Note 1134 — Chapter VI · THE DANISH KINGS IN ENGLAND.[818] 1017–1042. (continued 2)

See Hist. Rams. c. 94, 95, for the embassy and for an accompanying miracle. Ælfweard was a somewhat remarkable person. He was first a monk of Ramsey and then Abbot of Evesham, which office he held in plurality with his bishopric. The church of Evesham had fluctuated more than once between monks and secular canons, the canons being last introduced by Ælfhere of Mercia in the disputes which followed the death of Eadgar. See above, p. 263. Many of the estates fell into the hands of laymen, especially into those of Godwine of Lindesey, who died at Assandun. They were recovered from Godwine by a legal process, seemingly before the Witan of Mercia (“coram multis principibus hujus patriæ”), by the Abbot Brihtmær. But Godwine seized them again during the absence of Æthelred in Normandy in 1013. One almost fancies that this must have been by a grant from Swegen, to whom Lindesey was one of the first parts of England to submit. See above, p. 358. Æthelred on his return in 1014 appointed Ælfweard Abbot, who again expelled Godwine, seemingly by force (“fretus auxilio Dei atque regis ... cum magna fortitudine hinc expulit”). The local chronicler looks on Godwine’s death at Assandun as the punishment of this sacrilege; “Godwinus vero qui eas injuste habuit eodem anno(?) Dei nutu in bello contra regem Danorum, Cnutonem Sweinonis filium, facto occisus est.” These stories of occupations of monastic lands by powerful men, or in their names, meet us at every turn. See above, p. 505. Ælfweard received the bishopric of London from Cnut, who is called his kinsman, about 1035. We shall hear of him again. See Chron. Abb. Evesham, pp. 78–83.