1 823.] Elucidations of Portions of English History. 



For the Monthly Magazine. 



ELUCIDATIONS o/" PORTIONS o/" ENGLISH 



HisTony, improperly represented 

 in our general histories. 



History of the Invasion of England by 

 the Normans in the Eleventh Century, 

 and the Consequences of tlutt Invasion 

 down to the Thirteenth. 



(.Continued from J'ol. M, page 4S8.) 



AT the sight of their drawn swords, 

 and tlic spreading lire, those who 

 were assembled, Normans as well as 

 Saxons,* hastily retired. The cere- 

 mony was interrupted, and no one 

 was left for its consuninration except 

 llie Duke, the Archbisliop, and a few 

 priests, t who received from him they 

 called king the oath that ho would use 

 the English people as well as any mo- 

 narch whom they had formerly elecled-t 

 From that day the city of London was 

 doomed to learn the value of such an 

 oath from the lips of a foreign con- 

 queror. The citizens were obliged 

 to deliver over their children, .and to 

 pay one of those enormous tributes, 

 which none but a successful invader 

 can impose. II Even the sons of Wil- 

 liam hesitated to believe that the be- 

 nediction of Elred had proved that 

 their father was the chosen King of 

 the English; and in their proclama- 

 tions they sometimes falsely styled 

 him King by hereditary succession, 

 and sometimes unreservedly King bj' 

 the right of the sword.§ Wiiatever 

 their formularies were, his acts placed 

 liim in his proper position, and the 

 attitude he assumed among the Anglo- 

 Saxons sufficiently demonstrated what 

 passed in his mind. He never trusted 

 himself among the people of London; 

 and, spite of his garrison and the 

 guards who surrounded him, he deem- 

 ed his camp at Barking more suited to 

 his situation. He retired thither till 

 an end;atllcd fortress was erected in 

 Jjondon for his abode. ^ 



All these events are recorded by the 

 Anglo-Saxon historians in a tone of 

 •lejcction and distress, of which it 

 would be difficult to find another 

 example. "England! what shall I 



• Giiili. Pict. 200 ; Ord. Vit. 503. 



t Old. Vii.5«. 



} Clir. .Sax. It. Ed. Lye. 



II I''. 



'j Ha'rcditansjiire — Inorogladii(Hickcs 

 Thes.) 



f Oiiill.Piet. 20«. 

 MoNTrti.Y Mao. No.;J78. 



say of thee, (exclaims the historian of 

 the church of Ely,) what shall I say of 

 thee to our children? That thou hast 

 lost thy ow n king, and hast bent thee 

 before the stranger, — bathed in the 

 blood of thy defenders : that thy chiefs 

 and thy counsellors are conquered, — 

 they are despoiled, — they are destroy- 

 ed."* " These melancholy reverses, 

 (sRys another old writer,) are so sad a 

 subject, that the historian of sensibi- 

 lity can hardly refer to them without 

 tears. "t And so the ancient poet: — 

 " Slavery came to us over the sea, and 

 freedom took leave of ns for ever. 

 With freedom, joy and bliss fled."t 

 Long after the fatal combat, which 

 opened the gates of England to her 

 invaders, patriotic superstition ima- 

 gined that gory traces were to be seen 

 on the spots which had drank the 

 blood of her valiant sons. These 

 traces, we are told, were vi.sible on the 

 heights to the north of Hastings, when- 

 ever a sprinkling of rain damped the 

 soil. II The conqueror appropriated 

 this situation to record his victory : he 

 built a monastery there, which he de- 

 dicated to St. Martin, the patron saiut 

 of the soldiers of Gaul, and called it, in 

 the French langungo, the Abbey de la 

 BataUle.^ The high altar was raised 

 on the very spot where the standard of 

 the Anglo-Saxons had been humi- 

 liated ;1[ and the building was so con- 

 structed, as to iticlude all the emi- 

 nence which the bravest of the Eng- 

 lish had covered with their bodies.** 

 A band of monks was summoned hi- 

 ther from the other side of the chan- 

 nel ; to them tlie property of those who 

 had perishedf^ was transferred ; and 

 here they were wont to mingle curses 

 on the memory of those whose arms 

 had resisted them, with prayers for 

 their eternal salvation. It is record- 

 ed that, when the foundations were 

 laid, the architects declared there 

 would be a scarcity of water. The 

 information was conveyed to William : 

 " Go on, — go on, (said the Norman 



* Hist. Kliens. 51(5. 

 t Ord. Vit. 504. 



* Koheit of Glostei's Chronicle, p. 71, 

 353. 



II Giiil. FIcnbridgcns. p. 8. 

 'j L'Abbaye de B.itaille, Ecclesia de la 

 Batailae, DooniKilay Book passim. 

 iT IMonast. Airi;. l.S\'>. 

 ** Giiij, Herd) (J. 

 \\ Monas. Angl. Ij.Tl^, 313. 



C bastard,) 



