HAROLD II.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE SAXON AND NORMAN ACCOUNTS NOW AGREE. HAROLD'S ENEMIES.-TOSTIG.-BRIEF ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM OF NORMANDY. NORMAN NOBLES. HAROLD'S MARRIAGE: GAINS THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE. INVASION OF ENGLAND BY THE NORWEGIANS: THEIR TOTAL DEFEAT.-INVASION BY WILLIAM OF NORMANDY.WILLIAM'S FLEET. REMAINS OF ST. VALERY. -CONSECRATED BANNER. -OCCURRENCE ON WILLIAM'S LANDING. MISTAKE OF THE SPIES. — WILLIAM'S OFFER. -HAROLD'S ANSWER. GURTH'S ADVICE. BATTLE OF

HASTINGS.

THE pictorial work of the Bayeux tapestry now goes on to relate the history of the doings of Harold and of William of Normandy. There is now no more disagreement between these pictures and the facts as related by the English historians. After the funeral of Edward the tapestry represents the nobles of England offering the crown to Harold. Then Harold is crowned by Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury. When Harold was seated on the throne, though he was upheld by a large party on

whose affection he knew he could depend, yet he found other enemies than the Duke of Normandy, fully determined to oppose his usurpation of the crown, as they deemed it. His own brother Tostig thought he had as good a right to reign as Harold. And Haralld Hardrada, the powerful King of Norway, prepared to bring his Northmen to the British shores. William of Normandy encouraged Tostig to collect a fleet that he might invade the south; not that he intended that Tostig should ever wear the crown of England, but it was his policy to encourage Harold's enemies that he might have more hope of final success himself.

William of Normandy was an illegitimate son of the fifth Duke of Normandy. When he was a boy of but eight years old, his father set off on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and left him, young as he was, to govern the dukedom. On his way back from the pilgrimage William's father died at Nice, A. D. 1035. William was thus early trained to rule; and the ruler in those days was one

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who could handle the sword himself. he grew up, he felt an energy and ambition which he longed to exercise on a wider field. There is little doubt that when he paid a visit to England in Edward's life-time, he thought of the possibility of one day gaining the crown of that country. The Norman nobles were men of energy and character, like their duke. "Under the prudent government of the late dukes, Richard and Robert, there had arisen a race of wise, active, and loyal nobility. The heads of the great Houses of Beaumont, Montgomery, Fitz-Osborn, Mortimar, and Giffard, were stout of heart and strong of hand: they could give the best counsel, and execute the counsel which they gave; and in the great parliament assembled at Lillebonne the barons determined to assist their sovereign in his contest with the English usurper, the perjured Harold."

The next design of the Bayeaux tapestry shows Duke William giving orders to invade England; then the Normans preparing

arms and military implements for the invasion.

While preparations were thus making to disturb Harold, he had begun his reign by efforts to increase his popularity. In the south of England he was already beloved and admired. The northern earls were not inclined to receive him as their king: to attach them to himself, he married Alditha, the daughter of Earl Algar. One of her brothers was Earl of Mercia, the other Earl of Northumbria. Harold also "studied by all means how to win the people's favour, and omitted no occasion whereby he might show any token of bounteous liberality, gentleness, and courteous behaviour towards them. The grievous customs and taxes which his predecessors had raised, he abolished or diminished; the ordinary wages of his servants and men of war he increased; and further showed himself very well bent to all virtue and goodness."

He was not left long in peace. Tostig, his brother, gathered followers, and attacked

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England at one point after another. had, however, no success; and after having been several times beaten back, he sailed to Norway, and promised to assist its king, Haralld Hardrada, in invading England. Tostig had offered his services previously to Sweyne, King of Denmark; but that king prudently declined making any attempt on England.

Haralld of Norway, having collected a large force, landed at Richale, not far from York. Morcar and Edwin, the two earls (Alditha's brothers), led their forces against the invaders, but were defeated after a desperate battle, and the news soon reached Harold that the King of Norway had taken possession of the city of York. All the summer long Harold, fearing an attack from the Duke of Normandy, had been watching his southern coast: there lay his fleet ready for action, should the Normans come in sight. But the unexpected news of the victorious entry of Hardrada into York, put entirely out of his head all the dangers to