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of
mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading
outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in
their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended
a fame. This knowledge, which it seems incumbent on every one to obtain
in respect to such personages as Hannibal, Alexander, Caesar, Cleopatra,
Darius, Xerxes, Alfred, William the Conqueror, Queen Elizabeth, and Mary
Queen of Scots, it is the design and object of these volumes to
communicate, in a faithful, and, at the same time, if possible, in an
attractive manner. Consequently, great historical names alone are
selected; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and
leading traits in their characters, and all the important events in
their lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple
language which is so obviously required in works which aim at permanent
and practical usefulness.




CONTENTS.


Chapter

I. NORMANDY

II. BIRTH OF WILLIAM

III. THE ACCESSION

IV. WILLIAM'S REIGN IN NORMANDY

V. THE MARRIAGE

VI. THE LADY EMMA

VII. KING HAROLD

VIII. PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION

IX. CROSSING THE CHANNEL

X. THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS

XI. PRINCE ROBERT'S REBELLION

XII. THE CONCLUSION

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.




CHAPTER I.

NORMANDY.

A.D. 870-912

The Norman Conquest.--Claim of William to the throne.--The right of the
strongest.--Map of Normandy.--The English Channel.--Nature of the French
coast.--Nature of the English coast.--Northmen and Danes.--Character
of the Northmen.--Their descendants.--The Dukes of Normandy.--The
first duke, Rollo.--History of Rollo.--His rendezvous on the Scottish
coast.--Expedition of Rollo.--His descent upon Flanders.--Difficulties
encountered.--Rollo passes the Straits of Dover.--Charles the
Simple.--Defeated by Rollo.--Treaty of peace.--Its conditions.--The
three ceremonies.--Rollo's pride.--Kissing the king's foot.--The baptism
and marriage.--Rollo's peaceful and prosperous reign.--Description
of Normandy.--Scenery.--Hamlets.--Chateaux.--Peasantry.--Public
roads.--Rouen.--Its situation.--The port of Rouen.--Its name of Le Havre
de Grace.--Intermingling of races.--Superiority of the Norman stock.


One of those great events in English history, which occur at distant
intervals, and form, respectively, a sort of bound or landmark, to which
all other events, preceding or following them for centuries, are
referred, is what is called the Norman Conquest. The Norman Conquest
was, in fact, the accession of William, duke of Normandy, to the English
throne. This accession was not altogether a matter of military force,
for William claimed a _right_ to the throne, which, if not altogether
perfect, was, as he maintained, at any rate superior to that of the
prince against whom he contended. The rightfulness of his claim was,
however, a matter of little consequence, except so far as the moral
influence of it aided him in gaining possession. The right to rule was,
in those days, rather more openly and nakedly, though not much more
really, than it is now, the right of the strongest.

Normandy, William's native land, is a very rich and beautiful province
in the north of France. The following map shows its situation:

[Illustration: MAP OF ENGLAND AND PART OF FRANCE, SHOWING THE SITUATION
OF NORMANDY.]

It lies, as will be seen upon the map, on the coast of France, adjoining
the English Channel. The Channel is here irregular in form, but may be,
perhaps, on the average, one hundred miles wide. The line of coast on
the southern side of the Channel, which forms, of course, the northern
border of Normandy, is a range of cliffs, which are almost perpendicular
toward the sea, and which frown forbiddingly upon every ship that sails
along the shore. Here and there, it is true, a river opens a passage for
itself among these cliffs from the interior, and these river mouths
would form harbors into which ships might enter from the offing, were it
not that the northwestern winds prevail so generally, and drive such a
continual swell of rolling surges in upon the shore, that they choke up
all these estuary openings, as well as every natural indentation of the
land, with shoals and bars of sand and shingle. The reverse is the case
with the northern, or English shore of this famous channel. There the
harbors formed by the mouths of the rivers, or by the sinuosities of the
shore, are open and accessible, and at the same time sheltered from the
winds and the sea. Thus, while the northern or English shore has been,
for many centuries, all the time enticing the seaman in and out over
the calm, deep, and sheltered waters which there penetrate the land, the
southern side has been an almost impassable barrier, consisting of a
long line of frowning cliffs, with every opening through it choked with
shoals and sand-banks, and guarded by the rolling and tumbling of surges
which scarcely ever rest.

It is in a great measure owing to these great physical differences
between the two shores, that the people who live upon the one side,
though of the same stock and origin with those who live upon the other,
have become so vastly superior to them in respect to naval exploits and
power. They are really of the same stock and origin, since both England
and the northern part of France were overrun and settled by what is
called the Scandinavian race, that is, people from Norway, Denmark, and
other countries on the Baltic. These people were called the _Northmen_
in the histories of those times. Those who landed in England are
generally termed _Danes_, though but a small portion of them came really
from Denmark. They were all, however, of the same parent stock, and
possessed the same qualities of courage, energy, and fearless love of
adventure and of danger which distinguish their descendants at the
present day. They came down in those early times in great military
hordes, and in fleets of piratical ships, through the German Ocean and
the various British seas, braving every hardship and every imaginable
danger, to find new regions to dwell in, more genial, and fertile, and
rich than their own native northern climes. In these days they evince
the same energy, and endure equal privations and hardships, in hunting
whales in the Pacific Ocean; in overrunning India, and seizing its
sources of wealth and power; or in sallying forth, whole fleets of
adventurers at a time, to go more than half round the globe, to dig for
gold in California. The times and circumstances have changed, but the
race and spirit are the same.

Normandy takes its name from the Northmen. It was the province of France
which the Northmen made peculiarly their own. They gained access to it
from the sea by the River Seine, which, as will be seen from the map,
flows, as it were, through the heart of the country. The lower part of
this river, and the sea around its mouth, are much choked up with sand
and gravel, which the waves have been for ages washing in. Their
incessant industry would result in closing up the passage entirely,
were it not that the waters of the river must have an outlet; and thus
the current, setting outward, wages perpetual war with the surf and
surges which are continually breaking in. The expeditions of the
Northmen, however, found their way through all these obstructions. They
ascended the river with their ships, and finally gained a permanent
settlement in the country. They had occupied the country for some
centuries at the time when our story begins--the province being governed
by a line of princes--almost, if not quite, independent
sovereigns--called the _Dukes of Normandy_.

The first Duke of Normandy, and the founder of the line--the chieftain
who originally invaded and conquered the country--was a wild and
half-savage hero from the north, named _Rollo_. He is often, in history,
called Rollo the Dane. Norway was his native land. He was a chieftain by
birth there, and, being of a wild and adventurous disposition, he
collected a band of followers, and committed with them so many piracies
and robberies, that at length the king of the country expelled him.

Rollo seems not to have considered this banishment as any very great
calamity, since, far from interrupting his career of piracy and
plunder, it only widened the field on which he was to pursue it. He
accordingly increased the equipment and the force of his fleet, enlisted
more followers, and set sail across the northern part of the German
Ocean toward the British shores.

Off the northwestern coast of Scotland there are some groups of
mountainous and gloomy islands, which have been, in many different
periods of the world, the refuge of fugitives and outlaws. Rollo made
these islands his rendezvous now; and he found collected there many
other similar spirits, who had fled to these lonely retreats, some on
account of political disturbances in which they had become involved, and
some on account of their crimes. Rollo's impetuous, ardent, and
self-confident character inspired them with new energy and zeal. They
gathered around him as their leader. Finding his strength thus
increasing, he formed a scheme of concentrating all the force that he
could command, so as to organize a grand expedition to proceed to the
southward, and endeavor to find some pleasant country which they could
seize and settle upon, and make their own. The desperate adventurers
around him were ready enough to enter into this scheme. The fleet was
refitted, provisioned, and equipped. The expedition was organized, arms
and munitions of war provided, and when all was ready they set sail.
They had no definite plan in respect to the place of their destination,
their intention being to make themselves a home on the first favorable
spot that they should find.

They moved southward, cruising at first along the coast of Scotland, and
then of England. They made several fruitless attempts to land on the
English shores, but were every where repulsed. The time when these
events took place was during the reign of Alfred the Great. Through
Alfred's wise and efficient measures the whole of his frontier had been
put into a perfect state of defense, and Rollo found that there was no
hope for him there. He accordingly moved on toward the Straits of Dover;
but, before passing them, he made a descent upon the coast of Flanders.
Here there was a country named Hainault. It was governed by a potentate
called the Count of Hainault. Rollo made war upon him, defeated him in
battle, took him prisoner, and then compelled the countess his wife to
raise and pay him an immense sum for his ransom. Thus he replenished
his treasury by an exploit which was considered in those days very
great and glorious. To perpetrate such a deed now, unless it were on a
_very_ great scale, would be to incur the universal reprobation of
mankind; but Rollo, by doing it then, not only enriched his coffers, but
acquired a very extended and honorable fame.

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