shermen. Fitz-Stephens also took hold of the mast, but being
informed by the butcher that Prince William had perished, he said that
he would not survive the disaster; and he threw himself headlong into
the sea [d]. Henry entertained hopes for three days, that his son had
put into some distant port of England; but when certain intelligence
of the calamity was brought him, he fainted away; and it was remarked,
that he never after was seen to smile, nor ever recovered his wonted
cheerfulness [e].
[FN [c] Sim. Dunelm. p. 242. Alured Beverl. p. 148. [d] Order.
Vital. p. 868. [e] Hoveden, p. 476. Order. Vital. p. 869.]

The death of William may be regarded, in one respect, as a misfortune
to the English; because it was the immediate source of those civil
wars, which, after the demise of the king, caused such confusion in
the kingdom; but it is remarkable, that the young prince had
entertained a violent aversion to the natives; and had been heard to
threaten, that when he should be king, he would make them draw the
plough, and would turn them into beasts of burden. These
prepossessions he inherited from his father, who, though he was wont,
when it might serve his purpose, to value himself on his birth, as a
native of England [f], showed, in the course of his government, an
extreme prejudice against that people. All hopes of preferment, to
ecclesiastical as well as civil dignities, were denied them during
this whole reign; and any foreigner, however ignorant or worthless,
was sure to have the preference in every competition [g]. As the
English had given no disturbance to the government during the course
of fifty years, this inveterate antipathy in a prince of so much
temper as well as penetration, forms a presumption that the English of
that age were still a rude and barbarous people, even compared to the
Normans, and impresses us with no very favourable idea of the Anglo-
Saxon manners.
[FN [f] Gu1. Neub. lib. 1. cap. 3. [g] Eadmer, p. 110.]

Prince William left no children; and the king had not now any
legitimate issue, except one daughter, Matilda, whom, in 1110, he had
betrothed, though only eight years of age [h], to the Emperor Henry
V., and whom he had then sent over to be educated in Germany [i]. But
as her absence from the kingdom, and her marriage into a foreign
family, might endanger the succession, Henry, who was now a widower,
was induced to marry, in hopes of having male heirs; [MN King's second
marr