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WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
Contemporary Monarchs:
EMP. OF GERM. K. OF SCOTLAND K. OF FRANCE. Ks. OF SPAIN.
Henry IV. Malcolm III. 1093 Philip I. Sancho II. 1072
Alphonso VI.
POPES.
Alexander II.1073
Gregory VII. 1085
Victor III. 1087
{1066.} _Nothing_ could exceed the consternation which seized the
English when they received intelligence of the unfortunate battle of
Hastings, the death of their king, the slaughter of their principal
nobility and of their bravest warriors, and the rout and dispersion
of the remainder. But though the loss which they had sustained in that
fatal action was considerable, it might have been repaired by a great
nation; where the people were generally armed, and where there resided
so many powerful noblemen in every province, who could have assembled
their retainers, and have obliged the duke of Normandy to divide his
army, and probably to waste it in a variety of actions and rencounters.
It was thus that the kingdom had formerly resisted for many years its
invaders, and had been gradually subdued by the continued efforts of
the Romans, Saxons, and Danes; and equal difficulties might have been
apprehended by William in this bold and hazardous enterprise.
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