6. Duke William in his own Duchy.—We shall see presently that the course of events in England must have altogether thrown back William’s hopes with regard to the English crown. But he went on winning fame and power in his own land beyond the sea. He ruled his duchy wisely and well, and it flourished greatly under him. He promoted learned men from other countries, above all two men who lived to play a greater part in England than in Normandy. These were Lanfranc from Pavia in Italy and Anselm from Aosta in Burgundy. They were both monks of the newly-founded monastery of Bec in Normandy, which was at this time a nursery of famous men. The Duke married Matilda, daughter of Baldwin Count of Flanders, by whom he had several daughters and, for the present, three sons, Robert, Richard, and William. The most famous of his daughters was Adela, who married Stephen Count of Blois. But Duke William did not reign without rebellions at home and wars abroad. For a short time after the battle of Val-ès-dunes the friendship between the Duke and King Henry of France went on. Both joined in a war against Geoffrey Count of Anjou, who now held the land of Maine between Anjou and Normandy. In 1049 Duke William for the first time extended his dominions by winning the castles of Domfront and Ambrières in Maine, of which Domfront has ever since been part of Normandy. But before long King Henry got jealous of William’s power, and he was now always ready to give help to any Norman rebels. Men in France began again to say that Normandy was a land cut off from France, and that France should be made again to reach to the sea as of old. And the other neighbouring princes were jealous of him as well as the King. His neighbours in Britanny, Anjou, Chartres, and Ponthieu, were all against him. But the great Duke was able to hold his own against them all, and before long to make a great addition to his dominions.
7. Duke William’s Wars with France.—The wars between Normandy and France are very important, because they have so great a bearing on English history. There was no quarrel between England and France as long as Normandy lay between them. But France and Normandy had many quarrels and wars; so, when the same prince ruled in England and in Normandy, England was dragged into the quarrels of Normandy, and there grew up a rivalry between England and France which went on after Normandy was conquered by France. These wars therefore between Duke William and King Henry are really the beginning of the long wars between England and France. King Henry invaded Normandy three times. The first time, in 1053, the King came to help a kinsman of the Duke’s, William Count of Arques near Dieppe, where the castle with a very deep ditch is still to be seen. This time the French army was caught in an ambush and was utterly routed. In this battle was killed Ingelram Count of Ponthieu, which made room for the accession of his brother Count Guy. The next year, 1054, King Henry came again with a much greater army, gathered from his own kingdom and from the dominions of many of the other princes of Gaul. They came in two great divisions, to attack Normandy on both sides of the Seine. That which came in on the right bank was utterly cut to pieces in the town of Mortemer, which they had occupied and where the Normans attacked them by night. Then the Duke sent a messenger who crossed to the other side of the river where the King’s own army was, where he climbed a tree and shouted to them in the darkness to go bury their friends who were dead at Mortemer. So they were seized with a panic and fled. In this battle the new Count of Ponthieu, Guy, was taken prisoner, and was not let go till he became Duke William’s man for his county. Peace was now made with France, and Duke William was allowed to make some conquests at the expense of Anjou. But very soon France and Anjou were again allied against Normandy. In 1058 King Henry made his last invasion. This time the French army was cut off by a sudden attack at the ford of Varaville near the Dive. All these campaigns show that William, who could fight so well in a pitched battle, was no less skilful in all kinds of cunning enterprises. Soon after this, in 1060, both King Henry and Geoffrey of Anjou died. William was now safe from all attacks on that side, all the more so as the new King of the French, Philip, was a child, and the Regent was William’s own father-in-law Count Baldwin of Flanders.
8. The Conquest of Maine.—Thus William, who in some sort conquered his own Normandy at Val-ès-dunes, did in some sort also conquer France at Mortemer and Varaville. But he had not yet enlarged his dominions, except at Domfront and Ambrières and one or two other points on the frontier towards Maine. He was presently able to win the whole county. And this part of William’s life should be carefully studied, because his conquest of Maine is strikingly like his conquest of England. In both cases he won a land against the will of its people, and yet with some show of legal right. Maine had had counts of its own, some of them famous men, as were also many of the bishops of the great city of Le Mans; the citizens too were stout and jealous of their freedom. But latterly the land of Maine had come under the power of Geoffrey of Anjou. On Geoffrey’s death, the lawful Count Herbert, to get back his county, commended himself to William, and they settled that William’s son Robert should marry Herbert’s sister Margaret, and that Maine should pass to their descendants. This was something like Edward’s promise of the English crown to William. In 1063 Herbert died childless, and William claimed the county on behalf of his son, though he and Margaret were not yet married. But the people of Maine chose for their count Walter Count of Mantes, who had married Count Herbert’s aunt Biota. He was the son of King Edward’s sister Godgifu and brother of Ralph of Hereford. This was like the English people choosing Harold. Then William made war on Maine, and occupied the county bit by bit, till the city surrendered and Walter submitted to him. Soon after this Walter and Biota died; William’s enemies said that he poisoned them, which is not in the least likely. But from this time he ruled over Maine as well as over Normandy. We shall see that its brave people revolted more than once against both him and his sons. But the conquest of Maine raised William’s power and fame to a higher pitch than it reached at any other time before his conquest of England. And, soon after the conquest of Maine, the affairs of Normandy and England, which have stayed apart ever since William’s visit to Edward, begin to be joined together. It is time then to go back and see what had been happening meanwhile in England.
CHAPTER V.
Harold Earl and King.
1. The Return of Godwine and Harold.—When Duke William paid his visit to King Edward in 1052, Godwine and all his family, save only the Lady Edith, were in banishment, and the Normans were in full power in the land. But before long the English were longing to have Godwine back again. Men soon began to tire of the King’s foreign favourites, who, it seemed, could not even defend the land against the Welsh. For the Welsh King Gruffydd came into Herefordshire and smote the Normans who held Richard’s Castle. Men sent to ask Godwine to come back; he prayed the King to let him come back, and he got Count Baldwin with whom he was staying and also the King of the French to ask for him; but the King’s favourites would not let him hearken. Then, in 1052, Godwine made up his mind to come back without the King’s leave, as he knew that no Englishman was likely to fight against him. He therefore set sail from Flanders, and Harold and Leofwine set sail from Dublin. The crews of their ships must have been Irish Danes, which perhaps made Englishmen afraid of them. For, when they landed at Porlock in Somerset, the men of the land withstood them, and Harold and Leofwine beat them in a battle and harried the neighbourhood. But when Godwine came to southern England, no man withstood his coming, but in most parts the folk joined him willingly, saying that they would live and die with him. The King got a fleet against him; but the crews had no heart, and the fleet was scattered before Godwine came. At last Godwine’s ships and Harold’s met, and they sailed up the Thames together, and came before London on September 14. The citizens then said that what the Earl would they would; the King and his earls brought up an army and another fleet, but the men would not fight against Earl Godwine. Then peace was made; it was agreed that an assembly should be held the next day to settle everything. Then Godwine landed, having come back without shedding of blood. Then fear came on all the Normans who were in and near London, and they fled hither and thither. Specially the Norman Archbishop Robert and Ulf Bishop of Dorchester cut their way out of the city, slaying as they went, and went beyond sea, and never came back to England.
2. The Restoration of Godwine.—The next day the assembly met, and voted that Godwine and all his family should be restored to all their goods and honours. It was voted also that all the Normans who had misled the King, especially Archbishop Robert, who was gone already, should be banished. So Godwine and Harold got back their earldoms, and the Lady Edith came back from her monastery; only Swegen did not come back; for he had repented him of his sins and gone barefoot on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and had died on the way back, about the time that his father and brothers came home. Of the King’s Norman friends some were allowed to stay, and Bishop William of London was allowed to keep his bishopric; but from this time no more Normans got bishoprics or other great offices. And the English Bishop Stigand got the archbishopric of Canterbury instead of Robert. This is a thing to be specially remembered; for it was made a charge against Stigand, Godwine, Harold, and the whole English nation that Robert had been driven from his archbishopric and Stigand put in his place, without the authority of the Pope, but merely by a vote of the English assembly. The Popes therefore never acknowledged Stigand as lawful archbishop, and though he kept the archbishopric till four years after William’s coming, many people in England seem to have been afraid to have any great ecclesiastical ceremony done by him. Bishops commonly went to be consecrated by the Pope, or else by the Archbishop of York. It is easy to see how Duke William was able to turn all this to his own ends.
3. The Death of Godwine.—At the Easter-tide of the next year, April 15, 1053, Earl Godwine died. He was seized with a fit while at the King’s table, and died three days after. The Normans told strange tales about his death, but that is the simple story in our own Chronicles. Then his son Harold succeeded him as Earl of the West-Saxons, and was the chief ruler of England during the remaining thirteen years of Edward’s reign. There is no sign of any dispute between the King and the Earl, though Edward’s chief favourite was not Harold, but his younger brother Tostig. The King was allowed to have his Norman friends about him in offices of his court, but not to set them over the kingdom. Bishoprics were given either to Englishmen or to men from Lorraine, that is, we should now say, from Belgium, who could most likely speak both Low-Dutch and French. The King’s nephew Ralph and his friend Odda kept their earldoms as long as they lived; but, as earldoms fell vacant, they were given to men of the two great families of Godwine and Leofric. Ælfgar son of Leofric succeeded Harold in East-Anglia. In 1055 Siward of Northumberland died, and his earldom was given to Tostig the son of Godwine. And when in 1057 the Earls Leofric and Ralph died, the earldoms were parted out again. Ælfgar took his father’s earldom of Mercia; only Ralph’s earldom of Hereford, which needed specially to be guarded against the Welsh, was added to Harold’s earldom. Godwine’s son Gyrth succeeded Ælfgar in East-Anglia, and his other son Leofwine got Kent and the other shires round London. Thus the greater part of England was under the rule of the house of Godwine, and what was not remained under the house of Leofric; for when Ælfgar died, his son Edwin succeeded him.
4. The Scottish and Welsh Wars.—These later years of Edward’s reign, in which Harold was truly the ruler of England, were marked by several stirring events. Thus there was a war with Scotland, where the crown had been more than once disputed between two families. The present king Macbeth had come to the crown after a battle in which Duncan the former king was killed. Duncan was a kinsman of Earl Siward, who therefore wished to restore his son Malcolm. In 1054 Siward entered Scotland, defeated Macbeth, and declared Malcolm king; but the war went on for four years longer, till Macbeth and his son were killed and Malcolm got the whole kingdom. Then there were several wars with the Welsh, under their last great king Gruffydd son of Llywelyn. In 1055 Earl Ælfgar was banished; he then joined Gruffydd in an invasion of Herefordshire. Earl Ralph went out to meet him; but either he only knew the French way of fighting or he liked it best. So he made the English go into battle on horseback, to which they were not used, and they were therefore defeated. Ælfgar and Gruffydd then burned and sacked Hereford; but Earl Harold came and fortified the city afresh. Peace was made with Gruffydd, and Ælfgar got his earldom back again. Gruffydd presently made war again, but he lost part of his lands at the next peace. He seems to have always kept up his connexion with Ælfgar and his family, and he married Ælfgar’s daughter Ealdgyth. At last in 1062 his ravages could no longer be borne, and it was determined to subdue him altogether. The next year Earl Harold waged a great campaign in Wales, in which, the better to fight among the mountains, he made the English take to the Welsh way of fighting, and so made all the Welsh submit. Gruffydd was presently killed by his own people, and Earl Harold gave Wales to two princes, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, to hold as the King’s men. These Welsh and Scottish wars make up nearly all that happened between England and other lands during this time. There was peace with Normandy; but Duke William paid no more visits to his cousin the King. Of a visit which Earl Harold made to him we shall speak presently.
5. The Succession to the Crown.—All this time men must have been thinking who should be king whenever King Edward should die. By English law, when the king died, the Wise Men chose the next king. But they chose from the kingly house, and, if the last king left a son of an age to rule, he was almost always chosen. Indeed, if he were actually the son of a king, born after his father was crowned, he had a special right to be chosen. But the crown had never been given to a woman, nor does it seem that the son of a king’s daughter had any claim above another man. But it was held that, though the crown could not pass by will, yet some weight ought to belong to the wishes of the late King. Now King Edward had no children, and the only man in the kingly house was his nephew Edward, the son of his elder brother Edmund Ironside. This is he who had been sent away as a child in Cnut’s time. He was now living in Hungary, with his wife and three children, Edgar, Margaret, and Christina. King Edward in 1054 sent for him to come to England, doubtless meaning that he should succeed him. This shows that he had quite given up all thought of being succeeded by his Norman cousin. Edward the Ætheling—that is, the king’s son, as son of Edmund Ironside—came to England in 1057; but he sickened and died soon after he landed. His son Edgar was quite a child, and was not a king’s son. Moreover he was not born in the land, and he could hardly have been much of an Englishman. Men had therefore to think who should be king if King Edward died before Edgar was grown up. One can fancy that the King might have wished to leave the crown to his nephew Earl Ralph; but, though he was the King’s nephew, he was not of the kingly house, and he was not an Englishman. Ralph too died the same year. We can hardly doubt that from this time men began to think whether a time might not come when they should have to choose a king not of the kingly house. From this time Earl Harold seems to hold a special place, and to be spoken of in a special way. His name is joined with the King’s name in a way which is not usual, and he is even called Subregulus or Under-king. All this looks as if the thought of choosing him king whenever Edward should die was already in men’s minds.
6. Earl Harold’s Church at Waltham.—In those days almost every great man, both in England and in Normandy, thought it his duty to make some great gift to the Church, commonly to found or enrich some monastery, to build or rebuild its great church or minster. Many monasteries were founded and churches built at this time in Normandy by Duke William and his barons. And it was the same in England. King Edward’s great business was to rebuild and enrich the minster of Saint Peter on the isle of Thorney in the Thames, which, as standing west from the great church of London, the church of Saint Paul, was known as the West Minster. So the Lady Edith, Earl Leofric and his wife Godgifu, Earl Siward, Earl Odda, and many bishops and abbots, were busy at this time building churches and founding monasteries. Earl Godwine is the only great man of the time of whom we hear nothing of the kind. Earl Harold, on the other hand, was as bountiful as any of them, only his bounty went, not to the monks, but to the secular clergy. These were those clergy who were not, like the monks, bound by special vows in their own persons, but only by the general law of the Church. They were the parish priests and the canons of cathedral and collegiate churches; only in England several cathedral churches were now served by monks, and more were afterwards. For the monks were much more in fashion just now; Earl Harold however, when he founded a great church, placed in it not monks but secular canons. This was at Waltham in Essex. A church had been founded there in Cnut’s days by his banner-bearer Tofig the Proud, who put in it a rood or cross which had been brought from Leodgaresburh (afterwards called Montacute) in Somerset, and which was thought to work wonders. Harold now rebuilt Tofig’s church on a greater scale; and, whereas Tofig had founded only two priests, Harold raised the number to twelve, one of whom was Dean, and another Childmaster. Earl Harold had through his whole life a special reverence for the Holy Cross of Waltham, and in battle the war-cry of his immediate following was “Holy Cross.”