Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/434

 and he might then be chosen as the heir to the crown.

Harold, probably in 1058 (ib. pp. 430, 635), though the date cannot be determined with absolute certainty, made a pilgrimage to Home, tarrying some time in France, in order to gain a thorough insight into the characters of the French princes, and acquaint himself with the power which each possessed, so that, should he ever need their assistance during Tiis administration of affairs, he might understand these matters for himself. In this, we are told, he was so successful that the French princes could never afterwards mislead him (Vita Eadwardi, p. 410). The passage, which is somewhat obscure, scarcely seems to justify the idea that he may have been contemplating French alliances, to counteract any future attempt by Duke William (Norman Conquest, li. 430, 637). At Rome he was probably received by Benedict X, who is reckoned an anti-pope, and it was no doubt owing to his influence that Benedict sent the archiepiscopal pall to Stigand He escaped being assaulted by brigands, and returned home with many relics and other sacred treasures. These he gathered for a church which he was then building at Waltham, a lordship granted to him by the king. At Waltham there was a small church built by Tofig the Proud in the reign of Cnut, in honour of a wonder-working rood, or crucifix, found at the present Montacute in Somerset. Harold rebuilt this church on a grander scale, richly endowed it, and instead of making his new foundation monastic, according to the prevailing fashion of the day, placed in it several clerks, or secular priests, whom he formed into a collegiate chapter consisting of a dean and twelve canons, together with various officers. He wished to make his college a place of education, and appointed a chancellor to deliver lectures. Learned men were then scarce in England, and he therefore sent for Adelard of Liege to fill this office (De Inventions Crucis, ed. Stubbs, c. 15). There is a late story which represents Adelard as a ^physician sent over by the emperor Henry III to cure the earl of paralysis. Being unable to effect the cure, Adelard recommended his patient to seek relief from the wonder-working rood of Waltham. The earl was cured, and out of gratitude for this mercy founded the college and placed Adelard over the school (Vita Haroldi, pp. 155sq., in, Chroniques Anglo-Normandes). The church was dedicated in 1060, on 3 May, the festival of the Invention of the Cross, by Cynesige, arch-bishop of York, in the presence of the king and queen and of many bishops and nobles. As Harold did not have his church dedicated by Stigand, it may fairly be assumed that he held him to be an uncanonical archbishop.

Gruffydd having begun his ravages again in 1062, Harold, after attending the mid-winter assembly of the witan at Gloucester, where the matter was discussed, rode at the head of a small mounted force to Rhuddlan, where Gruffydd then was. As soon as Gruffydd heard of his coming, he left Rhuddlan, and, though the earl pursued him closely, succeeded in escaping by sea. Harold's force was not equipped for a winter campaign in a difficult country; he ordered his men to burn Gruffydd's palace and his ships, and returned home at once. On 26 May he began another campaign. He embarked at Bristol, and sailed round the Welsh coast, landed and met his brother Tostig, earl of Northumberland, who had been ordered by the king to join him with a force partly at least composed of cavalry. Taught by experience, Harold organised his army so as to render it fit for the special character of the war. He caused his infantry to lay aside their heavy arms, and to change their usual tactics of fighting in a close square, and made them wear leathern breast-pieces, fight with the javelin and sword, and live on the food of the country. By this means he was enabled to pursue the Welsh even in the most rocky and wooded districts. He ravaged the land, and put every male whom he found to the sword. The Welsh made a desperate resistance, but were defeated in repeated skirmishes, and found that their natural strongholds no longer afforded them refuge from the enemy. The country was almost depopulated. On the site of 'each successful engagement the conqueror set up a monument of stone with the 'Here Harold was victorious.' Many of these inscibed stones were standing in the reign of Henry II, and Giraldus considered that the state in which Wales reained during the reigns of the first three Norman kings was due to the terrible chastisement which Harold inflicted (Vita Eadwardi, p. 425; i. 222;, Polycraticus, iv. 16-18; , Descriptio Kambriæ, ii. 8). All hope of resistance was crushed, and the Welsh dethroned Gruffydd, gave hostages, and promised tribute. In August 1063 the head of Gruffydd and the beak of his ship were sent by the Welsh to Harold, who took them to the king.

The year 1064 was most probably the date of Harold's visit to Normandy (Norman Conquest, iii. 706 ;, Four Conquests of England, ii. 226). It is said that he went thither by the king's order to tell the duke that the witan had accepted the king's pro-