Note 818 — Chapter VI · THE DANISH KINGS IN ENGLAND.[818] 1017–1042.

Our authorities for this period are nearly the same as those for the reign of Æthelred. The Chronicles and Florence are still our main guides, and, as Florence draws nearer to his own time, he more commonly inserts independent matter which is not to be found in the Chronicles. We get the same kind of supplementary help as before from the secondary English authorities, the later and the local writers. We have the same hard task as before in trying to reconcile the English accounts with the various Scandinavian sagas and chronicles. The Encomium Emmæ becomes of greater importance, but it must still be used with caution, as it is clear that the writer, though contemporary, was deeply prejudiced and often very ill informed. We now also begin to draw our first help from one most valuable document, the contemporary Life of Eadward the Confessor, published by Mr. Luard. This was written, between the years 1066 and 1074, by one who was intimately acquainted with Godwine and his family, and it helps us to many facts and aspects of facts which are not to be found elsewhere. But the most important point with regard to our authorities for this time is that we must now cease to quote the English Chronicles as one work. The differences between the various copies now begin to assume a real historical importance. The narratives often differ widely from each other, and often show widely different ways of looking at men and things. They show that something very like the distinction of Whig and Tory can be traced as far back as the eleventh century. I first pointed out the difference of feeling which the different Chronicles display with regard to Godwine in a paper on the Earl’s Life and Death, in the Archæological Journal for 1854–1855. Since that time Mr. Earle, in the Introduction to his “Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel,” has gone fully and exhaustively into the matter from his point of view, and has given what may be called biographies of the various records which are commonly confounded under the name of “the Saxon Chronicle.” I shall hereafter follow Mr. Earle’s nomenclature (grounded on that of Jocelin, Secretary to Archbishop Parker), and shall quote them as follows. The manuscript commonly quoted as “C. C. C. C. clxxiv.” I quote as the Winchester Chronicle. For our period this Chronicle contains only a few entries added at Canterbury. “Cott. Tib. B. i.” is the Abingdon Chronicle, the only one hostile to Godwine. “Cod. Tib. B. iv.” is the Worcester Chronicle. “Bodl. Laud. 636” is the Peterborough Chronicle, strongly Godwinist. (This part however was composed at Worcester, the Chronicle being transcribed and continued at Peterborough.) “Cott. Domit. A. viii.” is Canterbury, the least valuable of all, but of more importance now than in earlier times.