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Edwin and many Britons, marches | south as far as Northampton. 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 asserted, named by him on his death-bed; the claims of Edgar Atheling being in either case passed over; but though at once hallowed king, "he with little quiet abode therein, the while that he wielded the realm." His brief reign of "forty weeks and one day" saw two formidable invasions of the country, and three great battles, the last of which Swept away the Saxon rule, which, though undergoing many modifications from Northern or Danish influences, had endured for more than six centuries.

The crown of England was immediately claimed by William of Normandy, on the strength of an alleged bequest, which Edward certainly was not entitled to make, and a promise

which shipwreck had enabled him to extort from Harold. Of course compliance was not expected, and William collected a force not only from his own state, but from foreign countries; Tostig, Harold's brother, (but recently driven from England,) in conjunction with the king of Norway, invaded Yorkshire, and though defeated and killed, left the Anglo-Saxon state so weakened, that the success of the Norman adventurers was assured.

It may be regarded as certain, that Harold, as well as his brothers Gyrth and Leofwin, fell at Hastings, and as most probable that he was buried at Waltham, in the church of his own foundation; although William of Poitiers says that he was insultingly interred on the sea-shore, by the order of the conqueror, and a tradition met with in Giraldus Cambrensis, and repeated by later writers, asserts that

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."

• See p. 73.

One MS. of the Saxon Chronicle says, "Harold the earl succeeded to the kingdom of England, even as the king had granted it to him, and men also had him chosen thereto." The Heimskringla,

or Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, in the saga of Harold Hardrada, gives this account of Harold's accession: "It is said that when the king was approaching his last hour, Harold and a few others were with him. Harold first leant down over the king, and then said, 'I take you all to witness that the king has now given me the kingdom, and all the realm of England,' and then the king was taken dead out of bed. The same day there was a meeting of the chiefs, at which there was some talk of choosing a king, and then Harold brought forward his witnesses that King Edward had given him the kingdom on his dying day." The

f It is possible that both stories are true. dead king may have been thus interred at first, and subsequently removed to Waltham.

he escaped from the field with the loss of his left eye, and lived as a hermit at Chester until the time of Henry I. s

Harold was twice married. His first wife's name is unknown; his second was Aldgitha, the relict of Griffin, prince of North Wales, and sister of the earls Edwin and Morcar; she survived him, and lived in England until her death, which is believed to have happened in 1075. His sons, Godwin, Edmund, and Magnus, retired to Norway with their sister Githa, who married Waldemar, a prince of Holgard; Gunhilda, another daughter, (who is said to have been cured of blindness by Wolstan, the bishop of Worcester,) fled to Flanders with Harold's mother Githa, and his sister Gunhilda; the latter became a nun at Bruges, and died (as appears by her monumental plate, still in existence,) Aug. 24, 1087.

Of all Harold's brothers, Tostig alone seems to have left issue. Skule, his son, married Gudrun, the niece of Harold Hardrada, and founded a powerful house in Norway; and Judith his widow re-married with Welf of Bavaria, of the same stock as the house of Brunswick.

A.D. 1066.

Harold is crowned at Westminster, by Archbishop Aldred, January 6.

Harold visits the north, but returns to Westminster at Easter.

William of Normandy makes a formal claim of the crown of England; it is refused, and Harold raises a fleet and army to watch the seacoast, whilst William prepares for an invasion.

Tostig arrives at the Isle of Wight, with a fleet, at the end of April; he attempts a landing on the Isle of Thanet, but is repulsed.

Harold repairs to his fleet at Sandwich, and Tostig retires to the Hum-. ber, where he ravages Lincolnshire, but is defeated by the earls Edwin and Morcar, and deserted by his sailors; he flees to Scotland.

Harold is obliged to dismiss his fleet for want of provisions, Sept. 8.

Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, arrives in the Tyne early in September; Tostig "submits to him, and becomes his man ;" they burn Scarborough', and afterwards land near Selby.

Edwin and Morcar defeated at Fulford, near York, by Harold Hardrada and Tostig, Sept. 20.

The people about York submit to the Norwegians, and agree to assist them.

Harold advances from London by forced marches against them.

Harold arrives, and passes through York, Sept. 24m; he encounters the

Another tradition affirms that Gyrth also survived the battle, and lived till the time of Henry II., with whom he had an interview, and to whom he stated that Harold had not been buried at Waltham; but the tale is considered a mere fabrication intended to damage the renown of that abbey.

h"Harold, the son of King Harold," is mentioned by William of Malmesbury as accompanying Magnus III. in his expedition to the Hebrides and more southern islands in 1098.

Ketil, a second son of Tostig, is mentioned in the Sagas.

Harold Hardrada, or the Stern, (a descendant of Harold Harfagra, and cousin of Olaf the Saint,) is the subject of the last saga of the Heimskringla. He had long served in the armies of the Eastern emperors, had made himself master of Norway, married the daughter of the grand duke of Russia, and was esteemed one of the most renowned warriors of his time. He was in his fiftieth year when he invaded England. "He was," says his saga, "stern and severe to his enemies, bountiful to his friends," a patron of bards, and a bard himself. "He was a handsome man, of noble appearance: his hair and beard yellow. He had a short beard, and long moustachios; the one eyebrow was somewhat higher than the other; he had large hands and feet, but these were well made. His height was five ells," or more than eight English feet, and he appeared in his last field attired in "a blue

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kirtle which reached his knees, and a beautiful helmet."

The Heimskringla thus describes the burning of the town, which may give an idea of the mode in which warfare was then usually carried on: "The king went up a hill and made a great pile upon it, which he set on fire, and when the pile was in clear flame, his men took large forks, and pitched the burning wood down into the town, so that one house caught fire after the other and the town surrendered."

The castle of York surrendered on Sunday, September 24, and the Heimskringla says, the Norwegians retired to their ships, with the understanding that on the following day hostages were to be given them at Stamford-bridge. They landed accordingly in the morning; "the weather was uncommonly fine, and it was hot sunshine. The men therefore laid aside their armour, and went on the land with their shields, helmets, and spears, and girt with swords, and many had also arrows and bows, and all were very merry." An approaching crowd, at first taken for the hostages, was soon found to be the English army, and Tostig counselled a retreat to their ships, but his advice was rejected. Harold advanced with a small party, and offered the third of his kingdom to Tostig rather than fight with a brother, but refused more than a grave for the Norwegian king. Tostig declined to break faith with his ally, and when after

Norwegians at Stamford-bridge, where they are totally defeated, Sept. 25. Harold Hardrada and Tostig are slain, and "the king then gave his protection to Olaf, son of the king of the Norwegians, and to their bishop, and to the earl of Orkney, and to all those who were left in the ships; and they then went up to our king, and swore oaths that they ever would observe peace and friendship towards this land, and the king let them go home with twenty-four ships."

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William of Normandy sails from St. Valery, Sept. 26, and arrives at Pevensey, Sept. 28, on the eve of St. Michael's mass "." The Normans fortify a camp near Hastings, and from it plunder the country.

Harold, hearing of their arrival, marches southward, and arrives in sight of their position, Oct. 13.

The battle of Hastings, Oct. 14. "William came against Harold unawares, before his people were set in order. But the king nevertheless strenuously fought against him with those men who would follow him; and there was great slaughter made on either hand. There was slain King Harold,

and Leofwin the earl, his brother, and Gyrth the earl, his brother, and many good men; and the Frenchmen had possession of the place of carnage, all as God granted them for the people's sins.... This fight was done on the day of Calixtus the pope "."

The Normans return to Hastings, expecting the submission of the Saxons.

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Edgar Atheling is meanwhile chosen king at London, as was his true natural right 9."

William the Norman, seeing the people do not come in to him, goes upward, "with all his army which wasleft to him, and that which afterwards had come from over sea to him; and he plundered all that part which he overran, until he came to Berkhampstead."

Archbishop Aldred, of York', Edgar Atheling, Edwin and Morcar, and all the chief men of London, meet him there and submit to him; "and he vowed to them that he would be a loving lord to them; and nevertheless, during this, the Frenchmen plundered all that they overran."

wards reproached by him for allowing his brother to withdraw in safety, is said to have made a reply, the noble sentiment of which, however it may redeem his own character, usually painted in such dark colours, affords no compensation for the evils that his invasion brought upon his country. "I saw," he said, "that he was going to offer me peace, and a great dominion, and that on the other

I should be his murderer if I betrayed him; and I would rather he should be my murderer than I his, if one of the two be to die." Hardrada at once prepared for battle, merely making a remark which is worthy of preservation as one of our few notices of Harold's personal appearance: "He is a little man, but he sat firmly in his stirrups." He probably spoke with reference to his own stature, as Orderic tells us Harold was distinguished for his great size and strength, also for his polished manners, firmness, eloquence, ready wit, and many other excellent qualities."

Another MS. of the Saxon Chronicle says, "St. Michael's-mass-day:" Norman authors, too, differ in their dates for the sailing of the fleet; but there is no real contradiction, as so large a force could hardly be embarked or disembarked in a single day.

• Such is the usual name, but the conflict occurred about nine miles from that town, in the place where now stand the remains of Battle Abbey. It is also called the battle of Senlac by some early writers.

The Chronicle of Wales relates the brief reign of Harold in a very different spirit; but it must

be remembered that he had been their conqueror. "Harold king of Denmark meditated the subjection of the Saxons; whom another Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, who was then king in England, surprised, unexpectedly and unarmed, and by sudden attack, aided by national treachery, struck him to the ground, and caused his death. That Harold who, at first earl through cruelty, after the death of King Edward unduly acquired the sovereignty of the kingdom of England, was despoiled of his kingdom and life by William the Bastard, duke of Normandy, though previously vauntingly victorious. And that William defended the kingdom of England with an invincible hand, and his most noble army."

"

9 He seems to have been considered as king for some time after the fatal battle of Hastings, for upon the death of Leofric, abbot of Peterborough, on Nov. 1, Brand the provost was chosen to succeed him, and sent for approval to Edgar, "who granted it him then blithely. When King William heard that, then was he very wroth, and said that the abbot had despised him: then went good men between them, and reconciled them, by reason that the abbot was a good man. Then gave he the king forty marks of gold for a reconciliation; and then thereafter lived he a little while, but three years. After that came every evil and every tribufation to the minster-God have mercy on it!”

He had been bishop of Worcester, but was removed to York, shortly after his return from his pilgrimage. See A.D. 1058.

ANGLO-SAXON LAWS AND GOVERNMENT.

THIS, the closing period of the Anglo-Saxon rule, appears the proper place for a brief sketch of the social and political state of their commonwealth, such as may be deduced from what remains to us of its laws and institutes. These laws are manifestly only a very small portion of the jurisprudence of our forefathers, but they are sufficient to establish the fact that their state was one in which the ranks of society were accurately defined, and the rights of property strictly guarded. The earliest of these documents is a code issued (circa 600) by Ethelbert of Kent, which, though commencing with a provision for the protection of the property of God and the Church, gives no further evidence of proceeding from a Christian ruler, being probably little else than a summary of the laws prevailing in heathen times; it imposes penalties for slaying, for house-breaking, for highway robbery, and for personal injuries, which are minutely detailed, and defines the portions of widows and orphans. Hlothere and Edric of Kent (circa 680) add directions for conducting lawsuits, make hosts responsible for the conduct of strangers who had resided three days with them, and forbid quarrels and slander.

The laws of Wihtred of Kent (circa 696) present the first distinct picture of a Christian state in our island. They grant to the Church freedom from imposts", forbid immorality and Sunday working, regulate fasting at certain times, and prohibit idolatry; they also contain severe enactments against thieves.

Ina of Wessex and Offa of Mercia in the next century issued laws, which were published with his own by Alfred,

The following summary is drawn from the Ancient Laws and Institutes of England and of Wales, edited by Messrs. Thorpe and Owen, and published under the direction of the Record Commissioners in 1840, 1841.

The term used is "God's fee," but whether tithes are included has been disputed. It is, however, quite certain that tithes existed in England in the time of Archbishop Theodore (A.D. 669 to

and through the whole runs one great distinction from the Mosaic law; for although avowedly basing all legislation on the Bible, "blood for blood" is not the rule, but every homicide can be atoned for by a money payment (termed wer-gild) varying according to the rank of the parties. Alfred also, in his own "dooms," though they commence with the decalogue and embody many portions of the Mosaic code, expressly says that "synods had ordained that secular lords, with their leave, might, without sin, take for almost every misdeed, for the first offence, the money-bote (compensation) which they then ordained, except in cases of treason against a lord, to which they dared not assign any mercy."

Alfred is commonly spoken of as the great lawgiver of the Anglo-Saxon period, but he himself informs us that the laws which he promulgated contained little of his own, "for it was unknown to him what of it would please those who should come after him;" he therefore merely made a selection from existing laws, and it is certain that the division of England into shires did not originate with him, the "shire-man or other judge❞ being mentioned by Ina; the division into hundreds may probably be his.

The laws of succeeding monarchs are chiefly remarkable as proving that the Danes settled in England lived under their own laws; Edward the Elder (901-924) says that penalties which among the Saxons are estimated in shillings, are by the Danes reckoned by ores, twelve of the latter being equivalent to forty of the former and Edgar (circa 970) expressly allows them to make "such good laws

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Edward the Confessor is often said to have remodelled the laws of Canute, but no mention is made of the circumstance in the Saxon Chronicle, and what have come down to us as the “laws of Saint Edward" are merely a compilation, made, as stated in the document itself, four years after the Norman invasion, of the laws and customs of the land, which had been approved by Canute, and, it is alleged, derived their origin from Edgar, though many of their provisions are the same as those of the laws of Alfred and Ina.

as they best may choose." Ethelred, of widowhood, also wills and succesindeed, issued an ordinance from sions, relieves from the payment of Woodstock "for the whole nation, heriot the property of those who fall according to the law of the English," in battle, decrees the forfeiture of life but there seems no reason for sup- and land to cowards, alleviates public posing that so feeble a ruler could burdens', and concedes the liberty of effect any alteration in their state. hunting; and though this liberty is Under Canute, of course they pre- somewhat limited by his Constitutions served their own institutions, but they of the Forest, these are reasonable do not seem to have imposed them ordinances compared with the forest upon the rest of the nation; for he laws of the Norman kings. expressly and separately mentions the king's rights under the Wessex, and the Mercian, and the Danish laws. Canute's "secular ordinance" (which embodies many of the provisions of an ordinance of Ethelred dated 1008) commences, "That is then the first that I will; that just laws be established, and every unjust law carefully suppressed, and that every injustice be weeded out and rooted up with all possible diligence from this country. And let God's justice be exalted, and henceforth let every man, both poor and rich, be esteemed worthy of folk right, and let just dooms be doomed to him." Such, indeed, seems its intention, and it strongly impresses the duty of mercy on the judge. "We command that Christian men be not, on any account, for altogether too little condemned to death: but rather let gentle punishments be decreed for the benefit of the people, and let not be destroyed for little God's handywork, and His own purchase which He dearly bought." He then proceeds to prohibit selling slaves to heathens, and the practice of any kind of witchcraft, and decrees that manslayers and perjurers and others who will not reform, shall "with their sins retire from the country."

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It does not appear that foreigners were considered under obligation to conform to the ordinary laws of the country. Thus, if they refuse to lead an orderly life, Canute, copying Wihtred, does not attempt to restrain them, but says, "let them depart with their property and their sins;" at the same time they are declared under the especial protection of the king, and heavy penalties are denounced against judges who give unrighteous decisions against "men from afar."

It is apparent from these various codes that the people were the source of power, and that the kings were originally their elected leaders, not their masters; the undivided land was not the property of the king, but of the nation, and hence termed folkland, being ordinarily granted out for brief periods to the freemen of each district; but power was conceded to rulers to assign permanently portions by charter in certain cases (often to the Church, but more frequently for military service), which then became bookland, and was devisable by will.

thing unless he himself be willing."

"And I will that every man be entitled to his hunting, in wood and in field, on his own possession. And let every one forego my hunting; take notice where I will have it untrespassed on, under penalty of the full wite."

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