[2] Minster:  a name given originally to a monastery; next, to a church connected with a monastery; but now applied to several large English cathedrals.

Multitudes made pilgrimages to King Edward’s tomb, for the Pope had enrolled him among the saints.  Even now a little band of devoted Catholics gather around his shrine every year.  They go there to show their veneration for the virtues and the piety of a ruler who would have adorned a monastery, but had not breadth and vigor to fill a throne.

67.  Harold becomes King (1066).

On his deathbed, King Edward, who had no children, recommended Harold, Earl of Wessex, as his successor (S65).  But the Normans in France declared Edward had promised that his cousin William, Duke of Normandy (S65), should reign after him.  The Witan, or National Council of England (S81), chose Harold.  That settled the question, for the Council alone had the right to decide who should rule over the English people.  Harold was soon afterward crowned (January 16, 1066).

68.  Duke William prepares to invade England (1066).

William, Duke of Normandy, was getting ready for a hunting expedition when the news was brought to him of Harold’s accession (S67).  The old chronicler says that the Duke “stopped short in his preparations; he spoke to no man, and no man dared speak to him.”  Finally he resolved to appeal to the sword and take the English crown by force.

During the spring and summer of that year, he occupied himself in fitting out a fleet to invade England, and his smiths and armorers were busy making lances, swords, and coats of mail.  The Pope favored the expedition and presented a banner blessed by himself, to be carried in the attack; “mothers, too, sent their sons for the salvation of their souls.”

69.  The Expedition Sails (1066).

William sailed on his great expedition in the autumn with a fleet of several hundred vesseles and a large number of transports.  The Duke’s ship, with the consecrated banner at the masthead, led the fleet.

His army consisted of archers and cavalry.  Its strength has been variously estimated at from 14,000 men up to 60,000.  They were partly his own subjects, and partly hired soldiers, or those who joined for the sake of plunder.  William also carried a large force of smiths and carpenters, with timber ready cut and fitted to set up a wooden castle.

70.  William lands at Pevensey.

The next day the fleet anchored at Pevensey, on the south coast of England, under the walls of an old Roman fortress which had stood, a vacant ruin, since the Saxons stormed it nearly six hundred years before. (See map facing p. 38.) Tradition says that as William stepped on shore he stumbled and fell flat with his face downward.  “God preserve us!” cried one of his men; “this is a bad sign.”  But the Duke, grasping the pebbles of the beach with both his outstretched hands, exclaimed, “Thus do I seize the land!”