By degrees, not only lands, but everything else came to be held in fief; the right to cut wood in the forests, or to fish in the streams, was thus obtained. High and honorable offices were given in fief. Nor was military service the only condition on which estates were bestowed by the feudal baron. Very frequently the cup-bearer, the steward, the master-of-the-horse, the carver, the butler, and the chamberlain held their lands in fief, for the domestic services which they rendered to their lord.

In the days of the feudal system, kings had much greater possessions than they have now. William the Conqueror owned fourteen hundred manors, besides a large number of houses, forests, parks, and chases. Yet even this extravagant number of hunting-grounds did not satisfy him. To obtain another, more extensive than all the rest, he laid waste a beautiful district nearly ninety miles in circumference. It lay in the south-west part of the province of Hampshire, near the royal city of Winchester. Thirty-six parish churches, amid their beautiful villages, and over a hundred pleasant manors, were destroyed by this pitiless king, that he might enjoy one more forest in which to hunt wild animals. The wretched inhabitants were driven from their burning homes, the priests from their churches, the monks from their monasteries. Well might the Saxon chronicler add, "this savage king loved wild beasts as if he had been their father." This cruel outrage on the part of King William struck the English people with horror. They believed that amid the shades of the New Forest the judgment of God would fall upon the wicked Conqueror and his posterity. These prophecies had their fulfilment. Before the arrow of Sir Walter Tyrrel laid low the Red King, a son and a grandson of the Conqueror had met death in the gloomy shades of this ill-fated hunting-ground: the one killed by the untimely flight of an arrow, the other gored to death by a stag.

In order to ascertain the value of the land in his new kingdom, the Conqueror ordered a book to be made, containing a valuation of every estate or manor throughout England

excepting in the counties of Durham and Northumberland, how much land it contained, and what it was capable of producing. This book, which is still preserved, is called "Doomsday Book."

The Crusades, in which Robert of Normandy and Sir Walter Tyrrel joined, and which for nearly two hundred and fifty years drew numbers from every country of Europe, were great military expeditions against the Turks in Palestine.

It had long been customary to make pilgrimages to Rome and other places accounted sacred. The pilgrim made these journeys on foot, in an humble garb, with staff and scrip, depending upon the alms of the charitable for his daily supply of food. On his return, he brought some token from the holy places which he had visited. Such pilgrims as had been in Palestine bore palm-branches, and were hence called palmers.

"The scallop-shell his cap did deck;
The crucifix around his neck

Was from Loretto* brought;

His sandals were with travel tore,
Staff, budget, bottle, scrip, he bore;
The faded palm-branch in his hand
Showed pilgrim from the Holy Land."

No country on the earth was considered so sacred as Palestine. There were Bethlehem and Nazareth, and there arose Jerusalem, the city of the great king, within whose walls lay the Holy Sepulchre. For a long time, Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit these sacred scenes unmolested; but in the eleventh century, when Palestine fell into the hands of the Turks, these fierce conquerors, more intolerant than the Saracens whom they had dispossessed, began to persecute Christian pilgrims.

1094.

In the year 1094, one of these pilgrims, a monk, named Peter the Hermit, roused by the wrongs and cruelties of the Turks, travelled through all the Christian

* An especially sacred shrine in Italy.

countries of Europe, preaching to all classes, and persuading them to raise armies for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre.

In those days of warlike zeal, such preaching was eagerly followed, and in the year 1096, a large army, numbering the bravest of Europe's knights and soldiers, took its march for the Holy Land. Each warrior wore a cross embroidered on his garments, or painted on his shield. Hence, these wars took the name of Crusades, or wars of the cross.

QUESTIONS.-In what manner did a conqueror and his followers dispose of the conquered territory ?-Give a definition of the feudal system.-Relate the illustration given in the instance of the first earl of Chester.-Mention the several classes of the population, and describe their condition.-What account is given of some of the Norman invaders ?

Describe the ceremony of homage.-What other possessions, besides lands, were holden in fief?—On what other conditions, besides military service, were estates held?-What great cruelty and wrong did William's passion for the chase lead him to commit?— How was this act regarded by the English ?-Relate what befell three of the Conqueror's posterity in the New Forest.-What was Doomsday Book?

Describe pilgrimages.-What difficulties were encountered by pilgrims to the Holy Land, at the close of the 11th century?-To what did these lead?-When was the first crusade undertaken ?-What gave name to these wars?

PART IV.

ENGLAND DURING THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

HENRY I.-STEPHEN-HENRY II.-RICHARD I.

A. D. 1100-1199.

"To chase the pagans in those holy fields,
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet,
Which [many] hundred years ago were nailed
For our advantage to the bitter cross."

SHAKSPEARE.

CHAPTER XI.

HENRY I. AND STEPHEN.

WARS AGAINST ROBERT-EFFORTS TO SECURE THE SUCCESSION OF MATILDA

1100.

-SURNAMES-CIVIL WAR.

On the death of William Rufus, Robert, heir to the crown, was far away in the Holy Land, and Henry Beauclerc, unmindful of his brother's rights, sped from the sad scene of death in the New Forest, and seized the throne. Henry's subjects of Saxon race were favorably disposed towards him, because he was the only one of the Conqueror's sons who was English born. Still further to secure their goodwill, he married an English princess-Edith, the great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironsides. The Saxon maiden was most unwilling to wed the son of the Norman Conqueror, but, after much entreaty, she gave her consent, in the hope that this union might be the means of reconciling the two people. She then received the name of Matilda, to gratify the Normans, who could not bear that the sweet English name of

Edith should constantly remind them of the Saxon birth of their queen. By the Saxon chroniclers she is called Maude the Good.

Henry was a Norman at heart, although he was of English birth, had married an English princess, and had given to his Saxon subjects charters sealed with his own seal; yet, when he no longer needed their aid, he forgot all these claims, and treated the English no better than his father and brother had done.

1106.

Robert, on his return from Palestine, laid claim to

1101. the English crown. For years the same brothers' strife which had made the last reigns so miserable, was kept up in this. Nor did the contest end when Robert lay blind and a prisoner in Cardiff Castle, the victim of Henry's cruel triumphs. Generous hearts in France and Flanders gathered around the Norman duke's young son, William Fitz-Robert, and for a time strove to win for him the English throne.

In the year 1120, Fitz-Robert's cause was lost; and,

1120. having triumphed over every enemy, Henry thought

he might enjoy his crown in quiet, and leave it in undisputed succession to his only and beloved son. But He by whom kings rule, had ordained otherwise. The son (William) on whom the monarch's every hope was centred, and to whom he had caused all his nobles to swear allegiance, perished by shipwreck; a calamity which so affected King Henry, that it is said he was never afterwards seen to smile. This event, however grievous to the heart of the royal father, was not so to the English nation. The young prince had been heard to say, that when he should be king, he would yoke Englishmen like oxen to his ploughs. "He will never yoke us to his plough now," they exclaimed, on hearing of his death; "the judgment of God hath fallen on the cruel oppressor."

The remainder of Henry's life was spent in trying to secure the crown to his daughter Matilda. He summoned all his nobles, and made them take the same vows of obedience to her which they had before taken to her brother.

1126.