Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/441

EDWARD III. domination which succeeded the death of Ed- mund Ironside he dwelt in exile in Normandy. On the death of Canute in 1035 he crossed the channel with 40 ships, and landed at South- ampton. He found himself opposed by his mother, who had become a second time queen of England by marriage with the Danish mon- arch, and was now regent of the kingdom. Menaced by a constantly increasing force, he hastily retreated. With his brother Alfred he received a perfidious invitation from King Ha- rold to cross the sea in 1037. Alfred was mur- dered at Guildford, but Edward escaped into Flanders. After the accession of his half bro- ther Hardicanute, Edward was received with honor into England, and was at court when the king suddenly died in 1042. The Danish heir Sweyn was then absent from the kingdom ; the rightful heirs of the Saxon line, the sons of Edmund Ironside, were in exile in Hungary ; the Anglo-Saxons were determined to throw off the Danish yoke ; the Danes were divided and dispirited ; Edward was the nearest to the throne of any one present, and after a short period of hesitation and commotion he was recognized as king in a general council at Gil- lingham. During his reign the mutual aversion of the two fierce Teutonic peoples, whose struggles had vexed the country during six generations, began to subside, intermarriages and a blending of language and customs having nearly effaced the distinction between them, and the Normans began to exercise a potent influ- ence in the country. The first royal act of Ed- ward was to dispossess his mother of her im- mense treasures, and to confine her for life in a monastery at Winchester. The government was in the hands of three powerful noblemen : Earl Godwin, who ruled all the southern provinces ; Earl Leofric, who governed Leicester and the northern counties of Mercia ; and Earl Siward, whose sway extended from the Humber to the confines of Scotland. Edward married Earl Godwin's daughter Editha, a lady praised by the chroniclers for her learning, piety, and benevolence ; but his motive was merely politi- cal, and the alliance proved a source of enmity between the king and his father-in-law. Ed- ward was partial both to Norman manners and people; many foreign churchmen and digni- taries had followed him to England, where they had acquired influence in the government. A popular jealousy was already felt against them, when in 1051 Eustace, count of Bou- logne, with his train, visiting England, quar- relled with the burghers of Dover, and in the tumult several persons were slain. Edward gave orders to Godwin, in whose government Dover lay, to chastise the insolence of the men of that city. The earl refused to obey; and three armies under the command of Godwin and his two sons immediately marched against the king in Gloucestershire. Edward sum- moned to his aid Leofric and Siward, and was quickly in a condition to intimidate his oppo- nents, when it was agreed to refer the dispute EDWAKD I. 433 to the witenagemote. But Godwin fled with his wife and sons to Flanders; their estates were then confiscated, and Queen Editha was confined in a monastery. Tranquillity was hardly restored when William, duke of Nor- mandy, the future conqueror, reached the coast of England to assist his royal kinsman. He was received honorably, visited several of the royal villas, and was dismissed with magnificent presents. Godwin, having gradually collected a fleet, suddenly appeared in 1052 on the southern coast of England, swept away the ships from the harbors, entered the Thames, menaced London, and extorted from the king the restoration of himself and his son Harold to their earldoms and the banishment of the foreigners. Godwin did not long survive this triumph, and left his possessions to his son Harold. At this period occurred the events which form the groundwork of Shakespeare's tragedy of " Macbeth." In 1039 Macbeth, a turbulent nobleman, murdered Duncan, king of Scotland, chased Malcolm, his son and heir, into England, and usurped the crown. The exiled prince received from Edward permission to vindicate his rights with an English army, and at length in 1054 was successfully support- ed by Macduff, thane of Fife, and Siward, earl of Northumberland. But the support which Edward gave to Malcolm resulted in adding largely to the power of his own most ambitious and dangerous subject. To oppose Harold's progress, the king invested Algar, the son of Leofric, with the government of East Anglia, which, after a struggle, he succeeded in hold- ing. At Algar's death in 1058 Harold was left without a rival, the most powerful sub- ject in England. Edward the Outlaw, the Saxon heir to the throne, after a life of exile, died within a few days of his arrival in Eng- land, and there now stood between Harold and the crown only the returned exile's young and feeble son Edgar. The infirm old king turned his eyes toward his kinsman, William of Normandy, as a person whose capacity and power would render him the most formida- ble rival to Harold ; but he was deterred by the latter, on his return from Normandy, as Hume says, from abdicating in William's favor, and Harold was crowned on the day of Ed- ward's death. The laws and customs of " good King Edward " were long remembered with popular affection. He was highly es- teemed for his sanctity, was the first English prince that touched for the king's evil, and was canonized and styled " the Confessor " about a century after his decease. The most commendable feature of his government was his attention to the administration of justice, and to collecting the laws of the realm. EDWARD I. (of the Norman line), king of England, surnamed Longshanks, from the ex- cessive length of his legs, son of Henry III. and of Eleanor of Provence, born in Westminster, June 16, 1239, crowned Aug. 19, 1274, died July 7, 1307. Being invested with the duchy