Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/282

 2 to ON THE LIFE AXD DEATH OF EARL GODWINE. § 2. MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN OF GODWIXE. "^'c now come to one of the most jicrplcxing parts of our subject, the thmily relations of Godwine. We finil him, at an early period of the Danish sway in England, among the chief men of the realm, and all accounts agree in representing liim as forming some matrimonial connexion or other with the Danish royal fjimily. We find him also in the reign of Eadward the father of a numerous oHspring, among whom his sons Harold, Swegen, Tostig, Gyrtli, and Leofwine, and his daughter Eadgyth, occupy a prominent place in the history of the period. But as to the order of their birth, and the name and parentage of their mother or mothers, we find the most contradictory statements even among early writers. And those who give the most definite accounts are i^erhaps not among the most trustworthy, namely William of i[almesbury and Ordericus Vitalis. ]ralmesbury tells us that Godwine married twice ; that his first wife was the sister of Cnut ; that she gained great wealth by selling English slaves, especially beautiful girls, into Denmark ; that she bore one son, who was drowned in the Thames while yet a boy, being carried into the stream by a liorse given him by his " grandftither ;" finally, that she herself received the punishment of her misdeeds by being struck by lightning. After her death, he married another, whose descent, and apparentl}'^ whose name, also, the historian could not ascertain, but who was the mother of Harold, Swegen, Tostig, Wulfnoth, Gyrth, and Leofwine. Ordericus Vitalis, after describing the death of Harold, calls his mother Gytha, and says she bore Godwine seven sons. Swegen, Tostig, Harold, Gyrth, .Elfgar, Leofwine, W'nlfnoth. To turn to the Scrindinavian writers, the Saga*^ of Harold TTardrada contains a Hst of Godwinc's children, without the name of their inothci". '• King l^Mward's (^ucon was (Jyda, a daughter of J^^arl Godwin, tlie son of Ulfnad. (iyda's brothers were Eai-1 Toste tin; cMcst, Earl Maui'nk.-iri tli.' ii.wt; Earl Walter the next ; Marl Swend tlnj foiirtli ; and llic fifth was Harold, wlio was the youngest." Saxo Cii-aiiiinaticus idls us (lial, Gnn(. in piii-suanc(> of his onn cxli-nhivc juriH(lit!liii, inmnilily over Kent only. At lr Knit. '' Iwiinj:{'H Ilciiiihkriii^jlii, iii. 7-').