purpose of witnessing
the dedication of the new abbey church which the king loved so well and to
which his remains were so shortly afterwards to be carried.

(M49)

He died at the opening of the year, and the same witan who had attended
his obsequies elected Harold, the late Earl Godwine's son, as his
successor. This election, however, was doomed to be overthrown by the
powerful sword of William the Norman.

CHAPTER II.

(M50)

As soon as the news of Harold's coronation reached William of Normandy, he
claimed the crown which Edward the Confessor had promised him. According
to every principle of succession recognised in England, at the time, he
had no right to the crown whatever. When the Norman invader landed at
Pevensey, Harold was at York, having recently succeeded in defeating his
brother Tostig, the deposed Earl of Northumbria, who, with the assistance
of Harold Hardrada, had attacked the northern earls, Edwine and Morkere.
On hearing of the Duke's landing, Harold hastened to London. A general
muster of forces was there ordered, and Edwine and Morkere, who were bound
to Harold by family tie--the King having married their sister--were bidden
to march southward with the whole force of their earldoms. But neither
gratitude for their late deliverance at the hands of their brother-in-law,
nor family affection, could hurry the steps of these earls, and they
arrived too late. The battle of Senlac, better known as the battle of
Hastings, had been won and lost (14th Oct., 1066), the Norman was
conqueror, and Harold had perished. For a second time within twelve months
the English throne was vacant.(76)

The times were too critical to hold a formal gemot for the election of a
successor to the throne; but the citizens of London and the sailors or
"butsecarls" (whom it is difficult not to associate with the "lithsmen" of
former days) showed a marked predilection in favour of Edgar the Atheling,
grandson of Edmund Ironside, and the sole survivor of the old royal line.
The Archbishop, too, as well as the northern earls, were in his favour,
but the latter soon withdrew to their respective earldoms and left London
and the Atheling to their fate.(77) Thus, "the patriotic zeal of the men
of London was thwarted by the base secession of the northern traitors."

(M51)

After waiting awhile at Hastings for the country to make voluntary
submission, and finding that homagers did not come in, William proceeded
to mak