The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

91

This was a title bestowed on the queen.

92

The "seven" towns mentioned above are reduced here to "five"; probably because two had already submitted to the king on the death of the two thanes, Sigferth and Morcar. These five were, as originally, Leicester, Lincoln, Stamford, Nottingham, and Derby. Vid. an. 942, 1013.

93

There is a marked difference respecting the name of this alderman in MSS. Some have Ethelsy, as above; others, Elfwine, and Ethelwine. The two last may be reconciled, as the name in either case would now be Elwin; but Ethelsy, and Elsy are widely different. Florence of Worcester not only supports the authority of Ethelwine, but explains it "Dei amici."

94

Matthew of Westminster says the king took up the body with his own hands.

95

Leofric removed the see to Exeter.

96

So Florence of Worcester, whose authority we here follow for the sake of perspicuity, though some of these events are placed in the MSS. to very different years; as the story of Beorn.

97

i.e. The ships of Sweyne, who had retired thither, as before described.

98

"Vid. Flor." A.D. 1049, and verbatim from him in the same year, Sim. Dunelm. "inter X. Script. p. 184, I, 10. See also Ordericus Vitalis, A.D. 1050. This dedication of the church of St. Remi, a structure well worth the attention of the architectural antiquary, is still commemorated by an annual loire, or fair, on the first of October, at which the editor was present in the year 1815, and purchased at a stall a valuable and scarce history of Rheims, from which he extracts the following account of the synod mentioned above:—

"Il fut assemble a l'occasion de la dedicace de la nouvelle eglise qu' Herimar, abbe de ce monastere, avoit fait batir, seconde par les liberalites des citoyens, etc." ("Hist. de Reims", p. 226.) But, according to our Chronicle, the pope took occasion from this synod to make some general regulations which concerned all Christendom.

99

Hereman and Aldred, who went on a mission to the pope from King Edward, as stated in the preceding year.

100

Nine ships were put out of commission the year before; but five being left on the pay-list for a twelvemonth, they were also now laid up.

101

The ancient name of Westminster; which came into disuse because there was another Thorney in Cambridgeshire.

102

i.e. at Gloucester, according to the printed Chronicle; which omits all that took place in the meantime at London and Southwark.

103

Now Westminster.

104

i.e. Earl Godwin and his crew.

105

i.e. from the Isle of Portland; where Godwin had landed after the plunder of the Isle of Wight.

106

i.e. Dungeness; where they collected all the ships stationed in the great bay formed by the ports of Romney, Hithe, and Folkstone.

107

i.e. Godwin and his son Harold.

108

i.e. the tide of the river.

109

Godwin's earldom consisted of Wessex, Sussex, and Kent: Sweyn's of Oxford, Gloucester, Hereford, Somerset, and Berkshire: and Harold's of Essex, East-Anglia, Huntingdon, and Cambridgeshire.

110

The church, dedicated to St. Olave, was given by Alan Earl of Richmond, about thirty-three years afterwards, to the first abbot of St. Mary's in York, to assist him in the construction of the new abbey. It appears from a MS. quoted by Leland, that Bootham-bar was formerly called "Galman-hithe", not Galmanlith, as printed by Tanner and others.

111

Called St. Ethelbert's minster; because the relics of the holy King Ethelbert were there deposited and preserved.

112

The place where this army was assembled, though said to be very nigh to Hereford, was only so with reference to the great distance from which some part of the forces came; as they were gathered from all England. They met, I conjecture, on the memorable spot called "Harold's Cross", near Cheltenham, and thence proceeded, as here stated, to Gloucester.

113

This was no uncommon thing among the Saxon clergy, bishops and all. The tone of elevated diction in which the writer describes the military enterprise of Leofgar and his companions, testifies his admiration.

114

See more concerning him in Florence of Worcester. His lady, Godiva, is better known at Coventry. See her story at large in Bromton and Matthew of Westminster.

115