The war was now renewed by Swend, seemingly in partnership with an actor of greater, though perhaps less |Early life and exploits of Harold. 1030–1044.| merited, renown than himself.[213] Harold the son of Sigurd, the half-brother of Saint Olaf, had escaped as a stripling from the field of Stikkelstad, where his brother, according to one view, received the crown of martyrdom, while, according to another, he received only the just reward of hasty and violent, however well-meant, interference with the ancient institutions of his country. Harold, surnamed Hardrada—the stern in council—lived to become the most renowned warrior of the North, the last Scandinavian King who ever set foot as an enemy on purely English ground, the last invader who was to feel the might of Englishmen fighting on their own soil for their own freedom, and who was, in his fall, to pave the way for the victory of an invader yet mightier than himself. The fight of Stamfordbridge, the fight of the two Harolds, will form one of the most striking scenes in a later stage of our history. As yet, Harold was known only as the hero of a series of adventures as wild and wonderful as any that have ever been recounted in poetry or romance. |Escape of Harold from Stikkelstad.| Wounded at Stikkelstad, the young prince was saved by a faithful companion, and was cherished during the following winter by a yeoman ignorant of his rank. He passed through Sweden into Russia, where he formed a |He goes to Constantinople.| friendship with King Jaroslaf of Novgorod. Thence, after a few years, he betook himself, with a small train |State of the Empire.| of companions, to the Byzantine Court. He found the Eastern Empire in one of those periods of decay which so strangely alternate in its history with periods of regeneration at home and victory abroad. The great Macedonian dynasty was still on the throne; but the mighty Basil was in his grave, and the steel-clad lancers of the New Rome were no longer the terror of Saracen, Bulgarian, |Reign of Zôê. 1028–1050.| and Russian. The Empire which he had saved, and which he had raised to the highest pitch of glory, had now become the plaything of a worthless woman, and the diadem of the Cæsars was passed on at every caprice of her fancy from one husband or lover to another. The Norwegian prince reached the Great City, the Mickelgard of Northern story, in the period of Byzantine history known as the Reigns of the Husbands of Zôê.[214] The Eastern Cæsars had already begun to gather the Northern adventurers who appeared at their doors as friends or as |The Warangians.| enemies into that famous Warangian body-guard, the counterpart of the Housecarls of Cnut, which as yet seems to have been recruited wholly from Scandinavia, but which was afterwards to be reinforced by so large a body of exiles from our own land.[215] Harold apparently received the command of this force, and at their head he is said to have performed a series of amazing exploits.[216] It would almost seem as if the arrival of these Northern auxiliaries had inspired the Empire with a new life. Certain |Their services under Harold in Sicily. 1038–1040.| it is that, just about this time, we find the Byzantine armies, after an interval of torpor, once more in vigorous action, and that in the very region in which the Norwegian Saga places the most memorable exploits of Harold. He waged war, we are told, against the Saracens both in Sicily and in Africa; he fought eight pitched battles, and took castle after castle from the misbelievers. That is, there can be little doubt, Harold and his followers served in the Sicilian expedition of Maniakês, who was at this time waging a vigorous war against the Saracens of Sicily, and who recovered many of their towns to the Empire.[217] It does not appear that Maniakês actually ventured on an African campaign, but, as the Saracens of Africa undoubtedly aided their Sicilian brethren,[218] a landing of Imperial troops on their coast is quite possible. At all events, warfare with African Saracens anywhere might easily, in the half-legendary language of the Sagas, grow |His Crusade or Pilgrimage.| into a tale of an actual invasion of Africa. Harold is next represented as entering on another series of adventures for which it is more difficult to find a place in authentic history. He set out, we are told, on a premature Crusade; he marched with his followers to Jerusalem, clearing the way of robbers, and winning back countless towns and castles to the allegiance of Christ and Cæsar. Here we have of course the mere reflexion of the age of the writer, who could not conceive so famous a warrior as entering the Holy City in any character but that of a conqueror. But that Harold, as a peaceful pilgrim, the brother of a canonized Saint, visited Jerusalem, prayed and gave gifts at the Holy Sepulchre, and bathed in the hallowed stream of Jordan, is quite in the spirit of the age and of the man.[219] He shared in the penitential devotion of Robert the father of Norman William and of Swegen the brother of English Harold; and, more fortunate than either, he returned in safety and glory to his own land. He came back to Constantinople to find himself maligned at the Imperial Court, and to be refused the hand of a niece of the Empress.[220] Scandal went so far as to say that the cause of this refusal was that Zôê, a woman whose passions survived to an unusually late period of life, herself cast an eye of love on the valiant |Harold escapes from Constantinople.| Northman. Harold now made his escape from Constantinople, after—so his Northern admirers ventured to say—putting out the eyes of the Emperor Constantine Monomachos. This of course is pure fiction. The historical truth of Harold’s warlike exploits is in no way impugned by the silence of the Byzantine writers; but so striking an event as the blinding of an Emperor could hardly fail to have found a native chronicler. But we may believe, if we please, that Harold carried off the princess by force, that the Scandinavian galleys burst the chain which guarded the Bosporos, that Harold then left his fair prize on shore, bidding her tell her Imperial kinswoman how little her power availed against either the might or the craft of the |He returns to Russia,| Northman. Harold now returned to Russia. He had carried off the Byzantine princess only as a bravado; his heart was fixed on Elizabeth, the daughter of his former host Jaroslaf of Novgorod. He now hastened to her father’s court, obtained her in marriage, and passed over with |and finds Swend in Sweden.| her into Sweden. He there found Swend, defeated and in banishment. With him he concerted measures for a joint expedition against Magnus, now in possession of |Swend and Harold attack Magnus, and save England from invasion. 1045.| Denmark.[221] There can be little doubt that it was this joint expedition of Swend and Harold which saved England from a Norwegian invasion. King Eadward watched at Sandwich with his great fleet during the whole summer, expecting the approach of the enemy. But Magnus came not. Harold and Swend together, by their invasion of Denmark, gave him full occupation throughout the year.[222]
It was apparently early in this year of expected invasion that Eadward at last married Eadgyth the daughter of Godwine.[223] It is not easy to see why the marriage had been so long delayed; but, if the Norman influence was advancing, the wary Earl might well deem that no time was to be lost in bringing about the full completion of a promise which the King was probably not very eager to fulfil. Godwine’s power however was not as yet seriously shaken. |Earldoms given to Harold and Beorn.| It was also probably in this year, as we have seen, that his son Harold and his wife’s nephew Beorn received their Earldoms.[224] The ecclesiastical appointments of the year seem also to point to the predominance of the patriotic |Death of Bishop Brihtwold.| party. In this year died Brihtwold, Bishop of Wilton or Ramsbury, a Prelate who had in past times been honoured with a vision portending Eadward’s accession to the Crown, and who had had the good luck of living to |Hermann of Lotharingia succeeds. 1045.| see his prophecy fulfilled.[225] The appointment of his successor should be carefully noticed. He was Hermann of Lotharingia, a chaplain of the King’s, the first of the series of German or other Imperialist Prelates of whom |Promotion of German Prelates.| I have already spoken.[226] The promotion of Germans in England was not wholly new. It seems to have begun under Cnut, and it was probably a fruit of his friendship |Duduc Bishop of Wells. 1033–1060.| with the Emperor Conrad. In his time the Saxon Duduc had obtained the see of Wells,[227] and another German, |Wythmann Abbot of Ramsey.| Wythmann by name, had held the great abbey of Ramsey.[228] Had the appointment of Hermann stood alone, we might have simply looked on it as the result of Eadward’s connexion with King Henry. Or we might even have looked on it in a worse light, as a sign that Eadward preferred foreigners of any sort to his own countrymen. But several considerations may lead us to |The German appointments probably favoured by Godwine.| look on the matter in another way. These German appointments are clearly part of a system; the system is continued after the death of Henry the Third, when the close connexion between Germany and England ceases; Harold himself, in the height of his power, appears as a special promoter of German churchmen. We can therefore hardly fail to see in these appointments, as I have already hinted, an attempt of Godwine and the patriotic party to counterbalance the merely French |Policy of Lotharingian appointments.| tendencies of Eadward himself. We must observe that most of these Prelates were natives of Lotharingia, a term which, in the geography of that age, includes—and indeed most commonly means—the Southern Netherlands. That is to say, they came from the border land of Germany and France, where the languages of both kingdoms were already familiar to every educated man.[229] We can well understand that, in those cases in which the patriots found it impossible to procure the King’s consent to the appointment of an Englishman, they might well be content to accept the appointment of a German of Lotharingia as a compromise. One whose blood, speech, and manners had not wholly lost the traces of ancient brotherhood would be more acceptable to Godwine and to England than a mere Frenchman. And one to whom the beloved speech of Gaul was as familiar as his mother-tongue would be more acceptable to the denationalized Eadward than one of his own subjects. This policy was probably as sound as any that could be hit upon in such a wretched state of things. But its results were not wholly satisfactory. I know of no reason to believe that any of these Lotharingian Prelates actually proved traitors to England; but they certainly did not, as a class, offer the same steady resistance to French influences as the men who had been born in the land. And, if they were not Normannizers, they were at least Romanizers. They brought with them habits of constant reference to the Papal See, and a variety of scruples on points of small canonical regularity, to which Englishmen had hitherto been strangers. Still something was gained, if Godwine, on the death of Brihtwold, could procure the appointment of a Lotharingian, instead of a French, successor.[230] A slight counterpoise was thus gained to the influence of the Norman Bishop of London. But, at the next great ecclesiastical |Death of Bishop Lyfing. March 23 1046.| vacancy, the patriotic party were more successful. In the course of the next year England lost one of her truest worthies; the great Earl lost one who had been his right hand man in so many crises of his life, in so |His career and character.| many labours for the welfare of his country. Lyfing, the patriot Bishop of Worcester, died in March in the following year. Originally a monk of Winchester, he was first raised to the Abbacy of Tavistock. While still holding |1027.| that office, he had been the companion of Cnut in his Roman pilgrimage, and had been the bearer of the great King’s famous letter to his English subjects.[231] The consummate prudence which he had displayed in that and in other commissions,[232] had procured his appointment to the Bishoprick of Crediton or Devonshire. With that see the Bishoprick of Cornwall had been finally united during his episcopate.[233] With that double see he had held, according |1038.| to a vicious use not uncommon at the time, the Bishoprick of Worcester in plurality.[234] In that office, he had steadily adhered to the cause of the great Earl through all the storms of the days of Harold and Harthacnut, and he had had a share second only to that of Godwine himself in the work of placing Eadward upon the throne.[235] Either his plurality of benefices had given, as it reasonably might, offence to strict assertors of ecclesiastical rule,[236] or, what is at least as likely, the patriotic career of Lyfing had made him, like Godwine himself, a mark for Norman slander, whether alive or dead. His death, we are told, was accompanied by strange portents, which were however quite as capable of a favourable as of an unfavourable interpretation.[237] But his memory was loved and cherished in the places where he was best known. Long after the Norman Conquest, the name of the Prelate whose body rested in their minster still lived in the hearts and on the mouths of the monks of Tavistock.[238] And the simple entry of a Chronicler who had doubtless heard him with his own ears bears witness to that power of speech in the exercise of which he had so often stood side by side with his illustrious friend. The other Chronicles merely record his death; the Worcester writer adds the speaking title, “Lyfing the eloquent.”[239]
The great mass of preferment held by Lyfing did not pass undivided to a single successor. The Bishopricks of Devonshire and Cornwall remained united, as they have done ever since. They were conferred on the King’s Chancellor, Leofric, who is described as a Briton, that is, doubtless, a native of the Cornish portion of his diocese.[240] His name however shows that he was of English, or at least of Anglicized, descent. But in feeling he was neither British nor English; as Hermann was a Lotharingian by birth, Leofric was equally a Lotharingian by education.[241] Four years after his appointment, he followed |He removes the see to Exeter. 1050.| the example of Ealdhun of Durham in removing his episcopal see to a new site.[242] He did not however, like Ealdhun, create at once a church and a city;[243] he rather forestalled the practice of Prelates later in the century by transferring his throne to the greatest town of his diocese. The humbler Crediton had to yield its episcopal rank to the great city of the West, the city which Æthelstan had fortified as a cherished bulwark of his realm,[244] the city whose valiant burghers had beaten back the Dane in his full might, and which had fallen into his hands only when the Norman traitor was set to guard its walls.[245] She whose fatal presence had caused that great misfortune still |1003–1050.| lived. The first years of Emma in England beheld the capture and desolation of her noble morning-gift. Her last years saw the restored city become the spiritual capital of the great western peninsula. And, within the lifetime |1067.| of many who saw that day, Exeter was again to stand a siege at the hands of a foreign King, and again to show forth the contrast between citizens as valiant as those who drove Swend from before their walls and captains as incompetent or as treacherous as Hugh the Churl. The church of Saint Peter in Exeter now became the cathedral church of the western diocese, and there Leofric was solemnly enthroned in his episcopal chair by the saintly King and his virgin wife.[246] Hitherto the church had been occupied by nuns. They were now removed, and the chapter of the Bishop was formed of secular Canons. Leofric however required them to conform to the stricter |He subjects his Canons to the rule of Chrodegang.| discipline which he had learned in Lotharingia. The rule of Chrodegang of Metz, the model rule of secular Canons, though it did not impose monastic vows, yet imposed on those who conformed to it much of the strictness of monastic discipline.[247] The clerks who submitted to it were severed, hardly less than actual monks, from all the ordinary habits of domestic life. They were condemned to the common table and the common dormitory; every detail of their life was regulated by a series of minute ordinances; they were cut off from lay, and especially from female, society, and bound to a strict obedience to their Bishop or other ecclesiastical superior. Still they were not monks; they were even strictly forbidden to wear the monastic garb,[248] and the pastoral duties of baptism, preaching, and hearing confession were strictly enforced upon them. In accordance with the precepts of Chrodegang, the Canons of Exeter were required to eat in a common hall and to sleep in a common dormitory. Their temporal concerns were managed by an officer, who provided them with daily food, and with a yearly change of raiment. This sort of discipline never found favour in England. All who were not actual monks clave earnestly to the usage of separate houses, in which they were often solaced by the company of wives and children. Every earlier and later attempt to introduce the Lotharingian rule in England utterly failed.[249] Leofric’s discipline seems to have lasted somewhat longer than commonly happened in the like cases. Vestiges of the severer rule still remained at Exeter in the next century, but even then the purity of ancient discipline had greatly fallen off.[250]
One of the sees vacated by the death of Lyfing thus fell to the lot of a zealous ecclesiastical reformer, but a man who plays no important part in the general history of the time. The fate of Lyfing’s other Bishoprick was widely different. It was bestowed on a Prelate who, without ever displaying any very great qualities, played a prominent, and on the whole not a dishonourable, part for many years to come. The early career of the famous Ealdred, who now succeeded Lyfing in the see of Worcester, had led him through nearly the same stages as that of his predecessor. Like him, he had been a monk at Winchester; like him, he had been thence called to the government of one of the great monasteries of the West. The Abbey of Tavistock, |997.| destroyed by Danish invaders in the reign of Æthelred,[251] had risen from its ashes, and it now proved a nursery of |Character of Ealdred.| Prelates like Lyfing and Ealdred.[252] The new Bishop was a man of ability and energy. He exhibits, like Harold, the better form of the increasing connexion between England and the continent. As an ambassador at the Imperial court, as a pilgrim at Rome and Jerusalem, he probably saw more of the world than any contemporary Englishman. He was renowned as a peacemaker, one who could reconcile the bitterest enemies.[253] But he was also somewhat of a time-server, and, in common with so many other Prelates of his time, he did not escape the charge of simony. This charge is one which it is easy to bring and often hard to answer, but the frequency with which it is brought shows that the crime itself was a familiar one. Like many other churchmen of his time, Ealdred did not scruple to bear arms both in domestic and in foreign warfare, but his campaigns were, to say the least, not specially glorious. His most enduring title to remembrance is that it fell to his lot to place, within a single year, the Crown of England on the brow, first of Harold and then of William, and to die of sorrow at the sight of his church and city brought to ruin by the mutual contentions of Normans, Englishmen, and Danes.
We shall find the new Bishop of Worcester appearing a few years later in arms against the Welsh, to whose incursions the southern part of his diocese lay open. But as yet it was only his powers of persuasion and peacemaking which he was called upon to exercise in that quarter. It was probably by Ealdred’s intervention that a reconciliation was now brought about between the famous King of North Wales, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,[254] and his English overlord.
Gruffydd’s immediate neighbour to the east was Swegen, whose anomalous Earldom took in the border shires of Gloucester and Hereford. Gruffydd accordingly gave hostages, and accompanied Swegen in an expedition against the other Gruffydd, the son of Rhydderch, the King of South Wales.[255] On his triumphant return Swegen was guilty of an act which embittered the remainder of his days, a breach of the laws of morality which the ecclesiastical feelings of the time clothed with tenfold guilt. He sent for Eadgifu, Abbess of Leominster, kept her |Swegen seduces Eadgifu, Abbess of Leominster.| awhile with him, and then sent her home.[256] Like the Hamor of patriarchal story, he next sought, with a generosity as characteristic of his wayward temper as any |He seeks in vain to marry her.| of his worst deeds, to make reparation by marriage.[257] But the law of the Church stood in his way. Richard of Normandy, as we have seen, found it easy to raise his mistress to all the honours due to a matron and the wife of a sovereign. The Lady Emma herself, wife and mother of so many Kings, was the offspring of an union which the Church had thus hallowed only after the fact.[258] But no such means of reparation were open to the seducer of a consecrated virgin. The marriage was of course forbidden, |He throws up his Earldom, and goes to Denmark.| and Swegen, in his disappointment, threw up his Earldom, left his country, and betook himself, first to Flanders, the usual place of refuge for English exiles, and thence to the seat of war in the North.[259] A formal sentence of outlawry seems to have followed, as the lordships of Swegen were confiscated, and divided between his brother Harold and his cousin Beorn.[260] On Eadgifu and her monastery the hand of ecclesiastical discipline seems |Fate of Leominster monastery.| to have fallen heavily. The nunnery of Leominster, one of the objects of the bounty of Earl Leofric,[261] now vanishes from history. The natural inference is that the misconduct of Eadgifu led, not only to her own disgrace, but to the dissolution of the sisterhood over which she had so unworthily presided.[262] We hear of no later marriage on the part of Swegen, but in after years we shall meet with |Hakon son of Swegen.| a son of his, probably a child of the frail Abbess of Leominster. Born under other circumstances, he might have been head of the house of Godwine. As it was, the son of Swegen and Eadgifu was the child of shame and sacrilege, and the career to which he was doomed was short and gloomy.
The banishment of the Staller Osgod Clapa, at the bridal of whose daughter King Harthacnut had come to his untimely end, took place this year.[263] Like the banishment of Gunhild, this measure was evidently connected with the movements in the North of Europe. Osgod was doubtless one of those who had been marked men ever since the election of Eadward,[264] and who, in the present state of Scandinavian affairs, were felt to be dangerous. The immediate peril came from Magnus; but there could be little doubt that, of the three princes who were disputing the superiority of Scandinavia, the successful one, whether Magnus, Harold, or Swend, would assert some sort of claim to the possession of England. Magnus had |1066.| done so already. Harold lived to invade England and to perish in the attempt. It was only the singular prudence of Swend which kept him back from any such enterprise till he was able to interfere in English affairs in the guise |1069.| of a deliverer. Partisans of any one of the contending princes were clearly dangerous in England. Osgod was driven out, seemingly by a decree of the Christmas Gemót,[265] and he presently, after the usual sojourn in Flanders, betook himself to the seat of war in Denmark.[266]
Osgod and Swegen most probably took service with Swend Estrithson. The presence of Swegen would doubtless be welcome indeed to that prince’s partisans. The nephew of Ulf, the cousin of their own leader, the son of the great English Earl, renowned in the North as the conqueror of the Wends,[267] was a recruit richly to be prized. And the cause of Swend Estrithson just then greatly needed recruits. His hopes, lately so flourishing, had been |Harold Hardrada joins Magnus and receives a share of the Kingdom of Norway. 1047.| again dashed to the ground. Magnus had contrived to gain over his uncle Harold to his side, by the costly bribe of a share in the Kingdom of Norway. The gift indeed was not quite gratuitous. Besides cooperating in the war with Swend, Harold was to share with Magnus the treasures which he had gathered in his Southern warfare.[268] The two Kings now joined their forces, and drove Swend out of Jütland and the Danish Isles. He retained only Scania, that part of the old Danish realm which lies on the Swedish side of the Sound, and which is now politically part of Sweden.[269] In the next year Swend was |Swend asks for English help.| again aiming at the recovery of his Kingdom. It was probably the presence of English exiles in his camp, which suggested to him the idea of obtaining regular help from England as an ally of the English King. He |His request is discussed by the Witan;| sent and asked for the help of an English fleet. In those days questions of peace and war were not decided either by the Sovereign only, or by the Sovereign and a few secret counsellors; they were debated openly by the Witan of the whole land. The demand of Swend was discussed in full Gemót. Swend had certainly acted, whether of set purpose or not, as a friend of England; the diversion caused by him had saved England from a Norwegian invasion. But, setting aside any feelings of gratitude on this account, any feelings of attachment to the kinsman of Cnut and of Godwine, it does not appear that England had any direct interest in embracing the cause of Swend. A party which sought only the immediate interest of England might argue that the sound policy was to stand aloof, and to leave the contending Kings of the North to wear out each other’s power and their own. Such however |Godwine supports the claim of Swend;| was not the view taken by Godwine. In the Gemót in which the question was debated, the Earl of the West-Saxons supported the petition of his nephew, and proposed that fifty ships should be sent to his help. It is clear that such a course might be supported by plausible arguments. It is clear that equally plausible arguments might be brought forward on the other side. And if, as is possible, this question was discussed in the same Gemót in which sentence of outlawry was pronounced against Swegen the son of Godwine, it is clear that the father of the culprit would stand at a great disadvantage in supporting the request of the prince with whom that culprit had taken service. It marks the still abiding influence of Godwine that he was able to preserve the confiscated lordships of Swegen for Harold and Beorn. But in his recommendation of giving armed support to Swend Estrithson all his |but his demand is opposed by Leofric, and rejected. 1047.| eloquence utterly failed. The cause of non-intervention was pleaded by Earl Leofric, and his arguments prevailed. All the people, we are told—the popular character of the Assembly still impresses itself on the language of history—agreed with Leofric and determined the proposal of Godwine to be unwise. The naval force of Magnus, it was said, was too great to be withstood.[270] Swend Estrithson had therefore to carry on the struggle with his own unaided forces. Against the combined powers of Magnus |Magnus defeats Swend and occupies Denmark.| and Harold those forces were utterly unavailing. Swend was defeated in a great sea-fight; Magnus took possession of all Denmark, and laid a heavy contribution upon the realm.[271] Swend again took refuge in Sweden, and now began to meditate a complete surrender of his claims upon Denmark. Just at this moment, we are told, a messenger appeared, bringing the news of the sudden death of |Sudden death of Magnus. 1047.| Magnus.[272] The victorious King had perished by an accident not unlike that which had caused the death of Lewis of France.[273] His horse, suddenly startled by a hare, dashed his rider against the trunk of a tree.[274] On his death-bed he bequeathed the crown of Norway to his uncle Harold |Harold succeeds in Norway, Swend in Denmark.| and that of Denmark to his adversary Swend. Such a bequest is quite in harmony with the spirit of the correspondence between Magnus and Eadward.[275] Swend returned |Their long warfare. 1048–1061.| and took possession of his Kingdom, and though he was for years engaged in constant warfare with Harold, he |Their embassies to England.| never wholly lost his hold upon the country. The first act of both the new Kings was to send embassies to England. Harold offered peace and friendship; Swend again asked for armed help against Harold.[276] The debate of the |Help again refused to Swend, and peace concluded with Harold. 1048.| year before was again reopened. Godwine again supported the request of his nephew, and again proposed that fifty ships should be sent to his help. Leofric again opposed the motion, and the people again with one voice supported Leofric. Help was refused to Swend and peace was concluded with Harold.[277] Swend, despairing of English aid, seems to have sought for protection in another quarter, and to have acknowledged himself a vassal of the Empire.[278]
These two years seem to have been marked by several physical phænomena. In the former we hear of the |May 1, 1048.| unusual severity of the winter, accompanied by an extraordinary fall of snow.[279] In the latter several of the midland shires were visited by an earthquake.[280] We read also of epidemics both among men and beasts, and of the appearance called wild fire.[281] A few ecclesiastical appointments are also recorded; but one only calls for notice. |Death of Ælfwine of Winchester, Aug. 29, 1047. Stigand succeeds.| Ælfwine, Bishop of Winchester, died, and his Bishoprick fell neither to Frenchmen nor to Lotharingian. Stigand rose another step in the ladder of promotion by his translation from the humbler see of Elmham to the Bishoprick of the Imperial city.[282]
As far as we can make out through the confused chronology of these years, it was in the year of the peace with Norway that England underwent, what we have not now heard of for many years, an incursion of Scandinavian pirates.[283] Two chiefs, named Lothen and Yrling, came with twenty-five ships, and harried various parts of the coast. This event must have been in some way connected with the course of the war between Harold and Swend. Probably some enterprising Wikings in the service of one or other of those princes found a moment of idleness just as the two Kings were taking possession of their crowns, and thought the opportunity a good one for an attack on England. Such an attack was doubtless unexpected, especially as such good care had been taken to keep on good terms with both the contending Kings. But possibly the more daring policy of Godwine would really have been the safer.[284] Had fifty English ships, whatever their errand, been afloat in the Northern seas, Lothen and Yrling could hardly have come to plunder the shores of England. Anyhow the story shows us the sort of spirit which still reigned in the North. There were still plenty of men ready to seek their fortunes in any part of the world as soon as a moment of unwelcome quiet appeared at home. Harold and Swend at least did the world some service by finding employment for such men in warfare with one another. The Wikings harried far and wide. From Sandwich they carried off a vast booty in men, gold, and silver.[285] In the Isle of Wight they must have met with more resistance, as many of the best men of the island are said to have been slain.[286] In Thanet too the landfolk withstood them manfully, refused them landing and water, and drove them altogether away.[287] Thence they sailed to Essex, where they plundered at their pleasure.[288] By this time the King |Eadward and the Earls pursue the pirates, but they escape to Flanders.| and the Earls had got together some ships. The Earls were doubtless Godwine and Harold, on whose governments the attack had been made, and the words of our authorities seem to imply that Eadward was really present in person.[289] They sailed after the pirates, but they were too late. The enemy had already made his way to the common refuge of banished Englishmen and of foes of England. The Wikings were now safe in the havens of Flanders—of Baldwines land; there they found a ready market for the spoils of England, and thence they sailed back to their own country.[290]