That this King and Council in those times of Invasion and necessity were so far from 〈…〉 away the Lands and Tithes of the Church for 〈…〉 of the Realm or from imposing new unusual 〈…〉 and Contributions on the Clergy for thaâ— end thaâ— they granted them more Lands and Tithes than formerly and exempted them from all former ordinary Taxes and Contributions that they might more cheerfully and frequently pour forth prayers to God for them as the best means of defence and security against these forein inâ—ading enemies Mr. Selden recites another Charter of this King of the same year different from it in month and place out of the Chartularies of Abbington Abbey to the same effect made by Parliamentary consent of that time per consilium sâ—â—ubre cum Episcopis Comâ—â—bus ac cunctis Optimatibus mois which Charter is subscribed by this King and his two Sons with some Bishops and Abbots ratified with their signs of the Cross and this annexed curse Si quis vero minuere vel mutare nostram donationem praesumpserit noscat se ante tribunal Christi redditurum rationem nisi prius satisfactione omendaverit usual in such Charters After which this King going to Rome carried Alfred his youngest Son thither with him whom he most loved to be educated by Pope Leo where continuing a year he caused him to be crowned King by the Pope and returning into his Country married Judith the King of France his Daughter bringing Alfred and her with him into England In the Kings absence in forein parts Alstan Bishop of Sherburne Eandulfe Earl of Somerset and certain other Nobles making a Conspiracie with Ethelbald the Kings eldest Son concluded he should never be received into the Kingdom upon his return from Rome for two Causes One for that he had caused his youngest son Alfred to be crowned King as Rome excluding thereby as it were his eldest Son and others from the Right of the Kingdom Another for that contemning all the women of England he had married thâ— Daughter of the King of France an alien et contra morem et Statuta Regum West-Saxonum â—nd against the use and Statutes of the Kings of the West-Saxons called Judith the King of France his Daughter whom he lately â—spoused Queen and caused her to sit by his side at the Table as he easted For the West-Saxons permitted not the Kings Wife to sit by the King at the Table nor yet to be called Queen but the Kings Wife Which Infamy arose â—â—om Eadburga Daughter of King Offa Queen of the same Natâ—on who destroyed her Husband King Brithrâ—…c with poison and sitting by the King was wont to accuse all the Nobles of the Realm to him who thereupon deprived them of life or banished them the Realm whom she câ—uld not accuse she used to kill wâ—th poison Therefore for this mis-doing of the Queen they all conjured and swore that they would never permit a King to reign over them who should be guilty in the premises Wâ—…e eupon King Aethelulfe returning peaceably â—rom Rome his Son Aethelbald with his Complices attempted to bring their conceived wickedness to effect in excluding him from his own Realm and Crown But Almighty God would not permit it for lest peradventure a more than civil war should arise between the Father and the Son the Conspiracie of all the Bishops and Nobles ceased though the King Clemency who divided the Kingdom of the West-Saxons formerly undivided with his Son so that the East paâ—t of the Realm should go to his Son Ethelbald and the West-part remain to the Father And when tota Regni Nobiliras all the Nobility of the Realm and the whole Nation of the West-Saxers would have fought for the King thrust his Son Etheibald from the right of the Kingdom and 〈…〉 him and â—is Complices out of the Realm qui tantum facinus perpetrare ausi sunt Regem à regno â—…epeâ—â—erent which Wigorniensis Anno 855. â—il Facinus et inauditum omnibus saeculis ante infortunium if the Father would have permitted them to do it He out of the nobleness of his mind satisfied his Sons desire so that where the Father ought to have reigned by the just judgement of God there the obstinate and wicked Son reigned This King Aethelulfe before the death of Egbert his father was ordained Bishop of Winchester but his Father dying he was made King by the Prelates Nobles and People much against his will cum non esset alius de Regio genere qui regnare debuisset because there was none other of the Royal Race who ought to reign Haeredibus aliis deficientibus postmodum necessitate compulsus gubernacula Regm in se suscepit as Bromton and others expresse it At his death Anno 857. he did by his will lest his Sons should fall out between themselves after his decease give the kingdom of Kent with Sussex and Essex to Ethelbert his second son and left the kingdom of the West-Saxons to his eldest son Aethelbald then he devised certain sums of Money to his Daughter Kindred Nobles and a constant annuity for ever for meat drink and cloths to one poor man or pilgrim out of every 10 Hides of his Land 300 marks of mony to be sent yearly to Rome to be spent there in Oyl for Lamps Almes which sums I never find paid by his Successors as he prescribed by his Will and Charter too because not confirmed by his great Parliamentary Councils of Prelates and Nobles as his forcited Charter and Peter-pence likewise granted by him were upon this occasion âs some record that he being in Rome and seeing there out lawed men doing penance in bonds of Iron purchased of the Pope that Englishmen after that time should never onâ— of their Country do penance in Bonds About the year of our Lord 867. Osbrith King of Northumberland as Bromton records residing at York as he returned from hunting went into the house of one of his Nobles called Bruern Bocard to eat who was then gone to the Sea-coasts to defend it the Ports against Theeves and Pirates as he was accustomed His Lady being extraordinarily beautifull entertained him very honorably at dinner The K. enamored with her beauty after dinner taking her by the hand leads her into her Chamber saying he would speak with her in private and there violently ravished her against her will which done he presently returned to York but the Lady abode at her house weeping and lamenting the deeds of the King whereby she lost her former colour and beauty Her Husband returning and finding her in this sad condition inquired the cause thereof where with she fully acquainting him he thereupon cheered her up with comsortable words saying that he would not love her the lesse for it since her weakness was unable to resist the Kings power and vowed by Gods assistance speedily to avenge himself her of the King for this indignity
carry between his arms offering that to him for his trespasse and submissively deprecating that he would pardon all his rancour and ill-will to the Earle and receiving his homage and fealâ—y he would restore and redeliver his lands intirely to him Vnto which award THEY ALL ACCORDING they all laded themselves with treasure in the manner aforesaid and going to the King declared unto him the order and manner of their JUDGEMENT or AVVARD QUORUM CONSIDERATIONI REX CONTRADICERE NOLENS QUICQUID JUDICAVERANT PER OMNIA RATIFICAVIT The King not willing to contradict them in any thing they had judged ratified the same in all things An agreement therefore being made between them in this manner the Earl presently regained all his lands The generality of our Historians as Bromton confesseth deny that Godwin ever fled into Denmark or left England for the murder of Alfred they generally affirming that he purged himself thereof though falsly CORAM PROCERIBUS before the Nobles in the reign of Harde-Cnute swearing with his compurgators that he never consented to his death NISI REGIA VI COACTUS but through compulsion by royall violence Recording likewise that after the death of King Harde-Cnute Prince Edward was called out of Normandy and elected King principally by the help and counsel of Earle Godwin himself who as Malmesbury and others write perswaded him to accept the Crown and precontracted with him before he came into England Paciscatur ergo sibi amicitiam solidam filiis honores integros filiae matrimonium brevi futurum ut se Regem videat qui nunc vitae naufragus exul spei alterius opem implorat Utrinque fide data quicquid petebatur sacramento firmavit If there were then any such Parliament as this then held at London and such proceedings in it concerning Godwin it was most probably in the year 1043. as I here place it And from these memorable proceedings in it we may observe 1. That there is mention onely of the King Earls and Barons present in this Parliament as members of it not of any Knights of shires Citizens or Burgesses elected by the people of which there is not one syllable 2. That the Earls and Barons in Parliament were the onely Judges in that age in Parliament between the King and his Nobles subjects both in criminal and other causes there decided 3. That Peers in that age were onely tryed and judged by their Peers for treason and capitall offences 4. That appeals of Treason were then tryed in Parliament and the Earls and Barons the sole Judges of them and of what offences were Treason and what not 5. That the Bishops and Clergy in that age bad no votes in matters of Treason and capitall offences 6. That the Judgement of Parliament then rested properly in the Earls and Barons not the King and that their judgement was not repealable by but obligatory to the King himself 7. That no Subject could then by law wage battel against the King in an Appeal 8. That the murther of Prince Alfred then heir to the Crown in the time of Harold an actuall King by usurpation without any good title by his command was reputed a treasonable offence in Earl Godwin for which he forfeited his lands and was forced to purchase his pardon and lands restitution with a great fine and summe to the King 9. That though the Author of the Chronicle of Bromton Caxton out of him stile this Assembly PARLIAMENTUM a Parliament not a COUNCIL yet it is onely according to the style of the age wherein he writ being in the reign of King Edward the third as Mr. Selden proves not according to the dialect of the age wherein it was held to which the term Parliamentum was a meer stranger and CONCILIUM MAGNUM c. the usual name expressing such Assemblies King Edward Anno 1643. immediately after his Coronation came suddenly from Glocâ—ster to Winchester attended with Earl Godwin Siward and Leofric and by their advice forcibly took from his Mother Queen Emma all her gold silver jewels and precious stones and whatever rich things else she possessed commanding onely necessaries to be administred to her there The cause of which unjust act some affirm to be Godwins malice towards her others affirm it to be her unnaturalnesse to King Ethelred her first husband and her own sons by him Alfred and Edward In loving and marrying Cnute their enemy and supplanter when living and applauding him when dead more then Ethelred In advancing Harde-Cnute her son by him to the Crown and endeavouring to deprive Alfred Edward thereof In refusing to give any thing toward Prince Edw his maintenance whiles in exile and distresse although he oft requested her to supply his necessities In having some hand in the murther of Prince Alfred and endeavouring to poyson King Edward himself as the Chronicle of Bromton relates After which by the instigation of Robert Archbishop of Canterbury a Norman born he againe spoiled her of all she had and shut her up prisoner in the Abbâ—y of Werwel upon suspition of incontinency with Alwin Bishop of Winchester from which false imputation she purged her self and the Bishop by passing barefoot over nine red hot ploughshares without any harm Whereupon the King craved mercy and pardon from her for the infamy and injury done unto her for which he was disciplined and whipped by his Mother and all the Bishops there present Anno 1044. There was GENERALE CONCILIUM CELEBRATUN a General Council held at London wherein Wolmar was elected Abbot of Evesham And this year King Edward DE COMMUNI CONCILIO PROCERUM SUORUM as Bromton and others write most likely when assembled in the Council at London married Edith daughter of Earl Godwin in patrocinium regni sui he being the most potent man in all the Realm there being in her breast a magazine of all liberall vertues And this same year most probable by this same Councils Edict Gunilda a noble Matron King Crute's sâ—sters daughter with her two sons Hemming and Thurkell were banished out of England into Flanders from whence after a little stay they departed into Denmark King Edward in the year 1045. assembled together to the port of Sandwich a very numerous and strong Navy against Magnus King of Norway purposing to invade Engl. But Swane King of Denmark then warring upon him hindered his voyage for England The next year 1046. Osgodus Clapa was banished out of England Swane King of Denmark Anno 1047. sent Ambassadours to King Edward desiring him to send a Navy to him against Magnus King of Norway Hereupon Earl Godwin counselled the King to send him at least fifty ships furnished with souldiers Sed quia Leofrico comiti ET OMNI POPULO id non videbatur consilium CAETERI PROCERES DISSUASERUNT nullum ei mittere voluit But because that Council seemed not good to Earl Leofric and all the people and the rest of the Nobles
of Thanet into Flanders to Earle Baldwin with much treasure but his other two sonnes Harold and Leofric sailed by Bristol into Ireland Moreover the King put away his Queen Editha for her Father Godwins sake thrust her into the Abbie of Warwel or Redwel without worship with one maid only to attend her committing her to the custody of the Abbess his own sister taking away all her substance without leaving her so much as one penny ne scilicet omnibus suis parentibus patriam suspirantibus sola sterteret in pluma Harolds Earldom and County wâ—a bestowed on Algarus who ruled it nobly and he with good will resigned it up to Harold upon his returne These things being done William Duke of Normandy came to visit the King with a great multitude of Normans and Souldiers whom King Edward honorably received and magnificently entertained for a season carrying him about to all his royal Castles and Cities and at last sent back into Normandy with many and great presents bestowed on him and his followers De successione autem Regni spes adhuc aut mentio nulla facta inter eos fuit writes Iugulphus King Edward In Parliamento Pleno having in Plain or sull Parliament as Radulphus Cestrensis Knighton de eventibus Angliae l. 1. c. 10. Trevisa and others relate thus banished and outlawed Godwin and his sons in which in condition as some write they continued two ful years Thereupon in the year 1052. Harold and Leofric by way of reveng coming out of Ireland with such ships and forces as they could there raise pillaged the western parts of England infesting the shores with continual robberies carrying away rich booties and slaying such as resisted them Then marching from Severn into the confines of Somsetshire and Dorsetshire they plundered many Towns and Villages in those parts against whom a great multitude assembled out of these two Counties making head were incountred and routed by Harold many of their chief Officers and others being slain After which they returning to their ships with great booties sailed round about by the shore to Plimonth Upon this King Edward speedily sent forth forty ships well victualed and furnished with choice Souldiers commanding them to watch for and resist the coming and landing of Earle Godwin who without their privity coming with a few ships undescerned out of Flanders practised pyracy and pillaged the sea-coasts of Kent and Sussex and at last came to the Isle of Weight where his two sonnes Harold and Leofric joyning their ships and Forces with his they studiously plotted how they might aveng themselves upon King Edward by sea Griffin King of VVales in the mean time by their instigation de populating Herefordshire by land slaying many of the Countrey people who resisted him On the Kings part there were about sixty ships assembled together to oppose Harold riding at anchor the Admirals of which Navy were the Earls Odo and Ralph the Kings kinsmen neither was the King himself sloathfull in this necessity lying all night on shipboard and diligently observing the excursions of these Pyrates executing that by sage counsel which by reason of age he could not act with his hand When both Navies were drawn near together and ready to grapple with and encounter each other a thick fogge and cloud sodainly arising blinded the eyes of these furiou persons and restrained the wretched audacity of these mortals so that they could not encounter each other Godwin with his companions being forced by the winds to returne from whence they came After which Godwin and his sonnes by secret messengers drew unto their party an innumerable company of the inhabitants of Kent Essex Sussex and Surry and all the Mariners of Hastings with many Souldiers and having drawn together a very great Army out of those parts who all promised with one voice To live and dye with Godwin forbearing all plunder and depopulation after they met together taking only victuals for their Army when occasion and necessity required and alluring all they could to their party they marched with their forces first to Sandwich Which the King hearing of being then at London speedily sent messengers to all who had not revolted from him to come with all speed to his assistance who delaying overlong came not at the time appointed In the mean while Godwin comes up the Thames with his Navy and Army toward London and pitched his Tents in Southwark near the City King Edward who was then at London had assembled a great company of armed men together and no small Navy to pursue Godwin and his sonnes both by Sea and Land But because very few with the King or Godwin had courage to fight with each other and the English whose sonnes Nephews Kinsmen and Friends were with Godwin and Harold refused to fight against their own parents kinred of the Kings party thereupon some wise men on both parts diligently endeavored to make a firme peace and reconciliation between the King and Godwin and commanded the Armies and Navies to forbear fighting Godwin being aged and potent both with his favour and tongue to bow the mindes of his auditors very well purged himself from all the things objected against him The next morning Rex habens cum Primartbus suis Concilio the King taking Counsel with his Nobles restored Godwin and all his sonnes except Swane who went on Pilgrimage barefoot to Jerusalem to expiate the murder of Beorne together with the Queen his daughter to their former honours Godwin giving his Sonne VVolnoth and Hake the Son of Swane his hostages to the King for his keeping of the peace and future loyaltie to him whom the King immediatly sent into Normandy to be kept there A concord and peace being thus made and ratified the King and Nobles omni populo bonas Leges rectam justitiam promiserunt promised good Laws and right Justiceto all the people then they banished Robert arch-bishop oâ— Canterbury William Bishop of London Vlfe Bishop of Dorchester and all the other Normans who incensed and gave the King evill counsel against Earle Godwin and the English and had invented unjust laws and pronounced unjust judgements against them permitting only some few Normans nominated in our Historians whom the King loved more than the rest and who had been faithfull to him and all the people to remain in England Not long after VVilliam Bishop of London was for his goodnesse recalled and restored to his Bishoprick but Stigand was made Archbishop of Canterbury in the place of Robert and Osburne and Hugh two Normans by birth leaving their Castles here went to the King of Scots who entertained them and so the land was freed from these forreign incendiaries Normannos omnes ignominâ notatos prolata Sententia in Robertum Archiepis ejusque complices quod statum regni conturbarant animum Kegis in provinciales agitantes Upon this sentence denounced Robert and others of them presently fled the Realme of their own accord
Saint he fell off from his horse and continued in great torment till night and so ended his life with a miserable death Swane being deâ—d the whole Navy and Nation of the Danes Elected and made â—…te his son their King and Lord 〈…〉 Majores Natu totius Angliae The Nobles and Senators of all England liking nothing â—eâ—s than bondages especially under such new tyrannizing forein Intrâ—… thinking it now or never the time to shake ofâ— their new yoak pronounced their Natural Lord to be dearer to them than any Foreiner Si regalius se quam consuâ—verat ageret Whereupon with unanimous consent and great joy and speed they sent messengers â—…o Normandy to Ethelred to inform him Nullum eo libentius se in Regem recepturos si ipse vel rectius gubernare vel mitius eos tractare vellet quam prius tractaverat and to hasten his return unto them Who thereupon presently sent over his son Edward qui fidem Principum favoremque vulgi praesens specularetur who together with his Embassadors assured both the Nobles and Commons of the English Nation That he would for time to come be their mild and devout Lord consent to their wills in all things acquiesce in their Counsels and if he had offended in any kinde he would reform it according as they should think fit and with a ready mind pardon whatsoever had been contemptuously or disgracefully spoken or acted by them against him or his if they would all unanimously receive him again as their King into the Kingdom To which they all gave a favourable and satisfactory answer Whereupon a plenary reconciliation was ratified between them on both sides both by words and compact Moreover The Nobles unanimously and fréely agreed and voted That they would never more admit a Danish King into England to reign over them These things concluded King Ethelred speedily returns into England where he was honourably and joyfully received by the English And that he might seem to cast off his former sloathfulness he hastned to raise an Army against Cnute who remaining with his Navy in Lindesey made an agreement with the inhabitants exacting men and horses from them that he might surprise Ethelred at unawares and threatning grievously to punish all such as revolted from him But Cnute being taken in his own craft Ethelred marching thither with a strong army before he was provided to receive him fled from thence with his Hostages Army and Navy to Sandwich whereupon Ethelred depopulated all Lindesey wasting the Country with fire and sword slaying all the Inhabitants as Traitors to him and their Native Country Cnute by way of revenge humano et divino Jure contempto in insontes grassatus cuts off the hands and ears and â—â—its the Noses of all the most Noble and beautiful Hostages throughout England given to his father and so dismissing them sailed into Denmark to settle his affairs and augment his sorces resolving to return the year following After his departure King Ethelred this very year Super haec omnia mala Classi quae apud Greenwic â—acuiâ— Tributum quod erat 30. millia librarum pendi mandavit to wit to the Fleet under Turkell the Dane who instead of defending did but help to pillage and oppress the English Huntindon writes it was but 21 thousand pounds and Bromton avers that it was Cnute not Ethelred who commanded it to be paid to his Navy Soon after which the Sea rising higher than it was accustomed drowned an innumerable Company of Villages people and cartel After Cnutes departure King Ethelred summoned a Parliamentary Council at Oxford Anno 1015 both of the Danes and English Malmsbury expressly stiles it MAGNUM CONCILIUM Wigorniensis Hoveden Sim. Dunelmensis MAGNUM PLACITUM Matthew Westminster and others MAGNUM COLLOQUIUM our later English Historians a Great Council and Parliament The King by the ill advise of that Arch Traytor Duke Edric at this Great Council commanded some Nobles of the Danes to be sodenly and secretly slain quasi de Regia proditione notatos ac persidiae apud se insimulatos the chiefest of them were Sygeforth and Morcar whom Edric treacherously invited to his chamber and there making them drunk caused his armed guards there placed secretly to murder them which they did Hereupon their Servants endeavouring to revenge their Lords deaths being digniores et potentiores ex Seovengensibus they were repulsed with arms and forced to slye into the Tower of St. Frideswides Church for safety whence when they could not be forcibly expelled they were all there burnt together The King presently seised upon their lands and goods the chief cause of their murder as some conceived and sent the relict of Sygeforth a very Noble beautifull and vertuous Lady prisoner to Malmsbury whither Edmond the Kings base Son as some affirm posted without his fathers privity and being enamored with her beauty first carnally abused then afterward maried her and by her advice forcibly invaded and seised upon the Lands of her husband and Morcar which were very great and the Earldom of Northumberland which his father denied him upon his request Whereupon all the Inhabitants of that County readily submitted to him Whiles these things were acting d Cnute having setled his affairs in Denmark and made a League with his neighbour Kings recruired his Army and Navy and returned into England with a resolution either to win it or to lose his life in the attempt Ariving first at Sandwich and sailing thence to the West he pillaged Dorsetshire Somersetshire and Wiltshire filling all places with slaughters and plunders King Ethelred lying then sick at Cosham his son Edmond Ironside and Duke Edric raised an Army against Cnute but when both their forces were united to fight him the old persidious Traytor Edric endeavoured by all means to betray Edmond to the Danes or treacherously to slay him which being discovered to Edmond thereupon they severed their forces from each other and gave place to the Enemies without giving them battel Not long after Edric inticing to him 40 of the Kings ships furnished with Danish Mariners and Souldiers openly revolted and went with them to Cnute subjecting himself to his dominion as his Soveraign by whose example all West-Sex submitted to him as their Kiâ—g delivering him hostages for their fidelity resigning up all their arms to him and providing both horse and arms for his Danish Army The Mercians offred themselves alone to resist the Danes but through the Kings sloathfulness the business of war received delay and the enemies proceeded in their rapines without opposition In the year 1016. King Cnute and treacherous Duke Edric came with 200 sail of ships into the river of Thames whence they marched by land with a great Army of horse and foot and invaded Mercia in an hostile manner burning all the Towns and Villages and slaying all the men they met with in Warwickshire and other places whereupon King Ethelred as
right in the Crown was with his Norman associates betrayed and murdered by the treachery of Earl Godwin of which I finde these several different relations in our Historians Matthew Westminster Ranulphus Cistrensis and others out of them record that Alfred being in Normandy and hearing of the death of Cnute came into England with 23. chosen ships full of Souldiers ut paternum regnum de Jure sibi debitum vel pacificè vel si necessitas cogeret armatorum praesidio obtineret that he might obtain his fathers kingdom of right due unto him either peaceably or if necessity compelled by force of arms Who ariving with his forces at Sandwich Port came as far as Canterbury When Godwin Earl of Kent knew of his comming he went to meet him and receiving him in his fidelity the very next night following compleated the part of the Traytor Judas upon him and his fellow-Souldiers For after kisses of peace given and joyful banquets in the silence of the midnight when as Alfred and his companions had given their Members to sleep they were all taken unarmed in their beds suspecting no harm by a multitude of armed men rushing in upon them and their hands being tyed behind their backs they were compelled to sit down in order one by another Where sitting in this manner nine of them were always beheaded but the tenth dismissed and his life reserved for a time These things were acted at Gildeford a royal Town But when it seemed to the Traitor Godwin that there were more yet remaining alive of them than was profitable he coÌ„manded them to be tithed over again as before and so very few of them remained alive But young Alfred every way worthy of royal honour he sent bound to the City of London to King Harold that therby he might find greater favor with him with those few of his followers who remained undecimated So soon as the King saw young Alfred he caused him to be sent to the Isle of Ely and there to have his eyes pulled out of the pain whereof he soon after died but he slew all his Souldiers too perniciously Florentius Wigorniensis Roger de Hoveden Simeon Dunelmensis Radulphus de Diceto Mr. Fox and others relate That the innocent Princes Alfred and Edward sons of King Ethelred came out of Normandy where they had long resided with their Uncle Richard into England accompanied with many Norman Souldiers transported in a few ships to conferr with their Mother Emma then residing at Winchester Which some potent men especially Earl Godwin as was reported took very unworthily and grievously because licet injustum esset although it were unjust they were more devoted to Harold than to Alfred Whereupon Harold perswaded King Harde-Cnute and the Lords not to suffer those Normans to be within the Realm for jeopardy but rather to punish them for example by which means he got authority to order the matter himself Wherefore he met them on Guild-down and there seised upon Prince Alfred and retained him in close Prison when he was hastning towards London to conferr with King Harold as he had commanded And apprehending all his followers he ransacked some of them others of them he put in chains and afterwards put out their eyes some of them he tormented and punished by pulling off the skin from their heads and cutting off their hands and feet many of them he likewise commanded to be sold and slew 600 men of them at Gildeford with various and cruel deaths whose Souls are believed now to rejoyce with the Saints in Paradice seeing their bodies were so cruelly slain in the fields without any fault which Queen Emma hearing of sent back her Son Edward who remained with her with greatest haste into Normandy After which by the command of Earl Godwin and some others Prince Alfred being bound most straitly in chains was carried Prisoner to the Isle of Ely by ship where he no sooner arived but his eyes were most cruelly pulled out and so being led to the Monastery was delivered to the Monks to be kept where he soon after died and was there interred Some add that after Alfreds eyes were put out his belly was opened and one end of his bowels drawn out and fastened to a stake and his body pricked with sharp needles or poyneyards forced about till all his intrails were extracted in which most savage torture he ended his innocent life Ranulphus Cistrensis in his Polychronicon l. 6. c. 21. relates that Godwin used this strange cruelty towards those Normans that came over with Alfred whom he twice decimated at Gildeford that he ripped up their bellies and fastned the ends of their guts to stakes that were reared and pyght in the ground and laid the bodies about the stakes till the last end of the guts came out The Author of the Book called Encomium Emmae and Speed out of him writes That Harold was no sooner established King but that he sought meanes how to rid Queen Emma secretly out of the way and maliciously purposing took counsel how he might train into his Hay the sons of Queen Emma that so all occasions of danger against him might at once for all be cut off Many projects propounded this lastly took effect that a Letter should be counterfeited in Queen Emma's name unto her sons Edward and Alfred to instigate them to attempt the Crown usurped by Harold against their right The Tenor of which Letter you may read in Speed This Letter being cunningly carried digested by Alfred as savoring of no falshood he returned answer he would come shortly over to attend his Mothers designs which Harold being informed of forelayes the coasts to apprehand him Upon his comming on shore in England Earl Godwin met him and binding his assurance with his corporal Oath became his Leige-man and guide to Queen Emma but being wrought firm for Harold treacherously led these Strangers a contrary way â—…and lodging them at Guildford in several Companies there tithed and murthered them as aforesaid Henry Huntindon the Chronicle of Bromton William Caxton in his Chronicle and another Historian mentioned by Mr. Fox record that this murther was after the death of King Harde-Cnute When the Earls and Barons of England by common assent and counsel sent into Normandy for these two Brethren Alfred and Edward intending to crown Alfred the elder Brother and to make him King of England and to this the Earls and Barons made their Oath But Earl Godwin of West-Sax sought to slay these two brethren so soon as they came into England to the intent he might make Harold his own son by Cnutes daughter or sister maried to him King as some of these affirm Others of them relate that he intended only to destroy Alfred being an Englishman by the Father but a Norman by the Mother whom he foresaw to be a person of such honour and courage that he would disdain to mary his daughter or to be swayed by him and
the Court charged him with his Host to avenge the wrong done to Eustace and to punish the insolency of the men of Dover which the King exceedingly aggravated But Godwin a man of sharp wit and wel understanding that sentence ought not to be pronounced upon the hearing of the allegations of one part only without hearing the other refused to march with his Army against the Burgesses of Dover although the King commanded him both because he envied that all Aliens should find such extraordinary favour with the King and because he would shew friendship to his own Countreymen Whereupon he answered It were reasonable and just that before any execution done the the Wardeins of Dover Castle should be summoned into that Kings Court in a fair manner to answer this tumult and if they could excuse themselves that then they should be dismissed without harms or if not that then they should satisfy the King whose peace they had broken and the Earl whom they had offended with money or the forfeiture of their bodies and goods Iniquum videri ut quos tutari debeas eos ipse potissimum inauditos adjudices And so Godwin departed at that time little regarding the Kings fury as being but momentany Quocirca Totius regni Proceres jussi Glocestriam convenire ut iâ—i magno conventu res ventilaretur Therefore all the Lords of the land were commanded to assemble together at Glocester that this matter might be there debated in a great Parliamentary assembly Thither came the most famous Earle Syward of Northumberland and Leofric Earle of Mercia Omnibus Anglorum Nobiles and all the English Nobility at that time only Godwin and his Sonnes who knew themselves suspected thought it not safe for them to come thither without an armed Guard whereupon they encamped at Breverstone with a great host and there stayed giving out a report among the people that they had therefore gathered an Army together out of Kent Surry Yorkshire Oxfordshire Glocestershire Somersetshire Herfordshire Essex Notinghamshire and other parts that they might curbe the Welshmen who meditating Tyranny and Rebellion against the King had fortified a Town in Herefordshire where Swane one of the Earl Godwins Sonnes then pretended to keep watch and ward against them The King hearing that Godwin and his Sonnes had raised a great Army of men out of all these Counties upon this false pretext presently sent Messengers to Syward Earle of Northumberland and Leofric Earle of Mercia to hasten to him being in great danger with all the forces they could raise Who repairing to him at the first with small forces so soon as they knew how the matter went sending their Officers through their Countries together with Earle Ralph in his Countrey speedily assembled a great Army to assist the King ready to encounter these enemies if there were a necessity In the mean time Godwin marching with his Army into Glocestershire sent messengers to the King as Matthew VVestminster and some others story commanding him to deliver up Earle Eustace with his companions the Normans Bonomans who then held the Castls of Dover to him else he should denounce war against him To whom the King being sufficiently furnished with military forces sent this answer That he would not deliver up Earl Eustace to him commanding moreover Vt qui erercitum contra ipsum collegerat sine ejus licentia pacem regni perturbaverat veniret ad eum die statuta super hac injuria sibi responsurus juri pariturus Godwin and his Sonnes being accused of A CONSPIRACY against the King and made odious to the whole Court by the VVelshmen and Normans so that a rumor was spread abroad that the Kings Army would assault them in the same place where they quartered and were unanimously resolved and ready to fight with Godwins Army being much incensed against him if the King would have permitted them Quo accepto Godwinus ad Conjuratos classicum cecinit Vt ultro Domino regi â—on resisterent sed si conuenti fuissent quin se ulciscerentur loco non cederent profecto facinus miserabile plus quam civile bellum fuisset nisi maturiora consilia interessent writes Malmsbury But because the best and greatest men of all England were engaged on the one side and other it seemed a great unadvisednesse to Earl Leofric and others that they should fight a battle and wage war with their own Countrymen and thereupon they advised That hostages being given on both sides the King and Godwin should meet at London on a certain day to plead together which Counsel being approved of and meslengers running to and fro between them hostages being given and received and some small agreement made between them at the present thereupon the Earle returned into VVest-Sax and the King increasing his Army both out of Mercia and Northumberland returned with them to London by agreement between both parties Iterumque praeceptum ut Londini Concilium coageretur and it was again commanded by the King that A COVNCEL or PARLIAMENT as Trevisa Speed and others render it should be assembled at London Swane the Son of Godwin was commánded to mitigate the Kings anger by his flight Godwin and Harold were ordered to come to this Councel with twelve men only in their company and that they should resigne up to the King the services of all the Knights and Souldiers which they had thoroughout England But Godwin and his Sonnes as they durst not wage war against the King so ad Curiam ejus venire Juri parituri negabant They would not come to his Court to put themselves upon a legal tryall alleadging That they would not goe to a Conventicle offactious persons without pledges and host ages that they would obey their Lord in the surrender of all their Knights services and in all things else without the perill of their honour and safety That if they came thither unarmed they might fear the losse of life if with a few followers it would be a reproach to their honour But the King being so resolute in his minde that he would not recede from what he had resolved by their intreaties upon their refusal to come unto his Court to justify themselves Rex in suo Concilio communi Curiae suae judicio by the common judgement of his Court in this Parliamentary Councel Et omnis exercitus unanimi consensu and by the unanimous consent of his whole Army as Flo-rence of VVorcester and his followers subjoyne banished Godwin himself and his five Sons out of England whereupon prolatum Edictum est A Decree Proclamation was then published that within five dayes they should depart out of England Godwin perceving that his souldiers deserted him some some for fear of the Kings Army and displeasure thereupon he and his wife Giva and his three sonnes Swane Gurth and Tosti with his wife Iudith daughter to the Earle of Flanders departed presently out of England by the Isle