conquer it; when and why king Edward promised to make duke William
his heire, (wherein note his subtiltie) dissention betwixt Harold and
Tostie two brethren the sonnes of earle Goodwine, their vnnaturall and
cruell dealing one with another, speciallie of the abhominable and
merciles murthers committed by Tostie, against whome the Northumbers
rebell vpon diuerse occasions, and reward him with answerable
reuengement; Harold is sent against them, but preuaileth not; they
offer to returne home if they might haue a new gouernor; they renounce
Tostie and require Marchar in his roome, Tostie displeased getteth
him into Flanders; king Edward dieth, his manners and disposition
note-woorthie, his charitie and deuotion, the vertue of curing the
maladie called the kings euill deriued from him to the succeeding
kings of this land, he was warned of his death by a ring, he is
canonized for a saint, the last woords that he spake on his death-bed,
wherein he vttered to the standers by a vision, prophesieng that
England should be inhabited with strangers, a description of the kings
person, of a blasing starre fore-telling his death, the progenie of
the Westsaxon kings, how long they continued, the names of their
predecessors and successors; whence the first kings of seuen kingdoms
of Germanie had their pedegree, &c._

THE SEUENTH CHAPTER.


Now when Harold should returne into England, duke William deliuered
[Sidenote: _Polydor_.]
him his nephue Hacune, but kept his brother Wilnote with him still
as a pledge. Then went earle Harold into England, and declared vnto
king Edward what he had doone, who said vnto him; "Did not I tell thee
that thou wouldest doo the thing whereof thou shouldest repent thee,