iam high among the captains of any age.

Great as Harold was in war, his character as a civil ruler is still more
remarkable, still more worthy of admiration. The most prominent feature
in his character is his singular gentleness and mercy. Never, either in
warfare or in civil strife, do we find Harold bearing hardly upon an
enemy. From the time of his advancement to the practical government of
the kingdom there is not a single harsh or cruel action with which he
can be charged.

Such was the man who, seemingly in the fourth year of Eadward, in the
twenty-fourth of his own age, was invested with the rule of one of the
great divisions of England, who, seven years later, became the virtual
ruler of the kingdom; who, at last, twenty-one years from his first
elevation, received, alone among English kings, the crown of England as
the free gift of her people, and, alone among English kings, died axe in
hand on her soil in the defence of England against foreign invaders.

William of Normandy bears a name which must for ever stand forth among
the foremost of mankind. No man that ever trod this earth was endowed
with greater natural gifts; to no man was it ever granted to accomplish
greater things. No man ever did his work more effectually at the moment;
no man ever left his work behind him as more truly an abiding possession
for all time. In his character one feature stands out pre-eminently
above all others. Throughout his career we admire in him the embodiment
in the highest degree that human nature will allow of the fixed purpose
and the unbending will.

We are too apt to look upon William as simply the conqueror of England.
But so to do is to look at him only in his most splendid, but at the
same time his least honourable, aspect. William learned to become the
conqueror of England only by first becoming the conqueror of Normandy
and the conqueror of France. He found means to conquer Normandy by the
help of France, and to conquer France by the help of Normandy. He came
to his duchy under every disadvantage. At once bastard and minor, with
competitors for his coronet arising at every moment, he was throughout
the whole of his early life beset by troubles, none of which were of his
own making, and he came honourably out of all.

In 1052, William paid his memorable visit to England. At that time both
Normandy and England were at rest, enjoying peace. Visits of mere
friendship and courtesy among sovereign princes were rare i