Chapter I: Preface

THIS small volume, written as the first of a series, is meant to fill quite another place from the _Short History of the Norman Conquest_, by the same author. That was a narrative of events reaching over a considerable time. This is the portrait of a man in his personal character, a man whose life takes up only a part of the time treated of in the other work. We have now to look on William as one who, though stranger and conqueror, is yet worthily entitled to a place on the list of English statesmen. There is perhaps no man before or after him whose personal character and personal will have had so direct an effect on the course which the laws and constitution of England have taken since his time. Norman as a Conqueror, as a statesman he is English, and, on this side of him at least, he worthily begins the series.

16 ST. GILES’, OXFORD,
6_th_ _February_ 1888.

CONTENTS

PAGE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER II
THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM 6
CHAPTER III
WILLIAM’S FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 26
CHAPTER IV
THE REIGN OF WILLIAM IN NORMANDY 34
CHAPTER V
HAROLD’S OATH TO WILLIAM 51
CHAPTER VI
THE NEGOTIATIONS OF DUKE WILLIAM 63
CHAPTER VII
WILLIAM’S INVASION OF ENGLAND 82
CHAPTER VIII
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 100
CHAPTER IX
THE SETTLEMENT OF ENGLAND 122
CHAPTER X
THE REVOLTS AGAINST WILLIAM 147
CHAPTER XI
THE LAST YEARS OF WILLIAM 181