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NOTE C. p. 29.

EADWARD'S FONDNESS FOR FOREIGN CHURCHMEN.

I MAY here quote a curious story about the relations between Eadward and Eadgyth and a foreign Abbot, which I cannot do better than give in the original Latin. The hero of the tale was Abbot of the famous monastery of Saint Riquier in Picardy. The church is a splendid one, but of late date; not far off is the municipal beffroi, to which the inhabitants still point with pride as the memorial of struggles waged with, and victories gained over, their ecclesiastical lords.

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'Regi Anglorum Hetguardo Gervinus semper carus et venerabilis fuit, et ab illo, si ejus fines intrâsset, mirâ honorificentiâ attollebatur. Quique Rex, si eum in aliquâ vel pro aliquâ loci nostri necessitate angustiari comperisset, munificus valde in succurrendo, remotâ omni excusatione, exsistebat. Regina etiam conjux ejusdem, nomine Edith, satis superque Gervinum pro suæ merito sanctitatis diligebat et venerabatur, et juxta mariti exemplum admodum liberalis, si aliqua petiisset, libens conferebat. Quâdam vero vice accidit ut Abbati nuperrime terram illam ingresso osculum salutationis et pacis Regina porrigeret, quod ille gratiâ conservandæ sinceritatis abhorrens excipere noluit. At illa ferox, videns se Reginam spretam a monacho, nimis moleste tulit, et quædam quæ, ut pro se orâsset, illi donare statuerat, irata retraxit. Verum, marito id ipsum increpante, quod Abbatem tam religiosum pro non infracto rigore odio insequi voluisset, et aliis honestis viris suggerentibus non esse odiendum hominem qui sic Deo se mancipâsset, ut ne Reginæ quidem osculo se pateretur contra ordinem mulceri, placata est Regina, et hujusmodi factum non solum in illo non vituperavit, sed magnæ laudis attollens præconio, in sui regni Episcopis vel Abbatibus talem manere consuetudinem deinceps conquesta est. Multis ergo honoribus et donis eum fulciens remittebat onustum, hoc solum ab eo reposcens ut tempore orationis inter benefactores computari mereretur. Uxor etiam ipsius Regis donavit ei amictum valde pretiosum, auro et lapide pretioso mirifice decoratum, quem Abbas detulit in nostræ ecclesiæ thesaurum." Chron. Centulense, iv. 22; ap. D'Achery, ii. 345.

This story is referred to, but inaccurately, in Mr. Thorpe's Lap

EADWARD'S FONDNESS FOR FOREIGN CHURCHMEN.

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penberg, ii. 244. There is no mention of it in the original, p.

504.

Saint Riquier however does not appear to have held lands in England in Eadward's time, but this was not the last begging expedition of Gervinus to our shores, nor was he the only foreign Prelate who came on the like errand in Eadward's days. Another was Abbot John of Fécamp, the connexion of which monastery with Eadward calls for a little fuller notice.

The gifts of Eadward to Fécamp are of some importance as connecting themselves with those charges against Godwine and Harold with which I shall deal specially in Note E. The history of the lordship of Steyning in Sussex calls for especial attention. Eadward's grant of this property to Fécamp is found in a writ in Cod. Dipl. iv. 229, stating "æt ic habbe geunnen das landes æt Stæningan into dán hálgan mynstre æt Feskamp." Now in Domesday 17 we find Ramsley held by Fécamp and held also T. R. E. But of Steyning we read, "Ipse Abbas tenet Staninges. Heraldus tenuit in fine Regis E." Now Eadward's grant was not to take effect till after the death of Bishop Elfwine ("æfter Elfwines bisceopes dægæ"), which must mean Ælfwine, Bishop of Winchester, who died in 1047. The grant was therefore made early in Eadward's reign, and it seemingly never took effect. It would seem that, on Elfwine's death, Godwine, and not the monks of Fécamp, got possession of Steyning, and that Godwine handed it on to Harold. To hinder land from going to enrich strangers and to take it to enrich himself was thoroughly in character with Godwine's disposition.

We might have inferred all this from a comparison of Eadward's writ with Domesday; but it is singularly borne out by the Fécamp manuscripts quoted in Neustria Pia, 223. Two charters appear there, one of William before his expedition, in which he promises "si Deus sibi eunti in Anglicam terram daret victoriam," to give to Fécamp "donationem de terrâ de Staningis. . . et omnium aliarum terrarum quæ per Godwinum et suos filios ei injuste ablatæ fuerant." The other is one of William as King-" Patronus Normannorum, Rex etiam Anglorum"-confirming the gift of Steyning and all other gifts of his predecessor Eadward to the Church of Fécamp -"terras ipsas quas dominus [see vol. iii. pp. 249, 684] et antecessor meus Eduardus Rex concessit prædictæ ecclesiæ, quod quidem non solummodo multorum relatione didici, sed etiam

litteris ejus charactere sigillatis." So directly after, "Rex Eduardus, dominus meus . . . easdem terras Deo dari voluit." On this showing also, the Church had never entered on the lands, and we may add this to the other charges of sacrilege against Godwine with which we shall presently have to deal.

But it is also clear from the extracts in the very same page that Harold was less strict in these matters than his father. We read there, from the manuscript history of Fécamp, how John, the second Abbot of Fécamp, came over to England, like Gervinus of Saint Riquier (see above, p. 532), to get what he could out of King Eadward, and several gifts are reckoned up. Now the date given to this journey is 1054, just the time when, as I have suggested (see pp. 346, 359), Harold was allowing some of the less obnoxious Normans to return. The two things fall in precisely with one another. Harold did not feel called on to give up the lordship which he had inherited, but he did not hinder the foreign monks from receiving other gifts from the King.

The possessions of Fécamp at Steyning grew into an alien Priory. A fragment of the church still remains, a splendid specimen of twelfth century Romanesque.

On the gifts of Eadward and Eadgyth to Saint Denis and other monasteries, see Ellis, i. 304, 307, and compare the grants to Saint Michael's Mount of which I have spoken in p. 515. See Cod. Dipl. iv. 251.

Another reference to Eadward's lavishness in this way is found in the Chronicle of Saint Wandrille in the same volume of D'Achery (ii. 286) as the Saint Riquier Chronicle; "Uxorem quoque filiam Hotuvini [sic] magni illius terræ principis, qui fratrem suum Alureth jampridem cum multis crudeliter atque dolo peremerat, accepit, eosque quos secum de Nortmannis duxerat utriusque ordinis amplis honoribus extulit, auro et argento ditavit."

NOTE D. p. 31.

ENGLISH AND NORMAN ESTIMATES OF GODWINE AND HAROLD.

THERE is a remarkable passage of William of Malmesbury, in which, as his manner often is, he sets before his readers two different accounts or opinions of the same thing. He there contrasts

ESTIMATES OF GODWINE AND HAROLD.

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the Norman and English accounts of Godwine and his sons, in words which seem, like several other passages, to show that he had the contemporary Biographer before him. His words (ii. 197) are ;

"Hunc [Archbishop Robert] cum reliquis Angli moderni vituperant delatorem Godwini et filiorum ejus, hunc discordiæ seminatorem, hunc archiepiscopii emptorem ; Godwinum et natos magnanimos viros, et industrios auctores et tutores regni Edwardi ; non mirum si succensuerint quod novos homines et advenas sibi præferri viderent; numquam tamen contra Regem, quem semel fastigaverint, asperum etiam verbum loquutos. Contra, Normanni sic se defensitant, ut dicant et eum et filios magnâ arrogantiâ et infidelitate in Regem et in familiares ejus egisse, æquas sibi partes in imperio vindicantes; sæpe de ejus simplicitate solitos nugari, sæpe insignes facetias in illum jaculari: id Normannos perpeti nequivisse, quin illorum potentiam quantum possent enervarent."

In this passage William very fairly carries out his promise of letting each side tell its own story. Which of the two pictures is borne out by particular facts the history shows for itself; here it may not be amiss to bring together a few of the more general pictures of Godwine and Harold drawn according to the two models. In the case of Harold, I confine myself to those passages, whether panegyrics or invectives, which concern his general character and his administration as Earl. Those which concern either his relations to William or his character as King are noticed in the third volume.

Of Godwine personally none of the Chronicles give any formal character, but the Worcester Chronicler (1052) gives a picture of the power of himself and house, setting forth their influence as strongly as any of the Norman writers, but with an exactly opposite colouring. "Fordam pe he [Godwine] was ær to þam swyde up ahafen, swyce he weolde pas Cynges and ealles Englalandes, and his sunan wæron Eorlas and pas Cynges dyrlingas, and his dohtor pæm Cynge bewedden and beæwnod." Of Harold both the Abingdon and the Worcester Chroniclers give a panegyric in the poem on Eadward which they insert in the year 1065. He is there, as if in direct answer to the Norman account, warmly praised for his strict loyalty to the King.

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Florence gives no character of Godwine; of Harold-" strenuus Dux Haroldus"-he always speaks with evident affection, but his formal panegyric, and a magnificent one it is, he keeps back till Harold's election to the Crown.

The Biographer's description of Godwine I have had occasion to refer to at vol. i. p. 406. Of Harold he gives a most elaborate portrait, of which I have made great use in the text. I spare the reader this writer's poetical panegyrics, except when they illustrate some special point: but I will quote one or two passages which compare the father and the son in a general sort of way. Godwine, he tells us, on his appointment as Earl of the West-Saxons (see vol. i. p. 422),

Adeptus tanti honoris primatum non se extulit, sed omnibus bonis se pro posse patrem præbuit: quia quam a puero addidicerat mentis mansuetudinem non exuit; verum hanc, ut naturaliter sibi indita, erga subditos et inter pares æternâ assiduitate excoluit. Undecumque emergerent injuriæ, in hoc jus et lex imprompta recuperabatur. Unde non pro domino habebatur, sed a cunctis patriæ filiis pro patre colebatur. Nati sunt ergo filii et filiæ tanto patri non degeneres, sed paternâ et maternâ probitate insignes, in quibus nutriendis studiosius his artibus agitur, quibus futuro regno munimen pariter et juvamen in his paratur." (392, 393-)

So in p. 408, on describing the death of Godwine and the accession of Harold to his Earldom, he says;

"Haroldus . . . amicus gentis suæ et patriæ vices celebrat patris intentius, et ejusdem gressibus incedit, patientiâ scilicet et misericordiâ, et affabilitate cum bene volentibus. Porro inquietatis, furibus, sive prædonibus, leonino terrore et vultu minabatur gladiator justus."

The Waltham writers are of course Harold's sworn panegyrists; their testimony must therefore be taken with caution, though certainly not with more caution than the testimony of Harold's calumniators, the sworn panegyrists of William. I forbear to enlarge on

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