Little Arthur's history of England

by Lady Maria Callcott

King Edward was very much liked at first; but he was idle, and allowed sometimes one great man, and sometimes another, to govern him and the kingdom, while he was saying his prayers, or looking over the workmen while they were building new churches.

Now it is very right in everybody to say prayers; but when God appoints us other duties to do, we should do them carefully. A king’s duty is to govern his people well; he must not only see that good laws are made, but he must also take care that everybody obeys them.

A bishop’s duty is to pray and preach, and see that all the clergymen who are under him do their duty, and instruct the people properly.

A soldier’s duty is to fight the enemies of his country in war, and to obey the king, and to live quietly in peace. A judge’s duty is to tell what the law is, to order the punishment of bad people, and to prevent wickedness. A physician’s duty is to cure sick people; and it is everybody’s duty to take care of their own families, and teach them what is right and set them good examples.

It has pleased God to make all these things duties, and He requires us to do them; and He has given us all quite time enough to pray rightly, if we really and truly love God enough to do our duties to please Him. So King Edward, if he had loved God the right way, would have attended to his kingdom himself, instead of letting other people rule it.

However, in King Edward’s time, people thought that everybody who prayed so much must be very holy, and therefore after his death he received the name of Edward the Confessor, or Saint.

One of the great men who ruled England in Edward’s time was Godwin Earl of Wessex. He was very clever, and very powerful. After his death, his son Harold became Earl of Wessex, and did all the king ought to have done himself, and tried to keep strangers out of the country.

But King Edward, who had been kindly treated in Normandy, when the Danes drove him out of England, had brought a great many Normans home with him; and when they saw how pleasant England was, and what plenty of corn, and cattle, and deer there was in it, and how healthy and strong the people grew, they determined to try and get the kingdom for their duke as soon as Edward was dead. And they told the duke what they thought of, and he came from Normandy to see King Edward, and to get him to promise that he should be king of England, as King Edward had no son.

Now I think this was not right, because Edward had a relation who ought to have been king, and his name was Edgar, and he was called the Atheling, which means the Prince.

Perhaps if Edward the Confessor had taken pains to get the great men in England to promise to take care of Edgar Atheling, and make him king, they would have done so; but as they found he wanted to give England to the Duke of Normandy, a great many of them thought it would be better to have an English earl for a king, because the English earl would be glad to protect his own countrymen, but that a Duke of Normandy would most likely take their houses and lands and give them to the Normans. So they were willing that Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, who already acted as if he were under-king, should be the real king after Edward’s death.