as people wish to see in the clergy. But the A. D. 975. A weak government, too easy, suffers evils to grow, which often makes the most rigorous and illegal proceedings necessary. Through an extreme lenity it is on some occasions tyrannical. This was the condition of Etheldred's nobility; who, by being permitted every thing, were never contented. Thus all the principal men held a sort of factious and independent authority; they despised the king, they oppressed the people, and they hated one another. The Danes, in every part of England, but Wessex, as numerous as the English themselves, and in many parts more numerous, were ready to take advantage of these disorders; and waited with impatience some new attempt from abroad, that they might rise in favour of the invaders. They were not long without such an occasion; the Danes pour in almost upon every part at once, and distract the defence, which the weak prince was preparing to make. In those days of wretchedness and ignorance, when all the maritime parts of Europe were attacked by these formidable enemies at once, they never thought of entering into any alliance against them; they equally neglected the other obvious method to prevent their incursions, which was, to carry the war into the invaders' country. A. D. 987. What aggravated these calamities, the nobility, mostly disaffected to the king, and entertaining very little regard to their country, made, some of them, a weak and cowardly opposition to the enemy; some actually betrayed their trust; some even were found, who undertook the trade of piracy themselves. It was in this condition, that Edric, duke of Mercia, Edgar had two wives, Elflada and Elfrida; by a man of some ability, but light, inconstant, and the first he had a son called Edward. The second utterly devoid of all principle, proposed to buy a bore him one, called Etheldred. On Edgar's peace from the Danes. The general weakness Edward. death Edward, in the usual order of and consternation disposed the king and people succession, was called to the throne; to take this pernicious advice. At first, £.10,000 but Elfrida caballed in favour of her son; and was given to the Danes, who retired with this finding it impossible to set him up in the life of money and the rest of their plunder. The English his brother, she murdered him with her own hands were now, for the first time, taxed to supply this in her castle of Corfe, whither he had retired to payment. The imposition was called Danegelt, refresh himself, wearied with hunting. Etheldred, not more burthensome in the thing, than scanwho by the crimes of his mother as- dalous in the name. The scheme of purchasing A. D. 979. cended a throne sprinkled with his peace not only gave rise to many internal hardbrother's blood, had a part to act, which exceeded ships, but, whilst it weakened the kingdom, it the capacity, that could be expected in one of his inspired such a desire of invading it to the enemy, youth and inexperience. The partisans of the that Sweyn, king of Denmark, came in person secular clergy, who were kept down by the vigour soon after with a prodigious fleet and army. The of Edgar's government, thought this a fit time to English, having once found the method of divertrenew their pretensions. The monks defended ing the storm by an inglorious bargain, could themselves in their possession ; there was no not bear to think of any other way of resistance. moderation on either side, and the whole nation A greater sum, £.48,000, was now paid, which joined in these parties. The murder of Edward the Danes accepted with pleasure, as they could threw an odious stain on the king, though he was by this means exhaust their enemies and enrich wholly innocent of that crime. There was a themselves with little danger or trouble. With general discontent; and every corner was full of very short intermissions they still returned, contimurmurs and cabals. In this state of the king-nually encreasing in their demands. In a few years dom it was equally dangerous to exert the fulness of the sovereign authority, or to suffer it to relax. The temper of the king was most inclined to the latter method, which is of all things the worst. Etheldred. they extorted upwards of £.160,000 from the English, besides an annual tribute of £.48,000. The country was wholly exhausted both of money and spirit. The Danes in England under the pro tection of the foreign Danes, committed a thousand insolencies; and so infatuated with stupidity and baseness were the English at this time, that they employed hardly any other soldiers for their defence. In this state of shame and misery A. D. 1002. their sufferings suggested to them a design rather desperate than brave. They resolved on a massacre of the Danes; some authors say, that in one night the whole race was cut off. Many, probably all the military men, were so destroyed. But this massacre, injudicious as it was cruel, was certainly not universal; nor did it serve any other or better end than to exasperate those of the same nation abroad; who the next year landed in England with a powerful army to revenge it, and committed outrages even beyond the usual tenour of the Danish cruelty. There was in England no money left to purchase a peace, nor courage to wage a successful war; and the king of Denmark, Sweyn, a prince of A. D. 1003. capacity, at the head of a large body of brave and enterprising men, soon_mastered the whole kingdom, except London. Etheldred, abandoned by fortune and his subjects, was forced to fly into Normandy. As there was no good order in the English affairs, though continually alarmed, they were always surprised; they were only roused to arms by the cruelty of the enemy; and they were only formed into a body by being driven from their homes; so that they never made a resistance until they seemed to be entirely conquered. This may serve to account for the frequent sudden reductions of the island, and the frequent renewals of their fortune when it seemed the most desperate. Sweyn, in the midst of his victories, dies; and, though succeeded by his son Canute, who inherited his father's resolution, their affairs were thrown into some disorder by this accident. The English were encouraged by it. Etheldred was recalled, and the Danes retired out of the kingdom; but it was only to return the next year with a greater and better appointed force. Nothing seemed able to oppose them. The king dies. A great part of the land was surrendered, without resistance, to Canute. Edmund, the eldest son Ironside. of Etheldred, supported, however, A. D. 1016. the declining hopes of the English for some time; in three months he fought three victorious battles; he attempted a fourth, but lost it by the base desertion of Edric, the principal author of all these troubles. It is common with the conquered side to attribute all their misfortunes to the treachery of their own party. They choose to be thought subdued by the treachery of their friends, rather than the superiour bravery of their enemies. All the old historians talk in this strain; and it must be acknowledged, that all adherents to a declining party have many temptations to infidelity. Edmund Edmund, defeated but not discouraged, retreated to the Severn, where he recruited his forces. Canute followed at his heels. And now the two armies were drawn up, which were to decide the fate of England; when it was proposed to determine the war by a single combat between the two kings. Neither was unwilling; the Isle of Alney in the Severn was chosen for the lists; Edmund had the advantage by the greatness of his strength, Canute by his address; for when Edmund had so far prevailed as to disarm him, he proposed a parley, in which he persuaded Edmund to a peace, and to a division of the kingdom. Their armies accepted the agreement; and both kings departed in a seeming friendship. But Edmund died soon after, with a probable suspicion of The Danish being murdered by the instruments of his associate in the empire. race. Canute. Canute on this event assembled the states of the kingdom, by whom he was acknowledged king of all England. He was a prince truly great; for having acquired the kingdom by his valour, he maintained and improved it by his justice and clemency. Choosing rather to rule by the inclination of his subjects than the right of conquest, he dismissed his Danish army, and committed his safety to the laws. He re-established the order and tranquillity, which so long a series of bloody wars had banished. He revived the ancient statutes of the Saxon princes; and governed through his whole reign with such steadiness and moderation, that the English were much happier under this foreign prince then they had been under their natural kings. Canute, though the beginning of his life was stained with those marks of violence and injustice, which attend conquest, was remarkable in his latter end for his piety. According to the mode of that time, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, with a view to expiate the crimes, which paved his way to the throne; but he made a good use of this peregrination, and returned full of the observations he had made in the country through which he passed, which he turned to the benefit of his extensive dominions. They comprehended England, Denmark, Norway, and many of the countries which lie upon the Baltick. Those he left, established in peace and security, to his children. The fate of his northern possessions is not of this place. England fell to his son Harold, though not without much competition in favour of the sons of Edmund Ironside; while some contended for the right of the sons of Etheldred, Alfred and Edward. Harold inherited none of the virtues of Canute; he banished his mother Emma, murdered his half brother Alfred, and died without issue after a short reign, full of violence, weakness, and cruelty. Harold I. A. D. 1035. His brother Hardicanute, who suc- Hardicanute. ceeded him, resembled him in his 1039. character; he committed new cruelties and injustices in revenging those which his brother had committed, and he died after a yet shorter reign. The Danish power, established with so much blood, expired of itself; and Edward, the only surviving son of Etheldred, then an exile in Normandy, The Saxon line restored. was called to the throne by the unanimous voice | of the kingdom. Edward the This prince was educated in a moConfessor. nastery, where he learned piety, con1041. tinence, and humility, but nothing of the art of government. He was innocent and artless, but his views were narrow, and his genius contemptible. The character of such a prince is not, therefore, what influences the government, any further than as it puts it in the hands of others. When he came to the throne, Goodwin, earl of Kent, was the most popular man in England; he possessed a very great estate, an enterprising disposition, and an eloquence beyond the age he lived in; he was arrogant, imperious, assuming, and of a conscience, which never put itself in the way of his interest. He had a considerable share in restoring Edward to the throne of his ancestors; and by this merit, joined to his popularity, he for some time directed every thing according to his pleasure. He intended to fortify his interest by giving in marriage to the king his daughter, a lady of great beauty, great virtue, and an education beyond her sex. Goodwin had, however, powerful rivals in the king's favour. This monarch, who possessed many of the private virtues, had a grateful remembrance of his favourable reception in Normandy; he caressed the people of that country, and promoted several to the first places, ecclesiastical and civil, in his kingdom. This begot an uneasiness in all the English; but Earl Goodwin was particularly offended. The Normans, on the other hand, accused Goodwin of a design on the Crown, the justice of which imputation the whole tenour of his conduct evinced sufficiently. But as his cabals began to break into action before they were in perfect ripeness for it, the Norman party prevailed, and Goodwin was banished. This man was not only very popular at home by his generosity and address, but he found means to engage even foreigners in his interests. Baldwin, earl of Flanders, gave him a very kind reception. By his assistance Goodwin fitted out a fleet, hired a competent force, sailed to England, and having near Sandwich deceived the king's navy, he presented himself at London before he was expected. The king made ready as great a force as the time would admit, to oppose him. The gallies of Edward and Goodwin met on the Thames; but such was the general favour to Goodwin, such the popularity of his cause, that the king's men threw down their arms, and refused to fight against their countrymen in favour of strangers. Edward was obliged to treat with his own subjects; and in consequence of this treaty, to dismiss the Normans, whom he believed to be the best attached to his interests. Goodwin used the power, to which he was restored, to gratify his personal revenge; shewing no mercy to his ene mies. Some of his sons behaved in A. D. 1053. the most tyrannical manner. The great lords of the kingdom envied and hated a greatness, which annihilated the royal authority, eclipsed them, and oppressed the people; but Goodwin's death soon after quieted for a while their murmurs. The king, who had the least share in the transactions of his own reign, and who was of a temper not to perceive his own insignificance, begun in his old age to think of a successour. He had no children; for some weak reasons of religion, or personal dislike, he had never cohabited with his wife. He sent for his nephew Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside, out of Hungary, where he had taken refuge; but he died soon after he came to England, leaving a son called Edgar Atheling. The king himself, irresolute in so momentous an affair, died without making any settlement. His reign was properly that of his great men, or rather of their factions. All of it, that was his own, was good. He was careful of the privileges of his subjects; and took care to have a body of the Saxon laws, very favourable to them, digested and enforced. He remitted the heavy imposition called Danegelt, amounting to £. 40,000 a year, which had been constantly collected after the occasion had ceased; he even repaid to his subjects what he found in the treasury at his accession. In short there is little in his life, that can call his title to sanctity in question; though he can never be reckoned among the great kings. CHAP. VI. HAROLD II-INVASION OF THE NORMANS-ACCOUNT OF THAT PEOPLE, AND OF THE STATE OF ENGLAND AT THE TIME OF THE INVASION. THOUGH Edgar Atheling had the Harold II. best title to the succession, yet Ha- A. D. 1066. rold, the son of Earl Goodwin, on account of the credit of his father, and his own great qualities, which supported and extended the interest of his family, was by the general voice set upon the throne. The right of Edgar, young, and discovering no great capacity, gave him little disturbance in comparison of the violence of his own brother Tosti, whom for his infamous oppression he had found himself obliged to banish. This man, who was a tyrant at home, and a traitor abroad, insulted the maritime parts with a piratical fleet, whilst he incited all the neighbouring princes to fall upon his country. Harold Harfager, king of Norway, after the conquest of the Orkneys, with a powerful navy hung over the coasts of England. But nothing troubled Harold so much as the pretensions and the formidable preparation of William duke of Normandy, one of the most able, ambitious, and enterprising men of that age. We have mentioned the partiality of King Edward to the Normans, and the hatred he bore to Goodwin and his family. The duke of Normandy, to whom Edward had personal obligations, had taken a tour into England, and neglected no means to improve these dispositions to his own advantage. | It is said, that he then received the fullest assurances of being appointed to the succession, and that Harold himself had been sent soon after into Normandy to settle whatever related to it. This is an obscure transaction; and would, if it could be cleared up, convey but little instruction. So that whether we believe, or not, that William had engaged Harold by a solemn oath to secure him the kingdom, we know, that he afterwards set up a will of King Edward in his favour, which, however, he never produced, and probably never had to produce. In these delicate circumstances Harold was not wanting to himself. By the most equitable laws, and the most popular behaviour, he sought to secure the affections of his subjects; and he succeeded so well, that when he marched against the king of Norway, who had invaded his kingdom and taken York, without difficulty he raised a numerous army of gallant men, zealous for his cause and their country. He obtained a signal and decisive victory over the Norwegians. The king Harfager, and the traitor Tosti, who had joined him, were slain in the battle; and the Norwegians were forced to evacuate the country. Harold had however but little time to enjoy the fruits of his victory. Robert, the sixth duke of Normandy, to expiate some crime, which lay heavy upon his conscience, resolved, according to the ideas of that time, upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was in vain that his nobility, whom he had assembled to notify this resolution to them, represented to him the miserable state to which his country would be reduced, abandoned by its prince, and uncertain of a legal successour. The duke was not to be moved from his resolution, which appeared but the more meritorious from the difficulties which attended it. He presented to the states William, then an infant, born of an obscure woman, whom, notwithstanding, he doubted not to be his son; him he appointed to succeed him he recommended to their virtue and loyalty; and then solemnly resigning the government in his favour, he departed on the pilgrimage, from whence he never returned. The states, hesitating some time between the mischiefs that attend the allowing an illegitimate succession, and those which might arise from admitting foreign pretensions, thought the former the least prejudicial, and accordingly swore allegiance to William; but this oath was not sufficient to establish a right so doubtful. The dukes of Burgundy and Britanny, as well as several Norman noblemen, had specious Scarce had the Norwegians departed, when titles. The endeavours of all these disquieted the William duke of Normandy landed in the south-reign of the young prince with perpetual troubles. ern part of the kingdom with an army of 60,000 chosen men, and struck a general terrour through all the nation, which was well acquainted with the character of the commander, and the courage and discipline of his troops. In these troubles he was formed early in life to vigilance, activity, secrecy, and a conquest over all those passions, whether bad or good, which obstruct the way to greatness. He had to contend with all the neighbouring princes; with the seditions of a turbulent and unfaithful nobility, and the treacherous protection of his feudal lord the king of France. All of these in their turns, sometimes all of these together, distressed him. But with the most unparalleled good fortune and conduct he overcame all opposition, and triumphed over every enemy: raising his power and reputation above that of all his ancestors, as much as he was exalted by his bravery above the princes of his own time. Such was the prince, who, on a pretended claim from the will of King Edward, supported by the common and popular pretence of punishing offenders and redressing grievances, landed at Pevensey in Sussex, to contest the crown with Harold. Harold had no sooner advice of his landing than he ad The Normans were the posterity of those Danes, who had so long and so cruelly harassed the British islands, and the shore of the adjoining continent. In the days of King Alfred a body of these adventurers, under their leader Rollo, made an attempt upon England; but so well did they find every spot defended by the vigilance and bravery of that great monarch, that they were compelled to retire. Beaten from these shores, the stream of their impetuosity bore towards the northern parts of France, which had been reduced to the most deplorable condition by their former ravages. Charles the Simple then sat on the throne of that kingdom; unable to resist this torrent of barbarians, he was obliged to yield to it; he agreed to give up to Rollo the large and fertile province of Neustria, to hold of him as his feuda-vanced to meet him with all possible diligence; tory. This province, from the new inhabitants, was called Normandy. Five princes succeeded Rollo, who maintained with great bravery, and cultivated with equal wisdom, his conquests. The ancient ferocity of this people was a little softened by their settlement; but the bravery, which had made the Danes so formidable, was not extinguished in the Normans, nor the spirit of enterprise. Not long before this period, a private gentleman of Normandy, by his personal bravery, had acquired the kingdom of Naples. Several others followed his fortunes, who added Sicily to From one end of Europe to the other the Norman name was known, respected, and feared. it. but there did not appear in his army, upon this occasion, the same unanimity and satisfaction, which animated it on its march against the Norwegians. An ill-timed economy in Harold, which made him refuse to his soldiers the plunder of the Norwegian camp, had created a general discontent. Several deserted, and the soldiers, who remained, followed heavily a leader, under whom there was no hope of plunder, the greatest incitement of the soldiery. Notwithstanding this ill disposition, Harold still urged forward, and by forced marches advanced within seven miles of the enemy. The Norman, on his landing, is said to have sent away his ships, that his army might have no way of safety but in conquest; yet had he fortified his camp, and taken every prudent precaution, that so considerable an enterprise should not be reduced to a single effort of despair. When the armies, charged with the decision of so mighty a contest, had approached each other, Harold paused awhile. A great deal depended on his conduct at this critical time. The most experienced in the council of war, who knew the condition of their troops, were of opinion, that the engagement ought to be deferred; that the country ought to be wasted; that, as the winter approached, the Normans would in all probability be obliged to retire of themselves; that, if this should not happen, the Norman army was without resources; whilst the English would be every day considerably augmented, and might attack their enemy at a time and manner, which might make their success certain. To all these reasons nothing was opposed but a false point of honour, and a mistaken courage in Harold; who urged his fate, and resolved on an engagement. The Norman, as soon as he perceived that the English were determined on a battle, left his camp to post himself in an advantageous situation, in which his whole army remained the night which preceded the action. This night was spent in a manner, which prognosticated the event of the following day. On the part of the Normans it was spent in prayer, and in a cool and steady preparation for the engagement; on the side of the English in riot, and a vain confidence, that neglected all the necessary preparations. The two armies met in the morning; from seven to five the battle was fought with equal vigour; until at last the Norman army pretending to break in confusion, a stratagem to which they had been regularly formed, the English, elated with success, suffered that firm order, in which their security consisted, to dissipate; which when William observed, he gave the signal to his men to regain their former disposition, and fall upon the English, broken and dispersed. Harold in this emergency did every thing which became him, every thing possible to collect his troops and to renew the engagement; but whilst he flew from place to place, and in all places restored the battle, an arrow pierced his brain; and he died a king, in a manner worthy of a warriour. The English immediately fled; the rout was total, and the slaughter prodigious. The consternation which this defeat and the death of Harold produced over the kingdom, was more fatal than the defeat itself. If William had marched directly to London, all contest had probably been at an end; but he judged it more prudent to secure the sea coast, to make way for reinforcements; distrusting his fortune in his success more than he had done in his first attempts. He marched to Dover, where the effect of his victory was such, that the strong castle there surrendered without resistance. Had this fortress made any tolerable defence, the English would have had leisure to rouse from their consternation, and plan some rational method for continuing the war; but now the conqueror was on full march to London, whilst the English were debating concerning the measures they should take, and doubtful in what manner they should fill the vacant throne. However, in this emergency it was necessary to take some resolution. The party of Edgar Atheling prevailed: and he was owned king by the city of London, which even at this time was exceedingly powerful, and by the greatest part of the nobility then present. But his reign was of a short duration. William advanced by hasty marches; and, as he approached, the perplexity of the English redoubled; they had done nothing for the defence of the city. They had no reliance on their new king; they suspected one another; there was no authority, no order, no counsel; a confused and ill-sorted assembly of unwarlike people, of priests, burghers, and nobles, confounded with them in the general panick, struck down by the consternation of the late defeat, and trembling under the bolts of the papal excommunication, were unable to plan any method of defence: insomuch that, when he had passed the Thames and drew near to London, the clergy, the citizens, and the greater part of the nobles, who had so lately set the crown on the head of Edgar, went out to meet him: they submitted to him, and having brought him in triumph to Westminster, he was there solemnly crowned King of England. The whole nation followed the example of London; and one battle gave England to the Normans, which had cost the Romans, the Saxons, and Danes, so much time and blood to acquire. At first view it is very difficult to conceive how this could have happened to a powerful nation, in which it does not appear that the conqueror had one partisan. It stands a single event in history, unless, perhaps, we may compare it with the reduction of Ireland some time after by Henry the Second. An attentive consideration of the state of the kingdom at that critical time may, perhaps, in some measure lay open to us the cause of this extraordinary revolution. The nobility of England, in which its strength consisted, was much decayed. Wars and confiscations, but above all the custom of Gavelkind, had reduced that body very low. At the same time some few families had been raised to a degree of power unknown in the ancient Saxon times, and dangerous in all. Large possessions, and a larger authority, were annexed to the offices of the Saxon magistrates, whom they called Aldermen. This authority, in their long and bloody wars with the Danes, it was found necessary to encrease, and often to encrease beyond the ancient limits. Aldermen were created for life; they were then frequently made hereditary; some were vested with a power over others; and at this period we begin to hear of dukes, who governed over several shires, and had many aldermen subject to them. These officers found means to turn the royal bounty into an instrument of becoming independent of its authority. Too great to obey, and too little to protect, they were a dead weight upon the country. |