Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/92

72 robbery and cruelty that characterises the same age. The Crusading fever is but the result of the new-born desire to minister to those in need and to relieve the oppressed.

By the year 1204, Saxon, Dane, and Norman were practically one people. "Sons of one mother," they soon learnt to speak the same language, to obey the same King, and to worship the same God. The Norman Conquerors were gradually lost in the great mass of the English people, but in the process they left their indelible mark, and England is the richer for their coming. The brighter, loftier, and more enthusiastic Norman temper mingled happily with the stolid, resolute nature of the Anglo-Saxon. Norman severity was necessary to strengthen Anglo-Saxon patriotism; the Norman genius for order and organisation was able to define and concentrate existing Anglo-Saxon institutions. The Normans did not sweep and destroy, they strengthened and added. Perhaps our language illustrates this rich addition best. Such words as sceptre, royalty, homage, duke, palace, castle, were used for the first time. Synonyms exist, the one homely Anglo-Saxon, the other ornate Norman, as "heavy" and "ponderous," "earthly" and "terrestial," "