Gloucester. Like the kings that were before him, he gathered
together the great men of the realm, and when need was, the small
men also. Nothing seems to have been changed in the constitution
or the powers of the assembly; but its spirit must have been
utterly changed. The innermost circle, earls, bishops, great
officers of state and household, gradually changed from a body of
Englishmen with a few strangers among them into a body of strangers
among whom two or three Englishmen still kept their places. The
result of their "deep speech" with William was not likely to be
other than an assent to William's will. The ordinary freeman did
not lose his abstract right to come and shout "Yea, yea," to any
addition that King William made to the law of King Edward. But
there would be nothing to tempt him to come, unless King William
thought fit to bid him. But once at least William did gather
together, if not every freeman, at least all freeholders of the
smallest account. On one point the Conqueror had fully made up his
mind; on one point he was to be a benefactor to his kingdom through
all succeeding ages. The realm of England was to be one and
indivisible. No ruler or subject in the kingdom of England should
again dream that that kingdom could be split asunder. When he
offered Harold the underkingship of the realm or of some part of
it, he did so doubtless only in the full conviction that the offer
would be refused. No such offer should be heard of again. There
should be no such division as had been between Cnut and Edmund,
between Harthacnut and the first Harold, such as Edwin and Morkere
had dreamed of in later times. Nor should the kingdom be split
asunder in that subtler way which William of all men best
understood, the way in which the Frankish kingdoms, East and West,
had split asunder. He would have no dukes or earls who might
become kings in all but name, each in his own duchy or earldom. No