nies were realised. The qualities of which William gave
the example were rare in England, but common in France; they were those
of his race and country, those of his lieutenants; they naturally
reappear in many of his successors. These are, as a rule, energetic and
headstrong men, who never hesitate, who believe in themselves, are
always ready to run all hazards, and to attempt the impossible, with the
firm conviction that they will succeed; they are never weary of fighting
and taking; the moment never comes when they can enjoy their conquests
in peace; in good as in evil they never stop half-way; those who incline
to tyranny become, like Stephen, the most atrocious tyrants[142]; those
who incline to the manners and customs of chivalry carry them, like
Richard Coeur de Lion, as far as possible, and forget that they have a
kingdom to rule. The most intelligent become, like Henry II.,
incomparable statesmen; those who have a taste for art give themselves
up to it with such passion that they jeopardise, like Henry III., even
their crown, and care for nothing but their masons and painters. They
are equally ready for sword and word fights, and they offer both to all
comers. They constantly risk their lives; out of twelve Norman or
Angevin princes six die a violent death.

All their enterprises are conceived on a gigantic scale. They carry war
into Scotland, into Ireland, into Wales, into France, into Gascony,
later on into the Holy Land and into Spain. The Conqueror was on his way
to Paris when he received, by accident, being at Mantes, fifteen leagues
from the capital, a wound of which he died. These qualities are in the
blood. A Frenchman, Henry of Burgundy, seizes on the county of "Porto"
in 1095, out of which his successors make the kingdom of "Portugal"; a
Norman, Robert Guiscard, conquers Sicily, takes Naples, forces his
alliance upon the Pope, overawes Venice, and the same year beats the two
emperors; his son Bohemond establishes himself as reigning prince in
Antioch in 1099, and fighting with great composure and equanimity
against Turk and Christian, establishes out of hand a little kingdom
which lasted two centuries. They find in England miserable churches;
they erect new ones, "of a style unknown till then," writes William of
Malmesbury,[143] which count among the grandest ever built. The splendid
naves of St. Albans, Westminster, Canterbury, Winchester, York,
Salisbury, rise heavenwards; the towers of Ely reach to