SUPPOSED ENMITY BETWEEN HAROLD AND TOSTIG. 627 accession. After Eadward's death, he says "perstitit in incœpto Haroldus ut fratrem exlegaret." Snorro (Johnstone, 192, 193. Laing, iii. 77, 78) makes Tostig the elder brother, the head Earl of the Kingdom, and the commander of the King's armies. Harold, the youngest brother, is Eadward's personal favourite, he is always about him, and having seemingly supplanted Hugolin the Frenchman-has the care of all his treasures. Here again the real position of the two brothers is amusingly transposed. On Harold's election as King, Tostig, who had himself aspired to the Crown, is much displeased, and has sharp words with his brother. Harold of course refuses to surrender the Crown, and, fearing the ability and popularity of Tostig, he deprives him of his command of the army and of his precedence over other Earls. Tostig, unwilling to be the subject of his brother, leaves the country of his own free will and goes to Flanders. Saxo (207) is one degree less wild, in so far as he realizes that Harold was the elder brother. In his version, after Harold's election, his younger brothers generally ("minores Godovini filii majorem perosi ")-Gyrth and Leofwine no doubt as well as Tostig-envious of their brother's election and unwilling to submit to his authority, leave the country and seek for help abroad. It is needless to point out how, in all these versions, the chronology is altered, as well as the whole circumstances of the story, in order to represent Harold as the oppressor of his brother. But it should be remarked that these calumnies are of a wholly different kind from the calumnies which speak of an early quarrel, and that the two in effect exclude one another. In the versions of Orderic, Saxo, and Snorro, the enmity between the brothers does not begin till after Harold's election to the Kingdom. It may be some refreshment to wind up with the amusing version of Peter Langtoft, who, by the way, seems to have thought that Godwine was still alive in 1065. He at least has no spite against Harold; he even (p. 64 Hearne) tells the story of the murder of Gospatric, the blame of which he ventures to lay on the Lady Eadgyth ("My boke . . . sais pe quene Egyn, pe blame suld scho bere"); he then goes on; "Tostus of Cumbirland retted Godwyn þer tille. Ageyn þe erle Godwyn he gert sette assise. Gospatrike's dede on Godwyn wild he venge, And Harald tened withalle, of lond he did him chace.” NOTE AA. p. 391. ETHELSTAN, BISHOP OF HEREFORD. PROFESSOR STUBBS places the consecration of Æthelstan in 1012. This seems to be the right year, because in that year we find his first signature ("Edelstanus episcopus," Cod. Dipl. vi. 165), as well as the last signature (Cod. Dipl. iii. 357) of his predecessor Athulf-he seems always to use this contracted form. At first sight this date seems inconsistent with a document in Cod. Dipl iv. 234, one to which I have already referred for another purpose (p. 563), in which "Epelstan Bisceop" is said to have bought lands in Worcestershire of Leofric-perhaps the famous Earl while still a private man in his father's lifetime-the purchase of which was witnessed by the two Archbishops Ælfheah and Wulfstan. Now Ælfheah, taken captive in September 1011 (see vol. i. p. 385), can neither have consecrated Ethelstan in 1012 nor yet have witnessed a purchase made by him in that year. The transaction spoken of in the document must belong to an earlier time. But the document itself was not written till long after. Many years after the purchase ("æfter þysan manegum gearum") -at some time between the accession of Cnut and the death of Ealdorman Leofwine-Wulfstan and his son Wulfric tried to disturb Æthelstan in its possession, but a compromise was come to in the Scirgemót of Worcestershire, in which Leofwine, Hakon (see p. 563), and Leofric were present. The explanation doubtless is that, in a deed drawn up so long after, Æthelstan is spoken of by a title which belonged to him then, but which did not belong to him at the time of the purchase. As for his consecration in 1012, there seems to be no evidence as to the consecrator, but it could not have been Ælfheah. THE FAMILY OF LEOFRIC. 629 NOTE BB. p. 416. THE FAMILY OF LEOFRIC. I KNOW of no authority for any children of Leofric and Godgifu except Earl Elfgar. It is hardly needful to refute the notion, entertained even by Sir Henry Ellis (ii. 146), that Hereward was a son of the Mercian Earl. On this score even the false Ingulf is guiltless. The mistake arose solely from a late and blundering genealogical roll, printed in the Chroniques Anglo-Normandes, ii. xii. The same roll gives Leofric a third nameless son, who was a child ("tertium parvulum cujus nomen non habetur") at the coming in of William, and was beheaded for the sake of his inheritance. Leofric died an old man in 1057; a son of his could hardly be parvulus" in 1066. This family seems to have been picked out (see above, vol. i. p. 457) as the special sport of pedigree-makers. 66 Mr. C. H. Pearson (i. 367) attributes the mistake about Hereward to Sir Francis Palgrave, who is quite guiltless of it. See his History, iii. 467. Ælfgar's wife bore the name of Ælfgifu. She appears in Domesday in a form which clearly shows that she survived the Conquest, that she retained her lands, or parts of them, but that she was dead at the time of the Survey. In Leicestershire (231 b) there is a special heading, "Terra Alvevæ Comitissæ," and in Suffolk (ii. 286 b) one of "Terra Matris Morchari Comitis." But the word used is not "tenet" but "tenuit." Cf. also Nottinghamshire, 280 b. I know not on what authority pedigree-makers affirm her to have been a Frenchwoman, sister of William Malet. If so, she must, like the Lady Emma, have changed her name at her marriage. Possibly it was a standing rule that all wives from beyond sea should take the name of Ælfgifu, as if they had come from Elfland. Of the children of Ælfgar and Ælfgifu, their two famous or infamous sons, Eadwine and Morkere, need no mention here. The existence of a third son, Burchard (see pp. 455, 459), depends on the amount of trust which we may give to a charter preserved in the local history of Rheims, quoted by Sir Henry Ellis (i. 325); "Notum sit Algarum quemdam, Anglorum Comitem, consentiente Edwardo Anglorum Rege, Sancto Remigio villam de Lapeleiâ dedisse pro animâ filii sui Burchardi, cujus corpus in polyandrio ecclesiæ quiescit." Lapley in Northamptonshire and other property belonged at the time of the Survey, not to "the Church of Rheims," as Sir Henry Ellis says, but to "Saint Remigius of Rheims" (Domesday, 222 6), that is, to the Abbey. The English estate, we are told, grew into a Priory. (I do not know Lapley Priory in Northamp-tonshire, but there was a Priory of that name in Staffordshire, much more in Ælfgar's own country, whose church survives.) Now the name Burchard (Burhhard?), though borne by several men This T. R. E., can hardly be called a common English name. name, and the apparent devotion of Elfgar and his son to the Abbey of Rheims, are by no means enough to prove the foreign origin of Ælfgifu, but they certainly fall in with the tradition. About the personality of Ealdgyth, daughter of Elfgar, and wife successively of Gruffydd and Harold, there is no doubt. Florence mentions her incidentally under 1066, as the widow of Harold, and the sister of Eadwine and Morkere. She appears also in Domesday (238 b), where it is said of lands in Warwickshire belonging to Coventry Abbey, "Hanc terram tenuit Aldgid uxor Grifin." At the time of the Survey it had passed from her to Osbern of Herefordshire, who had sold it to the Abbot. William of Jumièges also says (vii. 31) that Harold "Grithfridi quoque Regis Wallorum, postquam hostilis eum gladius peremit, pulcram conjugem Aldith, præclari Comitis Algari filiam, sibi uxorem junxit." So Orderic, 492 D; "Ipse [Heraldus] Edgivam sororem eorum [Edwini et Morcari] uxorem habebat, quæ priùs Gritfridi fortissimi Regis Guallorum conjunx fuerat." He goes on to say that she had borne two children to Gruffydd, “Blidenum regni successorem "—a confusion with Gruffydd's brother or kinsman Blethgent —and a daughter named Nest. Benoît de Ste. More has a very curious account of Ealdgyth (Chron. Ang. Norm. i. 178); "Après que Heraut se fu fait Reis, Celi pesa c'unc à sa char Kar dame esteit de grant valor. THE FAMILY OF LEOFRIC. 631 I need not point out the mistakes here, especially the glaring one of putting Harold's Welsh war after his election to the Kingdom. But the supposed attachment of Ealdgyth to Gruffydd rather than to Harold may be a genuine tradition, as it falls in with other indications. Two questions here arise about Ealdgyth. Was she the "Eddeva pulcra" of Domesday? and, Was she the only daughter of Elfgar? Sir Henry Ellis (ii. 79) argues at length that she is "Eddeva pulcra," in opposition to Mr. Sharon Turner, who identifies that Eddeva with Eadgyth Swanneshals. There is no very distinct evidence, but I rather incline to the latter belief, which I shall have to speak of again. As for the other question, Orderic (511 B) distinctly calls Ealdgyth the only daughter of Elfgar. But his account is very confused ; he not only leaves out Burchard, but he confounds Ælfgar with his father Leofric, and makes Godgifu Elfgar's wife instead of his mother. His words are, "Devoti Deo dignique relligionis laude parentes elegantem et multâ laude dignam ediderunt sobolem, Eduinum, Morcarum, et unam filiam nomine Aldit, quæ primò nupsit Guitfrido Regi Guallorum, post cujus mortem sociata est Heraldo Regi Anglorum." But the genealogy of Leofric's family which I have already spoken of (vol. i. p. 456. See also Ellis, i. 490) gives Ælfgar a daughter Lucy, who, though unknown to Domesday, inherited the lands of the family ("obtinuit Lucia soror eorum terras paternas"), and who was married, first, in the Conqueror's time, to Ivo Taillebois, then, in the time of Henry the First, to Roger Fitzgerald, lastly, in the time of Stephen, to Ranulf, Earl of Chester. She had a son by each of the last two husbands. The chronology is as amazing as the whole chronology of this pedigree. A woman whose father died before 1065 is made to bear a son at some time between 1135 and 1154. There was undoubtedly a Lucy, who did marry in succession Roger Fitzgerald and Earl Randolf (Ord. Vit. 871 B), and who was the mother of the Earl's son William Randolf (an early case of a double name), and who was alive in 1141 (ib. 921 B); but I know of nothing to connect her either with Ivo Taillebois or with the house of Leofric. Lucy, as the name of an Englishwoman in the eleventh century, is as impossible as Rowena or Ulrica, unless indeed the French origin of her mother is again called in. The false Ingulf is, I need not say, great on the subject of Ivo and Lucy, and the legend is |