WILLIAM THE GREAT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 18 June 1927, Page 21

WILLIAM THE GREAT

(By "Ajax.»)

The honour paid to William the Conqueror or by his adopted country last week is to be repeated next month by the country of his origin, and apparently on a larger scale. The scene of the celebration is to be Falaise,the pretty little Norman town on the banks of the Aute where he was born 900 years ago, and which after he had won the Battle of Hastings remained in the possession of tho.-Kin,gs of England for nearly four centuries. Even on the English side the Hastings celebrations may be bettered at Falaise if the proposal to invite the members of the English aristocracy wno are descended in the male line from, the Conqueror's com-panions-in-arms is carried out. The number of English families entitled to be represented will, according to the "Observer," be fairly large. The Earl of Huntingdon, itr says, is the linea. qes cendant of the Conqueror's steward. Viscount Hereford represents the fam-: ily of Deyereux, whose ancestors, hailing from Evreux in Normandy, came over with William I. and were given grants of lands which have never been alienated. Another name mentioned is that of Sir George Beaumont. It is surprising to learn that many of us who dp. not .^belong to the aristocracy have really jusfas good a right to an invitation as any of these big-wigs. '"•The number of actual descendants 'of -William the Conqueror himself in ■-■:■ England "must, says the "Observer," {be exceedingly large. One authority, /indeed, is of .opinion that the percen- .; r tage might be even' as" high as a quar- : ter of the present population. As this country is more English, than England' herself, and therefore presumably more Norman, it must contain more than a quarter of a million of the Conqueror's descendants. .-'. . If these 250,000, count for 500^000 on a division, cannot prevail on Mr. Coates andJthe High "Commissioner to get; us our rights in the shape of invitations to-; Falaise, it is. surely time for us 'to Tote for' somebody, else. ' "We owe to Normandy,". says/Charles H. Pearson, "the. builder,'the knight, the schoolman, and the statesman." It was the military power, of the Normans that gave them thei chance of endowing a far larger country with all these good things,: and of / doing ■ there a far greater-work than they had been able to accomplish in their own. But in the absence of any commensurate naval power 'it } seems that caance: played a large part in enabling William to get his opportunity at Hastings. Harold had assembled at the Isle of Wight the largest: army and navy that England had" ever seen to meet the threatened invasion, but hunger and home-sickness had compelled him to'disband his forces while the Normans were weather-bound at the mouth of the Somme. The same wind which held ,lip:. William with his 696 ships—the lowest estimate—and fighting men conjectured to number between 10,000 and 15,000, brought a! Norwegian fleet of 300 gaileys'to the Humber. Harold raced northwards to meet th# invaders and smashed' them, at Stamford. Bridge on the 25th September, 1066. His return in advance of his army waß hastened during its. concluding stages by the news that William had landed itv;Pevensey, on the,*2Bth September. Regarding 'the"march of Harold's troops, Mt. Belldc makes an interesting statement in his "Warfare in England-"

The mass of the army, he writes (which was of course on foot), after that fine, march of 200 miles in nine days,.\ covered the same distance' in the same, time southward again, with that great fight of : Stamford Bridge an between. The host was actually marching out of London upon Tuesday, 11th October. It is worthy'of remark that no army in this island has covered such,a distance in such a time since that date.

: .. Yet,' great ■y as these performances were, Mr;, Belloc calls the speed which enabled Harold to have his men in posi-. tion before: the Normans on Battle Hill by the evening-of the- 13th October a still greater? feat. " The- army, he says,- had covered nearer 60 than 50 miles in forty-eight hours, and" that over worse country by far than the great northern road which had permitted'their rapid dash to the^ south; This splendid achievement was, however, yet another cause for defeat. The drivers of the nor'

them shirei could ;not follow so rapid a march, ndr'had those ol" the west '; come up when the'issue-was decided. It is beyond a doubt that' the better team won at Hastings, but it is also clear that the , luck was against the losers both on sea and on land. Mr. Belloc displays more than his usual caution when ho says that "it is possible that if the shock had come during those preliminary manoeuvres, arid if William had crossed in summer, the first decisive action might have favoured Harold." But could he have crossed at. all? In the <'Political History of England" Dr. Hodgkin takes a more decisive view than Mr. Belloc. ■ ". The. delay of those summer months, :• during which invasion was impending from two quarters at once, was, he says, disastrous for England. . . . .Had "William made his invasion then, ; ; it may fairly be conjectured that he ' would never have sat on the throne \'; of England.

y Tier© is certainly no need, nor even any excuse for sentimentalising over the England that' lost the day, nor does Dr. Hodgkin do so;^ As a matter ;of fact,'there was no England yet,' nor there any; prospect of its emerging from the petty-politics of the quarrelsome tribes. The century and a half that had passed since the death of Alfred, had seen his great work destroyed. ■ It is enough to say, writes : Dr. ";.' Hodgkin, that a great and grievous , transformation had come over the _ Anglo-Saxon character since the days of Oswald, and even since tho days .of Alfred. The splendid dawn of , English and especially of Northunv :': brian Christianity in the seventh con / tury had been early obscured. The

;■■"• nation had lost some of • the virtue!" , of heathendom, and had not retained . all that it had acquired of the vir- , tues of Christianity. Of its politi- , cal incapacity during the last cen- . tury before the Conquest is sufficient •• evidence, . .A tendency to swinish self-indulgence and the sins of the .-: flesh in some of their most degrad- : ing forms had marred the national character. There was still in it much good metal, but if the Anglo-Snxon "was to do anything worth doing in the world, -it was necessary that it shonrd be passed through the fire and hammered on the anvil. The fire, the anvil, and the hammer were about, to

be applied with unsparing' hand by the, Norman conquerors. ■'■/,. '.'■' Under this rigorous treatment the old metal acquired a new temper, and a nation was evolved which in the course of a few centuries became- the greatest Power in the world. Writing apparently; with his eye on Freeman and dissenting from the view "that everything great and good in; England is AngloSaxon in origin," Professor A. F.PolJard writes of the country's needs as follows:— '" ■'"". England indeed was still in the crudest stages of its making; it had '■.■■*■ yet no law worth the name, no jrial by jury, no Parliament, no leal

constitution,' noj.effective army or , navy,; no universities, few schools, i hardly-.any,literature, and little,art. The very common'law of England, 1 the same authority points out—"common because it admitted no local bars and no provincial prejudices"—was the outcome of the legal principles introduced by the Normans. One -great stride, Professor Pollard proceeds, had been taken in the making of the English nation, when the King's. Court, trespassing upon local popular and feudal jurisdiction. , dumped - upon the Anglo-Saxon mar ket the following: among other for eign legal concepts—assize, circuit suit, plaintiff,, defendant, mainten ance, livery, possession, property, pro 'bate, : recovery, trespass, treason, fel ony, fine, coroner, court, inquest judge, jury, justice,, verdict, taxa tion, charter, liberty, representation parliament, and constitution. It if difficult to over-estimate the debt th< English' people owe to their power.l of absorbing imports. The very watchwords, of-progress and catch . words of .liberty, from the trial by jury which' was ascribed to Alfred the. Great: to .the charter extorted from John, .were alien immigrants. These are; a : few ' of the trifles which England owes to.an invader of whom Freeman" had written:— The Norman found in the land the same English nation- which still exists. . . .He found it already exhibiting,^ in its laws, its language, its national character, the most essential of the features which it still retains. . In the- modification of the feudal system as .he introduced it into England,, in enforcing the allegiance or all landholders to himself, and in concentratingithe supreme power in his own hands, William added immensely to the efficiency of Government. At the same time 'he :builded=; better than be knew. ThatiMthe explanation' of English liberty>ia Vtp be found in the absolute power of {.her early. Kings" is surely not a fact-which he could have .fore-, seen or desire^, frr ecclesiastical policy William showed < the ■ same masterful grip_ and perhaps with a cleverer perception of consequences. He was glad tq.hav:e.;:tiie f P6pe'-s blessing 01. his expedition to 'England, i to separate, the spiritual from the temporal' courts^ and to carry out other important reforms which ■ equally suited the Pope's book and his own... But he insisted on retaining the .control of Mb own Church in an edict wliich has beer, called "the preamble to;. Henry VUl.'s assertion of State supremacy, " and when Gregory VII., one of the'greatest of the Popes, demanded his' allegiance -William replied via.' a: letter, of magnificent aimplieityVirad; strength:— -ToSth^ most (Excellent Pastor of . the Holy Church, Gregory, William, ■ by; the grace of Gbd r glorious King of the English" and ;Duke of the Nor-

: tnan|, greeting with affection. ;;■! ■■ your legate, Hubert, coining to me on your behalf, has ad- ■ monished me,to;do fealty to you and v to your successors, and to take better '•. heed touching the money which my : ancestors used to send to the Church of Borne. To the one request I con- -, sent, to the other I do not consent. : I have refused to do fealty, and I do rfefuse," because neither did I promise it,-nor, as I find, did my. predecessors do fealty to ; your .predecessors. As to th ■ money,;it was negligently collected for nearly three, years, while I was in France,.but now that Iby divine mercy''have returned to my kingdom, '. tnat which has been collected by the aforesaid legate is being sent, and the residue shall be dispatched by the messengers of our faithful, archbishop Lanfranc, when opportunity shall serve. Pray for me alid for'theiestate of our realm, because iwe have /loved. your predeces.sors and*desire'sincerely to love you before all men, and obediently to hear you. The concluding; profession of obedience must have given - Gregory great pleasure, but he does not appear to have put it<to the test;again. ■Another: striking example of William's independence: of church author1-. was his imprisonment of his brother Odo,- Bishop,!of Bayeux, and Earl of Kent. During William'a absence Odo had been acting as regent, and William returned .pa ;lay charges against him of oppre,i»ionji:;xpisgov'ernment, and a designed'make an expedition into Italy. WiU|am. ordered his arrest, but as ey«|y.body; else was: afraid to arrest a bisKbpihe had to do so with his own biifdi.'- ".;. -.;. •'■ ''■■■':c ■■■;■.•• '•■'

% #nd now.forthe first time in Eng- ■ Urid, says Freeman, we hear words • (Which were often heard again. The {bishop stained with .blood arid sacriSccy'appealed;to. the, privileges of his ,()rder. Ho.-was a clerk, a bishop; no wan might judge, him but tho Pop e ; William, L ta |-ht, bo- men said, by Larifranc, had his answer ready. "I do;not. seize a clerk,'or a bishop • I seize 'my earl whom I set over my |kingdpm.»> : sb'the Earl of Kent was (Jkrrie* off to'a prison in Normandy, arid Pope Gregory himself pleaded in vain for the rolease of the Bishop jßayeux./■ r '■

A^Kfng'wliq-inthat age of faith could arrest a Wsfcpp,;send him,to prison, and keep him there for'years in defiance of the|]?6pe was a King indeed^