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 FEUDAL STATES OF EUROPE 275 war, but In the first half of the next century two red-headed counts, Fulk V and Geoffrey the Fair, created a strong state. Geoffrey was also a noted patron of learning and literature. Our circuit of feudal France brings us back to Normandy, lying along the seacoast and the river Seine between Brit- tany and Flanders. Here the descendants of XT 11 r • Normandy Rollo the Northman — three of the first six dukes were the sons of concubines — had built up the strongest and best-organized state in France at this time. The duke kept better order in his duchy than the king did on his domains. With the exception of the Count of Flanders he was the only feudal lord who had direct control over his subvassals, who placed garrisons in their castles, and who insisted that certain classes of cases even between subvassals should be tried in his court. He kept the bishop- rics and counties of Normandy in the hands of members of his own family. From 1035 to 1087 the Duke of Normandy was William, an illegitimate son of Robert the Devil. In 1066 he crossed with an army to England and conquered that kingdom and brought it thereby into closer relations with Continental feudalism, Church, and culture. After the death in 975 of Edgar the Peaceful, a great- grandson of Alfred the Great, the Anglo-Saxon monarchy began to decline in strength. The Danes had Transition begun again to attack England and for a time r °i e [^ m> were paid tribute or "Danegeld." Finally, in England [01 3, Swein, King of Denmark, conquered England and his >n Cnut reigned there from 1016 to 1035. Since he also conquered Norway, he had an empire about the North Sea
 * hat made him perhaps the most powerful potentate of

lis time. After the disorderly reigns of Cnut's two sons, Edward the Confessor, so called for his religiousness, came
 * o the throne in 1042. He had been a refugee in Normandy,

ind during his reign many Normans came to England and r ere influential at his court. Duke William himself paid dm a visit, and afterwards asserted that Edward had >romised to make him his successor. William had the lust for conquest and domination in his blood and had already