S o4 HISTORY OF ENGL AND.

c h a i>. to divide bis army , and probably to waste itIV. in a variety of actions and rencounters. It wasthus that the kingdom had formerly resisted , formany years, its invaders, and had been graduallysubdued, by the continued efforts of the Romans, jSaxons, and Danes; and equal difficulties might ihave been apprehended by William in this boldand hazardous entcrprize. But there were severalvices in the Anglo-Saxon constitution , whichrendered it difficult for the English to defendtheir liberties in so critical an emergency. The jpeople had in a great measure lost all national 1pride and spirit , by their recent and long sub-jection to the Danes ; and as Canute had , in thecourse of his administration , much abated therigors of conquest, and had governed them equi-tably by their own laws, they regarded with theless terror the ignominy of a foreign yoke, anddeemed the inconveniences of submission lessformidable than those of bloodshed, war, andresistance. Their attachment also to the ancientroyal family had been much weakened by theirhabits of submission to the Danish princes, andby their late election of Harold, or their acquies-cence in his usurpation. And as they had longbeen accustomed to regard Edgar Atbeiing, theonly heir of the Saxon line , as unfit to governthem even in times of order and tranquillity ;they could entertain small hopes of his being ableto repair such great losses as they had sustained,or to withstand the victorious arms of the duke■of Normandy,

That