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997.

of Ealdred.

CHAP. VII. now succeeded Lyfing in the see of Worcester, had led him through nearly the same stages as that of his predecessor. Like him, he had been a monk at Winchester; like him, he had been thence called to the government of one of the great monasteries of the West. The Abbey of Tavistock, destroyed by Danish invaders in the reign of Ethelred,1 had risen from its ashes, and it now proved a nursery of Character Prelates like Lyfing and Ealdred. The new Bishop was a man of ability and energy. He exhibits, like Harold, the better form of the increasing connexion between England and the continent. As an ambassador at the Imperial court, as a pilgrim at Rome and Jerusalem, he probably saw more of the world than any contemporary Englishman. He was renowned as a peacemaker, as one who could reconcile the bitterest enemies.3 But he was also somewhat of a time-server, and, in common with so many other Prelates of his time, he did not escape the charge of simony. This charge is one which it is easy to bring and often hard to answer, but the frequency with which it is brought shows that the crime itself was a familiar one. Like many other churchmen of his time, Ealdred did not scruple to bear arms both in domestic and in foreign warfare, but his campaigns were, to say the least, not specially glorious. His most enduring title to remembrance is that it fell to his lot to place, within a single year, the Crown of England on the brow, first of Harold and then of William, and to die of sorrow at the sight of his church and city brought to ruin by the mutual contentions of Normans, Englishmen, and Danes.

1 See vol. i. p. 294.

2 The name of Ealdred will be found constantly recurring in our history for the next twenty-three years. His general life and character are described by William of Malmesbury, De Gest. Pont. 154, and Thomas Stubbs, Gest. Pont. Eb. X Scriptt. 1700 et seqq.

3 T. Stubbs, u. s. "Iste apud Regem Edwardum tantæ erat auctori

tatis, ut cum eo mortales inimicos reconciliaret et de inimicissimis amicissimos faceret."

EALDRED BISHOP OF WORCESTER.

ap Llyw

But elyn repeace- with the

conciled

King.

87

We shall find the new Bishop of Worcester appearing CHAP. VII. a few years later in arms against the Welsh, to whose Gruffydd incursions the southern part of his diocese lay open. as yet it was only his powers of persuasion and making which he was called upon to exercise in quarter. It was probably by Ealdred's intervention that a reconciliation was now brought about between the famous King of North Wales, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,1 and his English over-lord.

that 1046.

against

Gruffydd's immediate neighbour to the east was Swegen, Expedition of Swegen whose anomalous Earldom took in the border shires of and GrufGloucester and Hereford. Gruffydd accordingly gave host- fydd ages, and accompanied Swegen in an expedition against Gruffydd ap Rhydthe other Gruffydd, the son of Rhydderch, the King of derch. South Wales. On his triumphant return Swegen was 1046. guilty of an act which embittered the remainder of his days, a breach of the laws of morality which the ecclesiastical feelings of the time clothed with tenfold guilt.

The reconciliation of Gruffydd appears from his acting immediately afterwards in concert with Earl Swegen. That Ealdred brought about this present reconciliation is not distinctly stated, but it quite falls in with his general character as described in the last note, and with the fact that he played a prominent part in a later reconciliation between Eadward and Gruffydd. The success of Ealdred in reconciling both Swegen and Gruffydd to the King is specially commented on by Thomas Stubbs, the biographer of the Archbishops of York (X Scriptt. 1701). Now Stubbs wrote more than three hundred years after the time; still he is not a romancer like Bromton or Knighton, but a really honest and careful writer, and he doubtless had access to materials which are now lost or unprinted. He may indeed refer to the later reconciliation in 1056, but the combination of the names of Swegen and Gruffydd might lead us to think that he was speaking of some event at this time.

2 Chron. Ab. 1046. "Her on þysum geare for Swegn eorl into Wealan, and Griffin se Norberna cyng forð mid him, and him man gislode." In Ann. Camb. 1046 we read, "Seditio magna orta fuit inter Grifud filium Lewelin et Grifud filium Riderch." Or possibly the expedition may be that recorded under the next year, when Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ravaged all South Wales in revenge for the treacherous slaughter of one hundred and forty of his nobles. In any case the two independent accounts exactly fit in to one another.

CHAP. VII. He sent for Eadgifu, Abbess of Leominster, kept her Swegen awhile with him, and then sent her home.1 Like the

seduces

Abbess of

Leomin.

ster.

Eadgifu, Shechem of patriarchal story, he next sought, with a generosity as characteristic of his wayward temper as any of his worst deeds, to make reparation by marriage. But in vain to the law of the Church stood in his way. Richard of marry her. Normandy, as we have seen, had found it easy to raise

He seeks

his mistress to all the honours due to a matron and the wife of a sovereign. The Lady Emma herself, wife and mother of so many Kings, was the offspring of an union which the Church had thus hallowed only after the fact.2 But no such means of reparation were open to the seducer He throws of a consecrated virgin. The marriage was of course forup his Earldom, bidden, and Swegen, in his disappointment, threw up his and goes to Earldom, left his country, and betook himself, first to

Denmark.

Flanders, the usual place of refuge for English exiles, and thence to the seat of war in the North. A formal sentence of outlawry seems to have followed, as the lordships of Swegen were confiscated, and divided between his brother Harold and his cousin Beorn. On Eadgifu and her monastery the hand of ecclesiastical discipline seems Fate of to have fallen heavily. The nunnery of Leominster, one of Leominster the objects of the bounty of Earl Leofric, now vanishes from history. The natural inference is that the misconduct of Eadgifu led, not only to her own disgrace, but to

monastery.

1 See Appendix N.

2 See vol. i. p. 252.

3 Chronn. Petrib. 1045; Cant. 1046. "On dam ilcan geare ferde Swegen eorl ut to Baldewines lande to Brycge, and wunode þær ealne winter, and wende pa to sumere út." "Út" means, of course, to Denmark. William of Malmesbury says (ii. 200), “Swanus, perversi ingenii et infidi in Regem, multotiens a patre et fratre Haroldo descivit, et pirata factus, prædis marinis virtutes majorum polluit." Whom did William look on as the forefathers of Swegen?

* Chron. Petrib. 1046. Swegen on his return asks for their restoration. 5 Will. Malms. ii. 196. "Leofricus. . . monasteria multa constituit. . . Leonense, et nonnulla alia." So Flor. Wig. 1057. On Leominster, see Monasticon, iv. 51.

SWEGEN AND EADGIFU.

89

the dissolution of the sisterhood over which she had so CHAP. VII. unworthily presided.1 We hear of no later marriage on the part of Swegen, but in after years we shall meet with a son of his, probably a child of the frail Abbess of Leominster. Born under other circumstances, he might Hakon son of Swegen. have been head of the house of Godwine. As it was, the son of Swegen and Eadgifu was the child of shame and sacrilege, and the career to which he was doomed was short and gloomy.

ment of

1046.

The banishment of the Staller Osgod Clapa, at the Banishbridal of whose daughter King Harthacnut had come to Osgod his untimely end, took place this year.2 Like the banish- Clapa. ment of Gunhild, this measure was evidently connected with the movements in the North of Europe. Osgod was doubtless one of those who had been marked men ever since the election of Eadward,3 and who, in the present state of Scandinavian affairs, were felt to be dangerous. The immediate peril came from Magnus; but there could be little doubt that, of the three princes who were disputing the superiority of Scandinavia, the successful one, whether Magnus, Harold, or Swegen, would assert some sort of claim to the possession of England. Magnus had done so already. Harold lived to invade England and to perish in the attempt. It was only the singular prudence of Swegen which kept him back from any such enterprise till he was able to interfere in English affairs in the guise 1069. of a deliverer. Partizans of any one of the contending princes were clearly dangerous in England. Osgod was

1 See Appendix N.

2 Chronn. Ab. 1046; Wig. 1047. "Man utlagode Osgod stallere." Chron. Petrib, 1044. "On þis ilcan geare wearð aflemed ut Osgot Clapa." Chron. Cant. 1045. "And Osgod Clapa wærð ut adriven." The difference of expression in the different Chronicles is remarkable. On "ut adriven," see vol. i. p. 499. Florence, 1046, says, 'Osgodus Clapa expellitur Anglia."

3 See above, p. 7.

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1066.

CHAP. VII. driven out, seemingly by a decree of the Christmas Gemót,1 and he presently, after the usual sojourn in Flanders, betook himself to the seat of war in Denmark.2

Affairs of Scandinavia.

Harold

Hardrada

nus and receives a share of

the Kingdom of

Osgod and Swegen most probably took service with Swegen Estrithson. The presence of Swegen the son of Godwine would be welcome indeed to the partizans of his Danish namesake. The nephew of Ulf, the cousin of their own leader, the son of the great English Earl, renowned in the North as the conqueror of the Wends,3 was a recruit richly to be prized. And the cause of Swegen Estrithson just then greatly needed recruits. His hopes, lately so flourishing, had been again dashed to the ground. Magnus joins Mag- had contrived to gain over his uncle Harold to his side, by the costly bribe of a share in the Kingdom of Norway. The gift indeed was not quite gratuitous. Besides joining in the war with Swegen, Harold was to share with Magnus the treasures which he had gathered in his Southern warfare.* The two Kings now joined their forces, and drove Swegen out of Jütland and the Danish Isles. He retained only Scania, that part of the old Danish realm which lies on the Swedish side of the Sound, and which is now politically part of Sweden.5 In the course of the next year Swegen was again aiming at the recovery of his Kingdom. was probably the presence of English exiles in his camp, which suggested to him the idea of obtaining regular help from England as an ally of the English King. He His request sent and asked for the help of an English fleet. In those days questions of peace and war were not decided either by the Sovereign only or by the Sovereign and a few

Norway. 1047.

Swegen

asks for English help.

is discussed

by the

Witan ;

66

It

1 The Abingdon Chronicle says, on þis ylcan geare man geûtlagode Osgod Clapan foran to middanwintre."

2 This is implied in the narrative of Florence, 1049. "Osgodus autem Danemarciam rediit."

3 See vol. i. p. 419.

Snorro, Harold, 21 (Laing, iii. 19).

5 Ibid. 26, 28 (Laing, iii. 25, 27).

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