GODWIN'S CLAN - 2: GODWIN RESTORED TO POWER - The Aftermath
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Banishment was pronounced on those who were considered to have brought on the sad state of affairs....
...either by deceit or in spreading lies about Godwin, leading to Eadward banishing him and encarcerating his daughter in a nunnery. In reality Eadward had brought it about himself with the connivance of his brother-in-law Eustace and Robert of Jumieges.
As well as the Archbishop of Canterbury there was Bishop Ulf of Dorchester and a few Norman and Frankish knights in Herefordshire who were outlawed. Bishop William was allowed to return shortly afterward. Although he had fled with Archbishop Robert and had been appointed to the bishopric of London through Robert's influence, he was blameless for what happened .
Details of the settlement, aside from Godwin's retoration, agreed in principle a return to the status quo. Although restored, Godwin and Harold had lost some of their former powers. Earl Aelfgar would have yielded some of his lands to Harold in East Anglia - with the agreement of his father Earl Leofric of Mercia. (In AD1053, when Godwin died Earl Harold took over Wessex with the king's good will, and Aelfgar thus had those lands yielded by him in East Anglia restored again. He would later take over Mercia when his father Leofric died).
Ralph and Odda were given back their lands in the west when Harold became Earl of Wessex. Ralph's fief included part of what had been Svein Godwinson's territory, and Svein's death in Byzantium allowed Ralph back to lands he held before. Odda's position is less clear. He may have kept Somerset - also a part of Svein's lands - or he may have kept his whole earldom under the auspices of Godwin.
Robert of Jumieges was to die shortly after, in Normandy, and Stigand was offered the Archbishopric of Canterbury and accepted whilst the encumbent was still alive, thus forfeiting his pallium. He still held the Bishopric of Winchester. However Stigand was only given Canterbury because Robert's position as Archbishop was no longer politically viable. [William I kept Stigand in the archbishopric only as long as his being there served a purpose - he was replaced by Lanfranc in AD1071]. It was mooted that the originally unsuccessful candidate of AD1050, Aethelric may have been preferable to all in canonical terms, but Eadward was against his appointment for personal reasons. Aethelric was related to Godwin and by now identified too closely with his cause.
Eadward controlled Church appointments still, by prerogative. Even when Godwin was restored to his titles, Eadward still kept control over the Church in Wessex. Stigand had been loyal for many years - first under Knut and then to Eadward, despite his links to Emma - and was given first the see of East Anglia and then Winchester, finally also Canterbury. He had been a mediator between Eadward and Godwin. Interestingly, little is said of Wulfwig, who stepped into the Bishopric of Dorchester without Ulf having died first, in the same way as Stigand stepped into his appointment of Canterbury. The status of the candidates and those they replaced may have greater bearing on the matter, however. Ulf's own dissatisfactory record of simony - where he was practically deposed by the Pontiff Leo IX - may have been why no-one lifted a finger on Wulfwig replacing him.
Godwin died within a year of his re-instatement and Earl Harold took the reins of Wessex. Svein Godwinson had been killed by robbers near Miklagard (Constantinople) on his way home from Jerusalem. Godwin's health had been failing since the strenuous campaign and sea voyages the. No doubt news of the death of his favourite son helped weaken him further. At the Easter Feast in winchester he collapsed and died three days later. He was buried in the Old Minster, Winchester near Emma and his old master, Knut.
Eadward was now rid of the old earl's influence, and Svein would now never surface again to embarrass and haunt him. A new relationship would blossom between him and Harold, his new Earl of Wessex.
Next - 3: Making of an Earl (1)
