WE shall divide this part of our history into four periods; 1. The Kings of the Norman Line; 2. Those of the House of Anjou; 3. Of the House of Lancaster; 4. Of the House of York.
The NORMAN KINGS.
WILLIAM I. sirnamed
[sic]
the Conqueror, gained a signal victory over King Harold, by which means he procured the crown of England. This Prince was the son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, by one of his mistresses called Harlotte, from whom some think the word harlot is derived; however, as this amour seems odd, we shall entertain the reader with an account of it. The Duke riding one day to take the air passed by a company of country girls, who were dancing, and was so taken with the graceful carriage of one of them, named Harlotte, a skinner's daughter, that he prevailed on her to cohabit with him, and she was ten months after delivered of William, who, having reigned 21 years, died at Rouen, in September, 1087.
WILLIAM II. sirnamed Rufus, succeeded his father; he built Westminster-hall, rebuilt London-bridge, and made a new wall round the Tower of London. In his time the sea overflowed a great part of the estate belonging to Earl Goodwin, in Kent, which is at this day called the Goodwin Sands. The King was killed accidentally by an arrow in the New Forest, and left no issue. He reigned fourteen years, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.
HENRY I. youngest son of William the Conqueror, succeeded his brother William II. in 1100. He reduced Normandy, and made his son Duke thereof. This Prince died in Normandy of a surfeit, by eating lampreys after hunting, having reigned 35 years.
STEPHEN, sirnamed of Blois, succeeded his uncle Henry I. in 1135; but being continually harassed by the Scotch and Welsh, and having reigned 19 years in an uninterrupted series of troubles, he died at Dover in 1154, and was buried in the Abbey at Feversham, which he had erected for the burial place of himself and family.
HENRY II. son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, succeeded Stephen in 1154. In him the Norman and Saxon blood was united, and with him began the race of the Plantagenets, which ended with Richard III. In this King's reign Thomas à Becket, son to a tradesman in London, being made Lord High Chancellor, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, affected on all occasions to oppose and to be independent of the court. The King hearing of his misbehaviour, complained that he had not one to revenge him on a wretched priest for the many insults he had put upon him. Hereupon four of his domestics, in hopes to gain favour, set out immediately for Canterbury, and beat out Thomas's brains with clubs, as he was saying vespers in his own cathedral, in so cruel a manner, that the altar was covered with blood. King Henry subdued Ireland, and died there in 1189, in the 34th year of his reign.
RICHARD I. succeeded his father Henry II. and was no sooner crowned than he took upon him the cross, and went with Philip, King of France, to the Holy Land in 1192. On his return he was detained by the Emperor Henry VI. and was obliged to pay 100,000 marks for his ransom. In a war which succeeded between England and France, Richard fought personally in the field, and gained a complete victory over the enemy, but was afterwards shot by an arrow at the siege of the Castle of Chalus, and died of the wound April 6, 1199.