[*** Malms, p. 95. Gul. Gemet. lib. vii. cap. 1]
[**** W. Malms, p. 97.]
He obliged the French king to grant him peace on reasonable terms; he
expelled all pretenders to the sovereignty; and he reduced his turbulent
barons to pay submission to his authority, and to suspend their mutual
animosities. The natural severity of his temper appeared in a rigorous
administration of justice; and having found the happy effects of this
plan of government, without which the laws in those ages became totally
impotent, he regarded it as a fixed maxim, that an inflexible conduct
was the first duty of a sovereign.
The tranquillity which he had established in his dominions, had given
William leisure to pay a visit to the king of England, during the time
of Godwin's banishment; and he was received in a manner suitable to the
great reputation which he had acquired, to the relation by which he was
connected with Edward, and to the obligations which that prince owed to
his family.[*] On the return of Godwin, and the expulsion of the Norman
favorites, Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, had, before his departure,
persuaded Edward to think of adopting William as his successor;
a counsel which was favored by the king's aversion to Godwin, his
prepossessions for the Normans, and his esteem of the duke.
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