his train were murdered in the most cruel manner; he himself was taken prisoner, and, his eyes being put out, he was conducted to the monastery of Ely, where he died soon after. Edward and Emma, apprized of his fate, fled to the continent; and Harold, without resistance, took possession of the whole kingdom. He lived to enjoy the fruits of his treachery but four years; and dying, very little regretted by his subjects, he left the succession open to his

brother.

1039.

Hardicanute's title was readily acknowledged, both by the A. D. Danes and the English; and, upon his arrival from the continent, he was received with the most extravagant demonstrations of joy. The ceremony of his coronation was scarcely performed, when he gave the first specimen of the badness of his disposition, in his impotent insults upon the body of his brother, which he ordered to be dug up, beheaded, and thrown into the Thames. When it was found some time after by a fisherman, and buried, he ordered it to be again dug up, and to be thrown into the Thames a second time. His malice, however, was in the end ineffectual; for it was again found, and buried with the greatest secrecy. Hardicanute's next act of rigorous sovereignty was the imposition of a grievous tax for the payment of his navy; which was the more intolerable, as the nation was threatened with a famine. In these acts of severity, Godwin, duke of Wessex, who had been a vile instrument of treachery and oppression during the former reign, was assistant now. However, his base compliances did not entirely screen him from the resentment of Emma, who had the strongest reasons to believe that he was instrumental in the death of prince Alfred, her son. At her instigation, therefore, Alfric, archbishop of York, accused him of being an accomplice, and demanded justice accordingly. Godwin found means to evade the danger, by appealing to the king's avarice, and not to the justice of his cause. He presented him with a magnificent galley, curiously carved and gilded, rowed by fourscore men, each of whom wore a golden bracelet, weighing sixteen ounces. The king, softened by this present, permitted him to purge himself by oath; and Godwin very readily swore that he had no hand in the death of Alfred. This king's violence and unjust government were but of short duration. He died two years after his accession, in consequence of excess at the marriage of a Danish lord, which was celebrated at Lambeth, His death, far from being regretted by the English, became the subject of their derision, his anniversary being distinguished by the name of Hock Holiday.

Edward, surnamed the Confessor, from his piety, had A. D. many rivals, whose claims to the crown were rather more 1041. just than his own.

The direct descendants of the last Saxon monarch were still in being, though at the remote distance of the kingdom of Hungary. Sweyn, the eldest son of Hardicanute, was still alive, but at that time engaged in wars in Norway. It required, therefore, the utmost diligence in Edward to secure his

claims, before either of these could come over to dispute his title. His own authority, though great in the kingdom, was not sufficient to expedite his affairs with the desired despatch; he was therefore obliged to have recourse to Godwin, whose power was then very extensive, to second his pretensions. This nobleman, though long an enemy to his family, finding, upon the present occasion, that their interests were united, laid aside all former animosity, and concurred in fixing him upon the throne.

The English, who had long groaned under a foreign yoke, now set no bounds to their joy, at finding the line of their ancient monarchs restored; and at first the warmth of their rapture was attended with some violence against the Danes: but the new king, by the mildness of his character, soon composed these differences, and the distinction between the two nations gradually disappeared. Thus, after a struggle of above two hundred years, all things seemed to remain in the same state in which those conflicts began. These invasions from the Danes produced no new change of laws, customs, language, or religion; nor did any other traces of their establishments seem to remain, except the castles they built, and the families that still bear their names. No farther mention, therefore, is made of two distinct nations; for the Normans coming in soon after, served to unite them into a closer union.

The first acts of this monarch's reign bore the appearance of severity; for he resumed all grants that had been made by the crown in former reigns; and he ordered his mother Emma, who was ever intriguing against him, to be shut up in a monastery. As he had been bred in the Norman court, he showed in every instance, a predilection for the customs, laws, and even the natives of that country; and among the rest of his faults, though he had married Editha, the daughter of Godwin, yet either from mistaken piety or fixed aversion, during his whole reign he abstained from her bed.

However these actions might be regarded by many of the king's subjects (for they were all of a doubtful kind) certain it is that Godwin, who was long grown much too powerful for a subject, made them the pretext of his opposition. He began by complaining of the influence of the Normans in the government; and his animosities soon broke out into action. Eustace, count of Bologne, who had married Edward's sister, arrived in England upon a visit to the king, and was received with great honour and affection. Upon his return to Dover, having sent a servant before him to bespeak lodgings in that city, a fray happened between this domestic and the townsmen, in which he lost his life. The count and his attendants attempting to take revenge, the inhabitants took arms; and both sides engaging with great fury, the count was obliged to find safety by flight, having lost about twenty of his men, and slain as many of the people. The count, exasperated at this insult, returned to the court at Gloucester, and demanded justice of the king, who very warmly espoused his quarrel. He instantly gave orders to Godwin, in whose government Dover lay, to go immediately to

the place, and to punish the inhabitants for their crime. This was a conjuncture highly favourable to the schemes of this aspiring chief; and, thinking that now was the time to ingratiate himself with the people, he absolutely refused to obey the king's command. Sensible, however, that obedience would soon be extorted, unless he could defend his insolence, he prepared for his defence, or rather for an attack upon Edward. Accordingly, under a pretence of repressing some disorders on the Welsh frontier, he secretly assembled a great army, and attempted to surprise the king, who continued, without the smallest suspicion, at Gloucester. Nevertheless, being soon informed of Godwin's treachery, his first step was privately to summon all the assistance he could, and, in the meanwhile, to protract the time by a pretended negociation. As soon as he found himself in a capacity to take the field, he changed his tone; and Godwin, finding himself unable to oppose his superior force, or to keep his army together, permitted it to disperse, and took shelter with Baldwin, earl of Flanders. His estates, which were numerous, together with those of his sons, were confiscated; and the greatness of the family seemed, for a time, to be totally overthrown.

But this nobleman's power was too strong to be shaken by so slight a blast; for, being assisted with a fleet by the earl of Flanders, he landed on the Isle of Wight, where he was joined by his son Harold, with a squadron which that nobleman had collected in Ireland. From thence, being re-enforced by great numbers of his former dependents and followers, he sailed up the Thames, and, appearing before London, threw all things into confusion. In this exigence the king alone seemed resolute; but his nobility, many of whom were secretly inclined to Godwin, brought on a negociation, in which it was stipulated, that the king should dismiss all his foreign servants, the primate being among the number; and that Godwin should give hostages for his own future good behaviour. Godwin's death, which followed soon after, prevented him from reaping the fruits of an agreement, by which the king's 1053. authority was almost reduced to nothing.

A. D.

This nobleman was succeeded in his governments and offices by his son Harold, who, in his ambition, was equal to his father, but in his virtues and abilities far his superior. By a modest and gentle demeanor he acquired the good will of Edward, or at least softened those impressions of hatred which he had long borne the whole family. He artfully insinuated himself into the affections of the people by his liberality and apparent candour, while every day he increased his power by seeming modestly to decline it. By these arts he not only supplanted Algar, duke of Mercia, whom the king raised up to rival his power, but he got his brother Tosti made duke of Northumberland, upon the death of Siward, who had long governed that province with great glory.

Harold's insinuating manners, his power and virtues, extended and increased his popularity to such a degree, that he began to be talked of as the most proper person to succeed to the crown.

But

A. D.

nothing could be more ungrateful to Edward than such a desire, as he abhorred a successor from the family of Godwin. Aroused, therefore, by these rumours, he sent for his nephew Edward from Hungary, who was, in fact, the direct descendant from the ancient Saxon kings. Prince Edward soon arrived, but was scarcely safe 1057. landed when he died, leaving his pretensions to Edgar Åtheling, his son, who was too young, weak, and inactive, to avail himself of his title. The king was now, therefore, thrown into new difficulties. He saw the youth and inexperience of Edgar, and dreaded the immoderate ambition of Harold. He could not, without reluctance, think of increasing the grandeur of a family which had risen on the ruins of royal authority, and had been stained with the blood of his own brother. In this uncertainty he is said to have cast his eyes on William duke of Normandy, as a person fit to succeed him; but of the truth of this circumstance we must, at this distance of time, be contented to remain in uncertainty.

In the meantime Harold did not remit in obedience to the king, or his assiduities to the people; still increasing in his power, and preparing his way for his advancement, on the first vacancy, to the throne. In these aims fortune herself seemed to assist him; and two incidents, which happened about this time, contributed to fix that popularity of which he had been so long eagerly in pursuit. The Welsh renewing their hostilities under prince Griffith, were repelled by him, and rendered tributary to the crown of England. The other incident was no less honourable: his brother Toști, who had been appointed to the government of Northumberland, having grievously oppressed the people, was expelled in an insurrection, and Harold was ordered by the king to reinstate him in his power, and punish the insurgents. While yet at the head of an army, preparing to take signal vengeance for the injury done to his brother, he was met by a deputation of the people who had been so cruelly governed. They assured him that they had no intention to rebel, but had taken up arms merely to protect themselves from the cruelty of a rapacious governor. They enumerated the grievances they had sustained from his tyranny, brought the strongest proofs of his guilt, and appealed to Harold's equity for redress. This nobleman, convinced of Tosti's brutality, sacrificed his affection to his duty; and not only procured their pardon from the king, but confirmed the governor whom the Northumbrians had chosen in his command. From that time Harold became the idol of the people; and, indeed, his virtues deserved their love, had they not been excited by ambition.

Harold, thus secure of the affections of the English, no longer strove to conceal his aims, but openly aspired at the succession. He every where insinuated, that as the heir apparent to the crown was utterly unequal to the task of government both from age and natural imbecility, there was no one so proper as a man of mature experience and tried integrity: he alleged, that a man born in England was only fit to govern Englishmen; and that none but an

able general could defend them against so many foreign enemies as they were every day threatened with. The people readily saw to what these speeches tended; and instead of discountenancing his pretensions, assisted them with their wishes and applause. Edward, broken with age and infirmities, his mind entirely engrossed by the visions of superstition, and warmly attached to none, saw the danger to which the government was exposed, but took feeble and irresolute steps to secure the succession. While he continued thus uncertain, he was surprised by sickness, which brought him to his end on the fifth of January, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and twenty-fifth of his reign.

A. D.

1066.

This prince, who was reverenced by the monks, under the titles of Saint and Confessor, had but weak pretensions to either, being indolent, irresolute, and credulous. The tranquillity of his reign was owing rather to the weakness of his foreign enemies than his own domestic strength. But, though he seemed to have few active virtues, yet he certainly had no vices of an atrocious kind; and the want of the passions, rather than their restraint, was then, as it has been long since, the best title to canonization. He was the first who, from his supposed sanctity, touched for the king's evil.

Harold, whose intrigues and virtues seemed to give a right to his pretensions, ascended the throne without any opposition. The citizens of London, who were ever fond of an elective monarchy, seconded his claims; the clergy adopted his cause; and the body of the people, whose friend he had been, sincerely loved him. Nor were the first acts of his reign unworthy of the general prejudice in his favour. He took the most effectual measures for an impartial administration of justice; ordered the laws to be revised and reformed; and those disturbers of the public peace to be punished, who had thriven under the lenity of the last reign.

But neither his valour, his justice, nor his popularity, were able to secure him from the misfortunes attendant upon an ill-grounded title. The first symptoms of his danger came from his own brother Tosti, who had taken refuge in Flanders, and went among the princes of the continent, endeavouring to engage them in a league against Harold, whom he represented as a tyrant and usurper. Not content with this, being furnished with some ships by the earl of Flanders, he made a descent upon the Isle of Wight, which he laid under contribution, and pillaged along the coast, until he was encountered and routed by Morcar, who had been appointed to the government from which he was expelled.

But he was not yet without succour; for Harfagar, king of Norway, who had been brought over by his remonstrances, arrived with a fleet of two hundred sail at the mouth of the river Humber, where he was joined by the shattered remains of Tosti's forces. It was in vain that the earls of Mercia and Northumberland attempted to stop their progress, with a body of new-raised undisciplined troops: they were quickly routed, and York fell a prey to the enemy. Meanwhile Harold, being informed of this misfortune,

E