§ 2. Tostig’s applications to Swend and Harold Hardrada

We have now reached a most fascinating, and at the same time a most difficult, part of our story. We are landed in the famous and magnificent Saga of Harold Hardrada. The tale, as it appears in Norwegian legendary history, is so complete, and it is told with such thoroughly poetic spirit, that it goes deeply against the grain to have to suggest that nearly every detail must be mythical. It is painful to have to turn from the glowing strains of the Norwegian prose epic to the meagre entries of our own Chronicles, and to pronounce that all that is not distinctly confirmed by English testimony is, to say the least, untrustworthy. A void is left which history cannot fill, and which it is forbidden to the historian to fill up from the resources of his own imagination. My only course will be to follow the story in the Saga, so far as it is recommended either by intrinsic probability or by its conformity to our own annals, and at the same time to point out those particulars in which authentic evidence shows that the details must be fabulous.

The renowned Norwegian King was just now enjoying, or, what to his mind it more likely seemed, suffering under, an unusual state of quiet. The greater part of his reign had been spent in a constant struggle with Swend of Denmark. The details of their warfare do not concern English history. Yet an English historian must feel a certain satisfaction in recording the gallantry and perseverance with which a man so closely connected with England as Swend was had, for a long series of years, withstood, and at last |Peace between them. 1064.| successfully withstood, so formidable an enemy. Two years earlier than the time which we have now reached, a peace had been concluded between the two Kings on perfectly equal terms.^[942] Now the war had been wholly defensive on the part of Swend, while Harold had been seeking to annex Denmark to his own dominions. It was therefore a distinct triumph on the part of the prudent Danish King, when Harold acknowledged his title and engaged to cease from all further attacks on his Kingdom. Harold thus had his hands free; disputes with his own subjects, arising out of the harshness of his government, were constantly occurring,^[943] but they did not seriously weaken his power. The whole force of Norway, under the most valiant and adventurous of her Kings, a force practised rather than weakened by the long war with Denmark, stood ready for some new enterprise, and such an enterprise was before long suggested by the banished English Earl.

That Harold Hardrada invaded England in partnership with Tostig is certain; but the circumstances of their agreement are involved in much difficulty and contradiction. The authentic English narrative says nothing of any personal application to Harold on the part of Tostig before they met on the Scottish coast. And it is by no means easy to make the alleged voyages of Tostig to Denmark and Norway fit in with the English chronology. Indeed the English account might rather suggest that Harold Hardrada had planned his invasion of England quite independently of Tostig, and that the junction of their forces happened quite incidentally, after the Norwegian King had already set sail. On the other hand, the voyage of Tostig to Norway is asserted in the Norman version, and it is the very soul of the Norwegian Saga. I shall discuss the details of these different versions elsewhere.^[944] It is perhaps not absolutely impossible to reconcile Tostig’s voyage with the English narrative, but it can be done only by wholly giving up the chronology, and perhaps some other details, of the Saga. The English account at least shows that, if Tostig made any application to Harold at all, it must have been made after he had taken shelter in Scotland, and it would suggest that it was made by messengers rather than personally. With these cautions, I tell the tale as I find it in the Saga, warning the reader that I do not pledge myself to a single detail.

The Norwegian story makes Tostig, on his banishment, which, it must be remembered, is placed after his brother’s election to the Kingdom,^[945] take the course so familiar to banished Englishmen a few years earlier.^[946] He goes first to Flanders, and thence to Denmark, by way of Friesland.^[947] His object was to get help from his cousin King Swend to enable him to recover his Earldom. The prudent King offered him an Earldom in Denmark instead. For this Tostig had no mind; he wished to recover Northumberland at all hazards. If Swend would not give him forces for that purpose, he was ready to go a step further. He proposed to Swend to revive his old claim to the Crown of England, and to undertake the conquest of the country. He, Tostig, would help him in such an enterprise with all the force that he could command. Swend could not fail to succeed in an attempt which had been so successfully accomplished by his uncle Cnut. But the Danish King had learned to distrust his own power for such an achievement, and he had seen enough of the world to put little faith in an exile’s estimate of his own influence in the country from which he has been driven. Cnut was a great man and a lucky man; he, Swend, laid no claim to either the greatness or the good luck of his uncle. Cnut had inherited Denmark;^[948] he had won Norway without striking a blow; but in order to win England he had to strike many blows and to put his life in great jeopardy. Swend, on the other hand, found it a hard matter to keep Denmark safe from the attacks of the Norwegian King. He would therefore stay at home and would not run any desperate risks. Tostig left him with an expression of contempt for his lack of enterprise and his neglect of the interests of a kinsman. Swend might have answered that Harold of England was a kinsman no less than his brother, and that the gratitude which he himself undoubtedly owed to the memory of Godwine passed much more naturally to the head of the family than to one engaged in treason against his house and country.

From Denmark Tostig, so the story says, went on to Norway to seek help from its King Harold Hardrada. He found him in Viken, the south-eastern corner of the Norwegian Kingdom. He opened his errand to Harold in the |His first proposal: Help to recover his Earldom.| same order in which he had opened it to Swend. That is to say, he at first simply asked for help to recover his Earldom. |Harold’s refusal.| This proposal found as little favour from Harold as it had found from Swend. The Northmen, so said their King, would have no mind for a war in England under an English leader; common report said that the English were not men in whom it was safe to put much trust.^[949] The massacre of Saint Brice, the deposition of Harthacnut, the refusal to hearken to the claims which Magnus had founded on his agreement with Harthacnut, may all have passed across the mind of Harold Hardrada. He had little mind for an undertaking which promised so much danger, and |Tostig’s second proposal; Harold to be King over all England, and Tostig Under-king over Northumberland.| so little profit in case of success. Tostig had therefore to tempt him by the same bait which he had before offered to Swend. Let the King of the Northmen enter England, not merely to restore an English Earl, but to place the Imperial Crown of Britain upon his own head. Let Harold be King over the whole land; Tostig would ask only to be Under-king of half England, no doubt of its northern half. He would become King Harold’s man, and would serve him faithfully all the days of his life.^[950] He then set himself to answer the objections to the enterprise which had been raised by the Norwegian King. Tostig seems really to have believed that, after all that happened, he still reigned in the hearts of his faithful Thegns in Northumberland. |Arguments of Tostig.| The expedition, he argued, would be one of a widely different nature from the expedition of Magnus against England or the expeditions of Harold himself against Denmark. The main obstacle to success in those undertakings would not be present in that which Tostig now counselled. Why was the agreement between Harthacnut and Magnus set aside? Why did not Magnus venture to make good his claims on England against Eadward? Why had Magnus overcome Denmark with ease, while Harold himself had failed in the same attempt? Success or failure in such attempts depended wholly on the disposition of the chiefs and the people of the invaded land. Magnus had succeeded in Denmark, because the chief men of Denmark were on his side: Harold had failed, because the whole Danish nation had been against him.^[951] So Magnus had shrunk from asserting his claims against Eadward, because Eadward was the King whom the whole people of England had chosen to reign over them. But now the state of things was changed. He, Tostig, deemed himself the equal of his brother in all but his kingly title. He would support the cause of Harold of Norway, and his support—so the exile said, and perhaps thought—would bring with it the allegiance of all the chief men of the land. Harold Hardrada, so all men allowed, was the first warrior of northern lands; he had spent fifteen years in an attempt to seize on Denmark; would he refuse to seize on England, now that England lay ready for him, only waiting for him to take possession?

The arguments of Tostig, we are told, gradually carried conviction to the mind of Harold. The proposed expedition was novel and distant; it bade fair to be successful, and, if successful, it would bring unbounded glory. As such, it had every attraction for a prince, who now, at the age of fifty, had lost nothing of the spirit of his Wiking youth. The expedition was determined on, and it was ordered to |No mention of the consultation of any Thing by Harold Hardrada.| take place in the course of the summer. It may be merely the omission of our Saga-maker, but it is worth noting that we hear nothing of the consultation of any Thing or other Assembly by Harold Hardrada. In England it came within the constitutional functions of the Witan to approve or to forbid any interference in the concerns of another country. Twice had it been proposed in an English Gemót to take a part in the wars of Swend and Magnus, and twice had the majority of the Assembly rejected the proposal.^[952] Even in Normandy, whether as a matter of constitutional right or of personal prudence, William had thought it needful to consult an Assembly of his Duchy before he determined on the invasion of England.^[953] But in Norway we find no mention of any power which had to decide upon such questions, except the arbitrary will of King Harold himself. There can be no doubt that Harold reigned in Norway as the despot which his surname implies, and the utmost that his panegyrist can say for him is that his heavy hand pressed equally upon all.^[954] But the proposed scheme was at least freely discussed by the |Different opinions in Norway: estimate of the English Housecarls.| public opinion of Norway. Some deemed that the valour and good luck of Harold the son of Sigurd must be successful in every land and over every enemy. Others shrank from an encounter with Harold the son of Godwine and with the resources of the land over which he reigned. England was a land perilous to attack; it was a land fertile in warriors; there, above all, were the Thingmen, the Housecarls, men ever strong in battle, men ever ready of heart and hand, men any one of whom was a match for two of the choicest warriors of Norway.^[955] This is indeed a speaking witness to the efficiency of the force which had been called into being by the wisdom of Cnut, and which had lost nothing in strength or in reputation under the government of Harold. The fame of the conqueror of Gruffydd had no doubt been sounded throughout the North, and men shrank from the prospect of meeting a chief and an army so ready to adapt themselves to every requirement which the accidents of war might suggest. Whether the details of the story are true or false, this traditional estimate of the English Housecarls must at least be genuine. Nothing however is described as taking place to hinder the expedition, or to cause any relaxation in the levies and preparations of Harold Hardrada. Tostig, it is added, sailed in the spring to Flanders, to collect forces both from that country and from England. We here at once see the confusion of the Norwegian chronology. If we can suppose these visits of Tostig to Swend and Harold to be true in their main outlines, they are at least altogether moved from their right place.