R'S DEATH, 1400

[Illustration: THE DEATH OF HAROLD AT HASTINGS. _From the Bayeaux
tapestry_.]

The Norman Conquest.--The overthrow of the Saxon rule in England by
William the Conqueror in 1066 was an event of vast importance to
English literature. The Normans (Norsemen or Northmen), as they were
called, a term which shows their northern extraction, were originally
of the same blood as the English race. They settled in France in the
ninth century, married French wives, and adopted the French language.
In 1066 their leader, Duke William, and his army crossed the English
Channel and won the battle of Hastings, in which Harold, the last
Anglo-Saxon king, was killed. William thus became king of England.

Characteristics of the Normans.--The intermixture of Teutonic and
French blood had given to the Normans the best qualities of both
races. The Norman was nimble-witted, highly imaginative, and full of
northern energy. The Saxon possessed dogged perseverance, good common
sense, if he had long enough to think, and but little imagination.
Some one has well said that the union of Norman with Saxon was like
joining the swift spirit of the eagle to the strong body of the ox,
or, again, that the Saxon furnished the dough, and the Norman the
yeast. Had it not been for the blending of these necessary qualities
in one race, English literature could not have become the first in the
world. We see the characteristics of both the Teuton and the Norman in
Shakespeare's greatest plays. A pure Saxon could not have turned from
Hamlet's soliloquy to write:--

"Where the bee sucks, there suck I."[1]

Progress of the Nation, 1066-1400.--The Normans were specially
successful in giving a strong central government to England. The
feudal system, that custom of parceling out land in return for
service, was so extended by William the Conqueror, that from king
through noble to serf there was not a break in the interdependence of
one human being on another. At first the Normans were the ruling
classes and they looked down on the Saxons; but intermarriage and
community of interests united both races into one strong nation before
the close of the period.

There was great improvement in methods of administering justice.
Accused persons no longer had to submit to the ordeal of the red-hot
iron or to trial by combat, relying on heaven to decide their
innocence. Ecclesiastical courts lost their jurisdiction over civil
cases. In the reign of Henry II