第7到17章诺曼征服到百年战争之前.docx

1、第7到17章诺曼征服到百年战争之前Chapter 7 England Under Harold the Second, and Conquered by The NormansHAROLD was crowned King of England on the very day of the maudlin Confessors funeral. He had good need to be quick about it. When the news reached Norman William, hunting in his park at Rouen, he dropped his bow,

2、 returned to his palace, called his nobles to council, and presently sent ambassadors to Harold, calling on him to keep his oath and resign the Crown. Harold would do no such thing. The barons of France leagued together round Duke William for the invasion of England. Duke William promised freely to

3、distribute English wealth and English lands among them. The Pope sent to Normandy a consecrated banner, and a ring containing a hair which he warranted to have grown on the head of Saint Peter. He blessed the enterprise; and cursed Harold; and requested that the Normans would pay Peters Pence - or a

4、 tax to himself of a penny a year on every house - a little more regularly in future, if they could make it convenient.King Harold had a rebel brother in Flanders, who was a vassal of HAROLD HARDRADA, King of Norway. This brother, and this Norwegian King, joining their forces against England, with D

5、uke Williams help, won a fight in which the English were commanded by two nobles; and then besieged York. Harold, who was waiting for the Normans on the coast at Hastings, with his army, marched to Stamford Bridge upon the river Derwent to give them instant battle.He found them drawn up in a hollow

6、circle, marked out by their shining spears. Riding round this circle at a distance, to survey it, he saw a brave figure on horseback, in a blue mantle and a bright helmet, whose horse suddenly stumbled and threw him.Who is that man who has fallen? Harold asked of one of his captains.The King of Norw

7、ay, he replied.He is a tall and stately king, said Harold, but his end is near.He added, in a little while, Go yonder to my brother, and tell him, if he withdraw his troops, he shall be Earl of Northumberland, and rich and powerful in England.The captain rode away and gave the message.What will he g

8、ive to my friend the King of Norway? asked the brother.Seven feet of earth for a grave, replied the captain.No more? returned the brother, with a smile.The King of Norway being a tall man, perhaps a little more, replied the captain.Ride back! said the brother, and tell King Harold to make ready for

9、the fight!He did so, very soon. And such a fight King Harold led against that force, that his brother, and the Norwegian King, and every chief of note in all their host, except the Norwegian Kings son, Olave, to whom he gave honourable dismissal, were left dead upon the field. The victorious army ma

10、rched to York. As King Harold sat there at the feast, in the midst of all his company, a stir was heard at the doors; and messengers all covered with mire from riding far and fast through broken ground came hurrying in, to report that the Normans had landed in England.The intelligence was true. They

11、 had been tossed about by contrary winds, and some of their ships had been wrecked. A part of their own shore, to which they had been driven back, was strewn with Norman bodies. But they had once more made sail, led by the Dukes own galley, a present from his wife, upon the prow whereof the figure o

12、f a golden boy stood pointing towards England. By day, the banner of the three Lions of Normandy, the diverse coloured sails, the gilded vans, the many decorations of this gorgeous ship, had glittered in the sun and sunny water; by night, a light had sparkled like a star at her mast-head. And now, e

13、ncamped near Hastings, with their leader lying in the old Roman castle of Pevensey, the English retiring in all directions, the land for miles around scorched and smoking, fired and pillaged, was the whole Norman power, hopeful and strong on English ground.Harold broke up the feast and hurried to Lo

14、ndon. Within a week, his army was ready. He sent out spies to ascertain the Norman strength. William took them, caused them to be led through his whole camp, and then dismissed. The Normans, said these spies to Harold, are not bearded on the upper lip as we English are, but are shorn. They are pries

15、ts. My men, replied Harold, with a laugh, will find those priests good soldiers!The Saxons, reported Duke Williams outposts of Norman soldiers, who were instructed to retire as King Harolds army advanced, rush on us through their pillaged country with the fury of madmen.Let them come, and come soon!

16、 said Duke William.Some proposals for a reconciliation were made, but were soon abandoned. In the middle of the month of October, in the year one thousand and sixty-six, the Normans and the English came front to front. All night the armies lay encamped before each other, in a part of the country the

17、n called Senlac, now called (in remembrance of them) Battle. With the first dawn of day, they arose. There, in the faint light, were the English on a hill; a wood behind them; in their midst, the Royal banner, representing a fighting warrior, woven in gold thread, adorned with precious stones; benea

18、th the banner, as it rustled in the wind, stood King Harold on foot, with two of his remaining brothers by his side; around them, still and silent as the dead, clustered the whole English army - every soldier covered by his shield, and bearing in his hand his dreaded English battle-axe.On an opposit

19、e hill, in three lines, archers, foot-soldiers, horsemen, was the Norman force. Of a sudden, a great battle-cry, God help us! burst from the Norman lines. The English answered with their own battle-cry, Gods Rood! Holy Rood! The Normans then came sweeping down the hill to attack the English.There wa

20、s one tall Norman Knight who rode before the Norman army on a prancing horse, throwing up his heavy sword and catching it, and singing of the bravery of his countrymen. An English Knight, who rode out from the English force to meet him, fell by this Knights hand. Another English Knight rode out, and

21、 he fell too. But then a third rode out, and killed the Norman. This was in the first beginning of the fight. It soon raged everywhere.The English, keeping side by side in a great mass, cared no more for the showers of Norman arrows than if they had been showers of Norman rain. When the Norman horse

22、men rode against them, with their battle-axes they cut men and horses down. The Normans gave way. The English pressed forward. A cry went forth among the Norman troops that Duke William was killed. Duke William took off his helmet, in order that his face might be distinctly seen, and rode along the

23、line before his men. This gave them courage. As they turned again to face the English, some of their Norman horse divided the pursuing body of the English from the rest, and thus all that foremost portion of the English army fell, fighting bravely. The main body still remaining firm, heedless of the

24、 Norman arrows, and with their battle-axes cutting down the crowds of horsemen when they rode up, like forests of young trees, Duke William pretended to retreat. The eager English followed. The Norman army closed again, and fell upon them with great slaughter.Still, said Duke William, there are thou

25、sands of the English, firms as rocks around their King. Shoot upward, Norman archers, that your arrows may fall down upon their faces!The sun rose high, and sank, and the battle still raged. Through all the wild October day, the clash and din resounded in the air. In the red sunset, and in the white

26、 moonlight, heaps upon heaps of dead men lay strewn, a dreadful spectacle, all over the ground.King Harold, wounded with an arrow in the eye, was nearly blind. His brothers were already killed. Twenty Norman Knights, whose battered armour had flashed fiery and golden in the sunshine all day long, an

27、d now looked silvery in the moonlight, dashed forward to seize the Royal banner from the English Knights and soldiers, still faithfully collected round their blinded King. The King received a mortal wound, and dropped. The English broke and fled. The Normans rallied, and the day was lost.O what a si

28、ght beneath the moon and stars, when lights were shining in the tent of the victorious Duke William, which was pitched near the spot where Harold fell - and he and his knights were carousing, within - and soldiers with torches, going slowly to and fro, without, sought for the corpse of Harold among

29、piles of dead - and the Warrior, worked in golden thread and precious stones, lay low, all torn and soiled with blood - and the three Norman Lions kept watch over the field!Chapter 8 England Under William the First, The Norman ConquerorUPON the ground where the brave Harold fell, William the Norman

30、afterwards founded an abbey, which, under the name of Battle Abbey, was a rich and splendid place through many a troubled year, though now it is a grey ruin overgrown with ivy. But the first work he had to do, was to conquer the English thoroughly; and that, as you know by this time, was hard work f

31、or any man.He ravaged several counties; he burned and plundered many towns; he laid waste scores upon scores of miles of pleasant country; he destroyed innumerable lives. At length STIGAND, Archbishop of Canterbury, with other representatives of the clergy and the people, went to his camp, and submi

32、tted to him. EDGAR, the insignificant son of Edmund Ironside, was proclaimed King by others, but nothing came of it. He fled to Scotland afterwards, where his sister, who was young and beautiful, married the Scottish King. Edgar himself was not important enough for anybody to care much about him.On Christmas Day, William was crowned in Westminster Abbey, under the title of WILLIAM THE FIRST; but he is best known as WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. It was a strange coronation. One of the bishops who performed the ceremony asked the Normans, in French, if they would have Duke William fo