Opening of the book
Makers of History
William the Conqueror
BY
JACOB ABBOTT
WITH ENGRAVINGS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1902
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one
thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
Southern District
of New York.
Copyright, 1877, by Jacob Abbott.
PREFACE.
In selecting the subjects for the successive volumes of
this series, it has been the object of the author to look
for the names of those great personages whose histories
constitute useful, and not merely entertaining, knowledge.
There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to
all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of
mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of
the leading outlines of their history, that he may know,
in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings
which has given them so widely-extended a fame. This
knowledge, which it seems incumbent on every one to obtain
in respect to such personages as Hannibal, Alexander,
Cæsar, Cleopatra, Darius, Xerxes, Alfred, William the
Conqueror, Queen Elizabeth, and Mary Queen of Scots, it is
the design and object of these volumes to communicate, in
a faithful, and, at the same time, if possible, in an
attractive manner. Consequently, great historical names
alone are selected; and it has been the writer's aim to
present the prominent and leading traits in their
characters, and all the important events in their lives,
in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple
language which is so obviously required in works which aim
at permanent and practical usefulness.
CONTENTS.
Chapter
Page
I. NORMANDY
13
II. BIRTH OF WILLIAM
31
III. THE ACCESSION
51
IV. WILLIAM'S REIGN IN NORMANDY
72
V. THE MARRIAGE
96
VI. THE LADY EMMA
119
VII. KING HAROLD
142
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