might help his interests in the direction of England, may have
reckoned this piece of rather ancient genealogy among the
advantages of a Flemish alliance. But it is far more certain that,
between the forbidding of the marriage and the marriage itself, a
direct hope of succession to the English crown had been opened to
the Norman duke.



CHAPTER III--WILLIAM'S FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND--A.D. 1051-1052



While William was strengthening himself in Normandy, Norman
influence in England had risen to its full height. The king was
surrounded by foreign favourites. The only foreign earl was his
nephew Ralph of Mentes, the son of his sister Godgifu. But three
chief bishoprics were held by Normans, Robert of Canterbury,
William of London, and Ulf of Dorchester. William bears a good
character, and won the esteem of Englishmen; but the unlearned Ulf
is emphatically said to have done "nought bishoplike." Smaller
preferments in Church and State, estates in all parts of the
kingdom, were lavishly granted to strangers. They built castles,
and otherwise gave offence to English feeling. Archbishop Robert,
above all, was ever plotting against Godwine, Earl of the West-
Saxons, the head of the national party. At last, in the autumn of
1051, the national indignation burst forth. The immediate occasion
was a visit paid to the King by Count Eustace of Boulogne, who had
just married the widowed Countess Godgifu. The violent dealings of
his followers towards the burghers of Dover led to resistance on