A.n. USO THE LAWS OF HENRV TUE SECOND. 557 named. 65f[When king William heard of this, together with the other laws of his kingdom, he greatly approved thereof, and gave orders that it should be observed throughout all his kingdom. For he stated that his ancestors, and those of nearly all the barons of Normandy, had been Norwegians, and had formerly come from Norway. And for this reason he asserted that he ought to follow and observe their laws before the other laws of his kingdom, as being more profound and more consistent with what was right : whereas the laws of other nations, Britons, Angles, Picts, and Scots, were prevaBing in every quarter. On hearing of this, the whole of the people of this country who had promulgated these laws, being touched with sorrow, entreated him with one accord that he would aBow them to retain their own laws and ancient customs, under which their fathers had lived, and they themselves were born and brought up, as it would be very hard for them to receive laws of which they knew nothing, and judge on matters of which they were ignorant. The king, however, stiB remaining obdurate, they at last plied him with entreaties,for the sake of the soul of king Edward, who had granted him the crown and kingdom in succession to himself, and by whom and no strangers the said laws were founded, not to compel them to observe other than the laws of their fathers. After taking this under due consideration, at the earnest request of his barons, he at length acceded to their entreaties. From that day, therefore, their authority being recognized, the laws of Saint Edward the king were respected throughout all the kingdom, and were con-Ifirmed and observed before all other laws of the country, having been first established and enacted in the days of king I Edgar, his grandfather; but, after his death, they had been For Edward, his son and heir by his lawful wife, reigned four years, less sixteen weeks; after whose death, in his innocence, by the treachery of his stepmother, on account of his innocent life, so chaste and so full of alms-deeds, and his undeserved end, they honored him as a Martyr, and held him to be a Saint. After him, his brother Aldred6 received the kingdom, and ruled, amid many adversities and perils, eight-and-thirty years. After Aldred, his (•son Edmund Ironside reigned nearly nine months, during which s * This appears to be a gloss or interpolation. • Before called bv Hoveden " Egelred," and more generally " Ethelred."