called Witherlagsretten, remained in force in the Danish court long after Canute's time.

The letters-patent issued by Canute show him surrounded by a great number of Danish or Norwegian chieftains. Among the signatures we find the names of men celebrated in history, such as "Thurkil hoga," "Yric," or "Iric," jarls in East Anglia and Northumberland; Ulf, Canute's brother-in-law, and father of King Svend Estridsen of Denmark; and also Hacun, a sister's son of Canute, and for a long time jarl in Worcestershire. All of these met a tragical fate. Thorkil and Erik had to wander in exile; Ulf was killed by Canute's order in Roeskilde; and Hagen, after many vicissitudes of fortune, perished on a voyage to Norway, where Canute had appointed him Stadtholder. Besides these we find named

the jarl Eglaf or Ælaf (probably the leader of the Thingmen), Eilif Thorgilson, the jarls Haldenne ("princeps regis "), Ranig (Rane), Thrym, Siuard, Suuegen, Svend (1026), Tosti (1026), Sihtric, and others. Among the Thanes (ministri), appear Aslac, Tobi, Acun (Hagen), Boui (Bue), Toui, Siward, Haldan, Thurstan, Thord, Hastin(g), Brodor, Tofig, and several others; and among the knights (milites), Thord, Thirkil, Thrim, Brodor, Tokig, Ulf, and Siward. Several of Canute's chieftains, according to the genuine old Scandinavian custom, had surnames, mostly taken from their personal appearance; as, besides Thurcyl hoga," we find Thurcyl hwita (white), Thurcyl blaca (black), Thoui hwita, Toui reada (red), and Haldan scarpe (Halfdan the Sharp). A letter dated in the year 1033, is signed among others, by the chiefs: Jarl Siward, Osgod Clapa, Toui Pruda, Thurcyl, Harald, Thord, Halfden, Rold, Swane, Orm, Ulfkitel, Ketel, Gamal, and Orm; and as the document relates to some land in Yorkshire, it is probable that many of these Danish chieftains dwelt in that old Danish district. A powerful Dane, named Ulf, a son of Thorald, is named as of York in Canute's time.

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He gave many estates to the cathedral there, together with a carved horn, by way of conveyance or title-deed, which is still preserved in the cathedral under the name of "Ulph's horn," or "the Danish horn." This Ulf is possibly the knight of that name before mentioned. A similar horn is said to have been given by Canute the. Great, with some landed property, to the family of Pusey, of Berkshire.

Under Canute's immediate successor, Harald Harefoot, as well as under Hardicanute, the power and grandeur of the Danish chieftains continued steadily to increase. Many besides those just mentioned are spoken of in letters of Hardicanute's reign; and above all the celebrated Danish jarl Siward, surnamed Digre, who in the year 1040 became jarl in Northumberland. We also meet with the jarl Thuri; the thanes Urki, Atsere (Adzer), and Thurgils; the knight Ækig (Aage); and, in the chronicles, Styr and Thrand. Lastly, Osgod Clapa, and Toui Pruda are mentioned in the history of Hardicanute, but on a mournful occasion. It was at the marriage festival which Osgod Clapa made for his daughter and Toui Pruda, that Hardicanute had a stroke of apoplexy, from which he never recovered. Some, therefore, are of opinion that the marriage did not take place at Lambeth (see p. 20,) but at Clapham (Clapa-ham, or Clapa's home), in Surrey, to the south of Kennington, which now forms part of London.

As long as their supremacy lasted, the Danes must naturally have behaved as conquerors in the land which they had subdued. Their innate love of splendour and profusion found ample nourishment, whilst at the same time their pride was flattered, by the subjugation of the Anglo-Saxons. The old English chroniclers complain bitterly of the severe humiliations which the natives were compelled to endure. If, for instance, Anglo-Saxons met a Dane upon a bridge, they were obliged to stand still, and make low bows; nay, even if they were on horseback, they must dismount, and wait till the Dane had

passed. At the same time the Anglo-Saxon nobility gradually lost the many fiefs and lucrative posts of honour which had formerly been in their possession, but which were now transferred to their powerful conquerors. But what really injured the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy more than anything else, was the wise and conciliatory policy of Canute the Great, which, by extinguishing the hatred between the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, amalgamated the aristocracy of the two nations to such a degree that the Anglo-Saxon nobility at length existed only in name, having become by imperceptible degrees more than half Danish. A contrary method of proceeding, a violent and sanguinary oppression of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, would, perhaps, in some respects, have been more serviceable to them, as it would have inflamed their hatred, and provoked them to a desperate resistance; and would thus have incited. them to keep themselves free from the intrusion of all foreign admixture.

As the matter stood, the Danish power apparently gave way to the Anglo-Saxon dominion; but, in reality, it was little more than the name that was changed. It is said, indeed, that the new Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, some years after his accession (in 1048), expelled the great Danish chiefs and their descendants from his court, and drove them into exile; as, for instance, Osgod Clapa, sheriff of Middlesex, and Asbjörn, a brother of King Svend Estridsen of Denmark, whose second brother Björn, a jarl in the west of England, had shortly before been killed by the jarl Svend Godvinsön. He also banished Canute the Great's niece, Gunhilde. By her first marriage with her cousin, Hagen Jarl, Stadtholder of Norway, Gunhilde had a daughter named Bothilde; by her second with Harald, a son of Thorkil the Tall, who also succeeded to the Stadtholdership, she had two sons, Hemming and Thorkil. Gunhilde went into exile with her sons by way of Bruges in Flanders, and thence to her relatives in Denmark.

Nevertheless the signatures to Edward's letters patent prove that this king, alleged to have been so favourably disposed towards the Anglo-Saxons, must have had many chiefs of Danish extraction about his person, even after this expulsion of the Danes; nay, even to the day of his death. We need not look for them among the "Huskarle," or body-guards, alone, amongst whom are named Thurstan and Urk; for Huskarle with Scandinavian names are mentioned at a still later period in England; and we find, under William the Conqueror (1071), Eylif Huscarl, and, even in 1230, Roger Huscarl. Even in King Edward's suite, and occupying considerable offices, were such men as "Atsere Swerte (Adser the black), Atsur röda (Adser the red), Eiglaf (Eylif), Guðmund, Ulfketil, Thord, Siward, Thurstan, Harold, Turi, Yrc (Erik), Anschitil (Osketil), Tofi, Neuetofig, Esgar, Ingold, Tosti, Thorgils, Wagen, Ulf Tofis sune, Askyl Toke's sune, Jaulf Malte's sune." Also the knights Esbern (Asbjörn) and Siward, together with several others, the greater part of whose names appear in letters that were issued after the expulsion of the Danes in 1048. Many of the royal fiefs were still in the hands of Danes. Jarl Siward Digre governed the extensive district of Northumberland with the same power and influence as before, till his death in the year 1055. Somersetshire, lying far towards the west in the Saxon part of England, had a sheriff (vice-comes) named "Touid," or "Tofig," who can scarcely have been an AngloSaxon. We find a person named "Toli" filling the same high office in East Anglia; as well as in Huntingdonshire a "Tuli;" in Hamptonshire, a "Norman ;" in Lincolnshire a "Marlesuuein." Northmen, or at least chiefs of Scandinavian origin, filled the highest posts at Edward's court. Between the years 1060 and 1066, a letter mentions the following royal chiefs, or "Hofsinder:" "Jaulf, Agamund, Ulf, Wegga (Viggo), Locar (Loke), and Hacun." In one of Edward's letters, dated 1062, the following names appear:-" Esgarus, regiæ procurator

H

'

aulæ;""Bundinus, regis palatinus ; ""Adzurus, regis dapifer;" "Esbernus princeps;" "Siwardus princeps; "Hesbernus regis consanguineus." These are all pure

was

"or

Danish names, viz., Esgar, or Asgier, Bonde, Adser, Asbjörn, and Sivard. The different Latin titles here given to Esgar, Bonde, and Adser, are translated in contemporary letters by one and the same word, "steallere " "stalre." The dignity of "Staller also, as is well known, an established one in the courts of the Scandinavian kings, at all events after the time of Canute the Great. The Staller was superintendent of the court, or a sort of High Steward, and attended the "Thing" meetings for the king, but more particularly in cases which concerned the court. From an English diploma, dated 10601066, and signed by "Esegar steallere," "Bondig steallere," and" Roulf steallere," we see that there were several "Stallers" at the same time in England; which certainly arose from the Stallers being also the king's commissaries.

The last-named," Roulf steallere," is probably the Ralph so much in favour with King Edward, and who was a son of Edward's sister and a Norman nobleman. Another Staller of Norman descent is mentioned in letters of the years 1044 and 1065, namely, Roldburtus, or Rodbertus, son of Winwarc. Indeed Norman names begin to be frequent in Edward's letters patent; for, as a consequence of the favour which he bore towards the Normans, many of whom he gradually placed in the highest posts of honour in England, there quickly grew up by the side of the pure Danish elements, what may be called a halfDanish or half-Scandinavian influence from Normandy, which was soon to supplant the Danish power, as well as annihilate once for all the apparent dominion of the AngloSaxons in England. Thus Edward's reign was clearly only a state of transition from the Danish to the Norman dominion; a national Anglo-Saxon reign it could not well be called.

How, indeed, should Edward have been able to maintain,