the company of Normans and other men of French speech. Strangers
from the favoured lands held endless posts in Church and State;
above all, Robert of Jumieges, first Bishop of London and then
Archbishop of Canterbury, was the King's special favourite and
adviser. These men may have suggested the thought of William's
succession very early. On the other hand, at this time it was by
no means clear that Edward might not leave a son of his own. He
had been only a few years married, and his alleged vow of chastity
is very doubtful. William's claim was of the flimsiest kind. By
English custom the king was chosen out of a single kingly house,
and only those who were descended from kings in the male line were
counted as members of that house. William was not descended, even
in the female line, from any English king; his whole kindred with
Edward was that Edward's mother Emma, a daughter of Richard the
Fearless, was William's great-aunt. Such a kindred, to say nothing
of William's bastardy, could give no right to the crown according
to any doctrine of succession that ever was heard of. It could at
most point him out as a candidate for adoption, in case the
reigning king should be disposed and allowed to choose his
successor. William or his advisers may have begun to weigh this
chance very early; but all that is really certain is that William
was a friend and favourite of his elder kinsman, and that events
finally brought his succession to the English crown within the
range of things that might be.

But, before this, William was to show himself as a warrior beyond
the bounds of his own duchy, and to take seizin, as it were, of his
great continental conquest. William's first war out of Normandy
was waged in common with King Henry against Geoffrey Martel Count
of Anjou, and waged on the side of Maine. William undoubtedly owed