It is to be noticed that the innovations of Leofric at Exeter and of Gisa at Wells were conceived in quite another spirit from Harold’s foundation at Waltham. The changes made by the Lotharingian Bishops—for Leofric, though English by birth, was Lotharingian in feeling—were changes in a monastic direction. Leofric and Gisa did not indeed expel their secular Canons and substitute monks; neither did they, like Wulfstan at Gloucester, require their Canons to take monastic vows or subject them to the fulness of monastic discipline. A Canon of Wells or Exeter could doubtless, unlike a monk, resign his office, and thereby free himself from the special obligations which it involved. But, while he retained his office, he was obliged to live in what, as compared with the free life of the English secular priest, must have seemed a monastic fashion. One may suspect that the rule of Chrodegang was but the small end of the wedge, and that, if the system had taken root and flourished, the next step would have been to impose monastic vows and full monastic discipline upon the capitular clergy. All this was utterly alien to the feelings of Englishmen. Our countrymen were, only too often, ready to found monasteries and to become monks. But they required that the process should be open and above-board. The monk should be a monk and the secular should be a secular. The secular had no mind to be entrapped into becoming a sort of half monk, while still nominally retaining the secular character. Earl Harold better understood his countrymen. When he determined on founding, not a monastery but a secular college, he determined that it should be really secular. The Canons of Waltham therefore lived like Englishmen, each man in his own house on his own prebend, while the Canons of Wells and Exeter had to submit for a while to the foreign discipline of the common refectory and the common dormer.
The Lotharingian Prelates seem to have been among the great disseminators of that feeling about the uncanonical appointment of Stigand, which, as we have seen, had perhaps touched the mind even of Harold himself.[1323] It is therefore not wonderful that the scruple had touched the mind of Eadward, and that it was by his authority that the two new Bishops went to Rome to receive consecration at the hands of the lawful Pope Nicolas.[1324] They refused to receive the rite from a Primate whose pallium had been received from an usurper, and, as Ealdred had as yet received no pallium at all, there was no other Metropolitan in the land to fall back upon. The scruple however was not universal. Another great ecclesiastical preferment fell vacant during the absence of Walter and |Death of Abbot Wulfric. April 18, 1061.| Gisa. Wulfric, Abbot of Saint Augustine’s at Canterbury, one of the Prelates who had appeared as the representatives of England at the Synod of Rheims,[1325] and who had been a splendid benefactor to his own monastery,[1326] died during the Easter festival.[1327] The news was brought to the King, seemingly while the Witan were, as usual, in session at |Æthelsige receives the abbatial benediction from Stigand. May 26, 1061.| Winchester. The royal choice fell on Æthelsige, a monk of the New Minster. He, we are told, followed Archbishop Stigand, and was by him hallowed as Abbot on the day of the patron of his house. The ceremony was performed at Windsor, a royal seat of which this is one of our earliest notices.[1328] It would perhaps have been a strong measure for Æthelsige altogether to refuse the ministrations of one who was doubly his diocesan, alike as a monk of New Minster and as Abbot of Saint Augustine’s. Moreover, the benediction of an Abbot was not a matter of the same spiritual importance as the consecration of a Bishop. It was an edifying ceremony, but it was not a sacramental rite. Still, when we remember that Earl Harold himself had chosen another Prelate for his ceremony at Waltham, it shows some independence on the part of Æthelsige thus openly to communicate with the schismatical Primate. His conduct at all events did not lose him the royal favour. At some date between this time and the death of Eadward, Abbot Ælfwine of Ramsey, he who had been ambassador to the Pope and the Cæsar,[1329] resigned his office, and Abbot Æthelsige, without resigning his office at Canterbury, was entrusted with the administration of the great Huntingdonshire monastery.[1330]
It is not quite clear whether Gisa and Walter made their journey to Rome in company with some still more exalted personages who went on the same road in the course of the same year. The new Metropolitan of the North went to Rome after his pallium,[1331] and with him the Earl of the Northumbrians went as a pilgrim, accompanied by his wife, by his younger brother Gyrth, Earl of the East-Angles, by several noble Thegns from Northumberland, and by Burchard, son of Earl Ælfgar, a companion, it would seem, of Ealdred rather than of Tostig.[1332] Harold, on his pilgrimage, had chosen the route through Gaul, in order to ascertain the strength of the enemy. Tostig, probably starting from the court of his fatherin-law at Bruges, chose to make his journey wholly through those kindred lands with which England was now so closely connected. The Archbishop and the two Earls passed through Saxony and along the upper course of the Rhine, so that, till they reached the Alps, the whole of their course lay over Teutonic soil.[1333] They seem to have found Gisa and Walter already at Rome;[1334] but the three Prelates, besides the personal business which each had with the Pope, are said to have been charged in common with one errand from the King. This was to obtain the Papal confirmation for the privileges of his restored monastery |Papal confirmation of the privileges of Westminster.| at Westminster.[1335] A synod of some kind was sitting, in which the Earl of the Northumbrians was received by Pope Nicolas with marked honours.[1336] The illustrious visitors obtained the Pope’s confirmation for the privileges of the rising minster of Saint Peter, and they returned laden with letters from Nicolas to that effect.[1337] Walter and Gisa obtained without difficulty the consecration which they sought;[1338] but Ealdred was at first not only refused |Ealdred refused the pallium, and deprived of his see.| the pallium which he asked for, but was deprived, so far as a Pope could deprive an English Prelate, of all his preferments.[1339] The ground for this severity was, according to one account, the charge of simony; according to another, it would seem to have been an objection to an uncanonical translation or to the holding of two Bishopricks at once.[1340] At any rate, Ealdred retired in confusion. The whole party now prepared to return to England, but not in one body. Judith and the greater part of the company were sent first, and they reached England without any special adventure. But the Earl, and seemingly all the three Bishops, stayed behind to prosecute the cause of Ealdred.[1341] At last, thinking the matter hopeless, they |Tostig and the Bishops robbed on their way home.| also set out to return home. On their way they were attacked by robbers, seemingly the robber nobles of the country.[1342] The brigands seem to have been specially anxious to seize the person of the Earl of the Northumbrians. A noble youth named Gospatric[1343] said that he was the Earl, and was carried off accordingly. But, after a while, the robbers, admiring his courage and appearance, not only set him free without ransom, but restored to him all that they had taken from him.[1344] The rest returned to the presence of the Pope, with nothing but the clothes on their backs.[1345] Tostig now seems to have mingled threats and entreaties. One account describes the Pope as touched with the desolate condition of the whole party, and as therefore yielding the more readily to Tostig’s petition in favour of Ealdred.[1346] Another version |The Pope yields to the threats of Tostig, and Ealdred receives the pallium.| makes the Earl take a higher tone. If the Pope and his authority were so little cared for in his own neighbourhood, who could be expected to care for his excommunications in distant countries? He was fierce enough towards suppliants, but he seemed able to do nothing against his own rebels. Let him at once cause the property to be restored, which had most likely been seized with his own connivance. If Englishmen underwent such treatment almost under the walls of Rome, the King of the English would certainly withdraw all tribute and payment of every kind from the Roman See. He, Earl Tostig, would take care that the King and his people should know the truth in all its fulness.[1347] This account carries more of the stamp of truth with it than the other more courtly version. At any rate, whether the voice of Tostig was the voice of entreaty or the voice of threatening, to his voice the Pope at last yielded. Ealdred was restored to his Archbishoprick and invested with the pallium, on the single condition of his resigning the see of Worcester.[1348] The losses which the Earl and the Bishops had undergone at the hands of the robbers were made good to them out of the Papal treasury,[1349] and they set forth again on their journey homeward. They must have come back through France, as Burchard died on the way at Rheims. He was there buried in the churchyard of the Abbey of Saint Remigius, a house which his father Ælfgar enriched for his sake.[1350] Ealdred, Tostig, and the rest came back, honoured and rejoicing, to England.
But in this, as in so many other cases, we see the evil effects which followed on this passion for pilgrimages, at least among Kings and Earls and other rulers of men. It was with a true wisdom that the Witan of England had |Malcolm invades Northumberland during the absence of Tostig. 1061.| hindered the proposed pilgrimage of Eadward.[1351] None but the great Cnut could leave his realm with impunity and could keep distant nations in subjection by the mere terror of his name. We have seen what evils were undoubtedly brought upon Normandy by the pilgrimage of Robert; we have seen what lesser evils were probably brought upon England by the pilgrimage of Harold. So now the absence of her Earl, even on so pious a work, brought no good to Northumberland. No doubt the times must have seemed specially secure both at home and abroad, when two of the great Earls of England could venture to leave the Kingdom at the same time, and when Northumberland could be deprived of the care at once of her temporal and of her spiritual chief. Her only dangerous neighbour was bound to Tostig by the closest of artificial ties. But so tempting an opportunity for a raid overcame any scruples which either gratitude or the tie of sworn brotherhood might have suggested to the mind of Malcolm. The King of Scots entered Northumberland; he cruelly ravaged the country, and did not even show reverence to Saint Cuthberht by sparing his holy isle of Lindisfarn.[1352] We have no further details. Neither do we hear whether Tostig took any sort of vengeance for this seemingly quite unprovoked injury. We hear nothing more of Scottish affairs during the remaining years of the reign of Eadward.
It always marks a season of comparative quiet when our attention is chiefly occupied by ecclesiastical affairs. During four whole years Malcolm’s raid into Northumberland is the only political or military event which |1062.| we have to record. We now enter on the last year of |Vacancy of the See of Worcester.| this time of quiet. In the year following the pilgrimage of Tostig, Ealdred having at last resigned the see of Worcester, a successor had to be chosen. England was at that moment blessed or cursed with visitors of a kind who, to say the least, did not in those days often reach her |Papal Legates in England. Lent, 1062.| shores, namely Legates from the Roman See. Pope Nicolas died soon after the visit of Ealdred and Tostig, and was succeeded by Alexander the Second, a name afterwards to become only too well known in English history. By commission from this Pontiff, Ermenfrid, Bishop of Sitten, and a nameless colleague, came to England early in the year. It is clear that their errand was in some way connected with the appointment to the see of Worcester, besides any other matters with which they may have been charged for the enlightenment of the King’s private conscience or for the forwarding of his foundation at Westminster.[1353] Possibly their personal presence was thought necessary in order to ensure the surrender by Ealdred of a Bishoprick to which he clave with special affection.[1354] At any rate it was Ealdred who received the Legates, who conducted them on their journey through a great part of England, and who at last quartered them at Worcester, under the care of Wulfstan, the holy Prior of that church.[1355] There they were to remain through Lent, waiting for the Easter Gemót, in which the King and his Witan were to decide on all the matters which had brought Ealdred doubtful between Æthelwig and Wulfstan. |Ealdred doubtful between Æthelwig and Wulfstan.| them to England.[1356] With regard to the succession to this see of Worcester, Ealdred was for a while doubtful between two candidates. One was Æthelwig, now Abbot of Evesham, who had so long acted as his deputy in the administration of the Hwiccian diocese.[1357] This Prelate is described
as a man of noble birth and of consummate prudence in all matters human, some add in matters divine also.[1358] One paossession of a see which he had so long administered, and wrt at least of his character was not belied by his actions. We shall find that he lived in high favour equally under Eadward, Harold, and William, and died in full possession of his Abbey eleven years after the Conquest.[1359] He was not unnaturally anxious to succeed to the full possession of a see which he had so long administered, and with whose affairs he must have been thoroughly conversant.[1360] Ealdred himself doubted for a while whether the see would be more safely entrusted to the worldly wisdom of Æthelwig or to the simple piety of Wulfstan the Prior.[1361] |Wulfstan [Prior and] Bishop of Worcester. Sept. 8, 1062–Jan. 18, 1095. Born about 1012. His life and character.| Wulfstan, the friend of Harold, was a man now of about fifty years of age.[1362] He was the son of Æthelstan,[1363] a Thegn of Warwickshire, and his wife Wulfgifu, and he must have been born among the horrors of the later years of Æthelred. Brought up, not as a monk, but as a secular student, in the Abbey of Peterborough, he made great proficiency in the learning of the time under a master whose name Ervenius seems to imply a foreign origin.[1364] His parents, as they grew old, took monastic vows by mutual consent, but Wulfstan for some while lived as a layman, distinguished for his success in bodily exercises as well as for his virtuous and pious demeanour. His chastity especially was preserved unsullied under unusually severe trials.[1365] At last, when he still could not have been above twenty-six years old,[1366] he received ordination as a Presbyter at the |1033–1038.| hands of Brihtheah, Bishop of Worcester. This was somewhat against his own will, as he shrank from the responsibilities of the priesthood. The friendly Prelate vainly pressed on him a good secular living in the neighbourhood of the city.[1367] But the determination of Wulfstan was fixed, and Brihtheah had soon to admit him as a monk of the cathedral monastery, where, after a while, he was promoted by Ealdred to the rank of Prior.[1368] Here he distinguished himself by every monastic perfection; he was eminent as a preacher, and it is still more interesting to read of his habit of going through the country to baptize the children of the poor, to whom—so our monastic informants tell us—the greedy secular clergy refused the first sacrament except on payment of a fee.[1369] The virtues of Wulfstan attracted the notice of many of the great men of the realm. The famous Godgifu, the wife of Leofric, was his devoted admirer.[1370] But the same virtues gained him a still nobler and more powerful votary; he became, as we have seen, the special friend of Earl Harold.[1371] Ealdred now hesitated between Wulfstan and Æthelwig as his successor at Worcester. The King, we are told, was determined that the see should be filled by a canonical election, which however of course did not exclude the right of the Witan to confirm or to reject the choice of the ecclesiastical electors. The Papal Legates soon discerned the virtues of Wulfstan, and became eager on his behalf. They spent their Lent in efforts to secure his election, especially in exhortations to the clergy and people of Worcester, an expression which may perhaps show that something of the ancient popular character of |Wulfstan elected Bishop.| episcopal elections still lingered on.[1372] But whoever were the electors, Wulfstan was elected, and the choice of the local body came before the Witan of the realm for confirmation. The Legates appeared before the Gemót; the diplomacy of the time doubtless required that their business with the King should not be decided without the national approval. The succession to the see of Worcester came on among the other business of the Assembly, and the Legates themselves took on |His election approved by the Witan, Easter, 1062.| them to speak on behalf of the holy Prior.[1373] Not a voice was raised in opposition; every speaker bore his testimony to the incomparable merits of Wulfstan. Both Archbishops, Stigand and Ealdred, spoke in his favour; so did Ælfgar, the Earl of the province, and Wulfstan’s personal friend Earl Harold.[1374] The approval of the Gemót was unanimous. The only difficulty was to be found in the unwillingness of Wulfstan himself to take upon him the cares and responsibilities of the episcopal office. As soon as the vote was given, messengers were sent to ride at full speed to Worcester, and to bring the Prior in person before the Assembly. Wulfstan obeyed the summons, but, amid general shouts of dissent, he pleaded his unfitness for the vacant office.[1375] He declared, even with an oath, that he had rather lose his head than become a Bishop.[1376] His scruples were at last shaken by the Legates and the Archbishops, who pleaded the duty of obedience to the Holy See, and finally by the exhortations and reproofs of a holy anchorite named Wulfsige, who had been for forty years removed from the society of men.[1377] But the process of persuasion in the mind of Wulfstan was evidently a long one. The formalities of his ecclesiastical confirmation and of the final rite of consecration were not completed till the month of September. One is half disappointed to read that he refused the ministrations of Stigand, and sought for consecration at the hands of Ealdred. The distinct Roman influence, embodied in the persons of Roman Legates, doubtless taught Wulfstan that Stigand was a schismatic. Ermenfrid and his colleague seem even to have been the bearers of a distinct Papal |Wulfstan makes canonical profession to Stigand, but is consecrated by Ealdred.| decree of suspension against the Archbishop. Wulfstan however drew a distinction, which the facts of the case amply bore out. Stigand, whether canonically appointed or not, was, in law and in fact, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Bishop-elect therefore did not scruple to make his profession of canonical obedience to him.[1378] He did not scruple thus far to recognize the legal primacy of an Archbishop appointed by the King and Witan of England. It was only the sacramental rite of consecration which he sought at the hands of a Primate whose canonical position |Wulfstan is consecrated by Ealdred. Sept. 8, 1062.| was open to no cavil. For this he went to the newly appointed Metropolitan of Northumberland, and was consecrated by him at York. Ealdred had however to declare, perhaps before the assembled Witan,[1379] that he claimed no authority, ecclesiastical or temporal, over the Bishop of Worcester, either on the ground of his having been consecrated by him or on that of his having formerly been a monk under his obedience.[1380] Scandal however added that Ealdred contrived to attach a large portion of the estates of the see of Worcester to his own Archbishoprick.[1381]
The other ecclesiastical event of this purely ecclesiastical year has been mentioned already. Earl Harold’s minster at Waltham had been consecrated two years earlier. By this time he had settled the details of his foundation and of its endowments. His gifts and regulations were now confirmed in due form by a royal charter.[1382] As the signature of Wulfstan is not attached to the document, we may suppose that the charter was granted in the same Easter |Ælfwig, Abbot of New Minster. 1063.| Gemót in which Wulfstan’s election was approved. And one more ecclesiastical appointment must, at some slight sacrifice of chronological order, be recorded in this section. In the following year it seems that Harold procured the appointment of a near kinsman, seemingly a brother of his renowned father, to the office of Abbot of the New Minster at Winchester, the great house raised by Eadward the Unconquered in memory of his father Ælfred. It seems strange that a brother of Godwine, if he desired preferment at all, should have had to wait for it so long. But such seems to have been the case, and the name of the new Prelate, Abbot Ælfwig, the uncle of King Harold, will be met with again in the very crisis of our history.[1383]
But the year of this last appointment, or rather the last days of the year of the consecration of Wulfstan, carries us at once among scenes of a widely different kind from ecclesiastical ceremonies at Rome, York, Waltham, or Winchester. The peace of the land is again threatened, and the great Earl of the West-Saxons again stands forth as the one champion in whose hands England could trust her destinies. In the course of the year of Wulfstan’s consecration the ravages of Gruffydd of Wales seem to have begun again with increased fury. He entered the diocese of the new Prelate, and seems to have carried his arms even beyond the Severn,[1384] renewing his earlier exploit of Rhyd-y-Groes. |Witenagemót of Gloucester. Christmas, 1062–1063.| The damage which he had done to the English territory, and the insults which he had thus offered to his lord King Eadward, formed the main subject of discussion at the Christmas Gemót, which was held as usual at Gloucester.[1385] It is to be noticed that we now hear |Death of Ælfgar of Mercia; his son Eadwine succeeds. 1062?| nothing of Gruffydd’s old ally and father-in-law, Earl Ælfgar. His last recorded acts are the peaceful ones of recommending Wulfstan for the Bishoprick of Worcester and of signing the Waltham charter. Two years later we find his son Eadwine in possession of his Earldom. It is therefore not improbable that he died about this time, and the appointment of Eadwine is not unlikely to have taken place in this very Christmas Gemót. But it is certain that Ælfgar, if living, was not deemed trustworthy enough to be commissioned to act against his old ally; nor was his young successor, if he were dead, deemed fit to grapple with so dangerous an enemy, one against whom it was now determined to strike a decisive blow. The ravages of Gruffydd had probably again fallen heavy upon Herefordshire, and Herefordshire was now under the government of Harold. But it was doubtless not as Earl of this or that Earldom, but as the first man of the Kingdom, as something like an elected Ætheling, that Harold now undertook to rid England once for all of this ever recurring |Harold’s march to Rhuddlan. Christmas, 1062–1063.| plague. Notwithstanding, perhaps because of, the time of the year, it was determined to strike a sudden blow, in the hope of seizing or putting to death the turbulent under-King. Harold set forth with a small force, all mounted, therefore probably all of them Housecarls,[1386] and hastened with all possible speed to Rhuddlan on the |1283.| north-east frontier of Wales. The spot is famous in our history as the seat of a Parliament of the great Edward, and its military position is important, as standing at no great distance from the sea, and commanding the vale of Clwyd, the southern Strathclyde. There Gruffydd had a palace, the rude precursor no doubt of the stately castle whose remains now form the chief attraction of Rhuddlan. The Welsh King heard of the approach of the English; he had just time to reach the shore and to escape by sea. Earl Harold was close in pursuit, and the escape of Gruffydd was a narrow one; but he did escape, and the main object of this sudden expedition was thwarted. Harold’s force was not strong enough to endure a long winter campaign in so wild a country; so he contented himself with burning the palace and the ships which were in the haven. The same day on which this destruction was done, he set out on his return march to Gloucester.[1387]
Harold’s attempt at a sudden blow had thus, through an unavoidable accident, been unsuccessful. It was therefore determined to open a campaign on a great scale, which should crush the power of Gruffydd for ever. It was in this campaign that the world first fully learned how great a captain England possessed in her future King. Never was a campaign more ably planned or more vigorously |Its permanent effect on men’s minds.| executed. The deep impression which it made on men’s minds is shown by the way in which it is spoken of by writers who lived a hundred years later, when men had long been taught to look on Harold and his house as |Testimony of John of Salisbury and Giraldus Cambrensis.| a brood of traitors and perjurers. John of Salisbury, writing under the Angevin Henry, chooses this campaign of Harold’s as the most speaking example of the all-important difference between a good general and a bad one. The name of Harold could of course not be uttered without some of the usual disparaging epithets, but he allows that the faithless usurper was a model of every princely and soldier-like excellence.[1388] He compares the days of Harold with his own, and wishes that England had captains like him to drive back the marauders who, in his own time, harried her borders with impunity.[1389] Another writer of the same age, the famous Giraldus, attributes to this campaign of Harold the security which England enjoyed on the side of the Welsh during the reigns of the three Norman Kings.[1390] These two writers, evidently speaking quite independently of each other, give us several details of the campaign. These are fully confirmed by the witness of Eadward’s Biographer, and all their accounts fit without difficulty into the more general narrative given by the Chroniclers.
The campaign opened in the last days of May. Its general plan was a combined attack on the Welsh territory from both sides. Harold sailed with a fleet from Bristol, the haven from which he had set sail on so different an errand twelve years before; Tostig set forth with a mounted land force from Northumberland.[1391] The brothers met, probably at some point of central Wales, and began a systematic ravaging of the country. The military genius of Harold was now conspicuously shown in the way in which he adapted himself to the kind of warfare which he had to wage. Nothing could be better suited than the ancient English tactics for a pitched battle with an equal enemy. But here there was no hope or fear of pitched battles, and the enemy to be dealt with was one whose warfare was of a very different kind. The English Housecarls, with their heavy coats of mail and huge battle-axes, were eminently unfitted to pursue a light-armed and active foe through the hills and valleys of Wales. Ralph the Timid had brought himself and his army to discomfiture by compelling his Englishmen suddenly to adopt the tactics of France;[1392] the valiant |Harold adopts the Welsh tactics.| Earl of the West-Saxons proved his true generalship by teaching his army to accustom themselves to the tactics and the fare[1393] of Welshmen. The irregular English troops, the fyrd, the levies of the shires, did not differ very widely from the Welsh mode of fighting. But it is not likely that Harold would enter on such a campaign as this without the help of at least a strong body of tried and regular soldiers. We must therefore conclude that Harold actually required his Housecarls to follow the tactics suitable to the country. They gave up the close array of the shield-wall; they laid aside their axes and coats of mail; clothed in leathern jerkins, they retained their swords, but they were to trust mainly to the nimble and skilful use of the |Harold ravages and subdues all Wales.| javelin for attack and of the shield for defence.[1394] Thus attired, the English, under their great leader, proved more than a match for the Welsh at their own weapons. Unhappily we have no geographical details of the campaign, but we have a vivid picture of its general nature, and we can see that it must have extended over a large portion of the country. There were no pitched battles; but the English, in their new array, everywhere contended with success against the enemy. Every defensible spot of ground was stoutly contested by the Britons; but even the most inaccessible mountain fastnesses proved no safeguard against the energy of Harold.[1395] He won skirmish after skirmish, and each scene of conflict was marked, we are told, by a trophy of stone, bearing the proud legend, “Here Harold conquered.”[1396] Such a warfare was necessarily merciless. The object was to reduce the Welsh to complete submission, to disable them from ever again renewing their old ravages. Harold was fighting too with an enemy who knew not what mercy was, who gave no quarter, who, if they ever took a prisoner, instead of putting him to ransom, cut off his head.[1397] We are not therefore surprised to hear that every male who resisted was put to the sword.[1398] One of our informants is even driven to the rhetoric of the East to express the greatness of the slaughter.[1399] Such |The Welsh submit.| terrible execution soon[1400] broke the spirit of the Welsh. They submitted and gave hostages, they bound themselves to tribute, and pronounced sentence of deposition and outlawry upon Gruffydd.[1401] The King who had reigned over all the Welsh kin,[1402] the warrior who had been hitherto |Gruffydd murdered by his own people. Aug. 5, 1063.| invincible, the head and shield and defender of Britons,[1403] was now thoroughly hated by his own people. The war and its results were laid upon him as a crime,[1404] though we cannot doubt that, in the days of success, the Welsh people had been as eager as their King to carry spoil and slaughter along the Saxon border. But now outlawry was not a doom hard enough for the fallen prince; death alone was the fitting punishment for his crimes. In the month of August in this year, Gruffydd the son of Llywelyn, the last victorious hero of the old Cymrian stock, the last British chief whose name was really terrible in Saxon ears, was put to death by men of his own race, and his head was sent to the conqueror.[1405]
In this crime Harold had no share. He had been merciless as long as resistance lasted, but as soon as the foe submitted, he displayed the same politic and generous lenity which he always displayed towards both foreign and domestic enemies. The head of Gruffydd and the beak of his ship[1406] were brought as trophies to King Eadward. His kingdom was granted to his two brothers or kinsmen, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon,[1407] who received the land as under-Kings of the English Emperor. They swore oaths and gave hostages to King Eadward, and to Earl Harold, seemingly as his destined successor.[1408] They engaged also to pay the tribute which had been accustomed in past times, but which, we may be sure, had been very irregularly paid in the days of Gruffydd.[1409]
Two pieces of legislation are said to have followed the conquest of Wales. Harold is said to have ordained that any Welshman found in arms on the English side of Offa’s Dyke should lose his right hand.[1410] If this was anything more than a temporary military regulation, Harold’s ordaining it can only mean that it was he who proposed the enactment to the Witan. The other decree is attributed to the special indulgence of Eadward himself. The slaughter of the male population of Wales had been so great that there was no chance of the widows and daughters of the slain finding husbands among their own people. Lest the whole race should die out, the King allowed them to marry Englishmen, which we must infer had hitherto been unlawful.[1411] Stories like these must be taken at what they are worth. Though coming from the same source, they do not bear about them the same stamp of truth as the military details of the campaign.