He punished thieves and murderers without mercy. It was said that any man might go in his days from one end of the kingdom to the other with his bosom full of gold.

7. William Rufus.-The Conqueror's son, William II., Rufus or the Red King, as he was called, was as able as his father. He never undertook anything in which he failed. He never allowed himself to be stopped by any obstacle which it was possible to overcome. Once he was eager to cross the Channel to put down an insurrection in Normandy. He reached the sea-coast in the midst of a furious storm. The seamen refused to put out in such a tempest. Did you ever hear of a king that was drowned?' he said. He forced them to sail, reached the other side safely, and overpowered his enemies. With his father's ability he had none of his father's love of justice. He was desperately wicked with more than ordinary wickedness. Yet even this man owed his throne to the support of the English people. His elder brother, Robert, had inherited the Dukedom of Normandy. The Norman nobles in England wished him to be King of England too. They knew he was soft and irresolute, and would let them do just as they pleased. The last thing which the English people wished was that the Norman nobles should do as they pleased. What they pleased was to oppress their English neighbours. The English therefore rallied in thousands round William, and the Normans sullenly submitted to his rule.

8. William Rufus and Anselm.-After some time

William was brought into conflict with a man whose gentle nature was even stronger than his own violent one. The Conqueror had filled the bishoprics and abbacies with Norman prelates, but had taken care to appoint none who were not distinguished for intelligence. The Red King looked upon the right of appointment as a a means of getting money. He hit upon the simple plan of not appointing a successor at all to any bishop or abbot who happened to die. He then took for himself all the money which would have belonged to the bishop or abbot if there had been one. At last he fell dangerously ill. When he was very ill even the Red King had a little conscience, and his conscience told him that he had been doing wrong. The men who were about him begged him to appoint an Archbishop of Canterbury. They urged him to choose Anselm for the post. Anselm was a stranger from Aosta, who had been at the head of a monastery in Normandy. He was a very learned man, and the holiest and gentlest of men then living. He did not wish to be the Archbishop. He knew that as archbishop he could not live near the king without speaking the truth of him. The plough of England, he said, cannot go straight if you yoke to it a fierce young bull and a quiet old sheep. His remonstrances were in vain. He was dragged to the sick king's bedside and his hands were forced open that the crozier, the mark of the bishop's authority, might be forced into them. Anselm had spoken truly. The Red King recovered, and ceased to have a conscience any longer. Anselm

persisted in saying and doing what he thought right, and was forced to leave the kingdom.

9. William's end was sudden. One day his corpse was found in the New Forest with an arrow through his heart. A certain Walter Tyrrell was thought to have done the deed. But no one saw him do it, and it is quite as likely that the murderer was one of the many sufferers who had been driven from their homes when the New Forest was made.

HENRY I.

10. Henry I.-Henry I., the youngest son of the Conqueror, was chosen to succeed him. He married an English wife, a great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. Through her the kings of England are descended not merely from William the Conqueror, but also from Alfred and Egbert. Henry, like William, had a quarrel with Anselm.

But after a time the two men were reconciled. Henry, too, put down the great Norman landowners with a heavy hand. His English subjects did not love him. His rule was too stern and his taxation too heavy for that. But they preferred a stern king

to the tyranny of the Norman landowners. They called him the Lion of Justice, and they served him faithfully for thirty-five years. With their help he overcame his brother Robert, took Normandy from him, and shut him up in Cardiff Castle as a prisoner for life.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ANARCHY OF STEPHEN'S REIGN AND THE RESTORATION OF ORDER BY HENRY II.

STEPHEN, 1135. HENRY II., 1154..

1. King Stephen.-When Henry died, Englishmen discovered what was the misery from which his hard rule had saved them. Henry's son, William, had been drowned in passing from Normandy to England, and though the barons, that is to say, the great landowners in England, had sworn to accept his daughter Matilda as their Queen, they refused to do so after his death. They chose instead his nephew Stephen. Stephen was not in any way a usurper, as he is sometimes called. There was then no law or custom giving the crown to the eldest son of the last king. The great men had always chosen some one of the royal family. There had never been a queen in England before, and at a time when the king was accustomed to go to battle, most men would think that there ought not to be a queen. Stephen was the man who was the nearest related to Henry. He was a generous and well-disposed man, but he had not the strong will of the three kings before him. He could not keep the barons in order. Soon Matilda came to England and claimed the throne. Some of the barons fought for her, and some for Stephen. In reality very few of them cared either for her or for Stephen. They knew