Transcribed from the 1913 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR * * * * * BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN D.C.L., LL.D. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD * * * * * MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S SQUARE, LONDON 1913 * * * * * COPYRIGHT _First Edition printed March_ 1888. _Reprinted July_ 1888, 1890, 1894, 1898, 1903, 1907, 1913 PREFACE THIS small volume, written as the first of a series, is meant to fill quite another place from the _Short History of the Norman Conquest_, by the same author. That was a narrative of events reaching over a considerable time. This is the portrait of a man in his personal character, a man whose life takes up only a part of the time treated of in the other work. We have now to look on William as one who, though stranger and conqueror, is yet worthily entitled to a place on the list of English statesmen. There is perhaps no man before or after him whose personal character and personal will have had so direct an effect on the course which the laws and constitution of England have taken since his time. Norman as a Conqueror, as a statesman he is English, and, on this side of him at least, he worthily begins the series. 16 ST. GILES’, OXFORD, 6_th_ _February_ 1888. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER II THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM 6 CHAPTER III WILLIAM’S FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 26 CHAPTER IV THE REIGN OF WILLIAM IN NORMANDY 34 CHAPTER V HAROLD’S OATH TO WILLIAM 51 CHAPTER VI THE NEGOTIATIONS OF DUKE WILLIAM 63 CHAPTER VII WILLIAM’S INVASION OF ENGLAND 82 CHAPTER VIII THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 100 CHAPTER IX THE SETTLEMENT OF ENGLAND 122 CHAPTER X THE REVOLTS AGAINST WILLIAM 147 CHAPTER XI THE LAST YEARS OF WILLIAM 181 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.