Note 97 — Chapter IV · THE PROBLEM OF THE ENGLISH SUCCESSION

The one contemporary account of Harold’s oath which we possess is that given by William of Poitiers (ed. Giles, 108). According to this Harold swore (1) to be William’s representative (vicarius) at Edward’s court; (2) to work for William’s acceptance as king upon Edward’s death; (3) in the meantime to cause Dover castle to receive a Norman garrison, and to build other castles where the duke might command in his interest. In a later passage William of Poitiers asserts that the duke wished to marry Harold to one of his daughters. In all this there is nothing impossible, and to assume with Freeman that the reception of a Norman garrison into a castle entrusted to Harold’s charge would have been an act of treason is to read much later political ideas into a transaction of the eleventh century. William was Edward’s kinsman and we have no reason to suppose that the king would have regarded with disfavour an act which would have given his cousin the means of making good the claim to his succession which there is every reason to believe that he himself had sanctioned twelve years before.