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. Har dicnute'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 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 de son. ་ rision, his anniversary being distinguished by the name of Hock Holiday. Edward der. A. D. Edward, surnamed the Confessor, from his Beichtiga 1041. piety, had many rivals, whose claims to the crown were rather more 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 Hardicnute, 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 dispatch; 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. Es regien The English, who had long groaned under a foreign wieder der och yoke, now set no bounds to their joy, at finding the line Jische of their ancient monarchs restored; and at first the no nige. 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. The first acts of this monarch's reign bore the apEdward's pearance of severity; for he resumed all grants that Character. 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 dwin's of the king's subjects (for they were all of a doubtful Intrique 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 Boulogne, 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 Konig Ed2 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 mean while, 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 ward unter shaken by so slight a blast; for, being assisted with a handelt will fleet by the earl of Flanders, he landed on the Isle of Jodi Wight, where he was joined by his son Harold, with a дод squadron which that nobleman had collected in Ireland. From thence, being reinforced 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 A. D. followed soon after, prevented him from reaping 1053. the fruits of an agreement, by which the king's authority was almost reduced to nothing. Harold This nobleman was succeeded in his governments Godwin's and offices by his son Harold, who, in his ambition, was Sohn. 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. legen. Harold's insinuating manners, his power, and virtues, extended and increased his popularity to such a um einen Thrones: degree, that he began to be talked of as the most proper bewver: person to succeed to the crown. But 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 A.D. Edward soon arrived, but was scarcely safe 1057. landed when he died, leaving his pretensions to Edgar |