Note 16 — A DISCOURSE concerning the LAWS and GOVERNMENT of ENGLAND.

The Confessor dying without issue, the competitors for the crown were Edgar Atheling, Harold, and duke William. The first had not capacity to sway the sceptre; and the succession of kings was not yet directed by very regular maxims. Harold was a subject, and in possession of no legal claim. William was related to Edward, and urged the destination of that prince to succeed him. On these grounds he invaded England; and by opposing Harold, he meant to secure what was his right of succession. His victory accordingly gave him the capacity of a successor, and not of a conqueror. That the quarrel was personal with Harold may be even conceived from the circumstance that duke William offered to decide their dispute by single combat. Hale, hist. of the com. law, ch. v. Cook, argument. antinorm.

With regard to William’s right of succession, the best account appears to be that which is found in Ingulphus, William of Poictiers, William Gemetensis, and Ordericus Vitalis, who were all of them his contemporaries. These authors inform us, that king Edward sent Harold into Normandy to assure duke William of his having destined him to be his successor to the crown of England; a destination which he had before observed to him by Robert Archbishop of Canterbury; and which appears to have been made with the consent of the national council. And of this relation there remains a very curious and decisive confirmation. It is a tapestry found at Bayeux, and supposed to be work of Matilda the wife of duke William, and of the ladies of her court, in which Harold is represented on his embassy. See a description of this tapestry by Smart Lethieullier, Esq; ap. Du Carrel’s Anglo-Norman antiquities. It is surprising, when these particulars are considered, that Mr. Hume should have given his sanction to the opinion that William’s right was entirely by war, and that he should have conceived that those who refuse to this prince the title of Conqueror should rest solely or chiefly on the pretence that the word conqueror is in old books and records applied to such as make an acquisition of territory by any means. Hist. of Eng. vol. 1. p. 200. It is true, that Sir Henry Spelman and other antiquaries have shown, that conquestus and conquisitio were in the age of duke William synonymous with acquisitio; but it is no less true, that the authors who refuse to duke William the title of Conqueror, rest on much superior evidence. It is not with pleasure that I differ from this great authority; but, no man has a title to enquire who will not think for himself; and the most perfect productions of human wit have their errors and their blemishes.