Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/401

ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF EAllL GODWINE. 337 milder and weaker Eadward may perhaps be brought under the yoke ; he therefore determines to destroy ^Elfred and promote Eadward.^ Now when the messengers reach Normandy in search of the ^thehngs, they find Eadward gone into Hungary, to visit his nephew Eadward, the son of Eadmund Ironside ; but J^lfred comes over, and is betra^^d and bhndcd by Godwine, according to the common stor}'-. The Enghsh chiefs, enraged, swear that Godwine shall die a worse death than ever did Eadric,'^ the betrayer of his lord King Eadmund ; Godwine, however, escapes into Denmark, but his goods are confiscated. Meanwhile Eadward comes over, is crowned, and reigns justly and mercifully. Godwine, hearing of his justice and mercy, ventures to hope that the latter princely virtue may be extended to himself; he supplicates that he may be allow^ed to come over and plead his cause. This he does in a " Parliament," where the " Counts and Barons " talk a considerable quantity of Norman law. Earl Leofric at last cuts the knot ; "' It is clear that Godwine is guilty, but then he is the best-born man in the land after the king himself, [therefore, we may suppose, neither the son of Wulfnoth the herdsman, nor yet kins- man of the upstart Ealdorman Eadric], so he and his sons, and I, and eleven other nobles, his kinsmen, will each bring the king as much gold and silver as he can carry, and the king shall forgive Earl Godwine, and give him his lands back again." To this singular way of observing his coronation oath to do justice, the saintly monarch makes no objection ; Earl Godwine takes his lands, and King Eadward takes the broad pieces ; perhaps they were the identical ones over which he afterwards saw the devil dancing. During the reign of Harthacnut, we read of Godwine, besides his trial and acquittal, being sent with Archbishop iElfric and others to disinter the body of the late King Harold, a precedent followed in more polished times with that of Oliver Cromwell. Dr. Lingard represents these illustrious body-snatchers as quarrelling over their agreeable task, Avhich led to ^Elfric's accusation against - Thus far Bromton copies Henry of adhere to the common story. Huntingdou, for the rest the good Abbot ^ It is singular that Bromton, in intro- seems to draw on his own re^^ources. duciiig this comparison, makes no allusion Robert of Gloucester, Polydorc Vergil, to any relationship between Godwine and and Fabyan follow nearly the same Eadric. version ; Peter Langtoft and Hardyng