THE NORMAN LINE.

William I., surnamed The Conqueror.

D. He was the son of Robert, duke of Normandy. B. at Falaise, 1027. M. Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V., count of Flanders. Dd. at Rouen, Sept. 9, 1087. R. 21 years (1066 to 1087).[1]

1067. William visited Normandy, and during his absence the tyranny of his regents goaded some of the people into insurrection.

1068. The king marched to Exeter, and captured it after a short siege. Later in the year he carried his arms to York.

1069. An armament, commanded by Harold and Canute, sons of Sweyn, king of Denmark, arrived in the Humber. The invaders were joined by Edgar Atheling (the grandson of Edmund Ironside, and heir to the throne on the death of Edward the Confessor), Waltheof (the son of Siward), and other Saxon nobles. William is said to have bought off the hostility of the Danes. He captured York, which had fallen into the hands of the insurgents, and ordered the whole district, from the Humber to the Tees, to be laid waste,—an order most effectually and cruelly carried out.

1070. Waltheof was made earl of Huntingdon, and received the hand of William’s niece, Judith, in marriage.

1071. The Saxons, who, under Hereward, had been holding out against the king for some time in the Isle of Ely, surrendered. Conquest of England completed.

1072. William invaded Scotland, and compelled Malcolm to acknowledge himself a vassal of the English crown.

1074. The earls of Hereford and Norfolk, and Waltheof, conspired against the king. Waltheof revealed the plot, and sought the king’s pardon, but was executed the next year at Winchester.

1079. The king besieged the castle of Gerberoi, held by his son Robert, who had rebelled against him. Robert, not recognizing his father, wounded and unhorsed him.

About this time the New Forest was formed.

1085. FEUDAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED IN ENGLAND.

It is generally believed that the system of feudal tenures was legally established in England at the Council of Salisbury, held either in 1085 or 1086. The great characteristic of the feudal system was that the obligation of military or knight’s service was annexed to the tenure of land held of the sovereign. The estates, or fiefs of the tenants-in-chief, consisted of one or more knight’s fees; and for every fee the king might claim the military service of an armed knight for forty days a year. The holders of these estates, on taking possession, were required to do homage, and to swear fealty to the king; and on particular and specified occasions other services were exacted. The holders of large estates often granted portions of their land to under-vassals, from whom they received services similar to those which they themselves rendered to their sovereign. The number of knight’s fees in England was 60,215.

About this time the ecclesiastical was separated from the civil jurisdiction; all causes of the Church were to be tried before clerical tribunals.

1086. Domesday Book completed.

This invaluable record, the result of a survey begun about the year 1080, consists of two volumes, and contains an account of the extent and value of the landed property of the country, together with many other important particulars.

1087. William engaged in war with Philip I. of France. He was seriously hurt at Mantes, and the injury terminated fatally.

In this reign the mode of trial by combat began to be employed. The curfew-bell was tolled every night at eight o’clock, at which time all fires were to be put out.

William II., surnamed Rufus.

D. He was the son of William I. B. about 1060. Killed in the New Forest, Aug. 2, 1100, R. 13 years (1087 to 1100).

1088. Several of the principal Norman nobles conspired against the king. The insurrection suppressed by the aid of the Saxons.

1090. William intrigued against his elder brother Robert, duke of Normandy, in the hope of acquiring the duchy.

1091. William invaded Normandy. A treaty concluded between the brothers, by which the king obtained several towns in the duchy. Malcolm III., king of Scotland, invaded England, but was repulsed.

1093. Malcolm invaded England, and was slain at Alnwick.

1095. Urban II. preached the first Crusade at Clermont in Auvergne, and induced several of the princes of Europe to take part in the enterprise.

The object of the Crusades was to recover Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Turks, who treated the Christian pilgrims with great harshness and cruelty. These wars lasted about 174 years, and exercised great political influence on the Continent. The only Crusade in which the English played an important part was that undertaken by Richard I.

1096. Robert mortgaged his duchy to William, in order that he might join the Crusade.

1097. William built a wall round the Tower, a bridge over the Thames, and a great hall at Westminster.

1098. Magnus, king of Norway, made a descent on the Isle of Anglesea, but was repulsed. This was the last attempt made by the Northmen upon England.

1099. Jerusalem taken by the Crusaders.

1100. It is said that the Goodwin Sands were formed this year by an inundation of the sea, which overflowed 4,000 acres of land, off the coast of Kent, which had formerly belonged to earl Godwin.

Henry I., surnamed Beauclerk.

D. He was the brother of William II. B. at Selby, in Yorkshire, 1070. M. (1) Matilda, daughter of Malcolm III. of Scotland, and of Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling; (2) Adelicia, daughter of the duke of Louvaine, and niece to Pope Calixtus. Dd. at Rouen, Dec. 1, 1135. R. 35 years (1100 to 1135).

1101. Robert, who had returned from the Crusade, landed in England to assert his claim to the crown. He renounced his pretensions on condition of receiving 3,000 marks a year.

1106. Henry invaded Normandy, defeated Robert at Tenchebrai (Sept. 28), and took him prisoner. He annexed the duchy to the kingdom.

1117. William, son of Robert, aided by Louis VI. of France, and the earls of Flanders and Anjou, tried to recover Normandy.

1118. Establishment of the Order of Knights Templars.

1119. Henry defeated Louis at Brenville, near Noyon.

1120. Henry’s only son, William, drowned at sea.

1128. William, son of Robert, mortally wounded at Alost, in Flanders.

1135. Robert died in Cardiff Castle, after an imprisonment of more than twenty-eight years.

Stephen of Blois.

D. He was the son of Stephen, earl of Blois, and of Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror. B. about 1096. M. Matilda, daughter of the count of Boulogne, and of Mary of Scotland, sister to Henry I.’s wife Matilda. Dd. at Canterbury, Oct. 25, 1154. R. 19 years (1135 to 1154).

1135. The crown, which was left by the late king to his daughter Matilda (widow of Henry V., emperor of Germany, and wife of Geoffrey Plantagenet, earl of Anjou), usurped by Stephen.

1138. David I. of Scotland invaded England to support the cause of his niece Matilda. He was defeated at Northallerton (Aug. 22). This battle generally called the Battle of the Standard.

1139. Peace concluded with Scotland. Matilda, accompanied by her natural brother, Robert of Gloucester, invaded England. Civil war, which lasted for several years, and enabled the nobles to plunder and oppress the people.

1141. Stephen defeated near Lincoln, and taken prisoner (Feb. 2). Robert, in retreating from Winchester, captured, and afterwards exchanged for Stephen.

1147. Death of Robert of Gloucester. Matilda retired to Normandy.

1152. Matilda’s son Henry married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII., and thus acquired Poitou and Aquitaine.

1153. Treaty of Winchester, which provided for the succession of Henry on the death of Stephen.