Another innovation was the curfew law. The word curfew comes directly from the French couvre feu, meaning "cover fire." In days when there was no fire protection of any kind this law compelling people to cover their fires at an early hour doubtless prevented many a disaster.

A third change effected by William was the taking of a census and appraisement of property made throughout the realm and recorded in the so-called Domesday Book. Heretofore when it had been necessary to impose a tax, there was no particular basis for levying it. William now attempted to get a complete list of his subjects and their possessions, in order that the tax might be levied more justly. However, the king's motive was entirely misunderstood and the people generally saw in this only the work of a greedy sovereign who wished to search out their every possession that he might make their taxes the heavier. In the old Saxon Chronicle we may read: "So very narrowly did he cause the survey to be made, that there was not a single hide nor a rood of land, nor—it is shameful to relate that which he thought no shame to do-was there an ox, or a cow, or a pig passed by, and that was not set down in the accounts, and then all these writings were brought to him."

OTHER NORMAN KINGS.

William the Conqueror died in 1087, and his son William II., ascended the throne. Many of the barons favored his elder brother Robert, but William Rufus bought off his brother and put down the uprising of the Normans. He tried to extend Norman rule into Wales and Scotland. A long struggle with Anselm, who represented the Pope in his claim for supreme power, ensued and reached into the reign of Henry I. William Rufus, like his father, was hated for the cruel enforcement of the New Forest laws, and was killed one day by an arrow while riding through the woods.

Henry I., brother of William Rufus, followed in the Norman line. He swore to abide by the laws of Edward the Confessor and to uphold peace and order in the kingdom. Henry married a Saxon wife and throughout his reign did his utmost to encourage the intermingling of Saxon and Norman and the elimination of race differences. He it was who granted to the people their first Charter of rights and privileges. His son

died during his reign and his daughter Matilda was left as her father's sole heir. He forced the barons to promise her their support upon the death of Henry and to recognize her as their queen. Nevertheless when Henry I. died, these promises were quickly forgotten or brushed aside.

In early years, part of a king's duty was to lead the army against an enemy who might assail his kingdom. The nobles saw at once the impracticability of having a woman at the head of the nation. Stephen, nephew of Henry, was brought forward as successor and for years a civil war waged between the two, some of the subjects favoring Matilda, the rest Stephen. In the end Stephen was crowned and reigned until 1154 but he proved a weak and worthless ruler. Unable to restrain the power of the barons, they took advantage of the situation to increase each his own power. Castles arose on every hand. Many of the owners were merely impostors and had no feudal rights whatever. So long as they were not put down they ruled like little kings, often the terror of the vicinity. When Stephen finally died a strong king was sadly needed to save the country from utter ruin.

RESULTS OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

For some time after the conquest of England by the Normans, both Saxon and Norman held aloof and hated each other with fervent hatred. Gradually the races began to intermingle and by the end of the so-called Norman dynasty the fusion of the two was well begun. The Normans possessed great capacity for organization and were tireless workers. A dominating spirit, perseverance and restless energy characterized their race and they brought new strength and power to the future English nation. From the mingling of Saxon and Norman speech a vernacular grew up, which in the course of centuries has developed into the English spoken today so widely among civilized nations. Two or three centuries after the conquest a literature began to appear in this vernacular, Chaucer being the first great poet to use it and give it definite form.

Commerce and industry were greatly facilitated by the incoming Normans. Before the invasion England remained isolated, little affected by the outside world. Her trade had been with the north rather than the south. Now she was brought

into close relations with Normandy, across the Channel. From a provincial state, she entered into continental relationships. Industry was expanded by the influx of workmen and artisans who were called thither to build churches, public buildings and feudal castles; weavers, and workers of many crafts. The Normans were town-dwellers to a far greater extent than the Saxons, and as they poured into England in increasing numbers, centers of trade and wealth soon sprang up. In short, in spite of much destruction and waste of war, England gained by the Norman conquest and her future greatness was made possible by changes at this time wrought in the life of the island.

CHAPTER III.

RISE OF ENGLISH NATIONALITY.

The Norman kings were succeeded by the so-called Plantagenets, the dynasty receiving this name from the habit followed by one of its earlier members of habitually wearing the broom flower, or plante-de-genêt. Henry II. was first of the line, he being the son of Matilda, Henry I.'s daughter. This Plantagenet House, together with its branches, the House of Lancester and the House of York, governed England from 1154-1485.

Throughout this long period there was a struggle for constitutional liberty, progress being more pronounced during the reigns of weak kings than strong ones—as would naturally be expected; throughout the period, too, the struggle between king and Pope for supremacy in matters pertaining to the Church in England continued, intermittently reaching momentous proportions. Again, the earlier kings of this line came from Anjou in France and ruled, generally speaking, large French possessions. A long drawn out war, popularly called the Hundred Years' War, was waged for the retention of French territory and resulted in its loss. Finally, the War of the Roses, a civil war fought to determine which branch of the Plantagenets, York or Lancester, should hold the throne, resulted in the overthrow of the feudal lords and thus made way for a strong centralized government.

The accession of Henry II. brought order once more to England. The castles of illegitimate lords were destroyed and feudal power brought again to its former limitations. This done, Henry instigated several reforms, prominent among them being his reform of the law courts. William the Norman had allowed the Church to establish ecclesiastical courts wherein matters involving churchmen, church property or certain moral crimes could be heard; the feudal lords maintained courts upon their domains in which they tried cases involving their vassals; finally, there were king's courts, held at stated intervals through

out the realm. Sentences imposed for the same crime by these various courts differed widely in severity and the king now sought to establish some unity in the administration of justice. He found less fault with the feudal courts than with the ecclesiastical courts; it was discovered that because the Church could not impose a sentence of death many scoundrels who were not churchmen at all entered monasteries for a time to commit a crime and escape severe punishment. Henry thereupon issued the Constitutions of Clarendon, wherein was set forth that in the future the king's courts would decide whether or not any given case should be tried by the civil or ecclesiastical courts, and that cases appealed from the highest ecclesiastical courts of England should be submitted to the king before they were referred to the Pope.

Sometime previous, England, for Church purposes, had been divided into eleven bishoprics, with the bishop of Canterbury, bishop of the bishops, or Archbishop; later a second Archbishopric was created for the northern part of the country at York. Nevertheless the Archbishop of Canterbury was preeminent.

Shortly before the Constitutions of Clarendon were issued, Henry had appointed Thomas à Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury, because he was a gay young noble whom the king supposed he could bend to his purposes. However, no sooner was Becket appointed to the highest Church office in the land than he changed utterly in disposition and bearing, cherishing a hope of carrying out the papal policy, and as the Pope tried to make himself supreme in the Christian world, so he attempted to be supreme in his Church position in England. A clash came at once between king and archbishop, Becket refusing to accept the Constitutions of Clarendon. For years the trouble continued, Becket leaving England for awhile and abiding in France; when he returned, fresh difficulties broke out, until one day in exasperation Henry cried out that none who feasted at his board or accepted his favors could free him from this annoying priest. Taken at his word, four knights murdered Becket in his own church at Canterbury. Henry was filled with remorse and because popular sympathy was with the murdered archbishop, he repealed certain clauses of the Constitutions of Clarendon, and for the time the papal party