Godwine

“ Now if circumstantial evidence is ever good for anything, one can hardly doubt that the Godwine of Domesday is the same as the Godwine of William of Malmesbury and as the Godwine of Fordun, and that the Robert son of Godwine in Fordun is the same as the Robert son of Godwine in William of Malmesbury. ”

“ The Ætheling was sad at heart, forsaken, as it seemed, of all men. Godwine volunteers to fight for Eadgar. But at last one stepped forward who was ready to dare the risk on behalf of a man to whom he was bound by a double tie. As an Englishman he was stirred to come to the help of the descendant of the ancient kings, and he was further bound to Eadgar by the special tie which binds a man to his lord. He was a knight of noble English descent, known as Godwine of Winchester. Notices of him in Domesday. ”

“ We may surely believe that Eadgar was wrongfully accused, and that Godwine cleared his lord in the duel. We see then that in the Red King’s day there was nothing to hinder men of Old-English 118 birth, exceptionally lucky men doubtless, from holding an honourable rank and a high place in royal favour. But we learn also, as we might expect to find, that such Englishmen found that it suited their purposes to adopt Norman fashions. Robert son of Godwine. Of Godwine we hear no more; but his son, as I have noticed elsewhere, bears, according to a very common rule, the Norman name of Robert. ”

“ Godwine was thus the most powerful man in the kingdom after the king himself, and from about 1020 his name is almost always written in charters before the names of all other lay nobles, whether English or Danish. He gained vast wealth, and held lands in almost every shire of southern and central England (Green) . Prudent in counsel and strenuous in war he had gained Cnut's favour, and the king took delight in his society. ”

“ On the death of Godwine, who was seized with a fit while feasting with the king in April 1053, Eadward appointed his eldest surviving son, Harold, to succeed him as earl of the West-Saxons, and from that time left the government in Harold's hands. At the same time he was not deprived of the society of his Norman favourites, for the sentence of outlawry proclaimed at the restoration of Godwine only touched those foreigners who had abused their power, and a large number of Normans remained in England during the remainder of the reign, and held offices in the court. ”

“ The Return of Godwine and Harold.—When Duke William paid his visit to King Edward in 1052, Godwine and all his family, save only the Lady Edith, were in banishment, and the Normans were in full power in the land. But before long the English were longing to have Godwine back again. Men soon began to tire of the King’s foreign favourites, who, it seemed, could not even defend the land against the Welsh. For the Welsh King Gruffydd came into Herefordshire and smote the Normans who held Richard’s Castle. Men sent to ask Godwine to come back ”

“ The rise to power of Godwine and his house was evidently grievous to Leofric, and this feeling must have deepened as governments were heaped on members of Godwine's family until they hemmed the Mercian earl in on every side except the north. While, however, he was constantly opposed to Godwine, he always deprecated violent measures, and played the part of a mediator, ‘which was dictated to him by the geographical position of his earldom’ (Norman Conquest, ii. 49) . ”

“ Godwine is the greatest man in England now, and well loved. All men speak of his deeds in Denmark, whither he took the king's English host when troubles were there, and he is one of those who hold the kingdoms together since Ulf and Thorkel and Eirik are dead. They were slain in petty quarrels, and it is ever in my mind that it was in judgment on them for treating with Streone the traitor in the days when Cnut had not yet taken the kingship and rule into his own hands. ”

“ I asked.
"Why, nothing more than we have done," Godwine said. "My father hates Emma the cat as bitterly as he does Streone the fox, which is saying a good deal. The cat's claws are clipped now, maybe."
Well, I knew this, and said nothing. One could expect no more from Earl Wulfnoth's son. Nor do I think that any loved Emma the queen much. One may know how a person is thought of by the way in which folk name them often enough, and though our king would have had his young wife called by her English name, Elfgiva, none ever did so. ”

“ It makes a great difference whether we read the story of this time in English or in French records. Often the stories are directly opposite to each other, and only the most careful steps along the path keep one from wandering off one way or the other into unjust partisanship. Especially is this true of Godwine, the confessor's great contemporary. He seems, at any rate, to have been a man much ahead of his time in knowledge of affairs and foresight of the probable effects [Pg192] from the causes of his own day. His brother earls were jealous of him ”

“ The men of London were decidedly favourable to the cause of the banished earls, and when their humble petition to the king for the renewal of his favour to them met with stern refusal, it was all that Godwine could do to prevent the popular discontent from breaking out into some sudden act of mutiny. ”

“ Godwine appears to have been a remarkably able man, ambitious, unscrupulous, and eager for the aggrandisement of his house. His marriage with Gytha, and the benefits which he received from Cnut, naturally gave him Danish sympathies, his two elder sons Swegen, or Swend, and Harold were called by Danish names, and though he lived to represent English national feeling, it is not unlikely that at this period ‘he must have seemed to Englishmen more Dane than Englishman’ (Green, Conquest of England, p. 479) . ”

“ Some late but independent traditions make Godwine the son of a man of churlish condition, and the ‘Kyntlinga Saga’ (Antiqq. Celto-Scandicæ, p. 131) says that he was the son of a wealthy farmer living near Sherstone in Wiltshire, and that after the battle there earl Ulf met with him, stayed a night and a day at his father's house, and then took him to Cnut's fleet, gave him his sister in marriage, and obtained for him the rank of earl. ”

“ Godwine was now dead, and Harold was all-powerful. Leofric of Mercia, Godiva’s husband, still lived, but must have been an old man, since we find his grandsons, only ten years later, men in the vigour of manhood. For some reason or other—it is difficult not to see the hand of the great rival family in the affair—a charge of treason was brought against Leofric’s son, Elfgar, who had, we may remember, received the earldom of East Anglia when it was resigned by Harold on succeeding to Wessex. ”

“ He came back to England with Eadward, and urged his right at a meeting of the witan held at Gillingham. It is evident that he met with some opposition, and it is not unlikely that this proceeded from a party in favour of Swend Estrithson, his wife's nephew, and the nephew of his old master Cnut. Godwine, however, used all his influence and his power of eloquent speech on the side of the representative of the old English line. Men looked on him as a father as he thus pleaded the cause of the ætheling of their race (Vita, p. 394) , and followed his counsel. ”

“ Robert's new dignity gave him larger opportunities of thwarting Godwine, and he had a personal quarrel with the earl about some land that he claimed as belonging to his see, and that Godwine was occupying (ib.) . During the quarrel between the king and the earl in September, Robert used his influence with the king to inflame his anger against Godwine, insisting that he was the murderer of Edward's brother, and he instigated the mocking message that the earl should have no peace from the king until he restored to him his brother and his companions. ”

“ Every grown-up man of Godwine's house had fallen, and of the whole race there remained but two young children of Harold's. Meanwhile the Witan met at London to elect a new king. The two sons of Aelfgar, whose treacherous sloth had ruined England, had hoped that one of them might be chosen to receive the crown; but their conduct had been observed and noted, and rather than take Eadwine or Morcar as lord, the Witan chose the last heir of the house of Aelfred, the boy Eadgar, great-nephew to St. Edward. This choice was hopelessly bad when a victorious enemy was Pg 68 thundering at the gates. ”

“ Party struggles.
In 1050 a trial of strength took place between the national and foreign parties at the court with reference to an election to the see of Canterbury. The monks of Christ Church chose one of their number, named Ælfric, a kinsman of Earl Godwine, and their choice was approved by the clergy. Godwine [Pg 67] begged the king to accept Ælfric, but he refused, and appointed his Norman favourite, Robert of Jumièges, to the primacy, and Spearhafoc, abbot of Abingdon, an Englishman and a skilful goldsmith, who was making a crown for him, to the bishopric of London. ”

“ Freeman, by an ingenious course of argument, comes to the conclusion that in this matter ‘the great earl is at least entitled to a verdict of Not Proven, if not of Not Guilty.’ Setting aside all vague conjectures and considerations of possible motives, it is impossible to deny that the weight of written evidence is distinctly on the side of those who believe that Earl Godwine took Ælfred captive and slew his companions in a fearfully cruel manner, though it cannot be ascertained whether he acted treacherously towards the ætheling. ”

“ Shortly after Edward’s reign began, Godwin and the king became unfriendly towards each other on account of the influence of Edward’s Norman favourites in the land. It happened that a quarrel arose between the people of Dover and some Normans in which several Normans were killed, and because Godwin would not punish his own countrymen without a fair trial, Godwin and his sons had to leave England for Flanders. While he was away the Normans did much as they pleased, and there was so much discontent in England that Edward had to permit Godwin to return. ”

“ The Anglo-Saxon dress, manners, and language were no longer accounted worthy of men who pretended to rank and breeding.
Meanwhile, Godwin not only steadily abstained from adopting the Norman fashions, but looked upon the king's foreign friends as mortal foes, and regarded everything about them with hatred. He felt, with [Pg 31] pain, that they kept alive the memory of Prince Alfred and their murdered countrymen, and he perceived with uneasiness that each new arrival had the effect of weakening his influence with the king. ”

“ Godwin had, it is said, commenced life as a cowboy, but he soon raised himself above the low herd, and eventually succeeded in making his daughter Editha the queen of Edward. The king, who had lived much in Normandy, and had derived some assistance from Duke William, afterwards the Conqueror, had formed many Norman predilections, which created jealousy among his Saxon subjects. In 1061, he had received as a visitor his brother-in-law, one Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who, on returning home with his followers through Dover, insolently demanded gratuitous lodgings of one of the inhabitants. ”

“ Godwin, in order to appease the king, made him a magnificent present of a galley with a gilt stern, rowed by fourscore men, who wore each of them a gold bracelet on his arm, weighing sixteen ounces, and were armed and clothed in the most sumptuous manner. Hardicanute, pleased with the splendour of this spectacle, quickly forgot his brother's murder; and on Godwin's swearing that he was innocent of the crime, he allowed him to be acquitted. ”

“ Godwin had, before this, gained too much favor to be likely to fall with his brother-in-law. He was with the king on an expedition against the Wends, and on the night before an intended battle, made a sudden attack without Knut’s knowledge, and completely routed them. His talents were so much appreciated, that he received the great Earldom of Wessex, the portion of England least under the power of the Danes, and where the old line of Alfred was most loved and regretted, since it was their hereditary kingdom. ”

“ This caused trouble between Edward and Godwin, which led to the deposition of the latter, who, with his sons, was compelled to flee. But later he returned, and his popularity in England among
GODWIN AND HIS SONS FLYING FROM ENGLAND.
the home people compelled the king to reestablish him.
Soon afterwards Godwin died, and Harold, his son, succeeded him successfully. Godwin was an able man, and got several earldoms for his wife and relatives at a time when that was just what they needed. ”

“ While Mary seconded Godwin in his domestic theories, there were times when less independence would have pleased her better. She had been obliged to fight the battle of life alone, and, when the occasion required it, she was equal to meeting single-handed whatever difficulties might arise. But instinctively she preferred to lean upon others for protection and help. Godwin would never wittingly have been selfish or cruel in withholding his assistance. ”

“ She revolutionized not only his life, but his social doctrines. Through her he discovered the flaw in his arguments, and then honestly confessed his mistake to the world.
When Godwin met Mary, after her desertion by Imlay, he was forty years of age, in the full prime and vigour of his intellect, and in the height of his fame. She was thirty-seven, only three years his junior, and deemed the cleverest woman in England. Her talents had matured, and grief had made her strong. ”