Poems original and translated :: :: University of Virginia Library

Harold, Earl Godwin's son, is next acknowledged king,
And wears the crown that should have fall'n on Edgar Atheling.
In sixty-six he reigns, but, ere a twelvemonth's o'er,
Yields up his empire and his life on Hastings' bloody shore
To Norman William, who supports his doubtful claim,
Founded on Edward's royal will, by conquest's prouder name;
Then, of the crown possess'd, his subject realm maintains
By laws severe, and force of arms, and curbs with iron chains.
Parcell'd in Doomsday book, the forfeit lands are given
Among his Norman followers. He dies in Eighty-seven.
Robert, the Conqueror's eldest son, and heir by right,
Against his sire in Normandy then waged unnatural fight;
This lost him England's crown, which Rufus makes his own,
And reigns at Westminster secure upon a wrongful throne.

314

But Heaven not long permits his tyrant sway to last;
In the New Forest hunting slain, ere thirteen years are pass'd.