that the Duke could find in all the land of Normandy. It is said that Harold turned pale and trembled when he saw what he had unknowingly done.

This is the story. All its details are uncertain ; some of them may very likely be untrue. But we may be sure that there is some foundation for it, and that this voyage of Harold, with all its consequences, was one of the most disastrous incidents of his life. It gave Duke William another claim, and one of which we in these days can scarcely comprehend the force, to succeed to the English crown.

And now there happened another disaster, which was to have its share in working out the tragedy of Harold's life. It was a disaster to which various causes had been leading up for several years, and which had now come to its fulfilment.

It will be remembered that Tostig had been appointed to succeed Siward in the Earldom of Northumbria, Waltheof, Siward's surviving son, being put aside as too young for the post. It was an unfortunate appointment, perhaps forced upon Harold, who could hardly pass over his brother, but possibly a part of the policy of family aggrandisement which Godwin had carried out with so little scruple. Or, again, it may have been due to the partiality of the King, who is known to have had a great liking for the young earl. It was a dangerous experiment to put a pure bred Englishman from the South to administer the affairs of a half-Danish earldom, and a wiser man than Tostig might easily have failed in the task. Unfortunately Tostig was not wise. He may have meant to govern well, but he did not go the right way

BANISHMENT OF TOSTIG.

343

to work. He was impatient of opposition, wanting in sympathy, and ready to use violence when his will was thwarted. And his favour at Court took him away from his duties. When at home he was harsh and exacting, and when absent he left his territories to take care of themselves.1

The crisis came in 1065, when two Northumbrian nobles were murdered by Tostig's orders, one of them at the royal court (of his death Queen Edgiva is said to have been guilty), the other in his own chamber at York. The Northumbrians rose against the earl, slaughtered a number of his house carles and retainers, deposed him, and chose Morcar, son of Elfgar, to be earl in his stead. Harold had a meeting with the insurgents at Oxford. He heard their complaints, was satisfied, it would seem, of their justice, and undertook to support them before the King. Edward was at first eager to restore his favourite by force of arms. But his counsellors were against him, and at last he yielded to their advice. Tostig was formally deprived of his earldom and banished. He fled to Baldwin, Count of Flanders, and forthwith began to form plans for revenge. We cannot doubt that Harold had done his duty to his fellow countrymen. and his king; but he had made an enemy, and an enemy, as we shall see, of the most dangerous kind.

I

They were invaded by Malcolm of Scotland on two occasions (1059,

1061).

XXXI.

WILLIAM OF NORMANDY.

I HAVE had occasion, more than once, to speak of William of Normandy. It now becomes necessary to say something about him, to state briefly who he was and what was his position. To estimate his character as a ruler, and to describe what harm, what good he did to this country does not fall within my province as the writer of the "Story of Early England."

William was born in the year 1028. His father was Robert, then Count of the Hiesmois, but very shortly to become, by the death of Richard the Good, Duke of Normandy. His mother was a certain Arletta or Herleva, daughter of Fulbert, the tanner of Falaise. Marriage there could not be between the Duke of Normandy and the daughter of a mechanic, but Robert was faithful to the woman whom he had loved as long as he lived. After his death Herleva married a Norman gentleman of good repute. The child, even before his birth, was marked out, it was said, by his mother's dreams, for future greatness. As soon as he saw the light, he gave a proof of his vigour, seizing the straw with which, it is interesting

THE NORMAN SUCCESSION.

345 to find, the ducal chamber was carpeted, with a sturdy grasp. Duke Robert lost no time in securing for the child the succession to his crown Kinsmen he had; but there were objections to all of them. The nearest heir was his uncle, Robert, Archbishop of Rouen ; but then a Churchman could hardly succeed to the dukedom. Others were related only on the mother's side. Others, again, were of doubtful birth, scarcely more entitled to be called legitimate than the infant William himself. Such were the circumstances of the case, and they made Duke Robert's scheme, unlikely as it seemed, possible of achievement. He seems to have worked at it for several years doing what he could to win over his nobles to accept it. At length, when the boy was six or seven years old, he announced it to an assembly of notables. He was himself going, he said, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a perilous journey, from which it was probable that he might never return. It was necessary, before he started, to settle the question of his succession. To the sensible advice of his subjects that he should stop at home, and do his duty in governing his dukedom, he returned a resolute refusal. Then he produced the boy, one of their own stock, he said, who would soon mend, if God pleased, of the fault of youth.1 The Norman nobles were in a strait. They could not keep the duke at home if he was minded to go, and it was perfectly true that the succession must be settled. before he started. Then there was no other candi

"Il est peti, mais il creistra,

E, se Deu plaist, amendera,"

are the words which the story-teller puts into his mouth.

date upon whom they could agree. Under these circumstances they took what was the easiest and pleasantest course, and accepted the boy William as the heir of the dukedom. He was taken to Paris, and there swore fealty to the King. Duke Robert set out on his pilgrimage, reached Jerusalem, and died on his return at Nicæa,1

In 1035, then, William, then seven years old, succeeded to the rule of about as turbulent a people as was to be found in the world. He had guardians and counsellors, among whom were some of his kinsmen, and, it may be said, of the claimants to his throne. The chief was Alan of Brittany; others were his cousins, Osbern and Gilbert. This guardianship was no enviable post. Alan was poisoned while he was besieging a rebel castle; Gilbert was murdered by assassins hired by a relative of his own; and Osbern was killed in William's own chamber. This time it was the duke himself whose life was sought, and Osbern was killed in defending him.

There is no need to follow in detail the events of the following years. Enough has been said to show what kind of education it was that the young William received, how very hard was the school of life in which he was brought up, what a wonderful training in courage, readiness, promptitude of resource it must have given to any pupil who was hardy enough to survive it. William did survive it, and it fitted him for the part which he had afterwards to play.

He was just twenty years old when he ran his

Nicæa, now Isnik, in Bithynia, famous as the place where the first General Council was held (318 B.C.).