Читать книгу The Conquerors: The Pageant of England - Thomas B. Costain - Страница 7

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Three strong men were fighting for the crown of England: Harold, the choice of the people; Duke William of Normandy, who pretended to have a claim based on a promise of the deceased King, and Harold Hardrada, ruler of Norway, whose only claim lay in his heavy two-handed sword.

The succession had become involved when Edward, called the Confessor, took the crown. Edward was the sole surviving son of Ethelred the Unready, that incapable monarch who earned the hatred of the people to such a degree that they welcomed the Danish invaders who chased him from the throne. His mother was Emma, a beautiful Norman woman of gentle birth and fiercely acquisitive instincts. She later married Canute, the leader of the Danes, and so became Queen of England a second time. She loved Canute devotedly and gave little thought to her son Edward, who had fled the country and was living in Normandy. After the death of Canute and his sons, Edward was summoned back to England by the Witanagemot. His choice had been brought about by the influence of Godwine, Earl of the South and West. A speaker of persuasive eloquence, Godwine was able to win men over to his way of thinking, and his sagacity was such that he should rank with the greatest of the kingmakers who have played parts in English history.

Edward came to the throne with a reputation for saintliness which flickered during his reign but steadied into a strong flame after his death; which grew and grew, in fact, into a legend nothing could shake. It must be said, however, that if he had been left to rule by himself he would almost certainly have been as great a failure as his weak father. That would have been a sorry thing indeed for the country. Fortunately the pious Edward had Godwine to direct him and later the earl’s son, Harold, who was quite as able as his father and less devious.

Edward was a strange individual. He had white hair and a long white beard and a pinkish complexion which made him look almost albino. His hands were long and thin and white to the point of transparency. He had a curious way of staring and he was given to sudden fits of unexplained speech and laughter. He won his reputation for piety by spending hours each day at his devotions. After emerging from his oratory, however, he would go off on hunting orgies during which he slaughtered the poor beasts of the forest with singular bloodthirstiness. When trouble arose in any part of the kingdom, it was Edward’s first thought to send troops with orders to burn and slay; and only the influence of Harold kept him from acting on his sanguinary impulses. After his death people compared the peacefulness of his reign with the terrible years which followed and began to think of him as a saint; a tendency strengthened by the fact that miracles were reported at his tomb.

But the blame for the terrible years, nearly two centuries of cruelty and oppression, can be laid squarely on the doorstep of this second unready King. Although married to Edytha, the beautiful daughter of Godwine, he showed no inclination to beget an heir. In addition he brought Normans over in droves and made bishops of them and earls and court stallers, and he gave lands and great wealth to them; and so created in Norman minds the belief that England was a rich plum for Norman plucking. What is more, when William of Normandy paid him a visit, he promised that intensely ambitious man (or so William swore) the throne of England.

The throne of England was not a prize to be scrambled for by ambitious men or disposed of by weak kings. It was an office which the people conferred through the Witanagemot, the first ancestor of the modern Parliament. Although sons generally followed their fathers, it was understood that this was by the will of the people and not because of any divine right to succeed. The people could dethrone a bad king, and sometimes (but not often enough) they did. If ascetic Edward made such a promise to Norman William, it could not be considered a valid claim.

But William ruled over a land where the people had no rights at all. From that day forward he regarded himself as Edward’s legal successor. He was, however, a longheaded and farseeing man and he took every precaution. When Harold was shipwrecked on the coast of Normandy, William had him brought before a chest covered with a cloth of gold thread on which a missal had been placed. He then demanded that his involuntary guest swear to support his claim. Harold, having no alternative, swore to do so, and the Norman barons, who had been summoned to hear, repeated sonorously, May God be thy Help! The cloth was then whisked off, and it was seen that the chest was filled with the bones and relics of saints. Norman chroniclers say that Harold turned pale when he thus realized the profundity of the oath he had sworn. This was the first evidence that England had of the deep craft of Duke William, but proofs of it would multiply over the years.

When the thin hands of the weak old King had been folded on his breast and his body had been laid away in the great church he had built at Westminster (his one real personal achievement), the Witanagemot faced a problem. England needed a strong man at the head of the state and there was no prince of the blood left with enough resolution to administer a knight’s fee. Harold had not a drop of royal blood in his veins but he had governed England for Edward with wisdom, firmness, and a degree of forbearance which was most unusual in those cruel days. He was, moreover, a general of proven skill and the only man capable of defending the kingdom against the designs of that great schemer across the Channel. Finally, Edward on his deathbed had seen the accession in the right light and had voiced his preference for Harold.

So Harold was chosen. Counting his oath to William wiped out by the nation’s need of him, and considering it invalid because given under duress, he accepted. He was anointed with the holy oil, the Veni, Creator Spiritus was sung over him, he placed the crown of England on his own head, and the country rejoiced at the prospect of a continuation of enlightened rule.

The day after his coronation Harold began to prepare for the blow he knew was coming.

He might perhaps have beaten the forces of William if the issue had been confined to them, but it developed that he had two invading armies to fight. Sometime before the death of the Confessor, Harold had acquiesced in the deposing and banishment of his brother Tostig because of the oppressive way the latter ruled his earldom of Northumberland. Tostig, burning with rage and spite, had since been plotting against Harold. He had been in Normandy, urging William (who needed no urging at all) to assert his right to the throne. From there he went to Denmark and asked King Sweyn for aid against his brother. Meeting refusal here, he went finally to Norway and found a ready listener in Harold, called Hardrada, the King of that country.

A word about this viking King, the third of our three strong men. Harold Hardrada was a blond giant, Thor come down to earth in the guise of a man. He had spent his life in search of adventure, and legends had gathered about him. He was called sometimes Harold the Varanger, sometimes Harold the Lionslayer. He was supposed to have led a small personal crusade against the Saracens (an unsuccessful one, needless to state). He had sailed haughtily through the Bosporus, breaking the chain across it with the prow of his flagship and laughing at Eastern might. He had put out the eyes of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomachos and had enjoyed (but not exclusively) the passionate favors of the Empress Zoë. Strange wild songs came into his head when he went into battle, and he sang them exultantly as he hacked his opponents to pieces. No living man had ever been able to stand against him. His fame was even putting the memory of the truly great Olaf Tryggvisson into temporary shade, and such lesser heroes as Thorkill the Tall and Swen Forkbeard were being forgotten.

So much for legend. This much is certain: Harold Hardrada was a hard-bitten champion who was never happy without his sword in his hand and the head of a foeman to cleave. He was not wise enough to perceive the weaknesses in the proposition Tostig brought him. He listened to that glum traitor and decided he would like to steal the throne of England for himself.

English Harold had been King for a few months only when he learned of the double danger facing him. Harold Hardrada and Tostig had sailed up the Humber River with a large army of invasion. They landed at Riccall and defeated an English force commanded by Edwin and Morkar, earls of the north.

Knowing that he must beat off the Norsemen before the Normans landed, English Harold collected his army and led it on its breakneck march up the north highway.