Effects of the Conquest of England by the Normans: An Essay, Read in the Theatre, Oxford, June 24, 1846

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Page 53 - As it marshalled our Chivalry's sires. On each turf of that mead Stood the captors of England's domains, That ennobled her breed And high-mettled the blood of her veins. Over hauberk and helm As the sun's setting splendor was thrown, Thence they looked o'er a realm — And to-morrow beheld it their own.
Page 42 - Crecy and Poitiers; for these were fully matched in the ranks of France: but the yeomen, who drew the bow with strong and steady arms, accustomed to its use in their native fields, and rendered fearless by personal competence and civil freedom.
Page 20 - N. faithful and true, and love all that he loves, and shun all that he shuns, according to God's law, and according to the world's...
Page 45 - Stood ready cover'd all the longe day. At sessions there was he lord and sire. Full often time he was *knight of the shire* An anlace*, and a gipciere** all of silk, Hung at his girdle, white as morning milk.
Page 43 - Accordingly, the middling ranks flourished remarkably, not only in commercial towns, but among the cultivators of the soil. " There is scarce a small village," says Sir J. Fortescue, " in which you may not find a knight, an esquire, or some substantial householder (paterfamilias), commonly called a frankleyn *, possessed of considerable estate ; besides others who are called freeholders, and many yeomen of estates sufficient to make a substantial jury.
Page 4 - The Normans had now fully executed the wrath of Heaven upon the English. There was hardly one of that nation who possessed any power ; they were all involved in servitude and sorrow, insomuch that to be called an Englishman was considered as a reproach.
Page 36 - ... The argumentum baculinum was the popular argument, and the fictitious value which civilization attaches to words, was very consistently despised. Satisfactory conviction resulted from the cogency of blows. Sir James Macintosh penetrates into the spirit of the legislation of Edward I. in observing, ' it would have been but little to possess the power of the purse, if arms had not been strong enough to grasp and to hold it.
Page 55 - Conqueror himself," observes a writer who has illustrated this subject with a profusion of curious learning, " patronized and loved letters. He filled the bishoprics and abbacies of England with the most learned of his countrymen, who had been educated at the University of Paris, at that time the most flourishing school in Europe. He placed Lanfranc, abbot of the monastery of St. Stephen at Caen, in the see of Canterbury...

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