ceeded

by Robert

of Jumièges.

CHAP. VII. Was conferred on an Englishman, Wulfmær or Mannig, a monk of the house; but in the nomination to the great East-Saxon Bishoprick, the foreigners obtained one of their He is suc- most memorable triumphs. In a full Witenagemót, holden in London in the month of August, the Bishoprick of the city in which the Assembly was held was bestowed on August 10? one Robert, a Norman monk, who had first been Prior of Saint Ouen's at Rouen, and afterwards Abbot of the great house of Jumièges. He has there left behind him a noble memorial in the stately minster which still survives in ruins, but in England it is not too much to say, that he became, of Robert. in this high post and in the still higher post which he afterwards reached, the pest of the Kingdom. His influence over the mind of the feeble King was unbounded.3 We are ludicrously told that, if Robert said that a black crow was white, King Eadward would at once believe him. He is described at all hands as being the chief stirrer up of strife between Eadward and his native subjects. He it was who separated the husband from the wife, and the King from his most faithful counsellors. He it was whose slanderous tongue again brought up against the great

Baneful influence

His calumnies against

Godwine.

1 Chron. Wig. 1045. Fl. Wig. 1044. Hist. Eves. p. 86. Mannig rebuilt the church (Chronn. Ab. and Wig. 1054), and continued Abbot till 1066, when he died, having been for some time disabled by palsy.

2 Will. Malm. Gest. Pont. 134 b. He is there spoken of simply as a monk of Jumièges, but from the Biographer (399) and from the Nova Chronica Normanniæ, A. 1037, it appears that he had been Abbot. (See Neustria Pia, p. 309.) He became Abbot in 1037, and began the church in 1040. William himself, in his History (ii. 199), speaks of his building as "Ecclesia Sanctæ Mariæ, quam ipse præcipuo et sumptuoso opere construxerat." He begins to sign as Bishop in 1046. Cod. Dipl. iv. 110. 3 William of Malmesbury (Gest. Pont. 116) makes Robert's influence with Eadward the recompense of some services done to him in Normandy. He goes on, 66 Is ergo et amore antiquo et recenti honore primas partes in consiliis regalibus vendicabat, quos vellet deponeret, quos liberet, sublimaret."

Ann. Wint. 21, Luard. "Tanti fuit homo ille in oculis Regis ut si diceret nigram cornicem esse candidam Rex citiùs ori illius quam oculis suis crederet."

ROBERT BISHOP OF LONDON.

nexion

Norman

71

Earl that charge of complicity in the death of Elfred CHAP. VII. of which he had been solemnly pronounced guiltless by the highest Court in the realm. And the career of Robert is His conone of great historical importance. It is closely connected with the with the immediate causes-it may even be reckoned among invasion. the immediate causes-of the Norman invasion.3 Robert's appointment to the see of London may be fairly set down as marking a distinct stage in the progress of Norman influence in England. He was the first man of utterly alien speech who had held an English Bishoprick since the days of Roman, Scottish, or Cilician missionaries. His overthrow at a later time was one of the first- [1052.] fruits of the great national reaction against the strangers, and its supposed uncanonical character was one of the many pretences put forth by William to justify his invasion of England.

This appointment of Robert shows the great advance of the Norman influence. But it had not as yet reached its height. Godwine and the popular party seem to have been able to make a kind of compromise with the King. It was necessary to yield to the King's strong personal inclination in the case of Robert; but the other vacant preferments were secured for Englishmen. We have seen that Elfweard's Abbey was not allowed to be held in plurality by his successor in the Bishoprick, but was bestowed on an Englishman of high character. Stigand Stigand Bishop of too had by this time made his peace with Eadward and Godwine, and now began to climb the ladder of preferment afresh. He now again received the Bishoprick of

1 Vita Eadw. 400. So William of Malmesbury (u. s.); "Ille contra pertinaciùs insistere, donec præcipuos optimates, Godwinum dico et filios ejus, proditionis apud Regem accusatos Angliâ expelleret. Expulsionis aliæ quoque fuere caussæ, et alii auctores, sicut aliàs non tacuimus. Sed ille clariùs classicum cecinit, instantiùs accusavit." 2 See vol. i. p. 573.

3 Bishop Godwin (Cat. of Bishops, p. 25) says truly, but without fully understanding the force of his own words; "This man is said to have laid the first foundation of the Normans conquest in England."

Elmham.

CHAP. VII. Elmham or of the East-Angles.1 And it was in the same year, and seemingly at the same Gemót, that Gunhild, "the noble wife," the widow of the Earls Hakon and Harold, the mother of Heming and Thurkill, was banished together with her sons.2

Banishment of Gunhild and her sons.

This last event was one of that series of banishments which have been already spoken of as gradually falling on all who had made themselves in any way prominent in opposition to the election of Eadward. But it was most likely not unconnected with the present threatening state Condition of affairs in Northern Europe. The early years of Eadward in England were contemporary with the great struggle between Swend and Magnus for the Crown of Denmark. The details of that warfare are told in our Scandinavian Magnus. authorities with the usual amount of confusion and con1044-1047 tradiction, and it seems hopeless to think of altogether

of North

ern

Europe.

War of

Swend and

reconciling their conflicting statements. Our own Chronicles, as usual, supply the most promising means of harmonizing them in some small degree. We have seen that Magnus was in actual possession of both Norway and Denmark at the time of Eadward's coronation.3 Swend, after several battles, had found himself forsaken Connexion by every one, and had taken refuge in Sweden. Godes

of Godes

cale with calc the Wend, who had accompanied him from England, Swend and had forsaken him with the rest, and had entered on that Magnus. mingled career as missionary and warrior among his heathen countrymen of which I have already spoken.6 In this warfare he most likely acted as an ally of Magnus, who was also renowned for victories over the same enemy."

1 Chron. Petrib. 1043. Fl. Wig. 1044.

2 See above, p. 63.

3 See above, p. 18.

Snorro, Saga of Magnus, 33, of Harold, 18 (Laing, ii. 391. iii. 17). Chron. Roskild. Lang. i. 377. Saxo, 203.

5 Saxo, 204.

6 See vol. i. p. 649.

7 Saxo, 203. Swend. Agg. c. 5 (Lang. i. 56). So Adam Brem. ii. 75;

MAGNUS CLAIMS THE ENGLISH CROWN.

Trium

73

Magnus, now at the height of his power, King of Den- CHAP. VII. mark and Norway, conqueror of his heathen neighbours, phant posienjoying, as it would seem, the respect and attachment tion of" Magnus. of the people of both his Kingdoms, regretted and retracted the engagements of fidelity, perhaps even of submission, which he had made to Eadward when his own position seemed less secure. He now fell back on the He claims the Engclaim by virtue of which he had possessed himself of lish Crown. Denmark, and which, in his eyes, gave him an equal right 1945. to the possession of England. Magnus sent an embassy to England, claiming the Crown, and setting forth his right. He and Harthacnut had agreed that whichever of them outlived the other should succeed to his dominions. Harthacnut was dead; Magnus had, by virtue of that agreement, succeeded to the Crown of Denmark; he now demanded Harthacnut's other Kingdom of England. Eadward, we are told, answered in a magnanimous Eadward's strain, in which he directly rested his right to the English Crown on the choice of the English people.2 While his brother lived, he had served him faithfully as a private man, and had put forward no claim by virtue of his birth. On his brother's death, he had been chosen King by the whole nation and solemnly consecrated to the kingly office. Lawful King of the English, he would never lay aside the Crown which his fathers had worn before him. Let Magnus come; he would raise no army against him, but Magnus should never mount the throne. of England till he had taken the life of Eadward.3 Magnus, so the Norwegian Saga tells us, was so struck with this answer, that he gave up all thoughts of attacking

"Magnus autem Rex pro justitiâ et fortitudine carus fuit Danis, verùm Sclavis terribilis, qui post mortem Chnut Daniam infestabant.”

1

Snorro, Magnus, 38 (Laing, ii. 397). Ant. Celt. Scand. 184.

2 Snorro, Ant. Celt. Scand. 185. "Var þat þá rád her allra landsmanna at taka mik till Konungs her í Englandi."

" Does this mean that Eadward meant to meet Magnus in single combat?

answer.

tions

CHAP. VII. England, and acknowledged Eadward's right to the English Crown. This account, as perhaps Eadward's answer also, savours somewhat of romance. But that Magnus did contemplate an invasion of England is certain, and, as England had given him no cause for war, an invasion of England would seem to imply a Prepara- claim on the English Crown. The Norwegian King was against looked on as dangerous in the year after Eadward's coroMagnus. nation, and in the next year he was kept back from an invasion of England only by a renewal of the war in the North. In both these years Eadward found it necessary to gather a fleet together at Sandwich. In the first year the fleet amounted to thirty-five ships only; in the second year we are told that it was a fleet such as no man had ever seen before.2 In this last case we are distinctly told that its object was to repel an expected invasion on the part of Magnus.

1044-5.

The war

renewed by

with HA

and exploits of Harold.

1

The war was now renewed by Swend, seemingly in Swend in partnership with an actor of greater, though perhaps less partnership merited, renown than himself.3 Harold the son of Sigurd, ROLDHARD- the half-brother of Saint Olaf, had escaped as a stripling RADA. from the field of Stikkelstad, where his brother, according Early life to one view, received the crown of martyrdom, while, according to another, he received only the just reward 1030-1044. of hasty and violent, however well-meant, interference with the ancient institutions of his country. Harold, surnamed Hardrada-the stern in council-lived to become the most renowned warrior of the North, the last Scandinavian King who ever set foot as an enemy on purely

2 Chron. Ab. 1045. "And þar was swa mycel here gegæderod swa nan man ne geseh, sciphere nænne maran on þysan lande."

3 For the life of Harold Hardrada our chief authority is his Saga in Snorro, which will be found in the third volume of Laing's Translation. It fits in better than might have been expected with authentic history. There are also notices in Adam of Bremen and the Danish writers.