N [c] See note [F] at the end of the volume.]

This prince, to whom the monks gave the title of Saint and Confessor,
was the last of the Saxon line that ruled in England. Though his
reign was peaceable and fortunate, he owed his prosperity less to his
own abilities than to the conjunctures of the times. The Danes,
employed in other enterprises, attempted not those incursions which
had been so troublesome to all his predecessors, and fatal to some of
them. The facility of his disposition made him acquiesce under the
government of Godwin and his son Harold; and the abilities, as well as
the power, of these noblemen enabled them, while they were entrusted
with authority, to preserve domestic peace and tranquillity. The most
commendable circumstance of Edward's government was his attention to
the administration of justice, and his compiling, for that purpose, a
body of laws, which he collected from the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and
Alfred. This compilation, though now lost, (for the laws that pass
under Edward's name were composed afterwards [d],) was long the object
of affection to the English nation.
[FN [d] Spellm. in verbo BELLIVA.]

Edward the Confessor was the first that touched for the king's evil:
the opinion of his sanctity procured belief to this cure among the
people: his successors regarded it as a part of their state and
grandeur to uphold the same opinion. It has been continued down to
our time; and the practice was first dropped by the present royal
family, who observed that it could no longer give amazement even to
the populace, and was attended with ridicule in the eyes of all men of
understanding.

[MN Harold. 1066. January.]
Harold had so well prepared matters before the death of Edward, that
he immediately stepped into the vacant throne; and his accession was
attended with as little opposition and disturbance, as if he had
succeeded by the most undoubted hereditary title. The citizens of
London were his zealous partisans: the bishops and clergy had adopted
his cause; and all the powerful nobility, connected with him by
alliance or friendship, willingly seconded his pretensions. The title
of Edgar Atheling was scarcely mentioned; much less the claim of the
Duke of Normandy: and Harold, assembling his partisans, received the
crown from their hands, without waiting for the free deliberation of
the states, or regularly submitting the question to their
determination [e]. If any were averse to this