34 6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chat. not forgotten; the certain prospect of success in aiv. revolt, by the assistance of the Danes and the1074. discontented English , was insisted on; and thewhole company, inflamed with the same senti-ments , and warmed by the jollity of the enter-tainment, entered , by a solemn engagement,into the design of shaking off the royal authority*Even earl Waltheof , who was present, incon- !siderately expressed his approbation of the con- ispiracy , and promised his concurrence towards jits success. i

This nobleman, the last of the English, who,for some generations , possessed any power orauthority, had after his capitulation at York ,been received into savour by the Conqueror;,had even married Judith , niece to that prince ;and had been promoted to the earldoms ofHuntingdon and Northampton Cospatric , earlof Northumberland , having, on some new disgustfrom William , retired into Scotland , where hereceived the earldom of Dunbar from the bountyof Malcolm ; Waltheof was appointed his successorrn that important command, and seemed still topossess the confidence and friendship of hissovereign But as he was a man of generousprinciffles , and loved his country, it is probable,that the tyranny exercised over the English layheavy upon his mind , and destroyed all thesatisfaction, which he could reap from his own

" Order. Vital. p. 522. Hoveden. p. 454.

' Sim. Dun, p. 205.