3 68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP

IV.

JOS7.

«

pth Sept.Death

and charac-ter as Wil-li i >n theConqueror.

/

earl Morcar, Siward Bearne, and other Englissiprisoners, should be set at liberty. He waseven prevailed on, though not without reluct-ance, to consent, with his dying breath, torelease his brother, Odo, against whom he wasextremely incensed. He left Normandy and Maineto his eldest son, Robert: He wrote to Lan-franc, desiring him . to crown William king ofEngland: He bequeathed to Henry nothing butthe possessions of his mother, Matilda; but fore-told, that he would one day surpass both hisbrothers in power and opulence. He expired inthe sixty-third year of his age, in the twenty-first year of his reign over England, and in thefifty-fourth of that over Normandy.

Few princes have been more fortunate thanthis great monarch , or were better entitled tograndeur and prosperity, from the abilities andthe vigor of mind which he displayed in all hisconduct. His spirit was bold and enterprising,yet guided by prudence: His ambition , whichwas exorbitant, and lay little under the restraintsof justice, still less under those of humanity, eversubmitted to the dictates of found policy. Bornin an age when the minds of men were intract-able and unacquainted with submission, he wasyet able to direct them to his purposes ; partlyfrom the ascendant of his vehement character,and partly from art and dissimulation , to esta-blish an unlimited authority. Though not insen-sible to generosity, he was hardened against com-passion; and he seemed equally ostentatious and

equally