THE NORMAN INVASION.

The Normans—Their Settlement in France—Their gradual Civilization—Richard the Good—Robert the Devil—William's earlier years—His Consolidation of Power—Harold's Adventures in Normandy and the Story of his Oath to William—Death and Character of Edward—Election of Harold—William's Claims—He obtains the Sanction of the Church—His Preparations—Proceedings of Tostig—Harold's Forces dwindle—Invasion of Tostig and Harold Hardrada—Battle of Stamford Bridge—Landing of William—Harold in London—Desertion of Edwin and Morcar—Negotiations—Harold at Senlac—Account of the Battle—Death of Harold and Discomfiture of the English—His Burial—Legend of his Escape.

Before narrating Harold's adventures in Normandy, and the oath which he is said to have sworn to William there, it may be well to give an account of the rise of the formidable power of which William was now the ruler. The Normans, or Northmen, were, when they first come within the ken of history, bands of piratical adventurers, and were practically identical with the Danes, the term being loosely used for the inhabitants of what we now call the Scandinavian kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. In the previous chapters, a description has been given of the invasions and settlements of these barbarians in England; but England was by no means the only country which they vexed by their depredations, and the northern coast of France afforded an equally suitable place of debarkation for their hordes.

Upon the French, as upon the English, the enemy at first contented themselves with inflicting yearly raids, without any intention of occupying the land; but in 912, Rollo the Ganger, or Walker, so called because he was too tall to ride, a leader after the stamp of Guthrum, seized from Charles the Simple, king of the West Franks—for France was not as yet a united kingdom—land on both sides of the Seine, with Rouen for its capital, and an arrangement was made between the two at Clair-sur-Epte, which has been compared to the treaty of Wedmore. By it Rollo promised to embrace Christianity, and to do homage to Charles. The well-known story has it that he was too proud to go through the ceremony, which consisted in kissing the king's feet, but deputed it to one of his soldiers, who, by raising the royal foot to his mouth, instead of stooping towards it, well-nigh upset his Frankish majesty. Despite his promise, Rollo speedily relapsed into heathendom, and, together with his son, William Longsword, proceeded to add to his territories. A large district passed into the hands of the Normans by conquest, including Avranches, Lisieux, and Caen.

It was some time before the Normans became French, but they were gradually assimilated to the people round them, even as the Danes had been in England. The change was accomplished in the reign of the third duke, Richard the Fearless (943-996), when the whole race embraced Christianity, and adopted the French language, Norse being the speech, however, of the people who dwelt round Bayeux. The Normans were a very receptive race, and wherever they wandered throughout Europe they adopted whatever customs were best in the people with whom they came in contact. They learned new modes of fighting; they acquired new weapons, the shield, the hauberk, the lance, and the long-bow; they became masterly horsemen. Further, they developed that impressive style of architecture which is still called by their name, and built churches and monasteries, important among which is the Abbey of Bec, whence came both Lanfranc and St. Anselm in aftertimes; they founded bishoprics. In a word, they transformed themselves with remarkable swiftness from a race of depredators into one of the most cultivated of the peoples of Europe. It was during the reign of Richard the Fearless that Hugh Capet, on the death of the last of the descendants of Charles the Great, founded the French monarchy by a process of conquest, and made Paris his capital. In this great achievement he would never have succeeded had it not been for the assistance of Richard, who was his brother-in-law. In return, the Duke of Normandy ceased to be called by his neighbours "Dux Piratarum" ("the Duke of the Pirates"), and became the loyal vassal of the King of the French. Normandy formed one of the noblest territories dependent on the Capetian dynasty, but its dukes took care that their liberties were in no degree infringed.

The next duke, Richard the Good, Ethelred's contemporary, has been already mentioned in this work (see p. 58). His reign is chiefly remarkable for the fact that in it we begin to hear of those noble families which afterwards played so great a part in English history. The marriage between Emma and Ethelred was the first link in the chain of events which led to the conquest of England, and it was at the Norman court that Edward the Confessor acquired his foreign sympathies. After a reign of about thirty years, Richard died in 1026.

On his death the kingdom was distributed between the rival brothers, Richard the Third and Robert. Richard, however, was regarded as duke during the two ensuing years, and on his death, in 1028, was succeeded by Robert. He is known to history as "the Devil," though it is very difficult to tell why, and after a somewhat brief reign he died, in 1035, on his way back from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

On the death of Robert, his son William was about eight years old; moreover, of illegitimate birth, his mother being the daughter of a tanner at Falaise. But Robert, before his departure, had caused his nobles to swear allegiance to William, and the law of hereditary descent was far more strictly regarded in France than in England. These facts, joined to the consideration that possible successors of the line of Rollo were not easily to be found, caused William's accession to be undisputed. Nevertheless, the period of his minority was one of much confusion, during which the boy-duke's life was in perpetual danger, and his position was the more precarious because the King of the French began to show signs of animosity towards the great semi-independent state to the north of his dominions. In 1047 William began to act for himself, and when an attempt was made by the nobles to wrest the western part of his dominions from him, he overthrew the rebels, with the grudgingly offered aid of Henry of France, at Val-Ès-Dunes. After this crushing triumph, his power was secure. He surrounded himself with a splendid nobility, of whom William Fitz-Osbern and Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, his two half-brothers by his mother's marriage with Baldwin of Conteville, and Robert of Mortain, were to make themselves feared on the other side of the channel. The Church was munificently rewarded for its support, and among his most magnificent buildings was the AbbÉ aux Hommes at Caen. Not only did he recover all the dominions that the Norman dukes had ever held, but he twice defeated the French king, Henry, when he invaded his dominions, and in 1063 made his great Continental acquisition in the conquest of Maine. Despite the Papal inhibition, he took to wife Matilda, the daughter of Count Baldwin of Flanders, in 1052, and endured the ban without much inconvenience until 1060. His visit to England, and the claim, worthless though it was, that he built upon it, have already been mentioned (see p. 70). In the last years of the reign of the Confessor (the exact date is unknown) the hazard of fortune placed his rival, Harold, in his power for the time being, and he made excellent use of the opportunity.

One day Harold, while sailing in the channel, was driven by tempest on the territory of Guy, Count of Ponthieu, who, being informed of his quality, immediately detained him prisoner, and demanded an exorbitant sum for his ransom. Harold found means to convey intelligence of his situation to the Duke of Normandy; and represented that he had met with extremely harsh treatment from the mercenary disposition of the Count of Ponthieu, who was William's vassal.

William was immediately sensible of the importance of the incident: he foresaw that if he could once gain Harold, either by favours or menaces, his way to the throne of England would be open, and Edward would meet with no further obstacle in executing the favourable intentions which he had entertained on his behalf. He sent, therefore, a messenger to Guy, in order to demand the liberty of his prisoner; and that nobleman, not daring to refuse so great a prince, put Harold into the hands of the Norman, who conducted him to Rouen. William received him with every demonstration of respect and friendship; and even persuaded him to take part in a campaign which he was waging with Count Conan of Brittany, in which Harold highly distinguished himself, and was rewarded with the compliment of knighthood. In his anxiety to be allowed to return home, Harold appears to have compromised himself by taking some sort of oath, which William attempted to make additionally binding by a curious trick. He caused Harold, when he swore, to place his hand on a chest, and then, withdrawing the cover, showed the Englishman the relics of the saints, which had been collected from all parts of Normandy. This device is quite in keeping with the ideas of that time, and any breach of the engagement would have been considered a most wicked act of perjury, even though the taker of the oath was not aware of the solemnity of the promises he had made.

The terms of the oath are quite uncertain. Harold remained, so far as we know, absolutely silent on the subject, and his silence naturally conduces to the belief that he must have made some stipulations that he had no right to make. Professor Freeman strives hard to prove that he only promised to marry William's daughter, and that he did homage to him as his future father-in-law. The Norman chroniclers assert that he did homage to William as his future king, and promised in the meantime to deliver to him the castle of Dover, and to marry his daughter. It is hardly credible that Harold, though his position was a very difficult one, can have compromised himself in this manner; but it is possible that he may have thought that no price was too heavy to pay for freedom, and may have consoled himself by reflecting that to pledge himself to William as his future king was perfectly illegal, inasmuch as the election lay in the hands of the Witena-gemot. In any case, whatever understanding was concluded, Harold made no attempt on his return to carry it out, but continued in that line of conduct by which he accustomed the people of England to regard him as their future sovereign; and broke one of the conditions, at any rate, by marrying the daughter of Ælfgar, the widow of Griffith of Wales. He was so completely successful that the Confessor, on his death-bed (he died on January 5th, 1066) requested the Witena-gemot to choose Harold as his successor, and said nothing concerning William of Normandy, or any promises that had been made to him at the time of his visit to England.

Edward, to whom the Church has given the title of Saint and Confessor, was the last of the direct line of the West Saxon kings that ruled in England. Though his reign was peaceable and fortunate, he owed his prosperity less to his own abilities than to the conjunctures of the times. The Danes, employed in other enterprises, did not attempt those incursions which had been so troublesome to his predecessors, and fatal to some of them. The facility of his disposition made him acquiesce in the government of Godwin and his son Harold; and the abilities, as well as the power of these noblemen, enabled them, while they were entrusted with authority, to preserve domestic peace and tranquillity. The most commendable circumstance of Edward's government was his attention to the administration of justice; and he is said to have compiled, for that purpose, a body of laws, which he collected from the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and Alfred. This compilation, if it ever existed, is now lost (for the laws that pass under Edward's name were composed afterwards), and it is thought that when we find the English in after-times asking for a renewal of King Edward's laws, they do not allude to any definite code, but simply to the old customs generally. But, while praising Edward for his rectitude of conduct, we ought not to forget that his weak dependence upon Norman favourites in the earlier part of the reign was the cause of infinite disaster to the nation in the years that followed his death. He was, in fact, as it has been often said, more fitted for a Norman cloister than for the English throne.

The election of Harold by the Witena-gemot was duly effected on the Feast of the Epiphany, the claims of the Atheling, Edgar, apparently not having been taken into serious consideration, so important was it felt to be that a capable man should have command in times when an invasion might be expected at any moment. William, as may be imagined, was not long in putting in his claim to the throne; and, having summoned Harold to fulfil the promises that he had made in Normandy (to which summons answer was returned that the promises were such as Harold could not possibly perform), he proceeded to set out a most ingenious statement of the rights which he asserted were his. They were absolutely worthless, but probably produced the desired effect on the Continent—an impression that William was the victim of fraud. In the first place, he based his claim to the crown on his descent; he was, he declared, Edward's next-of-kin through Edward's mother, Emma. This, of course, was not true, Edgar being considerably nearer in relationship; and even so, it would only entitle him to a certain amount of preference. Secondly, he declared that Edward had left him the crown, but such a bequeathal was, as we have seen, quite beyond the power of an English king, even if it was ever definitely made, of which no written proof was produced. Thirdly, he told the story of Harold's oath, which the latter had no right to take. Very few men among the English appear to have been won over by these specious arguments, but upon the Continent, and especially in France, where men were probably in ignorance of English customs, it is not improbable that they carried considerable weight, especially when backed by the authority of the Church. For William was careful to obtain this powerful sanction, and thereby he invested the invasion with the character of a war of religion.

To the shallow arguments about the perjury of Harold, he was cunning enough to add others of more solid worth, namely, that he would bring the Church of England more thoroughly under the control of Rome than it had hitherto been, and especially would cause the Papal dues to be more regularly paid. These last considerations could not but have much influence with the Pope, Alexander II., and William's envoys were fortunate to gain over the man who had the entire ascendency in the Papal counsels, the famous Hildebrand, who afterwards became Pope Gregory the Seventh. The Pope, therefore, announced his cordial sanction of the enterprise, and despatched to the Norman Duke a consecrated banner, and a ring containing some of St. Peter's hair.

William now set himself seriously to work to gain allies, and to get an army ready. He applied in the first instance to the King of France; but William was already too powerful a vassal, and his overtures were rejected from policy. Nothing daunted, he next addressed himself to his father-in-law, Count Baldwin of Flanders. Baldwin listened to him, and helped him to the utmost of his power. His own subjects were at first unwilling to take part in the undertaking, but William won them over by his cajoleries. By the middle of August, 1066, the Duke of Normandy had collected or built upwards of 900 large vessels, without counting those destined to serve as means of transport, and had under his command 50,000 horsemen and 10,000 foot soldiers. However, he did not hurry his preparations, for everything was turning out in his favour.

For William was not the only enemy against whom the unfortunate Harold had to contend. His unscrupulous and selfish brother, Tostig, also determined to make a dash for the crown, hopes of which he had entertained previously to his banishment, since he was a favourite with the Confessor, and the king had been very unwilling to part with him. Early in the year he applied for assistance to William, but the duke, although eager enough to profit by his folly, would give him no assistance. Thereupon, having collected some ships from the ports of Flanders, Tostig made a wild descent upon the south of England, and plundered the coast from the Isle of Wight to Sandwich. Driven away by the approach of Harold, he directed his forces to the Humber, but was beaten off by Edwin and Morcar, and forced to take refuge in Scotland.

All this while Harold had been watching the south coast, daily expecting to see the ships of William in the channel. But William never came, and the English churls were longing for their homes and harvests, so that the forces began to dwindle away. The English army, it should be remembered, was a militia, serving without pay and under compulsion. Such a force was particularly unwieldy, and particularly hard to keep together. At last, on September the 8th, the provisions failed, and Harold was compelled to disband his forces, leaving the southern coast bare.

Hardly had he done so, when he received tidings of a most formidable invasion of the north. The restless Tostig, undismayed by the utter miscarriage of his previous ventures, went in quest of allies to the courts of the North, and after an unsuccessful visit to the King of Sweden, obtained the powerful assistance of the King of Norway, Harold Hardrada, one of the greatest warriors of his time. The Norwegian king made his appearance with a powerful fleet at the mouth of the Tyne, and there Tostig joined him with the remnants of his former expedition.

They sailed some way up the Ouse, and then struck inland towards York, but at Fulford were met by the Earls Edwin and Morcar, at the head of a numerous host. The earls, however, were defeated with heavy loss, and the city of York, after a mutual exchange of hostages with the invaders, agreed to open its gates to receive Harold Hardrada as their king, and to join him in a war against Harold of England.

Harold Hardrada thereupon withdrew to Stamford Bridge, and it was there that Harold found him and the traitor Tostig. He had hastily gathered together an army consisting of his house-carls, thegns, and such men as could be collected on the spur of the moment, and advanced northwards by forced marches. On September the 25th he was in York, and, passing rapidly through it, fell upon the Northmen at Stamford Bridge, before they were aware that he was in the neighbourhood. The battle was fiercely contested, nevertheless, and though the Northmen, on the nearer side of the river Derwent, were driven into it and drowned, those on the farther side put themselves in battle array, and, by the time the English were over the bridge, were ready to meet them. After a tough contest, however, Harold Hardrada and Tostig were slain, and the enemy completely dispersed. According to the spirited account of Henry of Huntingdon, there was a parley between the two hosts before the battle, in which Harold offered Northumberland to Tostig, but to Harold Hardrada "six feet of the ground of England, or perchance more, seeing that he is taller than other men." This version of the story is, however, rejected by Professor Freeman, because of its inaccuracies of detail, though the conversation is consistent with what we know of the characters of Harold and Tostig. Harold was no less humane than brave. Instead of putting to death Olaf, the son of Hardrada, and the other captives who had fallen into his hands, he allowed them to go in peace. William of Malmesbury also relates that he offended a portion of his army by refusing them a share of the plunder, and that many in consequence abandoned his standard.

Had it not been for the impossibility of keeping the English host together, and for the absence of Harold in the north, it is difficult to see how William could ever have effected a landing. As it was, however, his course was perfectly unopposed upon the sea, and a landing was safely effected at Pevensey on September 29th, four days after the battle of Stamford Bridge. It is said that as William stepped on shore he fell, and rose with a morsel of earth in his hand, whereupon one of his followers happily remarked that he had taken seisin of the land. The investment, or seisin, in landed property was accomplished in those days by the lord presenting a clod of earth to his vassal, hence the remark was very pertinent.

From Pevensey, William marched to Hastings, and ravaged the country for provisions, constructing at the same time a wooden fort as a secure basis of operations. Harold was at York when he received the intelligence of the landing of the Norman host, and he made hot haste to London, whence he issued a summons to all the men of England to come to his aid against the invader.

But in the supreme hour of the fortunes of the English kingdom, it was found that the old disunion which the kings of Wessex had in vain attempted to overcome, was still as potent a factor for evil as in the days of the Danish invasions. From Wessex, and from the earldoms of Harold's brothers, men readily came to defend the fatherland; but Edwin and Morcar, with a short-sightedness and ingratitude which are almost incredible, kept back the men of the North, under the expectation that William, if he overcame, would be content with Wessex and the South, and that so the house of Leofric would profit by the overthrow of the house of Godwin.

Harold abode in London for six days, gathering his host together, and entered into negotiations with Duke William. That there was any sincerity on either side may be doubted, and probably the first proposal, which was sent apparently by Harold, was only made to gain time. It is said that William was offered a sum of money to depart. To this William replied by a series of clever propositions, of which the first was that Harold should give up the kingdom in exchange for the earldom of Northumberland, an offer which, if made, shows that the Norman duke by no means felt the ground to be safe under his feet. Then he is related to have appealed to the mediation of the Pope, a tolerably safe proposal, considering his previous dealings with the Holy See. Lastly, he is said to have challenged Harold to single combat, an offer which the king likewise declined, on the ground that this was not a mere personal quarrel, but a matter in which the whole English nation was concerned.

By the end of six days, Harold had collected a considerable force, and determined to risk a battle, and a consideration which influenced him not a little was the difficulty of provisioning so large a host without causing annoyance to the people. Here, as on previous occasions in his career, Harold was actuated by motives of humanity; but it may be doubted whether it would not have been wise to wait for more levies, and then overwhelm the Normans, who, man for man, were far better warriors than the English, by sheer numbers. He advanced, however, southwards, and halted on a hill called Senlac, to the north-west of Hastings.

The position was a very strong one, and Harold, with great military skill, fortified it with a palisade, thereby making a most formidable barrier against the Norman cavalry. The battle of Senlac, or Hastings, as it is popularly called, was fought on the 14th of October, and the evening before it was spent, it is said, by the Normans in prayer, and by the English in drinking and the singing of songs.

The battle began about nine o'clock. The English host was marshalled behind the palisade, all on foot, for they, unlike the Normans, were never fond of fighting on horseback, and Harold, with his brothers Gurth and Leofwine, stood under the royal standard. Against them the Normans advanced in three divisions, of which William commanded the centre. On the left was Alan of Brittany, with a force of Bretons, and troops from Maine and Poitou; on the right was Roger of Montgomery, at the head of the mercenary troops, whom William had hired from wherever they could be collected. The first attack failed completely, and the Normans, after a vain attempt to break down the palisade, were driven back in confusion, the Bretons being the first to fly. Unfortunately, in their excitement, some of the English soldiers pursued beyond the palisade, and were easily cut down in the plain. In the second attack, William of Normandy was unhorsed by Earl Gurth, but went against him on foot and cut him down; about the same time Leofwine was also slain.

Still, the English barrier was intact, and it seemed as if the Normans must withdraw in discomfiture. But William's generalship was equal to the occasion. He had seen how helpless the English were upon the open plain, and he resolved, therefore, to lure them from behind their defences by a feigned flight. The ruse was successful, and a considerable portion of the English army suffered for disobedience of Harold's orders by being compelled to make their escape as best they could to the broken ground to the back of the hill.

Still Harold fought on, and as evening was coming on, it seemed as if he might even yet be able to hold the field. Then William bethought him of another plan, and ordered his archers to shoot into the air, whereby the English were seriously incommoded. One of the falling shafts pierced Harold through the eye, and he was mortally wounded. The battle was to all intents ended when he died; his house-carls were killed at their posts, the light-armed troops fled into the rocks and swamps, inflicting severe losses upon such of their enemies as ventured to pursue them.

Thus did William of Normandy win the great battle of Hastings, which lasted from sunrise to sunset, and which, for the valour displayed by both armies and their leaders, was worthy to decide a contest for a crown. William, in the course of the battle, had three horses killed under him, and lost nearly fifteen thousand men; the loss of the English was probably considerably more.

William, at the height of his success, gave orders for the whole army to fall on their knees, and return God thanks for so signal a victory; after which he caused his tent to be pitched on the field of battle, and spent the residue of the night among the slain. Not less perhaps in gratitude for the past, than in the hope that such a work would procure him heavenly favour for the future, he solemnly vowed that he would erect a splendid abbey on the scene of this his first victory; and when this vow was accomplished, the altar of the abbey church stood on the spot where the standard of Harold had been planted. The holy house thus founded was called Battle Abbey.

On the morrow, he ordered his own dead to be buried, and gave the English peasants leave to do the same office for the others; but William refused to give up Harold's body to his mother, Gytha. An ancient manuscript in the Cottonian library, apparently written at Waltham Abbey about a hundred years after the battle, relates that two monks were deputed by William to search for the body of the king. Unable to distinguish it among the nameless dead by which it was surrounded, they sent for Harold's mistress, Edith, called "The Swan-necked," whose eye of affection was not to be deceived. It was buried under a heap of stones, whence William afterwards permitted it to be removed to Waltham.

There is a story related by Giraldus Cambrensis, that Harold, after receiving his wound, escaped from the field, and lived several years an anchorite in a cell near St. John's Church, in Chester. This account is, however, in the highest degree improbable, and there is no reason to doubt that the last of the Saxon kings died a soldier's death on the field of Hastings.