brother during their adverse fortune;[**] he remarked that, as the
superior qualities of Canute, and his better treatment of her, had made
her entirely indifferent to the memory of Etheldred, she also gave
the preference to her children of the second bed, and always regarded
Hardicanute as her favorite.

[** Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p.237]

The same reasons had probably made her unpopular in England; and though
her benefactions to the monks obtained her the favor of that order, the
nation was not, in general, displeased to see her stripped by Edward
of immense treasures which she had amassed. He confined her, during the
remainder of her life, in a monastery at Winchester; but carried his
rigor against her no farther. The stories of his accusing her of
a participation in her son Alfred's murder, and of a criminal
correspondence with the bishop of Winchester, and also of her justifying
herself by treading barefoot, without receiving any hurt, over nine
burning ploughshares, were the inventions of the monkish historians, and
were propagated and believed from the silly wonder of posterity.[*]

[* Higden, p. 277.]

The English flattered themselves that, by the accession of Edward, they
were delivered forever from the dominion of foreigners; but they soon
found that this evil was not yet entirely removed. The king had been
educated in Normandy, and had contracted many intimacies with the
natives of that country, as well as an affection for their manners.[**]
The court of England was soon filled with Normans, who, being
distinguished both by the favor of Edward, and by a degree of
cultivation superior to that which was attained by the English in those
ages, soon rendered their language, customs, and laws fashionable in the
kingdom. The study of the French tongue became general among the people.
The courtiers affected to imitate that nation in their dress, equipage,
and entertainments; even the lawyers employed a foreign language
in their deeds and papers;[***] but above all, the church felt the
influence and dominion of those strangers: Ulf and William, two Normans,
who had formerly been the king's chaplains, were created bishops of
Dorchester and London. Robert, a Norman also, was promoted to the see of
Canterbury,[****] and always enjoyed the highest favor of his master,
of which his abilities rendered him not unworthy. And though the king's
prudence, or his want of authority, made him confer almost all the civil