LIFE AND CHARACTER OF WULFSTAN. 309 attracted the notice of many of the great men of the realm. The famous Godgifu, the wife of Leofric, was his devoted admirer.1 But the same virtues gained him a still nobler and more powerful votary; he became, as we have seen, the special friend of Earl Harold.2 Ealdred now hesitated between Wulfstan and Ethelwig as his successor at Worcester. The King, we are told, was determined that the see should be filled by a canonical election, which however of course did not exclude the right of the Witan to confirm or to reject the choice of the ecclesiastical electors. The Papal Legates soon discerned the virtues of Wulfstan, and became eager on his behalf. They spent their Lent in successful efforts to secure his election, especially in exhortations to the clergy and people of Worcester.3 Presently the choice of the local body came before the Witan of the realm for confirmation. The Legates appeared before the Gemót; the diplomacy of the time doubtless required that their business with the King should not be decided without the national approval. The succession to the see of Worcester came on among the other business of the Assembly, and the Legates themselves took on them to speak on behalf of the holy Prior. Not a voice was raised in opposition; every speaker bore his testimony to the incomparable merits of Wulfstan. Both Archbishops, Stigand and Ealdred, spoke in his favour; so did Ælfgar, the Earl of the province, and Wulfstan's personal friend Earl Harold. The approval of the Gemót was unanimous. The only difficulty was to be found in the unwillingness of Wulfstan himself to take upon him the cares and responsibilities of the episcopal office. As soon as the vote was given, messengers were sent to ride at full speed to Worcester, and to bring the Prior in person before the Assembly. Wulfstan obeyed the summons, but, amid general shouts of dissent, he pleaded his unfitness for the vacant office. He declared, even with an oath, that he would rather lose his order and freedom had already learned to kiss one another. 5 Ib. "Adstipulabantur votis Cardinalium Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis et Eboracensis, ille favore, iste testimonio [I suppose this means that Ealdred spoke from his own knowledge, and Stigand from the report of others], ambo judicio. Accedebant laudibus etiam Comites Haraldus et Elgarus, par insigne fortitudinis, non ita religionis." 6 Ib. "Sanctus ergo ad Curiam exhibitus jubetur suscipere donum Episcopatûs [the King's writ?]. Contra ille niti, et se honori tanto imparem cunctis reclamantibus clamitare." head than become a Bishop.1 His scruples were at last shaken by the Legates and the Archbishops, who pleaded the duty of obedience to the Holy See, and finally by the exhortations and reproofs of a holy anchorite named Wulfsige, who had been for forty years removed from the society of men.2 But the process of persuasion in the mind of Wulfstan was evidently a long one. The formalities of his ecclesiastical confirmation and of the final rite of consecration were not completed till the month of September. One is half disappointed to read that he refused the ministrations of Stigand, and sought for consecration at the hands of Ealdred. A direct Roman influence, embodied in the persons of Roman Legates, had doubtless taught Wulfstan that Stigand was a schismatic. Ermenfrid and his colleague seem even to have been the bearers of a formal decree of suspension against the Archbishop. Wulfstan however drew a distinction, which the facts of the case amply bore out. Stigand, whether canonically appointed or not, was, in law and in fact, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Bishop-elect therefore did not scruple to make his profession of canonical obedience to him. He did not scruple thus far to recognize the legal primacy of an Archbishop appointed by the King and Witan of England. It was only the sacramental rite of consecration which he sought at the hands of a Primate whose canonical position. was open to no cavil. For this he went to the newly-appointed Metropolitan of Northumberland, and was consecrated by him at York (September 8, 1062). Ealdred had however to declare, perhaps before the assembled Witan, that he claimed no authority, ecclesiastical or temporal, over the Bishop of Worcester, either on the ground of his having been consecrated by him or on that of his having formerly been a monk under his obedience.5 Scandal however added that Ealdred contrived to attach a large portion of the estates of the see of Worcester to his own Archbishoprick. 3 1 Fl. Wig. 1062. "Illo obstinatissime renuente, seque indignum acclamante et cum sacramento etiam affirmante se multo libentius decollationi quam tam altæ ordinationi succumbere velle." 2 "Frustra Cardinales cum Archiepiscopis trivissent operam, nisi refugienti prætendissent Papæ obedientiam." So says the Life, p. 251, and the argument is one which would doubtless be used, though one may doubt whether Stigand was specially eloquent on behalf of the Papal claims, But the matter was clearly not settled at once in the Easter Gemót. Florence witnesses to the final persuasion wrought by the "inclusus" Wulfsige, who, after his long solitude, was not likely to be among 6 the assembled Witan. (We shall hear of Wulfsige again.) The dates also prove the delay. Florence tells us that the canonical confirmation was on August 29th, the consecration on September 8th. 3 See Appendix CC. 4 Fl. Wig. 1062. "Coram Rege et regni optimatibus." Or, as Florence, when he speaks of the Witan, is rather fond of using popular language, this may mean some smaller Council. 5 Fl. Wig. 1062. "Se nullum jus ecclesiasticæ seu sæcularis subjectionis super eum deinceps velle clamare, nec propter quod ab eo consecratus est, nec quia ante consecrationem ejus monachus factus est." 6 See Appendix NN. WULFSTAN BISHOP OF WORCESTER. 311 The other ecclesiastical event of this purely ecclesiastical year has been mentioned already. Earl Harold's minster at Waltham had been consecrated two years earlier. By this time he had settled the details of his foundation and of its endowments. His gifts and regulations were now confirmed in due form by a royal charter.1 As the signature of Wulfstan is not attached to the document, we may suppose that the charter was granted in the same Easter Gemót in which Wulfstan's election was approved. And one more ecclesiastical appointment must, at some slight sacrifice of chronological order, be recorded in this section. The following year (1063) was marked by the appointment, or perhaps the restoration, of a near kinsman, seemingly a brother of his renowned father, to the office of Abbot of the New Minster at Winchester, the great house raised by Eadward the Unconquered in memory of his father Ælfred. It seems strange that a brother of Godwine, if he desired preferment at all, should have had to wait for it so long. And it is possible that, like some other Prelates, he had resigned his office and now only took it again. But in either case this was the year of his final appointment. The name of the new or restored Prelate, Abbot Elfwig, the uncle of King Harold, will meet us again in the very crisis of our history.2 § 2. The Welsh War and its Consequences. The year of the last-named appointment, or rather the last days of the year of the consecration of Wulfstan, carries us at once among scenes of a widely-different kind from ecclesiastical ceremonies whether at Rome, York, Waltham, or Winchester. The peace of the land is again threatened, and the Earl of the West-Saxons again stands forth as the one champion in whose hands England could trust her destinies. In the course of the year of Wulfstan's consecration the ravages of Gruffydd of Wales began again with increased fury. He entered the diocese of the new Prelate, and he seems to have carried his arms even beyond the Severn,3 renewing his earlier exploit of Rhyd-y-Groes. The damage which he had done to the English territory, and the insults which he had thus offered to his lord King Eadward, formed the main subject of discussion at the Christmas A Gemót (1062-1063), which was held as usual at Gloucester.1 It is to be noticed that we now hear nothing of Gruffydd's old ally and fatherin-law, Earl Ælfgar. His last recorded acts are the peaceful ones of recommending Wulfstan for the Bishoprick of Worcester and of signing the Waltham charter. Two years later we find his son Eadwine in possession of his Earldom. It is therefore probable that Ælfgar died about this time, and the appointment of Eadwine is not unlikely to have taken place in this very Christmas Gemót. But it is certain that Ælfgar, if living, was not deemed trustworthy enough to be commissioned to act against his old ally; nor was his young successor, if he were dead, deemed fit to grapple with so dangerous an enemy. stronger hand than that of Elfgar or Eadwine was needed to deal effectually with the faithless Briton. His ravages had probably again fallen heavy upon Herefordshire, and Herefordshire was now under the government of Harold. But it was doubtless not as Earl of this or that Earldom, but as the first man of the Kingdom, as something like an elected Ætheling, that Harold now undertook to rid England once for all of this ever recurring plague. Notwithstanding-perhaps rather because of the time of the year, the Earl determined to strike a sudden blow, in the hope of seizing or putting to death the turbulent Under-king. Harold set forth with a small force, all mounted, therefore probably all of them Housecarls,2 and hastened with all possible speed to Rhuddlan on the north-east frontier of Wales. The spot is famous in later history as the seat of a Parliament of the great Edward, and its military position is important, as standing at no great distance from the sea, and commanding the vale of Clwyd, the southern Strathclyde. There Gruffydd had a palace, the rude precursor no doubt of the stately castle whose remains now form the chief attraction of Rhuddlan. The Welsh King heard of the approach of the English; he had just time to reach the shore and to escape by sea. Earl Harold was close in pursuit, and the escape of Gruffydd was a narrow one; but he did escape, and the main object of this sudden expedition was thwarted. Harold's force was not strong enough to 3 1 This is implied in the Worcester Chronicle, 1063. "On þissum geare for Harold Eorl æfter Middanwintre of Gleaweceastre to Rudelan." Florence is fuller. Harold goes "jussu Regis Eadwardi," and the reason assigned is "ut Regem Walanorum Griffinum, propter frequentes depopulationes quas in Anglorum finibus agebat, ac verecundias quas domino suo Regi Eadwardo sæpe faciebat, occideret." A bill of attainder was seemingly passed against Gruffydd, just like that which, at another Gloucester Gemót, nine years before, had been passed against Rhys, the brother of the other Gruffydd. See above, p. 231. The Housecarls 2 Fl. Wig. 1063. "Equitatu non multo secum assumpto." were clearly the only troops fitted for a sudden enterprise of this kind. Riding to the field, but fighting on foot, they were dragoons in the earlier sense of the word. 3 See the entries about Rhuddlan Castle (" castellum quod Roelent vocatur ") in Domesday, 269. HAROLD'S MARCH TO RHUDDLAN. 313 endure a long winter campaign in so wild a country; so he contented himself with burning the palace and the ships which were in the haven. On the same day on which this destruction was done he set out on his return march to Gloucester.1 Harold's attempt at a sudden blow had thus, through an unavoidable accident, been unsuccessful. It was therefore determined to open a campaign on a great scale, which should crush the power of Gruffydd for ever. It was in this campaign that the world first fully learned how great a captain England possessed in her future King. Never was a campaign more ably planned or more vigorously executed. The deep impression which it made on men's minds is shown by the way in which it is spoken of by writers who lived a hundred years later, when men had long been taught to look on Harold and his house as a brood of traitors and perjurers. John of Salisbury, writing under the Angevin Henry, chooses this campaign of Harold as the most speaking example of the all-important difference between a good general and a bad one. The name of Harold could of course not be uttered without some of the usual disparaging epithets, but he allows that the faithless usurper was a model of every princely and soldierlike excellence.2 He compares the days of Harold with his own, and wishes that England had captains like him to drive back the marauders who, in his own time, harried her borders with impunity. Another writer of the same age, the famous Giraldus, attributes to this campaign of Harold the security which England enjoyed on the side of the Welsh during the reigns of the three Norman Kings. These two writers, evidently speaking quite independently of each other, give us several details of the campaign. Their statements are fully confirmed by the witness of Eadward's Biographer, and the whole account fits 1 Flor. Wig. 1063. "Eodemque die rediit." 66 2 Joan. Sarisb. Polyc. vi. 6 (iv. 16-18 Giles). His general argument is, "Videsne quantum electio ducis et exercitium juventutis militiæ conferant?" He introduces Harold thus ; Anglorum recens narrat historia, quod, quum Britones, irruptione factâ, Angliam depopularentur, a piissimo Rege Edwardo ad eos expugnandos missus est Dux Haraldus, vir quidem in armis strenuus [his common epithet with Florence], et laudabilium operum fulgens insignibus, et qui tam suam quam suorum posset apud posteros gloriam dilatare, nisi meritorum titulos, nequitiam patris imitans, perfide præsumpto regno, decoloraret." 3 He enlarges at some length on the inadequate preparations made in his time to resist the invaders; "Nivicollini Britones irruunt, et jam protendunt terminos suos, et egressi de cavernis suis latebrisque silvarum, plana occupant, nobilium procerum, videntibus ipsis, impugnant, expugnant, et diruunt, aut sibi retinent, munitiones." After some rhetorical complaints of the luxury of his own age, he goes on, "Depopulantur illi fines nostros; dum juventus nostra instruitur, et dum nobis miles armatur, hostis evadit." Presently comes the account of Harold. 4 De Illaud. Walliæ, ii. 7, ap. Angl. Sacr. ii. 451. He describes Harold's campaign, and adds, "Ob has igitur tam cruentas tamque recentes Anglorum de hâc gente victorias primi tres Normannorum Reges in tantâ subjectione tamque pacificam suis diebus Walliam tenuere." |