A HISTORY OF SUSSEX At last, in 1009, Ethelred was so far roused trom his customary inactivity as to assemble a powerful fleet at Sandwich, but with the perverse folly so characteristic of him he chose this particular moment to banish Wulfnoth ' child,' a South Saxon noble, probably the father of the great Earl Godwine,' on the false accusation of Brihtric, brother of the treacherous Edric. Wulfnoth collecting twenty ships, apparently part of the great fleet prepared against the Danes and possibly the South Saxon contingent, began to harry the coast ; whereupon Brihtric, taking eighty of the assembled ships, set out to capture him, but a great storm arising, his vessels were driven on shore, where they were burnt by Wulfnoth.^ As a result of this disaster the whole fleet dissolved, and nothing was done against the Danes, who in the autumn came against Canterbury, and would have taken it had they not been bought off. They then retired to the island and harried Hampshire and Sussex/ Two years later, in loi i, the district attacked by the Danes included Sussex and Hastings,* which is mentioned separately. The election of Cnut as King of England in 1017 at last gave Sussex rest. In the fifty years following the accession of Cnut the history of Sussex is the history of the rise of two great rival powers — the native house of Godwine and the foreign influence of Normandy. How Godwine, who, as we have just seen, was probably a Sussex man by descent, rose to be the first man in the kingdom, holder of a wide earldom which included Sussex, and the father of sons whose earldoms covered the southern half of England, is well known. By the end of the Confessor's reign a third part of the county was in the hands of the house of Godwine, while Bosham was his chief residence. Two events of disastrous import are connected with Bosham, In 1049 Godwine and Harold had sailed in command of a small fleet in search of pirates, and cast anchor at Pevensey, where Harold apparently left the fleet and gave up his ship to his cousin Beorn ; hither, then, came Swegen, God wine's eldest son, hot with anger against Harold and Beorn who had opposed the restoration of his earldom ; dissembling his treacherous intentions, he persuaded Beorn to ride with him to the King at Sandwich, and then changing his direction rode to Bosham, where he caused his cousin to be carried on board one of his vessels lying there, and murdered him. For this dastardly deed he was outlawed and declared ' Nithing ' by the King and his whole army. The men of Hastings pursued him and caught two of his vessels,* but he himself escaped to Flanders, and was next year restored to his earldom. In 1051 he had again to fly from England, when banishment was pronounced against Godwine and all his house.*^ This banishment was of short duration, for in the summer of 1052 Godwine and Harold returned with a powerful fleet, receiving a hearty welcome from the men of Sussex, and especially those of Hastings,' and forced King Edward to restore their honours to them. ' See Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. i. app. MM. s Ang. Sax. Chron. (RoUs Ser.), ii. 114, 115. ^ Ibid. 115. < Ibid. 117. » Freeman, Norman Conquest, ii. 102-5. i^ Ibid. 151. ' Ibid. 322. 484
