Note 1284 — Chapter XV · THE NORMAN INVASION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF HASTINGS.[1055] (continued 2)

We have the speech in William of Poitiers (132), Henry of Huntingdon (M. H. B. 762, 763), and Wace (12531 et seqq.). William candidly says, “Exhortationem, quâ pro tempore breviter militum virtuti plurimum alacritatis addidit, egregiam fuisse non dubitamus, etsi nobis non ex totâ dignitate suâ relatam.” The two chief points in his summary are the glories of the Normans in earlier warfare (“Commonuit Normannos quod in multis atque magnis periculis victores tamen se duce semper exstiterint. Commonuit omnes patriæ suæ, nobilium gestorum magnique nominis”) and the small renown of the English (“Sæpenumerò Anglos hostili ferro dejectos cecidisse, plerumque superatos in hostis venisse deditionem, numquam gloriâ militiæ laudatos”). Henry of Huntingdon, allowably enough, has worked up these two points into an elaborate harangue, which amounts to a sort of panegyrical history of Normandy. Wace enlarges chiefly on the sins of the English, the massacre of Saint Brice, the fate of Ælfred, and such like. I have briefly worked in the chief points of all three versions.