onside, out of Hungary, where he had
taken refuge; but he died soon after he came to England, leaving a son
called Edgar Atheling. The king himself irresolute in so momentous an
affair, died without making any settlement. His reign was properly that
of his great men, or rather of their factions. All of it that was his
own was good. He was careful of the privileges of his subjects, and took
care to have a body of the Saxon laws, very favorable to them, digested
and enforced. He remitted the heavy imposition called Danegelt,
amounting to 40,000_l._ a year, which had been constantly collected
after the occasion had ceased; he even repaid to his subjects what he
found in the treasury at his accession. In short, there is little in his
life that can call his title to sanctity in question, though he can
never be reckoned among the great kings.

CHAPTER VI.

HAROLD II.--INVASION OF THE NORMANS.--ACCOUNT OF THAT PEOPLE, AND OF THE
STATE OF ENGLAND AT THE TIME OF THE INVASION.

[Sidenote: Harold II., A.D. 1066.]

Though Edgar Atheling had the best title to the succession, yet Harold,
the son of Earl Godwin, on account of the credit of his father, and his
own great qualities, which supported and extended the interest of his
family, was by the general voice set upon the throne. The right of
Edgar, young, and discovering no great capacity, gave him little
disturbance in comparison of the violence of his own brother Tosti, whom
for his infamous oppression he had found himself obliged to banish. This
man, who was a tyrant at home and a traitor abroad, insulted the
maritime parts with a piratical fleet, whilst he incited all the
neighboring princes to fall upon his country. Harold Harfager, King of
Norway, after the conquest of the Orkneys, with a powerful navy hung
over the coasts of England. But nothing troubled Harold so much as the
pretensions and the formidable preparation of William, Duke of Normandy,
one of the most able, ambitious, and enterprising men of that age. We
have mentioned the partiality of King Edward to the Normans, and the
hatred he bore to Godwin, and his family. The Duke of Normandy, to whom
Edward had personal obligations, had taken a tour into England, and
neglected no means to improve these dispositions to his own advantage.
It is said that he then received the fullest assurances of being
appointed to the succession, and that Harold himself had been sent soon
after into Normandy to settle whatever