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CHAP. IX. Ethelwig. The church of that famous monastery, raised by the skill of its Abbot Mannig,2 was now awaiting consecration. For that ceremony he deputed his neighbour Bishop Leofwine of Lichfield.3 He then set forth for the court of Augustus. The Emperor was then at Köln, on his return from the consecration of his young son Henry as East-Frankish or Roman King in the Great Charles's minster at Aachen. The immediate tie between Eadward and Henry had been broken by the death of Queen Gunhild; the King who was now to be crowned was the child of Henry's second wife, the Empress Agnes of Poitiers.5 But the interchange of gifts and honours between the Roman and the insular Basileus was none the less cordial

Splendid reception given to Ealdred.

and magnificent. English writers dwell with evident pleasure on the splendid reception which the English Bishop met with both from the Emperor and from Hermann, the Archbishop of the city where Ealdred had been presented to Henry. We hear also how greatly edified the English Primate was, and what reforms he was afterwards

1 So I understand the passage in the Evesham History, p. 87, about Ethelwig's appointment to the Abbey of Evesham in 1059. He is there spoken of as one "qui multo antea tempore episcopatum Wigornensis ecclesiæ sub Aldredo archiepiscopo laudabiliter rexerat." See Mr. Macray's note. That Ealdred is called Archbishop need be no difficulty. It is the old question about the days of Abiathar the Priest. Cf. Appendix 00. 2 On Mannig, see above, p. 69.

3 Chron. Wig. 1054. "And he lofode Leofwine bisceop to halgianne þæt mynster æt Eofeshamme, on vi. Id. Oct."

Young Henry was crowned at the age of five at Aachen, July 17th, 1054, by Hermann, Archbishop of Köln. See Lambert in anno.

Agnes, daughter of William the Great, Duke of Aquitaine, married King Henry in 1043 (Lambert and Chron. And. ap. Labbe, i. 276) or 1045 (Hugo Flav. ap. Labbe, i. 187) or 1049 (Chron. S. Maxent. in anno). Her father being dead, she is described as "filia Agnetis," the Agnes so famous in the history of Geoffrey Martel (see above, p. 274). Abbot Hugh, in recording the marriage, cannot refrain from the strange comment, "Quum enim esset [Heinricus] alias bonus, et omnes ejus sitirent dominium, carnis tamen incontinentiam frænare non potuit." Was Henry the Third bound to imitate Henry the Second?

EALDRED'S EMBASSY TO THE EMPEROR.

stay at

373

1054-1055.

enabled to make in England, through his intercourse with CHAP. IX. the well-ordered churches of Germany. But the immediate His long business of the embassy advanced but slowly. The time Köln. was ill chosen for an Imperial intervention with the Hungarian court. Andrew, the reigning King of Hungary, was about this time abetting the rebellious Duke Conrad of Bavaria against the Emperor.2 We have no details of the further course of the negotiation. Ealdred abode a whole year at Köln, probably waiting for a favourable opportunity. His embassy was in the end successful; for the Ætheling did after a while return to England. But we have no further details, and Eadward did not return to England till long after Ealdred had gone back, and till at least a year after the death of the Emperor.

Earl

The year of Ealdred's mission was marked also by the Death of sudden death of a somewhat remarkable person, namely Clapa. Osgod Osgod Clapa, whose movements by sea had been watched 1054. with such care five years before.3 The Chronicler remarks, seemingly with some little astonishment, that he died in his bed. Early in the next year death carried off a far Death of more famous man, no other than the great Earl of the Siward. Northumbrians. The victory of the last year, glorious as 1055. it was, had been bought by the bitterest domestic losses, which may not have been without their effect even on the iron spirit and frame of the old Earl. His nephew and his elder son had fallen in the war with Macbeth, and his only surviving son, afterwards the famous Waltheof, His son was still a child. Siward's first wife Ethelflæd was dead,

5

WALTHEOF.

1 See Appendix FF.

2 Ib.

* See above, p. 98. We have no account of the time or circumstances of his return from banishment.

Chron. Ab. 1054. "Swa swa he on his reste læg." Chron. Wig. "on

his bedde."

All the Chronicles and Florence, in anno.

Hen. Hunt. M. H. B. 760 C. "Adhuc parvulus." So Bromton, 946.

CHAP. IX. and he had in his old age married, and survived, a widow

Story of Siward's death.

named Godgifu.1 We might have fancied that Waltheof was her son, but we know for certain that he was the son of the daughter of the old Northumbrian Earls, and that he unhappily inherited all the deadly feuds of his mother's house.2 Siward died at York, the capital of his Earldom. A tale, characteristic at least, whether historically true or not, told how the stern Danish warrior, when he felt death approaching, deemed it a disgrace that he should die, not on the field of battle, but of disease, "like a cow." If he could not actually die amid the clash of arms, he would at least die in warrior's garb. He called for his armour, and, harnessed as if again to march against Macbeth, the stout His found- Earl Siward breathed his last. But this fierce spirit was not inconsistent with the piety of the time. Saint Olaf, Galmanho. the martyred King of the Northmen, had by this time become a favourite object of reverence, especially among men of Scandinavian descent.4 In his honour Earl Siward had reared a church in a suburb of his capital called Galmanho, a church which, after the Norman Conquest, grew

ation and

burial at

3

But he could hardly be "in cunis jacens" (R. Higden, lib. vi. Gale, ii. 281), when we think of his importance twelve years later.

“Godgiva

1 We know her through a document in Cod. Dipl. iv. 265. vidua" gives lands to Peterborough "pro redemptione animæ suæ per consensum Regis Eaduuardi." She then married Siward; "Postea accepit eam Siuuardus Comes in conjugio; post tempus non multum mortua est." The singular story about these lands will be best told when discussing the character of Waltheof.

"Nepos Aldredi Comitis Simeon (ib. 82) seems to

2 See vol. i. p. 520. Sim. Dun. X Scriptt. 81. Comes Waltheof, erat enim filius filiæ illius." imply that Waltheof held Bernicia under his father ("filio suo Waltheofo comitatum Northymbrorum dedit"); but he clearly was not in possession in 1065. See Simeon's own account, X Scriptt. 204. On the question whether he received Northamptonshire on his father's death or ten years later, see Appendix G.

3 Hen. Hunt. M. H. B. 760 C; Bromton, 946; Ann. Wint. 26.

* Compare the gifts of Gytha to Saint Olaf at Exeter, p. 350. 5 Chronn. Ab. and Wig. 1055. "And he ligeð æt Galmanho, on þam mynstre pe he sylf let timbrian and halgian on Godes and Olafes naman

DEATH OF SIWARD.

375

into that great Abbey of Saint Mary, whose ruins form the CHAP. IX. most truly beautiful ornament of the Northern metropolis. In his own church of Galmanho Siward the Strong, the true relic of old Scandinavian times, was buried with all honour.

The death of Siward led to most important political consequences. The direct authority of the House of Godwine was now, for the first time, extended to the land beyond the Humber. This fact marks very forcibly how fully the royal authority was now acknowledged throughout the whole realm. The King and his Witan could now venture to appoint as the successor of Siward an Earl who had no connexion whatever with any of the great families of Northumberland. Cnut, in the moment of victory, had given the Northumbrians the Dane Eric as their Earl.1 But this was the act of a conqueror, and such was the strength of the Danish element in Northumberland that the appointment of a Dane from Denmark probably seemed less irksome than the appointment of an Englishman from any other part of the Kingdom. This last was the act, one TOSTIG appointed wholly without a parallel, on which Eadward now ventured. Earl of the The vacant Earldom of Northumberland, including also the Northumdetached shires of Northampton and Huntingdon,2 was 1055. conferred on Tostig the son of Godwine. The novelty of the step is perhaps marked by the elaborate description Influences of the influences which were brought to bear on the mind of Tostig. of Eadward to induce him to make the appointment. We hear, not only of Tostig's own merits, but of the influence employed by his many friends, especially by his sister the Lady Eadgyth and also by his brother Earl Harold, whom

[Gode to lofe and eallum his halgum]." Bromton, 946, using the language
of later times, says, "Sepultus est in monasterio sanctæ Mariæ apud Ebo-
racum in claustro." There is still a parish church of Saint Olaf in that
part of the city.
2 See Appendix G.

See vol. i. pp. 377, 405.

brians.

on behalf

CHAP. IX. Norman calumny has represented as depriving Tostig of

his hereditary rights. We may suspect that we are here reading the history of influences which it was more necessary to bring to bear on the minds of the Witan than on that of the King. For there is no appointment

2

of Eadward's reign which is more likely to have been the Eadward's King's personal act. Tostig, rather than Harold, was personal affection Eadward's personal favourite. He was the Hêphaistiôn, for Tostig. the friend of Eadward, while Harold was rather the Krateros, the friend of the King. Tostig also stood higher in the good will of their common sister the Lady. Cut off in a great measure from his Norman favourites, the affections of Eadward had settled themselves on the third son of Godwine. He would therefore naturally desire to raise Tostig to the highest dignities in his gift, or, if he felt hesitation in doing so, it could only be from the wish to keep his favourite always about his own person. In fact we shall find that Eadward could not bring himself to give up the society of Tostig to the degree which the interests of his distant Earldom called for. And this frequent absence of the Earl from his government seems to have been among the causes of the misfortunes which afterwards followed.4

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1 Vita Eadw. 408. 'Agentibusque amicis potissimum autem et pro merito hoc ejus fratre Haroldo Duce et ejus sorore Reginâ, et non resistente Rege ob innumera ipsius fideliter acta servitia, ducatum ejus suscepit Tostinus, vir scilicet fortis et magnâ præditus animi sagacitate et sollertiâ."

2 The Biographer, essentially a courtier, always likes to attribute as much as possible to the personal action of the King, and to keep that of the Witan as far as may be in the back ground.

3 Plutarch. Apophth. Alex. 29. Τιμὴν μὲν ἐδόκει Κρατερὸν μάλιστα πάντων, φιλεῖν δὲ Ηφαιστίωνα· Κρατερὸς μὲν γὰρ, ἔφη, φιλοβασιλεύς ἐστιν, 'Hpaioría de piλaλétavspos. Eadward's affection for Tostig is also marked by William of Malmesbury, iii. 252; "Quia Tostinum diligeret, . . . ut dilecto auxiliari non posset."

This seems implied in the Biographer's description of the state of things when the Northumbrian revolt broke out in 1065 (421); "Erat . . . Tostinus in curiâ Regis, diutiusque commoratus est cum eo, ejus detentus amore et jussis in disponendis regalis palatii negotiis."

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