for his wife. By this plan her family
would come into his power, and then her own influence and that of her
Norman friends would be forever prevented from taking sides against him.
He accordingly made the proposal. Emma was ambitious enough of again
returning to her former position of greatness as English queen to accept
it eagerly. The world condemned her for being so ready to marry, for her
second husband, the deadly enemy and rival of the first; but it was all
one to her whether her husband was Saxon or Dane, provided that she
could be queen.

The boys, or, rather, the young men, for they were now advancing to
maturity, were very strongly opposed to this connection. They did all in
their power to prevent its consummation, and they never forgave their
mother for thus basely betraying their interests. They were the more
incensed at this transaction, because it was stipulated in the marriage
articles between Canute and Emma that their _future_ children--the
offspring of the marriage then contracted--should succeed to the throne
of England, to the exclusion of all previously born on either side. Thus
Canute fancied that he had secured his title, and that of his
descendants, to the crown forever, and Emma prepared to return to
England as once more its queen. The marriage was celebrated with great
pomp and splendor, and Emma, bidding Normandy and her now alienated
children farewell, was conducted in state to the royal palace in London.

We must now pass over, with a very few words, a long interval of twenty
years. It was the period of Canute's reign, which was prosperous and
peaceful. During this period Emma's Norman sons continued in Normandy.
She had another son in England a few years after her marriage, who was
named Canute, after his father, but he is generally known in history by
the name of Hardicanute, the prefix being a Saxon word denoting
energetic or strong. Canute had also a very celebrated minister in his
government named Godwin. Godwin was a Saxon of a very humble origin, and
the history of his life constitutes quite a romantic tale.[H] He was a
man of extraordinary talents and character, and at the time of Canute's
death he was altogether the most powerful subject in the realm.

[Footnote H: It is given at length in the last chapter of our history of
Alfred the Great.]

When Canute found that he was about to die, and began to consider what
arrangements he should make for the succession, he concluded that