p. 205.]
[*** Eadmer, p. 6.]
[**** Order. Vitalis, p. 503.]
[***** Malmsbury (p. 271) says, that he also
promised to govern the Normans and English by equal laws;
and this addition to the usual oath seems not improbable,
considering the circumstances of the time!]
The Norman soldiers, who were placed without in order to guard the
church, hearing the shouts within, fancied that the English were
offering violence to their duke; and they immediately assaulted the
populace, and set fire to the neighboring houses. The alarm was conveyed
to the nobility who surrounded the prince; both English and Normans,
full of apprehensions, rushed out to secure themselves from the present
danger; and it was with difficulty that William himself was able to
appease the tumult.[*]
The king, thus possessed of the throne by a pretended descination of
King Edward, and by an irregular election of the people, but still more
by force of arms, retired from London to Berking, in Essex, {1067.} and
there received the submissions of all the nobility who had not attended
his coronation. Edric, surnamed the Forester, grand-nephew to that Edric
so noted for his repeated acts of perfidy during the reigns of Ethelred
and Edmond; Earl Coxo, a man famous for bravery; even Edwin and Morcar,
earls of Mercia and Northumberland; with the other principal noblemen
of England, came and swore fealty to him; were received into favor; and
were confirmed in the possession of their estates and dignities.
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