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was the ordinary language of the court. The few Saxons who for fome time (3) were admitted there must have had the ftrongest inducements to acquire the fame language as foon as poffible, not merely for the fake of apprehending and anfwering infignificant questions in the circle, but becaufe in that age affairs of the greateft importance were publickly tranf acted in the King's court, and there they might be called upon to answer for their poffcffions and even for their lives. In an ecclefiaftical fynod held in the prefence of the King in 1072, the venerable Bishop of Worcester, Wulftan, (whofe holy fimplicity, as the hiftorian calls it (9), feems to have preferved him

that they did not proferve their language for above two or three generations. From two other paffages of the fame Dudon we learn that the Danish language, while it lafted in Nor mandy, was very fimilar to the Saxon, [p. 99,] and yet different from it, [p. 100,] qualem decet else fororem.

(8) After the death of Edwin and the imprisonment of Morcar in 1970, we do no not read of any Saxon earl except Waltheof, and he was executed for misprifion of treafon about three years after, Orderic. Fit, 1, iv. p. 536. It is fingular that Waltheof, according to the Saxon law, fuffered death for the concealment of that treason for which Boger de Breteuil, Earl of Hereford, being tried fecundum leges Normannorum, could only be punished by a forfeiture of his inheritance and perpetual imprifonment, i, p. 535. From this time (fays Ingulphus, p. 70,) "Comitatus et Baronias. Epifcopatus et Prælatias, totius terræ "fuis Normanis Rex diftribuit.et vix aliquem Auglicum ad ho"noris ftatum vel alicujus dominii principatum aftendere per"milit."

(9) Will. Malmefb. 1. iii. p. 118, "Hic fancia fimplicitas beati “Vulftani, &c.” The fory which follows perfectly justifies this character. Matt. Paris [ad an. 1095,] fays that in another fynod there was a formal defign of depoling Wulfan, and that he was faved only by a miracle. He was acculed “fimplicitatis

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from the degradation which almoft all the other English prelates underwent) was obliged to defend the rights of his fee by an interpreter a monk" (according to the fame (10) hiftorian) " of very little " eloquence, but who had a fmattering of the Nor"man language."

§ 4. If we confider further that the great barons, to whom William (11) distributed a large fhare of his conqueft, when released from their attendance in the King's court retired to courts of their own, where they in their turn were furrounded by a numerous train of vaffals, chiefly their own countrymen, we may be fure that the French language travelled with them into the most diftant provinces, and was used by them not only in their common converfation but in their civil contracts, their judical proceedings, and even in the promulgation of their laws (12). The many "et illiteraturæ ;"-"et quafi homo idiota, qui linguam Gal"licanam non noverat, nec regiis confiliis intereffe poterat, "ipfo Rege confentiente et hoc dictante, decernitur deponen"dus."

(10) Ibid. "Ita datâ benedictione Monacho, minimæ fa "cundiæ viro, fed Normannicæ linguæ fciolo, rem perorans "obtinuit."

(11) There is a curious detail of part of this diftribution in Ordericus Vitalis, I. iv. p. 521, 2, which concludes thus:"aliifque advenis, qui fibi cohæferant, magnos et multos ho"nores contulit; et in tantum quofdam provexit, ut multos "in Angliâ ditiores et potentioras haberent clientes, quam co* rum in Neuftriâ fuerant parentes." There is an account in the Monaft. Angl. t. i. p. 400, of the Conqueror's giving the whole county of Cumberland to Ranulph de Mefchines, and of the divifion which Ranulph made of it among his relations and followers, who appear to have been all foreigners.

(12) The ancient earls had a power of legislation within their counties. William of Malmesbury, speaking of William Fitz

- castles Which William built (13) in different parts of the island muft alfo have contributed very much to the propagation of the French language among the natives, as it is probable that the foreigners, of whom the garrifons were (14) entirely compofed, would infilt upon carrying on all their tranfactions with the neighbouring country in their own language.

$5. But the great alteration which from political motives was made in the ftate of the clergy at that Ofberne, Earl of Hereford, fays, " Manet in hunc diem in Co

mitatu ejus apud Herefordum legum quas ftatuit inconcuffa "frmitas; ut nullus miles-pro qualicunque commiffo plus "feptem folidis folvat; cum in alüs provinciis ob parvam oc"cafiunculam in tranfgreffione præcepti herilis, viginti vel viginti quinque pendantur." L. iii. p. 105.

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(13) Ordericus Vitalis [L. iv. p. 511,] obferves that before the conqueft" Munitiones, quas Caftella Galli nuncupant, Anglicis provinciis pauciffimæ fuerant: et ob hoc Angli, licet bellicofi fuerint et audaces, ad refiftendum tamen inimicis "extiterant debiliores." William at his landing placed garrifons at Pevenfey and Haftings; after the battle he took poffeffion of Dover and left a garrifon there. He caused firmamenta quædam to be made at London, and built a strong citadel at Winchester. Upon his return from Normandy, after the first infurrection of the English, he built a calle within the city of Exeter, another at Warwick, and another at Nottingham. In the city of York “munitionem firmavit, quam delectis militibus cuftodiendam tradidit," At Lincoln, Huntingdon, and Cambridge, "caftra locavit, et tutelam corum fortiflimis vitis commendavit." He had alfo garrifons at Montacute in Somerietfhire, and at Shrewsbury. He built fortifications at Chelter and Stafford. We read alfo of caftles at Arundel and Stutefbury at this time, and Norwich was fo frong as to fland a fiege of three months. Ord. Vit. p. 500-535.

(14) Orderic. Vital. 1. iv. p. 506, "Cuftodes in caftellis ftre"nuos viros ex Gallis collocavit, et opulenta beneficia, pro "quibus labores et pericula libenter tolerarent, diftribuit."

timé must have operated perhaps more efficaciously than any other caufe to give the French language a deep root in England. The Conqueror feems to have been fully apprifed of the ftrength which the new government might derive from a clergy more clofely attached to himself by a community of interefts than the native English were likely to be; accordingly from the very beginning of his reign all ecclefiaftical preferments, as faft as they became vacant, were given to his Norman chaplains; and, not content to avail himfelf of the ordinary courfe of fucceffion, he contrived (15), upon various charges of real or pretended

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(15) See the transactions of the council held at Winchefter in the year 1070, ap. Flor. Vigorn, p. 636. Having spoken of the degradation of Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury, and Agelmar Bishop of the Eaft Saxons, he proceeds thus; Abbates "etiam aliqui ibi degradati sunt, operam dante rege ut quam"plures ex Anglis fuo honore privarentur, in quorum locum fuæ gentis perfoñas fubrogavit, ob confirmationem fui (quod noviter acquifierat) regni. Hic et nonullos, tam epifcopos quam Abbates, quos nulla evidenti caufa nec concilia nec legos feculi damnabant, fuis honoribus privavit, et ufque ad finem "vitæ cuttodiæ mancipatos detinuit, fufpicione, ut diximus, "tantum induétus novi regni.". In confirmation of what is faid here and in the text, if we examine the fubfcriptions to an ecclefiaftical conftitution in 1072, ap. Will. Malm. 1. iii. p. 117, we find that the two archbishops, seven bithops out of eleven, and fix abbots out of twelve, were foreigners; and in about five years more the four other bithopricks, and five at least of the other fix abbies, were in the hands of foreigners.---Another ecclefiaftical conflitution made at this time has very much the appearance of a political regulation: it orders" that the bi"thops' feats thall be removed from towns to cities;” and in confequence of it the fee of Litchfield was removed to Chefter, that of Selefey to Chichefter, that of Elmham to Thetford, and afterwards to Norwich, that of Shireburne to Salisbury, and

irregularities, to remove feveral of the English bifhops and abbots, whofe places were in like manner immediately fupplied by foreigners. In fhort, in the fpace of a very few years all the fees of England were filled with Normans, or strangers naturalized (if I may fo fay) in Normandy, and the greatest part of the abbies in the kingdom were under governors of the fame defcription.

§ 6. It must be allowed that the confeffed fuperiority (16) in literature of the Norman clergy over the English at that time furnished the King with a fpecious pretext for thefe promotions; and it is probable that the prelates who were thus promoted made ufe of the fame pretext to justify themselves in difpofing of all their beft benefices among their friends and countrymen that this was their conftant practice is certain nor were the new abbots lefs induftrious

that of Dorchefter to Lincoln, Will. Malm. }. iii. p. 118. When the King had got a fet of bishops to his mind he would with to have them placed where their influence could be of moft fer vice to him.

(16) Ordericus Vitalis, 1. iv. p. 518, fays that the Normans at the conqueft found the English agreftes et pene illiteratos; and he imputes, with fome probability, the decay of learning among them, from the time of Beda and others, to the continual ravages and oppreffions of the Danes. See alfo William of Malmesbury, 1. iii. p. 101, 2. It may be obferved too, from Continuat. Hift. Croyland, by Peter of Blois, p. 114, that the firft regular lectures (of which we have any account) at Cambridge were read there by four foreign monks, who had come over into England with Jeffrey Abbot of Croyland, formerly Prior of St. Evroul: they are faid to have read" diverfis in lo"cis a fe divifi et formam Aurelianenfis ftudii fecuti," three of them in grammar, logick, and rhetorick, and the fourth in theology.

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