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winter; and she came to Bruges, where Baldwin the earl' well received her."

A.D. 1039. Harthacnut joins his mother at Bruges. "The Welsh kill Edwin, brother of Leofric the earl, and Thurkill, and Elfget, and very many good men with them."

A.D. 1040. Harold dies at Oxford, March 17; Harthacnut, invited, comes to Sandwich, June 17.

HARTHACNUT.

HARTHACNUT, the son of Canute and Emma, is only remarkable for the indignities he offered to his predecessor's corpse, and the heavy taxes he laid on the people. He, however, kindly received his half-brother Edward, and thus unwittingly prepared the way for the restoration of the Saxon line of kings. He died, without issue, after a reign of about two years.

A.D. 1040. Harthacnut is acknowledged king, "as well by English as by Danes."

"Harthacnut caused the dead Harold to be taken up, and had him cast into a fen."

A heavy tax is imposed for the support of the fleet which had accompanied Harthacnut, "and all were then averse to him who before had desired him."

The bishops' sees of Cornwall and Devon united.

A.D. 1041. Worcestershire is ravaged in conse

1 Baldwin IV., the husband of her niece, Eleanora of Normandy.

quence of the death of two of the house-carles employed in collection of the tax.

Edward (afterwards king) returns to England from abroad.

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Harthacnut betrayed Eadulf the earl [of Northum bria], while under his protection, and he became then a belier of his 'wed".""

A.D. 1042. "King Harthacnut died as he stood at his drink, and he suddenly fell to the earth with a terrible convulsion; and they who were there nigh took hold of him, and he after that spoke not one word, and he died on the 6th of the Ides of June" (June 8). His death occurred at Lambeth, at the marriage of the daughter of Osgod Clapa, his staller, or high steward, and he was buried in the old minster at Winchester.

His mother, for his soul, gave to the new minster the head of St. Valentine the martyr." Edward is chosen king.

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.

EDWARD, the son of Ethelred and Emma, being in England at the time of the death of Harthacnut, was chosen king, although a son of Edmund Ironside (called Edward the Outlaw, the father of Edgar Atheling,) was still alive. He acquired great popularity among his Anglo-Saxon subjects by the banishment of several eminent

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Arms ascribed to Edward the Confessor.

m "Pledge" or "security." A reference to the summary of AngloSaxon laws (p. 161.) will shew how grievous an offence this was esteemed.

persons of the Danish party, and he was universally admired for his munificence and piety"; yet his reign was little more than nominal, the real power being exercised by Godwin and his family.

From politic motives Edward married Edgitha, the daughter of Godwin, but treated her harshly from dislike to her kindred. Instead of conciliating his great nobles, the king surrounded himself with the Norman friends among whom he had been brought up, and he unsuccessfully endeavoured to avail himself of their services both in Church and State. He was, indeed, a foreigner in his habits; the language of his court was French, and he had French chaplains, on whom he bestowed bishoprics; French governors of his castles, and French body-guards; but these were all dismissed on the return of Godwin from the banishment into which their intrigues had driven him; after this event the king is hardly named in the Chronicle, Harold and his brethren occupying instead the most conspicuous place. He died Jan. 5, 1066, at Westminster, and was there buried.

Although he was the immediate cause of the Norman invasion, King Edward's ascetic life procured him canonization, and he was esteemed the patron saint of England until superseded in the 13th century by St. George; the translation of his relics from the old to his new shrine at Westminster, in 1263, still finds a place on the 13th of

" He is also said to have remodelled the laws that Canute had established, but the fact is very doubtful. See p. 157. From Pope Alexander III. in 1166. Numerous miracles are ascribed to him, as curing the disease since known as "the king's evil," by his touch; others are said to have been worked by his relics.

October in the English Calendar, and more than twenty churches exist dedicated either to him, or to Edward the king and martyr.

The arms ascribed to this king, "Azure, a cross patonce between five martlets, or," though of course invented long after his time, are of historical importance, they having been assumed by several kings, and borne as one of the royal standards; and the quartering of them by a private individual having in the reign of Henry VIII. been punished as treason.

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A.D. 1043. Edward is crowned at Winchester, on Easter-day, April 3. Archbishop Eadsige hallowed him, and before all the people well instructed him; and for his own need, and all the people's, well admonished him."

The king repairs suddenly to Winchester, in November, and despoils his mother of her lands and treasures, "because she had done less for him than he would, before he was king, and also since."

Stigand, bishop of East Anglia, her chief adviser, is deprived of his see, "and all that he possessed was seized into the king's hands."

A.D. 1044. Archbishop Eadsige resigns his see by reason of infirmity; Siward, abbot of Abingdon, succeeds him.

Stigand re-obtains his bishopric.

A great famine in England.

A.D. 1045. The king marries Edgitha, the daughter

of Godwin, Jan. 23.

A large fleet collected at Sandwich, an invasion being threatened by Magnus of Norway P.

Gunhilda, the widow of Hacon, and niece of Canute, and her sons, are banished from England.

A.D. 1046. Sweyn, the earl (son of Godwin), ravages South Wales, and carries off the abbess of Leominster.

Osgod Clapa, the favourite of Harthacnut, is banished; he retires to Bruges.

The Cornish and Devonshire sees fixed at Exeter.

A very severe winter ;

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even birds and fishes perished through the great cold and famine.”

A.D. 1047. Sweyn, not being allowed to marry the abbess, flees to Bruges, when his lands are forfeited.

Kent and Essex ravaged by the ships of Lothen and Yrling, two Danish chiefs, who retire to Flanders with their plunder.

A.D. 1048. Sandwich and the Isle of Wight plundered, and their chief men slain.

A.D. 1049. King Edward assembles a fleet to assist the emperor (Henry III.) against Baldwin, count of Flanders.

Sweyn joins the fleet with seven ships, and endeavours to obtain the restitution of his lands. His brother Harold and his kinsman Beorn prevent it, when Sweyn murders Beorn, and then again flees to Bruges.

p It was averted by Magnus being himself attacked by Sweyn of Denmark.

They retired to Bruges, then the capital of Baldwin IV. of Flanders, who had married Eleonora, the niece of Queen Emma; he seems to have been the general protector of the English fugitives, but his lawless proceedings brought upon himself the vengeance of the emperor, in which King Edward readily joined.

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