case it shouldn't be, I might mention a few things which I had to work out for myself, in my own very elemental way.

'William the Norman, in 1066,' came over here and won the battle of Hastings, and became King of England. That we all know! But there were other things that had either got left out of this lesson when we learned it, or else had faded from memory.

I may be quite wrong in my impression, but it seems to me to be important that we make some acquaintance with a handsome lady named Emma, who was William the Conqueror's aunt — his father's sister, married first to the Saxon King of England Ethelred, and then to his Danish conqueror and successor Canute. Besides being the wife of two Kings of England, she was the mother of two more, the stepmother of a third (Edward Ironside), and the aunt of a fourth! Indeed, not even Harold escaped being related to her; because he was the brother of her daughter-in-law!

The thing to remember about Emma, however, is that when the father of Canute became victorious in England over her husband (who was known as 'the Unready'), she and her husband and their boys, Edward and Alfred, fled to Normandy and were given refuge at the court of her bachelor brother, Duke Robert, 'the Devil'; and though Emma and her lord did not remain long (returning to England, he to die and she to marry Canute), their son Edward, known in English history as 'Edward the Confessor,' remained at the Norman court until he was a man well on toward forty, when he returned to England on the call of his young stepbrother, Hardicanute, whom he succeeded.

William of Normandy was but a lad of thirteen or so when his cousin Edward went over to England to become king; but he had been recognized as Duke of Normandy for six years, since his father's death (although William was a bastard, with a tanner's daughter for his mother),

and his precocity was such that the monkish Edward had learned to be very respectful of a youngster concerning whom a sober historian writes that 'there was never a moment from his boyhood when he was not among the greatest of men.’

In the tenth year of Edward's reign, William came over to England to visit him. Edward had then been married for six years, to the daughter of Earl Godwine, the strongest man of his kingdom; but they had no children, and it seems probable that Edward expressed the hope that his cousin William might succeed him. And two years later, William strengthened his position as heir to the English throne by marrying Matilda of Flanders who was descended in the female line from Alfred the Great.

Edward was at best an indifferent ruler, always under the influence of a stronger will than his own; when his father-in-law died, his brother-in-law, Harold, became dominant.

William was very busy with conquests on his side of the Channel, but he doubtless kept well informed as to what Cousin Edward was about, and had his own suspicions of Harold's purposes.

In 1065, Harold undertook a voyage in an open fishingboat and was driven ashore on the lands of an earl who took him prisoner. William heard of this, and demanded that Harold be sent to him. He and Matilda treated Harold very kindly, even to offering him in marriage one of their daughters, aged about seven. Harold formally accepted the young fiancée; and when William told him that King Edward had named him his successor, Harold solemnly swore to render William all the assistance in his power.

Early in January, 1066, King Edward died; and on his death-bed he seems to have named Harold as his successor. At any rate, Harold succeeded. Moreover, in spite of his

troth to the little Norman Princess, he had married a Welsh widow with strong connections among the English nobles.

So William mustered allies and prepared to invade England. Harold's brother (married to Matilda's sister) prepared the way for William by invading the north of England, with the King of Norway, compelling Harold to hasten there to repel them and leave the south coast unguarded against William's arrival.

William landed at Pevensey, sixteen miles west of Hastings, on the morning of September 28th, a day or two after Harold had defeated the invaders in the north and killed his brother and the Norse King. Coming as fast as he could from the scene of that battle, near York, it took him until October 13th to reach the hill of Senlac, seven miles from William's camp at Hastings.

Harold's position was athwart the road to London, which he was defending.

The battle to drive him from that position opened on the morning of October 14th (Harold's birthday) and lasted till nightfall, when Harold lay dead in the midst of his slaughtered soldiers, and William the Norman had become William the Conqueror.

William pitched his tent that night in the field of the dead, whereon lay six thousand of his followers and ('tis said) sixty thousand of Harold's. Three horses of William's were killed under him, but he came through unscathed.

Battle Abbey occupies the spot where Harold's standard was erected and where his body was found. William had vowed a church to Saint Martin if successful in this battle; and here he built it, and placed it, richly endowed, in charge of the Benedictines.

Henry VIII gave it to his Master of the Horse, who converted the monastic buildings into a private dwelling, which it has been ever since.