that he might be sure they did no mischief whilst he was away, and he took much spoil of gold and silver and gorgeous robes. The Normans wondered and rejoiced when they saw these things, for the English had much gold and silver, and knew how to work it very cleverly. The English women too were very skilful with their needle, and William brought home much of their beautiful embroidery, which he gave to the churches and monasteries in Normandy.

5. But whilst William was away troubles began to arise in England. He had left his most trusted friend William FitzOsberne and his half-brother Risings of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, to rule in his name. the English. They treated the people harshly, and made them hate the Norman rule, so that everywhere risings against William were planned.

In 1067 William had to come back to put down these risings. We shall see that in his reign he had three great struggles before he could make his power really strong: (1) the struggle with the native English, (2) the struggle with his own Norman barons, who wanted more power than he would give them, (3) the struggle against his own sons, who rebelled against him.

Till 1071 William had to struggle against the English. They gave him a great deal of trouble, but they could not really put his power in danger, for they had no union amongst themselves, and fought with no plan.

William

6. In 1069 Swend, King of Denmark, sent a mighty fleet under his brother to help the English. Swend was nephew of the great Canute. Many of those who had fallen at the battle of Hastings and the were his kinsmen, and he wished to revenge their death. But William bribed the Danish commanders, and the fleet sailed away without striking a blow.

Danes.

Harrying of Northumberland.

7. Then William marched northwards to put down a great rising in Northumberland. He wished to frighten the English, so as to teach them not to rise against him again. To do this he laid waste the whole of the north of England. The houses and all that was in them, the stores of corn, even the living animals, were burnt. The whole land was left desolate. Many of the people died of hunger, whilst some sold themselves as slaves, that they might get bread. For nine years the land remained untilled. It was a terrible deed, and men said that the wrath of God was sure to follow upon it. But the north never dared to rise against William again.

Hereward.

8. One by one the risings all over the country were put down. The man who gave William most trouble was Hereward, a great chieftain, who fortified himself on an island in the fens near Ely, so that none could get near him. Many of the English took refuge with him, amongst others Earl Morcar. At last William had to make a great causeway of stones and trees and hides over the fens to get at Hereward. Then Morcar and the others surrendered, but Hereward escaped, and many strange stories are told of his after life, but we know nothing more with certainty about him. Morcar was kept in prison till his death. Malcolm, king of Scotland, tried to help the English several times. Edgar the Atheling and many others fled to his court. At last in 1072 William marched over the border and made Malcolm submit to him.

William's castles.

9. In many of the towns which he took William built great castles, in which he put soldiers to watch over the citizens, lest they should rise against him. In London he built the Tower, which has always been famous in English history. He took away the lands of all the English who rose against him, and

he gave them to his Norman followers, so that by degrees the lordship of nearly all the land passed out of English into Norman hands.

Feudalism.

10. Now, all the men who got lands from William held them in the feudal way. Lands held in this way were called fiefs, and their holders had to make certain promises to the lord who gave them these fiefs. They were called his vassals, or tenants, from the French word tenir, meaning to hold, and the lord was called their superior. The vassals were bound to follow their lord to war, and to pay him certain services, whilst he in return took them under his protection and defended them against their enemies. When land was granted to the vassal by his lord he had to do homage to him for it. That means he became his man, from the French word homme, which means man. The vassal knelt before his lord, and, putting his hands between his, swore to be his man for life and death, so God help him. When he died his son had to do the same homage, and then his father's lands were given him by his lord.

II. These feudal customs had been growing up all over Europe, in England as well as in other countries; but they had grown more quickly in France and Feudalism Normandy than in England, and William had in France. there seen what they came to at last. There the vassals might give away part of their lands to their followers, who then were their men and not the king's men, and had not to do homage to the king at all. The great vassals of the king, too, had their own courts, where they judged their own vassals and laid on taxes at their pleasure. this way the great vassals grew very powerful and did not care much for their lord, to whom little more than the tie of homage bound them. They were called tenants in chief, because they held their lands directly from the

In

king. In this way William himself, as Duke of Normandy, was a vassal of the King of France, and had to do him homage.

William and feudalism.

12. William did not wish things to become like this in England. He wanted to have one strong government, which should rule the land. He wished all the law courts to depend upon himself. He let the barons hold the land in the feudal way, because it seemed to him the best and simplest way, and the old English ways had not been at all simple. But in other ways he tried to prevent his barons from gaining as much power as the barons had gained in France.

(1.) He made every holder of land, and not only the tenants in chief, take the oath of obedience to him and become his man.

(2.) He let no man hold much land together. If he gave a man many lands he gave them to him in different counties, so that he might not form one strong power. Canute had divided the country into great earldoms, but William broke these up. He made very few earls, and governed the counties by the sheriffs, whom he chose himself, and who could not leave their office to their sons. He only made four great earldoms, where the earls were allowed to have all the royal rights and name their own sheriffs.

These were Chester and Shropshire, which were to defend the border from the Welsh; Durham, to keep off the Scots; and Kent, where the coast had to be defended from foreign invaders. But Kent and Durham he gave to bishops, who might not marry, and so could not found great families.

(3.) He did not let the courts of justice of the barons become too powerful. The barons had courts of law for each of their manors, as their estates were called; but as William took care that their estates should be far

from one another they could not set up one strong central court.

Now, the barons did not like all this at all. They had never loved William's rule. They had followed him to England because they hoped to get more lands and more power. They thought that they would rise in power as much as William had done; and when they found that he would not let them become great and powerful, like the barons in France, they grew discontented and seized every opportunity to resist his power.

They

Struggle

with the rebellious

barons, 1075.

13. At last two of the great Norman barons made a plot, into which they tried to draw Waltheof, Earl of Nottingham, the last of the English earls. agreed to divide England amongst themselves, and that two of them should be dukes and one king. But Waltheof's heart failed him, and he told all that they had plotted. This did not save him, and he was beheaded as a traitor. The English mourned much for him, for he was a good man and gave much to the poor, and they revered him as a saint and as the last of their great earls.

Another time the discontented barons in Normandy made William's own son, Robert, rebel against him. Robert wanted to have the Duchy of Normandy for his own, even in his father's lifetime; but his father would not part with it. In time the barons gathered round Robert, who took up arms against his father. He found a friend, too, in the king of France, who feared the power of his great vassal William.

After a while the tears and prayers of Queen Matilda, who loved both husband and son very dearly, brought about peace between them. But it lasted only for a time, and Robert's rebellions and disobedience were the trouble of his father's last years.

William had to spend much time during his reign in