men of part of England only, and he had to supply the place of
those who were lacking with such forces as he could get. The lack
of discipline on the part of these inferior troops lost Harold the
battle. But matters would hardly have been mended by waiting for
men who had made up their minds not to come.

The messages exchanged between King and Duke immediately before the
battle, as well as at an earlier time, have been spoken of already.
The challenge to single combat at least comes now. When Harold
refused every demand, William called on Harold to spare the blood
of his followers, and decide his claims by battle in his own
person. Such a challenge was in the spirit of Norman
jurisprudence, which in doubtful cases looked for the judgement of
God, not, as the English did, by the ordeal, but by the personal
combat of the two parties. Yet this challenge too was surely given
in the hope that Harold would refuse it, and would thereby put
himself, in Norman eyes, yet more thoroughly in the wrong. For the
challenge was one which Harold could not but refuse. William
looked on himself as one who claimed his own from one who
wrongfully kept him out of it. He was plaintiff in a suit in which
Harold was defendant; that plaintiff and defendant were both
accompanied by armies was an accident for which the defendant, who
had refused all peaceful means of settlement, was to blame. But
Harold and his people could not look on the matter as a mere
question between two men. The crown was Harold's by the gift of
the nation, and he could not sever his own cause from the cause of
the nation. The crown was his; but it was not his to stake on the
issue of a single combat. If Harold were killed, the nation might
give the crown to whom they thought good; Harold's death could not
make William's claim one jot better. The cause was not personal,