Those who spoke of the promise as being made earlier, when William and Edward were boys together in Normandy, forgot that Edward was many years older than William.  The only possible moment earlier than the visit was when Edward was elected king in 1042.  Before that time he could hardly have thought of disposing of a kingdom which was not his, and at that time he might have looked forward to leaving sons to succeed him.  Still less could the promise have been made later than the visit.  From 1053 to the end of his life Edward was under English influences, which led him first to send for his nephew Edward from Hungary as his successor, and in the end to make a recommendation in favour of Harold.  But in 1051-52 Edward, whether under a vow or not, may well have given up the hope of children; he was surrounded by Norman influences; and, for the only time in the last twenty-four years of their joint lives, he and William met face to face.  The only difficulty is one to which no contemporary writer makes any reference.  If Edward wished to dispose of his crown in favour of one of his French-speaking kinsmen, he had a nearer kinsman of whom he might more naturally have thought.  His own nephew Ralph was living in England and holding an English earldom.  He had the advantage over both William and his own older brother Walter of Mantes, in not being a reigning prince elsewhere.  We can only say that there is evidence that Edward did think of William, that there is no evidence that he ever thought of Ralph.  And, except the tie of nearer kindred, everything would suggest William rather than Ralph.  The personal comparison is almost grotesque; and Edward’s early associations and the strongest influences around him, were not vaguely French but specially Norman.  Archbishop Robert would plead for his own native sovereign only.  In short, we may be as nearly sure as we can be of any fact for which there is no direct authority, that Edward’s promise to William was made at the time of William’s visit to England, and that William’s homage to Edward was done in the character of a destined successor to the English crown.

William then came to England a mere duke and went back to Normandy a king expectant.  But the value of his hopes, to the value of the promise made to him, are quite another matter.  Most likely they were rated on both sides far above their real value.  King and duke may both have believed that they were making a settlement which the English nation was bound to respect.  If so, Edward at least was undeceived within a few months.

The notion of a king disposing of his crown by his own act belongs to the same range of ideas as the law of strict hereditary succession.  It implies that kingship is a possession and not an office.  Neither the heathen nor the Christian English had ever admitted that doctrine; but it was fast growing on the continent.  Our forefathers had always combined respect for the kingly house with some measure