ap

Pope, he obliged Thomas, a Norman monk, who had been pointed to the fee of York, to acknowledge the primacy of the archbishop of Canterbury ". Where ambition can be so happy as to cover its attempts, even to the perfon himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of all human paffions. Hence Lanfranc's zeal to promote the interefts of the papacy, by which he himself augmented his own authority, was indefatigable *; and met with proportionable fuccefs. The devoted attachment to Rome continually increased in England; and being favoured by the fentiments of the conquerors, as well as by the monaftic establishments formerly introduced by Edred, and by Edgar, it foon reached the fame height, at which, during fome time, it had ftood in France and Italy. It afterwards went much farther; being favoured by that very remote fituation, which had at first obftructed its progrefs; and being lefs checked by knowledge and a liberal education, which were still somewhat more common in the fouthern countries.

THE prevalence of this fuperftitious fpirit became very dangerous to fome of William's fucceffors, and very incommodious to most of them; but the arbitrary power of this King over the English, and his extenfive authority over the foreigners, kept him from feeling any prefent inconveniencies from it. He retained the church in great fubjection, as well as his lay subjects ; and would allow none, of whatever character, to difpute his

Chron. Sax. p. 175, 176. Brompton, p. 970, 971, 972. Fleta, cap. 6.

y M. Weft. p. 228. Lanfranc wrote in defence of the real prefence against Berengarius; and in thofe ages of stupidity and ignorance, he was greatly applauded for that performance.

CHAP.
IV.

1070.

fovereign will and pleasure. He prohibited his fubjects to aeknowledge any one for Pope whom he himself had not previously received: He required, that all the ecclefiaftical canons, voted in any fynod, fhould first be laid before him, and be ratified by his authority: Even bulls or letters from Rome, before they were produced, muft receive the fame fanction: And none of his minifters or barons, whatever offences they were guilty of, must be fubjected to fpiritual cenfures, till he himself had given his confent to their excommunication ". These regulations were worthy of a fovereign, and kept united the civil and ecclefiaftical powers, which the principles introduced by this prince had an immediate tendency to separate.

BUT the English had the cruel mortification to find, that their King's authority, however acquired or however extended, was all employed to their oppreffion; and that the scheme of their subjection, attended with every circumftance of infult and indignity, was deliberately formed by the prince, and wantonly profecuted by his followers". William had even entertained the difficult project of totally abolishing the English language; and, for that purpose, he ordered, that in all the schools throughout the kingdom, the youth should be instructed in the French tongue, a practice which was continued from custom till after the reign of Edward III. and was never indeed totally difcontinued in England. The pleadings in the fupreme courts of judicature were in French: The deeds were often drawn in the fame language: The laws were compofed in that idiom: No other tongue was used at court: It became

the language of all fashionable focieties; and the English themselves, afhamed of their own country, affected to excel in that foreign dialect. From this attention of William, and from the extensive foreign dominions, long annexed to the crown of England, proceeded that mixture of French, which is at present to be found in the English tongue, and which compofes the greatest and best part of our language. But amidst these endeavours to depress the English nation, the King, moved by the remonftrances of some of his prelates, and by the earnest desires of the people, restored a few of the laws of King Edward; which, though feemingly of no great confequence towards the protection of general liberty, gave them extreme fatisfaction, as a memorial of their antient government, and an unusual mark of complaisance in their imperious conquerors'.

THE fituation of the two great earls, Morcar and Edwin, became now very disagreeable. Though they had retained their allegiance; during the general infurrection of their countrymen, they had not gained the King's confidence, and they found themselves expofed to the malignity of the courtiers, who envied them on account of their opulence and greatnefs, and

Ingulf, p. 88. Brompton, p. 982. Knyghton, p. 2355. Hoveden, p. 6co. f What these laws were of Edward the Confeffor, which the English, every reign during a century and a half, defire fo paffionately to have restored, is much disputed by antiquaria s, and our ignorance of them feems one of the greatest defects in the antient English history. The colleation of laws in Wilkins, which pass under the name of Edward, are plainly a pofterior and an ignorant compilation. Those to be found in Ingulf are genuine; but fo imperfect, and contain fo few claufes favourable to the fubject, that we fee no great reafon for contending for them fo vehemently. It is probable, that the English meant the common law, as it prevailed during the reign of Edward; which we may conjecture to have been more indulgent to liberty than the Norman initutions. The most material articles of it were comprehended in Magna Charta.

CHAP.

IV.

1070.

1071

CHAP.

W.

1071.

at the fame time involved them in that general contempt which they bore the English. Senfible that they had entirely loft their dignity, and could not even hope to remain long in fafety; they determined, though too late, to run the fame fate with their countrymen ; and while Edwin retired to his estate in the north, with a view of commencing an infurrection, Morcar took fhelter in the Ifle of Ely with the brave Hereward, who, fecured by the inacceffible fituation of that place, ftill defended himself against the Normans". But this attempt served only to accelerate the ruin of the few English, who had hitherto been able to preferve their rank or fortune during the past convulfions. William employed all his endeavours to fubdue the Isle of Ely; and having furrounded it with flat-bottomed boats, and made a causeway through the moraffes for the extent of two miles, he obliged the rebels to surrender at difcretion'. Hereward alone forced his way, fword in hand, through the enemy; and ftill continued his hoftilities by fea against the Normans, till at laft William, charmed with his bravery, received him into favour, and restored him to his eftate. Earl Morcar, and Egelwin, bishop of Durham, who had joined the malcontents, were thrown into prifon, and the latter foon after died in confinement *. Edwin, attempting to make his escape into Scotland, was betrayed by fome of his followers; and was killed by a party of Normans, to the great affliction of the English, and even to that of William, who paid a tribute of generous tears to the memory of this gallant and beautiful youth'. The King of Scotland, in hopes of profiting by these convulfions, had fallen upon the northern * Sim. Dun. p. 203. Brompton, p. 96.). Knyghton, p. 2347. Hoveden, p. 454. Alur. Beverl. p. 131 Hoveden, p. 454. M. Weft. p. 227. p. 203. Alur. Beverl. p. 131

Chron. Sax p. 181. Flor. Wig. p. 637. M. Paris, p. 5. Sim. Dun. * Flor. Wig. p. 637. Sim. Dun. p. 203.

Order. Vital. p. 521. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 48.
9

counties;

IV.

1071.

counties; but on the approach of William, he retired; and CHAP. when the King entered his country, he was glad to make peace, and to pay the usual homage to the English crown m To compleat the King's profperity, Edgar Atheling himself, despairing of fuccefs, and weary of a fugitive life, submitted to his enemy; and receiving a handsome allowance, was permitted to live in England unmolested ". But these acts of generofity towards the leaders were difgraced, as ufual, by William's rigour against the inferior malcontents. He ordered the hands to be lopt off, and the eyes to be put out, of

many of the prisoners, whom he had taken in the Isle of Ely; and he dispersed them in that miferable condition through the country, as monuments of his severity.

THE province of Maine in France had, by the will of Hebert, the last count, fallen under the dominion of William fome years before his conqueft of England; but the inhabitants, dif fatisfied with the Norman government, and instigated by Fulk, count of Anjou, who had fome pretenfions to the fucceffion, now rose in rebellion, and expelled the magistrates, whom the King had placed over them. The full fettlement of England afforded him leisure to punish this infult on his authority; but being unwilling to remove his Norman forces from this ifland, he carried over a confiderable army, compofed almost entirely of English', and joining them to fome troops levied in Normandy, he entered the revolted province. The English appeared ambitious of diftinguishing themselves on this occa

m Chron. de Mailr. p. 16c. Hoveden, p. 454. M. Weft. p. 227. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 48. M. Paris, p. 5. Malmef. p. 103. Hoveden, p. 452. Flor. Wig. p. 638. • Hoveden, p. 454. tim. Dun. p. 2c3.

n Chron. de Mailr. p. 160. M. Paris, p. 5.

.P Chron. Sax. p. 182.

1073,

fion,