But the distinction between the two nations was by no means effaced,
when an event took place which prostrated both at the feet of a third
people.

The Normans were then the foremost race of Christendom. Originally
rovers from Scandinavia, conspicuous for their valour and ferocity, they
had, after long being the terror of the Channel, founded a mighty state
which gradually extended its influence from its own Norman territory
over the neighbouring districts of Brittany and Maine. They embraced
Christianity and adopted the French tongue. They renounced the brutal
intemperance of northern races and became refined, polite and
chivalrous, their nobles being distinguished by their graceful bearing
and insinuating address.

The battle of Hastings, and the events which followed it, not only
placed a Duke of Normandy on the English throne, but gave up the whole
population of England to the tyranny of the Norman race. The subjugation
of a nation has seldom, even in Asia, been more complete. During the
century and a half which followed the Conquest, there is, to speak
strictly, no English history. Had the Plantagenets, as at one time
seemed likely, succeeded in uniting all France under their government,
it is probable that England would never have had an independent
existence. England owes her escape from dependence on French thought and
customs to separation from Normandy, an event which her historians have
generally represented as disastrous. The talents and even the virtues of
her first six French kings were a curse to her. The follies and vices of
the seventh, King John, were her salvation. He was driven from Normandy,
and in England the two races were drawn together, both being alike
aggrieved by the tyranny of a bad king. From that moment the prospects
brightened, and here commences the history of the English nation.