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Makers of History

William the Conqueror

JACOB ABBOTT

WITH ENGRAVINGS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

1902

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand

eight hundred and forty-nine, by

H ARPER & B ROTHERS ,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District

of New York.

PREFACE.

In selecting the subjects for the successive volumes of this series, it has

been the object of the author to look for the names of those great

personages whose histories constitute useful, and not merely entertaining,

knowledge. There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all

mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental

cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading outlines of

their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or

their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. This

knowledge, which it seems incumbent on every one to obtain in respect to

such personages as Hannibal, Alexander, Cæsar, Cleopatra, Darius,

Xerxes, Alfred, William the Conqueror, Queen Elizabeth, and Mary

Queen of Scots, it is the design and object of these volumes to

communicate, in a faithful, and, at the same time, if possible, in an

attractive manner. Consequently, great historical names alone are selected;

and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits

in their characters, and all the important events in their lives, in a bold

and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple language which is so

obviously required in works which aim at permanent and practical

usefulness.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

C HAPTER I.

N ORMANDY .

A.D. 870-912

The Norman Conquest.

Claim of William to the throne.

The right of the strongest.

O ne of those great events in English history, which occur at distant intervals, and

form, respectively, a sort of bound or landmark, to which all other events, preceding

or following them for centuries, are referred, is what is called the Norman Conquest.

The Norman Conquest was, in fact, the accession of William, duke of Normandy, to

the English throne. This accession was not altogether a matter of military force, for

William claimed a right to the throne, which, if not altogether perfect, was, as he

maintained, at any rate superior to that of the prince against whom he contended. The

rightfulness of his claim was, however, a matter of little consequence, except so far as

the moral influence of it aided him in gaining possession. The right to rule was, in

those days, [ Pg 14 ] rather more openly and nakedly, though not much more really,

than it is now, the right of the strongest.

Map of Normandy.

Normandy, William's native land, is a very rich and beautiful province in

the north of France. The following map shows its situation:

M AP OF E NGLAND AND PART OF F RANCE , SHOWING THE SITUATION OF

N ORMANDY .

[ Pg 15 ]

The English Channel.

Nature of the French coast.

Nature of the English coast.

It lies, as will be seen upon the map, on the coast of France, adjoining the

English Channel. The Channel is here irregular in form, but may be,

perhaps, on the average, one hundred miles wide. The line of coast on the

southern side of the Channel, which forms, of course, the northern border

of Normandy, is a range of cliffs, which are almost perpendicular toward

the sea, and which frown forbiddingly upon every ship that sails along the

shore. Here and there, it is true, a river opens a passage for itself among

these cliffs from the interior, and these river mouths would form harbors

into which ships might enter from the offing, were it not that the

northwestern winds prevail so generally, and drive such a continual swell

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