HISTORY OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST.
=London=
HENRY FROWDE
[Illustration: [Logo]]
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
AMEN CORNER, E.C.
THE HISTORY
OF THE
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND,
ITS CAUSES AND ITS RESULTS.
BY
EDWARD A. FREEMAN, M.A.
LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE.
VOLUME II.
_THE REIGN OF EADWARD THE CONFESSOR._
Φιλεῖ γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς τοῖς οὔτε ἀγχίνοις οὔτε τι οἰκόθεν μηχανᾶσθαι οἵοις
τε οὖσιν, ἢν μὴ πονηροὶ εἶεν, ἀπορουμένοις τὰ ἔσχατα ἐπικουρεῖν τε
καὶ ξυλλαμβάνεσθαι, ὁποῖον δή τι καὶ τῷ βασιλεῖ τούτῳ
τετύχηκεν.—Procopius, Bell. Vand. i. 2.
=Oxford:=
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
M.DCCC.LXVIII.
[_All Rights reserved._]
PREFACE.
My first volume was preliminary. I am now able to announce the exact
extent and scheme of my book. My plan now extends to five volumes. The
present volume takes in the first stage of the actual struggle between
Normans and Englishmen, that is, the Reign of Eadward the Confessor. I
begin with Eadward’s election, and I continue the narrative to his
death. I take in also the early years of William in Normandy. In this
period the struggle is not as yet a struggle of open warfare: it is a
political struggle within the Kingdom of England. Harold and William
gradually come to be the leaders and representatives of their several
nations; but they are not, during the time embraced in the present
volume, brought into any actually hostile relation to one another.
The third volume will, as far as England is concerned, be devoted to the
single year 1066. But, along with the history of that great year, I
shall have to trace the later years of William’s Norman reign. The year
itself is the time of actual warfare between England and Normandy under
their respective sovereigns. It embraces the reign of Harold and the
interregnum which followed his death. I shall, in this volume, describe
the election of Harold, the campaigns of Stamfordbridge and Hastings,
and the formal completion of the Conquest by the acceptance and
coronation of William as King of the English. Of this volume a
considerable part is already written.
The fourth volume I shall devote to the reign of William in England. The
Conquest, formally completed by his coronation, has now to be
practically carried out throughout the land. The authority of William,
already formally acknowledged, is gradually established over England;
local resistance is overcome; the highest offices and the greatest
landed estates throughout England are gradually transferred from natives
to foreigners. Before William’s death the work was thoroughly done, and
the great Domesday Survey may be looked on as its record. The Conquest,
in its immediate results, is now fully accomplished.
The second, third, and fourth volumes will therefore embrace the main
narrative, the third being the centre of all. The fifth volume will
answer to the first. It will be supplementary, as the first was
preliminary. It will be devoted to the results of the Conquest, as the
first was devoted to its causes. It will not be necessary to prolong the
detailed history beyond the death of William the Conqueror, but it will
be necessary to give a sketch of the history down to Edward the First,
in order to point out the stages by which the Norman settlers were
gradually fused into the mass of the English nation. I shall also have
to examine the permanent results of the Conquest on government,
language, and the general condition of England.
I have again to give my best thanks for help of various kinds to several
of the friends whom I spoke of in my first volume. To them I must now
add Mr. Duffus Hardy and Mr. Edward Edwards. But, above all, I must
again express my deep thanks to Professor Stubbs, not only for the
benefit derived from his writings, but for his personal readiness to
correct and to suggest on all points. Without his help I may truly say
that this volume could not be what I trust it is.
SOMERLEAZE, WELLS,
_April 21st, 1868_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
FROM THE ELECTION OF EADWARD TO THE BANISHMENT OF GODWINE. 1042–1051.
A. D. PAGE
The struggle between Normans and Englishmen begins
with the accession of Eadward 4
Import of Eadward’s election; resolve of the English
people to have none but an English King 4
Other possible candidates; Swend Estrithson; Eadward
the son of Eadmund 5
Eadward the one available representative of the old
stock 5
§ 1. _The Election and Coronation of Eadward._ 1042–1043.
June, 1042 Popular election of Eadward 5
Delay of the coronation; its probable causes 6
Eadward probably absent from England and unwilling
to accept the Crown 6–7
Embassy to Eadward; negotiations between him and
Godwine 7–8
Eadward accepts the Crown and returns to England 8
Christmas? Witenagemót of Gillingham
1042–1043 9
Opposition to Eadward’s election in the interest of
Swend Estrithson 9
Eadward the only possible choice; nature of his
claims 10–14
April 3, Eadward crowned at Winchester
1043 14
Exhortation of Archbishop Eadsige; position of
Eadward; his relations to Godwine and the other
great Earls 14–16
Presence of foreign Ambassadors at the coronation;
Eadward’s foreign connexions; his relations with
Magnus of Denmark and with the French Princes 16–19
Gifts of the English nobles; Godwine gives a ship to
the King 19–20
§ 2. _Condition of England during the early years of Eadward._
Character of Eadward; his position as a Saint 20–21
Eadward’s memory acceptable to Englishmen and
Normans alike 22
Eadward’s personal character; purely monastic nature
of his virtues; points of likeness to his father 23–24
His love of hunting; contrast with the humanity of
Anselm 25–27
Personal appearance and habits of Eadward 27
His love of favourites; his fondness for foreigners;
promotion of Normans to high office 28–30
The Norman Conquest begins under Eadward 30
Relations between Eadward and Godwine; Norman
calumnies against Godwine and his sons 30–31
Character of Godwine; his relations to
ecclesiastical bodies; his over care for his own
household 31–33
His good and strict government of his Earldom 33–34
Godwine never reached the same power as Harold did
afterwards 35
Godwine’s eloquence; importance of speech at the
time 35
1043 Godwine’s family; Swegen raised to an Earldom 36
1045? Promotion of Beorn and Harold 36–37
Character of Harold; his military genius 37–39
His civil virtues; his singular forbearance; his
championship of England against strangers 39–40
His foreign travels; his patronage of Germans as
opposed to Frenchmen 40–41
Harold’s personal character; his alleged spoliation
of monasteries; his friendship with Saint
Wulfstan; his foundation of Waltham 41–42
Frankness and openness of his personal demeanour;
alleged charges of rashness 42–43
Story of Eadgyth Swanneshals 43
Comparison between Harold and Constantine
Palaiologos 43–44
Character of Swegen 44–45
Character of the Lady Eadgyth; her doubtful loyalty
to England; her relations to her husband 45–47
Greatness of Godwine and his house 47–48
The other Earldoms; Mercia under Leofric;
Northumberland under Siward 48–50
General condition of England; tendency not to
separation but to union; comparison with Frankish
history 50
Nature of the Earldoms as affected by the Danish
conquest; special position of Northumberland 50–51
The King’s Writs; light thrown by them on the
condition of Folkland 52–53
General powers of the Witan not lessened 53
1040 Affairs of Scotland; reign and death of Duncan 53–54
1040–1058 Reign of Macbeth; his distribution of money at Rome 54–55
1039–1063 Affairs of Wales; reign of Gruffydd of North Wales 55–56
1039 His victory over Eadwine at Rhyd-y-groes 56
1042 His wars in South Wales and victory at Aberteifi 56
Eadward’s relations with foreign powers; his
connexion with Germany 56
Claims of Magnus of Norway on the Crown of England 57
The reign of Eadward comparatively peaceful 57
§ 3. _From the Coronation of Eadward to the Remission of the War-tax._
1043–1051.
1043–1051 Character of the first nine years of Eadward 58
Relations between Eadward and his mother; probable
offence given by Emma 58–61
November Witenagemót of Gloucester; Eadward and the Earls
16, 1043 despoil Emma of her treasure 61–62
Probable connexion of Emma with the partizans of
1043–1046 Swend; banishments of Osbeorn, Osgod Clapa,
Gunhild, and others 62–64
April–Nov. Stigand appointed Bishop of the East-Angles and
1043 deposed 64–65
Importance of ecclesiastical appointments; mode of
appointing Bishops; increased connexion with Rome;
prevalence of simony 65–68
Siward Abbot of Abingdon appointed Coadjutor to
1044–1050 Archbishop Eadsige; he retires to Abingdon and
dies 68–69
July 25, Death of Ælfweard, Bishop of London
1044 69
August 10, Restoration of Stigand; Robert of Jumièges Bishop of
1044 London 70–71
Baneful influence of Robert; his calumnies against
Godwine; his connexion with the Norman Conquest 70–71
1044–1047 Condition of Northern Europe; war between Swend and
Magnus; conduct of Godescalc 72–73
1044–1045 Magnus claims the English Crown; answer of Eadward;
preparations against Magnus 73–74
Early life and exploits of Harold Hardrada; his
1030–1044 escape from Stikkelstad; he enters the Byzantine
service 74–76
1038–1040 He commands the Warangians in Sicily 76
His crusade or pilgrimage; he escapes from
Constantinople and joins Swend in Sweden 76–78
1045 Swend and Harold attack Magnus and save England from
invasion 78
Jan. 23, Marriage of Eadward and Eadgyth; promotions of
1045 Harold and Beorn 79
Death of Brihtwold, Bishop of the Wilsætas; Hermann
of Lotharingia succeeds; policy of the promotion
of German prelates 79–81
March 23, Death of Bishop Lyfing; his career and character
1046 81–83
1046–1072 Leofric succeeds him in Cornwall and Devonshire 83
1050 He removes the see to Exeter, and subjects his
Canons to the rule of Chrodegang 83–85
1046–1062 Ealdred succeeds Lyfing at Worcester; his character 85–86
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn reconciled with the King; his
joint expedition with Swegen against Gruffydd ap
Rhydderch 87
Swegen’s abduction of Eadgifu; he throws up his
Earldom and retires to Denmark; suppression of
Leominster Abbey 87–89
Banishment of Osgod Clapa 89–90
1047 Affairs of Scandinavia; Harold joins Magnus and
receives a share of the Kingdom of Norway 90–91
Swend asks help from England; his request is
supported in the Witenagemót by Godwine, but
rejected on the motion of Leofric 91–92
Magnus defeats Swend; he occupies Denmark and dies
suddenly 92–93
1048–1061 Harold succeeds in Norway, Swend in Denmark; their
long warfare 93
Norwegian and Danish embassies to England; help
1048 again refused to Swend; peace concluded with
Harold 93
1046–1047 Physical phænomena 93–94
Aug. 29, Ælfwine, Bishop of Winchester, dies; Stigand
1047 succeeds 94
1048 Ravages of Lothen and Yrling; the King and the Earls
pursue the pirates, but they escape to Flanders 94–96
Relations with Flanders; their analogy with the
relations with Normandy in 991 and 1000 96
Alliance with the Emperor Henry; his nomination of
German Popes 96
1048–1054 Pontificate of Leo the Ninth 96–97
1047 Godfrey of Lotharingia and Baldwin of Flanders rebel
against the Emperor 97
1049 Leo excommunicates Godfrey; Godfrey submits, but
Baldwin continues his ravages 97–98
Denmark and England join the Emperor against
Baldwin; the English fleet watches the Channel;
submission of Baldwin 98–99
Baldwin’s submission lets loose the English exiles;
Osgod Clapa at sea; Swegen seeks reconciliation
with Eadward 99–100
Harold and Beorn oppose his restoration; his
outlawry is renewed 100–101
Beorn entrapped and slain by Swegen 102–104
Swegen declared Nithing by the army; nature of the
military Gemót 104–105
Swegen escapes to Flanders and is received by
Baldwin; universal indignation against him in
England 105–107
Midlent, Swegen restored to his Earldom by the intervention
1050 of Bishop Ealdred 107–109
1049 Various military operations; movements of Osgod
Clapa 109–110
July Ships from Ireland in the Bristol Channel joined by
Gruffydd of South Wales 110
July 29 Campaign of Bishop Ealdred; his defeat by Gruffydd 110–111
Increasing connexion of England with the continent;
1049–1050 English attendance at synods; synods at Rheims and
Mainz 111–113
Deaths of Bishops and Abbots; Siward dies, and
1049 Eadsige resumes the primacy; Eadnoth of Dorchester
dies and is succeeded by Ulf the Norman 113
Midlent, Witenagemót of London; reduction of the fleet;
1050 Swegen inlawed 114–115
The King’s vow of pilgrimage to Rome; Bishops
Ealdred and Hermann sent to obtain a dispensation 115–116
Synods of Rome and Vercelli; Lanfranc and Berengar;
Ulf confirmed in his Bishoprick; pilgrimage of
Macbeth? 116–118
Death of Archbishop Eadsige; the monks of Christ
Oct. 29 Church elect Ælfric, who is supported by Godwine
but rejected by the King 118–120
Midlent, Witenagemót of London; Robert of Jumièges appointed
1051 to Canterbury, Spearhafoc to London, and Rudolf to
the Abbey of Abingdon 120–121
Robert returns from Rome with the pallium; he
July 27 refuses to consecrate Spearhafoc, who holds his
see without consecration 121–123
The remaining ships paid off; remission of the
Midlent? Heregeld; distinction between Danegeld and
Heregeld 123–125
§ 4. _The Banishment of Earl Godwine._ 1051.
The foreign influence at its height; contrast
between Danish and Norman influences; revolt of
England against the strangers 125–129
Universal indignation at the appointment of Robert;
his cabals against Godwine 129–130
September Visit of Eustace of Boulogne to Eadward at
Gloucester; his outrages at Dover on his return 130–133
Eustace accuses the men of Dover to Eadward; Eadward
commands Godwine to inflict military chastisement
on them; Godwine refuses, and demands a legal
trial 133–137
Robert excites the King against Godwine; the Witan
summoned to Gloucester to hear charges against the
Earl 137–138
Outrages of the Normans in Herefordshire; building
of castles; Richard’s Castle 138–140
Godwine and his sons gather the force of their
Earldoms at Beverstone; Siward, Leofric, and Ralph
gather theirs at Gloucester 141
Negotiations between Godwine and the King; Godwine’s
Sept. 8 offers refused through the influence of the
Frenchmen; he demands the surrender of Eustace and
the other criminals 142–143
The full force of the Northern Earldoms assembles at
Gloucester; Eadward refuses to surrender Eustace 143–144
Eagerness of the Northumbrians for battle; march of
the West-Saxons and East-Angles on Gloucester 144–146
Mediation of Leofric; adjournment to a Gemót in
London 146–147
Gemót of London; Eadward at the head of an army;
Sept. 29 outlawry of Swegen renewed; Godwine and Harold
summoned to appear as criminals 147–149
Final summons to the Earls; their demand for a
safe-conduct is refused 149–150
Godwine and his family outlawed; Godwine, Swegen,
&c., take refuge in Flanders 151
Harold determines on resistance; he and Leofwine
sail from Bristol to Dublin, where they are
received by King Diarmid; vain pursuit of Bishop
Ealdred 152–155
Eadgyth sent to Wherwell 155–156
General character of the story; explanation of
Godwine’s conduct: effect of his fall on the minds
of his contemporaries 157–160
Oct. Temporary triumph of the Norman party; advancement
1051–Sept. of Ralph, Odda, and Ælfgar
1052 160–161
Spearhafoc deposed and William appointed Bishop of
London 161
Visit of Duke William 161–162
CHAPTER VIII.
THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 1028–1051.
§ 1. _Birth, Character, and Accession of William._ 1028–1035.
Character and greatness of William; lasting results
of his career 163–164
English and Norman portraits of him 165–166
His strength of will, military genius,
statesmanship, and unscrupulousness as to means 166–167
His personal virtues; general excellence of his
ecclesiastical appointments 167–168
Effects of his reign in Normandy, France, and
England 168–169
General excellence of his government in Normandy 169–170
His reign in England; skill displayed in his claim
on the English Crown, in his acquisition of it,
and in his subsequent government 170–171
Severity of his police 171–172
The worst features of his character brought out in
England; crimes and misfortunes of his later years 172–174
William’s surnames; the Great, the Conqueror, and
the Bastard 174
Laxity of the Norman Dukes as to marriage and
legitimacy; special illegitimacy of William 174–175
Story of William’s birth; description of Falaise;
historical associations of the castle 175–177
English legend of the birth of William 177–178
1026–1028 Story of Robert and Herleva; advancement of her
family; birth of William 178–180
Question of the succession; state of the Ducal
family; various candidates, but none free from
objection 180–182
Unpopularity of the prospect of William’s succession 182
The great Norman houses; their connexion with
English history 182–183
Greatness and wickedness of the house of Belesme;
crimes of William Talvas; he curses young William
in his cradle 183–187
1034–1035 Robert announces his intention of pilgrimage 187
He proposes William as his successor; his succession
unwillingly accepted 188–189
1035 Robert dies on pilgrimage and William succeeds 189
Childhood of William; necessary evils of a minority 189–191
Anarchy of the time; building of castles; frequency
of assassinations 191–193
Effects of William’s government in Normandy 193
§ 2. _From the Accession of William to the Battle of Val-ès-dunes._
1035–1047.
Guardians of William; Alan of Britanny; Osbern;
Gilbert 193–194
1039–1040 Murders of Alan and Gilbert 195
House of Montgomery; history of Roger of Montgomery
and his wife Mabel 195–197
Attempt of William of Montgomery on Duke William at
Vaudreuil; murder of Osbern; escape of the Duke;
friendship of the Duke for William Fitz-Osbern 197–198
Rebellion and death of Roger of Toesny; houses of
Grantmesnil and Beaumont 199
Ralph of Wacey chosen as the Duke’s guardian 200–201
Relations between Normandy and France; general good
understanding since the Commendation to Hugh the
Great; return of ill-feeling on the accession of
William; ingratitude of King Henry 201–203
Castle of Tillières demanded by Henry; Gilbert
Crispin refuses to surrender, and is besieged; the
castle surrendered, burned, and restored by Henry
contrary to his engagements 203–205
Treason of Thurstan Goz; capture of Falaise Castle
by the Duke 205–207
Developement of William’s character 207–208
Abuse of ecclesiastical appointments by the Norman
Dukes 208
Position of the Norman Prelates; their subjection to
the Ducal authority 209
1037–1055 Death of Archbishop Robert; succession and primacy
of Malger 209–210
1048–1098 Odo Bishop of Bayeux; his character in England and
in Normandy 210–212
Ecclesiastical movement in Normandy; foundation of
monasteries 213
Character of the monastic reformations in various
ages 213–214
Abbeys of Bec and Saint Evroul 214–216
994–1034 Descent, birth, and early life of Herlwin 216–219
1034–1037 Herlwin’s foundation at Burneville 219
1037–1078 He removes the monastery to Bec; his administration 220–222
1005–1039 Descent, birth, and character of Lanfranc 222–225
1039–1042 He teaches at Avranches 225
1042–1045 He becomes a monk and Prior of Bec; his favour with
William 225–227
1049–1050 He attends the synods of Rome and Vercelli 227
575 Monastery of Saint Evroul; history of its founder
Ebrulf or Evroul 228–229
943 The house escapes the Danish ravages, but is
plundered by Hugh the Great 229–230
The monastery forsaken and restored by Restold 230
c. 1015 Geroy and his family; their relations to the house
of Belesme 230–232
William the son of Geroy blinded by William Talvas 232
1050 Saint Evroul restored by William the son of Geroy
and his nephews Hugh and Robert of Grantmesnil 233
1050–1063 Succession of Abbots; intrigues and abbacy of the
co-founder Robert 233–234
Connexion of the religious movement in Normandy with
the Conquest of England 234
Origin of the Truce of God; custom of private war;
comparison between the Truce and the Crusades 234–236
A reform in those times necessarily ecclesiastical 237
1034 The Truce first preached in Aquitaine 237–239
1041 The Truce preached in a relaxed form in Burgundy and
Lotharingia 239–240
1042–1080 The Truce received in Normandy at the Councils of
Caen and Lillebonne 240–241
1047 Wide spread conspiracy against William 241
Intrigues of Guy of Burgundy with the Lords of the
Bessin and the Côtentin; scheme for a division of
the Duchy 242–243
Geographical division of parties; Rouen and the
French lands loyal; Bayeux and the Danish lands
join in the rebellion 243–244
The rebel leaders; Neal of Saint Saviour 245
Randolf Viscount of Bayeux 246
Hamon Dentatus of Thorigny 246
Grimbald of Plessis 247
Attempt to seize William at Valognes; his escape 247–249
Progress of the rebellion; William seeks help of
King Henry; probable motives of Henry for granting
it 250–252
Battle of Val-ès-dunes; its importance in the life
of William 252
Val-ès-dunes a battle between Romanized and Teutonic
Normandy 253–254
Description of the field 254
Junction of the Ducal and French forces; Ralph of
Tesson joins the Duke 255–257
The Battle a mere combat of cavalry 257–258
Personal exertions and overthrow of King Henry;
death of Hamon 258–260
Exploits and good fortune of William 260–261
Defeat of the rebels; flight of Randolf; bravery of
Neal 261–263
Escape of Guy; he defends himself at Brionne 263–264
1047–1050? Siege and surrender of Brionne; William’s treatment
of the vanquished 264–267
Guy returns to Burgundy; fate of Grimbald 267–268
Establishment of William’s power in Normandy;
supremacy of the French element confirmed 269–270
§ 3. _From the Battle of Val-ès-dunes to William’s Visit to England._
1047–1051.
The Counts of Anjou; their connexion with Normandy
and England; characteristics of Angevin history 270–271
464 Saxon occupation of Anjou 271
870? Ingelgar first Count; legend of the origin of the
family 271–273
888 Succession of Counts; Fulk the Red 273
938 Fulk the Good; his proverb about unlearned Kings 273–274
958 Geoffrey Grisegonelle; his wars 274
978 His services to King Lothar in the war with Otto 274
987 Fulk Nerra, warrior and pilgrim 274
992 His war with Odo of Chartres 274
1016 Battle of Pontlevois; defeat of Odo 274
1028–1035 Fulk’s pilgrimages to Jerusalem 275
1040 Geoffrey Martel; origin of his surname 276
April 22, Geoffrey imprisons William Duke of Aquitaine,
1033 marries Agnes, and rebels against his father 276–277
1033–1037 Last days of Odo of Chartres; his war with King
Henry and attempt on the Kingdom of Burgundy 277
His sons Stephen and Theobald; their wars with King
1044 Henry and with Geoffrey; Geoffrey receives Tours
from Henry and imprisons Theobald 277–278
1048 Duke William helps King Henry against Geoffrey; his
personal exploits 279–280
Position of Maine under Geoffrey 280
1015–1036 Succession of Counts; Herbert Wake-the-Dog and Hugh 280
1048–1049 Fortresses of Domfront and Alençon; disloyalty of
Alençon; it receives an Angevin garrison 281–282
William’s march to Domfront; traitors in the Norman
camp 283–284
Geoffrey comes to relieve Domfront and decamps 284–286
William’s sudden march to Alençon; insults offered
to him; his capture of the town and cruel
vengeance 287–288
Domfront surrenders; William fortifies Ambières 289
Story of William the Warling; he is charged with
treason by Robert the Bigod 290–291
Duke William makes him leave Normandy, and gives his
county of Mortain to his own half-brother Robert 292
1049–1054 Prosperous condition of Normandy 293
1049–1053 William’s courtship and marriage with Matilda of
Flanders 293
1051–1052 Condition of England 294
1051 William’s visit to England; estimate of him in
English eyes 295
Eadward’s alleged promise of the Crown to William
probably made at this time 296–301
Constitutional value of such a promise; its
revocation in favour of Harold 301
Improbability of any other time for the promise 302–303
Nature of William’s claims 304
William’s visit an important stage in the history 305
March 6, Death of Ælfgifu-Emma
1052 306
CHAPTER IX.
THE REIGN OF EADWARD FROM THE RETURN OF GODWINE TO THE DEATH OF EADWARD
THE ÆTHELING. 1052–1057.
Character of the period; little direct connexion
between English and Norman affairs 307–308
§ 1. _The Return and Death of Godwine._ 1052–1053.
1052 General regret at the absence of Godwine; he
receives invitations to return 308–310
Eadward gathers a fleet at Sandwich to oppose
Godwine 310
Ravages of Gruffydd of North Wales; his victory near
Leominster 311–312
Godwine petitions for his restoration; embassies of
foreign princes on his behalf; his restoration is
refused 312–313
Godwine determines on a return by force; estimate of
his conduct 313–315
Harold and Leofwine sail from Dublin and enter the
Bristol Channel 315
The people of Somersetshire and Devonshire ill
disposed towards them; probable grounds for their
hostility 316
Harold’s landing and victory at Porlock; estimate of
his conduct 316–319
June 22 Godwine sets sail; his first appearance off the
English coast 319–320
Both fleets dispersed by a storm; Godwine returns to
Bruges 320–321
Godwine sails the second time to Wight; meeting of
Godwine and Harold; they sail eastward together 321–322
Zeal in their cause shown by the men of Sussex,
Surrey, Kent, and Essex 322–323
They enter the Thames and sail towards London 323
Sept. 14 Godwine reaches Southwark; London declares for him 323–324
The King hastens to London with an army 324–325
Godwine before London; zeal of his followers and
lukewarmness of the King’s troops 326–327
Godwine demands his restoration; Eadward hesitates 328
The indignation of Godwine’s men restrained by the
Earl 328–329
Embassy of Stigand; hostages exchanged; and matters
referred to a Gemót on the morrow 329
Godwine and Harold land 329
Fears of the King’s Norman favourites; general
flight of the foreigners 329–331
Robert and Ulf cut their way out of London; the
Sept. 15 _Mycel Gemót_ assembles without the walls of
London; its popular character 332–333
Godwine at the Gemót; he supplicates the King and
speaks to the people 333–334
Votes of the Assembly; acquittal and restoration of
Godwine; outlawry of Archbishop Robert and many
other Normans; “Good law decreed for all folk” 335–337
Personal reconciliation between Godwine and the King 337
Restoration of Eadgyth 337–338
Absence of Swegen; his pilgrimage to Jerusalem 338
Sept. 29 He dies in Lykia 338
Disposal of Earldoms; restoration of Harold;
Earldoms of Ralph and Odda 339
The vacant Bishopricks; relations between Church and
State 339–340
Stigand appointed to Canterbury; his doubtful
ecclesiastical position; handle given to the
Normans by Robert’s expulsion 340–344
1053–1067 Wulfwig succeeds Ulf at Dorchester 344
1053–1067 Leofwine Bishop of Lichfield; Leofwine and Wulfwig
seek consecration beyond sea 344
1051–1070 William of London retains his Bishoprick 345–346
Normans allowed to remain or return; some of them
probably restored after Godwine’s death; Osbern of
Richard’s Castle 346–348
Estimate of Godwine’s conduct; his illness 348
1052–1053 Christmas Gemót at Gloucester 348
Jan. 5, Rhys ap Rhydderch beheaded and his head brought to
1053 Eadward 349
1053–1066 Arnwig resigns the Abbey of Peterborough; succession
and administration of Leofric 349–350
1053 Easter Gemót at Winchester 350
April 12 Godwine taken ill at the King’s table 350
April 15 His death and burial; gifts of his widow Gytha 350–352
General grief of the nation; true estimate of
Godwine’s character 352–354
§ 2. _From the Accession of Harold to the Earldom of the West-Saxons to
his first War with Gruffydd._ 1053–1056.
Nature of the succession to Earldoms; different
positions of Mercia and Northumberland and of
Wessex and East-Anglia 354–355
Reasons for retaining the West-Saxon Earldom 355–356
Easter, Harold Earl of the West-Saxons; Ælfgar Earl of the
1053 East-Angles; character of Ælfgar and his sons 356–357
Probable restoration of Bishop William and other
Normans 358
Position of the Normans in Eadward’s later days;
political office forbidden, but court office
allowed; Eadward’s later policy thoroughly English 358–359
Different positions of Godwine and Harold with
regard to the foreigners 359–360
Christmas, Ecclesiastical appointments; Leofwine of Lichfield
1053–1054 and Wulfwig of Dorchester 361
1053–1082 Æthelnoth Abbot of Glastonbury 361
1053–July Bishop Ealdred holds the Abbey of Winchcombe with
17, 1054 his See 361–362
Welsh inroad at Westbury 362
1054 Macbeth in Scotland; Siward’s expedition against
him; Macbeth’s alliance with Thorfinn 362–364
July 27 Siward defeats Macbeth; Malcolm declared King of
Scots; legends about Siward 364–365
1054–1058 The war continued by Macbeth; his final defeat and
death 365–366
1058 Ephemeral reign of Lulach; Malcolm King over all
Scotland 366
Erroneous popular conception of the war with Macbeth 366
1054 State of the royal family; position of Ralph; of the
descendants of Eadmund Ironside 367–370
The Ætheling Eadward invited to England; import of
the invitation 370–372
July Embassy of Ealdred and Ælfwine to the Emperor Henry;
Ealdred’s long stay at Köln 372–374
Death of Osgod Clapa 374
1055 Death of Earl Siward; his foundation at Galmanho;
his son Waltheof 374–375
March Tostig appointed Earl of the Northumbrians; novelty
of the appointment; its doubtful policy 375–379
Character and government of Tostig; his personal
favour with Eadward; legends about him and Harold 379–383
Tostig’s sworn brotherhood with Malcolm 384–385
March 20 Banishment of Ælfgar 385–386
Ælfgar hires ships in Ireland; he ravages
Herefordshire in alliance with Gruffydd 386–388
October 24 Battle near Hereford; defeat of the English through
the innovations of Earl Ralph 388–390
Gruffydd and Ælfgar sack and burn Hereford 390–392
Harold sent against the Welsh; comparison of his
earlier and later Welsh campaigns 393–394
Harold restores and fortifies Hereford 394–395
Christmas Peace of Billingsley; general mildness of English
1055–1056 political warfare 395
Ælfgar restored to his Earldom 396
Feb. 10, Death of Æthelstan Bishop of Hereford; invasion of
1056 Magnus and Gruffydd 396–397
March Short and warlike episcopate of Leofgar of Hereford;
27–June 16 his death in battle; character of the war with
Gruffydd 397–398
1056–1060 Ealdred holds the See of Hereford with that of
Worcester 398
1056 Gruffydd reconciled to Eadward; his oath of homage;
he is mulcted of his lands in Cheshire 398–400
Cooperation of Harold, Leofric, and Ealdred 400–401
§ 3. _From Harold’s first Campaign against Gruffydd to the Deaths of
Leofric and Ralph._ 1055–1057.
Christmas Ecclesiastical affairs; Hermann of Ramsbury tries to
1055–1056 annex the Abbey of Malmesbury to his Bishoprick;
his scheme hindered by Harold 401–405
1056–1058 Hermann retires to Saint Omer; he returns and unites
the Sees of Ramsbury and Sherborne 405–406
August 31, Death of Earl Odda
1056 407
1056–1071 Æthelric of Durham resigns his See; succession of
his brother Æthelwine 407–408
1057 The Ætheling Eadward comes to England; his intended
succession to the Crown; his death 408–410
Probable reasons why he never saw the King 410–412
Surmise of Sir F. Palgrave that Harold caused his
death; its injustice 412–414
Death of Heaca, Bishop of the South-Saxons; Æthelric
succeeds 414
August 31 Death of Earl Leofric; fate of Godgifu 414–415
Dec. 21 Death of Earl Ralph; his possible pretensions to the
Crown 415–416
Christmas Redistribution of Earldoms; Ælfgar Earl of the
1057–1058 Mercians; marriage of his daughter Ealdgyth with
Gruffydd 416
Herefordshire added to Harold’s Earldom; Harold the
son of Ralph 417
Gyrth Earl of the East-Angles and of Oxfordshire;
policy of detached shires 418
Leofwine Earl of Kent, Essex, &c.; London not under
any Earl 419
1058–1065 The House of Godwine at its highest point of
greatness 419–420
Harold’s prospects of the Crown 420
Position of Harold; effects of Eadward’s promise to
William; the candidates of the patriotic party,
first the Ætheling, then Harold 420–422
Quasi-royal position of Harold; probably no formal
act, but a general understanding in his favour 424–427
Harold chief ruler of England 427
CHAPTER X.
THE REIGN OF EADWARD, FROM THE DEATH OF THE ÆTHELING TO THE DEATH OF
THE KING. 1057–1066.
§ 1. _The Ecclesiastical Administration of Earl Harold._ 1058–1062.
Dominant position of Harold; predominance of
ecclesiastical affairs; Harold in relation to the
Church 428–430
1058? Harold’s pilgrimage to Rome; he studies the politics
of the French Princes on his way 430–431
1057–1061 Succession of Popes; Stephen the Ninth; Benedict the
Tenth; Nicholas the Second 431–432
Benedict probably in possession at the time of
1058 Harold’s visit; he grants the pallium to Stigand,
probably through Harold’s influence 432
Temporary recognition of Stigand after his receipt
of the pallium; the new Bishops Æthelric and
Siward are consecrated by him 433
Harold returns to England 433–434
Second outlawry and return of Ælfgar 434–435
Ecclesiastical history of Gloucester; death of Abbot
681–1058 Eadric; Bishop Ealdred rebuilds and consecrates
the church and appoints Wulfstan Abbot 435–436
1058 Ealdred restores the See of Ramsbury to Hermann and
makes the pilgrimage to Jerusalem 436–437
April 23, Mannig resigns the abbacy of Evesham and is
1059 succeeded by Æthelwig 437–438
Deposition of Pope Benedict; its effect on the
position of Stigand 439
May 3, Consecration of Harold’s minster at Waltham
1060 439
Nature and importance of the foundation; its
character generally misunderstood 439–440
Harold’s acquisition of Waltham; he rebuilds the
church and founds a secular college 441–442
Distinction between the foundation of secular
colleges and of monasteries 442
Harold’s zeal for education; Adelard of Lüttich 443–444
Continuance of the struggle between regulars and
seculars; Harold a friend of the seculars; general
witness to his character borne by the foundation 444–446
The church consecrated by Archbishop Cynesige; the
foundation charter dated two years later 446–447
Dec. 22 Death of Cynesige 447
Dec. 25 Ealdred appointed Archbishop of York in the Gemót at
Gloucester 447–448
1060–1079 Ealdred resigns the See of Hereford and is succeeded
by Walter 448
1060–1088 Death of Duduc Bishop of Wells; he is succeeded by
Gisa 449–450
Later careers of Walter and Gisa; Gisa’s changes at
Wells; comparisons between the foundations of
Harold and Gisa 451–453
April 15, Gisa and Walter consecrated at Rome
1061 453–454
April Death of Wulfric, Abbot of Saint Augustine’s; his
18–May 26 successor Æthelsige receives the benediction from
Stigand 454–455
Journey to Rome of Ealdred, Tostig, and Gyrth 455–456
Pope Nicolas confirms the privileges of Westminster,
but refuses the pallium to Ealdred, and deprives
him of his See 456–457
Tostig and the Bishops robbed on their way home 457
They return to Rome, and the Pope yields the pallium
to the threats of Tostig 457–459
Ill effects of the practice of pilgrimage; Malcolm
invades Northumberland during the absence of
Tostig 459–460
Lent, 1062 Vacancy of the See of Worcester; papal legates in
England 460–461
Ealdred hesitates between Abbot Æthelwig and
Wulfstan Prior of Worcester 461–462
1012–1062 Life and character of Wulfstan 462–464
Easter Wulfstan elected Bishop; the election confirmed by
1062 the Witan 464–466
Sept. 8 Wulfstan consecrated by Ealdred, but makes
profession to Stigand 466–467
Easter The King’s charter to the College at Waltham.
1063 467
Ælfwig, uncle of Harold, appointed Abbot of New
Minster 467–468
§ 2. _The Welsh War and its Consequences._ 1062–1065.
Renewed ravages of Gruffydd; probable death of
1062 Ælfgar, who is succeeded in his Earldom by his son
Eadwine 468–469
Christmas Gemót at Gloucester; Harold’s sudden march to
1062–1063 Rhuddlan 468–470
Harold’s great Welsh campaign; its permanent effect
on men’s minds; testimony of John of Salisbury and
of Giraldus Cambrensis 470–471
May 26, Harold and Tostig invade Wales; Harold adopts the
1063 Welsh tactics; all Wales reduced to submission 472–474
August 5 Gruffydd murdered by his own people 475
The Welsh Kingdom granted to Bleddyn and Rhiwallon 475–476
Alleged legislation about Wales 476–477
1064? Harold marries Ealdgyth; the marriage probably a
political one 477–478
August 1, Harold builds a hunting-seat for Eadward at
1065 Portskewet 479
August 24 Caradoc son of Gruffydd of South Wales kills the
workmen 480
§ 3. _The Revolt of Northumberland._ 1065.
Oppressive government of Tostig in Northumberland 481
1064 Charges against him; murder of Gamel and Ulf 482
Dec. 28 Murder of Gospatric in the King’s Court; attributed
to Tostig and Eadgyth 482
Oct. 3, Revolt of Northumberland; rebel Gemót at York
1065 483
Constitutional position of Northumberland; frequent
absence of Tostig; his deputy Copsige 483–485
Acts of the rebel Gemót; vote of deposition and
outlawry against Tostig; Morkere elected Earl 485
Objects of Eadwine and Morkere; they aim at the
division of the Kingdom; constant treasons of
Eadwine 486–487
Oswulf Earl in Bernicia or Northumberland 487
The Northumbrians put to death Amund and Reavenswart 488
October 4 General massacre of Tostig’s followers and plunder
of his treasury 489
Morkere and the Northumbrians march to Northampton;
Eadwine joins them; presence of Welshmen in his
army 489–490
Ravages of the Northumbrians in Northamptonshire and
the neighbouring shires 490–491
Negotiations between the King and the rebels; Harold
carries a summons to lay down their arms and
submit their grievances to legal discussion 491
Answer of the Northumbrians 491–492
Eadward holds a Gemót at Bretford; debates in the
Council 492–493
Tostig charges Harold with stirring up the revolt;
Harold denies the charge on oath 493–494
Eadward’s eagerness for war; he is kept back by
Harold and others 494–495
Position of Harold; his public duty and private
interest in the controversy; complete agreement of
the two 495–498
Gemót of Oxford; acts of the York Gemót confirmed;
October 28 Waltheof made Earl of Northamptonshire and
Huntingdonshire; renewal of Cnut’s Law 498–500
Nov. 1 Banishment of Tostig; he takes refuge in Flanders 500–501
§ 4. _The Last Days of Eadward._ 1065–1066.
Eadward’s last sickness; his devotion to Saint Peter 501–503
His foundation at Westminster in honour of the
1051–1065 Apostle; reverse order of proceeding at
Westminster and at Waltham 503–504
653–1051 Early history of Westminster 504–505
Permanence of Eadward’s minster and palace; existing
remains of his buildings 506–508
1065 Completion of the church; the first great example of
Norman architecture in England 508–510
Legends 510–513
Sept. 1065 Consecration of Eadgyth’s church at Wilton 513
Dec. 25–28 Midwinter Gemót at Westminster; consecration of the
church 513–514
Jan. 5, Death of Eadward
1066 515
Jan. 6 Burial of Eadward and coronation of Harold 515
Summary 515–516
APPENDIX.
NOTE A. The Election and Coronation of Eadward 517
B. The Legendary History of Eadward 525
C. Eadward’s Fondness for Foreign Churchmen 535
D. English and Norman Estimates of Godwine and Harold 536
E. The Alleged Spoliations of the Church by Godwine and
Harold 543
F. The Children of Godwine 552
G. The Great Earldoms during the Reign of Eadward 555
H. The Legend of Emma 568
I. The Welsh Campaign of 1049 571
K. Danegeld and Heregeld 574
L. The Banishment of Godwine 575
M. The Surnames of William 581
N. The Birth of William 583
O. The Battle of Val-ès-dunes 590
P. The Counts of Anjou and of Chartres 591
Q. The Imprisonment of William of Aquitaine 594
R. The Ravages attributed to Harold and Godwine 596
S. The Narratives of the Return of Godwine 598
T. The Pilgrimage of Swegen 603
U. The Ecclesiastical Position of Stigand 605
W. The Death of Earl Godwine 608
X. The War with Macbeth 613
Y. The Mission of Ealdred and the Return of the
Ætheling Eadward 619
Z. The Supposed Enmity between Harold and Tostig 623
AA. Æthelstan, Bishop of Hereford 628
BB. The Family of Leofric 629
CC. Harold the Son of Ralph 632
DD. The Quasi-Royal Position of Earl Harold 634
EE. Harold’s Foreign Travels and Pilgrimage 635
FF. The Quarrel between Earl Harold and Bishop Gisa 637
GG. Ælfwig Abbot of New Minster 644
HH. The Revolt of Northumberland 646
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.
p. 14, note 4, for “manude” read “monude.”
p. 46, note 1, for “men” read “man.”
p. 50, side-note, for “Earldom” read “Earldoms.”
p. 52, l. 7. There is another writ which, though neither Northumberland
nor any Northumbrian Earl is distinctly mentioned, is clearly meant to
run in Northumberland more than anywhere else. This is the writ in Cod.
Dipl. iv. 230, addressed, according to a form found elsewhere, to the
Bishops, Earls, and Thegns of all those shires in which Archbishop
Ealdred had any lands “Eadward cyngc grét míne biscopas and míne eorlas
and ealle mýne þegenas on ðam scýran ðær Ealdred ærcebisceop hæfeð land
inne freóndlíce”). Among these shires Gloucestershire is doubtless
included, but Yorkshire must have stood foremost.
p. 70, note 1. See p. 438.
p. 82, l. 5. There is an odd notice of Lyfing’s plurality of Bishopricks
in a deed in Cod. Dipl. vi. 195. It is a conveyance of lands to
Sherborne made in a Scirgemót of Devonshire held at Exeter under the
presidency of Earl Godwine. Lyfing is one of the witnesses, and he is
described as “Lyfing bisceop be norðan,” as if a Devonshire man’s
notions of Worcester were not very clear. Worcester was clearly the see
which Lyfing loved best.
p. 89, note 3. I ought here to have added another entry in the same
folio of Domesday, which I knew perfectly well, but which did not catch
my eye when I wrote this note. In the second column of fol. 180 are the
words “Abbatissa tenet Fencote, et ipsa tenuit T. R. E.” This, and the
entry about “victus monialium,” are the whole account of the monastery.
This entry however may well agree with my view of the case. Fencote is
but a small dependency of Leominster, and it was probably a portion set
aside for Eadgifu’s personal maintenance. If so, she survived her error
forty years.
p. 108, l. 14. Perhaps more accurately, in the Earldom of Ralph, under
the superior authority of Leofric. See p. 563.
p. 115, note 5. On seeming anachronisms of this kind see p. 634. Cf. p.
111, note 1.
p. 134, note 2. On the bare possibility that Tostig may have held some
subordinate government as early as this time, see p. 567.
p. 165, l. 3. To prevent misconception, it may be needful to explain to
some readers that there was a Napoleon Buonaparte, who was crowned at
Paris (see vol. i. p. 268) and who died at Saint Helena, and who slew
more men in unjust wars than probably any one man in Europe since Caius
Julius Cæsar.
p. 180, l. 11, for “so perilous an enterprise” read “the same perilous
enterprise.”
p. 209, l. 2, for “Princes” read “Prince.”
p. 248, l. 15, after “half dressed” read “himself.”
p. 249, note 3, for “of the Monasticon” read “in the Monasticon.”
p. 278, note 1, for “contigerât” read “contigerat.”
p. 284, note 2. I have to thank my friend Mr. Dimock for the explanation
that “accipiter” is the goshawk, while the sparrow-hawk is “nisus.” From
the point of view of the small birds the difference is perhaps not very
important.
p. 287, note 2, for “than that at Alençon” read “than he was at
Alençon.”
p. 322, l. 24, after “from Kent” read “from Surrey.”
P· 337, l. 17. See p. 602.
p. 342, note 2, for “_filli_” read “_filii_.”
p. 347, note 3. Of Ralph the Staller I shall have to speak more at large
in my next volume. I suspect him to be the Ralph mentioned in the
Chronicles under the year 1075.
p. 349, note 2. On Leofric’s plurality of abbeys see also the
Peterborough Chronicle, 1066.
p. 359, note 1. “Bundinus,” that is Bondig, was an Englishman. I shall
have to speak of him again.
p. 368, l. 8, for “around” read “beneath.”
p. 373, l. 3, for “West-Frankish” read “East-Frankish.”
p. 418, l. 4 from bottom, for “whenever” read “wherever.”
p. 423, l. 8 from bottom, dele “indeed.”
p. 433, l. 15, for “fell vacant in the course of the year” read “were
now vacant.” It seems uncertain whether Heaca died in 1057 or in 1058
(see p. 414): if the former year is right, the see of Selsey must have
remained vacant a year. As this is not likely, the expression in the
text is probably true, but it is better to leave the matter uncertain.
Ib. note 1, for “disposition” read “disposal.”
p. 436, l. 10. The three Wulfstans—Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester,
Archbishop of York, and founder of Gloucester Abbey—Wulfstan, monk of
Worcester and Abbot of Gloucester—and Saint Wulfstan, Prior and Bishop
of Worcester,—must be carefully distinguished from each other. All were
alive at once, and the last two were strictly contemporary, and all had
more or less to do with Worcester and Gloucester.
p. 441, l. 8. I shall discuss in my third volume the possibility of this
Esegar being the “Ansgardus” of Guy of Amiens. The idea had not occurred
to me when I wrote this part of the text.
p. 448, l. 18, for “two” read “four” = 1056–1060.
p. 451, note 6. On this Azor and others of the name, see p. 642.
p. 461, note 5, for “436” read “438.”
p. 465, note 5, for “1262” read “1062.”
p. 467, note 3. This charge against Ealdred is confirmed by the entries
in Domesday, 164 _b_. “Eldred archiepiscopus tenuit Stanedis. De dominio
Sancti Petri de Glouuecestre fuit.” “Sanctus Petrus de Glouuecestre
tenuit Lecce, et Eldred archiepiscopus tenuit cum abbatiâ.” Both these
are lordships in Gloucestershire, which were still held by the see of
York at the time of the Survey. It is not so clear when we read of a
third lordship in the same list; “Eldredus archiepiscopus tenuit
Otintune.... Thomas archiepiscopus tenet. Sanctus Petrus de Glouuecestre
habuit in dominio donec Rex Willelmus in Angliam venit.” Does this mean
that Ealdred, who was, for some time at least, in William’s favour,
continued his spoliations of the monks of Gloucester after his
accession?
p. 479, l. 12, for “seem well” read “well seem.” See p. 651.
p. 487, l. 9, and 497, l. 19. See p. 651.
p. 511, l. 16. The Bishop meant would doubtless be Stigand as Bishop of
the diocese; by the same showing the Abbot would most likely be Harold’s
uncle Ælfwig, the Abbot of the neighbouring house of New Minster.
p. 531, l. 24. Cf. Ovid, Metamorph. x. 467;
“Forsitan ætatis quoque nomine, Filia, dicat.”
p. 541, l. 10, for “this” read “his.”
p. 545, l. 7, for “againt” read “against.”
p. 553, l. 14. The list in the Knytlirga Saga, c. 11, is no less
strange; Harold, Tostig, “Maurakaare,” Waltheof, and Swend.
p. 598, l. 9 from bottom, for “late” read “later,” and in last line but
one dele “than.”
p. 607, l. 11 from bottom, for “præsente” read “præsentem.”
p. 611, l. 13 from bottom, for “minded” read “reminded.”
THE HISTORY
OF THE
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER VII.
FROM THE ELECTION OF EADWARD TO THE BANISHMENT OF GODWINE.[1] 1042–1051.
We have thus far gone through the course of those events which acted as
the more distant causes of the Norman Conquest; with the accession of
Eadward we [Sidenote: The struggle between Normans and Englishmen begins
with the accession of Eadward.] stand on the threshold of the Conquest
itself. The actual subjugation of England by force of arms is still
twenty-four years distant; but the struggle between Norman and
Englishman for dominion in England has already begun. That such would be
the result of Eadward’s accession was certainly not looked for by those
who raised him to the throne. Never was any prince called to assume a
crown by a more distinct expression of the national will. “All folk
chose Eadward to King.” The [Sidenote: Import of Eadward’s election;
resolve of the English people to have none but an English King.] choice
expressed the full purpose of the English nation to endure no King but
one who was their bone and their flesh. No attachment to the memory of
the great Cnut could survive the utter misgovernment of his sons. The
thought of another Danish King was now hateful. Yet the royal house of
Denmark contained at least one prince who was in every way worthy to
reign. Could the [Sidenote: Other possible candidates; Swend
Estrithson;] national feeling have endured another Danish ruler, Swend
Estrithson might have governed England as prudently and as prosperously
as he afterwards governed Denmark. But the great qualities of Swend had
as yet hardly shown themselves. He could have been known at this time
only as a young adventurer, who had signally failed in the only great
exploit which he had attempted.[2] And, above all things, the feeling of
the moment called for an Englishman, for an Ætheling of the blood of
Cerdic. One [Sidenote: Eadward the son of Eadmund.] such Ætheling only
was at hand. One son of Eadmund Ironside was now grown up to manhood,
but he had been from his infancy an exile in a distant land. Most likely
no one thought of him as a possible candidate for the Crown; it may well
be that his very existence was [Sidenote: Position of Eadward.]
generally forgotten. In the eyes of Englishmen there was now only one
representative of the ancient royal house. Eadward, the son of Æthelred
and Emma, the brother of the murdered and half-canonized Ælfred, had
long been familiar to English imaginations, and, since the accession of
his half-brother Harthacnut, the English Court had been his usual
dwelling-place. Eadward, and Eadward alone, stood forth as the heir of
English royalty, the representative of English nationality. In his
behalf the popular voice spoke out at once and unmistakeably. “Before
the King buried were, all folk chose Eadward to King at London.”
§ 1. _The Election and Coronation of Eadward._ 1042–1043.
[Sidenote: Popular election of Eadward. June, 1042.]
The general course of events at this time is perfectly plain, but there
is a good deal of difficulty as to some of the details.[3] The popular
election of Eadward took place in June, immediately on the death of
Harthacnut, and even before his burial; but it is very remarkable that
[Sidenote: His coronation delayed till the next year.] the coronation of
the new King did not take place till Easter in the next year.[4] This
delay is singular, and needs explanation. The consecration of a King was
then not [Sidenote: Importance of the coronation-rite.] a mere pageant,
but a rite of the utmost moment, partaking almost of a sacramental
character. Without it the King was not King at all, or King only in a
very imperfect sense. We have seen how impossible it was for the
uncrowned Harthacnut to retain his hold upon Wessex.[5] The election of
the Witan gave to the person chosen the sole right to the Crown, but he
was put into actual possession of the royal office only by the
ecclesiastical consecration. Eadward then, for nearly ten months after
his first election, could not be looked on as “full King,”[6] but as at
most King-elect. What could be the cause of such a delay? The notion of
a general war with the Danes in England, which might otherwise account
for it, I have elsewhere shown to be without foundation.[7] The
circumstances of the time would seem to have been singularly unsuited
for any delay. We should have expected that the same burst of popular
feeling which carried Eadward’s immediate and unanimous election would
also have demanded the exclusion of any possible competitor by an
immediate [Sidenote: Probable causes of the delay; Eadward most likely
absent from England, and unwilling to accept the Crown.] coronation. But
the fact was otherwise. The explanation of so singular a state of things
is most likely to be found in certain hints which imply that it was
caused, partly by Eadward’s absence from England, partly by an
unwillingness on his part to accept the Crown. There is strong reason to
believe that Eadward was not in England at the moment of his
half-brother’s death. Harthacnut had indeed recalled him to England, and
his court had become the English Ætheling’s ordinary dwelling-place. But
this fact in no way shuts out the possibility that Eadward may have been
absent on the Continent at any particular moment, on a visit to some of
his French or Norman friends, or on a pilgrimage to some French or
Norman sanctuary. Meanwhile the sudden death of Harthacnut left the
throne vacant. As in other cases before and after,[8] the citizens of
London, whose importance grows at every step, together with such of the
other Witan as were at hand, met at once and chose Eadward King. As he
was absent, and his consent was doubtful, an embassy [Sidenote: Embassy
to Eadward.] had to be sent to him, as embassies had been sent to his
father Æthelred[9] and to his brother Harthacnut,[10] inviting him to
return and receive the Crown. That embassy, we are told, consisted of
Bishops and Earls; we can hardly doubt that at the head of their several
orders stood two men whom all accounts set before us as the leaders in
the promotion of Eadward. These were Lyfing, Bishop of [Sidenote:
Negotiations between Eadward and Godwine.] Worcester, and Godwine, Earl
of the West-Saxons.[11] A remarkable negotiation now took place between
the Earl and the King-elect. Details of private conversations are always
suspicious, but the dialogue attributed to the Earl and the Ætheling
contains nothing but what is thoroughly suited to the circumstances of
the case. We can fully understand that Eadward, either from timidity or
from his monastic turn, might shrink from the labour and responsibility
of reigning at all, and that, with his Norman tastes, he might look
forward with very little satisfaction to the prospect of reigning over
Englishmen. Such scruples [Sidenote: Speech of Godwine.] were driven
away by the arguments and eloquence of the great Earl. The actual speech
put into his mouth may be the composition of the historian, but it
contains the arguments which cannot fail to have been used in such a
case. It was better to live gloriously as a King than to die
ingloriously in exile. Eadward was the son of Æthelred, the grandson of
Eadgar; the Crown was therefore his natural inheritance. His personal
position and character would form a favourable contrast to those of the
two worthless youths who had misgoverned England since the death of
Cnut.[12] His years and experience fitted him to rule; he was of an age
to act vigorously when severity was needed; he had known the ups and
downs of life; he had been purified by poverty and exile, and would
therefore know how to show mercy when mercy was called for.[13] If he
had any doubts, he, Godwine, was ready to maintain his cause; his power
was great enough both to procure the election of a candidate, and to
secure [Sidenote: Eadward accepts the Crown.] his throne when
elected.[14] Eadward was persuaded; he consented to accept the Crown; he
plighted his friendship to the Earl, and it may be that he promised to
confer honours on his sons and to take his daughter in marriage. But
stories of private stipulations of this kind are always doubtful. It is
enough that Godwine had, as all accounts agree, the chief hand in
raising Eadward to the throne.
[Sidenote: He returns to England.]
Eadward now seems to have returned to England, probably in company with
Godwine and the other am[Sidenote: Witenagemót of Gillingham. 1042–3.]
*bassadors. The Witan presently met at Gillingham in Wiltshire; and it
would seem that the acceptance of Eadward’s claims was now somewhat less
unanimous than it had been during the first burst of enthusiasm which
followed the death of Harthacnut. Godwine brought forward Eadward as a
candidate, he urged his claims with all his powers of speech, and
himself set the example of [Sidenote: Opposition to Eadward’s election;]
becoming his man on the spot. Still an opposition arose in the Assembly,
which it needed all the eloquence of Godwine and Lyfing to overcome.
They had even, as it would seem, to stoop to a judicious employment of
the less noble arts of statesmanship. The majority indeed were won over
by the authority of the man whom all England looked on as a father.[15]
But the votes of some had to be gained by presents, or, in plain words,
by bribes.[16] Others, it would seem, stood out against Eadward’s
[Sidenote: apparently in the interest of Swend.] election to the last.
This opposition, we cannot doubt, came from a Danish party which
supported the claims of Swend Estrithson. That prince, on return from
his first unsuccessful war with Magnus, had found his cousin Harthacnut
dead, and Eadward already King as far as his first election could make
him so.[17] But the delay of the coronation, the uncertainty of
Eadward’s acceptance of the Crown, might well make the hopes of
[Sidenote: Alleged negotiations between Eadward and Swend.] Swend and
his partisans revive. We can hardly believe the tale, though it rests
apparently on the assertion of Swend himself, that he demanded the
Crown, and that Eadward made peace with him, making the usual compromise
that Swend should succeed him on his death, even though he should leave
sons.[18] Such an agreement would of course be of no force without the
consent of the Witan. That consent may have been given in the Assembly
at Gillingham; but such an arrangement seems hardly credible. The
English nation no doubt fully intended that the Crown should remain in
the House of Cerdic, and Godwine probably already hoped that in the next
generation the blood of Cerdic would be united with the blood of
Wulfnoth. But it is certain that Swend was in some way or other
reconciled to Eadward and Godwine, for we shall presently find Swend
acting as the friend of England, and Godwine acting as the special
champion of the interests of Swend.[19] The son of Ulf was, it will be
remembered, the nephew of Gytha, and this family connexion no doubt
pleaded for him as far as was consistent with Godwine’s higher and
nearer objects. One of Swend’s brothers, Beorn, remained in England,
where he was soon raised to a great Earldom, and seems to have been
counted in all respects as a member of the house of Godwine. But the
friends of Swend in general were set down for future punishment.[20] In
the end confiscation or banishment fell on the most eminent of them.
Among them was Osbeorn, another brother of the Danish King, whom we
shall hear of in later times as betraying the claims of his brother, and
therewith the hopes of England, into the hand of the Norman Conqueror.
[Sidenote: Eadward the only possible choice.]
Eadward was thus raised to the throne mainly through the exertions of
the two patriotic leaders, Godwine and Lyfing. It is vain to argue
whether Godwine did wisely in pressing his election. There was in truth
no other choice. The only other possible candidates were Swend, and
Magnus of Norway, of whose claims we shall hear again presently. But
English feeling called for an English King, and there was no English
King but Eadward to be had. That Godwine could have procured his own
election to the Crown, that the thought of such an election could have
occurred to himself or to any one else, is an utterly wild surmise.[21]
If Godwine met with some opposition when pressing the claims of Eadward,
that opposition would have increased tenfold had he ventured to dream of
the Crown for himself. The nomination of the West-Saxon Earl would have
been withstood to the death, not only by a handful of Danes, but by
Leofric and Siward, probably, in Siward’s case at least, at the head of
the whole force of their Earldoms. The time was not yet come for the
election of a King not of the royal house. There was no manifest
objection to the election of Eadward, and, though Godwine was
undoubtedly the most powerful man in England, he had not reached that
marked and undisputed preeminence which was enjoyed by his son
twenty-four years later. No English candidate but Eadward was possible.
And men had not yet learned, Godwine himself probably had not fully
learned, how little worthy Eadward was to be called an English
candidate.[22] And when in after years they learned the unhappy truth,
still there does not seem to have been at any time the least thought of
displacing Eadward in favour of either of his Scandinavian competitors,
or even of calling in Swend to succeed him. In raising Eadward to the
throne, Godwine acted simply as the mouthpiece of the English people.
The opposition, as far as we can see, came wholly from the Danes of what
we may call the second importation, those who had come into England with
Cnut and Harthacnut. There is nothing to show that the old-settled
Danish population of Northumberland acted apart from the rest of the
country.
[Sidenote: Claims of Eadward to the Crown; different statements of his
right according to the political views of the writers.]
Eadward then was King. He reigned, as every English King before him had
reigned, by that union of popular election and royal descent which
formed the essence of all ancient Teutonic kingship.[23] But it would
seem that, even in those days, the two elements in his title, the two
principles to whose union he and all other Kings owed their kingly rank,
spoke with different degrees of force to different minds. Already, in
the eleventh century, we may say that there were Whigs and Tories in
England. At any rate there were men in whose eyes the choice of the
people was the primary and legitimate source of kingship. There were
also men who were inclined to rest the King’s claim to his Crown mainly
on his descent from those who had been Kings before him. The difference
is plainly shown in the different versions of the Chronicles. One
contemporary winter, a devoted partisan of Godwine, grounds the King’s
right solely on the popular choice—“All folk chose Eadward to King.”
That the entry was made at the time is plain from the prayer which
follows, “May he hold it while God grants it to him.”[24] Another
version, the only one in any degree hostile to the great Earl, seems
purposely to avoid the use of any word recognizing a distinct right of
choice in the people. “All folk received Eadward to King, as was his
right by birth.”[25] A third writer, distinctly, though less strongly,
Godwinist, seems pointedly to combine both statements; “All folk chose
Eadward, and received him to King, as was his right by birth.”[26] There
can be no doubt that this last is the truest setting forth both of the
law and of the facts of the case. The people chose Eadward, and without
the choice of [Sidenote: Union of elective and hereditary right.] the
people he would have had no right to reign. But they chose him because
he was the one available descendant of the old kingly stock, because he
was the one man at hand who enjoyed that preference by right of birth,
which required that, in all ordinary cases, the choice of the electors
should be confined to the descendants of former Kings. It might
therefore be said with perfect truth that Eadward was chosen because the
Kingdom was his by right [Sidenote: Eadward not next in succession
according to modern notions.] of birth. But it must not be forgotten,
what is absolutely necessary for the true understanding of the case,
that this right by birth does not imply that Eadward would have been,
according to modern ideas, the next in succession to the Crown.
Eadward’s right by birth would have been no right by birth at all in the
eyes of a modern lawyer. The younger son of Æthelred could, according to
our present ideas, have no right to succeed while any representative of
his elder brother survived. The heir, in our sense of the word, was not
the Eadward who was close at hand in England or Normandy, but the
Eadward who was far away in exile in Hungary or Russia. Modern writers
constantly speak of this last Eadward and of his son Eadgar as the
lawful heirs of the Confessor. On the contrary, according to modern
notions, the Confessor was their lawful heir, and, according to modern
notions, the Confessor must be pronounced to have usurped a throne
[Sidenote: The right of the elder branch not thought of.] which of right
belonged to his nephew. In his own time such subtleties were unknown.
Any son of Æthelred, any descendant of the old stock, satisfied the
sentiment of royal birth, which was all that was needed.[27] To search
over the world for the son of an elder brother, while the younger
brother was close at hand, was an idea which would never have entered
the mind of any Englishman of the eleventh century.
[Sidenote: Eadward crowned at Winchester, April 3, 1043.]
The coronation ceremony probably followed soon after the meeting at
Gillingham. It was performed on Easter Day at Winchester,[28] the usual
place for an Easter Gemót, by Archbishop Eadsige, assisted by Ælfric of
York and most of the other Prelates of England.[29] We are expressly
[Sidenote: Exhortation of Eadsige; condition of the Kingdom.] told that
the Metropolitan gave much good exhortation both to the newly made King
and to his people.[30] The peculiar circumstances of the time might well
suggest such a special admonition. There was a King, well nigh the last
of his race, a King chosen by the distinct expression of the will of the
people, as the representative of English nationality in opposition to
foreign rule. But the King so chosen as the embodiment of English
feeling was himself an Englishman in little more than in the accident of
being born on English ground[31] as the son of a father who was a
disgrace to the English name. There was a Kingdom to be guarded against
foreign claimants, and there were the wounds inflicted by two
unfortunate, though happily short, reigns to be healed at home. The
duties which were laid upon the shoulders [Sidenote: Relations between
Eadward and Godwine.] of the new King were neither few nor easy. He had
indeed at hand the mightiest and wisest of guardians to help him in his
task. But we can well understand that the feelings of Eadward towards
the man to whom he owed his Crown were feelings of awe rather than of
love. There could be little real sympathy between the stout Englishman
and the nursling of the Norman court, between the chieftain great alike
in battle and in council and the timid devotee who shrank from the toils
and responsibilities of an earthly Kingdom. And we can well believe
that, notwithstanding Godwine’s solemn acquittal, there still lingered
in the mind of Eadward some prejudice against the man who had once been
charged with his [Sidenote: Relations of the three great Earls.]
brother’s death. And again, though it was to Godwine and his West-Saxons
that Eadward mainly owed his Crown, yet Godwine and his West-Saxons did
not make up the whole of England. Their counsels and interests had to be
reconciled with the possibly opposing counsels and interests of the
other Earldoms and of their rulers. Eadward could not afford to despise
the strong arm of the mighty Dane who ruled his countrymen north of the
Humber. He could not afford to despise the possible prejudices of the
great Earl of central England, who, descendant of ancient Ealdormen,
perhaps of ancient Kings, may well have looked with some degree of
ill-will on the upstarts North and South of him. Eadward, called to the
throne by the unanimous voice of the whole nation, was bound to be King
of the English and not merely King of the West-Saxons. He was bound yet
more strongly to be King of the English in a still higher sense, to cast
off the trammels of his Norman education, and to reign as became the
heir of Ælfred and Æthelstan. We have now to see how far the good
exhortations of Eadsige were effectual; how far the King chosen to the
Crown which was his right by birth discharged the duties which were laid
upon him alike by his birth and by his election.
[Sidenote: Foreign Ambassadors at Eadward’s coronation.]
It was perhaps ominous of the character of Eadward’s future reign that
his coronation was attended by an apparently unusual assemblage of the
Ambassadors of foreign princes.[32] It was natural that Eadward should
be better known, and that his election should awaken a greater interest,
in other lands than could usually be the case with an English King. He
was connected by birth or marriage with several continental sovereigns,
and his long residence in Normandy must have brought him more nearly
within [Sidenote: Eadward’s foreign connexions.] the circle of ordinary
continental princeship than could commonly be the case with the Lord of
the island Empire, the Cæsar as it were of another world. The
revolutions of England also, and the great career of Cnut, had evidently
fixed the attention of Europe on English affairs to an unusual degree.
Add to this that, when a King was chosen and crowned immediately on the
death of his predecessor, the presence of congratulatory embassies from
other princes was hardly possible. But the delay in Eadward’s
consecration allowed that great Easter-feast at Winchester to be adorned
with the presence of the representatives of all the chief sovereigns of
Western Christendom. Some there were whom England was, then as ever,
bound to welcome as friends and brethren, and some whose presence,
however friendly was the guise of the moment, might to an eye which
could scan the future [Sidenote: Ambassadors from King Henry.] have
seemed a foreboding of the evil to come. First came the ambassadors of
the prince who at once held the highest place on earth and adorned it
with the noblest display of every kingly virtue. King Henry of Germany,
soon to appear before the world as the illustrious Emperor,[33] the
great reformer of a corrupted Church, sent an embassy to congratulate
his brother-in-law[34] on the happy change in his fortunes, to exchange
promises of peace and friendship, and to present gifts such as Imperial
splendour and liberality might deem worthy of the one prince whom
[Sidenote: from the King of the French;] a future Emperor could look on
as his peer.[35] The King of the French too, a prince bearing the same
name as the mighty Frank,[36] but far indeed from being a partaker in
his glory, sent his representatives to congratulate one whom he too
claimed as a kinsman,[37] and to exchange pledges of mutual good-will
between the two realms. [Sidenote: from other German and French
princes;] And, along with the representatives of Imperial and royal
majesty, came the humbler envoys of the chief Dukes and princes of their
two kingdoms, charged with the like professions of friendship—our
flattering historian would fain have us believe, of homage.[38] Among
these we can hardly doubt that a mission from the Court of Rouen held a
distinguished place. It may be that, even then, the keen eye of the
youthful Norman was beginning to look with more than a neighbour’s
interest upon the land to which he had in some sort given her
newly-chosen King. We [Sidenote: from Magnus of Denmark.] are even told
that an embassy of a still humbler kind was received from a potentate
who soon after appeared on the stage in a widely different character.
Magnus of Norway had received the submission of Denmark on the death of
Harthacnut, by virtue of the treaty by which each of those princes was
to succeed to the other’s dominions.[39] He now, we are told, sent an
embassy to Eadward, chose him as his father,[40] promised to him the
obedience of a son, and strengthened the promise with oaths and
hostages. Now in the language used with regard both to Magnus and to the
German and French princes, there is doubtless much of the exaggeration
of a panegyrist, anxious to raise his hero’s reputation to the highest
point. But it is possible that Magnus might just now take some pains to
conciliate Eadward, in order to hinder English help from being continued
to his competitor Swend. In the reception of the Imperial and the Danish
envoys there is nothing which has any special meaning; but it is
specially characteristic of this reign that the congratulations of the
French princes [Sidenote: Eadward’s gifts to the French princes.] were
acknowledged by gifts from the King personally, and that some of them
were continued in the form of annual pensions.[41] These were
undoubtedly, even if the Norman Duke himself was among the pensioners,
the gifts of a superior to inferiors; the point is that the connexion
between England and the different French states, Normandy above them
all, was constantly increasing in amount, and receiving new shapes at
every turn.
[Sidenote: Gifts of the English nobles.]
Besides the gifts of foreign princes, the new King also received many
splendid presents from his own nobles. First among them all shone forth
the magnificent offering [Sidenote: Godwine presents a ship to the
King.] of the Earl of the West-Saxons.[42] Godwine had given a ship to
Harthacnut as the price of his acquittal on his memorable trial;[43] he
now made the like offering to Eadward as a token of the friendship which
was to reign between the newly-chosen King and his greatest subject. Two
hundred rowers impelled the floating castle. A golden lion adorned the
stern; at the prow the national ensign, the West-Saxon Dragon, shone
also in gold, spreading his wings, the poet tells us, over the
awe-struck waves.[44] A rich piece of tapestry, wrought on a purple
ground with the naval exploits of former English Kings,[45] the
sea-fights, no doubt, of Ælfred, the peaceful triumphs of Eadgar,
[Sidenote: [992.]] perhaps that noblest fight of all when the fleets of
Denmark gave way before the sea-faring men of the merchant-city,[46]
formed an appropriate adornment of the offering of the English Earl to
the first—men did not then deem that he was to be the last—prince of the
newly-restored English dynasty.
§ 2. _Condition of England during the early years of Eadward._
[Sidenote: Character of Eadward.]
Before we go on to the events of the reign of Eadward, it will be well
to endeavour to gain a distinct idea of the King himself and of the men
who were to be the chief actors in English affairs during his reign. In
estimating the character of Eadward, we must never forget that we
[Sidenote: His position as a Saint.] are dealing with a canonized saint.
In such cases it is more needful than ever to look closely to a man’s
recorded acts, and to his character as described by those who wrote
before his formal canonization. Otherwise we shall be in danger of
mistaking hagiology for history. When a man is once canonized, his acts
and character immediately pass out of the reach of ordinary criticism.
Religious edification, and not historical truth, becomes the aim of all
who speak or write of one who has been formally enrolled as an object of
religious reverence.[47] We must also be on our guard even in dealing
with authors who wrote before his formal canonization, but after that
popular canonization which was so often the first step towards it. It
was of course the general reverence in which a man was held, the general
belief in his holiness and miraculous powers, which formed the grounds
of the demand for his formal canonization. But, while we must be
specially on our guard in weighing the character of particular acts and
the value of particular panegyrics, we must remember that the popular
esteem which thus led to canonization proves a great deal as to
[Sidenote: Nature of his claims to sanctity.] a man’s general character.
It proves still more when, as in the case of Eadward, there was no one
special act, no one marked deed of Christian heroism or Christian
endurance, which formed the holy man’s claim to popular reverence.
Eadward was not like one of those who died for their faith or for their
country, and who, on the strength of such death, were at once revered as
martyrs, without much inquiry into their actions and characters in other
respects. He was not even like one of those, his sainted uncle and
namesake for instance,[48] who gained the honours of martyrdom on still
easier terms, by simply dying an unjust death, even though no religious
or political principle was at stake. The popular reverence in which
Eadward was held could rest on no ground except the genuine popular
estimate of his general character. There were indeed strong political
reasons which attached men to his memory. He was the one prominent man
of [Sidenote: Eadward’s memory acceptable both to Englishmen and to
Normans on political grounds.] the days immediately before the Conquest
whom Normans and Englishmen could agree to reverence. The English
naturally cherished the memory of the last prince of the ancient stock.
They dwelt on his real or supposed virtues as a bright contrast to the
crimes and vices of his Norman successors. Under the yoke of foreign
masters they looked back to the peace and happiness of the days of their
native King. The King who reigned on the English throne without a spark
of English feeling became the popular embodiment of English nationality,
and men called for the Laws of King Eadward as in earlier times they had
called for the Laws of Cnut or of Eadgar.[49] On the other hand, it
suited the policy of the Normans to show all respect to the kinsman of
their own Duke, the King by whose pretended bequest their Duke claimed
the English Crown, and whose lawful successor he professed himself to
be. In English eyes Eadward stood out in contrast to the invader
William; in Norman eyes he stood out in contrast to the usurper Harold.
A King whom two hostile races thus agreed in respecting could not fail
to obtain both popular and formal canonization on somewhat easy
[Sidenote: Popular reverence for him grounded also on personal
qualities.] terms. Still he could hardly have obtained either the one or
the other only on grounds like these. He must have displayed some
personal qualities which really won him popular affection during life
and maintained him in popular reverence after death. It is worth while
to study a little more at length the character of a man who obtained in
his own age a degree of respect which in our eyes seems justified
neither by several of his particular actions nor by the general tenour
of his government.
That Eadward was in any sense a great man, that he displayed any of the
higher qualities of a ruler of those days, no one probably will assert.
He was doubtless in some respects a better man than Cnut, than Harold,
or than William; as a King of the eleventh century no one will venture
to compare him with those three mighty ones. His wars were waged by
deputy, and his civil government [Sidenote: Eadward’s personal
character.] was carried on largely by deputy also. Of his many personal
virtues, his earnest piety, his good intentions in every way, his
sincere desire for the welfare of his people, there can be no doubt.
Vice of every kind, injustice, wanton cruelty, were hateful to him. But
in all kingly qualities he was utterly lacking. In fact, so far as a
really good man can reproduce the character of a thoroughly bad one,
Eadward reproduced the character of his father Æthelred. Writers who
lived before his canonization, or who did not come within the magic halo
of his sanctity, do not scruple to charge him, as his father is
[Sidenote: Points of likeness to his father.] charged, with utter sloth
and incapacity.[50] Like his father, he was quite incapable of any
steady attention to the duties of royalty;[51] but, like his father, he
had occasional fits of energy, which, like those of his father, often
came at the wrong time.[52] His contemporary panegyrist allows that he
gave way to occasional fits of wrath, but he pleads that his anger never
hurried him into unbecoming language.[53] It hurried him however, more
than once, into very unbecoming intentions. We shall find that, on two
memorable occasions, it needed the intervention of his better genius, in
the form first of Godwine and then of Harold, to keep back the saintly
King from massacre and civil war.[54] Here we see the exact parallels to
Æthelred’s mad expeditions against Normandy, Cumberland, and Saint
David’s.[55] But Eadward was not only free from the personal vices and
cruelties of his father; there can be no doubt that, except when carried
away by ebullitions of this kind, he sincerely endeavoured, according to
the measure of his ability, to establish a good administration of
justice throughout his dominions. But the duties of secular government,
although doubtless discharged conscientiously and to the best of his
ability, were with Eadward always something which went against the
[Sidenote: His virtues wholly monastic.] grain. His natural place was,
not on the throne of England, but at the head of a Norman Abbey.
Nothing, one would think, could have hindered him from entering on the
religious life in the days of his exile, unless it were a vague kind of
feeling that other duties were thrown upon him by his birth. For all his
virtues were those of a monk; all the real man came out in his zeal for
collecting relics, in his visions, in his religious exercises, in his
gifts to churches and monasteries, in his desire to mark his reign, as
its chief result, by the foundation of his great Abbey of Saint Peter at
Westminster. In a prince of the manly piety of Ælfred things of this
sort form only a part, a pleasing and harmonious part, of the general
character. In Eadward they formed the whole man. His time was oddly
divided between his prayers and the pastime which seems least suited to
the character of [Sidenote: His love of hunting.] a saint. The devotion
to the pleasures of the chase was so universal among the princes and
nobles of that age that it is needless to speak of it as a feature in
any man’s character, unless when some special circumstance forces it
into special notice. We remark it in the two Williams, because it was
their love of hunting which led them into their worst acts of
oppression; we remark it in Eadward, because it seems so utterly
incongruous with the other features of his character.[56] There were men
even in those times who could feel pity for animal suffering and who
[Sidenote: Contrast with the humanity of Anselm.] found no pleasure in
the wanton infliction of pain. Tenderness for animals is no unusual
feature in either the real or the legendary portraits of holy men.
Anselm, the true saint, like Ceadda in earlier times, saved the life of
the hunted beast which sought his protection, and made the incident the
text of a religious exhortation to his companions. He saw a worthy
object for prayer in the sufferings of a bird tortured by a thoughtless
child, and his gentle heart found matter for pious rejoicing in the
escape of the feathered captive.[57] Humanity like this met with very
little response in the breast of the saintly monarch. The piercing cry,
the look of mute agony, of the frightened, wearied, tortured beast
awakened no more pity in the heart of the saintly King than in that of
the rudest Danish Thegn who shared his savage pastime. The sufferings of
the hart panting for the water-brooks, the pangs of the timid hare
falling helpless into the jaws of her pursuers, the struggles of the
helpless bird grasped in the talons of the resistless hawk, afforded as
keen a delight to the prince who had never seen steel flash in earnest,
as ever they did to men whom a life of constant warfare in a rude age
had taught to look lightly on the sufferings and death even of their own
kind.[58] Once, we are told, a churl, resisting, it well may be, some
trespass of the King and his foreign courtiers on an Englishman’s
freehold, put some hindrance in the way of the royal sport. An unsaintly
oath and an unkingly threat at once rose to the lips of Eadward; “By God
and his Mother, I will hurt you some day if I can.”[59] Had Anselm, in
the might of his true holiness, thus crossed the path of his brother
saint, he too, as the defender of the oppressed, might have become the
object of a like outburst of impotent wrath. A delight in amusements of
this kind is hardly a fair subject of blame in men of any age to whom
the rights of the lower animals have perhaps never been presented as
matter for serious thought. But in a man laying claim to special
holiness, to special meekness and gentleness of character, we naturally
look for a higher standard, a standard which a contemporary example
shows not to have been unattainable even in that age.
[Sidenote: Personal appearance and habits of Eadward.]
In person Eadward is described as being handsome, of moderate height,
his face full and rosy, his hair and beard white as snow.[60] His beard
he wore long, according to what seems to have been the older fashion
both of England and of Normandy.[61] Among his younger contemporaries
this fashion went out of use in both countries, and the Normans shaved
the whole face, while the English left the hair on the upper lip only.
He was remarkable for the length and whiteness of his hands. When not
excited by passion, he was gentle and affable to all men; he was liberal
both to the poor and to his friends; but he had also the special art of
giving a graceful refusal, so that the rejection of a suit by him was
almost as pleasing as its acceptance by another.[62] In public he
preserved his kingly dignity intact; but he took little pleasure in the
pomp of royalty or in wearing the gorgeous robes which were wrought for
him by the industry and affection of his Lady.[63] In private company,
though he never forgot his rank, he could unbend, and treat his familiar
friends as an equal.[64] He avoided however one bad habit of his age,
that of choosing the time of divine service as the time for private
conversation. It is mentioned as a special mark of his devotion that he
scarcely ever spoke during mass, except when he was interrupted by
others.[65] The [Sidenote: His favourites at different periods of his
reign.] mention of his friends and familiar companions leads us directly
to his best and worst aspects as an English King. Like his father, he
was constantly under the dominion of favourites. It was to the evil
choice of his favourites during the early part of his reign that most of
the misfortunes of his time were owing, and that a still more direct
path was opened for the ambition of his Norman kinsman. In the latter
part of his reign either happy accident, or returning good sense, or
perhaps the sheer necessity of the case, led him to a better choice.
Without a guide he could not reign, but the good fortune of his later
years gave him the wisest and noblest of all guides. The most honourable
feature in the whole life of Eadward is that the last thirteen years of
his reign were virtually the reign of Harold.
[Sidenote: Eadward’s fondness for foreigners.]
But in the days before that great national reaction, in the period
embraced in the present Chapter, it is the peculiar character of the
favourites to whose influence Eadward was given up which sets its
special mark on the time. The reign of Eadward in many respects
forestalls the reign of Henry the Third. The part played by Earl Godwine
in many respects forestalls the part played [Sidenote: His connexion
with Normandy.] by Earl Simon of Montfort. Eadward was by birth an
Englishman; but he was the son of a Norman mother; he had been carried
to Normandy in his childhood; he had there spent the days of his youth
and early manhood; England might be the land of his duty, but Normandy
was ever the land of his affection. With the habits, the feelings, the
language, of the people over whom he was called to rule he had
absolutely no sympathy. His heart was French. His delight was to
surround himself with companions who came from the beloved land and who
spoke the beloved tongue, to enrich them with English estates, to invest
them with the highest offices of the English Kingdom. Policy might make
him the political ally of his Imperial brother-in-law, but a personal
sentiment made him the personal friend of his Norman cousin. The needs
of his royal position made him accept Godwine as his counsellor and the
daughter of Godwine as his [Sidenote: Promotion of Normans to high
office.] wife. But his real affections were lavished on the Norman
priests[66] and gentlemen who flocked to his Court as to the land of
promise. These strangers were placed in important offices about the
royal person,[67] and before long they were set to rule as Earls and
Bishops over the already half-conquered soil of England. Even when he
came over as a private man in the days of Harthacnut, Eadward had
brought with him his French nephew,[68] and Ralph the Timid Earl was but
the precursor of the gang of foreigners who were soon to be quartered
upon the country, as these were again only the first instalment of the
larger gang who were to win for themselves a more lasting [Sidenote: The
Norman Conquest begins under Eadward.] settlement four and twenty years
later. In all this the seeds of the Conquest were sowing, or rather, as
I once before put it,[69] it is now that the Conquest actually begins.
The reign of Eadward is a period of struggle between natives and
foreigners for dominion in England. The foreigners gradually win the
upper hand, and for a time they are actually dominant. Then a national
reaction overthrows their influence, and the noblest of living
Englishmen becomes the virtual ruler. But this happy change did not take
place till the strangers had become accustomed to look on English
estates and honours as their right, a right which they soon learned to
think they might one day assert by force of arms. The foreign favourites
of Eadward were in truth the advanced guard of William. The conquests of
England by Swend and Cnut, the wonderful exploits of his own countrymen
in the South of Europe, no doubt helped to suggest to the Norman Duke
that it was not impossible to win England for himself with his sword.
But it must have been the feeling, on the part both of himself and of
his subjects, that England was a land already half won over to Norman
rule, which made the succession to the English Crown the cherished aim
of the life of the mighty ruler who was now growing up to manhood and to
greatness on the other side of the sea.
[Sidenote: Relations between Eadward and Godwine.]
The elevation of Eadward to the throne of course involved the
establishment in still greater honour and authority of the man to whom
his elevation was mainly owing, the great Earl of the West-Saxons. I
have already thrown out some hints as to what the real relations between
[Sidenote: Norman calumnies against Godwine and his sons.] Eadward and
Godwine probably were.[70] There is not a shadow of evidence for the
calumnies of the Norman writers which represent Godwine and his sons as
holding the King in a sort of bondage, as abusing his simplicity and
confidence, sometimes as behaving to him with great personal insolence,
sometimes, they even venture to add, practising all kinds of injustice
and oppression throughout the Kingdom. The English writers tell a widely
different tale. The contrast between the two accounts is well set forth
by a writer whose sympathies lie wholly on the Norman side, but who
makes at least an effort to deal fairly between the two. In the English
version Godwine and his sons appear as high-minded and faithful
counsellors of the King, who stood forward as the leaders of the
national feeling against his foreign favourites, but who were never
guilty of any undutiful word or deed towards the prince whom they had
themselves raised to power.[71] Eadward probably both feared and
suspected Godwine. But there is nothing to show that, up to the final
outbreak between Godwine and the foreigners, the great Earl had ever
deviated from even formal loyalty to his sovereign. There is distinct
evidence that more than one of his sons had gained Eadward’s warmest
personal affection. From [Sidenote: Character of Godwine.] all that we
can see, Godwine was not a man likely to win the same sort of personal
affection from Eadward, perhaps not even from the nation at large, which
was afterwards won by Harold. That Godwine was the representative of all
English feeling, that he was the leader of every national movement, that
he was the object of the deepest admiration on the part of the men at
least of his own Earldom, is proved by the clearest of evidence. But it
is equally clear that Godwine was essentially a wary statesman, and in
no sense a chivalrous hero. We have seen that, mighty as was the power
of his eloquence, he did not trust to his eloquence only.[72] He knew
how to practise the baser as well as the nobler arts of statesmanship.
He knew how to win over political adversaries by bribes, threats, and
promises, and how to find means of chastisement for those who remained
to the last immoveable by the voice of the charmer. When we think of the
vast extent of his possessions,[73] most or all of which must have been
acquired by royal grant, it is almost impossible to acquit him of
[Sidenote: His relation to ecclesiastical bodies.] a grasping
disposition. It is also laid to his charge that, in the acquisition of
wealth, he did not always regard the rights of ecclesiastical
bodies.[74] This last charge, it must be remembered, is one which he
shares with almost every powerful man of his time, even with those who,
if they took with one hand, gave lavishly with the other. And
accusations of this sort must always be taken with certain deductions.
Monastic and other ecclesiastical writers were apt to make little or no
distinction between acts of real sacrilege, committed by fraud or
violence, and the most legal transactions by which the Church happened
to be [Sidenote: Godwine’s lack of bounty to the Church.] a loser. Still
it should be noticed that Godwine stands perhaps alone among the great
men of his own age in having no ecclesiastical foundation connected with
his name. As far as I am aware, he is nowhere enrolled among the
founders or benefactors of any church, religious or secular.[75] Such a
peculiarity is most remarkable. How far it may have arisen from
enlightenment beyond his age, how far it was the result of mere
illiberality or want of religious feeling, it is utterly impossible to
say. But it is clear that Godwine is, in this respect, distinguished in
a marked way from his son, whose liberality, guided as it was by a wise
discretion, was conspicuous among his other great qualities. Again, it
is hardly impossible to acquit Godwine of being, like most fathers who
have the [Sidenote: Godwine’s over care for his own household.]
opportunity, too anxious for the advancement of his own family. He
promoted his sons, both worthy and unworthy, to the greatest offices in
the Kingdom, at an age when they could have had but little personal
claim to such high distinctions. In so doing, he seems to have
overstepped the bounds of policy as well as those of fairness and good
feeling. Such an accumulation of power in one family could not but raise
envy, and higher feelings than envy, in the breasts of rivals, some of
whom may have had as good or better claims to promotion. That Godwine
sacrificed his daughter to a political object is a charge common to him
with princes and statesmen in all ages. Few men in any time or place
would have thrown away the opportunity of having a King for a
son-in-law, and, as Godwine doubtless hoped, of becoming, at least in
the female line, the ancestor of a line of princes.
[Sidenote: Godwine’s government of his Earldom.]
The faults of the great Earl then are manifest. But his virtues are
equally manifest. In the eyes of contemporary Englishmen such faults as
I have mentioned must have seemed little more than a few specks on a
burnished mirror. His good government of his Earldom is witnessed, not
only by the rhetoric of his panegyrist, which however may at least be
set against the rhetoric of his accusers, but by the plain facts of the
welcome which greeted him on his return from banishment, and the zeal
[Sidenote: His strict administration of justice.] in his behalf
displayed by all classes.[76] As a ruler, Godwine is especially praised
for what in those days was looked on as the first virtue of a ruler,
merciless severity towards all disturbers of the public peace. In our
settled times we hardly understand how rigour, often barbarous rigour,
against thieves and murderers, should have been looked on as the first
merit of a governor, one which was always enough to cover a multitude of
sins. Public feeling went along with the prince or magistrate who thus
preserved the peace of his dominions, however great might be his own
offences in other ways, and however cruel in our eyes might be the means
by which he compassed this first end of government. To have discharged
this great duty stands foremost in the panegyrics of Godwine and of
Harold.[77] It was accepted at the hands of the Norman Conqueror as
almost an equivalent for the horrors of the Conquest.[78] It won for his
son Henry a splendid burst of admiration at the hands of a native writer
who certainly was not blind to the oppression of which that prince
himself was guilty.[79] A certain amount of tyranny was willingly
endured at the hands of a man who so effectually rid the world of
smaller tyrants. And, in opposition to the praise thus bestowed on
Godwine, Harold, William, and Henry, we find the neglect of this
paramount duty standing foremost in the dark indictments against the
ruffian Rufus[80] and the heedless Robert.[81] Godwine is set forth to
us, in set phrases, it may be, but in phrases which do not the less
express the conviction of the country, as a ruler mild and affable to
the good, but stern and merciless to the evil [Sidenote: Godwine never
reached the same power as Harold afterwards.] and unruly.[82] But with
all his vigour, all his eloquence, it is clear that Godwine never
reached to the same complete dominion over King and Kingdom which, in
later years, fell to the lot of his nobler son. He always remained an
object of jealousy, not only to the French favourites of Eadward, but to
the Earls of the other parts of England. We shall find that his eloquent
tongue could not always command a majority in the Meeting of the
Wise.[83] [Sidenote: Importance of eloquence.] But the importance
attributed to his oratory, the fluctuations of success and defeat which
he underwent in the great deliberative Assembly, show clearly how
advanced our constitution already was in an age when free debate was so
well understood, and when free speech was so powerful.[84] In this
respect the Norman Conquest undoubtedly threw things back. We shall have
to pass over several centuries before we come to another chief whose
influence clearly rested to so great a degree on his power of swaying
great assemblies of men, on the personal affection or personal awe with
which he had learned to inspire the Legislature of his country.
[Sidenote: Godwine’s family.]
The marriage of Godwine with his Danish wife Gytha had given him a
numerous and flourishing offspring. Six sons and three daughters
surrounded the table of the Earl of the West-Saxons. In the names which
several of them bore we may discern the influence of their Danish
mother.[85] The sons of Godwin were Swegen,[86] Harold, Tostig, Gyrth,
Leofwine, and Wulfnoth. His daughters were Eadgyth, Gunhild, and perhaps
a third, Ælfgifu.[87] As twenty-three years had now passed since
Godwine’s marriage, we may assume that all of them were already born,
though some of the younger ones may still have been children. The elder
sons had reached manhood, and we shall find two at least of them filling
the rank of Earl during the period [Sidenote: Swegen Earl, 1043.] with
which we are now dealing. Swegen, the eldest son, seems to have been
invested with an Earldom from the very beginning of Eadward’s reign, as
he signs a charter with that rank in the King’s second year.[88] Gytha’s
[Sidenote: Beorn Earl, 1045?] nephew, Beorn, also remained in England,
while his brother Osbeorn was banished, and while his other brother
Swend was putting forth his claims to the Crown of Denmark. He had
doubtless attached himself firmly to the interests of his uncle. He was
also, probably at a somewhat later time, raised to an Earldom,
apparently the Earldom of the Middle-Angles, lately held by Thored.[89]
The Earldom held by Swegen was geographically most anomalous. It took in
the Mercian shires of Hereford, Gloucester, and Oxford, and the
West-Saxon shires of Berkshire and Somerset.[90]
[Sidenote: First appearance of HAROLD the son of GODWINE. [Earl of the
East-Angles, 1045?]]
But, along with the comparatively obscure names of Swegen and Beorn, a
greater actor now steps upon the field. We have now reached the first
appearance of the illustrious man round whom the main interest of this
history will henceforth centre. The second son of Godwine lived to be
the last of our native Kings, the hero and the martyr of our native
freedom. We have indeed as yet to deal with him only in a subordinate
capacity, and in some sort in a less honourable character. The few
recorded actions of Harold, Earl of the East-Angles, could hardly have
enabled men to look forward to the glorious career of Harold, Earl of
the West-Saxons, and of Harold, King of the English. To his first great
government, a trying elevation indeed for one in the full vigour of
youth and passion, he was apparently raised about three years after the
election of Eadward, when he himself could not have passed his
twenty-fourth year. While still young, he experienced somewhat of the
fluctuations of human affairs, and he seems to have learned wisdom by
experience. Still there must have been in him from the beginning the
germs of those great qualities which shone forth so conspicuously in his
later career. [Sidenote: His character.] It is not hard to paint his
portraiture, alike from his recorded actions, and from the elaborate
descriptions of [Sidenote: Contemporary testimonies.] him which we
possess from contemporary hands. The praises of the great Earl sound
forth in the latest specimen of the native minstrelsy of Teutonic
England. And they sound forth with a truer ring than the half
conventional praises of the saintly monarch, whose greatest glory, after
all, was that he had called Harold to the [Sidenote: Evidence of the
Biographer.] government of his realm.[91] The biographer of Eadward, the
panegyrist of Godwine, is indeed the common laureate of Godwine’s whole
family; but it is not in the special interest of Harold that he writes.
He sets forth the merits of Harold with no sparing hand; he approves of
him as a ruler and he admires him as a man; but his own personal
affection plainly clings more closely to the rival brother Tostig. His
description of Harold is therefore the more trustworthy, and it fully
agrees with the evidence of his recorded actions. Harold then, the
second son of Godwine, is set before us as a man uniting every gift of
mind and body which could attract to him the admiration and affection of
the age in which he lived.[92] Tall in stature, beautiful in
countenance, of a bodily strength whose memory still lives in the rude
pictorial art of his time,[93] he was foremost alike in the active
courage and in the passive endurance of the warrior. [Sidenote: His
military genius.] In hunger and watchfulness, in the wearing labours of
a campaign no less than in the passing excitement of the day of battle,
he stood forth as the leader and the model of the English people.[94]
Alike ready and vigorous in action, he knew when to strike and how to
strike; he knew how to measure himself against enemies of every kind,
and to adapt his tactics to every position in which the accidents of
warfare might place him. He knew how to chase the light-armed Briton
from fastness to fastness, how to charge, axe in hand, on the bristling
lines of his Norwegian namesake, and how to bear up, hour after hour,
against the repeated onslaughts of the Norman horsemen and the more
terrible thundershower of the Norman arrows. It is plain that in him, no
less than in his more successful, and therefore more famous, rival, we
have to admire, not only the mere animal courage of the soldier, but
that true skill of the leader of armies which would have placed both
Harold and William high among the captains of any age.
[Sidenote: Harold’s civil virtues.]
But the son of Godwine, the heir of his greatness, was not merely a
soldier, not merely a general. If he inherited from his father those
military qualities which first drew on Godwine the notice alike of the
English Ætheling[95] and of the Danish King, he inherited also that
eloquence of speech, that wisdom in council, that knowledge of the laws
of the land,[96] which made him the true leader and father of the
English people. Great as Harold was in war, his character as a civil
ruler is still more remarkable, still more worthy of admiration. One or
two actions of his earlier life show indeed that the spirit of those
days [Sidenote: His singular forbearance.] of violence had laid its hand
even on him. But, from the time when he appears in his full maturity as
the acknowledged chief of the English nation, the most prominent feature
in his character is his singular gentleness and mercy. Never, either in
warfare or in civil strife, do we find Harold bearing hardly upon an
enemy. From the time of his advancement to the practical government of
the Kingdom, there is not a single harsh or cruel action with which he
can be charged. His policy was ever a policy of conciliation. His
panegyrist indeed confines his readiness to forgive, his unwillingness
to avenge, to his dealings with his own countrymen only.[97] But the
same magnanimous spirit is shown in cases where his conduct was less
capable of being guided by mere policy than in his dealings with Mercian
rivals and with Northumbrian revolters. We see the same generous temper
in his treatment of the conquered Princes of Wales and of the defeated
invaders of Stamfordbridge. As a ruler, he is described as walking in
the steps of his father, as the terror of evildoers [Sidenote: His
championship of England against strangers.] and the rewarder of those
who did well. Devoted, heart and soul, to the service of his country, he
was no less loyal in personal attention and service to her wayward and
half-foreign King.[98] Throughout his career he was the champion of the
independence of England against the dominion of strangers. To keep the
court of England free from the shoals of foreigners who came to fatten
on English estates and honours, and to meet the same enemies in open
arms upon the heights of Senlac, were only two different ways of
discharging the great duty to which his whole energies were devoted. And
yet no man was ever more free from narrow insular prejudices, from any
unworthy [Sidenote: His foreign travels.] jealousy of foreigners as
such. His own mind was enlarged and enriched by foreign travel, by the
study of the politics and institutions of other nations on their own
soil. He not only made the pilgrimage to Rome, a practice which the
example of Cnut seems to have made fashionable among English nobles and
prelates, but he went on a journey through various parts of Gaul,
carefully examining into the condition of the country and the policy of
its rulers, among whom we may be sure that the renowned Duke of Rouen
was not forgotten.[99] And Harold was ever ready to welcome and to
reward real merit in men of foreign birth. He did not scruple to confer
high offices on strangers, and to call men of worth from foreign lands
to help him in his most cherished undertakings. [Sidenote: Harold’s
patronage of Germans as opposed to Frenchmen.] But, while the bounty of
Eadward was squandered on Normans and Frenchmen, men utterly alien in
language and feeling, it was the policy of Harold to strengthen the
connexion of England with the continental nations nearest to us in blood
and speech.[100] All the foreigners promoted by Harold, or in the days
of his influence, were natives of those kindred Teutonic lands whose
sons might still almost be looked upon as fellow-countrymen.
[Sidenote: His personal character.]
Such was Harold as a leader of Englishmen in war and in peace. As for
his personal character, we can discern that in the received piety of the
age he surpassed his [Sidenote: His alleged spoliation of monasteries.]
father. The charge of invasion of the rights of ecclesiastical bodies is
brought against him no less than against Godwine; but the instance which
has brought most discredit upon his name can be easily shown to be a
mere tissue of misconceptions and exaggerations.[101] But it is far
[Sidenote: His friendship with Saint Wulfstan.] more certain that Harold
was the intimate friend of the best and holiest man of his time.
Wulfstan, the sainted Bishop of Worcester, was the object of his deepest
affection and reverence; he would at any time go far out of his way for
the benefit of his exhortations and prayers; and the Saint repaid his
devotion by loyal and vigorous [Sidenote: His foundation of the College
at Waltham. [1060–2.]] service in the day of need.[102] Of his
liberality his great foundation at Waltham is an everlasting monument,
and it is a monument not more of his liberality than of his wisdom. To
the monastic orders Harold seems not to have been specially
liberal;[103] his bounty took another and a better chosen direction. The
foundation of a great secular College, in days when all the world seemed
mad after monks, when King Eadward and Earl Leofric vied with each other
in lavish gifts to religious houses at home and abroad, was in itself an
act displaying no small vigour and independence of mind. The details too
of the foundation were such as showed that the creation of Waltham was
not the act of a moment of superstitious dread or of reckless bounty,
but the deliberate deed of a man who felt the responsibilities of lofty
rank and boundless wealth, and who earnestly sought the welfare of his
Church and nation [Sidenote: His personal demeanour frank and open.] in
all things. As to his personal demeanour, he was frank and open in his
general bearing, to a degree which was sometimes thought to be
prejudicial to his interests.[104] Yet he could on occasion dissemble
and conceal his purpose, a gift which seems sometimes to have been
misconstrued,[105] and which apparently led him to the one great error
of his life. He appears not to have been wholly free from [Sidenote:
Charges of rashness.] the common fault of noble and generous
dispositions. The charge of occasional rashness was brought against him
by others, and it is denied by his panegyrist in terms which seem to
imply that the charge was not wholly groundless.[106] And we must add
that, in his private life, he did not, at least in his early days,
imitate either the monastic asceticism of the King or the stern domestic
purity of his rival [Sidenote: His connexion with Eadgyth Swanneshals.]
the Conqueror. The most pathetic incident connected with his name, tells
us of a love of his early days, the days apparently of his East-Anglian
government, unrecognized by the laws of the Church, but perhaps not
wholly condemned by the standard of his own age, which shows, perhaps
above every other tale in English history or legend, how much the love
of woman can do and suffer.[107]
[Sidenote: Harold Earl of the East-Angles, 1045; Earl of the
West-Saxons, 1053; King, 1066.]
Such was the man who, seemingly in the fourth year of Eadward, in the
twenty-third or twenty-fourth of his own age, was invested with the rule
of one of the great divisions of England; who, seven years later, became
the virtual ruler of the Kingdom; who, at last, twenty-one years from
his first elevation, received, alone among English Kings, the Crown of
England as the free gift of her people, and, alone among English Kings,
died, axe in hand, on her own soil, in the defence of England against
foreign invaders. One prince alone in the later history of Europe rivals
the peculiar glory which attaches to the name of Harold. For him we must
seek in a distant age and in a distant land, but in a land connected
with our own by a strangely abiding tie. English warriors, soldiers of
Harold, chafing under the yoke of the Norman Conqueror, sought service
at the court of the Eastern Cæsar, and there retained for ages their
national tongue, their national weapon,[108] and the proud inheritance
of their [Sidenote: Comparison of Harold with Constantine Palaiologos.]
stainless loyalty. The memory of England and of Harold becomes thus
strangely interwoven with the memory of the one prince of later times
who died in a still nobler cause than that of the freedom of England.
The King who died upon the hill of Senlac finds his only worthy peer in
the Emperor who died before the Gate of Saint Rômanos. The champion of
England against the Southern invader must own a nobler martyr still in
the champion of the faith and liberty of Christendom against the
misbelieving horde who have ever since defiled the fairest and most
historic regions of the world. The blood of Harold and his faithful
followers has indeed proved the most fertile seed of English freedom,
and the warning signs of the times seem to tell us that the day is fast
coming when the blood of Constantine shall no longer send up its cry for
vengeance unheeded from the earth.
[Sidenote: Character of Swegen.]
The second son of Godwine was no doubt raised to greatness in the first
instance mainly because he was a son of Godwine; but his great qualities
gradually showed that the rank to which he was raised by his father’s
favour was one which he was fully entitled to retain by his own merits.
The earlier elevation of the great Earl’s eldest born was less
fortunate. Swegen lived to show that he had a soul of real nobleness
within him; but his crimes were great, he was cut off just as he was
beginning to amend his ways, and he has left a dark and sad memory
behind him. A youth, evidently of no common powers, but wayward,
violent, and incapable of self-control, he was hurried first into a
flagrant violation of the sentiment of the age, and next into a still
fouler breach of the eternal laws of right. His end may well arouse our
pity, but his life, as a whole, is a dark blot on the otherwise
chequered escutcheon of the house of Godwine. It was clearly felt to be
so; the panegyrist of the family never once brings himself to utter the
[Sidenote: Of the Lady Eadgyth. 1045.] name of Swegen. Only one other
child of Godwine calls for personal notice at this stage of our history.
Eadgyth, his eldest daughter, became, nearly two years after Eadward’s
coronation,[109] the willing or unwilling bride of the saintly monarch.
She is described as being no less highly gifted among women than her
brothers were among men; as lovely in person and adorned with every
female accomplishment, as endowed with a learning and refinement unusual
in her age, as in point of piety and liberality a fitting help-meet for
Eadward himself.[110] But there are some strange inconsistencies in the
facts which are recorded of her. Her zeal and piety did not hinder her
from receiving rewards, perhaps, in plain words, from taking bribes.
Undoubtedly this is a subject on which the feelings of past times
differed widely from those of our own; but we are a little staggered
when we find the saintly King and his pious Lady receiving money from
religious houses to support claims which, if just, should have been
supported for nothing, and, if unjust, should not have been supported at
all.[111] But Eadgyth has been charged with far heavier offences than
this. She [Sidenote: Suspicions of her loyalty to England.] seems to
have become in some degree infected with her husband’s love of
foreigners, perhaps even in some sort to have withdrawn her sympathies
from the national cause. She has won the doubtful honour of having her
name extolled by Norman flatterers as one whose heart was [Sidenote: Her
alleged share in the murder of Gospatric.] rather Norman than
English.[112] And all her reputation for gentleness and piety has not
kept her from being branded in the pages of one of our best chroniclers
as an accomplice in a base and treacherous murder.[113] Her character
thus [Sidenote: Her relation to her husband.] becomes in some sort an
ænigma, and her relation to her husband is not the least ænigmatical
part of her position. One of Eadward’s claims to be looked on as a saint
was the general belief, at least of the next generation, that the
husband of the beautiful Eadgyth lived with her only [Sidenote:
Eadward’s alleged chastity.] as a brother with a sister.[114] If this
story be true, a more enlightened standard of morality can see no
virtue, but rather a crime, in his conduct. We can see nothing to admire
in a King who, in such a crisis of his country, himself well nigh the
last of his race, and without any available member of the royal family
to succeed him, shrank, from whatever motive, from the obvious duty of
raising up [Sidenote: Evidence of the earliest writers.] direct heirs to
his Crown. But it seems probable that this report is merely part of the
legend of the saint and not part of the history of the King. His
contemporary panegyrists undoubtedly praise Eadward’s chastity. But it
is not necessary to construe their words as meaning more than might be
asserted of Ælfred, of William, of Saint Lewis, or of Edward the First.
The conjugal faith of all those great monarchs remained, as far as we
know, unbroken; but not one of them thought it any part of his duty to
observe continence towards his own wife. Still, from whatever cause, the
marriage of Eadward and Eadgyth was undoubtedly childless; and the
relations of the royal pair to each other in other respects are hardly
more intelligible. Eadgyth is described as the partaker of all her
husband’s good works, and as nursing him with the most affectionate care
during his last illness.[115] Yet, at the moment of his reign when he
could most freely exercise a will of his own, if he did not absolutely
of his own accord banish her from his court, he consented, seemingly
without any reluctance, to her removal from him by the enemies of her
family and her country.[116] The anxiety of Eadward’s Norman favourites
to separate Eadgyth from her husband is, after all, the most honourable
record of her to be found among the singularly contradictory
descriptions of her character and actions.
[Sidenote: Greatness of Godwine and his house.]
We thus find, within a few years after the accession of Eadward, the
whole of the ancient Kingdoms of Wessex, Sussex, Kent, Essex,
East-Anglia, and part of Mercia, under the government of Godwine, his
two elder sons, and his nephew. His daughter meanwhile shared the throne
of England with a King whom he had himself placed upon it. Such
greatness could hardly be lasting. It rested wholly on Godwine’s own
personal character and influence, for the fame of Harold was yet to be
won. The [Sidenote: The other Earldoms;] part of Mercia which was not
otherwise occupied remained, [Sidenote: Mercia under Leofric;] as
before, in the hands of Leofric the son of Leofwine. This Earl and his
famous wife Godgifu, the Lady Godiva of legend,[117] were chiefly
celebrated for their boundless liberality to ecclesiastical
foundations.[118] Worcester, Leominster, Evesham, Chester, Wenlock, Stow
in Lindesey, and, above all, Coventry, were special objects of their
bounty. They seem not to have been satisfied with mere grants of lands
and privileges, but to have taken a special interest in the buildings
and ornaments of the houses which they favoured. The minster of
Coventry, rebuilt and raised to cathedral rank after their time, has
utterly vanished from the earth, and recent changes have abolished even
the titular position of the city as a see of a Bishop. But at Stow, the
ancient Sidnacester, a place even then of infinitely less consideration
than Coventry, portions of the church enriched by Leofric still
remain.[119] Leofric, his son Ælfgar, his grandsons and his
granddaughter, play an important part in the history of this period down
to the complete establishment of the Norman power in [Sidenote:
Relations between Leofric and Godwine.] England. It is clear that
Leofric must have been more personally annoyed by the rise of Godwine
and his house than any other of the great men of England. A race whom he
could not fail to look down upon as upstarts hemmed him in on every side
except towards the North. Later in the reign of Eadward, we shall find
the rivalries and the reconciliations of the two houses of Godwine and
Leofric forming a considerable portion of the history. But, while
Leofric himself lived, he continued to play the part which we have
already seen him playing,[120] that part of a mediator between two
extreme parties, which was dictated to him by the geographical position
of his Earldom.
[Sidenote: Northumberland under Siward.]
North of the Humber, the great Dane, Siward the Strong, still ruled over
the Earldom which he had won by the murder of his wife’s uncle.[121] The
manners of the Northumbrians were so savage, murders and hereditary
deadly feuds were so rife among them, that it is quite possible that the
slaughter of Eadwulf may, by a party at least, have been looked on as a
praiseworthy act of vigour. Perhaps however, as we go on, we may discern
signs that Siward and his house were not specially popular in
Northumberland, and that men looked back with regret to the more regular
line of their native Earls. At any rate, Siward remained for the rest of
his days in undisturbed possession of both the Northumbrian governments,
and along with these he seems to have held the Earldoms of Northampton
and Huntingdon within the proper limits of Mercia.[122] He ruled, we are
told, with great firmness and severity, labouring hard to bring his
troublesome province into something like order.[123] Nor was he lacking
in that bounty to the Church, which might seem specially needful as an
atonement for the crime by which he rose to power.[124]
[Sidenote: England not tending to separation but to union.]
The mention of these great Earls suggests several considerations as to
the constitutional and administrative systems of the time. It is quite a
mistake to think, as often has been thought, that the position of these
powerful viceroys at all proves that England was at this time tending to
separation. It was in truth tending to closer union, and the position of
the great Earls is really one of the [Sidenote: Comparison with Frankish
history.] signs of that tendency. A mistaken parallel has sometimes been
drawn between the condition of England under Eadward and the condition
of France under the later Karlings. The transfer of the English sceptre
to the house of Godwine is of course likened to the transfer of the
French sceptre to the house of Hugh of Paris. But, if we are to look for
a parallel in the history of Gaul, we shall find one, by no means exact
but certainly the closer of the two, in the state of things under the
later Merwings, and in the transfer of the Frankish sceptre to the
Carolingian dynasty. The position of Godwine and Harold is, of the two,
more akin to the position of Charles Martel and Pippin than it is to
that of Hugh the Great and Hugh Capet. [Sidenote: Nature of the Earldom
as affected by the Danish Conquest.] The Earls of Eadward’s reign were,
as I have already explained,[125] not territorial princes, gradually
withdrawing themselves from the authority of their nominal overlord, but
great magistrates, wielding indeed a power well nigh royal within their
several governments, but wielding it only by delegation from the common
sovereign. The Danish Conquest, and the fearful slaughter of the ancient
nobility in the wars of Swend and Cnut, had done much to break up the
force of ancient local associations and the influence of the ancient
local families. Many of these families, the East-Anglian Earls for
instance, doubtless became extinct. From the accession of Cnut we find a
new state of things. The rule of the old half-kingly families, holding
an almost hereditary sway over whole kingdoms, and apparently with
subordinate Ealdormen in each shire, gradually dies out. Cnut divided
the Kingdom as he pleased, appointing Danes or Englishmen, and
Englishmen of old or of new families, as he thought good. England was
now divided among a few Earls, who were distinctly representatives of
the King. In Northumberland and Mercia the claims of ancient princely
families were to some extent regarded; in Wessex and East-Anglia not at
all. The rank of Earl is now held by a very few persons, connected
either with the royal family or with the men whose personal influence
was great at the time.[126] The Earls of Eadward’s reign are always
either his own kinsmen or else [Sidenote: Position of Northumberland.]
kinsmen of Godwine or Leofric. Siward alone keeps his Earldom for life;
but, while he lives, his influence hardly extends beyond his own
province, and, after his death, Northumberland falls under the same law
as the rest of the Kingdom. No doubt Northumberland still retained more
of the character of a distinct state than any other part of England;
still the forces of Northumberland march at the command of the
King,[127] and the Northumbrian Earldom is at the disposal of the King
and his Witan.[128] We do not however find the same signs of the
constant immediate exercise of the royal power in Northumberland which
we find in Wessex, Mercia, and East-Anglia. We have throughout this
reign a series of writs [Sidenote: Evidence of the King’s writs.]
addressed to the Bishops and Earls of those districts, which show that
an Earl of one of those great Earldoms commonly acted as the local Earl
of each shire in his province, with no subordinate Earl or Ealdorman
under him. While such writs are exceedingly common in Wessex and
East-Anglia, one such writ only exists addressed to a Northumbrian Earl,
and that is in the days of Tostig.[129] In Siward’s days possibly the
King’s writ hardly ran in Northumberland. Those addressed to the Earls
of the house of Leofric are also rare. It is clear that the King’s power
was more fully established under the Earls of Godwine’s family than
elsewhere. No doubt the royal authority was formally the same in every
part of the Kingdom, but the memories and traces of ancient independence
in Northumberland and Northern Mercia made its practical exercise more
difficult in those districts.
[Sidenote: Further evidence of the writs as to a change in the condition
of the Folkland.]
The class of writs of which I have just spoken throw some light on
constitutional questions in another way. They come in under Cnut,[130]
and they become very common under Eadward, being found alongside of
documents of the more ancient form. They are announcements which the
King makes to the Bishop, Earl, Sheriff, Thegns, and others of some one
shire, or sometimes to the Bishops, Earls, and Thegns of the whole
Kingdom, which do not, like documents of the ancient form, bear the
signatures of any Witan. They are the manifest prototypes of the royal
writs of later times. They are, like the other documents, mostly grants
of one kind or another; only they seem to proceed from the King’s
personal authority, without any confirmation from a national Gemót. Now
it is hardly possible that the mass of grants of this sort which are
preserved can all of them have been grants out of the King’s private
estate. And, if they are grants of folkland to be turned into bookland
on whatever tenure, allodial or feudal, a very important question
arises. If the King could make such grants by his own authority, a
change must have taken place in the ideas entertained as to folkland. In
short, the change which was completed after the Conquest[131] must have
already been in progress. The Folkland must have been beginning to be
looked on as _Terra Regis_. In short, strictly feudal ideas were
gradually coming in on this as on other matters. And doubtless, in this
respect, as in others, the Danish Conquest did much to prepare the way
for the [Sidenote: General powers of the Witan not lessened.] Norman.
But, if the Witenagemót insensibly lost its authority in a matter in
which we may well believe that its voice had long been nearly formal, it
retained its general powers undiminished. It still, as of old, elected
Kings, outlawed Earls, discussed and determined the foreign relations of
the Kingdom. The fame of Eadward as a lawgiver is mythical; but the fame
of government carried on in strict conformity to the laws and
constitution of the country, is one which fairly belongs to him, or
rather to the illustrious men by whom his power was practically wielded.
[Sidenote: Scotland under Macbeth.]