DEATH OF SIWARD. 2 249 course with the well-ordered churches of Germany.1 These reforms included perhaps the introduction of the Lotharingian discipline, or something like it, among the secular churches of his diocese. But the immediate business of the embassy advanced but slowly. The time was ill-chosen for an Imperial intervention with the Hungarian court. Andrew, the reigning King of Hungary, was about this time abetting the rebellious Duke Conrad of Bavaria against the Emperor.3 We have no details of the further course of the negotiation. Ealdred abode a whole year at Köln, probably waiting for a favourable opportunity. His embassy was in the end successful; for the Etheling did after a while return to England. But we have no further details, and Eadward did not return to England till long after Ealdred had gone back, and till at least a year after the death of the Emperor. The year of Ealdred's mission was marked also by the sudden death of a somewhat remarkable person, namely Osgod Clapa, whose movements by sea had been watched with such care five years before.1 The Chronicler remarks, seemingly with some little astonishment, that he died in his bed. Early in the next year death carried off a far more famous man, no other than the great Earl of the Northumbrians. The victory of the last year, glorious as it was, had been bought by the bitterest domestic losses, which may not have been without their effect even on the iron spirit and frame of the old Earl. His nephew and his elder son had fallen in the war with Macbeth, and his only, or at least eldest surviving son, afterwards the famous Waltheof, was still a child. Siward's first wife Æthelflæd was dead, and he had in his old age married, and survived, a widow named Godgifu. We might have fancied that Waltheof was her son, but we know for certain that he was the son of the daughter of the old Northumbrian Earls, and that he unhappily inherited all the deadly feuds of his mother's house." Siward died at York, the capital of his huc parvulus." So Bromton, 946. But See vol. i. p. 352. Sim. Dun. X he could hardly be "in cunis jacens" (R. Scriptt. 81. "Nepos Aldredi Comitis Earldom. A tale, characteristic at least, whether historically true or not, told how the stern Danish warrior, when he felt death approaching, deemed it a disgrace that he should die, not on the field of battle, but of disease, "like a cow." If he could not actually die amid the clash of arms, he would at least die in warrior's garb. He called for his armour, and, harnessed as if again to march against Macbeth, the stout Earl Siward breathed his last. But this fierce spirit was not inconsistent with the piety of the time. Saint Olaf, the martyred King of the Northmen, had by this time become a favourite object of reverence, especially among men of Scandinavian descent.2 In his honour Earl Siward had reared a church in a suburb of his capital called Galmanho,3 a church which, after the Norman Conquest, grew into that great Abbey of Saint Mary, whose ruins form the most truly beautiful ornament of the Northern metropolis. In his own church of Galmanho Siward the Strong, the true relic of old Scandinavian times, was buried with all honour. The death of Siward led to most important political consequences. The direct authority of the House of Godwine was now, for the first time, extended to the land beyond the Humber. This fact marks very forcibly how fully the royal authority was now acknowledged throughout the whole realm. The King and his Witan could now venture to appoint as the successor of Siward an Earl who had no connexion whatever with any of the great families of Northumberland. Cnut, in the moment of victory, had given the Northumbrians the Dane Eric as their Earl. But this was the act of a conqueror, and such was the strength of the Danish element in Northumberland that the appointment of a Dane from Denmark probably seemed less irksome than the appointment of an Englishman from any other part of the Kingdom. This last was the act, one wholly without a parallel, on which Eadward now ventured. The vacant Earldom of Northumberland, including also the detached shires of Northampton and Huntingdon, was conferred on Tostig the son of Godwine (1055). The 5 Comes Waltheof, erat enim filius filiæ illius." Simeon (ib. 82) seems to imply that Waltheof held Bernicia under his father ("filio suo Waltheofo comitatum Northymbrorum dedit "); but he clearly was not in possession in 1065. See Simeon's own account, X Scriptt. 204. On the question whether he received Northamptonshire on his father's death or ten years later, see Appendix G. 1 Hen. Hunt. M. H. B. 760 C; Bromton, 946; Ann. Wint. 26. 2 Compare the gifts of Gytha to Saint Olaf at Exeter, p. 350. "And 3 Chronn. Ab. and Wig. 1055. 4 See vol. i. pp. 255, 273. TOSTIG EARL OF THE NORTHUMBRIANS. 2 251 novelty of the step is perhaps marked by the elaborate description of the influences which were brought to bear on the mind of Eadward to induce him to make the appointment. We hear, not only of Tostig's own merits, but of the influence employed by his many friends, especially by his sister the Lady Eadgyth and also by his brother Earl Harold, whom Norman calumny has represented as depriving Tostig of his hereditary rights.1 We may suspect that we are here reading the history of influences which it was more necessary to bring_to bear on the minds of the Witan than on that of the King. For there is no appointment of Eadward's reign which is more likely to have been the King's personal act. Tostig, rather than Harold, was Eadward's personal favourite. He was the Hêphaistiôn, the friend of Eadward, while Harold was rather the Krateros, the friend of the King.3 Tostig also stood higher in the good will of their common sister the Lady. Cut off in a great measure from his Norman favourites, the affections of Eadward had settled themselves on the third son of Godwine. He would therefore naturally desire to raise Tostig to the highest dignities in his gift, or, if he felt hesitation in doing so, it could only be from the wish to keep his favourite always about his own person. In fact we shall find that Eadward could not bring himself to give up the society of Tostig to the degree which the interests of his distant Earldom called for. And this frequent absence of the Earl from his government seems to have been among the causes of the misfortunes which afterwards followed.1 This appointment of a West-Saxon to the great Northern Earldom was, as I have already implied, a distinct novelty. Ever since Northhumberland had ceased to be ruled by Kings of her own, she had been ruled by Earls chosen from among her own people. The ancient Kingdom had sometimes been placed under one, sometimes under two, chiefs; but they had always been native chiefs." The rule of the stranger Eric had been short, and he seems to have allowed the line of 1 Vita Eadw. 408. "" " Agentibusque amicis potissimum autem et pro merito hoc ejus fratre Haroldo Duce et ejus sorore Reginâ, et non resistente Rege ob innumera ipsius fideliter acta servitia, ducatum ejus suscepit Tostinus, vir scilicet fortis et magnâ præditus animi sagacitate et sollertiâ." 2 The Biographer, essentially a courtier, always likes to attribute as much as possible to the personal action of the King, and to keep that of the Witan as far as may be in the back ground. 3 Plutarch. Apophth. Alex. 29. Tiμav μὲν ἐδόκει Κρατερόν μάλιστα πάντων, φιλεῖν δὲ Ηφαιστίωνα· Κρατερὸς μὲν γὰρ, 4 This seems implied in the Biographer's description of the state of things when the Northumbrian revolt broke out in 1065 (421); "Erat . . . Tostinus in curiâ Regis, diutiusque commoratus est cum eo, ejus detentus amore et jussis in disponendis regalis palatii negotiis." 5 Unless Elfhelm of Deira was an exception. See vol. i. p. 437. the ancient princes to retain at least a subordinate authority.1 Siward, a stranger by birth, was connected with the ancient family by marriage. And both Eric and Siward were Danes; Tostig came of a line which most probably sprang from the most purely Saxon part of England. The experiment was a hazardous one, yet it was one which was not only dictated by sound policy, but which circumstances made almost unavoidable. The great Earldoms, I may again repeat, were neither strictly hereditary nor strictly elective. They were in the gift of the King and his Witan, but there was always a strong tendency, just as in the case of the Kingdom itself, to choose out of the family of the deceased Earl, whenever there was no obvious reason to do otherwise. But on the death of Siward there was an obvious reason to do otherwise, just as there was in the case of the Kingdom when it became vacant by the death of Eadward. The eldest son of Siward had fallen in the Scottish war, and the one survivor of his house was still a child. Oswulf, seemingly the only male representative of the ancient Earls, was still a mere boy.5 4 There was therefore no available candidate of the old princely line. And when we think of the state of the country, of the deadly feuds and jealousies which prevailed even between the reigning Earls and other powerful men, we shall see that the nomination of any private Northumbrian would have been a still more hazardous experiment than the nomination of a stranger. The Northumbrians themselves seemed to have felt this, when, ten years later, the choice of their Earl was thrown into their own hands. They then chose, not a Northumbrian, but a Mercian. But it may well be doubted whether it was good policy to appoint a West-Saxon, and especially a member of the House of Godwine. This was perhaps going too far in the way of reminding the proud Danes of the North of their subjection to the Southern King. It could not fail to suggest the idea of an intention to heap together all honours and all authority on a single family. And, as events showed, the personal character of Tostig proved unfitted successfully to grapple with the difficult task which was now thrown upon him. In weighing the character of the third son of Godwine, we must be on our guard against several distinct sources of error. We are at first tempted to condemn without mercy one who became the enemy of his nobler brother, who waged open war with his country, and whose invasion of England, by acting as a diversion in William's favour, was one main cause of the success of William's expedition. We read the account of his crimes as set forth by his Northumbrian enemies, and 1 See vol. i. p. 255. 2 See vol. i. p. 352. 8 See above, p. 249. See vol. i. p. 352. 5 He is called "adolescens" by Simeon of Durham (X Scriptt. 204) ten years later. His father had now been dead fourteen years; Oswulf must therefore have been a mere babe at the time of his death. CHARACTER OF TOSTIG. 253 we think that no punishment could be too heavy for the man who wrought them. On the other hand, though Tostig, as an adversary of Harold, comes in for a certain slight amount of Norman favour, there was also a temptation, which for the most part was found irresistibly strong, to blacken both sons of the Traitor equally. The opposition between Harold and Tostig during the last two years of their joint lives has thus supplied the materials for a heap of legends of revolting absurdity. The two brothers, who clearly acted together up to those two last years, are described as being full of the most bitter mutual rivalry and hatred, even from their childhood.1 The effect of these two different pictures is that admirers and depreciators of Harold are alike led to look on the acts of Tostig in the most unfavourable light. The crimes of his later years cannot be denied. He died a traitor, in arms against his country, engaged in an act of treason compared to which Harold's ravages at Porlock and even Elfgar's alliance with Gruffydd sink into nothingness. His Northumbrian government too was evidently stained with great errors, and even with great crimes. But it is remarkable that it is not till the last two years of his life that we hear of anything which puts him in an unfavourable light. And there is nothing in his few recorded earlier actions which is at all inconsistent with the generally high character given of him by the Biographer of Eadward. That writer contrasts him with Harold in an elaborate comparison which I have already made large use of in drawing the picture of Harold. And it is clear that, whether from his own actual convictions or from a wish to please his patroness the Lady Eadgyth, it is Tostig rather than Harold whose partizan he is to be reckoned, and it is Tostig whose actions he is most anxious to put in a favourable light. But the two are the two noblest of mortals; no land, no age, ever brought forth two such men at the same time. He makes a comparison of virtues between the two, but he hardly ventures to make the balance decidedly weigh in favour of either. In person Tostig was of smaller stature than his elder brother, but in strength and daring he was his equal.2 But he seems to have lacked all Harold's winning and popular qualities. He is set before us as a man of strong will, of stern and inflexible purpose, faithful to his promise, grave, reserved, admitting few or none to share his counsels, so that he often surprised men by the suddenness of his actions. His zeal against wrong-doers, the virtue of the ruler for which his father and brother are so loudly praised, grew in him to a passion which carried him beyond the bounds of justice and honour. The whole picture 1 See Appendix GG. 2 See above, p. 24. 3 Vita Eadw. 409. "At Dux Tostinus et ipse gravi quidem et sapienti continentiâ, sed acrior 4 Ib. paullisper in persequendâ malitia, virili præditus et indissolubili mentis constantiâ." In a writer who is striving hard to make out a case for Tostig, the words in Italics mean a great deal. We shall see, as we go |