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William's character has been drawn with apparent impartiality in the Saxon Chronicle by a contemporary and an Englishman. That the reader may learn the opinion of one who possessed the means of forming an accurate judgment, we have transcribed the passage, retaining, as far as it may be intelligible, the phraseology of the original:—

FITZ-ARTHUR FORBIDDING THE BURIAL OF WILLIAM. (See p. [119.])

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"If any one wish to know what manner of man he was, or what worship he had, or of how many lands he were the lord, we will describe him as we have known him; for we looked on him, and some time lived in his herd. King William was a very wise man, and very rich, more worshipful and strong than any of his fore-gangers. He was mild to good men who loved God, and stark [stiff] beyond all bounds to those who withstaid his will. On the very stede [place] where God gave him to win England, he reared a noble monastery and set monks therein, and endowed it well. He was very worshipful. Thrice he bore his king-helmet every year when he was in England; at Easter he bore it at Winchester, at Pentecost at Westminster, and in mid-winter at Gloucester: and there were with him all the rich men all over England, archbishops and diocesan bishops, abbots and earls, thanes and knights. Moreover, he was a very stark man, and very savage; so that no man durst do anything against his will. He had earls in his bonds, who had done against his will; bishops he set off their bishoprics, abbots off their abbotries, and thanes in prison; and at last he did not spare his own brother Odo. Him he set in prison. Yet, among other things, we must not forget the good frith [peace] which he made in this land, so that a man that was good for aught might travel over the kingdom with his bosom full of gold without molestation; and no man durst slay another man, though he had suffered never so mickle evil from the other. He ruled over England; and by his cunning he was so thoroughly acquainted with it, that there is not a hide

The king was of ordinary stature, but inclined to corpulency. His countenance wore an air of ferocity, which, when he was agitated by passion, struck terror into every beholder. The story told of his strength at one period of his life almost exceeds belief. It is said that, sitting on horseback, he could draw the string of a bow which no other man could bend even on foot.

Harsh and repulsive in its main features though the government of William was, it was of great service to England, in that it was firm and equal. The Conqueror would allow no one to oppress but himself; and so the country was spared the establishment of petty baronial tyrants throughout the land, with the necessary accompaniments of private warfare and constant rebellion. The English, on the other hand, were taught by the great Witena-gemot at Salisbury to look to the sovereign, not to any local potentate, for redress of wrongs; it was upon them that William relied when it was necessary to chastise the rebellious adventurers who had accompanied him across the channel. His rules of law were not inequitably fitted to the wants of a mixed population, and beneath their iron discipline the nation educated itself by suffering, and learnt to become united and self-reliant. The Church also gained considerably by his reforms. Its provincialism was corrected, and it was brought in contact with western Christendom. The establishment of the supremacy of Canterbury over York was also a great step in the direction of ordered ecclesiastical government. At the same time, as we have seen, both papal and ecclesiastical pretentions were carefully kept in check, and during the Conqueror's reign no collisions between Church and State disturbed the peace of the realm. His establishment of separate ecclesiastical courts to try ecclesiastical cases threw open the door to many abuses, which, however, did not come to a head until the time of Henry II. It may be mentioned, by the way, that the word Conqueror was not used in those times in its present acceptance, but meant "The Gainer." William invariably professed to regard himself not as a usurper, but as a lawful heir to the English throne.

King William had issue, besides his three sons who survived him, five daughters, namely—1. Cicely, a nun in the monastery of Fécamp, afterwards abbess in the Holy Trinity at Caen, where she died in 1127. 2. Constantia, married to Alan Fergent, Count of Brittany: she died without issue. 3. Alice, contracted to Harold. 4. Adela, married to Stephen, Earl of Blois, by whom she had four sons—William, Theobald, Henry, and Stephen—of whom the eldest was neglected on account of the imbecility of his understanding. 5. Agatha, who died a virgin, but was betrothed to the King of Galicia: she died on her journey thither, before she joined her bridegroom.