CHAP. X. business of the Assembly, and the Legates themselves His elec- took on them to speak on behalf of the holy Prior.1 Not proved by a voice was raised in opposition; every speaker bore his the Witan. testimony to the incomparable merits of Wulfstan. Both tion ap Easter, 1062. Archbishops, Stigand and Ealdred, spoke in his favour; so did Ælfgar, the Earl of the province, and Wulfstan's personal friend Earl Harold." The approval of the Gemót was unanimous. The only difficulty was to be found in the unwillingness of Wulfstan himself to take upon him the cares and responsibilities of the episcopal office. As soon as the vote was given, messengers were sent to ride at full speed to Worcester, and to bring the Prior in person before the Assembly. Wulfstan obeyed the summons, but, amid general shouts of dissent, he pleaded his unfitness for the vacant office.3 He declared, even with an oath, that he would rather lose his head than become a Bishop.* His scruples were at last shaken by the Legates and the Archbishops, who pleaded the duty of obedience to the Holy See, and finally by the exhortations and reproofs of a holy anchorite named Wulfsige, who had been for forty years removed from the society of men.5 But the process 1 Vita Wlst. 251. "Ad Curiam reversi, dum Wigornensis Episcopi ventilaretur electio, nomen ejus tulerunt in medium." It must have been a wholesome thing for Roman Cardinals to come face to face with an Assembly in whose proceedings order and freedom had already learned to kiss one another. 2 Ib. "Adstipulabantur votis Cardinalium Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis et Eboracensis, ille favore, iste testimonio [I suppose this means that Ealdred spoke from his own knowledge, and Stigand from the report of others], ambo judicio. Accedebant laudibus etiam Comites Haraldus et Elgarus, par insigne fortitudinis, non ita religionis." 3 Ib. "Sanctus ergo ad Curiam exhibitus jubetur suscipere donum Episcopatus [the King's writ?]. Contra ille niti, et se honori tanto imparem cunctis reclamantibus clamitare." Fl. Wig. 1062. "Illo obstinatissime renuente, seque indignum acclamante et cum sacramento etiam affirmante se multo libentius decollationi quam tam altæ ordinationi succumbere velle." 5 "Frustra Cardinales cum Archiepiscopis trivissent operam, nisi refugienti prætendissent Papæ obedientiam." So says the Life, p. 251, and one. WULFSTAN CHOSEN BISHOP OF WORCESTER. makes 463 of persuasion in the mind of Wulfstan was evidently a long CHAP. X. The formalities of his ecclesiastical confirmation and of the final rite of consecration were not completed till the month of September. One is half disappointed to read that he refused the ministrations of Stigand, and sought for consecration at the hands of Ealdred. A direct Roman influence, embodied in the persons of Roman Legates, had doubtless taught Wulfstan that Stigand was a schismatic. Ermenfrid and his colleague seem even to have been the bearers of a formal decree of suspension against the Archbishop. Wulfstan however drew a distinction, which the Wulfstan facts of the case amply bore out. Stigand, whether canonical canonically appointed or not, was, in law and in fact, Arch- profession to Stigand, bishop of Canterbury. The Bishop-elect therefore did not but is consecrated by scruple to make his profession of canonical obedience to Ealdred. him. He did not scruple thus far to recognize the legal primacy of an Archbishop appointed by the King and Witan of England. It was only the sacramental rite of consecration which he sought at the hands of a Primate whose canonical position was open to no cavil. For this Wulfstan he went to the newly-appointed Metropolitan of Northcrated by humberland, and was consecrated by him at York. Ealdred Eldred. Sept. 8, had however to declare, perhaps before the assembled 1062. Witan,2 that he claimed no authority, ecclesiastical or temporal, over the Bishop of Worcester, either on the ground the argument is one which would doubtless be used, though one may doubt whether Stigand was specially eloquent on behalf of the Papal claims. But the matter was clearly not settled at once in the Easter Gemót. Florence witnesses to the final persuasion wrought by the "inclusus" Wulfsige, who, after his long solitude, was not likely to be among the assembled Witan. (We shall hear of Wulfsige again.) The dates also prove the delay. Florence tells us that the canonical confirmation was on August 29th, the consecration on September 8th. 1 See Appendix CC. 2 Fl. Wig. 1062. "Coram Rege et regni optimatibus." Or, as Florence, when he speaks of the Witan, is rather fond of using popular language, this may mean some smaller Council. is conse CHAP. X. of his having been consecrated by him or on that of his 1062. Elfwig, of New Minster. 1063. having formerly been a monk under his obedience.1 Scandal however added that Ealdred contrived to attach a large portion of the estates of the see of Worcester to his own Archbishoprick.2 The King's The other ecclesiastical event of this purely ecclesiastical Charter to Waltham. year has been mentioned already. Earl Harold's minster Easter? at Waltham had been consecrated two years earlier. By this time he had settled the details of his foundation and of its endowments. His gifts and regulations were now confirmed in due form by a royal charter.3 As the signature of Wulfstan is not attached to the document, we may suppose that the charter was granted in the same Easter Gemót in which Wulfstan's election was approved. And one more ecclesiastical appointment must, at some slight sacrifice of chronological order, be recorded in this section. The following year was marked by the appointment, or perhaps the restoration, of a near kinsman, seemingly a brother of his renowned father, to the office of Abbot of the New Minster at Winchester, the great house raised by Eadward the Unconquered in memory of his father Elfred. It seems strange that a brother of Godwine, if he desired preferment at all, should have had to wait for it so long. And it is possible that, like some other Prelates, he had resigned his office and now only took it again. But in either case this was the year of his final appointment. The name of the new or restored Prelate, Abbot Elfwig, the uncle of King Harold, will meet us again in the very crisis of our history. 1 Fl. Wig. 1062. "Se nullum jus ecclesiasticæ seu sæcularis subjectionis super eum deinceps velle clamare, nec propter quod ab eo consecratus est, nec quia ante consecrationem ejus monachus factus est." 2 See Appendix NN. 3 See Appendix PP. See Appendix RR. RENEWED RAVAGES OF GRUFFYDD. § 2. The Welsh War and its Consequences. 1062-1065. 465 CHAP. X. ravages of The year of the last named appointment, or rather the last Renewed days of the year of the consecration of Wulfstan, carries us Gruffydd. at once among scenes of a widely different kind from eccle- 1062. siastical ceremonies whether at Rome, York, Waltham, or Winchester. The peace of the land is again threatened, and the Earl of the West-Saxons again stands forth as the one champion in whose hands England could trust her destinies. In the course of the year of Wulfstan's consecration the ravages of Gruffydd of Wales began again with increased fury. He entered the diocese of the new Prelate, and he seems to have carried his arms even beyond the Severn,1 renewing his earlier exploit of Rhyd-yGroes. The damage which he had done to the English Witenaterritory, and the insults which he had thus offered to his Gloucester. lord King Eadward, formed the main subject of discus- Christmas, sion at the Christmas Gemót, which was held as usual at Gloucester.2 It is to be noticed that we now hear nothing of Gruffydd's old ally and father-in-law, Earl Ælfgar. His last recorded acts are the peaceful ones of Death of Elfgar of recommending Wulfstan for the Bishoprick of Worcester Mercia; his 1 This is implied in the verses of the Biographer, p. 425; Gentem Caucasiis rupibus ingenitam, Ultra sed celeris cursum tulit arma Syvernæ, Vimque ejus regnum pertulit Angligenûm." 2 This is implied in the Worcester Chronicle, 1063. "On þissum geare for Harold Eorl æfter Middan wintre of Gleaweceastre to Rudelan." Florence is fuller. Harold goes "jussu Regis Eadwardi," and the reason assigned is "ut Regem Walanorum Griffinum, propter frequentes depopulationes quas in Anglorum finibus agebat, ac verecundias quas domino suo Regi Eadwardo sæpe faciebat, occideret." A bill of attainder was seemingly passed against Gruffydd, just like that which, at another Gloucester Gemót, nine years before, had been passed against Rhys, the brother of the other Gruffydd. See above, p. 347. H h VOL. II. gemót of 1062-1063. son Eadwine suc ceeds. 1062? CHAP. X. and of signing the Waltham charter. Two years later we find his son Eadwine in possession of his Earldom. It is therefore probable that Ælfgar died about this time, and the appointment of Eadwine is not unlikely to have taken place in this very Christmas Gemót. But it is certain that Ælfgar, if living, was not deemed trustworthy enough to be commissioned to act against his old ally; nor was his young successor, if he were dead, deemed fit to grapple with so dangerous an enemy. A stronger hand than that of Ælfgar or Eadwine was needed to deal effectually with the faithless Briton. His ravages had probably again fallen heavy upon Herefordshire, and Herefordshire was now under the government of Harold. But it was doubtless not as Earl of this or that Earldom, but as the first man of the Kingdom, as something like an elected Ætheling, that Harold now undertook to rid England once for Harold's all of this ever recurring plague. Notwithstanding— Rhuddlan. perhaps rather because of the time of the year, the Christmas, Earl determined to strike a sudden blow, in the hope of 1062-1063. seizing or putting to death the turbulent Under-king. Harold set forth with a small force, all mounted, therefore probably all of them Housecarls, and hastened with all possible speed to Rhuddlan on the north-east frontier of 1283. Wales. The spot is famous in later history as the seat of a Parliament of the great Edward, and its military position is important, as standing at no great distance from the sea, and commanding the vale of Clwyd, the southern Strathclyde. There Gruffydd had a palace, the rude precursor no doubt of the stately castle whose remains now form the chief attraction of Rhuddlan. The Welsh King march to 1 1 Fl. Wig. 1c63. "Equitatu non multo secum assumpto." The Housecarls were clearly the only troops fitted for a sudden enterprise of this kind. Riding to the field, but fighting on foot, they were dragoons in the earlier sense of the word. 2 See the entries about Rhuddlan Castle ("castellum quod Roelent vocatur ") in Domesday, 269. |