statesman and a patriot,' while taking the course most likely to forward his future candidature for the kingship (Norman Conquest, ii. 497). On the other hand his first duty as a statesman was surely to enforce order and submission to the government, especially as the insurgents had apparently defied the king, had certainly slain many of their fellow-subjects, and had ruthlessly harried the country in their line of march. He probably shrank from a conflict with his own countrymen, though it was his obvious duty first to punish and prevent the repetition of such deeds of violence and wrong, and then to redress grievances. He was also swayed by selfish considerations. The revolt was evidently the work of the sons of Ælfgar, his brothers-in-law, and he was determined before all things to secure their support, and through them the support of the whole northern part of the kingdom, for his candidature on Eadward's death. Yet even so it ; is doubtful whether he acted 'wisely' (ib.) The sons of Ælfgar were aiming at a renewal of the old division of the kingdom (ib. p. 486) ; they were faithless men, their alliance was not to be depended upon, and they were the hereditary enemies of his house. As the probable successor to the crown he would have acted more prudently as regard his own interests if he had taken the opportunity to weaken or destroy their power. The king had summoned the force of his kingdom to crush the insurrection, and Harold could scarcely have doubted on which side victory would lie in actual warfare.
On 5 Jan. 1066 Harold stood by the death-bed of the king, and is said to have listened with fear to his dying prophecy. Eadward stretched out his hand towards the earl, and named him as his successor, bidding him take charge of the queen and the kingdom (Vita Eadwardi, ip. 433; A.-S. Chron. 1065, Abingdon, Worcester, Peterborough ; Flor. Wig. i. 224). On the day of Eadward's death Harold was chosen king by the nobles of the whole of England. Long afterwards it was said that some wished for the ætheling Eadgar, and that others were inclined to give weight to the claims of William of Normandy, though all alike openly declared for Harold. The next day he was duly crowned, no doubt in Westminster Abbey, by Aldred, archbishop of York (Flor. Wig. u.s.), though the Bayeux tapestry implies, and Norman writers assert, that the coronation was performed by Stigand (William of Poitiers, p. 121 ; Orderic, p. 492), which would have detracted from the validity of the ceremony. Although he was not a member of the royal house, Harold's kingship rested on a perfectly constitutional basis ; he received it by bequest of his predecessor, by election in the national assembly, and by consecration. Nornian writers naturally deny or conceal one or more of these facts, asserting that he was not elected (William of Poitiers, u.s.), that he usurped the crown (William of Jimièges), or that he wa8 consecrated by stealth and without the consent of the prelates and nobles (Orderic, u.s.) They dwell on the breach of his oath to the Norman duke, and on the sacrilege which this breach implied. He was not, however, a free agent when he took the oath, nor would he have had any right to attempt to force a foreign king on the people, or to place Dover in his power. When he took the oath to the duke he cannot have meant to keep it, and must have only done so to escape an immediate difficulty. Before many days had passed he received messengers from the duke, who sent to bid him keep his oath, and apparently repeated his offer to give him his daughter in marriage, and with her the rule over a large part of the kingdom (William of Jumièges, vii. 31 ; William of Poitiers, pp. 145-6). Harold refused, declaring, it is said, that he could not take a foreign queen without leave of the witan (Eadmer, Hist. Nov. col. 351), and possibly defending himself by saying that he had sworn under compulsion and without the knowledge of the English people and that as they had chosen him king it would be base to decline the kingdom (Will. Malm. iii. 238). Soon after his coronation he received tidings that the Northumbrians refused to recognise him as king, and taking Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester with him, he visited York, and persuaded them to acknowledge him (Vita Wlstani, Anglia Sacra, ii. 254). From York he returned to Westminster and there spent Easter, evidently holding a meeting of the witan as earlier kings had done. He and his people knew that the duke was taking measures to enforce his claim, and men's minds were further disturbed by the appearance on the ninth day after Easter of a comet of great size, which shone for seven nights. Nor was he careless of the impending danger, for he made strenuous efforts for the defence of the country, both by sea and land (Flor. Wig. i. 224). In May he heard that his brother Tostig, who had sailed from Normandy as an ally of the duke, had ravaged the south coast and put in at Sandwich. Harold's preparations were in a forward state ; he summoned his land and sea forces, and at once went to Sandwich to meet him. Tostig did not await his coming, and, after having been chased from Lindsey by the earls Eadwine and Morkere, took refuge in Scotland. Harold
