William. Whether the tale be true or false, it equally illustrates
the feelings of the time, and assuredly its truth or falsehood
concerns the character of William far more than that of Harold.

What it was that Harold swore, whether in this specially solemn
fashion or in any other, is left equally uncertain. In any case he
engages to marry a daughter of William--as to which daughter the
statements are endless--and in most versions he engages to do
something more. He becomes the man of William, much as William had
become the man of Edward. He promises to give his sister in
marriage to an unnamed Norman baron. Moreover he promises to
secure the kingdom of England for William at Edward's death.
Perhaps he is himself to hold the kingdom or part of it under
William; in any case William is to be the overlord; in the more
usual story, William is to be himself the immediate king, with
Harold as his highest and most favoured subject. Meanwhile Harold
is to act in William's interest, to receive a Norman garrison in
Dover castle, and to build other castles at other points. But no
two stories agree, and not a few know nothing of anything beyond
the promise of marriage.

Now if William really required Harold to swear to all these things,
it must have been simply in order to have an occasion against him.
If Harold really swore to all of them, it must have been simply
because he felt that he was practically in William's power, without
any serious intention of keeping the oath. If Harold took any such
oath, he undoubtedly broke it; but we may safely say that any guilt
on his part lay wholly in taking the oath, not in breaking it. For
he swore to do what he could not do, and what it would have been a
crime to do, if he could. If the King himself could not dispose of