vident that the present
rights and privileges of the people, who are a mixture of English and
Normans, can never be affected by a transaction which passed seven
hundred years ago; and as all ancient authors,[***] [12] who lived
nearest the time, and best knew the state of the country, unanimously
speak of the Norman dominion as a conquest by war and arms, no
reasonable man, from the fear of imaginary consequences, will ever be
tempted to reject their concurring and undoubted testimony.

[* H. Hunting, p. 370. Brompton, p. 980.]

[** So late as the reign of King Stephen, the earl
of Albemarle, before the battle of the Standard, addressed
the officers of his army in these terms: "Proceres Angliae
clarissimi, et genere Normanni, etc." Brompton, p. 1026. See,
further, Abbas Rieval, p. 339, etc All the barons and
military men of England still called themselves Normans.]

[*** See note L. at the end of the volume.]

King William had issue, besides his three sons who survived him, five
daughters, to wit, first, Cicily, a nun in the monastery of Feschamp,
afterwards abbess in the Holy Trinity at Caen, where she died in 1127.
Second, Constantia, married to Alan Fergant, earl of Brittany: she died
without issue. Third Alice, contracted to Harold. Fourth, Adela, married
to Stephen, earl of Blois, by whom she had four sons, William, Theobold,
Henry, and Stephen; of whom the elder was neglected, on account of the
imbecility of his understanding. Fifth, Agatha, who died a virgin; but
was betrothed to the king of Gallicia. She died on her journey thither
before she joined her bridegroom.

CHAPTER V.

[Illustration: 081.jpg WILLIAM II.]

WILLIAM RUFUS.

_Contemporary Monarchs_

EMP. OF GERM. KINGS OF SCOTLAND. K. OF FRANCE. K. OF SPAIN.
Henry IV. Malcolm III 1093 Philip I. Alphonso VI.
Donald Bane, dep 1091
Duncan 1094
Donald Bane 1097
Edgar.

POPES.
Urban II. 1099
Paschal II.

{1087.} WILLIAM, surnamed Rufus, or the Red, from the color of his hair,
had no sooner procured his father's recommendatory letter to Lanfranc,
the primate, than he hastened to take measures for securing to himself
the government of England. Sensible that a deed so unformal, and so
little prepared, which violated Robert's right of promig