ELECTION OF EADWARD. the pre of the The 593 election of main subject. We have now gone through all the events CHAP. VI. which form the remoter causes of the Norman Conquest. End of The accession of Eadward at once brings us among the liminary events which immediately led to the Conquest, or rather portion we may look upon his accession as the first stage of the history. Conquest itself. Swend and Cnut had shown that it was Norman possible for a foreign power to overcome England by Conquest begins force of arms. The misgovernment of the sons of Cnut with the hindered the formation of a lasting Danish dynasty in Eadward. England; the throne of Cerdic was again filled by a son of Woden; but there can be no doubt that the shock given to the country by the Danish Conquest, especially the way in which the ancient nobility was cut off in the long struggle with Swend and Cnut, directly opened the way for the coming of the Norman. Eadward did his best, wittingly or unwittingly, to make his path still easier. This he did by accustoming Englishmen to the sight of strangers not national kinsmen like Cnut's Danes, but Frenchmen, men of utterly alien speech and manners-enjoying every available place of honour or profit in the country. The great national reaction under Godwine and Harold made England once more England for a few years. But this change, happy as it was, could not altogether do away with the effects of the French predilections of Eadward. With Eadward then the Norman Conquest really begins, and his election therefore forms the proper break between these two great divisions of my subject. The men of the generation before the Position Conquest, the men whose eyes were not to behold the leading event itself, but who were to do all that they could do men of to advance or to retard it, are now in the full maturity the next generation. of life, in the full possession of power. Eadward is on the throne of England; Godwine, Leofric, and Siward divide among them the administration of the realm. The next generation, the warriors of Stamfordbridge and Senlac, ૨ ૧ of the this and CHAP. VI. of York and Ely, are fast growing into maturity. Harold Hardrada is already pursuing his wild career of knight errantry in distant lands, and is astonishing the world by his exploits in Russia and in Sicily, at Constantinople and at Jerusalem. Swend Estrithson is still a wanderer, not startling men by wonders of prowess like Harold, but schooling himself and gathering his forces for the day when he could establish a permanent dynasty in his native land. In our own land, the younger warriors of the Conquest, Eadwine and Morcere and Waltheof and Hereward, were probably born, but they must still have been in their cradles or in their mothers' arms. But, among the leaders of Church and State, Ealdred, who lived to place the crown on the head both of Harold and of William, is already a great Prelate, Abbot of the great house of Tewkesbury, soon to succeed the patriot Lyfing in the chair of Worcester. Stigand, climbing to greatness by slower steps, is already the chosen counsellor of Emma, a candidate for whatever amount of dignity and influence such a post may open to him. Wulfstan, destined to survive them all, has begun that career of quiet holiness, neither seeking for, nor shrinking from, responsibility in temporal matters, which distinguishes him among the political and military Prelates of that age. In the house of Godwine that group of sons and daughters were springing up who for a moment promised to become the royal line of England. Eadgyth was growing into those charms of mind and person which won for her the hearts of all save that of the King who called her his wife. Gyrth and Leofwine must have been children, Tostig must have been on the verge of manhood; Swegen and Harold were already men, bold and vigorous, ready to march at their father's bidding, and before long to affect the destiny of their country for evil and for good. Beyond the sea, William, still a boy in years but a man in conduct and counsel, is holding his own among the storms of a troubled CHAP. VI. ninority, and learning those arts of the statesman and the varrior which fitted him to become the wisest ruler of Normandy, the last and greatest Conqueror of England. The actors in the great drama are ready for their parts; the ground is gradually clearing for the scene of their performance. The great struggle of nations and tongues and principles in which each of them had his share, the struggle in which William of Normandy and Harold of England stand forth as worthy rivals for the noblest of prizes, will form the subject of the next, the chief and central, portion of my history. APPENDIX. NOTE A. p. 13. THE USE OF THE WORD "ENGLISH." My readers will doubtless have observed-indeed I have, in the text, expressly called their attention to the fact that, in speaking of the Teutonic inhabitants of Britain looked at as a whole, I invariably use the word "English," never the words "Saxon" or "Anglo-Saxon," which are more commonly in use. I do this advisedly, on more grounds than one. I hold it to be a sound rule to speak of a nation, as far as is possible, by the name by which it called itself. This alone would be reason enough for using the word "English" and no other. But besides this, the common way of talking about "Saxons" and "Anglo-Saxons" leads to various confusions and misconceptions; it ought therefore to be avoided on that ground still more than on the other. I am not aware of any instance in which a Teutonic inhabitant of Britain, living before the Norman Conquest, and speaking in his own tongue of the whole nation formed by the union of the various Teutonic tribes in Britain, uses the word` "Saxon." "Engle," "Angelcyn," are the words always used. The only exceptions, if we can call them exceptions, are one or two charters (see above, pp. 145, 148) in which the King of the English is called "King of the Anglo-Saxons." Of these I shall presently speak. But I am not aware that the word "AngloSaxon" is ever used except in the royal style, and even there, in English writings, it is very rare. It is quite certain that the word |