Читать книгу Public School History of England and Canada - Graeme Mercer Adam - Страница 8
ОглавлениеTHE NORMAN CONQUEST.
[For expanding and illustrating this chapter, Freeman’s “Old English History” and “Norman Conquest” will be found very valuable. The accounts of the death of Earl Godwin, of the influence of the Normans at Court, of Harold’s shipwreck and oath, and of the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings, are most interestingly given, and the teacher should relate them for the pupils. It should be clearly brought out, also, that the Normans were of the same race as the Saxons and Danes.]
1. From Canute to Edward the Confessor.—When Canute died a bitter strife broke out among the great Earls whom he had set up, as to which of his sons, Harold and Harthacnut, should succeed him. It was first agreed that the kingdom should be shared by both brothers; but as Harthacnut stayed in Denmark, Harold was put on the throne. Harold’s reign was a cruel one, but happily it was short. He died in A.D. 1040, and then Harthacnut was sent for and became king. During Harthacnut’s reign the king brought his half-brother, Edward, a son of Ethelred, from Normandy, and had him live with him at Court. On Harthacnut’s sudden death, Earl Godwin, who was now all powerful in the land, Beginning of Norman influence in England. persuaded the English people to make Edward king. French influence began to be felt in England when Edward, the Confessor, as he was called, ascended the throne; for he had been brought up in the home of his mother, Emma, of Normandy. The Normans were a people, who, when the Danes first invaded Britain, had left Norway to settle in the North of France, and were soon now to come and take up their abode in England. As the Danes, when they settled in England, became English, so the Normans, when they settled in France, became French, spoke the French language, and were brought up in French ways.
2. Edward the Confessor, (1042-1066).—When Edward came to the throne he brought with him from Normandy many foreign priests and nobles who had been his favourites at the Norman Court. These Norman companions Edward enriched with English estates and raised to high honour. The king knew little of the English people, whom he had come to rule, and who disliked the favouritism shown to strangers. But as Earl Godwin, who Earl Godwin, and Edward’s French following. was greatly liked by the English, was the real ruler of the kingdom, they were content for a while to let Edward keep his Norman friends about him. Godwin, however, hated the Normans; and the people’s dislike of the latter grew as the king continued to favour them. Presently, some trouble broke out between the citizens of Dover and a brother-in-law of the king who had come from France to visit him. When the king heard of the affray he ordered Earl Godwin to punish the citizens; but Godwin refused, and the king banished him from the country. In Godwin’s absence things went wrong in England, and the people clamoured to have him restored to his estates. Hearing of this, Godwin, and his sons, who were outlawed with him, gathered a fleet and sailed for London, to bring the king to terms by force of arms. There the people joined them and compelled the king to dismiss his Norman favourites and restore Godwin to favour. Shortly afterwards, Earl Godwin died, and his son, Harold, succeeded to his father’s earldom.
3. Succession of Harold.—Early in the year 1066 Edward died, commending his kingdom to Harold, Earl Godwin’s mighty son. Edward’s rule, though feeble, was well-intentioned, and his laws were just. He was devoted to the church, and the monks laid his body in what, since his canonization, is known as the shrine of St. Edward the Confessor in Westminster. West Minster had just been founded by Edward, and his remains were the first to consecrate the famous Abbey which for over eight hundred years has been the last resting-place of England’s kings and kingly men. Though the Witan was willing Harold should be king, there were two to contest the throne with him. One of these was his brother, Danish and Norman rivals for the throne. Earl Tostig, who had been exiled; the other was Duke William, of Normandy, who claimed the throne on two pleas: first, that it had been promised him by Edward, when he paid the king a visit during the exile of Godwin; and secondly, that Harold had sworn to support him, as the price of his liberty, when Harold was once a captive in William’s kingdom. Harold’s answer to the rival claimants was that he had been chosen king by the Witan. This answer satisfied neither Tostig nor William. Both determined to fight him for the throne, and with that purpose each prepared to invade England. In the meanwhile Harold was made king.
4. Battles of Stamford Bridge and Senlac.—No sooner was Harold elected king than his banished brother, Tostig, with the Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25th Sept., 1066. king of Norway, whom Tostig got to join him, landed with an army in the North of England. Harold went against the invaders, and utterly routed them at Stamford Bridge, near York. Both Tostig and the king of Norway were slain, the latter finding a grave, as Harold of England had promised him, “in seven feet or more of English ground, for he was taller than most men.” The next day Harold made peace with the Northmen, and they at once sailed back to their homes. Rid of his enemies in the north, Harold had to hasten, a few days afterwards, to meet William of Normandy’s forces in the south. The Normans disembarked a large army at Pevensey, in Sussex, and marched upon Hastings. There, on the hill of Senlac, Harold had selected a strong position for his troops, and awaited the approach of William. The Norman forces soon faced Battle of Hastings, or Senlac, fought 14th October, A.D. the English, and William determined to storm the defences they had thrown up. The fate of the English was to turn on the result. The fight began by a Norman minstrel riding up to the palisades of the English, singing a battle-song, and tossing his lance bravely in the air. After this, on came the Norman archers and the Norman knights on horseback. Both were repulsed, and the battle seemed for a time to go against William. But William made a feint by withdrawing his troops, and the English, thinking the enemy had taken flight, left their defences and pursued them. Suddenly the Normans turned upon their pursuers and hotly drove them back. After long fighting, Harold was wounded with an arrow in the eye, his personal followers were slain, and his army, dispirited, turned and fled. The day was won by Duke William.
5. William the Conqueror comes to the Throne (A.D. 1066).—The death of Harold and his chief nobles, at the disastrous battle of Hastings, left the English forces without a leader to rally them against the invader. Harold’s brothers had fallen with him on the field of Senlac, and the descendants of the great English families of Godwin and Leofric were ill-disposed to peril their own interests in the northern parts of the kingdom by fighting against the great Norman. Everything favoured William: his own dukedom of Normandy was just then free from trouble; his great nobles were willing to be lured by the promise of estates in England; the other continental rulers consented, if not to help, to be neutral; and the Pope at Rome had espoused his cause and sent him a hallowed banner. But, though he had slain the king and defeated his forces, William had not yet won England. The English naturally looked for a successor to Harold in one of the royal line, and, as the Witan had assembled, they chose for king Edgar the Atheling, a descendant of Ethelred II. But, as Edgar was a mere lad, many of the English refused to acknowledge him. Meanwhile William and his Norman army captured the southern towns in the kingdom and marched upon London. The citizens grew frightened, and a deputation of them, with Edgar and the chief nobles, came to make submission to William and offer him the crown. This the Conqueror accepted, after feigning to refuse it, and entering the capital, he was crowned on Christmas Day, A.D. 1066.
