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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

the metropolis itself. Although matters appear to have passed beyond thelimits of possible agreement, yet the interposition of the nobles, the mi)dforgiving temper of the sovereign, and the affected submission of the earl,obviated every difficulty, and peace became completely restored.

The death of the earl, not long after the reconciliation had taken place,quieted the fears of the peaceably disposed Edward, Harold, his son and suc-cessor in power, though equally ambitious, being infinitely superior to him inhonour, and in virtue. No material event took place during the remainderof the benevolent Edward’s reign. Having no children to inherit the throne,and unable, mild as he was, to forgive, much less to foster, the family of earlGodwin, he sought for a successor in the person of William, duke of Normandy,his kinsman, but had not the resolution to bequeath him the realm by will,which was then esteemed to be a sufficient and legal bar against all other claim-ants. ' Harold had, on his part, concerted his measures so well, and acquiredsuch extensive popularity, that although the wishes of the deceased monarch,which were by the greater part of his subjects considered as obligatory to them,were fully known, and the mighty power, added to the high martial characterwhich his Norman opponent had justly acquired, (not to mention those previousmeasures which, during the reign of Edward, he had taken, in the hope ofsecuring the succession to himself,) all appeared, particularly united as theywere, too mighty a bar to the ambition of a subject: yet did the son of Godwin,nothing daunted at the mightiness of these obstacles, persevere in his attempt,and with so much good fortune at the commencement of his career, that hetook possession of the throne without opposition.

This calm, however, proved, as is too frequently the case, the forerunnerof a dreadful tempest, which, after a very short duration, terminated in thefinal and fatal extinction both of his hopes and life. The first interruptionto the quiet of his reign was occasioned by the invasion of Tosti, his brother,who, after having voluntarily banished himself into Flanders, no sooner re-ceived intelligence of Edward’s death, and the assumption of the crown byhis brother, than he began to make dispositions to wrest from him hisnewly acquired honour. Having for this purpose collected in the ports ofFlanders a little fleet, consisting of sixty vessels, and after committing somedepredations on the southern as well as eastern coasts, steered his course tothe northward, where he was joined by Halfager king of Norway, who,according to a plan concerted between them, had proceeded to the same

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