1029. W. Gem. v. 17. “Cunctos Normannorum principes apud Fiscannum convocat.” “Richardum filium suum consultu sapientum [mid his Witena geþeaht] præfecit suo ducatui, et Robertum fratrem ejus comitatui Oximensi, ut inde illi persolveret debitum obsequii.” See above, p. 173. Was Richard associated with his father in the duchy before his father’s death? The idea is suggested by a signature of “Richardus Tertius” in De Lisle, Saint Sauveur le Vicomte, Preuves, pp. 7, 9. The former charter is given in full in Neustria Pia, 215–218, The latter seems very distinct. It has the signatures, “Signum Richardi secundi ducis. Signum Richardi tertii ducis.” So the son of Henry the Second was known after his coronation as Henry the Third.
1030. Will. Gem. vi. 2. “Cum suorum nonnullis, ut plurimi rettulerunt, veneno mortem obiit.” So Roman de Rou, 7434 et seqq. William of Malmesbury (ii. 178) more distinctly mentions the suspicion against Robert; “Opinio certe incerta vagatur, quod conniventia fratris Roberti ... vim juveni venefica consciverit.” So Chron. Turon. (Duchesne, iii. 360); “Hic dicitur veneno necasse Richardum fratrem suum.”
1031. Richard left a young son, Nicolas, seemingly illegitimate (see Palgrave, iii. 137–142), who became a monk, and died Abbot of Saint Ouen’s in 1092. Will. Gem. vi. 2; Ord. Vit. 710 A, who records how he began, but did not finish, the abbey church. Of his work only a small part at the east end remains.
1032. There is no authority whatever for his common name of Robert the Devil which seems to have arisen from confounding him with the hero of some popular romance. The Norman historians give him a singularly good character, and certainly, unless he had a hand in his brother’s death, no great crime is recorded of him. We hear absolutely nothing of any such cruelties on his part as are recorded of many princes of that age. (See Will. Gem. vi. 3; Roman de Rou, 7453.) Altogether his actions might make us think that he was of the same generous and impulsive disposition as his forefather William Longsword (see above, p. 193). His conduct in the external relations of his duchy was far more honourable than that of William; but then he had no Hugh of Paris or Herbert of Vermandois to lead him astray. For another character of Robert, see below, p. 478.
1033. Bishop Guy of Amiens goes a step further, and makes Robert actually conquer England; Carmen de Bello, 331;
1034. Archbishop Robert his uncle, William of Belesme (of whose family more anon), and Hugh Bishop of Bayeux, who was son of Rudolf of Ivry (see above, p. 258), and therefore first cousin to Robert’s father. See Will. Gem. vi. 3–5; Roman de Rou, 7591 et seqq.
1035. Will. Gem. vi. 8; Roman de Rou, 7755–7896.
1036. See Appendix OOO.
1037. Will. Gem. vi. 6. The younger Baldwin had married Adela, daughter of King Robert and the nominal widow of Duke Richard the Third.
1039. Ib. “Hujusmodi enim fama ubique provinciarum percitus peroptabatur a multis, præcipue ab Italicis, ut sibi imperaret, in Imperium sublimari.” If there is any truth in this rumour, the date maybe fixed to the year 1022, when the Empire was vacant by the death of Henry the First or Second.
1041. Rudolf (iii. 9) seems to know nothing of the Norman intervention, but attributes the reconciliation to the mediation of Fulk of Anjou. The Norman story is given in Will. Gem. vi. 7; Roman de Rou, 7685–7752. See also the Tours Chronicle, ap. Duchesne, iii. 361, and Will. Malms. ii. 187. But both these writers confound Henry’s brothers in a strange way. They say that the eldest brother Odo did not succeed because of his incapacity; “quia stultus erat;” “Odo major natu hebes.” Now Robert had a son Odo, but he was the fourth in order of birth (“Odo vero frater eorum privatus permansit.” Chron. ap. Duchesne, iii. 86), and he was able (see vol. iii. p. 145) to be put in at least nominal command of an army. The Tours writer also makes Constance favour Henry, but both distinctly recognize the action of Duke Robert; “Henricus regnavit auxilio matris et Roberti ducis Normanniæ.” So William of Malmesbury; “Henricus, maxime annitente Roberto Normanno, coronatus est priusquam plane pater exspirasset.” Even here there is a confusion between Henry’s coronation and his restoration by Robert.
1042. On these events and on those which follow, see Appendix PPP.
1043. See Appendix NNN.
1044. Will. Gem. vi. 10. “Ille salubribus monitis ejus non adquievit, sed legatos infectis rebus nihil lætum portantes remisit.”
1045. “Nimia tempestate acti ad insulam quæ Gersus vocatur,” says William of Jumièges. “Gersus” is a singular form for an island which is also called Cæsarea, but whose last syllable, like that of its neighbours, has a very Teutonic sound. Sir F. Palgrave (iii. 176) remarks that this is the first time that Jersey is spoken of in mediæval history. Wace (7937) seems to have thought that a special description of the position of his native island was needed;
1046. Will. Gem. vi. 10. “Quod puto ita factura esse, Deo auctore, pro Edwardo rege, quem disponebat in futuro regnare sine sanguinis effusione.” William of Malmesbury is vaguer and more discreet; “per occultum scilicet Dei judicium, in cujus voluntate sunt potestates regnorum omnium.”
1047. Ib. vi. 11.
1048. Ib.
1049. William of Malmesbury winds up his story with the singular statement; “Relliquiæ ratium, multo tempore dissolutarum, Rotomagi adhuc nostra ætate visebantur.”
1050. Will. Gem. vi. 12. “Quibus ad liquidum sopitis, en, adsunt legati Roberto duci a Chunuto rege directi.”
1051. Will. Gem. vi. 12. “Pace rata in diebus suis eo quod valida gravaretur incommoditate corporali.” So John of Wallingford (550); “Quadam molestia tactus Cnuto, et sibi et caussæ suæ timuit, et sub quotidiana formidine discidium et periculum, quod ex parte illa imminere sensit, studuit terminare.” No doubt these writers fancied Cnut, who died at the age of forty, to have been quite an old man. Cf. above, p. 254.
1052. It will be seen that I do not look on a single expression of William of Malmesbury (ii. 188) as evidence enough to prove the existence of a party in England in favour of the Æthelings.
1053. Robert died in 1035. Will. Gem. vi. 13. So Florence in anno. The Peterborough and Canterbury Chronicles place his death in 1031.
1054. See William of Jumièges, vi. 12, who however does not distinctly connect the pilgrimage with the death of his brother. But William of Malmesbury says distinctly, “cujus rei gemens conscientiam.” So the Tours Chronicle quoted above (p. 468); “Quare ... nudipes Hierusalem abiit.”
1055. Will. Malms. ii. 178. “Apud Nicæam urbem Bithyniæ dies implevit, veneno, ut fertur, interceptus; auctore ministro Radulfo, cognomento Mowino, qui scelus illud spe ducatus animo suo extorserit; sed Normanniam regressus, re cognita, ab omnibus quasi monstrum exsufflatus, in exsilium perpetuum discessit.” So Roman de Rou, 8372.
1056. Will. Gem. vii. 22. “At Robertus ... antequam Hierusalem pergeret, monasterium Sancti Vigoris Ceratii ædificare cœpit.” So Roman de Rou, 7465 et seqq., 8390. On Cerisy, see Neustria Pia, 429.
1057. Roman de Rou, 8391.
1058. Will. Gem. vii. 1. “Roberti magni ducis.”
1059. Ib. vi. 13. “Sepultus est etiam in basilica sanctæ Mariæ a suis, intra mœnia Nicenæ civitatis.” According to the Chronicle of Saint Wandrille (D’Achery, ii. 288) Robert’s burial in this church was a favour the like of which had never before been granted to any man. This writer altogether casts aside the tale of Robert being poisoned. “Divino, ut credi fas est, judicio decessit, qui jam unus eorum effectus erat, quibus, ut apostolus conqueritur, dignus non erat mundus.” Evil counsellors had led him astray in youth; but he repented of his misdeeds—why did he neither marry Herleva nor take back Estrith?—and gradually reached this high degree of perfection.
1060. The death of Cnut at Shaftesbury is asserted by all the Chronicles and Florence in anno, and by William of Malmesbury, ii. 187. On Saxo’s wild fable about his death, see Appendix PPP.
1061. On the division of Cnut’s dominions at his death, see Appendix QQQ.
1063. On the disputed election between Harold and Harthacnut, see Appendix RRR.
1065. The accounts in the Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles, the only copies which mention the seizure, would seem to imply that it took place while Harold was still only a candidate for the Crown. Florence (in anno) indeed says, “Is tamen, adepta regia dignitate, misit Wintoniam suos constipatores celerrime, et gazarum opumque quas rex Canutus Algivæ reliquerat reginæ majorem melioremque partem ademit illi tyrannice.” So Roger of Wendover, i. 473. But Harold could hardly have ventured on this after the peaceful division of the kingdom, and this business is quite different from Harold’s expulsion of Emma in 1037, though it is confounded with it by Roger.
1066. I believe there were people who, on the accession of the present Queen, regretted the separation between England and Hannover.
1067. See Appendix RRR.
1068. Will. Malms, ii. 188. “Elegerunt eum [Haroldum] Dani et Londoniæ cives, qui jam pene in barbarorum mores propter frequentem convictum transierant.”
1069. Grote’s Hist. of Greece, iv. 205.
1072. See Appendix RRR.
1074. See Appendix RRR.
1075. Ib.
1076. On the whole story and the various shapes which it takes, see Appendix SSS.
1077. Will. Pict. 37. “Heraldum Angli deserere nolebant, vel (quod est credibilius) non audebant, metuentes affore Danos ad protectionem sive citatam ultionem ejus.” So Roman de Rou, 9783;
1078. “Portus Icius,” Will. Pict. “Wincant,” Wace. “Portus Wissanti,” Will. Gem. Since Dr. Guest’s exposition of the matter, it is hardly necessary to say that “Portius Itius” or “Icius” is not Boulogne, still less Walcheren.
1079. Will. Pict. 38. “Officium suum benigne promisit, oscula dans ad fidem ac dextram.”
1080. “Evisceratos.” Bromton (X Scriptt. 935) describes the process; “Quidam namque dicunt quod, primordiis viscerum ejus umbilico aperto extractis et ad stipitem ligatis, ipsum tantis vicibus stimulis ferreis circumduxerunt, donec novissima viscerum extrahebantur; et sic proditione Godwini apud Ely mortuus est Alfredus.”
1081. “Cui dum oculi effoderentur, cultro cerebrum violavit mucro.” Will. Pict. So the Ely History, edited by Stewart, p. 209, where the narrative is made up from Florence and William of Poitiers. The Ely History in Gale (ii. 32. p. 508) follows Florence only.
1082. Eadward, as we have seen, had forty ships; Ælfred came “accuratius quam frater antea adversus vim præparatus.” So the Roman de Rou (9806) speaks of his “grant navie.”
1083. See Appendix SSS.
1084. Some were scalped; “nonnullos cute capitis abstracta cruciavit.”
1085. .sp 1
The Chronicler’s way of reckoning is changed since the days of Brunanburh, when the fight was the greatest ever fought
1086. “At the west end, near the steeple, in the south portice.” This makes one think that the present arrangements of the west front of Ely reproduce something far earlier.
1087. See Appendix BBB.
1088. The letter is given at length in the Encomium Emmæ, iii. 3. The letter is confessedly a forgery of Harold; it may very likely be a pure invention of the Encomiast; still anything professing to be a private letter, as distinguished from a legal document, is a curiosity at this stage of English history.
1089. “Bononiensium paucos.” I need hardly say that Wissant is in the county of Boulogne, and that the county of Boulogne comes within the limits of Flanders in the wider sense of the word.
1090. Enc. Emm. iii. 4. “Illi comes Godwinus est obvius factus, et eum in sua suscepit fide, ejusque fit mox miles cum sacramenti affirmatione.”
1091. “Devians eum a Londonia.” This writer seems not to know that Emma was at Winchester.
1092. “Mane rediturus,” says the Encomiast, “ut domino suo serviret cum debita honorificentia.”
1093. Enc. Emm. iii. 6. “A milite primum irrisus est iniquissimo; deinde contemptibiliores eliguntur, ut horum ab insania flendus juvenis dijudicetur. Qui, judices constituti, decreverunt,” &c. We are here on the dangerous ground of martyrology, and we must be on our guard against the evident wish, shown in all such cases, to make the sufferings of Ælfred follow the pattern of the sufferings of Christ. Possibly too, in the language about these judges, whoever they were, we may discern an allusion to Saint Paul’s precept, 1 Cor. vi. 4.
1094. Our history gives us several examples of murders, and of murders left unpunished. But of legal executions for political offences we never hear, except during the proscription in the early days of Cnut.
1096. See Appendix SSS.
1097. Vita Eadw. 401. See Appendix SSS.
1099. Chronn. “Forðan hit hleoðrode þa swiðe toward Haraldes, þeh hit unriht wære.”
1100. It will be seen that my view is built mainly on the account in the Encomium Emmæ.
1101. The year of Ælfred’s death was the year of the marriage of his half-sister Gunhild. See above, p. 455, and Appendix NNN.
1102. See Snorro, Saga viii. capp. 6, 7 (Laing, ii. 364); Adam Brem. ii. 74.
1103. So the Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles, those which do not distinctly mention the division; “Her man geceas Harold ofer eall to kyninge; and forsoc Harðacnut, forþam he wæs to lange on Denmarcon.” So Florence; “Haroldus Rex Merciorum et Northhymbrorum, ut per totam regnaret Angliam, a principibus et omni populo rex eligitur. Heardecanutus vero, quia in Denemarcia moras innexuit, et ad Angliam, ut rogabatur, venire distulit, penitus abjicitur.”
1106. All the Chronicles mention the banishment or “driving out” of Ælfgifu-Emma. The expression is the same as that which is used in the years 963 and 964 for the expulsion of secular priests from several churches, and in 1045 for the banishment of Gunhild. One would like to know in what this driving out differed from regular outlawry. Possibly the driving out involved an actual personal removal, while the banishment involved in a sentence of outlawry was only constructive, like the Roman aquæ et ignis interdictio. Godwine, on his outlawry, was allowed five days to leave the country (Peterborough Chronicle, 1051). The tone of the Worcester and Abingdon Chronicles certainly seems to imply that the measure was a harsher one than that of ordinary outlawry; “And man draf ut his [Harðacnutes] modor Ælfgyfe þa cwene [a rare use of that word instead of hlæfdige], butan ælcere mildheortnesse, ongean þone wallendan winter.” Florence translates, describing her as “Alfgiva, quondam Anglorum regina.” Does this imply any formal deposition from royal rank?
1108. The Encomiast (iii. 1), after mentioning Æthelnoth’s refusal to crown Harold, continues; “Tandem desperatus abscessit, et episcopalem benedictionem adeo sprevit, ut non solum ipsam odiret benedictionem, verum etiam universam fugeret Christianitatis religionem. Namque, dum alii ecclesiam Christiano more missam audire subintrarent, ipse aut saltus canibus ad venandum cinxit, aut quibuslibet aliis vilissimis rebus occupavit, ut tantum declinare posset quod odivit.” There is also what seems to be an allusion to the alleged irreligion of Harold in a foreign Chronicle, the Annals of Hildesheim, Pertz, iii. 100; “Hiemali tempore Chnuht, rex Danorum et Anglorum, immatura morte præventus obivit, et Christiana religio ab ipso fideliter exculta periclitari cœpit.” Yet Harold is not mentioned, and the entry goes on with only partial accuracy; “Filius ejus junior, Haerdechunt nomine, regnum ipsius post eum consensu provincialium obtinuit.”
1109. There is a very remarkable document of this reign, in which Harold appears, if not as a benefactor, at least not as an enemy, of churchmen. See Ellis, Introduction to Domesday, ii. 142; Cod. Dipl. iv. 56; Thorpe, Dipl. 338. Certain revenues at Sandwich belonging to Christ Church at Canterbury had been seized by the King’s officers, and partly alienated to the rival monastery of Saint Augustine’s. It appears however that this was done without the order or knowledge of Harold, who was then sick at Oxford, and who, on learning the fact, expressed great indignation and ordered restitution. Mr. Kemble dates the document in 1038, but it is clear that it must, as Sir Henry Ellis says, belong to 1039, or perhaps to the beginning of 1040.
1110. See Hook, Archbishops, i. 487; Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. p. 19. He appears as at once royal chaplain and monk in a charter of Cnut in Cod. Dipl. vi. 190, and he is addressed as Bishop in two charters of the same King addressed to the thegns of Kent. Cod. Dipl. vi. 187, 189. Dean Hook and Professor Stubbs place his suffragan see at the ancient church of Saint Martin near Canterbury.
1111. See Florence, 1038; Hook, i. 505 (where the appointment is attributed to Harthacnut). But none of the Chronicles mention the story.
1112. See Florence, 1038, compared with 1046.
1113. “Forðam he wæs nehst his [Eadwardes] modor rǽde,” says the Abingdon Chronicle of Stigand under the year 1043.
1114. He was in attendance on Harold in his last sickness, whether as a political or as a spiritual adviser. Cod. Dipl. iv. 56.
1115. The Chroniclers, even while condemning the driving out of Emma, speak of it in the same breath with the election of Harold, as if they were both alike popular acts; “Man geceas Harold ... and forsoc Harðacnut ... and man draf út his modor.”
1116. Chron. Ab. and Fl. Wig. in anno. Thurkill—there were many of the name—Ælfgeat, and “many other good men” were also killed. See also Annales Cambriæ and Brut y Tywysogion in anno.
1117. Sim. Dun. Hist. Dun. iii. 9 (X Scriptt. 33). “Defuncto Cnut, quum filius ejus Haroldus jam quintum annum in regno ... gereret.”
1120. The story is told by Simeon of Durham, Hist. Dun. iii. 6, and more briefly by Florence, 1020. The canons of Durham are met to choose a Bishop after the three years’ widowhood of the see which followed the death of Ealdhun (see above, p. 448); Eadmund asks in joke why they do not choose him; they forthwith choose him in earnest, but agree to consult Saint Cuthberht; a voice issuing from his tomb thrice names Eadmund as Bishop. Eadmund now objects, on the ground of his not being a monk like his predecessors—an odd reason to give to a chapter of seculars—but the election is approved by King Cnut, Eadmund makes his profession as a monk, and he is consecrated by Archbishop Wulfstan. This story seems to imply a degree of freedom of election in capitular bodies of which we find a few, but only a few traces at this time. Bishoprics are in most cases filled directly by the King, with the assent of his Witan, without any mention of the monks or canons. But see the history of Saint Wulfstan, vol. ii. chap. ix.
1121. Sim. Hist. Dun. iii. 5.
1122. So I understand the words of Simeon, Hist. Dun. iii. 9; “Magna parte equitum suorum ab his qui obsidebantur interfecta, confusus aufugit, fugiens pedites interfectos amisit.” The mention of “equites” need not imply that the Scottish army contained cavalry strictly so called, that is, men who used their horses in actual battle. It is enough to justify the expression if, among the Scots, as among the English, the chief men rode to the field (see above, p. 271); the chief men, as usual, would suffer most severely in the actual combat, while those among them who survived would have the advantage in flight. There is another entry in the Durham Annals which places both this siege and the death of Harold in 1039. “Hoc anno Dunechanus rex Scotorum cum exercitu magno Dunelmum obsidens, fugatus ab obsessis, magnam suorum multitudinem amisit.”
1123. Sim. Hist. Dun. iii. 9. “Quorum capita in forum collata in stipitibus sunt suspensa.” See above, p. 329.
1125. Enc. Emm. iii. 8.
1126. Ib.
1127. Chron. Ab. 1039. “And her com éc Hardacnut to Bricge, þar his modor wæs.” Enc. Emm. u. s., where we have a story about a tempest and a vision.
1128. Adam Brem. ii. 72. “Contra quem frater a Dania veniens in Flandria classem adunavit. Sed rex Anglorum, morte præventus, bellum diremit.”
1129. In the charter mentioned above (p. 504) we find some details of Harold’s sickness; “And wæs se king þa binnan Oxnaforde swyðe geseocled, swa þæt he læg orwene his lífes.” When he hears of the wrong done to Christ Church, “Ða læg se king and sweartode eall mid þare sage.”
1130. That Harold died at Oxford is plain from the above passage, and from the Peterborough Chronicle. Florence says “obiit Lundoniæ.” He probably had the Worcester Chronicle before him, and inferred the place of his death from the place of his burial. William of Malmesbury agrees with the Chronicler.
1131. Chronn. Petrib. and Cant.; Fl. Wig. in anno; Will. Malms. ii. 188.
1132. Will. Malms, ii. 188. “Anglis et Danis in unam sententiam convenientibus.” So Hen. Hunt. M. H. B. 758 C, speaking of his landing at Sandwich; “Hardecnut ... susceptus est [underfangen] et electus in regem simul ab Anglis et Dacis.” This comes, with improvements, from the Peterborough Chronicle; “On þis ilcan geare com Hardacnut cyng to Sandwic ... and he was sona underfangen ge fram Anglum ge fram Denum.” Taken alone this might imply that Harthacnut came over, like Ælfred, to seek his fortune, only with a luckier result; but the other Chronicles distinctly assert the previous embassy and therefore imply the previous election.
1133. Chronn. Ab. and Wig. “And man sende æfter Harðacnute to Brygce; wende þæt man wel dyde.” So Florence, “bene se facere putantes.”
1134. See Hist. Rams. c. 94, 95, for the embassy and for an accompanying miracle. Ælfweard was a somewhat remarkable person. He was first a monk of Ramsey and then Abbot of Evesham, which office he held in plurality with his bishopric. The church of Evesham had fluctuated more than once between monks and secular canons, the canons being last introduced by Ælfhere of Mercia in the disputes which followed the death of Eadgar. See above, p. 263. Many of the estates fell into the hands of laymen, especially into those of Godwine of Lindesey, who died at Assandun. They were recovered from Godwine by a legal process, seemingly before the Witan of Mercia (“coram multis principibus hujus patriæ”), by the Abbot Brihtmær. But Godwine seized them again during the absence of Æthelred in Normandy in 1013. One almost fancies that this must have been by a grant from Swegen, to whom Lindesey was one of the first parts of England to submit. See above, p. 358. Æthelred on his return in 1014 appointed Ælfweard Abbot, who again expelled Godwine, seemingly by force (“fretus auxilio Dei atque regis ... cum magna fortitudine hinc expulit”). The local chronicler looks on Godwine’s death at Assandun as the punishment of this sacrilege; “Godwinus vero qui eas injuste habuit eodem anno(?) Dei nutu in bello contra regem Danorum, Cnutonem Sweinonis filium, facto occisus est.” These stories of occupations of monastic lands by powerful men, or in their names, meet us at every turn. See above, p. 505. Ælfweard received the bishopric of London from Cnut, who is called his kinsman, about 1035. We shall hear of him again. See Chron. Abb. Evesham, pp. 78–83.