Chapter XXVII
Edward the Confessor (1042–1066)
We need not linger over the reign of Edward the Confessor, the weak and womanish king who came to the throne of England on the death of Hardacanute; in fact, the country can hardly be said to have been governed by Edward, for he placed himself almost entirely in the hands of Earl Godwin, who now with rapid strides advanced to be the first man in the kingdom and the real ruler of England. Edward was more fitted to be a monk than a king. The mournful circumstances of his life had no doubt helped to make him timid and retiring, and he seems to have inherited the weak character of his father, Ethelred the Unready. Yet he was beloved by his people, who regarded him as a saint and admired his devotion to the Church and to religion. He was simple and abstemious in his dress and habits, sparing in imposing taxes, and kind to the poor; it is said that he never uttered a word of reproach to the humblest person. Moreover, though the sons of Godwin stirred up strife at home, the King made no foreign wars, and the nation was thankful for peace. The only person toward whom he seems to have acted harshly was his mother, Emma, whom, as we have said, he deprived of all her wealth and lands, because she had never assisted him when he was in distress. Edward must have been nearly forty years of age when he came to England from Normandy, just before Hardacanute’s death; all these years he had passed in exile. It is a matter of wonder, when we consider the miserable fate that overtook his brother Alfred on venturing to England, that Edward came at all; but he was received with kindness, and lived quietly till the death of his half-brother. When he heard that Hardacanute had died he was lost in uncertainty whether to fly the kingdom or what to do. His weak mind was unable to form any plan, and in his perplexity he betook himself to Earl Godwin, throwing himself at his feet and praying him to assist him in escaping back to Normandy. At first Godwin was perplexed what course to take, but he no doubt reflected on the power which the King’s weakness would throw into his own hands, and he determined on a bold course. Raising the King up, he reminded him that it was better to live worthily in a position of power than to die ingloriously in exile; that he was the son of a King of England, and the kingdom was his by right. If he thought fit to rely on him, whose authority was already so great in the country, he was sure that the nation would follow his lead. He proposed that Edward should marry his daughter, and thus cement the friendship with himself; and Edward, who was ready to promise anything to secure Earl Godwin’s help, fell at once into his plans. Then, calling an assembly of the people, Godwin addressed them so fluently and cleverly that, partly by persuasion and partly by their willing consent, Edward was chosen king, and soon after crowned at Winchester on Easter Day (1043), all those who opposed his election being driven out of the kingdom.
In spite of Edward’s marriage with Editha, the saintly, learned, and beautiful daughter of Godwin, he soon fell out with the earl and his sons. The historians of the time find it difficult to say who was to blame in this, and where they fail we are not likely to succeed.
Whether Godwin was sincerely attached to the cause of Edward or not, it is likely that his great power made the King jealous; his sons, too, especially one of them named Sweyn, were wild and lawless, and constantly stirred up strife in the country. In the end Godwin and his sons were outlawed by the King and retired, the earl and Sweyn and Tosti to Flanders, and Harold to Ireland, where they lay all the winter. Edward was so incensed with the whole family that he even sent away his wife, stripping her of all her possessions, and handing her over to his sister. There were threats of an invasion by Magnus, King of Norway, and the whole country was disturbed; so much so that Edward occupied himself in gathering together his fleet; and in spite of inexperience and feebleness he himself took charge of the fleet at Sandwich, watching for the return of Godwin. But after all Godwin came back to England long before they were aware of it, and went secretly from place to place, making friends with the sailors and boatmen all along the coast from Kent to the Isle of Wight, so that he and Harold, his son, enticed to their side quite a large army, with which they began an advance on London.
King Edward, hearing this, sent for more men, but they came very late, and the fleet of Godwin sailed up the Thames to Southwark, waiting for the flood-tide to come up. There they found the King’s men awaiting them, and they sailed along by the south shore under the bridge, their land forces gathered on one side and the King’s on the other. But a fog that arose obscured the armies from each other, and a great unwillingness was in the hearts of both to fight against their own race, for nearly all on both sides were Englishmen. They felt that if they began fighting each other, there would be no one to defend the land from their common enemies; thus, happily, a truce was made between them, and a general council called. There Godwin spoke so well and eloquently that the King received him and his sons back into full favour, restoring to him his earldom and possessions. The Normans who had established themselves in Edward’s friendship during the absence of Godwin, and who had helped to inflame the King against him, were now in their turn driven from the country, or escaped across the sea themselves. The Queen was recalled, and Godwin and Harold settled down on their property; Sweyn, after many acts of piracy on the coast, and after committing more than one murder, had gone on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but fell a victim to the Saracens and never returned. The King had made Tosti Earl of Northumbria, but he was so turbulent and harsh that the Northumbrians rose up and drove him out. Harold, his brother, on hearing what had happened, went north with an army to his assistance, but the Northumbrians, most of whom were Norsemen and men of great spirit, declared that they could not put up with Tosti’s cruelties, and they persuaded Harold to get the King to appoint a prince named Morcar in his stead. Tosti, enraged against every one, went with his wife and children to Bruges, in Flanders, where he remained till the death of Edward. Shortly after this Godwin died suddenly, while sitting with his son Harold at a feast with the King, and Harold succeeded to the earldom.
The short remainder of Edward’s reign was spent in planning for the succession. He sent to the King of Hungary to ask him to send back to England Edward the Ætheling, son of Edmund Ironside, who had taken refuge in his country. Doubtless the English people would have welcomed him as king; but he was, like so many of his family, a man feeble in mind and body, and he died soon after landing in England and was buried at St Paul’s.
Some historians say, and William the Conqueror afterwards declared, that Edward then sent Harold over to him in Normandy to offer the crown to the duke; but we shall never know whether this is true or not. All we know is that Harold was in Normandy about this time, cast upon the Norman coasts by a storm, and that, as the price of his return to England, William forced him to swear above holy relics an oath that he would support the claim of the duke to the Crown of England.
After a reign of twenty-four years Edward laid down the crown that he had worn so uneasily, dying on the eve of Twelfth Day, immediately after the consecration at Westminster of the glorious edifice that he had built to receive his tomb.[47] His last act, the remission of the hated Danegeld, now happily no longer needed, was one of the most welcome measures of his long reign. His people thought that in the mild King they had lost a saint, and they called him, as we call him still, Edward the Confessor.
Chapter XXVIII
King Harold, Godwin’s Son, and the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066)
The king who succeeded Edward was in every way unlike him. The fair hair and beard and blue eyes of Edward, described by our chroniclers, his long, feminine fingers, his florid complexion and thin form, belonged to quite a different type from the strong, able man who succeeded him. Harold had, in fact, been the real ruler of the kingdom since his father died; and he seems to have inherited much of his father’s genius for administration. He, like all his family, was strongly opposed to the Norman influence which was creeping into England, and he was looked upon by the people as the guardian of their liberties and the representative Englishman of his day. There was no dispute or hesitation about his accession to the throne: had all his race been royal he could not more quietly have succeeded to the crown. His troubles arose, not from the English people, but from his own family. The English chronicles say that he was the eldest son of Godwin, but there seems some probability that the Norse sagas are right in making him a younger son, who had been the favourite with his own father and also with the King, and that it was Tosti’s anger at this preference that made him, as the eldest son, take up arms against Harold. They tell us that when Edward was dying Harold bent down over the King, and then, straightening himself, he turned to those who were standing by, saying, “I take you to witness that the King has now made over to me the realm of England.” When the news reached Tosti, who was, we remember, in exile in Flanders, he at once set out for Denmark and Norway, to persuade their kings to help him to recover his own possessions in England. To Sweyn, King of Denmark, he offered his help to win the country for him and make him King of England, as Canute, his uncle, had been, if he would dethrone Harold and restore to him, Tosti, his possessions in Northumbria. But Sweyn, who was in perpetual warfare with Norway, would not be induced to take another expedition on his hands.