97.] He obliged the French king to grant him peace on reasonable terms; he expelled all pretenders to the sovereignty; and he reduced his turbulent barons to pay submission to his authority, and to suspend their mutual animosities.

The natural severity of his temper appeared in a rigorous administration of justice; and having found the happy effects of this plan of government, without which the laws in those ages became totally impotent, he regarded it as a fixed maxim, that an inflexible conduct was the first duty of a sovereign.
The tranquillity which he had established in his dominions, had given William leisure to pay a visit to the king of England, during the time of Godwin's banishment; and he was received in a manner suitable to the great reputation which he had acquired, to the relation by which he was connected with Edward, and to the obligations which that prince owed to his family.[*] On the return of Godwin, and the expulsion of the Norman favorites, Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, had, before his departure, persuaded Edward to think of adopting William as his successor; a counsel which was favored by the king's aversion to Godwin, his prepossessions for the Normans, and his esteem of the duke.

That prelate, therefore, received a commission to inform William of the king's intentions in his favor; and he was the first person that opened the mind of the prince to entertain those ambitious hopes.[**] But Edward, irresolute and feeble in his purpose, finding that the English would more easily acquiesce in the restoration of the Saxon line, and in the mean time invited his brother's descendants from Hungary, with a view of having them recognized heirs to the crown.
[* Hoveden, p.442.Ingulph.p, 65.Chron.

Mailr.
p.

157 Higden, p.