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der Tod des Letztern, und bald darauf der des Kaisers, die Ausführung dieses Planes." The Emperor died in 1056; but Andrew, who began to reign in 1047, did not die till 1060 or 1061, when he fell in battle against his brother Bela, three or four years after the return and death of Eadward in 1057. See Thwrocz, Rer. Hung. Scriptt. 108-112; Lambert, 1061.

NOTE GG. p. 379.

THE SUPPOSED ENMITY BETWEEN HAROLD AND TOSTIG.

THERE is absolutely nothing in any trustworthy writer to lead us to believe that there was any sort of quarrel between Harold and his brother Tostig before the Northumbrian revolt in 1065. We have seen (p. 375) that Tostig's appointment to his Earldom had, to say the least, Harold's active concurrence, and we shall see the two brothers acting as zealous fellow-workers in the great Welsh war. Even at the time of the revolt, we shall find Harold doing all that he could to reconcile Tostig with his enemies. But the fact that the result of that revolt made Tostig an enemy of his brother seems to have taken possession of the minds of legendary writers, and a myth has grown up on this subject akin to the other myths which have attached themselves to so many parts of the history of Godwine and his house.

The earliest form of the legend seems to be that which it takes in Æthelred (X Scriptt. 394). The King and Godwine are sitting at dinner-everything seems to happen when the King and Godwine are sitting at dinner-the two boys ("pueri adhuc") Harold and Tostig are playing before them, when suddenly the game becomes rather too rough ("amarius quam expetebat ludi suavitas"), and the play is changed into a fight. Harold then, the stronger of the two, seizes his brother by the hair, throws him on the ground, and is well nigh throttling him, when Tostig is luckily carried off. The King turns to his father-in-law, and asks him whether he sees nothing more in all this than the sports or quarrels of two naughty boys. The unenlightened mind of the Earl can see nothing more. But the Saint takes the occasion to prophesy, and he foretells the

SUPPOSED ENMITY BETWEEN HAROLD AND TOSTIG. 653

war which would happen between the two brothers, and how the death of the one would be avenged by the death of the other.

This story is at all events well put together, and it makes a very fair piece of hagiology. It is however some objection to it that neither Harold nor Tostig could have been a mere boy at any time after Eadward's accession. It might be too much to think that the author of the French Life saw this difficulty, but at any rate he changes the "pueri adhuc" of Ethelred into "juvenceus pruz e hardiz" (3140). Otherwise he tells the story in exactly the same way, only enlarging with a little more of Homeric precision on the details of the violence done by Harold to his brother. But the story, like other stories, soon grew, and there is another version of it, much fuller and much more impossible, which first appears in Henry of Huntingdon (M. H. B. 761 A), and afterwards in Roger of Wendover (i. 507) and Bromton (948). The tale is now transferred to the year 1064, when Harold and Tostig were the two first men in the Kingdom, when Harold was probably the understood successor to the Crown, when he was at any rate in all the glory of his victories over Gruffydd. The two brothers are described as being at enmity, because, though Tostig was the elder brother, Harold was the greater personal favourite of the King ("invidiæ namque et odii fomitem ministraverat, quod, quum Tosti ipse primogenitus esset, arctius a Rege frater suus diligeretur"). I need hardly say how utterly the real position of the two brothers is here reversed. The King is dining at Windsor, where Harold acts as cup-bearer. Tostig, seeing the favour enjoyed by his brother, cannot keep himself back from pulling his hair ("non potuit cohibere manus a cæsarie fratris"). In Henry's account Harold seems to bear the insult quite patiently, but in the version of Roger of Wendover he not unnaturally lifts Tostig up in his arms and throws him violently on the floor ("in pavimentnm truculenter projecit"). On this the King's Thegns ("milites") rush together from all quarters, and put an end to the strife between the renowned warriors ("bellatores inclitos ab invicem diviserunt"). The King now foretells the destruction of the two brothers, but in this version he of course foretells it as something which is to happen speedily; "Rex perniciem eorum jam appropinquare prædixit, et iram Dei jam non differendam." It is here that both Henry and Roger, and Bromton also, bring in that general complaint of the

wickedness of the sons of Godwine which I have quoted elsewhere (see above, p. 540). Tostig now hastens to Hereford, where Harold was preparing a great feast for the King; he there kills all his brother's servants, cuts them in pieces, mixes their blood and flesh with the wine, ale, and mead which was made ready for the feast, and sends a message to the King that he need not bring any salted meat with him, as he will find plenty of flesh ready at Hereford. On this Eadward sends Tostig into banishment.

The one faint glimmering of truth in all this seems to be that the authors of the legend were clearly aware that in 1064 the Earldom of Herefordshire was in the hands of Harold. R. Higden (Polychronicon, lib. vi. Gale, ii. 281) tells the story in nearly the same words as the earlier form, but he places it in 1056. Knighton (2333) seemingly does the same, though he copies the words of his story from the version which makes the disputants only naughty boys. M. de Bonnechose (ii. 116, 118) seems to believe the whole story, and he makes it a subject of grave political reflexions. Mr. Woodward (History of Wales, p. 214) thinks that the cannibal doings of Tostig arise from some confusion with the doings of Caradoc at Portskewet (see p. 475). This is possible, but the details of the story belong to the province of Comparative Mythology. They appear again in the well-known Scottish legend of the Douglas Larder.

It has sometimes struck me that a good deal of this talk is due to an exaggerated misunderstanding of one or two passages in the Biographer, where his classical vein has led him into rather wild flights. The war between brother and brother—the war, of course, of Stamfordbridge-reminds him of all the ancient tales of wars and quarrels between brothers. He twice (pp. 414, 424) breaks out into verse upon the subject, and in both cases the Theban legend, the war of Eteoklês and Polyneikês, not unnaturally presents itself. But he also (v. 834) talks about Cain and Abel, and, by a still more unlucky allusion, about Atreus and Thyestês. Having once got hold of these names, he goes on to tell their whole story. He personifies discord between brothers, and thus apostrophizes the evil genius;

"Priscis nota satis tua sic contagia ludis.
Invidus hic prolis fraternæ fœda Thyestes
Prandia dat fratri depasto corpore nati."

SUPPOSED ENMITY BETWEEN HAROLD AND TOSTIG. 655

Here, it strikes me, is quite raw material enough for a legendmaker. The word "ludis" may have suggested the "pueri ludentes" in Æthelred, and I have very little doubt that the mention of Thyestês (who, by the by, is made to change parts with Atreus) suggested the cannibal preparations of Tostig at Hereford.

In several of these stories we see the pervading mistake of thinking that Tostig was the elder brother. In some of them we also see the notion, which turns up in several other quarters, that Harold was the King's personal favourite and attendant, his "dapifer," "pincerna," "major domûs," or something of the kind. It is possible that Harold in his youth, during the first year or two of Eadward's reign, may have held some function of the kind, which may account for the tradition, a tradition which is preserved in an independent shape by the Hyde writer (see p. 78, note 4). But the notion that Tostig was the elder brother (see above, p. 554) has led to far graver misrepresentations. The enmity of Tostig towards Harold, which really arose out of the revolt of Northumberland, gets mixed up with perverted accounts of Harold's election to the Kingdom. Orderic (492 D) seems to have fancied that Tostig was not only the eldest son of Godwine, but that Tostig, and not Harold, succeeded his father in the West-Saxon Earldom, and that by hereditary right ("patris consulatus, quem Tosticus, quia major natu erat, longo tempore sub Eduardo rege jam tenuerat "). On Harold's election as King, Tostig begins to reprove his brother for his usurpation and oppressions ("advertens Heraldi fratris sui prævalere facinus et regnum Angliæ variis gravari oppressionibus ægre tulit"); Harold accordingly deprives him of his Earldom and banishes him. The strangest thing of all is that William of Malmesbury, who, in the proper place (ii. 200), gives a very fair account of the Northhumbrian revolt, and one highly favourable to Harold, should afterwards (iii. 252) represent Harold as banishing Tostig after his accession. After Eadward's death, he says "perstitit in incepto Haroldus ut fratrem exlegaret." Snorro (Johnstone, 192, 193; Laing, iii. 77, 78) makes Tostig the elder brother, the head Earl of the Kingdom, and the commander of the King's armies. Harold, the youngest brother, is Eadward's personal favourite, he is always about him, and—having seemingly supplanted Hugolin the Frenchman-he has the care of all his treasures. Here again the real

position of the two brothers is amusingly transposed. On Harold's election as King, Tostig, who had himself aspired to the Crown, is much displeased, and has sharp words with his brother. Harold of course refuses to surrender the Crown, and, fearing the ability and popularity of Tostig, he deprives him of his command of the army and of his precedence over other Earls. Tostig, unwilling to be the subject of his brother, leaves the country of his own free will and goes to Flanders. Saxo (207) is one degree less wild, in so far as he realizes that Harold was the elder brother. In his version, after Harold's election, his younger brothers generally ("minores Godovini filii majorem perosi")-Gyrth and Leofwine no doubt as well as Tostig-envious of their brother's election and unwilling to submit to his authority, leave the country and seek for help abroad.

It is needless to point out how, in all these versions, the chronology is altered, as well as the whole circumstances of the story, in order to represent Harold as the oppressor of his brother. But it should be remarked that these calumnies are of a wholly different kind from the calumnies which speak of an early quarrel, and that the two in effect exclude one another. In the versions of Orderic, Saxo, and Snorro, the enmity between the brothers does not begin till after Harold's election to the Kingdom.

It may be some refreshment to wind up with the amusing version of Peter Langtoft, who, by the way, seems to have thought that Godwine was still alive in 1065. He at least has no spite against Harold; he even (p. 64 Hearne) tells the story of the murder of Gospatric, the blame of which he ventures to lay on the Lady Eadgyth ("My boke . . . sais þe quene Egyn, þe blame suld scho bere"); he then goes on;

"Tostus of Cumbirland retted Godwyn þer tille.
Tostus of Cumbirland he was chefe Justise,
Ageyn þe erle Godwyn he gert sette assise.
Gospatrike's dede on Godwyn wild he venge,
Harald souht Tostus, to leue þat ilk challenge.
He praied him for luf, in pes lat him be stille,
And kisse and be gode frende in luf and in a wille.
Tostus wild not leue, bot held on his manace,

And Harald tened withalle, of lond he did him chace."

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