On
pretence of paying a visit to the queen dowager in Flanders, ne had
assembled a fleet of sixty sail, and was preparing to make a descent on
England, when intelligence of his brother's death induced him to
sail immediately to London, where he was received in triumph, and
acknowledged king without opposition.
The first act of Hardicanute's government afforded his subjects a
bad prognostic of his future conduct. He was so enraged at Harold for
depriving him of his share of the kingdom, and for the cruel treatment
of his brother Alfred, that in an impotent desire of revenge against
the dead, he ordered his body to be dug up, and to be thrown into the
Thames; and when it was found by some fishermen, and buried in London,
he ordered it again to be dug up, and to be thrown again into the
river; but it was fished up a second time, and then interred with great
secrecy. Godwin, equally servile and insolent, submitted to be his
instrument in this unnatural and brutal action.
That nobleman knew that he was universally believed to have been an
accomplice in the barbarity exercised on Alfred, and that he was on that
account obnoxious to Hardicanute; and perhaps he hoped, by displaying
this rage against Harold's memory, to justify himself from having had
any participation in his counsels.
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