Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/59

 Godwin ward and Leofric to Winchester on 16 Nov. to confiscate the possessions of Emma, the king's mother. In 1044 he joined Eadward in a plan for securing Archbishop Eadsige [q. v.] in the see of Canterbury by allowing him to appoint a coadjutor bishop.

The appointment of Robert, abbot of Jumièges, to the see of London in this year was the first step towards the overthrow of the earl's power. Robert had unbounded influence over the king, and never ceased whispering accusations against Godwine and his sons, urging especially that the earl was guilty of the death of Ælfred. It may fairly be assumed that the appointment of certain Lotharingian clergy to English sees and abbeys was due to Godwine's desire to keep out the Frenchmen, whom the king would naturally have preferred (Norman Conquest, ii. 79–85). His position must have been weakened by the disgrace of his eldest son, Swegen, who after seducing the abbess of Leominster left England in 1046, and was outlawed. The next year a request for help from Swend Estrithson, the king of the Danes, the nephew of Gytha the earl's wife, was laid before the witan. He had lost nearly all his kingdom, and asked for an English fleet to act against his enemy, Magnus of Norway. Godwine proposed that fifty ships should be sent to his succour, but Leofric objected, and his arguments prevailed with the assembly (Worcester Chronicle, sub an. 1048;, i. 200). In 1048 Swend, who had meanwhile got possession of his kingdom, again asked for help. Again, unless the story is a repetition of the events of the previous year, did Godwine plead his cause, and again he was unsuccessful. The earl's influence seems to have been on the wane, but it was still strong enough to prevent Swegen's earldom from passing from his family; it was divided between Harold and Beorn. Later in the year, while he was with the fleet which he and the king had gathered for the defence of the coast of Wessex against the attacks of some northern pirates, his son Swegen returned to England and slew his cousin Beorn [q. v.] The crime excited general indignation, and can scarcely have failed to injure Godwine's position. He soon, however, gained a conspicuous advantage. Swegen found shelter in Flanders. About this time some hostile measures were taken by Eadward in alliance with the emperor against Baldwin V. The amicable relations which followed were almost certainly brought about by Godwine. He probably desired to secure the friendship of the Count of Flanders as a counterpoise to the power and influence of William of Normandy, who was already seeking to marry the count's daughter, Matilda. Before long Godwine arranged a marriage between his third son Tostig and Judith the sister (Vita, p. 404) or daughter of Baldwin. The alliance with Baldwin was connected with the return of Swegen, whose outlawry was reversed. His reinstatement was a triumph for his father, but it was an impolitic measure, for, as later events showed, it outraged public feeling (, Conquest of England, p. 524). On the death of Archbishop Eadsige in 1050 Godwine sustained a serious defeat from the French party, which was now becoming all-powerful at the court; the claim of his kinsman Ælfric [q. v.], for whom he had tried to obtain the see of Canterbury, was rejected by the king, who gave the archbishopric to the earl's enemy Robert of Jumièges. The new archbishop used every means in his power to destroy the earl's influence, and his hatred was increased by the fact that the lands of the earl and of the convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, lay side by side. Disputes arose about their respective rights, and Robert declared that Godwine had taken into his own possession lands which belonged to his church (Vita, p. 400). The earl is said by his panegyrist to have tried to keep the peace, and to have restrained his men from retaliating on the archbishop. Eadward listened willingly to the archbishop's complaints against Godwine, and above all to the accusation, which seems to have been renewed at this time, that he had slain the ætheling.

When, early in September 1051, Godwine was celebrating the marriage of his son Tostig, he received orders from the king to harry the town of Dover, which lay within his earldom [see under ]. He refused to inflict misery on his own people for the sake of the king's foreign favourites. If they had just cause of complaint they should, he urged, proceed against the men of Dover in a legal court; if the Dover people could prove their innocence, they had a right to go free, and if not they should be punished in a lawful manner (Gesta Regum, i. 337). Then he went his way, taking little heed of the king's rage, which he believed would soon pass away. Robert, however, seized the opportunity of stirring up the king against him, and Eadward summoned the witan to meet at Gloucester, to receive and decide on all the charges which might be brought against him. Godwine and his party had a further grievance against the king's foreign favourites, for one of them had built a castle in Swegen's earldom, and was doing much mischief. Godwine and his sons gathered their forces together at Beverstone in Gloucestershire, though ‘it