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MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER
The flowers of history, especially such as relate to the affairs of Britain. Vol. I. B.C. 4004 to A.D. 1066.
page 565
had been the son of Edmund Ironside, the legitimate king of the royal family. And now Edgar was the son of that same Edward, BO that he was entitled of right to the kingdom of England. Bat Harold, who was a cunning and crafty man, understanding that
" 'Tig always bad fixt measures to defer/1
on the same day of the Epiphany on which king Edward was buried, extorted an oath of fealty from the nobles, and placed the crown on his own head. And after his promotion, his brother Tosti, coming from Flanders with forty ships, anchored in the mouth of the river Humber, where he gave himeelf up to rapine like a pirate, and at last he was driven from the province by his brothers Edwin and Morcar, and set sail, and proceeded towards Scotland ; and there he met with Harold, king of the Norwegians, and made a treaty with him, binding himself by solemn pledges, and with this view he came to England, with a fleet of three hundred vessels, in order to endeavour to reduce it under his power. At last, in Northumberland, while he was still occupied in laying everything waste, he defeated Morcar, the count of that province, and an army levied from the men of the province, in a pitched battle, and compelled him to shut himself up in York. And when the news of this had got abroad, Harold, king of England, collected all his forces, and marched up towards that district with all haste. And when he had arrived at the town which is called Stamford, he there found the enemy ; where, although it may be hard to be believed, one single Morican stood at the entrance of the town in the gate, and having slain many of the English, prevented the whole army from passing in by that way. And when he was invited to surrender, he laughed at the English, saying, " that they were unwarlike men, and possessed of no spirit, when they could not withstand a single soldier." Therefore, as no one dared to come near him, because it appeared to every one to be downright folly to come to close combat with him ; at last, one of the king's household aimed a javelin at him, and transfixed him, and, falling dead into the river, he yielded the victory to the English ; and immediately the English entered by the entrance which was now free from all obstruction, and slaughtered the rear of the Moricans as they fled. At last, Harold, king of the Norwegians, and Tosti, the brother of the king of England, were slain with
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