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HAROLD'S MARCH TO RHUDDLAN.

467

heard of the approach of the English; he had just time CHAP. X. to reach the shore and to escape by sea. Earl Harold was close in pursuit, and the escape of Gruffydd was a narrow one; but he did escape, and the main object of this sudden expedition was thwarted. Harold's force was not strong enough to endure a long winter campaign in so wild a country; so he contented himself with burning the palace and the ships which were in the haven. On the same day on which this destruction was done he set out on his return march to Gloucester.1

campaign

nent effect

Harold's attempt at a sudden blow had thus, through an Harold's unavoidable accident, been unsuccessful. It was therefore great determined to open a campaign on a great scale, which of 1063. should crush the power of Gruffydd for ever. It was in this campaign that the world first fully learned how great a captain England possessed in her future King. Never was a campaign more ably planned or more vigorously executed. The deep impression which it made on men's Its permaminds is shown by the way in which it is spoken of by on men's writers who lived a hundred years later, when men had minds. long been taught to look on Harold and his house as a brood of traitors and perjurers. John of Salisbury, Testimony writing under the Angevin Henry, chooses this campaign Salisbury of Harold as the most speaking example of the all- and Giralimportant difference between a good general and a bad brensis. one. The name of Harold could of course not be uttered without some of the usual disparaging epithets, but he allows that the faithless usurper was a model of every princely and soldier-like excellence.2 He compares the

1 Flor. Wig. 1063. "Eodemque die rediit."

2 Joan. Sarisb. Polyc. vi. 6 (iv. 16-18 Giles). His general argument is, "Videsne quantum electio ducis et exercitium juventutis militiæ conferant?" He introduces Harold thus; "Anglorum recens narrat historia, quod, quum Britones, irruptione factâ, Angliam depopularentur, a piissimo Rege Edwardo ad eos expugnandos missus est Dux Haraldus, vir quidem in armis strenuus [his common epithet with Florence], et laudabilium operum

of John of

dus Cam

CHAP. X. days of Harold with his own, and wishes that England had captains like him to drive back the marauders who, in his own time, harried her borders with impunity.1 Another writer of the same age, the famous Giraldus, attributes to this campaign of Harold the security which England enjoyed on the side of the Welsh during the reigns of the three Norman Kings.2 These two writers, evidently speaking quite independently of each other, give us several details of the campaign. Their statements are fully confirmed by the witness of Eadward's Biographer, and the whole account fits without difficulty into the more general narrative given by the Chroniclers.

Harold and

Tostig invade

Wales. May 26, 1063.

The campaign opened in the last days of May. The plan of Harold embraced a combined attack on the Welsh territory from both sides. He himself sailed with a fleet from Bristol, the haven from which he had set sail on so different an errand twelve years before. Meanwhile Tostig set forth with a mounted land force from Northumberland.3 The brothers met, probably at some point of central Wales, and began a systematic ravaging of the country. The fulgens insignibus, et qui tam suam quam suorum posset apud posteros gloriam dilatare, nisi meritorum titulos, nequitiam patris imitans, perfide præsumpto regno, decoloraret."

1 He enlarges at some length on the inadeqate preparations made in his time to resist the invaders; "Nivicollini Britones irruunt, et jam protendunt terminos suos, et egressi de cavernis suis latebrisque silvarum, plana occupant, nobilium procerum, videntibus ipsis, impugnant, expugnant, et diruunt, aut sibi retinent, munitiones." After some rhetorical complaints of the luxury of his own age, he goes on, "Depopulantur illi fines nostros; dum juventus nostra instruitur, et dum nobis miles armatur, hostis evadit." Presently comes the account of Harold.

2 De Illaud. Walliæ, ii. 7, ap. Ang. Sacr. ii. 451. He describes Harold's campaign, and adds, "Ob has igitur tam cruentas tamque recentes Anglorum de hâc gente victorias primi tres Normannorum Reges in tantâ subjectione tamque pacificam suis diebus Walliam tenuere."

3 Flor. Wig. 1063. "Frater suus Comes Tostinus, ut Rex mandârat, cum equestri occurrit exercitu." The Worcester Chronicle says, "Tostig for mid landferde ongean." "Landferd" is here opposed to Harold's fleet. Tostig had probably troops of both kinds in his army, but the " equestris exercitus" implies that some were Housecarls.

HAROLD'S GREAT WELSH CAMPAIGN.

469

military genius of Harold was now conspicuously shown in CHAP. X. the way in which he adapted himself to the kind of warfare which he had to wage. Nothing could be better suited than the ancient English tactics for a pitched battle with an equal enemy. But here there was no hope or fear of pitched battles, and the enemy to be dealt with was one whose warfare was of a very different kind. The English Housecarls, with their heavy coats of mail and huge battleaxes, were eminently unfitted to pursue a light-armed and active foe through the hills and valleys of Wales. Ralph the Timid had brought himself and his army to discomfiture by compelling his Englishmen suddenly to adopt the tactics of France; the valiant Earl of the West-Saxons Harold adopts the proved his true generalship by teaching his soldiers to Welsh accustom themselves to the tactics and the fare2 of Welsh- tactics. men. The irregular English troops, the fyrd, the levies of the shires, did not differ very widely from the Welsh in their way of fighting. But it is not likely that Harold would enter on such a campaign as this without the help of at least a strong body of tried and regular soldiers. We must therefore conclude that Harold actually made his Housecarls follow the tactics suitable to the country. They gave up the close array of the shield-wall; they exchanged their coats of mail for leathern jerkins; they laid aside their heavy axes; they kept their swords, but they were to trust mainly to the nimble and skilful use of the javelin for attack and of the shield for defence.3 Thus

1 See above, p. 388.

2 Giraldus (Angl. Sacr. ii. 452), in his very curious remarks on the right way to carry on a Welsh war, enlarges on the necessity of being prepared for poor fare. The Marchers are "Gens. . cibo potuque non delicata, tam Cerere quam Baccho caussis urgentibus abstinere parata." It was now no doubt that Harold showed that power of enduring "infinitos labores, vigilias, et inediam" of which the Biographer (409) speaks. See above, p. 38.

3 The Biographer (425) makes a distinct allusion to the change of tactics;

Wales.

Un

CHAP. X. attired, the English, under their great leader, proved more Harold than a match for the Welsh at their own weapons. ravages and subdues all happily we have no geographical details of the campaign, but we have a vivid picture of its general nature, and we can see that it must have been spread over a large portion of the country. There were no pitched battles; but the English, in their new array, everywhere strove with success against the enemy. Every defensible spot of ground was stoutly contested by the Britons; but even the most inaccessible mountain fastnesses proved no safeguard against the energy of Harold. He won skirmish after skirmish, and each scene of conflict was marked, we are told, by a trophy of stone, bearing the proud legend, "Here Harold conquered."2 Such a warfare was necessarily merciless.

"Quum volucres Angli sub Haroldo præside juncti

Tostini cuneis agminibusque citis."

Were this writer less rhetorical, one might think that cunei meant specially the Housecarls, as distinguished from the "agmina cita" of the light-armed. Cf. Giraldus (ii. 451); “Haroldus ultimus, qui pedes ipse, cumque pedestri turmâ et levibus armis victuque patriæ conformi [see on the Welsh fare just above], tam valide totam Kambriam et circuivit et transpenetravit." But the fullest account is given by John of Salisbury (iv. 18); "Quum ergo gentis cognosceret levitatem, quasi pari certamine militiam eligens expeditam, cum eis censuit congrediendum, levem exercens armaturam, perornatus incedens fasciis pectus et præduro tectus corio, missilibus eorum levia objectans ancilia, et in eos contorquens nunc spicula, nunc mucronem exercens, sic fugientium vestigiis inhærebat, ut premeretur 'pede pes et cuspide cuspis,' et umbo umbone repelleretur."

1 Vita Eadw. 426;

"Gnarus inaccessis scrobibus se credere miles,

Tutius hostiles involet unde acies,

Saltibus et scopulis fretus regione malignâ,

Sic vexat longâ lite Duces geminos."

So John of Salisbury (iv. 18); “Nivium itaque collem ingressus, vastavit omnia."

2 Giraldus (ii. 451). "In cujus victoria signum perpetuamque memoriam lapides in Walliâ, more antiquo in titulum erectos, locis in quibus victor exstiterat, literas hujuscemodi insculptas habentes plurimos invenies; Hic fuit victor Haroldus." I am not aware that any of these monuments now remain. The stones at Trelech in Monmouthshire, sometimes thought to be a memorial of one of Harold's victories, must be far older, and Gwent is not likely to have been the scene of war.

SUBMISSION OF WALES.

471

The object was to reduce the Welsh to complete sub- CHAP. X. mission, to disable them from ever again renewing their old ravages. Harold was fighting too with an enemy who knew not what mercy was, who gave no quarter, who, if they ever took a prisoner, instead of putting him to ransom, cut off his head.1 We are not therefore surprised to hear that every male who resisted was put to the sword. One of our informants is even driven to the rhetoric of the East to express the greatness of the slaughter. Such terrible execution soon broke the spirit The Welsh of the Welsh. They submitted and gave hostages, they bound themselves to tribute, and pronounced sentence of deposition and outlawry upon Gruffydd.5 The King who had reigned over all the Welsh kin, the warrior who had been hitherto invincible, the head and shield and defender of Britons, was now thoroughly hated by his own people. The war and its results were laid upon him as a crime, though we cannot doubt that, in the days of success, the

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1 Giraldus (ii. 453). "Ibi capiuntur milites, hic decapitantur; ibi redimuntur, hic perimuntur."

2 Joan. Sarisb. iv. 18. "Usque ad miserationem parvulorum omnem masculum qui inveniri potuit interficiens, in ore gladii pacavit provinciam." So Harold's biographer, though confounding the chronology (see Appendix PP), says (Vita Haroldi, 155) truly enough, "Viribus autem corporis quantum præstiterit, quam acer et strenuus [mark the standing epithet] animis armisque innotuerit, subacta, immo ad internecionem per Haroldum pene deleta, Wallia est experta."

3 Giraldus (ii. 451). "Ut in eâdem fere mingentem ad parietem non reliquerit."

* John of Salisbury extends the campaign over two years, and Florence places the death of Gruffydd in 1064. But both the Worcester and the Peterborough Chronicles distinctly place the whole story between May and August 1063.

5 Fl. Wig. 1063. "Regem suum Griffinum exlegantes abjecerunt." 6 Chron. Wig. 1063. "Se wæs kyning ofer eall Wealcyn."

I quote literally the Brut y Tywysogion. Its wrong date, 1061, is corrected in the Annales Cambria into 1063. "Griffinus filius Lewelini Rex Britonum nobilissimus dolo suorum occisus est."

8 Chron. Wig. He is slain "fram his agenum mannum, þurh þæt gewin be he won wip Harold Eorl."

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