sion, when she had implored Leofric by the love of God and the Virgin Mary to give freedom to the citizens, he told her he could no more part with what he considered belonged to the honour of his authority, than she could herself do an outrage to the delicacy of her modesty; and as she continued pertinaciously to argue the point with him, he declared that it was no more his part to remit these appendages to his state, than it would be for her to ride naked from one end of Coventry to the other. To his surprise, she took him at his word, and asserted that he was too much respected by the people to require such signs of their submission, and in like manner was she herself so much respected by them, that she might safely ride naked from one end of Coventry to the other, in perfect confidence that not an eye in the city would insult her by a forbidden gaze. He smiled, and told her that when she had ridden through the town naked, he would comply with the petition of the citizens. "I accept the condition," said she "if I have your leave to perform it." He gave his permission. A day was appointed, and proclamation was made in the name of Godiva, that all the people should keep within doors and close their windows. A palfrey, caparisoned with a cloth of gold, was led out by twelve maidens, and the countess, almost entirely veiled in a profusion of her own hair, mounted the steed and performed the task. It is said that one unhappy mortal could neither restrain his curiosity nor his indiscretion. Poor Tom of Coventry not only peeped through a crevice in the shutter, but also, struck with this glimpse at female perfection, gave vent to his admiration in an unlucky exclamation. He was seized upon and put to death by the more respectful, or at least the more discreet, men of Coventry.-On her return to her husband, he granted the city a charter of freedom “a servitute et malis costumis et exactionibus,” from servitude, injurious customs and exactions. In memory of this transaction a procession is made yearly in Coventry, in which a woman is hired to personate the virtuous Godiva. The picture of Leofric and his lady (says Dugdale) was set up in a south window of Trinity church, Coventry, about king Richard the Second's time: he, in his right hand holding a charter (which he seemed to present to her) with these words written thereon-I Luriche, for love of Thee, Do make Coventrie, toll-free.

To the monastery of Coventry, the countess Godiva gave her whole treasure, and employed artificers in the precious metals to convert it into crosses and images of saints and a variety of scriptural ornaments. She also founded the monastery of Stowe, near Lincoln, which she endowed with various manors.

Algar succeeded his father in the dukedom of Mercia, but he survived him no more than two years. He kept up a connexion with the Welsh, and employed the Norwegian pirates, for which he was accused and sentenced to banishment, but Harold was again prevailed upon to exert his influence in his behalf, and he was restored to his dukedom, which he possessed only for a few months, when he departed this life, and was buried at Coventry near the grave of his father. He left two sons, Edwyn and Morcar. His possessions were very extensive in all the midland counties.

Edwyn, the eldest son of Algar, succeeded him as duke of Mercia; and Morcar, the younger son of Algar, had, upon the banishment of Tosti, the violent and rebellious brother of Harold, been made earl of Northumberland. On the accession of Harold to the crown, upon the death of Edward the Confessor, the first who attempted to disturb his government was his brother Tosti. He immediately went to the court of William, duke of Normandy, in order to concert with him the means of dethroning Harold. Earl Tosti and William of Normandy had married sisters, the daughters of the earl of Flanders. Being furnished with ships by these powerful relatives, Tosti first attacked and plundered the Isle of Wight, and then sailing northward, he entered the Humber, and ravaged the country on its banks with fire and sword. The two brothers, Edwin, duke of Mercia, and Morcar, earl of Northumberland, united their forces, and marching against him, compelled him to retreat into Scotland, from which country he shortly afterwards sailed to Norway. There he persuaded the king of Norway, Harold Harfager, to turn his warlike preparations against England, which he assured him would be an easy conquest. In consequence of these representations, the Norwegian fleet, accompanied by the vessels under the command of Tosti, sailed without delay, and entered the Tyne. Having there plundered the country on both

sides the river, they sailed to the Humber, and landed their forces at Richale, in Yorkshire. The two powerful brothers, Edwyn and Morcar, endeavoured to oppose the invaders, and drew together a body of forces, with which they attacked the enemy at Tulferd, but were totally defeated. This battle was fought on the festival of St. Matthias, and at the commencement Edwyn and Morcar were successful. Five days afterwards Harold advanced at the head of a large army. The Norwegians had taken the city of York, and proud of their victorious career, were proceeding to accomplish the conquest of Northumbria. Harold came upon them at Stamford bridge, on the river Derwent. The Norwegians defended this bridge with astonishing valour, but Harold becoming master of it, an obstinate and sanguinary battle ensued, which lasted eight hours, and in which, it is computed, that not less than sixty thousand men were engaged on each side. The victory obtained by Harold was complete. Both his brother Tosti and the king of Norway were slain.

It does not appear that the two brave brothers, Edwyn and Morcar, were present at the fatal battle of Hastings, in which their brother-in-law, Harold, lost his crown and his life. Dugdale states from Knighton, that a misunderstanding had occurred between these two brothers and king Harold, on account of his refusing them their due share of the spoil obtained at the battle of Stamford bridge. No sooner, however, were they informed of the event that was to place England under the dominion of the duke of Normandy, than they hastened to London, and took the command of the remains of the fugitive army. According to some historians, these brothers presented themselves severally to the choice of the people, promising to defend their liberties against the conqueror; and it is also related that they sent for their sister, the queen, and her infant son, with the expectation of exciting the Londoners in her favour.

While William, after the battle of Hastings, was engaged in the siege of Dover, and in laying waste the counties of Sussex, Kent and Hampshire, the city of London was as much distracted by internal dissensions as by the terror of his arms. Edwyn and Morcar endeavoured to calm the agitation, and waiving either their own claims to the crown or that of their infant nephew, they strove to consolidate a party in favour of Edgar Atheling, the grandson of Edmund Ironside, and the only surviving lineal male descendant of the ancient Saxon princes. In this design they were opposed chiefly by the clergy; and the two archbishops, who were then both within the city, strongly insisted upon submission to the duke of Normandy, who had the reputation of a religious prince, well disposed to the church. In the meantime, William encamped at Southwark, and there, Morcar and Edwyn instigated their party to attack him. This was done with so much skill and courage, that the duke retreated to Wallingford, and in revenge for this discomfiture, laid waste the country around London. Could the archbishops have been prevailed upon to crown Edgar, it is highly probable that forces would have started forth to support his right, in all parts of the kingdom, but these prelates were wholly in the interests of the duke of Normandy. Edwyn and Morcar perceived that the surrender of the capital to the conqueror was inevitable, and withdrew with their sister into the north. No sooner were they gone than the two archbishops persuaded prince Edgar to make his submission to the duke of Normandy, and accompanied him for this purpose to Berkhamstead, then the residence of the conqueror. On the Christmas day following, William was crowned in London.

The moderation with which the conqueror began his reign, induced many of the English to expect that the kingdom would enjoy tranquillity under his government, and to persuade themselves that the dissensions and tumults that had ever since the reign of Ethelred II. distracted the land, would be extinguished. Under this impression Edwyn and Morcar desisted from their levies in the north, and repaired to the court of William, at Barking, in Essex, and made their submission to him. William received them in the most cordial manner, and in their presence bestowed upon prince Edgar various marks of his confidence, and invested him with the personal foefs of his royal ancestors. Having thus, with consummate art, quieted the apprehensions of these powerful noblemen, whose enmity, determinately exerted, might have occasioned him much difficulty in securing his recent conquest, the king prepared to revisit his hereditary dukedom, in the triumphant character of a regal conqueror.

William has been thought imprudent in leaving England, apparently from none but ostentatious motives, before he had completely established his authority. His visit to Normandy was, however, far from being impolitic. He committed the government of his new acquisition to his uterine brother, Odo, bishop of Bayeux, and to William Fitz Osberne, who he knew were men likely to incur all the odium of that severity which it might be necessary, under the unsettled circumstances of the kingdom, to enforce; and he took with him to Normandy, prince Edgar, Edwyn and his brother Morcar, together with a large body of the Saxon nobility. Thus he not only secured himself against the danger of their influence, but excited the admiration and attachment of his natural subjects by the display of so vast a train of illustrious hostages at the Norman court. During his absence, the tyranny of the regents made the unhappy English anxious for his return, for, from the specious moderation of his former conduct, it was not believed that he could have authorized the excessive exactions and seizures of estates which were enforced with such rigour, that the indignation of the people was aroused, and they wanted but the presence of such men as Edwyn and his brother Morcar to throw off the Norman yoke. William had intelligence of these matters, but it only induced him to prolong his stay in Normandy. He had promised the Norman adventurers who had taken part in his expedition at their own expense, to recompense them with lands in England, and he therefore left the business of commencing the cruel confiscations necessary to satisfy some of the most urgent of his greedy followers, in the hands of Odo and Fitz Osberne, while he soothed the English nobility with assurances of his regard, and prevented them from being acquainted with the actual state of their country. To Waltheoff, the son of the celebrated earl Siward, of Northumbria, he gave his niece Judith in marriage, and he promised to Edwin, duke of Mercia, and earl of Chester, one of his daughters. On the return of William from Normandy, his ears were assailed with the complaints of the English, to which he paid little attention, but hastened to crush the insurrections which had broken out in Devonshire and in other counties. Gradually he threw off the mask, and openly confirmed the confiscations that had been made by the regents during his absence, and even nominated commissioners to enquire the names of those who had borne arms against him at the battle of Hastings. An inquisition of such a nature could not but awaken the apprehensions of all the English nobility. Edwyn and Morcar were too late aware of their error in confiding in a prince who scarcely any longer disguised that he acknowledged no other right than that of power and conquest. Edwyn, to whom the king had promised one of his daughters, saw some of his own manors seized and bestowed upon Normans, while his representations, made to the conqueror upon the subject, were slighted and procrastinated. He therefore listened to the appeals and remonstrances of the English, and encouraged the inclination to a general revolt. His brother Morcar entered into his views, and proceeding together to the north, they raised forces in Mercia and Northumberland, and were joined by a large body of troops under Blethwin, king of Wales, who was the son of their sister Editha, by her first husband.

The vigilance and rapidity of preparation with which William encountered this revolt prevented its success. He kept the south of the kingdom in terror by the number and strength of his castles, in all of which, troops were in readiness to repress the earliest signs of insurrection; and he sent Henry de Beaumont, whom he had created earl of Warwick, to take possession of the fortresses in that district, and built a castle at Nottingham. The two brothers, Edwyn and Morcar, perceiving that their project was hopeless, and when the king sent messengers to them with proffers of his favour, they acceded to his wishes and promised to use their influence in repressing the rebellion and in restoring peace to the country. The conduct of the king towards either themselves or their countrymen was, however, not such as to justify the confidence they had shown in this submission. He marched in spite of their remonstrances to York, on the inhabitants of which place he levied an excessive fine, and built two castles in that city. He caused a great number of the English to be imprisoned and gave their estates to the Normans, and erected castles in all the suspected counties.

The noble brothers, Edwyn and Morcar, were convinced that no reliance was to be placed on the favour of the king. They shortly withdrew from the court, and Morcar joined a party of

northern lords who had collected forces, with which they kept the Normans, on whom their possessions had been conferred, in continual alarm. His own territories, particularly his earldom, had been entrusted by the conqueror to the government of Robert Cummin, a Norman of a fierce and brutal character. The Northumbrians under the command of Morcar and his associates determined to resist their Norman governor, and on his arrival at the head of about seven hundred men, they compelled him to take refuge in the city of Durham, where he was slain by the populace. To support the cause, and to make a more formidable resistance to the Normans, the Northumbrian lords solicited assistance from Denmark, which was instantly granted. A fleet, commanded by the brother of the Danish king, arrived in a short time in the Humber. The Danes were joined immediately by some of the most distinguished of the English nobles, and from Scotland, the earls Gospatric and Marles wien led a considerable re-enforcement, and brought with them prince Edgar Atheling, who had escaped to the court of the Scottish monarch, and whom they were desirous of placing on the English throne. The city of York was speedily taken by the combined army of the Danes and the English insurgents. The Norman garrison, consisting of three thousand men, were put to the sword, and a great part of the city was reduced to ashes. Earl Waltheoff, who, notwithstanding his alliance with the conqueror, had taken a principal part in the insurrection, fixed the head quarters of the English at York, while the Danes encamped between the Ouse and the Humber.

William was so alarmed at this enterprize, that he sent his queen with her children into Normandy, and while he prepared to march towards the north, he endeavoured to conciliate the minds of the southern nobles, some of whom he restored to their estates. As the winter approached, and the Danes remained beyond the Humber, engaged in predatory excursions upon those whom they came to aid, the king employed emissaries, who privately offered their leader a sum of money, and intimated to him that he might ravage the possessions of the English nobles along the coast of Lincolnshire and Norfolk without interruption. These terms were accepted, and on the approach of spring the Danes retired. William then prepared to suppress the insurrection. He first marched to Oxford and reduced it to obedience, and then to Nottingham, the country around which he laid waste, depopulating whole districts with fire and sword. The terrified multitudes fled before him to York, where they sought protection under earls Waltheoff, Morcar and the other leaders, who began to dread their numbers on account of the deficiency of provisions, for the Danes in their retreat had carried off both cattle and corn. Still earl Waltheoff and his companions determined to stand a siege. The resistance they made was long and desperate. William began to despair of success, particularly as he was frequently compelled to employ his forces in repressing other partial insurrections, which the English, encouraged by the intrepidity of the besieged, attempted in various parts of the kingdom. But famine aided his arms. The miseries which were everywhere experienced surpass the powers of description. Throughout the districts north of the Trent, the lands were untilled. The inhabitants of Mercia and Northumbria, although they assailed his troops, in all the wretched despair of hunger, died in the fields and highways around him. The garrison of York was compelled to subsist on the bodies of their companions, and their numbers were thinned by the ravages of disease. In these circumstances Waltheoff capitulated, and was again received, on honourable terms, into the favour of the king. William then marched onwards to Durham, and the ravages he committed proved that he had determined to exterminate the English and to supply their places with his Norman followers, to whom he gave their lands, having reduced the surviving population to the most abject condition of slavery. To his nephew, Hugh Lupus, he gave the palatinate of Chester, and the rest of the possessions of Edwyn he bestowed upon his son-in-law, Alan, the duke of Bretagne. Henry de Ferrariis received Tutbury, besides sundry manors in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, and other territories held by the English were confiscated and given to Normans.

During the siege of York, prince Edgar had returned to Scotland, where he found refuge with Malcolm, who had espoused his sister Margaret. The two noble brothers, Edwyn and Morcar, sought safety in concealment: they retired to the monastery of St. Albans, where they found many other English noblemen, who, under the direction of the abbot, were devising means to

Rr

recover the liberties of their country. The abbot was a man of ardour and prudence. His monks were despatched to different parts of the country, and by their instigations a numerous army was ready to assemble at the shortest notice. Edwyn undertook to apprize the king of Scotland of the strength and views of the conspirators, and repaired to the court of Malcolm. He had hardly departed, when the plot became known to the conqueror, who immediately summoned the most influential of the English nobility to meet him at Berkhamstead. He there conferred with them

in the most amicable manner: restored to some of them their estates, and solemnly swore, upon the holy Evangelists, to establish the ancient laws of the realm, and strictly to observe the statutes made under the reign of Edward the Confessor. Satisfied by his promises and his oath, they withdrew themselves from the conspiracy and dismissed their troops; but they had no sooner given him this testimony of their confidence, than he seized upon the persons of many and banished or imprisoned the rest. The abbot of St. Albans, with earl Morcar, sought refuge in the isle of Ely.

In that retreat they found Hereward, a warrior of distinguished prowess and abilities. He was uncle to the two noble brothers, Edwyn and Morcar, and nephew to the venerable Brand, abbot of Peterborough. In his youth he had been banished for offences resulting from his incontrollable independence, and had in Flanders raised himself to eminence by his heroic actions, where he espoused a princess of wealth and beauty. Although he had taken little share in the troubles of his native country, his patrimonial possessions had been seized, and when he appeared at the court of William to reclaim them, he was dismissed with indignity. With a mind burning for revenge he sought his aged uncle, to whose representations he attentively gave ear, and swore to emancipate England from Norman domination. The isle of Ely, surrounded by a wide morass, was a place of considerable security, for it was too extensive to be encompassed by any besiegers, and afforded spots for the concealment of both men and arms in its well-wooded marshes. Hither the discontented English flocked daily, and Hereward was unanimously chosen their chief. As he had never been knighted according to the Saxon ritual, he underwent that ceremony under the direction of the venerable abbot. He made confession of his sins, received absolution, and having passed a night in prayer and meditation, he was invested with his sword, in the presence of the assembled confederates, at the conclusion of high mass. The scene was presented as a union of piety and patriotism, and the noble conspirators were animated with cheering expectations.

Hereward immediately began to perform with activity and vigilance the duties of the station conferred upon him. He fortified the most accessible parts of the morass with citadels, and caused stores of provisions to be brought from every quarter. His forces were rapidly increasing, and he was about to march forth and proclaim prince Edgar as king of England, when William drew near at the head of a large army. The conqueror was surprised to meet with the numerous obstacles which he had to encounter. He was assailed by continual sallies from the citadels, and was compelled to sit down on the outside of a marshy district, which art as well as nature had rendered impassable. He then had recourse to the arts of dissimulation, and having means of communicating with some of the confederate nobles, he renewed his promises of restoring to them their estates and treating them with respect. Some of them listened to his persuasions and deserted their brave leader. An apprehension of treachery paralyzed the efforts of the rest. The monks of Ely began to be alarmed for the manors they held beyond the limits of the island, and they sent to implore the king to spare their property, which he was causing either to be destroyed or to be given as prizes to his Norman soldiers. The artful conqueror knew well how to manage such advantages. He entered into a negotiation with Thurstan, who had been appointed successor to the venerable abbot Brand, on his death, which happened a few days after the consecration of his nephew Hereward as the champion of English freedom. Thurstan, in the name of the monks, promised to put the king in possession of the isle and to pay him a thousand marks, if their manors should be restored to them. The offer was accepted. The treacherous abbot, by means which the old historians have not detailed, contrived to deliver the isle to William. The troops of the king entered by night, and instantly made earl Morcar and Egelwin, the bishop of