But their common friends here interposed; and representing the necessity
of their good correspondence, obliged them to lay aside all jealousy and
rancor, and concur in restoring liberty to their native country. Godwin
only stipulated that Edward, as a pledge of his sincere reconciliation,
should promise to marry his daughter Editha; and having fortified
himself by this alliance, he summoned a general council at Gillingham,
and prepared every measure for securing the succession to Edward. The
English were unanimous and zealous in their resolutions; the Danes were
divided and dispirited: any small opposition, which appeared in this
assembly, was browbeaten and suppressed; and Edward was crowned king,
with every Demonstration of duty and affection.
The triumph of the English upon this signal and decisive advantage, was
at first attended with some insult and violence against the Danes, but
the king, by the mildness of his character, soon reconciled the latter
to his administration, and the distinction between the two nations
gradually disappeared. The Danes were interspersed with the English
in most of the provinces; they spoke nearly the same language; they
differed little in their manners and laws; domestic dissensions in
Denmark prevented, for some years, any powerful invasion from thence
which might awaken past animosities; and as the Norman conquest, which
ensued soon after, reduced both nations to equal subjection, there is
no further mention in history of any difference between them.
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