Harold by Ian W. Walker Read Free Book Online Page A

Aethelnoth of Canterbury had been in Hardecnut’s party and is unlikely to have done so. Hardecnut’s command that Earl Godwine and Archbishop Aelfric take part in the desecration of Harold’s grave may have been a punishment for their earlier actions in support of the latter. In an attempt to regain royal favour, Aelfric may have chosen to accuse Godwine and Lyfing in the hope of saving himself at their expense. He may have accused Lyfing largely in order to acquire his see of Worcester, of which he certainly appears to have gained temporary control in 1040. Indeed, Lyfing’s supposed role in Alfred’s death is otherwise unknown and since he soon regained his see it appears to have had no basis in fact. In contrast, Godwine’s role in Alfred’s death was well known and the accusation a serious threat to his position, especially if Hardecnut’s subsequent action in recalling his half-brother Edward to England was an indication of strong family ties between the half-brothers.
    In response to these charges, Godwine is said to have cleared himself of guilt by swearing on oath that it was not by his counsel that Alfred was blinded but that Harold ‘Harefoot’ had ordered it. In addition and to make doubly sure, Godwine presented Hardecnut with a magnificent ship as a peace offering. This gift was very expensive and reflected both Godwine’s wealth and his maritime connections as Earl of Wessex. As a result of these actions Godwine weathered the storm and assuaged the new king’s anger, at least for the present. 42
    The following year, 1041, in obedience to Hardecnut’s command, Godwine and the other earls ravaged Worcester and its shire in punishment for the killing, by the townsmen, of two royal huscarls who had been involved in collecting the tax to pay off his fleet. Hardecnut’s earlier arbitrary actions and now his huge tax demands probably weakened his support in England. As a result, according to a number of sources, he invited Atheling Edward, brother of the murdered Alfred, to England to share the rule of the kingdom and perhaps foster English support. This appears to have been a common practice in Scandinavia, designed to avoid dangerous strife between kinsmen. 43
    However, before this arrangement had time to settle, fate again intervened when Hardecnut died on 8 June 1042 at a wedding feast in Lambeth and Edward became king. The Vita Eadwardi and John of Worcester speak of Earl Godwine leading the calls for Edward’s accession but this looks like special pleading as no alternative candidate existed. The Vita Eadwardi also records Godwine’s gift of a ship to Edward, apparently as magnificent as that presented to Hardecnut, and this suggests some trepidation on his part about Edward’s intentions towards him, no doubt based on fear of further accusations about Alfred’s death. Nevertheless, it is likely that Godwine, by virtue of his power and position, played a pivotal role in this kingmaking as he had already done in those of Harold and Hardecnut. Edward was very much a new arrival, with little local support, lacking even the support of a foreign fleet like Hardecnut, and hence dependent for his succession on the support of the three great earls, Godwine, Leofric and Siward. And of this triumvirate Godwine was the most important because he controlled ancestral Wessex, the land south of the Thames, where English kings spent most of their time and where most royal lands lay. 44
    Initally, therefore, King Edward had to rely on his earls, and Godwine in particular, to secure and preserve his throne and he was enough of a realist to recognize this. Thus on 16 November 1043 he used their support to deprive his mother, Queen Emma, of her lands and of her treasure, which would no doubt help to restore a royal treasury diminished by Hardecnut’s expenditure on his fleet. This action has been viewed as a demonstration of Edward’s disapproval of his mother’s lack of support for him in the preceding years,