The History of England, Volume I: From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688
David Hume · en
Tosti, brother of this nobleman, who had been created Duke of
Northumberland, being of a violent tyrannical temper, had acted with
such cruelty and injustice, that the inhabitants rose in rebellion,
and chased him from his government. Morcar and Edwin, two brothers,
who possessed great power in those parts, and who were grandsons of
the great Duke Leofric, concurred in the insurrection; and the former,
being elected duke, advanced with an army to oppose Harold, who was
commissioned by the king to reduce and chastise the Northumbrians.
Before the armies came to action, Morcar, well acquainted with the
generous disposition of the English commander, endeavoured to justify
his own conduct. He represented to Harold, that Tosti had behaved in
a manner unworthy of the station to which he was advanced, and no one,
not even a brother, could support such tyranny without participating,
in some degree, of the infamy attending it; that the Northumbrians,
accustomed to a legal administration, and regarding it as their birth-
right, were willing to submit to the king, but required a governor who
would pay regard to their rights and privileges; that they had been
taught by their ancestors, that death was preferable to servitude, and
had taken the field, determined to perish rather than suffer a renewal
of those indignities to which they had so long been exposed; and they
trusted that Harold, on reflection, would not defend in another that
violent conduct, from which he himself, in his own government, had
always kept at so great a distance. This vigorous remonstrance was
accompanied with such a detail of facts, so well supported, that
Harold found it prudent to abandon his brothers cause; and returning
to Edward, he persuaded him to pardon the Northumbrians, and to
confirm Morcar in the government. He even married the sister of that
nobleman [b]; and by his interest procured Edwin, the younger brother,
to be elected into the government of Mercia. Tosti in rage departed
the kingdom, and took shelter in Flanders with Earl Baldwin, his
father-in-law.
[FN [b] Order Vitalis, p. 492.]