case, your Journal will prove the medium, by which antiquaries may become informed concerning them; and that you will allow me to claim your kind assistance again, in becoming acquainted with such particulars, as may perhaps lead to higher and more important results, than those I have been able to communicate on this occasion. In the meantime I intend entering in

another place

*

on a fuller discussion of the present monuments, adding the necessary quotations, and such additional remarks, as will lead me to a greater length than would be desirable on the present occasion. Yours, &c. Dr. C. LEEMANS.

* In a paper addressed to the Society of Antiquaries; see p. 640.

AFTER all that has from time to time been written on the Norman invasion of England, and the memorable battle of Hastings, to us by far the most interesting account is the simple but detailed narrative given by the Anglo-Norman chronicler, Wace. Besides being full of incidents that are historically true and valuable, the events of the battle and the deeds of all the great barons, are told with so much spirit, that we may almost imagine ourselves to be reading the exploits of the Grecian heroes in the Iliad. It may naturally be supposed that the Anglo-Norman songster is partial to his countrymen and to Duke William, and that, while sustaining the right of the latter to the English throne, he is highly prejudiced against the family of Godwin; but in the account of the battle most of his national prejudices are dropped in the importance of his subject, and he neither attempts to conceal the superiority of the army of William, or the bravery of Harold and the English soldiery.

Duke William had himself been brought up amongst troubles and violence, and had been made courageous and enterprising by the difficulties which he had to overcome in his youth. The barons of Normandy, whom his father Robert had left him to govern, were as turbulent and unruly in William's youth, as their descendants in England were during the reigns of his immediate successors.

"The mourning for Duke Robert," saith Master Wace, "was great, and last

ed long; and William his son, who was yet very young, sorrowed much. The feuds against him were many, and his friends few; for he found that most were ill inclined towards him; those even whom his father held dear, he found

haughty and evil disposed. The barons warred upon each other; the strong oppressed the weak; and he could not prevent it, for he could not do justice upon them all. So they burned and pillaged the villages, and robbed and plundered the villains, injuring them in many ways. A mighty feud broke out between Walkelin de Ferrieres and Hugh Lord of Montfort; I know not which was right and which wrong; but they waged fierce war with each other, and were not to be reconciled; neither by bishop nor lord could peace or love be established between them. Both were good knights, bold and brave. Once upon a time they met, and the rage of each against the other was so great that they fought to the death. I know not which carried himself most gallantly, or who fell the first, but the issue of the affray was that Hugh was slain, and Walkelin fell also; both lost their lives in the same affray, and on the same day."-p. 7.

The only merit which even a Norman could discover in Edward the Confessor was, that he was a partizan of the Normans and their Duke, loved their manners and their language, and took, strangers into his court, and set them above his English nobles. It was not until forced by his subjects to do so, that he would send away his foreign favourites; and in the weakness of his love for them, he made over the crown of England to a foreign dynasty, without even con

GENT. MAG. JUNE 1837, Page 589.

COURT OF KING EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.

(FROM MR. EDGAR TAYLOR'S CHRONICLE OF MASTER WACE.)

sulting the will of his people. Whatever the English might think of Edward's right to take such a step, it furnished a sufficient pretext for the invasion, and the Norman chroniclers are agreed in extolling to the skies the piety and justice of the king who had made them so rich a present. It would be difficult to give any more sufficient proof of his piety, than the endowment of the Abbey of Westminster; and his rigorous adherence to the dictates of justice may be reasonably doubted for more than one reason. According to Wace's own account of it, his giving up of the hostages of Godwin (one of his nephews and one of his sons) to Duke William, must be considered as an act of the blackest treachery. Wace owns that, according to the opinion of every one, it looked as if he wished William always to keep them, for the purpose of securing the kingdom to himself in case of Edward's death."

"Co fu semblant k'il voulsist Ke toz tems cil les retenist, Co distrent genz, ke il péust Sun regne aveiz s'il ainz morust." The ignorance shown by Wace with regard to the events of Edward's reign, and the partiality with which he always speaks of him, shows how much the documents of Anglo-Saxon history, and the people over whom they were come to rule, were despised by the Norman invaders, even up to the middle of the twelfth century. He thus delineates Edward's character:

"King Edward was debonaire; he neither wished nor did ill to any man; he was without pride or avarice, and desired strict justice to be done to all. He endowed abbeys with fiefs, and divers goodly gifts, and Westminster in particular. We shall hear the reason why. On some occasion, whether of sickness or on the recovery of his kingdom, or on some escape from peril at sea, he had vowed a pilgrimage to Rome, there to say his prayers, and crave pardon for his sins; to speak with the Apostle, and receive penance from him. So at the time he had appointed, he prepared for his journey; but the barons met together, and the bishops and the abbots conferred with each other, and they counselled him by no means to go. They said they

feared he could not bear so great a labour; that the pilgrimage was too long, seeing his great age; that if he should go to Rome, and death or any other mischance should prevent his return, the loss of their king would be a great misfortune to them; and that they would send to the Apostle (the Pope), and get him to grant absolution from the vow, so that he might be quit of it, even if some other penance should be imposed instead. -Accordingly they sent to the Apostle, and he absolved the King of his vow, but enjoined him, by way of acquittance of it, to select some poor abbey dedicated to St. Peter, honouring and endowing it with so many goods and rents, that it might for all time to come be resorted to, and the name of St. Peter thereby exalted."-p. 68.

It is scarcely necessary to add, that the place selected by Edward was the Abbey of Thorney, afterwards distinguished by the title of the WestMinster.

An interesting feature of Mr. Taylor's beautiful volume is the series of wood-cuts by which it is illustrated, amounting in number to near seventy, and many of them extremely elaborate. The subjects are chiefly taken either from the celebrated tapestry of Bayeux, or the splendid MS. of an Anglo-Norman metrical life of St. Edward preserved in the public library of the University of Cambridge. We have given the foregoing extract from Mr. Taylor's elegant (though almost literal) version of Wace, partly to introduce in illustration of it one of his engravings, of which we could not otherwise convey to our readers an accurate impression. In the accompanying wood-cut, taken from the aforesaid Cambridge MS., we have King Edward seated on his throne, and surrounded by his nobles, his bishops, and his abbots, who are persuading him to renounce his intended pilgrimage to Rome.

The other cut we have selected is taken from the same MS., and represents the monks of Waltham depositing the body of the unfortunate Harold in a rich shrine. The artist

has not well studied his subject, for Harold is here buried with the ceremonies of royalty, and his obsequies attended apparently by his successor and by three bishops. The shrine

bears some resemblance to the monument ascribed to Archbishop Theobold, at Canterbury. With regard to the value of these drawings, in illustrating costume and manners, it must be observed that the MS. from which they are taken is of the thirteenth century.

The text of Wace is, if possible, more valuable in illustrating manners and customs even than the cuts which here adorn it. It is so admirably translated by Mr. Edgar Taylor, and his numerous notes are throughout so extremely learned and valuable, that we would rather send our readers to the book itself than multiply our extracts, and we are sure that there are few who take interest in English history and antiquities, or in AngloNorman genealogies, who will not furnish themselves with a copy. Our object is only to give an account of it. But we cannot resist the temptation of quoting one or two of the chivalrous deeds of Hastings.

e Normans," says Wace,

were

playing their part well, when an English knight came rushing up, having in his company a hundred men, furnished with various arms. He wielded a northern hatchet, with the blade a full foot long; ing tall, bold, and of noble carriage. In and was well armed after his manner, be

the front of the battle, where the Normans thronged most, he came bounding on swifter than the stag, many Normans rushed straight upon a Norman who was falling before him and his company. He armed and riding on a war horse, and tried with his hatchet of steel to cleave his helmet; but the blow miscarried, and the sharp blade glanced down before the saddle bow, driving through the horse's neck down to the ground, so that both horse and master fell together to the earth. I know not whether the Englishman struck another blow; but the Normans who saw the stroke were astonished, and about to abandon the assault, when Rogier de Montgomeri came galloping up, with his lance set, and heeding not the long handled axe which the Englishman wielded aloft, struck him down, and left him stretched upon the ground. Then Rogier cried out, Frenchmen, strike! the day is ours!' And again a fierce melée