969. Vita Eadw. 405. “Pelagus operiebatur carinis, cœlum densissimis resplendebat armis.” If this was so when they were in the open sea, it must à fortiori have been so when they were in the river.
971. Chronn. Ab. and Wig. “He gefadode wiþ ða burhwaru.”
972. “Þæt hi woldon mæst ealle þæt þæt he wolde,” say the Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles. This answer to a message sounds to me like the vote of an assembly of some kind, in which we may also discern the opposition of a small minority. The Biographer (406) also witnesses to the good disposition of the Londoners; “Sed omnis civitas Duci obviam et auxilio processit et præsidio, acclamantque illi omnes unâ voce prosperè in adventu suo.”
973. “Þa sende he up æfter maran fultume,” says the Abingdon Chronicle, which Florence rather pathetically expands into “Nuntiis properè missis, omnibus qui à se non defecerant mandavit ut in adjutorium sui venire maturarent.”
974. The Peterborough Chronicle, which, just at this point, is less full than Abingdon and Worcester, gives the number; “Ða hi to Lundene comon; þa læg se cyng and þa eorlas ealle þær ongean mid L. scipum.”
975. The King’s ships were on the north bank of the river, “wið þæs norðlandes” (Chron. Ab.); his land force (“se cyng hæfde eac mycele landfyrde on his healfe, to eacan his scypmannum”) was doubtless drawn up on the same side, as the Southwark side was clearly in the hands of Godwine. From the words in Italics, compared with the expressions quoted just before, it would seem that some at least of the northern levies came, perhaps under the command of their own Earls.
976. The Abingdon Chronicle describes the day; “Ðæt wæs on þone Monandæg æfter Sc̃a Marian mæsse.” Florence and Roger of Wendover (i. 491) mark it as “dies exaltationis Sanctæ Crucis.”
977. Chron. Ab. “And seo landfyrd com ufenon, and trymedon hig be þam strande.” Flor. Wig. “Venit et pedestris exercitus, ac se per oram fluvii ordinatim disponens, spissam terribilemque fecit testudinem.” “Pedestris exercitus” is only accidentally an accurate rendering of “landfyrd.” Doubtless they were on foot, but the force of the word is that the popular levies, the militia of the shires round London, came unbidden to support Godwine. The King had only his housecarls and any troops that may have come from the north.
978. Chron. Ab. “And hi hwemdon þa mid þam scypon wið þæs norðlandes, swylce hig woldon þæs cynges scipa abutan betrymman.” Vita Eadw. 406. “Et quoniam facultas undique superiores vires administrabat, hortabantur quàm plures, ut etiam in ipsum Regem irruerent.” This feeling was still stronger a little later in the day. We must remember that, in this story, we are dealing, not with days but with hours.
979. Chron. Ab. “Ac hit wæs heom mæst eallon lað þæt hig sceoldon fohtan wið heora agenes cynnes mannum.... Eac hig noldon þæt utlendiscum þeodum wære þes eard þurh þæt þe swiðor gerymed þe hí heom sylfe ælc oðerne forfore.” The words doubtless simply mean men of their own nation. Roger of Wendover (i. 491) must have had this Chronicle before him, and must have taken the words to mean kinsmen in the later and narrower sense; “Angli, quorum filii, nepotes, et consanguinei cum Godwino erant, noluerunt contra eos dimicare.” Florence has the intermediate expression “propinquos ac compatriotas.”
980. Chron. Petrib. “Þa sendon þa eorlas to þam cynge, and gerndon to him þæt hi moston beon wurðe ælc þæra þinga þe heom mid unrihte ofgenumen wæs.”
981. Ib. “Ða wiðlæg se cyng sume hwile, þeah swa lange, oð þet folc þe mid þam eorle wes wearð swiðe astyred ongean þone cyng and ongean his folc.”
982. See vol. i. p. 466. The Worcester and Abingdon Chronicles, a little way before, have a singular remark that the only good troops on both sides were English; “Forðan þar wæs lyt elles þe aht mycel myhton buton Englisce men on ægþer healfe.” This sounds like a slur on the military prowess alike of the King’s Frenchmen, of Harold’s Irish Danes, and of any Flemings who may have come with Godwine.
983. Chron. Petrib. “Swa þæt se eorl sylf earfoðlice gestylde þæt folc.” So the Biographer, in his more rhetorical way; “Verùm fidelis et Deo devotus Dux verbis et nutu admodum abhorruit.” William of Malmesbury, a little later, pays a fine tribute to Godwine’s eloquence, which is rather a favourite subject of his; “Senex ille et linguâ potens [some read “et famâ clarus et linguâ potens”] ad flectendos animos audientium.”
984. Vita Eadw. 406. “Dum,” inquit, “fidelitatis suæ in corde meo habeam hodie testem, me scilicet malle mortem, quàm aliquid indecens et iniquum egerim, vel agam, vel me vivo agi permittam in dominum meum Regem [cynehlaforde].” William of Malmesbury is certainly justified in saying of Godwine personally, if not of all Godwine’s followers, “pacifico animo repatriantes.”
985. See Appendix S.
986. Chron. Ab. “And Godwine for upp, and Harold his sunu, and heora lið swa mycel swa heom þa geþuhte.”
988. Chron. Petrib. “Sume west to Pentecostes castele, some norð to Rodbertes castele.” Pentecost, as we gather from Florence, who speaks of “Osbernus cognomento Pentecost”—what can be the meaning of so strange a surname?—is the same as Osbern, the son of Richard of Richard’s Castle, of whom we have already heard so much. Robert’s castle must be some castle belonging to Robert the son of Wymarc, as distinctly the most notable man of his name in the country after Robert the Archbishop. Most of his lands lay in the East of England; but he had also property in the shires of Hertford, Huntingdon, and Cambridge, though I do not find any mention of a castle on any of his estates there.
989. The Abingdon Chronicle, followed by Florence, makes William accompany Robert and Ulf on their desperate ride; “Rodbeard bisceop and Willem bisceop and Ulf bisceop uneaðe ætburstan mid þam Frenciscum mannum þe heom mid wæron, and swa ofer sæ becomon.” But the Peterborough writer speaks only of Robert and Ulf, and William’s restoration to his see, a matter of which there is no kind of doubt, could hardly have followed if he had any share in the murderous adventure of his brethren.
990. Chron. Petrib. “And Rodbert arcebisceop and Ulf bisceop gewendon út æt æst geate, and heora geferan, and ofslogon and elles amyrdon manige iunge men.” One might almost fancy London apprentices, as in after times, zealous for the popular cause.
992. Chron. Petrib. “And wearð him þær on anon unwræste scipe, and ferde him on án ofer sæ.” See Mr. Earle’s note on “unwræste,” p. 346.
993. Chron. Petrib. “And forlet his pallium and Christendom ealne her on lande, swa swa hit God wolde; þæ he ǽr begeat þone wurðscipe swa swa hit God nolde.” English has not gained by dropping the negative verb, which survives only in the saying “will he, nill he.”
994. Chron. Petrib. “Ða cwæð mann mycel gemót wiðutan Lundene;” “Statutum est magnum placitum” is the translation in the Waverley Annals, p. 186 Luard. Flor. Wig. “Mane autem facto, concilium Rex habuit.” Chron. Ab. “And wæs þa Witenagemót.” But it is the Peterborough writer only who dwells with evident delight on the popular character of the Assembly.
995. Compare the position of the Dutch Guards and other foreign troops who accompanied William of Orange.
996. “Wiðutan Lundene,” says the Peterborough Chronicler. See Appendix S.
997. Chron. Petrib. “Þær þær Godwine Eorl úp his mal, and betealde hine þær wið Eadward cyng his hlaford and wið ealle landleodan.”
998. We shall presently see that Godwine and Eadward were both armed; it is not at all likely that they were singular in being so. We have already heard enough of votes passed by the army and the like to make an armed Gemót nothing wonderful.
999. I saw the armed Landesgemeinde of Appenzell-ausser-rhoden in 1864. The Law requires each landman to bring his sword; it also forbids the sword to be drawn. In Uri the custom of bearing arms has been given up. Cf. Thuc. i. 5, 6.
1000. Vita Eadw. 406. “Destitutus inprimis fugâ Archipræsulis et suorum multorum verentium adspectum Ducis.”
1001. Chron. Petrib. “And ealle þa eorlas and þa betstan menn þe wæron on þison lande wæron on þam gemote.” Does this merely mean the Earls who had been already spoken of, Godwine and Harold on the one side, Ralph and Odda on the other? Or does it imply the presence of Leofric, Ælfgar, and Siward? Their presence is perfectly possible; but, if they had had any share either in this Gemót or in the earlier military proceedings, it is odd that they are not spoken of.
1002. Il. Σ. 198;
“Verentes adspectum Ducis,” says the Biographer just above.
1003. Vita Eadw. 406. “Viso Rege protinùs abjectis armis ejus advolvitur pedibus.” I conceive the weapon borne to have been the axe, as a sort of official weapon. It appears in the Bayeux Tapestry in the hands of the attendants upon Eadward; so also in the scene where the Crown is offered to Harold, both Harold himself and one of those who make the offer to him bear axes.
1004. Ib. “Orans suppliciter ut in Christi nomine, cujus signiferam regni coronam gestabat in capite, annueret ut sibi liceret purgare se de objecto crimine, et purgato pacem concederet gratiæ suæ.” This surviving fragment of Godwine’s eloquence shows how well he could adapt himself to every class of hearers. But what was the Crown like? The allusion seems to point to something like the Imperial Crown with a cross on the top, but the crowns in the Tapestry are quite different.
1005. Chron. Petrib. “Þet he wæs unscyldig þæs þe him geled wæs, and on Harold his sunu and ealle his bearn.” This is the “purgatio” of the Biographer. So Will. Malms. ii. 199. “Probè se de omnibus quæ objectabantur expurgavit.” Compurgators seem not to have been called for.
1006. Will. Malms. u. s. “Tantum brevi valuit ut sibi liberisque suis honores integros restitueret.”
1007. “Ealle landleodan.” We have lost this, and so many other expressive words. “Landleute” is the old official name of the people of the democratic cantons of Switzerland; but Land is there used in its ordinary opposition to Stadt.
1008. I refer to the oath of the people of Appenzell-ausser-rhoden in their Landesgemeinde. The newly elected Landammann first himself swears to obey the laws; he then administers the oath to the vast multitude before him. The effect of their answer is something overwhelming in its grandeur.
1009. Chron. Petrib. “And cweð mann útlaga Rotberd arcebisceop fullice, and ealle þa Frencisce menn, forðan þe hi macodon mæst þet unseht betweonan Godwine Eorle and þam Cynge.” So William of Malmesbury; “Prolatâ sententiâ in Robertum archiepiscopum ejusque complices quòd statum regni conturbarent, animum regium in provinciales agitantes.”
1010. Chron. Ab. “And geutlageden þa ealle Frencisce men, þe ǽr unlage rærdon, and undom demdon, and únræd ræddon into ðissum earde.” Modern English utterly fails to express the power of the negative words, which modern High German only partially preserves. So Florence; “Omnes Nortmannos qui leges iniquas adinvenerant [a poor substitute for “unlage rærdon”] et injusta judicia judicaverant, multaque Regi insilia [an attempt at transferring the Teutonic negative to the Latin] adversus Anglos [a touch from Peterborough] dederant, exlegaverunt.”
1011. Chron. Ab. and Fl. Wig. I shall have to speak of this exception again.
1012. Ib. “And eallum folce góde lage beheton.”
1013. See Appendix S.
1014. Chron. Petrib. 1052. “And se Cyng geaf þære Hlæfdian eall þæt heo ær ahte.” Chron. Ab. “And Godwine Eorl and Harold and seo Cwen [This title is unusual, but not unique] sæton on heora áre.” She had just before come in incidentally in the list of Godwine’s family; “his sunum ... and his wife and his dehter.” Flor. Wig. “Filiam quoque Ducis, Eadgitham Reginam, digniter Rex recepit et pristinæ dignitati restituit.” The Biographer (406) of course waxes eloquent; “Modico exinde interfluente tempore mittitur æquè regio, ut par erat, apparatu ad monasterium Wiltunense [on this confusion see p. 156] et [I omit metaphors about the sun, &c.] reducitur Regina, ejusdem Ducis filia, ad thalamum Regis.” This last expression should be noticed, and compared with the account in R. Wendover.
1015. On the pilgrimage of Swegen, see Appendix T.
1016. “On þone Tiwesdæg hí gewurdon sehte, swa hit her beforan stent,” says the Abingdon Chronicle.
1019. See Appendix G.
1021. The Peterborough Chronicle seems to record his appointment in the same breath with the other acts of September 15th. Immediately after the outlawry of Richard and the French follow the words, “And Stigand Bisceop feng to þam arcebisceoprice on Cantwarabyrig.” The Chronicler then turns to other matters.
1022. Will. Malms. Gest. Reg. ii. 199. “Romam profectus et de caussâ suâ sedem apostolicam appellans.” In Gest. Pont. 116, he adds that he returned “cum epistolis innocentiæ et restitutionis suæ allegatricibus.”
1023. Hen. Hunt. M. H. B. 761 D. Of William’s three causes for his invasion two are, “Primò, quia Alfredum cognatum suum Godwinus et filii sui dehonestaverant et peremerant; secundò, quia Robertum episcopum et Odonem consulem [see Appendix G.] et omnes Francos Godwinus et filii sui arte suâ ab Angliâ exsulaverant.” The third count is of course the perjury of Harold. So, in nearly the same words, Bromton, X Scriptt. 958.
1024. On the ecclesiastical position of Stigand see Appendix U.
1025. We shall find many examples as we go on, and the general fact is asserted in the Profession of Saint Wulfstan to Lanfranc. See Appendix U.
1026. Chron. Ab. 1053. See Appendix U.
1027. Unless indeed some such feeling lurks in the words of the Abingdon Chronicler, 1053; “Se Wulfwi feng to ðam biscoprice þe Ulf hæfde be him libbendum and of adræfdum.”
1028. Chron. Ab. 1053. See Appendix U.
1030. Thierry (i. 202) makes Godwine resist the retention of any Normans, especially of Bishop William and of the Lotharingian Hermann, Bishop of Ramsbury! For his authority he quotes “Godwinus Comes obstiterat (Ranulphus Higden, p. 281).” To say nothing of going to R. Higden on such a point, any one who makes the reference will find that the words have nothing to do with the matter. They refer to a supposed opposition on the part of Godwine to the union of the sees of Ramsbury and Sherborne, of which more anon.
1031. Flor. Wig. in anno. “Willelmus, propter suam bonitatem, parvo post tempore revocatus, in suum episcopatum recipitur.”
1033. Flor. Wig.
1034. Flor. Wig. 1052. “Osbernus verò, cognomento Pentecost, et socius ejus Hugo sua reddiderunt castella, et Comitis Leofrici licentiâ, per suum comitatum Scottiam adeuntes a Rege Scottorum Macbeothâ suscepti sunt.”
1035. In the writ of 1060 (Cod. Dipl. iv. 194), announcing the nomination of Walter to the see of Hereford, the King greets “Haroldum Comitem et Osebarnum et omnes meos ministros in Herefordensi comitatu amicabiliter.” See Ellis, i. 460. He was apparently Sheriff; he is not indeed directly called so, but the position in the writ in which his name occurs is one which generally belongs to the Sheriff. The appearance of a French Sheriff in this particular shire may be accounted for by the presence of a French Earl. It is more remarkable if Robert the son of Wymarc was Sheriff of Essex, as might be inferred from the similar position of his name in a writ in Cod. Dipl. iv. 214.
1036. Flor. Wig. 1052. “Robertum diaconem et generum ejus Ricardum filium Scrob.”
1037. Several Ælfreds occur in Domesday, as the great landowners, Ælfred of Marlborough and Ælfred of Spain, but it is not easy to identify their possessions with any holder of the name in Eadward’s time. The names Ælfred and Eadward, and the female name Eadgyth, seem to have been the only English names adopted by the Normans. The two former would naturally be given to godsons or dependants of the two Æthelings while in Normandy, and Eadgyth would gain currency as the name of the wife of the sainted King.
1038. The possessions of Ralph the Staller were very large. He signs an English document of Abbot Ælfwig of Bath in Cod. Dipl. iv. 172, as “Roulf steallere.”
1039. He signs as “Huhgelin minister.” Cod. Dipl. iv. 173. Cf. Domesday, Hunt. 208, where his title is “Camerarius.” Æth. Riev. X Scriptt. 376.
1040. Vita Eadw. 406. “Unde post tam grande malum absque sanguine sedatum Ducis sapientiâ, sollennis celebratur lætitia tam à palatinis quam ab omni patriâ.”
1041. On this point the Biographer becomes enthusiastic, and bursts forth, after his manner, into no less than forty hexameters. Godwine suffering under false accusations had been likened to Joseph and Susanna; now that he spares and honours a King whom he has in his power, he is likened to David doing the like towards Saul. Altogether the comparison is not a very lucky one for either Godwine or Eadward.
1042. Chron. Ab. 1052. “Godwine þa gesiclode hraðe þæs þe he upcom.”
1043. Chron. Wig. 1053. “And man rædde þæt man sloh Rís þæs Wyliscean cynges broþer, forðy he hearmas dyde.” Florence more fully; “Griffini Regis Australium Wallensium frater, Res nomine, propter frequentes prædas quas egit in loco qui Bulendun dicitur, jussu Regis Eadwardi, occiditur.” There are Bullingdons both in Oxfordshire and in Hampshire, but Welsh ravages could hardly reach to either of them.
1044. Chron. Wig. “And man brohte his heafod to Glewcestre [“Glawornam ad Regem” Fl. Wig.] on Twelftan ǽfen.” William of Malmesbury (ii. 196) makes Harold the agent, which is quite possible, but he mixes the matter up in a strange way with the fate of Gruffydd of North Wales, ten years later. “Haroldum West-Saxonum [Comitem], filium Godwini, qui duos fratres Reges Walensium Ris et Grifinum sollertiâ suâ in mortem egerit.” William, perhaps pardonably, confounds the two Gruffydds.
1045. Chron. Petrib. 1052. “And on þis ilcan tyme forlet Arnwi abbot of Burh abbotrice be his halre life, and geaf hit Leofric munec be þes cynges leafe and be þære munece.” The local writer, Hugo Candidus, seems (Sparke, 41) to place Leofric’s appointment in 1057. So John of Peterborough, a. 1057, who calls him “egregius pater Leofricus.” Hugo is loud in his praises; among his other merits he was so high in the favour of the King and the Lady that he held five abbeys at once, Burton, Coventry, Crowland, and Thorney, besides Peterborough.
1047. Hugo Candidus, ap. Sparke, 42.
1048. Chron. Petrib. 1052. “And se abbot Leofric gildede þa þæt mynstre swa þæt man hit cleopede þa gildene Burh; þa wæx hit swiðe on land and on gold and on seolfer.” Cf. 1066.
1049. Chron. Petrib. 1066.
1050. See Appendix W.
1051. See Chron. Ab. 1052, and Appendix E. and W.
1052. Liber de Hydâ, 289. “Porro uxor ejus [she is “Geta, genus, ut aiunt, ex insulâ Norwegiâ ducens”], magnæ sanctitatis multæque religionis tramitem incedens, omni die duas ad minus missas studiosè [see above, p. 28] audiebat, omnique fere sabbato per duo aut amplius miliaria nudis pedibus vicina ambiebat monasteria, largis muneribus cumulans altaria, largisque donis pauperes recreans.” Of her gifts for her husband’s soul we read in the Winchester Annals, p. 26; “Githa, uxor Godwini, fœmina multas habens facultates, pro animâ ejus multis ecclesiis in eleemosynâ multa contulit, et Wintoniæ ecclesiæ dedit duo maneria, scilicet, Bleodonam et Crawecumbam et ornamenta diversi generis.” Of these lordships, Bleadon and Crowcombe in Somersetshire, Bleadon still remained to the Church at the time of the survey (Domesday, 87 b), but Crowcombe had been alienated to Count Robert of Mortain (91 b). Another gift for her husband’s soul made by Gytha to the church of Saint Olaf at Exeter is found in Cod. Dipl. iv. 264. This charter, signed by her sons Tostig and Gyrth as Earls, must be of a later date (1057–1065), and shows that her pious anxiety still continued. Of Gytha’s religious scruples a specimen will be found in Appendix E. She is said (Tanner, Notitia Monastica, Devon, xxv. New Monasticon, vi. 435) to have founded a College at Hartland in Devon. A secular establishment founded by Harold’s mother should be noted.
1053. Chron. Ab. 1053. “And he lið þær binnan ealdan mynstre.” Vita Eadw. 408. “Tumulatur ergo condigno honore in monasterio quod nuncupant veteri Wintoniæ, additis in eâdem ecclesiâ multis ornamentorum muneribus et terrarum reditibus pro redemptione ipsius animæ.”
1054. Vita Eadw. 408. “Exsequiis suis in luctum decidit populus, hunc patrem, hunc nutricium suum regnique, memorabant suspiriis et assiduis fletibus.”
1055. Vita Eadw. 408. “Dux felicis memoriæ.”
1058. Chron. Petrib. 1053. “And feng Harold Eorl his sunu to ðam eorldome and to eallum þam þe his fæder ahte.” So the others in other words.
1061. Vita Eadw. 408. “Subrogatur autem regio favore in ejus [Godwini] ducatu filius ejus major natu et sapientiâ Haroldus, unde in consolationem respirat universus Anglorum exercitus.” Then follows the panegyric quoted in Appendix D.
1062. See Appendix G.
1063. Chronn. Ab. Wig. Petrib. Cant. in anno.
1064. We have one panegyric on Ælfgar in Orderic (511 A), but it is a panegyric by misadventure. Orderic clearly confounded Ælfgar with his father. William of Malmesbury however (see above, p. 161) speaks well of his government of East-Anglia during Harold’s banishment.
1066. That the number of Frenchmen who remained in England was considerable is shown, as Lappenberg says (p. 514. ii. 255 Thorpe), by a passage in the so-called Laws of William (Thorpe, i. 491. Schmid, 354), by which it appears that many of them had become naturalized English subjects; “Omnis Francigena, qui tempore Eadwardi propinqui nostri fuit in Angliâ particeps consuetudinum Anglorum, quod ipsi dicunt an hlote et an scote, persolvat secundum legem Anglorum.”
1068. I quote, as one example of many, the signatures to the foundation charter of Harold’s own church at Waltham (Cod. Dipl. iv. 158). The seemingly Norman names, besides Bishop William, are “Rodbertus Regis consanguineus, Radulphus Regis aulicus [the two Stallers], Bundinus Regis palatinus (?), Hesbernus Regis consanguineus, Regenbaldus Regis cancellarius, Petrus Regis capellanus, Baldewinus Regis capellanus.” But the deed is also signed by many English courtiers, as well as Earls, Prelates, and Thegns.
1069. I do not ground this belief on the well-known saying of the false Ingulf (Gale, i. 62), how in Eadward’s days “Gallicum idioma omnes magnates in suis curiis tamquam magnum gentilitium [linguam gentilitiam?] loqui [cœperunt].” Harold’s foreign travels, and his sojourn at the Norman court, seem to imply a knowledge of French, and I can well believe that at home King Eadward looked more favourably on a counsellor who could frame his lips to the beloved speech.
1070. This seems implied in the famous poetical panegyric on Eadward and Harold in the Chronicles for 1065.
1071. Chron. Wig. 1053. “And þæs ylcan geres, foran to alra halgena mæssan, forðferde Wulsyg bisceop æt Licetfelda, and Godwine abbod on Wincelcumbe, and Ægelward abbod on Glestingabyrig, ealle binnan anum monþe.”
1072. Chron. Ab. and Flor. Wig.
1075. On Abbot Æthelnoth see William of Malmesbury, Glastonbury History, ap. Gale, ii. 324. Æthelweard spoiled the lands, Æthelnoth the ornaments, of the house. “Ex illo res Glastoniæ retro relabi et in pejus fluere.” He has much to tell about the miracles wrought by King Eadgar about this time—Eadgar, it must be remembered, passed at Glastonbury, in defiance of all legends, for a saint—specially in healing a mad German, “furiosus Teutonicus genus.” Was he one of the suite of the Ætheling?