Here, at a Danish marriage, died Hardi Knute in 1041. Here, Harold, son of Earl Godwin, who seized the crown after the death of the Confessor, is said to have placed it on his own head. Here, in 1231, King Henry III. held his court, and passed a solemn and a stately Christmas. And here, says Matthew Paris, was held a Parliament in the succeeding year. Hither, says good old Stow, anno 1376, came the Duke of Lancaster to escape the fury of the populace of London, on Friday, February 20, the day following that on which Wicliffe had been brought before the bishops at St. Paul's. The Duke was dining "with one John of Ipres" when the news arrived, borne by a breathless messenger, that the people sought his life. When the Duke "leapt so hastily from his oysters, that he hurt both his legges against the foarme: wine was offered to his oysters, but hee would not drinke for haste; he fledde with his fellowe Syr Henry Percy, no man following them; and entring the Thamis, neuer stinted rowing vntill they came to a house neere the manor of Kenington (besides Lambeth), where at that time the Princesse was, with the young Prince, before whom hee made his complaint." Doubtless, Lambeth Marsh was then what its name imports. Hither also came a deputation of the chiefest citizens to Richard II., June 21, 1377, "before the old King was departed," "to accept him for their true and lawfull King and Gouernor." But the royal residence was destroyed before 1607. "The last of the long succession of royal tenants who inhabited the ancient site," says a writer in the _Illustrated London News_ not long since (I have the cutting, but neglected to note the date of the paper), "was Charles I., when Prince of Wales: his lodging, a house built upon a part of the site of the old palace, is the only existing vestige, as represented in the accompanying engraving (in the _Illus. Lond. News_), unless earlier remains are to be found in the lower parts of the interior." But I believe that the identity of the site of this ancient mansion (which is situated on the western side of Lower Kennington Lane), with part of the site of the old palace, is not quite so certain as the writer appears to intimate. In 1720, however, the manor gave the title of Earl to William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, second son to George II. Kennington Common acquired an unenviable notoriety from being the place of execution for malefactors tried in this part of the county. "After the suppression of the rebellion in Scotland in 1745, many of the insurgents having been convicted of treason at Southwark, here suffered the sentence of the law" (Dugdale's _England and Wales_, p. 1015.). "Seventeen officers of the rebel army were hanged, drawn, and quartered" on this spot. (Goldsmith's _History_, continued by Morell, 4to., 1807, vol. ii. p. 165.)