The Goodwine, or Good∣vvine Sandes.

THere liued in the time of King Edwarde (commonly called the Confessour) a no∣ble mā,* named Godwine, whose daugh∣ter Edgithe, the same King, by great in∣stance of his nobilitie, (being otherwise of him selfe disposed to haue liued sole) tooke vnto his wife. By reason whereof, not onely this Godwine him selfe (being at the first but a Cowheards sonne, and afterward aduaunced to honour by King Ca∣nutus, whose sister by fraude he obteined to wife) became of great power and authoritie within this Realme (but his sonnes also being fiue in nomber) were by the kings [ 1050] gyfte, aduaunced to large liuelyhoodes and honourable possessions. For Goodwine was Earle of Kent, Sus∣sex, Hamshire, Dorsetshire, Deuonshire, and Cornwal: His eldest sonne Swane, had Oxfordshire, Barkeshire Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Somerset: Harold, helde Essex, Norfolk, Suffolke, Cambridgeshire, & Hun∣tingdonshire: Tosti, had Northumberland: And Gurte, & Leoswine, possessed other places. &c. But as it is hard in great prosperitie to kéepe due temperance, for, Super∣bia est vitium rebus solenne secundis: So this man and his sonnes, being puffed vp with the pryde of the Kings fa∣uour, their owne power, pollicie, and possession, contem∣ned all other, and forgate them selues, abusing the sim∣plicitie of the King by euill counsel, treading vnder foote the nobilitie by great disdaine, and oppressing the com∣mon people by insatiable rauine, extortion, and tirannie. So that immediatly, and at once, they pulled vpon their heades, the heauie displeasure of the Prince, the immor∣tall hatred of the noble men, and the bitter execration Page  88 and curse of the common sort. Whereupon the king for a season banished them, the nobles neuer after liked them, and the poore people not onely railed vpon them while they liued, but also by deuised tales (as the man∣ner is) laboured to make them hatefull to all posteritie after their death. And amongst other things, touching Godwyne him selfe, they feygned, that he was choked at Winchester (or Windsore, as others say, for liers can not lightly agrée) with a morsel of bread, and that this his land in Kent sonke sodainly into the Sea. Neyther were these things continued in memory, by the mouths of the vnlearned people only, but committed to writing also, by the hands and pens of Monkes, Frears, and o∣thers of the learned sort. So that in course of time, the matter was past all peraduenture, and the things belie∣ued for vndoubted veritie.

But whatsoeuer hath bene heretofore thought of these matters, hauing now iust occasion offered mee to treate of the thing, I wil not spare, to speake that which I haue red in some credible writers, and whiche I doe [ 1100] thinke méete to be beléeued of all indifferent readers.

Siluester Giraldus (in his Itinerarie of Wales) and many others, doe write,* that about the end of the reigne of King William Rufus, (or the beginning of Henrie the first) there was a sodaine and mightie inundation of the Sea, by the which a great part of Flaunders, and of the lowe countries thereabout, was drenched, and lost, so that many of the inhabitants (being thereby expulsed from their seates) came ouer into England, and made suite to the same King Henrie, for some place of dwel∣ling within his dominion. The King pitying their cala∣mitie, and séeing that they might bee profitable to his Realme, by instructing his people in the art of clothing, (wherein at that time they chiefly excelled,) first placed Page  86 them about Carlile in the North countrie, and after∣warde (vpon cause) remoued them to Rosse and Hauer∣ford in Wales. Now at the same tyme that this hap∣pened in Flaunders, the like harme was done in sundry places, bothe of England, and Scotland, also, (as Hector Boethius, the Scottishe hystoriographer, moste plainly writeth) affirming, that (amongst other) this place, being sometyme of the possession of the Earle Godwine, was then first violently ouerwhelmed with a light sande, wherewith it, not onely remayneth couered euer since, but is become withall (Nauium gurges, & vorago) a most dreadfull gulfe, and shippe swalower.

This thing, as I cannot but marueil how it hath es∣caped the penns of our own countrie writers (the rather for that some of them liuing about that time) haue men∣tion of that harme in the lowe countrie: so I sticke not to accept it for assured trueth, considering either the au∣ctority of the writer him selfe, being a diligent and lear∣ned man, or the circumstances of the thing that he hathe left written, beeing in it selfe both reasonable, & likely.

And thus I might wel make an end, but because I haue alredy takē occasiō to accuse thē of forgerie, which affirme Godwine to haue bene choked at the bourde, I trust it shalbe no great offence, (though beside purpose, yet for declaration of the trueth) to rehearse shortly, what some credible storiers haue reported of that mat∣ter also. And to the end that the trueth may appeare by collation of the diuers reportes, I will first shewe what the common opinion and tale of his death is, and then afterward what these other men write concerning the same.* Ealred, the Abbat of Ryuauxe, (who tooke paynes to pen the hystorie of the same King Edwardes whole life, and of whom all others (as I thinke) lear∣ned this tale, saith: that while the King and Godwyne Page  87 sate at the table, accompanied with others of the Nobi∣litie, it chaunced the Cupbearer (as he brought wyne to the bourd) to slip with the one foote, and yet by good strength of his other legge, to recouer him self without falling, whiche thing the Earle earnestly marking, sayde pleasantly, that There, one brother had wel helped an∣other: mary (quoth the King) so might me mine, ne had∣dest thou bene Earle Godwine: casting in his dishe the murder of his brother Alfred, which was done to death at Elie by the counsell of Godwine, as hereafter in fitte place for it shall appeare. Hereat the Earle was sore moued, and thinking it more then time to make his pur¦gation, tooke a morsell of bread into his hand, and praying (with great and vehement obtestation) that it might choke him, if he by any meanes caused y^e slaugh∣ter or consēted thereto, he put the bread into his mouth, and was immediatly strangled therewithall.

Some write, that this bread was before accursed by Wulstane, the holy Bishop of Worcester, after a certain manner then vsed, & called Corsned,* as in the table to y^e Saxons lawes is to be séene. But this Ealred affirmeth that after the woords spoken by the Earle, the King him selfe blessed the bread with the signe of the crosse: And therfore these men agrée aswel together, as blessing and cursing be one like to another.

But letting that and them passe, heare (I beséech you) what Alfred of Beuerley (a learned man, that liued in the time of King Henry the first, somewhat before this Abbat Ealred) saith, touching this matter. Godwinus gra∣ui morbo ex improuiso percussus, ac Regi ad mensam Wyntoniae assidens, mutus in ipsa sede declinauit, ac postea in camerā Re∣gis a filijs deportatus, moritur. Quidam autem dicunt. &c. Godwine being sodainly strickē w^t a grieuous disease, as he sate at y^e table with the King at Winchester, fel down Page  85 from his stoole, and was carried by his sonnes into the Kings chamber, where he dyed: but some say that he was choked &c. And to the same effect writeth Maria∣nus the Scot. Simeon also, the Chaunter of Durham, whiche liued about the time of this Alfred, or rather before him, treating of this matter, hath these wordes.

Godwinus graui morbo percussus, in ipsa sede declinauit, & post horas quinque moritur. Godwyne being taken with a grieuous disease, dropped down from the place where he sate, and dyed within fiue houres after.

Thus these men reporte another manner of his death, the one vsing no mention at all of any accursed breade, and the other reciting it but as a tale. And for the more plaine detection of the deceipt of this Abbat, he that wil read the second booke of William Malmes. De Regibus, shall finde, that the occasion, and introduction of this matter (I meane, the slipping of the Kings Cupbearer, and the speache that procéeded therof, namely, that One brother had wel helped another) is woorde for woord stollen from thence, for William (whiche liued before E∣alred) reporteth, that king Ethelstane, by persuasion of one that was his cupbearer, had banished Eadwine his owne brother, for suspicion of treason, and had com∣mitted him to the Seas and windes in an olde, shaken, and fraile vessel, without saile, oare, or companion, (saue one Esquier only,) in whiche exile he perished, and that afterward the King (vnderstanding his brothers inno∣cencie, and sorowing his owne rashnesse) tooke occasion by sight of his cupbearers foote slipping, to be auenged of the false accusation, euen as it is here tolde of King Edward. But Ealred, forsoothe, was so fully disposed to magnifie King Edward (bycause he so muche magnified the Monkishe and single life) that he sticked not at grea∣ter matters then this, affirming boldely that the same Page  89 King while he hearde Masse at Westminster,* sawe be∣twéene the Priestes handes, Christe blessing him with his fingers: That at another Masse he sawe the seuen sleapers at Ephesus, turne them selues on the one side, after they had sleapt seuentie yeares together on the o∣ther, (which,* séeing it was within fiue yeares of so many as Epimenides sleapt,) Ealred (in my phansie) is worthy to haue the seconde game at the whetstone.) Fur∣thermore, that S. Iohn Baptist sent to King Edward, a King of Golde from Ierusalem, whiche he him selfe had sometime before giuen to a poore man, that asked almes of him in the name of S. Iohn: And suche other matters of like credite,* whiche bothe for the vanitie of the things them selues, being méete to haue place in Philopseudes of Lucian, and for the desire that I haue to kéepe order, I will pretermit, and re∣turne to my purpose.