of Æscesdune, before the soldiers
of fortune of the Duke of Normandy had emerged from their original
obscurity.

[Illustration: _Battle of Hastings_ (_From Bayeux Tapestry_).]

None the less the new invaders were “men,” and had a “man” to govern
them, while William, the king by right of everything that in those days
made kingcraft, ruled.

“Stark was he,” says the English Chronicler, “to men that withstood
him; none dared resist his will. Earls that did aught against his
bidding he cast into bonds; bishops he stripped of their bishopricks
and abbots of their abbacies. But stern as his rule was, it gave peace
unto the land.”

This was William. “Out of the strong cometh forth sweetness,” out of
the horrors that followed the Norman Conquest came the English people,
and, as time went on, that army which has mostly conquered, often
suffered, and generally met disaster with a bold front. And so the new,
or rather the last successful invaders seized the fair isle of Britain,
added their names to old place-names of Celtic or Saxon origin as an
affix, converting, for example, the “town by the water” of Ashton into
“Ashton Tyrrold,” and, holding the richest lands as their own appanage,
raised the massive frowning towers of Norman castles at all important
strategic points throughout the country, marking their conquest as by
a sign-manual that they held the land, as they had gained it, by the
sword.

Notwithstanding that the Norman had many friends in England, it was
long before the whole country was subdued. There was fighting in the
north of England and on the marches of Wales; there was prolonged
resistance by Hereward in the Fenland and central forests, until, in
1071, the “Wake” surrendered, and became the “king’s man.” There was
much still to settle, and William settled them in his own stern way.
So much so that his own often parvenu barons revolted, and for many
a century rebelled against the royal authority, which, backed by the
clergy and English, won in the end. Ralf Guader wa