DISPOSAL OF BISHOPRICKS.

229

certain whether Bishop William accompanied Robert and Ulf in their escape from England.1 It is certain that, if he left England, he was before long invited to return and again to occupy his see. This may have been the act of Harold after the death of his father. It is an obvious conjecture that Harold would be somewhat less strict in such matters than his wary and experienced parent, and that he would listen with somewhat more favour to the King's requests for the retention or restoration of some of his favourites.2 But it is certain that a Norman whom either Godwine or Harold allowed either to retain, or to return to, the great see of London must have been a man of a very different kind from Robert and Ulf. We are expressly told that William's Bishoprick was restored to him on account of his good character.3 Indeed the character which could obtain such forbearance for a Norman at such a moment must have been unusually good, when we remember that he actually had an English competitor for the see. Spearhafoc, it will not be forgotten, had been regularly nominated to the Bishoprick, and though he had been refused consecration, he had held its temporalities till the outlawry of Godwine allowed a Norman to be put in his place. But the claims of Spearhafoc on the see of London seem to have been as wholly forgotten as the claims of Elfric on the see of Canterbury. William retained the Bishoprick throughout the reigns of Eadward and Harold, and he died, deeply honoured by the city over which he ruled, four years after the accession of his namesake.

4

William was the only Norman who retained a Bishoprick after the restoration of Godwine, as Ralph was the only stranger of any nation-for we can hardly count Siward as a stranger-who retained an Earldom. But under the terms of the exception to the general outlawry of Normans, a good many men of that nation retained or recovered inferior, though still considerable, offices. We have a list of those who were thus excepted, which contains some names which we are surprised to find there. The exception was to apply to those only who had been true to the King and his people. Yet among the Normans who remained we find Richard the son of Scrob,5 and among those who returned we find his son Osbern. These two men were among the chief authors of all evil. Osbern was so conscious

of guilt, or so fearful of popular vengeance, that, in company with a comrade named Hugh, he threw himself on the mercy of Earl Leofric. Osbern and Hugh surrendered their castles, and passed with the Earl's safe-conduct into Scotland, where, along with other exiles, they were favourably received by the reigning King Macbeth. Yet it is certain that Osbern afterwards returned, and held both lands and offices in Herefordshire. Others mentioned are Robert the Deacon, described as the father-in-law of Richard, and who must therefore have been an old man,3 Humphrey Cocksfoot, whom I cannot further identify, and Ælfred the King's stirrup-holder. The list might be largely extended on the evidence of Domesday and the Charters. Two of the most remarkable names are those of the Staller, Robert the son of Wymarc, of whom we shall often hear again, and the King's Chamberlain, Hugh or Hugolin, a person who has found his way from the dry entries in the Survey and the Charters into the legend of his sainted master. Altogether the number of Normans who remained in England during the later days of Eadward was clearly not small. And, as some at least were evidently restored after flight or banishment, the suggestion again presents itself that their restoration was owing to special entreaties of the King after the death of Godwine. Harold, in the first days of his administration, may hardly have been in a

3 Flor. Wig. 1052. "Osbernus vero, cognomento Pentecost, et socius ejus Hugo sua reddiderunt castella, et Comitis Leofrici licentiâ, per suum comitatum Scottiam adeuntes a Rege Scottorum Macbeothâ suscepti

sunt."

2 On Osbern's possession of land in Herefordshire and elsewhere, see Domesday, 176 b, 180, 186 b, 260. That he was Sheriff of Herefordshire appears from a writ of 1060 (Cod. Dipl. iv. 194), announcing the nomination of Walter to the see of Hereford, in which the King greets "Haroldum Comitem et Osebarnum et omnes meos ministros in Herefordensi comitatu amicabiliter." See Ellis, i. 460. The position in the writ in which his name occurs is one which generally belongs to the Sheriff. The appearance of a French Sheriff in this particular shire may be accounted for by the presence of a French Earl. It is more remarkable that Robert the son of Wymarc was Sheriff of Essex, as may be inferred from the similar position of his name in a writ in Cod. Dipl. iv. 214. But some of the lands held by Osbern must have been confiscated and granted-perhaps restored-to Earl Harold. For we read in Domesday 186 of two

lordships in Herefordshire, "Hæc duo maneria tenuit Osbernus avunculus Alveradi T. R. E. quando Godwinus et Heraldus erant exsulati." Elfred is Ælfred of Marlborough, the owner at the time of the Survey.

3 Flor. Wig. 1052. "Robertum diaconum et generum ejus Ricardum filium Scrob."

Several Ælfreds occur in Domesday, as the great landowners, Ælfred of Marlborough (Osbern's nephew) and Ælfred of Spain, but it is not easy to identify their possessions with any holder of the name in Eadward's time. The names Elfred and Eadward, and the female name Eadgyth, seem to have been the only English names adopted by the Normans. The two former would naturally be given to godsons or dependants of the two Æthelings while in Normandy, and Eadgyth would gain currency as the name of the wife of the sainted King. But on the name Ælfred see vol. i. p. 507. 5 He signs as Huhgelin minister." Cod. Dipl. iv. 173. In two doubtful charters (iv. 148, 150) he is cubicularius" and "camerarius." So in Domesday, Hunt. 208, he is "camerarius." Cf. Eth. Riev. X Scriptt. 376.

NORMANS SETTLED IN ENGLAND.

231

position to refuse such entreaties. And in any case, though we may call it a weakness to allow men, some of whom at least were dangerous, to remain in, or return to, the country, yet for a subject newly exalted to give too willing an ear to the prayers of his sovereign, is a weakness which may easily be forgiven.

3

The revolution was thus accomplished, a revolution of which England may well be proud. In the words of a contemporary writer, the wisdom of Godwine had redressed all the evils of the country without shedding a drop of blood.1 The moderation of the Earl, the way in which he kept back his eager followers, the way in which he preserved his personal loyalty to the King,2 are beyond all praise. He had delivered his country, he and his had been restored to the favour of their prince, and he now again entered on his old duties as Earl of the West-Saxons and virtual ruler of the Kingdom of England. We may be sure that his popularity had never been so high, or his general authority so boundless, as it was during the short remainder of his life. For Godwine was not destined to any long enjoyment of his renewed honour and prosperity; England was not destined to look much longer upon the champion who had saved her. Soon after his restoration the Earl began to sicken; but he still continued his attention to public affairs, and we can see the working of his vigorous hand in the energetic way in which a Welsh marauder was dealt with at the Christmas Gemót of this year (1052-1053), held as usual at Gloucester. Rhys, the brother of Gruffydd King of the South-Welsh, had been guilty of many plundering expeditions at a place called Bulendún, the position of which seems to be unknown. Early in the year the Northern Gruffydd had ravaged the border at pleasure; now we read, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, that a decree of the Witan-a bill of attainder we may call it—was passed for the execution of the Welsh prince. The decree was duly carried out, and the Christmas festivities were not over, when the head of Rhys was brought to King Eadward, on the vigil of the Epiphany 3 Chron. Ab. 1052. "Godwine pa gesiclode hrade þæs þe he upcom."

1 Vita Eadw. 406. "Unde post tam grande malum absque sanguine sedatum Ducis sapientiâ, sollennis celebratur lætitia tam a palatinis quam ab omni patriâ."

2 On this point the Biographer becomes enthusiastic, and bursts forth, after his manner, into no less than forty hexameters. Godwine suffering under false accusations had been likened to Joseph and Susanna; now that he spares and honours a King whom he has in his power, he is likened to David doing the like towards Saul. Altogether the comparison is not a very lucky one for either Godwine or Eadward.

4 Chron. Wig. 1053. "And man rædde þæt man sloh Rís þæs Wyliscean cynges broper, fordy he hearmas dyde." Florence says more fully; "Griffini Regis Australium Wallensium frater, Res nomine, propter frequentes prædas quas egit in loco qui Bulendun dicitur, jussu Regis Eadwardi, occiditur." There are Bullingdons both in Oxfordshire and in Hampshire, but Welsh ravages could hardly reach to either of them.

2

(January 5, 1053), exactly thirteen years before his own death.1 It was seemingly in the same Gemót that Arnwig, Abbot of Peterborough, resigned his abbey, and was succeeded by Leofric, a monk of his house, who was raised to his dignity at the recommendation of his predecessor, and by that union of royal, capitular, and we may add parliamentary, action, which we have already noticed as prevailing in the appointment of English Prelates in those days. Arnwig, we are told, "gave the abbey to Leofric the monk by the King's leave and that of the monks." Abbot Leofric, a nephew of his namesake the Earl, was a man of high birth and of high spirit. He ruled the great house of Saint Peter with all honour for thirteen years; he enriched the monastery with lands and ornaments of all kinds, and won for it the favour of the King and all the great men of the land. Peterborough, under his rule, became so rich in the precious metals that men called the house Gildenborough. Nor was Peterborough the only seat of his spiritual dominion. "He was lief to all folk," and he stood so high in favour of the King and the Lady that, along with Peterborough, he held, seemingly as dependent houses, not only the neighbouring Abbeys of Thorney and Crowland, but the more distant houses of Coventry, the great foundation of his uncle, and Burton, the creation of Wulfric Spot. But in the eyes of English patriots, Abbot Leofric has won a still higher fame by an act less clearly coming within the range of his ecclesiastical duties. He was one of those great Lords of the Church who did not feel that they were hindered by their monastic vows from marching by the side of Harold to the great battle.

4

The next great festival of the Church, the next great assembly of the English Witan, beheld the death of the most renowned English

1 Chron. Wig. "And man brohte his heafod to Glewcestre ["Glawornam ad Regem" Fl. Wig.] on Twelftan æfen." William of Malmesbury (ii. 196) makes Harold the agent, which is quite possible, but he mixes the matter up in a strange way with the fate of Gruffydd of North Wales, ten years later. Haroldum West-Saxonum [Comitem], filium Godwini, qui duos fratres Reges Walensium Ris et Griffinum sollertiâ suâ in mortem egerit." William, perhaps pardonably, confounds the two Gruffydds. See Appendix P.

2 Chron. Petrib. 1052. The local writer, Hugo Candidus, seems (Sparke, 41) to place Leofric's appointment in 1057. So John of Peterborough, a. 1057, who calls him "egregius pater Leofricus."

3 Chron. Petrib. 1066; Hugo Candidus, ap. Sparke, 42.

4 Chron. Petrib. 1052. "And se abbot Leofric gildede pa þæt mynstre swa þæt man hit cleopede pa gildene Burh (cf. 1066); þa wæx hit swide on land and on gold and on seolfer."

5 Chron. Petrib. 1066. "He was leaf eall folc, swa. þæt se cyng [Hugh speaks of the Lady as well] geaf Sĉe Peter and him þæt abbotrice on Byrtune and se of Couentre þæt se eorl Leofric, he was his eam, ær hæfde macod, and se of Crulande, and se of porneie." On Coventry, see above, p. 31; on Burton, see vol. i. p. 445.

6 Chron. Petrib. 1066.

DEATH OF GODWINE.

man of that generation. The King kept the Easter festival (1053) at Winchester, and on the Monday of that week of rejoicing, the Earl of the West-Saxons, with his sons Harold, Tostig, and Gyrth, were admitted to the royal table. During the meal Godwine fell from his seat speechless and powerless. His sons lifted him from the ground, and carried him to the King's own bower, in hopes of his recovery. Their hopes were in vain; the Earl never spoke again, and, after lying insensible for three days, he died on the following Thursday (April 15). Such is the simple, yet detailed, account which a contemporary writer gives us of an event which has, perhaps even more than any other event of these times, been seized upon as a subject for Norman romance and calumny. There was undoubtedly something striking and awful in the sight of the first man in England, in all the full glory of his recovered power, thus suddenly smitten with his death-blow. He had been, as we have seen, ailing for some months, but the actual stroke, when it came, seems to have been quite unlooked for. It was not wonderful that, in such a death at such a moment, men saw a special work of divine judgement. It was not wonderful that Norman enemies brought the old scandals up again, and that they decked out the tale of the death of the murderer of Ælfred with the most appalling details of God's vengeance upon the hardened and presumptuous sinner. I shall elsewhere discuss their romantic inventions, which in truth belong less to the province of the historian than to that of the comparative mythologist.1 It is more important to mark that one English writer seems to see in Godwine's death the punishment of his real or supposed aggressions on the property of the Church.2 On this last score however the bounty of his widow did all that she could to make atonement for any wrongdoings on the part of the deceased. The pious munificence of Gytha is acknowledged even by those who are most bitter against her husband, and it now showed itself in lavish offerings for the repose of the soul of Godwine. His

1 See Appendix DD.

2 See Chron. Ab. 1052, and Appendix E. and DD.

3 Liber de Hydâ, 289. "Porro uxor ejus [she is 'Geta, genus, ut aiunt, ex insula Norwegia ducens"], magnæ sanctitatis multæque religionis tramitem incedens, omni die duas ad minus missas studiose [see above, p. 17] audiebat, omnique fere sabbato per duo aut amplius miliaria nudis pedibus vicina ambiebat monasteria, largis muneribus cumulans altaria, largisque donis pauperes recreans." Of her gifts for her husband's soul we read in the Winchester Annals, p. 26; "Githa, uxor Godwini, femina multas habens facultates, pro animâ

ejus multis ecclesiis in eleemosynâ multa contulit, et Wintoniæ ecclesiæ dedit duo maneria, scilicet, Bleodonam et Crawecumbam et ornamenta diversi generis." Of these lordships, Bleadon and Crowcombe in Somersetshire, Bleadon still remained to the Church at the time of the Survey (Domesday, 87 b), but Crowcombe had been alienated to Count Robert of Mortain (91 b). Another gift for her husband's soul made by Gytha to the church of Saint Olaf at Exeter-mark the reverence of the Scandinavian princess for the Scandinavian saint-is found in Cod. Dipl. iv. 264. This charter, signed by her sons Tostig and Gyrth as Earls, must be of