nd feare;
So fraud, nor force, nor forreine foe may stand
Against the strength of thy most puissant hand."

* * * * *

EDWARD A. FREEMAN

The Norman Conquest of England

Edward Augustus Freeman was born at Harborne, Staffordshire,
England, Aug. 2, 1823. His precocity as a child was
remarkable; at seven he read English and Roman history, and at
eleven he had acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and had
taught himself the rudiments of Hebrew. An increase in fortune
in 1848 enabled him to settle down and devote himself to
historical research, and from that time until his death on
March 17, 1892, his life was one spell of literary
strenuousness. His first published work, other than a share in
two volumes of verse, was "A History of Architecture," which
appeared in 1849. Freeman's reputation as historian rests
principally on his monumental "History of the Norman
Conquest." It was published in fifteen volumes between 1867
and 1876, and, in common with all his works, is distinguished
by critical ability, exhaustiveness of research, and an
extraordinary degree of insight. His historical scenes are
remarkably clear and vivid, as though, according to one critic
"he had actually lived in the times."

_Preliminary Events_

The Norman Conquest is important, not as the beginning of English
history, but as its chief turning point. Its whole importance is that
which belongs to a turning point. This conquest is an event which stands
by itself in the history of Europe. It took place at a transitional
period in the world's development. A kingdom which had hitherto been
only Teutonic, was brought within the sphere of the laws, manners, and
speech of the Romance nations.

At the very moment when Pope and Caesar held each other in the death
grasp, a church which had hitherto maintained a sort of insular and
barbaric independence was brought into a far more intimate connection
with the Roman See. The conquest of England by William wrought less
immediate change than when the first English conquerors slew, expelled,
or enslaved the whole nation of the vanquished Britons or than when
Africa was subdued by Genseric. But it wrought a greater immediate
change than the conquest of Sicily by Charles of Anjou. It brought with
it not only a new dynasty, but a new nobility. It did not expel or
tr