thered together.[15]
The Count of Flanders, the duke's father-in-law, secretly favoured the
enterprise; another of his nearest relations, Count Odo of Champagne,
brought up his troops in person; Count Eustace of Boulogne armed, to
avenge on Godwin's house an affront he had once suffered at Dover; a
number of leading Breton counts and lords attached themselves to
William in opposition to their duke, who cherished wholly different
projects. To the lords and knights of North France were joined many of
lower rank, whose names show that they came from Gascony, Burgundy,
the duchy of France, or the neighbouring districts belonging to the
German Empire. Of their own free will they ranged themselves round
William, to vindicate the right which he claimed to the English crown,
but each man naturally entertained brilliant hopes also for himself.
William is depicted as a man of vast bodily strength, which none could
surpass or weary out, with a strong hardy frame, a cool head, an
expression in his features which exactly intimated the violence with
which he followed up his enemies, destroyed their states, and burnt
their houses. Yet all was not passionate desire in him. He honoured
his mother, he was true to his wife. Never did he undertake a quarrel
without giving fair notice, and certainly never without having well
prepared for it beforehand. He knew how to keep up a warlike spirit in
his vassals: there were seen with him only splendid men and able
leaders; he kept strict discipline. So also he had seized the moment
for his enterprise, at which the political relations of Europe were
favourable to him. The two great realms, which might otherwise have
well interposed, the East Frank (or the Roman-German) as well as the
West Frank, were under kings not yet of age: the guardianship of the
latter lay with the Count of Flanders, who thought he did enough in
not standing openly by his son-in-law, of the former with great
bishops devoted heart and soul to the hierarchic system.[16] Harold,
on the other hand, had no friend or ally, in North or East, in South
or in West. To encounter the combined efforts of a great European
coalition he had only himself and his Anglo-Saxons to rely on. Harold
is depicted as coming forth perfect from the hands of nature, without
blemish from head to foot, personally brave before the enemy, gentle
among his own people, and endowed with natural eloquence. His enemy's
passion for, and knowledge of, war were not