Note 10 — Chapter XI · THE ELECTION OF HAROLD.[1] January 5th–April 16th, 1066.

The Biographer records this last famous prediction or similitude without any attempt at an explanation. When he wrote, in the early years of William, a Prometheus after the fact might well put into Eadward’s mouth a prophecy of the Conquest of England and of the general misfortunes of the country. But he could not put into his mouth a prophecy in honour of Henry the Second. Either then the passage is a later interpolation, of which the Editor gives no hint, or else Eadward really uttered some allegory, quoted some proverb, or, as Stigand thought, simply talked nonsense, on which people began to put a meaning forty years later. The orthodox explanation is that the tree removed from the root for the space of three furlongs (the words are “trium jugerum spatio,” but one can hardly make acres a measure of length) means the Crown transferred to usurpers during three reigns, those of Harold and the two Williams (the descent of William Rufus from Ælfred is forgotten, see vol. ii. p. 304). The tree returns to the root when Henry the First marries Eadgyth or Matilda the daughter of Margaret; it bears leaves at the birth of her children. William of Malmesbury (v. 419) witnesses that the birth of the Ætheling William (c. 1101) was looked on as the fulfilment of the prophecy, which shows that it had already attracted attention, most likely at the marriage of William’s parents. The death of the Ætheling in 1119 cut off all such hopes, but at the same time it opened the way for a more elaborate fulfilment in the persons of his sister and her son. The tree now brings forth leaves at the birth of the Empress Matilda and fruit at the birth of Henry the Second. See Æthelred 401, and the French Life, 3805 et seqq. The writer seems in v. 3846 to confound Henry the Second and Henry the Third.