DEATH OF HAROLD. 567 his mind.1 He began to make great preparations for CHAP. VI. an invasion of England, but for the present he merely sailed to Flanders with ten ships,3 and there spent the winter with his mother. The time however was not passed in idleness. His preparations were busily carried on, and in the course of the next year he found himself at the head of a considerable fleet. No invasion however was needed, as an event which was probably not unexpected opened the way for his accession without difficulty or bloodshed. King Harold, who had been for Death of Harold. some time lying ill at Oxford, died in that town in the March 17, month of March. He was buried at Westminster, a 1040. spot which is now mentioned in our Chronicles for the first time. Its mention however seems to show that the smaller monastery which preceded the great foundation of Eadward enjoyed a greater amount of reputation than we might otherwise have been led to think. Harold, who could not have been above two or three and twenty years old, left no recorded posterity. We hear nothing of wives, mistresses, or children of any kind. 1 Enc. Emm. p. 33. 2 Ib. 3 Chron. Ab. 1039. "And her com éc Hardacnut to Bricge, þar his modor wæs. Enc. Emm. u. s., where we have a story about a tempest and a vision. Adam. Brem. ii. 72. "Contra quem frater à Daniâ veniens in Flandriâ classem adunavit. Sed Rex Anglorum, morte præventus, bellum diremit." 5 In the charter mentioned above (p. 562) we find some details of Harold's sickness; "And was se king pa binnan Oxnaforde swyde geseocled, swa þæt he læg orwene his lifes." When he hears of the wrong done to Christ Church, "Da læg se king and sweartode eall mid þare sage." That Harold died at Oxford is plain from the above passage, and from the Peterborough Chronicle. Florence says "obiit Lundoniæ." He probably had the Worcester Chronicle before him, and inferred the place of his death from the place of his burial. William of Malmesbury agrees with the Chronicler. 'Chronn. Petrib. and Cant. Fl. Wig. in anno. Will. Malms. ii. 188. CHAP. VI. Hartha cnut unani mously King. 1040. Immediately on the burial of Harold, probably at th Easter festival, the Witan of all England, English and Danish, unanimously chose Harthacnut to the Kingdom The only undoubted, and now the only surviving, son a Cnut united all claims. No attempt seems to have bee made on behalf of Eadward the surviving son of Æthelred, and the events of the last reign were not likely to have prejudiced men in his favour. The universal belief of the moment was that the choice of Harthacnut was the right and wise course. An embassy, of which Ælfweard, Bishop of London and Abbot of Evesham, was a leading member, 1 Will. Malms. ii. 188. “Anglis et Danis in unam sententiam ecovenientibus." So Hen. Hunt. M. H. B. 758 C, speaking of his landing at Sandwich; "Hardecnut . . . susceptus est [underfangen] et electus in Regem simul ab Anglis et Dacis." This comes, with improvements, from the Peterborough Chronicle; "On þis ilcan geare com Hardacnut cyng to Sandwic. . . . and he was sona underfangen ge fram Anglun ge fram Denum." Taken alone, this might imply that Harthacnut came over, like Ælfred, to seek his fortune, only with a luckier result; but the other Chronicles distinctly assert the previous embassy and therefore imply the previous election. 2 Chronn. Ab. et Wig. "And man sende æfter Hardacnute to Brygce; wende þæt man wel dyde." So Florence, "bene se facere putantes.” 3 See Hist. Rams. c. 94, 95, for the embassy and for an accompanying miracle. Ælfweard was a somewhat remarkable person. He was first a monk of Ramsey, and then Abbot of Evesham, which office he held in plurality with his Bishoprick. The church of Evesham had fluctuated more than once between monks and secular canons, the canons being last introduced by Elfhere of Mercia in the disputes which followed the death of Eadgar. See above, p. 286. Many of the estates fell into the hands of laymen, especially into those of Godwine of Lindesey, who died at Assandun. They were recovered from Godwine by a legal process, seemingly before the Witan of Mercia (coram multis principibus hujus patriæ), by the Abbot Brihtmær. But Godwine seized them again during the absence of Ethelred in Normandy in 1013. One almost fancies that this must have been by a grant from Swend, to whom Lindesey was one of the first parts of England to submit. See above, p. 394. Ethelred on his return in 1014 appointed Ælfweard Abbot, who again expelled Godwine, seemingly by force (fretus auxilio Dei atque Regis cum magnâ fortitudine hinc expulit). ... SECOND ELECTION OF HARTHACNUT. 569 vas sent to Bruges, to invite the newly-chosen King to CHAP. VI. ake possession of his crown. He and his mother accord- Harthangly set sail for England in the course of June, he landed cut lands. it Sandwich, and was presently crowned King by Archbishop Eadsige.' June 17. racter. The expectations which had been formed of Harthacnut His chawere grievously disappointed. One worthless youth had simply made way for another equally worthless. Writers in the Norman interest, and members of foundations to which he was lavish, try to invest him with various virtues.2 But the utmost that can be claimed for him is an easy species of munificence which showed itself in the one hand in bounty to monasteries and to the poor,3 and on the other in providing four meals daily for his courtiers. But all his recorded public acts set him before us as a rapacious, brutal, and bloodthirsty tyrant. His short reign is merely The local chronicler looks on Godwine's death at Assandun as the punish- "Hardechunutus 1 Rog. Wend. i. 477. So Fl. Wig. Regnique solio mox sublimatur." 2 Will. Pict. ap. Maseres, 39. generi materno similior, non quâ pater aut frater crudelitate regnabat neque interitum Edwardi sed provectum volebat. Ob morbos etiam quos frequenter patiebatur, plus Deum in oculis habebat, et vitæ humanæ brevitatem." 3 See his charters for a grant to Saint Eadmund's (Cod. Dipl. iv. 60), to Abingdon (iv. 65), to Ramsey (vi. 192. Hist. Rams. c. 97 et seqq.), to Bishop Elfwine of Winchester and his successors (iv. 68). The Ramsey charter runs in the joint names of Harthacnut and his mother. Hen. Hunt. M. H. B. 758 D. "Claræ indolis et benignæ juventutis fuerat suis. Tantæ namque largitatis fertur fuisse ut prandia regalia quattuor in die vicibus omni curiæ suæ faceret apponi, malens à vocatis posita fercula dimitti quam à non vocatis apponenda fercula reposci." Henry then goes on to lament the niggardly practice of the Kings of his own time who provided only one meal daily. The Ramsey historian (c. 102) calls him "vir prædicandæ indolis et eximiæ in miseros pietatis." King John also was a great almsman. CHAP. VI. a repetition of the first and worst days of his father, he could not, like his father, invoke even the tyrant's p of necessity in palliation of his evil deeds. Harthaenut been unanimously chosen King; he had been received w universal joy; there was no sedition within the country and no foreign enemy threatened it. But his cond was that of a conqueror in a hostile land. His first a was to extort a heavy contribution from his new subjet for an object which in no way concerned them. We n learn incidentally that the standing navy of England, b under Cnut and under Harold, had consisted of sixte ships, and eight marks were paid, seemingly yearly, eith! to each rower singly or to some group of rowes Hartha- Harthacnut had come over with sixty ships, manned Danegeld. Danish soldiers, and his first act was to demand eight marks for each man of their crews, a piece of extortion which at once destroyed his newly acquired popularity. He then began to revenge himself on his enemies alive and dead. His first act in this way was an act of senseless brutality towards the dead body of his half-brother, the late King. The dead Harold, the Chronicles tell us, was dragged up and shot into a fen.3 Other writers tell the story with more detail. Some of the officers of his house cnut's first Harold's body disinterred, 1 Chron. Petrib. 1040. "On his [Haroldes] dagum man geald xvi scipan æt ælcere hamulan [hamelan in Chron. Ab.] viii marcan." On the word hamulan Mr. Earle (p. 343) remarks, "This being a dative feminine, the nom. must be hamule, hamele; at first perhaps signifying a rowlock-strap, and so symbolizing some subdivision of the crew. There is not money enough to give eight marcs to every rower." The "hamule" then would be analogous to the "lance" in medieval armies. But Florence clearly took it to mean a single rower; "Octo marcas unicuique suæ classis remigi.” 2 Chronn. Ab. et Wig. "And him wæs þa unhold eall þæt his ær gyrnde; and he ne gefræmde eac naht cynelices pa hwile be he rixode." Florence divides this description, putting the latter clause now, and the former after what I take to be the second Danegeld. 3 Chronn. Ab. et Wig. 933. Florence in anno. Will. Malms. ii. 188. Rog. Wend. i. 477. Bromt. 2 HAROLD'S BODY DUG UP. 571 d, Stir his Mayor of the Palace,1 Eadric his dispenser, CHAP. VI. rond his executioner, all, we are told, men of great ;nity2, were sent to Westminster to dig up the body, d in their company we are surprised to find Earl Godne and Ælfric Archbishop of York. Westminster was ither in Godwine's Earldom nor in Elfric's Diocese, so at both these chiefs of Church and State seem out of lace on such an occasion. We are however told that Elfric was something more than an instrument in the hatter; it was specially at his advice that Harthacnut was guilty of this cowardly piece of spite, one however which, ike the brutalities of Harold himself towards the comrades ɔf Ælfred, did not go without imitators in more polished times. The body of Harold was treated on the restoration of Harthacnut much as the body of Oliver Cromwell was treated on the restoration of Charles the Second. The late King was dug up, beheaded, and thrown, according to this account, into the Thames. It was afterwards 2 William "Alios magnæ dignitatis viros," according to Florence. mentions Elfric only, and adds, et alios quos nominare piget." Roger of Wendover calls them milites et carnifices." On the relation of the great Earls to the officers of the King's household, see above, p. 94. 3 It is possible that the presence of a Prelate was needed to sanctify the insult to consecrated ground; still Elfweard would have been the more natural performer in his own Diocese. So at least says William of Malmesbury in his Lives of the Archbishops of York (De Gest. Pont. lib. iii. Scriptt. p. Bedam, 154 B); “Habetur in hoc detestabilis, quod Hardacnutus ejus [Ælfrici] consilio fratris sui Haroldi cadavere defosso caput truncari, et infami mortalibus exemplo in Tamensem projici jussit." 5 The beheading is also asserted by William in his History; it is not mentioned by Florence. 6 It is evident that there were two stories, one that the body was thrown into a fen, the other that it was thrown into the Thames. Florence tries to combine the two; "Ipsius Haroldi corpus effodere et in gronnam projicere jussit: quod cum projectum fuisset, id extrahere, et in flumen Thamense mandavit projicere.” This sort of translation does not seem so likely as the widely different translation of another Harold, the historical reality of which I shall have to maintain hereafter. |