]821.] 



Mr. Gait on the Saxon Chronicle. 



401 



lish nation fell from an npper floor at 

 Calue, excepting the holy Archbishop 

 Dunstau alone, M"ho stood upon abeam, 

 and some had their bones broken, and 

 others escaped not with their lives." 

 The fate of King Edward is described 

 with some affecting circumstances. 



" This year King Edward was slain 

 at Corfe castle, in the evening of the 

 15th of the calends of April, and he 

 was buried at Wareham witliout any 

 loyal honours. No worse deed than 

 this has been committed amongst the 

 people of the Angles since they first 

 came to the laud of Britain. Men 

 murdered him, but God gave him glory. 

 In his life he was an earthly king, but 

 now after his death he is a saint in 

 heaven. His mortal kinsmen would 

 not avenge him, but his Heavenly Fa- 

 ther hath avenged him greatly. His 

 earthly murderers would have blotted 

 out his memory from the world, but the 

 Avenger wljo is above hafli widely ex- 

 tended his fame in heaven and earth : 

 and whereas they would not bov/ down 

 before his living body, now they pite- 

 ously bend their knees to his dead 

 bones." 



But one of the most curious sugges- 

 tions that we have received from this 

 venerable relic, is respecting William 

 the Conqueror, In a notice of this 

 kind, we cannot of course enter into 

 any controversial matter, but we are 

 almost led to believe that the far-re- 

 nowned sirname of the Conqueror, 

 given to the Norman, was derived, not 

 from his overthrow of Harold, but from 

 his effectually subduing the whole 

 kingdom under the regular authority 

 of one king. This notion is rendered 

 the more probably correct by the cir- 

 cumstance that, from the time of Eg- 

 bert, King of Wessex, who was the 

 first whov l>ore the title of King of 

 England, there were several other 

 kings, petty and dependent we grant, 

 still allowed, however, to possess the 

 royal name. For example, it is record- 

 ed of King Edgar, that in 973 he met 

 six kings at Chestex-, and that they 

 promised faithfully to serve him by sea 

 and land. Were not tliese six kings 

 the representatives of the monarchy of 

 the Heptarcliy ? and yet this was LW 

 years after Egbert was declared King 

 of Enghuid. 



" In 1014 King Sweyn died, and the 

 Danes, his followers, chose Aunt as 

 king. But the Witan (parliiiment) of 

 the English nation, clergy and laity 

 tletermiucHl that thcv would siuid 



to King jEthelbert, and they assured 

 him tJiat no one was dearer to them 

 than their natural lord." Here we 

 have, at least, an intimation of both an 

 English and Danish king reigning in 

 England at the same time. But it de- 

 serves attention that, from the period 

 that the princes of Danish origin ob- 

 tained the ascendancy, we hear no more 

 of the petty Saxon kings, but in their 

 stead earls are spoken of: not because 

 they weie extirpated ; it is only pro- 

 bable that imder the Danes they were 

 called Earls. 



In 1066, the year of what is called 

 the Conquest, Harold succeeded to the 

 Crown, " even as tlie King had granted 

 it to him ; men also <;hose him thereto, 

 and he was consecrated King." In 

 fact, from the time that the Danes set 

 up a king for themselves, there does 

 not appear to have been any regular 

 king of England, and prior to tliat 

 time, although Egbert without doubt 

 acquired a supreme authority over the 

 kingdoms of the Heptarchy, it is by no 

 means clear that there did not still re- 

 main the nominal kings of the Heptar- 

 chy, who, under the Danes, were called 

 earls. In this view of the subject, 

 when it is considered thaf'William the 

 Norman reduced all England most ef- 

 fectually to his atithority, it may be 

 said that he more properly acquired the 

 epithet of Conqueror from that circum- 

 stance than byhisvictory over Haroldat 

 Hastings; and as this was without ques- 

 tion attained by the aid of his partisans 

 within the country, more than by the 

 army which he brought from Normandy 

 with him, his sirname certainly refers 

 less to what he achieved by that army, 

 than to this infernal reduction of the 

 kingdom by and within itself. 



Another point that bears on this in- 

 teresting question we think has not 

 been sufficiently considered. William 

 was of Norman blood, that is, he was 

 of the same race as the Danes who had 

 acquired an ascendancy over the Sax- 

 ons. Harold was a Saxon — indeed, 

 j)roperly speaking, hereditary King of 

 Kent, and was supported on the throne 

 by the Saxons only. It is therefore 

 likely that William was called in, and 

 aided by the Danes, who ought to have 

 been always called Normans, and that 

 it wa.s by the descendants of those who 

 had supported the autliority of Anut 

 or Canute, princes of the Danish line, 

 that he was enabled to gain that im- 



)K!rial ascendancy which his successors 

 lave ever since enjov(!(i. In a word, 



the 



