Svend Estrithson, being of the line of the great King Canute,[189] raised some claim to the throne of England, and had ever considered his right better and more legal than that of William of Normandie. Before the arrival at his court of the earnest invitation of the monks of Ely and the great Saxon lords in the Camp of Refuge, he had resolved in his own mind to try his fortune once more on our side the sea, hoping that if he should do no more he should at least be enabled to make up for the loss of his great fleet, a loss which pressed heavily upon his heart, and destroyed his peace by day and his rest by night. He had summoned his jarls and chiefs, the descendants of the sea-kings or great pirates of old, and had taken counsel of the old sea-rovers and warriors who had been in England with the great Canute, or who had served under Canute’s sons, King Harold Harefoot and King Hardicanute. Now these jarls and chiefs, together with many of their followers, were well acquainted with all the eastern side of England from the Scottish border to the end of Cornwall; and they knew every bay, harbour, and creek on the coast, and all the deep inlets of the sea and the rivers which gave access to the interior of the country, for they had warred or plundered in them all, aforetime. Being called upon by King Svend to give their advice, these chiefs and nobles all said that another expedition ought to be attempted without loss of time; and it was agreed at a great meeting of the Viborgting, which corresponds with the Witangemot of old England, that another great fleet should be got ready, and that the king or his eldest son should take the command of it. Some doubts, however, occurred as to the present strength of the Normans and the present condition of the English; and, although they meant to betray them or conquer them themselves, the Danes proposed to begin merely as allies of the English,[190] and felt little good could be done unless the English on the eastern coast were unsubdued by the Normans, and ready to receive the Danes with open arms. At this juncture a ship arrived from Lynn with the envoy from the Camp of Refuge on board. As soon as the Englishman had presented the letters and the gold and silver he brought to Svend Estrithson, the king called together his great council. The envoy from the Camp of Refuge was allowed to speak at great length before the council, and the shipmen of Lynn were more privately examined touching the present situation of affairs in the fen country. All doubts were removed, and the fleet was forthwith ordered to get ready for the voyage to England. Already many thousands of long and yellow-haired warriors had been collected for the enterprise, and now many thousands more flocked towards the fleet from all parts of Jutland, Zealand, and Holstein, and from Stralsund and the Isle of Rugen, and the other isles that stand near the entrance of the Baltic Sea; for whenever an expedition to the rich and fertile country