A short history of the Norman Conquest of England

by Edward A. Freeman

7. Harold and William.—The Duke of the Normans and the Earl of the West-Saxons were thus both of them winning fame and power, each of them on his own side of the sea. They were beyond all doubt the foremost men, the one in England, the other in Gaul. But there was a difference between their positions which arose out of the different political conditions of England and Gaul. Harold was a subject of the King of the English, his chief adviser and minister, the ruler of a great part of the kingdom under the King. But he was still a subject, though a subject who had some hope of being one day chosen king over his own land and people. William could not be called a subject of the King of the French; he was a sovereign prince, ruling his own land, and owing at most an external homage to the king. But he had no chance, as Harold had, of ever becoming a king in his own land; his only chance of becoming a king was by winning, either by force or by craft, the crown of England. Harold and William were therefore rivals. By this time they must have known that they were rivals. But as yet nothing had happened to make any open enmity between them. They could hardly have met face to face; but each must have carefully watched the course of the other. And before long they were to meet face to face; but there are so many stories as to the way in which their meeting came about that it is very hard to say anything at all certain about it. Harold made a journey on the continent in 1058, when he made the pilgrimage to Rome. And it is said that, on his way back, he carefully studied the state of things among the princes of Gaul. At that time William’s chief enemies, Henry of France, William of Aquitaine, and Geoffrey of Anjou, were all alive, and it may be that Harold had some schemes of alliance with some of them, in case William should ever put forth any dangerous claims. But of the details of this journey we know nothing. The Norman writers always said that Harold at some time or other took an oath to William, which he broke by accepting the English crown. But they tell the story in so many ways, with so many differences of time, place, and circumstances, that we cannot be certain as to any details. The English writers say nothing about the story; but the fact that they do say nothing about it is the best proof that there is some truth in it. For there are many Norman slanders against Harold which they carefully answer; so we may be sure that, if they could have altogether denied this story, if they could have said that Harold never took any oath to William at all, they would gladly have said so. We may therefore believe that Harold did take some kind of oath to William, which oath William was able to say that Harold had broken. But further than this we can say nothing for certain. All that we can do therefore is to tell the story in that way which, out of the many ways in which it is told, seems the least unlikely.

8. The Oath of Harold.—It would seem then that, most likely in the year 1064, after the Welsh war, Harold was sailing in the Channel, most likely with his brother Wulfnoth and his sister Ælfgifu. They were wrecked on the coast of Ponthieu, where Count Guy, according to the cruel custom of the time towards shipwrecked people, shut up Harold in prison, in hopes of getting a ransom. But the Earl contrived to send a message to Guy’s lord Duke William, and the Duke at once sent to release him, paying Guy a large ransom. William then took Harold to his court at Rouen and kept him there as his guest in all friendship. Harold even consented, in return doubtless for the kindness which the Duke had shown him, to help William in a war which he was carrying on with the Breton Count Conan, a war in which William and Harold together took the town of Dinan. At some stage of this visit Harold took the oath. It seems most likely that the oath really was simply to marry one of William’s daughters, but that the oath was accompanied by an act of homage to William. Such acts of homage were often done in return for any favour, without much being meant by them; and Harold had just received a great favour from William in his release from Guy’s prison. The act might be understood in two ways; but it is plain that William would have a great advantage when he came to claim the crown, from the fact that Harold had in any way become his man. All kinds of other stories, some strange, some quite impossible, are told. Harold is made to promise, not only to secure the crown to William on Edward’s death, but to give up the castle of Dover and other places in England to be held by Norman garrisons. And there is one specially famous tale how William tricked Harold into swearing quite unwittingly in an unusually solemn way. He was made, so the story ran, to put his hand on a chest, and it was shown to him afterwards that this chest was full of the relics of saints. And those who tell this story are much shocked at the supposed crime of Harold, but seem to see no harm in the trick played by William. The stories all contradict one another; but they all agree in one thing, namely in making Harold promise to marry a daughter of William. And this promise he certainly did not keep. After all this, Harold went back to England, leaving, as it would seem, his brother Wulfnoth as a hostage for fulfilment of his promise, whatever that promise was.

9. The Revolt of Northumberland.—It will be remembered that Tostig the son of Godwine had been made Earl of the Northumbrians on the death of Siward in 1055. Beside Northumberland, his earldom took in the outlying shires of Northampton and Huntingdon. The Norman tales speak of Harold and Tostig as having been enemies from their boyhood; but there is nothing to make us think that there is any truth in this, and Tostig helped Harold in his Welsh wars. Tostig had also some wars of his own with Malcolm of Scotland, who invaded Northumberland, although he and Tostig were sworn brothers. Tostig also, like Harold, made the pilgrimage to Rome, and, when he and his people were robbed, he used some very bold language to Pope Nicolas. In his own earldom he had a fierce people to rule, and he ruled them fiercely; beginning with stern justice, he gradually sank into oppression. He seems also to have given offence by staying away from his earldom with the King, with whom he was a great favourite, and handing Northumberland over to the rule of one Copsige. At last, when he had put several of the chief men to death and had laid on a very heavy tax, the whole people revolted. This was in October, 1065. They held an assembly at York, in which they declared Tostig deposed, and chose Morkere the son of Ælfgar to be their earl. Under him Oswulf, a descendant of the old earls, was to rule in Bernicia. They rifled Tostig’s hoard; they killed his followers and friends, and marched to Northampton, harrying the land as they went. There Morkere’s brother Edwin, the Earl of the Mercians, met them with the men of his earldom and a great body of Welshmen. Thus half England was in revolt. Tostig meanwhile was hunting with the King in Wiltshire. The King was eager to make war on the Northumbrians; but Earl Harold wished to make peace, even at the expense of his brother. The King at last gave him full power to settle matters; so he held an assembly at Oxford, and, as he saw that it was hopeless to try to reconcile Tostig and the Northumbrians, he granted their demands. Peace was made, and the laws of Cnut were renewed; that is to say, it was decreed that Northumberland should be as well ruled as it had been in Cnut’s day. Morkere was acknowledged as Earl of the Northumbrians; but Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire were given to Waltheof the son of Siward. And Oswulf, one of the blood of the old Northumbrian earls, ruled, seemingly under Morkere, in the northern part of the earldom, that which was now beginning to be specially called Northumberland. Tostig was banished and sought shelter in Flanders. By this revolution the house of Leofric became again at least as powerful in England as the house of Godwine, setting aside the personal influence of Harold.

10. The Death of Edward.—We have now come near to the end of King Edward’s reign. All this time he had been building the great church of Saint Peter at Westminster, close by his palace, and he was just able to finish it before he died. The Wise Men came together at Westminster for the Christmas feast of 1065; the King wore his crown as usual; but he fell sick before the hallowing of the new minster, which was done on Innocents’ Day. Before the feast was over, on January 5th, 1066, he died, the last King of the male line of Cerdic. Before he died, he uttered some strange words which were taken to be a prophecy, and which were in aftertimes understood of the Conquest of England and of the succession of the kings who followed. But his last act was to recommend the Wise Men to choose Earl Harold as king in his stead. The next day, the feast of the Epiphany, King Edward was buried in his own church of Saint Peter. He had built it specially to be the crowning-place and the burying-place of kings. It was put to both uses within a few days after it was hallowed.

11. The Election and Coronation of Harold.—And now the time had come for which men must have been looking so long. King Edward was dead; a new king had to be chosen, and there was no one in the kingly house fit to be chosen. As the Christmas feast was not yet over, the Wise Men were still gathered together at Westminster; so that they could choose at once. It is not clear whether anybody in England knew anything about Harold’s oath to William; if anything was known of it, it must have been held to be of no strength. Nor do we know whether the claims either of William or of Edgar were spoken of or thought of. The thing which is certain is that, as soon as Edward was dead, the assembly met, and, according to the late king’s wishes, chose Earl Harold King. The next day he was hallowed to king in the new church of Saint Peter; that is, he was crowned and anointed, and he swore the oath to his people. As men had doubts whether Stigand of Canterbury was a lawful archbishop, the rite was done by Ealdred Archbishop of York. Of this there is no real doubt, though some of the Norman writers say that Harold was crowned by Stigand. That is, they wish to imply that he was not lawfully crowned. For in those days the crowning of a king was not a mere pageant. It was his actual admission to the kingly office, just like the consecration of a bishop. Till he was crowned, he might have, by birth or election, the sole right to become king; but he did not become king till the oil was poured on his head and the crown set upon it. So men might argue that, if the rite was done by an archbishop who had no good right to his see, the coronation would not be valid. All this is worth marking, as showing the feelings of the time. But there is no doubt that Harold came to the crown quite regularly, that he was recommended by Edward on his death-bed, that he was regularly chosen by the assembly, and regularly crowned by Archbishop Ealdred. If things had gone on quietly, Harold would most likely have been the first of a new line of kings. This event in our history is very much like what had happened among the Franks three hundred years before. The last King of the house of the Merwings was deposed, and Pippin, the father of the Emperor Charles the Great, was chosen King in his stead. Only in England there was no need to depose Edward, but merely to choose Harold when he died. And in one very important point the change of the kingly house among the English was quite unlike the same change among the Franks. For the Pope specially approved of the election of Pippin, while the Pope was very far from approving of the election of Harold.

12. King Harold in Northumberland.—One of the English Chronicles says that the nine months of the reign of Harold were a time of “little stillness.” So it truly was; he was hard at work from the very beginning. At what time Duke William first sent to challenge the crown is not certainly known; but it is not likely to have been very long after Harold’s crowning. Of this however we shall best speak in another chapter. But the new king found at once that part of his kingdom was not ready to acknowledge him. This was Northumberland, to the people of which land he had lately shown so much favour by confirming their deposition of his own brother, and their choice of Morkere as their earl. Harold had indeed been crowned by their own archbishop, and their chief men must have acknowledged him along with the rest of the Wise Men; but we should remember that at an assembly in London, though there would be many men present from Wessex, Mercia, and East-Anglia, there could not be many from Northumberland. This would indeed be true of almost every assembly that was held at all; for the three usual places were Winchester, Westminster, and Gloucester, all of them places convenient in turn for different parts of southern England, but none of them convenient for Northumberland. But the change of the kingly house was an act of greater weight than any other, and the Northumbrians might have some kind of ground for saying that the choice had been made without their consent. How far the brother earls Edwin and Morkere had anything to do with stirring up discontent we cannot tell; but their doings both before and after look like it. Anyhow the Northumbrians refused to acknowledge King Harold. The King now did just as he had done a few months before. He did not think of force; but he went himself to York, taking with him his friend Wulfstan Bishop of Worcester, a most holy man, who was afterwards called Saint Wulfstan. At York he held an assembly, and the speeches of the King and the Bishop persuaded the Northumbrians to submit without any fighting. And it was most likely at this time, and by way of further pleasing the Northumbrians, that King Harold married Ealdgyth the sister of Edwin and Morkere and widow of the Welsh King Gruffydd. He thus made it quite impossible that he could marry Duke William’s daughter. And the Norman writers do not fail to speak against the marriage on that score, and further to blame him for marrying the widow of a man whom he had killed. Yet Harold had simply overcome Gruffydd in fair warfare, and he had nothing to do with his death, which was the deed of Gruffydd’s own people.

13. The Comet.—King Harold came back from York to Westminster, and there kept his Easter feast. The usual place was Winchester; but London was now growing in importance, and specially so during these few months of Harold’s reign. For he was busy the whole time in making ready for the defence of all southern and eastern England, and for this London was the best head-quarters. He did not appoint any earl of the West-Saxons, but kept Wessex in his own hands, while the south-eastern shires formed the earldoms of his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine. We read much of his good government and good laws, which of course simply means that he went on doing as king as he had done as earl. For any making of new laws he had no time. But he seems to have given what heed he could to ecclesiastical appointments and reform; for it was specially needful for him to get the clergy on his side. One thing specially marked this Easter assembly. A most brilliant comet was seen, which is recorded by all manner of writers both in England and elsewhere. In those days, when astronomy was little known, men believed that a comet was sent as a sign that some great event was going to happen. So now men gazed at the hairy star, and wondered what would come of it. By this time every one must have known something of the great struggle which was coming. The comet, it was thought, foretold the fall of some great power; but they could not yet tell whether it foretold the fall of Harold or the fall of William.

14. Summary.—We have thus seen how, after the death of his father, Harold, as Earl of the West-Saxons, gradually became chief ruler of England, and how the path was opened to him to become king on Edward’s death. We have seen how he made some kind of oath to Duke William which might be said to be broken by his accepting the crown. We have seen how he was nevertheless regularly named, chosen, and crowned king, and how he got possession of the whole kingdom. We have now to see what was all this while going on beyond sea, what preparations his rival Duke William was making, and what other dangers were threatening England from other quarters.

CHAPTER VI.
The Two Harolds.

1. Tostig’s Invasion.—Harold and the English people must have known very well by this time the danger which threatened them from Normandy. They did not perhaps think so much of another danger which threatened them at the same time. Besides Duke William, another foe was arming against them, and, as it turned out, it was this other foe who struck the first blow. It was indeed a time of little stillness when men had to guard against two invasions at once. Or rather it was found to be impossible to guard against both of them. While King Harold was doing all that man could do to make the southern coast of England safe against the Norman, another enemy whom he did not look for came against him in the north. This was the famous King of the Northmen, Harold son of Sigurd, called Hardrada, that is Hard-rede, the stern in counsel. King Harold of Norway came before Duke William of Normandy. And yet King Harold of Norway was not the first to come. After all it was the south of England which was first invaded, but it was by a much smaller enemy than by either the great king or the great duke. This was no other than the banished Earl Tostig. He seems to have been trying to get help anywhere to put him back in his earldom, even at the cost of a foreign conquest of England. Some say that he had been to Normandy to stir up Duke William, some that he had been to Norway to stir up King Harold. The accounts are not easy to put together. But it is certain that by May he had got together some ships from somewhere or other, and with them he came to Wight. He then plundered along the south coast; but by this time King Harold of England was getting ready his great fleet and army to withstand Duke William. So King Harold marched to the coast, and Tostig sailed away. He then sailed to Lindesey and plundered there. But the Earls Edwin and Morkere drove him away, and he found shelter in Scotland with King Malcolm.