meanwhile and to those in England who heard the story, the
engagement would not seem to carry any of these consequences. The
mere homage then, which Harold could hardly refuse, would answer
William's purpose nearly as well as any of these fuller obligations
which Harold would surely have refused. And when a man older than
William engaged to marry William's child-daughter, we must bear in
mind the lightness with which such promises were made. William
could not seriously expect that this engagement would be kept, if
anything should lead Harold to another marriage. The promise was
meant simply to add another count to the charges against Harold
when the time should come. Yet on this point it is not clear that
the oath was broken. Harold undoubtedly married Ealdgyth, daughter
of AElfgar and widow of Gruffydd, and not any daughter of William.
But in one version Harold is made to say that the daughter of
William whom he had engaged to marry was dead. And that one of
William's daughters did die very early there seems little doubt.


Whatever William did Lanfranc no doubt at least helped to plan.
The Norman duke was subtle, but the Italian churchman was subtler
still. In this long series of schemes and negotiations which led
to the conquest of England, we are dealing with two of the greatest
recorded masters of statecraft. We may call their policy dishonest
and immoral, and so it was. But it was hardly more dishonest and
immoral than most of the diplomacy of later times. William's
object was, without any formal breach of faith on his own part, to
entrap Harold into an engagement which might be understood in
different senses, and which, in the sense which William chose to
put upon it, Harold was sure to break. Two men, themselves of
virtuous life, a rigid churchman and a layman of unusual religious