Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/76

62  kingdom, and for the cruel treatment of his brother Alfred, that, in an impotent desire of revenge against the dead, he ordered his body to be dug up, and to be thrown into the Thames; and when it was found by some fishermen, and buried in London, he ordered it again to be dug up, and to be thrown once more into the river; but it was fished up a second time, and then interred with great secrecy. Godwin, equally servile and insolent, submitted to be his instrument in that unnatural and brutal action.

That nobleman knew that he was universally believed to have been an accomplice in the barbarity exercised on Alfred, and that he was on that account obnoxious to Hardicanute: and perhaps he hoped, by displaying this rage against Harold's memory, to justify himself from having had any participation in his counsels; but Prince Edward, being invited over by the king, immediately on his appearance preferred an accusation against Godwin for the murder of Alfred, and demanded justice for that crime. Godwin, in order to appease the king, made him a magnificent present of a galley with a gilt stern, rowed by fourscore men, who wore each of them a gold bracelet on his arm, weighing sixteen ounces, and were armed and clothed in the most sumptuous manner. Hardicanute, pleased with the splendour of this spectacle, quickly forgot his brother's murder; and on Godwin's swearing that he was innocent of the crime, he allowed him to be acquitted.

Though Hardicanute, before his accession, had been called over by the vows of the English, he soon lost the affections of the nation by his misconduct; but nothing appeared more grievous to them than his renewing the imposition of Danegelt, and obliging the nation to pay a great sum of money to the fleet which brought him from Denmark. The discontents ran high in many places: in Worcester the populace rose, and put to death two of the collectors (A.D. 1041). The king, enraged at this opposition, swore vengeance against the city, and ordered three noblemen—Godwin, Duke of Wessex, Siward, Duke of Northumberland, and Leofric, Duke of Mercia—to execute his orders with the utmost rigour. They were obliged to set fire to the city, and deliver it up to be plundered by their soldiers; but they saved the lives of the inhabitants, whom they confined in a small island of the Severn, called Beverly, till by their intercession they were enabled to appease the anger of the tyrant. This violent reign was of short duration. Hardicanute died three years after his accession, in consequence of his excesses in drinking. This event took place at the marriage feast of a Danish nobleman at Lambeth, on June 8, 1042.

 

English, on the death of Hardicanute, saw that a favourable opportunity had occurred for recovering their ancient independence, and shaking off the Danish yoke, which was insufferably galling to a proud and spirited people.

Prince Edward was fortunately at court at the time of his brother's death; and though the true Saxon heir was the descendant of Edmund Ironside, the absence of that prince in Hungary appeared a sufficient reason for his exclusion. Delays might be dangerous; the occasion might not again present itself, and must be eagerly embraced before the Danes, now left in the island without a leader, had time to recover from the confusion into which the death of their king had thrown them.

But this concurrence of circumstances in favour of Edward might have failed of its effect, had his succession been opposed by Godwin, whose power, alliances, and abilities gave him a great influence at all times, especially amidst those sudden opportunities which always attend a revolution of government, and which, either seized or neglected, commonly prove decisive. There were opposite reasons which divided men's hopes and fears with regard to Godwin's conduct. On the one hand, the credit of that nobleman lay chiefly in Wessex, which was almost entirely inhabited by English: it was therefore presumed that he would second the wishes of that people in restoring the Saxon line, and in humbling the Danes, from whom he, as well as they, had reason to dread, as they had already felt, the most grievous oppressions. On the other hand, there existed a declared animosity between Edward and Godwin, on account of Alfred's murder, of which the latter had been publicly accused by the prince, and which he might believe so deep an offence as could never, on account of any subsequent merits, be sincerely pardoned. But their common friends here interposed, and, representing the necessity of their reconciliation, obliged them to lay aside all jealousy and rancour, and concur in restoring liberty to their native country. Godwin only stipulated that Edward, as a pledge of his sincerity, should promise to marry his daughter, Editha; and having fortified himself by this alliance, he summoned a general council at Gillingham, and prepared every measure for securing the succession to Edward. The English were unanimous and zealous in their resolutions; the Danes were divided and dispirited; any small opposition which appeared in this assembly was browbeaten and suppressed; and Edward was crowned king with every demonstration of duty and affection.

The triumph of the English, on this signal and decisive advantage, was at first attended with some insult and violence against the Danes; but the king, by the mildness of his character, soon reconciled the latter to his administration, and the distinction between the two nations gradually disappeared. The Danes were interspersed with the English in most of the provinces, and spoke nearly the same language.

The joy of their deliverance made such an impression on the English, that they had an annual festival, which was observed in some countries even to the time of Spelman.

The popularity of Edward's accession was not destroyed by the first act of his administration, which was to resume all grants made by his immediate predecessors—a stretch of power, in most instances, attended by dangerous consequences to the kingly authority and the well-being of the state.

The poverty of the crown convinced the people of its necessity; and as these grants had been lavished chiefly upon their enemies, the Danes, as rewards for their services in opposing them, the English regarded it as an act of justice rather than one of spoliation.

The new king treated his mother, the Queen Dowager, not only with coldness, but some degree of severity, on account of her having neglected him in his diversity. He accused her of preferring her son by Canute to his brother and himself—which, when the characters of her first and second husbands are compared, appears by no means improbable.

