of choice among the members of that house.  Edward himself was not the lawful heir according to the notions of a modern lawyer; for he was chosen while the son of his elder brother was living.  Every English king held his crown by the gift of the great assembly of the nation, though the choice of the nation was usually limited to the descendants of former kings, and though the full-grown son of the late king was seldom opposed.  Christianity had strengthened the election principle.  The king lost his old sanctity as the son of Woden; he gained a new sanctity as the Lord’s anointed.  But kingship thereby became more distinctly an office, a great post, like a bishopric, to which its holder had to be lawfully chosen and admitted by solemn rites.  But of that office he could be lawfully deprived, nor could he hand it on to a successor either according to his own will or according to any strict law of succession.  The wishes of the late king, like the wishes of the late bishop, went for something with the electors.  But that was all.  All that Edward could really do for his kinsmen was to promise to make, when the time came, a recommendation to the Witan in his favour.  The Witan might then deal as they thought good with a recommendation so unusual as to choose to the kingship of England a man who was neither a native nor a conqueror of England nor the descendant of any English king.

When the time came, Edward did make a recommendation to the Witan, but it was not in favour of William.  The English influences under which he was brought during his last fourteen years taught him better what the law of England was and what was the duty of an English king.  But at the time of William’s visit Edward may well have believed that he could by his own act settle his crown on his Norman kinsman as his undoubted successor in case he died without a son.  And it may be that Edward was bound by a vow not to leave a son.  And if Edward so thought, William naturally thought so yet more; he would sincerely believe himself to be the lawful heir of the crown of England, the sole lawful successor, except in one contingency which was perhaps impossible and certainly unlikely.

The memorials of these times, so full on some points, are meagre on others.  Of those writers who mention the bequest or promise none mention it at any time when it is supposed to have happened; they mention it at some later time when it began to be of practical importance.  No English writer speaks of William’s claim till the time when he was about practically to assert it; no Norman writer speaks of it till he tells the tale of Harold’s visit and oath to William.  We therefore cannot say how far the promise was known either in England or on the continent.  But it could not be kept altogether hid, even if either party wished it to be hid.  English statesmen must have known of it, and must have guided their policy accordingly, whether it was generally known in the