286 A. D. 1065. 



In the reign of Edward the Confeffor the Engllfh recovered their mi- 

 litary and naval character, chiefly under the condu6l of his brother-in- 

 law Harold ; for the king himfelf was much better qualified to perform 

 the offices of a monk than to difcharge the duties of a fovereign. On 

 the death of Edward without ilTue, his nephew, Edgar Atheling, who 

 ■was under age, was fet afide, and Harold was chofen king (a". 1066). 

 He appears to have been, after Alfred, the greateft of the Saxon princes ; 

 and like him he was fenlible that a well-appointed navy was the natural 

 fafeguard of England *. As foon as he became king, he was threaten- 

 ed with an invafion by William duke of Normandy, who alleged that 

 the late king had promifed to appoint him his fuccellbr. Knowing the 

 great power and military talents of the duke, he provided a fleet of 

 above feven hundred fhips, which he ftationed on the coafl; oppofite to 

 France. Unfortunately a part of it was called oflf by the unexped:ed at- 

 tack of the fleets of Norway and Orkney, led by Harold Hardrad f, king 

 of Norway, whofe life paid the forfeit of his unprovoked hoihlity. And 

 William, who landed on the fouth coafl; almofl: at the fame time, would 

 probably in like manner have expiated his unprovoked attack of a people 

 who had never injured him, had not Harold been flain by a random fhot 

 of an arrow, after fupporting with his army, fatigued by their march 

 from Stanford to the coafl of Suflex, a battle of a whole day with great 

 courage and conduft, if we except his mifcondud: in fighting at all. But 

 the prudence of allowing an invader to wafte his ftrength and the ar- 

 dour of his troops by delay was unknown in the art of war of that age. 



Even after the difafter of Harold's death the fleet of England was 

 fuperior to that of the invaders, which it kept blocked up in the ports 

 of Pevenfev and Haftings. The fleet of William and his allies is moft 

 difcordantly numbered, from feven hundred to three thouiand fhips, by 

 the various writers upon that famous expedition. 



Soon after the death of Harold, the Englith, finding themfelves with- 

 out a leader, and influenced by the clergy, fubmitted to Williani, who 

 on the 25''' day of December was crowned as king of England in Wefl:- 

 minfter abbay. 



The acceflion of William conflitutes a new ara in the hiftory of 

 England, which is thenceforth much more fully known than in the 

 preceding ages, its aflfairs being now much connected with thofe of the 

 continent, and illuftrated by a continued fucceflion of good hiftorians, 

 domeftic and foreign. The materials for commercial hiflory, and par- 

 ticularly of that of this ifland, will confequeutly be more ample in the 



• The fiipprcflion of tlic Wclfli In the reign of -f Tlic nnmc of H;iro!tl Harfogiir, given to this 



Edward \v;i9 cfiected by Harold, chiefly by means king by moll writers, is one of the many inilances 



of a licet ot (hips, wliercwith he failed from Brif- of the a6lions of iefs celebrated characters being 



tol. The army and fleet of Northumberland, transferred to more famous perfonages of the fame 



whicii alTilkd Malcolm ])rincc of Scotland againft name. 



Matbctlij «a at. : DaniHi than Englifh. 3 



