renounced, both of them, the young king they
had but lately proclaimed. Facts were quick in responding to this
quickly produced impression; a formal deputation was sent to William's
camp; the archbishops of Canterbury and York, many other prelates and
laic chieftains, the principal citizens of London, the two brothers-in-
law of Harold, Edwin and Morkar, and the young king of yesterday, Edgar
Atheling himself, formed part of it; and they brought to William, Edgar
Atheling his abdication, and all the others their submission, with an
express invitation to William to have himself made king, "for we be
wont," said they, "to serve a king, and we wish to have a king for lord."
William received them in presence of the chieftains of his army, and with
great show of moderation in his desires. "Affairs," said he, "be
troubled still; there be still certain rebels; I desire rather the peace
of the kingdom than the crown; I would that my wife should be crowned
with me." The Norman chieftains murmured whilst they smiled; and one of
them, an Aquitanian, Aimery de Thouars, cried out, "It is passing modest
to ask soldiers if they wish their chief to be king: soldiers are never,
or very seldom, called to such deliberations: let what we desire be done
as soon as possible." William yielded to the entreaties of the Saxon
deputies and to the counsels of the Norman chieftains but, prudent still,
before going in person to London, he sent thither some of his officers
with orders to have built there immediately, on the banks of the Thames,
at a point which he indicated, a fort where he might establish himself in
safety. That fort, in the course of time, became the Tower of London.

When William set out, some days afterwards, to make his entry into the
city, he found, on his way to St. Alban's, the road blocked with huge
trunks of trees recently felled. "What means this barricade in thy
domains?" he demanded of the abbot of St. Alban's, a Saxon noble. "I
did what was my duty to my birth and mission," replied the monk: "if
others, of my rank and condition, had done as much, as they ought to and
could have done, thou hadst not penetrated so far into our country."

On entering London after all these delays and all these precautions,
William fixed, for his coronation, upon Christmas-day, December 25th,
1066. Either by desire of the prelate himself or by William's own order,
it was not the archbishop of Canterbury, Stigand, who presided, accor