Book: Harold, Book 12.

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Against these, the mere assertion of William, and the authority of
Normans who could know nothing of the truth of the matter, while they
had every interest to misrepresent the facts--we have the positive
assurances of the best possible authorities. The Saxon Chronicle
(worth all the other annalists put together) says expressly, that
Edward left the crown to Harold:

"The sage, ne'ertheless,
The realm committed
To a highly-born man;
Harold's self,
The noble Earl.
He in all time
Obeyed faithfully
His rightful lord,
By words and deeds:
Nor aught neglected
Which needful was
To his sovereign king."

Florence of Worcester, the next best authority, (valuable from
supplying omissions in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,) says expressly that
the King chose Harold for his successor before his decease [294], that
he was elected by the chief men of all England, and consecrated by
Alred. Hoveden, Simon (Dunelm.), the Beverley chronicler, confirm
these authorities as to Edward's choice of Harold as his successor.
William of Malmesbury, who is not partial to Harold, writing in the
reign of Henry the First, has doubts himself as to Edward's bequest,
(though grounded on a very bad argument, viz. "the improbability that
Edward would leave his crown to a man of whose power he had always
been jealous;" there is no proof that Edward had been jealous of
Harold's power--he had been of Godwin's;) but Malmesbury gives a more
valuable authority than his own, in the concurrent opinion of his
time, for he deposes that "the English say," the diadem was granted
him (Harold) by the King.

These evidences are, to say the least, infinitely more worthy of
historical credence than the one or two English chroniclers, of little
comparative estimation, (such as Wike,) and the prejudiced and
ignorant Norman chroniclers [295], who depose on behalf of William. I
assume, therefore, that Edward left the crown to Harold; of Harold's
better claim in the election of the Witan, there is no doubt. But Sir
F. Palgrave starts the notion that, "admitting that the prelates,
earls, aldermen, and thanes of Wessex and East-Anglia had sanctioned
the accession of Harold, their decision could not have been obligatory
on the other kingdoms (provinces); and the very short time elapsing
between the death of Edward and the recognition of Harold, utterly
precludes the supposition that their consent was even asked." This
great writer must permit me, with all reverence, to suggest that he
has, I think, forgotten the fact that, just prior to Edward's death,
an assembly, fully as numerous as ever met in any national Witan, had
been convened to attend the consecration of the new abbey and church
of Westminster, which Edward considered the great work of his life;
that assembly would certainly not have dispersed during a period so
short and anxious as the mortal illness of the King, which appears to
have prevented his attending the ceremony in person, and which ended
in his death a very few days after the consecration. So that during
the interval, which appears to have been at most about a week, between
Edward's death and Harold's coronation [296], the unusually large
concourse of prelates and nobles from all parts of the kingdom
assembled in London and Westminster would have furnished the numbers
requisite to give weight and sanction to the Witan. And had it not
been so, the Saxon chroniclers, and still more the Norman, would
scarcely have omitted some remark in qualification of the election.
But not a word is said as to any inadequate number in the Witan. And
as for the two great principalities of Northumbria and Mercia,
Harold's recent marriage with the sister of their earls might
naturally tend to secure their allegiance.

Nor is it to be forgotten that a very numerous Witan had assembled at
Oxford a few months before, to adjudge the rival claims of Tostig and
Morcar; the decision of the Witan proves the alliance between Harold's
party and that of the young Earl's--ratified by the marriage with
Aldyth. And he who has practically engaged in the contests and cabals
of party, will allow the probability, adopted as fact in the romance,
that, considering Edward's years and infirm health, and the urgent
necessity of determining beforehand the claims to the succession--some
actual, if secret, understanding was then come to by the leading
chiefs. It is a common error in history to regard as sudden, that
which in the nature of affairs never can be sudden. All that paved
Harold's way to the throne must have been silently settled long before
the day in which the Witan elected him unanimi omnium consensu. [297]

With the views to which my examination of the records of the time have
led me in favour of Harold, I can not but think that Sir F. Palgrave,
in his admirable History of Anglo-Saxon England, does scanty justice
to the Last of its kings; and that his peculiar political and
constitutional theories, and his attachment to the principle of
hereditary succession, which make him consider that Harold "had no
clear title to the crown any way," tincture with something like the
prejudice of party his estimate of Harold's character and pretensions.
My profound admiration for Sir F. Palgrave's learning and judgment
would not permit me to make this remark without carefully considering
and re-weighing all the contending authorities on which he himself
relies. And I own that, of all modern historians, Thierry seems to me
to have given the most just idea of the great actors in the tragedy of
the Norman invasion, though I incline to believe that he has overrated
the oppressive influence of the Norman dynasty in which the tragedy
closed.



NOTE (Q)

Physical Peculiarities of the Scandinavians.


"It is a singular circumstance, that in almost all the swords of those
ages to be found to the collection of weapons in the Antiquarian
Museum at Copenhagen, the handles indicate a size of hand very much
smaller than the hands of modern people of any class or rank. No
modern dandy, with the most delicate hands, would find room for his
hand to grasp or wield with ease some of the swords of these
Northmen."

This peculiarity is by some scholars adduced, not without reason, as
an argument for the Eastern origin of the Scandinavian. Nor was it
uncommon for the Asiatic Scythians, and indeed many of the early
warlike tribes fluctuating between the east and west of Europe, to be
distinguished by the blue eyes and yellow hair of the north. The
physical attributes of a deity, or a hero, are usually to be regarded
as those of the race to which he belongs. The golden locks of Apollo
and Achilles are the sign of a similar characteristic in the nations
of which they are the types; and the blue eye of Minerva belies the
absurd doctrine that would identify her with the Egyptian Naith.

The Norman retained perhaps longer than the Scandinavian, from whom he
sprang, the somewhat effeminate peculiarity of small hands and feet;
and hence, as throughout all the nobility of Europe the Norman was the
model for imitation, and the ruling families in many lands sought to
trace from him their descents, so that characteristic is, even to our
day, ridiculously regarded as a sign of noble race. The Norman
probably retained that peculiarity longer than the Dane, because his
habits, as a conqueror, made him disdain all manual labour; and it was
below his knightly dignity to walk, as long as a horse could be found
for him to ride. But the Anglo-Norman (the noblest specimen of the
great conquering family) became so blent with the Saxon, both in blood
and in habits, that such physical distinctions vanished with the age
of chivalry. The Saxon blood in our highest aristocracy now
predominates greatly over the Norman; and it would be as vain a task
to identify the sons of Hastings and Rollo by the foot and hand of the
old Asiatic Scythian, as by the reddish auburn hair and the high
features which were no less ordinarily their type. Here and there
such peculiarities may all be seen amongst plain country gentlemen,
settled from time immemorial in the counties peopled by the Anglo-
Danes, and inter-marrying generally in their own provinces; but
amongst the far more mixed breed of the larger landed proprietors
comprehended in the Peerage, the Saxon attributes of race are
strikingly conspicuous, and, amongst them, the large hand and foot
common with all the Germanic tribes.



NOTE (R)

The Interment of Harold.


Here we are met by evidences of the most contradictory character.
According to most of the English writers, the body of Harold was given
by William to Githa, without ransom, and buried at Waltham. There is
even a story told of the generosity of the Conqueror, in cashiering a
soldier who gashed the corpse of the dead hero. This last, however,
seems to apply to some other Saxon, and not to Harold. But William of
Poitiers, who was the Duke's own chaplain, and whose narration of the
battle appears to contain more internal evidence of accuracy than the
rest of his chronicle, expressly says, that William refused Githa's
offer of its weight in gold for the supposed corpse of Harold, and
ordered it to be buried on the beach, with the taunt quoted in the
text of this work--"Let him guard the coast which he madly occupied;"
and on the pretext that one, whose cupidity and avarice had been the
cause that so many men were slaughtered and lay unsepultured, was not
worthy himself of a tomb. Orderic confirms this account, and says the
body was given to William Mallet, for that purpose. [299]

Certainly William de Poitiers ought to have known best; and the
probability of his story is to a certain degree borne out by the
uncertainty as to Harold's positive interment, which long prevailed,
and which even gave rise to a story related by Giraldus Cambrensis
(and to be found also in the Harleian MSS.), that Harold survived the
battle, became a monk in Chester, and before he died had a long and
secret interview with Henry the First. Such a legend, however absurd,
could scarcely have gained any credit if (as the usual story runs)
Harold had been formally buried, in the presence of many of the Norman
barons, in Waltham Abbey--but would very easily creep into belief, if
his body had been carelessly consigned to a Norman knight, to be
buried privately by the sea-shore.

The story of Osgood and Ailred, the childemaister (schoolmaster in the
monastery), as related by Palgrave, and used in this romance, is
recorded in a MS. of Waltham Abbey, and was written somewhere about
fifty or sixty years after the event--say at the beginning of the
twelfth century. These two monks followed Harold to the field, placed
themselves so as to watch its results, offered ten marks for the body,
obtained permission for the search, and could not recognise the
mutilated corpse until Osgood sought and returned with Edith. In
point of fact, according to this authority, it must have been two or
three days after the battle before the discovery was made.





FOOTNOTES


[1] Sismondi's History of France, vol. iv. p. 484.

[2] "Men's blinded hopes, diseases, toil, and prayer,
And winged troubles peopling daily air."

[3] Merely upon the obscure MS. of the Waltham Monastery; yet, such
is the ignorance of popular criticism, that I have been as much
attacked for the license I have taken with the legendary connection
between Harold and Edith, as if that connection were a proven and
authenticated fact! Again, the pure attachment to which, in the
romance, the loves of Edith and Harold are confined, has been alleged
to be a sort of moral anachronism,--a sentiment wholly modern;
whereas, on the contrary, an attachment so pure was infinitely more
common in that day than in this, and made one of the most striking
characteristics of the eleventh century; indeed of all the earlier
ages, in the Christian era, most subjected to monastic influences.

[4] Notes less immediately necessary to the context, or too long not
to interfere with the current of the narrative, are thrown to the end
of the work.

[5] There is a legend attached to my friend's house, that on certain
nights in the year, Eric the Saxon winds his horn at the door, and, in
forma spectri, serves his notice of ejectment.

[6] The "Edinburgh Review," No. CLXXIX. January, 1849. Art. I.
"Correspondance inedite, de Mabillon et de Montfaucon, avec l'Italie."
Par M. Valery. Paris, 1848.

[7] And long before the date of the travesty known to us, and most
popular amongst our mediaeval ancestors, it might be shown that some
rude notion of Homer's fable and personages had crept into the North.

[8] "The apartment in which the Anglo-Saxon women lived, was called
Gynecium."--FOSBROOKE, vol. ii., p. 570.

[9] Glass, introduced about the time of Bede, was more common then in
the houses of the wealthy, whether for vessels or windows, than in the
much later age of the gorgeous Plantagenets. Alfred, in one of his
poems, introduces glass as a familiar illustration:

"So oft the mild sea
With south wind
As grey glass clear
Becomes grimly troubled."
SHAR. TURNER.


[10] Skulda, the Norna, or Fate, that presided over the future.

[11] The historians of our literature have not done justice to the
great influence which the poetry of the Danes has had upon our early
national muse. I have little doubt but that to that source may be
traced the minstrelsy of our borders, and the Scottish Lowlands;
while, even in the central counties, the example and exertions of
Canute must have had considerable effect on the taste and spirit of
our Scops. That great prince afforded the amplest encouragement to
Scandinavian poetry, and Olaus names eight Danish poets, who
flourished at his court.

[12] "By the splendour of God."

[13] See Note (A) at the end of this volume.

[14] It is noticeable that the Norman dukes did not call themselves
Counts or Dukes of Normandy, but of the Normans; and the first Anglo-
Norman kings, till Richard the First, styled themselves Kings of the
English, not of England. In both Saxon and Norman chronicles, William
usually bears the title of Count (Comes), but in this tale he will be
generally called Duke, as a title more familiar to us.

[15] The few expressions borrowed occasionally from the Romance
tongue, to give individuality to the speaker, will generally be
translated into modern French; for the same reason as Saxon is
rendered into modern English, viz., that the words may be intelligible
to the reader.

[16] "Roman de Rou," part i., v. 1914.

[17] The reason why the Normans lost their old names is to be found
in their conversion to Christianity. They were baptised; and Franks,
as their godfathers, gave them new appellations. Thus, Charles the
Simple insists that Rolf-ganger shall change his law (creed) and his
name, and Rolf or Rou is christened Robert. A few of those who
retained Scandinavian names at the time of the Conquest will be cited
hereafter.

[18] Thus in 991, about a century after the first settlement, the
Danes of East Anglia gave the only efficient resistance to the host of
the Vikings under Justin and Gurthmund; and Brithnoth, celebrated by
the Saxon poet, as a Saxon par excellence, the heroic defender of his
native soil, was, in all probability, of Danish descent. Mr. Laing,
in his preface to his translation of the Heimskringla, truly observes,
"that the rebellions against William the Conqueror, and his
successors, appear to have been almost always raised, or mainly
supported, in the counties of recent Danish descent, not in those
peopled by the old Anglo-Saxon race."

The portion of Mercia, consisting of the burghs of Lancaster, Lincoln,
Nottingham, Stamford, and Derby, became a Danish state in A.D. 877;--
East Anglia, consisting of Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, and the Isle
of Ely, in A.D. 879-80; and the vast territory of Northumbria,
extending all north the Humber, into all that part of Scotland south
of the Frith, in A.D. 876.--See PALGRAVE'S Commonwealth. But besides
their more allotted settlements, the Danes were interspersed as
landowners all over England.

[19] Bromton Chron--via., Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Herts,
Cambridgeshire, Hants, Lincoln, Notts, Derby, Northampton,
Leicestershire, Bucks, Beds, and the vast territory called
Northumbria.

[20] PALGRAVE's History of England, p. 315.

[21] The laws collected by Edward the Confessor, and in later times
so often and so fondly referred to, contained many introduced by the
Danes, which had grown popular with the Saxon people. Much which we
ascribe to the Norman Conqueror, pre-existed in the Anglo-Danish, and
may be found both in Normandy, and parts of Scandinavia, to this day.
--See HAKEWELL's Treatise on the Antiquity of Laws in this Island, in
HEARNE's Curious Discourses.

[22] PALGRAVE's History of England, p. 322.

[23] The name of this god is spelt Odin, when referred to as the
object of Scandinavian worship; Woden, when applied directly to the
deity of the Saxons.

[24] See Note (B), at the end of the volume.

[25] The Peregrine hawk built on the rocks of Llandudno, and this
breed was celebrated, even to the days of Elizabeth. Burleigh thanks
one of the Mostyns for a cast of hawks from Llandudno.

[26] Hlaf, loaf,--Hlaford, lord, giver of bread; Hleafdian, lady,
server of bread.--VERSTEGAN.

[27] Bedden-ale. When any man was set up in his estate by the
contributions of his friends, those friends were bid to a feast, and
the ale so drunk was called the bedden-ale, from bedden, to pray, or
to bid. (See BRAND's Pop. Autiq.)

[28] Herleve (Arlotta), William's mother, married Herluin de
Conteville, after the death of Duke Robert, and had by him two sons,
Robert, Count of Mortain, and Odo, Bishop of Bayeux.-ORD. VITAL. lib.
vii.

[29] Mone, monk.

[30] STRUTT's Horda.

[31] There is an animated description of this "Battle of London
Bridge, "which gave ample theme to the Scandinavian scalds, in Snorro
Sturleson:

"London Bridge is broken down;
Gold is won and bright renown;
Shields resounding,
War-horns sounding,
Hildur shouting in the din,
Arrows singing,
Mail-coats ringing,
Odin makes our Olaf win."
LAING's Heimskringla, vol. ii. p. 10.

[32] Sharon Turner.

[33] Hawkins, vol. ii. p. 94.

[34] Doomsday makes mention of the Moors, and the Germans (the
Emperor's merchants) that were sojourners or settlers in London. The
Saracens at that time were among the great merchants of the world;
Marseilles, Arles, Avignon, Montpellier, Toulouse, were the wonted
stapes of their active traders. What civilisers, what teachers they
were--those same Saracens! How much in arms and in arts we owe them!
Fathers of the Provencal poetry they, far more than even the
Scandinavian scalds, have influenced the literature of Christian
Europe. The most ancient chronicle of the Cid was written in Arabic,
a little before the Cid's death, by two of his pages, who were
Mnssulmans. The medical science of the Moors for six centuries
enlightened Europe, and their metaphysics were adopted in nearly all
the Christian universities.

[35] Billingsgate. See Note (C), at the end of the volume.

[36] London received a charter from William at the instigation of the
Norman Bishop of London; but it probably only confirmed the previous
municipal constitution, since it says briefly, "I grant you all to be
as law-worthy as ye were in the days of King Edward." The rapid
increase, however, of the commercial prosperity and political
importance of London after the Conquest, is attested in many
chronicles, and becomes strikingly evident even on the surface of
history.

[37] There seems good reason for believing that a keep did stand
where the Tower stands, before the Conquest, and that William's
edifice spared some of its remains. In the very interesting letter
from John Bayford relating to the city of London (Lel. Collect.
lviii.), the writer, a thorough master of his subject, states that
"the Romans made a public military way, that of Watling Street, from
the Tower to Ludgate, in a straight line, at the end of which they
built stations or citadels, one of which was where the White Tower now
stands." Bayford adds that "when the White Tower was fitted up for
the reception of records, there remained many Saxon inscriptions."

[38] Rude-lane. Lad-lane.--BAYFORD.

[39] Fitzstephen.

[40] Camden.

[41] BAYFORD, Leland's Collectanea, p. lviii.

[42] Ludgate (Leod-gate).--VERSTEGAN.

[43] See Note (D), at the end of the volume.

[44] Massere, merchant, mercer.

[45] Fitzstephen.

[46] Meuse. Apparently rather a hawk hospital, from Muta (Camden).
Du Fresne, in his Glossary, says, Muta is in French Le Meue, and a
disease to which the hawk was subject on changing its feathers.

[47] Scotland-yard.--STRYPE.

[48] The first bridge that connected Thorney Isle with the mainland
is said to have been built by Matilda, wife of Henry I.

[49] We give him that title, which this Norman noble generally bears
in the Chronicles, though Palgrave observes that he is rather to be
styled Earl of the Magesetan (the Welch Marches).

[50] Eadigan.--S. TURNER, vol. i. p. 274.

[51] The comparative wealth of London was indeed considerable. When,
in 1018, all the rest of England was taxed to an amount considered
stupendous, viz., 71,000 Saxon pounds, London contributed 11,000
pounds besides.

[52] Complin. the second vespers.

[53] CAMDEN--A church was built out of the ruins of that temple by
Sibert, King of the East Saxons; and Canute favoured much the small
monastery attached to it (originally established by Dunstan for twelve
Benedictines), on account of its Abbot Wulnoth, whose society pleased
him. The old palace of Canute, in Thorney Isle, had been destroyed by
fire.

[54] See note to PLUQUET's Roman de Rou, p. 285.
N.B.--Whenever the Roman de Rou is quoted in these pages it is from
the excellent edition of M. Pluquet.

[55] Pardex or Parde, corresponding to the modern French expletive,
pardie.

[56] Quen, or rather Quens; synonymous with Count in the Norman
Chronicles. Earl Godwin is strangely styled by Wace, Quens Qwine.

[57] "Good, good, pleasant son,--the words of the poet sound
gracefully on the lips of the knight."

[58] A sentiment variously assigned to William and to his son Henry
the Beau Clerc.

[59] Mallet is a genuine Scandinavian name to this day.

[60] Rou--the name given by the French to Rollo, or Rolf-ganger, the
founder of the Norman settlement.

[61] Pious severity to the heterodox was a Norman virtue. William of
Poictiers says of William, "One knows with what zeal he pursued and
exterminated those who thought differently;" i.e., on transubstantiation.
But the wise Norman, while flattering the tastes of the Roman Pontiff
in such matters, took special care to preserve the independence of his
Church from any undue dictation.

[62] A few generations later this comfortable and decent fashion of
night-gear was abandoned; and our forefathers, Saxon and Norman, went
to bed in puris naturalibus, like the Laplanders.

[63] Most of the chroniclers merely state the parentage within the
forbidden degrees as the obstacle to William's marriage with Matilda;
but the betrothal or rather nuptials of her mother Adele with Richard
III. (though never consummated), appears to have been the true
canonical objection.--See note to Wace, p. 27. Nevertheless,
Matilda's mother, Adele, stood in the relation of aunt to William, as
widow of his father's elder brother, "an affinity," as is observed by
a writer in the "Archaeologia," "quite near enough to account for, if
not to justify, the interference of the Church."--Arch. vol. xxxii. p.
109.

[64] It might be easy to show, were this the place, that though the
Saxons never lost their love of liberty, yet that the victories which
gradually regained the liberty from the gripe of the Anglo-Norman
kings, were achieved by the Anglo-Norman aristocracy. And even to
this day, the few rare descendants of that race (whatever their
political faction), will generally exhibit that impatience of despotic
influence, and that disdain of corruption, which characterise the
homely bonders of Norway, in whom we may still recognise the sturdy
likeness of their fathers; while it is also remarkable that the modern
inhabitants of those portions of the kingdom originally peopled by
their kindred Danes, are, irrespective of mere party divisions, noted
for their intolerance of all oppression, and their resolute
independence of character; to wit, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Cumberland, and
large districts in the Scottish Lowlands.

[65] Ex pervetusto codice, MS. Chron. Bec. in Vit. Lanfranc, quoted
in the "Archaeologia," vol. xxxii. p. 109. The joke, which is very
poor, seems to have turned upon pede and quadrupede; it is a little
altered in the text.

[66] Ord. Vital. See Note on Lanfranc, at the end of the volume.

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