ALDRED, a haughty and ambitious prelate, who rais ed himself from the low station of a monk to the arch bishopric of York. About the year 1050, nearly four years after lie was promoted to the see of Worcester, he went to Jerusalem by the way of Hungary; and on his return he was sent by Edward as ambassador to the em peror Henry II. Upon the death of his patron Edward, in 1066, he crowned Harold his successor, and after wards placed the diadem upon the head of William the Conqueror. This imperious monarch obeyed the arch bishop of York with the most implicit servility, the off spring either of gratitude or of fear. In consequence of an unjust seizure of some of Aldred's property, and a refusal of the high sheriff to grant him restitution, the prelate, followed by a train of ecclesiastics, abruptly entered the. king's council, when deliberating at West minster, and addressed the monarch in terms of the most extreme insolence and reproach. The king threw himself at the feet of the archbishop, and requested to know the offence which he had committed. When the nobility expressed their indignation at seeing their so vereign at the prelate's feet, the haughty Aldred ex claimed, " Let him lie, he is not fallen at my feet, but at the feet of St Peter." He at length condescended to
raise the king, who granted him redress, and loaded him with presents. From the rigour with which William afterwards treated the English prelates, Aldred died of grief and vexation, and, with his dying breath, pronoun ced a curse upon the head of the oppressor.
Aldred was in no respect distinguished as a literary character. He is indebted for immortality to the ambi tion and arrogance which marked his conduct. The human mind is pleased with the recital even of the im quities of unprincipled greatness. Amusement and in struction may be gathered from details at which the heart rises either in pity or indignation. How debased. must have been the feelings and understanding of the English people, and how great the insolence of eccle siastical power, when a monk of Winchester durst throw himself into the deliberative council of William the Conqueror, and almost trample upon the person of that imperious monarch ! See hest. Nol. i. p. '269, chap. iv. (o)