Eadward the Confessor

England, which at this time needed the firm hand and vigorous policy of a strong guide and leader, now fell to the lot of one of the weakest of the English line. Saintly, Eadward the Confessor may have been ; but he was far from competent to gather into his hands the reins of power and to be king in fact as well as in name. During the first nine years of his twenty years' reign he was ruled by Godwine, who became the power behind the throne, and whose daughter, Eadgyth, he married. He gave over to the earl the chief management of the kingdom, and placed a number of the earl's sons in positions of prominence. To Harold, the second son, he gave the earldom of East Anglia, and to Sweyn, the eldest, and to Beorn, a nephew, smaller earldoms, so that the house of Godwine seemed supreme.

But this harmony between the king and the great earl was not destined to last. Eadward had been brought up a Norman, and at his accession to the throne there came with him to England not only Norman customs and speech but also Norman favorites, who were put into places of influence and prominence. Robert of Jumieges was made archbishop of Canterbury, other Normans were made bishops or abbots, many Norman

ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND,and IRELAND
before 1066.

lords received lands whereon they erected castles and strongholds, while maritime cities, such as Rouen, received harbor privileges on the English coast. The growing importance of the Normans angered the English earl and his followers. In 1050, when Eustace of Boulogne, the king's brother-in-law, was returning from a visit to Eadward, a quarrel broke out between his followers and the men of Dover, the latter of whom drove the Normans out of the town. Eustace complained to the king, and Eadward ordered God-wine to punish the men of Dover; but Godwine refused to obey, claiming that the Englishmen were in the right. As a result Eadward and the witan, urged on by Leofric of Mercia, outlawed the house of Godwine. Some of the family went to Flanders, a region ruled by a count hostile to the Normans, but Harold, who was half a Dane, his mother being Gytha, a cousin of Cnut, fled to Ireland and lived for a time among the Danish settlers there. The king, rid of the powerful English earl, gave himself up to the influence of his Norman favorites.

But the victory of the Normans was not for long. In 1052 Harold, returning, ravaged the Devon coast, and Godwine, leaving Bruges, joined Harold at the Isle of Wight. A struggle was imminent; but the people "were lothful to fight against those of their own race," and finally the witan inlawed Godwine and his family and gave back to him his earldom as full and as free as he before possessed it." At the same time they drove out the Normans: Robert, the archbishop, William of London, Ulf of Dorchester, and many guilty knights and barons. Godwine was, however, destined to enjoy his triumph but one year, for in 1053, as he sat with the king at Winchester, he died. Sweyn having died in exile, Harold succeeded to his power and earldom and became for fourteen years the real ruler of England.