First was Harold, the last Saxon king in England. He succeeded Edward the Confessor on the throne in 1066, but William, Duke of Normandy, disputed his claim, and invaded England with a great army in September of that year. Harold was in the north, fighting invaders from Norway. He won the battle of Stamford Bridge, in Yorkshire, and turned south to meet William. At the battle of Hastings the English army was overwhelmingly defeated, and Harold killed. William the Conqueror became king, and united the Norman race with the Saxon.

Later came Robin Hood, the native outlaw hero, who lived in Sherwood Forest, and with his band of merry men made war on proud Norman nobles who came his way. He is supposed to have lived in the twelfth century, and was as friendly to the poor and oppressed as he was hostile to the rich and powerful.

Afterwards Ket, the tanner, and Wat Tyler, the smith, both Saxons, led revolts against tyranny. Wat marched on London in 1381, when Richard II was king, and although his revolt failed at the time, it helped to improve the lot of the English peasants. Ket's rising came much later, in the days when Henry VIII reigned.

So the Saxon fight for liberty went on through the ages, and Saxon grit led the Pilgrims to cross the sea and make a new home for freedom in the western world. Thus it is that "Brother Jonathan," the son of old "John Bull," has much the same qualities to-day that belonged to Harold, and Robin Hood, Ket and Wat, and all the Saxon blood.

by Robert Collyer