Anonymous

EARL GODWIN AND HAROLD.

Harold and Harthacanute—The Murder of Alfred—Accession of Harthacanute—His Reconciliation with Godwin—The Punishment of Worcester—Edward the Confessor—His Election—Influx of Normans—The Family of Godwin—Conduct of Sweyn—The Outbreak at Dover—Godwin's Rebellion and Outlawry—William of Normandy's Visit to England—Godwin's Attempt to Return—His Appearance in the Thames—His Restoration to Power—Death of Godwin—His Place taken by Harold—Siward's Invasion of Scotland and his Death—Death of Leofric and Punishment of Ælfgar—Church Building of Harold and Edward—Harold's Conquest of Wales—Turbulence of Tostig—Death of the Atheling Edward—Candidature of Harold.

By the death of Canute the prospect of a disputed succession was opened up once more. By his second marriage he had issue one son, named Harthacanute; by the first, two, named Sweyn and Harold; but the parentage of these two was considered to be very doubtful. Sweyn nevertheless succeeded to Norway, and Harthacanute to Denmark, but the question was not settled so easily in England. There was a double election, in which the Northerners, under the leadership of Leofric of Mercia, chose Harold; and the Southerners, among whom Godwin was the most influential, chose Harthacanute. Having, however, learnt wisdom by misfortune, the Witena-gemot agreed that the kingdom should be peacefully divided; and as Harthacanute did not come over from Denmark, Earl Godwin, despite his obscure origin, for he appears to have been the son of a wealthy ceorl, was practically King of Wessex. But in 1037, when Harthacanute showed no signs of visiting England, Harold was elected by the Witena-gemot king over all England, and ruled during two years and some months (1037-1040). Of his reign we know absolutely nothing of importance, but he appears to have resembled very little his great father, being in fact more or less of a barbarian.

During the period in which Godwin was administering Wessex for Harthacanute, Alfred, the son of Emma and Ethelred, came over from Normandy, apparently with some designs on the crown. He met Earl Godwin at Guildford, and shortly afterwards was seized by Harold's servants and taken to Ely, where he was blinded, and soon afterwards died. At the time, Godwin was universally held to have had the chief hand in the deed; although it is not easy to see why he should have been leader in a crime which was committed to further the interests of Harold, whose election he had opposed. The feeling nevertheless was very strong against him, and perhaps he may have used the betrayal to make his peace with Harold. Queen Emma was soon afterwards driven from England, but found a hospitable abode at Bruges, where she was received by Count Baldwin of Flanders. She was believed to have been privy to the death of Alfred, in order that the crown might pass to Harthacanute.

Harthacanute, or Canute the Strong, had never resigned his pretensions to the crown of England; and the country was spared the horrors of a civil war only by the death of Harold. Under pretence of visiting the widowed queen in Flanders, he had assembled a fleet of sixty ships, his real intention being to make a descent upon England. The news of Harold's death induced him at once to set sail. He shortly afterwards entered London in triumph, and was acknowledged king without opposition.

The first act of Harthacanute's government promised badly for his future conduct. He was so enraged at Harold for depriving him of his share of the kingdom, and for the cruel treatment of his half-brother Alfred, that in an impotent desire of revenge against the dead, he ordered his body to be dug up and to be thrown into the Thames; and when it was found by some fishermen, and buried in London, he ordered it again to be dug up, and to be thrown once more into the river; but it was fished up a second time, and then interred with great secrecy. Godwin and the Archbishop of York submitted to be his instruments in this unnatural and brutal action.

The earl knew that he was universally believed to have been an accomplice in the barbarity exercised on Alfred, and that he was on that account obnoxious to Harthacanute; and perhaps he hoped, by displaying this rage against Harold's memory, to free himself from the suspicion of having had any participation in his counsels; but the king preferred an accusation against Godwin for the murder of Alfred, and compelled him to clear himself. Godwin, in order to appease the king, made him a magnificent present of a galley with a gilt stern, rowed by four-score men, who wore each of them a gold bracelet on his arm, weighing sixteen ounces, and were armed and clothed in the most sumptuous manner. Harthacanute, pleased with the splendour of this spectacle, quickly forgot his brother's murder; and on Godwin's proving his innocence by compurgation, he allowed him to be acquitted.

Though Harthacanute, before his accession, had been called over by the vows of the English, he soon lost the affections of the nation by his misconduct; but nothing appeared more grievous to them than his renewing the imposition of Danegeld, and obliging the nation to pay a great sum of money to the fleet which brought him from Denmark. The discontents ran high in many places. In Worcester the populace rose, and put to death two of the collectors (1041). The king, enraged at this opposition, swore vengeance against the city, and ordered three noblemen—Godwin, Earl of Wessex, Siward, Earl of Northumberland, and Leofric, Earl of Mercia—to execute his orders with the utmost rigour. They were obliged to set fire to the city, and deliver it up to be plundered by their soldiers; but they saved the lives of the inhabitants, whom they allowed to fly to a small island on the Severn, called Beverly, till by their intercession they were enabled to appease the anger of the tyrant. This violent reign was of short duration. Harthacanute died three years after his accession, in consequence of his excesses in drinking. This event took place at the marriage feast of a Danish nobleman at Lambeth, on June 8, 1042.

The English, on the death of Harthacanute, saw that a favourable opportunity had occurred for recovering their ancient independence and shaking off the Danish yoke, which was insufferably galling to a proud and spirited people.

Prince Edward was in Normandy at the time of his brother's death; but though the true English heir was the descendant of Edmund Ironside, the absence of that prince in Hungary appeared a sufficient reason for his exclusion. Delays might be dangerous; the occasion might not again present itself, and must be eagerly embraced before the Danes, now left in the island without a leader, had time to recover from the confusion into which the death of their king had thrown them.

But this concurrence of circumstances in favour of Edward might have failed of its effect, had his succession been opposed by Godwin, whose power, alliances, and abilities gave him great influence at all times, especially amidst those sudden opportunities which always attend a revolution of government, and of which advantage can be taken only by great promptitude. There were opposite reasons which divided men's hopes and fears with regard to Godwin's conduct. On the one hand, the credit of that nobleman lay chiefly in Wessex, which was almost entirely inhabited by English. It was therefore presumed that he would second the wishes of that people in restoring the English line, and in humbling the Danes, from whom he, as well as they, had reason to dread, as they had already felt, the most grievous oppression. On the other hand, there was strong reason for animosity between Edward and Godwin, on account of Alfred's murder, which the latter might deem so deep an offence that it could never, on account of subsequent merits, be sincerely pardoned. Nevertheless, in those turbulent days men's memories were short; a strong union of interests was sufficient to cause the temporary burial of past wrongs. At the Witena-gemot, which was summoned at Gillingham, every measure was taken for securing the election of Edward. The English were unanimous and zealous; the Danes, who were in favour of Canute's nephew, Sweyn, were divided and dispirited, and Godwin's eloquence easily won the day. Two years afterwards the friendship was cemented by a marriage between the king and Godwin's daughter, Edith. It was thought advisable also to depress the Danish element by exile and confiscation of property in several instances.

The new king also treated his mother, who had returned to England, not only with coldness, but some degree of severity, on account of her having neglected him in his adversity. He accused her of preferring her son by Canute to his brother and himself—which, when the characters of her first and second husbands are compared, appears by no means improbable. He stripped her of the great wealth she had amassed, and compelled her to live in seclusion at Winchester. The accusation of her having been a party to the murder of her son Alfred, and of her criminal intercourse with the Bishop of Winchester, from which she is said to have cleared herself by walking barefoot over nine red-hot ploughshares, must be regarded as tradition merely.

The English fondly believed that by the accession of Edward they had delivered themselves for ever from the dominion of foreigners, but they soon found out that they were in error; for the king, who had been educated at the court of his uncle in Normandy, had contracted so strong an affection for the natives of that country that his court was speedily filled by them. This partiality will be considered by no means an unnatural one, when it is remembered that the natives of that populous and wealthy state were far more polished than the comparatively rude, unlettered English, and that their culture was much superior. The example of the monarch had its influence; the courtiers imitated the Normans both in dress and manners. French became the language not only of the court, but of the law; even the Church felt its influence, Edward creating Robert of JumiÈges (1044), and Ulf (1049), two Norman priests, respectively Bishops of London and Dorchester. In 1051 Robert was made Archbishop of Canterbury. Similar appointments were made in secular affairs, and the whole country was filled with a swarm of Norman strangers. All these changes gradually excited the jealousy of the English nation; although it may be justly doubted whether the most far-sighted amongst them foresaw that they were preparing the way for a fresh conquest of the country.

The natural result of this unwise partiality for foreigners was the growth of a strongly national party, and with it Earl Godwin was not slow to identify himself. By a process of deliberate family aggrandisement, he had succeeded in making the influence of his house nearly paramount in England; and this was based not only on immense possessions and administrative authority, but on the great personal talents of himself and his sons, which were wedded to dispositions of a more than ordinarily ambitious nature. Their power was, indeed, most formidable. Godwin, as has been already mentioned, was Earl of Wessex; his eldest son, Sweyn, was Earl of a district partly in Wessex and partly in Mercia; his second son, Harold, was Earl of the East Angles; and his nephew, Beorn, was Earl of the Middle Angles, a district which included Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire.

It was inevitable that a trial of strength should occur between the two parties sooner or later, and the unruly conduct of Godwin's family was, unfortunately, by no means a source of credit to his cause. In 1046, Sweyn, his eldest son, carried off the Abbess of Leominster, and in consequence had to leave the kingdom, his possessions being divided between Harold and Beorn. After futile attempts to gain pardon and restitution, he decoyed Beorn on to one of his ships and foully murdered him. He was thereupon outlawed, but soon afterwards the king weakly allowed him to return, and his earldom was restored to him.

THE RIOT AT DOVER. (See p. 69.)

Meanwhile, the feeling of animosity between the Norman and English parties at court, and in the country generally, was becoming terribly strong. Robert of JumiÈges lost no opportunity of setting the king against Earl Godwin, and the English people were very angry when they saw the Norman favourites beginning to build castles, as strongholds of oppression, over the face of the land. It was not long before this animosity broke into action. Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who had married Edward's sister, having paid a visit to the king, passed by Dover in his return. One of his train being refused entrance to a lodging which had been assigned him, attempted to make his way by force, and in the contest he wounded the master of the house. The inhabitants revenged this insult by the death of the stranger; the count and his train took arms, and murdered the wounded townsman; a tumult ensued; nearly twenty persons were killed on each side; and Eustace, being overpowered by numbers, was obliged to save his life by flight from the fury of the populace. He hurried immediately to court, and complained of the usage he had met with. The king entered zealously into the quarrel, and was highly displeased that a stranger of such distinction, whom he had invited over to his court, should, without any just cause, as he believed, have been exposed to such insult and danger. Edward felt so sensibly the insolence of his people that he gave orders to Godwin, in whose government Dover lay, to repair immediately to the place, and to punish the inhabitants for the crime; but Godwin, who desired rather to encourage than repress the popular discontents against foreigners, refused obedience, and endeavoured to throw the whole blame of the riot on the Count of Boulogne and his retinue; he declared also that no man in his earldom should be put to death without trial. Edward, touched in so sensible a point, saw the necessity of exerting the royal authority; and he threatened Godwin, if he persisted in his disobedience, to make him feel the utmost effects of his resentment.

The earl, perceiving a rupture to be unavoidable, and pleased to embark in a cause where it was likely he should be supported by his countrymen, made preparations for his own defence, or rather for an attack on Edward. He assembled a great army, and was approaching the king, who, on his side, had collected his Norman favourites about him at Gloucester. Edward applied for protection to Siward, Earl of Northumberland, and Leofric, Earl of Mercia, two powerful noblemen, whose jealousy of Godwin's greatness on the one hand, and their hatred of the Normans on the other, caused them to adopt a policy of watchful neutrality. They hastened to him with such of their followers as they could assemble on a sudden; and finding the danger of a collision much greater than they had at first apprehended, they issued orders for mustering all the forces within their respective governments, and for marching them without delay to the defence of the king's person and authority. Edward, meanwhile, endeavoured to gain time by negotiation; while Godwin, who thought the king entirely in his power, and was willing to save appearances, fell into the snare; and not perceiving that he ought to have no further reserve after he had proceeded so far, lost the favourable opportunity of rendering himself master of the government.

The English, though they had no idea of Edward's vigour and capacity, bore him much affection on account of his humanity, justice, and piety, as well as the long race of their native kings from whom he was descended; and they hastened from all quarters to defend him from the present danger. His army was now so considerable that he ventured to take the field; and, marching to London, he summoned the Witena-gemot to judge the rebellion of Godwin and his sons. These nobles, angry at being treated as criminals, demanded hostages for their safety, which were refused. Soon afterwards, finding themselves deserted by the majority of their adherents, they disbanded their remaining forces, and fled the country. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, gave shelter and protection to the earl and three of his sons, Sweyn, Gurth, and Tostig. Harold and Leofwine, two other brothers, took refuge in Ireland.

Godwin and his sons were outlawed in 1051, and shortly afterwards occurred a most important event, namely, the visit of Duke William of Normandy to England. He was the king's cousin, through the marriage of Ethelred and Emma of Normandy, and the two had been thrown together in their boyhood. It may fairly be conjectured that the absence of Godwin from England and the visit of William of Normandy were two events which were not unconnected, and that the latter was invited over at the instigation of the French party, in order to pave the way to his accession to the throne. In after days William based his claims to a great extent on the promise which he declared that Edward had made to him at this time. It is more than probable, therefore, that some such stipulation was made by the weak king, but it should be observed that it was perfectly unconstitutional and illegal, because the English monarchy being purely elective, and the election lying in the hands of the Witena-gemot, the sovereign of England had no power to bequeath the kingdom to any successor, whether he were Englishman or foreigner.

Godwin and his sons were hardly the men to submit supinely to banishment without making an attempt to regain the position from which they had been thrust through an unwise confidence in the impotence of their enemy. Diplomacy having been exhausted, they resolved to use force, and in 1052, Baldwin of Flanders allowed Godwin to fit out an expedition in his harbours, while Harold made a descent from Ireland. The first attempt failed; Harold made a descent upon the coast of Somersetshire, and fought a battle with the inhabitants, who opposed his landing for provisions, but failed to effect a junction with Godwin, who had to retreat before the royal fleet, which was stationed at Sandwich in greater numbers than his own.

The exile, however, appears to have been more politic and more clear-sighted than the king, who, satisfied with his success, and deeming his enemy completely crushed, disbanded his men and neglected his ships, whilst Godwin kept his in readiness. Deeming the time at last had come, he put to sea once more, and sailed for Portland, where he was joined by his son Harold, with his Irish contingent. Being now master of the sea, he sailed along the southern coast, plundering where he could obtain no ready gifts of provisions, and called upon his followers in those counties which owned his authority to take arms in his cause. The appeal was not made in vain; such numbers flocked to his standard that he entered the Thames, where he found the king ready to meet him with forty ships.

Edward, it is said, desired to fight, but could find no one to support him, so hated were his Norman favourites, and the national party was accordingly completely triumphant. Godwin and his sons were recalled and restored to their former positions, and the Normans, with a few exceptions, were driven from the land, although a few of the better ones were afterwards allowed to come back. Among the outlaws was Robert of JumiÈges, and the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury was given to Stigand, the Bishop of Winchester, who had effected the reconciliation between the king and Earl Godwin. So the family of Godwin was once more established in England, with the exception of Sweyn, who, smitten with remorse for his sins, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and died abroad.

Godwin's new tenure of power did not last long, for in 1053 he died. At Easter he was dining with the king, at Winchester, and fell down in a fit. The superstition of the times did not fail to discover in this sudden death the direct intervention of God, and stories were told how the Earl, on being accused by the king of the murder of Alfred, had impiously taken a morsel of bread from the table, and had desired that it might choke him if he had had a hand in that crime. No sooner had he swallowed it, ran the legend, than he fell backwards and died. The tale is obviously one that was published by Godwin's Norman opponents to blacken his memory; but, apart from its inherent improbabilities, it is one that might easily be circulated concerning anyone that had suddenly died at table. Godwin was sincerely lamented by the English, and with justice, for though he may have been ambitious, and have made the aggrandisement of his family the first object of his concerns, he was none the less a true patriot, and strove, at considerable personal sacrifice, for the welfare of his country. His influence, and that of his son Harold after him, for the time beat back the Norman influx and secured for the English a further brief span of independence from Norman aggression.

Godwin's place was taken by his son Harold, who succeeded him as Earl of Wessex. Being of a more courtly disposition than his father, Harold managed to keep on excellent terms with the king. At the same time, the earldom of East Anglia was not at once given to a member of the Godwin family, but to Ælfgar, the son of Leofric of Mercia, who seems to have been put forward by the weak king as in some sort a rival to Harold. In 1055, however, Ælfgar was outlawed, whether with or without justice it is impossible to say, and Harold was thus freed for the time being of a dangerous opponent. The earldom, moreover, was given to his brother Gurth.

The death of Siward, Earl of Northumberland, in 1055, opened the way still more to the ambition of Harold. Siward, besides his other merits, had added new honours to England by his successful conduct of an expedition against Scotland, where Macbeth was king. According to the well-known version of the story which Shakespeare has made immortal, Duncan, the former king, was a prince of gentle disposition, but possessed not the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and so much infested by the intrigues and animosities of the great. Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown, not content with curbing the king's authority, carried still further his pestilent ambition. He put his sovereign to death, chased Malcolm Canmore, Duncan's son and heir, into England, and usurped the crown. It would appear, however, that the murder of Duncan is really a fiction, that he was killed while flying from a battle between the two parties, and that Macbeth, so far from being a tyrant, was really a very able and worthy ruler. Be that as it may, Siward, whose cousin was married to Duncan, undertook, by Edward's orders, the protection of this distressed family. He marched an army into Scotland; and having defeated and killed Macbeth in battle, he restored Malcolm to the throne of his ancestors. This service, added to his former connections with the royal family of Scotland, brought a great accession to the authority of Siward in the north; but as he had lost his eldest son, Osberne, in the action with Macbeth, it proved in the issue fatal to his family. His second son, Waltheof, appeared, on his father's death, too young to be entrusted with the government of Northumberland; and Harold's influence obtained that earldom for his own brother, Tostig.

There are two circumstances related of Siward which discover his high sense of honour and his martial disposition. When intelligence was brought to him of his son Osberne's death, he was inconsolable, till he heard that the wound was received in the breast, and that he had behaved with great gallantry in the action. When he found his own death approaching, he ordered his servants to clothe him in a complete suit of armour; and sitting erect on the couch, with a spear in his hand, declared that in that posture, the only one worthy of a warrior, he would patiently await the fatal moment.

Harold now found his path to the throne obstructed only by the family of Leofric. In 1057, however, death removed Leofric, that great earl of whom we would fain know more; for, from the meagre information we are able to gather concerning him, he would appear to have been anxious to bring to a close the quarrels that distracted and weakened the nation. He and his wife, the Lady Godiva of legend, founded many churches and monasteries, of which the most important was the church at Coventry.

Ælfgar was still a source of uneasiness to Harold. On being outlawed, he made a compact with Griffith, the king of the Welsh, and the two agreed to invade England. Ralph the Norman, Edward's nephew, was disgracefully defeated by the enemy, who took possession of Hereford, but on the arrival of Harold at the head of the English they retired into Wales and made peace, Ælfgar being restored to his earldom for a few months, probably through the influence of his father, who was still alive at the time. Soon after the death of Leofric, Ælfgar was outlawed again, but, pursuing his former tactics, was made Earl of Mercia, succeeding his father, through the armed intervention of Griffith, whose daughter he married. During the brief remainder of his life he plays no prominent part in events, having probably discovered by painful experience that Harold was an antagonist whom it was dangerous to provoke. The power of the house of Godwin was completed by the formation of Essex and Kent into an earldom for Leofwine, Harold's remaining brother.

The influence obtained by Harold's strength of character over the amiable but feeble king was increased by their common sympathies. Both were of considerably higher culture than the average Englishman, and they both had leanings towards the superior civilisation of France, a country to which Harold had paid a visit. Moreover, both of them were genuinely pious men, and their piety took the outward form of the building and endowment of churches. The Confessor's chief edifice was the Abbey of Westminster, and parts of the building which still stands there are his work. Harold, in a kindred spirit, founded an abbey at Waltham in 1060, and established a college there, inviting learned men from the Continent to teach the scholars. Unlike Dunstan, he befriended the secular priests, but he was in every respect rigidly orthodox, and refusing to acknowledge Stigand, because he had been consecrated by the anti-Pope Benedict, caused the abbey at Waltham to be hallowed by the Archbishop of York.

Harold was not only pious, but a great warrior, and in 1063 he put a stop to the incursions of Griffith of Wales by completely conquering that country. Despite the lesson they had previously received from Harold, the Welsh continued the terror of the West of England, which they systematically plundered, retreating with their booty to their mountain strongholds. Harold found he could do nothing more acceptable to the public, and more honourable to himself, than the suppressing of so dangerous an enemy. He formed the plan of an expedition against Wales; and having prepared some light-armed foot to pursue the natives into their fastnesses, some cavalry to scour the open country, and a squadron of ships to attack the sea-coast, he employed at once all these forces against the Welsh, prosecuted his advantages with vigour, made no intermission in his assaults, and at last reduced the enemy to such distress that, in order to prevent their total destruction, they made a sacrifice of their prince, whose head they cut off and sent to Harold; and they were content to receive as their sovereigns two brothers of Griffith appointed by Edward to rule over them. The new princes swore oaths to Harold and Edward, and thus the monarchy over united Wales came to an end, although the country was not annexed to England until long years afterwards.

Another prominent feature in Harold's character besides his valour, was his sense of justice, of which he gave very favourable indication in the year 1065, when his brother Tostig, the Earl of Northumberland, being of a violent, tyrannical temper, acted with such cruelty and injustice that the inhabitants rose in rebellion, and chased him from his government. Morcar and Edwin, two brothers, who were the sons of Ælfgar, Edwin the elder of the two having succeeded him in the earldom of Mercia, concurred in the insurrection; and the former, being elected earl, 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. This was a bold step, but the event fully proved the wisdom of adopting it. He represented to Harold that Tostig had behaved in a manner unworthy of the station to which he was advanced; that no one, not even a brother, could support such tyranny without participating in some degree in the infamy attending it; that the Northumbrians, accustomed to a legal administration, and regarding it as their birthright, 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 the indignities to which they had long been exposed; and they trusted that Harold, on reflection, would not defend in another the violence he had repressed in his own government. This remonstrance, sustained as it was by the arguments that have just been summarised, was accompanied by such proofs of the justice of the complaints that Harold felt himself compelled to abandon his brother's cause; and, returning to Edward, persuaded the king to pardon the Northumbrians, and to confirm Morcar in the government. He afterwards married the sister of that nobleman. Tostig, in a rage, quitted England, and took refuge at Bruges with his father-in-law, Baldwin of Flanders.

But meanwhile the question of the succession to the throne was becoming daily more pressing. Edward was evidently rapidly sinking into the grave. He had never loved his wife, Harold's sister, and had no children by her. The natural choice of the Witena-gemot would have been Edward, the son of Edward's elder brother, who had been sent to Hungary by the King of Sweden. Accordingly, an embassy was sent to Hungary, and in 1057 the Atheling, or member of the royal line, arrived with his children, Edgar, Margaret, and Christina. But the prospect of his one day becoming King of England, which would have solved a most difficult problem, was speedily cut short by his death within a few days. Of the royal family, Edgar, his son, was now the only direct male representative, and he, as being a mere boy, was hardly a candidate on whom the choice of the Witena-gemot would fall. It should be observed that Harold appears to have placed no obstacle in the way of the advent of the members of the house of Cerdic to England, and throughout he seems honestly to have acted for the best.

To look upon the election of Harold to the throne as in any sense a usurpation is to import purely modern ideas about royalty into days when hereditary descent was never for a moment recognised as giving an indefeasible right. To pass over the members of the royal line was no doubt an unusual measure, because there were as a rule some members of that line who were fully competent to succeed, but, failing such a candidate, the Witena-gemot were quite within their right in electing any one whom they believed to combine the necessary qualities of valour and statesmanship. And of all men in England, it could hardly be doubted that Harold was pre-eminently the possessor of the attributes that went in those days to make a good king. He was therefore tacitly designated as Edward's successor by universal consent; but in William of Normandy he had a dangerous and unscrupulous opponent who would hesitate to use no means that force or fraud might throw in his way. One effective instrument he had already acquired during his visit to England, and chance speedily placed a second in his path, of which he availed himself with equal dexterity.