Dickens, Charles – A Child’s History of England

Alfred), for the invasion of England. The Danes and Saxons,

finding themselves without a King, and dreading new disputes, made

common cause, and joined in inviting him to occupy the Throne. He

consented, and soon troubled them enough; for he brought over

numbers of Danes, and taxed the people so insupportably to enrich

those greedy favourites that there were many insurrections,

especially one at Worcester, where the citizens rose and killed his

tax-collectors; in revenge for which he burned their city. He was

a brutal King, whose first public act was to order the dead body of

poor Harold Harefoot to be dug up, beheaded, and thrown into the

river. His end was worthy of such a beginning. He fell down

drunk, with a goblet of wine in his hand, at a wedding-feast at

Lambeth, given in honour of the marriage of his standard-bearer, a

Dane named TOWED THE PROUD. And he never spoke again.

EDWARD, afterwards called by the monks THE CONFESSOR, succeeded;

and his first act was to oblige his mother Emma, who had favoured

him so little, to retire into the country; where she died some ten

years afterwards. He was the exiled prince whose brother Alfred

had been so foully killed. He had been invited over from Normandy

by Hardicanute, in the course of his short reign of two years, and

had been handsomely treated at court. His cause was now favoured

by the powerful Earl Godwin, and he was soon made King. This Earl

had been suspected by the people, ever since Prince Alfred’s cruel

death; he had even been tried in the last reign for the Prince’s

murder, but had been pronounced not guilty; chiefly, as it was

supposed, because of a present he had made to the swinish King, of

a gilded ship with a figure-head of solid gold, and a crew of

eighty splendidly armed men. It was his interest to help the new

King with his power, if the new King would help him against the

popular distrust and hatred. So they made a bargain. Edward the

Confessor got the Throne. The Earl got more power and more land,

and his daughter Editha was made queen; for it was a part of their

compact that the King should take her for his wife.

But, although she was a gentle lady, in all things worthy to be

beloved – good, beautiful, sensible, and kind – the King from the

first neglected her. Her father and her six proud brothers,

resenting this cold treatment, harassed the King greatly by

exerting all their power to make him unpopular. Having lived so

long in Normandy, he preferred the Normans to the English. He made

a Norman Archbishop, and Norman Bishops; his great officers and

favourites were all Normans; he introduced the Norman fashions and

the Norman language; in imitation of the state custom of Normandy,

he attached a great seal to his state documents, instead of merely

marking them, as the Saxon Kings had done, with the sign of the

cross – just as poor people who have never been taught to write,

now make the same mark for their names. All this, the powerful

Earl Godwin and his six proud sons represented to the people as

disfavour shown towards the English; and thus they daily increased

their own power, and daily diminished the power of the King.

They were greatly helped by an event that occurred when he had

reigned eight years. Eustace, Earl of Bologne, who had married the

King’s sister, came to England on a visit. After staying at the

court some time, he set forth, with his numerous train of

attendants, to return home. They were to embark at Dover.

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Entering that peaceful town in armour, they took possession of the

best houses, and noisily demanded to be lodged and entertained

without payment. One of the bold men of Dover, who would not

endure to have these domineering strangers jingling their heavy

swords and iron corselets up and down his house, eating his meat

and drinking his strong liquor, stood in his doorway and refused

admission to the first armed man who came there. The armed man