GREAT MEN'S BODIES
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR (1027–1087 A.D.)
"Fitting out a fleet of several hundred vessels, he sailed with an army of fifty thousand archers and cavalry, and defeated and slew Harold in the decisive battle of Hastings; advanced upon London, which opened her gates and surrendered without a blow; gave that city her charter, now seen in Guildhall; and upon Christmas Day, 1066, was anointed and crowned in Westminster Abbey. Taking from the upper classes all offices of church and state; imposing new and heavy taxes; confiscating the lands, and turning them over to his own Norman Barons; erecting fortresses and garrisons all over the country; he reduced the Saxons almost to slavery. Yet he kept off foreign invaders; built the Tower of London; castles, monasteries, churches, and cathedrals rose everywhere; made the Great Survey of almost every foot of land in England outside of London; keeping the records of it in the famous Doomsday Book; summoned every noble, and landholder, and vassal to meet him upon Salisbury Plain; and made them swear allegiance to him. For England, drifting into anarchy and chaos, his coming was a good thing. It brought her into closer contact with the civilization of the Continent; made her more progressive; improved her language; built noble edifices of stone, in place of decaying wood; developed the feudal system; defined the relation of church and state; established a strong monarchy; and compelled strict obedience to the laws."
Freeman, the English historian, says: "A foreign conqueror, veiling his conquest under a legal claim; the hour and the man were alike needed. The man, in his own hour, wrought a work, partly conscious, partly unconscious. The more clearly a man understands his conscious work; the more sure is his unconscious work to lead to further results, of which he dreams not. So it was with the Conqueror of England. His purpose was to win and to keep the Kingdom of England; and to hand it on to those who should come after him, more firmly united than it had ever been before.… It was his policy to disguise the fact of conquest; to cause all the spoils of conquest to be held, in outward form, according to the277
