ardly begun when the romantic impulse
quickens even the old English tongue in the long poem of Layamon. The
Chronicle of Richard of Devizes and an "Itinerarium Regis" supplement
Roger of Howden for Richard's reign. With John we enter upon the Annals
of Barnwell and are aided by the invaluable series of the Chroniclers of
St. Albans. Among the side topics of the time, we may find much
information as to the Jews in Toovey's "Anglia Judaica"; the Chronicle of
Jocelyn of Brakelond gives us a peep into social and monastic life; the
Cistercian revival may be traced in the records of the Cistercian abbeys
in Dugdale's Monasticon; the Charter Rolls give some information as to
municipal history; and constitutional developement may be traced in the
documents collected by Professor Stubbs in his "Select Charters."

CHAPTER I
THE CONQUEROR
1071-1085

[Sidenote: The Foreign Kings]

In the five hundred years that followed the landing of Hengest Britain
had become England, and its conquest had ended in the settlement of its
conquerors, in their conversion to Christianity, in the birth of a
national literature, of an imperfect civilization, of a rough political
order. But through the whole of this earlier age every attempt to fuse
the various tribes of conquerors into a single nation had failed. The
effort of Northumbria to extend her rule over all England had been foiled
by the resistance of Mercia; that of Mercia by the resistance of Wessex.
Wessex herself, even under the guidance of great kings and statesmen, had
no sooner reduced the country to a seeming unity than local independence
rose again at the call of the Northmen. The sense of a single England
deepened with the pressure of the invaders; the monarchy of AElfred and
his house broadened into an English kingdom; but still tribal jealousies
battled with national unity. Northumbrian lay apart from West-Saxon,
Northman from Englishman. A common national sympathy held the country
roughly together, but a real national union had yet to come. It came with
foreign rule. The rule of the Danish kings broke local jealousies as they
had never been broken before, and bequeathed a new England to Godwine and
the Confessor. But Cnut was more Englishman than Northman, and his system
of government was an English system. The true foreign yoke was only felt
when England saw its conqueror in William the Norman.

For nearly a century and a half, from the hour when William turned
tr