Harold by Ian W. Walker Read Free Book Online

blacken Harold’s name and can probably be discounted. This action by Godwine was in all probability prompted by the pressing need to curry favour with King Harold, to whose authority he had now decided to submit. This motivation is suggested by the fact that Godwine almost immediately handed over the captive Alfred to Harold. Godwine’s previous support for Hardecnut had made the performance of some important service to Harold a necessity to gain his favour. The seizure of Atheling Alfred, to whom Godwine had no feelings of loyalty, suited this purpose admirably. A curious statement by John of Worcester, that Godwine was especially devoted to Harold, perhaps arises from this occasion. This had certainly not been the case in late 1035 or early 1036 when Godwine had solidly supported Hardecnut, but it may reflect what he now wished Harold to think. 38
    Captivity and the ruin of his hopes were not all that befell the unfortunate Atheling Alfred for he was cruelly blinded at Ely, and he died shortly afterwards. This murder was to be laid at Godwine’s door in later years, although the sources closest to the event fail to identify him as the culprit, implicating Harold ‘Harefoot’ instead. That the crime took place at Ely, an area under Harold’s control at this time, seems to reinforce this. Important confirmation is provided by the later Norman writers William of Jumieges and William of Poitiers, who despite other conscious efforts to blacken Godwine’s reputation, both clearly identify Harold ‘Harefoot’ as the man responsible for Alfred’s murder. Godwine therefore appears to have been guilty essentially of Alfred’s capture and of handing him over to Harold ‘Harefoot’. Nevertheless, he was unable to escape being tarnished by association, and that Edward, Alfred’s brother, harboured ill-feeling towards Earl Godwine as a result, was later to become clear. 39
    One of the immediate results of these events was to reconcile King Harold ‘Harefoot’ and Earl Godwine, and in 1037 the former was ‘chosen as king everywhere’ and became ‘full king over all England’ while Godwine remained Earl of Wessex. As part of this process, Queen Emma, Hardecnut’s mother, was finally driven from Winchester and fled into exile at Bruges in Flanders, whence she tried unsuccessfully to persuade her son Edward to come to her aid once more. 40
    Thus Godwine managed to survive what was a major crisis in his career, though at considerable cost to his reputation. However, within two years of this settlement being achieved and before it could be put to the test of time, another crisis loomed. Hardecnut had somehow temporarily resolved his problems with Magnus of Norway and in 1039 sailed with a fleet to join his mother at Bruges with the intention of invading England to enforce his claim to the throne in the summer of 1040. Before he could do so, his half-brother King Harold ‘Harefoot’ died on 17 March 1040 leaving Hardecnut to take control of the kingdom unopposed. 41
    Harold ‘Harefoot’s’ death saved Godwine from making a further choice between the two rivals but left him with the problem of excusing his actions in support of Harold to Hardecnut. This would be no easy task, for Hardecnut appears to have been an angry man unlikely to give Godwine a sympathetic hearing, as demonstrated by his first actions: the new king had his half-brother’s body dug up from Westminster and thrown into a nearby fen, and then punished the English nobility for supporting Harold by taxing them to pay off his invasion fleet of sixty ships. To make matters worse for Godwine personally, John of Worcester adds that Aelfric, Archbishop of York, and others accused Godwine and Bishop Lyfing of complicity in the murder of Atheling Alfred. No other source records this episode but it may reflect rivalries among those who had formerly supported King Harold. Archbishop Aelfric may possibly have crowned Harold in 1036 since at that time Archbishop