ir natural kings. Canute, though the beginning of his life was
stained with those marks of violence and injustice which attend
conquest, was remarkable in his latter end for his piety. According to
the mode of that time, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, with a view to
expiate the crimes which paved his way to the throne; but he made a good
use of this peregrination, and returned full of the observations he had
made in the country through which he passed, which he turned to the
benefit of his extensive dominions. They comprehended England, Denmark,
Norway, and many of the countries which lie upon the Baltic. Those he
left, established in peace and security, to his children. The fate of
his Northern possessions is not of this place. England fell to his son
Harold, though not without much competition in favor of the sons of
Edmund Ironside, while some contended for the right of the sons of
Ethelred, Alfred and Edward. Harold inherited none of the virtues of
Canute; he banished his mother Emma, murdered his half-brother Alfred,
and died without issue after a short reign, full of violence, weakness,
and cruelty. His brother Hardicanute, who succeeded him, resembled him
in his character; he committed new cruelties and injustices in revenging
those which his brother had committed, and he died after a yet shorter
reign. The Danish power, established with so much blood, expired of
itself; and Edward, the only surviving son of Ethelred, then an exile in
Normandy, was called to the throne by the unanimous voice of the
kingdom.

[Sidenote: Edward the Confessor, A.D. 1041.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1053]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1066.]

This prince was educated in a monastery, where he learned piety,
continence, and humility, but nothing of the art of government. He was
innocent and artless, but his views were narrow, and his genius
contemptible. The character of such a prince is not, therefore, what
influences the government, any further than as it puts it in the hands
of others. When he came to the throne, Godwin, Earl of Kent, was the
most popular man in England; he possessed a very great estate, an
enterprising disposition, and an eloquence beyond the age he lived in;
he was arrogant, imperious, assuming, and of a conscience which never
put itself in the way of his interest. He had a considerable share in
restoring Edward to the throne of his ancestors; and by this merit,
joined to his popularity, he for some time directed everything according