PAGE 23 or silvered wands they bore. The colonel of a regiment of Life Guards is still called Gold Stick in England, and the field officer of the Life Guards, when on duty at the palace, is known as Silver Stick. Those fair sons: Harold and Harthacanute, who fell to quarrelling over the succession immediately after their father's death. 23 Look, the land is crowned with minsters. To atone for the bloodshed by which the kingdom was won, Canute had given generously to monasteries both in England and on the Continent. 24 24 24 25 26 communis omnibus: common to all men. Loathsome lepers. The monarchs of England from Edward the Confessor to Queen Anne were believed to have power to cure scrofula by a touch of the hand. Thackeray attributes this royal gift to Canute. Jewish captain: Joshua x. 12–14. And he sternly bade them. The words of the king, as reported by Huntingdon, were: "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." his golden crown of empire. The same chronicler states that Canute "thenceforth never wore his crown of gold, but placed it as a lasting memorial on the image of our Lord." 26 In heaven signs. A comet appeared in the sky this year (1065), and was thought to portend disaster. 27 27. The seven sleepers. The legend runs that seven young men of Ephesus, Christians, hid in a mountain cave to escape the persecution of the Emperor Decius. By his orders the mouth of the cavern was blocked up with stone, and here the seven youths miraculously slept 360 years, awaking then "with their faces fresh and blooming as roses," to testify to the resurrection from the dead. the great church of Holy Peter: Westminster Abbey. 27 27 28 Tostig: Harold's brother, Earl of Northumbria. William Malet: a Norman nobleman, one of William's retinue, but friendly to Harold. 29 My ransom'd prisoner. Harold's ship, bound to Flanders, was driven out of its course by contrary winds and wrecked on the coast of Ponthieu. According to the cruel custom of the times, Harold was PAGE 30 held for ransom by his captor. The price was paid by William that he might get possession of this formidable rival. William Rufus: the second son of William, and his successor on the English throne. 30 the great assembly choose their king. The Witan was accustomed to elect the ablest of the descendants of the dead king, but its choice was not limited to the royal line. 31 33 34 34 35 39 Wolfnoth: Harold's youngest brother, a hostage at the court of Normandy. He was kept a prisoner, first in Normandy and then in England, till his death. "Work for the tanner." had been a tanner at Falaise. William's grandfather on his mother's side Then for thine Edith. Edith was Harold's betrothed. The Atheling. Edgar, "the child," great-grandson of Ethelbert, was a boy of eight years. He was elected king after Harold's death, but was obliged to acknowledge William's conquest of the realm. He spent the greater part of his life in exile at the court of Scotland. my wife descends from Alfred. Matilda of Flanders, whose ancestors were descended from Alfrith, the daughter of King Alfred, was William's wife. Stigand: Archbishop of Canterbury, an Englishman who dreaded Norman rule. 40 Ha Rou, or Haro: an old French war-cry, perhaps of Gothic origin and allied to our hooray and hurrah. 40 40 41 42 the gonfanon of Holy Peter. The pope favored William's claim, and sent a consecrated banner as sign of his approval of the invasion of England. he bares his face. In the crisis of the battle the cry arose that William had fallen. He lifted the visor of his helmet and cried, "Here is Duke William," thus encouraging his followers to fresh effort. War-woodman of old Woden. The northern peoples, in their pagan days, had for chief god Odin or Woden, and one of their terms for a mighty warrior whose blade hewed down his enemies like trees was "Odin's Woodman." In his excitement, Stigand the Saxon, though a Christian priest, utters the old phrase. Gurth and Leofwin: Harold's brothers, who fell at Senlac Hill. PAGE 43 44 44 The day of St. Calixtus: October 14. in the third century. Calixtus was pope early a church to God. Battle Abbey was built to commemorate this. victory. the false Northumbrian: Morkere, who had been appointed earl of Northumbria in Tostig's place. When Tostig undertook to regain his earldom, Harold led an army to Morkere's aid and won for him the battle of Stamford Bridge (September 25, 1066). When Harold hurried south to meet William at Seniac Hill (October 14), Morkere refused to follow with his troops. 45 Of one self-stock at first. The Normans came originally from the same Scandinavian lands that had given birth to Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and Danes. The distinction between Norman and English, conqueror and conquered, did not disappear till the fourteenth century. 46 mitre and pall thou hast y-sold. William Rufus sold ecclesiastical appointments to the highest bidder without regard to the fitness of the candidate. 46 Steading and hamlet and churches tall. The Conqueror had devastated a good part of Hampshire to make room for the New Forest, that he might be able to hunt the wild deer in the neighborhood of Winchester. 46 Tyrrel, Walter: a French knight much trusted by William Rufus. 47 48 Some of the chroniclers state that he intended to kill his sovereign. He himself denied on oath that he had been near the king that day. Nevertheless, he fled to France. A hart of ten a hart of ten antlers. The more branches a stag's horn has the more of a prize he is for the hunter. fell to sanctuarie. The churches served as places of refuge in those wild times to all men fleeing from vengeance, no matter what their crime may have been. 49 "Clerkly Harry." He was called Henry Beauclerc (fine scholar) because of his devotion to letters. 49 his elder brother's eyes were gone. Duke Robert was thrown into prison and held there till his death, but there is no good evidence that he was blinded. 49 The poor flung ploughshares on his road: presumably to show that they would not till the fields for so hard a taskmaster. This is a PAGE misrepresentation. Henry was cruel to the barons, who withstood his will, but his stern enforcement of the law in behalf of the English people won for him the title "Lion of Justice." 50 his tribute's right: a token of feudal allegiance. 50 53 55 your father's foot did slip: an allusion to the story that William the Norman stumbled when first he set foot on English ground and fell prostrate. With great presence of mind he caught up a handful of earth as a sign of ownership, and so converted the bad omen into an augury of success. The Prince's sister: his half-sister, the Countess of Perche. When the Body of Christ goes down the street: when the sacramental bread, or wafer, is borne in priestly procession. 57 And he wept and mourned. Prince William was the son of Matilda, the niece of Edgar Atheling, and therefore descended from King Alfred. Born in England, he was loved by the people as an English prince. 61 Glocester: Robert, Earl of Glocester, Matilda's half-brother. 62 yon towers: the castle of Lincoln which had recently been in Stephen's hands. 62 63 The Empress. Matilda was the widow of the Emperor Henry V. secular splendours. Becket was a plain merchant's son, but he lived in great state. Once he went to Paris on an embassy and the people were much impressed by the magnificence of his retinue. They said, "If this be the chancellor of England, what must the king be?" 64 the man shall seal. The council of Northampton was held in 1164. All the clergy present save Becket had signed the Constitutions of Clarendon, defining the relations of church and state. The signature of the Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of England, was essential to their validity. Thomas was finally induced to sign the document, but he would not affix the official seal. In fear of his life he fled to France, and spent the next six years in the attempt to induce King Henry to withdraw from his decision. 64 My burgher's son. Thomas was the son of Gilbert Becket, a citizen of London. 65 the nineteen winters of King Stephen. horrors of the civil war is not exaggerated. Henry's account of the "When the castles were made, they (the barons) filled them with PAGE 65 devils and evil men. Then took they those men that they imagined had any property, both by night and by day, peasant men and women, and put them in prison for their gold and silver and tortured them with most terrible torture." went abroad thro' all my counties. Henry II. spent much time journeying from place to place and visiting the courts in order to make sure that his laws were enforced without fear or favor. 66 your courts. The ecclesiastical courts could not award the death penalty. The king wished that, after a priest had been unfrocked, he should be made over to the civil courts for punishment. To this the church would not consent. 66 66 66 68 69 72 74 certain wholesome usages. The king had caused the customs observed by Henry I. to be ascertained and reduced to writing. They formed the basis of the Constitutions of Clarendon. "The meeting of the kings." Henry was holding conference with Louis VII. of France at Montmirail when the archbishop came before the two kings and, throwing himself at his sovereign's feet, offered to submit all disputed questions to his discretion "saving God's honour and my order." The friends we were. People said of the two men in the year before the quarrel that they had "but one heart and one mind." When he, my lord: Philip Augustus, King of France and suzerain of the kings of England. He had joined Richard in a crusade for the deliverance of Jerusalem. The two kings swore to defend each the other's realm as he would his own. Yet Philip took advantage of Richard's captivity and invaded Normandy. Moreover, he intrigued with John, Richard's ambitious younger brother, to prevent the royal prisoner's release. Of Pensavin and Chail. The land of the troubadours, lyric poets of medieval France. Our vice-king John. John was the most vicious and the best hated of all the kings of England. Sheriff of Nottingham: the king's representative in the county court. He had been false to his trust. 77 palmer: a pilgrim who passed his life in journeying from shrine to shrine, living on charity. Palmers were so called from the palm-branch, carried in token that they had visited the Holy Land. |