[**]
[** Gul. Gemet. lib. ii. cap. 19, 20, 21.]
William I., who succeeded him, governed the duchy twenty-five years;
and, during that time, the Normans, who were thoroughly intermingled
with the French, had acquired their language, had imitated their
manners, and had made such progress towards cultivation, that, on the
death of William, his son Richard, though a minor,[***] inherited his
dominions; a sure proof that the Normans were already somewhat advanced
in civility, and that their government could now rest secure on its laws
and civil institutions, and was not wholly sustained by the abilities
of the sovereign. Richard, after a long reign of fifty-four years, was
succeeded by his son, of the same name, in the year 996,[****] which
was eighty-five years after the first establishment of the Normans
in France. This was the duke who gave his sister Emma in marriage to
Ethelred, king of England, and who thereby formed connections with a
country which his posterity was so soon after destined to subdue.
[*** Order. Vitalis, p. 459. Grl. Geinet, lib. iv.
cup. 1.]
[**** Order. Vitalis, p. 459.]
The Danes had been established during a longer period in England than in
France; and though the similarity of their original language to that of
the Saxons invited them to a more early coalition with the natives,
they had hitherto found so little example of civilized manners among
the English, that they retained all their ancient ferocity, and valued
themselves only on their national character of military bravery.
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