A.C.

1053

The following year, Tangrolipix despatched a fresh army of 100,000 men into Media, who ravaged the country without opposition. They then laid siege to Artza, which they burned to ashes, together with 150,000 of its unfortunate inhabitants.

Tangrolipix sent an ambassador to Constantinople, who arrogantly demanded of the emperor that he should submit and become tributary to their master; when he was dismissed and driven from the city. The Turkish monarch incensed at the insult determined on renewing the war.

The emperor, while making vigorous preparations against the Turkish monarch, was on a sudden invaded by the Patzinaca, a Scythian nation, who entered his dominions with 300,000 men, putting every thing to fire and sword. Great numbers, however, being daily swept away by a contagion that broke out in the army, the Roman general unexpectedly fell upon their main body, when immense numbers were slaughtered, and the residue threw down their arms, upon which numbers of them settled in Bulgaria. Tyrac, one of their chiefs, with 150 of the noblest among them, were sent to Constantinople, where they embraced Christianity, and were, in consequence, treated conformably to their rank.

Edward the Confessor gained the love of the people by remitting the tax called Danegelt, but having been educated in Normandy, and imbibed a great love for their manners and customs, he invited over numbers of that nation, which gave umbrage to many, and in particular to his father-inlaw, the powerful Earl Godwin, who levied an army to oppose the monarch, but finding his force inadequate fled to Flanders, from whence he returned with a fleet during this year, (1052,) landed in the Isle of Wight, and was joined by his son Harold, when he sailed up the Thames to London, and reduced the king to the necessity of entering into a negotiation, whereby it was stipulated that all foreigners should quit the realm. Earl Godwin died soon after, and was succeeded in his immense possessions by Harold.

Michael Cerularias, patriarch of Constantinople, published many writings against the Latin church, and caused their temples of worship at Constantinople to be closed. He also stripped every religious order of that community which refused to relinquish the ceremonies of the Roman church of all their possessions, which was the origin of the schism that arose between the Roman and the Greek churches. The following year, the emperor of the West, desirous of ensuring to his son the succession to the empire, caused him to be declared king of Germany when only 4 years old; thus

adopting the plan pursued by the emperors of the East, who A.C. for that purpose nominated their sons Cæsars. Constantine Monomachus, emperor of the East, died, when his widow Theodora, grand-daughter of Romanus, governed the empire for 19 months.

During this year, (1054,) Pope Leo the Ninth was taken prisoner by the Normans.

Victor the Second succeeded to the papacy.

The Turks took possession of Bagdat, and overturned the empire of the caliphs.

1055

The empress Theodora, last descendant of the family of 1056 Basilius, the Macedonian, died, aged 76, when Michael the Fourth, surnamed Stratioticus, whom she had named for her successor, mounted the imperial throne.

Henry the Third, emperor of the West, died, and was succeeded by his son, only 5 years old, under the regency of his mother Agnes of Poitiers.

The ensuing year, Michael Stratioticus was compelled to surrender up the empire of the East, and yield his throne to Isaac Commenus, chosen by the army, when the new emperor repaired to Constantinople, where he was crowned on the 31st of August.

Malcolm the Third, (Canmore,) having killed the usurper Macbeth, at Dunsinane, was raised to the throne of Scotland.

Stephen the Tenth was elected pope.

King Edward the Confessor sent for his nephew prince Ed- 1057 ward, eldest son of Edmund Ironside, out of Hungary, to whom by right of inheritance the crown belonged, but he died soon after his arrival, leaving one son, named Edgar Atheling, and two daughters, Margaret and Christian.

King Edward took upon himself the power of curing what is denominated the evil by the touch, being the first monarch who is said to have established that custom. He also rebuilt the abbey church of St. Peter's, Westminster, and collected into a code the Saxon institutions, which were from thence called the Laws of Edward the Confessor.

Robert Guiscard, a Norman gentleman, duke of Pouille 1038 and Calabria, drove the Saracens from Sicily, which he gave to his brother Roger, thus laying the foundations of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily.

Nicholas the Second was raised to the popedom.

The following year, the emperor of the East, Isaac Commenus, disgusted with mundane greatness, voluntarily yielded up the empire in favour of Constantine Ducas, and retired into a monastery.

A.C

1060

1061

1063

1065

1066

The new emperor, being crowned, applied himself wholly to the reformation of the several abuses which had crept into state affairs during the preceding reigns.

Commenus Ducas preferring to leave his frontiers unguarded rather than support too many troops in pay, that circumstance induced the Uzians, a Scythian nation, to the number of 500,000 men, to enter and ravage his territories; against whom Botoniates, afterwards emperor, and Basilius, were despatched, but experienced defeat, and were made pri

soners.

Henry the First, king of France, caused his eldest son Philip the First to be recognised for his successor, who was, in consequence, crowned at Rheims, by Gervais, archbishop of that see. He died during the same year, at Vitry, aged 54, leaving his kingdom under the regency of Baudouin, count of Flanders. (He had reigned for 29 years.)

During this year arose the celebrated faction between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the former being partisans of the pope and the latter of the German emperor. Those names were first employed in the battle fought at Winsberg, in Suabia, between Welf, of Bavaria, and Leopold, of Austria, in 1139; upon which occasion the former used his own name as a watch-word, and the latter that of Wibblingen, the name of a small town in the duchy of Wurtemberg, chief manor of the patrimonial dominions of the imperial house of Franconia. Those words afterwards served to denote the royalists and malcontents, and the Italians used them to designate the antagonists and supporters of the imperial authority; in which last acceptation the Guelphs and Ghibellines acquired a most fatal celebrity to the middle of the 15th century.

Alexander the Second ascended the papal chair.

Thogrul-Bey, chief of the Seljukian Turks of Persia and Syria, died. (A race of those Turks some years after established themselves in Asia Minor, being that of the sultans of Nicea and Iconium, who were succeeded by the Ottoman Turks.)

The following year, upwards of 70,000 men passed from Europe into Asia, to visit the Holy Land; when they were all massacred or made prisoners.

During this year, the Turks captured Jerusalem from the Saracens.

Edward the Confessor of England, weighed down by age and infirmities, died on the 5th of January, aged 65, and in the 26th year of his reign. This prince, to whom the titles of Saint and Confessor have been given, was the last of the Saxon

line that ruled in England. His reign was peaceable and A.C. fortunate, and his prosperity originated more in the conjunc-~~ ture of the times than his own abilities, as he was indolent, irresolute, and a slave to credulity. He was succeeded by Harold, twentieth king from the Saxon heptarchy.

Harold, son of Godwin, earl of Kent, by his modest and gentle demeanour, had won the people to his interest, and by his wealth and the assistance of powerful adherents, ascended the English throne without any opposition. His pretensions were that his predecessor had appointed him to succeed; though we are informed from history that Edward the Confessor had named William, duke of Normandy, to inherit the throne, and that to such arrangement Harold and the rest of the nobility had been regularly sworn.

William of Normandy, on ascertaining that Harold had mounted the throne, and fully aware that arms could alone decide the difference between them, raised a powerful army, and landed on the Sussex coast; where, on the 14th of October, the hostile forces met, and a sanguinary conflict ensued, during which William had three horses killed under him, and 15,000 Normans were slain; while the loss of the conquered was more considerable, among whom was Harold, in whose person terminated the Saxon monarchy in England, after having lasted upwards of 600 years.

FOURTH EPOCH.

William the First, surnamed the Bastard, seventh duke of Normandy, natural son of Robert, sixth duke of that territory, by one Arlotta, a skinner's daughter of Falaise, claimed the English crown as a gift of Edward the Confessor; which title he made good against Harold, as before stated, at the battle of Hastings, in Sussex, since called Battle Abbey, from a monastery there founded. William, in consequence, ascended the throne, and was crowned at Westminster, on the 26th of December, 1066, upon which occasion Aldred, archbishop of York, administered the coronation oath, whereby the monarch bound himself to protect the church, administer justice, and repress all violence.

William the Conqueror, having adopted the necessary 1067 measures to ensure the tranquillity of his newly-acquired

A C. dominions, returned to Normandy, when during his absence England was grievously oppressed by his lieutenants, which gave rise to various commotions in different parts of the realm.

1068

1069

In the course of this year, Prince Henry, afterwards the first of that name, was born, being son of Maud, or Matilda, daughter of Baldwin, earl of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror.

Edgar Atheling, and his sisters Margaret and Christian, retired into Scotland, when the former espoused Malcolm, king of that country.

So great was the dissatisfaction manifested in England in consequence of lands being distributed by William to his Norman adherents, that the tyrannic monarch found it requisite to enact a law that fire and lamp should be extintinguished throughout his dominions by the hour of eight, when the ringing of the curfew bell took place.

The emperor of the East, Constantine Ducas, died, leaving three children, one of whom was recognised emperor, under the title of Michael the Seventh, his mother Eudocia, being appointed regent.

The Turks no sooner ascertained that the empire was governed by a woman than they invaded it, upon which Eudocia, being absolved from an oath she had taken to the deceased emperor, her husband, that she would not re-marry, · espoused Romanus Diogenes, who had previously been condemned for aspiring to the throne, but received the empress's pardon.

Baudouin, count of Flanders and regent of France, died, leaving his memory justly honoured and respected, on account of the equitable manner in which he had conducted himself while regent of the kingdom.

Michael the Seventh, emperor of the East, abdicated the throne, when Romanus Diogenes, husband of the empress Eudocia, mounted the imperial throne, being thereto elected by the public voice.

The Scots and Danes rose in behalf of Edgar Atheling, son of Edward, the heir of Edmund Ironside, and advanced as far as York, but were defeated by William, who ravaged all the north in such a manner that between York and Durham the towns were left desolate, and the lands untilled for a space of 9 years, which occasioned a famine in those districts. A second attempt was made by the English, under Edgar Atheling, to regain their freedom from the Norman conqueror, upon which the latter entered into a treaty, swearing to observe Edward the Confessor's laws; no sooner,