In a charter, granting certain lands for the church of St. Paul's, which Stowe has translated from the record in the Tower, William denominates himself, "by the grace of God, _King of Englishmen_" (Rex Anglorum), and addresses it "to all his well-beloved _French and English people_, greeting."--Stowe's "Survey of London," 326, Edit. 1603. Did William on any occasion declare that he was "the Conqueror" as well as the sovereign of England? When William attempted to learn the Saxon language, it is obvious that he did not desire to remind his new subjects that he ruled as Voltaire sang of his hero,-- ------------------qui regna sur la France, Par droit de Conquête et par droit de Naissance. [4] The final history of these citadels may illustrate that verse of Goldsmith which reminds us-- "To fly from PETTY TYRANTS--to THE THRONE!" In the short space of seventy years the owners of those castles bearded even majesty itself; these lords, by their undue share of power, were in perpetual revolt; till two royal persons, though opposed to each other, Stephen and Maude, decreed for their mutual interest the demolition of fifteen hundred and fifteen castles. They were razed by commission, or by writs to the sheriffs; and a law was further enacted that "none hereafter, without license, should embattle his house." And thus was broken this aristocracy of castles. See two dissertations on "Castles," by Sir ROBERT SUTTON, and by AGARD; "Curious Discourses by Eminent Antiquaries," i. 104 and 188. This number of castles seems incredible; possibly many were "embattled houses." My learned friend, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, an antiquary most versant in manuscripts, inclines to think there may be some scriptural error of the ancient scribe, who was likely to add or to leave out a cipher, without much comprehension of the numerals he was transcribing without a thought, like what happened to the eleven thousand virgins of St. Ursula. [5] Speed, 440. [6] A curious fact discovered by Mr. Turner in a Cottonian manuscript has brought this circumstance to our knowledge. In a grant of land in Cornwall, an Anglo-Saxon king, after mentioning the Saxon name of the place, adds, "which the inhabitants there called, _barbarico nomine_, by the barbarous name of Pendyfig;" which was the British or Welsh name.--"Vindication of the Ancient British Poems," 8. [7] Camden has noticed this striking circumstance in his "Britannia." See also Percy's Preface to Mallett's "Northern Antiquities," xxxix. [8] See his Preface to the prose romance of "La Fleur des Batailles."