Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/304

Rh ENGLAND [HISTORY. Return of God- wine. Adminis tration of Harold. Harold s oath to William, meut as one of the great events of our history. They came in arms; but the nation received them with all gladness, and the army which the king had brought together refused to fight against the deliverers. The restoration of Godwiue and his sous, and the banishment of the archbishop and of a crowd of other Normans, was decreed in a national assembly which was oue of the most memorable in English history. The old Teutonic constitu tion revived. At such a moment the Witenagem6t ceased to ba a mere gathering of the chief men of the realm. The nation itself came together. Such a name may fairly be given to an assembly made up of the citizens of London and of the two armies which had refused to fight against one another. This is the most conspicuous among several instances which show that, narrow as the constitution of the national assembly had become in ordinary practice, the rights of the common freemen were only dormant, and could still be made good whenever circumstances were favourable for making them good. It should be noticed also that this armed assembly of the nation took upon itself to depose an archbishop, and seemingly to nominate his successor. So to do was, there can be no doubt, fully within the powers of an English national assembly. But the breach of all ecclesiastical rule, as ecclesiastical rule was understood on the continent, was turned by Norman cunnhig into another count against England and her deliverers. Godwins died the year after his return, and his place in the kingdom was taken by his son Harold. His policy was one of conciliation. The king was allowed to keep his personal favourites about him ; but the Norman influence in public affairs was stopped. On the other hand, Harold cultivated the friendship of Germany, and many Lotharingian churchmen were promoted in England. The Welsh were now again formidable, having been united under a vigorous prince named Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. After some victories over other English commanders, the Britons were at last brought to more complete dependence by Harold himself, in a war in which Gruffydd was killed by bis own people. Earlier than this, the Northumbrian earl Snvard had overcome Macbeth, and had restored the Scottish crown to Malcolm, the heir of the former kings. England thus, under the administration of Harold, held a high place at home and abroad. Still there were several sources of weakness, all of which the Norman knew how to make use of. When the Norman archbishop Robert was deposed and banished, his English successor Stigand was looked on at Rome as an usurper of the see. In the early years of Eadward, Roman influence had greatly grown in England, and the canonical scruple about Stigand s appoint ment was shared by many at home. And when at last Harold procured the acknowledgment of Stigand from Pope Benedict X., matters were only made worse; for Benedict himself was presently declared to be an usurper. It was of more importance still that Harold himself was alleged to have entered into some personal engagements with Duke William. The tale, which conies to us only from the Norman writers, is told with so much contradiction that it is im possible to get at the exact truth. The Normans gave out that Harold was sent by Eadward to announce- his bequest of the crown to William, that he did homage to William, engaged to marry his daughter, and promised to promote his succession at Eadward s death and to give him immediate possession of the castle of Dover. This tale is altogether impossible ; but it is very likely that Harold was ship wrecked on the shore of Ponthieu and imprisoned by its count Guy ; that he was released by the interference of Duke William; that, in return for tnis favour, he helped him in his war with the Bretons ; that he promised though an oldjr man. than Duke William to marry his daughter ; and that he did an act of formal homage to his intended father-in-law and temporary military commander. Here is most likely the germ of the story, a story about which the contemporary English writers are significantly silent, while the Normans improve it into such forms as suited their own purposes. It is plain that the canonical question about Stigand, and the story of Harold s oath, gave every oppor tunity, when the time came, to represent the English as a sacrilegious and schismatic people, and their ruler as a man faithless to his oath. While these sources of danger were growing up abroad, a third source was growing up in England itself. The rivalry between the West-Saxon and the Mercian, between the house of Godwine and the house of Leofric, went on. The character of Leofric himself is without stain ; but his son yElfgar did not scruple to ally himself with the Welsh against England. Outlawed and restored, he held his Ba.nl father s earldom of Mercia till his death, when it passed to en1 In ^t his son Eadwine. But, in the latter days of Eadward, all the rest of England was under the government of the sons of Godwine. Of these Tostig had succeeded Si ward in Northumberland. He was a personal favourite of the king, and his appointment may well have been King Eadward s own act. In the last year of Eadward s reign the Northumbrians deposed Tostig, and chose as their earl Morkere, the brother of Eadwine. Rather than plunge the country into a civil war, Harold confirmed the choice of the Northumbrians. Tostig went into foreign lands to complain of his brother, and to plot against his country. Harold thus drew on himself the enmity of his brother, without winning the gratitude of the sons of Mlfgar. Such were the threefold dangers which threatened Elec England when Eadward died, January 5, 1066, while the ^ Witan were assembled at Westminster for the Christmas feast. Eadward was childless, and the question of the suc cession must have been in men s minds during the wholo of his reign. That he promised the crown to William at the time of the duke s visit is, as we have seen, very likely. But such thoughts passed away under the administration of Harold. Eadward sent for his nephew Eadward from Hungary, clearly designing him as his successor. Tho younger Eadward came to England and died. He left two daughters, and a son Eadgar, young and of little promise, who was at Eadward s death the only male left in the royal. family. In such a strait, it was needful to look for a king beyond the royal family. Eadward on his death had recom mended Harold to the choice of the electors, a recommenda tion which was willingly accepted. Harold was chosen and crowned, taking care to avoid any question as to the validity of the crowning rite, by having it performed, not by Stigand, but by Ealdred archbishop of York. The Northumbrians for a moment refused to acknowledge the election of the new king ; but he won them over by his presence and the eloquence of his friend Wulfstan bishop of Worcester. It was most likely at the same time that he tried to win the northern earls to his side by a marriage with their sister Ealdgyth. This was a direct breach of his promise to William; and, as Ealdgyth was the widow of Gruffydd of Wales, this last fact was made a further chargo against him by the Normans. Of the lawfulness of Harold s succession, according to the Its 1. English law of the time, there can be no doub He was fl &quot; D&amp;lt; nominated by the late king, regularly chosen, regularly con secrated. The Witan had always exercised a free choice within the royal house, and the same principle would justify a choice beyond the royal house, when the royal house contained no qualified candidate. Minorities had been endured afier the death of Eadred and after the death of Eadgar. But then the only man in the land who held at all the same position as Harold now did was the