Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/435

392 England. As the king's father-in-law, Godwin thus acquired precedence over the other earls. His ambition, however, was by no means satisfied with this advancement, and we next find him working for the advancement of his sons. Again Edward proved compliant, and Godwin secured in quick succession an earldom in the Severn valley for his eldest son Svein, who had hitherto been content with a subordinate earldom under his father in Somerset and Dorset, another in East Anglia for his second son Harold, and a third in the Midlands for his nephew Beorn. By what means sufficient lands were at the king's disposal to make these promotions possible we do not know. Presumably Edward must have got into his hands most of the estates which Knut had formerly bestowed on his Danish jarls, Eglaf, Hákon and Thorkil the Tall. Some evidence also exists that considerable property was surrendered at this time under pressure by Emma, the queen mother, and also some by the king himself; for later, Harold is found in possession of at least twenty manors in Essex and Hertfordshire which have all the characteristics of crown land, while the king is returned as owning hardly any property in those counties.

Meantime Edward was active, as occasion offered, in introducing his own particular friends into lay and ecclesiastical posts, to act as checks on Godwin's increasing power. The leading clerical examples were Robert, Abbot of Jumièges, one of his closest friends in Normandy, whom he made bishop of London in 1044, and another Norman called Ulf, who became bishop of the wide-spreading diocese of Dorchester. These ecclesiastical appointments passed unresented, as they were set off by others which went to Godwin's party, such as the coadjutorship of Canterbury to Siward, Abbot of Abingdon (who died in October 1048), and the bishopric of Winchester to Stigand, a wealthy landowner in Norfolk and Suffolk, who had been an important king's chaplain in Knut's day and was high in favour with Queen Emma. Less satisfactory to Godwin was the promotion of the king's nephew Ralf to a position of influence. This young Frenchman, who was the son of Goda, Edward's sister, by her marriage with Drogo of Mantes, Count of the Vexin, was given an earldom in Herefordshire which acted as a counterpoise to Svein's earldom; and at the same time two Breton lords, Robert the son of Wimarc and Ralf of Guader near Rennes, were endowed with considerable fiefs in Essex and East Anglia to act as checks on Harold. To distinguish him from Ralf of Mantes this second Ralf is usually styled Ralf the Staller, from the important quasi-military office of constable in the royal household, which Edward also bestowed on him.

Godwin must have realised from these measures that his hold over Edward was precarious, and soon afterwards it was almost destroyed owing to the misdeeds of his son Svein, who first offended the Church by abducting the abbess of Leominster, and then alienated the nobles by murdering his cousin Earl Beorn. Godwin with great stupidity con-