CHAP. IX. to him or kept in check by fear of the ruling powers. From Flanders he sailed straight for the Isle of Wight, as a convenient central spot in which to await the coming of his sons from Ireland. He seems to have cruised along the coast between Wight and Portland, and to have harried the country without scruple wherever supplies were refused to him. But of armed resistance, such as Harold had met with at Porlock, we hear nothing, and there is nothing which implies that a single life was lost on either Meeting side. At last the nine ships of Harold, rich with the of Godplunder of Devon and Somerset, joined the fleet of his wine and Harold: father at Portland. We need hardly stop to dwell on the they sail eastward. mutual joy of father, sons, and brothers, meeting again after so many toils and dangers, and with so fair a hope of restoration for themselves and of deliverance for their country. It is more important to note that, from this time, we are expressly told that all systematic ravaging ceased; provisions however were freely taken wherever need demanded. But as the united fleet steered its course eastward towards Sandwich, the true feeling of the nation showed itself more and more plainly. As the deliverer sailed along the South-Saxon coast, the shown by sea-faring men of every haven hastened to join his banFrom Kent, from Hastings, even from comparaKent, and tively distant Essex, from those purely Saxon lands, whence the Briton had vanished, and where the Dane had never settled, came up the voice of England to welcome the men who had come to set her free. At every step men pressed to the shore, eager to swell the force of the patriots, with one voice pledging themselves to the

Zeal in

their cause

the men of

Sussex,

Essex.

ners.

1 See Appendix R.

4

3

2 Vita Eadw. 405.

3 On Hastings, as distinct from Sussex, see vol. i. p. 382.

"Eallne pæne east ende," says the Abingdon Chronicle (cf. the words "ofer ealne pisne nord ende" in the Worcester Chronicle, 1052 or 1051), which Florence translates by "East-Saxones."

GODWINE SAILS UP THE THAMES.

323

the Thames

London.

national cause, and raising the spirit-stirring cry, "Wè CHAP. IX. will live and die with Earl Godwine." At Pevensey, at Hythe, at Folkestone, at Dover, at Sandwich, provisions were freely supplied, hostages were freely given,2 every ship in their havens was freely placed at the bidding of their lawful Earl. The great body of the fleet They enter sailed round the Forelands, entered the mouth of the and sail Thames, and advanced right upon London. A detach- towards ment, we are told, lagged behind, and did great damage Unexin the Isle of Sheppey, burning the town of King's plained ravages in Middleton. They then sailed after the Earls towards Sheppey. London.3 The language of our story seems to imply that neither Godwine nor Harold had any hand in this seemingly quite wanton outrage. Needlessly to harm the house or estate of any Englishman at such a moment was quite contrary to Godwine's policy, quite contrary to the course which both he and Harold had followed since they met at Portland. The deed was probably done by some unruly portion of the fleet, by some Englishman who seized the opportunity to gratify some local jealousy, by some Dane who, consciously or unconsciously, looked with a pirate's eye on the corner of Britain where his race had first found a winter's shelter.4

reaches

The fleet was now in the Thames. Strengthened by Godwine the whole naval force of south-eastern England, the Earl Southwark. had now a following which was formidable indeed. The September river was covered with ships; their decks were

thick

1 Chron. Ab. "pa cwædon ealle þæt hi mid him woldon licgan and lybban." I transfer these emphatic words hither from the earlier place which they have in the Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles, and in Florence. See Appendix S.

2 That hostages should have been taken from such a friendly population is a speaking comment on the inveterate custom of taking hostages on all occasions.

3 Chron. Petrib., where see Mr. Earle's note (p. 346), and Appendix R... See vol. i. pp. 46, 427.

14, 1052.

London declares for Godwine.

CHAP. IX. with warriors harnessed for the battle.1 In such guise the Earl advanced to Southwark, and paused there, in sight doubtless of his own house, of the house whence he and his sons had fled for their lives a year before.2 He had to wait for the tide, and he employed the interval in sending messages to the citizens of London.3 The townsfolk of the great city were not a whit behind their brethren of Kent and Sussex in zeal for the national cause. The spirit which had beaten back Swend and Cnut, the spirit which was in after times to make London ever the stronghold of English freedom, the spirit which made its citizens foremost in the patriot armies alike of the thirteenth and of the seventeenth centuries, was now as warm in the hearts of those gallant burghers as in any earlier or later age. With a voice all but unanimous, the citizens declared in favour of the great Earl; a few votes only, the votes, it may be, of strangers or of courtiers, were given against the emphatic resolution that what the Earl would the city would.*

The King hastens to London with an army.

But meanwhile where was King Eadward? At a later crisis of hardly inferior moment we shall find him taking his pleasure among the forests of Wiltshire, and needing no little persuasion to make him leave his sport and give a moment's thought to the affairs of his Kingdom. He must have been engaged at this time in some such absorbing pursuit, as he appears to have heard nothing of

1 Vita Eadw. 405. "Pelagus operiebatur carinis, cœlum densissimis resplendebat armis." If this was so when they were in the open sea, it must à fortiori have been so when they were in the river.

2 See above, p. 150.

3 Chronn. Ab. and Wig. "He gefadode wip da burhwaru."

"pæt hi woldon mæst ealle þæt þæt he wolde," say the Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles. This answer to a message sounds to me like the vote of an assembly of some kind, in which we may also discern the opposition of a small minority. The Biographer (406) also witnesses to the good disposition of the Londoners; "Sed omnis civitas Duci obviam et auxilio processit et præsidio, acclamantque illi omnes unâ voce prosperè in adventu suo."

EADWARD COMES TO LONDON.

325

Godwine's triumphant progress along the southern coast CHAP. IX. till the Earl had actually reached Sandwich. The news awakened him to a fit of unusual energy. The interests at stake were indeed not small; the return of Godwine might cut him off from every face that reminded him of his beloved Normandy; he might be forced again to surround himself with Englishmen, and to recall his wife from her cloister to his palace. In such a cause King Eadward did not delay. He came with speed to London, accompanied by the Earls Ralph and Odda, and surrounded by a train of Norman knights and priests, and sent out orders for the immediate gathering in arms of such of his subjects as still remained loyal to him. But men had no heart in the cause; the summons was slowly and imperfectly obeyed. The King contrived however, before the fleet of Godwine actually reached the city, to get together fifty ships, those no doubt whose crews had forsaken them a few weeks earlier. And he contrived, out of his own housecarls, strengthened, it would seem, by the levies of some of the northern shires, to gather a force strong enough to line the northern shore of the Thames with armed men.3

before

The day on which Godwine and his fleet reached South- Godwine wark was an auspicious one. It was the Feast of the London.

1 "pa sende he up æfter maran fultume," says the Abingdon Chronicle, which Florence rather pathetically expands into “Nuntiis properè missis, omnibus qui à se non defecerant mandavit ut in adjutorium sui venire maturarent."

2 The Peterborough Chronicle, which, just at this point, is less full than Abingdon and Worcester, gives the number; “Ɖa hi to Lundene comon ; þa læg se cyng and þa eorlas ealle þær ongean mid L. scipum.”

3 The King's ships were on the north bank of the river, "wið þæs norðlandes” (Chron. Ab.); his land-force ("se cyng hæfde eac mycele landfyrde on his healfe, to eacan his scypmannum ") was doubtless drawn up on the same side, as the Southwark side was clearly in the hands of Godwine. From the words in Italics, compared with the expressions quoted just before, it would seem that some at least of the northern levies came, perhaps under the command of their own Earls.

Monday,

14, 1052.

628.

CHAP. IX. Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It was the day kept in September memory of the triumphant return and the devout humility of that renowned Emperor who restored the glory of the Roman arms, who rivalled the great Macedonian in a second overthrow of the Persian power, and who brought with him, as the choicest trophy of his victories, that holiest of Christian relics which his sword had won back from heathen bondage. Harold, like Heraclius, was returning to his own, perhaps already the sworn votary of that revered relic whose name he chose as his war-cry, and in whose honour he was perhaps already planning that great foundation which was of itself enough to make his name immortal. The day of the Holy Cross must indeed have been a day of the brightest omen to the future founder of Waltham. And a memorable and a happy day it was. Events were thickly crowded into its short hours, events which, even after so many ages, may well make every English heart swell with pride. It is something indeed to feel ourselves of the blood and speech of the actors of that day and of its morrow. The tide for which the fleet had waited came soon after the Earls had received the promise of support from the burghers of London. The anchors were weighed; the fleet sailed on with all confidence. The bridge was passed without hindrance, and the Earls found themselves, as they had found themselves a year before, face to face with the armies of their sovereign. But men's minds had indeed changed since the Witan of England had passed a decree of outlawry against Godwine and his house. Besides his fleet, Godwine now found himself at the head of a Zeal of land force which might seem to have sprung out of the followers. earth at his bidding. The King's troops lined the north

Godwine's

bank of the Thames, but its southern bank was lined, at

1 The Abingdon Chronicle describes the day; "Dat was on bone Monandæg æfter Sca Marian mæsse.' Florence and Roger of Wendover (i. 491) mark it as "dies exaltationis Sanctæ Crucis."