The Fitzwalters, Barons of Chesterton Volume 1 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. II. On the following day, the fourteenth of October 1066, was fought the most important battle recorded in the annals of England. The issue of this single contest is well known not only to have introduced a new dynasty of kings, but to have effected a remarkable and general change in customs and manners. On it depended the fortunes of nearly all the ancient Saxon gentry of the land. Houses proud of their lineage, and which dated their foundation from the first years of the heptarchy, sank with the banner of Harold, never to rise again; and from the victors of this day were derived the most powerful of those nobles, who maintained baronial sway during all the convulsions of the middle ages. The opposed armies were put in array at daybreak, and no bands were better marshalled than those of sir Eustace Fitz- walter and sir Herbert L'Estrange. The first of these personages counted amongst his followers twenty-four knights of note, besides many gentlemen of distinguished bearing; and sir Herbert, who forgot his foppery when military enterprise was in immediate view, led many friends experienced in former wars, and numerous vassals of his Norman fiefs. Few musical instruments were at this time adapted to martial purposes; and it is a curious fact, that, as the invaders marched towards the foe, they chanted, in loud chorus, the military song of" Roland," an inspiriting poem, composed in the language then common in Normandy, and throughout the provinces of France, and often termed Lingua Romana, or the Romance Language. It is not our office to enter minutely into the various evolutions and vicissitudes of this eventful day, and we merelybestow a passing notice on such transactions as bear some relation to the founder of the house of De Chesterton. The opposed armies t...