Note 1084 — Chapter VIII · THE CORSNÆD.

This account, with unimportant variations, is given by Roger of Wendover, ann. 1054, Matthew of Westminster, ann. 1054, the Chronicles of Croyland, ann. 1053, Henry of Huntington, ann. 1053, and William of Malmesbury, Lib. II. cap. 13, which shows that the legend was widely spread and generally believed, although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ann. 1052, and Roger de Hoveden, ann. 1053, in mentioning Godwin’s death, make no allusion to its being caused in this manner. A similar reticence is observable in an anonymous Life of Edward (Harleian MSS. 526, p. 408 of the collection in M. R. Series), and although this is perhaps the best authority we have for the events of his reign, still the author’s partiality for the family of Godwin renders him not altogether beyond suspicion.

No great effort of scepticism is requisite to suggest that Edward, tired of the tutelage in which he was held, may have made way with Godwin by poison, and then circulated among a credulous generation the story related by the annalists.