PEOCEEDINGS FOE 1889. XXVII 



Thus it is established by the records of history, that in the eleventh century the peoples of 

 Fiance and the British Islands had an ancestral kinship which was close and real. Before that cen- 

 tury came to an end further relationshi])s were created to make the connection still more intimate. 

 The great territorial conquest of William dates from 1066, and it has proved the most important 

 epoch in English history. It is described by English historians as the Norman invasion. It appears 

 to me that with greater propriety and accuracy it might be called the French invasion ; not because 

 William himself was the son of a daughter of the soil ; not because ho was by blood at least five-sixths 

 French, and by education and habit wholly French ; not because every one of his ancestors, male and 

 female, for a century and three quarters was, with one exception, native born ; not because Nor- 

 mandy, so Air back as the time of Richard the Fearless, great-grandfather of William, had even then 

 become thoroughly French; but because the 60,000 followers of the Conqueror who crossed the 

 channel with him, were gathered together from a great part of the whole realm of what is known as 

 modern France. 



To insure success, William offered good pay and a share in the spoils to all who should accompany 

 him. Numerous trains of adventurous spirits poured in to join his standard. They came all ready 

 for the conflict, not simply from Normandy but from Armorica, now called Brittany, on the west ; 

 from Flanders on the east, and from Maine, Anjou, Poitou, and the whole country to Aquitaine on 

 the south. To all, such promises were made as should incite them to the enterprise, and thus he 

 gathered the men of all classes from all districts to form his army. 



William was faithful to his word ; the subjugation of England was comjilete and the poorest 

 soldier had his reward. The dominion passed into the hands of the invaders ; and they were followed 

 by a crowd of adventurers who became identified with the conquerors and shared in the spoils. 



In the years which followed the invasion the original landowners were stripiped of their estates. 

 Universal spoliation was the means employed to reward the officers and men who had enlisted under 

 William's standard. The barons and knights who followed his banner had the extensive domains of 

 the dispossessed English allotted to them, while those of lower rank received humbler recompense. 

 Some took their pay in money ; others who had stipulated for Saxon wives received the booty they 

 had bargained for. According to the Norman chronicle, William caused them to take in man-iage noble 

 ladies, the heiresses of great possessions,, whose husbands had been slain in battle. Thus it was that 

 barons of the one country became barons in the other; thus it was that men of no condition in 

 France, whom love of adventure had induced to join William and share his fortunes, became men of 

 rank and station ; thus it was that in some cases names hitherto obscure became noble and illustriou 

 in the country they helped to subdue. 



The sjjoliation was not confined to landed property, for everything worth owning passed into the 

 hands of Frenchmen. The hierarchy soon ceased to be English. French judges administered the 

 law. Every important office in the State was filled by Frenchmen, who thus obtained all the wealth, 

 power and influence in the kingdom. William himself was essentially French, he spoke his mother 

 tongue; he did not and could not speak English; "he had not even a reminiscence of the language of 

 his northern ancestors, the Danes, then nearly allied to English." French became the language of 

 " the court and tribunal, the baronial castle and the merchant's counting house." French became the 

 official language of England and so remained until a date nearly three centuries after the arrival of 

 the conquerors. The seven kings who succeeded William on the English throne were Fi-ench ; the 

 greater number of them were born and brought up in France. The ettect of every political change 

 during these reigns was to bring to England a fresh number of Frenchmen, and any lands falling to 

 the King's disposal were almost invariably granted to his foreign favorites. 



In the years following the arrival of AViUiam it may well be imagined that the fiercest antagonism 

 existed between the conquerors and the conquered — antagonism so intense that no one then living 

 could predict the outcome. In this age we are privileged to take a calm panoramic view of the state 

 of affairs then existing and the results which have followed. It would indeed be difficult to find in 



