POPULAR ELECTION OF EADWARD. Swend 5 Estrithson; the son of national feeling have endured another Danish ruler, Swend CHAP. VII. Estrithson might have governed England as prudently Other possible and as prosperously as he afterwards governed Denmark, candidates; But the great qualities of Swend had as yet hardly shown themselves. He could have been known at this time only as a young adventurer, who had signally failed in the only great exploit which he had attempted.' And, above all things, the feeling of the moment called for an Englishman, for an Etheling of the blood of Cerdic. One such Ætheling only was at hand. One son of Eadmund Eadward Ironside was now grown up to manhood, but he had been Eadmund. from his infancy an exile in a distant land. Most likely no one thought of him as a possible candidate for the Crown; it may well be that his very existence was generally forgotten. In the eyes of Englishmen there Position of was now only one representative of the ancient royal house. Eadward, the son of Ethelred and Emma, the brother of the murdered and half-canonized Ælfred, had long been familiar to English imaginations, and, since the accession of his half-brother Harthacnut, the English Court had been his usual dwelling-place. Eadward, and Eadward alone, stood forth as the heir of English royalty, the representative of English nationality. In his behalf the popular voice spoke out at once and unmistakeably. "Before the King buried were, all folk chose Eadward to King at London." § 1. The Election and Coronation of Eadward. 1042-1043. Eadward. election of The general course of events at this time is perfectly Popular plain, but there is a good deal of difficulty as to some Eadward. of the details. The popular election of Eadward took June, 1042. place in June, immediately on the death of Harthacnut, 1 See vol. i. p. 589. 2 On the different statements, see Appendix A. His coronation delayed till the next year. Importance of the coronation rite. CHAP. VII. and even before his burial; but it is very remarkable that the coronation of the new King did not take place till Easter in the next year. This delay is singular, and needs explanation. The consecration of a King was then not a mere pageant, but a rite of the utmost moment, partaking almost of a sacramental character. Without it the King was not King at all, or King only in a very imperfect sense. We have seen how impossible it was for the uncrowned Harthacnut to retain his hold upon Wessex.2 The election of the Witan gave to the person chosen the sole right to the Crown, but he was put into actual possession of the royal office only by the ecclesiastical consecration. Eadward then, for nearly ten months after his first election, could not be looked on as "full King," but as at most King-elect. What could be the cause of such a delay? The notion of a general war with the Danes in England, which might otherwise account for it, I have elsewhere shown to be without foundation. The circumstances of the time would seem to have been singularly unsuited for any delay. We should have expected that the same burst of popular feeling which carried Eadward's immediate and unanimous election would also have demanded the exclusion of any possible competitor by an immediate Probable coronation. But the fact was otherwise. The explanation of so singular a state of things is most likely to be found in certain hints which imply that it was caused, partly by Eadward's absence from England, partly by an unwillingness on his part to accept the Crown. There is strong reason to believe that Eadward was not in England at the the Crown. moment of his half-brother's death. Harthacnut had causes of the delay; Eadward most likely absent from England, and unwilling to accept indeed recalled him to England, and his court had become the English Ætheling's ordinary dwelling-place. But this fact in no way shuts out the possibility that Eadward 1 Chronn. and Flor. Wig. 1043. 2 Vol. i. p. 560. 1 NEGOTIATIONS WITH EADWARD. may have been absent on the Continent at any particular CHAP. VII. moment, on a visit to some of his French or Norman friends, or on a pilgrimage to some French or Norman sanctuary. Meanwhile the sudden death of Harthacnut left the throne vacant. As in other cases before and after, the citizens of London, whose importance grows at every step, together with such of the other Witan as were at hand, met at once and chose Eadward King. As he was absent, and his consent was doubtful, an embassy Embassy had to be sent to him, as embassies had been sent to his father Ethelred 2 and to his brother Harthacnut, inviting him to return and receive the Crown. That embassy, wę are told, consisted of Bishops and Earls; we can hardly doubt that at the head of their several orders stood two men whom all accounts set before us as the leaders in the to Ead ward. tions be tween Eadward and God promotion of Eadward. These were Lyfing, Bishop of Worcester, and Godwine, Earl of the West-Saxons.4 A re- Negotiamarkable negotiation now took place between the Earl and the King-elect. Details of private conversations are always suspicious, but the dialogue attributed to the Earl and the wine. Ætheling contains nothing but what is thoroughly suited to the circumstances of the case. We can fully understand that Eadward, either from timidity or from his monastic turn, might shrink from the labour and responsibility of reigning at all, and that, with his Norman tastes, he might look forward with very little satisfaction to the prospect of reigning over Englishmen. Such scruples 1 As at the election of Eadmund Ironside, vol. i. p. 419. So, after the fall of Harold the son of Godwine, the citizens of London were foremost in choosing the young Eadgar King. Fl. Wig. 1066. The expression of "all folk," and the extreme haste at a time when the Witan seem not to have been sitting, point to an election of this kind, forestalling the next ordinary Gemót. 2 Vol. i. p. 404. 3 Vol. i. p. 568. Lyfing's share in the business comes from Florence; "Eadwardus, annitentibus maxime Comite Godwino et Wigornensi Præsule Livingo, Lundoniæ levatur in Regem." 7 CHAP. VII. were driven away by the arguments and eloquence of the Speech of great Earl. The actual speech put into his mouth may Godwine. be the composition of the historian, but it contains the arguments which cannot fail to have been used in such a case. It was better to live gloriously as a King than to die ingloriously in exile. Eadward was the son of Ethelred, the grandson of Eadgar; the Crown was therefore his natural inheritance. His personal position and character would form a favourable contrast to those of the two worthless youths who had misgoverned England since the death of Cnut. His years and experience fitted him to rule; he was of an age to act vigorously when severity was needed; he had known the ups and downs of life; he had been purified by poverty and exile, and would therefore know how to show mercy when mercy was called for.2 If he had any doubts, he, Godwine, was ready to maintain his cause; his power was great enough both to procure the election of a candidate, and to secure Eadward his throne when elected. Eadward was persuaded; he consented to accept the Crown; he plighted his friendship to the Earl, and it may be that he promised to confer honours on his sons and to take his daughter in marriage. But stories of private stipulations of this kind are always doubtful. It is enough that Godwine had, as all accounts agree, the chief hand in raising Eadward to the throne. accepts the Crown. He returns to England. Eadward now seems to have returned to England, probably in company with Godwine and the other am This contrast is not directly stated, but it seems implied in the reference to the age and experience of Eadward. 2 Will. Malms. ii. 196. "Jure ei competere regnum, ævi maturo, laboribus defæcato, scienti administrare principatum per ætatem severè, miserias provincialium [Harthacnut's Danegeld?] pro pristinâ egestate temperare." 3 Ib. " Quo se pronior inclinaverit, eo fortunam vergere; si auxilietur, neminem ausurum obstrepere, et è converso." WITENAGEMOT OF GILLINGHAM. gemót of ham. 9 bassadors. The Witan presently met at Gillingham CHAP. VII. in Wiltshire; and it would seem that the acceptance of WitenaEadward's claims was now somewhat less unanimous than Gillingit had been during the first burst of enthusiasm which 1042-3. followed the death of Harthacnut. Godwine brought forward Eadward as a candidate, he urged his claims with all his powers of speech, and himself set the example of becoming his man on the spot. Still an opposition arose Opposition in the Assembly, which it needed all the eloquence of ward's Godwine and Lyfing to overcome. They had even, as to Ead election; in the Swend. it would seem, to stoop to a judicious employment of the less noble arts of statesmanship. The majority indeed were won over by the authority of the man whom all England looked on as a father.1 But the votes of some had to be gained by presents, or, in plain words, by bribes. Others, it would seem, stood out against Ead-· ward's election to the last. This opposition, we cannot apparently doubt, came from a Danish party which supported the interest of claims of Swend Estrithson. That prince, on return from his first unsuccessful war with Magnus, had found his cousin Harthacnut dead, and Eadward already King as far as his first election could make him so.3 But the delay of the coronation, the uncertainty of Eadward's acceptance of the Crown, might well make the hopes of Swend and his partisans revive. We can hardly believe Alleged negotiations the tale, though it rests apparently on the assertion of between Swend himself, that he demanded the Crown, and that Eadward and Eadward made peace with him, making the usual com- Swend. promise that Swend should succeed him on his death, even though he should leave sons. Such an agreement would of course be of no force without the consent of 1 Vita Eadw. 394. 66 Quoniam pro patre ab omnibus habebatur, in paterno consultu libenter audiebatur." Will. Malms. ii. 197. "Quidam auctoritatem ejus secuti." 2 Will. Malms. u. s. 64 See vol. i. p. 591. 'Quidam muneribus flexi." Adam Brem. ii. 74. See Appendix A. |