GODWIN OF BOSHAM, EDWARD THE CONFESSOR,
HAROLD & BOSHAM
vol. 2 of The Prose Works of John Milton. circa 1670
Glad were the English delivered so
unexpectedly from their Danish masters, and little thought how near
another conquest was hanging over them. Edward, the Easter following,
crowned at Winchester, the same year accompanied with earl Godwin,
Leofric, and Siward, came again thither on a sudden, and by their counsel
seized on the treasure of his mother Emma. The cause alleged is, that she
was hard to him in the time of his banishment; and indeed she is said not
much to have loved Ethelred her former husband, and thereafter the
children by him; she was moreover noted to be very covetous, hard to the
poor, and profuse to monasteries. About this time† also King Edward,
according to promise, took to wife Edith or Egith earl Godwin’s daughter,
commended much for beauty, modesty, and beyond what is requisite in a
woman, learning. Ingulf, then a youth lodging in the court with his
father, saw her oft, and coming from the school was sometimes met by her
and posed, not in grammar only, but in logic. Edward the next year but
one made ready a strong navy at Sandwich against Magnus king of Norway,
who threatened an invasion, had not Swane king of Denmark diverted him by
a war at home to defend his own land; not out of good will to Edward, as
may be supposed, who at the same time expressed none to the Danes,
banishing Gunildis the neice of Canute with her two sons, and Osgod by
surname Clapa, out of the realm. Swane, overpowered by Magnus, sent the
next year to entreat aid of King Edward; Godwin gave counsel to
send him fifty ships fraught with soldiers; but Leofric and the general
voice gainsaying, none were sent.
The next year Harold Harvager, king of
Norway, sending embassadors, made peace with King Edward; but an
earthquake at Worcester and Derby, pestilence and famine in many places,
much lessened the enjoyment thereof. The next year Henry the emperor,
displeased with Baldwin earl of Flanders, had straitened him with a great
army by land; and sending to king Edward, desired him with his ships to
hinder what he might his escape by sea. The king therefore, with a great
navy, coming to Sandwich, there staid till the emperor came to an
agreement with earl Baldwin. Meanwhile Swane son of earl Godwin,
who, not permitted to marry Edgiva the abbess of Chester by him
deflowered, had left the land, came out of Denmark with eight ships,
feigning a desire to return into the king’s favour; and Beorn his cousin
german, who commanded part of the king’s navy, promised to intercede, that
his earldom might be restored him. Godwin therefore and Beorn with a few
ships, the rest of the fleet gone home, coming to Pevensey, (but Godwin
soon departed thence in pursuit of twenty-nine Danish ships, who had got
much booty on the coast of Essex, and perished by tempest in their
return,) Swane with his ships comes to Beorn at Pevensey, guilefully
requests him to sail with him to Sandwich, and reconcile him to the king,
as he had promised. Beorn mistrusting no evil where he intended good, went
with him in his ship attended by three only of his servants: but Swane,
set upon barbarous cruelty, not reconciliation with the king, took Beorn
now in his power, and bound him; then coming to Dartmouth, slew and buried
him in a deep ditch. After which the men of Hastings took six of his
ships, and brought them to the king at Sandwich; with the other two he
escaped into Flanders, there remaining till Aldred bishop of Worcester by
earnest mediation wrought his peace with the king.
About this time King
Edward sent to pope Leo, desiring absolution from a vow which he had made
in his younger years, to take a journey to Rome, if God vouchsafed him to
reign in England; the pope dispensed with his vow, but not without the
expense of his journey given to the poor, and a monastery built or re-dified
to St. Peter; who in vision to a monk, as is said, chose Westminster,
which King Edward thereupon rebuilding endowed with large privileges and
revenues. The same year, saith Florent of Worcester, certain Irish
pirates with thirty-six ships entered the mouth of Severn, and with the
aid of Griffin prince of South Wales, did some hurt in those parts: then
passing the river Wye, burnt Dunedham, and slew all the inhabitants they
found. Against whom Aldred bishop of Worcester, with a few out of
Gloucester and Herefordshire, went out in haste: but Griffin, to whom the
Welsh and Irish had privily sent messengers, came down upon the English
with his whole power by night, and early in the morning suddenly
assaulting them, slew many, and put the rest to flight. The next year§ but
one, King Edward remitted the Danish tax which had continued thirty-eight
years heavy upon the land since Ethelred first paid it to the Danes, and
what remained thereof in his treasury he sent back to the owners: but
through imprudence laid the foundation of a far worse mischief to the
English; while studying gratitude to those Normans, who to him in exile
had been helpful, he called them over to public offices here, whom better
he might have repaid out of his private purse; by this means exasperating
either nation one against the other, and making way by degrees to the
Norman conquest. Robert a monk of that country, who had been serviceable
to him there in time of need, he made bishop, first of London, then of
Canterbury; William his chaplain, bishop of Dorchester. Then began the
English to lay aside their own ancient customs, and in many things to
imitate French manners, the great peers to speak French in their houses,
in French to write their bills and letters, as a great piece of gentility,
ashamed of their own: a presage of their subjection shortly to that
people, whose fashions and language they affected so slavishly. But that
which gave beginning to many troubles ensuing happened this year, and upon
this occasion.
Eustace earl of Boloign, father of the famous Godfrey who won Jerusalem
from the Saracens, and husband to Goda the king’s sister, having been to
visit King Edward, and returning by Canterbury to take ship at Dover, one
of his harbingers insolently seeking to lodge by force in a house there,
provoked so the master thereof, as by chance or heat of anger to kill him.
The count with his whole train going to the house where his servant had
been killed, slew both the slayer and eighteen more who defended him. But
the townsmen running to arms, requited him with the slaughter of twenty
more of his servants, wounded most of the rest; he himself with one or two
hardly escaping, ran back with clamour to the king; whom, seconded by
other Norman courtiers, he stirred up to great anger against the citizens
of Canterbury. Earl Godwin in haste is sent for, the cause related
and much aggravated by the king against that city, the earl commanded to
raise forces, and use the citizens thereof as enemies. Godwin,
sorry to see strangers more favoured of the king than his native people,
answered, that “it were better to summon first the chief men of the town
into the king’s court, to charge them with sedition, where both parties
might be heard, that not found in fault they might be acquitted; if
otherwise, by fine or loss of life might satisfy the king, whose peace
they had broken, and the count whom they had injured: till this were done
refusing to prosecute with hostile punishment them of his own country
unheard, whom his office was rather to defend.”
The king, displeased with
his refusal, and not knowing how to compel him, appointed an assembly of
all the peers to be held at Gloucester, where the matter might be fully
tried; the assembly was full and frequent according to summons: but
Godwin, mistrusting his own cause, or the violence of his adversaries,
with his two sons, Swane and Harold, and a great power gathered out of his
own and his sons’ earldoms, which contained most of the south-east and
west parts of England, came no farther than Beverstan, giving out that
their forces were to go against the Welsh, who intended an irruption into
Herefordshire; and Swane under that pretence lay with part of his army
thereabout. The Welsh understanding this device, and with all diligence
clearing themselves before the king, left Godwin detected of false
accusation in great hatred to all the assembly. Leofric therefore and
Siward, dukes of great power, the former in Mercia, the other in all parts
beyond Humber, both ever faithful to the king, send privily with speed to
raise the forces of their provinces. Which Godwin not knowing, sent
bold to King Edward, demanding count Eustace and his followers, together
with those Boloignians, who, as Simeon writes, held a castle in the
jurisdiction of Canterbury. The king, as then having but little force at
hand, entertained him a while with treaties and delays, till his summoned
army drew nigh, then rejected his demands. Godwin, thus matched,
commanded his sons not to begin fight against the king; begun with, not to
give ground.
The king’s forces were the flower of those counties whence
they came, and eager to fall on: but Leofric and the wiser sort, detesting
civil war, brought the matter to this accord; that hostages given on
either side, the cause should be again debated at London. Thither the king
and lords coming with their army, sent to Godwin and his sons (who
with their powers were come as far as Southwark) commanding their
appearance unarmed with only twelve attendants, and that the rest of their
soldiers they should deliver over to the king. They to appear without
pledges before an adverse faction denied; but to dismiss their soldiers
refused not, nor in aught else to obey the king as far as might stand with
honour and the just regard of their safety.
This answer not pleasing the king, an edict was presently issued forth,
that Godwin and his sons within five days depart the land. He, who
perceived now his numbers to diminish, readily obeyed, and with his wife
and three sons, Tosti, Swane, and Gyrtha, with as much treasure as their
ship could carry, embarked at Thorney, sailed into Flanders to earl
Baldwin, whose daughter Judith Tosti had married: for Wulnod his fourth
son was then a hostage to the king in Normandy; his other two, Harold and
Leofwin, taking ship at Bristow, in a vessel that lay ready there
belonging to Swane, passed into Ireland. King Edward, pursuing his
displeasure, divorced his wife Edith, earl Godwin’s daughter, sending her
despoiled of all her ornaments to Warewel with one waiting-maid; to be
kept in custody by his sister the abbess there. His reason of so doing
was as harsh as his act, that she only, while her nearest relations were
in banishment, might not, though innocent, enjoy ease at home. After this,
William duke of Normandy, with a great number of followers, coming into
England, was by King Edward honourably entertained, and led about the
cities and castles, as it were to show him what ere long was to be his
own, (though at that time, saith Ingulf, no mention thereof passed between
them,) then, after some time of his abode here, presented richly and
dismissed, he returned home.
The next year Queen Emma died, and was buried at Winchester. The
chronicle attributed to John Brompton, a Yorkshire abbot, but rather of
some nameless author living under Edward III., or later, reports that the
year before, by Robert the archbishop she was accused both of consenting
to the death of her son Elfred, and of preparing poison for Edward also:
lastly, of too much familiarity with Alwin bishop of Winchester; that to
approve her innocence, praying overnight to St. Swithune, she offered to
pass blindfold between certain ploughshares red-hot, according to the
ordalian law, which without harm she performed; that the king thereupon
received her to honour, and from her and the bishop, penance for his
credulity; that the archbishop, ashamed of his accusation, fled out of
England: which, besides the silence of ancienter authors, (for the bishop
fled not till a year after,) brings the whole story into suspicion, in
this more probable, if it can be proved, that in memory of this
deliverance from the nine burning ploughshares, Queen Emma gave to the
abbey of St. Swithune nine manors, and bishop Alwin other nine.
About this time Griffin prince of South Wales wasted Herefordshire; to
oppose whom the people of that country, with many Normans, garrisoned in
the castle of Hereford, went out in arms, but were put to the worse, many
slain, and much booty driven away by the Welsh. Soon after which Harold
and Leofwin, sons of Godwin, coming into Severn with many ships, in
the confines of Somerset and Dorsetshire, spoiled many villages, and
resisted by those of Somerset and Devonshire, slew in a fight more than
thirty of their principal men, many of the common sort, and returned with
much booty to their fleet. King Edward on the other side made ready above
sixty ships at Sandwich, well stored with men and provision, under the
conduct of Odo and Radulf, two of his Norman kindred, enjoining them to
find out Godwin, whom he heard to be at sea. To quicken them, he
himself lay on shipboard, ofttimes watched and sailed up and down in
search of those pirates. But Godwin, whether in a mist, or by other
accident, passing by them, arrived in another part of Kent, and dispersing
several messengers abroad, by fair words allured the chief men of Kent,
Surrey, and Essex, to his party; which news coming to the king’s fleet at
Sandwich, they hasted to find him out; but missing of him again, came up
without effect to London. Godwin, advertised of this, forthwith
sailed to the Isle of Wight; where at length his two sons Harold and
Leofwin finding him, with their united navy lay on the coast, forbearing
other hostility than to furnish themselves with fresh victuals from land
as they needed. Thence as one fleet they set forward to Sandwich, using
all fair means by the way to increase their numbers both of mariners and
soldiers.
The king then at London, startled at these tidings, gave speedy
orders to raise forces in all parts that had not revolted from him; but
now too late, for Godwin within a few days after with his ships or
galleys came up the river Thames to Southwark, and till the tide returned
had conference with the Londoners; whom by fair speeches (for he was held
a good speaker in those times) he brought to his bent. The tide returned,
and none upon the bridge hindering, he rowed up in his galleys along the
south bank; where his land-army, now come to him, in array of battle now
stood on the shore; then turning toward the north side of the river, where
the king’s galleys lay in some readiness, and land forces also not far
off, he made show as offering to fight; but they understood one another,
and the soldiers on either side soon declared their resolution not to
fight English against English. Thence coming to treaty, the king and the
earl reconciled, both armies were dissolved, Godwin and his sons
restored to their former dignities, except Swane, who, touched in
conscience for the slaughter of Beorne his kinsman, was gone barefoot to
Jerusalem, and, returning home, died by sickness or Saracens in Lycia; his
wife Edith, Godwin’s daughter, King Edward took to him again, dignified as
before. Then were the Normans, who had done many unjust things under the
king’s authority, and given him ill counsel against his people, banished
the realm; some of them, not blameable, permitted to stay. Robert
archbishop of Canterbury, William of London, Ulf of Lincoln, all Normans,
hardly escaping with their followers, got to sea. The archbishop went with
his complaint to Rome; but returning, died in Normandy at the same
monastery from whence he came. Osbern and Hugh surrendered their castles,
and by permission of Leofric passed through his countries with their
Normans to Macbeth king of Scotland.
The year following, Rhese, brother
to Griffin, prince of South Wales, who by inroads had done much damage to
the English, taken at Bulendun, was put to death by the king’s
appointment, and his head brought to him at Gloucester. The same year at
Winchester on the second holy day of Easter, earl Godwin, sitting
with the king at table, sunk down suddenly in his seat as dead: his three
sons, Harold, Tosti, and Girtha, forthwith carried him into the king’s
chamber, hoping he might revive: but the malady had so seized him, that
the fifth day after he expired. The Normans who hated Godwin give
out, saith Malmsbury, that mention happening to be made of Elfred, and the
king thereat looking sourly upon Godwin, he, to vindicate himself,
uttered these words: “Thou, O king, at every mention made of thy brother
Elfred, lookest frowningly upon me; but let God not suffer me to swallow
this morsel, if I be guilty of aught done against his life or thy
advantage;” that after these words, choked with the morsel taken, he sunk
down and recovered not. His first wife was the sister of Canute, a woman
of much infamy for the trade she drove of buying up English youths and
maids to sell in Denmark, whereof she made great gain; but ere long was
struck with thunder and died.
The year ensuing, Siward earl of
Northumberland, with a great number of horse and foot, attended also by a
strong fleet at the king’s appointment, made an expedition into Scotland,
vanquished the tyrant Macbeth, slaying many thousands of Scots with those
Normans that went thither, and placed Malcolm son of the Cambrian king in
his stead; yet not without loss of his own son, and many other both
English and Danes. Told of his son’s death,† he asked whether he received
his death’s wound before or behind. When it was answered, before; “I am
glad,” saith he, “and should not else have thought him, though my son,
worthy of burial.” In the mean while King Edward being without issue to
succeed him, sent Aldred bishop of Winchester with great presents to the
emperor, entreating him to prevail with the king of Hungary, that Edward,
the remaining son of his brother Edmund Ironside, might be sent into
England. Siward but one year surviving his great victory, died at York
reported by Huntingdon a man of giant-like stature; and by his own demeanor at point of death manifested, of a rough and mere soldierly mind.
For much disdaining to die in bed by a disease, not in the field fighting
with his enemies, he caused himself completely armed, and weaponed with
battleaxe and shield, to be set in a chair, whether to fight with death,
if he could be so vain, or to meet him (when far other weapons and
preparations were needful) in a martial bravery; but true fortitude
glories not in the feats of war, as they are such, but as they serve to
end war soonest by a victorious peace.
His earldom the king bestowed on Tosti the son of earl Godwin: and
soon after, in a convention held at London, banished without visible
cause, Huntingdon saith for treason, Algar the son of Leofric; who,
passing into Ireland, soon returned with eighteen ships to Griffin prince
of South Wales, requesting his aid against King Edward. He, assembling his
powers, entered with him into Herefordshire; whom Radulf a timorous
captain, son to the king’s sister, not by Eustace, but a former husband,
met two miles distant from Hereford; and having horsed the English, who
knew better to fight on foot, without stroke he with his French and
Normans beginning to fly, taught the English by his example. Griffin and
Algar, following the chase, slew many, wounded more, entered Hereford,
slew seven canons defending the minster, burnt the monastery and reliques,
then the city; killing some, leading captive others of the citizens,
returned with great spoils; whereof King Edward having notice gathered a
great army at Gloucester under the conduct of Harold, now earl of Kent,
who strenuously pursuing Griffin entered Wales, and encamped beyond
Straddale. But the enemy flying before him farther into the country,
leaving there the greater part of his army with such as had charge to
fight, if occasion were offered, with the rest he returned, and fortified
Hereford with a wall and gates. Meanwhile Griffin and Algar, dreading the
diligence of Harold, after many messages to and fro, concluded a peace
with him. Algar, discharging his fleet with pay at West-Chester, came to
the king, and was restored to his earldom. But Griffin with breach of
faith, the next year* set upon Leofgar the bishop of Hereford and his
clerks then at a place called Glastbrig, with Agelnorth viscount of the
shire, and slew them; but Leofric, Harold, and King Edward, by force as is
likeliest, though it be not said how, reduced him to peace.
The next
year, Edward son of Edmund Ironside, for whom his uncle King Edward had
sent to the emperor, came out of Hungary, designed successor to the crown;
but within a few days after his coming died at London, leaving behind him
Edgar Atheling his son, Margaret and Christiana his daughters. About the
same time also died earl Leofric in a good old age, a man of no less
virtue than power in his time, religious, prudent, and faithful to his
country, happily wedded to Godiva, a woman of great praise. His son Algar
found less favour with King Edward, again banished the year after his
father’s death, but he again by the aid of Griffin and a fleet from
Norway, maugre the king, soon recovered his earldom. The next year§
Malcolm king of Scots, coming to visit King Edward, was brought on his way
by Tosti the Northumbrian, to whom he swore brotherhood: yet the next year
but one,∥ while Tosti was gone to Rome with Aldred archbishop of York for
his pall, this sworn brother, taking advantage of his absence, roughly
harassed Northumberland.
The year passing to an end without other matter
of moment, save the frequent inroads and robberies of Griffin, whom no
bounds of faith could restrain, King Edward sent against him after
Christmas
Harold now Duke of West-Saxons, with no great body of horse,
from Gloucester, where he then kept his court; whose coming heard of
Griffin not daring to abide, nor in any part of his land holding himself
secure, escaped hardly by sea, ere Harold, coming to Rudeland, burnt his
palace and ships there, returning to Gloucester the same day. But by the
middle of May setting out with a fleet from Bristow, he sailed about the
most part of Wales, and met by his brother Tosti with many troops of
horse, as the king had appointed, began to waste the country; but the
Welsh giving pledges, yielded themselves, promised to become tributary,
and banish Griffin their prince; who lurking somewhere was the next year
taken and slain by Griffin prince of North Wales; his head with the head
and tackle of his ship sent to Harold, by him to the king, who of his
gentleness made Blechgent and Rithwallon, or Rivallon, his two brothers,
princes in his stead; they to Harold in behalf of the king swore fealty
and tribute.
Yet the next year Harold having built a fair house at a
place called Portascith in Monmouthshire, and stored it with provision,
that the king might lodge there in time of hunting, Caradoc, the son of
Griffin slain the year before, came with a number of men, slew all he
found there, and took away the provision. Soon after which the
Northumbrians in a tumult at York beset the palace of Tosti their earl,
slew more than two hundred of his soldiers and servants, pillaged his
treasure, and put him to fly for his life. The cause of this insurrection
they alledged to be, for that the queen Edith had commanded, in her
brother Tosti’s behalf, Gospatric a nobleman of that country to be
treacherously slain in the king’s court; and that Tosti himself the year
before with like treachery had caused to be slain in his chamber Gamel and
Ulf, two other of their noblemen, besides his intolerable exactions and
oppressions.
Then in a manner the whole country, coming up to complain of
their grievances, met with Harold at Northampton, whom the king at Tosti’s
request had sent to pacify the Northumbrians; but they laying open the
cruelty of his government, and their own birthright of freedom not to
endure the tyranny of any governor whatsoever, with absolute refusal to
admit him again, and Harold hearing reason, all the accomplices of Tosti
were expelled the earldom. He himself, banished the realm, went into
Flanders; Morcar the son of Algar made earl in his stead. Huntingdon tells
another cause of Tosti’s banishment, that one day at Windsor, while Harold
reached the cup to King Edward, Tosti envying to see his younger brother
in greater favour than himself, could not forbear to run furiously upon
him, catching hold of his hair; the scuffle was soon parted by other
attendants rushing between, and Tosti forbidden the court.
He with continued fury riding to Hereford, where Harold had many servants,
preparing an entertainment for the king, came to the house and set upon
them with his followers; then lopping off hands, arms, legs of some, heads
of others, threw them into buts of wine, meath or ale, which were laid in
for the king’s drinking: and at his going away charged them to send him
this word, that of other fresh meats he might bring with him to his farm
what he pleased, but of souse he should find plenty provided ready for
him: that for this barbarous act the king pronounced him banished; that
the Northumbrians, taking advantage at the king’s displeasure and sentence
against him, rose also to be revenged of his cruelties done to themselves.
But this no way agrees; for why then should Harold or the king so much
labour with the Northumbrians to readmit him, if he were a banished man
for his crimes done before?
About this time it happened, that Harold
putting to sea one day for his pleasure in a fisherboat, from his manor
at Boseham (Bosham) in Sussex, caught with a tempest too far off
land was carried into Normandy; and by the earl of Pontiew, on whose coast
he was driven, at his own request brought to duke William; who,
entertaining him with great courtesy, so far won him, as to promise the
duke by oath of his own accord, not only the castle of Dover then in his
tenure, but the kingdom also after King Edward’s death to his utmost
endeavour, thereupon betrothing the duke’s daughter then too young for
marriage, and departing richly presented. Others say, that King Edward
himself, after the death of Edward his nephew, sent Harold thither on
purpose to acquaint duke William with his intention to bequeath him his
kingdom but Malmsbury accounts the former story to be the truer. Ingulf
writes, that King Edward now grown old, and perceiving Edgar his nephew
both in body and in mind unfit to govern, especially against the pride and
insolence of Godwin’s sons, who would never obey him; duke William
on the other side of high merit, and his kinsman by the mother, had sent
Robert archbishop of Canterbury, to acquaint the duke with his purpose,
not long before Harold came thither.
The former part may be true, that
King Edward upon such considerations had sent one or other; but archbishop
Robert was fled the land, and dead many years before. Eadmer and Simeon
write, that Harold went of his own accord into Normandy, by the king’s
permission or connivance, to get free his brother Wulnod and nephew Hacun
the son of Swane, whom the king had taken hostages of Godwin, and
sent into Normandy; that King Edward foretold Harold, his journey thither
would be to the detriment of all England, and his own reproach; that duke
William then acquainted Harold, how Edward ere his coming to the crown had
promised, if ever he attained it, to leave duke William successor after
him. Last of these Matthew Paris writes, that Harold, to get free of duke
William, affirmed his coming thither not to have been by accident or force
of tempest, but on set purpose, in that private manner to enter with him
into secret confederacy: so variously are these things reported.
After
this King Edward grew sickly, yet as he was able kept his Christmas at
London, and was at the dedication of St. Peter’s church in Westminster,
which he had rebuilt; but on the eve of Epiphany, or Twelfthtide, deceased
much lamented, and in the church was entomed. That he was harmless and
simple, is conjectured by his words in anger to a peasant, who had crossed
his game, (for with hunting and hawking he was much delighted,) “by God
and God’s mother,” said he, “I shall do you as shrewd a turn if I can;”
observing that law maxim, the best of all his successors, “that the king
of England can do no wrong.” The softness of his nature gave growth to
factions of those about him, Normans especially and English; these
complaining, that Robert the archbishop was a sower of dissension between
the king and his people, a traducer of the English; the other side, that
Godwin and his sons bore themselves arrogantly and proudly towards
the king, usurping to themselves equal share in the government, ofttimes
making sport with his simplicity; that through their power in the land,
they made no scruple to kill men of whose inheritance they took a liking,
and so to take possession.
The truth is, that Godwin and his sons did many
things boisterously and violently, much against the king’s mind; which not
able to resist, he had, as some say, his wife Edith Godwin’s daughter in
such aversation, as in bed never to have touched her; whether for this
cause, or mistaken chastity, not commendable; to inquire further, is not
material. His laws held good and just, and long after desired by the
English of their Norman kings, are yet extant. He is said to be at table
not excessive, at festivals nothing puffed up with the costly robes he
wore, which his queen with curious art had woven for him in gold. He was
full of almsdeeds, and exhorted the monks to like charity. He is said to
be the first English king that cured the disease thence called the king’s
evil; yet Malmsbury blames them who attribute that cure to his royalty,
not to his sanctity; said also to have cured certain blind men with the
water wherein he hath washed his hands.
A little before his death, lying speechless
two days, the third day, after a deep sleep, he was heard to pray, that if
it were a true vision, not an illusion which he had seen, God would give
him strength to utter it, otherwise not. Then he related
how he had seen two devout monks, whom he knew in Normandy to have lived
and died well, who appearing told him they were sent messengers from God
to foretel, that because the great ones of England, dukes, lords, bishops,
and abbots, were not ministers of God but of the devil, God had delivered
the land to their enemies; and when he desired, that he might reveal this
vision, to the end they might repent, it was answered, they neither will
repent, neither will God pardon them: at this relation others trembling,
Stigand the simonious archbishop, whom Edward much to blame had suffered
many years to sit primate in the church, is said to have laughed, as at
the feverish dream of a doting old man; but the event proved true.
King Harold, son
of Earl Godwin The Debate
concerning the remains of King Harold |
