Now that the Norman duke has become an English king, his career as
an English statesman strictly begins, and a wonderful career it is.
Its main principle was to respect formal legality wherever he
could. All William's purposes were to be carried out, as far as
possible, under cover of strict adherence to the law of the land of
which he had become the lawful ruler. He had sworn at his crowning
to keep the laws of the land, and to rule his kingdom as well as
any king that had gone before him. And assuredly he meant to keep
his oath. But a foreign king, at the head of a foreign army, and
who had his foreign followers to reward, could keep that oath only
in its letter and not in its spirit. But it is wonderful how
nearly he came to keep it in the letter. He contrived to do his
most oppressive acts, to deprive Englishmen of their lands and
offices, and to part them out among strangers, under cover of
English law. He could do this. A smaller man would either have
failed to carry out his purposes at all, or he could have carried
them out only by reckless violence. When we examine the
administration of William more in detail, we shall see that its
effects in the long run were rather to preserve than to destroy our
ancient institutions. He knew the strength of legal fictions; by
legal fictions he conquered and he ruled. But every legal fiction
is outward homage to the principle of law, an outward protest
against unlawful violence. That England underwent a Norman
Conquest did in the end only make her the more truly England. But
that this could be was because that conquest was wrought by the
Bastard of Falaise and by none other.