e only this one
point. Their chief right, which they exercised to a perhaps
unauthorised extent, was that of electing the King; they had now
elected twice, but the first election was annulled by defeat in the
open field, the second by increasing superiority in arms; they had to
recognise the Conqueror, who claimed by inheritance, as their King,
whether they would or no. There is something almost symbolic of the
resulting state of things in the story of William's coronation, which
was now celebrated by the tomb of Edward the Confessor at Westminster.
For the first time the voices of the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans were
united to greet him as King, but the discordant outcry of the two
languages seemed a sign of conflict to the troops gathered outside,
and made the warlike fury, so hardly kept under control, boil up again
in them; they set the houses of London on fire. Whilst all hurried
from the church, the ceremony it is said was completed by shuddering
priests in the light of the flames: the new King himself, who at other
times did not know what fear was, trembled.[19]

By this coronation-acclaim, two constituent elements of the world,
which had been fundamentally at conflict with each other, became
indissolubly united.

That against which the Anglo-Saxons had set themselves to guard with
all their strength during the last period, the inroad of the
Norman-French element into their Church and their State, was now
accomplished in fullest measure. William's maxim was, that all who had
taken arms against him and his right had forfeited their property;
those who escaped, and the heirs of those who had fallen, were
deprived alike. In a short time we find William's leading comrades in
the war, as earls of Hereford, Buckingham, Shrewsbury, Cornwall; his
valiant brothers were endowed with hundreds of fiefs; and when the
insurrection which quickly broke out led to new outlawries and new
confiscations, all the counties were filled with French knights. From
Caen came over the blocks of freestone to build castles and towers, by
which they hoped to bridle the towns and the country. It is an
exaggeration to assume a complete transfer of property from the one
people to the other; among the tenants in chief about half the names
are still Anglo-Saxon. At first, those who from any even accidental
cause had not actually met William in arms were left in possession of
their lands, though without hereditary right: later, after they had
co