their part, and to a long series of marches and negotiations, which
ended in the banishment of Godwine and his son, and the parting of
his daughter Edith, the King's wife, from her husband. From
October 1051 to September 1052, the Normans had their own way in
England. And during that time King Edward received a visitor of
greater fame than his brother-in-law from Boulogne in the person of
his cousin from Rouen.

Of his visit we only read that "William Earl came from beyond sea
with mickle company of Frenchmen, and the king him received, and as
many of his comrades as to him seemed good, and let him go again."
Another account adds that William received great gifts from the
King. But William himself in several documents speaks of Edward as
his lord; he must therefore at some time have done to Edward an act
of homage, and there is no time but this at which we can conceive
such an act being done. Now for what was the homage paid? Homage
was often paid on very trifling occasions, and strange conflicts of
allegiance often followed. No such conflict was likely to arise if
the Duke of the Normans, already the man of the King of the French
for his duchy, became the man of the King of the English on any
other ground. Betwixt England and France there was as yet no
enmity or rivalry. England and France became enemies afterwards
because the King of the English and the Duke of the Normans were
one person. And this visit, this homage, was the first step
towards making the King of the English and the Duke of the Normans
the same person. The claim William had to the English crown rested
mainly on an alleged promise of the succession made by Edward.
This claim is not likely to have been a mere shameless falsehood.
That Edward did make some promise to William--as that Harold, at a
later stage, did take some oath to William--seems fully proved by