Reign nor tempted to impose any Taxes upon his Subjects or other Duties than what were common and known and paid without Pressure or Discontent among the Commonalty of the Realm so as after all these Institutions he passed several Years in great Tranquility at home as well as Honour from all his Neighbour Princes About the thirteenth Year of his Reign he went into Normandy leaving his Brother Odon Bishop of Bayeux and created Earl of Kent his Vice-gerent in England and little apprehending any Storm after so long a Fit of fair weather or that He had left any ill Blood behind him that was like to gather to a Head with such an Inflamation and so dangerous Symptoms as soon after appeared But no Condition of Human Life is ever perfectly secure nor any Force of Greatness or of Prudence beyond the Reach of Envy and the Blows of Fortune Princes as well as private Men are often in most Danger at those Times and in those Parts they think themselves the safest as strong Towers are sometimes taken on those sides that are thought impregnable and so left undefended or little regarded This conquering King esteemed himself now at Ease for the remainder of his Life and not only safe in his own Strength but the Satisfaction of his Subjects The English he had pleased in general by the Preservation of their ancient Laws the bravest and warmest Blood of their Nobles was drawn in the Battle of Hastings or the Wars with Scotland their Power was weakened by so many Confiscations and the Retreat of many more into Scotland and Ireland The Normans were strong and numerous in England and were his own by Birth and by Interest the Ballance of these two Parties seemed the Safety of the whole and it was not to be imagined that both should combine in any Danger to the Crown Besides there was left no Pretension of any better Right or Title than his own since Edgar had laid down his not only in Shew but with firm Resolutions never to resume them But many of the English Nobles still hated the Name of a Conquest resented the Change of Forms and Language in their Laws the Introduction of any new Customs but especially the Rigor of the Forrest Laws which they knew to be arbitrary and esteemed not only a restraint of their innocent Liberties but an Indignity in particular to themselves Some of the chief Norman Lords who had obtained great Possessions by the King's Bounty and the Confiscations of the English being now invested in their Lands and their Titles began to grow fond of their Laws as the safest Tenure and though they had gained their great Estates by the Favour of the King yet they were not willing to hold them at his Pleasure and so joyned with the English Nobles in the Complaints of too great Power exercised by the King and the Jealousies of greater yet designed to the Prejudice of the ancient Constitutions of the Kingdom and Diminution of the Authority or Dependances of the Nobles Some of both Nations and equally ambitious Spirits who had been most favoured and advanced by the King yet valuing their own Merits too high or their Rewards too low thought they had nothing because they had not all they pretended esteemed the King's Favour or Bounty to any others as Injury to themselves and were as unsatisfied with what they had gained as others with what they had lost These Dispositions floating at first in the Minds of several great Nobles both English and Norman and enflamed by such of the Ecclesiasticks who had Credit in the great Families of both Nations grew at length to downright Conspiracy of dispossessing the King of his Crown and introducing the Danes who were allied to many great Lords in England and were esteemed by the Normans of the same Race with their Ancestors The chief of this Conspiracy were the Earls of Norfolk and Suffolk of greatest Power among the English Nobility Fitz-Auber a Norman of near Kindred to the King and who had assisted him with forty Ships upon his English Expedition and been recompenced with mighty Possessions in England and created Earl of Hereford The Earl Waltheof who had been pardoned his Revolt upon the Scotch Invasion married to the King's Niece and ever since intimately trusted as well as favoured by the King These entred secretly into Intelligence with Swain King of Denmark and with Harold's Sons who were still refuged in Ireland The first ingaged to invade the Northern Parts with a Navy of three hundred Sail the last by the Assistance of Drone King of Ireland to attempt the Western Coasts with sixty Ships and the discontented Lords to make a strong Insurrection in some of the Northern Provinces upon Approach of the Danish Fleet which was concerted to be soon after the Kings intended Journey into Normandy These Measures were laid with such Caution and pursued with such Secrecy that all was ready to be executed before the King in Normandy or his Ministers in England had either Notice or Suspicion of any such Dangers or Designs Fitz-Auber had asked the King's Leave some Months before his Norman Iourney to marry his Sister to the Earl of Norfolk and pretended some small Discontent at his Refusal Not long after his Departure he declared the Marriage and the Day appointed to consummate it in Norfolk with great Solemnity and the Recourse of the nearest Relations and most intimate Friends on both sides among whom were the Earl Waltheof and Eustace Earl of Bologne who came over on Purpose to assist at the Consultations here designed At this meeting all was agreed in what Parts of the Kingdom under what Leaders the several Insurrections should be made upon what Pretences and the Time appointed to be when the Danish Fleet should appear upon the Coast. But some Delays intervening which are fatal to all Conspiracies that are trusted into many Hands this was discovered some Days before the Danes arrived but by whom of the Accomplices is left uncertain though some write that it was by Earl Waltheof upon the Conscience of so great an Ingratitude to the King After the full and particular Discovery of the whole Plot and all the chief Conspirators Odon the Vice-gerent with the Assistance and Advice of the King's Council immediately dispatched away several Parties of the King 's best Troops into the several Parts where the Insurrections were intended to begin seised upon many of the Conspirators before others had Notice of the Discovery broke the rest before they could draw to a Head took Earl Waltheof and Fitz-Auber Prisoners who were beheaded upon this Occasion and many others imprisoned Whether this Execution was by the King's Command out of Normandy or by the Rigor of his Brother Odon and upon Pretence of Necessity in so dangerous a Conjuncture is not recorded but 't is agreed that these two were the only Nobles that were executed in England during the Reign of William the Conqueror notwithstanding so many Revolts
or agreement of Times or Actions by the few and mean Authors of those barbarous and illiterate Ages and perhaps the rough course of those lawless Times and Actions would have been too ignoble a Subject for a good Historian About the Year 8 o. after many various Events and Revolutions between the several Races of the Heptarchy Ecbert descended from the West-Saxon Kings having inherited most of the Successions from the Prowess and Exploits of his Ancestors and acquired others by his own became the first sole King or Monarch of England as it now was distinguished from the Principality of Wales possessed by the old Britains and from that part of the Island to the North of Tweed possessed by the Picts and Scots and by the Saxons stiled by one common Name of Scotland This famous Adventure of the Saxons in England was atchieved by the Force and Confluence of such Multitudes from the Coasts of Germany which lie between the Belgick and Baltick Shores that some Parts of their Native Countries were left almost dispeopled to fill again by new Swarms from the great Northern Hive and the Number of Saxons and Angles Iutes and other Nations that came over were not only sufficient to Conquer and Wast this whole Province but even to Plant and People it soon again with numerous and new Inhabitants So as by them succeeded in this Island not only a Change of Government as by the Roman Arms but a Change of the very People or Nation that inhabited or possessed the Lands of this whole Province This induced a Change likewise of Names of Language of Customs of Laws of Arms of Discipline of Possessions of Titles of Religion and even of the whole Face of Nature through this whole Kingdom So as we may justly date the Original of all these amongst us as well as our Nation it self from these our Saxon Ancestors Britain which was before a Roman Province was now grown a Saxon Kingdom and instead of its former Name was called England The Language which was either Latin or British was now grown wholly Saxon or English The Land that was before divided into Roman Colonies or Governments was so now into Shires with Names given to them by the Saxons as they first possessed or afterwards thought fit to distinguish them The Habits in Peace and Arms in War the Titles of Officers in both as well as of great Counsellors to their Kings or great Proprietors of Lands came to be all according to the Saxon Forms and Usage The Laws of this Country which before were Roman changed now into Old Saxon Customs or Constitutions Their Princes or Leaders of their several Nations became Konings or Kings of the Territories they had subdued They reserved part of the Lands to themselves for their Revenue and shared the rest among their chief Commanders by great Divisions and among their Soldiers by smaller shares The first who had the great Divisions were called Earls or Barons those of the smaller were Knights and the smallest of all were Freemen who possessed some Proportions of free Lands and were thereby distinguished from the Villens that held nothing but at the Will of the Landlord In this universal Transformation Religion it self had a share like all the rest and received new Forms and Orders with the new Inhabitants whilst all that was Roman or British expired together in this Country The Britains began early to receive the Christian Faith and as is reported from some of the Disciples themselves And this was so propagated among them that when the Romans left the Province they were generally Christians and had their Priests and Bishops from the ancient and Apostolick Institution The Saxons were a sort of Idolatrous Pagans that worshipped several Gods peculiar to themselves among whom Woden Thor and Frea were the chief which left their Memory still preserved by the common names of three days in the Week This Religious Worship they introduced with them and continued long in England till they subdued the Britains reduced it under their Heptarchy of Saxons Kings persecuted the British Christians and drove them with their Religion into Wales where they continued under their Primitive Priests and Bishops who with their Monks were all under the Surintendance of one Arch-Priest or Bishop of Carleon or Chester the Bound of the British Principality About the year 600. or soon after Pope Boniface sent Austin the Monk to Preach the Gospel in England to the Heathen Saxons who landing at Dover was received with Humanity by Ethelbert King of the South Saxons and being admitted with four or five of his Companions as well-meaning Men to teach and explain the Doctrin and Mysteries of Christianity among these ignorant and barbarous People they so well succeeded that they converted at first great numbers of the common sort and at length the King himself whose example gave easie way for introducing the Christian Faith into his whole Kingdom which from thence spread into all the Countries subject to the Saxon Heptarchy Thus Religion came to be Establish'd in England under the Rites and Forms and Authority of the Roman Church by which Austin was instituted chief Bishop in England and seated by the Saxon King at Canterbury But his Jurisdiction though admitted in all the Saxon Territories was not received by the British Priests or People in Wales though endeavoured by many missions from Austin and his Successors and even by Wars and Persecutions of the Saxons upon the Old British Christians at the instigation of the New Romish Priests in one of which near Carleon Twelve Hundred of the poor British Monks are said to have been slaughtered while they were apart in the Field at their Prayers for the success of the British Army With this Account of a new face and state of Persons and of Things both Natural Civil and Religious establish'd in England I return to the Period I left of the Saxon Heptarchy which being extinguish'd by long and various Revolutions among themselves made way for the Reign of Ecbert the first sole King or Monarch of England about the year 830. It might have been reasonably expected that a wise and fortunate Prince at the Head of so great a Dominion and so brave and numerous a People as the English after the Expulsion of the Picts and Scots out of his Country into the rough Northern Parts and of the Britains into the North-west Corners of the Island should not only have enjoyed the Fruits of Peace and Quiet but left much Felicity as well as greatness to many succeeding Generations both of Prince and People Yet such is the instability of Human Affairs and the weakness of their best Conjectures That Ecbert was hardly warm in his united Throne when both he and his Subjects began to be alarmed and perplexed at the approach of new and unknown Enemies and this Island exposed to New Invasions About this time a mighty Swarm of the Old Northern Hive who had possessed the Seats about the Baltick
Strength of his Foreigners bore no Proportion to those of so brave and populous a Nation if they should unite on any Bottom of common Discontents of Dangers or of Fears and that the Safety and Peace of his new acquired Dominion could be preserved only by the general Satisfaction and Security of his English Subjects And this was his first Care and was the best provided for by the two first Actions of his Reign one was That as he had claimed the Crown only from the Testament of King Edward and wholly avoided that odious Name of Conquest so he expressed upon all Occasions his Resolution to govern the Kingdom as a legal Prince and leave the ancient Laws and Liberties of the English Nation as they had before enjoyed them The other was that as he drew no Blood but what was spilt in the Field so he seised only the Lands and Estates of those who had been in Arms against him before his Accession to the Crown or after that Time by any Revolt or new Oppositions This wise Counsel made a clear and sudden Distinction betwen those English that were to feel any ill Effects by this late Revolution and the rest who were left out of Danger and in the same State they enjoyed under the Race of their former lawful Kings and so but little sensible of the Change The forfeited Estates and Lands were indeed seized with great Severity but the greatest Part of the Proprietors were silent in the Grave having been slain in the Battel of Hastings and Pursuit of that Victory those who remained alive being at once despoiled of all their Possessions were broken in their Hearts maimed in their Interest among their Neighbours and being but few throughout the Kingdom in Comparison of those that were safe their Losses or Complaints were little regarded by the rest but like wounded Deer were deserted and even avoided by the Herd Upon the Coronation of the King at London with the Concurrence of Nobles and People in that City and his Care in publishing throughout the several Countries these two Resolutions concerning the Safety of their Properties and Laws All the Inhabitants of both the adjacent and remoter Counties and of what Degree soever not only with universal Consent submitted to his Government as to a Decree of Heaven but most of them began to express or al least pretend a common Joy at the Fate of the late Usurper and the prosperous Fortunes of the present King His next Care was the Satisfaction of those many and brave Adventurers and Soldiers who had followed him in this Expedition which he endeavoured to make with Justice to his Promises and to their several Merits as far as the forfeited Lands and Revenues would reach or any Treasures or Debts he found here belonging to the Crown The Lands of the English Barons who had opposed him he divided among the Norman Barons that had attended him those of the Commoners among the Soldiers what Offices were vacant he supplied with such as he had not Lands or Money to reward such of the Normans as he could not clear Accounts with at present by any of these Ways he distributed into the rich and numerous Abbeys of the Kingdom to be there entertained till new Employments should fall or new Forfeitures or new Supplies should come into the King's Coffers by the large Revenues of the Crown or the wise Management of his Treasures which had always been a Virtue of this Prince and exercised in his lower Fortunes as far as could agree with the Bounty of his Nature towards those who deserved it by their Merits or their Services The Provision he made for so many poor Normans by disposing them among the rich Monasteries to share in their Plenty seemed at least a temporary Imposition upon the Clergy and a Breach of those Immunities they had enjoyed in the Saxon Reign For though one chief End of the large Donations made by so many Princes and pious Subjects to the Church was intended for charitable Uses by Relief of the Poor and the hospitable Entertainment of Passengers Pilgrims and Strangers yet this Use was left voluntary and at the Choice of those who possessed these Revenues The Normans sent among them were indeed Strangers and Poor but yet the most charitable Monks had little Mind to relieve them or if they had were not willing to receive them within their Convents to be not only Sharers of their Provisions but Observers of their Actions however they complied at present with the Desires of the King or the Necessity of the Times yet they generally took it ill of the King and for a Diminution of those Immunities or of that Favour they had enjoyed under former Reigns Some thought he had an envious Eye at the vast Riches of the Clergy others that he was jealous of their Power and suspected their Affections to his Person and Government and apprehended as easie a Change among them upon the Approach of any new Revolution as they had shewed upon the last in his own Favour That for these Reasons he had dispersed his Normans as so many Guards or at least as so many Spies among them Whetever it was 't is certain this Action bred the first Unkindness of the Clergy towards this King and being followed by two other Strains of the same Nature which will be observed in their Time left an Imposition upon him Memory of Hardship Cruelty Oppression or Exaction which he deserved as little as other Princes that have a fairer Character in Story and common Opinion For the Monks having been the only Writers remaining of those Times as well as some succeeding Reigns have left a Tincture of their Passions upon the Actions of the first Kings of this Norman Race and painted their Virtues and Vices in fairer or fouler Colours according to the Ideas they had framed of them and their several Dispositions or Actions in Favour or Prejudice of the Church that is of Ecclesiastical Persons or Privileges Such an Authority have the Pens of learned Writers always claimed nad possessed as to pass the definitive Sentence upon the Memories of the greatest Princes in the vulgar Opinion of Posterity Nor is it evident whether the invidious Name of Conqueror which this King had so carefully avoided were entailed upon him by the Flattery of his Friends or the Malice of his Enemies among whom the Monkish Writers seem to have been the chief and most inveterate Whatever Motions were raised upon this Occasion in the Minds of the Clergy none appeared in the rest of the Body of the Realm or Mass of the People most were satisfied because they either liked their new King or hated the last Usurper some were indifferent to both while their Estates and Liberties were out of Danger and such who were displeased with either disguised their Resentment or were not taken notice of in the Crowd All conspired to make so great a Calm succeed in the Kingdom as is usual after a great Storm
excepting the Possessions of such as had opposed his Claim to the Crown which he pretended to be a lawful Right as derived from the Testament of Edward the Confessor and thereby was made a Pretence of legal Forfeiture in all that resisted him But this Blow to so many Estates and Families was given at once and no more renewed On the contrary Justice was administred equally to the English Men upon the Injuries of the Normans who presume upon the King's Favour in Prejudice of Right and of those Laws he had confirmed or established Whereof one memorable Instance remains upon Record even in those Writers who were most severe upon the Actions and Memory of this Prince It was an Action between Warren a Norman and Sherburn an English Man The first by Virtue of a Grant from the King had entered upon the Lands of the other who came into Court and pleaded That he had never bore Arms against the King nor opposed his Title or Accession to the Crown but had lived always peaceably upon his own Lands and so was liable to no Forfeiture by the common Law but was further secured by the King's Declaration immediately after his coming to the Crown Upon which Plea a just Sentence was given in favour of Sherburn his Lands restored and Warren the Norman cast and condemned to the Costs of the Suit He appointed Justices to preserve the Peace and administer Justice in every County pursuant to that which was used in the Saxon Reigns For the Pleas of the Crown and those of greater Moment between the Subjects he created Judges of the most learned and able he could find and ordained four Terms each Year consisting of a certain Number of Days wherein Justice should be duly administred and all Suits heard in such Places as the King should appoint and find most convenient Besides these Orders he instituted the Courts of Chancery and Exchequer the first for tempering the Rigor of Laws according to the Dictates of Conscience and Equity and the other for determining all Actions concerning the Revenues of the Crown and punishing Exactions or irregular Proceedings in the Officers who levied or received them as well as Defaults or Delays in those from whom it was due For Taxes or Impositions unusual it does not appear that he levied any excepting one of Six Shillings upon each Plow-land throughout the Kingdom nor is it well agreed at what Time or upon what Occasion this was raised whether by consent of a general Assembly or by his own Regal Authority By this indeed he imposed Danegelt upon the Invasion of the Danes which happened once or twice in this Reign though with little Progress or Success This Tax was first raised by Ethelreld upon the first Enterprise of the Danes upon England and afterwards used by several of his Successors upon the like Danger sometimes to repulse them by Force and Arms sometimes to evade them by Bargains and Money wherewith they compounded for the present Dangers but invited others to come by such mean Defences This Tax grew odious to the People whenever it was raised upon any other Pretence than a Danish Invasion and though it was sometimes levied yet very seldom and cautiously by some few of the Saxon Kings and but once or twice by this Norman Prince and then most probably upon the true natural Occasions which had given it the first Original Thus I suppose it is confounded with the Tax before mentioned and without applying it to the Danish Invasions by some Writers who seem to take all Occasions of defaming the Actions and Memory of this King and to avoid all just Excuses of any that were ill resented And this proceeded from the ill Talent of the Monkish Writers who measured the Virtues and Vices of Princes by the Opinion of their Favour or Disaffection to the Clergy whom they accounted or stiled the Church though this general Appellation is known to comprehend not only such Persons as were anciently chosen to administer the Offices of divine Worship but also all believing Christians that composed such Assemblies to whom those Offices were administred Of this the King seemed to be sensible for though he was a Prince of known and great Piety and so approved by the several Popes during his Reign yet he appeared very little favourable if not something hard to the Ecclesiasticks of this Kingdom and perhaps something bold with their Privileges so long enjoy'd under the devout Saxon Kings For the rest he contented himself with the usual Revenues of the Crown and by his great Order and Management as well as Moderation in his constant Expence gained much Ease to the Crown and Satisfaction to his People The chief and ancient Branches of the Crown Revenue consisted of First the Lands of old reserved as a Provision for the King's Houshold and so reckoned as Crown-Lands These at first yielded only certain Quantities of Provisions as Beefs Sheep Wheat Hay Oates according to the Nature of the Lands the Tenures by which they held and the Quantity of Provisions found necessary for the King's Houshold What Overplus remained was compounded for and paid in Money according to Rates usual and agreed The next was a Duty reserved anciently out of every Knight's Fee which at first was constantly paid as a Quit-rent but being small came in time to be neglected by the Kings that contented themselves with the Military Attendance of the Knights in their Wars and with levying sometimes a greater Duty upon great or urgent Occasions under the Name of Escuage which was burthensom and odious till the Proportions and Occasions came to be ascertained Those Authors who will make the Conquerour to have broken or changed the Laws of England and introduced those of Normandy pretend this Duty of Escuage with the Tenures of Knights Service and Baronage to have come over in this Reign as well as the Trial by Juries But as enough has been said to clear the last so it needs no Proof that these with the other Feudal Laws were all brought into Europe by the ancient Goths and by them settled in all the Provinces which they conquered of the Roman Empire and among the rest by the Saxons in England as well as by the Franks in Gaul and the Normans in Normandy where the use of their States or general Assemblies were likewise of the same Original The last common Branch of the King's Revenue consisted of Forfeitures both of Lands and Goods in Cases of Treason and Fines or some known mulctuary Punishments upon other Crimes which were distinctly prescribed in the Saxon Laws even for Manslaughter and Murther it self the Rigour of those Times not extending to Blood except in those Cases where the common Safety of the Kingdom was concerned by the danger of the King By all these Orders and Institutions and the Clemency as well as Justice wherewith they were administred the King how new soever his Reign how disputed his Title and how disagreeable his Person by a
from a mutual Respect they had for one anothers Forces and Dispositions They were indeed not much unequal in Numbers nor in the Bravery and Order of their Troops both Kings were valiant and wise having been trained up in Arms inured to Dangers and much embroiled at home in the Beginning of their Reigns They were now animated to a Battle by their own Courage as well as their Soldiers but yet both considered the Event in the Uncertainty and the Consequence the Loss of a Battle might prove the Loss of a Crown and the Fortune of one Day determine the Fate of a Kigdom and they knew very well that whoever fights a Battle with what Number and Forces what Provisions and Orders or Appearances soever of Success yet at the best runs a Venture and leaves much at the Mercy of Fortune from Accidents not to be foreseen by any Prudence or governed by any Conduct or Skill These Reflections began to dispose both Kings to the Thoughts of ending their Quarrel by a Peace rather than a Battle and though both had the same Inclination yt each of them was unwilling first to discover it least it might be interpreted to proceed from Apprehensions of Weakness or Fears and thereby dishearten their own Soldiers or encourage their Enemies The Scotch at length began the Overture which was received by King William with a Show of Indifference but with a concealed Joy and the more reasonable as having the greater Stake the less to win and the more to lose by the Issue of a Battle The first Parley was followed by a Treaty and this after some Debate by a Peace concluded as between equal Forces so upon equal Conditions each King to content himself with the ancient Bounds of their several Kingdoms whereof the Borders were agreed Neither to invade one anothers Dominions nor to assist the Enemies or receive and protect the Rebels of each other Prisoners in the last or this War to be on both sides released and Subjects who desired to return to be on both sides restored to their Country and Possessions Edgar the Principal or most appearing Cause of the War was included and provided for in this Treaty to return into England make his Submission to the King renounce any further Claim to the Crown and thereupon not only to be restored to his own Possessions with his Friends and Followers but to be provided of a large and honourable Maintenance from the King during his Life And thus this Storm which threatned both Kingdoms with such fatal Dangers and long Consequences was of a sudden blown over a general Calm restored in the whole Island of Britain and the two Kings returned to enjoy the Fruits of a Peace to which they had both contributed by their equal Temper and Prudence as well as by their equal Preparations for a War Soon after the King's Return Edgar repaired into England where he was very favourably received and all Conditions of the Treaty performed and ever after observed with great Faith and Sincereness on both Parts He had his Provisions and Revenues agreed by the Treaty fairly established but being desirous to go to the Wars of the Holy Land which was the common Humour of idle or devout Princes in that Age He was furnished by the King with great Sums of Money to prepare and maintain a noble Equipage for that Journey He there gained much Honour and Esteem after which returning into England he passed the rest of his whole Life in the Ease and Security of a large but private Fortune and perhaps happier than he might have done in the Contests and Dangers of Ambition however they might have succeeded A rare Example of Moderation in Prince Edgar and of Magnanimity as well as Justice and Clemency in this King and very different from several of his Successors who defamed their Reigns by the Death of innocent Princes for having only been born to just Rights of the Crown without any appearing Means or Attempts to pursue them or endanger the Possessors thereby staining their Memories with the Blots both of Cruelty and Fear For as Clemency is produced by Magnanimity and Fearlessness of Dangers so is Cruelty by Cowardise and Fear and argues not only a Depravedness of Nature but also a Meanness of Courage and Imbecillity of Mind for which reason it is both hated by all that are within its Reach and Danger and despised by all that are without The King upon his Return began again to apply himself to the Arts of Peace which consist chiefly in the preventing of future as those of War in the surmounting of present Dangers And as nothing raises the Power of a Crown so much as weak and private Conspiracies against it rashly undertaken by some few Discontents unsupported by any general Defections of the People faintly pursued and ending without Success so this Prince found his Throne and Authority more firmly established in all Appearance by the happy Issue of the two late Wars and the unfortunate Events of his revolted Nobles And now esteemed himself more at Liberty from those Regards of his English Subjects and their Laws which his unsettled State had made necessary upon his first Accession to the Crown He was provoked by the Rebellions of so many of the greatest English Nobles after their Fealty sworn to him He was perswaded of the general Disaffection of the rest and that the late Insurrections would have been found much deeper rooted and farther spread if they had been attended with any Success He thought the English Lords and Bishops had too great Dependance of their Tenants and Vassals upon them and had themselves too little upon the Prince Since they esteemed themselves neither bound to attend him in the Wars unless they pleased nor to furnish the Expences unless by their own Consent in their general Assemblies nor was he satisfied to have them judge of his Necessities whom he thought likeliest to encrease them or at least to desire them He believed the English in general would as long as they retained the Saxon Laws and Forms of Government ever be affected to the Race of their Saxon Kings And for this Reason he was thought to have encouraged the Voyage of Edgar for the Holy Land by so large Supplies of Treasure under Pretence of that Prince's Honour but from true Intentions of his own Safety Besides he found his Treasures exhausted by the great Charges of his two last Expeditions and the just Rewards he had promised both his Normans and those of the English who had well and faithfully served in them Though he had once or twice for 't is left in doubt levied the Tax of Dane-gelt upon the Threats of a Danish Invasion and by an ancient Prerogative of the Saxon Kings pretended or exercised upon that Occasion yet he found it was not raised without great Murmur and Reluctancy of the People as well as the Nobles who pretended to ancient Liberties of paying no Taxes imposed without the Consent
between the Years 460 and 500. But this whole Story is left so uncertain or obscure by those poor Writers who have pretended to leave the Tales rather than the History of those times behind them that it remains in doubt whether to consider them as a part of the Story of that or the Fables of succeeding Ages Whatever there was of plain Stuff the Embroidery of it with the Knights of the Round Table their Orders and their Chivalry and the rest of that kind seems to have been introduced by that Vein of the Spanish Romances which many Ages after filled the World with so much of that idle Trash and chose for the Subject of them the Adventures and Successes of the first Christian pretended Heroes who renowned such fictitious Names by extravagant Actions or Adventures against the Pagans or the Saracens either in Spain or other parts of Europe and Asia And among these 't is probable those Writers found room for the many Legends of the British Arthur and his Romantick Adventures against the Heathen Saxons After the Year 500 for one Century or thereabouts the Saxon Forces were employed in subduing the midland Parts of Britain interjacent between their two first Establish'd Colonies or Kingdoms in the South or Kent and in the North or about Northumberland and to furnish Men for such Atchievments and the new Plantation of so great Tracts of Country after the Conquest and Devastation of the Old mighty numbers of the Saxon Race came over into Britain in several Expeditions and Landing at several Places That which is recorded to have made sudden and easie way for their final Conquests was a Treaty they entered into with the Britains where upon a Parley mediated between them Three Hundred of the Chief on each side agreed to meet and conclude the Treaty in a great Plain In the midst of Talk and Drink which had part in this Commerce the Saxons provoking maliciously and the Britains innocently resenting fell to quarrel first in Words and at last to Blows When the Saxons upon a Sign agreed between them drew out short Swords they had concealed under their upper Garments fell upon the unarmed Britains slew their whole number in the Field who being the best and bravest of their Nation left the rest exposed without Heart or Head to the Fury and Progress of the Saxon Arms. These heartned with Success and proud of so great Possessions and Territories invited and allured still greater Numbers of their own from abroad who being of several Branches and from several Coasts arrived here under several Names among whom the Angles from Schonen and Iutland swarmed over in such numbers that they gave a new Name at length to this Province which from them was called Angle-land and for easier sound England The Saxons pursued their Invasion with Courage and Fierceness equal to the Multitudes of their Nation that swarmed over into this Island and with such an uninterrupted Course of Fortune and Victories after the year 500. that by the end of the next Century they had subdued the whole Body of the Province and establish'd in it seven several Kingdoms which were by the Writers of those Times stiled the Heptarchy of the Saxons They had expelled the Britains out of the fairest and best of their ancient Possessions and driven their greatest numbers who escaped the Conqueror's Fury into Wales and Cornwal Countries mountainous and barren encompassed on three sides by the Sea and towards the Land of difficult Access Some great Colonies of them wholly abandoned their Native Country to their fierce Invaders sailed over into the North-west Parts of France where possessing new Seats they gave a new Appellation to that Peninsula which preserves still the Name and Memory of Britain there though about this time almost worn out at home This is the Account commonly given of the British Colonies first establishing themselves in that Canton of Gaul But there is another given by some learned Persons of their own and drawn as they say either from ancient Archives or Traditions among them and which to me seems the most probable When upon the Roman Wars in Gaul among several Pretenders to the Empire great numbers of the Britains as well as Roman Forces in that Island were drawn over to assist the contending Parties 'T is said that very great Multitudes of the British having followed the unfortunate side retired as fast as they could to that part of the Sea-coast nearest to their Isle and most likely to furnish them with Ships for their Transportation But that the miseries of their Native Country from the furious Inroads of the Picts and Scots so discouraged their Return that by Consent of the Gauls their Friends they established themselves in the furthest North-west Parts of that Province which has since that time retained their Language and their Name And this agrees with the Legend of King Arthur who is said to have been a young Prince or Leader sent from the Britains in France to assist their Country-men here against the Saxons Whatever the Beginnings of this Colony were or at what time 't is at least agreed to have been much augmented by the Resort of so many Britains as sought Refuge there from the Saxon Cruelty The weak and poor Remainders of the old Britains who were scattered among the Saxons in England were wholly spoiled of their Lands and Goods which were fallen under the Mercy of the Conquerors who sharing them all among themselves left the remaining Britains in a Condition of downright Servitude Used them for Tilling Ground Feeding Cattle and other Servile Works in House or Field sometimes Farming out certain parts of Land to them at certain Rents or Profits but held always at the Will and Pleasure of the Landlord The Children that were born of these miserable People belonged to the Lord of the Soil like the rest of the Stock or Cattle upon it and thus began Villenage in England which lasted till the time or end of Henry the Seventh's Reign Soon after the year 600. the Saxons in England having ended their old Quarrel with the Britains began new ones among themselves and according to the usual Circle of human Affairs War ended in Peace Peace in Plenty and Luxury these in Pride and Pride in Contention till the Circle ended in new Wars The Saxon Princes of the seven Kingdoms they had erected in Britain fell into Emulations of one anothers Greatness Disputes about the Bounds of their several Principalities or about Successions or Usurpations pretended or exercised in one or other of them These were followed by formal Wars among them the stronger swallowing up the weaker and these having recourse to their Neighbours for defence against encroaching Power Many fierce Encounters Sieges Battels Spoils and Devastations of Country succeeded in the progress and decision of these mutual Injuries and Invasions between the Saxon Kings for above Two Hundred Years but the account of them is very poorly given us with little order
foreign Birth yet so far gained the general Affections and Satisfaction of the Commoners of the Realm who ask nothing but Security in their Estates and Properties that no Commotions afterwards raised by the Nobles and Clergy against his Government though in Favour of a better Right and Title were ever supported by the Commons who compose the Mass and Bulk of a Nation and whose general good or ill Humour Satisfaction or Discontent will ever have the most forcible Influence for the Preservation or Ruin of any State Besides the good and profitable Institutions and Orders of this King already mentioned so generally approved and so grateful to the Commonalty of the Realm there were others of a different Nature and which had a contrary Effect by distasting and disobliging many of the chief Nobility and most or all of the Clergy though some were so cautious as not to lose their Dignities or Revenues by expressing their Resentments The Offences taken by these last were first the abrogating or surceasing the Judiciary Power exercised by the Bishops during the Saxon Times in each County where Justice was administred and the Bishop with the Alderman or Earl of each Shire sate as Judges in those Courts which encreased not only their Authority but their Revenues too by a Share they had with the King in all Fines rais'd from the Issue of Causes there determined But all this was abolished by the King's Institution of Justiciaries to administer Justice upon all Pleas of the Crown and others among Subjects at four Terms of the Year This gave particular Offence to the Bishops but another to the whole Clergy for whereas before they held all their Land by Franc Almonage and subject to no Duties or Impositions but such as they laid upon themselves in their Ecclesiastical Assemblies This Prince finding above a third Part of the Lands of the Kingdom in Possession of the Clergy and the Forces of the Crown which consisted in Knights Service lessened in Proportion by their Immunity He reduced all their Lands to the common Tenure of Knights Fees and Baronage and thereby subjected them to the Attendance upon the King in his Wars and to other Services anciently due and sometimes raised upon all Lands that held in fee from the Crown This Innovation touched not only the Bishops but all the Abbots throughout the Kingdom many of whom were endowed with so great Lands and Revenues that in Right thereof they were upon the regular Constitutions of Parliaments allowed Session with the Bishops as Barons in the House of Lords The whole Clergy exclaimed against this new Institution not only as an Indignity and Injustice but as an Impiety too and Violation of the sacred Rights of the holy Church but their Complaints were without Redress though not without ill Consequence The Discontents among many of the great Nobles arose chiefly from two Occasion The first was the Rigor of the Forrest Laws and of their Execution And the other was the King 's too apparent Partiality to his Normans To know the Ground or Pretence of these Forrest Laws it will be necessary to run up to their Original In the first Seisures and Distributions made of the British Lands by the conquering Saxons besides those reserved to the Kings or divided among the People and held by the Tenures either of Knights Service or of Book-land as it was termed among the Saxons and thereby distinguish'd from that of Villenage There were many great Tracts of barren wild or woody Lands left undisposed and in a manner waste so great Numbers of British Inhabitants having been extinguish'd by the Wars or retired into Wales Cornwal Britanny and Scotland and the new Saxons not content to share among them any Lands but such as were fruitful and fit to be cultivated These were enclosed or improved as well as inhabited by the new Proprietors and the others left wast as well as undisposed to any certain Owners The whole Country was as has been observed very full of all Sorts of wild Game in the Time of the Britains who lived at large without any Inclosures little Property and subsisted much upon Hunting Fishing and Fowling which they had all in common Upon the enclosing or cultivating of the fruitful Lands by the Saxons the wild Beasts naturally afraid of Neighbours whom they found to be all Enemies fled into the wild woody and desolate Tracts of Land where they found Shelter and fed though hardly yet out of common Sight and Noise And hereby all those Parts became replenish'd with all Sorts of Game especially with Red and Fallow-Deer and made all those several Extents of Ground which were afterwards called Forrests The Saxon Kings esteemed these to belong to the Crown by their Right to all Possessions that have no certain Owner and by their never having been disposed upon the first Divisions of Land in the Saxon Kingdoms nor afterwards by any Grants of the Crown This Right was not disputed nor any Use of it made further than for the King's Pleasure which yet was not by them restrained from the Nobles or Knights that were Borderers upon the Forrests who were so moderate in those more simple Ages as to commit no Excesses or destroy the Game which it was their Interest to preserve both for their Sport and the Quarry and for some use made of it for common Pasturage among all the bordering Neighbours William the Conqueror not only seised upon all these Forrests as Part of his own Demesns but made a very large one in Hampshire besides those he found by laying wast and leaving uninhabited great Extents of Land which he pretended to be fallen to the Crown by ancient Succession or by new Forfeitures and this he called the new Forrest which Name after so long a Course of Ages it still retains In all these Forrests he pretended an absolute Right and Dominion and in Pursuance thereof instituted new and arbitrary Laws of his own unused and unknown before in this Kingdom and very different from the Moderation of the Saxon Government He confined all hunting or fowling in these Forrests to himself or such as should have Right to it by his Concessions or Permissions He imposed Fines upon all Trespasses committed in them according to his own Pleasure and which seemed much to exceed the Fault or Value of the thing These he caused to be levied with great Rigor and Exaction and thereby debarred not only his Commoners but his Nobles too from a Liberty they had before always enjoy'd Though he took care not to provoke the Commoners by leaving Pasturage free for such of the Neighbours who lived most upon their Stock and thereby took no greeat Offence at the Restraint from their Sport which they had not Time from their Labour much to follow yet the Nobles and Knights who valued their Sports more than common Gains and made use of their Riches but for Encrease of their Pleasures resented this Restraint as a sensible Injury as an Invasion
introduced new Terms new Forms of Pleading and of Process new Names of Offices and of Courts and with them all the litigious Customs and Subtelties of the Norman Pleas and Conveyances who were a witty but contentious People instead of the old English Simplicity in their common Suits Pleas or Conveyances which were plain brief without Perplexities made with good meaning kept with good Faith and so followed by little Contention and that determined by speedy Justice and Decision of Monthly Courts in every County Among the Saxons it was usual to grant Lands and Houses by bare Words and with the Delivery of some trivial Gift as an Horn a Sword an Arrow a Helmet and yet the simple Honesty of those Times and People left such Grants little subject to any Disputes or Contentions But the Conqueror reduced all Grants to Writing to Signature and to Witnesses which brought in Cavils and Actions grounded upon Punctilious Errors in Writing Mistakes in Expression which in much writing must sometimes happen either by Hast Weakness or perhaps by Fraud of Conveyancers and with Design to leave matter of Contentions by which they subsist as Physicians by Diseases Notwithstanding all these Arts of the Prince and Industry of his Ministers to introduce the Norman Language in England yet all was frustrated by the Over-ballance of Numbers in the Nations in Proportion to the Strangers and assisted by a general Avertion in the English to change their Language which they thought would be succeeded by that of their Laws and Liberties So that in this very Reign instead of the English speaking Norman the Normans began generally by Force of Intermarriages ordinary Commerce and Conversation to use the English Tongue which has ever since continued and composed the main Body of our Language though changed like others by Mixture of many new Words and Phrases not only introduced by this great Revolution but by the Uses and Accidents of each succeeding Age. It seems very remarkable and very different what happened in Scotland about this Time and upon this Subject for upon the great Recourse of English Nobles and Gentlemen into Scotland seeking Refuge from the first Dangers and and Terrors of the Norman Conquest and afterwards of many more who fled there in Pursuit of Edgar's Pretensions and joyned with the Scots in two Invasions of England but chiefly upon Malcolm's fond Affection of his English Wife Sister to Prince Edgar his Learning and commonly using or favouring her Language the usual Compliance and Conformity of Courtiers to the Customs of their Prince and the general Humour of Kindness in the Scots at that time to the Person or Rights of Edgar and to all his Adherents that lost their own Country to follow his Fortunes the English Language grew in this King's Reign to be generally spoken not only in the Court of Scotland but in several Counties thereunto adjacent and among most of the Nobles in remoter Provinces and so it has ever since remained as have many English Families in those Parts habituated and with Time naturalized among them and the ancient barbarous Scotch Tongue has been left current only in the more Northern or Northwest and mountainous Parts of that Kingdom and in the Islands that seeem to have been first and most entirely possessed by the Scyths or Scots who so long ago invaded and conquered the Northern Parts of Britain and Ireland The contrary of this unusual Change in Language appears to have succeeded in England since in a little time nothing remained of the Norman Language in common Use besides the Translation of our common Law which though deduced from the ancient Saxon Streams yet the Sound and Forms and Practice came to be Norman like Rivers which still run from their original Sources but yet often change their Taste from the Soils through which they take their Course and sometimes from Accidents of great Inundations which for the present change them but leave them to return to their natural Streams A singular and instructive Example how strange a Difference there is in the Compliance of a Nation with the Humour of a Prince they love or of one they fear Besides these Changes in the Language of our Laws and the Forms of Pleas which were generally disaffected by the English Subjects this Norman King either upon Pretence of Justice and Piety or else of Necessity and Safety abolished several ancient Saxon Institutions and made several new which how reasonable or how useful soever yet bred ill Blood among the Nobles and Clergy of England though the People contented themselves with the Continuance of their ancient Laws and thought all they did or suffered for the King's Service well rewarded while they might preserve what they called the Laws of Edward the Confessor And the King was so wise as often to renew his Oath to maintain them for the general Satisfaction of the People For the rest he took all Jurisdiction and Judgment in civil Causes wholly out of the Hands of the Bishops where it had been placed in the whole Saxon Succession after their Conversion to Christianity And restrained the Clergy to the Exercise and Administration of their Ecclesiastical Power He endeavoured to abolish two ancient Forms of Trial used among the Saxons with great Reverence even during their Christian Worship though they were but Remainders of their old Pagan Superstition but so rooted in the Opinion of the People as not to be dispossessed by new Reason or Religion These were the Trials Ordeal and of Camp-fight The first was either by Fire or by Water and used only in Criminal Cases where the Accusation was strong the Suspicions great but no Proofs evident In that of Fire the Person accused was brought into an open Place upon even Ground several Plow-shares heated red hot were laid before them at unequal Distances over which they were to walk blindfold and if they escaped any Harm were adjudged innocent if their Feet were burned by treading upon the hot Irons they were condemned as guilty In the other of Water the accused were thrown into the Water if they sunk immediately they were esteemed innocent and guilty if they swam either because it seemed against the Nature of heavy Bodies or that the clear Element would not receive them but rejected them as polluted Persons The first Trial was for those of better Condition and the other for those of inferiour and both were chiefly used upon Accusations of Unchastity of Poysoning or of Sorcery These Trials though grounded upon no Reason yet were thought approved by long Experience and the rather I suppose because any sncceeding Proofs of Innocence were as difficult to find as any precedent Evidence of Guilt And they were commonly called the Judgments of God and performed with solemn Oraisons and other Ceremonies that amused or rather enchanted the ignorant People into an Opinion of their being sacred as well as just The Trials of Camp-fight were performed by single Combat in Lists appointed for that Purpose
and so much Power to punish and revenge them which serves to make up that Character of Clemency of Nature that is allowed this Prince among his other Virtues even by those Writers who are severest upon his Memory Both the Danes and the Irish Fleets were upon the English Coasts when they first received the News of their Cenfederates Discovery and Disasters upon which they returned to Denmark and to Ireland and after this Time the Danes never again attempted any Invasion upon England nor was this Conqueror any more infested or disturbed by any of his English Subjects during the rest of his Reign finding the Conspiracy wholly suppressed and the Kingdom in perfect Tranquility upon his Return which he had yet hastened out of Normandy upon the Intelligence of his Danger in England and Ignorance how deep it was rooted or where it might end Nor was it easie to conjecture since it was believed by wise Men in that Age that the Weakness and ill Success of this Conspiracy proceeded chiefly from the Want of some popular Pretension that might have raised a Commotion of the People in Favour of the Lords and that if this had been designed in Defence of Edgar's known Rights to the Crown and spirited by that Prince at the Head of so many English and Norman Lords as were engaged in it the Throne had been endangered by this last Shake. But the unfortunate Prince Edgar had made his first Pretensions too late and his last Submissions too soon and the Danish Title was hated by the Commons of England though favoured by many of the Nobles and thereby wanted the Foundation proper and necessary to raise any firm Building Thus the Infelicity of some Princes may be occasioned only by ill timing their Councils when to attempt and when to desist in the justest Endeavours and the Greatness of others may be raised and preserved by unforeseen Accidents where the greatest Reach of Foresight and Conduct might have failed For had Edgar been at Liberty to pursue his Rights upon this Conjunction of the English and Norman Nobility he might probably have gained the Crown and had not some of the chief Complices discovered the Conspiracy the Conqueror might as probably have lost it However these Fortunes came to attend him thus far of his Reign yet here the Curtain may be drawn over the happy Scenes of this Prince's Life for the next that must open will represent him in the Decline of his Age imbroiled in Domestick Quarrels which could neither end in Glory nor in Gains assaulted by his own Children opposed by his Native Subjects forced to use Strangers to reduce them to Duty and Obedience after two dangerous Revolts and when these Troubles were appeased after much Anguish of Mind and many Dangers engaged by a trivial Accident and without any Design in a foreign War with a powerful Prince which though pursued with his usual Vigor and Fortune it first cost him his Health and at last his Life William the Conqueror had by his Wife Matild Daugter to Baldwin Count of Flanders four Sons Robert Richard William and Henry besides several Daughters Richard was a Prince of the greatest Hopes but unfortunately killed by a Stag while he was hunting in the new Forrest his untimely Fall was much lamented by the King but less by the People who interpreted it as a Judgment upon him for the mighty Wasts he had made to extend the Bounds of that Forrest and for the Rigor and Oppression of the Forrest Laws The other three survived their Father but with very different Fortunes as well as Merits and very unequally distributed The King before his Expedition into England had promised his eldest Son Robert the Dukedom of Normandy in case he conquered the Kingdom he then pretended this Promise was made before the King of France and challenged by Robert after the King 's first Establishment upon the English Throne But the King though he denied not the Promise he had made yet long delayed the Performance upon Pretence of his unsettled State in England from the Discontents of his Nobles and the Scotch Invasions which made it necessary for him to keep Normandy as a Retreat upon any great Misfortune or Revolution in England Duke Robert seemed content with these Reasons whilst they were justified by the Appearances of any Dangers in England but perceiving they were ceased and yet the Delays continued he grew at length impatient and about the fourteenth Year of the King's Reign assumed the Government of Normandy as sovereign and in his own Right caused the Barons to swear Fealty to him as to the Duke and not as his Father's Lieutenant and was received and obeyed by the Normans who grew weary of a subordinate Government and thought they deserved the Presence of their Prince among them which they had enjoyed since the first Establishment of their Possessions in France Besides Robert was generally beloved as a Prince courteous generous and brave though withal ambitious unquiet and uncertain yet these Dispositions both of Prince and People had not alone induced him to engage in so bold a Resolution with such a Breach of his Duty and his Trust without the Practises and Instigations of the King of France who grown jealous of King William's Greatness and envious of his Felicity found no better way of lessening both than to kindle this Fire in his own House and thereby the most sensibly to disquiet his Mind as well as to disjoynt his State and divide his Power He therefore not only encouraged Robert but combined with him in this Attempt and engaged to support him with his Forces if his Father disputed longer the Justice of his Claim The King though at first discomposed at the News of this Insolence in his Son yet believing it had no deeper Root but what would soon wither or be cut off by his Presence in Normandy gathered immediately what Forces he could raise and with an Army of his English Subjects sailed over now to invade Normandy as he had done before to invade England with his Normans A strange Revolution to befal one Prince in so short a Period of Time and which made as great a Change in his Dispositions as his Fortunes for the great Alacrity and Faithfulness which the English expressed towards him in this Expedition gained so far upon his Affections and Confidence that in the rest of his Reign and his succeeding Wars he seemed to place his chief Trust in the Courage and Loyalty of his English Subjects Duke Robert informed of his Father's Preparations neglected not his own and though surprised at the Suddenness of his Arrival to which the Winds had conspired he could not oppose his Landing yet soon after he was in the Field at the Head of a brave Norman Army and of two thousand Men at Arms which the King of France had sent to his Assistance With these Forces he marched against the King fell upon his Vanguard and by the Success of an Ambush
having never lost but one which was Fitz-Auber He was a Prince deep in his Designs bold in his Enterprises firm in his Prosecution excelling in the Order and Discipline of his Armies and choice in his Officers both of his Army and his State But admirable in Expedition and Dispatch of Civil as well as Military Affairs never deferring till to Morrow what should be done to Day Above all he was careful and prudent in the Management of his Treasure and finding a Temper between the Bounty of his own Nature and the Necessity of his Affairs proportioning always the Expences of his Gifts his Buildings his Enterprizes to the Treasure he was master of for defraying them designing nothing out of his Compass and thereby compassing all he seemed to design He was religious in frequenting Divine Service giving much Alms building Abbies and endowing them sending Presents of Crosses of Gold rich Vestures and Plate to many other Churches and much Treasure to Rome He was a great Lover of Learning and though he despised the loose ignorant Saxon Clergy he found in England yet he took Care and Pleasure to fill Ecclesiastical Dignities here with Persons of great Worth and Learning from abroad as Lanfranc Durand Anselm with many more He was a Lover of Virtue in others and Hater of Vice for being naturally very kind to his half Brother Odon Bishop of Bayeux having made him Earl of Kent given him great Revenues entrusted him in his Absence with the Government of the Realm yet finding him a Man of incurable Ambition Avarice Cruelty Oppression and Prophaneness he at length wholly disgraced him and kept him in Prison during all the rest of his Reign which seems to have been a just Punishment of his Crimes and Sacrifice to the English he had cruelly oppressed in the King's Absence rather than a greediness of his Treasures as some envious Writers would make it appear Yet by the Consent of them all and the most partial or malicious to his Memory as well as others He is agreed to have been a Prince of great Strength Wisdom Courage Clemency Magnificence Wit Courtesie Charity Temperance and Piety This short Character and by all agreed is enough to vindicate the Memory of this noble Prince and famous Conqueror from the Aspersions or Detractions of several malicious or partial Authors who have more unfaithfully represented his Reign than any other Period of our English History Having taken a full View of this King in his Actions and his Person it remains only that we consider the Consequences that both of them had upon the Condition of this Kingdom which will be best discovered by the Survey of what it lost what it preserved and what it gained by this famous Conquest England thereby must be confessed to have lost first very great Numbers of brave English Men who fell in the Battle of Hastings and in two Wars afterwards by the Revolt of the Nobles and Invasion of the Scots in Favor of Edgar Atheling Likewise many Nobles and Gentlemen who disdaining all Subjection to a forreign and conquering Power retired into Scotland Ireland Denmark and after the Extinction of their Hopes by the Suppression of all Endeavours in Favour of Edgar's Right never returned but left their Families habituated in those Countries choosing if they must live under a forreign Dominion to do it rather abroad than at home In the next Place England lost the true Line of their ancient Saxon Kings who were a Race of just good and pious Princes governed by such known Laws and with such Moderation and were so beloved of their People as makes it observed by Writers that no popular Insurrection ever happened in any of the Saxon Reigns Lastly England by the Conquest lost in a great Measure the old Plainness and Simplicity of the Saxon Times and Customs of Life who were generally a People of good Meaning plain Dealing contended with their own little coveting or imitating their Neighbours and living frugally upon the Product of their own fruitful Soil For the Profusion of Meats at our English Tables came in with the Danes and the Luxury of them was introduced first by the Normans and after encreased by the more frequent Use of Wines upon the Accession of Guienne to this Crown What we preserved is remarkable in three Particulars not usual upon great Conquests for first we preserved our Name which was lost by the Saxon Invasions but that of England then succeeding the other of Britain has ever since continued Next we preserved our Language or the old English Tongue which has made the Body and Substance of what still remains though much enlarged and polished since those Times by the transplanting many Words out of forreign Languages especially Latin and French In the last Place we preserved our Forms of Government our Laws and Institutions which have been so much celebrated by ancient Writers and have been so obstinately defended by our Ancestors and are by Chancellor Fortescue who writ in the Time of Henry the Sixth averred to have been preserved through the five several Governments in this Island of Normans Danes Saxons Romans and Britains and so to have continued for a longer Course of Time than those of Rome or Venice or any other Nation known in Story But this I doubt is not so easily proved as affirmed though it may be with more Certainty of the three first which is sufficient to illustrate the Antiquity of our Constitutions without Recourse to strained or uncertain Allegations For what we gained by our Loss in this Conquest though it seems a Contradiction yet it may be observed in many more Particulars than the other two First England grew much greater both in Dominion and Power abroad and also in Dignity and State at home by the Accession of so much Territory upon the Continent For though the Normans by the Conquest gained much of the English Lands and Riches yet England gained Normandy which by it became a Province to this Crown Next it gained greater Strength by the great Numbers of Normans and French that came over with the Conqueror and after his Establishment here and incorporated with the English Nation joyning with them in the same Language Laws and Interests Then we gained much by the great Encrease of our Naval Power and Multitude of Ships wherein Normandy then abounded by the Advantage of more and better Havens than in later Ages This with the perpetual Intercourse between England and Normandy and other Parts of the Continent gave us a mighty Encrease of Trade and Commerce and thereby of Treasure to the Crown and Kingdom which appeared first in so great a Mass as was left by the Conqueror to Prince Henry his younger Son England by the Conquest gained likewise a natural Right to the Dominion of the narrow Seas which had been before acquired only by the great Naval Power of Edgar and other Saxon Kings But the Dominion of narrow Seas seems naturally to belong like that of
it the Name of Ierne and this Name was communicated to all the rest of that Race who conquered and possessed the North of Ireland which from them was stiled by the Saxons Iren-land and by Abbreviation Ireland And the Original Name seems to have belonged rather to those Parts of Scotland than Ireland since it is given us by the ancientest Latin Verse that mentions it with the Epithet of Glacialis Ierne which agrees little with the Clymate of Ireland That these fierce Invaders were Scythians or Scyths which was their Vulgar Termination is probably conjectured if not ascertained not only from their Name but from the Seat of that Continent which is nearest to the North of Scotland This is Norway and is the utmost Western Province of that vast Northern Region which extends from thence to the farthest Bounds of Tartary upon the Eastern Ocean and was by the Ancients comprehended in that general Appellation of Scythia as well as divided into several other Barbarous Names and Countries Besides 't is both usual and rational that such great Transmigrations of People should be made from a worse to a better Clymate or Soil rather than to a worse which makes this probable to have proceeded from Norway than from lower and more fertile parts of Germany and the Island which is the nearest part of Land to that Continent of Norway retains still the Name of Schetland as the first point which is reported to have been touched by the Scots or Scyths in this Navigation Another Argument may be drawn from several Customs still remaining among the Old Northern Irish which are recorded to have been anciently among some of the Scythian Nations removing their Houses or Creats from one place to another according to the Seasons Burning of their Corn instead of Beating or Treading in other Countries Eating Blood they drew from living Cattle Feeding generally upon Milk and using little other Husbandry besides the Pasture and Breed of Cattle To this is added that the Mantle or Plad seems to have been the Garment in use among the Western Scythians as they continue still among the Northern Irish and the Highland Scots For their Language it must be confess'd there is not left the least Trace by which we may seek out the Original of this Nation for it is neither known nor recorded to have been used any where else in the World besides Ireland the High-lands of Scotland and the Isle of Man and must be allowed to be an Original Language without any Affinity to the Old British or any other upon the Continent and perhaps with less mixture than any other of those Original Languages yet remaining in any parts of Europe The Conjecture raised of its having come from Spain because some Spanish words are observed in it appears too light to be regarded when those very words are of the modern Spanish which is a Language not above seven or eight Hundred Years Old and compounded chiefly out of Old Roman and Gothick with a later intrusion of the Saracen among them And yet I know no better ground than this for the other Tradition of Ireland having been anciently planted from Spain and esteem the few Spanish words to have been introduced only by Traffick of the South-west parts of Ireland to Spain It seems probable that from what part soever of the Continent this Nation Sailed upon this Adventure they were driven away by the force or fear of some other Invaders and in so great numbers that the Natives remaining neither preserved any where their Name or Language but were either destroy'd by the Conquerors or blended into the Masse of the new Nations who seated themselves in their Country as we find the Old British to have been in England by the Conquests and Inundations of the Saxons The time of this Expedition is yet less in view nor does Buchanan or any other Author that I know of pretend to tell or so much as conjecture further than upon a supposition of the Scots coming first out of Ireland without alledging any Authority for that neither I know no way of making any guesses at a matter so obscure without recourse to the Runick Learning and Stories by which we find that the Asiatick Scythians under the Names of Getes or Goths and the Conduct of Odin their Captain their Law-giver at first and afterwards one of their Gods are esteemed to have begun their Expedition into the North-west parts of Europe about the time that the Roman Arms began first to make a great noise and give great fears in Asia which was in the Reigns of Antiochus first and then of Mithridates How long the Arms of Odin and his Successors were imployed in the Conquest and Settlement of that vast Kingdom which contained all the Tracts of Country surrounding the Baltick Sea is not agreed upon in these Runick Stories but 't is necessary Norway must have been the last they possessed in their Western Progress and I am apt to think the Scyths may have been driven by them to seek nearer Seats in our Islands and that 't is probable to have been some time of the first Century Whenever it was it seems more agreed that after the first Entrance of the Scots into Caledonia they subdued much of the Country mingled with the the rest of the Native Picts continued long to infest the Frontier Parts of the Roman Colonies in Britain with great fierceness and many various Events and would possibly have made much greater noise and impressions upon the Romans if their greater Numbers had not been drawn another way by so great a Drain as that of Ireland which they totally conquered and long possessed This is the best Account I have been ever able to give my self of these ancient Times and Events in the Northern Parts of our Islands being a matter that has imployed so many unskilful Pens in so much idle Trash and worthless Stuff as they have left upon it but all involved in such groundless Traditions and vanity of Fables so obscured by the length of Time and darkness of unlearned Ages or covered over with such gross Forgeries made at Pleasure by their first Inventers that I know few ancient Authors upon this subject worth the pains of Perusal and of dividing or refining so little Gold out of so much course Oar or from so much Dross And I have the rather made this Excursion because I have met with nothing in Story more Obscure and often observed with wonder that we should know less of Ireland than of any other Country in Europe For besides its having been anciently planted by the Scots and taken their Name and then after several Centuries been subdued and much of it planted by the Danes we know nothing certain of the Affairs or Revolutions of that Island till the English began their Conquests there under the Ensigns of Henry the Second For the Danish Establishments there we neither know the Time nor the manner they either began or ended though
many Monuments still remain of the Towns and Castles they Built and many Records among some Families in Denmark of the Lands and Possessions they long held and enjoyed in Ireland I shall now return to that part of our Island which was more properly by the Romans termed Britannia was Conquered by the Victorious Arms and reduced into a Province by the wise Institutions of that renowned Nation and having once found the end of the Thread it will be easie to wind off the Bottom and being a Subject treated by so many Authors and pretty well agreed I shall trouble my self no further than to continue the Thread as it leads through the several Revolutions that have happened in this noble Island till the last Norman Period by which the present Succession and Government seem to have been Establish'd and has ever since continued The Roman Arms entered Britain under the first and most renowned of their Emperors which was Iulius Caesar But it was not a Quarry worth such an Eagle and so left by him to be pursued by the Lieutenants of the succeeding Emperors The fecond Expedition into Britain was made by Claudius under the Conduct of Plautius and pursued under Ostorius and other Roman Commanders with great Successes The Southern Coasts with most of the inland Parts thereunto adjacent were wholly subdued and secured by Fortifying Camps Building Castles and Planting many Colonies The rest seemed at a Gaze and to promise Submissions at the first rather than any Disturbances to the Progress of the Roman Arms. Till provoked by the Oppression of some of the Pretors and their corrupt Officers The Britains towards the North made head under Caractacus and continued for nine years not only a brave Defence but threatned some fatal Dangers to the Roman Colonies till in a decisive Battel by the advantage of armed and disciplined Veteran Soldiers against loose Troops of naked Men The Britains were totally vanquished Caractacus taken Prisoner and sent to make a part of a famous British Triumph at Rome Yet one strong Endeavour more was made for their Liberty in the time of Nero when Paulinus going with the best part of his Army to subdue the Isle of Anglesey The Britains presuming upon so great a Distance between the Governour and his Colonies made a general Insurrection under Voadicea fell upon the Romans in all Places took their Castles destroyed the chief Seats of their Power at London and Verulam and pursued their Advantages with such Slaughter and Revenge that above seventy Thousand Romans or their Auxiliaries were killed by the Fury of this general Revolt Yet Paulinus returning with his Army encountred the British Forces in a set Battel overthrew their whole Powers pursued his Victory with the Slaughter of eighty Thousand forced Voadicea to Poison her self in Despair And here ended not only the British Liberties but their very Hopes too or any considerable Attempts ever to recover them Under Vespatian and Domitian Iulius Agricola first discovered it to be an Island Sailing round it with his Fleets and extended and pacified the Bounds of his Province to the Neck of Land between the two Fryths about Sterling and Glasco and returning applied himself to the Arts of Peace and Civil Institutions brought in the Use of the Roman Laws and Customs Habits and Arms Language and Manners Baths and Feasts Studies and Learning By all which he pretended to soften the Minds and change the very Natures of a barbarous People very difficult to be subdued by other means how violent soever This wise Council pursued by his Successors in the Government succeeded so well that the Romans had little trouble afterwards in Britain besides the Defence of their Province upon the Northern Borders After these Establishments the Romans called all that part of the Island lying Northward from the two Fryths Caledonia leaving the Name of Britannia to the rest which was reduced to their Obedience and from that time remained a Roman Province To defend it from the Irruptions of these fierce and numerous People on the North side Agricola began and in some manner finished a Wall or Vallum upon that narrow space of Land that lies between the two Fryths or Bayes of the Eastern and Western Seas upon which Glasco and Sterling are seated He fortified this Pass between the two Points with Towers and Ramparts to make it defensible against those barbarous Nations who inhabited the Northern side of that Country which the Romans esteemed not worth the Conquering and provided only for Security of the rest of the Island Many Ruins of this Vallum were lately and for ought I know may be still remaining and among the rest a small round Tower built of Stone but so exactly Cut as every one to Joynt into another with admirable Art and Firmness though without any use of Morter or Iron And this was esteemed to have been a Temple of Terminus and Built there as the utmost Bounds of the Roman Province This was afterwards repaired and stronger fortified by Adrian and Severus Nor is it indeed agreed by Authors which of them began or finish'd it and whether the last made not another Vallum between the two Seas more Southward and of a much greater Length But I think the first more probable However this was a Defence intended and atchieved by the Romans against those bold and brave Remainders of the Northern Britains assisted by the Scots who yet frequently invaded and infested the Province during the time the Romans held this Island which was till the Reign of Honorius and for the space of about four hundred and sixty Years Upon the Divisions in the Roman Empire which was grown a Prey to their Armies and commonly disposed by their inconstant Humours The Pretenders often fought their Battels and decided their Quarrels in Gallia as well several of the Commanders there who arrived at the Empire as several others who fell in the pursuit of that fatal Purple and left only the Name of Tyrants behind them in the Stories of that Age. For the assistance of these Factions the British Legions were at several Times and Occasions drawn away into Gaul and with them great Numbers of the bravest of the British Youth who were affectionate to the Roman Government and instructed in their Language Manners and Discipline of their Arms. As the Roman Forces decreased in Britain the Picts and Scots still the more boldly infested the Northern Parts crossing the Fryths and hovering about the Coasts in little Boats of Wicker covered with Leather filled all where they came with Spoil and Slaughter till repelled by what remained of the Roman Forces they retired still into their Northern Nest watching for the next occasion of Invasion and Revenge upon the Neighbouring Britains whenever the Romans were drawn away into remoter Parts of the Island These Enterprises were often repeated and as often as repress'd for some time till in the Reign of the second Valentinian upon the mighty Inundations of those barbarous Northern