[Sidenote: _Iohn Rous._ _Hen. Marle._] Among manie lawes made by the said William, this one is to be remembred, that such as forced any woman, should lose their genitals. [Sidenote: Salisburie vse.] In this kings daies also liued Osmond the second bishop of Salisburie, who compiled the church seruice, which in times past they commonlie called after Salisburie vse. [Sidenote: Shooting.] The vse of the long bowe (as Iohn Rous testifieth) came first into England with this king William the Conquerour: for the English (before that time) vsed to fight with axes and such hand weapons: and therefore in the oration made by the Conquerour before he gaue battel to king Harold, the better to encourage his men, he told them they should encounter with enimies that wanted shot. In the yeare of our Lord 1542. Monsieur de Castres bishop of Baieulx and abbat of Saint Estienne in Caen, caused the Sepulchre of this William to be opened, wherein his bodie was found whole, faire and perfect; of lims, large and big; of stature and personage, longer than the ordinarie sort of men: with a copper plate fairlie gilt, and this epitaph therevpon ingrauen: "Qui rexit rigidos Normannos, atque Britannos Audacter vicit, fortiter obtinuit, Et Cœnomenses virtute contudit enses, Imperijq. sui legibus[4] applicuit, Rex magnus parua iacet hæc Guilhelmus in urna: Sufficit & magno parua domus domino, Ter septem gradibus se voluerat atq. duobus Virginis in gremio Phœbus, & hic obijt:" that is; "Who ouer Normans rough did rule, and ouer Britons bold Did conquest stoutlie win, and conquest woone did stronglie hold: Who by his valure great the fatal vprores calmed, in maine, And to obeie his powers and lawes, the Manceaux did constraine: This mightie king within this little vault entoomed lies, So great a lord sometime, so small a roome dooth now suffice. When three times seuen and two by iust degrees the sunne had tooke His woonted course in Virgos lap, then he the world forsooke." [Sidenote: _W. Patten_ collecteth this to be the 23. after the sun was in _Virgo_: which is the 6. of Septēber.] Thus far William Conquerour. Transcriber's notes There are no footnotes in the original. The original spelling and punctuation have been retained, with the exception of obvious errors which have been corrected by reference to the 1587 edition of which the original is a transcription. [1] Original reads 'l d'; corrected to 'led'. [2] Original reads '(that bare their title'; opening parenthesis removed. [3] Original reads 'the the parties'; corrected to 'the parties'. [4] Original reads 'suilegibus'; corrected to 'sui legibus'. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (1 of 12), by Raphael Holinshed