[340] Roland, count of Brittany, was slain at the pass of Roncesvalles in the famous attack of the Gascons upon Charlemagne's retreating army in 778. One of the chronicles says simply, "In this battle Roland, count of Brittany, was slain," and we have absolutely no other historical knowledge of the man. His career was taken up by the singers of the Middle Ages, however, and employed to typify all that was brave and daring and romantic. It was some one of the many "songs of Roland" that William used at Hastings to stimulate his men. [341] In a battle so closely contested this was a dangerous stratagem and its employment seems to indicate that William despaired of defeating the English by direct attack. His main object, in which he was altogether successful, was to entice the English into abandoning their advantageous position on the hilltop. [342] After the Norman victory was practically assured, William sought to bring the battle to an end by having his archers shoot into the air, that their arrows might fall upon the group of soldiers, including the king, who were holding out in defense of the English standard. It was in this way that Harold was mortally wounded; he died immediately from the blows inflicted by Norman knights at close hand. [343] The victory at Hastings did not at once make William king, but it revealed to both himself and the English people that the crown was easily within his grasp. After the battle he advanced past London into the interior of the country. Opposition melted before him and on Christmas day, 1066, the Norman duke, having already been regularly elected by the witan, was crowned at London by the archbishop of York. In the early years of his reign he succeeded in making his power recognized in the more turbulent north. [344] The work of Alfred had not been consistently followed up during the century and a half since his death [see p. 185]. [345] The conquest of England by the Normans was really far from an enslavement. Norman rule was strict, but hardly more so than conditions warranted. [346] It seems to be true, as William of Malmesbury says, that the century preceding the Norman Conquest had been an era of religious as well as literary decline among the English. After 1066 the native clergy, ignorant and often grossly immoral, were gradually replaced by Normans, who on the whole were better men. By 1088 there remained only one bishop of English birth in the entire kingdom. One should be careful, however, not to exaggerate the moral differences between the two peoples. [347] The story goes that just before entering the battle of Hastings in 1066 William made a vow that if successful he would establish a monastery on the site where Harold's standard stood. The vow was fulfilled by the founding of the Abbey of St. Martin, or Battle Abbey, in the years 1070-1076. The monastery was not ready for consecration until 1094.