put himself in a crazy ship, and went direct over sea, and left his pall and all Christendom here on land, so as God would have it, inasmuch as he had before obtained the dignity so as God would not have it." Stigand succeeds to the archbishopric.

A.D. 1053. "Hris [Rhys], the Welsh king's brother, was slain, because he had done harm; and his head was brought to Gloucester on Twelfth-day eve."

"In this year was the king at Winchester at Easter, and Godwin the earl with him, and Harold the earl his son, and Tostig. Then on the second day of Easter (April 12) sate he with the king at the feast; then suddenly sank he down by the footstool, deprived of speech and of all his power, and he was then carried into the king's chamber, and they thought it would overpass; but it did not so; but he continued on, thus speechless and powerless, until the Thursday, (April 15,) and then resigned his life; and he lies there within the old minster. And his son Harold succeeded to his earldom, and resigned that which he before held, and Elfgar [son of Leofric of Mercia] succeeded thereto."

The Welsh make an incursion, "and slay a great number of the English people, of the wardmen, near Westbury."

66

A.D. 1054. This year went Siward the earl [of Northumbria] with a great army into Scotland, both with a ship force and with a land force, and fought against the Scots, and put to flight King Macbeth, and slew all who were the chief men in the land, and led thence much booty, such as no man before had obtained. But his son Osbern, and his sister's son Siward, and some of his house-carles, and also of the king's, were there slain, on the day of the Seven Sleepers,” (July 27).

Bishop Aldred, of Worcester, is sent as ambassador to the emperor (Henry III.) at Cologne.

s Some MSS. make this expulsion of the Frenchmen precede the restoration of Godwin and his family. Robert retired to Jumieges, where he had been abbot, and died before 1070.

"In this year died Osgod Clapa, suddenly, even as he lay on his bed."

"In this year was there so great a murrain among cattle, as no man remembered for many years before."

A.D. 1055. Siward the earl dies, early in the year, and is buried at Galmanho, (in York,) “in the minster which himself caused to be built, and hallowed in God's and Olave's name." Tostig, Harold's brother, succeeds to the government of Northumbria.

A witenagemot is summoned at London, in MidLent, at which Elfgar is outlawed, "well-nigh without guilt '."

Elfgar hires a fleet in Ireland, and with the help of Griffin, king of North Wales ", defeats Ralf the earl*, and burns Hereford, Oct. 24.

Harold marches against them, and having fortified Hereford, peace is made. "And then they inlawed Elfgar the earl, and gave him all that before had been taken from him; and the fleet went to Chester, and there awaited their pay, which Elfgar had promised them."

A.D. 1056. Leofgar, the mass-priest (chaplain) of Harold, is appointed bishop of Hereford. "He forsook his chrism and his rood, his ghostly weapons, and took to his spear and to his sword, after his bishophood; and so went to the field against Griffin, the Welsh king; and there was he slain, and his priests with him, and Elfnoth the shirereeve, and many good men with them; and the others fled away; this was eight days before Midsummer,” (June 17).

"Without any kind of guilt," according to another MS.; whilst a third says, "It was cast upon him that he was a traitor to the king, and to all the people of the land. And he made a confession of it before all the men who were there gathered; though the word escaped him unintentionally."

u The husband of his daughter Aldgitha (or Edith), who afterwards marries Harold.

The son of Goda, the king's sister, by her first husband, Drogo of Mantes, and commander of the Norman mercenaries. He died the following year.

"It is difficult to tell the distress, and the marching all, and the camping, and the travail and destruction of men, and also of horses, which all the English army endured, until Leofric the earl came thither, and Harold the earl, and Bishop Aldred [of Worcester], and made a reconciliation there between them; so that Griffin swore oaths that he would be to King Edward a faithful and unbetraying under-king."

A.D. 1057. "Edward the atheling, King Edmund's son, came hither to land, and soon after died; and his body is buried within St. Paul's minster at London "."

"In the same year died Leofric the earl, on the second of the calends of October, [Sept. 30]; he was very wise for God, and also for the world, which was a blessing to all this nation. He lies at Coventry; and his son Elfgar succeeded to his government."

A.D. 1058. Elfgar is again outlawed, but soon reinstated, "with violence,” by the aid of Griffin of North Wales.

"And this year came a fleet from Norway; it is longsome to tell how all these matters went.”

Bishop Aldred, of Worcester, having built the minster at Gloucester, goes to Jerusalem, by way of Hungary, "with such splendour as none other had displayed before him, and himself there devoted to God; and a worthy gift he also offered to our Lord's tomb, that was a golden chalice of five marks of very wonderful work."

Although Palestine had fallen into the hands of the Mohammedans early in the seventh century, it was not until about the close of the tenth that any serious difficulty was opposed to the pilgrimages which, at least as early as the time of Constantine (A.D. 313-337), it had become usual to make to the scenes sanctified by the presence and sufferings of the Redeemer. The caliph Hakem, who ruled Egypt and Syria, in the year

One MS. of the Saxon Chronicle has a poetical lament for him, manifestly written after the Norman invasion.

1009 forbade the resort of pilgrims, and destroyed the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem; but this persecution ceased with his death, and, warned by the outrages they had suffered, the pilgrims now generally travelled in bodies able and willing to defend themselves if assailed. Such, probably, was the case with the Bishop Aldred and his company, as it certainly was a few years after (A.D. 1064) with the archbishop of Mentz, who, accompanied by three bishops and 7,000 men, proceeded to the Holy City, and on the way sustained a siege in a deserted castle until relieved for a sum of money by a Saracen emir. These armed pilgrims were the precursors of the vast hosts which, before the close of the century, established the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem.

A.D. 1061. Tostig and his wife make a journey to Rome.

A.D. 1063. Harold and Tostig invade Wales, both by sea and land.

The country is subdued. Griffin is killed by his own people, Aug. 5, and his head sent to Harold, who brings it to the king.

Blethgent and Rigwatlaa, Griffin's brothers, swear fealty to the king, and are allowed to govern the land.

A.D. 1065. The Welsh, under Caradoc, son of Griffin, destroy a fort at Portskewet, (Porth Iscoed, near Chepstow,) which Harold had erected, Aug. 24.

The people of Northumbria rise against Tostig's government, outlaw him, and kill his house-carles, and seize his treasures, in October. They choose Morcar, son of Elfgar, for their earl.

Morcar, being joined by his

brother Edwin and

many Britons, marches south as far as Northampton.

Judith, sister of Baldwin V. of Flanders; Tostig was consequently

a connection by marriage of William of Normandy.

• Called Blethin and Rywallon, by Welsh writers.

b Tostig was then at Britford, in Wiltshire, with the king.

Harold being sent against them, "they laid an errand upon him to King Edward, and also sent messengers with him, and begged that they might have Morcar for their earl. And the king granted it, and sent Harold again to them at Northampton, on the eve of St. Simon's and St. Jude's mass, (Oct. 27); and he made known the same to them, and delivered a pledge thereof unto them, and he there renewed Canute's law. And the northern men did much harm about Northampton the while that he went on their errand, inasmuch as they slew men, and burned houses and corn, and took all the cattle which they might come at, that was many thousand; and many hundred men they took and led north with them; so that that shire, and the other shires which there are nigh, were for many years the

worse."

Tostig, with his wife, “and all those who would what he would," retires to Flanders, to Earl Baldwin.

"King Edward came to Westminster at midwinter, (Christmas,) and there caused to be hallowed the minster which himself had built to the glory of God and of St. Peter, and of all God's saints; and the church-hallowing was on Childermass-day," (Dec. 28).

A.D. 1066. King Edward dies, Jan. 5; he is buried at Westminster the next day, "within the newly-hallowed church."

HAROLD II.

HAROLD, the son of Godwin, immediately succeeded Edward, either chosen by a general assembly, or, as is

• Harold is often blamed, as if he had acted in an unfriendly way by Tostig, but the following testimony from the Cottonian MS. of the Saxon Chronicle is strongly in his favour: "There was a great gemot at Oxford; and there was Harold the earl, and would work a reconciliation if he might, but he could not; but all Tostig's earldom him unanimously forsook and outlawed, and all who with him lawlessness upreared, because he robbed God first, and all those bereaved over whom he had power of life and land.” d See p. 137.