Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

EMMA OF NORMANDY,

SURNAMED "THE PEARL," QUEEN OF ETHELRED "THE UNREADY,"
AND CANUTE "THE GREAT."

The Pearl of Normandy—Parentage of Emma—Quarrels settled—Emma's Marriage with Ethelred, 1002, at Winchester—She receives the popular name of Elfgiva—Unsuitableness of Ethelred—His personal appearance—The songs of Gunnlaugr the Scald—The Sagas: their value—Danegelt, its odiousness to the English—Massacre of the Danes on the Eve of St. Brice—Gunilda's fate—Her anathema—Emma's sorrow concealed—The neglect of Ethelred towards his wife—She appeals to her brother—Anger of the Duke of Normandy—Reconciliation—Hugh and Alwyn—Siege of Exeter—Oath of fealty to Emma's unborn babe—Birth of her son, Edward the Confessor—Alfred, the eldest son, set aside on account of a prophecy—Emma flies from the troubles in England, with her children, to Normandy—Remains there two years—They are followed by Ethelred—" Unready" a title fitting for the weak King—London Bridge is broken down—Edmund Ironside—Algitha at Malmesbury Abbey—Death of Ethelred—Canute marries Emma—Her weight in gold—Influence of Emma—Mutual attachment—Danish Dandies—Drinking-cups—Back-gammon—Poets—Story of Canute and his courtiers—Splendid gifts to abbeys—The King's verses—Vauland, the smith—Hardicanute and Gunilda—King Olaf—Death of Canute—Earl Godwin's power—Treacherous letter to Emma's sons—Murder of Alfred—Suspicions—Harold—Emma's exile and return—Hardicanute—The gilded ship—The dwarf Mimicon—Death of Hardicanute—Edward succeeds—His conduct to his mother—The trial of the ploughshares—Triumph—Death of Emma.

THE first alliance between the English and the Normans, who afterwards ruled England with such despotic sway, took place in 1002, when Emma, who for her beauty was surnamed "the Pearl of Normandy," became the wife of Ethelred, the reigning monarch.

The family of Emma was of Scandinavian origin. Rollo, or Robert, her great-grandfather, after an unsuccessful invasion of England, in the reign of Alfred, had turned his arms against the natives of the neighbouring coast of France, who, finding themselves unable to oppose their warlike invaders, offered Robert a settlement in their territories. Charles the Simple, then on the French throne, yielded to Rollo part of the Province of Neustria, and bestowed on him at the same time the hand of his daughter Gisla, on condition that the Dane should do him homage as a vassal. The territory ceded to Rollo from that time went by the name of Normandy; and the Duke, when he died, bequeathed it to his son, Duke William I., who held it for twenty-five years. This prince was succeeded by Richard his son, then a minor, whose wife was Agnes, daughter of Hugh the Great, Earl of Paris, by whom he had no children. By Gunnora, his second wife, he had three sons, Richard, Robert, and Mauger; and three daughters, Emma—Agnes, Helloie or Alix, and Maud. The eldest of these princesses, named after Richard's first consort, was afterwards Queen of England, Alix espoused Geoffrey, Earl of Bretagne, and Maud became the wife of Eudes, Earl of Chartres and Blois.

Ethelred, King of England, had quarrelled with Duke Richard I., on some subject which has not been handed down to us. A fleet was prepared by Ethelred for the invasion of Normandy, and Richard, on his part, arrested all the English pilgrims and merchants in his dominions, some of whom he threw into prison, while others he condemned to death. Pope John XV. employed his legate Leo, Bishop of Treves, to reconcile the contending princes.—Leo visited first Ethelred, and afterwards Richard, and, at his request, commissioners were appointed to meet at Rouen, when it was agreed that all ancient causes of dissension should be forgotten, that a perpetual peace should subsist between the King of England and the Marquess [The title of Marquess or Duke is indiscriminately used, in the treaty, for the father of Emma.] of Normandy, their children born and to be born, and all their true liege-men; that every infraction of this peace should be repaired by satisfactory compensation; and that neither prince should harbour the subjects nor the enemies of the other, without a written permission. [Malmesbury says that the subjects of either Prince were to be provided with passports under seal, in travelling through the other's dominions.] This, the oldest treaty now extant between any of our kings and a foreign power, is drawn up in the name of the Pope, and confirmed by the oaths and marks of one bishop and two thanes on the part of Ethelred, and of one bishop and two barons on the part of Richard: [Lingard.] it was signed at Rouen, March 1st, 991.

In the eighth year after Ethelred's accession, he had married Ethelgina, daughter of Earl Thorold, by whom he had five children, Edmond, surnamed Ironside, for his strength of mind and body, Edwy, and three daughters. The Queen dying in 1002, Ethelred sent ambassadors to Normandy to demand the hand of Emma, sister of the reigning duke Richard II. It is not unlikely that some overtures had been made at an earlier period, prior to Ethelred's first marriage, for this beautiful princess, who was then but a child; for Roger of Wendover says that Emma was the cause of the quarrel between her father and Ethelred, but no particulars have reached us.

Duke Richard II. gave a most honourable reception to the English embassy. The negotiation for the marriage was speedily concluded, and the same year that witnessed the death of Ethelgina, saw the young and blooming "Flower of Normandy" solemnly bestowed on the recently widowed King. In Lent, 1002, the new Queen came over to England, attended by a numerous retinue of French men and women. [Ingulphus, Gale, Saxon Chronicle.] The nuptial ceremony was performed at Winchester, which, from that time, became a favourite residence of Emma, and was the spot in which she passed the earlier years of her married life. Both Saxon and Norman chroniclers unite in representing the youthful Queen Emma [Gemma and Ymma, Imma and Eme are various readings of the name Emma, which some say is identical with Amy, in Latin written Amata and Eutrophine, in Greek it signifies a good nurse, or help-giver, as the Saxons say.] as in a peculiar degree gifted with elegance and beauty; so that many flattering epithets had been bestowed on her—as "the Pearl," "the Flower," or "the Fair Maid" of Normandy. As she readily adopted the manners of the English on her arrival, she became so much beloved by them as to receive the popular surname of Elfgifa, the Elf or "Fairy Gift," and is called in the Saxon Chronicle Emma Elfgiva: several of her female predecessors among the queens-consort of England having, as has been before named, assumed this title, in honour of the wife of Edmund the Pious.

Ethelred was much older than Emma, being about thirty-four years of age at the time of his second marriage, and in some respects exceedingly unsuited to win the affections of the young and lovely bride whom he had selected. The son of Elfrida, who had perhaps herself witnessed the second nuptials of Ethelred, or at least lived to counsel them, inherited his mother's beauty of person, with many of its accompanying vices. He is represented to have been "a tall, handsome man, elegant in manners, beautiful in countenance, and interesting in his deportment;" [Turner, from Gunnlaugr Saga.] yet Malmesbury characterises his personal appearance, sarcastically calling him "a fine sleeping figure." Amongst other weaknesses, he was open to flattery, as is evident from the patronage he afforded to Gunnlaugr the Scald, who, having sailed to London from Norway, presented himself ta the king with an heroic poem which he had composed on the royal virtues.

The adulatory style of this composition, which the author sang before the English Monarch, may be seen by the following lines:—

"The soldiers of the King, and his subjects,
The powerful army of England,
Obey Ethelred,
As if he was an angel of the beneficent Deity."

Ethelred, having listened to the poet, bestowed on him in return for his verse "a purple tunic, lined with the richest furs, and adorned with fringe," and gave him an appointment within the palace. On his departure from the court, in the following spring, Gunnlaugr received from his royal patron a gold ring, of the weight of seven ounces, accompanied by a request that he would return in the autumn. The Scald visited Ireland and sang: "the king there wished to give him two ships, but was told by his treasurer that poets had always clothes, or swords, or gold rings given them. Gunnlaugr accordingly had a present of fine garments and a gold ring." In the Orkneys he was rewarded with a silver axe.

The Scalds were persons of some importance, and having much in their power, were generally well treated by those monarchs who were anxious for their good report. They were, says Laing, a kind of "wandering scholars, natives generally of Iceland, and a class of more consequence than mere amusement at a court could have made them." [Laing's Norway.] They were, in fact, the recorders of events, and many of their songs, or sagas, are family annals. "They were frequently employed as messengers and ambassadors, who carried the tokens which monarchs or nobles exchanged with each other. These tokens were not merely gifts, but had a meaning known to the personages, and accredited the messenger." Such personages were necessary at a time when reading and writing were rare accomplishments amongst princes.

"The language of the Scalds seems to have been understood at the Courts of all the branches of the Scandinavian people; the same Scald appears to have visited on business or pleasure the courts of Rouen, of England, of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and there is no mention of any difficulty arising from difference of language in any of the transactions of individuals. These were frequently adventurers passing from the service of one monarch to another." [Laing's Norway.]

The sagas are extremely valuable, as the Scalds recorded the passing events of the time, and any falsehood or exaggeration would have been detected by contemporaries.

Ethelred had made the alliance with Normandy from policy, to gain aid against his formidable enemies, the Danes, who at that time were incorporated among the English, and led a careless and easy life, treating them as though they were their servants and drudges, while their wives and daughters became slaves to their pleasure, whence they had even obtained the epithet of "Lord Danes." Great part, indeed, of England had a government according to Danelagh. All this had been brought about by the pusillanimity of Ethelred, who, instead of meeting his foes in fair and open strife, had bought off their hostilities by a yearly sum of money, known under the name of Dane-gelt, long the most odious tax felt in England. Every year these intruders became more dangerous and increasingly powerful, and by degrees settled in the very heart of his dominions. Ethelred, therefore, in marrying Emma, whose mother Gunnora, was descended of an eminent Danish family, expected the alliance would be instrumental in obliging the Danes to ameliorate their conduct, [Echard.] if, indeed, he could not obtain of Duke Richard's assistance to wholly extirpate them from the country, which groaned beneath their tyranny. In these calculations, however, Ethelred was grievously mistaken. The Normans and Danes were, as has been shown, descended from the same stock, ["The Earls of Rouen are descended from Gange Rolf; they have long reckoned themselves of kin to the chiefs in Norway, and hold them in such respect, that they always were the greatest friends of the Northmen, and every Northman found a friendly country in Normandy, if he required it."—Snorro.] and the Norman Duke did not perceive any motive sufficiently strong, as regarded his own interest, to induce him to embroil himself in war with the relatives of his mother for the sake of entering into the schemes of the husband of his sister Emma. Whether Ethelred was so blind as to believe that his new ally would sanction the unparalleled act of cruelty of which he was guilty, in the very year of his marriage, and almost before the rejoicings for that event were over, it seems hard to believe; yet so puffed up was the weak King with his notion of newly-acquired power that, instigated by his favourites, he gave orders for a general massacre of the Danes throughout the country. The day before St. Brice's Day, secret letters were sent by Ethelred to every city, commanding the English at an appointed hour to destroy the Danes by fire and sword. [Rapin compares the Danish massacre to that of the Romans under Boadicea. The day selected for it was Sunday, too, the festival of St. Brice, when they were unarmed and taking their bath.] Neither age nor sex was spared-men, women, and children being mercilessly slaughtered; the Saxon females even falling on their helpless foes, unarmed, and on a day of festival, maiming with scythes and reaping-hooks those whom they could not kill. Amongst those who perished was Gunilda, sister of Sweyn, the Danish monarch, who had been given as a hostage for the treaty of peace concluded between her brother and the perfidious Ethelred. Having embraced Christianity, and married Palling, a Saxon courtier, she had settled in this country. This noble lady beheld her husband and children massacred before her eyes: she herself was killed by strokes from a lance. In the agony of her grief for the loved ones who were falling around her, her words to the Saxon murderers were, "God will punish you, and my brother will avenge my death." Her prophetic denunciation was fulfilled, for England not long after sunk beneath the Danish yoke. [Rivalite de France et de l'Angleterre.]

Those who seek an excuse for such an act on the part of Ethelred, assert that he had cause to suspect the Danes of a plot to murder him and his Witan, and to seize upon the kingdom. This was the pretext for the atrocious action of which he was guilty, and which, instead of consolidating his power, annihilated the peace and security of the kingdom. At a moment when he had just formed an alliance with Emma, descended of the same blood as the victims, the policy of this massacre was singularly shortsighted. The young Queen's horror must have been extreme when she found that the solemnities and festivities of her marriage were thus converted into a scene of general bloodshed and mourning. The spirit of the ruthless Elfrida seems to have governed Ethelred on this occasion; and perhaps Emma's indignant sorrows were checked by him as violently as when his mother had beaten him "with waxen candles," when mourning over the murder of his own brother, Edward the Martyr, the victim of her ambition.

There were other causes for trouble in the mind of Emma, who, though possessed of unrivalled beauty, had failed in securing the affections of her husband. From the time of their marriage, the King had neglected her company, and associated with unworthy favourites, both male and female. [Holinshed.] Emma felt this deeply: she had been idolised by her own countrymen, and was beloved by her new Saxon subjects. Young, lovely, learned, and highly accomplished, she felt that the treatment of Ethelred was so degrading to her merit, that she resolved at length to return to Normandy. Roger of Wendover seems to infer faults on her side, as well as on that of her husband; but he acknowledges that "the King was so petulant to his wife," that he would scarcely admit her to his intimacy; and she, on her part, "proud of her high descent, and irritated against him, blackened him in no small degree to her father." [It should be her brother.] The Duke of Normandy, on receiving the account sent by Emma of her ill-treatment, despatched messengers to fetch her back to her own country; but, alarmed at the probable consequences, Ethelred thought it better to reconcile his Queen, which having effected, the Norman ambassadors returned without her. From that time, however, the Duke exhibited much coldness towards Ethelred, doubtless being aware of the hollowness of the apparent reconciliation; and when Ethelred sought his assistance against the Danes, he could not obtain attention to his request.

The expectations that Emma's marriage would turn out very advantageous to England, therefore, failed altogether. The Normans, on the contrary, instead of procuring defenders for England, brought across the sea "place-hunters" and ambitious men, craving money and dignities; [Thierry's Norman Conquest.] and this introduction of the Norman was the first link of a chain of events which led to the entire subversion of England, and afforded an opportunity for William of Normandy to lay claim to the throne, which he obtained by art and force of arms. [Holinshed.]

Two persons had come over to England in the train of Emma, who were destined to act a prominent part in her eventful career, and had been received with great honour by Ethelred. These were Hugh and Alwyn, both Normans by birth. The latter was of high rank, being a relative of the ducal family, and accordingly had escorted the young Queen in the capacity of "counsellor or guardian." [Milner.] On his arrival he was made superintendent of the royal household, and created Earl of Southampton. The courage and fidelity of Alwyn were afterwards of great service to Ethelred during his wars against the Danes; and at a later period still his history becomes involved more particularly with that of Queen Emma, to whose fortunes he ever remained a firm and tried friend. Hugh, the other Norman attendant on the Queen, was, at her request, created Governor of Exeter, [Caradoc, Fabian, Saxon Chronicle.] with the title of Earl of Devonshire. Emma herself was "Lady" of Exeter. He does not appear to have been equally faithful, to judge by the events which followed. In the year succeeding that of Emma's marriage and the Danish massacre, Exeter was besieged by King Sweyn (A.D. 1003); for that Ethelred had privately put to death all the Danes in the several cities of England, had reached the ears of the brother of the injured Gunilda, who, at the head of a great navy, landed in Cornwall, burning with rage and indignation. Exeter bravely sustained a siege from the Danes for the space of two months, but at the end of that time was finally taken "a by the treachery of Hugh, its governor, the Queen's countryman." On the surrender of the city, Sweyn put all to fire and sword, and razed it to the ground, besides taking great plunder. [Exeter was afterwards restored by Canute, but appears to have been still attached to the Queens of England; for after the Conquest, we find it holding out against William, under Githa, the mother of Harold.]

Turketil, at that period, describing the condition of the English to Sweyn, says, "a country illustrious and powerful; a king asleep, solicitous only about women and wine, and trembling at war; hated by his people, and derided by strangers; generals envious of each other; and weak governors, ready to fly at the first shout of battle." [Malmesbury; Kemble's Saxons in Britain.] It is said of Elfric, a Saxon bishop of that time, that "he considered the state of things so bad that he believed—doom's-day to be approaching, and the world very near its end." [Turner.]

About this time, Emma was called to be present at a very affecting and remarkable scene, peculiarly characteristic of the superstition of the times. The Queen had already become mother of one son by Ethelred, to whom the name of Alfred had been given, and she was a second time about to give birth to a child, who afterwards wore the crown under the title of Edward the Confessor. The great rapidity and progress of the conquests of the Danes, owing to the pusillanimous and tardy conduct of Ethelred, justly surnamed "the Unready," from being never prepared to face his foes, caused a great council to be held, to deliberate on the affairs of the kingdom, then nearly overrun by the enemy. On this occasion, Queen Emma was present; and Ethelred, being desirous of appointing a successor, requested the opinion of the council. Some recommended Edmond "Ironside," son of his first Queen, so surnamed on account of his bodily strength, while others gave the preference to Alfred, the son of Emma, still in his infancy: yet, it having been predicted by one of the assembly that the former should enjoy but a very short life, and that the latter should perish immaturely, the wishes of all concentred on the child of which the Queen was then pregnant; and the King, assenting to this election, the nobility took an oath of fealty to the unborn babe. [Life of Edward the Confessor; Neale's Westminster Abbey.] In the first compartment of the screen which adorns the chapel of King Edward the Confessor, at Westminster, this subject is represented. In this piece of sculpture Queen Emma appears standing in the midst of a large assembly, with her left hand upon her waist. All the figures appear to have the right arm extended upwards, as if in the act of swearing allegiance. [Neale.]

Emma gave birth to her son Edward at Islip, in Oxfordshire, and the second compartment of the before-mentioned screen in the chapel of St. Edward represents the event. It is curious on account of its containing in sculpture the ancient form of a state-bed: [Neale.] in the back-ground are two of the Queen's attendants with the infant prince in their arms. At a subsequent period, Edward the Confessor received the town which had been the scene of his nativity, from his mother, Queen Emma, for his own maintenance; and long after, when he came to the throne, he bestowed that place, among other royal gifts, on the Abbey of Westminster, so that it became the country-residence first of the abbots, and then of the deans of Westminster. In Edward's original charter, he speaks of it in terms thus translated: [Kennett's Parochial Antiquities.] "Edward, king, greeteth Wlsy, bishop, and Gyrth, earl, and all my nobles in Oxfordshire. And I tell you that I have given to Christ and St. Peter at Westminster, that small village wherein I was born, by name GITHSLEPE, [Islip.] and one hide at Mersie, scot-free and rent-free, with all the things which belong thereunto, in wood and field, in meadows and waters, with church and with the immunities of the church, as fully and as largely, and as free, as it stood in mine own hand; and also as my mother Emma, upon my right of primogeniture, for my maintenance, gave it me entire, and bequeathed it to the family." [The King appears to have claimed the power, not only of disposing of the benefice or fee after the death of the tenant, but also of controlling the distribution of his other possessions. Hence the vassal in his will was always anxious to obtain the confirmation of his superior, and to make provision for the payment of what was termed by the Saxons the heriot, by the Normans the relief Elphelm, after leaving his heriot to the King, concludes his will in these words:—"And now I beseech thee, my beloved lord, that my last testament may stand, and that thou do not permit it to be annulled."

The heriot was to be paid "within twelve months from the death of the last possessor: and was apportioned to the rank which he bore in the State." (Lingard, Sir H. Ellis, &c.) The payment preserved the estate in his family, if he died intestate, or was remitted in case of his falling in battle in his lord's service. In the stormy season of Ethelred's warfare against the Danes, and probably with a view to the future welfare of her children, in the event of her quitting England for her brother's protection, Emma adopted this precaution. The heriot, or bequest of Queen Elfgifa, in 1012, we are told, was as follows:—"She left the King six horses, six shields, six spears, one cup, two rings, worth one hundred and twenty mancuses each, and various lands."

The word heriot signifies "habiliments of war," and Canute was the first who established the compulsory heriot in England.]

Emma and her children had been sent to the Isle of Wight for safety, from Winchester, which was threatened with destruction by the advancing army of Sweyn; Ethelred himself remaining in London, in a state of inactivity and apprehension, neither daring to assemble or to lead an army against his enemies, "lest the nobles of his realm, who had been unjustly treated by him, should desert him in the battle, and give him up to the vengeance of his foes." Tormented by these distressing apprehensions, the wretched King secretly withdrew from the city of London, and arriving at Southampton, crossed over to the Isle of Wight, whence he dispatched Queen Emma, with his two sons Alfred and Edward, and their guardians Elfhun, Bishop of Durham, and Elfsey, Abbot of Peterborough, into Normandy to Duke Richard her brother, who received them with honour and respect. Eadric, too, King Ethelred's kinsman, crossed over with the Queen, and a hundred and forty soldiers, and resided with her two years, attending her with great state. They crossed the sea in the month of August. [Roger of Wendover, Fabian, Ran. Higden.] The Bishop of London also accompanied the Queen and her family as their protector. ["And the King sent Bishop Elfhun, with the Ethelings Edward and Alfred, over sea, that he might have charge of them."—Roger of Wendover.] The royal party carried with them the treasures of Ethelred, either for security, or to obtain, through their medium, assistance from the Duke, in the recovery of their kingdom; [Echard.] among other valuables, Queen Emma took with her, "an incomparable copy of the Gospels, such as had never before been seen in Normandy," which she presented to the Church of St. Peter. [Jumieges.]

Having obtained a favourable reception for herself, [Rouen, the residence of the ducal family, "was anciently called Ruda or Rudaburg; whence the Earls of Normandy were called Ruda-jarlar, the Rouen Earls, not Earls of Normandy." During the period that Emma resided abroad, with her brother, Elfsy, Abbot of Peterborough, "who was there with her, went to the minster which is called Boneval, where St. Florentine's body lay. There found he a poor place, a poor abbot, and poor monks; for they had been plundered. Then bought he there, of the abbot and of the monks, St. Florentine's body, all except the head, for five hundred pounds; and then, when he came home again, then made he an offering of it to Christ and St. Peter."—Saxon Chronicle, Milton, Laing's Notes on Snorro.] and ascertained the friendly disposition of her relatives towards Ethelred, Queen Emma persuaded her husband to throw himself on the hospitality of his Norman neighbours. Accordingly, "when King Ethelred heard of the honourable reception they had met with, he followed himself in the month of January, and laid all his troubles before the noble Duke, who much compassioned his calamities, and soothed his grief with words of consolation." [Roger of Wendover.]

Some authors relate that Ethelred, and Edmund "Ironside," secretly embarked at the same time as the Queen, and personally escorted her to the home of her youth. [Harding.] The Saxon Chronicle, however, which calls Emma "the Lady," states that, after her departure to Normandy, the King left the fleet [Which lay in the Thames.] at mid-winter, and went to the Isle of Wight, "and was there during that tide; and after that tide, he went over the sea to Richard, and was there with him until such times as Sweyn was dead." The same record places Emma's visit to Normandy, in 1013. Ethelred was very splendidly entertained by his generous brother-in-law.

On the death of Sweyn, the people recalled Ethelred, although the fleet, and also the Danes, had elected Canute as his father's successor. Ethelred, with his usual unreadiness to avail himself of fortune's favours, would not venture to England till his son Edmund Ironside, whom he sent over to ascertain the disposition of the people, had returned, when having been informed that, "if he would make haste" all things were favourable, he departed for England, with certain succours afforded by the brother of Queen Emma. The people testified great joy at his return, and Ethelred, on his part, swore new allegiance to them, and promised to reform his administration. The return of Emma to England could not have been productive of much comfort to her at this time, when the greater part of the country was, as in the reign of Alfred the Great, overrun by the Danes. In spite of promises, hopes, and aspirations for better things, nothing seems to have prospered.

Famine, pestilence, and war, distinguished the unfortunate reign of Ethelred, and taxation burthened the people. The year of the King's return was marked not only by a renewal of the war, but by another unlooked-for event. "On the eve of St. Michael's mass, came the great sea-flood wide throughout this land, and ran so far up as it never before had done, and washed away many towns, and a countless number of people." [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.] But adversity, thus poured forth in full measure on the sovereign head, failed in its effect, and Ethelred was still oppressive, weak, and irresolute; thus, though at the head of a powerful army, he was unable to— maintain his royal rights; his son Edmund could not even prevail on him to head his troops in person. The weak King, even feigned illness, as an excuse for remaining in London, where he alone fancied himself to be secure.

On his return, Ethelred had ordered the army, which lay at Greenwich, to be paid 21,000l., [Ibid., Snorro.] and sent a general invitation to all who would enter his service. Many flocked around him, and among the rest "came King Olaf, with a great troop of Northmen, to his aid." Of this great leader, it is said that "he had in his ship 100 men armed in coats of ringmail, and in foreign helmets. The most of his men had white shields, on which the holy cross was gilt; but some had painted it in blue or red. He had also had the cross painted in front on all the helmets, in a pale colour. He had a white banner on which was a serpent figured." The dress of Olaf must have been costly, for mention is made of a present he received from Princess Ingegerd, of a long cloak of fine linen, richly embroidered with gold and with silk points. [Silki-raemor appear to have been silk tassels or ties on the cloak of fine linen (pelli), which was embroidered with gold.—Laing's Notes on Snorro.]

One of the most interesting portions of national British history relating to this period, is contained in Snorro's Sea-Kings of Norway, and as it gives a picture of the intestine discord of London at that time, and also of the city itself, it may not be ill-timed to introduce it here. King Olaf and others having joined Ethelred, the Chronicle proceeds to state that "they steered first to London, and sailed into the Thames with their fleet; but the Danes had a castle within. On the other side of the river is a great trading-place, which is called Sudeviki. [Or Southwark.] There the Danes raised a great work, dug large ditches, and within had built a bulwark of stone, timber, and turf, where they had stationed a strong army. King Ethelred ordered a great assault; but the Danes defended themselves bravely, and King Ethelred could make nothing of it. Between the castle and Southwark there was a bridge so broad that two wagons could pass each other upon it." On the bridge were raised barricades, both towers and wooden parapets, in the direction of the river, which were nearly breast high, and under the bridge were piles driven into the bottom of the river. Now, when the attack was made, the troops stood on the bridge everywhere, and defended themselves. King Ethelred was very anxious to get possession of the bridge, and he called together all the chiefs to consult how they should get the bridge broken down. Then said King Olaf, he would attempt to lay his fleet alongside of it, if the other ships would do the same. It was then determined in this council that they should lay their war forces under the bridge; and each made himself ready with ships and men.

"King Olaf ordered great platforms of floating wood to be tied together with hazel bands, and for this he took down old houses; and with these, as a roof, he covered over his ships so widely, that it reached over the ships' sides. Under this screen he set pillars so high and stout that there both was room for swinging their swords, and the roofs were strong enough to withstand the stones cast down upon them. Now when the fleet and men were ready, they rowed up along the river; but when they came near the bridge, there were cast down upon them so many stones and missile weapons, such as arrows and spears, that neither helmet nor shield could withstand it; and the ships themselves were so greatly damaged, that many retreated out of it. But King Olaf, and the Northmen's fleet with him, rowed quite up under the bridge, laid their cables around the piles which supported it, and then rowed off with all the ships as far as they could down the stream. The piles were thus shaken in bottom, and were loosened under the bridge. Now as the armed troops stood thick of men upon the bridge, and there were likewise many heaps of stones and other weapons upon it, and the piles under it being loosened and broken, the bridge gave way, and a great part of the men upon it fell into the river, and all the others fled, some into the castle, some into Southwark. Thereafter Southwark was stormed and taken. Now when the people in the castle saw that the river Thames was mastered, and that they could not hinder the passage of ships up into the country, they became afraid, surrendered the tower, and took Ethelred to be their king. So says Otta Swarte:—

'London Bridge is broken down,
Gold is won, and bright renown,
Shields resounding,
War-horns sounding,
Hildur [The Scandinavian Bellona.] shouting in the din!
Arrows singing,
Mail-coats ringing—
Odin makes our Olaf win!'

"And he also composed these:

King Ethelred has found a friend;
Brave Olaf will his throne defend—
In bloody fight
Maintain his right,
Win back his land
With blood-red hand,
And Edmund's son upon his throne replace—
Edmund, the star of every royal race!'

"Sigvat also relates as follows:—

'At London Bridge stout Olaf gave
Odin's law to his war-men brave—
'To win or die!'
And their foemen fly;

Some by the dyke-side refuge gain,
Some in their tents on Southwark plain!
This sixth attack Brought victory back.'"

Olaf passed that winter with Ethelred, to whom all the country far around was brought into subjection; but the Thingmen [Thingmen were hired men-at-arms, employed at the Danish court as a bodyguard for their sovereigns. They formed bodies of standing troops over levies of peasantry, and to their superiority the victories of Sweyn and Canute have been ascribed.—Laing's Notes on Snorro's Sea-Kings.] and the Danes held many castles, besides a great part of the country. Olaf was commander of the King's forces when they took Canterbury, where many were killed and the castle burnt: this is reckoned his eighth battle: he was also entrusted with the whole land defence of England, according to the Chronicle of Snorro, and sailed round the coast with his ships of war. After another battle against the Danes at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, Olaf scoured the country, "taking scott of the people, and plundering where it was refused. So says Ottar:—

The English race could not resist thee,
With money thou madest them assist thee;
Unsparingly thou madest them pay
A scott to thee in every way:
Money, if money could be got
Goods, cattle, household gear, if not.
Thy gathered spoil, borne to the strand,
Was the best wealth of English land.'

So that the friends of Ethelred were no more the friends of the English people than his enemies, and a woful season was his reign for them all."

Olaf remained in England for three years. The country was in a most pitiable condition, and if men could hardly feel themselves safe upon even a throne, how much more unprotected was the position of the other sex. It is hard to say what kind of court was that of Queen Emma at this troubled period of her life. With her young children forced from place to place, she still braved her fate with fortitude, and generously strove to animate the drooping spirits of her too desponding husband. It must have been to her a bitter and painful season, to behold the fierce strife maintained between the party of a husband such as Ethelred, and the countrymen of her mother, to whom she felt a preference; and had she been placed at the helm, probably the destiny of England had been very different to what it was. Ethelred's cowardice and extortions ruined his cause, and involved both himself and his family in ruin. There was, however, one of the sons of Ethelred whose bravery redeemed his father's character, though not his fortunes; and this was Edmund "Ironside," who comes into notice in a remarkable transaction about this period, A.D. 1015.

In those times of civil strife and warfare, the gift of female beauty was too often dangerous to its possessor, and many a high-born damsel and lofty princess was glad to enshrine herself from public gaze, in the quiet and safe seclusion of a monastery, preferring rather to forsake the world, than to risk the dangers she would inevitably be exposed to on every side, whether Saxon or Danish. Such, though frequently the case, was not the reason of the beautiful Algitha having become the inmate of the Abbey of Malmesbury. She had been sent there as a prisoner, by orders of Ethelred.

Algitha, a lady of noble parentage and great beauty, was the wife of Sigeferth, a nobleman of Danish extraction, who enjoyed extensive territories in Northumberland. The avaricious Ethelred coveted these rich possessions, and for the purpose of seizing on the Earl's estates, resolved to accomplish his death. Accordingly, the King convened a council at Oxford, A.D. 1015, in which Sigeferth, and another noble Danish lord, were accused of a conspiracy by Edric Streone, the King's favourite counsellor, the assembly being composed of Danes as well as English; yet was the motive of the King in the matter very evident. The unfortunate nobles were betrayed into confidence, and put to death in the King's own chamber. Their servants were so exasperated, that they would have revenged their murder, had they not been overpowered, and compelled to retreat to the Church of St. Frideswide, where they took refuge in the steeple, and defended themselves, until that being set on fire, they perished in the flames. [Holinshed.]

On this melancholy occasion Algitha had been her husband's companion to Oxford, and on his death was seized and forcibly conveyed to Malmesbury under the royal mandate. The beauty of the widow of Sigeferth was, however, so noted, and the nobleness of her disposition so well known, that Prince Edmund was induced, from curiosity to become acquainted with her, to feign business in the neighbourhood of Malmesbury. In an interview with Algitha he fell deeply in love, and resolved to make her his wife. The match, as might have been expected, was strongly opposed by Ethelred, the lady being in his own power, and her rich possessions under his control; but the paternal prohibition did not deter Edmund from carrying off and espousing the lady of his choice, an event of great importance to the after-history of England. On his marriage, Edmund required his father to cede the territories of Sigeferth, in Northumberland, which amounted to the living of an earl. On the King's refusal, Edmund, without his authority, went into Northumberland, where the farmers and tenants of Sigeferth's estates willingly received him as their lord, influenced by his union with Algitha. This event embittered the close of Ethelred's career. The King survived his son's marriage scarcely twelve months, during which he not only beheld his eldest son and destined heir thus rebel against him, but his enemies triumphant. After frequently feigning illness as one excuse among many to evade his foes, domestic trouble and vexation at repeated losses caused the King to fall dangerously sick in earnest, and he died at the age of fifty, after a reign of thirty-seven years. His last remains were interred in St. Paul's, London, where they were seen by Speed before the destruction of the church, who says "his bones yet remain in the north wall of the chancel, in a chest of grey marble, reared on four small pillars, and covered with a coped stone of the same."

Ethelred had a numerous family: Edmund "Ironside" and Edwy, with their three sisters, all born by this King's first marriage, survived him; and Alfred, Edward, and Goda, the children of Emma.

Popular consent, and the late King's will, accorded the crown to Edmund Ironside, who was accordingly crowned with the usual honours at St. Paul's, the ceremony being performed by the Archbishop of York. Canute, notwithstanding, caused himself to be proclaimed at Southampton, and not long after besieged Edmund in London.

Within the city at this critical moment were Edmund and his brother, the Queen—Dowager Emma, two bishops, and several distinguished thanes. An army of 27,000 men and a fleet of 340 sail had been collected in the mouth of the Thames. Canute found it easy to cut off the communication by land, but to prevent ingress and egress by water was more difficult. As the fortifications of the bridge impeded the navigation of the river, by dint of labour a channel was dug on the right bank. Through it was dragged a considerable number of ships, and the Northmen became masters of the Thames above as well as below the city. [Chronicles of London Bridge.] While thus situated every means was tried to gain over the besieged. Canute demanded that Edmund and his brother should be given up, that 15,000l. should be paid for the ransom of the Queen, 12,000l. for that of the bishops, and that 300 hostages should be given for the fidelity of the citizens. If these terms were accepted, he would take them under his protection; if they were refused, the city should be abandoned to pillage and the flames. [Holinshed.] But the brave Londoners held out, and the Danes were forced to retire. The royal brothers had escaped in a boat through the Danish fleet. Several encounters followed, and also a second siege of the city, which was relieved by Edmund, who entered London in triumph. The war was, after a truce, terminated by a friendly compact. The two kings had agreed to meet each other in single combat in the isle of Olney, near Gloucester, where after a few blows the rival monarchs shook hands and agreed to divide the kingdom, Canute receiving from Edmund the northern half of England. [Lingard.]

On the death of Ethelred Queen Emma had recalled King Olaf to England to assist her against Canute, but on a peace concluded between Edmund and the Danish monarch, Olaf soon withdrew, and was created King of Norway by the voice of the people. Queen Emma also, who was stepmother of "Ironside," fled for the second time into Normandy, taking with her the young princes Alfred and Edward. [Turner, Gaillard.]

The Danish chronicler says that the murder of Edmund took place about a month after his agreement with Canute, who thus became master of the remaining half of the island, and took care to render permanent a power he had obtained only by repeated efforts.

Olaf, after the battle of London Bridge, spent two summers and a winter in France, and after the death of King Edmund in 1016 came to Rouen, where he met the sons of Ethelred, and entered into an engagement to assist them the following year in the recovery of their kingdom, for which he was to be rewarded with Northumberland if the enterprise was successful. This invasion was attempted, but was a failure, and the Princes were compelled to return to Rouen. There is no doubt that Emma not only sanctioned these efforts made by her sons to recover their rights, but also assisted them as far as was in her power.

Sigvat the Scald writes thus:—

"Now all the sons of Ethelred
Were either fallen or had fled;
Some slain by Canute,— some, they say,
To save their lives had run away."

Canute rightly deemed an alliance with their mother herself would most effectually silence the future claims of Ethelred's heirs. His own wife was just dead, and he determined to offer himself to the widow of Ethelred. As Emma was of Danish descent he supposed she would naturally prefer a Dane to all Anglo-Saxon for a husband, and he desired to secure the alliance of the Duke in his own favour, who had up to this time befriended the sons of his sister, the Queen of England. The young Princes having heard of the death of Edmund, and Canute's cruelty to their two young cousins, the sons of that King had resolved to remain at the court of Normandy; but Richard had fitted out a fleet in support of their claims. However, Canute despatched his embassy to the Norman Duke. Messengers, with right royal gifts and earnest supplications, proceeded to the Court of Richard, with instructions to demand Emma of her brother, and at the same time to offer one of Canute's own sisters, named Estrech, or Estritha, [Sometimes written Ostrich.] to the Duke. [Lingard.]

It occasioned great wonder among many persons that Emma should agree to marry the mortal enemy of her first husband and of her young sons. Not long before, Canute himself had besiged London while Emma was within its walls, and now she accorded him her hand in marriage; yet not only did the Duke, her brother, consent, but took for his own wife the Lady Estritha. Some writers estimate Emma's conduct in this instance as very politic, for not only did she insure the succession to her own children, but effectually silenced the Danes. Had Emma been indifferent to the future welfare of her sons Alfred and Edward, she would have brought them over with her to England; but her anxiety for their safety caused her to prevent their leaving the Norman court; for she dreaded the jealousy of Canute, which had been excited by the vain endeavours of Duke Richard to place those princes on the throne of their ancestors; added to this, Edwy, brother of Edmund, had fallen a victim, and the young sons of Ironside had been sent to a foreign land.

By the agreement made with Canute, Emma did not take away her son's right, but removed it to a greater distance by interposing her own issue by Canute; so that after the death of the usurper Harold Harefoot, Hardicanute succeeded as rightful heir by virtue of Emma's agreement, and being established on the throne, ordained his brother Edward his successor.

By Emma's policy the Danes were thus wholly excluded, and the English line restored, through a match beneficial both to herself and her family. In making this alliance she would appear to have acted as guardian of the young princes, and to have considered expediency with a view to the ultimate result. Such is the view taken in the work entitled "Encomium Emma," which was written by a monk contemporary with Emma, and as the title imports, in commendation of the Norman Princess.

The two marriages of Emma to Canute, and of Canute's sister, Estreth, to Duke Richard, were solemnized at the same time (in the month of July, 1018), [Turner, Gaillard, Higden, Fabian, Roger of Wendover.] with vast magnificence. The two years of Emma's widowhood must have about expired when she became a second time a bride; for Edmund's reign had lasted eighteen months, and a few months had elapsed after the accession of Canute before the ceremony took place. According to Jumieges, Emma was married to Canute "Christiano more," in the Christian form, so that, prior to that marriage, he appears to have been a Pagan following the Danish rites. That this was really the case appears from Ordericus Vitalis, one of the most accurate and valuable of the Norman historians. We know that Emma was a Christian herself, and from Ordericus learn that "Canute was made a Christian, and married Emma to preserve peace." The ceremony seems to have taken place at London a few days after her arrival, and on the occasion the Danish King, fearing she would be carried away by the Saxon soldiery, presented to the whole army "her weight in gold and silver." [Jamieges.] By this marriage Canute gained the alliance of Duke Richard, though for a short time only, for he did not long survive his union with Estritha, and at the death of this prince his duchy devolved on his eldest son, who died in another year, childless, and after him to Robert, his brother, a man of valour and abilities.

The English were pleased to find at court a sovereign to whom they were accustomed; they greatly loved Emma, and as the widow of Ethelred she had naturally a claim upon them. Harding writes:—

"Kyng Knowt reigned in Englad the anon,
And wedded had Queen Eme of England,
Ethelrede wife, which gate him loue anon
In Englande of all the estates of the londe,
Of comons also that were both fre and bonde."

"Acting as mediatrix between Canute and the English nation, Emma counselled her husband to send back his fleet [In dismissing the Danish army and navy by request of his Queen, the King reserved for his own use forty vessels only, the crew or Thingmanen of which were intended for his body-guard. Edgar the Peaceable is thought to have kept his foes at a distance by the display of a fleet of 3,600 vessels, which each summer he employed to sail round the provinces he ruled. Before Canute's time the Danes had open barques with twelve oars: they afterwards enlarged these so that they contained more than 100 men. Canute's ships were covered over with gold and silver. They had one mast, on the top of which was a gilt vane, exhibiting some bird, to show which way the wind blew. Sometimes a man, a fish, a dragon, or a lion ornamented the stern of the vessel.—William of Malmesbury.] and his stipendiary soldiers to their own country. [The presence of the Danish army was a constant source of uneasiness and animosity to the English; but gratitude as well as policy forbade Canute to dismiss it without a liberal donation.—Lingard.] Accordingly after distributing among them 82,000 pounds of silver, he dismissed them to their native land." [Roger of Wendover, Turner.] This was an important concession, and betokened how great was the influence the Queen had already obtained over the heart of Canute.

The King of Norway and Denmark from the earliest period kept a "herd" or "court." "The herdmen were paid men-at-arms," who mounted guard at stated hours, posted sentries round the King's quarters, and had patrols on horseback, night and day, at some distance, to bring notice of any hostile advance. They were of two classes, udal-born to land, and called thingmen, from their being privileged to sit in Things at home, and those of a commoner class, not udal-born to land, and therefore unqualified, such as ordinary seamen, soldiers, and followers, but yet not of the class called slaves in England. The victories of Canute and his father are chiefly ascribed "to the superiority of the hired bands of thingmen in their pay. The massacre of the Danes in 1002, by Ethelred, appears to have been of the regular bands of thingmen, who were quartered in the towns, and who were attacked while unarmed and attending a church festival. The herdmen appear not only to have been disciplined and paid troops, but to have been clothed uniformly.]Red was always the national colour of the Northmen, and continues still in Denmark and England the distinctive colour of their military dress. It was so of the herdmen and people of distinction in Norway, as appears from several parts of the Sagas, in the eleventh century." [Laing; Preliminary Dissertation to Snorro, Chron. of the Kings of Norway.]

The dresses of the Danish kings were grand and magnificent, though not much unlike those of the Saxons, embroidered and worked with broad gold trimming. They had either a cloak or a robe, also resembling the Saxons, sometimes buckled over the right shoulder, and hanging on the left, and sometimes buckling on the middle of the breast; the cloak hung over the left shoulder of the King, without being buckled on the right at all, by way of distinction. They wore shoes, and also a kind of buskin, the toe of which was turned somewhat downward.

As early as the time of Edgar, the Danes who had settled in England were great beaux, constantly combing their hair, of which they were very fond. ["The Danish mercenaries in England combed their hair once a day, bathed once a week, and changed their clothes frequently. A young warrior, going to be beheaded, begged of his executioner that his hair might not be touched by a slave, or stained with his blood; and Harold, surnamed Harfager, or 'Fair Locks,' made, a vow to his mistress to neglect his fine hair until he had completed the conquest of Norway to gain her love."—Lingard.]

Canute himself is described as "large in stature and very powerful, fair, and distinguished for his beauty; his nose was thin, prominent and aquiline; his hair was profuse, his eyes bright and fierce." [Saga.] His many great and good qualities obtained for him various surnames, such as the Brave, the Great, the Rich, and the Pious. [Turner.]

The Danish manners and customs had been common in England long before, so that a Danish court would not occasion much astonishment among the Anglo-Saxons. Among the Danes themselves some court ceremonies, unknown before, had been introduced by Olaf Kyrre, or "the Quiet." "For each guest at the royal table he appointed a torchbearer, to hold a candle. The butler stood in front of the King's table to fill the cups, which, we are told, before his time were of deer's horn. The court-marshal had a table opposite to the King's, for entertaining guests of inferior dignity. The drinking was either by measure or without measure; that is, in each horn or cup there was a perpendicular row of studs at equal distances, and each guest, when the cup or horn was passed to him, drank down to the stud or mark below. At night, and on particular occasions, the drinking was without measure, each taking what he pleased; and to be drunk at night appears to have been common even for the kings. Such cups, with studs, are still preserved in museums, and in families on the Borders. [Until a few years since, the manor of Pusey, in Berkshire, has belonged to a family of the same name, their ancestor having received it from that king by the medium of a HORN, which bears the following inscription:—

"Kynge Knowd geve Wyilyam Pewse
Hys Horn to holde by the Londe."

This curious relic of antiquity is of a dark-brown tortoise-shell colour, mounted at each end with rings of silver, and a third round the middle, on which the inscription is written in characters of much later date than those of the time of Canute. The horn is of an ox or buffalo; two feet are fixed to the middle ring, and the stopper is shaped like a dog's head. The length of the horn is two feet and half an inch; its greatest circumference one foot. The person to whom the horn was originally given is said, by tradition, to have been an officer in Canute's army, who had informed his sovereign of an ambuscade formed by the Saxons to intercept him, and received the manor in reward for his intelligence.—Britton and Brayley.

This interesting heirloom was produced at the recent anniversary of Alfred's birth.]

"The kings appear to have wanted no external ceremonial belonging to their dignity: they were addressed in forms, still preserved in the northern languages, of peculiar respect; their personal attendants were of the highest people, and were considered as holding places of great honour. Earl Magnus, the saint, was in his youth, one of those who carried in the dishes to the royal table; and torch-bearers, herdmen, and all who belonged to the court, were in great consideration; and it appears to have been held of importance and of great advantage to be enrolled among the king's herdmen." [Introductory Dissertation on Snorro, Laing.]

There were many sorts of amusements in the Dano-English court: chess and dice are named among the rest. Bishop Ethern coming to Canute the Great about midnight, upon urgent business, found the king and his courtiers engaged at play, some at dice and others at chess. [Turner.] Backgammon is reported to have been invented about this period, in Wales, and derives its name from bach (little) and cammon (battle).

Canute patronised men of literary merit, being liberal to the clergy and the Scalds: of the latter class the names and verses of many have been preserved, who are quoted by Snorro. An amusing anecdote is on record of Thorarin, who had made a short poem on Canute, and went to recite it in his presence. On approaching the throne, he received a salute, and respectfully inquired if he might repeat what he had composed. The king was at table at the close of a repast; but a crowd of petitioners were occupying their sovereign's ear by a statement of their grievances. The impatient poet may have thought them unusually loquacious; he bore the tedious querulousness of injury with less patience than the King, and at last, presuming on his general favour with the great, exclaimed, 'Let me request again, Sire, that you would listen to my song; it will not consume much of your time, for it is very short.' The king, angry at the petulant urgency of the salutation, answered with a stern look, 'Are you not ashamed to do what none but yourself has dared, to write a short poem upon me! Unless by to-morrow's dinner you produce above thirty strophes, on the same subject, your head shall pay the penalty.' The poet retired, not with alarm, for his genius disdained that, but with some mortification at the public rebuke. He invoked the Scandinavian muses, his mind became fluent, verses crowded on it; and before the allotted time, he stood before the king with the exacted poem, and received fifty marks of pure silver as his reward." [Turner's Anglo-Saxon.]

The beautiful manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxons have already been alluded to. Fosbrooke assigns two motives for the extraordinary pains taken in their illustrations: "one that perusal might be thus invited, the other that they might be presents of value. Ervenius, an Anglo-Saxon, was very skilful in writing and illumination. He committed two books, the Sacramental and the Psalter, in which he had decorated the principal letters with gold, to the care of Wulstan when a boy. Admiration of the workmanship invited Wulstan to a studious perusal. But Ervenius consulting the advantage of the age, as affirmed, with the hope of greater reward, presented the Sacramental to Canute, and the Psalter to Emma, his Queen." [British Monachism.]

One of the royal residences [Raby Castle, the seat of the Earl of Darlington, about a mile to the north of Stamdrop, is supposed to occupy the site of a former mansion of Canute, given by him to the Church of Stamdrop. It stands on an eminence, founded on a rock, and is surrounded with a parapet and embrasured wall, together with a deep fosse.—Hutchinson.] of Canute and Emma, was a house or palace in Westminster, which was burnt down in the reign of the Confessor, [Fenn's Letters.] but their principal abode was the palace, which at that time adjoined St. Paul's, and Canute endowed the office of its Dean with the plot of ground contiguous to the Cathedral, now called the Deanery, and also a valuable estate at Chadwell. The chronicler Knyghton relates that it was in the gardens of this city-palace, declining, with a gentle slope, towards the banks of the river, that the well-known incident occurred of the king's reproof to his impious and scarcely half—Christianized courtiers. But Milner considers this to be a mistake, and says that Rudborne, who quotes more ancient authors, places this scene near the ancient Southampton, now the port of Northam. [Milner's Hist. of Winchester.] The identical spot where the transaction took place, is still pointed out at Bittern, in Northam harbour, by the tradition of the inhabitants; the legend though well-known, is here given. "King Canute having walked one day to the sea-shore, attended by a train of courtiers, some sycophants began to address him in the courtly language of adulation, exalted his dominion, and pronounced him the most powerful and most happy of human beings; nay, they even had the boldness to add:—'Sire! nothing can resist you, nothing is impossible to your greatness.'

"Canute, disgusted with this fulsome flattery, ordered a chair to be brought, which he placed on the beach at low water. He then seated himself and exclaimed,—'Sea, thou art mine! and these sands acknowledge my sovereignty. I charge thee, therefore, rise no farther, nor presume to wet the feet of thy master.' The waves, however, obeying no laws but those of the Almighty, pursued their course, and dashed against the King, upon which he rose from his chair, exclaiming, 'Let all the inhabitants of the earth know, that the power of man is vain and contemptible, and that He only is a monarch at whose nod the heavens, the earth, and the sea, are ever obedient.'" [Great and Good Deeds of the Danes.]

This reproof sufficiently disconcerted the parasites, but Canute embraced another and more solemn occasion to acknowledge his sincere submission to the Almighty God, his Lord and Sovereign: he deposited the golden crown which he had been accustomed to wear, in the church at Winchester, and never afterwards placed it on his own head.

There yet exist coins of this King, [While this work is going through the press the newspapers of the day describe the finding by workmen of no less than one hundred and twenty coins of Canute and some of his predecessors, in a perfect state of preservation, at Wedmore, in Somersetshire. The labourers who found the earthen vessel in which they were contained, were digging for gravel in the churchyard.

"No king," says Gough, in his Catalogue, "ever coined in so many places as Canute." He mentions no less than thirty-seven.

A Danish medalist has observed that no coins of Canute are to be met with of any other than English mints: notwithstanding he reigned two years longer in his own country than over England, which he governed nineteen years. This observation seems to be confirmed by the discovery of some of this Prince's coins of English mintage, with others of our King Ethelred, in a barrow in Ireland, mentioned by Olaus Wormius. England might be his favourite residence, as he had made it so considerable an accession to his paternal territory by compact and succession; and he affected to court the good-will of his new subjects, by taking the title of "Rex Anglorum," and sinking his other title.

Keder has noted four varieties of this Prince's coins.

1. The first exhibits his bust in armour, with a helmet or diadem; in his left hand the sceptre surmounted by a lily. The cross is a quatrefoil, with pellets at the corners, or with another kind of cross laid upon it.

2. The bust has the diadem or sceptre, which on some is surmounted by four pellets in form of a cross. The cross issues from a circle in the centre.

3. The bust in a quatrefoil, with a crown of fleurs-de-lis; the cross terminating in crescents, in a quatrefoil, with three pellets on the points.

4. The bust wearing a high pointed cap or helmet; the sceptre surmounted with three pellets. The cross in a circle, in the angles four rings enclosing a less.

5. A fifth sort has an arm to the bust.

6. A sixth has the bust helmeted in a quatrefoil.— (Catalogue of the Coins of Canute, by Richard Gough.)]

which were struck at Dublin, probably in acknowledgment of his power by the Danish settlers in that country. The portraits of Canute and Emma, were prefixed to a Saxon MS. register of Hyde Abbey, written during that monarch's reign. This antique and valuable document is now in the possession of Thomas Astell, Esq., by whose permission portraits alluded to were copied by Mr. Strutt for his work on Saxon Antiquities. [Plate 28. Strutt's Saxon Antiquities.]

Canute has been celebrated for his justice and equity, and doubtless his religious feelings, which prompted both, may be really attributed to the influence of Emma.

The following letter, written from Rome, attests the beneficial influence of awakened piety over the heart of the King. He wrote in these terms to some of the great men of his kingdom:—" Be it known to you that I have, humbly made a vow to Almighty God, to conduct myself hereafter, as shall become me; to govern my kingdom as a religious and just monarch, and to distribute equal justice among my subjects. I have prepared to correct whatever errors I may have been led into by the impetuosity of youth or want of reflection. I therefore desire and command my counsellors, to whom the affairs of the kingdom are entrusted, on no pretence to be guilty in themselves, or suffer others to be guilty of any acts of injustice, either through fear of me, or with a view to favour any person high in power. The laws shall be equally distributed among my nobles and my commoners. Let him beware who either values my friendship or his own welfare." [Great and Good Deeds of the Danes.]

Canute and Emma are said to have, for several years, regularly attended together the Festival of the Purification. Emma was a great benefactress to the Saxon church, and the extraordinary liberality displayed by Canute towards the Abbeys of Winchester, Ramsey, and Ely, is to be ascribed to the interest Emma exerted in their favour; in especial Ramsey was beloved by the Queen, and received many splendid gifts from Canute on that account. The King and Queen, say the chroniclers, visited Croyland and Ely in person, and piously offered their regal donations. On Croyland, besides other and more valuable presents, the King bestowed "twelve beautiful white bears' skins, for the altars on festival days," and also a "vestment of silk embroidered with eagles of gold." These rich gifts were as rare as costly, for though the skin of the brown bear was then common in England, the white was scarce and uncommon.

Queen Emma's offering to the monks of Ely is worthy of remark, as showing how excellent the art of needlework was in her time, and how she excelled in embroidery, "and with her own hands wrought a beautiful altar-cloth," which she presented to the priests. This costly piece of ornamental industry is thus described:—" it was of a green colour, and beautified with plates of gold, that appeared raised: if viewed lengthways along the altar, it seemed of a blood-red colour, and it was finished at the corners with rich gold ornaments, which reached to the ground." [Resembling a short silk (such as is frequently seen in early miniatures); Gale, vol. ii., p. 505.] These gold ornaments were of a kind of gold thread and bullion-work termed "orfrays."

Canute liberally endowed St. Swithin's Abbey, Winchester: besides other rich jewels, the King bestowed on it a cross worth as much as the revenue of England amounted to in one year. [Howel.] Roger, of Wendover, relates that "Canute decorated the Old Minster, Winchester, with such magnificence that the minds of strangers were confounded at the sight of the gold and silver and the splendour of the jewels. This too, was done at the instigation of Queen Emma, whose profuse liberality consumed whole treasuries on such objects." Upon the destruction of monasteries many of the costly presents of Canute and Emma to the church must have been rifled and cast into the melting-pot, for the mere value of the metals of which they were composed.

A pall is named, as presented by the King and Queen, probably of her work, to Glastonbury "of various colours woven with the figures of peacocks." This was on the occasion of the visit to the tomb of Edmund Ironside, whom Canute was accustomed to style "his brother." A rich cloth, embroidered with "apples of gold and pearls," was given at the same time the charter was granted to the Abbey of St. Edmunsbury, in signing which Emma writes "Ego Alfgifa Regina," and the King names her as "Myne Queen Elfgifa," who, he says, gave the church a revenue of "four thousand Eels, in Lakinghithe." [Fisheries were one of the sources of rent noticed in the Domesday Survey, where the produce in kind is mentioned, it seems chiefly to have consisted in eels, herrings, and salmons; sometimes they were paid by stitches or sticks, each stick having twenty-five. This was commonly the case in payment from mills.—Sir H. Ellis.]

It was on the occasion of Canute's visit to Ely, accompanied by Queen Emma and the nobles of the court, when they were gliding along the river in their barge, that the King himself composed that little Saxon ballad of which, unfortunately, one single stanza alone has been preserved. As the royal party approached the church the monks were pt their devotions, and the sweetness of their melody was so attractive to the King, that he ordered his rowers to pause near the spot whence the sounds proceeded, and to move gently while he listened to the harmony of the voices which came floating from the summit of the high rock before him. So great was his delight that it broke forth in the following poem.

"Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely,
Tha Cnut ching reuther by:
Roweth cnites noer the land,
And here we thes muneches soeng.

"Merry sang the monks in Ely
When King Canute sailed by:
Row, Knights, near the land,
And let us hear the monks' song."

Probably Canute sang these lines to some musical instrument, like the minstrels. [The ancient musical instruments were the viele, the flute, the pipe, the harp, and the rotae This last, a species of harp, occurs in Chaucer and all our early poets. The viele was not the instrument now called by that name, but shaped like a fiddle, and played with a bow. The early music was written with square notes, ranged on four lines; the fifth was not introduced till late in the reign of St. Louis.—M. Le Grand's Notes to Fabliaux.] It is much to be regretted that the rest is lost. It has been thought that this poem is not so early as the time of Canute, and Lappenberg's learned editor, Dr. Thorpe, considers it no older than the thirteenth century. However this may be, as regards the language of the songs as handed down to us, there is no reason to doubt that the King might actually have composed such a poem, if indeed it did not proceed from the cultivated mind of Queen Emma herself, which is by no means impossible. When the barbarous deeds of the personages of those times are considered, it is a fact which creates extreme surprise that the ideas expressed in ballads and poems by the minstrels of that very period should be so full of delicacy and refined feeling. In the sagas there is an occasional gentleness and tenderness, where love and beauty are the themes, which contrast singularly with the records of burning, slaying, and outrages of all kinds perpetrated by the heroes. The charms of nature and the beauties of scenery appear to be fully appreciated by the "barbarians," who, if they acted like savages in some respects, seem to have the less excuse, as their songs prove, that though they "pursued the wrong," they knew "the right."

The skill, so insisted on in all accounts of presents made to the church, both in the arts of needlework and in the chasing and carving of metals, cannot be denied them; and that they understood the degrees of perfection to which such arts might attain, is shown by their earliest traditions. For instance, the sacred histories of the Scandinavians relate the marvels wrought by Vaulund the Forger, the Vulcan of the North. The Icelandic Saga thus describes his skill: "Vaulund was so renowned throughout the north that by one consent all the smiths acknowledged him their superior. To denote the excellent property of any forged weapon it was usual to say the artist must have been a Vaulund. A rivalry having ensued between him and King Nigundur's former smith, it was agreed that Vaulund should forge a sword, and his rival a helm, which the latter was to put on, and if it were found proof against the sword, Vaulund's head should be forfeited. Accordingly the King's former smith put on the helm, and sitting on a bench, bid Vaulund, in defiance, use all his strength. The latter, who stood behind him, then raised his arm, and, at a single stroke clove the armour and armourer down to the girdle; and inquiring what he felt, was answered by the smith that he had an internal sensation, as if from a stream of cold water.'Shake thyself,' said Vaulund: the smith immediately did so, his body separated, and either half fell on opposite sides of the bench." [Notes to Frithiof's Saga, translated by Oscar Baker.]

Canute and Emma were great encouragers of church building; and to them may be attributed some of the most celebrated in England, as well as several in Normandy, which "time, war, flood, and fire" have spared to the present time, to prove the wondrous powers of architects and carvers in the early ages, never to be even approached in excellence by later and more enlightened artists.

In 1020, the Cathedral of Chartres, still one of the most magnificent in France, which had been destroyed by lightning, was rebuilt by its bishop, Fulbert. The names of Canute and Richard II., Duke of Normandy, are recorded as among those who assisted the work by their contributions. In the same year, the second of his marriage with Emma, Canute built the Monastery at Edmundsbury, "where the body of King Edmond lies, and by the advice of Queen Emma and the bishops and barons, established monks in it under Guy, a man, humble, modest, and pious." [Roger of Wendover.] The Abbey of St. Bennet's in the parish of Sudham, county of Norfolk, [Seven miles from Norwich.] was another foundation of Canute, between the years 1020 and 1030, as well as a church at Ashdone, in Essex, at the dedication of which all the English and Danish lords assisted. [Holinshed.]

Emma had only two children by Canute; they were named Hardicanute and Gunilda, the former was surnamed "the Hardy or Robust," from his personal accomplishments; [Hume.] the latter was reckoned one of the loveliest of her sex, and in her father's lifetime was contracted to the Emperor of Germany, whom she afterwards married.

Hardicanute, who by Emma's agreement, prior to her union with Canute, was destined to inherit the crown of England, was quite a child when the ceremony of translating the body of Bishop St. Elphege took place, of which the Saxon Chronicle gives the following account:"

This year, 1023, King Canute within London, in St. Paul's minster, gave full leave to Archbishop Ethelnoth and Bishop Brithwine, and to all the servants of God who were with them, that they might take up from the tomb the Archbishop St. Elphege; and they then did so, on the sixth before the ides of June. And the illustrious King, and the archbishop and suffragan bishops, and earls, and very many clergy, and also laity, carried in a ship, his holy body over the Thames to Southwark, and there delivered the holy martyr to the archbishop and his companions; and they then with a worshipful hand and sprightly joy, bore him to Rochester. Then, on the third day, came Emma the lady, with her royal child Hardicanute; and then they all, with much state and bliss, and songs of praise, bore the holy archbishop into Canterbury; and then worshipfully brought him into Christ's Church, on the third before the ides of June. Again, after that, on the eighth day, the seventeenth before the kalends of July, Archbishop Ethelnoth, and Bishop Elfsy, and Bishop Brithwine, and all those who were with them, deposited St. Elphege's holy body on the north side of Christ's altar, to the glory of God, and the honour of the holy archbishop, and to the eternal health of all who there daily seek his holy body with a devout heart and with all humility. God Almighty have mercy upon all Christian men, through St. Elphege's holy merits." [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.]

Canute resided chiefly in England, yet he occasionally visited Denmark, attended by an English fleet. The year after his marriage with Queen Emma he went there, and in all probability was accompanied by his royal consort, A.D. 1019. [Lingard.]

It appears that Earl Ulf Sprakalegsson had been left protector of Denmark by Canute when he went to England, his son "Hardicanute" being in his hands. The summer after this arrangement had been made by the English King, the Earl gave it out that King Canute had at parting made known to him his will and desire, that the Danes should take his son Hardicanute as King over the Danish dominions. He said Canute bad done this on it being represented to him that the nation suffered many disadvantages from the absence of its King. "Hitherto," said Earl Ulf, "we have been so fortunate as to live without disturbance, but now we hear that the King of Norway is going to attack us, to which is added the fear of the people, that the Swedish King will join him, and now King Canute is in England." The Earl then produced King Canute's letter and seal confirming all that he asserted. Many other chiefs supported this business, and in consequence of all these persuasions the people resolved to take Hardicanute as King, which was done at the same time. [Snorro's Kings of Norway.] This circumstance, passed over in our English histories, throws light on the proceedings of Queen Emma: the Danish historian proceeds to say, "that Queen Emma had been principal promoter of this determination, for she had got the letter to be written and provided with the seal, having cunningly got hold of the King's signet; but from him it was all concealed."

By this account it would seem, that Emma was intriguing to advance her son before his father's death, and had not shrunk from forgery to accomplish her end. The story, whether true or false, is thus continued:

" When Hardicanute and Earl Ulf heard for certain that King Olaf was come from Norway with a large army, they went to Jutland, where the greatest strength of the Danish Kingdom lies, sent out message-tokens, and summoned to them a great force: but when they heard that the Swedish King was also come with his army, they thought they would not have strength enough to give battle to both, and therefore kept their army together in Jutland, and resolved to defend that country against the Kings. The whole of their ships they assembled together at Lynnfiord, and waited there for King Canute." [Snorro.]

The Dano-English King, in the meantime, had sailed with a vast force from England, and arrived in safety at Denmark, where he went to Lynnfiord, and there he found gathered besides, a large army of the men of the country.

When the Danes "heard that King Canute had come from the west to Lynnfiord, they sent men to him, and to Queen Emma, and begged her to find out if the King were angry or not, and to let them know. Your son Hardicanute will pay the full mulct the King may demand, if he has done anything which is thought to be against the King." He replies, "that Hardicanute has not done this of his own judgment, and, therefore," says he "it has turned out as might be expected, that when he, a child, and without understanding, wanted to be called King, the country when any evil came and an enemy appeared must be conquered by foreign princes, if our might had not come to his aid. If he will have any reconciliation with me, let him come to me and lay down the mock title of King he has given himself."

The Queen sent these very words to Hardicanute, and at the same time she begged him not to decline coming, for as she truly observed, he had no force to stand against his father. When this message came to Hardicanute, he asked the advice of the Earl and other chief people who were with him; but it was soon found that when the people heard King Canute the Old was arrived, they all streamed to him, and seemed to have no confidence but in him alone. Then Earl Ulf and his fellows saw that they had but two roads to take, either to go to the King and leave all to his mercy, or to fly the country. All pressed Hardicanute to go to his father, which advice he followed. When they met he fell at his father's feet, and laid his seal, which accompanied the kingly title, on his knee. King Canute took Hardicanute by the hand and placed him in as high a seat as he used to sit in before. Earl Ulf [Wolf or Ulf was brother-in-law to Canute, and Earl Godwin was married to Gyda, sister of Ulf. He was afterwards assassinated by Canute's orders, after the battle of Helge, 1025-7.] sent his son Swend, who was a sister's son of King Canute, and the same age as Hardicanute, to the King. He prayed for grace and reconciliation for the Earl his father, and offered himself as hostage for the Earl. King Canute ordered him to tell the Earl to assemble his men and ships and come to him, and then they would talk of reconciliation. The Earl did so." [Snorro's Kings of Norway.]

Canute's happiness was not unfrequently clouded. Besides the annoyance caused him by the rebellion in the name of Hardicanute, directed by Earl Ulf, he was obliged to make war on his wife's brother, Duke Richard, in consequence of his having repudiated Estritha his duchess, on a very trifling pretence. [Duke Richard, the second, or, as Holinshed calls him, third of that name, brother of Queen Emma, married first Judith, sister of the Earl of Bretagne, by whom he had three sons, Richard, Robert, and William, and three daughters, of whom one died young; Alix, another, married Reignold, Earl of Burgoyne; a third, Eleanor, to the Earl of Flanders. After a ten years' union Judith died, and Duke Richard married Estrida, sister of Canute. He purchased a divorce from her, and then married a lady called Pavia, by whom he had two sons, William, Earl of Arques, and Mauger, Archbishop of Rouen. Duke Richard died in 1022, fifteen years before Canute, and was succeeded by Richard III., who reigned only one year, and then Robert became Duke A.D. 1023. After a vigorous reign of seven years, Robert departed on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, leaving the dukedom to his son William, afterwards the Conqueror, then seven years of age (A.D. 1030). Richard having been so long dead, the expedition made in 1035 must have been grounded on some other cause. Edward and Alfred were at the Norman court, and Robert before his departure had, by an embassy, requested Canute to give his cousins a share of England; but that being refused, Richard had prepared a fleet, intending to assert their claims by force of arms. That was, however, prevented by the ships being destroyed in a storm. Afterwards Canute promised Wessex to the sons of Emma; but the pilgrimage of Robert, and his own subsequent death, put off the execution of this promise, had it ever been intended to perform it.—Rapin and Holinshed, Roger of Wendover.] To avenge the affront, Canute sailed at the head of a large fleet to Normandy, and landed at Rouen; but scarcely had he arrived, when he learnt the sad tidings of the death of his favourite son Sweyn, [Rapin says that Sweyn, brother of Harefoot, survived Hardicanute.] governor of Norway. Some accounts relate that Canute was so deeply affected by this event, that it brought on an ague of which he died at Rouen. [Saxo-Grammaticus, Grafton, and Polydore.]

The Saxon Chronicle differs in the statement of Canute's death, and declares that event to have taken place at Shaftesbury, in England, on the second day before the Ides of November, 1035, and that he was interred at Winchester, the epitaph on his tomb being—

"HERE LIES CANUTE, CELEBRATED FOR HIS PIETY."

He was only forty years of age at the time of his death, and he had been eighteen years united to Queen Emma.

At the time of Canute's death, not one of the Queen's sons was in England; Hardicanute, on whom, by virtue of her marriage contract, and his father's dying wishes, the crown should have devolved, was in Denmark, where he had been crowned the preceding year, and made no haste to assert his claims in England. Harold Harefoot, the only surviving son of Canute's first marriage, [Harold is said to have been surnamed "Harefoot," from having one foot covered with hair. Hume says, "from his agility in running and walking;" he was fond of hunting, and being averse to riding on horseback, pursued the amusement on foot.—Lingard.

["Harold would choose the time of prayer, when the people were going to church to go out with his dogs."—Thierry.]

knowing how superior England was to the crown of Denmark, allotted to him by his father's will, hurried over to endeavour to secure it for himself. The Queen also, if she had not, as some say, returned with Canute prior to that monarch's death into England, lost no time in doing so; but before anything could be done in the behalf either of herself or her son, Harold had contrived to secure the kingdom for himself. The reason of this was that the cities north of the Thames durst not oppose the Danes, who ruled over them, and were forced to acknowledge him; but Wessex declared boldly for Hardicanute. This part of England was very populous, being a place of refuge for all those whom the Danish cruelty and oppression expelled from the more northern districts; it was chiefly inhabited by Saxons, who maintained their freedom, and were attached to the persons of their royal family. [Rapin.] Emma herself was a great favourite with the West Saxons, who determined to uphold the rights of her children.

Winchester was the capital of Wessex, and royal residence, and thither Emma repaired; the palace contained not only her own private property, but the royal treasures which Canute had entrusted to her keeping for his son Hardicanute. [Simeon of Durham; Brompton.] But a powerful combination was speedily formed against the widowed Queen, who, at this moment, though the mother of three sons and of two daughters, seems to have been left to support her sorrow alone. While Emma fixed herself at Winchester, a witenagemote was hastily assembled at Oxford, [Oxford was often the seat of the English court; and Canute had held one great council there. The same city witnessed the murder of Sigeferth, husband of Algitha, who became the Queen of Edmund Ironside: on the present occasion, the accession of Harold was settled there, and it was not only the spot on which that King was crowned, but the one in which he ended his short career.] which was to bring much more grief to her than she had yet experienced. Leofric, Consul of Chester; Godwin, Earl of Kent; and others were present, [Grafton, Saxon Chronicle.] the object being to discuss the claims of the rival princes, Harold and Hardicanute. The nobles of Wessex supported Hardicanute, in spite of his absence, [Caradoc of Llancarvan.] and were seconded by Earl Godwin, who objected to Harold on account of the rumoured illegitimacy of his birth; but this appears to have been considered no objection in the eyes of his own countrymen, the Danes. Leofric, "the trusty friend of Canute," overruled his remonstrance, and the Londoners and other lords north of the Thames, favouring Harold's claim, appointed him ruler of the kingdom, "not only for himself, but for Hardicanute who was then in Denmark." [Ranulf Higden; Saxon Chronicle; Grafton.] The treachery of Godwin mainly brought about this conclusion, he having on Harold's arrival secretly placed in his hands the will of the late King, which had been entrusted to his care, and covenanted to establish him on the throne, provided only that he would espouse his daughter Editha. This understanding not being generally known, Godwin, in the council, craftily appeared to support the cause of Hardicanute. Ambition was the ruling feature of Godwin's character, and while thus through his connivance the council was called, which gave a crown to the future husband of his daughter, it was arranged by the same meeting that Emma and Godwin should jointly rule over the dependant territory of Wessex, until the arrival of Hardicanute; [Lingard; Gaillard; Rapin.] the Queen was to maintain her royal state in Winchester, having with her "the household of the King her son," and Godwin was to be general of her forces. The royal treasures and furniture at Winchester were to belong to Emma and her son; [Milner.] but scarcely had Harold been crowned at Oxford, an office performed with his own hands, [Egelnoth, who had been seventeen years Archbishop, refused to crown Harold, saying that Canute had enjoined him to set the crown upon none but the issue of Emma. Then laying the crown on the altar, he denounced an imprecation against any bishop that should venture to perform the ceremony.] then he hastened in person to Winchester, whither indeed his emissaries had already preceded him, and seized on all the most precious articles at the royal palace, even "before Emma could take possession of them." In spite, however, of this violent treatment, Emma remained at Winchester, "as long as she was able to do so." Finding that Godwin engrossed all the power in Wessex in his own hands, and that her children were effectually shut out from the government, the Queen affected indifference from motives of policy, and devoted her whole time to the occupation of visiting the churches, as though her thoughts had been entirely bestowed on a future state and the salvation of her soul. In this, much also of sincerity was combined; for Emma was naturally pious, and deeply mourned the loss of a beloved and affectionate husband.

The affection of Emma for the sons of Ethelred did not appear as great as that she felt for the heir of Canute. Hardicanute came not, however, to her wishes, to assert his rights and reinstate her in her royal authority. Conceiving that the King and Godwin, deceived by her affected neutrality, had no fear of her interposing in affairs of state, Emma at length determined to recall her two sons by Ethelred to England, expressing the natural desire of a mother to behold the Princes who had been some time separated from her; but, in reality, her aim in sending for them was to awaken the love and affection of the Saxons for the race of their ancient kings, should Hardicanute fail to arrive; and Godwin's penetration having discovered this, he artfully applauded her scheme, and even aided her in the execution of it, but only with the view of delivering the Princes to Harold. The King informed, through Godwin, of Emma's wish, consented that her sons should be sent for. Edward, indeed, had early in Harold's reign come over with a considerable fleet, but not finding any countenance from his mother, who desired Hardicanute to succeed to the throne, and was, therefore, averse to his claim at that time, and probably unable to assist him without danger to both, had contented himself with burning a few villages, and then went back to Normandy.

Harold, aware that the Queen naturally aimed at placing her sons on the throne, had striven by many devices to get them into his power, and on Emma's determination to invite them to England, wrote them the following letter in their mother's name:—

"Emma, in name only Queen, to her sons Alfred and Edward, imparts motherly salutation. While we severally bewail the death of our lord the King, most dear sons, and while daily ye are deprived more and more of the kingdom your inheritance, I admire what counsel ye take, knowing that your intermitted delay is a daily strengthening to the reign of your usurper, who incessantly goes about from town to city, gaining the chief nobles to his party either by gifts, prayers, or threats. But they had much rather one of you should reign over them, than be held under the power of him who now overrules them. I entreat, therefore, that one of you come to me speedily and privately, to receive from me wholesome counsel, and to know how the business which I intend shall be accomplished. By this messenger present, send back what you determine. Farewell, as dear both as mine own heart." [Encomium Emmae.]

This letter, which, by what followed, might as well have been written by their mother, as it was what she wished, was delivered into the hands of the princes, together with presents really sent to them from Emma, and, as such, both were received with joy, and a glad message returned, appointing a time and place for the desired meeting. [Milton, Roger of Wendover.] That Godwin himself was the bearer of these tidings to Emma is not impossible, as some say he was employed as ambassador. [Milner, Grafton, Scott.] Fifty vessels of chosen men of Normandy and Flanders had accompanied the Saxon princes, one or both, who landed at Sandwich, and from thence proceeded to Canterbury. According to some authorities Emma, mistrusting Godwin, from some intelligence received by her sons on their arrival, permitted one only at a time to visit him, retaining the other with herself. Alfred, whether after having seen the Queen or not is uncertain, was about to pay a visit to Harold, when he was arrested by Earl Godwin. The Saxon Chronicle says, Godwin prevented Alfred going to his mother, "knowing it would be displeasing to King Harold." As Guildford was on the road to Winchester, it may be that Alfred had not yet seen Emma, and that he had but rested in his way to the court of Wessex, to partake of the sumptuous entertainment provided by the Earl. On this occasion it is said by some, that, in a private intercourse, Godwin offered the Prince the throne, with the hand of his daughter, which he refused. [Gaillard, Grafton, Milner.] The alternative was immediately had recourse to by the irritable noble, and the fate of Alfred was from that moment sealed. Guildford, the scene of the carousal of the Saxon and Norman lords on that eventful night, was a town belonging to Godwin. Alfred was under his protection, and he betrayed his trust. According to custom, the guests of the Earl drank deep, and, as the hour advanced, became overpowered with sleep. Then the work of death began, which the cowardly Harold had planned, and Godwin connived at as an ally. The attendants of Alfred were disarmed, and put to the sword; every tenth man only being spared. As for "the ill-fated Prince, who was every way worthy to be a king," [Roger of Wendover.] the child of exile and misfortune, he found himself hurried away, first to the presence of Harold, in London, and afterwards to the Isle of Ely. The noble to whom the royal youth was consigned, aggravated his situation by every insult which could be offered. A sorry horse was provided, he was stripped of his royal attire, and his feet tied beneath the saddle, exposed to the mockery and derision of every ordinary beholder in the towns and villages through which he had to pass. Thus pitiable was the fate of the son of Emma, herself the Queen, and at the very moment ruling over some not inconsiderable portion of the land. A court was convened of persons suited to their office, at Ely, by whom Alfred was sentenced to lose his eyes; and the unfortunate youth, on whom this cruel decree was executed by force alone, expired after a few days of lingering torment, either from his suffering, or the hand of a secret assassin. [Lingard.]

Harold and Godwin stand charged to this day, in the face of posterity, with this inhuman murder. [Turner.] Though the monk of St. Omer, who might be supposed well acquainted with the facts, represents the Earl as ignorant of Alfred's danger; [Lingard.] nevertheless, so convinced were his contemporaries in general of his guilt, that he was twice arraigned for the murder: four years after, in Hardicanute's reign, by the Archbishop of York, and after that by Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, when Edward the Confessor was on the throne. On both those occasions he was acquitted; but Edward himself never really believed him innocent, though Godwin died in the very moment of defending himself from the renewed charge. There is too much reason to think self-interest blinded both Godwin and Harold to the enormity of the crime: one common in those times, where might was for ever struggling with right. The Queen herself has been charged with consenting and aiding in the crime, by sending the letter, which brought her sons to England; but this, of course, was the intention of the senders; and, that she was perfectly innocent is plain by the consternation she exhibited when the fatal tidings reached her, and her adopting the instant precaution of sending her remaining son, Edward, who is thought to have been with her at the time, to her Norman relatives; a step attended with no trifling difficulty, and which gave great mortification to the King and Earl by disappointing them of one of their intended victims. It was, perhaps, this act which brought fresh wrath from Godwin on Emma; for the Earl next accused her of treason, and Harold had formerly not only despoiled her of all the royal treasures, [Encomium Emmae, Caradoc.] but now seized on her private goods and treasures, left for her own use by Canute, and banished her from the kingdom.

Emma's friends, indeed, desired that she should quit England at this juncture, but where should she seek an asylum? It might have been expected that she would have taken shelter among her own relatives in Normandy, whither she had sent her son, Prince Edward; [Harding. Ibid.] but Duke William, being very young, was, while a minor, under the government of others, and the Queen feared to awaken Harold's jealousy of her Norman connections. Emma preferred the asylum offered her by her cousin Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, who, finding the invitation he had sent to her was accepted, received her with all the respect due to misfortune, and treated her with the greatest courtesy and kindness. [A.D. 1037. The Saxon Chronicle says, "This year was Harold chosen King of all, and Hardicanute forsaken, because he staid too long in Denmark; and then they drove out his mother Elfgiva, the Queen, without any kind of mercy, against the stormy winter; and she came then to Bruges beyond sea: and Baldwin, the Earl there, well received her, and there kept her the while she had need." The Earl of Flanders was married to a princess of the ducal family of Normandy {Eleanor, Emma's niece: see p. 304 (note)}; but one of his daughters was wife of Tosti, son of Godwin, Emma's enemy, which makes his conduct only appear the more generous on this occasion towards Emma.] He not only gave her the castle of Bruges for her residence, but assigned her a handsome provision for her support during her abode in Flanders. There the Queen remained for three years, attended by the few faithful adherents who had accompanied her in her exile. Emma informed the good Earl how hardly she had been treated by Harold, and how Alfred, her son, had been put to death, and Edward forced to fly from the kingdom.

"Wherefore therle to Kyng Hardknowt then wrote
All hir compleynt, and of his succour prayed
And he should help with all his might, God wote,
It were amended of that she was affrayed,
He came anone in warre full well arrayed
Into Flaundres, his mother for to please,
Hir for to socour and sette hir hert in ease."
[Saxon Chron.]

A.D. 1039. After repeated messages from the Earl and Emma, and the lapse of two years from his father's death, Hardicanute, who was more "the Unready" than the sons of Ethelred, sailed for Flanders, and spent a year there with his mother, consulting as to their future plans. [Lingard.] Under the cover of this visit, the Danish King had assembled a fleet of sixty sail, and he was actually on the point of making a descent upon England, when the news of Harold Harefoot's death was forwarded to him, [Hume, Roger of Wendover, &c.] on which he sailed for London, and was received with much triumph; his claim being at once acknowledged by the whole nation, 1040. He was shortly after crowned at London by Egelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury; who had so resolutely refused to crown another than Canute's son. The favour which Hardicanute received is attributed to the regard entertained by the people, especially those of Wessex, for his mother, Queen Emma.

Emma, to her great joy, recalled by her son, after a three years' exile, returned to England. Hardicanute received her with much honour, and placed the administration of the affairs of government in her hands and those of Godwin,—a singular coincidence by which the second time Emma found herself on close terms of alliance with her old enemy. Godwin had been one of the first to do homage to Hardicanute, but the King, doubtless, feared his professions of regard even more than the open enmity he had before experienced. Having first sent for his half-brother, Edward, from Normandy, the Prince, under sanction of Hardicanute, raised against the Earl a charge of having murdered Prince Alfred, and loudly demanded justice. Living, Bishop of Worcester, was likewise accused of participation in the crime. Elfric, Archbishop of York, was the person who was employed with Godwin, by the King, to disinter Harold Harefoot's body, for the gratification of his revenge for the murder. In this painful task the Earl and prelate disagreed, and Elfric accused Godwin. Godwin denied the charge against him, making out, on oath, that the part he had in the putting out the eyes of Alfred, he was constrained to by order of Harold. He, in fact, legally acquitted himself "by his own oath, and the oaths of a jury of his peers, the principal noblemen of England." Whether innocent or not he was restored to favour, and shared with Emma in the administration of the kingdom. In all likelihood Hardicanute but carried out the wishes of his mother in this endeavour to bring Godwin to justice; if this was the case, and that a churchman was his accuser seems to render it likely, it may account for the vindictive feelings Godwin afterwards exhibited against Emma, upon the accession of Edward to the throne. [Lingard.]

The policy of Godwin had led him, in the hope of inducing the King to forgiveness, to offer him a very sumptuous present. His peace-offering, which was accepted, was a galley, finely rigged and manned. As for Living, he was deprived of his bishopric, which was given to his accuser, Elfric, but purchased his pardon by a round sum of money, when he was reinstated.

Godwin's ship had a stern of gold, and eighty soldiers uniformly and richly suited: on their heads they all wore gilt burgonets, and on their bodies a triple gilt habergeon: swords with gilt hilts girded to their waists; a battle-axe, according to the Danish fashion, on their left shoulder; a target with gilt bosses borne in their left hand, a dart in the right hand, and their arms bound about with two bracelets of gold. The gift of Godwin is quite in accord with the manners of the day, and seems an adroit imitation of the celebrated ship of the Viking Frithiof, the swift-sailing Ellida, thus beautifully described in the Saga of Bishop Tegner: [Translated by Oscar Baker.]

"The bark Ellida next was Frithiof's own
Viking, 'tis said, from war returning home,
Sail'd by the strand, and on a wreck he spied
A man, who seemed to revel with the tide,
Of noble stature, and of face serene,
Joyful and glad, though changeful was his mien:
Like the sea basking in the solar sheen:
A cloak of blue and belt of gold he wore,
Bedecked with corals from a distant shore.
White, as the foam on billows, was his beard,
And, as the ocean, green his hair appeared.
Then, thither, Viking steered his floating shell,
And saved the Being from the billow's swell.

. . . . .

But he, while smiling, to his saviour said:
My bark is staunch, the breezes will not fail;
This very night a hundred miles I sail.
Long shall thy kindness in my mem'ry dwell,
And soon some gift my gratitude shall tell.

. . . . .

Yes, when to-morrow thou shalt wander o'er
Thy lands, some gift shall wait thee on the shore.'
Next day, when Viking wandered by the sea,
Lo! as an eagle rushes at its prey,
A stately Dragon swept into the bay.
The rudder moved, untouched by human hand,
And none, save spirits, steered that bark to land.
But mid the reefs and shoals it held its way,
And scatheless flew amidst the driving spray.

. . . . .

The gift was kingly; for each oaken beam
Was grown together without joint or seam.
High in the stem the Dragon's head arose,
His gilded jaws a fiery gape disclose;
His breast was speckled o'er with blue and gold,
Whilst, in the stern, his tail in many a fold,
Bright as a mail of silver, upward flew,
Shining resplendent towards the heavens of blue:
When his jet pinions, edged with brilliant red,
High in the air, to catch the breeze were spread:
His speed outstripped the headlong raving wind,
And left the eagle in his flight behind.
When that brave bark was filled with steel-clad men,
It seemed a fortress floating on the main."

That Queen Emma was particularly attached to the city of Winchester, [Milner's History of Winchester.] is evident from her returning to dwell there after the death of Harold; even during her temporary absence also, she had continued to bestow her royal presents on the Cathedral. [Howel.] The Queen's name is joined to that of her son Hardicanute, in his charters to her favourite monasteries, [Roger of Wendover, Marianus, Higden.] and however authors may differ in their accounts of the character of that King himself, they unite in praising the kindness which he showed to his mother Queen Emma; in this he was at least much superior to his brother, the sainted and vaunted Edward. [Personally, Hardicanute was mild, and of a generous nature. His table was spread at four different hours in the day for his guests. Perhaps to the conviviality of living acquired among the Danes, may be attributed his feeble health and constant attacks of illness.]

In another point, the character of Hardicanute also deserves admiration, that of fraternal affection. Edward, the son of Ethelred, was invited to his court, A.D. 1041, and not only came there without fear, but remained an honoured guest during this king's short reign. [Roger of Wendover, Marianus, Higden.]

Hardicanute also carried out the plan of his father, as regarded Gunilda, daughter of Emma, whom Canute contracted to the Emperor Henry. This lovely young Princess is designated as the King of England's "fairest sister," to distinguish her from her half-sister Goda, daughter of Ethelred, and sister of Prince Edward, who had been united first to Walter, Earl of Mantes, and afterwards to Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, of whom we shall have to speak hereafter. Gunilda was bestowed with much solemnity and magnificence on the Emperor. After some time, the young Empress was accused of infidelity to her husband, but was cleared by a judicial combat: a dwarf in her service named Mimicon, who had attended her from England, fought with the champion appointed by her accusers, who was named Rodingar, a man of gigantic frame: the dwarf obtaining the victory, the fair fame of his mistress was considered established. Gunilda, though vindicated by this happy event, could never be persuaded to live again with her husband. Forsaking the world, she assumed the holy veil of a nun, in which she ended her days, [Ranulf, Higden.] five years only after the death of her father, King Canute. The Chronicle exclaims that she died "as the noble morning star sinks at early dawn." [Norman Traditions, Malmesbury.]

Hardicanute's death was very sudden, in 1042, in the midst of the festivities of a wedding dinner, the nuptials celebrated being those of a noble Dane called Tovi and Gyda, the daughter of Osgod Clapa. Some say the King was poisoned; but it is more generally thought his death was the result of intemperance, for "he died as he stood at his drink." The scene of this event was the royal palace or mansion of the Saxon Kings, which formerly stood in that part of the parish of Lambeth, [MS. History of Lambeth Palace.] now known by the name of Kennington, and which constituted part of the dower or estate of the Princess Goda, daughter of Ethelred and Emma.

The death of Hardicanute was a great blow to Emma: and the Saxon Chronicle states that his mother, who tenderly loved him, "for his soul gave to the New Minster the head of St. Valentine the Martyr." The English hailed the event as a signal of deliverance from the Danish yoke, and the festival called "Hog's Tide," or "Hock Wednesday," was for centuries after kept by them in commemoration of the circumstance.

At the time of Hardicanute's death, Prince Edward was in Normandy, The Queen, Godwin, and Living, Bishop of Worcester, in the emergency, united their interest in his favour, and on this occasion were upheld by Leofric, the powerful Earl of Chester: [Higden.] by their combined exertions, Edward was recalled to assume the sovereignty, the English being persuaded easily to take this step, having never forgotten the fact that they had formerly sworn allegiance to him "while yet in his mother's womb." [Brit. Sancta.] Accordingly, Edward, after having given pledges that he would bring but few Normans with him, [Higden.] came over to England, and ascended the throne, being consecrated on Easter Day, 1043, at Winchester, Queen Emma assisting at the ceremony.

Edward was thus restored to his rights, after having been excluded from them during a long succession of disappointments; for, twenty-five years before, Emma bad, by her marriage contract with Canute, excluded the children of Ethelred, and since then Edward had dwelt at the court of his maternal relatives, a dependant and an exile. [Edward testified much gratitude, on coming to the throne, to the Normans, who had befriended his adverse fortunes. He owed nothing, as he thought, to Godwin, his mother, or the Saxons; but surrounded his person with Norman favourites, while Emma still preserved a Saxon court at Winchester. Edward plainly showed his dislike to the Anglo-Saxon manners, and patronised foreign tastes. The Saxon nobles perceiving this, gave up their own fashions and imitated those of the French, together with their character and mode of writing, "speaking French in their halls, as though it were a more gentle tongue." The Normans, under Ethelred, Canute, and Edward, were in such favour, and enjoyed so much power at court, that their clerks, or clergy, obtained the best benefices in the land. Robert, "a jolly, ambitious priest," first got to be Bishop of London, and, at a later period, Archbishop of Canterbury, leaving for his successor, in that of London, a countryman named William. Ulfo, another Norman, was preferred to Lincoln, and others to different places, as the King, the benefactor of the church, pleased. These Norman clerks, on being promoted, mocked, abused, and despised the English; and the Saxon nobles were still more irritated to find them increasing so fast in royal favour, as to be called to the secret council of the King. The advancement of Robert, in particular, elated the French and irritated the Saxon nobles.—Ingulphus, Gale, Holinshed.] The Queen had on many occasions shown that her conduct towards him was guided by convenience rather than affection; but Edward, esteemed one of the most holy among those whose names have been recorded in the saintly calendar, was certainly not gifted with the Christian virtue of forgiveness of injuries, at least, as regarded his mother. Of his feelings towards Ethelred we know nothing, and, certainly, Edmund "Ironside," as an elder brother, had set a dangerous example; yet Edward the Confessor was still less filial in his behaviour towards his mother, Queen Emma. It was plain he could not forgive the past, and that although Emma, Godwin, and Living had united to place him on the throne when no other heir remained who had the power to dispute his claim, he remembered that in an earlier period when they might have upheld his right, it had been overlooked and permitted to sink into oblivion. He had no regard for any of them: from his mother he had been almost always separated, but to his murdered brother Alfred he was deeply attached, and, as he conceived both Emma and Godwin to have been implicated in his cruel death, an impression remained on his mind, never to be effaced. [Biog. Brit., Higden.] It was not, however, at first that Edward testified the feelings which he harboured in his breast against his only remaining parent; for we find Emma's great spirit and enterprise had so far got the better of the king's naturally weak and indolent character, that she engrossed a large share of the administration. This awakened the jealousy of Godwin, her old enemy, though present ally, who was too ambitious to permit himself to be superseded. The Earl had stipulated as one of the conditions for Edward's being placed on the throne, that he should espouse his daughter Editha, which he hoped would be a new source of influence. Edward, on many pretences, delayed the performance of this engagement; and it is not impossible the Earl suspected Emma of intriguing against him in this matter, more especially as he knew the aversion Edward himself secretly entertained to a union with the daughter of one whom he suspected of his brother's murder. [Whether Emma interfered in the matter of Edward's marriage is doubtful, for it took place in 1044, and in the year after that, the Queen-mother was present at the council when the first charter was granted for the monastery of St. Peter's, Westminster, 1045. Godwin and his sons, after the marriage of Editha, continued to contest for power with the Normans "in the very palace of which his daughter and their sister was lady and mistress;" and the insults they offered, "in turning their exotic modes into derision;" and blaming the King for his weakness in placing his confidence in them, were remembered and resented afterwards, when the favourable opportunity presented itself.] Godwin determined to remove any such obstacle to his own ambition, and hoping to ruin Emma in the king's favour, accused her of several crimes. In this he was seconded by a person scarcely less powerful or ambitious than himself, Robert, Bishop of London, [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.] the king's spiritual adviser, a prelate of Norman birth, and formerly monk of Jumieges, but whose fortunes had been advanced with those of his royal master. This priest, who warmly seconded Godwin in his charges against Emma, made the following accusations jointly with the Earl:—First, that the Queen had consented to the death of her son Alfred: secondly, that she endeavored to prevent Edward's succession to the crown: thirdly, that she kept up an impure intercourse with Alwyn, Bishop of Winchester, [Polydore Vergil, &c.] her relative, who had been her protector on her leaving Normandy, at the period of her union with Ethelred, having at that time been retained in the royal household, and created Earl of Southampton. On more than one occasion he had aided Ethelred against the Danes, and even opposed Canute the future sovereign. On the peace being made between Edmund Ironside and Canute, Alwyn ceased to oppose the Danes, and following his inclination for a life of retirement and devotion, assumed the monastic cowl of St. Benedict, in the monastery of St. Swithin, Winchester. In honour of his rank Bishop Ethelwold himself invested him with his holy garb, and soon after, Alwyn was appointed to the monastic office of sacristan. From the time of Emma's second marriage he became the firm friend of Canute, a friendship reciprocated by the monarch. As a monk, Alwyn could not receive presents for his own personal use; therefore, the only means of offering a compliment to him was, by a donation to the church of which he had the care. Many marks of favour were shown to Alwyn by Canute and Emma, who bestowed those rich gifts already described on Winchester Cathedral. In the nineteenth year of Alwyn's profession, A.D. 1032, the see of Winchester becoming vacant, he was promoted to it by Canute, at the Queen's especial request, which fact marks the unity of sentiment existing between the royal pair: this was retained by Alwyn through the reigns of Harold, Hardicanute, and Edward the Confessor. [Milner's History of Winchester.] It was the frequent visits of Emma to Alwyn which afforded one pretext of accusation against her. Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, is said to have hated, with no common hatred, the Bishop of Winchester, and united with Godwin in machinations against him and the Queen. Edward, unfortunately, was but too easily imposed upon, and too many unfavourable circumstances had already transpired to warp his mind against his mother. Instigated by these bad advisers, Edward called a council at Gloucester. After this he proceeded to Winchester, accompanied by Godwin, Leofric and Siward, three nobles, who are said to have possessed so much individual power, that the King's safety consisted principally in their disunion, for, if united, they might easily have dethroned him. On arriving at the royal city where Emma dwelt, they seized her treasures, and swept away the cattle and corn from the lands which she possessed as her dower, "a sort of military execution," as the historian calls it; [Lingard.] while the unhappy Queen herself was committed to prison. The King's visit was so unexpected, and this treatment so unlooked for, that Emma was unable to secure the smallest part of her most private property; so that all her jewels, gold, silver, and other valuables were taken with the rest. [Roger of Wendover.] There was an order given that she should be supplied with every necessary, yet only a mean pension was left for her subsistence, and not the least respect shown towards her. It is said that in this season she was reduced to the greatest necessity and exposed even to the risk of dying of famine. [Bethune.] After this the Queen was obliged to retire to the neighbouring Abbey of Wherwell, until the crimes alleged against her were properly investigated. Edward's own charge against Emma was that "she had accumulated money by every method, regardless of the poor, to whom she would give nothing; therefore it was taken away, that it might aid the poor and replenish the King's exchequer." Malmesbury adds to this that Edward took his mother's estates from her "because she had for a long time mocked at the needy state of her son: nor did she ever assist him: transferring her hatred from the father to the child; for she loved Canute, both living and dead, better than her first husband." Here was an allusion to the differences which had, at one time, existed between Emma and Ethelred, and it is easy to perceive with what jealous feelings Canute's children had been ever regarded by their disinherited elder brother. [The reason why King Edward and the English so little respected "this great lady, whose many years had made her an actor of divers fortunes, was her never having affected King Ethelred nor the children she had by him, and for her marriage with Canute, the great enemy and subduer of the kingdom, whom she ever much more loved living, and commended dead."—Daniel's Coll. of the History of England, London, 1626.]

That Edward considered one of the three charges, made by her enemies, which respected himself, to be correct, is obvious [Edward himself, in two of his charters, attributes the death of his brother to Harold and (which is more singular) to Hardicanute. Now, Hardicanute was in Denmark, and the accusation, if it mean anything, must allude to those who governed in the name of Hardicanute, and, in that hypothesis, may reach Emma or Godwin, or both, Yet, would Harold, who was then all powerful, have subscribed to these charters, if they had cast so foul a stain on the memory of his father?"—Lingard.] by his own conduct, and the excuses alleged for it: severe as it was in the case of a son to a parent, the sanction of his council made it appear not to be without cause. Accordingly, Emma was kept in close confinement in the Abbey of Wherwell, though some say both the Queen and Alwyn were placed in ward in Winchester. The Bishop was committed to the examination and correction of the clergy. Emma is said to have sorrowed more for the defamation of Alwyn, than her own state of degradation.

Soon after Emma's disgrace, "Stigand was deposed from his Bishopric, and all that he possessed was seized into the King's hands, because he was nearest to his Mother's counsel, and she went just as he advised her, as people thought." [Saxon Chronicle, anno 1043.] Stigand was a Prelate noted for covetousness; he had been Canute's Chaplain, and, as such was patronized and regarded with esteem by Emma, who seems to have delighted to reverence those whom Canute had loved. It was the Normans who prevented Edward's coffers from overflowing, and they not only detested Canute and all he had favoured, but disliked his widow for her half—Danish descent, and were glad of Godwin's accusation against Emma respecting Alfred's murder, though the Earl's chief object was evidently to throw off the odium of that crime from himself.

Far from being overcome by the sudden reverse in her fortune, and the serious accusations made by her enemies, Emma demanded justice, and wrote from her prison, at Wherwell, to different Archbishops and Prelates, asserting her innocence, and desiring to be put to the proof, professing herself willing to encounter any trial, even that of the fiery ordeal. [Polydore Vergil, Fabian, Grafton, Stowe, Milner, Boyle.] A Synod was accordingly convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury to examine into the charges against Queen Emma; on this occasion, the Bishops interceded in her behalf with the King, when Robert, the Archbishop, addressed them in the following terms, more forcible than delicate—" My brethren Bishops, how dare ye defend her, that is a vile beast and Not a woman; who bath defamed her own son, the King; and called her leman, the Bishop, Christ her God. But, be it so, that the woman would purge the Priest, who shall then purge the woman, that is accused to consent to the death of her son, Alfred, and procured venom to the empoysoning of her son Edward? [This is a new charge, of having attempted the life of Edward himself, and Brompton also names it as such.] But, how so it be, that she be guilty or guiltless, if she will go barefooted for herself over four ploughshares, and for the Bishop over five ploughshares, burning and fire-hot, then, if she escape harmless, he shall be assoiled of this challenge, and she also." This savage proposal was accordingly agreed to, and the day straightway appointed for Emma's purgation.

In those days, if a person was accused or suspected of crime, which could not be fully proved, he was put to his ordeal or trial, either by fire or water. The ordeal by fire was chiefly used for persons of rank. There were several kinds: the one which Emma underwent was, as follows:—Nine red-hot ploughshares were brought forth, and laid at unequal distances, and then the accused person having bare feet and eyes close blinded had to walk over them. If this was performed without touching the shares, the accused was instantly declared innocent; if not, GUILTY.

A woman might avoid being put to this proof, if she could find a champion to combat in her favour. Gunilda appointed her dwarf when accused. Few could fail to find a protector, when their honour was thus questioned; but Emma's was a rare case, and she herself seems to have felt so confident in her innocence, as to challenge being put to the most extreme proof in her own person.

Emma passed the night previous to her fiery trial in the Cathedral Church, where, at the tomb of St. Swithin, she remained in fervent prayer; she implored the aid of the Saint, and falling asleep was comforted by a dream, or vision, in which that Holy Prelate appeared to her, saying, I Be thou firm, daughter, I am Swithin, whom thou hast enriched; fear not, when thou passest through the fire, it shall not hurt thee, for thy son hath done evil in this." Emma arose refreshed and comforted, and all the preparations being completed, was led into the Church, and thus addressed the King:—"—O Lord and Son, I, that Emma, who bore and brought thee forth, and Alfred my son, I invoke God to bear witness in my person this day, may I perish, if what has been charged against me, ever even entered my mind." The King, the Bishops, and an immense multitude of persons of all descriptions were assembled in the Cathedral to be spectators of the event. The pavement of the nave having been swept, nine ploughshares, red with heat, were placed in a line upon it; "and now Emma," say the Chroniclers, "having again invoked the Almighty to deal with her accordingly, as she is innocent, or guilty, of the crimes laid to her charge, prepares herself for the trial, by laying aside her robes, and baring her feet. She is then conducted by two Bishops, one having hold of each of her hands, to the glowing metal. In the meantime, the vaults of the Church thunder with the voices of the assembled multitude, who, in loud shouts, call upon the Almighty to save the royal sufferer, and their cries are echoed through the whole city, by the crowds who were unable to gain admittance into the Church. She, herself, raising up her eyes to Heaven, and slowly walking on, thus makes her prayer:—'O God, who didst save Susannah from the malice of the wicked elders, and the three children from the furnace of fire, save me for the sake of thy holy servant Swithin, from the fire prepared for me.' In a word, she is seen to tread upon each of the burning irons, and is not even sensible that she had touched them, but addressing herself to the Bishops, 'when shall I come to the ploughshares?' They turn round and show her that she has already passed them. The lamentations of the multitude then ceasing, the air resounds with acclamations of joy and thanksgiving, still louder than their former prayers had been. The King alone is found overwhelmed with grief and bathed in tears, lying upon the ground beside his chair, to whom Emma being conducted, he begs her forgiveness, in terms of the utmost humility and sorrow, for the injurious suspicions he had entertained concerning her, and the rigour with which he had treated her. Not content with this, he requires of her, and the Bishops then present, to strike him with a wand, which he presents to them. She accordingly gave her son three blows; when having embraced him, both she and Bishop Alwyn were put into full possession of their former rights and property, and ever after enjoyed the royal favor and respect, in the degree they merited." [Circumstantial as this strange narrative is, modern authors have endeavoured to refute the story altogether, stating that Emma's accuser, Robert, to blacken whose character it was invented, did not become Archbishop of Canterbury till 1050; others have pronounced it an invention of later times, resting on suspicious evidence, because the historians nearest the time do not name the circumstance. The "Encomium Emma," written by a monk of Emma's own times, would have been in this matter a valuable authority; but his record unluckily leaves off at the accession of Hardicanute. The Saxon Chronicle, regarding Emma as a private individual, neglects to name the fact, and the Latin historians are silent on a tale prejudicial to Edward. Brompton, Knyghton, Rudborne, and Harpsfield, relate the circumstance; and Robert of Gloucester, regarding it as a well-known fact, gives it a place with much minuteness in his Chronicle. Ranulf Higden, also a most accurate historian, related it at length in his Polychronicon, in the middle of the fourteenth century. In 1338, nearly the same date, it was sung amongst other popular songs relating to the history of Winchester, in the Prior's Hall there, at the translation of Orleton to that see. Everything considered, the annals of the church where the event occurred were most likely to contain the record, as in this instance was the case; and though Malmesbury does not mention the trial, he states that Emma was deprived of her lands by the King. The documents in Winchester Cathedral, moreover, prove that the Queen had given several manors to that Church, which certainly she could not have done if they were not in her possession.—Milner.]

The ploughshares over which Queen Emma had walked were, in memory of her extraordinary deliverance, buried in the west cloister of the Cathedral of Winchester.

The Queen and Alwyn, in gratitude for their acquittal of crime, each made a donation to the same church. Emma bestowed on it nine manors in her own behalf.

Alwyn likewise bestowed nine manors for himself.

King Edward made a donation to Winchester Cathedral at the same time, consisting of three manors. [Dugdale.]

Emma, more fortunate even than her daughter Gunilda, thus triumphed completely over her enemies. But where was Robert the Archbishop, her accuser, when Emma returned thanks to God for her deliverance? The Archbishop "was absent," it is said, "from pity, or some other reason,"—most probably from shame for the defeat of his conspiracy against Emma, and mortification at the triumphant position she would obtain by her acquittal. [Bale says, "I do not find what became of the accusers of Queen Emma."Historical Dictionary.]

Emma was, soon after this great event in her life, witness to the quarrels which ensued between the powerful personages who had been so violent in their enmity to her. Earl Godwin and Robert, the Norman archbishop, embroiled the country in their furious contentions; and the banishment of the first was followed by the expulsion of the second: on which Godwin, more than ever potent, returned to revenge his injuries, after a brief banishment.

During these occurrences, the Queen seems to have preferred a safe retirement, in the possession of her wealth, to again entering the lists with the view of obtaining a mastery for which so many ambitious spirits were contending.

The indignity of her trial seems to have weighed heavily on her mind, and she buried her grief in the retreat of the cloister of St. Mary of Winchester, where, in March, 1052, the year after her triumph, [Lingard.] she died. Her death is thus mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle: "This year, in the second day before the nones of March, died the aged lady, Elfgiva Emma, the mother of King Edward and King Hardicanute, the relict of King Etheldred and of King Canut; and her body lies at Winchester, in the Old Minster, with King Canut."

Emma was, most probably by her own request, buried beside her Danish husband; in this particular King Edward testifying a respect he had failed to show to his mother when living; thus the church that witnessed her trial, contained her remains. Her son Hardicanute also rested in Winchester Cathedral, by the side of his parents. The tomb of Emma bore an inscription in rude Latin lines, setting forth that the Queen who reposed there was wife to two, and mother to two English monarchs. [Echard.]

Emma was great-aunt to William the Conqueror, that King being second cousin to her two sons, Edward the Confessor and Hardicanute; and, as such, entitled far more justly to the English crown than Harold, the son of Godwin, who built his claim on his own power, and being brother of the Confessor's childless queen, the fair and harshly-treated Edith!

[At the disastrous siege of Winchester, during the reign of Stephen, the tomb of Queen Emma was destroyed, together with the "Abbey of St. Mary, twenty churches, the royal palace, lately erected in that quarter, the monastery of St. Grimbald, the suburbs of Hyde, and, in fact, nearly all the northern part of the city. The remains of the Queen were, however, preserved, and still rest within the walls of the Abbey, to which she was so great a benefactress. The screen which divides the sanctuary from the side aisles, Bishop Fox erected in 1525, and "on the top of the partition walls, and under the centre of each arch above are six mortuary chests, of carved wood, painted and gilt, and surmounted with crowns. These chests contain the remains of Saxon kings, prelates, and other distinguished personages interred in the cathedral, and are the work of Bishop Fox, who collected the bones from ancient lead coffins, which are supposed to have stood formerly in a similar situation.

The first chest from the altar-screen contains the bones of King Edred, and the second those of Edmund, son of Alfred; the third contains the mingled bones of King Canute, of Queen Emma, of King William Rufus, and of Bishops Wina and Alwyn. This chest has two inscriptions in Latin to this effect. On one side is the following:—

"In this, and in the other chest opposite, are the remaining bones of Canute and Rufus, Kings; of Emma, Queen; and of Wina and Alwin, Bishops."

And on the other side of this chest is the inscription:—

"In this chest, in the year of our Lord, 1661, were promiscuously laid together the bones of princes and prelates, which had been scattered about, with sacrilegious barbarity, in the year of our Lord, 1642."

So that nineteen years from the second spoliation of Emma's resting-place had passed away before the last mortal relics of the former fair "Pearl of Normandy" were restored to a consecrated and fitting position. The parliamentary soldiers, by whom the outrage had been committed of ravaging the cathedral in 1642, committed terrible depredations. "They broke in pieces the carved work of the choir, containing the story of the Old and New Testament, which was admirably executed. They totally destroyed the ancient organ; seized the rich tapestry, cushions, and vestments, in the choir, with the vessels of the altar; threw down the communion-table, and carrying off the rails which encompassed it, they burnt them in their quarters. They found a great number of Popish books, pictures, and crucifixes, in the prebendal houses, which, after a mock procession, were burnt, together with the organ-pipes, in the street. They defaced many of the monuments by tearing off their ancient brass inscriptions and other ornaments. They pulled down the mortuary chests containing the remains of Saxon kings, prelates, and other distinguished personages, and threw the bones at the stained glass, which they destroyed throughout the church, with the exception of that at the eastern window which had previously been taken out."

The first and second chests on the south side contain, as before-noticed, the bones of Kings Edred and Edmund. The former, who was the youngest son of Edward the Elder, was interred in the cathedral by direction of his friend St Dunstan, and the chest has an inscription in Latin, thus rendered:—

"King Edred died 955. In this tomb rests pious King Edred, who nobly governed this country of the Britons."

Edmund, eldest son of Alfred the Great, who was crowned and died during his father's life, was buried in the second chest. The Latin inscription runs thus in English:—"

King Edmund died A.D.... Edmund, whom this chest contains, and who swayed the regal sceptre while his father was living, do thou, O Christ, receive."

The third chest, on the south side, appropriated to Queen Emma, has been described already more particularly; and the first chest from the pulpit, on the north side, with its inscriptions, bones, &c., is similar to it. The second chest on the north side contains the remains of Kenewalch, who, with his father Kinegils, rebuilt the cathedral; and those of Egbert, founder of our English monarchy. One side has a Latin inscription, translated thus: "King Kenulph died A.D. 714." And the other side has this inscription: "King Egbert died A.D. 887. Here King Egbert rests, with King Kenulph. Each of them bestowed upon us munificent gifts."

The third chest, containing the remains of Kinegils, father of Kenewalch, the first Christian King of Wessex, and of St. Ethelwolf, father of Alfred the Great is thus inscribed:—"King Kinegils died A.D. 641:" and on the other side, "King Adulphus died 857." In this chest lie together the bones of Kinegils and Adulphus. The first was the founder, the latter the benefactor, of this church."

The contents of these mortuary chests were examined a few years ago by Henry Howard, Esq., of Corby Castle, and other talented and learned gentlemen, from whose account the following was written by the late Dr. Milner, to whom the particulars of that investigation were forwarded;—"

The first chest from the altar-screen, on the south side, inscribed Edred, contains many thigh bones and two skulls. The second chest, inscribed Edmund, contains five skulls, and three or four thigh-bones. One of the skulls, appears to have belonged to a very old man; another, also, belonged to a very old person. These, therefore, might have belonged to Wina and Alwin. The third chest on the south side, and the first chest from the pulpit, on the north side, bear the names of Canute, Rufus, Emma, Wina, Alwin, and Stigand. Neither of these contains any skulls; but they are full of thigh and leg bones; one set of which, in the third chest, is much smaller and weaker than the rest. This, with the supernumerary skull in the chest inscribed Egbert and Kenulph, might possibly have belonged to Queen Emma. The chest just referred to is the second from the pulpit, and contains three skulls, one of which is very small. One thighbone, wanting a fellow, is very stout, and measures nearly twenty inches long. But the two leg-bones, one of which is rather deformed, and the two hip-bones belonging to this body, are in the chest, and answer exactly. There are also two other thigh-bones and two leg-bones that pair; so that, with the exception of the third skull, these may be the bones of the aforesaid kings. The third chest from the pulpit, inscribed Kinegils and Adulphus, contains two skulls, and two sets of thigh and leg-bones. From a measurement of the skulls and thighs, it appeared that they were about the ordinary size. It should be observed that the skulls actually at present in the chests are twelve in number, which is also the number of the names inscribed on the same chests.

"On the fine screen at the back of the capitular chapel in Winchester Cathedral, and opposite to the Chapel of the Virgin, is seen a range of canopied niches, in which formerly stood statues of the most eminent Saxon kings, from Kinegils to St. Edward, together with Canute, Hardicanute, Queen Emma, and, with them, Christ and the Virgin Mary."

Thus, huddled together, were the bones of friends and enemies, as if to show how useless and how full of folly are human contentions, which all have the same close, and, after a few years, are a mere matter of transient wonder and curiosity.]

The struggles and vicissitudes of Queen Emma were many; and her character is one, which cannot be contemplated without exciting reflection.

By turns triumphant and persecuted, she offers a remarkable instance of perseverance, courage, and ambition. Of human failing she had her share: her virtues were obscured by her too great desire of power, and she sacrificed much to obtain the end to which all her aspirations were directed. The most pleasing feature in her disposition is, her attachment to her husband Canute; with whose interests she identified herself, and for whose son she exerted all the energies of her powerful and active mind. She was less just to her children by her first marriage, but the circumstances of the time are a strong excuse for her conduct to them, as, of course, the suspicion of her causing the death of one must be at once dismissed. That Emma was amongst the most remarkable personages of her period will be allowed by all, and her influence on the country over which she reigned, renders her biography one of the most interesting of any of the British Queens. The name of Queen Emma has been kept alive by tradition, and has more than once "adorned a tale." As late as the year 1338, when Adam de Orleton, Bishop of Winchester, visited his cathedral priory of St. Swithin, in that city, a minstrel, named Herbert, was introduced, who sung the song of Colbrond, a Danish giant, and the tale of "Queen Emma delivered from the Ploughshares," in the hall of the Prior, Alexander de Herriard. [Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. i., p. 81.]