ELFGAR RESTORED TO HIS EARLDOM. Bishop 397 10, 1056. hands of any Earl, fearful or daring, but fell to one of the CHAP. IX. warlike Prelates in whom that age was so fertile. Bishop Death of Æthelstan, as I have already said, died early in the year Ethelstan. at Bosbury, an episcopal lordship lying under the western February slope of the Malvern Hills.1 His burial in Saint Ethelberht's minster must have been the first great public ceremony in the restored city. In the choice of a successor, Eadward, or rather Harold, was actuated at least as much by military as by ecclesiastical considerations. The see of Leofgar, Bishop of the venerable and pious Æthelstan was filled by a Prelate of Hereford. whom, during a very short career, we hear only in the March 27, 1056. character of a warrior. This was Leofgar, a chaplain of the Earl's, whose warlike doings seem to have been commemorated in popular ballads. He laid aside his chrism and his rood, his ghostly weapons, and took to his spear and his sword and went forth to the war against Gruffydd the Welsh King. But the warfare of this valiant churchman was unfortunate. He had not been three months His death in battle. a Bishop before he was killed, and with him his priests, as June 16, also Ælfnoth the Sheriff3 and many other good men. The 1056. Chronicler goes on to complain bitterly of the heavy 2 1 Fl. Wig. 1056. "In episcopali villâ quæ vocatur Bosanbyrig decessit." A fine thirteenth century church and some remains of the episcopal manor still exist. 2 The Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles here get poetical; Peterborough is, just here, strangely meagre ; "And man sette Leofgar to biscupe; se was Haroldes Eorles mæsse-preost; se werede his kenepas on his preosthade, oððæt he was biscop. Se forlet his crisman and his hrode, his gastlican wæpna, and feng to his spere and to his sweorde æfter his biscuphade, and swa fór to fyrde ongean Griffin þone Wyliscan Cing." Yet a fighting Bishop was not so wonderful a thing in those times. See vol. i. p. 432. William of Malmesbury, Gest. Pont. 163, makes some confusion, when he says, "Leovegar. Hunc tempore Regis Edwardi Grifin Rex Walensium urbe crematâ expulit sede et vitâ." And Roger of Wendover makes some further confusion or other when he writes (i. 495), “Ethelstanus Herefordensis præsul obiit, et Levegarus, Ducis Haroldi capellanus, successit; hunc præsulem, in omni religione perfectum, Griffinus Rex Walensium, Herefordensi civitate crematâ, peremit." 3 Was Elfnoth succeeded by Osbern? See p. 346. fydd. CHAP. IX. grievances attending on a Welsh war. It is clear that the way had not yet been found out how really to quell the active sons of the mountains, when their spirits were thoroughly aroused by an able and enterprising prince like Gruffydd. The complaint does not dwell on losses in actual fight, which were probably comparatively Character small. The Welsh would seldom venture on an actual of the war with Gruf- battle with the English, even when commanded by captains very inferior to Harold. They would not run such a risk, except when they were either supported by Scandinavian allies, or else when they were able to take the Saxons at some disadvantage. What the Chronicler paints is the wearing, cheerless, bootless kind of warfare which is carried on with a restless enemy who can never be brought to a regular battle. It is not ill success in fighting that he speaks of, but the wretchedness of endless marching and encamping, and the loss of men and horses, evidently by weariness rather than by the sword. The wisest heads in the nation agreed that a stop must, at any cost, be put to this state of things. On the death of Leofgar, the see of Hereford was committed to Bishop Ealdred, whose energy seems to have shrunk from no amount of burthens, ecclesiastical, military, or civil.2 By the counsel of this Prelate, and of the Earls Leofric and Harold, the Welsh Gruffydd King was reconciled to his English overlord. This expression may be only a decorous way of attributing to the King personally a measure which was really the act of the Ealdred holds the see of Hereford with that of Wor cester. reconciled to Ead ward. 1056. 3 1 Chron. Ab. 1056. "Eaforolic is to atellanne seo gedrecednes, and seo fare eall, and seo fyrdung, and þæt geswinc and manna fyll and eac horsa, be eall Englahere dreah." 2 See above, pp. 153, 362, 372. The Chronicles distinctly say, "Ealdred bisceop feng to bam bisceoprice þe Leofgar hæfde." Florence rather softens this into, "Aldredo Wigornensi præsuli, donec antistes constitueretur, commissus est episcopatus Herefordensis." He kept it for four years, holding also the see of Ramsbury during part of the time. 3 Fl. Wig. "Idem episcopus et Comites Leofricus et Haroldus cum Rege Eadwardo Walanorum Regem Griffinum pacificaverunt." PEACE WITH GRUFFYDD. 399 three able statesmen who are represented as intervening CHAP. IX. between him and his dangerous vassal. But Eadward did sometimes exert a will of his own, and when he did so, his will was often in favour of more violent courses than seemed wise or just in the eyes of his counsellors. It is quite possible then that Eadward was, as he well might be, strongly incensed against Gruffydd, and that it needed all the arguments of Leofric and Harold, and of Ealdred so renowned as a peacemaker,1 to persuade the King to come to any terms with one so stained with treason and sacrilege. And undoubtedly, at this distance of time, there does seem somewhat of national humiliation in the notion of making peace with Gruffydd, after so many invasions and so many breaches of faith, on any terms but those of his complete submission. We must take the names of Harold, Leofric, His oath of homage. and Ealdred as a guaranty that such a course was necessary. Gruffydd did indeed so far humble himself as to swear to be for the future a faithful under-King to Eadward.2 It would also seem that the rebellious vassal was mulcted of a small portion of his territories. Eadward He loses had, at some earlier time, granted to Gruffydd certain Cheshire. lands, seemingly that portion of the present shire of Chester which lies west of the Dee. These lands were now forfeited, and restored to the see of Lichfield and other English possessors from whom they had been originally taken.3 We know not whether the grant was an original act of Eadward, or whether it was a convenient legal confirmation of some irregular seizure made by the Welsh King. Gruffydd was perhaps bought off in this 1 See above, p. 86. 2 Chron. Ab. 1056. "Swa þæt Griffin swor adas þæt he weolde beon Eadwarde Kinge hold Underkinge and unswicigende." 3 Domesday, 263. "Rex Eadwardus dedit Regi Grifino totam terram quæ jacebat trans aquam quæ De vocatur. Sed postquam ipse Grifin forisfecit ei, abstulit ab eo hanc terram, et reddidit episcopo de Cestre [the see had been moved thither before the Survey. See Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 164 b] et omnibus suis hominibus qui antea ipsam tenebant." A his lands in CHAP. IX. way after some of his former incursions, most likely at 1046. the moment of his temporary cooperation with Swegen. If so, the restoration of the alienated lands was now required as a condition of peace. This homage of Gruffydd, and this surrender of lands, remind us of the homage 1277. and surrender made, under the like circumstances, by the last successor of Gruffydd to a greater Edward. As for the Welsh King's oath, it was kept after the usual fashion, that is, till another favourable opportunity Cooperation of Harold, Leofric, and Eald red. 1051. occurred for breaking it. One other point may be noted in connexion with this last transaction. That is the way in which Harold, Leofric, and Ealdred are described as acting together. If this implies no further cooperation, it at least implies that these three took the same side in a debate in the Witenagemót. Yet Leofric was the father of Harold's rival Ælfgar, and the last time that the names of Harold and Ealdred were coupled was when Ealdred was sent to follow after Harold on his journey to Bristol. But now all these old grudges seem to have been forgotten. In fact not one of the three men was likely to prolong a grudge needlessly. Harold's policy was always a policy of conciliation; if—what we can by no means affirm—his conduct with regard to the outlawry of Ælfgar was at all of another character, it was the last example in his history. Ealdred was emphatically the peace-maker. He had no doubt long ago made his own peace with Harold, and he had probably used his influence to reconcile him with any "forisfactio" on the part of Gruffydd can hardly refer to his loss of his whole kingdom in 1063, and this moment of reconciliation and homage is obviously the most natural time for a partial surrender. We have here also another example of church lands being dealt with for political purposes in a way which would naturally give rise to those charges of sacrilege against Harold and others of which I have spoken elsewhere. See Appendix E. 1 See above, p. 87. 2 See the whole account in W. Rishanger, 90, ed. Riley. COOPERATION OF HAROLD, LEOFRIC, AND EALDRED. 401 with whom reconciliation was still needful. Leofric had CHAP. IX. often been opposed to Godwine, and must have looked with uncomfortable feelings on his wonderful rise. But he had never been a bitter or violent enemy; we have always found him playing the part of a mediator between extreme parties. There is no trace of any personal quarrel between him and Harold. He may have thought himself wronged in the outlawry of his son; but he could not fail to condemn Elfgar's later conduct and to approve that of Harold. He must have admired Harold's energetic carriage in the Welsh campaign and in the restoration of Hereford. And Leofric doubtless felt, whether Ælfgar felt or not, some gratitude to Harold for his conciliatory behaviour at Billingsley, and for the restoration of Ælfgar to his Earldom. All that we know of the good old Earl of the Mercians leads us to look on him as a man who was quite capable of sacrificing the interests and passions of himself or his family to the general welfare of his country. § 3. From Harold's first Campaign against Gruffydd to the Deaths of Leofric and Ralph. 1055-1057. 1 Bishop of obtain the A few detached ecclesiastical events must be mentioned Hermann, as happening in the course of these two years of war with Gruffydd. The see of Wiltshire or Ramsbury was, it seeks to will be remembered, now held by Hermann, one of the Abbey of Lotharingian Prelates who were favoured by Godwine and bury. Harold as a sort of middle term between Englishmen 1055. and Frenchmen.2 This preferment was not, at least in 1 The see was at Ramsbury, but the Bishop is often called "Episcopus Wiltoniensium," that is “of the men of Wiltunscír." In Mercia and Northumberland the Bishopricks (much like the shires, see vol. i. p. 51) seem commonly to be spoken of by the names of the episcopal towns; in Wessex and East-Anglia it is as usual, or more so, to use the name of the tribe or district. See below, p. 406. 2 See above, pp. 79-81, and 358. Malmes |