berty to their native country. Godwin
only stipulated that Edward, as a pledge of his sincere reconciliation,
should promise to marry his daughter Editha; and having fortified
himself by this alliance, he summoned a general council at Gillingham,
and prepared every measure for securing the succession to Edward. The
English were unanimous and zealous in their resolutions; the Danes were
divided and dispirited: any small opposition, which appeared in this
assembly, was browbeaten and suppressed; and Edward was crowned king,
with every Demonstration of duty and affection.

The triumph of the English upon this signal and decisive advantage, was
at first attended with some insult and violence against the Danes, but
the king, by the mildness of his character, soon reconciled the latter
to his administration, and the distinction between the two nations
gradually disappeared. The Danes were interspersed with the English
in most of the provinces; they spoke nearly the same language; they
differed little in their manners and laws; domestic dissensions in
Denmark prevented, for some years, any powerful invasion from thence
which might awaken past animosities; and as the Norman conquest, which
ensued soon after, reduced both nations to equal subjection, there is
no further mention in history of any difference between them. The joy,
however, of their present deliverance made such impression on the minds
of the English, that they instituted an annual festival for celebrating
that great event; and it was observed in some counties, even to the time
of Spelman.[*]

[* Spelm. Glossary in verbo Hocday.]

The popularity which Edward enjoyed on his accession was not destroyed
by the first act of his administration, his resuming all the grants of
his immediate predecessors; an attempt which is commonly attended with
the most dangerous consequences. The poverty of the crown convinced the
nation that this act of violence was become absolutely necessary; and as
the loss fell chiefly on the Danes, who had obtained large grants
from the late kings, their countrymen, on account of their services
in subduing the kingdom, the English were rather pleased to see them
reduced to their primitive poverty. The king's severity also towards his
mother, the queen dowager, though exposed to some more censure, met not
with very, general disapprobation. He had hitherto lived on indifferent
terms with that princess; he accused her of neglecting him and his