OPPRESSION OF TOSTIG IN NORTHUMBERLAND. 477 humber the North him. intentions with which Tostig set out, however needful CHAP. X. a wholesome severity may have been in the then state Oppression of Tostig of his province, it is clear that his government had by this in Northtime degenerated into an insupportable tyranny. This is land. not uncommonly the case with men of his disposition, a disposition evidently harsh, obstinate, and impatient of opposition. Rigid justice, untempered by mercy, easily changes into oppression. The whole province rose against Revolt of him. His apologist tries to represent the leaders of the humbrians movement as wrong-doers whom the Earl's strict justice against had chastised or offended.1 Such may well have been October 3, the case, but the long list of grievances put forth by the Northumbrians, though it may easily have been exaggerated, cannot have been wholly invented. First and Charges against foremost, Tostig had robbed God;2 elsewhere he bears Tostig. a high reputation for piety, and, in any case, the charge must be taken with the same allowance as the like charges against his brother. But he had also robbed many men of land and of life,3 he had raised up unjust law, and had laid on the Earldom a tax wholly beyond its means to 5 4 1065. Gamel and Ulf. bear. A list of particular crimes is added. Two Thegns, Murder of Gamel the son of Orm and Ulf the son of Dolfin, had, in the course of the last year, been received in the Earl's 1064. chamber under pretence of peace, and had been there treacherously slain by his order. That is to say, Tostig 1 Vita Eadw. 421. "Interea quorumdam nobilium factione quos ob nequitias suas gravi presserat dominatûs sui jugo, conjurant in invicem in ejus præjudicio." 2 Chron. Ab. 1065. 3 Ib. "And ealle þa bestrypte pe he ofer mihte, æt life and æt lande." Ib. "Ealle þa mid hym þe unlage rærdon." On the untranslatable phrase of unlaw, see above, p. 334. * Fl. Wig. 1065. "Pro immensitate tributi quod de totâ Northhymbriâ injuste acceperat." Flor. Wig. 1065. "Pro exsecrandâ nece. . Gamelis filii Orm ac Ulfi filii Dolfini quos anno præcedenti Eboraci in camerâ suâ, sub pacis fœdere, per insidias, Comes Tostius occidere præcepit." Dolfin and Orm both appear in Domesday, seemingly as holders under William of small parts of great estates held under Eadward. See 278 b, 330 b, 331 b. Orm married CHAP. X. had repeated one of the worst deeds of Harthacnut,1 and of Cnut himself before his reformation. These men may have been criminals; Tostig may have persuaded himself that he was simply doing an act of irregular justice in thus destroying men who were perhaps too powerful to be reached by the ordinary course of law. But whatever were the crimes of Ulf and Gamel, Tostig, by this act, degraded himself to their level. If even the most guilty were to be cut off in such a way as this, even the most innocent could not feel themselves safe. Another charge aimed yet higher than the Earl himself. An accomplice of his misdeeds is spoken of, whom we should certainly never have been Murder of expected to find charged with bloodshed. A Thegn Gospatric. December named Gospatric had been, at the last Christmas Gemót, 28, 1064. treacherously murdered in the King's court. The deed was said to have been done by order of the Lady at the instigation of her brother. As there were other bearers of the name, we may at least hope that this Gospatric was not the one who had so nobly jeoparded his life to save the life of Tostig on his return from his Roman pilgrimage.* To avenge these crimes, the chief men of both divisions of Northumberland, at the head of the whole force of Bernicia and Deira, rose in arms. Soon after Michael 5 Æthelthryth, a daughter of Earl Ealdred (Sim. Dun. X Scriptt. 82) and 3 Fl. Wig. "Pro exsecrandâ nece... Gospatrici, quem Regina Edgitha, 5 Chron. Wig. 1065. "And sona æfter pisan gegaderedon þa þegenas hi ealle on Eoforwicscire and on Norðhymbralande togædere." Here we have perhaps the earliest use of the name Yorkshire, and of the name Northhumberland in its modern sense. See vol. i. pp. 644, 646. The Abingdon Chronicle has only "on Eoforwicscire," and Peterborough says "foron Norðhymbra togædere." 6 I have, as usual, made a comparison of the narratives in an Appendix (Note TT), referring here only to details. REVOLT OF THE NORTHUMBRIANS. 479 Rebel October 3, mas two hundred Thegns1 came to York, and there held оHAP. X. what they evidently intended to be a Gemót of the ancient Kingdom of Northumberland. They were headed by York. several of the greatest men of Northern England, by 1065. Gamel-bearn, doubtless a kinsman of the slain son of Orm, by Dunstan the son of Ethelnoth, and Glonieorn the son of Heardulf. These names seem to show that both English and Danish blood was represented in the Assembly. Tostig was now absent from his Earldom; he was engaged with the King in his constant diversion of hunting, in some of the forests of Wiltshire or Hampshire. But the rebels needed not his presence, and they began at once to pass decrees in utter defiance of the royal authority. Earls Constitutional posihad hitherto always been appointed and removed by the tion of King and his Witan, and any complaints of the Northum- Northbrians against Tostig ought legally to have been brought land. before a Gemót of the whole realm. But nowhere was the feeling of provincial independence so strong as in the lands north of the Humber. The Northumbrians remembered that there had been a time when they had chosen and deposed Kings for themselves, without any reference to a West-Saxon over-lord. The West-Saxon King was now no longer an over-lord, but an immediate sovereign; Northumberland was no longer a dependency, but an integral part of the Kingdom; the men of Deira and Bernicia shared every right which was enjoyed by the men of Wessex and East-Anglia. Still the old feelings lingered on, and they were probably heightened by the constant absence of the King and even of his lieutenant. 1 Flor. Wig. 1065. "Cum cc. militibus." 2 The names come from Florence. All three, especially Gamel, appear in Domesday as great landowners in King Eadward's time. In 1086 Gamel still holds in capite a small part of his vast estates in Yorkshire (331), while his small Staffordshire holding seems to be increased (250b). Dunstan has sunk to be a tenant of Ilbert of Lacy (3176), while Glonieorn, called in Domesday Glunier (298 et al.), has, either by death or by confiscation, vanished altogether. 3 See Appendix TT. humber 480 CHAP. X. Eadward had never shown himself further north than 1 Gloucester, or perhaps Shrewsbury; there is no record of any Gemót of his reign being held at York or LinFrequent coln. And the frequent absences of Tostig, whom absence of Eadward loved to have about him, are clearly reckoned Tostig. Copsige, deputy Earl. among the grievances of his province. While he was 1 The regulations made for the King's reception at Shrewsbury (Domesday, 252) show that his presence there was not unlikely, and there was at least one Gemót held there in the time of Ethelred. See vol. i. p. 325. One of the legends of Harold and Tostig (see Appendix GG) implies the King's expected presence at Hereford; but we do not distinctly hear of 2 See above, p. 376. him further north than Gloucester. " 'Quidam vocabulo 3 Sim. Dun. Hist. Eccl. Dun. iii. 14 (X Scriptt. 37). Copsi, qui sub Tosti totius comitatûs curam gerebat." Gest. Regg. Angl. "Rex Willelmus comitatum Osulfi commisit a. 1072 (X Scriptt. 204). Copsio, qui erat partis Tostii Comitis, viro consiliario et prudenti." In Domesday also (298 b et al.) he figures as Copsi, but his estates do not His gifts to the church of Durham are seem to have been very large. mentioned by Simeon (X Scriptt. 37). The Norman writers, as William "Alwinus of Poitiers (148 ed. Giles), turn his name into Coxo, out of which Thierry, by way of being specially Teutonic, has made Kox. (Compare Coc Bedellus" in Domesday 190, a prudent man who held at the Survey what he had held T. R. E.) They also call him "Comes," though Simeon (X Scriptt. 37) seems, even under William, to give him no higher title than "Procurator," that is most likely Gerefa. THE NORTHUMBRIANS DEPOSE TOSTIG. 481 only of the King but of its own Earl. They had no mind CHAP. x. to be governed by orders sent forth from some West-Saxon town or hunting-seat. The Northumbrians therefore, without presence or licence of King or Earl, took upon them to hold a Gemót, doubtless an armed Gemót, of the revolted lands. Gemót at October 3, 1065. against Morkere The Assembly which had thus irregularly come together Acts of the did not indeed venture on the extreme step of renouncing York. all allegiance to the King of the English. But everything short of this extreme step was quickly done. The Merciless Parliament of later days could not surpass this Northhumbrian Gemót in violent and blood-thirsty decrees. The Vote of deposition rebels passed a vote of deposition against their Earl Tostig; and outthey declared him an outlaw, and elected in his place lawry Morkere, the younger son of Ælfgar of Mercia.2 Waltheof, Tostig. the son of Siward, was passed by, and they may have felt elected the danger of the rivalries which were sure to arise if they Earl. chose one of the ordinary Thegns of the country.3 Still the election of Morkere, and the whole circumstances of the story, seem to show that, along with the real grievances of Northumberland, the intrigues of the Mercian brothers had a good deal to do with the stirring up of this revolt. The old rivalry between the houses of Godwine and Leofric had now taken the form of a special enmity between Tostig and the sons of Ælfgar. Eadwine, in short, was now entering Treasons on that series of treasons which he had, within a very few wine. 1 Chronn. Wig. Petrib. 1065. The Abingdon Chronicler leaves out this decree, which marks the gathering as intended to claim the character of a lawful Gemót. 64 2 Chronn. Wig. Petrib. And sendon æfter Morkere Elfgares sunu Eorles, and gecuron hine heom to Eorle." To the same effect afterwards Chron. Ab. “Hig namon heom þa Morkere to Eorle." Vita Eadw. 421. "Utque efferæ temeritatis haberent auctoritatem, caput sibi et dominum faciunt Ducis Alfgari filium juniorem, ejusque fratrem natu majorem, ad hanc societatem dementiæ suæ invitant." 4 See above, p. 435. See above, p. 378. VOL. II. I i of Ead |