Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/86

 to Romney Bay, but the king's ships did not succeed in getting to the latter place in time to prevent the earl from sailing thence to the westward. Ralf and Odda returned to Sandwich, and went thence to London, where it is not astonishing that they were superseded. As for Godwin, he went no farther west than the Isle of Wight, and was there joined by Harold, with nine ships from Ireland. The combined force returned up Channel, picking up more butsecarls at Romney and Folkestone, and reached Sandwich "with an overflowing army." The royal fleet had quitted Sandwich, and Godwin pressed on for the Thames. He mounted as far as Southwark, found the people there well disposed towards him, entered into an understanding with them, landed some troops, and advanced cautiously through the south arch of London Bridge. The royal fleet, increased to fifty ships, seems to have lain somewhere below the spot where now stands St. Paul's; and Godwin was upon the point of attacking it, when, happily, an arrangement was come to, and bloodshed was prevented.

Thus Godwin triumphed. His victory led to the outlawry of Robert of Jumieges, Bishop Ulf, and other Norman place-holders, who escaped with considerable difficulty to Normandy; and English influences became predominant at court. But in the following year the great earl died. He had, however, a worthy successor as chief of the party of England for the English, in the person of his eldest surviving son, Harold, a true West Saxon, yet also, on his mother's side, a grand-nephew of Canute. Harold, while his brother-in-law, Edward the Confessor, lived, was a strong and patriotic mayor of the palace to a roi fainéant, and at first he was zealously supported by all the members of his house, including his brothers Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, Gyrth, Earl of East Anglia, and Leofwin, who held sway in Kent, Essex, and adjoining counties. The two last, indeed, remained faithful to their kinsman to the death.

In 1062, Griffith of Wales once more became troublesome; and Harold and Tostig combined to repress him. The campaign was chiefly military; but its issue was much influenced by the billiant naval success of Harold, in 1063, at Rudeland, where the Welsh fleet was destroyed. Griffith was assassinated by one of his own followers, and both his head and the prow of his ship were sent as trophies to Edward. Then came the defection of Tostig, in some sense the gloomiest actor in the events which were fast crowding