o herself was averse, and said that she would
neither have him nor any one else, if the Supreme Power would
grant, that she in her maidenhood might please the mighty Lord
with a carnal heart, in this short life, in pure continence. The
king, however, earnestly urged her brother, until he answered
Yea. And indeed he durst not otherwise; for they were come into
his kingdom. So that then it was fulfilled, as God had long ere
foreshowed; and else it could not be; as he himself saith in his
gospel: that "not even a sparrow on the ground may fall, without
his foreshowing." The prescient Creator wist long before what he
of her would have done; for that she should increase the glory of
God in this land, lead the king aright from the path of error,
bend him and his people together to a better way, and suppress
the bad customs which the nation formerly followed: all which she
afterwards did. The king therefore received her, though it was
against her will, and was pleased with her manners, and thanked
God, who in his might had given him such a match. He wisely
bethought himself, as he was a prudent man, and turned himself to
God, and renounced all impurity; accordingly, as the apostle
Paul, the teacher of all the gentries, saith: "Salvabitur vir
infidelis per mulierem fidelem; sic et mulier infidelis per virum
fidelem," etc.: that is in our language, "Full oft the
unbelieving husband is sanctified and healed through the
believing wife, and so belike the wife through the believing
husband." This queen aforesaid performed afterwards many useful
deeds in this land to the glory of God, and also in her royal
estate she well conducted herself, as her nature was. Of a
faithful and noble kin was she sprung. Her father was Edward
Etheling, son of King Edmund. Edmund was the son of Ethelred;
Ethelred the son of Edgar; Edgar the son of Edred; and so forth
in that royal line: and her maternal kindred goeth to the Emperor
Henry, who had the sovereignty over Rome. This year went out
Githa, Harold's mother, and the wives of many good men with her,
to the Flat-Holm, and there abode some time; and so departed
thence over sea to St. Omer's. This Easter came the king to
Winchester; and Easter was then on the tenth before the calends
of April. Soon after this came the Lady Matilda hither to this
land; and Archbishop Eldred hallowed her to queen at Westminster
on Whit Sunday. Then it was told the king, that the people in
the North had