s, it is certain that the citizens came to the same resolution, in
effect, as that described by the poet, nor could they well have done
otherwise. The whole of the country for miles around London, had already
tendered submission or been forced into it. The city had become completely
isolated, and sooner or later its inhabitants must have been starved out.
There was, moreover, a strong foreign element within its walls.(79) Norman
followers of Edward the Confessor were ever at hand to counsel submission.
London submitted, the citizens accepting the rule of the Norman Conqueror
as they had formerly accepted that of Cnut the Dane, "from necessity." An
embassy was despatched to Berkhampstead, comprising the Archbishop of
York, the young Atheling, the earls Edwine and Morkere, and "all the best
men of London," to render homage and give hostages,(80) and thus it was,
that within three months of his landing, William was acknowledged as the
lawfully elected King of England, and, as such, he crowned himself at
Westminster, promising to govern the nation as well as any king before him
if they would be faithful to him.

(M55)

The conciliatory spirit of William towards the Londoners is seen in the
favourable terms he was ready to concede them. Soon after his coronation--
the precise date cannot be determined--he granted them a charter,(81) by
which he clearly declared his purpose not to reduce the citizens to a
state of dependent vassalage, but to establish them in all the rights and
privileges they had hitherto enjoyed.

The charter, rendered into modern English, runs as follows:--

"William, King, greets William, Bishop, and Gosfregdh, Portreeve, and all
the burgesses within London, French and English, friendly. And I give you
to know that I will that ye be all those laws worthy that ye were in King
Eadward's day.(82) And I will that every child be his father's heir after
his father's day and I will not suffer that any man offer you any wrong.
God keep you."

The terms of the charter are worthy of study. They are primarily
remarkable as indicating that the City of London was, at the time, subject
to a government which combined the secular authority of the port-reeve
with the ecclesiastical authority of the bishop. It was said, indeed, to
have been greatly due to the latter's intercession that the charter was
granted at all, and, in this belief, the mayor and aldermen were long
accustomed to pay a solemn visit to the bishop's