fuge in the castles or fortresses commanded by their countrymen, and others making for the shores of the British Channel, where they lay concealed until favourable opportunities offered for passing over to the Continent.

In the meantime the witenagemot was summoned, and when Godwin, in plenitude of might, appeared before it, after having visited the humbled king, the "earls" and "all the best men of the land" agreed in the proposition that the Normans were guilty of the late dissensions, and Godwin and his sons innocent of the crimes of which they had been accused. With the exception of four or five obscure men, a sentence of outlawry was hurled against all the Normans and French; and, after he had given hostages to Edward, Godwin and his sons, with the exception only of Sweyn, received full restitution; and, as a completion of his triumph, his daughter Editha was removed from her monastic prison to court, and restored to all her honours as queen. The hostages granted were Wulnot, the youngest son, and Haco, a grandson of Godwin. Edward had no sooner got them into his hands than, for safer custody, he sent them over to his cousin, William of Normandy, and from this circumstance there arose a curious episode, or under-act, in the treacherous and sanguinary drama. The exclusion of Sweyn from pardon, and a nominal restoration to the king's friendship, did not arise from the active part he had taken in the Norman quarrel, but was based in his old crimes, and more par. ticularly the treacherous murder of his cousin Beorn. It seems that his family acquiesced in the justice of his sentence of banishment, and that Sweyn himself, now humble and penitent, submitted without a struggle. He threw aside his costly mantle and his chains of gold, his armour, his sword, and all that marked the noble and the warrior; he assumed the lowly garb of a pilgrim, and, setting out from Flanders, walked

and to join the cry against the Normans. In this | favourites fled in all directions, some taking reeasy and triumphant manner did the exiles reach the suburb of Southwark, where they anchored, and landed without being obliged to draw a sword or bend a single bow. Their presence threw everything into confusion; and the court party soon saw that the citizens of London were as well affected to Godwin as the rest of the people had shown themselves. The earl sent a respectful message to the king, requesting for himself and family the revision of the irregular sentence of exile, the restoration of their former territories, honours, and employments, promising, on these conditions, a dutiful and entire submission. Though he must have known the critical state of his affairs, Edward was firm or obstinate, and sternly refused the conditions. Godwin despatched other messengers, but they returned with an equally positive refusal, and then the old earl had the greatest difficulty in restraining his irritated partizans. But the game was in his hand, and his moderation and aversion to the spilling of kindred blood greatly strengthened his party. On the opposite side of the river a royal fleet of fifty sail was moored, and a considerable army was drawn up on the bank, but it was soon found there was no relying either on the mariners or the soldiers, who, for the most part, if not won over to the cause of Godwin, were averse to civil war. Still, while most of his party were trembling around him, and not a few seeking safety in flight or concealment, the king remained inflexible, and, to all appearance, devoid of fear. The boldest of his Norman favourites, who foresaw that peace between the Saxons would be their ruin, ventured to press him to give the signal for attack; but the now openly expressed sentiments of the royal troops, and the arguments of the priest Stigand and many of the Saxon nobles, finally induced Edward to yield, and give his reluctant consent to the opening of negotiations with his detested father-in-law. At the first report of this prospect of a speedy recon-barefoot to Jerusalem-that great pool of moral ciliation, there was a hurried gathering together of property or spoils, and a shoeing and saddling of horses for flight. No Norman or Frenchman of any consequence thought his life safe. Robert, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and William, Bishop of London, having armed their retainers, took horse, and fought their way, sword Godwin did not long survive the re-establishin hand, through the city, where many Englishment of Saxon supremacy, and his complete vicwere killed or wounded. They escaped through the eastern gate of London, and galloped with headlong speed to Ness, in Essex. So great was the danger or the panic of these two prelates, that they threw themselves into an ill-conditioned, small, open fishing-boat, and thus, with great suffering and at imminent hazard, crossed the Channel to France. The rest of the foreign

purification, which, according to the notion of the times, could wash out the stains of all guilt. He reached the Holy City in safety, he wept and prayed at all the holiest places there; but, returning through Asia Minor, he died in the province of Lycia.

tory over the king. According to Henry of Huntingdon, and other chroniclers, a very short time after their feigned reconciliation, as Godwin sat at table with the king at Windsor, Edward again reproached the earl with his brother Alfred's murder. "O, king!" Godwin is made to say, whence comes it that, at the least remembrance of your brother, you show me a bad coun

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tenance? If I have contributed, even indirectly, | army, defeated Algar, and followed him in his to his cruel fate, may the God of heaven cause retreat through the mountain defiles, and across this morsel of bread to choke me!" He put the the moors and morasses of Wales. Algar, howbread to his mouth, and, of course, according to ever, still showed himself so powerful that Harold this story, was choked, and died instantly. But was obliged to treat with him. By these negoit appears, from better authority, that Godwin's tiations he was restored to his former possessions death was by no means so sudden and dramatic; and honours; and when, very shortly after, his that though he fell speechless from the king's father Leofric died, Algar was allowed to take table on Easter Monday (most probably from possession of his vast earldoms. The king seems apoplexy), he was taken up and carried into an to have wished that Algar should have been a inner chamber by his two sons, Tostig and Gurth, counterpoise to Harold, as Leofric had once been and did not die till the following Thursday. Ha- to Godwin; but, both in council and camp, Harold rold, the eldest, the handsomest, the most accom- carried everything before him, and his jealousy plished, and in every respect the best of all the being again excited, he again drove Algar into sons of Godwin, succeeded to his father's terri- banishment. Algar, indeed, was no mean rival. tories and command, and to even more than Both in boldness of character, and in the nature Godwin's authority in the nation; for, while the of his adventures, he bore some resemblance to people equally considered him as the great cham- Harold. This time he fled into Ireland, whence pion of the Saxon cause, he was far less obnoxious he soon returned with a small fleet and an army, than his father to the king; and whereas his fa- | chiefly raised among the Northmen who had ther's iron frame was sinking under the weight settled on the Irish coasts, and who thence made of years, he was in the prime and vigour of life. repeated attacks upon England. With this force, The spirit of Edward, moreover, was subdued by and the assistance of the Welsh under his fathermisfortune, the fast-coming infirmities of age, and in-law, King Griffith, he recovered his earldoms a still increasing devotion, that taught him all by force of arms, and held them in defiance of worldly dominion was a bauble not worth con- the decrees of the king, who, whatever were his tending for. He was also conciliated by the per- secret wishes, was obliged openly to denounce mission to retain some of his foreign bishops, these proceedings as illegal and treasonable. Afabbots, and clerks, and to recal a few other fa- ter enjoying this triumph little more than a year, vourites from Normandy. Algar died (A.D. 1059), and left two sons, Morcar and Edwin, who divided between them part of his territories and commands.

The extent of Harold's power was soon made manifest. On succeeding to Godwin's earldom he had vacated his own command of East Anglia, which was bestowed by the court on Algar, the son of Earl Leofric, the hereditary enemy of the house of Godwin, who had held it during Harold's disgrace and exile. As soon as he felt confident of his strength, Harold caused Algar to be expelled his government and banished the land, upon an accusation of treason; and, however unjust the sentence may have been, it appears to have been passed with the sanction and concurrence of the witenagemot. Algar, who had married a Welsh | princess, the daughter of King Griffith, fled into Wales, whence, relying on the power and influence possessed by his father, the Earl Leofric, and by his other family connections and allies, he shortly after issued with a considerable force, and fell upon the county and city of Hereford, in which latter place he did much harm, burning the minster and slaying seven canons, besides a multitude of laymen. Rulph or Radulf, the Earl of Hereford, who was a Norman, and nephew of the king's, made him a feeble resistance; and it is said he destroyed the efficiency of the Saxon troops by making them fight the Welsh on horseback, "against the custom of their country." Harold soon hastened to the scene of action, and advancing from Gloucester with a well-appointed

While these events were in progress, other circumstances had occurred in the north of England which materially augmented the power of Harold. Siward, the great Earl of Northumbria, another of Godwin's most formidable rivals, had died, after an expedition into Scotland, and as his elder son Osberne had been slain, and his younger son Waltheof was too young to succeed to his father's government, the extensive northern earldom was given to Tostig, the brother of Harold. Siward, as will be presently related more at length, had proceeded to Scotland to assist in seating his relation, Prince Malcolm, the son of the late King Duncan, upon the throne of that country, which had been usurped by Duncan's murderer, Macbeth. It was in this enterprise, and before it was crowned with final success, that, as has just been mentioned, Osberne, the pride of his father's heart, was slain. He appears to have fallen in the first battle fought with Macbeth (A.D. 1054), near the hill of Dunsinnane.

Siward, who was a Dane, either by birth or near descent, was much beloved by the Northumbrians, who were themselves chiefly of Danish extraction. They called him Sigward-Digr, or Siward the Strong; and many years after his

death they showed, with pride, a rock of solid neglect of this prince of the old race of Cerdic granite which they pretended he had split in two and Alfred, which, counting from the time of with a single blow of his battle-axe. To his ir- | King Edward's accession, had extended over a regular successor, Tostig, the brother of Harold, period of more than twenty years, shows but they showed a strong dislike from the first, and slight affection for that Saxon family; and, as the this aversion was subsequently increased by acts king had never expected any children of his own of tyranny on the part of the new earl. In an- to succeed him, it seems to confirm the statement other direction the popularity of Harold was in- of those old writers who say he had all along increased by a most successful campaign against tended to bequeath his crown to his cousin, Wilthe Welsh, who had inflamed the hatred of the liam of Normandy. But at this moment Norman Saxon people by their recent forays and cruel interest and influence, though not dried up, were murders. Their great leader, King Griffith, had at a low ebb; be his wishes what they might, been weakened and exposed by the death of his Edward durst not propose the succession of son-in-law and Harold's rival, the Earl Algar, in William, and being pressed by the Witan, and 1059; and after some minor operations, in one of his own eager desire of travelling to Rome, he which Rees, the brother of Griffith, was taken sent an embassy to the German emperor, Henry prisoner and put to death, by the order of King III., whose relative the young prince had marEdward, as a robber and murderer, Harold was ried, requesting he might be restored to the commissioned, in 1063, to carry extreme measures wishes of the English nation. Edward the Athinto effect against the ever-turbulent Welsh. eling, or Edward the Outlaw, as he is more comThe great earl displayed his usual ability, brav-monly called, obeyed the summons with alacrity, ery, and activity; and by skilfully combined movements, in which his brother Tostig and the Northumbrians acted in concert with him-by employing the fleet along the coast, by accoutring his troops with light helmets, targets, and breastpieces made of leather (instead of their usual heavy armour), in order that they might be the better able to follow the fleet-footed Welsh-he gained a succession of victories, and finally reduced the mountaineers to such despair that they decapitated their king, Griffith, and sent his bleeding head to Harold, as a peace-offering and token of submission. The two half-brothers of Griffith swore fealty and gave hostages to King Edward and Harold. They also engaged to pay the ancient tribute; and a law was passed, that every Welshman found in arms to the east of Offa's Dyke should lose his right hand. From this memorable expedition, the good effects of which were felt in England, through the tranquillity of the Welsh, for many years after, Harold returned in a sort of a Roman triumph to the mild and peaceable Edward, to whom he presented the ghastly head of Griffith, together with the rostrum or beak of that king's chief war-ship. The king's devotion still kept increasing with his years, and now, forgetful of his bodily infirmities, which, in all probability, would have caused his death on the road, and indifferent to the temporal good of his people, he expressed his intention of going in pilgrimage to Rome, asserting that he was bound thereto by a solemn vow. The Witan objected that, as he had no children, his absence and death would expose the nation to the dangers of a disputed succession; and then the king, for the first time, turned his thoughts to his nephew and namesake, Edward, the son of his half-brother, Edmund Ironside. The long

and soon arrived in London, with his wife Agatha and his three young children-Edgar, Margaret, and Christina. The race of their old kings was still dear to them; Edmund Ironside was a national hero, inferior only to the great Alfred; his gallantry, his bravery, his victories over the Danes, were sung in popular songs, and still formed the subject of daily conversation among the Saxon people, who therefore received his son and grandchildren with the most hearty welcome and enthusiastic joy. But though King Edward had invited over his nephew with the professed intention of proclaiming him his heir to the crown, that prince was never admitted into his presence. This circumstance could not fail of creating great disgust; but this and all other sentiments in the popular mind were speedily absorbed by the deep and universal grief and despondence caused by Prince Edward's death, who expired in London shortly after his arrival in that city, and was buried in the cathedral of St. Paul's. This sudden catastrophe, and the voluntary or constrained coyness of the king towards his nephew, awakened horrid suspicions of foul play. The more generally received opinion seems to have been that the prince was kept at a distance, by the machinations and contrivances of the jealous Harold, and that that earl caused him to be poisoned, in order to remove what he considered the greatest obstacle to his own future plans. In justice, however, the memory of Harold ought not to be loaded with a crime which, possibly, after all, was never committed; for the prince might very well have died a natural death, although his demise tallied with the views and interests of Harold. There is no proof, nor shadow of proof, that Harold circumvented and then destroyed the prince. It is merely presumed

that, because the earl gained most by his death, | until they should pay a heavy ransom for their he caused him to be killed. But William of Normandy gained as much as Harold by the removal of the prince, and was, at the very least, as capable of extreme and treacherous measures. During his visit in England, the king may have promised the duke that he would never receive his nephew Edward; and while this circumstance would of itself account for the king's shyness, the coming of the prince would excite the jealousy and alarm of William, who had emissaries in the land, and friends and partizans about the court. Supposing, therefore, Prince Edward to have been murdered (and there is no proof that he was), the crime was as likely to have been committed by the orders of the duke as by those of the earl.

release. From the castle of Belram, now Beaurain, near Montreuil, where the earl and his retinue were shut up, after they had been despoiled of the best part of their baggage, Harold made his condition known to Duke William, and entreated his good offices. The duke could not be blind to the advantages that might be derived from this accident, and he instantly and earnestly demanded that Harold should be released, and sent to his court. Careful of his money, William at first employed threats, without talking of ransom. The Count of Ponthieu, who knew the rank of his captive, was deaf to these menaces, and only yielded on the offer of a large sum of money from the duke, and a fine estate on the river d'Eaune. Harold then went to Rouen; and The demise of Edward the Outlaw certainly the Bastard of Normandy had the gratification cut off the national hope of a continuance of the of having in his court, and in his power, and old Saxon dynasty; for though he left a son, bound to him by this recent obligation, the son called Edgar the Atheling, that prince was very of the great enemy of the Normans, one of the young, feeble in body, and in intellect not far re-chiefs of the league that had banished from Engmoved from idiotcy. The latter circumstance land the foreign courtiers-the friends and relaforbade all exertion in his favour; but had he tions of William-those on whom his hopes rested been the most promising of youths, it is very—the intriguers in his favour for the royalty of doubtful whether a minor would not have been that kingdom. Although received with much crushed by one or other of two such bold and magnificence, and treated with great respect and skilful competitors as William and Harold. As even a semblance of affection, Harold soon permatters stood, the king, whose journey to Rome ceived he was in a more dangerous prison at could be no more talked of, turned his eyes to Rouen than he had been in the castle of Belram. Normandy, while many of the Saxons began to His aspirations to the English crown could be no look up to Harold, the brother of the queen, as secret to himself, and his inward conscience would the best and most national successor to the make him believe they were well known to Wilthrone. liam, who could not be ignorant of his past life and present power in the island. If he was indeed uninformed as yet as to William's intentions, that happy ignorance was soon removed, and the whole peril of his present situation placed full before him by the duke, who said to him one day, as they were riding side by side-“When Edward and I lived together, like brothers, under the same roof, he promised me that, if ever he be came King of England, he would make me his successor. Harold! I would, right well, that you helped me in the fulfilment of this promise; and be assured that if I obtain the kingdom by your aid, whatever you choose to ask shall be granted on the instant." The liberty and life of the earl were in the hands of the proposer, and so Harold promised to do what he could. William was not to be satisfied with vague promises. "Since you consent to serve me," he continued, "you must engage to fortify Dover Castle, to dig Harold was wrecked or stranded near the a well of good water there, and to give it up to mouth of the river Somme, in the territory of my men-at-arms; you must also give me your Guy, Count of Ponthieu, who, according to a sister, that I may marry her to one of my chiefs; barbarous practice, not uncommon, and held as and you yourself must marry my daughter Adele. good law in the middle ages, seized the wreck as Moreover, I wish you, at your departure, to his right, and made the passengers his prisoners | leave me, in pledge of your promises, one of the

That Harold went to Normandy at this time is certain, but it is said that his sole object in going was to obtain the release of his brother Wulnot and his nephew Haco, the two hostages for the Godwin family, whom Edward had committed to the custody of Duke William, but whom he was now willing to restore. Another opinion is, that Harold's going at all was wholly accidental. According to this version, being one day at his manor of Bosenham, or Bosham, on the Sussex coast, he went into a fishing-boat for recreation, with but few attendants, and those not very expert mariners; and scarcely was he launched into the deep, when a violent storm suddenly arose, and drove the ill-managed boat upon the opposite coast of France; but whether he went by accident or design, or whatever were the motives of the voyage, the following facts seem to be pretty generally admitted.

hostages whose liberty you now reclaim; he will | and upon the relics of saints and martyrs, which, stay under my guard, and I will restore him to you in England when I arrive there as king." Harold felt that to refuse or object would be not only to expose himself, but his brother and nephew, also, to ruin; and the champion of the Saxon cause, hiding his heart's abhorrence, pledged himself verbally to deliver the principal fortress of his country to the Normans, and to fulfil all the other engagements, which were as much forced upon him as though William had held the knife to his defenceless throat. But the ambitious, crafty, and suspicious Norman was not yet satisfied.

in their dull conception, were things far more awful and binding. But William determined to gain this additional guarantee by a trick. On the eve of the day fixed for the assembly, he caused all the bones and relics of saints preserved in all the churches and monasteries in the country, to be collected and deposited in a large tub, which was placed in the council-chamber, and covered and concealed under a cloth of gold. At the appointed meeting, when William was seated on his chair of state, with a rich sword in his hand, a golden diadem on his head, and all his Norman chieftains round about him, the missal was brought in, and being opened at the evangelists, was laid upon the cloth of gold which covered the tub, and gave it the appearance of a rich table or altar. Then Duke William rose and said, "Earl Harold, I require you, before this noble assembly, to confirm by oath the promises you have made me-to wit, to assist me in obtaining the kingdom of England after King Edward's death, to marry my daughter Adele, and to send me your sister, that I may give her in marriage to one of mine." Harold, who, it is said,

In the town of Avranches, or, according to other authorities, in the town of Bayeux, William summoned a grand council of the barons and headmen of Normandy, to be witnesses to the oaths he should exact from the English earl. The sanctity of an oath was so frequently disregarded in these devout ages, that men had begun to consider it not enough to swear by the majesty of heaven and the hopes of eternal salvation; and had invented sundry plans, such as swearing upon the host or consecrated wafer, VBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM:FECIT VVILLELMO DV C1

彩云

HAROLD SWEARING ON THE RELICS.1-From the Bayeux Tapestry.

was thus publicly taken by surprise, durst not | discovered, filled to the very brim with dead retract; he stepped forward with a troubled and confused air, laid his hand upon the book, and swore. As soon as the oath was taken, at a signal from the duke the missal was removed, the cloth of gold was taken off, and the large tub was

1 The Bayeux Tapestry is a long piece of embroidery, worked with coloured worsted thread, on a tissue of linen, about 233 ft. (71 mètres) long, and 20 in. (52 centimètres) broad. It was discovered in the townhall of Bayeux, in Normandy, whence its name. Tradition assigns the work to Matilda, queen of William the Conqueror, and her maids of honour. It is certainly a product of the eleventh century, though still in the freshest condition, and was probably sewed by some high-born chatelaine of the time, and her ladies. It is a pictorial representation of the conquest of England by the Normans, in seventy-two distinct compartments, every leading incident immediately preceding, during, and following which, is depicted in the most expressive manner, accompanied by all the accessories of architecture, fixed and floating, costume, armour, &c. Every compartment has a superscription in Latin, indicating its subject. The pantomime

men's bones and dried-up bodies of saints, over which the son of Godwin had sworn without knowing it. According to the Norman chroniclers, Harold shuddered at the sight."

Having, in his apprehension, thus made surety

of the actors in the successive scenes is singularly eloquent; and the apparent movement of the figures-allowance made for the imperfect art of the time-is really spirited. This fine relic of the olden time-really an historical document of the utmost value has had several locations, but is at present reposited in the hotel-de-ville of Bayeux, where it is kept coiled round a roller, from which it is unwound for inspection.

2 Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions; Roman du Rouer; Eadmer; Gulielmus Pictaviensis, or William of Poitou. William of Poitou received the particulars from persons who were present at this extraordinary scene.

Among the chief objects of attraction to the Anglo-Saxons, both at home and in their pilgrimages, were relics. In finding this superstition so extremely prevalent among them, we are almost led to the supposition that it did not originate in the