Page:The history of the Norman conquest of England, its causes and its results.djvu/37

 CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

nPHE Norman Conquest is the great turning-point in Tmport- -*- the history of the English nation. Since the first Norman settlement of the English in Britain, the introduction Conquest,

o •" not as the

of Christianity is the only event which can compare beginning

.... of English

with it in importance. And there is this wide difference history, but between the two. The introduction of Christianity was turnLg-^^ an event which could hardly fail to happen sooner or poi^t. later; in accepting the Gospel^ the English only followed the same law which, sooner or later, affected all the Teutonic nations. But the Norman Conquest is some- thing which stands without a parallel in any other Teu- tonic land. If that Conquest be only looked on in its true light, it is impossible to exaggerate its importance. And yet there is no event whose true nature has been more commonly and more utterly mistaken. No event is less fitted to be taken, as it too often has been taken, for the beginning of our national history. For its whole im- portance is not the importance which belongs to a begin- ning, but the importance which belongs to a turning- point. The Norman Conquest brought with it a most extensive foreign infusion, which affected our blood, our language, our laws, our arts ; still it was only an in- fusion ; the older and stronger elements still survived, and in the long run they again made good their supre- macy. So far from being the beginning of our national

B