ject all Europe to the despotism of the church; he virtually ruled the holy see long before his election to the papal throne, and directed all his efforts to subject monarchs and emperors to the papacy. The private wars of the nobles were more like those of princes than subjects, and during the reign of Henry, several pitched battles were fought, attended with unusual slaughter. A. D. 21. Henry at his death left three sons, of whom Philip, the eldest, was only seven years old. Pur- 1060. suant to the will of the late king, the regency was entrusted to Baldwin, earl of Flanders, who took better care of the monarchy than of the monarch. Philip was permitted to grow up uneducated, the slave of uncontrolled passions and unregulated desires. 22. In his fourteenth year he was freed from all restraint by the death of his guardian, and soon after was involved in a war with Robert, count of Friezland. Philip was compelled to make peace with the count, and as one of the conditions, was obliged to marry Robert's stepmother. The king was by no means pleased with the match, and after some years divorced her on the plea of consanguinity. 23. He then enticed from her husband, Bertrade, the wife of Fulk, count of Anjou, and openly married her in spite of every remonstrance. Pope Urban II., after many ineffectual threats, excommunicated Philip; the monarch took no notice of the proceeding, but continued to live with Bertrade, deriving new hopes from the death of his former wife, and from the consent of Fulk, who bore the loss of his faithless spouse with great patience. A. D. 1093. A. D. 24. The conquests of the Saracens in the east, and especially the capture of Jerusalem, had alarmed the 1094. emperor of Constantinople for his safety; in an evil hour he wrote to the pope, soliciting him to stir up the western princes to form a league against the Saracens. The consequence of the papal exertions was the Crusades, or Holy Wars, but before we enter on the history of that eventful • Not one king enrolled himself in the ranks of the first crusade; but a multitude of powerful nobles and knights were engaged, together with priests and inferior leaders, sufficiently numerous of themselves to have formed an army; and the mass of the common people was greater than, in all probability, had ever before been mustered for the accomplishment of any one object. The condi period, it is necessary to give some account of the province of Normandy, from which England had about this time received a new race of sovereigns. tion of the general body of the array, however, was far from being such as would have satisfied a skilful general. The various corps had no connection with each other. The majority were undisciplined, unaccustomed to the use of arms and to long marches, and resembled a miscellaneous rabble rather than a host of warriors. Among the whole of those who first set forth, there were but eight horsemen; a circumstance which led to the observation of an historian that "it was no wonder that a bird, with such short wings, and so long a tail, should not be able to take a distant flight." Then, so ignorant and superstitious were they, that, instead of making due provision for their march, they relied literally and implicitly upon the assurance of the pope, that "no accidents or dangers could attend them on their march; for that Jesus, in whose service they had volunteered would protect and preserve them, if they would but devoutly trust in him." The Ship in which William the Conqueror sailed to England. CHAPTER VIII. THE HISTORY OF NORMANDY. O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, BYRON. 1. THE nations who successively invaded southern Europe from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, were originally descended from the same stock; but when, by conquest, they had obtained a settlement in any country, they gradually adopted the arts of the vanquished, and laid aside their habits of plunder for the more useful pursuits of agriculture. The next horde of invaders refused to acknowledge these degenerate warriors as their countrymen, and inflicted on them the same calamities which they had caused the original inhabitants to suffer. The Saxons in Britain, the Goths and Franks in Gaul, found in the Danes or Normans the avengers of the cruelties which they had previously practised on the Celtic population. The severe persecution of the Saxons by Charlemagne induced many of their bravest warriors to fly into Scandinavia; their representation of the cruelties practised on the worshippers of Odin, stimulated their brethren of the north to prepare for revenge, and we have already seen that even in the reign of Charlemagne, the northern shores of France were devastated by Scandinavian pirates. 2. The invasion of Rollo, in the reign of Charles A. D. the Simple, was the last of their plundering expedi912. tions; by an agreement with that monarch, who was anxious to save his country from devastation, and to secure for himself an active body of partisans, the province of Neustria, and the hand of the king's daughter, were given to Rollo, who thenceforward took the title of Robert I., duke of Normandy. The remains of the Celtic Gauls, who had been cruelly oppressed by the Franks, gladly submitted to the equitable administration of Rollo, and the number of his subjects was continually increased by parties of the aboriginal natives, who sought, under a new master, relief from the oppression of their former conquerors. 3. But the Normans were not so successful in obtaining the affections of the inhabitants of Brittany, whom Charles, unable to subdue himself, had transferred to his new allies. This province, situated at the north-western extremity of Gaul, was known to the Romans by the name of Armorica; it was inhabited by the bravest Celtic tribes, and had successfully resisted most of the invaders who had seized on the rest of Gaul. 4. When the Saxons had established their dominion in Britain, many of the ancient inhabitants removed to Armorica, with the consent of the ancient inhabitants, who acknowledged them as brethren of the same origin; the new settlers distributed themselves over the whole northern coast, as far as the territory of the Veneti, now called Vannes. The name of Brittany was thenceforth given to this province. The increase of the population of this western corner of the country, and the great number of people of the Celtic race and language thus assembled within a narrow space, preserved them from the irruption of the Roman tongue, which, under a form more or less corrupt, had gradually become prevalent in every other part of Gaul. 5. Remembering the evils that had forced them to become exiles, the Bretons had a vehement dislike of all foreign rule, and under every change of fortune, were eager to seize an opportunity for asserting their independence. 6. Under the command of their Tierns, or Counts, as the Normans called them, Alan and Berenger, they made a desperate resistance to Robert, and were with difficulty subdued. The conqueror appears to have exercised his victory with moderation, and to have been contented with receiving homage from the leaders as their feudal suzerain. 7. The conduct of the Norman duke, and his successors in their dominions, is honourably contrasted with that of their contemporaries. Robert gave his subjects a charter, provided for the due administration of justice, and encouraged strangers to settle in his dominions. The historians describe the tranquillity and security of Normandy during his reign, by assuring us that ornaments of gold and silver were exposed unguarded on the highways without any danger of their being carried off by robbers. 8. Robert resigned the crown to his son William, called Longueépée, or Long-sword, and spent the remaining three years of his life in retirement. A. D. 912. A. D. 936. 9. An insurrection of the Bretons, and a more formidable rebellion of the Normans, broke out during the first years of William's reign; but by united valour and prudence he suppressed both, and treading in the steps of his father, applied himself diligently to the improvement of his dominions. The Danes maintained a friendly intercourse with the conquerors of Normandy; and when Harold, king of Denmark, was dethroned by his rebellious son Sweyn, he sought refuge in the Norman court, and owed his restoration to the friendship and valour of William. 10. To succour unfortunate princes, seems to have been the fated employment of the Norman duke. When Hugh, count of Paris, endeavoured to deprive Louis d'Outremer of the throne, William exerted his utmost efforts in behalf of the rightful sovereign of France, and was the principal means of securing him on the throne. With similar generosity, he embraced the cause of Herbin, connt of Montreuil, whom his treacherous neighbour Arnold, count of Flanders, had expelled from his dominions. William defeated the usurper in a decisive engagement, and rejected every reward which the restored nobleman offered to him. 11. But this expedition was the cause of his death. Arnold, enraged at his defeat, resolved |