History of the Anglo-Saxons, from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest: Second Edition — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
History of the Anglo-Saxons, from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest: Second Edition
John Stuart Mill · en
It was at a marriage-feast, somewhere in Lambeth, in the year 1042,
when Hardicanute drank his last draught. At a late hour in the night he
rose, staggering, with the wine-cup in his hand, and pledged the merry
company that were assembled--then drinking such a draught as only the
son of a sea-king could swallow, he fell down senseless upon the floor,
"and never word again spake he." He was buried near his father Canute,
in the church of Winchester. With his death ended the Danish race of
kings; and Edward, the son of Ethelred, the descendant of a long line
of Saxon monarchs, ascended the throne of England.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
ACCESSION OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
"It is the curse of kings to be attended by slaves."
"Favourites, made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against the power that bred it."
"Thou wouldst be great. What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily: wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win."--SHAKSPERE.
Edward, surnamed the Confessor, had resided in England for some time,
when the throne became vacant by the death of Hardicanute; and the
Danes, left without a leader by the sudden and unexpected demise of
their king, had no means of resisting the Saxon force, which all
at once wheeled up on the side of Edward, and, led on by Godwin,
placed the crown of England upon the head of the son of Ethelred.
To strengthen the power which he already possessed, the earl Godwin
proposed that the king should marry his daughter, Editha, who appears
to have been a lady of high intellectual attainments: it was said of
her, in contrast to the stern and ambitious character of her father,
that, as the thorn produces the rose, so Godwin produced Editha.
Ingulphus, one of the most celebrated historians living at this
period, after describing her as being very beautiful, meek, modest,
faithful, virtuous, a lady of learning, and the enemy of no one, says,
"I have very often seen her, when, only a boy, I visited my father in
the royal court. Often, as I came from school, she questioned me on
letters and my verse; and willingly passing from grammar to logic,
she caught me in the subtle nets of argument. I had always three or
four pieces of money counted by her maiden, and was sent to the royal
larder for refreshment." But all these amiable qualities were not
sufficient to bring happiness to the royal hearth; the earl was ever
stepping in between Edward and Editha, for Godwin became jealous of the
Normans, who were constantly coming over, and obtaining dignities and
honours from the court. Norman soldiers were placed over the English
fortresses; Norman priests officiated in the Saxon churches, and, as
the Danish power waned, and the offices which Hardicanute had given
to his own countrymen became vacant, Edward filled up the places with
his Norman favourites. Those who had befriended him in his exile came
over--such as had grown up side by side with him till they reached