Death of the king's nephew, Edward, A.D. 1057. that his marriage bed should be barren. At all events it was so. Accordingly his nephew Edward seemed destined to be his successor. But the presumptive heir died shortly after his arrival in England in 1057. His only son, Edgar the Atheling, was a boy in years and character. And now "The woman-hearted confessor prepares The shadow Son of the Norman Emma, his thoughts turned to the great Norman Duke William, his cousin. of the Norman. William a blood royal. The blood of the house of Cerdic ran not stranger to indeed in the Duke's veins. It did, however, the English in those of his wife Matilda of Flanders, and that His wife a through Alfred himself. But succession to the partaker of English throne had never yet accrued through a woman, nor indeed was Matilda heiress of her ancestress Alfretha, daughter of Alfred. it. Harold competitor. Harold's question able descent from the house of Cerdic. The only possible competitor of William, if Edgar was set aside, was Harold, son of Earl Godwin. According to some, though probably not accurate accounts, he descended from the house of Cerdic through the Princess Thyra, reckoned by some histories as a common ancestress of himself and of Canute. Probably there has been some confusion between Earl Godwin's two wives, of whom the first, Thyra, was related to Canute, the second, Gytha, was Harold's mother. The feeble king, last male of the house of Cerdic who ruled England, died on the 5th of Death of January 1066, in the 61st year of his life and the 23rd of his reign. It does not appear that he ever expressed his will as to the succession by any formal act, but probably he had at some time made to William of Normandy some promise of the crown, which was not Edward's to give, and on his death-bed recommended Harold as his successor. HAROLD, SON Of Godwin, a.d. 1066; JANUARY 6TH-OCTOBER 14TH. Edward the January 6. It was generally known that England was Harold. threatened with danger from Normandy, and 4.D. 1066. that the Atheling Edgar was not fit to grapple with it, and accordingly, the day after Edward's death, the English nation set aside the line of Cerdic, and gave their crown to the man who was worthiest to wear it, the noble Harold. A.D. 1066, Then, in the October of that same year, was Battle of fought the ever memorable battle of Hastings, in Hastings, which the last king of Saxon England lost his October 14. crown with his life. A thousand vessels had borne to England the Norman invaders, "The captors of England's domains, That ennobled her breed And high mettled the blood of her veins, Atheling's Edgar the For a moment Edgar the Atheling was repartial recognised as king by a part of the nation, but on cognition. the Conqueror's approach to London, Edgar and Accession the chief English nobles accepted William as of William. their Sovereign. Death of the Con queror, A.D. 1087. Distribu THE NORMAN KINGS, A.D. 1066-1135. In 1087 the great Conqueror died. He left three sons, Robert, his eldest, to whom he bequeathed the Duchy of Normandy, William tion of his Rufus, his next son, whom he appointed or repossessions. commended as his successor in the kingdom of England, and Henry Beauclerc, who received only the possessions of his mother Matilda. Accession of William Rufus. The English nation showed itself favourable to the succession of William Rufus, and the claim of Robert to the English crown was compounded by an agreement between him and William, that on the death of either, his dominions should devolve on the survivor. Death of The sudden death of William, in the new forest William Rufus, by the arrow of Walter Tyrrel, occurred in 1100, A.D. 1100. whilst Robert, on his return from a crusade, was lingering in Italy by the side of his newly-wedded bride Sibylla. Accession Henry, who was on the spot, secured possession of Henry. of the throne by prompt action, which the barons then present at Winchester sanctioned by a hasty though not inconsiderate election, popularity. Henry was popular with the English at his His maraccession from having been born in England, riage and and soon after became still more so from his marriage with Matilda, daughter of the Saxon princess Margaret, Queen of Scotland. Henry reigned about thirty-five years. ter Ma tilda. Towards the close of his reign, it became pro- His daughbable, that he would not have any other legitimate child than his daughter Matilda, widow of the Emperor Henry V., and then wife of Geoffrey Plantagenet, eldest son of Fulk, Count of Anjou ; by the latter she had a son, afterwards the celebrated Henry II. Henry I. procured the English nobility to acknowledge Matilda as his heiress, and by his will bequeathed to her all his dominions. crown STEPHEN OF BLOIS, A.D. 1135–1155. 1135. But the succession of a female to the English And on was hitherto unprecedented. Henry's death in 1135, Stephen, a younger son of Henry I.'s the Count of Blois by Adela, a daughter of the death, A.D. Conqueror, and himself, in his wife's right, Count Stephen of of Boulogne, profited by this circumstance, and by the throne. a pretence that Henry, on his death-bed, had disinherited Matilda in Stephen's favour, to seize the throne. Blois seizes Stephen's wife, the high-minded Matilda, brought His wife. to him not only the county of Boulogne, but also Treaty be tween Stephen and Ma tilda's son Henry, A.D. 1153. Accession of Henry, the popularity of her descent from the Saxon princess her grandmother, the same Queen Margaret of Scotland who was mother of Matilda, Henry I.'s wife. Stephen was elected king, and obtained a papal bull in his favour, but Matilda, the Empress, refused to acquiesce in the election. The civil wars between Stephen and Matilda were at length in 1153 composed by a treaty sanctioned by the nation. THE PLANTAGENETS, A.D. 1154-1485. In accordance with the compact thus made, A.D. 1154. Henry Plantagenet, on Stephen's death in 1154, succeeded to the throne, and that in his mother's lifetime. Henry's eldest son crowned, Henry in 1170 caused his eldest surviving son Henry to be crowned king. This was of course A.D. 1170. done in order to secure the succession to the king's heir, but the effect was to excite the ungrateful prince to claim the immediate sovereignty of Normandy or of England. This assumption produced long troubles, which only ceased on the death of the young Henry without issue, in 1183. The great though faulty monarch, Henry II., died in 1189, brokenhearted by the rebellion of Henry II., his two surviving sons, Richard and John, of whom A.D. 1189. the former at least had some excuse for his revolt against his father, in the ambiguous if not guilty Death of young Henry, A.D. 1183. Death of |