with their Danish kinsmen, the invaders or deliverers from opposite
sides had failed to act together. Nor are Swegen's own objects
quite clear. He sought to deliver England from William and his
Normans, but it is not so plain in whose interest he acted. He
would naturally seek the English crown for himself or for one of
his sons; the sons of Harold he would rather make earls than kings.
But he could feel no interest in the kingship of Edgar. Yet, when
the Danish fleet entered the Humber, and the whole force of the
North came to meet it, the English host had the heir of Cerdic at
its head. It is now that Waltheof the son of Siward, Earl of
Northampton and Huntingdon, first stands out as a leading actor.
Gospatric too was there; but this time not Edwin and Morkere.
Danes and English joined and marched upon York; the city was
occupied; the castles were taken; the Norman commanders were made
prisoners, but not till they had set fire to the city and burned
the greater part of it, along with the metropolitan minster. It is
amazing to read that, after breaking down the castles, the English
host dispersed, and the Danish fleet withdrew into the Humber.

England was again ruined by lack of concert. The news of the
coming of the Danes led only to isolated movements which were put
down piecemeal. The men of Somerset and Dorset and the men of
Devonshire and Cornwall were put down separately, and the movement
in Somerset was largely put down by English troops. The citizens
of Exeter, as well as the Norman garrison of the castle, stood a
siege on behalf of William. A rising on the Welsh border under
Eadric led only to the burning of Shrewsbury; a rising in
Staffordshire was held by William to call for his own presence.
But he first marched into Lindesey, and drove the crews of the
Danish ships across into Holderness; there he left two Norman