nion, cried he; the land upon which I sit is mine: I charge thee therefore, to approach no farther, nor dare to wet the feet of thy sovereign." He feigned to sit some time in expectation of submission, till the waves began to surround him: then, turning to his courtiers, he observed, that the titles of Lord and Master belonged only to him whom both earth and seas were ready to obey. Thus, feared and respected, he lived many years honoured with the surname of Great for his power, but deserving it still more for his virtues. He died at Shaftesbury, in the nineteenth year of his reign, leaving behind him three sons, Sweyn, Harold, and Har licnute. Sweyn was crowned king, of Norway, Hardicnute was put in possession of Denmark, and Harold succeeded his father on the Eng lish throne. HAROLD, surnamed HAREFOOT, from A. D.. his swiftness in running, upon his first 1035. coming to the crown, met with no small opposition from his younger brother, Hardicnute. But, by the intervention of the nobles, a com-promise was made between them; by which it was agreed that Harold should have London, and all the provinces north of the Thames, while the possession of the southern parts should be ceded to Hardicnute and, until that prince should appear in person, Emma, his mother should govern in his stead. But this agreement was of short duration; for queen Emma having brought over from Normandy, Edward and Alfred, descendants of the ancient Saxon kings. Alfred was invited, with the warmest professions of friendship, by Harold, to London, and treacherously set upon, by his orders, on the way. Six hundred of his train were murdered in the most cruel manner; he himself was taken prisoner, and his eyes being put outy he was conducted to the monastery of Ely, where he died soon after. Edward and Emma, apprised 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 after; and dying, very little regretted by his subjects, he left the succession open: to his brother. A. D. HARDICNUTE's title was readily acknowledged, both by the Danes and the 1040. English; and upon his arrival from the continent, he was received with the most extravagant demonstrations of joy. The ceremony of his coronation was scarce performed, when he gave the first specimens 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 sometime 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. Hardicnute's next act of rigorous sovereignity, 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 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, who wore each of them a gold bracelet on his arm, 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. The king's violent and unjust government was but of a 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 Engfish, became the subject of their derision, his anniversary being distinguished by the name of Hock Holiday. A. D. EDWARD, surnamed THE CONFESSOR, from his piety, had many rivals, 1041. 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, though 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 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. 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 raptures was attended with some violence against the Danes; but the new king, by the mildness of his character, soon composed their 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 shewed, 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 with many of this 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 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, after 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 surprize 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 then 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 |