The History of England, Volume I · David Hume
CHAPTER IV.
These facts are so apparent from the whole tenour of the English history, that none would have been tempted to deny or elude them, were they not heated by the controversies of faction; while one party was ABSURDLY afraid of those ABSURD consequences, which they saw the other party inclined to draw from this event. But it is evident that the present rights and privileges of the people, who are a mixture of English and Normans, can never be affected by a transaction, which passed seven hundred years ago; and as all ancient authors [b] who lived nearest the time, and best knew the state of the country, unanimously speak of the Norman dominion as a conquest by war and arms, no reasonable man, from the fear of imaginary consequences, will ever be tempted to reject their concurring and undoubted testimony. [FN [y] Hoveden, p. 600. [z] H. Hunt. p. 370. Brompton, p. 980. [a] So late as the reign of King Stephen, the Earl of Albemarle, before the battle of the Standard, addressed the officers of his army in these terms, PROCERES ANGLIAE CLARISSIMI ET GENERE NORMANNI, &c. Brompton, p. 1026. See farther Abbas Rieval, p. 339, &c. All the barons and military men of England still called themselves Normans. [b] See note [L], at the end of the volume.]
King William had issue, besides his three sons who survived him, five daughters, to wit, (1.) Cicely, a nun in the monastery of Feschamp, afterwards abbess in the Holy Trinity at Caen, where she died in 1127. (2.) Constantia, married to Alan Fergent, Earl of Britany. She died without issue. (3.) Alice, contracted to Harold. (4.) Adela, married to Stephen, Earl of Blois, by whom she had four sons, William, Theobald, Henry, and Stephen; of whom the elder was neglected on account of the imbecility of his understanding. (5.) Agatha, who died a virgin, but was betrothed to the King of Gallicia. She died on her journey thither, before she joined her bridegroom.
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