The Evolution of an Empire | Page 8

last outcome of his
race. Norse daring and cruelty were side by side with gentleness and
aspiration. No human pity tempered his vengeance. When hides were
hung on the City Walls at Alencon, in insult to his mother (the daughter
of a tanner), he tore out the eyes, cut off the hands and feet of the
prisoners, and threw them over the walls. When he did this, and when
he refused Harold's body a grave, it was the spirit of the sea- wolves
within him. But it was the man of the coming Civilization, who could
not endure death by process of law in his Kingdom, and who delighted
to discourse with the gentle and pious Anselm, upon the mysteries of
life and death.
The indirect benefits of the Conquest, came in enriching streams from

the older civilizations. As Rome had been heir to the accumulations of
experience in the ancient Nations, so England, through France became
the heir to Latin institutions, and was joined to the great continuous
stream of the World's highest development. Fresh intellectual stimulus
renovated the Church. Roman law was planted upon the simple Teuton
system of rights. Every department in State and in Society shared the
advance, while language became refined, flexible, and enriched.
This engrafting with the results of antiquity, was an enormous saving of
time, in the development of a nation; but it did not change the essential
character of the Anglo-Saxon, nor of his speech. The ravenous Teuton
could devour and assimilate all these new elements and be himself--be
Saxon still. The language of Bunyan and of the Bible, is Saxon; and it
is the language of the Englishman to-day in childhood and in extremity.
A man who is thoroughly in earnest--who is drowning-- speaks Saxon.
Character, as much as speech, remains unaltered. There is no trace of
the Norman in the House of Commons, nor in the meetings at Exeter
Hall, nor in the home, nor life of the people anywhere.
The qualities which have made England great were brought across the
North Sea in those "keels" in the 5th Century. The Anglo-Saxon put on
the new civilization and institutions brought him by the Conquest, as he
would an embroidered garment; but the man within the garment,
though modified by civilization, has never essentially changed.

CHAPTER III
.
It is not in the exploits of its Kings but in the aspirations and struggles
of its people, that the true history of a nation is to be sought. During the
rule and misrule of the two sons, and grandson, of the Conqueror,
England was steadily growing toward its ultimate form.
As Society outgrew the simple ties of blood which bound it together in
old Saxon England, the people had sought a larger protection in
combinations among fellow freemen, based upon identity of
occupation.
[Sidenote: The "Gilds."]
The "Frith-Gilds," or peace Clubs, came into existence in Europe
during the 9th and 10th Centuries. They were harshly repressed in

Germany and Gaul, but found kindly welcome from Alfred in England.
In their mutual responsibility, in their motto, "if any misdo, let all bear
it," Alfred saw simply an enlarged conception of the "_family_," which
was the basis of the Saxon social structure; and the adoption of this
idea of a larger unity, in _combination_, was one of the first phases of
an expanding national life. So, after the conquest, while ambitious
kings were absorbing French and Irish territory or fighting with
recalcitrant barons, the _merchant, craft_, and church "_gilds_" were
creating a great popular force, which was to accomplish more enduring
conquests.
It was in the "boroughs" and in these "gilds" that the true life of the
nation consisted. It was the shopkeepers and artisans which brought the
right of free speech, and free meeting, and of equal justice across the
ages of tyranny. One freedom after another was being won, and the
battle with oppression was being fought, not by Knights and Barons,
but by the sturdy burghers and craftsmen. Silently as the coral insect,
the Anglo-Saxon was building an indestructible foundation for English
liberties.
[Sidenote: William II., 1017-1100. The Crusades Commenced, 1095.
Henry I., 1100-1135]
The Conqueror had bequeathed England to his second son, William
Rufus, and Normandy to his eldest son, Robert. In 1095 (eight years
after his death) commenced those extraordinary wars carried on by the
chivalry of Europe against the Saracens in the East. Robert, in order to
raise money to join the first crusade, mortgaged Normandy to his
brother, and an absorption of Western France had begun, which, by
means of conquest by arms and the more peaceful conquest by
marriage, would in fifty years extend English dominion from the
Scottish border to the Pyrenees.
William's son Henry (I.), who succeeded his older brother, William
Rufus, inherited enough of