Harold Part 32

[147] Saxon Chron., verbatim.

[148] Hume.

[149] "The chaste who blameless keep unsullied fame, Transcend all other worth, all other praise. The Spirit, high enthroned, has made their hearts His sacred temple."

SHARON TURNER's Translation of Aldhelm, vol. iii. p. 366. It is curious to see how, even in Latin, the poet preserves the alliterations that characterised the Saxon muse.

[150] Slightly altered from Aldhelm.

[151] It is impossible to form any just view of the state of parties, and the position of Harold in the later portions of this work, unless the reader will bear constantly in mind the fact that, from the earliest period, minors were set aside as a matter of course, by the Saxon customs. Henry observes that, in the whole history of the Heptarchy, there is but one example of a minority, and that a short and unfortunate one; so, in the later times, the great Alfred takes the throne, to the exclusion of the infant son of his elder brother. Only under very peculiar circ.u.mstances, backed, as in the case of Edmund Ironsides, by precocious talents and manhood on the part of the minor, were there exceptions to the general laws of succession. The same rule obtained with the earldoms; the fame, power, and popularity of Siward could not transmit his Northumbrian earldom to his infant son Waltheof, so gloomily renowned in a subsequent reign.

[152] Bayeux Tapestry.

[153] Indeed, apparently the only monastic order in England.

[154] See Note to Robert of Gloucester, vol. ii. p. 372.

[155] The Saxon priests were strictly forbidden to bear arms.--SPELM. Concil. p. 238.

It is mentioned in the English Chronicles, as a very extraordinary circ.u.mstance, that a bishop of Hereford, who had been Harold's chaplain, did actually take sword and s.h.i.+eld against the Welch. Unluckily, this valiant prelate was slain so soon, that it was no encouraging example.

[156] See Note (K), at the end of the volume.

[157] The Normans and French detested each other; and it was the Norman who taught to the Saxon his own animosities against the Frank. A very eminent antiquary, indeed, De la Rue, considered that the Bayeux tapestry could not be the work of Matilda, or her age, because in it the Normans are called French. But that is a gross blunder on his part; for William, in his own charters, calls the Normans "Franci." Wace, in his "Roman de Rou," often styles the Normans "French;" and William of Poitiers, a contemporary of the Conqueror, gives them also in one pa.s.sage the same name. Still, it is true that the Normans were generally very tenacious of their distinction from their gallant but hostile neighbours.

[158] The present town and castle of Conway.

[159] See CAMDEN's Britannia, "Caernarvons.h.i.+re."

[160] When (A.D. 220) the bishops, Germanicus, and Lupus, headed the Britons against the Picts and Saxons, in Easter week, fresh from their baptism in the Alyn, Germanicus ordered them to attend to his war-cry, and repeat it; he gave "Alleluia." The hills so loudly re-echoed the cry, that the enemy caught panic, and fled with great slaughter. Maes Garmon, in Flints.h.i.+re, was the scene of the victory.

[161] The cry of the English at the onset of battle was "Holy Crosse, G.o.d Almighty;" afterwards in fight, "Ouct, ouct," out, out.--HEARNE's Disc. Antiquity of Motts.

The latter cry, probably, originated in the habit of defending their standard and central posts with barricades and closed s.h.i.+elds; and thus, idiomatically and vulgarly, signified "get out."

[162] Certain high places in Wales, of which this might well be one, were so sacred, that even the dwellers in the immediate neighbourhood never presumed to approach them.

[163] See Note (L), at the end of the volume.

[164] See Note (M), at the end of the volume.

[165] The Welch seem to have had a profusion of the precious metals very disproportioned to the scarcity of their coined money. To say nothing of the torques, bracelets, and even breastplates of gold, common with their numerous chiefs, their laws affix to offences penalties which attest the prevalent waste both of gold and silver. Thus, an insult to a sub-king of Aberfraw is atoned by a silver rod as thick as the King's little finger, which is in length to reach from the ground to his mouth when sitting; and a gold cup, with a cover as broad as the King's face, and the thickness of a ploughman's nail, or the sh.e.l.l of a goose's egg. I suspect that it was precisely because the Welch coined little or no money, that the metals they possessed became thus common in domestic use. Gold would have been more rarely seen, even amongst the Peruvians, had they coined it into money.

[166] Leges Wallicae.

[167] Mona, or Anglesea.

[168] Ireland.

[169] The Welch were then, and still are, remarkable for the beauty of their teeth. Giraldus Cambrensis observes, as something very extraordinary, that they cleaned them.

[170] I believe it was not till the last century that a good road took the place of this pa.s.s.

[171] The Saxons of Wess.e.x seem to have adopted the Dragon for their ensign, from an early period. It was probably for this reason that it was a.s.sumed by Edward Ironsides, as the hero of the Saxons; the princ.i.p.ality of Wess.e.x forming the most important portion of the pure Saxon race, while its founder was the ancestor of the imperial house of the Basileus of Britain. The dragon seems also to have been a Norman ensign. The lions or leopards, popularly a.s.signed to the Conqueror, are certainly a later invention. There is no appearance of them on the banners and s.h.i.+elds of the Norman army in the Bayeux tapestry. Armorial bearings were in use amongst the Welch, and even the Saxons, long before heraldry was reduced to a science by the Franks and Normans. And the dragon, which is supposed by many critics to be borrowed from the east, through the Saracens, certainly existed as an armorial ensign with the Cymrians before they could have had any obligation to the songs and legends of that people.

[172] "In whose time the earth brought forth double, and there was neither beggar nor poor man from the North to the South Sea." POWELL's Hist. of Wales, p. 83.

[173] "During the military expeditions made in our days against South Wales, an old Welchman, at Pencadair, who had faithfully adhered to him (Henry II.), being desired to give his opinion about the royal army, and whether he thought that of the rebels would make resistance, and what he thought would be the final event of this war, replied: 'This nation, O King, may now, as in former times, be hara.s.sed, and, in a great measure, be weakened and destroyed by you and other powers; and it will often prevail by its laudable exertions, but it can never be totally subdued by the wrath of man, unless the wrath of G.o.d shall concur. Nor do I think that any other nation than this of Wales, or any other language (whatever may hereafter come to pa.s.s), shall in the day of severe examination before the Supreme Judge answer for this corner of the earth!'"--h.o.a.rE's Giraldus Cambrensis, vol. i. p. 361.

[174] Gryffyth left a son, Caradoc; but he was put aside as a minor, according to the Saxon customs.

[175] Bromton Chron., Knyghton, Walsingham, Hoveden, etc.

[176] Bromton, Knyghton, etc.

[177] The word "decimated" is the one generally applied by the historians to the ma.s.sacre in question; and it is therefore retained here. But it is not correctly applied, for that butchery was perpetrated, not upon one out of ten, but nine out of ten.

[178] The above reasons for Harold's memorable expedition are sketched at this length, because they suggest the most probable motives which induced it, and furnish, in no rash and inconsiderate policy, that key to his visit, which is not to be found in chronicler or historian.

[179] See Note (N).

[180] Faul was an evil spirit much dreaded by the Saxons. Zabulus and Diabolus (the Devil) seem to have been the same.

[181] Ygg-dra.s.sill, the mystic Ash-tree of Life, or symbol of the earth, watered by the Fates.--See Note (O.) [182] Mimir, the most celebrated of the giants. The Vaner, with whom he was left as a hostage, cut off his head. Odin embalmed it by his seid, or magic art, p.r.o.nounced over it mystic runes, and, ever after, consulted it on critical occasions.

[183] Asa-Lok or Loke--(distinct from Utgard-Lok, the demon of the Infernal Regions)--descended from the Giants, but received among the celestial Deities; a treacherous and malignant Power fond of a.s.suming disguises and plotting evil-corresponding in his attributes with our "Lucifer." One of his progeny was Hela, the Queen of h.e.l.l.

[184] "A hag dwells in a wood called Janvid, the Iron Wood, the mother of many gigantic sons shaped like wolves; there is one of a race more fearful than all, named 'Managarm.' He will be filled with the blood of men who draw near their end, and will swallow up the moon and stain the heavens and the hearth with blood."--From the Prose Edda. In the Scandinavian poetry, Managarm is sometimes the symbol of war, and the "Iron Wood" a metaphor for spears.

[185] "Wolf Month," January.

[186] Bayeux tapestry.

[187] Roman de Rou, see part ii. 1078.

[188] Belrem, the present Beaurain, near Montreuil.

[189] Roman de Rou, part ii. 1079.

[190] William of Poitiers, "apud Aucense Castrum."

[191] As soon as the rude fort of the middle ages admitted something of magnificence and display, the state rooms were placed in the third story of the inner court, as being the most secure.

[192] A manor (but not, alas! In Normandy) was held by one of his cooks, on the tenure of supplying William with a dish of dillegrout.

[193] The Council of Cloveshoe forbade the clergy to harbour poets, harpers, musicians, and buffoons.

[194] ORD. VITAL.

[195] Canute made his inferior strength and stature his excuse for not meeting Edward Ironsides in single combat.

[196] Odo's licentiousness was, at a later period, one of the alleged causes of his downfall, or rather against his release from the prison to which he had been consigned. He had a son named John, who distinguished himself under Henry I.--ORD. VITAL. lib. iv.

[197] William of Poitiers, the contemporary Norman chronicler, says of Harold, that he was a man to whom imprisonment was more odious than s.h.i.+pwreck.

[198] In the environs of Bayeux still may perhaps linger the sole remains of the Scandinavian Normans, apart from the gentry. For centuries the inhabitants of Bayeux and its vicinity were a cla.s.s distinct from the Franco-Normans, or the rest of Neustria; they submitted with great reluctance to the ducal authority, and retained their old heathen cry of Thor-aide, instead of Dieu-aide!

[199] Similar was the answer of Goodyn the Bishop of Winchester, amba.s.sador from Henry VIII. to the French King. To this day the English entertain the same notion of forts as Harold and Goodyn.

[200] See Mr. Wright's very interesting article on the "Condition of the English Peasantry," etc., Archaeologia, vol. x.x.x. pp. 205-244. I must, however, observe, that one very important fact seems to have been generally overlooked by all inquirers, or, at least, not sufficiently enforced, viz., that it was the Norman's contempt for the general ma.s.s of the subject population which more, perhaps, than any other cause, broke up positive slavery in England. Thus the Norman very soon lost sight of that distinction the Anglo-Saxons had made between the agricultural ceorl and the theowe; i.e., between the serf of the soil and the personal slave. Hence these cla.s.ses became fused in each other, and were gradually emanc.i.p.ated by the same circ.u.mstances. This, be it remarked, could never have taken place under the Anglo-Saxon laws, which kept constantly feeding the cla.s.s of slaves by adding to it convicted felons and their children. The subject population became too necessary to the Norman barons, in their feuds with each other, or their king, to be long oppressed; and, in the time of Froissart, that worthy chronicler ascribes the insolence, or high spirit, of le menu peuple to their grand aise, et abondance de biens.

[201] Twelve o'clock.

[202] Six A.M.

[203] A celebrated antiquary, in his treatise in the "Archaeologia," on the authenticity of the Bayeux tapestry, very justly invites attention to the rude attempt of the artist to preserve individuality in his portraits; and especially to the singularly erect bearing of the Duke, by which he is at once recognised wherever he is introduced. Less pains are taken with the portrait of Harold; but even in that a certain elegance of proportion, and length of limb, as well as height of stature, are generally preserved.

[204] Bayeux tapestry.

[205] AIL. de Vit. Edw.--Many other chroniclers mention this legend, of which the stones of Westminster Abbey itself prated, in the statues of Edward and the Pilgrim, placed over the arch in Dean's Yard.

[206] This ancient Saxon lay, apparently of the date of the tenth or eleventh century, may be found, admirably translated by Mr. George Stephens, in the Archaeologia, vol. x.x.x. p. 259. In the text the poem is much abridged, reduced into rhythm, and in some stanzas wholly altered from the original. But it is, nevertheless, greatly indebted to Mr. Stephens's translation, from which several lines are borrowed verbatim. The more careful reader will note the great aid given to a rhymeless metre by alliteration. I am not sure that this old Saxon mode of verse might not be profitably restored to our national muse.

[207] People.

[208] Heaven.

[209] Omen.

[210] The Eastern word Satraps (Satrapes) made one of the ordinary and most inappropriate t.i.tles (borrowed, no doubt, from the Byzantine Court), by which the Saxons, in their Latinity, honoured their simple n.o.bles.

[211] Afterwards married to Malcolm of Scotland, through whom, by the female line, the present royal dynasty of England a.s.sumes descent from the Anglo-Saxon kings.

[212] By his first wife; Aldyth was his second.

[213] Flor. Wig.

[214] This truth has been overlooked by writers, who have maintained the Atheling's right as if incontestable. "An opinion prevailed," says Palgrave, "Eng. Commonwealth," pp. 559, 560, "that if the Atheling was born before his father and mother were ordained to the royal dignity, the crown did not descend to the child of uncrowned ancestors. "Our great legal historian quotes Eadmer, "De Vit. Sanct. Dunstan," p. 220, for the objection made to the succession of Edward the Martyr, on this score.

[215] See the judicious remarks of Henry, "Hist. of Britain," on this head. From the lavish abuse of oaths, perjury had come to be reckoned one of the national vices of the Saxon.

[216] And so, from Gryffyth, beheaded by his subjects, descended Charles Stuart.

[217] Brompt. Chron.

[218] See Note P.

[219] It seems by the coronation service of Ethelred II. still extant, that two bishops officiated in the crowning of the King; and hence, perhaps, the discrepancy in the chronicles, some contending that Harold was crowned by Alred, others, by Stigand. It is noticeable, however, that it is the apologists of the Normans who a.s.sign that office to Stigand, who was in disgrace with the Pope, and deemed no lawful bishop. Thus in the Bayeux tapestry the label, "Stigand," is significantly affixed to the officiating prelate, as if to convey insinuation that Harold was not lawfully crowned. Florence, by far the best authority, says distinctly, that Harold was crowned by Alred. The ceremonial of the coronation described in the text, is for the most part given on the authority of the "Cotton MS." quoted by Sharon Turner, vol. iii. p. 151.

[220] Introduced into our churches in the ninth century.

[221] The Wyn-month: October.

[222] "Snorro Sturleson." Laing.

[223] The Vaeringers, or Varangi, mostly Northmen; this redoubtable force, the Janissaries of the Byzantine empire, afforded brilliant field, both of fortune and war, to the discontented spirits, or outlawed heroes of the North. It was joined afterwards by many of the bravest and best born of the Saxon n.o.bles, refusing to dwell under the yoke of the Norman. Scott, in "Count Robert of Paris," which, if not one of his best romances, is yet full of truth and beauty, has described this renowned band with much poetical vigor and historical fidelity.

[224] Laing's Snorro Sturleson.--"The old Norwegian ell was less than the present ell; and Thorlasius reckons, in a note on this chapter, that Harold's stature would be about four Danish ells; viz. about eight feet."--Laing's note to the text. Allowing for the exaggeration of the chronicler, it seems probable, at least, that Hardrada exceeded seven feet. Since (as Laing remarks in the same note), and as we shall see hereafter, "our English Harold offered him, according to both English and Danish authority, seven feet of land for a grave, or as much more as his stature, exceeding that of other men, might require."

[225] Snorro Sturleson. See Note Q.

[226] Snorro Sturleson.

[227] Hoveden.

[228] Holinshed. Nearly all chroniclers (even, with scarce an exception, those most favouring the Normans), concur in the abilities and merits of Harold as a king.

[229] "Vit. Harold. Chron. Ang. Norm." ii, 243.

[230] Hoveden.

[231] Malmesbury.

[232] Supposed to be our first port for s.h.i.+pbuilding.--FOSBROOKE, p. 320.

[233] Pax.

[234] Some of the Norman chroniclers state that Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been expelled from England at G.o.dwin's return, was Lanfranc's companion in this mission; but more trustworthy authorities a.s.sure us that Robert had been dead some years before, not long surviving his return into Normandy.

[235] Saxon Chronicle.

[236] Saxon Chronicle.--"When it was the nativity of St. Mary, then were the men's provisions gone, and no man could any longer keep them there."

[237] It is curious to notice how England was represented as a country almost heathen; its conquest was regarded quite as a pious, benevolent act of charity--a sort of mission for converting the savages. And all this while England was under the most slavish ecclesiastical domination, and the priesthood possessed a third of its land! But the heart of England never forgave that league of the Pope with the Conqueror; and the seeds of the Reformed Religion were trampled deep into the Saxon soil by the feet of the invading Norman.

[238] WILLIAM OF POITIERS.--The naive sagacity of this bandit argument, and the Norman's contempt for Harold's deficiency in "strength of mind," are exquisite ill.u.s.trations of character.

[239] Snorro Sturleson.

[240] Does any Scandinavian scholar know why the trough was so a.s.sociated with the images of Scandinavian witchcraft? A witch was known, when seen behind, by a kind of trough-like shape; there must be some symbol, of very ancient mythology, in this superst.i.tion!

[241] Snorro Sturleson.

[242] Snorro Sturleson.

[243] So Thierry translates the word: others, the Land-ravager. In Danish, the word is Land-ode, in Icelandic, Land-eydo.--Note to Thierry's "Hist. of the Conq. of England," book iii. vol. vi. p. 169 (of Hazlitt's translation).

[244] Snorro Sturleson.