CHAPTER IX

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

ENGLISH KINGS

Edward the Confessor, A.D. 1042-1066 | Harold II.,

A.D. 1066 The Character of Edward the Confessor-Influx of Normans-Godwin and his Family unsuccessfully oppose the Normans-Visit of William of Normandy to England-Return of Godwin and Banishment of the Normans-Character of Harold, Godwin's Son-Accession of Harold-Battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings.

THE character of Edward the Confessor is difficult to understand. The personal piety which gained him his surname suggests a comparison with Henry vi.; his addiction to foreign favourites anticipates Reign of Edward the Henry III.; his fitful energy, combined with incapacity for Confessor. continuous effort, recalls his father Ethelred. Though a man of mature years and of much experience, he was always controlled by the influence of others; and his manliness was chiefly shown in an inordinate addiction to the chase.

During the first part of his reign, Godwin, Leofric of Mercia, and Siward of Northumbria continued to be the leading personages. Godwin had become an elderly man ; but his sons were growing up to manhood. Sweyn (Swegen) and Harold were already earls, and his daughter Edith became the king's wife.

Edward had been brought up in Normandy, and he was naturally fond of Norman life and manners. These as a rule were more refined than the English, for the Normans, though the last of the Teutonic settlers in the Roman Empire, had shown a wonderful power of Introduces assimilating its civilisation. They had entirely given up Normans. their own language for French, and delighted to welcome among them any foreigners who were distinguished for learning or accomplishments. Edward, therefore, was wishful to bring over to England what he could of Norman civilisation. He spoke French himself, and soon filled his court with French-speaking Normans, some

of whom he raised to high office in church and state. One, Robert of Jumièges, became bishop of London in 1044 and archbishop of Canterbury in 1051. The king's nephew, Ralph, became an earl and ruled in Herefordshire; Richard, another Norman who received lands in the same county, built the first private castle in England, and the village of Richard's Castle in Herefordshire still perpetuates his evil memory. Among the rest arrived Ranulf Flambard, afterwards so notorious under William Rufus. At the same time, general causes were bringing England into closer touch with the Continent. Foreign merchants flocked to London, and it seemed as though a similar change to that which had turned the Normans into Frenchmen was beginning to take place in England.

Godwin heads the English.

Naturally there was much discontent at this, and Godwin and his sons set themselves at the head of the English party. Matters came to a head in 1051. In that year Eustace of Boulogne, Discontent, brother-in-law of Edward, came over on a visit, and on his of the English. return marched into Dover as though it were a conquered Eustace of Boulogne. town, and attempted to quarter his men on the inhabitants. The men of Dover resisted, and a fight followed in which twenty Englishmen and nineteen foreigners were slain. Edward then called on Godwin as earl of Wessex to punish the townspeople. Godwin very properly demanded that the men of Dover should be heard in their own defence, and, calling on his sons Swegen and Harold, the three earls assembled their forces at Beverstone near Gloucester, at which town Edward was keeping his court. To balance their force Edward summoned Leofric, earl of the Mercians, and Siward, earl of the Northumbrians. On Leofric's suggestion both armies were dismissed and a witenagemot was summoned at London ; but for some unexplained reason Godwin, who seemed all-powerful at Gloucester, found himself so weak in London that he was outlawed with his sons and fled the country. Godwin himself, with his sons Swegen and Tostig, took refuge with Baldwin of Flanders at Bruges, and Harold sailed for Ireland. Edith, the king's wife, was shut up in a monastery at Wherwell, and for a time the foreigners reigned supreme.

Godwin exiled.

While the English party was thus scattered, Edward received a visit from William, Duke of Normandy, whose great-aunt Emma was Edward's mother, but he had himself no blood relationship with the English royal family. The Duke was now about twenty-four years of age. He was the son of Duke Robert and Herleva or Arletta, the daughter of a tanner at Falaise. His father

William,
Duke of
Normandy.

dying when he was about eight years old, William had had a hard struggle to maintain his doubtful title; but his courage and resource had enabled him while yet a boy in years to triumph over all opponents on the field of Val ès dunes, and he was now undisputed ruler of his duchy, and already recognised as one of the ablest men of his time.

In England there was everything to rouse his ambition. He knew that Englishmen had chosen Canute king and loyally served him. He His Visit to found Normans round the king, he saw Normans filling England. great places in church and state, he heard French spoken on every side; and it is no wonder that he conceived the idea of being himself king of England. For a Norman there was nothing uncommon in this. At that very time Robert Guiscard, another Norman, was establishing himself as ruler of Southern Italy. William had seen men like Harold Hardrada and Swegen Estrithson win the crowns of Norway and Denmark; and if Godwin and his sons were out of the way, and the state full of his well-wishers, there was no likelihood that the Norman duke would meet with any serious resistance. It is pretty certain that Edward made some sort of promise to secure the succession to William. This he had no right to do, and such disposition of the crown could in no way curtail the free choice of the Witenagemot; but it certainly was taken as giving William a claim to consideration, if to nothing more, and he returned home well satisfied.

Next year, however, the scene was completely changed. A reaction occurred in favour of Godwin, who was encouraged to request leave to Return of return; and on Edward's refusal he gathered an armed Godwin. force, and, being joined by Harold from Ireland, sailed up the Thames. Edward also gathered his forces, principally from the north; and a battle seemed imminent, when fighting was averted by the mediation of Stigand, bishop of London, and it was agreed to submit the whole case to a witenagemot to be held the next day. During the night the Frenchmen made their escape. Headed by Robert of Jumièges, the primary cause of the trouble, and by Ulf, the bishop of Dorchester, who is said to have done 'nought bishoplike,' they fought their way to the coast and took ship for home. Next morning the great gemot met in the open air. Robert and Ulf were expelled from their sees and outlawed, Godwin and his sons were restored to their dignities, Edith was summoned back from Wherwell, and 'good law was decreed for all folk.' The archbishopric of Canterbury was then given to Stigand, and the triumph of the English party was complete.

Expulsion

of the Normans.

For the last fifteen years of Edward's reign he was as much under the

Ascendancy of the house

of Godwin.

Godwin's

control of the house of Godwin as he had formerly been under that of the Frenchmen. Godwin died in 1053, and, as his eldest son Sweyn had died on pilgrimage, his honours passed to his second son Harold, who was then about thirty-two years of age. Besides his position and influence, Harold also inherited the abilities of his father both in war and peace, and he added to them a certain nobility of mind which made him a finer character than Earl Godwin. In 1055 Siward died, and, as his son Waltheof was yet a child, his earldom was given to Godwin's third son, Tostig, who was a great favourite with the king. In 1057 Leofric, the last of the three great earls, also died, and, after being held for a short time by his son Elfgar, his earldom passed to his grandson Edwin. Gyrth, Godwin's fourth son, became Elfgar's successor as earl of the East-Angles; and his fifth son, dom of Leofwine, ruled over the group of shires which border the estuary of the Thames. Thus the whole land, with the exception of some of the midland shires, was under the supervision of Harold and his brothers.

Sons Harold and Tostig.

The Earl

Mercia.

As Edward had no children, it was determined to send for Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside, who had grown up an exile in Hungary; and he accordingly returned to England with his wife and three children, Edgar, Margaret, and Christina; but almost immediately on his arrival he sickened and died, so that the male line of Alfred was Edgar only represented by the boy Edgar. The importance of the Atheling. return of Edward is that it shows how little regard was paid to the alleged promise of Edward to William of Normandy.

Wales.

During the fifteen years of the authority of the house of Godwin much progress was made in the conquest of Wales. Since the days of Cadwallon, the ally of Penda, no Welsh sovereign had really been dangerous; but in 1039 Griffith, son of Llewelyn (Gruffyddap-Llewelyn), ascended the throne of Gwynedd or North Wales, and soon afterwards, having annexed South Wales to his dominions, allied himself with Ælfgar of Mercia, and made his name a terror in the valleys of the Usk, the Severn, and the Wye, and even sacked and burned the cathedral city of Hereford. The whole regular force of the kingdom, headed by Harold and Tostig, was needed for his overthrow; but at length, in 1063, his people were so discouraged that they slew their too adventurous sovereign and brought his head to Harold. His dominions, shorn of some of the fertile lowlands, were then granted to two of his relations to be held as vassal kingdoms. The power of the Welsh was thus broken for many years.

Fall of

The fall of Gruffydd reduced the number of Harold's opponents, but in 1065 the power of Harold was seriously weakened by the expulsion of his brother Tostig from the earldom of the Northumbrians. Tostig. Tostig began by being a man of good intentions, but was utterly wanting in tact; and he allowed the severity necessary to curb the rude Northumbrians to pass into tyranny, and even to be sullied with treachery and murder. Accordingly, taking advantage of Tostig's absence at Edward's court, the leading Northumbrians held a meeting at York, declared Tostig deposed and outlawed, and chose in his stead Morcar (Morkere), the younger son of Ælfgar. With Morcar at their head they marched into Middle England, where they were joined by his brother Edwin, and even by a body of Welshmen. In face of such unanimity, Edward and Harold yielded. Tostig's expulsion and Morcar's election were both confirmed, but the earldoms of Huntingdon and Northampton were taken from the earldom of the Northumbrians and given to Waltheof, the son of Siward. Tostig withdrew to Flanders.

Waltheof. From that moment his character utterly deteriorated, and he

became the evil genius of his greater brother. To Harold this revolution in Northumbrian affairs was a most serious blow; for, besides withdrawing Northumbria from his control, it practically added it to the dominions of Edwin, so that the lands of the house of Leofric were both larger in area and more compactly situated than those of the house of Godwin. Moreover, Edwin was a born intriguer, determined to carry out a separate policy for the north and to maintain the independence of that part of the country as far as he possibly could.

Death of
Edward.

The death of Edward soon followed the fall of Tostig. He died on January 5, 1066, just after the consecration of his noble abbey church at Westminster; and then the difficult question of the succession came up for settlement. Of the direct English line there was living the Atheling Edgar; but he was quite a boy, and even when he grew up his character was very weak. With Tostig burning for revenge and William bent on prosecuting his claims, it was no time for repeating the minority of Ethelred the Unready; and as Edward in the solemnest manner had on his death-bed named Harold as Reign of Harold II. his successor, the Witenagemot lost no time in confirming his wishes. The post of honour and of danger was accepted by the great earl, and a day later Harold was crowned at Westminster by Ealdred, archbishop of York. His whole reign was made up of a struggle for his

kingdom.

The first act of the new king was to make sure of his acceptance among the Northumbrians by a visit to York; his next to conciliate Edwin and