EARL GODWIN AND HAROLD.
Harold and Harthacanute--The Murder of Alfred--Accession of
Harthacanute--His Reconciliation with Godwin--The Punishment
of Worcester--Edward the Confessor--His Election--Influx of
Normans--The Family of Godwin--Conduct of Sweyn--The Outbreak at
Dover--Godwin's Rebellion and Outlawry--William of Normandy's
Visit to England--Godwin's Attempt to Return--His Appearance
in the Thames--His Restoration to Power--Death of Godwin--His
Place taken by Harold--Siward's Invasion of Scotland and his
Death--Death of Leofric and Punishment of Ælfgar--Church Building
of Harold and Edward--Harold's Conquest of Wales--Turbulence of
Tostig--Death of the Atheling Edward--Candidature of Harold.
By the death of Canute the prospect of a disputed succession was
opened up once more. By his second marriage he had issue one son,
named Harthacanute; by the first, two, named Sweyn and Harold; but
the parentage of these two was considered to be very doubtful. Sweyn
nevertheless succeeded to Norway, and Harthacanute to Denmark, but
the question was not settled so easily in England. There was a double
election, in which the Northerners, under the leadership of Leofric of
Mercia, chose Harold; and the Southerners, among whom Godwin was the
most influential, chose Harthacanute. Having, however, learnt wisdom by
misfortune, the Witena-gemot agreed that the kingdom should be peacefully
divided; and as Harthacanute did not come over from Denmark, Earl
Godwin, despite his obscure origin, for he appears to have been the son
of a wealthy ceorl, was practically King of Wessex. But in 1037, when
Harthacanute showed no signs of visiting England, Harold was elected
by the Witena-gemot king over all England, and ruled during two years
and some months (1037-1040). Of his reign we know absolutely nothing
of importance, but he appears to have resembled very little his great
father, being in fact more or less of a barbarian.
During the period in which Godwin was administering Wessex for
Harthacanute, Alfred, the son of Emma and Ethelred, came over from
Normandy, apparently with some designs on the crown. He met Earl Godwin
at Guildford, and shortly afterwards was seized by Harold's servants
and taken to Ely, where he was blinded, and soon afterwards died. At
the time, Godwin was universally held to have had the chief hand in the
deed; although it is not easy to see why he should have been leader in
a crime which was committed to further the interests of Harold, whose
election he had opposed. The feeling nevertheless was very strong against
him, and perhaps he may have used the betrayal to make his peace with
Harold. Queen Emma was soon afterwards driven from England, but found a
hospitable abode at Bruges, where she was received by Count Baldwin of
Flanders. She was believed to have been privy to the death of Alfred, in
order that the crown might pass to Harthacanute.
Harthacanute, or Canute the Strong, had never resigned his pretensions
to the crown of England; and the country was spared the horrors of a
civil war only by the death of Harold. Under pretence of visiting the
widowed queen in Flanders, he had assembled a fleet of sixty ships, his
real intention being to make a descent upon England. The news of Harold's
death induced him at once to set sail. He shortly afterwards entered
London in triumph, and was acknowledged king without opposition.
The first act of Harthacanute's government promised badly for his future
conduct. He was so enraged at Harold for depriving him of his share of
the kingdom, and for the cruel treatment of his half-brother Alfred, that
in an impotent desire of revenge against the dead, he ordered his body to
be dug up and to be thrown into the Thames; and when it was found by some
fishermen, and buried in London, he ordered it again to be dug up, and to
be thrown once more into the river; but it was fished up a second time,
and then interred with great secrecy. Godwin and the Archbishop of York
submitted to be his instruments in this unnatural and brutal action.
The earl knew that he was universally believed to have been an accomplice
in the barbarity exercised on Alfred, and that he was on that account
obnoxious to Harthacanute; and perhaps he hoped, by displaying this rage
against Harold's memory, to free himself from the suspicion of having had
any participation in his counsels; but the king preferred an accusation
against Godwin for the murder of Alfred, and compelled him to clear
himself. Godwin, in order to appease the king, made him a magnificent
present of a galley with a gilt stern, rowed by four-score men, who
wore each of them a gold bracelet on his arm, weighing sixteen ounces,
and were armed and clothed in the most sumptuous manner. Harthacanute,
pleased with the splendour of this spectacle, quickly forgot his
brother's murder; and on Godwin's proving his innocence by compurgation,
he allowed him to be acquitted.
Though Harthacanute, before his accession, had been called over by the
vows of the English, he soon lost the affections of the nation by his
misconduct; but nothing appeared more grievous to them than his renewing
the imposition of Danegeld, and obliging the nation to pay a great sum of
money to the fleet which brought him from Denmark. The discontents ran
high in many places. In Worcester the populace rose, and put to death two
of the collectors (1041). The king, enraged at this opposition, swore
vengeance against the city, and ordered three noblemen--Godwin, Earl of
Wessex, Siward, Earl of Northumberland, and Leofric, Earl of Mercia--to
execute his orders with the utmost rigour. They were obliged to set fire
to the city, and deliver it up to be plundered by their soldiers; but
they saved the lives of the inhabitants, whom they allowed to fly to a
small island on the Severn, called Beverly, till by their intercession
they were enabled to appease the anger of the tyrant. This violent reign
was of short duration. Harthacanute died three years after his accession,
in consequence of his excesses in drinking. This event took place at the
marriage feast of a Danish nobleman at Lambeth, on June 8, 1042.
The English, on the death of Harthacanute, saw that a favourable
opportunity had occurred for recovering their ancient independence and
shaking off the Danish yoke, which was insufferably galling to a proud
and spirited people.
Prince Edward was in Normandy at the time of his brother's death; but
though the true English heir was the descendant of Edmund Ironside,
the absence of that prince in Hungary appeared a sufficient reason for
his exclusion. Delays might be dangerous; the occasion might not again
present itself, and must be eagerly embraced before the Danes, now left
in the island without a leader, had time to recover from the confusion
into which the death of their king had thrown them.
But this concurrence of circumstances in favour of Edward might have
failed of its effect, had his succession been opposed by Godwin, whose
power, alliances, and abilities gave him great influence at all times,
especially amidst those sudden opportunities which always attend a
revolution of government, and of which advantage can be taken only by
great promptitude. There were opposite reasons which divided men's
hopes and fears with regard to Godwin's conduct. On the one hand, the
credit of that nobleman lay chiefly in Wessex, which was almost entirely
inhabited by English. It was therefore presumed that he would second the
wishes of that people in restoring the English line, and in humbling the
Danes, from whom he, as well as they, had reason to dread, as they had
already felt, the most grievous oppression. On the other hand, there
was strong reason for animosity between Edward and Godwin, on account
of Alfred's murder, which the latter might deem so deep an offence that
it could never, on account of subsequent merits, be sincerely pardoned.
Nevertheless, in those turbulent days men's memories were short; a strong
union of interests was sufficient to cause the temporary burial of past
wrongs. At the Witena-gemot, which was summoned at Gillingham, every
measure was taken for securing the election of Edward. The English were
unanimous and zealous; the Danes, who were in favour of Canute's nephew,
Sweyn, were divided and dispirited, and Godwin's eloquence easily won
the day. Two years afterwards the friendship was cemented by a marriage
between the king and Godwin's daughter, Edith. It was thought advisable
also to depress the Danish element by exile and confiscation of property
in several instances.
The new king also treated his mother, who had returned to England, not
only with coldness, but some degree of severity, on account of her having
neglected him in his adversity. He accused her of preferring her son by
Canute to his brother and himself--which, when the characters of her
first and second husbands are compared, appears by no means improbable.
He stripped her of the great wealth she had amassed, and compelled her
to live in seclusion at Winchester. The accusation of her having been a
party to the murder of her son Alfred, and of her criminal intercourse
with the Bishop of Winchester, from which she is said to have cleared
herself by walking barefoot over nine red-hot ploughshares, must be
regarded as tradition merely.
The English fondly believed that by the accession of Edward they had
delivered themselves for ever from the dominion of foreigners, but
they soon found out that they were in error; for the king, who had
been educated at the court of his uncle in Normandy, had contracted so
strong an affection for the natives of that country that his court
was speedily filled by them. This partiality will be considered by no
means an unnatural one, when it is remembered that the natives of that
populous and wealthy state were far more polished than the comparatively
rude, unlettered English, and that their culture was much superior.
The example of the monarch had its influence; the courtiers imitated
the Normans both in dress and manners. French became the language not
only of the court, but of the law; even the Church felt its influence,
Edward creating Robert of Jumièges (1044), and Ulf (1049), two Norman
priests, respectively Bishops of London and Dorchester. In 1051 Robert
was made Archbishop of Canterbury. Similar appointments were made in
secular affairs, and the whole country was filled with a swarm of
Norman strangers. All these changes gradually excited the jealousy of
the English nation; although it may be justly doubted whether the most
far-sighted amongst them foresaw that they were preparing the way for a
fresh conquest of the country.
The natural result of this unwise partiality for foreigners was the
growth of a strongly national party, and with it Earl Godwin was not slow
to identify himself. By a process of deliberate family aggrandisement,
he had succeeded in making the influence of his house nearly paramount
in England; and this was based not only on immense possessions and
administrative authority, but on the great personal talents of himself
and his sons, which were wedded to dispositions of a more than ordinarily
ambitious nature. Their power was, indeed, most formidable. Godwin, as
has been already mentioned, was Earl of Wessex; his eldest son, Sweyn,
was Earl of a district partly in Wessex and partly in Mercia; his second
son, Harold, was Earl of the East Angles; and his nephew, Beorn, was
Earl of the Middle Angles, a district which included Bedfordshire and
Lincolnshire.
It was inevitable that a trial of strength should occur between the
two parties sooner or later, and the unruly conduct of Godwin's family
was, unfortunately, by no means a source of credit to his cause. In
1046, Sweyn, his eldest son, carried off the Abbess of Leominster, and
in consequence had to leave the kingdom, his possessions being divided
between Harold and Beorn. After futile attempts to gain pardon and
restitution, he decoyed Beorn on to one of his ships and foully murdered
him. He was thereupon outlawed, but soon afterwards the king weakly
allowed him to return, and his earldom was restored to him.
[Illustration: THE RIOT AT DOVER. (_See p._ 69.)]
Meanwhile, the feeling of animosity between the Norman and English
parties at court, and in the country generally, was becoming terribly
strong. Robert of Jumièges lost no opportunity of setting the king
against Earl Godwin, and the English people were very angry when they
saw the Norman favourites beginning to build castles, as strongholds
of oppression, over the face of the land. It was not long before this
animosity broke into action. Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who had married
Edward's sister, having paid a visit to the king, passed by Dover in his
return. One of his train being refused entrance to a lodging which had
been assigned him, attempted to make his way by force, and in the contest
he wounded the master of the house. The inhabitants revenged this insult
by the death of the stranger; the count and his train took arms, and
murdered the wounded townsman; a tumult ensued; nearly twenty persons
were killed on each side; and Eustace, being overpowered by numbers,
was obliged to save his life by flight from the fury of the populace.
He hurried immediately to court, and complained of the usage he had
met with. The king entered zealously into the quarrel, and was highly
displeased that a stranger of such distinction, whom he had invited over
to his court, should, without any just cause, as he believed, have been
exposed to such insult and danger. Edward felt so sensibly the insolence
of his people that he gave orders to Godwin, in whose government Dover
lay, to repair immediately to the place, and to punish the inhabitants
for the crime; but Godwin, who desired rather to encourage than repress
the popular discontents against foreigners, refused obedience, and
endeavoured to throw the whole blame of the riot on the Count of Boulogne
and his retinue; he declared also that no man in his earldom should be
put to death without trial. Edward, touched in so sensible a point, saw
the necessity of exerting the royal authority; and he threatened Godwin,
if he persisted in his disobedience, to make him feel the utmost effects
of his resentment.
The earl, perceiving a rupture to be unavoidable, and pleased to embark
in a cause where it was likely he should be supported by his countrymen,
made preparations for his own defence, or rather for an attack on Edward.
He assembled a great army, and was approaching the king, who, on his
side, had collected his Norman favourites about him at Gloucester.
Edward applied for protection to Siward, Earl of Northumberland, and
Leofric, Earl of Mercia, two powerful noblemen, whose jealousy of
Godwin's greatness on the one hand, and their hatred of the Normans on
the other, caused them to adopt a policy of watchful neutrality. They
hastened to him with such of their followers as they could assemble on a
sudden; and finding the danger of a collision much greater than they had
at first apprehended, they issued orders for mustering all the forces
within their respective governments, and for marching them without delay
to the defence of the king's person and authority. Edward, meanwhile,
endeavoured to gain time by negotiation; while Godwin, who thought the
king entirely in his power, and was willing to save appearances, fell
into the snare; and not perceiving that he ought to have no further
reserve after he had proceeded so far, lost the favourable opportunity of
rendering himself master of the government.
The English, though they had no idea of Edward's vigour and capacity,
bore him much affection on account of his humanity, justice, and
piety, as well as the long race of their native kings from whom he was
descended; and they hastened from all quarters to defend him from the
present danger. His army was now so considerable that he ventured to
take the field; and, marching to London, he summoned the Witena-gemot to
judge the rebellion of Godwin and his sons. These nobles, angry at being
treated as criminals, demanded hostages for their safety, which were
refused. Soon afterwards, finding themselves deserted by the majority
of their adherents, they disbanded their remaining forces, and fled the
country. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, gave shelter and protection to
the earl and three of his sons, Sweyn, Gurth, and Tostig. Harold and
Leofwine, two other brothers, took refuge in Ireland.
Godwin and his sons were outlawed in 1051, and shortly afterwards
occurred a most important event, namely, the visit of Duke William of
Normandy to England. He was the king's cousin, through the marriage of
Ethelred and Emma of Normandy, and the two had been thrown together in
their boyhood. It may fairly be conjectured that the absence of Godwin
from England and the visit of William of Normandy were two events
which were not unconnected, and that the latter was invited over at
the instigation of the French party, in order to pave the way to his
accession to the throne. In after days William based his claims to a
great extent on the promise which he declared that Edward had made to
him at this time. It is more than probable, therefore, that some such
stipulation was made by the weak king, but it should be observed that
it was perfectly unconstitutional and illegal, because the English
monarchy being purely elective, and the election lying in the hands of
the Witena-gemot, the sovereign of England had no power to bequeath the
kingdom to any successor, whether he were Englishman or foreigner.
Godwin and his sons were hardly the men to submit supinely to banishment
without making an attempt to regain the position from which they had been
thrust through an unwise confidence in the impotence of their enemy.
Diplomacy having been exhausted, they resolved to use force, and in
1052, Baldwin of Flanders allowed Godwin to fit out an expedition in his
harbours, while Harold made a descent from Ireland. The first attempt
failed; Harold made a descent upon the coast of Somersetshire, and fought
a battle with the inhabitants, who opposed his landing for provisions,
but failed to effect a junction with Godwin, who had to retreat before
the royal fleet, which was stationed at Sandwich in greater numbers than
his own.
The exile, however, appears to have been more politic and more
clear-sighted than the king, who, satisfied with his success, and deeming
his enemy completely crushed, disbanded his men and neglected his ships,
whilst Godwin kept his in readiness. Deeming the time at last had come,
he put to sea once more, and sailed for Portland, where he was joined
by his son Harold, with his Irish contingent. Being now master of the
sea, he sailed along the southern coast, plundering where he could
obtain no ready gifts of provisions, and called upon his followers in
those counties which owned his authority to take arms in his cause. The
appeal was not made in vain; such numbers flocked to his standard that he
entered the Thames, where he found the king ready to meet him with forty
ships.
Edward, it is said, desired to fight, but could find no one to support
him, so hated were his Norman favourites, and the national party was
accordingly completely triumphant. Godwin and his sons were recalled
and restored to their former positions, and the Normans, with a few
exceptions, were driven from the land, although a few of the better
ones were afterwards allowed to come back. Among the outlaws was Robert
of Jumièges, and the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury was given to
Stigand, the Bishop of Winchester, who had effected the reconciliation
between the king and Earl Godwin. So the family of Godwin was once more
established in England, with the exception of Sweyn, who, smitten with
remorse for his sins, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and died abroad.
Godwin's new tenure of power did not last long, for in 1053 he died.
At Easter he was dining with the king, at Winchester, and fell down in
a fit. The superstition of the times did not fail to discover in this
sudden death the direct intervention of God, and stories were told how
the Earl, on being accused by the king of the murder of Alfred, had
impiously taken a morsel of bread from the table, and had desired that
it might choke him if he had had a hand in that crime. No sooner had
he swallowed it, ran the legend, than he fell backwards and died. The
tale is obviously one that was published by Godwin's Norman opponents
to blacken his memory; but, apart from its inherent improbabilities,
it is one that might easily be circulated concerning anyone that had
suddenly died at table. Godwin was sincerely lamented by the English,
and with justice, for though he may have been ambitious, and have made
the aggrandisement of his family the first object of his concerns, he
was none the less a true patriot, and strove, at considerable personal
sacrifice, for the welfare of his country. His influence, and that of
his son Harold after him, for the time beat back the Norman influx and
secured for the English a further brief span of independence from Norman
aggression.
Godwin's place was taken by his son Harold, who succeeded him as Earl
of Wessex. Being of a more courtly disposition than his father, Harold
managed to keep on excellent terms with the king. At the same time, the
earldom of East Anglia was not at once given to a member of the Godwin
family, but to Ælfgar, the son of Leofric of Mercia, who seems to have
been put forward by the weak king as in some sort a rival to Harold. In
1055, however, Ælfgar was outlawed, whether with or without justice it
is impossible to say, and Harold was thus freed for the time being of a
dangerous opponent. The earldom, moreover, was given to his brother Gurth.
The death of Siward, Earl of Northumberland, in 1055, opened the
way still more to the ambition of Harold. Siward, besides his other
merits, had added new honours to England by his successful conduct
of an expedition against Scotland, where Macbeth was king. According
to the well-known version of the story which Shakespeare has made
immortal, Duncan, the former king, was a prince of gentle disposition,
but possessed not the genius requisite for governing a country so
turbulent, and so much infested by the intrigues and animosities of the
great. Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown,
not content with curbing the king's authority, carried still further
his pestilent ambition. He put his sovereign to death, chased Malcolm
Canmore, Duncan's son and heir, into England, and usurped the crown. It
would appear, however, that the murder of Duncan is really a fiction,
that he was killed while flying from a battle between the two parties,
and that Macbeth, so far from being a tyrant, was really a very able and
worthy ruler. Be that as it may, Siward, whose cousin was married to
Duncan, undertook, by Edward's orders, the protection of this distressed
family. He marched an army into Scotland; and having defeated and killed
Macbeth in battle, he restored Malcolm to the throne of his ancestors.
This service, added to his former connections with the royal family of
Scotland, brought a great accession to the authority of Siward in the
north; but as he had lost his eldest son, Osberne, in the action with
Macbeth, it proved in the issue fatal to his family. His second son,
Waltheof, appeared, on his father's death, too young to be entrusted with
the government of Northumberland; and Harold's influence obtained that
earldom for his own brother, Tostig.
There are two circumstances related of Siward which discover his high
sense of honour and his martial disposition. When intelligence was
brought to him of his son Osberne's death, he was inconsolable, till
he heard that the wound was received in the breast, and that he had
behaved with great gallantry in the action. When he found his own death
approaching, he ordered his servants to clothe him in a complete suit
of armour; and sitting erect on the couch, with a spear in his hand,
declared that in that posture, the only one worthy of a warrior, he would
patiently await the fatal moment.
Harold now found his path to the throne obstructed only by the family of
Leofric. In 1057, however, death removed Leofric, that great earl of whom
we would fain know more; for, from the meagre information we are able to
gather concerning him, he would appear to have been anxious to bring to
a close the quarrels that distracted and weakened the nation. He and his
wife, the Lady Godiva of legend, founded many churches and monasteries,
of which the most important was the church at Coventry.
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF SIWARD. (_See p._ 71.)]
Ælfgar was still a source of uneasiness to Harold. On being outlawed, he
made a compact with Griffith, the king of the Welsh, and the two agreed
to invade England. Ralph the Norman, Edward's nephew, was disgracefully
defeated by the enemy, who took possession of Hereford, but on the
arrival of Harold at the head of the English they retired into Wales
and made peace, Ælfgar being restored to his earldom for a few months,
probably through the influence of his father, who was still alive at the
time. Soon after the death of Leofric, Ælfgar was outlawed again, but,
pursuing his former tactics, was made Earl of Mercia, succeeding his
father, through the armed intervention of Griffith, whose daughter he
married. During the brief remainder of his life he plays no prominent
part in events, having probably discovered by painful experience that
Harold was an antagonist whom it was dangerous to provoke. The power of
the house of Godwin was completed by the formation of Essex and Kent into
an earldom for Leofwine, Harold's remaining brother.
The influence obtained by Harold's strength of character over the amiable
but feeble king was increased by their common sympathies. Both were of
considerably higher culture than the average Englishman, and they both
had leanings towards the superior civilisation of France, a country to
which Harold had paid a visit. Moreover, both of them were genuinely
pious men, and their piety took the outward form of the building and
endowment of churches. The Confessor's chief edifice was the Abbey of
Westminster, and parts of the building which still stands there are his
work. Harold, in a kindred spirit, founded an abbey at Waltham in 1060,
and established a college there, inviting learned men from the Continent
to teach the scholars. Unlike Dunstan, he befriended the secular priests,
but he was in every respect rigidly orthodox, and refusing to acknowledge
Stigand, because he had been consecrated by the anti-Pope Benedict,
caused the abbey at Waltham to be hallowed by the Archbishop of York.
[Illustration: TAKING SANCTUARY.]
Harold was not only pious, but a great warrior, and in 1063 he put a
stop to the incursions of Griffith of Wales by completely conquering
that country. Despite the lesson they had previously received from
Harold, the Welsh continued the terror of the West of England, which
they systematically plundered, retreating with their booty to their
mountain strongholds. Harold found he could do nothing more acceptable
to the public, and more honourable to himself, than the suppressing
of so dangerous an enemy. He formed the plan of an expedition against
Wales; and having prepared some light-armed foot to pursue the natives
into their fastnesses, some cavalry to scour the open country, and a
squadron of ships to attack the sea-coast, he employed at once all these
forces against the Welsh, prosecuted his advantages with vigour, made
no intermission in his assaults, and at last reduced the enemy to such
distress that, in order to prevent their total destruction, they made a
sacrifice of their prince, whose head they cut off and sent to Harold;
and they were content to receive as their sovereigns two brothers of
Griffith appointed by Edward to rule over them. The new princes swore
oaths to Harold and Edward, and thus the monarchy over united Wales came
to an end, although the country was not annexed to England until long
years afterwards.
Another prominent feature in Harold's character besides his valour, was
his sense of justice, of which he gave very favourable indication in the
year 1065, when his brother Tostig, the Earl of Northumberland, being of
a violent, tyrannical temper, acted with such cruelty and injustice that
the inhabitants rose in rebellion, and chased him from his government.
Morcar and Edwin, two brothers, who were the sons of Ælfgar, Edwin the
elder of the two having succeeded him in the earldom of Mercia, concurred
in the insurrection; and the former, being elected earl, advanced with
an army to oppose Harold, who was commissioned by the king to reduce and
chastise the Northumbrians. Before the armies came to action, Morcar,
well acquainted with the generous disposition of the English commander,
endeavoured to justify his own conduct. This was a bold step, but the
event fully proved the wisdom of adopting it. He represented to Harold
that Tostig had behaved in a manner unworthy of the station to which he
was advanced; that no one, not even a brother, could support such tyranny
without participating in some degree in the infamy attending it; that
the Northumbrians, accustomed to a legal administration, and regarding
it as their birthright, were willing to submit to the king, but required
a governor who would pay regard to their rights and privileges; that
they had been taught by their ancestors that death was preferable to
servitude, and had taken the field, determined to perish rather than
suffer a renewal of the indignities to which they had long been exposed;
and they trusted that Harold, on reflection, would not defend in another
the violence he had repressed in his own government. This remonstrance,
sustained as it was by the arguments that have just been summarised, was
accompanied by such proofs of the justice of the complaints that Harold
felt himself compelled to abandon his brother's cause; and, returning to
Edward, persuaded the king to pardon the Northumbrians, and to confirm
Morcar in the government. He afterwards married the sister of that
nobleman. Tostig, in a rage, quitted England, and took refuge at Bruges
with his father-in-law, Baldwin of Flanders.
But meanwhile the question of the succession to the throne was becoming
daily more pressing. Edward was evidently rapidly sinking into the grave.
He had never loved his wife, Harold's sister, and had no children by
her. The natural choice of the Witena-gemot would have been Edward, the
son of Edward's elder brother, who had been sent to Hungary by the King
of Sweden. Accordingly, an embassy was sent to Hungary, and in 1057 the
Atheling, or member of the royal line, arrived with his children, Edgar,
Margaret, and Christina. But the prospect of his one day becoming King of
England, which would have solved a most difficult problem, was speedily
cut short by his death within a few days. Of the royal family, Edgar,
his son, was now the only direct male representative, and he, as being a
mere boy, was hardly a candidate on whom the choice of the Witena-gemot
would fall. It should be observed that Harold appears to have placed no
obstacle in the way of the advent of the members of the house of Cerdic
to England, and throughout he seems honestly to have acted for the best.
To look upon the election of Harold to the throne as in any sense a
usurpation is to import purely modern ideas about royalty into days
when hereditary descent was never for a moment recognised as giving an
indefeasible right. To pass over the members of the royal line was no
doubt an unusual measure, because there were as a rule some members
of that line who were fully competent to succeed, but, failing such a
candidate, the Witena-gemot were quite within their right in electing
any one whom they believed to combine the necessary qualities of valour
and statesmanship. And of all men in England, it could hardly be doubted
that Harold was pre-eminently the possessor of the attributes that went
in those days to make a good king. He was therefore tacitly designated
as Edward's successor by universal consent; but in William of Normandy
he had a dangerous and unscrupulous opponent who would hesitate to use
no means that force or fraud might throw in his way. One effective
instrument he had already acquired during his visit to England, and
chance speedily placed a second in his path, of which he availed himself
with equal dexterity.