The shame of conquest, the oppression of the conquerors, begot a moral and religious revival which raised religion into a living thing; while the close connexion with the Continent which foreign conquest brought about secured for England a new communion with the artistic and intellectual life of the world without her.
[Sidenote: William the Conqueror] In a word, it is to the stern discipline of our foreign kings that we owe not merely English wealth and English freedom but England herself.

And of these foreign masters the greatest was William of Normandy.

In William the wild impulses of the northman's blood mingled strangely with the cool temper of the modern statesman.

As he was the last, so he was the most terrible outcome of the northern race.

The very spirit of the sea-robbers from whom he sprang seemed embodied in his gigantic form, his enormous strength, his savage countenance, his desperate bravery, the fury of his wrath, the ruthlessness of his revenge.