Chapter VI - England Under Harold Harefoot, Hardicanute, and Edward the Confessor

by Charles Dickens

　　Canute left three sons, by name Sweyn, Harold, and Hardicanute; buthis Queen, Emma, once the Flower of Normandy, was the mother ofonly Hardicanute. Canute had wished his dominions to be dividedbetween the three, and had wished Harold to have England; but theSaxon people in the South of England, headed by a nobleman withgreat possessions, called the powerful Earl Godwin (who is said tohave been originally a poor cow-boy), opposed this, and desired tohave, instead, either Hardicanute, or one of the two exiled Princeswho were over in Normandy. It seemed so certain that there wouldbe more bloodshed to settle this dispute, that many people lefttheir homes, and took refuge in the woods and swamps. Happily,however, it was agreed to refer the whole question to a greatmeeting at Oxford, which decided that Harold should have all thecountry north of the Thames, with London for his capital city, andthat Hardicanute should have all the south. The quarrel was soarranged; and, as Hardicanute was in Denmark troubling himself verylittle about anything but eating and getting drunk, his mother andEarl Godwin governed the south for him.

　　They had hardly begun to do so, and the trembling people who hadhidden themselves were scarcely at home again, when Edward, theelder of the two exiled Princes, came over from Normandy with a fewfollowers, to claim the English Crown. His mother Emma, however,who only cared for her last son Hardicanute, instead of assistinghim, as he expected, opposed him so strongly with all her influencethat he was very soon glad to get safely back. His brother Alfredwas not so fortunate. Believing in an affectionate letter, writtensome time afterwards to him and his brother, in his mother's name(but whether really with or without his mother's knowledge is nowuncertain), he allowed himself to be tempted over to England, witha good force of soldiers, and landing on the Kentish coast, andbeing met and welcomed by Earl Godwin, proceeded into Surrey, asfar as the town of Guildford. Here, he and his men halted in theevening to rest, having still the Earl in their company; who hadordered lodgings and good cheer for them. But, in the dead of thenight, when they were off their guard, being divided into smallparties sleeping soundly after a long march and a plentiful supperin different houses, they were set upon by the King's troops, andtaken prisoners. Next morning they were drawn out in a line, tothe number of six hundred men, and were barbarously tortured andkilled; with the exception of every tenth man, who was sold intoslavery. As to the wretched Prince Alfred, he was stripped naked,tied to a horse and sent away into the Isle of Ely, where his eyeswere torn out of his head, and where in a few days he miserablydied. I am not sure that the Earl had wilfully entrapped him, butI suspect it strongly.

　　Harold was now King all over England, though it is doubtful whetherthe Archbishop of Canterbury (the greater part of the priests wereSaxons, and not friendly to the Danes) ever consented to crown him.Crowned or uncrowned, with the Archbishop's leave or without it, hewas King for four years: after which short reign he died, and wasburied; having never done much in life but go a hunting. He wassuch a fast runner at this, his favourite sport, that the peoplecalled him Harold Harefoot.

　　Hardicanute was then at Bruges, in Flanders, plotting, with hismother (who had gone over there after the cruel murder of PrinceAlfred), for the invasion of England. The Danes and Saxons,finding themselves without a King, and dreading new disputes, madecommon cause, and joined in inviting him to occupy the Throne. Heconsented, and soon troubled them enough; for he brought overnumbers of Danes, and taxed the people so insupportably to enrichthose greedy favourites that there were many insurrections,especially one at Worcester, where the citizens rose and killed histax-collectors; in revenge for which he burned their city. He wasa brutal King, whose first public act was to order the dead body ofpoor Harold Harefoot to be dug up, beheaded, and thrown into theriver. His end was worthy of such a beginning. He fell downdrunk, with a goblet of wine in his hand, at a wedding-feast atLambeth, given in honour of the marriage of his standard-bearer, aDane named Towed the Proud. And he never spoke again.

　　Edward, afterwards called by the monks The Confessor, succeeded;and his first act was to oblige his mother Emma, who had favouredhim so little, to retire into the country; where she died some tenyears afterwards. He was the exiled prince whose brother Alfredhad been so foully killed. He had been invited over from Normandyby Hardicanute, in the course of his short reign of two years, andhad been handsomely treated at court. His cause was now favouredby the powerful Earl Godwin, and he was soon made King. This Earlhad been suspected by the people, ever since Prince Alfred's crueldeath; he had even been tried in the last reign for the Prince'smurder, but had been pronounced not guilty; chiefly, as it wassupposed, because of a present he had made to the swinish King, ofa gilded ship with a figure-head of solid gold, and a crew ofeighty splendidly armed men. It was his interest to help the newKing with his power, if the new King would help him against thepopular distrust and hatred. So they made a bargain. Edward theConfessor got the Throne. The Earl got more power and more land,and his daughter Editha was made queen; for it was a part of theircompact that the King should take her for his wife.

　　But, although she was a gentle lady, in all things worthy to bebeloved - good, beautiful, sensible, and kind - the King from thefirst neglected her. Her father and her six proud brothers,resenting this cold treatment, harassed the King greatly byexerting all their power to make him unpopular. Having lived solong in Normandy, he preferred the Normans to the English. He madea Norman Archbishop, and Norman Bishops; his great officers andfavourites were all Normans; he introduced the Norman fashions andthe Norman language; in imitation of the state custom of Normandy,he attached a great seal to his state documents, instead of merelymarking them, as the Saxon Kings had done, with the sign of thecross - just as poor people who have never been taught to write,now make the same mark for their names. All this, the powerfulEarl Godwin and his six proud sons represented to the people asdisfavour shown towards the English; and thus they daily increasedtheir own power, and daily diminished the power of the King.

　　They were greatly helped by an event that occurred when he hadreigned eight years. Eustace, Earl of Bologne, who had married theKing's sister, came to England on a visit. After staying at thecourt some time, he set forth, with his numerous train ofattendants, to return home. They were to embark at Dover.Entering that peaceful town in armour, they took possession of thebest houses, and noisily demanded to be lodged and entertainedwithout payment. One of the bold men of Dover, who would notendure to have these domineering strangers jingling their heavyswords and iron corselets up and down his house, eating his meatand drinking his strong liquor, stood in his doorway and refusedadmission to the first armed man who came there. The armed mandrew, and wounded him. The man of Dover struck the armed man dead.Intelligence of what he had done, spreading through the streets towhere the Count Eustace and his men were standing by their horses,bridle in hand, they passionately mounted, galloped to the house,surrounded it, forced their way in (the doors and windows beingclosed when they came up), and killed the man of Dover at his ownfireside. They then clattered through the streets, cutting downand riding over men, women, and children. This did not last long,you may believe. The men of Dover set upon them with great fury,killed nineteen of the foreigners, wounded many more, and,blockading the road to the port so that they should not embark,beat them out of the town by the way they had come. Hereupon,Count Eustace rides as hard as man can ride to Gloucester, whereEdward is, surrounded by Norman monks and Norman lords. 'Justice!'cries the Count, 'upon the men of Dover, who have set upon andslain my people!' The King sends immediately for the powerful EarlGodwin, who happens to be near; reminds him that Dover is under hisgovernment; and orders him to repair to Dover and do militaryexecution on the inhabitants. 'It does not become you,' says theproud Earl in reply, 'to condemn without a hearing those whom youhave sworn to protect. I will not do it.'

　　The King, therefore, summoned the Earl, on pain of banishment andloss of his titles and property, to appear before the court toanswer this disobedience. The Earl refused to appear. He, hiseldest son Harold, and his second son Sweyn, hastily raised as manyfighting men as their utmost power could collect, and demanded tohave Count Eustace and his followers surrendered to the justice ofthe country. The King, in his turn, refused to give them up, andraised a strong force. After some treaty and delay, the troops ofthe great Earl and his sons began to fall off. The Earl, with apart of his family and abundance of treasure, sailed to Flanders;Harold escaped to Ireland; and the power of the great family wasfor that time gone in England. But, the people did not forgetthem.

　　Then, Edward the Confessor, with the true meanness of a meanspirit, visited his dislike of the once powerful father and sonsupon the helpless daughter and sister, his unoffending wife, whomall who saw her (her husband and his monks excepted) loved. Heseized rapaciously upon her fortune and her jewels, and allowingher only one attendant, confined her in a gloomy convent, of whicha sister of his - no doubt an unpleasant lady after his own heart -was abbess or jailer.

　　Having got Earl Godwin and his six sons well out of his way, theKing favoured the Normans more than ever. He invited over William,Duke of Normandy, the son of that Duke who had received him and hismurdered brother long ago, and of a peasant girl, a tanner'sdaughter, with whom that Duke had fallen in love for her beauty ashe saw her washing clothes in a brook. William, who was a greatwarrior, with a passion for fine horses, dogs, and arms, acceptedthe invitation; and the Normans in England, finding themselves morenumerous than ever when he arrived with his retinue, and held instill greater honour at court than before, became more and morehaughty towards the people, and were more and more disliked bythem.

　　The old Earl Godwin, though he was abroad, knew well how the peoplefelt; for, with part of the treasure he had carried away with him,he kept spies and agents in his pay all over England.

　　Accordingly, he thought the time was come for fitting out a greatexpedition against the Norman-loving King. With it, he sailed tothe Isle of Wight, where he was joined by his son Harold, the mostgallant and brave of all his family. And so the father and soncame sailing up the Thames to Southwark; great numbers of thepeople declaring for them, and shouting for the English Earl andthe English Harold, against the Norman favourites!

　　The King was at first as blind and stubborn as kings usually havebeen whensoever they have been in the hands of monks. But thepeople rallied so thickly round the old Earl and his son, and theold Earl was so steady in demanding without bloodshed therestoration of himself and his family to their rights, that at lastthe court took the alarm. The Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, andthe Norman Bishop of London, surrounded by their retainers, foughttheir way out of London, and escaped from Essex to France in afishing-boat. The other Norman favourites dispersed in alldirections. The old Earl and his sons (except Sweyn, who hadcommitted crimes against the law) were restored to theirpossessions and dignities. Editha, the virtuous and lovely Queenof the insensible King, was triumphantly released from her prison,the convent, and once more sat in her chair of state, arrayed inthe jewels of which, when she had no champion to support herrights, her cold-blooded husband had deprived her.

　　The old Earl Godwin did not long enjoy his restored fortune. Hefell down in a fit at the King's table, and died upon the third dayafterwards. Harold succeeded to his power, and to a far higherplace in the attachment of the people than his father had everheld. By his valour he subdued the King's enemies in many bloodyfights. He was vigorous against rebels in Scotland - this was thetime when Macbeth slew Duncan, upon which event our EnglishShakespeare, hundreds of years afterwards, wrote his great tragedy;and he killed the restless Welsh King Griffith, and brought hishead to England.

　　What Harold was doing at sea, when he was driven on the Frenchcoast by a tempest, is not at all certain; nor does it at allmatter. That his ship was forced by a storm on that shore, andthat he was taken prisoner, there is no doubt. In those barbarousdays, all shipwrecked strangers were taken prisoners, and obligedto pay ransom. So, a certain Count Guy, who was the Lord ofPonthieu where Harold's disaster happened, seized him, instead ofrelieving him like a hospitable and Christian lord as he ought tohave done, and expected to make a very good thing of it.

　　But Harold sent off immediately to Duke William of Normandy,complaining of this treatment; and the Duke no sooner heard of itthan he ordered Harold to be escorted to the ancient town of Rouen,where he then was, and where he received him as an honoured guest.Now, some writers tell us that Edward the Confessor, who was bythis time old and had no children, had made a will, appointing DukeWilliam of Normandy his successor, and had informed the Duke of hishaving done so. There is no doubt that he was anxious about hissuccessor; because he had even invited over, from abroad, Edwardthe Outlaw, a son of Ironside, who had come to England with hiswife and three children, but whom the King had strangely refused tosee when he did come, and who had died in London suddenly (princeswere terribly liable to sudden death in those days), and had beenburied in St. Paul's Cathedral. The King might possibly have madesuch a will; or, having always been fond of the Normans, he mighthave encouraged Norman William to aspire to the English crown, bysomething that he said to him when he was staying at the Englishcourt. But, certainly William did now aspire to it; and knowingthat Harold would be a powerful rival, he called together a greatassembly of his nobles, offered Harold his daughter Adele inmarriage, informed him that he meant on King Edward's death toclaim the English crown as his own inheritance, and required Haroldthen and there to swear to aid him. Harold, being in the Duke'spower, took this oath upon the Missal, or Prayer-book. It is agood example of the superstitions of the monks, that this Missal,instead of being placed upon a table, was placed upon a tub; which,when Harold had sworn, was uncovered, and shown to be full of deadmen's bones - bones, as the monks pretended, of saints. This wassupposed to make Harold's oath a great deal more impressive andbinding. As if the great name of the Creator of Heaven and earthcould be made more solemn by a knuckle-bone, or a double-tooth, ora finger-nail, of Dunstan!

　　Within a week or two after Harold's return to England, the drearyold Confessor was found to be dying. After wandering in his mindlike a very weak old man, he died. As he had put himself entirelyin the hands of the monks when he was alive, they praised himlustily when he was dead. They had gone so far, already, as topersuade him that he could work miracles; and had brought peopleafflicted with a bad disorder of the skin, to him, to be touchedand cured. This was called 'touching for the King's Evil,' whichafterwards became a royal custom. You know, however, Who reallytouched the sick, and healed them; and you know His sacred name isnot among the dusty line of human kings.