This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen
and David Widger
And all went to the desire of Duke William the Norman. With one handhe curbed his proud vassals, and drove back his fierce foes. With theother, he led to the altar Matilda, the maid of Flanders; and allhappened as Lanfranc had foretold. William's most formidable enemy,the King of France, ceased to conspire against his new kinsman; andthe neighbouring princes said, "The Bastard hath become one of ussince he placed by his side the descendant of Charlemagne." AndMauger, Archbishop of Rouen, excommunicated the Duke and his bride,and the ban fell idle; for Lanfranc sent from Rome the Pope'sdispensation and blessing [69], conditionally only that bride andbridegroom founded each a church. And Mauger was summoned before thesynod, and accused of unclerical crimes; and they deposed him from hisstate, and took from him abbacies and sees. And England every daywaxed more and more Norman; and Edward grew more feeble and infirm,and there seemed not a barrier between the Norman Duke and the Englishthrone, when suddenly the wind blew in the halls of heaven, and filledthe sails of Harold the Earl.
And his ships came to the mouth of the Severn. And the people ofSomerset and Devon, a mixed and mainly a Celtic race, who bore smalllove to the Saxons, drew together against him, and he put them toflight. [70]
Meanwhile, Godwin and his sons Sweyn, Tostig, and Gurth, who had takenrefuge in that very Flanders from which William the Duke had won hisbride,—(for Tostig had wed, previously, the sister of Matilda, therose of Flanders; and Count Baldwin had, for his sons-in-law, bothTostig and William,)—meanwhile, I say, these, not holpen by the CountBaldwin, but helping themselves, lay at Bruges, ready to join Haroldthe Earl. And Edward, advised of this from the anxious Norman, causedforty ships [71] to be equipped, and put them under command of Rolf,Earl of Hereford. The ships lay at Sandwich in wait for Godwin. Butthe old Earl got from them, and landed quietly on the southern coast.And the fort of Hastings opened to his coming with a shout from itsarmed men.
All the boatmen, all the mariners, far and near, thronged to him, withsail and with shield, with sword and with oar. All Kent (the foster-mother of the Saxons) sent forth the cry, "Life or death with EarlGodwin." [72] Fast over the length and breadth of the land, went thebodes [73] and riders of the Earl; and hosts, with one voice, answeredthe cry of the children of Horsa, "Life or death with Earl Godwin."And the ships of King Edward, in dismay, turned flag and prow toLondon, and the fleet of Harold sailed on. So the old Earl met hisyoung son on the deck of a war-ship, that had once borne the Raven ofthe Dane.
Swelled and gathering sailed the armament of the English men. Slow upthe Thames it sailed, and on either shore marched tumultuous theswarming multitudes. And King Edward sent after more help, but itcame up very late. So the fleet of the Earl nearly faced the JullietKeape of London, and abode at Southwark till the flood-tide came up.When he had mustered his host, then came the flood tide. [74]
King Edward sate, not on his throne, but on a chair of state, in thepresence-chamber of his palace of Westminster. His diadem, with thethree zimmes shaped into a triple trefoil [75] on his brow, hissceptre in his right hand. His royal robe, tight to t