How Successful Did Edward the Confessor Handle the Godwins?
How successfully did Edward the Confessor deal with the Godwin’s?
A question such as this is not a straightforward answer; there are many arguments for and against his success with the Godwin's. The Godwin's power changed over time from when Godwin was bought up through power under the reign of Cnut right up until when Edward declared Harold to be the next king on his death bed. Edward needed to control the power of the Godwin's in order to keep his own power because if he did not control them they would overthrow him from the throne. He had to give them a certain amount of power by weighing up the balance of power between himself and the Godwin's very carefully. One factor is the Dover incident, and how he dealt with the Godwin's during and after the incident. He dealt with the family members individually: Godwin, Edith, Swegn, Harold and Tostig. One other factor is Edward sitting back and allowing Harold to look as if he is in control, but ultimately having control himself. These are the points that will decide the balance of the argument and question presented.
A success of Edward's’ was the way he dealt with the Dover incident; it was an incident that involved Godwin and the town of Dover, which was within his earldom of Wessex. The people of Dover refused to allow Eustace of Boulogne to stay in their town when he came to talk to Edward about future plans and foolishly Eustace’s men put on their chain mail and killed a town’s folk because of this, from these actions a brawl preceded. Edward had then ordered Godwin to punish Dover, which Godwin refused to do due to the Frenchmen’s arrogance, that he found unbearable. Edward and Godwin both raised an army against each other as Godwin had refused to punish the people Dover. * Rumors were then created, they quickly spread, and Robert of Jumiege, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury, and originally came from Normandy with Edward, spread one rumor, the rumor was that Godwin was planning the killing of
A question such as this is not a straightforward answer; there are many arguments for and against his success with the Godwin's. The Godwin's power changed over time from when Godwin was bought up through power under the reign of Cnut right up until when Edward declared Harold to be the next king on his death bed. Edward needed to control the power of the Godwin's in order to keep his own power because if he did not control them they would overthrow him from the throne. He had to give them a certain amount of power by weighing up the balance of power between himself and the Godwin's very carefully. One factor is the Dover incident, and how he dealt with the Godwin's during and after the incident. He dealt with the family members individually: Godwin, Edith, Swegn, Harold and Tostig. One other factor is Edward sitting back and allowing Harold to look as if he is in control, but ultimately having control himself. These are the points that will decide the balance of the argument and question presented.
A success of Edward's’ was the way he dealt with the Dover incident; it was an incident that involved Godwin and the town of Dover, which was within his earldom of Wessex. The people of Dover refused to allow Eustace of Boulogne to stay in their town when he came to talk to Edward about future plans and foolishly Eustace’s men put on their chain mail and killed a town’s folk because of this, from these actions a brawl preceded. Edward had then ordered Godwin to punish Dover, which Godwin refused to do due to the Frenchmen’s arrogance, that he found unbearable. Edward and Godwin both raised an army against each other as Godwin had refused to punish the people Dover. * Rumors were then created, they quickly spread, and Robert of Jumiege, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury, and originally came from Normandy with Edward, spread one rumor, the rumor was that Godwin was planning the killing of