CHAP. XIV. A. 1051. p. 421. soever they might find. And they betook themselves then east to Baldwine's land [Flanders], and there they sold what they had plundered; and after that went their way east, whence they before had come." Edward, as has been mentioned, had passed his early years in Normandy, and he brought back with him many Normans, to whom he gave the most important posts both in Church and State, to the great disgust of his own people. Whilst this jealous feeling was at its height, Eustace, Earl or Count of Boulogne, who had married Edward's sister, appeared at the English court with a strong armed retinue, and was received with mistrust and murmuring. On his way back to France, having stopped for refreshment at Canterbury, he proceeded on the way to Dover, and when within a mile of the town it was observed that he and his men put on their hauberks [breastplates], and no sooner had they arrived than they announced their intention of quartering themselves wherever it appeared agrecable to them. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle thus proceeds with the narrative. "When he came to Canterbury, east, then took he refreshment there, and his men, and went to Dover. When he was some mile or more on this side Dover, then he put on his breastplate, and so did all his companions, and went to Dover. When they came thither, then would they lodge themselves where they chose.* Then came one of his men, and would abide in the house of a householder against his will, and wounded the householder, and the householder slew the other. Then Eustace got upon his horse, and his companions upon their's, and they went to the householder and slew him within his own dwelling; and they went up towards the town, and slew, as well within as without, more than twenty men; and the townsmen slew nineteen men on the other side, and wounded they knew not how many. And Eustace escaped with a few men, and went again to the King [at Gloucester] and made known to him in part how they had fared. And the King became very wroth with the townsmen. And the King sent off Godwin the earl, and bade him go into Kent in a hostile manner to Dover: for Eustace had made it appear to the King that it had been more the fault of the townsmen than his; but it was not so. And the earl would not consent to the inroad, because he was loth to injure his own people." "This was a right which the feudal barons of the continent claimed (droit de gite) and subsequently expressly provided against by charter." -Wright, p. 444. "There was a fortified castle on the cliff, which was seized by the people of Eustace."-Flor. 1051. Lappenberg, in commendation of the spirited conduct of the burghers of Dover, says :— "But why should the proud and mighty Earl Godwin, out of mere compliance with the will of his weak-minded son-in-law, be the instrument to punish his brave burghers for a deed which had called forth praise from every part of England? All the West Saxons shared in his hatred of the French; for reckless insolence and rash violence had marked the career of every Frank in England." Mr. Wright says this incident occurred in 1048, and a second riot took place four years later, when Count Eustace again visited King Edward, and on his landing at Dover the old feud was renewed. "Then," says the chronicler, "went his men inconsiderately after lodgings, and slew a certain man of the town, and then another, until seven lay slain, and much harm was then done on both sides with horse and weapons, until the people gathered together, and then Eustace's men fled away till they came to the King at Gloucester." On this second occasion Godwin more openly took part with the townsmen of Dover; and, raising a considerable army, marched towards the King and demanded that Eustace and his men should be delivered into his hands. They, however, were believed in preference to Godwin and his sons, and they were consequently unable to justify their conduct to the King, and were, by the influence of Edward's Frankish counsellors, ordered to leave the country in five days. Godwin with his followers retired by night to Bosham and Thorney Island, in his native Sussex, and proceeded thence with a well ladened vessel to Flanders. Edward's advisers also prevailed on him to separate from his wife, who, bereft of all her possessions and treasures, was sent with one female attendant to the Abbey of Wherwell and committed to the custody of the Abbess, a sister of Edward. The banishment of Godwin and his sons could not be of long duration, and they neglected no means of securing a triumphant restoration, which they soon gained. Godwin assembled an imposing fleet, having seized on all the ships at Romney, Hythe, Folkestone, Dover, and Sandwich, manned by the boatmen of Kent and Sussex, and pro CHAP. XIV. Lappenberg, CHAP. XIV. A. 1053. A. S. C., 427. A. 1066. ceeded to London, where he was well received, and the King restored him and his family to their possessions. The Frenchmen mounted their horses and fled on receiving the intelligence, and, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, were outlawed. Tranquillity was restored, but Earl Godwin died shortly afterwards," without doing sufficient penance for the property of God which he held belonging to many holy places." Edward died 5th January, 1066.* The weakness of his character displayed itself throughout the whole of his reign; and, however distinguished he might have become in a monastery, he was wholly unfit to reign over England, especially in such disturbed times. The title of "The Confessor" was bestowed in the Bull for his canonization by Pope Alexander III., about a century after his death. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, then newly erected by him, and where his shrine still remains. Several years before Edward's death, William of Normandy visited England with a numerous retinue, and returned loaded with presents; some writers say in full expectation of being England's future sovereign. Harold, the son of Godwin, the last of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, was elected and crowned by the Saxon chiefs on the day of Edward's interment. His brother Tostig, who had ruled in the North, and was the brother-in-law of William of Normandy, was the earliest competitor for the throne; and with promises of support from neighbouring princes, who allowed him to raise troops in their territories, he landed in Northumberland, and with the assistance of Harold Hardráda (Harold the Stern), a Norwegian prince, the Saxons were defeated near York. At this time King Harold was expecting the threatened landing of William of Normandy on our south-eastern coast. He, however, resolved first to encounter the Norwegians who were in Some MSS. of the Saxon Chronicle, by placing his death in 1065, afford an early example of the beginning of the year being reckoned from the 25th of March. possession of the country, and proceeded northward, when CHAP. XIV. a battle long of doubtful issue and memorable for its dreadful slaughter ensued, and ended in the victory of the Saxons. This took place on the 25th of September, 1066, and three days afterwards William Duke of Normandy landed at Pevensey. CHAP. XV. p. 85. Codex, 234. CHAPTER XV. FURTHER CHARTERS RELATING TO THE FOREST, ANGLO- PURSU URSUING the course I adopted in Chap. IX., I propose to continue the translations of portions of such of the charters as bear upon my subject, granted during the remainder of the Anglo-Saxon history, extending over a period of about 200 years. The last charter we noticed was granted by Ethelbert in 863, which included certain saltworks at Herewic, and a right of taking wood for the use of the salthouses; and as I have since met with a charter granted somewhat earlier conferring a similar right in Andred, I will here introduce a translation of a portion of it. EGBERT OF KENT, 833. "Egbert, King of Kent, with the consent of his Witan, not for money but for the health of his soul, and for the expiation of his sins, grants 150 jugera [jugerum, an acre or yoke] to the Church and the Abbot Dunne and his companions in the place called Sandtun; and in the same place saltpans near Lympne [Limena] and in the wood called Andred one hundred and twenty wains or wagons of wood to support the fires for preparing the salt." I have not met with any charter referring to the Andred Forest during the reign of Alfred and the five succeeding sovereigns, when the kingdom was in a disturbed state, and warfare was the chief employment of the inhabitants, I will therefore next refer to a charter from Eadgiva, the wife of Edward the Elder. |