This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen
and David Widger
While Harold sleeps, let us here pause to survey for the first timethe greatness of that House to which Sweyn's exile had left him theheir. The fortunes of Godwin had been those which no man noteminently versed in the science of his kind can achieve. Though thefable which some modern historians of great name have repeated anddetailed, as to his early condition as the son of a cow-herd, isutterly groundless [99], and he belonged to a house all-powerful atthe time of his youth, he was unquestionably the builder of his owngreatness. That he should rise so high in the early part of hiscareer was less remarkable than that he should have so long continuedthe possessor of a power and state in reality more than regal.
But, as has been before implied, Godwin's civil capacities were moreprominent than his warlike. And this it is which invests him withthat peculiar interest which attracts us to those who knit our modernintelligence with the past. In that dim world before the Normandeluge, we are startled to recognise the gifts that ordinarilydistinguish a man of peace in a civilised age.
His father, Wolnoth, had been "Childe" [100] of the South Saxons, orthegn of Sussex, a nephew of Edric Streone, Earl of Mercia, theunprincipled but able minister of Ethelred, who betrayed his master toCanute, by whom, according to most authorities, he was righteously,though not very legally, slain as a reward for the treason.
"I promised," said the Dane king, "to set thy head higher than othermen's, and I keep my word." The trunkless head was set on the gatesof London.
Wolnoth had quarrelled with his uncle Brightric, Edric's brother, andbefore the arrival of Canute, had betaken himself to the piracy of asea chief, seduced twenty of the king's ships, plundered the southerncoasts, burnt the royal navy, and then his history disappears from thechronicles; but immediately afterwards the great Danish army, calledThurkell's Host, invaded the coast, and kept their chief station onthe Thames. Their victorious arms soon placed the country almost attheir command. The traitor Edric joined them with a power of morethan 10,000 men; and it is probable enough that the ships of Wolnothhad before this time melted amicably into the armament of the Danes.If this, which seems the most likely conjecture, be received, Godwin,then a mere youth, would naturally have commenced his career in thecause of Canute; and as the son of a formidable chief of thegn's rank,and even as kinsman to Edric, who, whatever his crimes, must haveretained a party it was wise to conciliate, Godwin's favour withCanute, whose policy would lead him to show marked distinction to anyable Saxon follower, ceases to be surprising.
The son of Wolnoth accompanied Canute in his military expedition tothe Scandinavian continent, and here a signal victory, planned byGodwin and executed solely by himself and the Saxon band under hiscommand, without aid from Canute's Danes, made the most memorablemilitary exploit of his life, and confirmed his rising fortunes.
Edric, though he is said to have been low born, had married the sisterof King Ethelred; and as Godwin advanced in fame, Canute did notdisdain to bestow his own sister in marriage on the eloquentfavourite, who probably kept no small portion of the Saxon populationto their allegiance. On the death of this, his first wife, who borehim but one son [101] (who died