This year there were terrible lightnings, such as men remembered not before, and which caused much damage in various places throughout the country. And the same year Ælfsige Bishop of Winchester died, and the King’s priest Ælfwine received that bishoprick.
1033.
This year Merehwit Bishop of Somerset died, and he is buried at Glastonbury.
1034.
This year died Bishop Ætheric.
1036.
This year King Cnut died at Shaftesbury, and he is buried in the old monastery of Winchester. He was King over all England nearly 20 years; and soon after his death a meeting of all the Witan was held at Oxford, and Earl Leofric, and almost all the Thanes north of the Thames, and the seamen of London, chose Harold to govern all England, both in his own right, and for his brother Hardacnut, who was then in Denmark. And Earl Godwin and all the chief men of Wessex opposed them as long as they could; but they could not prevail against them. Then it was resolved that Ælfgiva the mother of Hardacnut should reside at Winchester, with the King her son’s household, and should hold the government of Wessex for him. Earl Godwin was the head man of that party. Some men say of Harold that he was the son of King Cnut and of Ælfgiva the daughter of the Alderman Ælfelm; but this is thought very unlikely by many. Be this as it may, he was sole King of all England.
1037.
This year Ælfgiva the widow of King Cnut and mother of Edward and King Hardacnut, was banished, and she sought an asylum with Baldwin oversea in the south, and he gave her a residence in Bruges, and he protected and maintained her as long as she was there.
1038.