But with all the differences of character, one common quality binds these men whose stories are here retold--a resolute hatred of oppression. And one common work, successful or unsuccessful, was theirs--to labour for the liberties of England and the health of its people. The value of each man’s work can only be stated approximately: it is difficult to make full allowance for the vastly different parts our heroes, statesmen and rebels alike, were called to play. The great thing is, that whatever the part, they played it faithfully, as they read it, to the end. We may admit the degrees of service given: it is impossible to do otherwise. Some of these Leaders shone as great orbs of light in their day and generation, lighting not only England, but all western Europe--and still their light burns true and clear across the centuries. Others were but flickering rush-lights--long extinct now. But none were will-o’-the-wisps, for all helped to show the road to be travelled by English men and women seeking freedom, and moving ever towards democracy. At the least, we--enjoying an inheritance won at a great price, and only to be retained on terms no easier--can keep the memory green of some few valiant servants of our liberties. What is wanted is a real history of the growth of the idea of freedom and of popular liberty in this country; and these rough biographical sketches may be accepted as a contribution to the materials for such a book. “Biography is a department of history, and stands to it as the life-history of a plant or an animal does to general biology.” I have gone back to all the original sources to get once more at the lives of these “Leaders of the People,” and to see them as they were seen by their contemporaries; but I have also done my best to read what the historians of our own day have written concerning them, and in mentioning my authorities I have, in each case, given a list of the modern books that seem to me valuable. J. C. _September, 1910._ Archbishop Anselm and Norman Autocracy 1093–1109 AUTHORITIES: Eadmer--_Historia Novorum_ and _Life of Anselm_; Orderic of St. Evroul; _The English Chronicle_; Florence of Worcester; William of Malmesbury; (Rolls Series); Sir Francis Palgrave--_England and Normandy_; Freeman--_Norman Conquest_, Vol. V., _Reign of William Rufus_; Dean Church--_St. Anselm_. [Illustration: ARCHBISHOP ANSELM (_From an old French Engraving in the British Museum._)] ARCHBISHOP ANSELM AND NORMAN AUTOCRACY 1093–1109. The first real check to the absolutism of Norman rule in England was given by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury.