If Englishmen can only forgive him his share in the Conquest, few
Archbishops of Canterbury can be named more worthy of our respect.
xxiv It must be remembered that Lanfranc was a firm believer in
the right of King William, in the supposed testament of Edward the
Confessor; and in the right of Rome to dispose of disputed thrones.
Good man though he was, he believed in all this rubbish, as true
Englishmen must ever deem it.
xxv Oxford in the Olden Time.
The earliest authentic record in which Oxford finds a place is of
the year 912, when we read in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that King
Edward took possession of the city, when he took upon himself the
responsibility of defending the valley of the Thames against Danish
incursions, upon the death of his sister's husband, Aethelred,
Ealdorman of the Mercians, to whom the city had formerly belonged.
Then, probably, was that mound thrown up which still exists
opposite the old Norman tower of Robert D'Oyly; and from that
period the city gradually grew into importance, until it quite
superseded the more ancient city, Dorchester. which was situated at
the angle formed by the tributary river Tame, fifteen miles lower
down the stream, even as Oxford occupied the similar angle formed
by the Cherwell.
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