Cassell's History of England, Vol. 1 (of 8) / From the Roman Invasion to the Wars of the Roses

by Anonymous

PEVENSEY CASTLE.

One day Harold, while sailing in the channel, was driven by tempest on the territory of Guy, Count of Ponthieu, who, being informed of his quality, immediately detained him prisoner, and demanded an exorbitant sum for his ransom. Harold found means to convey intelligence of his situation to the Duke of Normandy; and represented that he had met with extremely harsh treatment from the mercenary disposition of the Count of Ponthieu, who was William's vassal.

William was immediately sensible of the importance of the incident: he foresaw that if he could once gain Harold, either by favours or menaces, his way to the throne of England would be open, and Edward would meet with no further obstacle in executing the favourable intentions which he had entertained on his behalf. He sent, therefore, a messenger to Guy, in order to demand the liberty of his prisoner; and that nobleman, not daring to refuse so great a prince, put Harold into the hands of the Norman, who conducted him to Rouen. William received him with every demonstration of respect and friendship; and even persuaded him to take part in a campaign which he was waging with Count Conan of Brittany, in which Harold highly distinguished himself, and was rewarded with the compliment of knighthood. In his anxiety to be allowed to return home, Harold appears to have compromised himself by taking some sort of oath, which William attempted to make additionally binding by a curious trick. He caused Harold, when he swore, to place his hand on a chest, and then, withdrawing the cover, showed the Englishman the relics of the saints, which had been collected from all parts of Normandy. This device is quite in keeping with the ideas of that time, and any breach of the engagement would have been considered a most wicked act of perjury, even though the taker of the oath was not aware of the solemnity of the promises he had made.

The terms of the oath are quite uncertain. Harold remained, so far as we know, absolutely silent on the subject, and his silence naturally conduces to the belief that he must have made some stipulations that he had no right to make. Professor Freeman strives hard to prove that he only promised to marry William's daughter, and that he did homage to him as his future father-in-law. The Norman chroniclers assert that he did homage to William as his future king, and promised in the meantime to deliver to him the castle of Dover, and to marry his daughter. It is hardly credible that Harold, though his position was a very difficult one, can have compromised himself in this manner; but it is possible that he may have thought that no price was too heavy to pay for freedom, and may have consoled himself by reflecting that to pledge himself to William as his future king was perfectly illegal, inasmuch as the election lay in the hands of the Witena-gemot. In any case, whatever understanding was concluded, Harold made no attempt on his return to carry it out, but continued in that line of conduct by which he accustomed the people of England to regard him as their future sovereign; and broke one of the conditions, at any rate, by marrying the daughter of Ælfgar, the widow of Griffith of Wales. He was so completely successful that the Confessor, on his death-bed (he died on January 5th, 1066) requested the Witena-gemot to choose Harold as his successor, and said nothing concerning William of Normandy, or any promises that had been made to him at the time of his visit to England.

Edward, to whom the Church has given the title of Saint and Confessor, was the last of the direct line of the West Saxon kings that ruled in England. Though his reign was peaceable and fortunate, he owed his prosperity less to his own abilities than to the conjunctures of the times. The Danes, employed in other enterprises, did not attempt those incursions which had been so troublesome to his predecessors, and fatal to some of them. The facility of his disposition made him acquiesce in the government of Godwin and his son Harold; and the abilities, as well as the power of these noblemen, enabled them, while they were entrusted with authority, to preserve domestic peace and tranquillity. The most commendable circumstance of Edward's government was his attention to the administration of justice; and he is said to have compiled, for that purpose, a body of laws, which he collected from the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and Alfred. This compilation, if it ever existed, is now lost (for the laws that pass under Edward's name were composed afterwards), and it is thought that when we find the English in after-times asking for a renewal of King Edward's laws, they do not allude to any definite code, but simply to the old customs generally. But, while praising Edward for his rectitude of conduct, we ought not to forget that his weak dependence upon Norman favourites in the earlier part of the reign was the cause of infinite disaster to the nation in the years that followed his death. He was, in fact, as it has been often said, more fitted for a Norman cloister than for the English throne.

The election of Harold by the Witena-gemot was duly effected on the Feast of the Epiphany, the claims of the Atheling, Edgar, apparently not having been taken into serious consideration, so important was it felt to be that a capable man should have command in times when an invasion might be expected at any moment. William, as may be imagined, was not long in putting in his claim to the throne; and, having summoned Harold to fulfil the promises that he had made in Normandy (to which summons answer was returned that the promises were such as Harold could not possibly perform), he proceeded to set out a most ingenious statement of the rights which he asserted were his. They were absolutely worthless, but probably produced the desired effect on the Continent—an impression that William was the victim of fraud. In the first place, he based his claim to the crown on his descent; he was, he declared, Edward's next-of-kin through Edward's mother, Emma. This, of course, was not true, Edgar being considerably nearer in relationship; and even so, it would only entitle him to a certain amount of preference. Secondly, he declared that Edward had left him the crown, but such a bequeathal was, as we have seen, quite beyond the power of an English king, even if it was ever definitely made, of which no written proof was produced. Thirdly, he told the story of Harold's oath, which the latter had no right to take. Very few men among the English appear to have been won over by these specious arguments, but upon the Continent, and especially in France, where men were probably in ignorance of English customs, it is not improbable that they carried considerable weight, especially when backed by the authority of the Church. For William was careful to obtain this powerful sanction, and thereby he invested the invasion with the character of a war of religion.

To the shallow arguments about the perjury of Harold, he was cunning enough to add others of more solid worth, namely, that he would bring the Church of England more thoroughly under the control of Rome than it had hitherto been, and especially would cause the Papal dues to be more regularly paid. These last considerations could not but have much influence with the Pope, Alexander II., and William's envoys were fortunate to gain over the man who had the entire ascendency in the Papal counsels, the famous Hildebrand, who afterwards became Pope Gregory the Seventh. The Pope, therefore, announced his cordial sanction of the enterprise, and despatched to the Norman Duke a consecrated banner, and a ring containing some of St. Peter's hair.

William now set himself seriously to work to gain allies, and to get an army ready. He applied in the first instance to the King of France; but William was already too powerful a vassal, and his overtures were rejected from policy. Nothing daunted, he next addressed himself to his father-in-law, Count Baldwin of Flanders. Baldwin listened to him, and helped him to the utmost of his power. His own subjects were at first unwilling to take part in the undertaking, but William won them over by his cajoleries. By the middle of August, 1066, the Duke of Normandy had collected or built upwards of 900 large vessels, without counting those destined to serve as means of transport, and had under his command 50,000 horsemen and 10,000 foot soldiers. However, he did not hurry his preparations, for everything was turning out in his favour.

For William was not the only enemy against whom the unfortunate Harold had to contend. His unscrupulous and selfish brother, Tostig, also determined to make a dash for the crown, hopes of which he had entertained previously to his banishment, since he was a favourite with the Confessor, and the king had been very unwilling to part with him. Early in the year he applied for assistance to William, but the duke, although eager enough to profit by his folly, would give him no assistance. Thereupon, having collected some ships from the ports of Flanders, Tostig made a wild descent upon the south of England, and plundered the coast from the Isle of Wight to Sandwich. Driven away by the approach of Harold, he directed his forces to the Humber, but was beaten off by Edwin and Morcar, and forced to take refuge in Scotland.

All this while Harold had been watching the south coast, daily expecting to see the ships of William in the channel. But William never came, and the English churls were longing for their homes and harvests, so that the forces began to dwindle away. The English army, it should be remembered, was a militia, serving without pay and under compulsion. Such a force was particularly unwieldy, and particularly hard to keep together. At last, on September the 8th, the provisions failed, and Harold was compelled to disband his forces, leaving the southern coast bare.