NORMANS SETTLED IN ENGLAND. 347 Others mentioned are Robert the Deacon, described as the CHAP. IX. father-in-law of Richard, and who must therefore have been an old man,1 Humphrey Cocksfoot, whom I cannot further identify, and Elfred the King's stirrup-holder.2 The list might be largely extended on the evidence of Domesday and the Charters. Some of the most remarkable names are those of the Stallers, Robert the son of Wymarc and Ralph,3 and the King's Chamberlain, Hugh or Hugolin, a person who has found his way from the dry entries in the Survey and the Charters into the legend of his sainted master. Altogether the number of Normans who remained in England during the later days of Eadward was clearly not small. And, as some at least some of were evidently restored after flight or banishment, the bably resuggestion again presents itself that their restoration was stored after owing to special entreaties of the King after the death of death. Godwine. Harold, in the first days of his administration, may hardly have been in a position to refuse such entreaties. And, in any case, though we may call it a weakness to allow so, but the position in the writ in which his name occurs is one which generally belongs to the Sheriff. The appearance of a French Sheriff in this particular shire may be accounted for by the presence of a French Earl. It is more remarkable if Robert the son of Wymarc was Sheriff of Essex, as might be inferred from the similar position of his name in a writ in Cod. Dipl. iv. 214. 1 Flor. Wig. 1052. filium Scrob.' "Robertum diaconem et generum ejus Ricardum 2 Several Ælfreds occur in Domesday, as the great landowners, Ælfred of Marlborough and Ælfred of Spain, but it is not easy to identify their possessions with any holder of the name in Eadward's time. The names Ælfred and Eadward, and the female name Eadgyth, seem to have been the only English names adopted by the Normans. The two former would naturally be given to godsons or dependants of the two Æthelings while in Normandy, and Eadgyth would gain currency as the name of the wife of the sainted King. 3 The possessions of Ralph the Staller were very large. He signs an English document of Abbot Ælfwig of Bath in Cod. Dipl. iv. 172, as "Roulf steallere." He signs as "Huhgelin minister." Cod. Dipl. iv. 173. Cf. Domesday, Hunt. 208, where his title is "Camerarius." Eth. Riev. X Scriptt. 376. them pro Godwine's CHAP. IX. men, some of whom at least were dangerous, to remain in, or return to, the country, yet for a subject newly exalted to give too willing an ear to the prayers of his sovereign, is a weakness which may easily be forgiven. Godwine's The revolution was thus accomplished, a revolution of Estimate of which England may well be proud. In the words of a conduct contemporary writer, the wisdom of Godwine had redressed all the evils of the country without shedding a drop of blood. The moderation of the Earl, the way in which he kept back his ardent followers, the way in which he preserved his personal loyalty to the King,2 are beyond all praise. He had delivered his country, he and his had been restored to the favour of their prince, and he now again entered on his old duties as Earl of the West-Saxons and virtual ruler of the Kingdom of England. We may be sure that his popularity had never been so high, or his general authority so boundless, as it was during the short remainder of his life. For Godwine was not destined to any long enjoyment of his renewed honour and prosperity; England was not destined to look much longer Godwine's upon the champion who had saved her. Soon after his restoration the Earl began to sicken; but he still continued his attention to public affairs, and we can see the working of his vigorous hand in the energetic way in Christmas which a Welsh marauder was dealt with at the Christmas Gloucester. Gemót of this year, held as usual at Gloucester. Rhys, illness. Gemót at 1052-1053. 1 Vita Eadw. 406. "Unde post tam grande malum absque sanguine sedatum Ducis sapientiâ, sollennis celebratur lætitia tam à palatinis quam ab omni patriâ.” 2 On this point the Biographer becomes enthusiastic, and bursts forth, after his manner, into no less than forty hexameters. Godwine suffering under false accusations had been likened to Joseph and Susanna; now that he spares and honours a King whom he has in his power, he is likened to David doing the like towards Saul. Altogether the comparison is not a very lucky one for either Godwine or Eadward. 3 Chron. Ab. 1052. "Godwine þa gesiclode hraðe þæs þe he upcom.” RHYS BEHEADED. 349 duly Rhys be headed and over, his head brought to the brother of Gruffydd King of the South Welsh, had CHAP. IX. been guilty of many plundering expeditions at a place called Bulendún, the position of which seems to be unknown. Early in the year the Northern Gruffydd had ravaged the border at pleasure; now we read, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, that a decree of the Witana bill of attainder we may call it was passed for the execution of the Welsh prince. The decree was carried out, and the Christmas festivities were not when the head of Rhys was brought to King Eadward, on Edward. the vigil of the Epiphany, exactly thirteen years before his January 5, own death. It was seemingly in the same Gemót that Aruwig Arnwig, Abbot of Peterborough, resigned his abbey, "and resigns the gave it to Leofric the monk by the King's leave and that Peterborough. of the monks." This expression is remarkable, as illus- Leofric trating that union of royal, capitular, and we may add succeeds. parliamentary, action, which we have already noticed as prevailing in the appointment of English Prelates in those days. The process was no doubt the same as that by 1 Chron. Wig. 1053. "And man rædde þæt man sloh Rís þæs Wyliscean cynges broper, fordy he hearmas dyde." Florence more fully; "Griffini Regis Australium Wallensium frater, Res nomine, propter frequentes prædas quas egit in loco qui Bulendun dicitur, jussu Regis Eadwardi, occiditur." There are Bullingdons both in Oxfordshire and in Hampshire, but Welsh ravages could hardly reach to either of them. 2 Chron. Wig. "And man brohte his heafod to Glewcestre ["Glawornam ad Regem" Fl. Wig.] on Twelftan æfen." William of Malmesbury (ii. 196) makes Harold the agent, which is quite possible, but he mixes the matter up in a strange way with the fate of Gruffydd of North Wales, ten years later. "Haroldum West-Saxonum [Comitem], filium Godwini, qui duos fratres Reges Walensium Ris et Griffinum sollertiâ suâ in mortem egerit." William, perhaps pardonably, confounds the two Gruffydds. 3 Chron. Petrib. 1052. "And on pis ilcan tyme forlet Arnwi abbot of Burh abbotrice be his halre life, and geaf hit Leofric munec be bes cynges leafe and be pære munece." The local writer, Hugo Candidus, seems (Sparke, 41) to place Leofric's appointment in 1057. So John of Peterborough, a. 1057, who calls him "egregius pater Leofricus." Hugo is loud in his praises; among his other merits he was so high in the favour of the King and the Lady that he held five abbeys at once, Burton, Coventry, Crowland, and Thorney, besides Peterborough. See above, p. 67. 1053. Abbey of Leofric 1053-1066. CHAP. IX. which it had been attempted to raise Ælfric to the see of Canterbury. The monks, at the suggestion of Arnwig, elected Leofric as his successor. They petitioned the King and his Witan to confirm the election. In this case the confirmation was granted, whereas in the case of Ælfric it had been refused. Abbot Leofric, a nephew of his nameborough. sake the Earl, was a man of high birth and of high spirit.1 He ruled the great house of Saint Peter with all honour for thirteen years; he enriched the monastery with lands and ornaments of all kinds, and won for it the favour of the King and all the great men of the land. Peterborough, under his rule, became so rich in the precious metals that men called the house Gildenborough.2 But, in the eyes of English patriots, Abbot Leofric has won a still higher fame by an act less clearly coming within the range of his ecclesiastical duties. He was one of those great Lords of the Church who did not feel that they were hindered by their monastic vows from marching by the side of Harold to the great battle.3 Easter Gemót at ter. 1053. The next great festival of the Church, the next great Winches assembly of the English Witan, beheld the death of the most renowned Englishman of that generation. The King kept the Easter festival at Winchester, and on the Monday of that week of rejoicing, the Earl of the West-Saxons, with his sons Harold, Tostig, and Gyrth, were admitted Godwine's to the royal table. During the meal Godwine fell from his seat speechless and powerless. His sons lifted him from the ground, and carried him to the King's own bower, in hopes of his recovery. Their hopes were in vain; the Earl and death, never spoke again, and, after lying insensible for three April 15 days, he died on the following Thursday. Such is the illness, April 12, 1 Hugo Candidus, ap. Sparke, 42. 2 Chron. Petrib. 1052. "And se abbot Leofric gildede þa þæt mynstre swa þæt man hit cleopede ba gildene Burh; þa wax hit swide on land and on gold and on seolfer." Cf. 1066. 3 Chron. Petrib. 1066. DEATH OF GODWINE. 351 fictions Godwine. simple, yet detailed, account which a contemporary writer CHAP. IX. gives us of an event which has, perhaps even more than any other event of these times, been seized upon as a subject for Norman romance and calumny. There was undoubtedly something striking and awful in the sight of the first man in England, in all the full glory of his recovered power, thus suddenly smitten with his death-blow. He had been, as we have seen, ailing for some months, but the actual stroke, when it came, seems to have been quite unlooked for. It is not wonderful that, in such a death at such a moment, men saw a special work of divine judgement. It is not wonderful Norman that Norman enemies brought the old scandals up again, about the and decked out the tale of the death of the murderer of death of Ælfred with the most appalling details of God's vengeance upon the hardened and presumptuous sinner. I shall elsewhere discuss their romantic inventions, which in truth belong less to the province of the historian than to that of the comparative mythologist. It is more important to note here that one English writer seems to see in Godwine's death the punishment of his real or supposed aggressions on the property of the Church.2 On this last Bounty of Gytha. score however the bounty of his widow did all that she could to make atonement for any wrongdoings on the part of the deceased. The pious munificence of Gytha is acknowledged even by those who are most bitter against her husband, and it now showed itself in lavish offerings for the repose of the soul of Godwine. His place of burial 1 See Appendix W. 2 See Chron. Ab. 1052, and Appendix E. and W. 3 Liber de Hydâ, 289. "Porro uxor ejus [she is "Geta, genus, ut aiunt, ex insula Norwegiâ ducens"], magnæ sanctitatis multæque religionis tramitem incedens, omni die duas ad minus missas studiosè [see above, p. 28] audiebat, omnique fere sabbato per duo aut amplius miliaria nudis pedibus vicina ambiebat monasteria, largis muneribus cumulans altaria, largisque donis pauperes recreans." Of her gifts for her husband's soul we read in the Winchester Annals, p. 26; "Githa, uxor Godwini, fœmina multas habens facultates, pro animâ ejus multis ecclesiis in eleemosyna |