William the Conqueror: Makers of History

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, by Harper & Brothers , In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. Copyright, 1877, by Jacob Abbott . PREFACE. In selecting the subjects for the successive volumes of this series, it has been the object of the author to look for the names of those great personages whose histories constitute useful, and not merely entertaining, knowledge. There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. This knowledge, which it seems incumbent on every one to obtain in respect to such personages as Hannibal, Alexander, Cæsar, Cleopatra, Darius, Xerxes, Alfred, William the Conqueror, Queen Elizabeth, and Mary Queen of Scots, it is the design and object of these volumes to communicate, in a faithful, and, at the same time, if possible, in an attractive manner. Consequently, great historical names alone are selected; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits in their characters, and all the important events in their lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple language which is so obviously required in works which aim at permanent and practical usefulness. CONTENTS. Page I. NORMANDY 13 II. BIRTH OF WILLIAM 31 III. THE ACCESSION 51 IV. WILLIAM'S REIGN IN NORMANDY 72 V. THE MARRIAGE 96 VI. THE LADY EMMA 119 VII. KING HAROLD 142 VIII. PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION 164 IX. CROSSING THE CHANNEL 189 X. THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS 212 XI. PRINCE ROBERT'S REBELLION 242 XII. THE CONCLUSION 265 ENGRAVINGS. PAGE MAP—THE SITUATION OF NORMANDY 14 WILLIAM AND ARLOTTE 40 WILLIAM'S ESCAPE 77 THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY 102 THE RESCUE 127 HAROLD'S INTERVIEW WITH EDWARD 147 WILLIAM RECEIVING TOSTIG'S TIDINGS 166 MAP—NORMANDY 190 THE NORWEGIANS AT SCARBOROUGH 218 WILLIAM'S HORSE STEPPING ON THE EMBERS 281 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Normandy. A.D. 870-912 The Norman Conquest. Claim of William to the throne. The right of the strongest. O ne of those great events in English history, which occur at distant intervals, and form, respectively, a sort of…