1508. See the description in the Biographer, and representation in the Bayeux Tapestry, which shows beyond doubt that the building consecrated in 1065 was a perfect church, and not a mere fragment.
1509. So says the French Life (2295), which, on such a subject, may be trusted;
But, as the Tapestry does not show these towers, they were probably carried up at a later time, as often happened.
1510. Vita Eadw. 417. “Præcepit deinde ex decimis omnium redituum suorum initiari opus nobilis ædificii.” So Cod. Dipl. iv. 176. “Decimari præcepi omnem substantiam meam, tam in auro et argento, quàm in pecudibus et omni genere possessionum.”
1511. Cod. Dipl. iv. 179. So the writs in iv. 190, 228. I presume that he succeeded Wulfnoth in 1049.
1512. The Charter in Cod. Dipl. 176 says, “Destruens veterem, novam à fundamentis basilicam construxi.” The Biographer explains the gradual process (418); “Hæc autem multiplicitas tam vasti operis tanto spatio ab oriente ordita est veteris templi, ne scilicet interim inibi commorantes fratres vacarent a servitio Christi, ut etiam aliqua pars spatiosè subiret interjaciendi vestibuli.” The Biographer, always hard to understand, is specially so in his architectural description.
1513. The charter in Cod. Dipl. iv. 177 mentions Leofcild, Æthelric, Wulfwig, Guthmund, Ælfric, Atsere (or Azor) the Black (Swerte), Ingulf, Atsere, Tostig, Ælfwine, Wulfstan, Siward, and Leofsige of London. The gifts of several of them are mentioned in various writs: Leofcild in iv. 214; Ælfwine, iv. 217; Atsere Swerte, iv. 220; the other Atsere, iv. 191 (which of these was the Azor of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire?); and Leofsige, “Dudde sunu,” iv. 218. There is also Ulf the Portreeve in iv. 221. The writs about the King’s own gifts are very numerous.
1515. Æthelred, 389. Was this holy man the inclusus Wulfsige?
1516. Æthelred, 396. “Ipso ad regnum cœleste translato, cuncta terrarum regna commota sunt. Syria paganis subjecta, destructa monasteria, dirutæ à fundamentis ecclesiæ, plena funeribus omnia, morte principum Græcorum, Romanorum, Francorum, Anglorum, et regna cætera perturbata.” As regards the “Princeps Romanorum,” the hagiographer is wide of his mark, for Henry the Fourth survived the Confessor forty years.
1517. See the story in the De Inventione, p. 22. Æthelred, 397. The Waltham writer lets us incidentally into the fact that London, York, Winchester, and Lincoln were then counted the four chief cities of England. In the great dispute over the quarters of Dafydd in 1283 (Ann. Waverley, 400 ed. Luard), the order was ruled to be London, Winchester, York, Bristol (others say Chester), with Northampton as the fifth.
1518. Æthelred, writing in Yorkshire, mentions vaguely a church of Saint John; the East-Saxon writer fixes it at Clavering. See Professor Stubbs’ note, p. 24.
1519. “Postea” says Æthelred, but “eodem die,” according to Roger of Howden, Scriptt. p. Bed. 256.
1520. Vita Eadw. 418. “Ejus æquivoca sancta Ædgith, de cujus progenie idem Rex Ædwardus descenderat.” The Biographer could hardly have thought that Eadward was a lineal descendant of this virgin saint, his own aunt. But in his rhetoric “progenies,” or any other word, may mean anything.
On the power of Saint Eadgyth to rebuke blasphemers, see vol. i. p. 484.
1521. Vita Eadw. u. s. “Lignea tamen adhuc illic ecclesia stabat.”
1522. Ib. “Regio opere lapideum monasterium inchoat, ferventiùsque instans operarios maturat. Contendunt hinc Rex, illinc Reginâ, contentione Deo gratâ, in invicem quoque non injocundâ.”
1523. Ib. 421. “Actâ ergo hujus ecclesiæ consecratione ... anno Domini millesimo sexagesimo quinto ad justitium totius patriæ, hæc regni subsequuta est perturbatio.”
1524. Fl. Wig. 1065. “In nativitate Domini curiam suam, ut potuit, Lundoniæ tenuit.” Æthel. 398. “Appropinquabat dies ... in quo Anglorum tota nobilitas ad Regis curiam debuit convenire, et Regi more suo sceptris simul et coronâ decorando adsistere.” So directly after (399), “Convenientibus in unum episcopis cunctisque regni proceribus, sacra dedicationis sollennitas inchoatur.”
1525. Æthel. 398, 399. Will. Malms. ii. 228. “In Natale Domini apud Lundoniam coronatus est.”
1526. The consecration “on Cyldamæsse dæg” is asserted by all three Chronicles, by Florence, and by William of Malmesbury. “Lét halgian” is the phrase of Abingdon and Worcester; so Florence, “cum magnâ gloriâ dedicari fecit,” and William of Malmesbury, “dedicari præcepit.” The action of Eadgyth comes from Æthelred, 399; “Rex, quantùm valetudo permittebat, favebat officio, sed Regina, omnia disponens, omnia procurans, sollicita de omnibus, intenta omnibus, utriusque vicem implevit.”
1527. I reserve the details of Eadward’s death for my next Chapter. It is so essentially connected with the accession of Harold that the two events can hardly be separated in narration, and the different accounts of the death-bed scene at once lead us to the discussion of the question as to Eadward’s dying recommendation with regard to his successor.