but not by military service; the villeins, equivalent to the ceorles of Saxon times; the borderers, coscets, and bures, whose conditions have been very variously described by different writers, but who may be taken generally as villeins; the servi and ancillæ, equivalent to the bondmen and bondwomen of Holy Writ.

A.D. 1086. William knights his son Henry at Westminster, at Pentecost; holds his court at Salisbury, in July or August, "where he was met by his councillors, and all the landholders bowed themselves before him, and became his men, and swore him oaths of allegiance."

William passes over to the Isle of Wight, and thence to Normandy, first collecting large sums from the people, "whether with justice or without."

Edgar Atheling leaves his court, and goes abroad, "for he received not much honour from him," and his sister Christina becomes a nun at Ramsey.

"A very sorrowful year in England, from tempests, and blight, and murrain among the cattle."

A.D. 1087. A very great fire in London; St. Paul's burnt.

'In the same year also, before the Assumption of St. Mary (Aug. 25), King William went from Normandy into France with an army, and made war upon his own lord, Philip the king, and slew many of his men, and

• Villenage is regarded by Sir Edward Coke as the origin of the copyhold tenure, and, like that, included a great variety of privileges and burdens, which cannot be brought into any one satisfactory definition.

burned the town of Mantes, and all the holy minsters that were in the town; two holy men that served God, leading the life of anchorites, were burned therein."

William returns to Normandy, falls sick and dies, Sept. 9. He is buried at Caen, in St. Stephen's

minster.

'Alas! how false and how uncertain is this world's weal! He that was before a rich king, and lord of many lands, had not then of all his land more than a space of seven feet! and he that was whilome enshrouded in gold and gems, lay there covered with mould!"

Even this small space, according to the account of William of Malmesbury, was purchased at the time of his funeral, from a knight whose patrimony had been seized for the site of the abbey, and who interrupted the ceremony by a formal demand of justice.

William II. from his Great Seal.

Arms ascribed to William II.

WILLIAM II.

THIS, the third son of William I., was born about 1060. He appears to have attached himself more closely to his father than did his elder brothers, being his constant companion in war, and receiving the gift of the kingdom of England from him. He fulfilled his father's directions by setting at liberty several prisoners of consequence, but experienced little gratitude from them, as they mostly joined the party of his brother Robert; and his reign was passed in turmoil, arising from frequent conspiracies among his Norman nobles, to which he opposed the arms of the English, being lavish of the promise of good laws which he never fulfilled, and from his constant endeavour to keep the property of the Church in his hands. He at length met a violent death, Aug. 2, 1100, but whether by accident or design is not certainly known.

His well-known name of Rufus was bestowed in consequence of his light hair and ruddy complexion. He pursued the chase with ardour, and although when his

Norman nobles conspired against him he promised an alleviation of the forest laws, he never granted it; he affected extravagant apparel, and led a most depraved life. He was never married, and is not known to have left any illegitimate issue.

William, like his father, has ascribed to him the arms of Normandy, "Gules, two lions passant gardant in pale, or."

His contemporaries speak most unfavourably of this king. They describe him as harsh and severe, formidable to his neighbours, and avaricious; yet both prodigal and profligate, fierce and overbearing in his manner in public, but coarsely jocular with his intimate associates. "God's Church he humbled; he held bishoprics in his hand;" when he fell, he had long kept vacant the sees of Canterbury, Salisbury, and Winchester, and eleven abbeys. "He was loathed by nearly all his people, and odious to God, as his end testified.”

A.D. 1087. William hastens to England, is received as king, and is crowned by Lanfranc, Sept. 26. Robert is acknowledged as duke in Normandy. William repairs to Winchester, distributes much of his father's treasure for masses for his soul to each monastery and parish church, and releases many prisoners, agreeably to his dying wish.

e

The years of his reign are reckoned from this day.

Among them, Florence of Worcester enumerates Odo, bishop of Bayeux, (reluctantly pardoned by his dying brother,) the earl Morcar, Roger Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, Siward Barn, Alfgar the brother, and Wulfnoth the son, of Harold; Morcar and Wulfnoth, however, were shortly after again imprisoned; when the former was killed by some of his own people, and the latter became a monk.

The Welsh make an incursion, and ravage the country as far as Worcester.

A.D. 1088. Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William, bishop of Durham, Roger, earl of Shrewsbury, and other Norman nobles, conspire against William, at Lent. They raise troops and burn his farms and kill his men.

William obtains aid from the English, by promising them good government, repulses an attack from his brother Robert's partisans, and after some time drives the two bishops from the kingdom, and confiscates the estates of the nobles.

Godred Cronan dies.

A.D. 1089. Archbishop Lanfranc dies, May 24. The king keeps the see vacant four years.

A great earthquake in England, Aug. 13.

Robert quarrels with his brother Henry, and imprisons him.

Jestyn, lord of Glamorgan, rebels against Rhys ap Tudor, prince of Dynevor, but is defeated.

A.D. 1090. William makes war on Robert in Normandy, and gains most of the strong places, but is foiled in an attempt on Rouen.

Robert and Henry are reconciled.

Einion f procures Norman aid for Jestyn, and defeats and kills Rhys ap Tudor. "With him," says Caradoc

Einion, the son of the lord of Dyved (Pembroke), had served in the Norman armies; the aid he procured consisted of Robert Fitzhamon and twelve other knights, and 3,000 men. The Normans erected their conquest into the Honour of Glamorgan, built eighteen castles in it, and divided it into thirty-six knights' fees; it was the first of the palatine districts which were governed by the lords marchers.