Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/432

 fisherman, who brought it to London, where it was honourably buried by the Danes in their burying-ground at St. Clement Danes (A.-S. Chron. Worcester, Abingdon; . Gesta Pontificum, p. 250). Harold does not appear to have had any wife or children. He is said by the writer of the 'Encomium,' a violently hostile witness, to have been openly irreligious, and to have scandalised the English by preparing for hunting and engaging in other trivial pursuits when he ought to have been at mass (iii. 1). In church matters his reign was marked by one or two notable instances of simony and plurality.  HAROLD (1022?–1066), king of the English, son of Earl Godwine [q. v.] and his wife Gytha, was born about 1022, for his parents were married in 1019, and his brother Swegen and possibly his sister Edith or Eadgyth [q. v.] were older than he. In 1045 he appears as earl of East Anglia (, Codex Dipl. iv. 106), and when Swegen was banished in the next year, he and his cousin Beorn [q.v.] each received part of his earldom. It seems probable that in his early years Harold was Danish in feeling, as was natural in a son of a Danish lady, the sister-in-law of Cnut. He joined his cousin Beorn in opposing the restoration of Swegen in 1049, and was with the fleet which was sent to Pevensey, but had given up the command of his ship to Beorn before Beorn was murdered by Swegen. After the murder he and the shipmen of London, who were for the most part Danes, buried Beorn's body. When King Eadward quarrelled with Godwine in 1051, Harold joined his father at Beverstone in Gloucestershire, threatened the leaders of the hostile faction who were with the king at Gloucester, and went up with his father to London at Michaelmas. While there he and his father were summoned to appear before the witan. Hearing that his father and all his house were banished, he determined to resist his enemies, and, instead of fleeing with Godwine to Flanders, rede with his brother Leofwine to Bristol, where he intended to take ship for Ireland, and there raise forces. Aldred [q. v.], bishop of Worcester, was sent from London with a body of men to prevent them from embarking, but either could not or would not overtake them. Harold spent the winter with Dermot, king of Leinster and Dublin, and raised a force consisting, no doubt, of Danes from the Irish coast towns, who would naturally be attracted to a leader of their own race on the mother's side. In the spring he sailed from Dublin with nine ships and landed at Porlock in Somerset, in order to seize on provisions and any other booty. The people of the country gathered to defend their possessions, and a battle took place in which Harold's men were victorious, and thirty 'good thegns' and many other Englishmen were slain. He plundered the neighbourhood, carrying off abundance of provisions, many captives, and whatever else came to his hand. Then he sailed round the Land's End, and met his father at Portland. They sailed together to London, taking hostages from the people, and seizing such provisions as they desired. Harold shared in his father's restoration, and was re-established in his earldom, which had, during his banishment, been held by Ælfgar [q.v.], son of Leofric. At Easter 1053 he was sitting at the king's table at Winchester when his father was struck with a sudden and fatal illness. On Godwine's death Harold gave up the earldom of East Anglia, and succeeded to that of Wessex, and to all that his father had held, his elder brother, Swegen, having died abroad.

He was now, when not more than thirty-two, the first man in England after the king, and during the remainder of the reign was virtually ruler of at least the southern part of the kingdom. He was tall of stature, handsome, and of great strength, temperate in his habits, making light of toil and bodily privations, generally wise in counsel, and in action industrious and full of vigour. In the administration of justice he was firm and equitable. He was loyal to the king, and never cruel or revengeful to his fellow-countrymen. He undoubtedly loved power, and his schemes to obtain it were at times more politic than noble. He seems to have been sincerely religious, and he was liberal in an enlightened fashion. Many accusations are brought against him in Domesday of having seized ecclesiastical property unjustly (, Introduction to Domesday, ii. 313; Norman Conquest, i. 548). Such charges were almost matters of course after his death, for all churchmen whose lands had come into his hands, whether rightly or wrongly, would naturally try to get them back, and the Normans would put the worst construction on all his actions. His stewards, like those of other lords, were no doubt some- 