n
swords, rather than to English hearts. Hardicanute, who succeeded
Harold, whose memory he abhorred, whose corpse he disinterred and flung
into a fen [103], had been chosen by the unanimous council both of
English and Danish thegns; and despite Hardicanute's first vehement
accusations of Godwin, the Earl still remained throughout that reign as
powerful as in the two preceding it. When Hardicanute dropped down dead
at a marriage banquet, it was Godwin who placed Edward upon the throne;
and that great Earl must either have been conscious of his innocence of
the murder of Edward's brother, or assured of his own irresponsible
power, when he said to the prince who knelt at his feet, and, fearful of
the difficulties in his way, implored the Earl to aid his abdication of
the throne and return to Normandy.

"You are the son of Ethelred, grandson of Edgar. Reign, it is your duty;
better to live in glory than die in exile. You are of mature years, and
having known sorrow and need, can better feel for your people. Rely on
me, and there will be none of the difficulties you dread; whom I favour,
England favours."

And shortly afterwards, in the national assembly, Godwin won Edward his
throne. "Powerful in speech, powerful in bringing over people to what he
desired, some yielded to his words, some to bribes." [104] Verily, Godwin
was a man to have risen as high, had he lived later!

So Edward reigned, and agreeably, it is said, with previous stipulations,
married the daughter of his king-maker. Beautiful as Edith the Queen was
in mind and in person, Edward apparently loved her not. She dwelt in his
palace, his wife only in name.

Tostig (as we have seen) had married the daughter of Baldwin, Count of
Flanders, sister to Matilda, wife to the Norman Duke: and thus the House
of Godwin was triply allied to princely lineage--the Danish, the Saxon,
the Flemish. And Tostig might have said, as in his heart William the
Norman said, "My children shall descend from Charlemagne and Alfred."

Godwin's life, though thus outwardly brilliant, was too incessantly
passed in public affairs and politic schemes to allow the worldly man
much leisure to watch over the nurture and rearing of the bold spirits of
his sons. Githa his wife, the Dane, a woman with a haughty but noble
spirit, imperfect education, and some of the wild and lawless blood
derived from her race of heathen sea-kings, was more fitted to stir their
ambition and inflame thei