132 History of the English Landed Interest. 



century ; for one of the effects of feudalism is to constitute the 

 lord a protector, and the protected a partisan. Vassals who 

 had fought once or twice under their lord's banner, began to 

 feel a pride in their leader, and he to recognise a claim in them 

 to his goodwill. Even as a class, the conquered Saxons began 

 to assume a political importance, whose co-operation might be 

 worth securing by one side or the other whenever king and 

 barons fell out. The Church, too, had always set her face 

 against class distinctions, and had early called, as her head, the 

 Saxon Brakespeare to the chair of St. Peter. Her influence 

 must have been tremendous, since every younger son of the 

 nobility who possessed a contemplative or studious bent, 

 turned instinctively to her monasteries for a home, and every 

 well-taught lady owed her education to convent breeding. 

 The common glories and dangers of the Crusades, in which the 

 blood of both nationalities had mingled under strokes from 

 Saracen scimeters, must have further cemented the bonds of 

 union. Though Macaulay may be right in representing Eng- 

 land's first four Norman kings as Frenchmen, we cannot make 

 any distinction between the laurels won by the two races 

 "arrayed under her banner. Nor can we see the absurdity to 

 which he refers when English historians proudly exult in the 

 splendid courage of Richard I. He may have been French 

 bred ; but the blood that stirred his lion heart was that Ger- 

 man, Viking, and Celtic mixture which coursed through the 

 veins of his English subjects, and still fires the courage of her 

 present Majesty's lieges. As well might we grudge the 

 American his participation in that thrill of pride which stirs 

 every Anglo-Saxon heart when mention is made of Shake- 

 speare or Milton. 



