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CHAPTER XVIII ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES I. THE NORMAN CONQUEST 364. Peculiar Interest of English History. The history of England is naturally of especial interest to all English-speaking peoples, for it is from the English that they have derived their language, their habits of thought, much of their literature, and many of their laws and institutions. In this volume it will, how- ever, be possible to study England only as it played a part in general European history. 365. The Danes and Alfred the Great (371-901). The conquest of Britain by the Angles and Saxons and their conversion to Christianity by Augustine and his monks has already been spoken f (3 2I ~3 22 )- These invasions had scarcely come to an end before the Northmen (or Danes, as the English called them), who were ravaging France (334), began to make incursions into England. They were defeated, however, by Alfred the Great, the first English king of whom we know much. Alfred forced the Danes to accept Christianity and keep out of southern England. But the Danes continued to make trouble, and finally a Danish king (Cnut) succeeded in making himself king of all England in 1017. The Danish dynasty did not last many years and was suc- ceeded by a weak Saxon king, Edward the Confessor. Upon his death one of the greatest events in English history occurred. The most powerful of the vassals of the king of France crossed the English Channel, conquered England, and made him- self its king. This was William the Conqueror. 366. France in the Middle Ages. The old West Prankish kingdom, which we shall now call France, was, like Germany, 227