Breton war. He would not look on it as forbidding him to accept
the English crown if it were offered to him. Harold, the man of
Duke William, might become a king, if he could, just as William,
the man of King Philip, might become a king, if he could. As
things went in those days, both the homage and the promise of
marriage were capable of being looked on very lightly.

But it was not in the temper or in the circumstances of William to
put any such easy meaning on either promise. The oath might, if
needful, be construed very strictly, and William was disposed to
construe it very strictly. Harold had not promised William a
crown, which was not his to promise; but he had promised to do that
which might be held to forbid him to take a crown which William
held to be his own. If the man owed his lord any duty at all, it
was surely his duty not to thwart his lord's wishes in such a
matter. If therefore, when the vacancy of the throne came, Harold
took the crown himself, or even failed to promote William's claim
to it, William might argue that he had not rightly discharged the
duty of a man to his lord. He could make an appeal to the world
against the new king, as a perjured man, who had failed to help his
lord in the matter where his lord most needed his help. And, if
the oath really had been taken on relics of special holiness, he
could further appeal to the religious feelings of the time against
the man who had done despite to the saints. If he should be driven
to claim the crown by arms, he could give the war the character of
a crusade. All this in the end William did, and all this, we may
be sure, he looked forward to doing, when he caused Harold to
become his man. The mere obligation of homage would, in the
skilful hands of William and Lanfranc, be quite enough to work on
men's minds, as William wished to work on them. To Harold