and his men shall be placed in their hands. The king calls on Siward of Northumbria and Leofric of Mercia

for aid.

The witenagemot removed to London, where it assembles Sept. 21.

Sweyn is outlawed. Godwin and Harold are summoned to appear, but being refused "safe conduct and hostages, so that they might come, unbetrayed, into the gemot and out of the gemot," they keep away, and are then allowed " a safe conduct for five nights to go out of the land"." Godwin and Sweyn retire to Bruges, Harold and Leofwin his brother go to Ireland; “and soon after this happened, then put away the king the lady who had been consecrated his queen [Godwin's daughter], and caused to be taken from her all which she possessed, in land, and in gold, and in silver, and in all things, and delivered her to his sister in Wherwell."

"It would have seemed wondrous to every man who was in England, if any one before that had said that it should be so, for Godwin had been erewhile to that degree exalted, as if he ruled the king and all England; and his sons were earls and the king's darlings, and his daughter wedded and united to the king."

William of Normandy visits England "with a great band of Frenchmen; and the king received him, and as many of his companions as it pleased him; and let him away again."

"Notwithstanding this, "the king sent Bishop Aldred [of Worcester] from London with a force; and they were to overtake Harold ere he came on shipboard; but they could not, or they would not.'

His sister was abbess of the nunnery at Wherwell, near Andover, founded by Elfritha.

Spearhafoc, the Saxon bishop of London, is expelled, and his place supplied by William, a Norman.

The king dismisses a portion of his fleet.

A.D. 1052. Emma, the king's mother, dies, March 6 or 142; she is buried at Winchester.

Harold sails from Ireland, and ravages the shores of the Bristol channel.

Griffin, the Welsh king, ravages Herefordshire.

Godwin sails from Bruges, and, evading the king's fleet at Sandwich, joins Harold P. "And they did not much harm after they came together, except that they seized provisions; but they enticed to them all the land folk by the sea coast, and also up the country; and they went towards Sandwich, and collected ever forth with them all the butse-carles [seamen] which they met with; and then came to Sandwich with an overflowing army."

The king's fleet having withdrawn, Godwin and Harold follow it to London, where, after some delay, a witenagemot was held, before which Godwin bore forth his defence; and there justified himself, before King Edward his lord, and before all people of the land, that he was guiltless of that which was laid against him, and against Harold his son, and all his children. And the king gave to the earl and his children his full friendship;

He is said by Florence of Worcester also to have abolished the Danegelt, being moved thereto by a miraculous appearance testifying the injustice of the tax; but the cotemporary Chronicle does not mention the matter.

One MS. of the Saxon Chronicle says the 2nd of the Nones of March, while another places her death on the 2nd of the Ides.

a

Sweyn had gone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in returning from which he died at Constantinople.

and gave his earldom clean to Godwin as full and as free as he before possessed it, and to his wife and his daughter as full and as free as they before possessed it. And they then established between them full friendship, and to all the people they promised good law. And then they outlawed all the Frenchmen, who before had upreared unjust law, and judged unjust judgments, and counselled ill counsel in this land; except so many as they agreed upon, whom the king liked to have with him, who were true to him and to all his people.

"When Archbishop Robert and the Frenchmen learned that, they took their horses, and went, some west to Pentecost's castle, and some north to Robert's castle. And Archbishop Robert, and Bishop Ulf [of Dorchester, in Oxfordshire], and their companions, went out at Eastgate, and slew and otherwise injured many young men, and went their way direct to Eadulf's-ness; and he there put himself in a crazy ship, and went direct over sea, and left his pall and all Christendom here on land, so as God would have it, inasmuch as he had before obtained the dignity so as God would not have it." Stigand succeeds to the archbishopric.

A.D. 1053. "Hris, the Welsh king's brother, was slain, because he had done harm; and his head was brought to Gloucester on Twelfth-day eve."

"In this year was the king at Winchester at Easter, and Godwin the earl with him, and Harold the earl his

Eadulf's-ness is probably the Naze, in Essex; perhaps Dungeness, near Romney. The situation of the castles mentioned is not known.

Some MSS. make this expulsion of the Frenchmen precede the restoration of Godwin and his family. Robert died at Jumieges in the same year.

son, and Tostig. Then on the second day of Easter (April 12) sate he with the king at the feast; then suddenly sank he down by the footstool, deprived of speech and of all his power, and he was then carried into the king's chamber, and they thought it would over-pass; but it did not so; but he continued on, thus speechless and powerless, until the Thursday, (April 15,) and then resigned his life; and he lies there within the old minster. And his son Harold succeeded to his earldom, and resigned that which he before held, and Elfgar [son of Leofric of Mercia] succeeded thereto."

The Welsh make an incursion," and slay a great number of the English people, of the wardmen, near Westbury."

A.D. 1054. "This year went Siward the earl [of Northumbria] with a great army into Scotland, both with a ship force and with a land force, and fought against the Scots, and put to flight King Macbeth, and slew all who were the chief men in the land, and led thence much booty, such as no man before had obtained. But his son Osbarn, and his sister's son Siward, and some of his house-carles, and also of the king's, were there slain, on the day of the Seven Sleepers," (July 27.) Bishop Aldred, of Worcester, is sent as ambassador to the emperor (Henry III.) at Cologne.

"In this year died Osgod Clapa, suddenly, even as he lay on his bed."

"In this year was there so great a murrain among cattle, as no man remembered for many years before."

A.D. 1055. Siward the earl dies, early in the year, and is buried at Galmaho, (near York,) "in the minster

which himself caused to be built, and hallowed in God's and Olave's name.' Tostig, Harold's brother, succeeds to the government of Northumbria.

A witenagemot is summoned at London, in Mid-Lent, at which Elfgar is outlawed, "well-nigh without guilt." Elfgar hires a fleet in Ireland, and with the help of Griffin, king of South Wales, defeats Ralf the earl', and burns Hereford, Oct. 24.

Harold marches against them, and having fortified Hereford, peace is made. "And then they inlawed Elfgar the earl, and gave him all that before had been taken from him; and the fleet went to Chester, and there awaited their pay, which Elfgar had promised them."

A.D. 1056. Leofgar, the mass-priest (chaplain) of Harold, is appointed bishop of Hereford. "He forsook his chrism and his rood, his ghostly weapons, and took to his spear and to his sword, after his bishophood; and so went to the field against Griffin, the Welsh king; and there was he slain, and his priests with him, and Elfnoth the shire-reeve, and many good men with them; and the others fled away; this was eight days before Midsummer," (June 17.)

"It is difficult to tell the distress, and the marching all, and the camping, and the travail and destruction of men, and also of horses, which all the English army en

"Without any kind of guilt," according to another MS., whilst a third says, "It was cast upon him that he was a traitor to the king, and to all the people of the land. And he made a confession of it before all the men who were there gathered; though the word escaped him unintentionally."

The husband of his daughter Githa, who afterwards married Harold.

The son of Goda, the king's sister, and commander of the Norman mercenaries. He died the following year.