Soon after the news of Canute's death reached Normandy, Edward, the eldest of the surviving sons of Ethelred by Emma, and who eventually became King of England under the title of Edward the Confessor, made sail for England with a few ships, and landed at Southampton, in the intention of claiming the crown. He threw himself in the midst of his mother's retainers, and was within a few miles of her residence at Winchester. But Emma had no affection for her children by Ethelred; she was at the moment making every exertion to secure the English throne for her son by Canute, and, instead of aiding Edward, she set the whole country in

difficulty, from a formidable force, and fled back to Normandy, determined, it is said, never again to touch the soil of his fathers.

The second invasion from Normandy was attended with more tragical results, and part of the history of it is enveloped in an impenetrable mystery.

whom he had by Ethelred's widow, the Lady Emma of Normandy. He had two illegitimate sons, Sweyn and Harold. In royal families bastardy was none, or a very slight objection in those days; but according to the contemporary writers, it was the prevalent belief, or popular scandal, that these two young men were not the children of Canute, even illegitimately, but were imposed upon him as such by his acknowledged concubine Alfgiva, daughter of the Eolderman of Southampton, who, according to this gossip, knew full well that Sweyn was the son of a priest by another woman, and Harold the offspring of a cobbler and his wife. Whoever were their fathers and mothers, it is certain that Canute in-hostile array against him. He escaped with some tended that his dominions should be divided among the three young men, and this without any apparent prejudice in favour of legitimacy; for Harold, and not Hardicanute (the lawful son), was to have England, which was esteemed by far the best portion. Denmark was to fall to Hardicanute, and Norway to Sweyn. Both these princes were in the north of Europe, and apparently in possession of power there, when Canute died. The powerful Earl Godwin, and the Saxons of the south generally, wished rather to choose for King of England either one of the sons of Ethelred, who were still in Normandy, or Hardicanute, the son of Emma, who was at least connected with the old Saxon line. But Earl Leofric of Mercia, with the thanes north of the Thames, and all the Danes, supported the claims of the illegitimate Harold; and when the influential city of London took this side, the cause of Hardicanute seemed almost hopeless. But still all the men of the south and the great Earl Godwin adhered to the latter, and a civil war was imminent (to escape the horrors of which many families had already fled to the morasses and ⚫ forests), when it was wisely determined to effect a compromise by means of the witenagemot. This assembly met at Oxford, and there decided that Harold should have all the provinces north of the Thames, with London for his capital, while all the country south of that river should remain to his real or fictitious half-brother, Har-ally the production of the queen, who may have dicanute.

Hardicanute, showing no anxiety for his dominions in England, lingered in Denmark, where the habits of the Scandinavian chiefs, and their hard drinking, were to his taste; but his mother, Emma, and Earl Godwin, governed in the south on his behalf, and held a court at Winchester. Harold, however, who saw his superiority over his absent half-brother, took his measures for attaching the provinces of the south to his dominions, and two fruitless invasions from Normandy only tended to increase his power and facilitate that aggrandizement.

An affectionate letter,' purporting to be writ ten by the queen-mother, Einma, was conveyed to her sons Edward and Alfred, reproaching them with their apathy, and urging that one of them at least should return to England, and assert his right against the tyrant Harold. This letter is pronounced a forgery by the old writer who preserves it; but those who are disposed to take the darkest view of Emma's character, may object that this writer was a paid encomiast of that queen (and paid by her living self), and therefore not likely to confess her guilty of being a participator in her own son's murder, even if such were the fact. The same authority, indeed, even praises her for her ill-assorted, shameful marriage with Canute, which undeniably alienated her from her children by the former union. For ourselves, although she did not escape the strong suspicion of her contemporaries, any more than Earl Godwin, who was then in close alliance with her, we rather incline to the belief that the letter was forged by the order of Harold, though, again, there is a possibility that it may have been actu

meant no harm to her son, and that the harm he suffered may have fallen upon him through Godwin, on that chief's seeing how he came attended. However this may be, Alfred, the younger of the two brothers, accepted the invitation. The instructions of Emma's letter were to come without any armament; but he raised a considerable force (milites non parvi numeri)3 in Normandy and Boulogne. When he appeared off Sandwich there was a far superior force there, which rendered

1 Encom. Einm.

2 Rogo unus vestrum ad me velociter et privatè veniat.Encom. Emm. 3 Guill. Gemeticensis.

HAROLD had now little difficulty in getting himself proclaimed "full king" over all the island. The election, indeed, was not sanctioned by legislative authority; but this authority, always fluctuating and uncertain, was at present almost worthless. A more important opposition was that offered by the church, in whose ranks the Saxons were far more numerous than the Danes, or priests of Danish descent; and in all these contentions the two hostile races must be considered, and not merely the quarrels or ambition of the rival princes. The question at issue was, whether the Danes or the Saxons should have the upper hand. Ethelnoth, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a Saxon, refused to perform the ceremonies of the coronation. Taking the crown and sceptre, which it appears had been intrusted to his charge by Canute, he laid them on the altar, and said, "Harold! I will neither give them to thee, nor prevent thee from taking the ensigns of royalty; but I will not bless thee, nor shall any bishop consecrate thee on the throne." It is said that on this, like a modern conqueror, the Dane put the crown on his head with his own hands. According to some accounts, he subsequently, won over the archbishop, and was solemnly crowned. His chief amusement was hunting; and, from the fleetness with which he could follow the game on foot, he acquired the name of "Harold Harefoot." Little more is known about him, except that he died after a short reign of four years, in A.D. 1040, and was buried at Westminster.

his landing hopeless. He therefore bore round | land. Shortly after the murder of Alfred, Emma the North Foreland, and disembarked "opposite was either sent out of England by Harold, or to Canterbury," probably about Herne Bay, be- retired a voluntary exile. It is to be remarked tween the Triculvers and the Isle of Sheppey. that she did not fix her residence in Normandy, Having advanced some distance up the country where her son Edward, brother of Alfred, was without any opposition, he was met by Earl living, but went to the court of Baldwin, Earl of Godwin, who is said to have sworn faith to him, Flanders. and to have undertaken to conduct him to his mother Emma. Avoiding London, where the party of Harold was predominant, they marched to Guildford, where Godwin billeted the strangers, in small parties of tens and scores, in different houses of the town. There was plenty of | meat and drink prepared in every lodging, and Earl Godwin, taking his leave for the night, promised his dutiful attendance on Alfred for the following morning. Tired with the day's journey, and filled with meat and wine, the separated company went to bed suspecting no wrong; but in the dead of night, when disarmed and buried in sleep, they were suddenly set upon by King Harold's forces, who seized and bound them all with chains and gyves. On the following morning they were ranged in a line before the executioners. There are said to have been 600 victims, and, with the exception of every tenth man, they were all barbarously tortured and massacred. Prince Alfred was reserved for a still more cruel fate. He was hurried away to London, where, it should seem, Harold personally insulted his misfortunes; and from London he was sent to the Isle of Ely, in the heart of the country of the Danes. He made the sad journey mounted on a wretched horse, naked, and with his feet tied beneath the animal's belly. At Ely he was arraigned before a mock court of Danish miscreants as a disturber of the country's peace, and was condemned to lose his eyes. His eyes were instantly torn out by main force, and he died a few days after, in exquisite anguish. Some believe that Earl Godwin was guilty of betraying, or at HARDICANUTE, his half-brother, was at least deserting the prince after he had landed in Bruges, and on the point of invading England, England, without having premeditated treachery when Harold died. After long delays in Denin inviting him over; and they say his change of mark he listened to the urgent calls of his exiled sentiment took place the instant he saw that mother, the still stirring and ambitious Emma; Alfred, instead of coming alone to throw himself and, leaving a greater force ready at the mouth of on the affections of the Saxon people, had sur- the Baltic, he sailed to Flanders with nine ships rounded himself with a host of ambitious fo- to consult his parent. He had been but a short reigners, all eager to share in the wealth and time at Bruges when a deputation of English honours of the land. Henry of Huntingdon, a and Danish thanes arrived there to invite him to writer of the twelfth century, supports this not ascend the most brilliant of his father's thrones irrational view of the case, and says that God-in peace. The two great factions in England had win told his Saxon followers that Alfred came escorted by too many Normans, that he had promised these Normans rich possessions in England, and that it would be an act of imprudence in them (the Saxons) to permit this race of foreigners, known through the world for their audacity and cunning, to gain a footing in Eng

come to this agreement, but, according to the chroniclers, they were soon made to repent of it by the exactions and rapacity of Hardicanute. Relying more on the Danes, among whom he had lived so long, than on the English, and being averse to part with the companions of his revels and drinking-bouts, he brought with him a great

number of Danish chiefs and courtiers, and re- gold-studded shield on his left arm, and in his tained an expensive Danish army and navy. This right hand a gilded ategar.1 obliged him to have frequent recourse to "Danegelds," the arbitrary levying of which by his "huscarles," or household troops, who were all Danes, caused frequent insurrections or commotions. The people of Worcester resisted the huscarles with arms in their hands, and slew Feader and Turstane, two of the king's collectors. In revenge for this contempt that city was burned to the ground, a great part of the surrounding country laid desolate, and the goods of the citizens put to the spoil "by such power of lords and men-of-war as the king sent against them." It should appear that not even the church was exempted from these oppressive levies of Danegeld, for a monkish writer complains that the clergy were forced to sell the very chalices from the altar in order to pay their assessments.

On his first arriving in England, Hardicanute showed his horror of Prince Alfred's murder, and his revenge for the injury done by Harold to himself and his relatives, in a truly barbarous manner. By his order the body of Harold was dug up from the grave, its head was struck off, and then both body and head were thrown into the Thames. To increase the dramatic interest of the story, some of the old writers, who maintain that the great earl had murdered Alfred to serve Harold, say that Godwin was obliged to assist at the disinterment and decapitation of the corpse, the mutilated remains of which were soon after drawn out of the river by some Danish fishermen, who secretly interred them in the church-yard of St. Clement Danes, "without Temple Bar at London." Earl Godwin, indeed, a very short time after, was formally accused of Alfred's murder, but he cleared himself in law by his own oath, and the oaths of many of his peers, and a rich and splendid present is generally supposed to have set the question at rest between him and Hardicanute, though it failed to quit him in popular opinion. This present was a ship of the first class, covered with gilded metal, and bearing a figure-head in solid gold; the crew, which formed an intrinsic part of the gift, were fourscore picked warriors, and each warrior was furnished with dress and appointments of the most costly description; a gilded helmet was on his head, a triple hauberk on his body, a sword with a hilt of gold hung by his side, a Danish battleaxe, damasked with silver, was on his shoulder, a

During the remainder of Hardicanute's short reign, Earl Godwin and Emma, the queen-mother, who were again in friendly alliance, divided nearly all the authority of government between them, leaving the king to the tranquil enjoyment of the things he most prized in life-his banquets, which were spread four times a-day, and his carousals at night. From many incidental passages in the old writers, we should conclude that the Saxons themselves were DANISH SOLDIER of the period. sufficiently addicted to From Strutt. drinking and the plea

sures of the table, and required no instructors in those particulars; yet it is pretty generally stated that hard drinking became fashionable under the Danes, and more than one chronicler laments that Englishmen learned from the example of Hardicanute "their excessive gormandizing and unmeasurable filling of their bellies with meats and drinks."

This king's death was in keeping with the tenor of his life. When he had reigned two years all but ten days, he took part, with his usual zest, in the marriage feast of one of his Danish thanes, which was held at Lambeth, or, more probably, at Clapham. At a late hour of the night, as he stood up to pledge that jovial company, he suddenly fell down speechless, with the wine-cup in his hand: he was removed to an inner chamber, but he spoke no more; and thus the last Danish king in England died drunk. He was buried in the church of Winchester, near his father Canute.

1 The same scythe-shaped weapon as the Moorish "assagai," the Turkish "yataghan," &c. It was a common weapon with the Danes, and is still so in the East.

2 The name of the bride's father, in whose house the feast is

supposed to have been held, was Osgod Clapa; and Clapaham, the hame or home of Clapa, is taken as the etymology of cur suburban village.-Palgrave, Hist. ch. xiii

CHAPTER IV.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST.-A.D. 1042-1066.

Hardicanute succeeded by Edward the Confessor-Edward's behaviour to his wife and mother-His favour towards the Normans-Visit of Eustace, Count of Boulogne, and its consequences-Quarrels between the Confessor and Earl Godwin-William, Duke of Normandy, visits England-His gracious reception by Edward the Confessor -Earl Godwin drives the Normans out of England-Popular character and achievements of his son, Harold -Death of Edward the Atheling in London-Harold's journey to Normandy-He falls into the hands of William, Duke of Normandy-Promises and oaths exacted of him by William-Unpopular proceedings of Tostig, the brother of Harold-Last illness of Edward the Confessor-Question of the succession to the throne. -Harold proclaimed king-William of Normandy asserts his right to the throne of England-His preparations to maintain it-Hardrada, King of Norway, invades England-Is defeated and slain at Stamford Bridge -Hostile arrival of William, Duke of Normandy-His proposals to Harold-Battle of Hastings-Defeat and death of Harold.

G

DWARD THE CONFESSOR. Hardi- | south of the island were won over by the reputed canute was scarcely in his grave, virtue and sanctity of Edward. If we may judge when his half-brother Edward, who by the uncertain light of some of the chronicles, was many years his senior, ascended many leading Danes quitted England on Hardithe throne (A.D. 1042) with no op- canute's decease; and it seems quite certain that position, except such as he found when the nobles and prelates of the Saxons (were from his own fears and scruples, which, had he there not Danes among these?) assembled in Lonbeen left, to himself, would probably have in- don, with the resolution of electing Edward, they duced him to prefer a monastery, or some other encountered no opposition from any Danish facquiet retirement in Normandy. During his very tion. But the great Earl Godwin, the still susbrief reign, Hardicanute had recalled the exile pected murderer of the new king's brother, Alfred, to England, had received him with honour and had by far the greatest share in Edward's elevaaffection, granted him a handsome allowance, tion. This veteran politician, of an age considered and even proposed, it is said, to associate him barbarous, and of a race (the Saxon) generally in his government. Edward was, therefore, at noted rather for stupidity and dulness than for hand, and in a favourable position at the mo- acuteness and adroitness, trimmed his sails acment of crisis; nor, according to the modern cording to the winds that predominated, with a laws of hereditary succession, could any one degree of skill and remorselessness which would have established so good a right; for his half- stand a comparison with the manœuvres of the nephew Edward, who was still far away in Hun- most celebrated political intriguers of the most gary, was only illegitimately descended from modern and civilized times. In all the struggles the royal line of Cerdic and Alfred, his father, that had taken place since the death of Canute, Edmund Ironside, though older than Edward, he had changed sides with astonishing facility being a natural son of their common father Ethel- and rapidity-going back more than once to the red. But, in truth, rules of succession had little party he had deserted, then changing again, and to do with the settlement of the crown, which always causing the faction he embraced to triwas affected by a variety of other and more umph just so long as he adhered to it, and no potent agencies. The connection between the longer. Changes, ruinous to others, only brought Danish and English crowns was evidently break-him an accession of strength. At the death of ing off; there was a prospect that the two parties in England would soon be left to decide their contest without any intervention from Denmark; for some time the Saxon party had been gaining ground, and, before Hardicanute's death, formidable associations had been made, and more than one successful battle fought against the Danes. On their side, the Danes, having no descendant of the great Canute around whom to rally, became less vehement for the expulsion of the Saxon line, while many of them settled in the

Hardicanute, he was Earl of all Wessex and Kent; and by his alliances and intrigues, he controlled nearly the whole of the southern and more Saxon part of England. His abilities were proved by the station he had attained; for he had begun life as a cow-herd. He was a fluent speaker; but his eloquence, no doubt, owed much of its faculty of conveying conviction, to the power or material means he had always at hand to enforce his arguments. When he rose in the assembly of thanes and bishops, and gave it as his opinion that Ed