During the long period which elapsed from the growth of feudality out of the ruins of the Roman empire, and the complete development of the principle of monarchy out of the feudal system, only one country guarded the elements of representative government, and caused them finally to prevail. From the beginning, the Anglo-Saxons lived most upon their own resources, and gave birth to their own civilization. From the fifth to the eleventh century, their institutions received the most natural and perfect development. Soon after the Saxon Heptarchy had been founded, as early as A.D. 582, the Danes and Romans made their way into England, and contributed greatly to the national worth. Alfred was a glorious exemplification of the truth, at a later period illustrated by Gustavus Vasa and Henry IV. of France, that the greatest princes are those who, though born to the throne, are nevertheless obliged to conquer its possession. Canute, the Dane, ascended the throne after Alfred, and was succeeded by Edward the Confessor, who was the last of the old Saxon dynasty restored. William, Duke of Normandy, contested the English throne with Harold, after Edward died, and on the 14th of October 1066, triumphed on the field of Hastings. Thus were the feudal institutions introduced into England when in their fullest vigor on the continent. All this was most opportune, since it bound the Normans to one another, and united the Saxons among themselves. It brought the two nations into the presence of each other with mutual powers and rights, and effected an amalgamation of the two systems of institutions under the sway of a strong central power, the most auspicious of ulterior results. This led directly to the predominance of a system of free government in England, and was consummated at exactly the right place and hour. It could not be expected that much literary worth would appear immediately after the Norman conquest. But the twelfth century, from the accomplished Henry Beauclerc to the chivalrous Cœur de Lion, was greatly distinguished for classical scholarship, and continental literature of a recent formation began to be studied in England. In the thirteenth century, the Great Charter was extorted from King John, and intellectual progress was equalled only by commercial advancement and constitutional freedom. During all this perpetual progress through its fluctuating stages, the English universities were founded or regularly organized, as the guarantees of mental enfranchisement; and the single-handed heroism of Wallace in Scotland gave assurance of that patriotic spirit which was predestined to achieve a thousand triumphs beyond the field of Bannockburn.