Harold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Complete by Lytton (an ebook reader TXT) 📖

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Trulofa, from which comes our popular corruption “true lover’s knot;” a vetere Danico trulofa, i.e., fidem do, to pledge faith.—HICKE’s Thesaur.

“A knot, among the ancient northern nations, seems to have been the emblem of love, faith, and friendship.”—BRANDE’s Pop. Antiq.

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The Saxon Chronicle contradicts itself as to Algar’s outlawry, stating in one passage that he was outlawed without any kind of guilt, and in another that he was outlawed as swike, or traitor, and that he made a confession of it before all the men there gathered. His treason, however, seems naturally occasioned by his close connection with Gryffyth, and proved by his share in that King’s rebellion. Some of our historians have unfairly assumed that his outlawry was at Harold’s instigation. Of this there is not only no proof, but one of the best authorities among the chroniclers says just the contrary—that Harold did all he could to intercede for him; and it is certain that he was fairly tried and condemned by the Witan, and afterwards restored by the concurrent articles of agreement between Harold and Leofric. Harold’s policy with his own countrymen stands out very markedly prominent in the annals of the time; it was invariably that of conciliation.

147 (return)
Saxon Chron., verbatim.

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Hume.

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“The chaste who blameless keep unsullied fame, Transcend all other worth, all other praise. The Spirit, high enthroned, has made their hearts His sacred temple.”

SHARON TURNER’s Translation of Aldhelm, vol. iii. p. 366. It is curious to see how, even in Latin, the poet preserves the alliterations that characterised the Saxon muse.

150 (return)
Slightly altered from Aldhelm.

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It is impossible to form any just view of the state of parties, and the position of Harold in the later portions of this work, unless the reader will bear constantly in mind the fact that, from the earliest period, minors were set aside as a matter of course, by the Saxon customs. Henry observes that, in the whole history of the Heptarchy, there is but one example of a minority, and that a short and unfortunate one; so, in the later times, the great Alfred takes the throne, to the exclusion of the infant son of his elder brother. Only under very peculiar circumstances, backed, as in the case of Edmund Ironsides, by precocious talents and manhood on the part of the minor, were there exceptions to the general laws of succession. The same rule obtained with the earldoms; the fame, power, and popularity of Siward could not transmit his Northumbrian earldom to his infant son Waltheof, so gloomily renowned in a subsequent reign.

152 (return)
Bayeux Tapestry.

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Indeed, apparently the only monastic order in England.

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See Note to Robert of Gloucester, vol. ii. p. 372.

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The Saxon priests were strictly forbidden to bear arms.—SPELM. Concil. p. 238.

It is mentioned in the English Chronicles, as a very extraordinary circumstance, that a bishop of Hereford, who had been Harold’s chaplain, did actually take sword and shield against the Welch. Unluckily, this valiant prelate was slain so soon, that it was no encouraging example.

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See Note (K), at the end of the volume.

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The Normans and French detested each other; and it was the Norman who taught to the Saxon his own animosities against the Frank. A very eminent antiquary, indeed, De la Rue, considered that the Bayeux tapestry could not be the work of Matilda, or her age, because in it the Normans are called French. But that is a gross blunder on his part; for William, in his own charters, calls the Normans “Franci.” Wace, in his “Roman de Rou,” often styles the Normans “French;” and William of Poitiers, a contemporary of the Conqueror, gives them also in one passage the same name. Still, it is true that the Normans were generally very tenacious of their distinction from their gallant but hostile neighbours.

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The present town and castle of Conway.

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See CAMDEN’s Britannia, “Caernarvonshire.”

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When (A.D. 220) the bishops, Germanicus, and Lupus, headed the Britons